You are on page 1of 56

MEET WAYNES MAN FROM WORMS page 6

THE DRAMATIC ROLES OF RIDGEWOODS MICHAEL ZEGEN page 12


CRITICIZING (AND DEFENDING) THE JEW COUNTERS page 14
WHO IS A JEW? AN ENTERTAINMENT AWARD SEASON GUIDE page 45
JANUARY 8, 2016
VOL. LXXXV NO. 18 $1.00

NORTH JERSEY

85

2016

THEJEWISHSTANDARD.COM

Fair Lawns Margaret Gurevich Gelbwasser

Writer by design

The Russian-American
dreams of Fair Lawns
Margaret Gurevich Gelbwasser
page 26

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2 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016

Page 3
Got grasshoppers?

Watch out, Egypt:

Israeli gastronomists jump on


new protein source

Here come the Israeli


robo-locusts

They may not look like lunch

to you (or us), but grasshoppers add a high-protein, low-fat


crunch to the diet of many
people around the world.
Your taste buds may not
yet thrill to the trill of insects
but soon they will, if a new
Israeli company Steak TzarTzar
succeeds in its ambitious
gastronomic goals. Actually,
Steak TzarTzar tzartzar
being Hebrew for cricket is
less concerned with promoting
the delicate flavors of insects
than it is with giving the world
a new source of nutrition.
Behind Steak TzarTzar is an
innovation in bug breeding:
The company has found a way
to lengthen the normally short
breeding season of edible
grasshoppers by leaps and bounds.
As a result, this costly and scarce
source of nutrition will be more
widely available, all year long.
Its no joke: Chockfull of whole
proteins, vitamins, and healthful
fatty acids, with no cholesterol or
saturated fat, grasshoppers could
be one answer to the chronic
malnutrition affecting hundreds of
millions of people.
This is a serious social business
opportunity. Steak TzarTzar is one
of 24 food startups nominated for
the second annual Food+City Food
Challenge Prize to be awarded in
Texas next month.
Nevertheless, cofounders Dror
Tamir, Ben Friedman, and Chanan
Aviv know that eating grasshoppers
sounds funny and gross to Western
ears, so they play up the funny
aspect of their business and
downplay the gross part to make
it more palatable.
One way to get around the yuck
factor will be using Steak TzarTzar
grasshoppers as a basis for protein
powders, a multibillion-dollar
market. There is a lot of interest
from leading retailers such as Whole
Foods, Tamir says.
Many other populations dont
need convincing. In Uganda and
some other African countries,
grasshoppers are considered a
national food. An African will take
a full fistful at a time, scooping
them up the way Israelis scoop
hummus with pita, says Tamir of
his observations at Steak TzarTzar
tasting events.
Even in Japan you can find
imported grasshoppers in
supermarkets, cooked in sauce, he

Pharaoh saw locusts as a plague.

adds. Theres also a huge industry of


desserts from insects.
Well take his word for it.
Tamir is an accountant-turnedentrepreneur. His first venture
into the nutrition business was
less adventurous. He developed
PlateMyMeal, a set of sectioned
childrens plates imprinted with
dietary guidelines to help parents
serve the right foods in the right
amounts.
I got so many reactions from all
over the world about PlateMyMeal
that I started reading more about
nutrition and learned how a lack
of protein in childrens and young
womens diets in Africa affects their
growth, brain and immune system,
Tamir said. Ben Friedman and I
explored alternative proteins and
stumbled across insects.
Grasshoppers have the greatest
potential because they are the most
edible insect around the world.
About 1 billion people consume
them, but theyre considered
a delicacy and there are no
commercial grasshopper farmers, so
90 percent of edible grasshoppers
are harvested in the wild during a
very limited season.
Tamir realized that if his company
could grow the grasshoppers
steadily, it would have no
competition for 11 months of the
year and would stand to make a tidy
profit. So it developed a method for
breeding grasshoppers all year and
helping them hatch in 11 to 14 days
rather than in nine months, as they
do in the wild.
One of the two species Steak
TzarTzar sells will carry kosher
certification. As close readers of
the Torah well know, Leviticus lists
several species of locusts as kosher.
LARRY YUDELSON/
ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN/
ISRAEL21C.ORG

Yemenite cooks see locusts as a


snack. And Dr. Amir Ayali of Tel Aviv
University saw them as a template for
miniature robots that could play an
important role in conducting automated surveillance and emergency
response.
The
locust, being
a large insect that
has wonderful jumping
performance, had offered itself
as wonderful inspiration for
this specific idea of a miniature
jumping robot, Dr. Ayali, from the
universitys department of zoology,
told Reuters.
The robotic locusts are made from
carbon robs, steel springs, and 3D
printed plastic. They are powered
by a lithium battery and can make
a thousand jumps on only one
charge.
The locust uses mechanical
energy in addition to its muscle
force in order to generate a
jump, and this is exactly what
we are imitating, Dr. Ayali said.
We are using a tiny motor that
generates or stores mechanical
energy, and this mechanical
energy in springs is actually very
similar to the locust legs, and
that is what propels the robot
into the air.
According to the researchers,
the robotic locusts can be used
on anything from surveillance to
entering situations and locations
that are hazardous for humans,
such as oil spills.
The researchers also hope

to gain a better understanding


of the locusts ability to swarm
and implement that feature in the
robotic systems.
What will Israeli research think of
next? Robo-boils?
JNS.ORG

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Shabbat ends: Saturday, January 9, 5:31 p.m.

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CONTENTS
NOSHES ...............................................................4
OPINION ...........................................................20
COVER STORY ................................................ 26
HOME DESIGN ................................................40
GALLERY .......................................................... 42
DVAR TORAH ................................................ 43
CROSSWORD PUZZLE ................................44
ARTS & CULTURE .......................................... 45
CALENDAR ......................................................46
OBITUARIES ....................................................49
CLASSIFIEDS ..................................................50
REAL ESTATE.................................................. 53

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JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 20016 3

Noshes

Do they have Ben & Jerrys in America?


Jodi Rudorens 8-year-old daughter. Ms. Rudoren and her family are leaving Israel
after her nearly four-year stint as the New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief.

THE SPORTING LIFE:

Jewish athletes
of the year
I asked my friend
SHEL WALLMAN,
the editor of Jewish
Sports Review, to draw
up a short-ish list of the
outstanding Jewish
professional and college
athletes of 2015. (Please
subscribe to the Review,
a great print publication
Jewishsportsreview.
com.) Heres his list:
NHL: MIKE CAMMALLERI, 33, New Jersey
Devils, left wing after
slowing down the past
couple of seasons, Mike
is off to a particularly
fast start this season,
and JASON ZUCKER,
23, left wing, Minnesota
Wild a star in the making, and this could be his
break-out season. NFL:
MITCHELL SCHWARTZ,
26, Cleveland, offensive
lineman Mitchell is in
his fourth NFL season
with the Browns and
has started every game
during that period, and
ALI MARPET, 22, Tampa
Bay offensive lineman who was drafted in
the second-round from
Hobart, a Division 3 college, and has been the
starter in every game.
MLB: KEVIN PILLAR, 26,
Toronto, center fielder
his third year of MLB
and his first as a starter,
Kevin has been called a
human highlight film
by SPORTSNET because
of his great fielding skills
and pretty good bat,
and IAN KINSLER, 33
Detroit, second baseman

Ian hit .296, his best


since 2008, with 11 homers and 10 stolen bases
while continuing his excellent defensive play.
PGA/LPGA: DANIEL
BERGER, only 22, the
son of former tennis star
JAY BERGER, 49, has
erupted onto the pro
golf scene and his future
seems bright. ALEXANDER LEVY, 26, of France
has developed into a
strong force on the European PGA Tour. MORGAN PRESSEL, 27, continues to be an effective
force on the LPGA tour.
In 2015, she was ranked
11th in tournament earnings with $962K.
Boxing/Tennis/Soccer
CLETUS SELDIN, 29,
is the WBC Jr. Welterweight title holder with a
record of 15-0 (12 KOs).
Cletus is a brawler who
knows only one way to
fight coming directly
at his opponent. CAMILA GIORGI, 23, of Italy
is a quality member of
the womens pro tennis
tour. ARIELLE SHIP, 20,
a junior soccer forward
at UC Berkeley (14-5-1)
scored 34 points and
was named All-PAC
12, 1st-team. JACKIE
FRIEDMAN, 22, a senior
(female) defender at
Dartmouth, was named
the Ivy League Defensive
Player of the Year.
College Football: JOSH
ROSEN, 18, UCLA, QB.
Josh is starting at QB as
a true freshman for the

Mike Cammalleri

Daniel Berger

Camila Giorgi

Arielle Ship

Hank Azaria

Emmanuel Lubezki

Bruins. His poise in the


pocket and strong, accurate arm makes it likely
they he will turn pro before he graduates. MIKE
BERCOVICI, 22, Arizona
State, QB. Mike earned
the loyalty of Sun Devils
fans and staff alike by
refusing to transfer out
when it seemed certain
he would not get the
chance to start until his
senior year. As it turned
out, an injury to the QB
after the midway point
of the 2014 season gave
him the chance to prove

his worth earlier than anticipated.


Bordertown is an
animated series
from Seth McFarlane
about two families (one
Mexican immigrant and
one Anglo) living on the
American side of the
Mexican/American
border. Most of the
voices of the Anglo
family are provided by
tribe members: HANK
AZARIA, 51, ALEX
BORNSTEIN, 42, and
JUDAH FRIEDLANDER,
46. (Started January 3.

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

New shows Sunday at


9:30). Heres a fun
footnote: It would not
have been really weird
to cast Azaria as the
voice of a Mexican
character. Both sets of
his grandparents were
Sephardic Jews from
Salonika, Greece. They
spoke Ladino, as did
Hanks parents. Ladino is
often called the Sephardi Yiddish. It is a mixture
of (mostly) archaic
Spanish, with Hebrew
and other linguistic
influences. Ladino

speakers can pick up


modern Spanish pretty
easily, and Hanks
mother worked as a
publicist, promoting
films in Latin America,
because she was fluent
in Spanish and English.
Its unclear how much
Ladino Hank knows.
Sephardi Jews for the
most part are descendants of Jews who left
Spain and Portugal at the
end of the 15th century
rather than convert to
Catholicism under duress. Many Jews who did
convert immigrated to
Spanish-owned Mexico,
where the Inquisition,
which monitored socalled Conversos for
backsliding, was not so
fierce. Most settled in
northern Mexico, and
many modern border
families claim Converso
roots. In recent years, a
smallish number have
converted to Judaism.
Most Mexican Jews are
Ashkenazi, like cinematographer EMMANUEL
LUBEZKI, 51. He is being
touted already for his
third Oscar for his film
work on Revenant, an
American West epic that
opens wide on January
8. Lubezki was born and
raised in Mexico City, like
the films director, Alejandro G. Irritu. Last year,
Lubezki won the cinematography Oscar for
Birdman, which Irritu
N.B.
directed.

California-based Nate Bloom can be reached at


Middleoftheroad1@aol.com

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JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 5

Local
A story of Clinton, Worms, and Wayne
Local man tells the story of his hometown and the day the Arkansas governor came to town
bad time to be a human being in Europe. Life
was nasty, brutish, and short for everyone
ric Mayer of Wayne does not want
then, although arguable even nastier, more
to talk about himself.
brutish, and shorter if you were Jewish.)
A courtly, modest, even selfUntil he was 11, Mr. Mayer grew up safe and
effacing man, all he wants to talk
happy in Worms, ensconced in a family of formidable accomplishments. His mother, Irma,
about, from the conference room of his Manhattan office overlooking Central Park, is Bill
came from a family with deep and traceable
and Hillary Clintons visit to Worms, Gerroots in Western Europe. His grandmothers
many, 20 years ago.
name was Marie Weil, but that family name
But the reason the Clintons visited Worms
once, generations earlier, had been Valle; the
is inextricably connected to Eric Mayer, who
family had been expelled from Spain. For
began life as Eric Mayer not of Wayne but of
centuries, the family lived and flourished in
Worms.
Italy, gaining wealth and power; Mr. Mayers
Here, then, is the story.
own branch, in Germany, was an offshoot
Mr. Mayer was born in 1928. His birth city is
from the Italian trunk of his maternal family tree. Another branch was established in
one of the oldest Jewish communities in Germany. It is a city drenched with history, and
France. His grandmothers brothers were
with blood; by legend, the descendants of the
the founders of Italys largest bank, Banca
tribes of Benjamin found their way there, and
Commerciale Italiano, Mr. Mayer said.
there were Jews there during the Roman era.
His father, Moritz, was the son of a German-Jewish family that was as impressive
History picks up Jewish traces there in about
as his mothers. My father had ten broth1034, when the great commentator Rashi is
ers and sisters, Mr. Mayer said. Six of them
said to have studied in the yeshiva there; by
settled in Italy, two of them were married in
1086 the Crusaders murdered all the Jews
France to the same man, serially. Modeling
who hadnt killed themselves first. After that,
themselves after Rashi, who by legend was a
Jews moved back and were slaughtered,
vintner, and by local legend was a vintner in
moved back and were slaughtered, except
Worms, my father ran my grandfathers winfor the period when the Black Death killed
ery, he added.
almost everyone, and then the remaining
The family, like all Jewish families in
townspeople killed the few surviving Jews.
Worms, in Germany, and in Europe as a
(To be fair, not only were the Dark Ages a
whole, was damaged and partially destroyed
bad time to be a Jew in Europe, they were a
by the Holocaust and World War
II.
His father had fought bravely
for Germany in World War I, his
son said. Moritz Mayer refused
to be denied his identity as a German, putting on his World War
I uniform with an Iron Cross
pinned to it, daring the Nazis
to arrest him, according to an
account of Holocaust-era Worms,
The Destruction of the Jewish
Community of Worms 1933-1945
by Henry R. Huttenbach. On that
occasion, they retreated.
According to documentation
in Dr. Huttenbachs book, Lieutenant Moritz Meyer, who volunteered for duty, was in the Germany army for four years, served
on the western front, and won
four medals, including the Iron
Cross. But that faithfully executed
act of patriotism bought him
nothing but a little bit of time. He
was shipped to a Polish ghetto and
was murdered in Sobibor in 1943.
A door of the medieval cathe dral in Worms,
As Mr. Mayer put it, My
which was built by the same builders and made
father was semi-crazy. In 1937, he
of the same sandstone as the synagogue.
donned his World War I uniform,

JOANNE PALMER

6 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016

Eric Mayer stands in the Jewish cemetery in Worms in 1988 as he talks to a


reporter from a French newspaper.
with all his medals, and went to a meeting of
German World War I veterans. He actually
told the people there that Hitler was a clown,
and asked why they followed him. They
didnt do anything to him then.
He was brave, but what did him in was his
belief that the German military would topple
Hitler, Mr. Mayer said.
He was arrested a month after Hitler
came to power, in 1933, because he was a
Social Democrat. He was released; in 1938,
he went abroad to go to a family funeral, and
then he came back, Mr. Mayer said. We
begged him not to, but he said I have a family to take care of. He was rearrested on July
8, 1938, to blackmail my Italian uncle into giving up a company that he owned to Germany.
He went to Buchenwald in Kristallnacht, but
again he was released.
Sometimes you have to wonder if that
kind of courage really is an asset, Mr. Mayer
said.
At the end of March 1941 he was deported
to Poland.
Somehow, amazingly, Moritz Mayer was
able to send his children two postcards from
the ghetto. We hope and pray with unswerving faith in God that, in time, the Almighty
will rectify all things, he wrote.
Mr. Meyers older relatives were active in
fighting the Nazis. My fathers cousin probably would have been the first prime minister of Israel if he hadnt parachuted into
enemy territory, he said. He was with the
same group as Hannah Senesh. His name
was Enzo Sereni; like Hannah Senesh he
landed in Germany. He masqueraded as a
British officer, was captured, imprisoned in
Dachau, and murdered there. Mr. Serenis
wife, Ada Ascarelli Sereni, was in charge
of illegal immigration for the Palmach, Mr.

Meyer said. My uncle, Sally Meyer, who


had an estate outside Milan, vacated it from
1945 to 1949 and gave it as a home to 400 displaced persons who eventually went mainly
to Israel, Australia, and the United States.
Mr. Mayers family was prominent in the
postwar world too. For 21 years, my cousin
Astorre Mayer was the unofficial liaison
between Israel and the Vatican, he said. He
was a close friend of Cardinal Roncalli, who
became Pope John XXIII, and of Cardinal
Tisserand and of Pope Paul II.
Meanwhile, back in prewar Germany,
Moritz and Irma Mayer worried about their
children, and decided to get them out. My
brother, Fred, my sister, Ruth, and I ended
up in a village in Alsace, with much older
cousins, and later, still with the cousins, in a
town in Burgundy, then in Vichy for a year
and a half. We were expelled from Vichy in
July 1941 because we were foreign Jews and
ended up in southern France, Mr. Mayer
said. His mother, who stayed in Worms, was
deported to Belzec and was gassed there in
1942. (His brother died 10 years ago, and his
sister, whose last name was Rothschild, died
about a year and a half ago, he added.) We
were complete strangers to everyone in this
village, Biars sur Cere, which then had about
800 people; its the village where Bonne
Maman preserves come from.
I was a courier for the French Resistance
in November 1942 until August 1944, at the
liberation of southern France.
You have to understand what it was like
then, Mr. Mayer said. There were posters
on the walls, from the Nazis and from the
collaborators, and they said that if you are
found to help a Jew, a freemason, a communist, a socialist, or a pervert, you will be shot
on sight. Despite the great danger in which

Local

Worms Jewish quarter, destroyed during the war and then rebuilt, had been
home to the citys leftists and artists.
helping the Mayers and other Jewish children
put the villagers, still they kept the children
safe. I have an inordinate feeling of indebtedness to them that I can never repay, even
if I live to be the age of Moses, Mr. Mayer
added.
To pay back that debt, Mr. Mayer devotes
himself to activism, advocacy for the remaining heroes and victims of the Holocaust and

their descendants, and education about its


horrors and the truths of human nature
including the good ones that it revealed.
The Jewish community in Worms, despite
its proud history and deep roots, was systematically destroyed during the war, its members humiliated, tortured, and killed, its artifacts, correctly seen as its core, devastated as
well. As Mr. Mayer put it, We had 48 Torahs.

YACHAD/NJCD IS DEDICATED TO ENHANCING THE LIFE OPPORTUNITIES OF INDIVIDUALS WITH


DISABILITIES, ENSURING THEIR PARTICIPATION IN THE FULL SPECTRUM OF JEWISH LIFE.

This cluster of placques commemorates the two interconnected Jewish families who lived in nearby houses and were murdered by the Nazis. Martin Weis
was a Warld War I hero and the shuls shamas.
Only one survived.
According to a history, The Destruction of
the Jewish Community of Worms 1933-1945
by native son Dr. Henry R. Huttenbach, who
escaped as a small child in 1936 and went on
to be a historian at New Yorks City College,
the 450 Jews who did not leave when they

Branching Out
of the Box

had the chance all were killed. That process


of expulsion and extermination, he said,
was a visible a known sequence of events,
for which the non-Jewish survivors are guilty.
Now, Mr. Mayer said, there is a small Jewish
community in
Worms once
again,
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JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 7

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Bullying and
the special
needs child
JCC will host
interactive workshop
LOIS GOLDRICH

hile bullying is a growing problem for children in the general population, people
with special needs have even more reason
to be concerned.
Stephanie Shapiro program coordinator at J-ADD and
a clinical social worker/therapist at the Psychotherapy
Center of New Jersey in West Orange notes that bullying
rates for children with disabilities are two to three times
higher than those for other children.
Sixty percent of people with disabilities whether
physical or mental report being bullied on a regular
basis, Ms. Shapiro said.
Add to that the fact that people with disabilities are
already coming to the table with challenges. Its harder for
them across the board. They may not know how to act and
may feel more peer pressure to fit in. And when theres a
physical aspect to the disability, people, especially those
who are younger, may make fun of that.
New Jerseys Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights defines harassment, intimidation, or bullying as any gesture, any written, verbal or physical act, or any electronic communication, whether it be a single incident or series of incidents,
that is reasonably perceived as being motivated either by
any actual or perceived characteristic and requires that
all school employees and contracted service providers
are required to report such incidents.
I hear that it is making somewhat of a difference,
Ms. Shapiro said, citing the state law. Schools are mandated to pay attention. And if schools do not follow up
as required, parents are advised to go higher and higher.
They want you to take action. Keep calling. In addition,
she said, research shows that more than half the incidents stop when other peers intervene. Help your friends.
This is something you need to know now and throughout
your entire life.
On February 2 and February 9, the Kaplen JCC on the
Palisades will host a program addressing this issue. Working directly with special needs children and acquainting
their parents with resources available to them, staff members from the Psychotherapy Center will offer an interactive bullying workshop to teach special needs children
the skills they need to deal with and prevent bullying.

The workshops, for people 16 and older, will focus on


concrete skill-building to address these issues and prevent further occurrences. In addition, Ms. Shapiro said,
participants will learn to self-advocate and how to ask

for help.
The program, she said, is in response to requests by parents of special needs children who report that bullying is
very prevalent. Participants will be paired up with other

Stressed out? Youre not alone


We have exceptional mental health professionals available for you.
Individual counseling, family counseling, couples counseling and
support groups are all just a phone call away.
of Bergen and North Hudson

For more information contact jfsbergen.org or call 201-837-9090


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8 JEWISH
STANDARD
JANUARY 8, 2016

12/1/2015 3:34:23 PM

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Stephanie Shapiro
attendees and therapists according to their needs
and category of disability. Organizers will take into
account, for example, whether an attendee can write,
or requires special accommodations. The workshops
will adopt an intimate approach, not lecture-style,
Ms. Shapiro said. They will be interactive, taking
place in small groups. They will share experiences;
other group members may say something that will
help. Its a total group [situation], to show youre not
alone. Everyone has felt similar at some point.
Well talk to the families that sign up so were prepared for them to come, she added, noting that the
first program will be directed either to bullies or
those bullied.
She explained that bullying is a learned behavior.
When we experience things, we may find an
opportunity to do the same thing without realizing it.
We may transfer it in other ways. We want people to
know this is wrong. Well remind them of how they felt
[when they were bullied] and remind them that this is
not something they should be doing.
Special needs participants also will be told how to
take action and who to go to for help. By making them
more aware whether they are being actively bullied
or suspect they might be Ms. Shapiro hopes not
only to prevent this type of behavior but to forestall
its lifelong emotional effects victims often come to
avoid social situations or to hate school.
Part 2 of the program will focus on supplying families with pre-printed materials, such as notices to fill
out to send to schools or group homes. Theyre formal notifications, Ms. Shapiro said. Families dont
have to think of what to say. They can take action
now.
What: An interactive bullying workshop will take
place
When: February 2 and February 9, 6-7:30 p.m.
Where: At the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades, 411 E
Clinton Ave, Tenafly
Cost: $50 per person, including refreshments.
Registration is required and space is limited. Enroll
online by Jan. 26 at www.psychoterapycenterofnj.
com.

February 6, 2016 -

8PM - Teaneck Marriott at Glenpointe

Jill & David 77 Blumenthal


Guests of Honor

Cindy Frank
Feigenblum 88

Nedivat Lev Award

Ilana Gdanski 91

Alumni Recognition Award

Rifkie Greenberg
Silverman 82

Rav Shlomo Kahn Memorial


Educators Award

To RSVP or donate, visit www.frischdinner.com or call


Rachel Roth, Director of Development, at 201.267.9100 ext. 290.

For more information, email sshapiro@


psychotherapycenterofnj.com

JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 9

Local

Teaching the grooms teachers


Local rabbis join others in YU program to update marriage classes
ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN

efore an Orthodox man and


woman are joined in marriage
under the chuppah, each typically has several one-on-one
preparation sessions with a teacher of his
or her own gender.
The meetings are about the Jewish laws
governing the physical relationship specifically the on-and-off rhythm dictated
by the womans monthly cycle and her
immersion in the mikvah (ritual bath), as
well as contraception.
These sessions also offer a golden
opportunity to impart guidance in areas
ranging from communication and conflict-resolution skills to managing expectations and finances, and recognizing when
to seek help for medical, sexual, or emotional problems in the marriage.
In order to better prepare rabbis to
tackle a broader spectrum of topics in
classes for husbands-to-be and married
men, two Yeshiva University organizations, the Center for the Jewish Future
and the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological
Seminary, recently offered an eight-part
continuing education webinar, Teaching for Healthy Relationships Throughout
Marriage, for alumni and other interested
rabbis.
The Center for the Jewish Future already
offered training for female premarital mentors, led by Rebbetzin Peshi Neuburger of
Bergenfield. A similar course, held in Far
Rockaway last June and co-sponsored by
the Orthodox Union, featured some of the
same presenters who are in the rabbis
webinar, which began November 1.
Several North Jersey rabbis were among
80 participants from the United States,
Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia,
New Zealand, and Israel.
Rabbi Gideon Black of Englewood said
the comprehensive nature of the course
transformed him from someone who had
enough training to teach future husbands
into an educator whos had direct access
to seasoned rabbanim and leaders in the
field.
Rabbi Black is the new director of professional recruitment and leadership
development for the Orthodox Unions
Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus;
before that, he and his wife, Aliza, spent
four years as OU-JLIC educators at NYU.
Having taught a few grooms in the past,
he wanted to hone his skills for future
guidance sessions. We have an email list
of all participants and that has been one
of the most enriching parts, to be able to
throw out a question and see how other
rabbis deal with it and to be able walk
through issues jointly, Rabbi Black said.
I feel more confident and scholarly on
10 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016

Rabbi Shmuel Maybruch of Passaic, seated, designed the webinar with Rabbi Naphtali Lavenda, director of online rabbinic
programming at YUs Center for the Jewish Future.

Rabbi Maybruch is a licensed social worker, psychotherapist, relationship coach, and faculty member in YUs Stone Beit
Midrash Program. 

every level.
In Rabbi Blacks estimation, the biggest
challenge for young engaged men of any
denomination is making space in their
private world for another human being;

having to share their life and bedroom


with someone else. A lot of people just
arent prepared to share that space fully.
He said that the premarital classes afford
these men a personal mentor to address

OU

issues from relationship skills to sexuality


that they might not be comfortable discussing with family members. And their
friends might not have knowledge of how
to successfully navigate an active sexual

Local
relationship with a partner.
Though Orthodox Judaism does not condone sex outside of marriage, the course
acknowledged that given the broad range
of course participants constituencies and
the influence of a sexually open society,
some couples in the Orthodox community
might be sexually active before the wedding. Accordingly, one session touched on
the potential halachic, psychological, and
emotional impact such experience could
have on the couples relationship.
Rabbi Shmuel Maybruch of Passaic said
that many of the young men he teaches
before their weddings harbor misconceptions about both the halachic and the intimate aspects of marriage.
Correcting misinformation is one of
our most worthwhile jobs as teachers,
said Rabbi Maybruch, who is a licensed
social worker, psychotherapist, relationship coach, and faculty member in YUs
Stone Beit Midrash Program. He designed
the webinar with Rabbi Naphtali Lavenda,
the director of online rabbinic programming at YUs Center for the Jewish Future.
Rabbi Maybruch explained that the
webinar arose from a need to provide
a more unified body of knowledge to
teachers of brides and grooms. Usually
people offer their own courses and there
is no regulation or certification, but at least
we can empower them to teach a notch
higher, he said, adding that students who
finished the course were offered optional
certification.
Rabbi Maybruch said that he wants rabbis to be able to impart a set of relationship-building tools to their premarital students. He cited findings from the 75-year
Harvard Study of Adult Development,
which indicate that the single most important predictor of happiness and health
is the quality of a persons interpersonal
relationships.
Thats really phenomenal, and corroborates a lot of the ideas we have in Judaism, Rabbi Maybruch said. Given the
importance of the husband-and-wife relationship, wed be remiss to focus only on
the legal perspectives. We must help them
harness research-based suggestions for
improving their lives through their marriage relationship.
Rabbi Michael Bashist of Clifton, seniorgrade dean at the Frisch School of Paramus, has been giving marriage-prep
classes to grooms since his first students
began getting married around eight years
ago.
The topics are very personal, and having a relationship with a student for many
years is invaluable, especially when discussing intimate aspects of life, he said.
While most webinar participants were
community pulpit rabbis or rabbis working with grooms of college age and older,
Frischs principal, Rabbi Eli Ciner, considered Rabbi Bashists participation as part
of teacher development and continuing
education. Our greatest goal and privilege is to develop life-long relationships

with our students, and to support them


in those special moments well after high
school is completed, Rabbi Bashist said.
The webinar gave Rabbi Bashist access
to rabbis, marriage counselors, psychologists, and medical experts with expertise
in a range of areas including Jewish law,
marital harmony, and sexual health. This
course created a holistic approach so we
can best prepare our young men and
women for the new stage of life which they
will be entering, he said.
One of the most marked shifts for religious young couples is in the sexual realm.
The entire view of sexuality changes
from one replete with laws designed for
restraint and distance, to one where this
same area of life is not merely permissible
but is a positive mitzvah, Rabbi Bashist
said. Because the transition is so quick,
it can sometimes present a challenge for
young couples. We must therefore educate
and prepare them in making that transition in a healthy, calm, and joyful manner.
By teaching and discussing the Torah
sources and perspectives that focus on
these areas that our young men and
women have often not been exposed to
previously, helps make that transition easier. They learn that there is no area of life
that isnt touched by Judaism, including
healthy ways to approach sexuality.
Rabbi Zvi Sobolofsky, leader of Congregation Ohr HaTorah in Bergenfield, and
Rabbi Yaakov Neuburger, leader of Congregation Beth Abraham in Bergenfield,
were among the courses other instructors.
Yeshiva University psychology and Jewish education professor Dr. David Pelcovitz; RIETSs Dean Rabbi Menachem
Penner; Rebbetzin Abby Lerner of the
Young Israel of Great Neck; Dr. Martin
Grajower, clinical associate professor of
endocrinology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Rabbi Gideon Weitzman,
director of the PUAH Institute in Israel for
infertility; Dr. Scott Chudnoff, associate
professor of obstetrics and gynecology and
womens health at Einstein; Dr. David Ribner, chairman of the sex therapy training
program at Bar-Ilan University in Israel;
Dr. Jonathan Lasson, a psychotherapist
specializing in premarital education; Dr.
Chani Maybruch, a private marital relationship educator and relationship coach,
and Dov Finkelstein, clinical instructor of
psychiatry at the NYU Langone Human
Sexuality Program, also led webinar
sessions.
We have been supporting our rabbis
in numerous ways for years, and there is
consistent interest in nuanced instruction
from trained professionals, Rabbi Lavenda said. The strong participation from
rabbis worldwide also demonstrates this is
a sensitive topic on which rabbis are seeking guidance, to really help the couple create a strong foundation for their marriage,
and we look forward to providing the rabbis with additional continuing education
courses, in both this and other areas of
interest.

The future is
in your hands.
Meet Shlomo Anapolle of Edison, New Jersey. When it comes to
a love of Israel, few college students can match the Sabra passion
of this Yeshiva University junior. A pre-med, biology major with
plans to attend an Israeli medical school, Shlomo balances his time
between neo-natal diagnostic research, intensive shiurim and a
commitment to Israel advocacy.
Whether its planning lobbying missions to Washington, D.C.
with YUPAC or teaching English to teens in the Negev through
Counterpoint Israel, Shlomo brings to bear his leadership skills for
the sake of the Jewish people and homeland. He is proud to invite
Israeli diplomats to YU to help his peers contextualize current
events. Shlomo chose YU because, to him, Torah Umadda isnt
merely the convergence of science and our mesorahat Yeshiva
University, it is the formula for a values-driven preparation for life.
This is the essence of Torah Umadda and what sets YU apart.
Picture yourself at YU. #NowhereButHere

www.yu.edu | 212.960.5277 | yuadmit@yu.edu

www.yu.edu/apply
JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 11

Local

From Ridgewood to HBO to Arthur Miller


What a tough guy actor learned from his Jewish grandma
LONNIE FIRESTONE

n a trip to London last year, actor


Michael Zegen,
who grew up in
Ridgewood, caught a revival
performance of Arthur Millers
1955 drama, A View from the
Bridge, the classic play about a
Brooklyn longshoreman whose
protective impulses toward his
niece tilt toward lust.
I had a terrible seat, he said.
But it still blew me away. The
production, which was directed
by the visionary Ivo van Hove,
was so powerful that when he
saw ads promoting its transfer
to Broadway, he planned to see
it again.
But you know what they say
about the best-laid plans. Instead
of catching the Olivier Awardwinning show as an audience
member, Zegen ended up being
cast in it as Marco, an Italian
immigrant who comes to live
with his family in Brooklyn.
Zegen, 36, is a veteran actor
whos played several tough-guy
roles, including real-life American Jewish mobster Bugsy Siegel
on Boardwalk Empire and firefighter Damian Keefe on Rescue
Me, but he had never played on
Broadway before. For many reasons, the role of Marco initially
seemed beyond his reach.
They keep talking about how
big and strong Marco is, Zegen

said over breakfast and green tea


at a Moroccan-style restaurant
near his West Village home. I
thought, Im not getting this.
Zegen may be lean, but he
landed the role and was given
a trainer right away. Physicality is
essential to the part.
The revival of A View from
the Bridge, which runs through
February 21, is staged on a nearly
empty set. The stage features
only one sizable prop, a dining
chair that Zegen has to raise high
above his head, single-handedly,
in one of the plays most visually
arresting scenes. What Van Hove
sacrifices in realistic detail, he
gains in intensity of emotion.
Zegen has been acting since
high school. He got his professional start on The David Letterman Show, playing a character named Dwight the Troubled
Teen in several episodes an
auspicious beginning, though
footage of his performances
is all but unfindable on the
Internet.
His next role was a New York
City firefighter on Denis Learys
FX show Rescue Me. That
kept him busy for six years,
after which he found a steady
stream of work playing minor
yet intriguing characters on highprofile shows How to Make it
in America, The Walking Dead
and Girls, and in Noah Baumbachs film Frances Ha.
Zegens characters tend to be

Michael Zegen, center, works his biceps in a scene from A View from the Bridge.

New Yorkers, and more than a


few are Jewish. Perhaps his most
prominent role so far was Benny
Bugsy Siegel on HBOs Boardwalk Empire.
I had gotten close to getting
Meyer Lansky, and when I didnt
get it, I was crushed, he said.
But then this came around.
The cool thing was that I got
to make it my own, he added.
There wasnt a lot of information

Zegen, center, played Jewish gangster Bugsy Siegel in HBOs Boardwalk Empire.
12 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016

COURTESY OF HBO

available about Bugsys life when


he was young. There was a lot
about Vegas and his later years
in LA, but his teenage years I
couldnt really find that much, so
I had the freedom to play with it,
and then the writers picked up
on what I was doing and wrote
accordingly.
The stories of gangsters have
captivated many people for a
long time, and Zegen is no exception. Talking about how gangsters were portrayed in Boardwalk, in particular, he said he
was especially drawn to the
period clothes and sepia-tinged
setting of 1920s Atlantic City.
That Bugsy was recognizably
Jewish added another layer of
intrigue. I think its because
people think Jews wont fight
back, he said. And here are
these tough guys who are basically murdering machines.
Embodying Bugsys Jewishness
also meant dabbling in Yiddish;
he had to nail the various putdowns that sound better in the
old language. So he enlisted a
trusted tutor his grandmother.
Zegen said hes very close to
his grandmother who, like his
grandfather, was a Holocaust survivor. I was raised with her war
stories, he said.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the

JAN VERSWEYVELD

role that Zegen felt closest to was


Liam, in the 2013 premiere of
the play Bad Jews. Its a funny,
poignant drama about the death
of a Holocaust survivor and the
acerbic debate between his three
grandchildren over who should
inherit a prized chai necklace
that survived the war.
Culturally familiar roles still
come easily to Zegen. However,
its not necessarily about the
type of character, he said. In
the last play I did, The Spoils,
I played a Jewish banker, but it
was a completely different part.
He was happy-go-lucky. And I got
to work with Jesse. (Thats Jesse
Eisenberg, who both wrote the
play and starred in its Off-Broadway premiere.)
If the parts good, I want to
play it, he said. If it speaks to
me, Im gonna go all out to get it.
I just did Brooklyn with Saoirse
Ronan. Im Italian in that. So its
either Jewish or Italian.
Plus, Zegen added, in the
upcoming film The Seagull
adapted from the Chekhov play
and directed by Michael Mayer,
who won a Tony in 2007 for
Spring Awakening he plays a
Russian.
So Im branching out, he
said, smiling.


JTA WIRE SERVICE

Local

Old organization,
new direction
HIAS director to speak on
the groups expanded mission
LOIS GOLDRICH

hen Mark Hetfield,


president and CEO of
HIAS, comes to speak
at Teanecks Temple
Emeth on Shabbat, he will do more than
reference Lev Golinkins new memoir,
A Backpack, a Bear and Eight Crates of
Vodka. (The book is the centerpiece of
the Jewish Federation of Northern New
Jerseys One Book, One Community
program this year.)
As guest speaker at a Shabbat program
designed to celebrate the book, he will
talk not only about HIASs role in the
immigration of Golinkins family, but
about the organizations evolution from
a refugee agency that helps people not
because theyre Jewish but because we
are.
A note about HIASs cryptic name
according to the groups website, hias.
org, Originally, we were the Hebrew
Immigrant Aid Society. But as we
expanded our mission to protect and
assist refugees of all faiths and ethnicities, our name no longer represented
the organization. We are now known as
HIAS.
HIAS is featured prominently in Mr.
Golinkins memoir, which is the authors
attempt to understand his past by retracing his familys escape from the Soviet
Union in the late 1980s.
We assisted the family in Vienna,
Mr. Hetfield said. And we got them
admitted to the U.S. as refugees and sent
them to Lafayette, Ind., where they were
resettled.
Mr. Hetfield, who said he has worked
with HIAS four separate times during his
career, was a caseworker for the group
in the late 1980s, when Mr. Golinkins
family began their long trek.
In most cases, refugees like Lev
would get an invitation to go to Israel and
would stop in Vienna en route; but then
many people decided to go to the U.S.,
Canada, or New Zealand instead, he
said. Normally, once they declared their
intention, they would stay in Vienna a
short time and then go to Rome.
But Lev Golinkins family made a

Mark Hetfield
different choice.
In his case, something strange happened. They stayed in Vienna, and
never went to Rome. Thats exceptional,
and there are theories in the book about
that.
HIAS was founded in 1881 to help Jews
from Russia who were fleeing tsarist
pogroms.
We focused mostly on Jewish refugees and migrants for the first 120 years,
including Levs time, Mr. Hetfield said.
We resettled tens of thousands during
that period, including some 400,000
between 1970 and 2000. Many were
resettled between 1979 and 1980, and
again from 1989 to 1993, he added.
Today, while the agency still helps
Jews, particularly from Iran, the vast
majority of those served by the agency
are of all ethnicities: Congolese, Burmese, Bhutanese, Eritrean, Iraqi, Iranian, and some Syrians.
Of the latter, Mr. Hetfield noted that
while the government is resettling a few
Syrians, they take a long time to be processed. Iranian Jews still go to Vienna,
he said, and we help them at all stages
of the process. But with Syrians, we help
them once they get to the U.S. airport
then we take over.
Mr. Hetfield said that HIAS works
through partnerships with Jewish Family Service Agencies around the nation.

The future is
in your hands.
Meet Rachel Mirsky from White Plains, New York. A biology major on
a pre-med track, and captain of the YU softball and basketball teams,
Rachel chose YU to allow her to explore and develop her unique talents
and interests.
Rachel loves YU because it enables her to engage in her extracurricular
passions and prepare for her career while remaining true to her
religious commitments. An exceptional athlete, Rachel was recently
named to the Capital One Academic All-District team. Whether in
an Israeli laboratory conducting research on the properties of red
blood cells, or authoring a medical ethics paper on eating disorders
and the Biblical matriarchs, Rachel can find the perfect balance at
YU. This is the essence of Torah Umadda and what sets YU apart.
Picture yourself at YU. #NowhereButHere

SEE ORGANIZATION PAGE 43

Who: HIAS director Mark Hetfield


What: Will speak on A Jewish Response to Todays Refugees

www.yu.edu | 212.960.5277 | yuadmit@yu.edu

When: At a Shabbaton on Saturday, January 9


Where: At Temple Emeth, 1666 Windsor Road, Teaneck

www.yu.edu/apply
JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 13

Local

When numbers get serious


Questioning and defending the meaning of Jewish demographics
LARRY YUDELSON

ts a numbers game.
But should it be?
For more than two decades, from
the 1990 National Jewish Population
Survey to the 2013 Pew Report, much of the
conversation around American Jewish life
has centered around numbers. How many
Jews are there, what are they doing, and
the key question for so many op-eds and sermons how many are marrying other Jews?
Yet while the headline numbers scream
meaning, looking at them closely can raise
more questions. You might say that with one
Jewish dataset, there are at least two opinions. And then theres the fact that every
survey returns data that are different in their
own way.
Some of the resulting issues were discussed in a panel at last months convention
of the Association of Jewish Studies, held in
Boston. The session, called The Numbers
Controversy and American Jewry: Discerning the Trends and Their Meaning, was set
at the point where Jewish studies converge
with Jewish current affairs.
The panel, which drew only about 30
people to the large ballroom where optimistic organizations had set it, featured Dr.
Deborah Dash Moore, a historian from the
University of Michigan, and two sociologists,
Dr. Steven M. Cohen of New Yorks Hebrew

Dr. Steven M. Cohen

Dr. Deborah Dash Moore

Dr. Leonard Saxe

and prescribing norms, naming a crisis, publicizing it, and promoting its solution seems
to encounter relatively little friction when
activist scholars fall into symbiotic relationships with congenial institutional benefactors and beneficiaries.
The varieties of Jewish American relationships, activities, sentiments, and expressions
are not simple, nor two-dimensional.
Finally, she said she is not convinced that
the ambitious, expensive agenda advocated
by my fellow scholars such as the continued expansion of Jewish day schools can
achieve its subjective objectives.
That last was an apparent reference to a
statement, Strategic Directions for Jewish

more subsidized Jewish preschools; to invest


more in informal education for adolescents
and young adults.
Dr. Cohen said that the decline in nonOrthodox Judaism should not be a surprise
and could have been predicted even if it
werent backed up by demographic studies.
He said that when he was in graduate school
he learned that every ethnic group in America was assimilated because of intermarriage. And indeed, he said, every non-African ethnic group is becoming less attached
to its ethnicity.
So too, every liberal religious group in
America is going through a decline, he said.
People of no religion have become the most
popular denomination, surpassing Catholics.
The fertility of non-Orthodox Jews is 1.7.
Japan has a similar fertility rate and is seeing
depopulation. Switzerland is seeing depopulation. So is the non-Orthodox population
as a whole. We have a built-in decline in this
population.
We also have lots of other numbers. Not
all numbers are disputable.
How many people say that theyre Jewish? In my generation, age 50-69, 1.8 million
self-identify as Jews. There are 1.2 million in
the next generation. If you look at any measure, that generation has fewer percentages
doing Jewish things than my generation. Subjectively, in my generation, 863,000 think
being Jewish is important. In the next generation, only 400,000. The percentage also
went down.
If all this were true, what we would see
is fewer Conservative synagogues, the Union
for Reform Judaism firing lots of people, the
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
selling its property, the Jewish Theological Seminary coming up against significant
donor resistance, and wed see fewer federation donors.
All of this, of course, actually has happened in the past few years, he added.
His conclusion: We ought to get together
and tell the Jewish world that there are a lot
of good things going on out there, but if you
believe more Jews should do more things,

you ought to attend to the shrinkage of the


American Jewish middle.
The third speaker on the panel was Dr.
Saxe, who directs the Steinhardt Social
Research Institute at Brandeis.
He tried to take a middle ground. I believe
numbers have an important role to play in
how we understand ourselves but are not the
only way to understand ourselves, he said.
However, he cautioned, population statistics tell us more about what was than what
will be. They also perpetuate the myth that
life is a straight line. They ignore the way the
trajectory of identity and development is not
linear. In this sense, Pew is a snapshot, not a
movie. Or a movie taken from the front seat
with the camera pointed in the rearview mirror. It tells us a lot of how we got to where we
are, how we were raised. It doesnt tell us a
lot about whats ahead of us.
Dr. Saxe took on Dr. Cohen directly.
At the heart of Stevens view of American
Jewry is the idea that there are fewer engaged
Jews, that birthrates signal a further decline.
But in fact, what Pew shows is that there are
more engaged Jews, more synagogue members, more folks doing traditional Jewish
things today than compared to 1990. The
population has increased to around seven
million individuals. In a number of areas
there have been a number of dramatic shifts
in American Jewish behavior.
In terms of Israel, there has been a dramatic increase in the number who have visited Israel and who report a high level of connection and attraction to Israel.
In terms of intermarriage, which I
think for many of us is a focus since it now
describes so much of the American Jewish
community theres no question that intermarriage has changed the contours of the
American Jewish community, in ways we
hadnt anticipated.
For the generations born before 1981, the
children of intermarried parents were relatively unlikely to be Jews when they became
adults. Something changed after 1980. The
millennials are twice as likely to identify
as Jews when they turn 18. This portends a

I believe numbers have an


important role to play in how
we understand ourselves but
are not the only way to
understand ourselves.
DR. LEONARD SAXE

Union College Jewish Institute of Religion,


and Dr. Leonard Saxe of Brandeis.
Dr. Moore opened with a challenge: We
need to interrogate the numbers, she said.
In other words, she wanted to know not
just the number of Jews who fast on Yom
Kippur and take part in a seder (53 and 70
percent respectively, according to the 2013
Pew report; 60 and 78 in the 1990 survey)
but why should American Jews care about
these numbers?
The numbers miss important nuances, she
said. For demographers, one Passover seder
becomes equivalent to every other seder. A
single intermarriage statistic becomes a symbol of assimilation.
Skepticism is in order, especially with
respect to activist social science, Dr. Moore
said. The problem is not necessarily with
the numbers per se, but the disquieting ease
with which theyve been made to serve a
mission. This entire process of describing
14 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016

Life: A Call to Action, signed by 78 rabbis


and academics and donors among them
Dr. Cohen. The statements first call for
action was to encourage state aid to Jewish
day schools.
That was not a position that Dr. Cohen
defended when he took the microphone. He
began with a personal statement.
I would like to serve the Jewish people so
that I can help more Jews to be doing different types of Jewish things, including those
I really despise. My major overriding thesis
is that the engaged Jewish middle, the nonOrthodox Jews who are engaged in Jewish
life, are declining in numbers and are going
to continue to decline, he said.
If you disagree with my analysis, I still
want to recruit you for my policy: to get Jewish grandparents to spend more time with
their grandchildren, be they Jewish or nonJewish; to treat our non-Jewish family members as Jewish as much as they wish; to build

Local
major shift.
We cant predict what the future will
be by looking at the entire population.
Those who grew up in the 40s and 50s
and 60s may be very different than those
who grew up in the 80s and 90s. We cant
even estimate fertility from those now 45
and above. Those now deciding may be
very different.
The message of universalism was the
ethos an entire generation grew up with in
the 60s and 70s. The uniqueness, the chosenness of Judaism was foreign to that generation. What were discovering is that if
you love everyone, you dont love anyone.
Groupiness and particularism and belonging to a community is important, he said.
Addressing the problems of synagogues
and other Jewish organizations to which
Dr. Cohen alluded, Dr. Saxe said, There is
no question our institutions have failed us.
The traditional organizations have failed in
the sense that theyre not attracting people in the same way, with the same level of
intensity, as they did before. We may simply need to rethink how people connect
institutionally.
Even some of the old ways we characterized people as one thing or another
Jews by religion, Jews not by religion,
Jewish by background may not be terminology that fits with the current ethos.
There was a time when the only choice was
to be Jewish or not to be Jewish. The only
choice of the child of intermarriage was to
be Jewish or not to be Jewish, to accept the
religion of their Jewish parent or to reject
it. Now we find people are proud that they
have multiple heritages, he said.
Dr. Saxe said that by nature he is a pessimist but he is hopeful when it comes to
the future of American Jewry.
One of the reasons for his optimism,
he said, is his experience studying the
effect of the Birthright Israel program,
which produced extraordinary results in
changes in engagements and involvements
with Judaism.
My bottom line comment is lets stop
thinking there isnt any hope and lets
not treat demography as destiny.
Then Dr. Moore got a chance to
respond.
One of the things that differentiates
a historian from a sociologist, particularly a quantitative sociologist, is that
historians tend to approach the study
of Jews where Jews are, she said. We
dont necessarily place a higher value
on particular types of behavior or particular beliefs or particular organizational structures.
One of the things one finds in the
early history of New York is that Jews
dont join synagogues. They may go for
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. That is
it. Starting from the 1830s, the number
of synagogues that existed in New York
could never accommodate the number of Jews in the city if they actually
showed up there.
Not only that, but Jews dont observe

the Sabbath, she continued. There


were big debates in the middle of the
19th century about Jews not observing
the Sabbath, running parallel to debates
in the larger society on how one
here, she moved from discussing Jews
to the surrounding Christian culture
should observe the Sabbath. Should
one have blue laws and be required not
to sell goods? Should mail not be delivered? Should the amusements that German immigrants brought be allowed, or
should one just go to church and refrain
from everything else?
One of the things I find distressing
about some of the quantitative analyses is they dont recognize the ways
that categories that were meaningful at
one point historically may no longer be
meaningful. Im not sure theyre helpful in understanding things in contemporary terms.
Dr. Cohen disagreed about finding
optimism in the Pew numbers.
In 1990, we had 5.5 million Jews
reported, he said. It was 6.7 million in
Pew. How did the Jewish people grow?
We added 400 thousand Orthodox people. We added 400 thousand post 1990
from the former Soviet Union. We added
much more longevity among people 75
and older thats 200,000 more.
Pew picked the method that would
maximize the number of Jews. The episodically connected Jews dont speak to
my thesis. The engaged non-Orthodox
Jews 30-49 went from 1.6 million to 1.2
million. Im not saying demography is
destiny, but demography aint nothing.
Im trying alarmism, he admitted.
Maybe alarmism will work. Maybe
people will say, I didnt know that nonOrthodox Judaism is declining, I want
to have Jewish great-grandchildren, and
Ill do whatever is necessary to change
policy in the direction I suggested.
But Dr. Moore urged more self reflection on what drives ones engagement.
Why is the middle important as opposed
to the ultra-Orthodox, who seem to be
doing just fine, or those who are really
completely secular and seem to be
doing fine? Those would be important
questions to articulate in terms of what
constitute the qualities were looking
for.
As a historian, I keep seeing constant
changes and innovations. A hundred
years ago, Jews didnt do Passover seders particularly. Passover seders became
much more popular after World War
Two. Why? I dont know. We do know
how Chanukah becomes reinterpreted
and becomes an important holiday.
The same is true with Jewish education. Jews are more highly educated Jewishly than previously had been the case,
where only 25 percent of Jews had gotten a Jewish education.
There are interesting changes that
take place when you have a longer view
than several decades.

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JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 15

Local
Cantor Romalis Jubilee celebration
continues with Tu BShevat seder

Monday party benefits


children fighting cancer

From January 22 to 24, Temple Beth


Tikvah in Wayne will continue its
Jubilee 50th year honoring its cantor,
Charles Romalis.
Jacob (Spike) Kraus, one of the
Reform movements top song leaders, will lead creative kabbalat Shabbat services on Friday, January 22, at
6 p.m. The temples Women of Chai
Cantor Charles
Jake (Spike)
group will sponsor a festive oneg
Romalis
Kraus
Shabbat. On Shabbat morning at
10 a.m., Mr. Kraus will lead creative
cantor in North America who has served
services. The weekend finale will be a
one congregation for 50 years.
joyous Tu BShevat seder on Sunday at
Beth Tikvah is at 950 Preakness Ave.
10:30 a.m. The community is welcome
For information, call (973) 595-6565 or
to the events.
Cantor Romalis is the only Reform
go to www.templebethtikvahnj.org.

Chopstix owner Elie Y. Katz has announced


its 13th annual holiday party benefiting the
Tomorrows Childrens Fund at Hackensack University Medical Center. The event
on Monday, January 11, will be from 6:15 to
8:40 p.m., at the Moose Lodge, 201 West
Englewood Ave., in Teaneck.
The cost of admission is an unwrapped
new gift for young patients in treatment at
the Childrens Cancer Institute at HUMC.
In addition to food from Chopstix, Dougies of Teaneck, Glatt Express, Teaneck
Mediterranea, Chickies, Poppys Bagels,

PHOTOS COURTESY MORIAH

and Butterflake Bakeshop, all of Teaneck,


there will be live music, entertainment,
and surprises for the entire family.
Several years ago we wanted to thank
our friends and customers, says Chopstix
partner Uri Herzog. But we also thought;
lets turn this into something that helps
others, too. And so the holiday party was
born. Added Katz, It is an incredible feeling to see both the outpouring of support
from our customers and friends and the
joy from the hospital community.

Ali and Jason Auerbach

Bracha Bluman

Jessica and Meyer Orbach

COURTESY BPY

Moriah dinner set for February 20

Ben Porat Yosef welcomes


grandparents and other special visitors
Ben Porat Yosef s Grandparents and
Special Visitors Day kicked off with
junior high programming last month.
Sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders
hosted their guests for lunch and then
headed to the classrooms to learn
together. General studies included lessons on ancient Mesopotamia in sixth
grade, historical fiction in seventh grade,
and the civil rights movement in eighth
grade. In Judaic studies, each class studied the brachot that Yaakov gave to his
grandsons in the weeks parasha, Vayechi. The program continued the following day, with elementary school

grandparents and special visitors joining BPY elementary school students for
tefillah (prayer) and classroom activities,
including interviews, scavenger hunts,
games, and parasha study.
Shabbat was the theme of the day for
the early childhood Grandparents and
Special Visitors program. Early childhood classrooms offered hands-on Shabbat activities and students and guests
worked together on Shabbat-related
STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) activities, shaped their
own challot, and shopped to prepare
for Shabbat.

Sign up for the


Jewish Standard daily newsletter!
16 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016

The Moriah School in Englewood will


hold its 50th annual dinner on Saturday, February 20, at 8 p.m., at the Hilton
Meadowlands Hotel in East Rutherford.
Guests of honor are Jessica and Meyer
Orbach; Ali Budin Auerbach 95 and
Jason Auerbach are the Young Alumni
Leadership awardees; and Bracha Bluman will receive the Rabbi J. Shelley
Applbaum award.
Jessica and Meyer Orbach recently gave
Moriah the largest donation in the schools
history. Passionate about education, the
Orbachs play an active role in the schools
organizational leadership, participating
in day-to-day volunteering and by making
Moriah a financial priority. Mr. Orbachs
mother, Yoheved Orbach z l, for whom
they named the campus in 2014, taught
them the importance of supporting Jewish
day school education.
Ali and Jason Auerbach live in Englewood with their children, Henry 23 and
Lucy 26. Jason is an associate at Debevoise
& Plimpton LLP and a member of the

firms Investment Management Group.


Ali is a Moriah volunteer and serves on
several school committees. Both welcome new families in the community and
acquaint them with the advantages of a
Moriah education.
Bracha Bluman has been on Moriahs
staff since 1986. Morah Bracha has taught
more than 600 kindergarten students,
including children of students. Over the
years, she has worked with many of Moriahs administrators, co-teachers, and colleagues. Bracha and her husband, Mark
(Mr. Morah Bracha) are parents and
grandparents; their family includes four
Moriah graduates.
For information on Moriah or the
annual dinner, call Sara Tetievsky of the
schools development department at (201)
567-0208, ext. 373, or email her at sara.
tetievsky@moriahschool.org. To register
for the dinner, go to www.themoriahdinner.org. For a campus tour, call Erik Kessler at (201) 567-0208, ext. 376, or email
him at ekessler@moriah.org.

Visit www.thejewishstandard.com and click on SUBSCRIBE TO THE DAILY

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JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 17

PHOTOS COURTESY MORIAH

Local
NCSYS annual Ben Zakkai
dinner this weekend

NCJW BCS endorses this weeks


Human Trafficking Awareness Day

The 21st annual Ben Zakkai Honor Society NCSY


N a t i o n a l S c h o l a r sh i p
Reception will be on Sunday, January 10, at the
Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan. Chaired
by Vivian and Dr. David
Luchins, the dinner will
present awards to longtime
Dr. Murray Leben
Rabbi Dave and Chani
outstanding NCSY trailFelsenthal
blazers. There also will be
PHOTOS COURTESY OU
an induction ceremony for
achievements of NCSY alumni who have
four NCSY leaders entering the Society.
Honorees include Dr. Murray Leben
demonstrated personal Torah growth
of Teaneck, who will receive the Enid
and the promise of future service to the
and Harold Boxer Memorial award;
Jewish people and the Orthodox community. The society raises funds for
Chani and Rabbi Dave Felsenthal of
scholarships so NCSYers can continue
Passaic, who will receive the Rebbetzin
their Jewish education after high school
Elaine and Rabbi Pinchas Stolper Service award, and Terry and Dennis M.
or participate in NCSY programs.
Eisenberg, of Brooklyn, who will receive
Author and lecturer Rabbi Paysach
the Ezra Ben Zion Lightman Memorial
Krohn will give a shiur before the dinner
award. The 2016 inductees for BZHS are
in memory of NCSY pioneers Zahava
David Cutler of Staten Island, David Stat( Janet) Goldwasser and Sharon Kurzer
man of Los Angeles, and Elliot Tanzman
Sabbagh.
and Eli Weinstein of Manhattan.
For information about the dinner call
NCSY is the Orthodox Unions interElaine Grossman at (212) 613-8350 or
national youth movement. BZHS
Rhoda Farbowitz at (212) 613-8110 or go
was founded in 1965 to recognize the
to www.ou.org.

As a member of the New Jersey Coalition


Against Human Trafficking, the Bergen
County section of the National Council of
Jewish Women endorses the importance
of Human Trafficking Awareness Day on
January 11. The group is working with the
Coalition to raise community awareness
and it is asking local rabbis and mayors to
address the issue.
This is not the first time NCJW BCS has
joined the fight against human trafficking. In 2013, just months before the Super
Bowl was held in New Jersey, NCJW held a
forum, Human Trafficking Modern Day
Slavery. As a result of the push, human
trafficking became more widely acknowledged, and efforts were put into place to

New cantor at TBS in Fair Lawn


Cantor Ted Prosnitz recently joined the clergy at Temple Beth Sholom of Fair Lawn. The Jewish Theological
Seminary of America vested him as a cantor; he also
received a masters degree in sacred music from the
seminary. As a chaplain and a cantor, he has worked
in communities and congregations in Delaware, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, New York, and New Jersey.
Temple Beth Sholom, a Conservative congregation
serving the religious, educational, cultural and social
needs of over 200 households in the Fair Lawn, Glen
Rock, Paramus, and Ridgewood areas, is affiliated
with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.
For information, call (201) 797-9321 or go to www.
tbsfl.org.

JFS receives grant from college


Jewish Family Service of Bergen and
North Hudson received a $5,000
grant from Tom Eastwick, the president of Eastwick College.
Mr. Eastwick encouraged his college students to fundraise to fight
hunger in the community. They
raised $15,000, and he matched
the amount. Through the Mahwah
Chamber of Commerce, he divided
the $30,000 between six organizations, all serving the needs of the
hungry in our community.
JFS delivers over 28,000 kosher
meals on wheels each year and feeds
hundreds of families through its
Teaneck Food Pantry.

Susan Greenbaum, executive director of


Jewish Family Service, accepts a check
from Tom Eastwick of Eastwick College.
COURTESY JFS

Fredy Zypman,
a professor of
physics and the
chair of the physics department at
Yeshiva Universitys
Yeshiva College,
sees the key to big
advances in a better understanding
of something small:
nanoparticles.

Cantor Ted Prosnitz


COURTESY TBS

JFSNJ seeking volunteer drivers


Jewish Family Service of North Jersey needs volunteers to deliver Kosher
Meals on Wheels in Wayne. The meals
go to homebound seniors and disabled
people who are unable to do their own
cooking and shopping. Volunteers pick
the food up in the JFSNJ Fair Lawn office
at 17-10 River Road at noon on Mondays

through Thursdays, and at 11:30 a.m. on


Fridays. Volunteers can commit to one
day a week, to every other week, or as
a substitute driver. Call Melanie Lester,
the JFSNJs community outreach coordinator, at (973) 595-0111 or go to www.
jfsnorthjersey.org.

Keep us informed
We welcome photos of community events. Photos must
be high resolution jpg files. Please include a detailed
caption and a daytime telephone. Mailed photos
will only be returned with a self-addressed stamped
envelope. Not every photo will be published.

18 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016

prevent trafficking at the game.


Human trafficking continues to exist on
a large scale. The trafficking industry generates about $35 billion in annual profits,
and it is estimated that 244,000 American children are at risk of sexual exploitation. The many shopping malls in Bergen County are considered prime hunting
grounds for traffickers.
For information, go to the NJ Coalition
Against Human Traffickings website,
www.njhumantrafficking.org, or call the
National Human Trafficking Hotline, (888)
373-7888. For information on NCJW BCS
and its upcoming programs, go to www.
ncjwbcs.org.

PR@jewishmediagroup.com
NJ Jewish Media Group
1086 Teaneck Rd., Teaneck, NJ 07666
(201) 837-8818

COURTESY YU

Teaneck student in nanoparticle


research group at YU
Chaim Metzger of Teaneck is among four
Yeshiva College student researchers who
will work with Dr. Fredy Zypman, using a
$412,000 grant from the National Science
Foundation.
Working with Steven Eppell, an associate professor of biomedical engineering
at Case Western Reserve University, Dr.

Zypman will use the NSF grant to develop


a groundbreaking technique that will
allow scientists to map and measure electrical charge distribution on the surface
of nanoparticles and tiny molecules. Dr.
Eppell will collect the experimental data,
and Dr. Zypman will focus on theoretical
analysis and software development at YU.

upcoming at

Kaplen

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Not Just a Gym, A Family


Wellness Center

NeW YeAR,
New You!

Everything you need to meet your familys wellness


goals for the New Year. Call 201.408.1448, email
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Individual, family, youth & senior membership options
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*Must take a tour to receive guest pass.

the leonard & syril rubin

Nursery School Open House


Come see what were all about sign up for a tour!
Learn, laugh, share and grow at the JCC! Early
development is fundamental to the growth of your
child. Our school provides innovative programming
that allows preschool children to explore and understand
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Try us with a free
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For more info or to schedule a private tour, contact


Elissa at 201.408.1436 or eyurowitz@jccotp.org.
Fri, Jan 15, 9:30-10:30 am

Maccabi Games/ArtsFest
for teens ages 13-16

Spend a week with Jewish teens from around the world


competing in Olympic-style sports tournaments or
participating in art workshops. Sports include: baseball,
basketball, & tennis. Art disciplines include: acting, culinary,
dance, musical theater, visual arts, vocal music and more.
For more info and to register email maccabi@jccotp.org.
Stamford Connecticut, August 7-12, 2016
Tryouts at the JCC: Sun, Jan 10, 4-7 pm or
Wed, Jan 13, 5-9 pm

ADULTS

KIDS

JCC University Winter Term


experts present on a variety of topics

Winter sessions include: dr. richard betts


on whats behind the increase in ISIS activity
around the world; Looking at Art: A Full Day
Event with tobi Kahn , well-known artist,
international lecturer and art tour leader;
Katharine Hepburn On Film with film historian
philip harwood ; and US/Cuba Relations
with FDU Professor pat schuber .
For more info, call Kathy at 201.408.1454.
4 Thursdays, Jan 28, Feb 11, 25 & Mar 10
10:30 am-2 pm, $110/$140, 1 Thursday $32/$40

Kaplen

MUSIC

Registration for the Winter/


Spring Semester is Open!

Steven Masi Performs


Schubert Season 2

Learn, grow and explore at the JCC! Dont miss


out on the great classes and programs we have
lined up for kids of all ages, including classes
in art, science, cooking, swim, sports, dance,
drama, music and more. Classes begin January
24. Sign up early to make sure you get the
classes you want!

Hear great chamber music works by Franz


Schubert featuring guest artists Pamela Jones,
soprano; Diana Petrella, clarinet; Sharon Roffman,
violin; Debra Shufelt-Dine, viola; Barbara Stein
Mallow, cello; Kingsley Wood, double-bass.
For more info, visit jccotp.org/Thurnauer.
Sat, Jan 16, 7 pm, $8/$10

Visit jccotp.org/children for a full list of


programs.
to register or for more info, visit

jccotp.org or call 201.569.7900.

JCC on the Palisades taub campus | 411 e clinton ave, tenafly, nJ 07670 | 201.569.7900 | jccotp.org
JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 19

Editorial
Immigrant stories

any of our stories


this week touch on
immigration.
Its interesting. Weve
recently written about immigration
before, as an issue, in response to the
desperation of the fleeing Syrians, the
stresses it puts on European borders,
politics, demographics, and borders.
Weve urged compassion, not only for
abstract (and very real) reasons but
because we were immigrants ourselves,
not very long ago.
But our stories do not center on
recent politics, ranting candidates,
fact-checking follow-ups, or pandering policies. The fact that theyre about
immigration seems to say more than
anything else that immigration, exile,
and rebuilding are a backdrop to all of
our lives.

Thats where
dreams come
from being
able to imagine
being someone
else, or
something else,
and working
toward it.
And just as exile and immigration
and rebuilding are Jewish stories, in
very different but dovetailing ways
they are profoundly American stories
as well.
The stories this week are immigrants
stories. Eric Mayer fled Germany in the
1930s and came to this country soon
after the war, when he was a young
man. Margie Gelbwasser left the Soviet
Union in 1979, when she was barely a
toddler. He remembers his early life in
poignant detail, and the long-drawnout drama of his exile with crystalline

Jewish
Standard
1086 Teaneck Road
Teaneck, NJ 07666
(201) 837-8818
Fax 201-833-4959
Publisher
James L. Janoff
Associate Publisher Emerita
Marcia Garfinkle

TRUTH REGARDLESS OF CONSEQUENCES

clarity. She recalls only tiny visual snippets of her time in Minsk.
Both of them have lived through historical earthquakes Mr. Mayer the
pure evil of the Nazi period and Ms.
Gelbwasser the rumblings that led to
the downfall of the Soviet Union. Both
lived through times when being Jewish
was dangerous although in very different ways and both carry the scars.
Both of them understand the feeling of being an outsider. Mr. Mayer has
devoted his life to ensuring that the
memory of the victims of the Nazis
be kept alive and because he is in
no way parochial, he uses the terrible
truths he knows about the Holocaust
to work to keep others from suffering
terrible injustice and genocide too. He
is a deeply modest man, who does not
want to be held up as an example of
goodness, but he is that example, and
the work he does matters greatly.
Ms. Gelbwasser filters her experience through the lens of a writer, making art from it. Because she knows what
it feels like to be an outsider, she can
take the very specific facts of her life
and make them universal. As a young
adult and middle-school novelist, she
has undertaken another great responsibility trying to help young people
learn and hold onto the joy of reading,
the wonder that comes from immersing yourself so much in someone elses
life that you can imagine being someone else.
Thats where dreams come from
being able to imagine being someone
else, or something else, and working
toward it.
In a third story, Mark Hetfield, the
CEO of HIAS the onetime Hebrew
Immigrant Aid Society, which helped
so many Jews leave oppression and
restart new lives here talks about the
work the organization does, no longer working with Jews very much but
working out Jewish values. It is a useful
addendum to the two personal stories.
Those of us lucky enough not to have
to uproot themselves can benefit from
JP
their stories.

Editor
Joanne Palmer
Associate Editor
Larry Yudelson
Guide/Gallery Editor
Beth Janoff Chananie
About Our Children Editor
Heidi Mae Bratt

jstandard.com
20 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016

Rabbis who side with


Holocaust deniers and
anti-Semites

ast Sunday night in Englewood


Now Mizrachi is in the news yet again for
I attended the funeral of a good
outdoing even these loathsome ideas, this
and charitable man. The father of
time actually denying that six million Jews
a large family, he truly was one of
were murdered during the Holocaust.
those rare few about whom people have only
In 1984, Mahmoud Abbas wrote a study
positive things to say. The question that was
based on his doctoral dissertation where
on my mind throughout the eulogies was
he attempted to prove that the number of
the one question that was not addressed:
Jews killed in the Holocaust might be much
How could such a good, religious man die so
smaller even less than 1 million. Abbas,
young?
who has the blood of countless Jews on his
I believe that as Jews we are obligated to
hands, is not alone in these vile claims. But
challenge God in the face of seeming divine
I was pretty shocked to read that Mizrachi joined him by posting a YouTube video
miscarriages of justice. Let Muslims bow in
recently that said, In every place, we have
submission. Let Christians take their leap of
become used to hearing that six million
faith. We Jews are a feisty bunch, charged
Jews were murdered But the
by God to be Israelites he
truth, I am telling you, is that
who wrestles with God and is
not even one million Jews were
ultimately victorious. Victory
murdered.
will not come until God stops
Not that this is an insignifiallowing righteous individuals
cant number, chalilah. It is a
to suffer and die. Thats why the
tremendous number. But there
Lubavitcher rebbe was adamant
is a difference between six milabout demanding of God a messianic world where no woman
lion and one million.
is ever widowed and no child is
Scholars immediately spoke
Rabbi
ever orphaned.
out to refute this ignorant
Shmuley
Sadly, the direction of too
hate speech, and Mizrachi was
Boteach
many in the Orthodox rabbinforced to apologize last week.
ate today is to identify sin as the
But what was going through his
cause of Jewish suffering. I devoted an entire
mind when he thought it okay to dishonor
book, The Fed-Up Man of Faith, to refuting
the memory of the six million innocent
this punishment-for-sin drivel.
human beings murdered by the Germans?
Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi, a Jewish outreach
Did he consider that Holocaust deniers will
expert, said at an Englewood bar mitz- forever quote with glee that even an Orthovah that I attended that Jewish women
dox rabbi believes that many fewer than 6
who were being lined up to be gassed did
million Jews died?
not care about their modesty as the Nazis
But Mizrachis despicable statements about
stripped them of their clothing. I had never
Holocaust victims are par for the course. He
heard anything so disgusting in my life. He
describes the Holocaust as five years of punsaid it as a way of explaining that the mar- ishment to many wicked people [from God].
tyrs of the Holocaust were not so righteous
He also says that the reason why it happened
as we otherwise might suppose. A modern
to the Jews in Europe was because many
Orthodox crowd sat there listening and
of them became less religious and stopped
barely flinched. We all should have been
keeping kosher and keeping the Sabbath over
ashamed of ourselves.
the years.

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Shmuley Boteach of Englewood is the founder of the World Values Network and the author of 30
books, including Wrestling with the Divine and The Fed-Up Man of Faith, both of which deal
with the problem of human suffering. Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.

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t
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r
t
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Opinion
Mizrachis reasoning, of course, is
He claims to know why people get
easily refuted garbage.
cancer and why accidents happen.
In 1933 there were approximately Mixed parties bring tragedies to our
522,000 Jews living under the Reich. children. Theres more accidents,
Beginning in January of that year, theres more cancer, every minute
the Jews experienced public beat- theres a new Jew who gets cancer in
ings and humiliations. Businesses the world, every minute, and thats
were boycotted and synagogues because of the way the women dress,
desecrated. In 1935 the Nuremberg and thats because of the sins that
race laws were enacted, followed guys and girls make together. Thats
by the 1938 horrors of Kristalnacht. because of all the dirty phone calls,
During this entire time, the Jews thats because of the Facebook conof Germany tried to get out. They nections, and all the drugs and the
could see with their own eyes that alcohol and all the problems around,
if they didnt leave, they would be that brings all these tragedies to us.
Call me a cynic, but Im always
doomed. At the start of the Second World War, 304,000 of them just a little suspicious of religious
had emigrated. And though most leaders who obsess over other peonations of the world refused to ples sexual sins.
Mizrachi also has divined that
accept them, a majority finally were
intermingling of the sexes at wedable to escape.
The Jews who did not escape Hit- dings is the culprit for the rise in
lers ovens were, among so many the divorce rate. All the blessing is
other millions, the chasidim and ultra- gone. Dont be surprised why 70%
religious Jews of Poland. They had no of these mixed weddings ended up
idea about Hitlers plan to invade via with divorce within four years. Why,
blitzkrieg on September 1, 1939.
because theres a curse there.
Are we to believe that these devout
Mizrachi and rabbis like him are
and pious Jews, who observed the a menace. Just think about how
smallest details of Jewish law in keep- many people who might otherwise
ing the Sabbath and keeping kosher embrace Jewish tradition are absoand who prayed three times a day, lutely revolted by this cruel twadwere punished with death? And if dle that is fraudulently passed as
so, then why did a majority of their authentic Judaism.
I ask Rabbi Mizrachi to take heed
German Jewish brothers and sisters,
whom Mizrachi sees as far more sin- of the teachings of the Lubavitcher
ful, survive?
rebbe, who said of the Holocaust,
Mizrachi also states with confidence To say that those very people
that the reason Sephardic Jewry was were deserving of what transpired,
spared the Holocaust is due to their that it was a punishment for their
continued observance of Jewish ritual, sins, heaven forbid, is unthinkable.
just as the Ashkenazi Jews historically There is absolutely no explanation
had been accustomed to do until the or understanding for the Holocaust.
years leading up to the Second World
As for those rabbis who say that
War.
the Holocaust was a punishment,
Hmmm.
the rebbe said accurately, No
Rabbi Mizrachi, what about the scales of judgment could ever con1190 Massacre of the Jews in York, demn a people to such horrors.
When viewing human sufferthe Rindfleisch massacres of 1298,
the Chimielnicki massacres of ing we must look to Moses actions
1648-1657, and the countless other toward the enslaved Israelites in
pogroms and murders of Jews Egypt, as we read in last weeks
across Europe and Russia? And lets Torah portion. Moses did not return
also remember the more than 40 to God with his head bowed low,
major massacres against the reli- accepting the brutality inflicted on
giously protected Sephardic Jews his people as the Divine will. Why
living in Muslim lands over the last have you acted so wickedly to this
1,300 years.
people? he asks the Creator of the
Mizrachi has said in the past that Universe. From the time you have
children with Down Syndrome, sent me you have done nothing to
autistic, and any other problem is a save this nation.
punishment as a result of a previous
Jews are now being murdered
lifeThats pure punishment, those in Israel almost every day. Diaskind of people dont have a test any- pora communities should be shakmore, its punishment 100%.
ing the foundations of the heavens,
Mizrachi also claims to know why demanding from God that they be
children are born blind. A person protected, demanding of our State
is born blind, poor kid, was born Department that it stop the balderblind, why? God? What do you dash of both sides needing to deknow? Did you know how many escalate, and demanding of rabbis
dirty movies he was watching in his that they lead the charge in defending Jewish life.0
previous life? Now hes blind.

Reflecting and
Learning from 2015

must admit I am happy to bid good riddance to 2015.


As an optimist, I certainly try to
start each day, week, month, and year
hoping to share good news, good health, and
good times with my family, friends, and community. And I want to feel that way as we
begin the new secular year. But I carry with
me scars from this past year that shape how
I view the year ahead.
Israel remains in the forefront of our minds
and occupies our thoughts and prayers. In
2014, my phone constantly vibrated with the
summer camp in New Hampshire. My son
red alert of yet another round of countless rocket attacks. In 2015, I feared receivserved as a CIT for Ezras younger brother
ing the latest JTA alert each day confirming
this summer, and my daughter had Ezras
this years new wave of terror from knives,
sister as a counselor two summers ago.
cars, and guns. Yet we can all take some solWhen we visited this incredible family in the
ace from the solidarity and spirit of the Jewwake of their pain and loss, the conversaish people, exhibited in the recent wedding
tion focused on the power and impact of the
celebrated by the Israeli nation following the
camp experience for Ezra and for many of
murder of the brides father and
those visiting and served as
brother.
common reflection and bond.
From the terrorist attacks in
Finally, this week our Englewood community suffered the
Paris in early January to San
wrenching loss of a 4-year-old
Bernardino in December, the
boy, Evan Levy zl. There are
horrors of terrorism experienced by our brethren in Israel
no words to express the sadness we feel for this young famhave become a global reality for
ily, a sadness that permeated
all of us. Safety and security of
the over-filled sanctuary. Evan
Jews and Jewish institutions now
Jeremy
fought his cancer so bravely.
must take prominence in our
Fingerman
We can learn much from the
communal planning. Expertise
joy and smiles he carried with
and resources will be required,
him each day, the many fans he engenas well as fortitude and resolve, which the
dered throughout his journey, and from the
Israeli citizenry exhibit every day.
strength and dignity of his immediate and
Unfortunately, the public discourse this
extended family.
year turned to be filled with conflict and
As we reflect and learn from our collecdivisiveness almost on every issue. Within
tive experiences in this past year, all of us in
our community, the Israeli election and the
Jewish communal life can learn much from
intense debate over the Iran nuclear deal
how we handle the adversities we face. Only
generated an unprecedented level of animosity and disrespect. And the political rhetoric
by working together, sharing different perspectives and approaches, will we be able to
in the United States undoubtedly will only
achieve our common purpose. For me perintensify among both political parties as we
sonally, I do hope the memories of Ezra and
finally enter the presidential election year.
Evan will serve as examples of living joyfully
Seemingly lost amidst the acrimonious
each and every day.
debates was any sense of kol Yisrael areivim
Despite these reflections on 2015, my
zeh bazeh, which my rabbi, Shmuel Goldin,
optimism remains as we enter 2016 with
interprets as all of Israel are intertwined and
high hopes. We are all intertwined and we
interconnected with one another. At its General Assembly in November, the Jewish Federshare in good times and tough one. We must
ations of North Americas president and CEO,
remain vigilant in supporting Israel and in
Jerry Silverman, said it best, We need to put
protecting ourselves and institutions. We
aside politics, and put our energy into buildhope that all of our discussions and debates
ing bridges through dialogue, civil debate
can be open, tolerant, and respectful. May
and I emphasize civil focusing on shared
we all hug all of our family members just a
goals and mutual responsibilities toward
little longer and fully appreciate the many
one another. We may not always agree, but
blessings we have.
we must find the discipline to tolerate and
May we share a more secure, more peaceful, and more joyful new year.
include diverse beliefs and points of view in
the consideration and discussion of todays
Jeremy J. Fingerman is the CEO of the
and tomorrows pressing issues.
Foundation for Jewish Camp. He lives in
Many felt this years heartbreaking loss of
Englewood with his family; he is vice president
Ezra Schwartz zl, which struck very close to
of Congregation Ahavath Torah there. Write
our family. My kids knew and admired Ezra
to him at Jeremy@jewishcamp.org
as both a camper and a counselor at their

Israel remains in
the forefront of
our minds and
occupies our
thoughts and
prayers.

JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 21

Opinion

Is he good?

onald Trump and Jewish values


Okay, so he isnt Jewish and
many would argue that including
the name Trump and the word
values in the same sentence constitutes an
oxymoron, but stay with me.
If we were to grade Donald Trumps actions on
a series of universal Jewish values, what would
his GPA be? Admittedly, there is room for bias in
the values chosen, but the grades are grounded in
Robert
Isler
fact. With that, here is his report card.
Honesty : A person is permitted to lie to
keep peace in the home or to avoid embarrassing someone, but as a rule, being honest and truthful
is an ironclad Jewish imperative. Donald Trump has been
accused of playing fast and loose with the truth both in
the debates and while campaigning but what politician
doesnt use revisionism to score points?
An examination of his statements reveals a range of untruths,
seemingly caused by everything from ignorance to bravado. In
one debate Trump railed about the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership, which was designed for China to come in through the
back door and totally take advantage of everyone. That seemed
to be an interesting observation until Rand Paul pointed out
that China was not a player in the deal. There was his attempt
to rile a crowd at a campaign although the official number was
10,000. During a debate he boasted, regarding Putin, I got to
know him very well because we were both on 60 Minutes.
They were indeed. However, the segments were pre-taped, with
Trump in New York, Putin in Moscow. Another debate assertion was that he was the only candidate who opposed the war
in Iraq before the invasion, declaring that people can check it
out. Ill give you 25 different stories, he said. Fact checkers
who followed up could not find one published Trump statement
supporting that claim, let alone 25. He did call the war a mess
after it had begun.

So how does Trump compare to his fellow contenders? A December 11th New York Times op-ed
by the editor of PolitiFact revealed that fully 76
percent of his statements were mostly/totally
false. Only Ben Carson, at 84 percent, was higher.
Another organization, FactCheck.org, said about
Trumps falsehoods In the 12 years of FactCheck.
orgs existence, weve never seen his match.
Grade F
Modesty: I once read a quote from a rabbinic
figure who said that the only thing he really
knew about God is that He doesnt like haughty
people. Countless biblical references support
this thought. In Proverbs, written by King Solomon, there is a
list of six things that God hates in man, with haughty eyes
mentioned first, followed by a lying tongue. Haughty eyes is
defined as having an arrogant demeanor and an overall attitude in the heart that causes a person to scorn or look down
on others.
As for Trump, his statements include Everything Ive done
virtually has been a tremendous success, The beauty of me is
that Im very rich, Sorry losers and haters, but my IQ is one
of the highest and you all know it, and I have instructed my
long-time doctor to issue a full medical report. It will show perfection. Enough said. Grade F
Family Values: If Judaism is nothing else, its about passing traditions, values, and beliefs onto the next generation and maintaining a righteous path. Donald Trump has five children. The
three oldest, with his first wife Ivana, are in their 30s and doing
quite well by all accounts. All three have prominent positions
in the Trump organization. In a January 2015 People article,
they lavish praise on their father for the values he instilled
No drugs, no alcohol, no cigarettes was drummed into them
every day, Donald Jr. said. Ivanka noted: We were surrounded
by great privilege and we had amazing opportunity, but it was
incredibly warm and I think the values were the right ones. Eric

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How does Trump score on a test of Jewish values?

said: Our father always made us work. I think thats the


greatest thing a parent could ever do. It made you really
understand the value of a dollar. Although they werent
without their issues, the proof is in how theyve turned
out. Grade A
Charity: Giving charity is a requirement in Judaism for
rich and poor alike. References to charitable giving, along
with rules and levels, abound. In fact, according to Jewish tradition, the person receiving charity is actually doing
the giver a favor by providing him or her with the opportunity to do such a critical mitzvah.
According to an Associated Press review of his financial
records, Donald Trump falls far short of the norm when it
comes to generosity. It has been said that he ranks among
the least charitable billionaires in the world. His own
Donald J. Trump Foundation has no regular staff and has
distributed $3.6 million between 2011 and 2013, the most
recent period available. The vast majority of that came
from other peoples contributions to the foundation. The
AP article went on to say that Trumps last significant
donation to his foundation was $30,000 in 2008. The
Trump Organizations website had described him as an
ardent philanthropist, but that language was removed
late last year. Grade D
Do unto others: Bush has low energy and is dumb as
a rock. Rubio is a clown who sweats too much. Cruz is
a little bit of a maniac and Carson is pathological. As for
Fiorina look at that face. These are just some of the
comments always personal, rarely about policy aimed
at his fellow Republicans from the man vying to become
Americas chief diplomat and most visible representative.
As Hillel said, That which is hateful to you do not do to
your neighbor. That is the whole Torah. According to
Jewish scholars, embarrassing someone publicly is akin
to killing him. By that standard, Donald Trump might be
considered a serial killer the likes of which we have never
before witnessed. Grade F
In a December 16th piece in Politico, his biographer
Michael DAntonio revealed that Trump once told him
For the most part, you cant respect people, because
most people arent worthy of respect. DAntonio noted
that Trumps life story is that of a man who has succeeded repeatedly by appealing with great precision
to the worst impulses in others.
If it can be agreed that Trumps overall GPA clearly falls
short of emulating important Jewish values, whose values
does he embody? A December 18 Washington Post opinion piece by Dana Milbank sheds some light. Milbank had
earlier written an op-ed critical of Trump, calling him a
SEE TRUMP PAGE 25

Opinion

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Henry Clay might have been Abraham Lincolns beau ideal but according to
rival John Randolph he was as corrupt as a rotten mackerel by moonlight.
Although todays invective is far less poetic, it is dangerous, Rabbi Prouser says.

Curses! Its an election year

ormer Florida
in Courage, President John
G ove r n o r Je b
F. Kennedy referred to this
Bush observed
statement as perhaps the
during the last
most memorable and malignant sentence in the history
Republican debate and
of personal abuse. That hisrepeatedly since that You
tory, the ad hominem derocant insult your way to the
gation of politicians in the
presidency.
pursuit of personal advanThe wisdom of his
tage and advancement, is
remark, alas, has not been
Rabbi Joseph
long and unsavory, if at times
H. Prouser
embraced by the competitor
colorful and entertaining. In
candidate to whom it was
Randolphs defense, his vermost immediately directed.
bal assault on his colleague was considerThe governors remark is true enough.
ably more evocative and poetic than the
Also indisputable, however, is the fact that
crass execrations and vulgar vocabulary
attack ads, insults, and ad hominem invective do not preclude election. Nor are any
of the current crop of candidates for the
of these unfortunate dynamics new to the
nations highest office.
political stage or the current election cycle.
Senator Edmund G. Ross, also of Kansas,
Political mudslinging finds both its figuvoted against conviction in the Senates
rative and literal origins in the Hebrew
impeachment trial of President Andrew
Bible. King David was reviled by fellow
Johnson, who also was the object of countless insults both graphic and grievous. Ross
Israelite and political detractor Shimei
cast the deciding vote for acquittal, despite
ben Gera, who threw dirt and rocks at the
the opposition of the defining majority of
king and, according to modern translators,
his constituents. According to JFKs semicalled him a criminal, a villain, and a
nal book on political courage and prinblood-stained fiend of Hell! It is clear that
ciple, a Kansas editorial attacked Senator
these insults wounded David, as the most
Ross in no uncertain terms, calling him a
beloved monarch in Jewish history recalled
poor, pitiful, shriveled wretch, with a soul
them from his deathbed, instructing his
so small that a little pelf would outweigh
son and successor, Solomon, to avenge the
all things [therein] that dignify or ennoble
offense: He insulted me outrageously Do
mankind.
not let him go unpunished (I Kings 2:8-9).
Senator William Pitt Fessendon of Maine
Only after these final, vindictive words was
ended his political career by voting for
David able to die in relative peace.
Johnsons acquittal together with his KanAn early American expression of this
sas colleague. Some time earlier, he had
phenomenon is to be found in the political
written about the Senate and public service
career of Henry Clay, who served the state
in terms approaching the prophetic:
of Kentucky as senator from 1849 until his
When a man becomes a member
death in 1852, having earlier been a congressman, Speaker of the House, and Secof this body, he cannot even dream of
retary of State. He ran unsuccessfully for
the ordeal to which he cannot fail to be
president three times. Abraham Lincoln
exposed of the load of injustice he must
so admired Senator Clay that he referred to
be content to bear, even from those who
him as his beau ideal.
should be his friends; the imputations of his
John Randolph of Roanoke, Virginia,
motives; the sneers and sarcasms of ignorance and malice; all the manifold injuries
however who had served in the House
which partisan or private malignity, disapand Senate and as minister (we would say
pointed of its objects, may shower upon his
ambassador) to Russia described Senator
unprotected head.
Clay as a being, so brilliant yet so corrupt,
The litany of libelous political barbs
which like a rotten mackerel by moonlight,
is extensive, and did not spare even the
shines and stinks.
SEE CURSES PAGE 31
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JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 23

The Ocers, Board, and Sta of

Letters

Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey


mourn the passing of

Yigal Gafni, zl
Loving husband of Ruth Gafni,
Head of School of Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County;

devoted father of Noa and son-in-law Tomer Slaney;


Yael and son-in-law Alex Port;
son of Bernardo Dov and Paulina Pnina Perlmuter,
and brother of Miri Yahav and Amit Gafni
May the Gafni family be comforted
among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

Jewish Federation

OF NORTHERN NEW JERSEY

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24 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016

Inaccuracies
about Orthodoxy

Your December 18 edition included a


letter from Shel Haas (Women and
Judaism), a letter writer who has
insulted, offended, berated, and criticized Orthodox Judaism so many times
for many years with his distortions and
lies. He continues to do so. We must
be tolerant of every stream of Judaism, and not print lies and distortions.
In this letter he wrote, As a response
to Reform Judaism, Orthodox Judaism was born. How can he write that
? The Reform movement began in the
early 19th century. For more than 2,000
years, both the Pharisees and even the
Sadducees observed the Shabbos and
holidays and Temple sacrifices and rituals, and they believed in the divinity of
the Torah given by God on Mount Sinai.
Haas adds, There was no philosophy
of Judaism for that involves thought.
What? How can he write that? The Talmud has thousands of pages of intense
debates and arguments that use logic,
reason, and philosophy. And finally, yes,
Mr. Hass, God is not male. We Orthodox
Jews never thought otherwise. Yes, Mr.
Haas, women are as smart and as righteous as men, and they can lead and
teach Torah. They already do, even in
the Orthodox world you despise.
Martin Polack
Teaneck

Dont take credit unfairly,


Conservatives

When touting the successes of the Conservative movement, or any other organization for that matter, one ought not
make up facts not in evidence to bolster
ones case. I take issue with the following
two statements by Rabbis Kirshner and
Freedman (Conservative movement
models success, Jan. 1): The modernOrthodox and non-affiliated Jewish day
schools are the offspring of the Solomon Schechter Day School success and
Since Ramahs inception, countless
camps, some Orthodox, others Reform,
and others nominally Jewish have followed suit. All of these camps are based
on the Ramah model that the Conservative movement gave birth to as well.
The truth is that the Conservative
movement began its schools and camps
after seeing the success of other such
institutions that predated their efforts.
A few examples will suffice to make the
point. The Solomon Schechter schools
began in 1951. The Etz Chaim Yeshiva
elementary school was founded in 1886
in New York, the United Talmud Torah
of Montreal in 1896, Associated Hebrew
Schools in Toronto in 1943, Ramaz in
1937, the Yavneh Academy in 1942,
Joseph Kushners antecedent school in
1943, the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland
in 1943, and so on. In 1944, the National
Association of Orthodox Day Schools
(Torah uMesorah) hired Dr. Joseph

Kamenetsky, who founded day schools


across North America. Likewise, Jewish camping existed prior to the Ramah
camps. Surprise Lake Camp started in
1901, Camp Modin in 1922, Camp Cejwin
in 1946, and Camp Massad in 1947.
There may be much to celebrate about
the Conservative movement without fabricating successes that belong to others.
Dr. Wallace Greene
Fair Lawn

More about who was first

Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner and Rabbi


Alex Freedmans recent column about
the Conservative movement (Conservative movement models success, Jan. 1)
is an interesting look back at the past 50
to 60 years of American Jewry through
the lens of what was the largest and most
prominent movement for decades.
One note of correction. Rabbis Kirshner and Freedman claim that the founding of the Solomon Schechter schools
was the impetus for the founding of
modern Orthodox day schools in subsequent years. On that point, some history:
the Yeshiva of Flatbush was founded in
1927; the Maimonides School in Boston
and the Ramaz School in Manhattan
were founded in 1937; and the Yavneh
Academy in Patterson (now in Paramus)
was founded in 1942. Manhattan Day
School in New York and Epstein Hebrew
Academy in Saint Louis were founded in
1943. Other examples exist as well.
It would seem that the Schechter
schools were replicating the Orthodox day school model, which already
was spreading, and not the other way
around.
Aaron Ross
Bergenfield

Israeli demographics
are a problem

Rabbi Engelmayers lucid and brilliantly


upsetting article on Israeli demographics
and the charedim is a serious wake-up
call Torah and a ticking time bomb,
Jan. 1). If carried to its logical conclusion,
it tells the Arab world simply to wait and
keep the status quo going. Then in 20
or 25 years there will be an indefensible
Israel, ripe for plucking. The failure of
Israeli leadership, the need for Israeli
government reform, and the split in the
Israeli electorate, and the charedi view
of the Torah all combine to make the
problem all but insoluble.
Then what will Israel be left with in
order to defend itself and survive? The
nuclear bomb? And where would that
lead the world to? In 20 or 25 years it is
certainly possible that other Middle Eastern countries, enemies of Israel, would
be similarly armed. Mutual destruction
is hardly an option for Israels survival.
Thank you, Rabbi Engelmeyer, for telling it like it is.
Fred Friedman
Cliffside Park

Letters
Preserving Hudson Countys
Jewish history

In reference to the January 1st editorial, Join us,


Hudson County! the Jewish Historical Society of
North Jersey has been collecting and preserving
records and memorabilia relating to Hudson County
as well as to Bergen and Passaic counties for more
than 30 years. Several years ago, the society microfilmed the first years of the Jewish Standard, when
it was published from Jersey City, from Dec. 18, 1931
to Dec. 18, 1936. We have been fortunate to be able
to collect and preserve some records from Bayonne,
Jersey City, and other Hudson County cities.
There is still much out there that can and should
be collected and preserved. Anyone who has records,
photographs, and memorabilia about the Jewish presence in the area is asked to please get in touch with
the society. Were at 17-10 River Road, Fair Lawn. Our
telephone is 201-300-6590 and our email is jhsnnj@
gmail.com or jerrynathans@yahoo.com.
We ask that you do this before you move or pass
away and someone comes in and disposes of items
that can or should be preserved.
We wish you all a healthy, happy and prosperous
New Year.
Jerry Nathans, President Emeritus
Wayne

Trump
FROM PAGE 22

bigot and a racist. Understandably, he received quite a bit of


hate mail from Trump supporters. Of concern was that they
mostly zeroed in on the fact that Milbank was Jewish, with
the word kike appearing among the epithets aimed at him
again and again. Milbank noted that in the seven presidential
campaigns hes covered in more than 25 years, the venom he
received from Trump backers was without precedent.

According to a December 10th story in Time, white supremacist groups say they are receiving a spike in support because
of Donald Trump. David Duke has said: Im thinking more
and more that this candidacy is a really good thing for us.
Something for us to think about.
Robert Isler of Fair Lawn is a marketing/media research
professional who also writes about Jewish issues. Reach him at
robertisler23@gmail.com.

The Ocers, Board, and Sta of

Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey


mourn the passing of

Some of us need help

Today I read about the developmentally disabled


again, and how many area stores are taking them
in for training. Its a mitzvah, yes. But it is human
to offer help. So where is the humanity right here?
The Israeli army now has enlisted soldiers who are
disabled young adults. And again I say, what have
organizations here done to help? To train people
with a chemical brain disorder so they can live productively in their homes or group homes? I will keep
on asking until someone gives me a local organization that helps Jewish young men and women who
need developmentally appropriate work and homes.
Why do our organizations not want even to touch
the many who are on drugs? The many who suffer
from a vast variety of mental conditions, most of
them treatable with medication? Those parents who
suffer alone with children who are not intact? Who
do not fit in? Who cannot if the community is not
tolerant of them?
When are the Jewish organizations going to wake
up and face the issues that are a sad reminder of
our childrens limitations? Widowed parents also are
flying solo. Have some empathy for them, and for
their children. It is a terrible and impossible burden
to carry.
I have yet to have one man offer to help out when
he hears the truth about this situation. Save one
life, save the world.doesnt apply here?
If not now, when?
Sandra Steuer Cohen
Teaneck

Judah Aaron Marans, zl


Beloved son of Nina Kampler & Zvi Marans,
brother of Gabe & Missy, Dara & Eric, and Benjamin
May the Marans Kampler family be comforted
among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
Donations can be made to the
Judah Marans Memorial Fund
to establish the Judah Marans Music & Arts Center at Yavneh Academy
www.jfnnj.org/judahmaransmemorialfund

Jewish Federation

OF NORTHERN NEW JERSEY

More than 317,000 likes.

Like us
on Facebook.

Jayne Petak
President

Jason M. Shames

Chief Executive Ocer

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JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 25

Cover Story

PHOTO BY JERRY SZUBIN

26 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016

Cover Story

Living, writing,
dreaming
in Fair Lawn
A Russian-American Jewish writer
talks about her past, her creative life, and her world
JOANNE PALMER

girl can dream, cant she?


Ma r g a re t G u rev i c h
Gelbwassers grandparents dreamed of living
a Jewish life in Minsk, her parents
dreamed of a life in America, and she
dreamed of being a writer.
How did those dreams work out?
The Jewish life in Minsk part didnt
work out very well for her grandparents. Her parents were luckier. They
took their children to America, where
their lives were rocky at first, but
soon smoothed out as they relaxed
into this country.
And Margie Gelbwasser of Fair
Lawn is a writer.
Margie was born in Minsk, in what
is now Belarus but then was the
Soviet Union, in 1976. She, her parents, her older sister, her grandparents, and an aunt, uncle, and cousin
all left for what was then Jewish refugees usual way station, Italy, and
after a few months found themselves
in Brooklyn. She has only a young
childs fragmented, narrative-free
memories of that time the elevator
of our apartment building in Russia,
the ocean and a breakwater in Italy.
Family history, though, tells her
that her paternal grandfather made
sure to find a mohel to circumcise his
sons, even though such overt religious practices were illegal in Russia
then. It was very important to him,
she said, and he paid a high price for
it. He went to the gulag for five years,
when my dad was two years old, in
1949, because he got a tallis from an
American. That grandfather, Feivel
Gurowich, never made it to America;

he died when Margie was just three


months old. His widow, Sonia, stayed
in Russia. I met her for the first time
when she visited us, Margie said. I
was 17.
None of her grandparents were
in labor or concentration camps,
although many relatives died there,
but all of them grandmothers as
well as grandfathers fought in the
woods or for the Russian army. Margie is aware that as these things go,
they were lucky. Its amazing what
people did, she said. They had such
hard lives.
The family was able to leave
through a very short time-window
that opened in about 1978 and closed
around 1980, she said. Those two
years, they let everybody go. They
just didnt want us.
On the other hand, they Soviet
leaders wanted to make it as hard as
possible for those unwanted Jews to
leave, Margie said, and they were creative in the small-scale, mind-numbing chores they required. Among
other seemingly Augean tasks, Jews
who wanted to leave had to prove
that they had no outstanding library
books. Anywhere. That meant going
to every library in the city and making every clerk paw through every
handwritten record.
Eventually, every last bureaucratic
i was dotted and every possible t was
crossed, and the family was allowed
to leave. My parents always stress
that we werent immigrants, Margie
said. We were refugees.
Their first apartment, in Brooklyn,
was pretty awful, Margie said. We
didnt have any money for furniture.
We slept on boxes, and used a box for

JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 27

Cover Story

Margie Gelbwasser
as a toddler in Minsk,
above, and slightly
older in the Catskills.

Margie works with illustrator Brooke Hagel to create Chloes designs.


28 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016

a table. I remember that my dad would


stay up at night because there were a lot
of mice, and he wanted to make sure that
they didnt crawl on us.
Margies mother, Inessa, had been a
chemist in Minsk, and her father, Isak, had
been a mechanical engineer. Isak did not
speak English; my mom thought that she
had learned some English, but no Margie said. There were no professional jobs
for them in this country. They did whatever they could my mother lugged barrels of paint but they persevered. Her
father took a job in Paterson; both parents
took night classes and learned English.
It was hard, but it was one of those stories, Margie said. Its an American dream
story. They took those awful jobs in the
beginning, and we didnt have anything.
Eventually my mother got a job as a chemist, and my father got a job as an engineer.
In fact, she said, he did the HVAC systems at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.
The family was sponsored by HIAS, as
the onetime Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society now is called, but my dad paid them
back, Margie said. He made sure that
anything he borrowed he paid back.
Soon the family moved to a better
apartment in Brooklyn, and sent Margie
and Diana, who is five years older, to a
yeshiva. When Margie was 8, though, they
moved to Fair Lawn. Now, Margie and her

husband and their son; her sister, now


the infectious disease specialist Dr. Diana
Finkel, her husband, and their five children, and Inessa and Isak Gurevich all live
there, three generations firmly rooted in
one town.
Russian Jews relationship to Judaism
was complicated, and once they moved
from Russia their children did not share it.
In Russia, your passport said Jew, she
continued. All your identification said
Jew. You werent allowed to practice Judaism, but you were identified with the title
of Jew. So when we came to America, to my
parents, that identity being a Jew, being
called a Jew was a very strong thing.
But for me, growing up in America, just
being called that but not practicing anything because her parents were out of
practice at practicing Judaism, so on the
whole they didnt I didnt feel the connection to it. It was just a name.
We did go to Hebrew school, but my
parents couldnt understand why I didnt
feel the strong connection. They never
went to synagogue either, except for the
High Holidays, and any time I wanted to
do more they got nervous.
As a teen, you are going to try to find
yourself. I had a friend who was involved
with NCSY the Orthodox youth group
that works hard on outreach to unengaged
Jewish teens and I went to one of the

Cover Story
Shabbatons. My mom got nervous and
worried. It was a very mixed message.
In Russia, my moms mom always
found matzah on the black market. It
was dangerous, but she always got it.
Here, matzah is on the shelf. When
you dont have to work for a connection, when it just offers itself to you,
perhaps it appears to be less valuable,
she suggested.
I felt that I always was searching for
a connection, she continued. Now,
she feels that shes found it. Her family belongs to Temple Avodat Shalom in
River Edge. I feel like its what weve
been looking for for a long time. I feel
really connected.
Margie always knew that she wanted
to be a writer. She always wanted to
tell stories, she wanted other people
to read them, and she wanted to spend
all day doing it. She went to the College of New Jersey it was called Trenton State College then and then got a
masters in English at William Paterson
University. She taught language arts at a
middle school for 10 years; now, as the
mother of an 8-year-old, she teaches
writing classes and workshops, gets jobs
as writer-in-residence in schools, and, of
course, she writes.
How do you break into writing? Well,
for most people, it helps to be good at
it (although sometimes it also helps to
be lucky, to be brazen, and to catch the
zeitgeist. How many Shades of Grey are
there?). Margie began as a magazine
writer, publishing pieces in Self, Ladies
Home Journal, Scholastic, and Writers
Digest, among others. She had majored
not only in English but also in education, at her parents insistence, so when
she had to pick a specialty as a magazine
writer, that was easy. I wrote a lot of
stories about teaching and education,
she said. Also, because my sister is a
doctor, I wrote a lot about health. I can
tell you a lot about what your nails say
about your health.
She also began to work on what was
an ambitious novel about Russian-Jewish-American life, loosely based on her
family, in 2005. I thought of it as being
like a Jewish Joy Luck Club, she said. I
wrote 320 pages of it, but it just wasnt
working. I couldnt figure out how to fix
it, so I shelved the whole thing.
There was one part of it, that was
written from a teen girls perspective,
that seemed to flow better than anything else. When she showed the novel
to other people, they agreed that the
section had life. She took another writing class, wrote another 120 pages, and
then I scrapped that too. But there
was a life underneath all those pages of
thrown-out prose that kept kicking.
Eventually, all those ideas and trashed
pages and recurrent desires turned into
her first novel, Inconvenient.
To her surprise but perhaps unsurprisingly nonetheless her first novel

#Super
Sunday

January 31, 2016


Taking place at

Margie in elementary school

Yeshivat Noam
70 W Century Rd
paramus

Be a superhero!

Volunteer.

Be a superhero!

Isak and Inessa Gurevich

was a young adult work. Its about a


Russian Jewish girl in a town based on
Fair Lawn, Margie said. In the book,
the mother was an alcoholic. Mine never
was, but alcohol was very big when I was
growing up. In Russian culture, drinking
is really accepted.
That got me to thinking if someone did have a problem, how would you
know it? How would it work? So I went to
AA meetings I did it officially, I applied
for permission and it was approved
and I talked to children of alcoholics.
I learned a lot. I learned that in the
Jewish religion in general, people think
that there arent any alcoholics, so alcoholism is hidden. A lot of people are
embarrassed to go to AA meetings. Also,
a lot of AA meetings are in churches.
Often, Jews wont go into churches, and
also it makes it seem, just by the meeting
being in a church, that its clear that this
that alcoholism isnt our problem.
How did her mother feel about the
character based on her being an alcoholic, even though she never was? Shes

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Vice president, Campaign
Contact: Aaron Herman
aaronh@jfnnj.org | 201-820-3942
JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 29

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okay with it, Margie said.


I am sure to tell people
that its not based on her.
But some other things in
the book are based on my
life like the characters
first apartment, which
was very similar to ours
but the story isnt mine.
She made up a plot,
based on what she saw,
what she knew, and what
she researched, and she
shored it up with visual,
emotional, and evocative details from her own
experience.
Another large part of
the book deals with her
characters sense of being
an outsider, which was
based squarely on her
Margies first two young adult novels
own life.
The experience of being
kind of on the outskirts in Fair Lawn, because I was RusChloe creates and sews something, a professional seamsian that is based on my experience. And I feel that it
stress tells her if such a creation is physically possible to
could be true of any culture. If you seem different, if you
make, and then Ms. Hagel tells her whether it will look
feel like this other, then you really do seem different to
like a dress or a disaster on the page.
yourself. Some of this feeling of being peripheral, never
My YA books are edgy, Margie said. This is for midfully on the inside, may be entirely internal, she said, but
dle-schoolers. Its nice to have stuff for younger kids,
the experience is powerful nonetheless.
things that I dont have to warn parents about. Thats
Inconvenient is a dark story, with an ending that
why she uses different names. I wouldnt want someis hopeful but not full-on happy; it earned glowing
one to read the Chloe books and then decide to pick up
reviews. It is out of print, but Margie has bought back
one of the others.
the rights, had a new cover designed, and plans to
There is something sweet and uncomplicated about
upload it as an ebook. It was marketed only to Jewwriting middle-school books. They are not dark. When
ish schools, but it didnt need to be, she said. It isnt
Chloe is designing a dress, there is no background angst
only a Jewish story. Like most writers, she is a constant
associated with it, Margie said. It is just a dress. With
self-editor; the book will not be available until she has
Chloe, if she is upset, it is because the dress design
tweaked it once again. Although it was published in
didnt work out, not because her engagement was bro2010 not so long ago there is an overhead projecken. Its just the design, not something that happened
tor in it there never would be now and some out-ofto her years ago and she still hasnt worked out. And
date stuff with cellphones.
there is no sex, or even romance. A middle-school boy
Her second YA book, Pieces of Us, came out in 2012.
kisses Chloe on the cheek once and thats it, she said.
Although she writes fiction, Margie also does a great
It is about cyberbullying, rape, and abuse, Margie said.
deal of research a worldview she got from all her
It is a very dark book. I thought that there was a need
magazine work. She takes the results of her study and
for it. There was a very similar case that was happening
makes it live. Sometimes I get offended when people
as I was finishing it, in Cherry Hill, about a girl who was
hear that I write YA and ask me when Im going to write
videoed when she was drunk and the boys who used
a real book. There are lot of adult books, and not all
the video as blackmail. The timing was coincidental but
of them are literary. There are a lot of literary YA and
verified the topics immediacy and importance for her.
middle school and even childrens books (defined difThe book, according to Kirkus Review, is suspenseferently, of course); there are many books that do not
ful, disturbing and emotionally fraught, a strong novel
aspire to that level of artistry but are great fun, and
for a strong stomach. Its painfully believable, Pubthere are others that simply are terrible. That is true
lishers Weekly agreed.
across genres. I never laugh at anything anyone else
It was time for something completely different.
is reading, Margie said.
Margie is married to Stuart Gelbwasser, who is an
Shes not sure what project will come next. Her next
actuary and is very smart, his wife said. When we
book, my first non-fiction, took a lot of research, she
were dating, Id have him add up our bill and calculate
said. Its for National Geographic, due out in June, for
everything in his head. It was very cool! She uses his
younger readers. Its a chapter book, and my son is very
name personally and professionally; it is the name that
excited about it.
appears on the covers of her YA fiction.
Why does her son care about this one more than
As Margaret Gurevich, Margie writes a frothy, light,
the Chloe books, which he dutifully tried to read but
happy series there are two books in print so far, one
could not make his way through? Because those books
more on its way, and who knows what will follow, so
are about dress design, and this one is called Divseries is perhaps a leap but maybe not about Chloe
ing With Sharks! (The exclamation point is National
Montgomery, an aspiring clothing designer who over the
Geographics.)
course of three books enters a reality show based on
We were told that the Chloe books were about folclothing design, wins (sorry for the spoiler, but you must
lowing your dreams, about feeling that you could
have guessed it), and then gets to make clothes.
accomplish anything. I believe thats what I do in my
She works closely with the illustrator, Brooke Hagel;
own writing, Margie said.
she comes up with the plot and writes passages where

Opinion
Curses
FROM PAGE 23

greatest of our leaders. General George


McClellan called Abraham Lincoln nothing more than a well-meaning baboon.
Perennial Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson, widely celebrated
for his proper usage and the refinement
of his verbal expression gifts which may
well have kept him from the presidency
famously said of the Republican Party: If
they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about
them.
This is mild stuff compared to the biting sarcasm of Mark Twain, who published an essay beginning: Reader, suppose you were an idiot. Now suppose you
were a member of Congress. But I repeat
myself.
What explains this familiar trend? Why
are politicians and national leaders, many
of whom have distinguished themselves in
the service of their fellow citizens, so regularly subjected to verbal abuse? Perhaps it
is because, in the words of Henry Kissinger,
Ninety percent of politicians give the other
ten percent a bad name.
Or, far more charitably, perhaps as
Roman Emperor and stoic philosopher
Marcus Aurelius put it: It is the fate of
princes to be ill spoken of for well doing.
History records that Marcus Aurelius
knew some of the leading sages of the
founding period of rabbinic Judaism personally, and discussed scripture and spirituality with them. Perhaps he knew that
the Torah conveys an explicit commandment prohibiting the reviling, cursing, and
verbal abuse of office holders and national
leaders. (It would be a violation of this
scriptural obligation for me to speculate
that Marcus probably knew the minds of
the sages even better than our co-religionist
Kissinger!)
You shall not revile God. Nor shall you
curse a leader among your people (Exodus 22:28). The Hebrew word here translated as leader, nasi, means president
in modern Hebrew. The Torahs commandment might thus fairly be translated as
Neither shall you curse (or insult or verbally abuse) your nations president (or
aspirants to that office).
Rabbi Menachem Recanati wrote of this
mitzvah in thirteenth century Italy. He presciently explained the verse by saying that
public figures who are insulted and cursed
and subjected to verbal abuse may well
decide that public service is a thankless
task, and as a result may resign from office.
Recanati observes further that worthy
aspiring leaders may be discouraged from
seeking positions of public trust in such an
inhospitable political climate, to the detriment of the entire community.
Maimonides explained that the Torahs
prohibition against cursing communal and
national leaders is not to protect those leaders from harm and offense, but out of concern for the deleterious moral and spiritual
effect of such behavior on the individual

doing the cursing. We are diminished and


coarsened when we speak ill of others, Maimonides taught. Especially when we revile
those who serve the public. Perhaps even
more so when we reward demagogues
who engage in such offensive rhetoric with
our political support and added public
attention.
A modern biblical commentator, Rabbi
Gunther Plaut, points out the fuller context
of this prohibition: You shall not revile God.
Neither shall you curse a leader among
your people. Rabbi Plaut explains the dual
formulation: The law implies that undermining the stability of society [by cursing
or reviling its legitimate leaders] is comparable to blasphemy.
Surely, this oft-neglected prohibition
of the Torah does not preclude either
free speech or principled dissent or spirited debate. Nor even reasoned criticism
of national leaders. That is no sin. It is, in
point of fact, a patriotic duty, and speaking
truth to power is a virtue to be commended
and admired. The Torah merely commands
that we do so without debasing our speech,
without demonizing our opponents, without harshly derogating those with contrary
views: office-holders, political aspirants, or
their supporters however misguided or
ineffectual we may find them.
What a profound service the Jewish community would do for the American public,
what a kiddush Hashem it would be, what
honor we would bring to our religious tradition and its Divine Author, by recognizing our collective shortcomings in this area
of Torah law and by renewing our fidelity
to this biblical imperative: By exemplifying
the principle of civil discourse and decrying its violation as blasphemous and disqualifying in the coming electoral cycle!
Is such a thing possible? As former
Israeli president Shimon Peres (the Nasi of
the Jewish State) said: People who have
no fantasies never accomplish anything
fantastic.
Some fifty years ago, Robert F. Kennedy
said: We live in an era saturated with communication of all sorts, and this has both
radically democratized political speech and
opinion and deprived it of any restraint or
standard of responsibility.
That was fifty years ago! The saturation
he identified is far more extensive today.
Our need to contain its consequences is
commensurately more urgent.
As this election year of 2016 begins, may
we strive to exemplify the moral restraint
the Torah prescribes, and may we and
our neighbors exercise the responsibility
this season demands. In so doing, may we
all become true politicians, as defined by
President John Adams: those who are servants not of our own desires, not even of
the people but of our God.
To do anything less is to be (and to be
content to be led by), at the very best,
mackerels by moonlight.
Joseph H. Prouser is the rabbi of Temple
Emanuel of North Jersey in Franklin Lakes.

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January 31, 20

16

9:30 10:30 Character Breakfast


with Mickey Mouse and Elsa
Come dressed as your favorite character
or superhero. (ages 0-5)

10:30 11:30 Magic Show!


(ages 3 and up)

11:30 1:00 Israeli Hour

Israeli Zumba Dancing, songs, and more!


(ages 4 and up parents and grandparents welcome!)

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Join Camp Zeke for a Krav Maga session


and fun camp style activities.
(ages 7 and up)

Snacks will be available throughout the day.


A suggested minimum donation of $18 to
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with your registration.

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All dietary laws observed.
JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 31

Jewish World

How Jewish groups got spied on by Obama


RON KAMPEAS
WASHINGTON At first blush, it appears like a bombshell:
The United States listened in on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus phone calls.
But on closer examination, the revelations, which the

Wall Street Journal reported on December 29, might not be


so far reaching. Spying on allies is both routine and legal in
the United States, though perhaps not very politic.
Heres what the controversy is all about and what may
happen next.
What exactly did the Obama administration do?

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the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades, and the Belskie Museum of Art and Science

32 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016

Jewish Federation

OF NORTHERN NEW JERSEY

According to the Journal, the National Security


Agency eavesdropped on Netanyahu and other Israeli
officials, in part to assess whether Israel planned to
strike Iran and to track the prime ministers efforts
to scuttle the emerging nuclear deal with Iran. In the
process, conversations between Israelis and American
lawmakers and Jewish organizations were swept up by
NSA surveillance. The Obama administration did not
directly order those conversations be monitored, but
it did not prevent the listening-in either.
We didnt say, Do it, a senior U.S. official told the
Journal. We didnt say, Dont do it.
Isnt spying on foreign leaders routine?
Yes and no. The Journal reported that the NSA asks
presidents whether they want information on foreign
leaders, allied or not. Obama, apparently like virtually
all his predecessors, gave the nod.
But after documents released in 2013 by Edward
Snowden showed the NSA had been eavesdropping on
German Chancellor Angela Merkels cellphone, Obama
suspended the practice for much of the NATO alliance.
Netanyahu and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish
president, both were kept on the list, however..
Netanyahu stayed in part because of concerns he
would strike against Iran without warning the Americans a move that would have had far-reaching consequences for U.S. interests and because he was
actively rallying Congress, Jewish community leaders,
and others against the emerging Iran nuclear deal.
How did Jewish groups wind up getting snooped on?
The NSA is prohibited by law from monitoring
Americans without a warrant. But when U.S. citizens
in contact with foreigners are spied on incidentally,

Yisrael Katz, Israels


intelligence minister,
said that Israel does
not spy on the United
States and expects
the same from
Washington.
the information doesnt have to be trashed as long as
their identities are obscured a process known as
minimization. Thats how the Obama administration
wound up with reports on meetings between Israeli
officials and members of Congress and Jewish organizational leaders.
Several Jewish groups including the American
Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League and
the Zionist Organization of America were troubled
by the revelation, even if they werent entirely surprised by it.
Its obviously deeply disturbing and highly problematic, but frankly not entirely surprising, said
David Harris, the American Jewish Committees
executive director. We have always assumed its
what various governments, for a variety of reasons,
tend to do.
Jewish groups werent likely to be shocked because
theyve been caught up in government surveillance
before: The case against two former staffers for the

Jewish World

#Super
Sunday

:
s
u
p
m
a
C
n
o
l
e
Isra

?
y
d
a
e
r
u
o
y
e
r
teens, A
January 31, 20

The United States reportedly eavesdropped on Prime Minister Benjamin


Netanyahu and other Israeli officials in part because of the Iran nuclear deal.

MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/POOL

American Israel Public Affairs Committee, launched in 2004 and scrapped in


2009, arose because the staffers were
swept up in U.S. government tracking of
Israeli diplomats.
For this article, AIPAC declined to
comment and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations did not return a request for
comment.
What about lawmakers caught up in
the sweep?
Reactions among members of Congress divided predictably along partisan
lines. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), the sole
Jewish Republican in Congress, called
for an investigation, saying the Journal
report suggested laws were broken.
House Republican leaders wrote the
NSA demanding paperwork that would
show the rules of minimization were
observed. GOP presidential candidates
Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, and
Ben Carson all said the matter deserved
greater scrutiny.
Instead of focusing on deterring the
Iran nuclear threat and fighting against
the mullahs who chant Death to America, President Obama has treated Israel,
our staunch, democratic ally in the Middle East, as his real enemy, Carson said.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the
senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told the Journal
that in general we havent had a problem with how incidental collection has
been handled concerning lawmakers.
Schiff, who like others on the committee would likely have seen some form of
the NSA reports, could not be reached
for comment.
Doesnt Israel also spy on the United
States?
Israel ostensibly swore off spying
on the United States in the wake of the
arrest of Navy civilian analyst Jonathan
Pollard. Yisrael Katz, Israels intelligence
minister, said Wednesday that Israel
does not spy on the United States and
expects the same from Washington.

But if the Journal report is accurate,


that isnt quite true. According to the
Journal, soon after Obama assumed
office, Unit 8200, the Israeli militarys
eavesdropping unit, gave the NSA hacking software that the agency later discovered allowed 8200 to poke around
U.S. networks.
Will there be political fallout?
On Capitol Hill, not likely. For all the
Republican calls for an investigation,
curbing spying even on an ally runs
the risk of being cast as soft on national
security in an election season now
increasingly focused on the threat of terrorism. As CNN has noted, the GOP congressional leadership has been muted
about the affair.
But the revelations are certain to complicate recent efforts by Obama and
Netanyahu to smooth over their differences exacerbated by the Iran deal fight
and the failed bid by Secretary of State
John Kerry to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
So who gets to say I told you so?
AIPAC.
For years, the prominent pro-Israel
lobbys leaders have repeatedly advised
the Israelis to allow the group to lead
advocacy on the Iran issue. The fact that
the Israelis were aggressively advocating
on their own appears to have handed the
U.S. security apparatus a legal path to
monitor efforts to derail the deal and
perhaps to preempt them. Had AIPAC
led the effort, that wouldnt have been
possible, since the deliberations would
have been legally out of bounds for U.S.
eavesdroppers.
I would bet that AIPACs leaders recognize, consciously or unconsciously, that Israels engagement in
this way was inappropriate, said Steven Aftergood, who directs the Federation of American Scientists project on
government secrecy. And because it
was inappropriate, it was likely to be
counterproductive.


JTA WIRE SERVICE

16

With the rise of anti-Semitism


and the Boycott, Divestment
and Sanctions (BDS) movement
on college campuses, are you ready
to handle the questions you might
be asked as a Jewish student?
Learn from Noam Gilboord,
Director of Community Strategy at the
Israel Action Network.

ree
F
Israel Advocacy training: 5-7pm
(includes dinner)

Make calls on Super Sunday*


4-5pm or 7-8pm
*Earn community service hours

Be a superhero

Volunteer

Be a superhero

donate.
jfnnj.org/teen

Taking place at

on
Jew ish Federati

RSEY

RN NEW JE

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paramus

Seth Lipschitz | Donna Weintraub

RSVP

Vice president, Campaign

jfnnj.org/teen

or contact Stephanie Hausner | stephanieh@jfnnj.org | 201-820-3901


All dietary laws observed.
JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 33

Onward Israel changed My Life!

French Jews leaving


in record numbers
but not for the reason
you think

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Kim Schwartzman | KimberlyS@jfnnj.org | 201-820-3936

This Onward Israel program is operated through a partnership between the Beacon and Shapira Foundations and other lead
philanthropists, The Jewish Agency for Israel, and Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey and is organized by Young Judaea.

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34 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016

Jewish World

PARIS Last year may have been traumatic for France


and its Jews, but it was a pretty good one for Rudy
Abecassis.
In a year that began with the Charlie Hebdo shooting
and the subsequent killing of four people at a kosher
supermarket in Paris, Abecassis, 32, a Marseille-born
computer specialist who moved to the Paris region in
2009 to find work, had a good job at a time of rising
unemployment.
The income was good enough that his wife, Emilie,
was able to quit her secretarial job after the birth of their
second child over the summer. The couple shared a spacious apartment in Bussy-Saint-Georges, a middle-class
suburb that has been spared the anti-Semitic violence
prevalent in other areas around this city.
Yet on December 27, Abecassis and his family left
their comfortable lives behind and moved to Israel,
joining nearly 8,000 French Jews who immigrated to
Israel in 2015.
Were not fleeing, Abecassis said last month, as
he and his family prepared to spend their last night
as Parisians on an inflatable mattress in an otherwise
empty home. Our lives here have been good and we
love France for it. Were leaving with sorrow, but we
want to live in a Jewish country of our own, where we
are not outsiders who need to be tolerated.
French immigration to Israel, or aliyah, has rocketed to record levels over the past three years, as the
country has confronted rising anti-Semitism and a
series of attacks that claimed nearly 150 lives in Paris
in 2015.
But while violence against Jews is often identified as
the major driver of French aliyah, many immigrants
cite a broader mix of reasons for choosing to leave,
including Zionist sentiment and alienation from an
adamantly secularist society that is increasingly intolerant of the religiously devout.
The reality is more complex than the narrative
according to which French Jews are leaving in record
numbers because theyre feeling threatened by their
Muslim neighbors, Daniel Benhaim, France director
of the Jewish Agency for Israel, the quasi-governmental body responsible for facilitating aliyah, said.
Benhaim cites as evidence the fact that a majority of French Jewish emigres come from middle- and
upper-class areas with little anti-Semitism. Only 15 percent are from poor areas with large Muslim populations and a high incidence of anti-Jewish attacks. That,
Benhaim said, is a result of their reluctance to forego
Frances generous social welfare benefits.
Those who leave can afford to let go of the French
welfare system, he said. Mostly they live where antiSemitic attacks are relatively rare, and in many cases,
anti-Semitism is not a primary catalyst for moving but
a sort of a background presence.
For religious Jews, France has become a less welcoming nation in recent years. Confronted by the
struggle with radical Islam, the nations well-established policy of public secularism has grown even
more stringent, with heated debates on pork-free
menus in school cafeterias and heightened criticism
over municipal funding for Jewish institutions.

Jewish World

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Jewish Standard
daily newsletter!
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JewishStandard
N E W

Rudy Abecassis and his family at Charles de


Gaulle Airport as they prepare to fly to Israel on
December 27, 2015.
CNAAN LIPHSHIZ

Abecassis said that he refrains from wearing a


yarmulke in public not out of fear for his physical
safety, but because doing so would be out of place,
almost defiant. Others say they feel socially excluded
because of their faith.
I see how the guys at work look at me, with my
beard and kippah, said Eran Azoulay, who immigrated to Israel with Abecassis and 15 others on
December 27 as part of the newly launched French
aliyah program of the Jerusalem-based International
Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Theyre not going
to invite me to the pub after work. I am living in a bubble because Im religious, and Israels the only place
where I can step out of the bubble.
To French Jews who live in more violence-prone
areas, the aliyah spike feels like a kind of capitulation.
Prosper Ovadia, 63, the owner of a single-chair barber-

I see how the guys


at work look at
me, with my
beard and kippah.
ERAN AZOULAY

shop in Paris 10th arrondissement, a crime-stricken


area with a large Muslim and African population, said
he refuses to run away from the scum who are trying
to throw me out.
Still, Ovadia concedes it would be unwise to forego
the $1,500 he receives monthly in welfare benefits.
Anti-Semitic attacks or not, I can live with dignity
here, Ovadia said. Not in Israel.
Despite its difficulties in competing with the French
welfare system, Israel has received record numbers
of French immigrants since 2013, when 3,000 Jews
moved to Israel. The following year, the number more
than doubled to 7,238, an all-time high that made
France for the first time the Jewish states largest
source of immigrants in any given year. France maintained that distinction in 2015 with 7,900 emigres.
Abecassis says he and his wife never even contemplated leaving before 2012, the year their eldest son,
Noah, was born. It was also the year an Islamist killed
four Jews at a Jewish school in Toulouse, prompting the government to post armed guards at Jewish
schools.
Abecassis realized he had to choose between sending his son to a Jewish school guarded by a soldier with
a machine gun or a secular public school.
Were not really afraid hell be shot, Abecassis
said. Statistically, Israel is more dangerous. We just
wanted him to grow up like a normal Jewish French
JTA WIRE SERVICE
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36 Jewish Standard JANUARY 8, 2016

Response to
Tel Aviv shooting
Yardena Schwartz
TEL AVIV When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the site of a
deadly attack here the night after the
shooting, his words were perceived by
some as more offensive than comforting.
After expressing condolences to the
families of the victims and welcoming
condemnations from the Arab-Israeli
community, the prime minister turned
to a familiar theme.
Among Israels Muslim citizens there
are many elements that have come out
against the violence and wish for full
law enforcement in their communities,
Netanyahu said on Saturday night in central Tel Aviv. However, we all know that
there is wild radical Islamic incitement
against the State of Israel in the Arab sector. There is incitement in mosques, in the
educational system and in social media.
Netanyahu went on to outline his
plans to enforce the law in Arabmajority areas and to eliminate the two
states of Israel one peaceful and lawabiding, the other rife with extremism
and crime.
One cannot say I am an Israeli in
rights and a Palestinian in obligations,
Netanyahu said. Whoever wants to be
Israeli should be an Israeli all the way,
both in rights and in obligations, and the
first and highest obligation is to obey the
laws of the state.
Some viewed the remarks as hypocritical whatever lawlessness might exist
in Arab-Israeli communities is a result
of the governments failure to direct
adequate resources to law enforcement
there, they say. Others saw his comments
as an attempt to blame all Arab-Israelis for the actions of the alleged killer,
Nashat Melhem, who may have suffered
from drug and mental problems.
You cant take one crazy person and
use him to paint an entire population
in the colors of ISIS, just like you cant
blame the whole Jewish population for
the burning of children in Duma, said
Nasreen Hadad Haj-Yahya, co-director of
the Israeli Democracy Institutes Project
for Arab-Jewish Relations, referring to the
West Bank town where Jewish extremists
are suspected of killing three members of
a Palestinian family over the summer.
Inequities between Jewish and Arab
citizens are an issue of longstanding
grievance in Israel. According to government figures, the average Arab municipal budget is 10 percent lower than that
of the weakest Jewish municipalities.
Arab-Israelis also lag in educational
achievement, income and various other
socioeconomic metrics.
Just two days before Fridays attack
in Tel Aviv, the Netanyahu government

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the scene of a deadly


shooting in Tel Aviv on January 2,
the night after the attack.

Haim Zach/GPO

unanimously approved a five-year, $3.84


billion plan to improve economic development in the Arab sector and reduce
gaps in resources.
For the first time, the government of
Israel is changing the allocation mechanisms in government ministries so that
Israels Arab citizens will receive their
relative share in the state budget, Social
Equality Minister Gila Gamliel said in a
statement announcing the initiative.
In his speech Saturday, Netanyahu
implicitly acknowledged the discrepancy, saying he had formulated a plan
to increase law enforcement in the Arab
sector, including more police stations
and more officers. He also said Israel
would demand loyalty to the law.
Going back historically, the notion
was that Arab communities can police
themselves, said Guy Ben-Porat, an
expert at Ben-Gurion University on relations between police and minority communities. But over the past few years
these old ways are breaking up. Arab
elders have no more power, and this is
where the state has to intervene.
Its not clear to what degree this state
of affairs may have led to the shooting
by Melhem, 31, an Arab-Israeli who was
still at large as of Tuesday. Melhem had a
history of violence, serving jail time for
assaulting an Israeli soldier. According to
a relative, he was mentally unstable.
Violence by Arab-Israelis against Jews
remains a relatively rare phenomenon,
which partly accounts for the outrage at
what some saw as Netanyahus charge
of collective guilt. But even Haj-Yahya
acknowledged a connection between
the attack and the situation in the ArabIsraeli sector.
Its like a jungle, she said. Anyone
can do whatever they want, without paying a price. The police dont do anything
about the proliferation of weapons in
the Arab community because they dont
care if Arabs kill each other. Only once
the Jewish community begins to pay a
price, then the state cares.

JTA Wire Service

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SCREENSHOT FROM YOUTUBE

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
The Jewish TV show you should be watching
LINDA BUCHWALD
If the ratings for CWs newest show, Crazy
Ex-Girlfriend, are any indication, you
probably arent watching it. But you should
know that youre missing out.
Now that creator and star Rachel Bloom
is nominated for a Golden Globe for best
actress in a TV series fingers crossed for
her on Sunday! its time to tune in. Crazy
Ex-Girlfriend is hilarious and zany, and as
it happens, it addresses Jewish identity in
unexpectedly profound ways.
The series is the story of Rebecca Bunch,
a successful New York lawyer who follows
her summer camp ex-boyfriend to smalltown California. Never mind that hes in
a serious relationship with someone else.
The musical comedy features lots of singing and dancing, the campy products of
Rebeccas wild imagination. These arent
your typical Broadway numbers, though
the show features the talents of stage veterans Santino Fontana and Donna Lynne
Champlin.
Rebeccas Jewishness is a huge part of
the series, recurring in ways both explicit
and subtle. Few other shows Amazons
Transparent excepted deal with Jewish
identity this deeply.
Typically, Judaism is little more than
a plot device on TV like on Friends,
where the Jewishness of Ross and Monica
Geller is most likely to come up with a
token Christmastime mention of Chanukah. Or characters like Schmidt, on New
Girl, who uses Jewish phrases all the time,
but typically just plays them for laughs.
On Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Judaism is
more than just a punchline though its
certainly that, too. This was apparent during the midseason finale, which begins on a
boat from Europe to America in 1901.
I know we are fleeing, a mother tells
her daughter, but you couldnt comb your
hair?
Jewish daughters probably will laugh in
recognition. But whats significant here is
that the entire scene is in Yiddish. A sprinkling of Yiddish phrases may be heard
on television here and there, but name
another mainstream show thats had an

entire scene in the language.


Other comedic moments point to larger
truths. As Rebecca replaces Christmas decorations with Chanukah ones before her
mothers visit, she wonders: Chanukah.
Hanukah. Hanuk-kah. Which one of you is
right? Its a moment both funny and familiar, with a nod toward informal comfort
that many young Jews today feel among
Christian symbols.
For single Jewish women, the show hits
another nerve: Rebeccas mother, a perfectly cast Tovah Feldshuh, finds many
ways to hint that her daughter should be
married. After finding a stash of condoms,
for example, she tells Rebecca she wont
get a husband that way. The relationship
is reminiscent of Rhoda Morgenstern, the
prototypical single Jewish female, and her
mother on Rhoda, a spinoff of The Mary
Tyler Moore Show.
Rhoda, however, never had to deal with
the minefield that is online dating another
cultural phenomenon that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend hilariously nails. In one episode,
after Rebecca takes a Tinder date back to
her place, she performs a slinky number
with the refrain: Hey sexy stranger, come
back to my place and I hope youre not a
murderer.
If theres one line that best captures how
Judaism plays in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, its
the riposte by the mother to Rebeccas
claim that if she has a child, she would only
want her to be happy.
Our people are not about happy,
Rebeccas mother says. Were about
survival.
In Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Rebecca moves
across the country to be happy, but its not
easy. She struggles. She suffers through bad
dates and endures pretty girls who poke at
her self-esteem. She faces everything else
life throws at her and comes out (relatively) intact on the other side. What could
be more Jewish than that?
Although the ratings havent been great,
CW has ordered more episodes for a total
of 18 for the first season. The show returns
January 25, so you have plenty of time to
catch up.
You can thank me later. JTA WIRE SERVICE

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Local/Jewish World
Worms

injustice I went to jail in Wayne protesting


the Vietnam War; I was the only person out
of 100 who was arrested, he said.
That brings us back to Worms. Mr. Mayer
has returned often; he has participated in ceremonies to honor non-Jews who saved Jews
and later who helped reconstruct the Jewish parts of the city. He is touched by those
people.
In 1987, Bill and Hillary Clinton went to
Worms as part of a European visit. Bill
Clinton was a governor then, and he was
interested enough in history to spend an

FROM PAGE 7

Russians and Romanians. There are no


German Jews there.
Mr. Mayer and his wife, Edith who I met
on a blind date, and it wasnt until our third
date that I learned that her background was
exactly like mine, and she was born about 30
miles from where I was born in Germany and
she was in a childrens home in France about
100 kilometers from where I was in France
have lived in Wayne since 1966. Mr. Mayer
always has been driven by the need to fight

entire day at the Rashi museum, at the synagogue, and with the city archivist, talking about Jewish history, Mr. Mayer said.
They also visited the cathedral and other
places, but most of the day was spent at
Jewish sites.
He is not talking about the Clintons visit
to Worms as a way to campaign for Hillary,
he stressed. Its that I want to give credit to
them. After all, he was governor of Arkansas
then, and you dont get votes in Arkansas by
visiting Worms.
He is a super intelligent person, he is

interested in history, he was charmed by Fritz


Reuter, the city archivist, and he was really
interested. Herr Reuter said to me that he
had never had a better listener. The man is a
literal history book, and there isnt anything
that escapes him.
In fact, Mr. Mayer said, the then-obscure
Arkansan had made such a strong impression in Worms that in 1987 the local newspaper, the Rhein Main Presse, predicted,
in a headline, that hed be U.S. president
in five years. In 1992, the newspaper
reprinted its story.

BRIEFS

Japanese-Jewish man
joins Israeli army
Daniel Tomohiro is not the typical Israeli soldier.
His Hungarian grandparents survived the Holocaust, made
aliyah, and fought in Israels War of Independence, but they
then moved to Australia, where his mother met and married
a Japanese man and moved to Iwata, Japan.
Now Tomohiro has come full circle and is serving in the
Israel Defense Forces, undergoing basic training with the
Nahal Brigades 50th Battalion. On Wednesday, his unit was
scheduled to take part in a swearing-in ceremony at the Western Wall Plaza in Jerusalem.
My 88-year-old grandfather Ivan lives in Sydney, Australia, Tomohiro said. He told me that he fought in an artillery during the War of Independence, in the Palmach [the

Jewish paramilitary organization in the pre-state years],


and was an instructor in an officer training course. My
grandmother died when I was a child and I still dont
know what she did in the Palmach.
Tomohiros parents met when his father was on a
business trip to Australia.
My parents married and moved to Japan, but at
home they kept talking about Israel, Tomohiro said.
My family is very pro-Israel and loves the state, and I
believe the Israel Defense Forces is the most moral military in the world.
According to Tomohiro, his grandparents imbued
him with a sense of curiosity about Israel.
I felt very connected to the state, but I arrived here
for the first time only when I was 18, with my parents
and younger brother, he said. My older brother had

already made aliyah and was in the IDF Spokespersons


Unit. After I graduated high school in Japan, I returned
to Israel, and four months ago I joined an IDF Hebrew
course and later started basic training.
IDF service means a lot to me and my family, Tomohiro said.
My grandmother was in Auschwitz. She survived
only because a German nurse covered her with a blanket when Dr. Josef Mengele came to visit. He thought
she was dead and this saved her life, because he didnt
perform experiments on her. I realized, after hearing
such stories, that the Holocaust happened because
there was no State of Israel. I am happy to contribute
to the security of the state, to make the IDF and Israel
strong, and to prevent another Holocaust, he said.


JNS.ORG/ISRAEL HAYOM

California lawmaker introduces bill to block BDS backers

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California State Assemblyman Travis Allen (R-Huntington Beach) introduced a bill that would block California from doing business with companies that implement boycotts based on race, color, religion, gender,
or nationalityin particular as it relates to the Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.
Allens proposed measure will require parties contracting with the state government to certify that they
do not participate in boycotts against Californias trading partners, the lawmakers office said.
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amount to ethnic, religious, racial and/or national origin discrimination. No group better demonstrates this
fact than the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment movement, whose use of false, demonizing and delegitimizing propaganda against the State of Israel has become
a pretext for the expression of anti-Jewish bigotry, said
Allen.
The U.S. states of South Carolina and Illinois have
passed similar legislation that takes concrete action
against BDS supporters, while state legislatures in Tennessee, New York, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Florida
have passed resolutions condemning the BDS movement. 
JNS.ORG

Israeli government officials have been meeting durcarrol/BB


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We must prevent the Palestinian Authority from collapsing if possible, but at the same time, we must prepare in case it happens, the newspaper reported Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as telling the Israeli security cabinet in a closed-door meeting.
Israels defense establishment gave the government oral and written opinions warning of a possible

collapse, according to a senior Israeli official. A collapse


of the PA government in the West Bank would create
a strain on Israel, said the official, because the Jewish state would need to take over security and civilian
affairs in PA-controlled areas.
Netanyahu has previously said he does not want
the PA to collapse and wishes to take steps to prevent
that scenario. A PA collapse may also pave the way for
increased influence by the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror
group in the West Bank. 
JNS.ORG


Israeli government meets to discuss


possible Palestinian Authority collapse
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Jewish World

Whats new, 2016?


Some predictions about the Jewish worlds next big things
Orthodox institutions. But it could also galvanize supporters, as well as make those
who oppose female clergywomen appear
out of touch with the realities of a modern
Orthodox world increasingly inclined to
offer women equal opportunities.

URIEL HEILMAN

orget 2015 thats so last year. Its


time to think about the future.
What will the new year bring on
issues of concern to Jews?
Here are a few storylines to keep an eye
on in 2016.
Will the wave of violence in Israel
become the new normal?
For nearly four months, Israelis have been
subjected to a steady stream of Palestinian
attacks that so far have killed 27 people,
injured 279, and stoked a climate of tension in Israel not unlike that of the intifada
era. A November poll by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 67 percent of
Israelis fear that they or someone close to
them will be harmed in the current wave
of terrorism.
Unlike previous outbreaks of violence,
this one has been characterized mainly by
lone-wolf attacks: Palestinian assailants,
inspired by terrorist leaders but apparently not guided by them, have perpetrating 99 stabbings, 37 shootings and 22 car
rammings since mid-September, according
to the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
The mostly spontaneous nature of these
attacks and the ubiquity of low-tech weapons like knives and cars have frustrated
counterterrorism efforts. Simply put,
how do you stop a 16-year-old Palestinian
who grabs a kitchen knife and takes to the
street with lethal intentions? In most cases,
quick-acting armed citizens or police have
ended the attacks using their weapons.
Despite ebbs and flows, the attacks have
persisted. Israeli officials say they are confident its just a matter of time before they
fizzle. But without an effective strategy
to stop them, its also possible that these
attacks will become the new normal, leading to more casualties and worsening relations between Jews and Arabs. And its also
conceivable that some mass-casualty attack
will spark a harsh Israeli response that is
followed by deadlier Palestinian attacks
and the eruption of a full-blown intifada.
Will 2016 be the year of the female
Orthodox rabbi?
Since the first ordination of an American
woman as Orthodox clergy in 2009, Orthodox women studying to become clergy
and the institutions that ordain them have
been lightning rods.
Just two months ago, for example,
Americas main modern Orthodox rabbinical association, the Rabbinical Council
of America, formally voted to ban Orthodox synagogues or schools from hiring of
women who hold even a clergy-like title.
The RCA already had condemned the idea
of female rabbis twice before. The charedi

Police at the site of a suspected terror attack by an Arab-Israeli who allegedly


drove his car into four Israelis at a Haifa kibbutz on October 11, 2015.

ILIA YEFIMOVICH/GETTY IMAGES

Security stands guard outside the kosher supermarket in Paris where four Jews
were murdered by an Islamist gunman during a hostage siege in January 2015.

SERGE ATTAL/FLASH 90)

Orthodox Agudath Israel of America has


taken an even harsher line, declaring
that institutions that train women rabbis
reject the basic tenets of our faith.
But for all the condemnations, Orthodox
clergywomen have shied away from direct
confrontation with the Orthodox establishment and they tread lightly when it comes
to title.
We recognize that the path toward female
leadership is slow and is an evolution,
Sara Hurwitz, the first American Orthodox
female ordainee and the dean of Yeshivat
Maharat, a New York City-based yeshiva
that ordains Orthodox women clergy, said
last year. (Hurwitz goes by the title rabba,
a feminized version of rabbi.) Were not trying to upend halachah [ Jewish law]. Were
really trying to work within the halachic system of the Orthodox community.

But late last month, Lila Kagedan


became the first woman ordained by
Yeshivat Maharat to announce that she
would be calling herself rabbi rather than
rabba or maharat. Kagedan, who said
she has been hired by an American Orthodox synagogue but did not identify the
institution, is following the model of two
women ordained last summer as Orthodox
rabbis by the Harel Beit Midrash in Israel,
which describes itself as a rabbinic studies program for men and women.
Will this be the year Orthodox
clergywomen unabashedly define
themselves as rabbis?
The strategy carries potential risks and
rewards. The risks? It would galvanize
opponents and might make it more difficult
for the women to find jobs at mainstream

Iran deal implementation or implosion?


The Iran nuclear deal championed by the
Obama administration and achieved last
summer will face its first real tests this year.
Iran already is far along the path of
dismantling its nuclear infrastructure,
according to U.S. officials, with more than
a quarter of its centrifuges dismantled, the
heavy water reactor at Arak nearly reconfigured to make it impossible to produce
a nuclear weapon, and nearly all of the
countrys stockpile of low-enriched uranium shipped overseas.
In fact, Irans implementation of the
agreements requirements has taken place
faster than expected, meaning that antiIran sanctions are likely to be eased in a
matter of weeks rather than months.
But many questions remain.
Will Iran use the billions of dollars set
to become unfrozen to promote terrorism
or advance regional unrest? Will Iranian
anger over a new U.S. law that curtails
visa-free travel for those who have visited
Iran, which Tehran has charged violates
the nuclear agreement, prompt the Islamic
Republic to renege on its commitments to
nuclear disassembly?
And will new tensions between Iran
and Saudi Arabia the latter just said it
was cutting diplomatic ties with Iran following the torching last week of the Saudi
Embassy in Tehran by protesters angry
over Saudi Arabias execution of a prominent Shiite cleric erupt into a full-blown
crisis America cannot avoid?
Still facing strong domestic headwinds,
proponents of the deal in both Washington
and Tehran will have to work hard to make
sure it doesnt fall apart in 2016.
The U.S. presidential campaign
Jewish issues havent been front and center this campaign season. But given the
unpredictability of this convention-defying presidential campaign, anything can
happen.
A flare-up in the Middle East or a comment from Donald Trump could change
things in an instant. And once the countrys biggest Republican donor, conservative pro-Israel stalwart Sheldon Adelson,
picks a favorite, Israel may become a more
prominent campaign issue.
Looking ahead to November, the big
question is whether Republicans can make
a deeper dent in the American Jewish tendency to vote overwhelmingly Democrat.
SEE 2016 PAGE 51

JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 39

Home Design
Entrance halls and hallways
Freshen up your space
JOSEPH PUBILLONES
We all know first impressions matter. Well,
my friends, the same holds true for our
homes. Walking into an entrance hall should
be a warm and inviting experience, a preamble to the rest of the homes decor. However,
entrance halls are frequently seen as merely
functional spaces and are forgotten or relegated to lackluster design.
In theory, designing the interior should
be rather simple because rarely is this space
ample enough to contain a lot of furnishings.
Most entry halls are small not much larger
than the hallways they lead to.
If space allows, an entry hall should contain seating such as a chair or a stool a
mirror and a console or table to hold letters,
keys, and cellphones.
Ideally, the walls of an entrance hall are
painted in one color to create unity. The
color should be chosen based on either the

HOUSE
CALLS

predominant color of the house or an accent


color within the decorating scheme. For
example, the color could be inspired by an
accent color found on drapes in an adjoining room or chosen to reinforce the color of
the sofa and chairs. This weaving of colors
from one room to another creates a visual
link and ensures a nice flow from one room
to another.
An entry hall endures a lot of wear and
tear as people enter and exit a home. So
avoid selecting light or pale colors for the
walls. Wallpaper is an advisable finish for
this area, as long as the paper is thick; paper
with a vinyl base is appropriate, too. Selecting wallpaper with a small or overall print
will help conceal any scuffs that occur in
daily use.
Flooring material for an entry hall should
be durable and easy to clean. Depending on
where your home is located, keep in mind
that outside elements will make their way

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inside: snow, mud, sand, dust. Most


entry halls require an area rug to help
soften the impact of foot traffic on the
flooring. Here, too, select an area rug
with an overall pattern and a multicolor
background to avoid footprints and inevitable marks.
Depending on ceiling height, your
room may be able to carry a chandelier
or lantern or a close-to-the-ceiling light
fixture. However you do it, this room
should be well-lit.
The final touches are the decorations
and furnishings selected for this space.
Tablescapes are important and should
provide hints of the style and decor of
the rest of the home. Some entry halls
are wide enough to accommodate a
round table as a centerpiece. This always
looks better when topped by a floral
arrangement, a piece of sculpture or
stacks and stacks of books. Entry halls

that are tighter on space should at the


very least feature a console topped by a
mirror or significant work of art.
Ultimately, entry halls and hallways
are the perfect places to express your
personality. Because they are small
spaces, you can decorate them over and
over again without breaking the bank.
And the regular makeovers will keep
your home looking fresh.
Joseph Pubillones weekly column, The Art
of Design, can be found at creators.com.

CREATORS.COM

Spring 2016 home trends


you need to know now!
When entering the new
year we all want a fresh
start. What better way
than revamping your
interior spaces, whether
it be your home or
office? A newly decorated environment can
inspire you and even
motivate you. Here are
the interior and home
design trends to keep
you up to date for 2016.
One of the biggest
trends this year, when it
comes to your home, is
mixing materials. A combination of marble and metals or raw wood and tile can
create an eclectic vibe with a personal
touch. This applies to anything from
your kitchen back-splash and counter
tops to your bedroom furniture.
Another upcoming trend for 2016 is
graphic wallpapers and fabric wall art.
You can now make an even greater statement with that piece of art or photograph
by turning it into a mural for your dining
room or bathroom. Geometric patterns
and striking colors are a hot trend as well
when it comes to picking your wallpaper.
Dont be shy, apply it to all four walls for
a sophisticated and rich look.
Recycling furniture or decor is environmentally friendly and fun! Turn an
old antique dresser into a more modern
piece by painting it a vibrant color or

even a glossy black.


Upcycle your dining
room chairs by reupholstering the seats
in a custom printed
fabric.
With the technology available in 2016,
you can now print on
a variety of materials including glass,
acrylic, wood, tile,
metals and fabric.
Print on your glass
coffee table, commercial Ikea furniture or bathroom shower panels for a
personalized home look.
Some more trends include: tropical
and floral looks, warm metals, and outdoor fabrics used inside. Dont forget the
Pantone colors of the year, Serenity and
Rose Quartz, which will surely inspire
pastel looks for the home.
At Harvey & DOT we are always up to
date with the latest trends when it comes
to interior design and home decor. We
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JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 41

Gallery
1

n 1 The Jewish Womens Circle of the Chabad


Center of Passaic County gathered to make
pastries under the guidance of Rifki of Rifkis
Petite Treats in Brooklyn. She also gave a lesson
on the art of cookie decorating. COURTESY CHABAD
n 2 Gallen Adult Day Health Care Center participant Cathy ODonnell turned 50, and the
Jewish Home at Homes Adult Day program
held a unique celebration for her. We hatuated her, said Denise Rieser, Gallens director
of recreation, by inducting her into the Red
Hat Society. COURTESY JEWISH HOME AT HOME
n 3 Valley Chabads Camp Gan Israel winter camp had 25 participants. The week
included daily outings, crafts, and Jewishthemed games. Counselor Zeldy Glassner of
Woodcliff Lake, back row, stands with campers at an ice skating trip to Sport-O-Rama
in Suffern, N.Y. COURTESY VALLEY CHABAD
n 4 Moshe Schwartz, who used to live in
Passaic, talked to students at the JCC of
Paramus/Congregation Beth Tikvahs Hebrew school about his experience as a combat soldier in the IDF. COURTESY JCCP/CBT
n 5 Members of Temple Emanuel of the Pascack Valley visited Congregation Shearith
Israel in Manhattan. Commonly called the
Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, it
is the oldest Jewish congregation in the
United States. COURTESY SIMONE WILKER

42 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2015

Dvar Torah

Vaera: Exercising the


godliness of our hearts

s a parent, I constantly wresmagnificent power. Other commentators


tle with how to use my
saw the theological struggle of God hardening Pharaohs heart and tried to corheart. When responding to
rect the words of the Torah ignoring the
my child, do I respond with
fact that God said I will harden Pharaohs
a firm heart in order to get my message across, especially when it involves
heart and instead commenting on the
my childs safety? Or do I respond with
importance of Pharaohs free will, putting
a soft heart, with total compassion
the blame on him. But the words of the
and understanding? In
Torah have been there for
moments of high tension
centuries, so, with all due
and power struggles, how
respect, who am I to correct
do I know when to call
them?
upon different parts of my
According to late 19th
heart?
and early 20th century
I might glean some
commentator Rabbi Moshe
advice from this weeks
David Cassuto, the reason
Torah portion, Parashat
why the Torah says I will
Vaera, where the phrases
harden Pharaohs heart
Rabbi
Pharaoh hardened his
is because every happenJennifer
ing has a number of causes,
heart and I will harden
Schlosberg
and these causes, in turn,
P h a ra o hs h e a r t a re
Glen Rock
have other causes, and so
repeated from last weeks
Jewish Center,
on ad infinitum the cause
portion and, in total,
Conservative
of all causes was the will
occur nineteen times.
of God, the Creator of the
Nineteen! We know these
Ruler of the world. Samuel
phrases must be important, then.
David Luzzato (the Shadal), a 19th century Italian poet, gives a similar explanaThe first phrase Pharaoh hardened his heart makes sense to me. It
tion as to why the Torah says that God will
conveys the idea that Pharaoh had the
harden Pharaohs heart. He says: Know
free will to decide whether to continue
that all acts are ascribed to God, since God
the brutal treatment of the Israelites
is their ultimate cause, some by absolute
in slavery or not. By ignoring Moses
decree, and others through the operation
plea to let the people go, Pharaohs
of human choice granted by God.
heart was firm, stiff, and uncompasWhat I take away from these two
sionate. And the Israelites suffered as
explanations is the idea that all of our
a result.
actions, in some way, are connected
Its the second phrase I will
back to the Divine. We have the free
harden Pharaohs heart that makes
will to make decisions on our own. At
less sense to me. Of course, God is the
the same time, those decisions may
speaker here. But doesnt that pose a
be influenced in some way by our
problem? Isnt it a problem if God has
relationship with God. Will we ignore
a say in hardening Pharaohs heart?
Gods holiness and respond only from
Does that mean that God was part of
a place of defensiveness or judgment?
the ongoing slavery and acts of brutalOr, will our decisions be guided by the
ity that the Israelites experienced in
holy, divine qualities of a loving God?
Egypt? If so, what do we think of a God
To what degree will God be part of how
like this?
we exercise our hearts?
As a rabbi, I often wrestle with the
Ive realized as a parent that when
theological challenge of balancing how
I respond to my child, its not about
God and humans are involved in acts of
whether my heart is firm or whether
injustice and terror. Many people quesits soft. Its whether my response, in
tion how could God let this happen?
either case, comes from a Godly place.
while others attribute gun violence,
Its easy to invoke Gods holiness when
terrorism, and other acts of hatred to
I respond with a soft heart. In cases like
human free will. I believe in a God that
this, I emulate Gods love as the ultimate Holy Parent. But its a little more
is just, so I, too, believe that in these
difficult to call upon the best in myself
cases, humans are at fault.
in a moment of heightened stress or
But then why would God say multiple
anxiety. Even when my heart is firm,
times in the Torah, I will harden Pharaohs heart?
like when I discipline my child, I must
As it turns out, I am not alone with this
still do so as if its an act of divine love.
tension. Many rabbinic commentators
Because ultimatelyit is.
have wrestled with this very passage, too.
Let us use our free will, just as God
Some try to explain that God was merely
intended. But when we do, let us also
peripherally involved, in order to teach
be certain to exercise the Godliness of
a lesson to the Israelites about Gods
our hearts.

Local
Organization
FROM PAGE 13

Describing his organization as one


of nine groups throughout the country
that work on the issue of resettlement,
he said the majority are faith-based.
Were the only Jewish one.
Not that many Jews are moving
any more, he continued. Theyre
not trapped behind an iron curtain,
and the Jews in the Middle East have
already left. Its basically depopulated
of Jews. Now were focused on protecting refugees in general.
That change in mission wasnt a
simple or fast transition; it was evolutionary, Mr. Hetfield said. HIAS
has received a lot of attention since
the High Holidays. Around that time,
a photo was published showing the
body of a 3-year-old Syrian child who
died off the Turkish coast when the
boat ferrying his family to Greece
capsized.
That was the focus of many services, Mr. Hetfield said. Rabbis
talked about us, and we provided
materials for their sermons. It drew
attention to the change in the mission. Those who support us are
aligned to our new course.
Over the years, he said, the biggest
change in HIAS was making this evolution to help refugees because were
Jewish and guided by Jewish values.
For a 134-year-old agency, that was not
an easy change.
Mr. Hetfield noted that there are
more refugees now than at any time
since World War II. While his agencys goal ideally is to put itself
out of business, that is not likely to
happen.

HIAS has a presence in 12 countries right now, he said, including


representatives in South America,
Austria, Israel, Ukraine, and Africa.
Unlike in 1948, when Jews could talk
about what county they wanted to go
to, other refugees do not have that
choice. That country, of course, was
Israel, which was founded that year
and welcomed all Jews; it was a haven
for Holocaust refugees, many of whom
were helped by HIAS. Most cant go
anywhere in most cases. When we
can, we get them to some other place.
We mostly try to make them safe in
the first country they flee to.
Resettlement efforts include helping
them secure legal documentation and
trying to ensure that they can legally
work, support themselves, that their
kids can go to school; and helping to
develop community in their country
of first asylum.
Jews who now seek to immigrate,
he said, generally are people who are
taking advantage of economic opportunities around the world. They dont
need charity like their grandparents
did. The exception is Iranian Jews.
They need assistance navigating the
U.S. bureaucracy. We also help Jews in
Ukraine, he said. But while the number of those Jews are rising, they are
still small. Indeed, while HIAS resettles some 3,500 people a year, less
than 200 are Jewish.
Mr. Hetfield said that Mr. Golinkins
book, which he called touching and
poignant and true to life, provides a
very realistic account and is good in
terms of understanding what a refugee goes through at every stage.
He highly recommends it.

With a little planning


you can leave a gift that strengthens the Jewish
community, continues the work you believe in, and
makes a lasting impression on the ones you love most.

Lets talk!
The coffee is on me.
Robin Rochlin, Managing Director,
Endowment Foundation, 201.820.3970

Jewish Federation

OF NORTHERN NEW JERSEY

ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION

JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 43

Jewish World

Crossword
DEN MEN BY YONI GLATT

KOSHERCROSSWORDS@GMAIL.COM
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: MEDIUM

Tel Aviv manhunt


punctures
citys sense of
relative safety
YARDENA SCHWARTZ
TEL AVIV Until last Friday, this city had
been largely untouched by the recent wave
of near-daily attacks by Palestinians on
Israeli civilians.
Several incidents did strike Tel Aviv a soldier was stabbed with a screwdriver outside
Israel Defense Forces headquarters in October, and in November two Israelis were killed
in a stabbing attack at an office building. But
its residents have largely been spared the
stabbing and car-ramming attacks centered
in Jerusalem in the West Bank.
On January 1, however, the so-called Tel
Aviv bubble was definitively punctured when
a gunman opened fire on Dizengoff Street,
one of the busiest arteries in the city and a
popular hangout for both locals and tourists.
The shooting spree began at the crowded
Simta Bar, where young Israelis were gathered for a birthday party, then continued at
a restaurant next door before ending at the
bustling Sidewalk Cafe.
The suspected gunman, a 31-year-old
Arab-Israeli citizen named Nashat Milhem,
killed two people Alon Bakal, 26, and Shimon Ruimi, 30 and wounded seven others
before fleeing the scene. On Sunday, Israeli
media reported that police now believe Milhem was also responsible for the murder of
Amin Shaaban, an Arab-Israeli taxi driver
whose body was discovered an hour after the
Dizengoff shooting.
Since the shooting, Tel Aviv has been
cloaked in a gloomy silence. Milhems escape
has triggered an unprecedented manhunt,
with thousands of security personnel combing the city looking for him. On Friday night,
normally packed cafes and bars were eerily
empty. The usual lines outside popular
nightclubs were missing. Police patrols were
on nearly every street, and many residents
stayed home with their doors locked, fearful
of the gunman on the loose.
When schools reopened Sunday, many
parents chose to keep their kids at home,
despite an increase in security across the city.
Something definitely changed in the Tel
Aviv bubble, said Arik Rudnitszky of Tel
Aviv Universitys Konrad Adenauer Program
for Jewish-Arab Cooperation. Maybe now
were in the reality that Jerusalem has lived
in since October.
Maya Dratwa was having lunch at the Sidewalk Cafe with her husband and two young
children when the shooter began firing on
patrons there. With her 3-year-old son in his
stroller and her 5-year-old daughter in her
arms, Dratwa crouched under the table as
chaos erupted.
Everyone was screaming, and everything
fell on top of us our food, our tea, Dratwa
recalled Sunday, saying she was still in shock.
44 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016

Israelis light candles at a memorial set


up outside the Tel Aviv pub where two
people were shot dead on January 1.

BEN KELMER/FLASH 90

Saturday was her 31st birthday, but instead


of celebrating as planned, she stayed home
with her family. I was too afraid, she said.
I never expected this would happen here.
While Israel has faced constant terror
attacks since October, nearly everything
about the Dizengoff shooting was unique.
The seemingly random targeting of bar
patrons hearkened back to earlier waves of
terrorism that aimed to inflict mass casualties
on buses and other places of public gathering. Mira Marcus, the Tel Aviv municipality
spokeswoman, said there never has been a
manhunt for a terrorist in Tel Aviv.
The fact that Milhem escaped, rather
than embracing martyrdom as many terrorists do, was a surprise to security experts,
who note that terrorists often seek to inflict
as much damage as possible until they are
stopped by force. Police believe that after
Milhem fled on foot, he hailed a cab to
northern Tel Aviv driven by Shaaban. He
is then believed to have driven the taxi to
Namir Road, a major thoroughfare in the
area, and left it near a bus stop.
Milhems sophistication also sets him
apart. In security footage released hours after
the attack, he was seen entering a health food
store and using a plastic bag to pick up some
nuts. He put the nuts back but kept the bag,
apparently to protect his hand from leaving
fingerprints on his gun.
A former Shin Bet official who spoke on
condition of anonymity said it was possible
the attacker was inspired by ISIS.
There are a few dozen Arab citizens of
Israel whove joined ISIS in Iraq and Syria,
and there are dozens of others who support
these ideas, the official said. These ideas
cross borders. We see it in Europe and can
see it anywhere, and theres no doubt well
see it in Israel, too.
Israeli media reported that the gun was stolen from his father, a volunteer with the Israeli
police, who identified Milhem as the gunman
after seeing the health food store footage on
television. Over the weekend, security officials seized the familys computers, arrested
the suspects brother on suspicion of aiding
and abetting, and have maintained a heavy
presence in Arara, the northern Israeli Arab
village where Milhem lived.
According to news reports, Milhem was
arrested in 2007 for stabbing a soldier with a
screwdriver and served five years in jail. His
cousin was killed in an Israeli police raid in
2006. Several family members told Israeli
news outlets that he exhibited signs of mental illness.
JTA WIRE SERVICE

Across
1. Brother of Gad
6. Rodriguez in Steven Levitans Modern
Family
10. Make like a mohel
14. Decided on schnitzel over cholent, e.g.
15. Doubled month
16. Foreign currency often exchanged in
Israel
17. Hanging hand
18. Like the Negev
19. Ruler in Fiddler on the Roof
20. Minister of Defense during the 1982
Lebanon War
23. Insect for Paul Rudd
24. Many a gap year student in Israel
25. Need a refuah
26. Joan of ___, 1999 Leelee Sobieski
role
28. Gefilte fish alternative to carp
30. Like Abrams Star Wars Episode VII:
The Force Awakens
34. What strong security can do
37. Slapper Seinfeld might cause
39. Walk through the Jordan
40. Go, Maccabi!
41. Sister to those in this puzzle?
44. Some Kosher caviar
45. ___ The Light, Mandy Moore song in
Tangled
47. Like a hand-me-down pair of tefillin
48. What some Jews hope to do over the
green line
50. Bamba ingredient
52. What Garfield and Goldlum do
53. Classic alt-rock band whose only show
in Israel was in 1995
54. Sara, to Bibi
56. Sound that epitomizes tref
60. Arm of Israel
62. Great 20th century lion Rav and
author?
66. What can be visible in the distance
from the Pico- Robertson area
68. Berra elected to the Hall of Fame the
same year as Koufax
69. City that seems overrun with jews in
late January
70. Kind of law
71. Dershowitz of note
72. What IDF soldiers are trained not to
do in tense situations
73. Balak of Chukas-Balak, e.g.
74. Like bread on Passover, e.g.
75. Like some Lewis Black comments

Down
1. 1
2. Perform hachnasat orchim, essentially
3. Chabibi, in the US
4. The Torah, to Judaism
5. Unlike many a Chagall in peoples
homes
6. Great rabbinic vintner
7. Like the olympic performance of Sarah
Hughes
8. Quarterback Derek on Mark Davis team
9. Cookie that has an OU-D, but isnt technically dairy
10. Prepare a Shabbat table
11. Style of prayer started by 36-Down
12. Hezbollah funder
13. Haifa has one
21. Like Eicha
22. Be a nudnik
27. Like new IDF soldiers
29. Moshav southwest of Jerusalem
30. Vulcan mind ___
31. Slippery swimmer
32. Baal, e.g.
33. Started a drive, like Corey Pavin
34. IV item from Magen David Adom
35. ___ on Down the Road (song in
Lumets The Wiz)
36. Mystical 16th century rabbi
37. Paul Stanleys band
38. Golda Meir ___ Mabovitch
42. In a ___ (working the same job six
days a week)
43. Airer of the anti-Israel show
Quantico
46. Sderot to Beit Shemesh dir.
49. Society in the days of King Solomon,
perhaps
51. She played Ulla in 2005s The
Producers
52. Make like a child at a Seder
54. Shias Transformers co-star
55. Kind of charger? (for short)
57. Comic Glazer of Broad City
58. Former Tel-Aviv mayor Mordechai
59. Amare Stoudamire was one, once
60. Oy, were in trouble
61. Avodah ___
63. Title character in a Spielberg film
64. The motto, according to a 2011 song
by Drake
65. Equipment for 37-Down
67. 2003 Jon Favreau directed family film

The solution to last weeks puzzle


is on page 51.

Arts & Culture


Jewish nominee scorecard to the Golden Globes,
the SAG awards, and the Grammys
For use with your favorite media device

he Golden Globe Awards


( Jan. 10, at 8 p.m., NBC),
b e g i n s wh a t s c a l l e d
awards season. The next
biggie is the Screen Actors Guild
aka SAG awards, which airs on both
TNT and TBS at 8 p.m. on Saturday,
Jan. 30. The explosion of red carpet
walkers continues with the Grammys,
which air on CBS on Monday, Feb. 15,
at 8 p.m. It all ends with the biggest
megillah, the Oscars, on Feb. 28.
The Globes, awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,
are viewed as a pretty good predictor of Oscar wins, and the relaxed
ceremony atmosphere makes it fun
to watch. Globes are awarded for
both film and TV work. The lead
actor/actress categories in film, and
the best film category, have separate
nominees for drama and for musical
and/or comedy.

Film nominees
L e ad a c t re s s , c o m e dy: A M Y
SCHUMER, 34, Trainwreck. This
megahit film has turned Schumer
from a minor celeb into the comedy It Girl of 2015. Best supporting
actress: JENNIFER JASON LEIGH,
53, The Hateful 8. (As in Noshes on
page 4, all Jewish nominees names
are in capital letters the first time
they appear in this article.)
Best director: TODD HAYNES,
54 (Carol); Best screenplay: JOSH
SINGER, 43 (Spotlight, with Tom
McCarthy); also AARON SORKIN,
54 (Steve Jobs). Singers highly
lauded script almost certainly will
get an Oscar nom, too. Every year,
the Globes have a few quirky nominations, and Sorkins screenplay, which
got more pans than raves, is a Globe
quirk. Best Original Song: See You
Again (from Furious 7), co-written
by CHARLIE PUTH, 24, who also is
a Grammy nominee this year. After
recently finding out Puths mother is
Jewish, I watched his videos on Youtube (he sings, too). Hes a charming,
nice young man, whose other hit,
Marvin Gaye, is a peppy pop song
that could play on Broadway. Best
animated film: Anomalisa, which
was directed and written by CHARLIE KAUFMAN, 57. Hes best known
for his quasi-fantasy films like Being
John Malkovich. By the way, Jennifer

Jason Leigh voiced one of three characters in this film.


Best foreign film: Son of Saul,
directed and written by LASZLO
NEMES, 38, a Hungarian-born Jew
who grew up mostly in France. It follows 48 hours in the life of a Hungarian Jew forced to remove bodies from
the Treblinka gas chambers. He finds
a corpse he believes to be his sons
body and tries to find a way to have a
proper burial, with a rabbi.
The best film awards go to the
principal producers. However, I am
listing those best of films with a
significant Jewish connection other
than just a Jewish producer(s). Best
drama film: Carol, directed by
Todd Haynes. Carol, like his previous hit film, Far From Heaven, is
about a concealed gay relationship.
In 2011, Haynes, whose mother is
Jewish, said: Judaism is an important part of my identity. I wish my
last name was not so WASPY all my
films are about resilient outsiders,
whether in terms of race or sexual
orientation, and I think I inherited
that from [my Jewish grandfather, a
social/political activist]. Room and
Spotlight also are competing in this
category. Room was directed by
LENNY ABRHAMSON, 49, an Irish
Jew. Spotlight was co-written by
Josh Singer and co-stars LIEV SCHREIBER, 48, as MARTY BARON,
60, the (real life Jewish) Boston Globe
editor who led the team that uncovered the Boston pedophile priest
scandal.
Best musical or comedy film: Joy,
directed and written by DAVID O.
RUSSELL, 57. It competes with
Trainwreck, which was directed
by JUDD APATOW, 48, and was cowritten by Amy Schumer, who also
starred. Also in this category is Spy,
directed and written by Paul Feig, 53.
Feigs paternal Jewish grandmother
converted to Christian Science and
his father was raised in that faith.
However, Feigs humor is quite Jewish, he isnt religious, and his wife of
21 years is Jewish. His background
defies simple description.

TV nominees
Best actor, drama: JEFFREY TAMBOR, 71 (Transparent, on Amazon); He plays a Jewish man, with a

Jewish ex-wife and adult children,


who is transitioning to become a
woman. Best actor, comedy or musical: LIEV SCHREIBER (Ray Donovan on Showtime). Best actress,
drama: EVA GREEN, 35 (Penny
Dreadful on Showtime). The breathtakingly beautiful Green is a former
Bond Girl (Casino Royale). She
was born and raised in France; her
mother is an Algerian-born Sephardi
Jew. Best actress, musical or comedy:
RACHEL BLOOM, 28 (My Crazy
Ex-Girlfriend on the CW), whose
series combines musical numbers
with comedy. JAMIE LEE CURTIS,
57 (Scream Queens on Fox). Supporting actress (drama or comedy):
JUDITH LIGHT, 66 (Transparent),
who plays Jeffrey Tambors ex-wife.
Best musical or comedy series:
Five series with big Jewish connections are nominated in this category.
(1) Casual, on Hulu, was created by
and is written by ZANDER LEHMANN, 28. His father is director
MICHAEL LEHMANN, 57 (Heathers). Casual stars MICHELA
WATKINS, 44. (2) Mozart in the
Jungle is an Amazon series co-created by JASON SCHWARTZMAN,
35. LOLA KIRKE, 25, is a series costar. (3), Orange is the New Black,
on Netflix, was created by JENJI
KOHAN, 46. (4) Silicon Valley, an
HBO series, was co-created by JOHN
ALTSCHULER, 52, and DAVE
KRINSKY; 30. (5) Transparent,
which was created by and is written
by JILL SOLOWAY, 50.
Best Drama Series: Empire
on Fox, which was co-created by
DANNY STRONG, 41. Its co-stars
include JUSSIE SMOLLET, 32, the
son of a white Jewish father and an
African-American mother. And Game
of Thrones, a HBO series co-created
and co-written by D.B. WEISS, 44,
and DAVID BENIOFF, 44.

Amy Schumer
Liev Schreiber

Jeffrey Tambor

Rachel Bloom

Sarah Silverman

Michael Stuhlbarg

SAG Awards
Unlike the Globes or the Oscars, the
SAG Awards honors only actors.
Uniquely, an award goes to the whole
acting cast or ensemble.
SARAH SILVERMAN, 45 (I
Smile Back), is the only Jewish
actor or actress to be nominated for
an individual film acting award. Her

Julia Wolfe

Mark Ronson

SEE AWARDS PAGE 48

JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 45

Calendar
Wednesday
JANUARY 13

Dan Abraham
Shabbat in Teaneck:

Debbie Weisman
Slevin, author
of UnPregnant
Pause: Where are
the Babies? and reproductive
endocrinologist Dr. Stephanie
Thompson offer a program for
E.T.C. Hadassah
at a private
home in
Demarest, on
Tuesday, January
12, at 7:30 p.m.
For information,
email Ruth at
vraimon@aol.
com or call her at
(201) 767-5468.

JAN.

12

Friday
JANUARY 8
Shabbat in Glen Rock:
The Glen Rock Jewish
Center holds its family
Shabbat Club service,
5:30 p.m., followed by
dinner and dessert,
crafts, and activities at
6. 682 Harristown Road.
(201) 652-6624.

Shabbat in Teaneck:
Temple Emeth offers
family services, 7:30 p.m.
1666 Windsor Road.
(201) 833-1322 or www.
emeth.org.

Shabbat in Pearl River:


Beth Am Temple offers
family services, 7:30 p.m.
60 East Madison Ave.
(845) 735-5858 or www.
bethamtemple.org.

Saturday
JANUARY 9
Shabbat in Teaneck: The
Jewish Center of Teaneck
offers its monthly
Sephardic minyan, in
addition to its regular
Shabbat minyan, 9 a.m.
The monthly Simchah
Kiddush for both follows.
70 Sterling Place.
(201) 833-0515.

46 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016

As part of Jewish
Federation of Northern
New Jerseys One
Book, One Community
programming,
Temple Emeth offers
a Shabbaton on this
years selection, Lev
Golinkins A Backpack,
a Bear, and Eight Crates
of Vodka. At 9 a.m.,
Rabbi Steven Sirbu
leads Torah study using
ancient and modern
sources on Bullying
and the Treatment of
the Stranger. During
services at 10:30, he will
incorporate key themes
from the book as part
of the liturgy. Kiddush
lunch at noon will be
followed by a talk, A
Jewish Response to
Todays Refugees, by
Mark Hetfield, president/
CEO of HIAS. Samuel
Golinkin, Levs father,
will talk about What
I think about when I
see pictures of todays
refugees. 1666 Windsor
Road. (201) 833-1322 or
www.jfnnj.org/calendar/
temple-emeth.

Shabbat in New City:


The Nanuet Hebrew
Center Book Club
has a special Star
Wars themed family
Shabbat with services,
9:30 a.m., Kiddush lunch,
opportunity to play the
X-Wing game afterward,
followed by a screening
of Star Wars after
Havdalah at 5:20 p.m. 411
South Little Tor Road,
off exit 10, Palisades
Interstate Parkway.
(845) 708-9181 or www.
nanuethc.org.

Fundamentals of
Judaism: Anshei
Lubavitch offers a
course, Fundamentals
of Judaism Through
the Prism of Chabad
Chassidic Doctrine,
8 p.m. Also Jan. 16.
10-10 Plaza Road, Fair
Lawn. Rabbi Bergstein,
(201) 362-2712.

MICSHOP NYC

Cabaret night in
Ridgewood: Temple
Israel in Ridgewood holds
its Cabaret Night, with
performers including the
Ridgewood Irish Dance
title-winning dancers,
jazz/pop pianist Sarah
Diamonds, comedian
Dan Abraham, singer/
songwriter Ariana
Gates, Taiko drummers
Manhattan Taiko, pop
singer Caitlin Bromberg
(Temple Israels cantor),
Macaroon 5 (the house
band of the Glen Rock
Jewish Center playing
hits from the 50s to the
80s), storyteller Pam
Grant, and 60s-90s folk/
rock band Two and A
Half Mensch, 8-11 p.m.
Admission includes
entertainment, hors
doeuvres, wine, beer, and
dessert. 475 Grove St.
(201) 444-9320 or email
cabaret@synagogue.org.

Marty Schneit
Book discussion/
lecture in Washington
Township: As part
of Jewish Federation
of Northern New
Jerseys One Book,
One Community
programming, Temple
Beth Or offers a
discussion with Marty
Schneit, a licensed New
York City tour guide, on
Jewish Emigration from
Russia to the Lower East
Side, in conjunction
with this years book
selection, Lev Golinkins
A Backpack, a Bear, and
Eight Crates of Vodka,
1 p.m. 56 Ridgewood
Road. (201) 664-7422 or
www.jfnnj.org/calendar/
Temple-Beth Or.

Tuesday
JANUARY 12

Sunday
JANUARY 10
Early childhood
program in Pearl
River: Yaldeinu, an early
childhood program at
Beth Am Temple, meets
at 9:30 a.m. Parents
join their children for a
free age-appropriate
introduction to Judaism.
Activities include music,
visual arts, snack, dance,
yoga, and drama. 60
East Madison Ave.
(845) 735-5858 or www.
bethamtemple.org.

AVIVA MALLER

Leading a life of
meaning: Rabbi Daniel
Cohen of Congregation
Agudath Sholom in
Stamford, Conn., offers
an interactive and
inspirational seminar,
Leading a Life of Impact
and Meaning for The
Conversation Project:
Live, a program of
Jewish Federation of
Northern New Jerseys
Endowment Foundation,
from noon-2 p.m. Lunch
with all dietary laws
observed. Next program,
Jan. 20. At Federation,
50 Eisenhower Drive in
Paramus. (201) 820-3900
or jfnnj.org.

Intro to Judaism:
Temple Israel and Jewish
Community Center in
Ridgewood continues a
three-part Introduction
to Judaism class led by
Rabbi Jacob Lieberman
of Reconstructionist
Congregation Beth Israel,
7:30 p.m. Class continues
Feb. 17. 475 Grove St.
(201) 444-9320.

Teaneck concert: Suki


and Ding presents
entertainment by
Yehuda Green with a
special appearance
by the Maccabeats
at the Jewish Center
of Teaneck, 8:45 p.m.
Chaim Kiss is the musical
host. 70 Sterling
Place. Tickets at Cedar
Market, Teaneck; Kosher
Konnection, Clifton;
Tuvias, Monsey, N.Y.,
or www.jewishtickets.
comand. (718) 854-6902.
Proceeds benefit
Sharsheret, a national
non-profit organization
supporting women and
their families facing
breast cancer and
ovarian cancer. www.
sharsheret.org.

Rabbi Daniel Cohen

Muriel Finlay was a


Ziegfeld girl.
ALFRED CHENEY JOHNSTON

Program for Holocaust


survivors: Cafe Europa,
a social program the
Jewish Family Service of
North Jersey sponsors
for Holocaust survivors,
funded in part by the
Conference on Material
Claims Against Germany,
the Jewish Federation
of Northern New Jersey,
and private donations,
meets at the Fair
Lawn Jewish Center/
Congregation Bnai
Israel, 11 a.m. New York
City lecturer/tour guide
Marty Schneit will discuss
the Ziegfeld Girls in
pictures and song. Lunch.
Transportation available.
10-10 Norma Ave. Melanie
Lester, (973) 595-0111 or
www.jfsnorthjersey.org.

Friday
JANUARY 15
Shabbat in Teaneck:
Temple Emeth offers a
musical Shabbat service
led by Rabbi Steven
Sirbu and Cantor Ellen
Tilem with the Temple
Emeth band, 8 p.m.
1666 Windsor Road.
(201) 833-1322 or www.
emeth.org.

Saturday
JANUARY 16
Comedy in Wayne:
Congregation Shomrei
Torah offers a night of
laughs featuring critically
acclaimed crowdpleasing comedians.
Cocktails at 7:30 p.m.,
show begins at 8. Tickets
include show, hors
doeuvres, and dessert.
Payments received by
Thursday, January 14,
include one beverage per
admission. 30 Hinchman
Ave. (973) 696-2500

Calendar
or adminassist@
shomreitorahwcc.org.

Mentalist in Fair Lawn:


Matt Cooper offers
an evening of mental
magic at the Fair Lawn
Jewish Center/CBI, 8 p.m.
Cocktail party, live music,
and a chance to meet
Matt Cooper before the
performance. Desserts
follow. 10-10 Norma
Ave. (201) 796-5040 or
Francy77@optonline.net.

Sunday
JANUARY 17
Jewish giving: Rabbi
Ari Sytner discusses
Donating a Dollar or a
Kidney: The Beauty of
Jewish Giving at Temple
Emeth in Teanecks
Byachad breakfast,
10:30 a.m. Rabbi
Sytner is the director of
Community Initiatives

at Yeshiva Universitys
Center for Jewish Future.
1666 Windsor Road.
Breakfast reservations,
(201) 833-1322 or www.
emeth.org.

Singles
Sunday
JANUARY 10
Dinner and
entertainment in
Clifton: North Jersey
Jewish Singles 45-60s, a
group sponsored by the
Clifton Jewish Center,
hosts a Jewish singles
New Year celebration
dance and dinner with
entertainment by Nate
Tiffe,4:30 p.m. 18 Delaware
St. (973) 772-3131 or
www.meetup.com.

Sunday
JANUARY 17
Seniors meet in West
Nyack: Singles 65+
meets for a social gettogether at the JCC
Rockland, 11 a.m. All are
welcome, particularly if
you are from Hudson,
Passaic, Bergen, or
Rockland counties. 450
West Nyack Road. Gene
Arkin, (845) 356-5525.

Singles meet in
Caldwell: New Jersey
Jewish Singles 45+
meet at Congregation
Agudath Israel, 12:45 p.m.
20 Academy Road. Sue,
(973) 226-3600, ext. 145,
or singles@agudath.org.

This years annual Teaneck Teen Idol,


featuring talented teenagers, is set
for Saturday, January 16, at 8 p.m., at
Teaneck High School.
Contestants come from public, private, and religious schools. For information, go to www.teaneckcommunitychorus.org or call (201) 836-2934.
There is a discount for tickets bought
in advance; information is on the
website.
Last years Teaneck Teen Idol finalists
take a break between sets.

Rabbis class to focus on prayers


how the prayer book has developed; the
class will focus on the Talmud Tractate
blessings to learn more about rabbinic perspectives on prayer.It is not necessary to
go to both sessions. For information, call
(201) 265-2272, email office@bisrael.com,
or go to www.bisrael.com.

Almost Queen at Bergen PAC


The Bergen Performing Arts Center presents Almost Queen on Saturday, February 6, at 8 p.m. Almost Queen, a Queen
tribute band, blends Queens vocal layering and studio precision with the energy
and spectacle of a live stage production,
including elaborate lighting, special
effects, and costumes.
The Bergen Performing Arts Center is at
30 North Van Brunt St. in Englewood. For
information or tickets, call (201) 227-1030.

COURTESY JCC OTP

Saturday night Zumba


fitness party in Tenafly

Teaneck Teen Idol contest

Rabbi Debra Orenstein of Congregation


Bnai Israel in Emerson will lead My
Prayer Book, a free two-part adult education series. The series will begin on Thursday, January 14, at 1 p.m., and it will conclude on February 11. Rabbi Orenstein will
focus on the history of Jewish prayers and

From last years Kaplen JCC on the Palisades Zumba party.

The Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in


Tenafly invites the community to a
free 75-minute Zumba-fest, with exotic
rhythms, high energy Latin and international beats, and easy-to-follow
moves, on Saturday, January 23, at 7:30
p.m. Participants must be 12 and older.
A team of skilled and inspirational JCC
Zumba instructors, including Louis
Scriven, Evangelina Bishop, Hila Rivah,
and Jessica Walsh, will lead the party.
Zumba is one of more than 90 complimentary drop-in group exercise
classes that are offered weekly to JCC
members. Group fitness allows people
to achieve their fitness goals with great
company at all times of the day to suit
different lifestyles. Programs are geared
for people of all ages and all fitness and
skill levels.
In an effort to encourage people to
engage in more healthful activities, we
always look to feature a wide variety of
fitness options, the director of Health
and Wellness, Roberto Santiago, said.
Zumba is one great option, because
it not only provides great music and
dance routines that are fun to learn,
it is proven to help maintain cognitive
skills. Its also a great cardio workout,
incorporating a series of higher and
lower aerobic intervals throughout the
session. Our goal is to help people find
appealing workouts so they stay motivated. And that is why we offer free,
open-to-the-community events several
times of the year, like our Zumba Fitness Party.
The JCC has more than 65,000 feet of
dedicated wellness space, offering yearround health and wellness programs

geared for the entire family, featuring


all the latest in cardio, strength, and
exercise equipment, including a stateof-the-art dedicated Pilates apparatus training studio, cycling bikes with
advanced Bluetooth technology, the
Benjamin Bergen Youth Fitness Center (offering age-appropriate fitness
equipment, training, and drop-in exercise classes for 6- to 13-year-olds), and
a luxurious spa center offering massages, facials, waxing, and more. This
comprehensive, ultra-modern recreation facility is a place where members can enjoy individualized instruction and all the latest equipment, and
a motivational staff can assist people in
achieving their fitness goals. There are
also private family changing rooms and
complimentary babysitting is available
to members while they work out.
For information, call Roberto Santiago at (201) 408-1481 or email him at
rsantiago@jccotp.org.
As a special incentive to experience
firsthand what the JCC has to offer, it is
offering a one-week free guest pass to
prospective members who take a tour of
the facility. It also is featuring a special
winter membership promotion, New
Year, New You. Families and individuals who join by January 31 receive $100
off membership. They get $100 in JCC
cash, which can be applied toward JCC
classes and programs, as well. If they
are referred by a friend who is already a
JCC member, they will both get an additional $50 in JCC cash to apply to JCC
classes and programs. For information,
call the membership office at (201) 4081448 or email join@jccotp.org.

COURTESY BERGENPAC

JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 47

Arts & Culture


Awards
FROM PAGE 45

performance as a depressed wife and


mother got reviews much better
than the film, itself. Heres hoping it
will open doors to good roles for Silverman in great dramatic films.
Five films are nominated for the
best cast (whole ensemble) award.
One nominee is Spotlight, which
co-stars Liev Schreiber. Another
i s Trumbo, which co - st ars
MICHAEL STUHLBARG, 47, and
features, as characters, real-life
tribe members EDWARD G. ROBINSON, KIRK DOUGLAS, now
99, and OTTO PREMINGER. JAY
ROACH, 58, directed.
TV, individual acting nominees:
JULIANNA MARGULIES, 49
(The Good Wife) is up for lead
actress in a drama series. Jeffrey
Tambor (Transparent) is nominated for lead actor performance
in a comedy.
TVensemble cast nomination
(comedy series): Three series in
this category have multiple Jewish cast members: (1) Transparent. Its main cast includes Jeffrey
Tambor, Judith Light, and CARRIE
BROWNSTEIN, 41. (2) Orange
is the New Black. Its main cast
includes LAURA PREPON, 35,
and two Jews with somewhat exotic
backgrounds: YAEL STONE, 30,
and CONSTANCE SHULMAN, 57.
Stone, who plays Lorena Morello,
is the first Australian Jewish actress
to be a regular on an American TV
show. Her husband is also an Aussie Jewish actor (without American
credits, yet). Shulman, who plays
Yoga Jones, was raised in Johnson City, Tennessee, a VERY Baptist area, as a profile of her noted.
Shulmans authentic Southern
accent came in handy when she costarred in the original stage version
of Steel Magnolias. (3) Big Bang
Theory on CBS, whose 7-member main cast includes three Jews:
MELISSA RAUCH, 35, SIMON
H E L B E R G , 35, a n d M AY I M
BIALIK, 40.
TVensemble cast nomination
(drama): Odd things happen, and
remarkably the only Jewish actor/
actress in a drama series thats up

Obituaries
for the ensemble prize is MANDY
PATINKIN, 63. He plays the Jewish
character Saul Berenson in Homeland, on Showtime.

Grammys
There are more than 100 Grammy
categories, but only about 25
awards are presented at the televised ceremony. I will only cover
those awards I believe will be given
at that ceremony. Whole big categories, like classical music, are relegated to a non-televised awards
ceremony. A notable no TV nominee is JULIA WOLFE, 57, a Pennsylvania native who studied music
at the University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor. Shes is the composer of the
Grammy-nominated Anthracite
Fields (contemporary classical
music composition category). This
work already has won the 2015
Pulitzer Prize for music.
The most nominated Hebrew is
DRAKE, 29, aka Aubrey Drake Graham. The son of a Canadian Jewish
mother and an African-American
father, he was raised in his mothers faith. He isnt shy about flying
his Jewish flag, as he did in his 2014
SNL hosting gig, where he played
himself as a bar mitzvah boy in a
skit that included a Drake rap song
that begun: Im black, Im Jewishits a mitzvah! Drake is nominated for best rap performance (2x)
(Back to Back, a solo performance,
and Truffle Butter, with other artists); best rap/sung collaboration
(Only, with other artists); best
rap song (Energy, which he wrote
and sung); and best rap album (If
Youre Reading This Its Too Late).
After Drake comes MARK RONSON, 40, an Anglo-American Jew
who had a big year, with three
nominations: Uptown Funk, a
song he wrote with Bruno Mars
(who does the vocals with Ronson), is nominated for record of the
year and for best pop duo performance. The album it appeared on,
Uptown Special, is nominated
for album of the year. Funk has
been a global smash, with staggering stats, like being #1 for fourteen
consecutive weeks on the US Billboard magazine charts and earning
about $3 million in writing royalties

alone for the duo. Ronson, whose


parents are British Jews with familial connections to the top of the
UK Jewish community (politicians
and business people), came to the
States as a teen when his parents
divorced and his mother re-married an American. Fun P.S.: Marks
paternal grandma was Jewish.
Charlie Puth (see Globe nominations above) is Grammy nominated
for song of the year and best pop
duo collaboration for See You
Again (which he co-wrote and
co-sung with singer Wiz Khalifa).
Hes also nominated for best song
written for a visual media (like a
film). On Jan. 29, Puths debut studio album, Nine Track Mind, will
be released. The visual media category includes a nominated song
co-written by DIANE WARREN,
59, a 12-time Grammy winner, with
Lady Gaga (Til It Happens to You
from The Hunting Ground)
Producer of the Year is a big
Grammy nomination and veteran
LARRY KLEIN, 59, is nominated
this year. He already won four
Grammys (two for producing two
different Joni Mitchell albums. He
was married to Mitchell from 1982
to 1994). This year he produced
albums by a variety of artists in different genres, including jazz/r&b
artist Lizz Wright and country-rock
songwriter J.D. Souther. Hes also
played bass on hundreds of albums
featuring marquee performers like
BOB DYLAN and Joni Mitchell.
Dylan, 74, is nominated for best
traditional pop album (Shadows
in the Night, in which he covers
songs associated with Frank Sinatra). He competes in this category
with BARRY MANILOW, 72, My
Dream Duets.
Finally, theres rock drummer
JAY WEINBERG, 25, the son of
Newark native MAX WEINBERG,
65. Max is most famous for being
Bruce Springsteens drummer. Jay
filled in for Max when he played
with Springsteens band in 2008
and 2009. In 2014, he joined Slipknot, a heavy metal band. Their
2015 CD, .5: The Gray Chapter, is
nominated for best rock album and
best metal performance (the song
is Custer).

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48 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016

Estelle Baker

Estelle Baker, 87, of Fair Lawn, died December 19.


Predeceased by her husband, Isaac, she is survived
by her children, Martin, Lisa, and Ronda BakerOrero; a brother, Gerald Tenenbaum; and two
grandchildren.
Before retiring, she was a teacher in Saddle Brook
for 25 years. She was a member of the Fair Lawn
chapter of Bnai Brith Women and the Fair Lawn
chapter of Hadassah. Donations can be made to the
Alzheimers Association. Arrangements were by
Louis Suburban Chapel, Fair Lawn.

Lorraine Cuccia

Lorraine Cuccia, ne Stengel, 83, of Lodi, died


December 25.
Before retiring, she was a purchasing agent for
Bergen County in Hackensack.
Predeceased by her sisters, Anne Stengel and
Sadie Franberg, she is survived by a son, Joseph of
Bethany, Conn., and a sister, Frieda Schack.
Arrangements were by Louis Suburban Chapel,
Fair Lawn.

Burton Kesselman

Burton A. Kesselman, 60, of Edgewater, died


December 31.
Born in Brooklyn, he was a production manager in
the Manhattan garment industry.
He is srvived by his wife, Nancy, ne Kirsch; a
daughter, Michelle of Edgewater; a son, Brian of New
York City; and two brothers, Donald of Alpine, and
Michael of Phoenix, Ariz.
Arrangements were by Eden Memorial Chapels,
Fort Lee.

Stephen King

Stephen King, 59, of River Vale, died December 30.


Predeceased by his parents, Dorothy and Wayne
King, and a brother, Peter, he is survived by his wife
of 24 years, Paige, ne Marcus; daughters, Brianna
and Danielle; siblings, Douglas, Darcy Voreis, and
Elise Monk; nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends.
Donations can be sent to Park Ridge PEAK, 2
Park Avenue, Park Ridge, N.J., or the Childrens
Institute Development Office, 15 Bloomfield Avenue,
Verona, N.J. Arrangements were by Robert Schoems
Menorah Chapel, Paramus.

Peter Meier

Peter Meier of Allendale, formerly of Kentucky, died


December 26.
He worked in the hotel and restaurant business.
Predeceased by a son, Ronald, he is survived by his
wife of 66 years, Evelyn; children, Philip (Sandra),
and Nicole (Paul); six grandchildren and three
great-grandchildren.
Arrangements were by Louis Suburban Chapel,
Fair Lawn.

Obituaries
Harold Walsky

Robert Schoems Menorah Chapel, Inc

Harold Walsky, 87, of Woodcliff Lake, died January 3.


He attending Clemson College and Hofstra University
and served in the 82nd Airborne from 1945 to 1947. A
Brooklyn Law School graduate, he was a self-employed
building contractor and built and managed the Jeanne
Marie Gardens in Nanuet, N.Y. He was a former Woodcliff
Lake councilman.
He is survived by his wife Jeanne, ne Garlando;
children Andrea Kircher of Ridgewood and Philip of
Maryland; and grandchildren, Theresa Kircher, Jeanne
Kircher, Christine Walsky and Aidan Walsky.
Contributions can be made to Jewish National Fund.
Arrangements were by Robert Schoems Menorah
Chapel, Paramus.

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Obituaries are prepared with information


provided by funeral homes. Correcting errors is
the responsibility of the funeral home.

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Milton Scott

Milton Scott, 92, of Hollywood, FL., formerly of


Clifton, NJ, died peacefully on January 2, 2016.
He was born in Butler, NJ and raised in Passaic,
NJ; the youngest of 6 siblings. He enlisted in the
Navy during World War II and served as a
Quartermaster on a PT boat in the Pacific until
the wars end. Back home, he married his high
school sweetheart, Harriet Schwartz. They made
a life together in Clifton where they raised their
two sons, Brian and Kevin. In 1953, with $110 in
seed money, Milt started the Scott Tire Company,
which would remain one of his proudest accomplishments. In 1982, he and Harriet bought a
condo at The Summit in Hollywood, FL, where
they lived for 32 years, enjoying golf, tennis, and
each other among a community of wonderful
friends. He is predeceased by his wife of 69 years,
Harriet; his parents, Abraham and Ida; his sister,
Alma, and his brothers, Dave, Bernie, Sidney, and
Bennett. He is survived by his son, Brian, of Boca
Raton, FL, and his former daughter-in-law,
Marlene, of Clifton; his son, Kevin and daughterin-law, Barbara, of Wayne; his granddaughter, Allison and her fiance, Terence; his granddaughters,
Mara and Andrea; his beloved caregiver, Millie;
and many nieces and nephews. Funeral services
conducted from Jewish Memorial Chapel,
841 Allwood Road, Clifton, NJ; with interment at
King Solomon Memorial Park, Clifton.

201-791-0015

800-525-3834

LOUIS SUBURBAN CHAPEL, INC.


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George Louis - Founder
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COMMUNITY OWNED AND OPERATED SINCE 1921 NON_PROFIT

JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 49

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educational leader to our congregation. This person will partner closely with a dedicated Board of Directors to reinvent and
modernize the Synagogue. The person should be innovative,
inspiring and energetic. Primary responsibiliy is Religious
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Years of experience are flexible.
Recent graduates of Rabbinical School are welcome to
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email: Dean.brody@am.jll.com

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www.BaRockOrchestra.com

2016
FROM PAGE 39

The Republican presidential candidate received 22 percent of the Jewish


vote in 2008 and 31 percent in 2012.
And that was against a Democratic
nominee, Barack Obama, whom the
Republicans frequently portrayed as
bad for Israel.
It will be harder to tar Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee,
as weak on Israel, making it more
likely that the Republicans lose
ground with Jewish voters come
November.
Of course, if Bernie Sanders, the
Brooklyn-accented Jewish senator
from Vermont an avowed Democratic socialist somehow manages
to win the Democratic nomination,
all bets are off.

Call us.
We are waiting for
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201-837-8818

Europes threats and challenges


Surely most European Jews would
like nothing more than for 2016 to be
a fresh start, after a year that saw a
rash of deadly terrorist attacks and a
surge in Muslim migration from the
Middle East.
But with Europe still struggling
to mount an effective cross-country
counterterrorism strategy, and desperate refugees still willing to chance
the risks of crossing the choppy
waters of the Aegean Sea to escape
war and violence in their home countries, Europes challenges are likely to
stretch into 2016 and beyond.
Until now, the consequences for
Europes Jews have been felt most
sharply in France, which experienced
two major terror waves in 2015 (one
of which targeted a kosher supermarket) and sent a record number of
immigrants to Israel. But Jews elsewhere are worried, too. In Germany,

Lila Kagedan is the first woman ordained by Yeshiva Maharat in New


York City to say she would be calling herself rabbi.
COURTESY OF YESHIVAT MAHARAT

which took in a record 1 million asylum seekers last year, Jews are worried about what a massive influx of
Arabs could mean for local Jews and
Germanys relationship with Israel.
European countries already are
taking steps to make it more difficult for migrants to enter or settle in
Europe, and law-enforcement agencies are stepping up their counterterrorism measures. But nobody
expects a quick or easy salve to either
of these challenges.
Jewish extremism in Israel
With the new year bringing news of
the arrests of two Jewish suspects in
the case of the deadly firebombing
of a Palestinian home last July in the
West Bank village of Duma, it seems
the problem of Jewish extremism is
no longer being swept under the rug.
For years, critics have lamented
the lax response by Israeli authorities
to Jewish extremism, with fewer than

2 percent of Palestinian complaints


submitted to the Israel Police leading
to an effective investigation, arrest
and conviction, according to the
Israeli human rights group Yesh Din.
But with these new arrests the
first since 2008 despite at least 15
incidents of Jews firebombing Palestinian homes in the West Bank,
according to Israeli media reports
Israel is signaling that it is taking
a harsher approach toward Jewish
extremists. After the Duma attack,
Israel began applying the controversial practice of using administrative
detention a practice that allows the
holding of terrorism suspects without
charges or trial on Jewish suspects,
not just Arab ones.
It remains to be seen, however,
whether the crackdown on Jewish extremists will last, or whether
it will provoke a backlash that will
embolden Israels far right.
JTA WIRE SERVICE

JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 51

52 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016

RealEstate&Business
Friedberg agents attend
fundraiser
A fundraiser was recently held at the Closter home of
Tamara and Gary Segal for the expansion of the neonatal care department at the Soroka Medical Center in
Beersheba, Negev, which serves the one million residents of the Negev in Israel. In attendance were Marlyn
Friedberg, broker-owner of Friedberg Properties, Nasrin Zahedi from the Tenafly office and Rebecca Schub
from the Englewood Cliffs office.
They learned that the neonatal medical team at
Soroka has pioneered a unique model of family-centered
care that allows premature and other babies needing
special care to start life in an atmosphere that increases
both the probability and the quality of survival.
The staff is made up of eight senior neonatologists,
five pediatricians-in-training and 80 nursing and support personnel. The units guiding principles are to
place emphasis on the infants health and safety, engage
parents maximum involvement, and ensure proper
preparation of the family to assume responsibility for
the care of their infant.
Because the physical conditions of the neonatal
department are no longer sufficient, babies in need of
neonatal intensive care must sometimes be sent to other
parts of the country.
The money raised was donated to the American
Friends of Soroka Medical Center. For further information, go to www.soroka.org or call/e-mail Nasrin Zahedi,
201-446-0095, nasrinzahedi@msm.com.

Joel Goldin named


Teaneck Rotarian
of the Year
Joel Goldin has been
named Rotarian of the
Year by the Teaneck
Rotary Club. Goldin, a
resident of Norwood,
has been employed
at Heritage Pointe of
Teaneck, where he is
sales and marketing
director, since 2012.
Joel has made signifJoel Goldin
icant contributions to
the mission and operation of our club, and to one or more avenues of community or international service, said Tamarha Ellerbe,
Teaneck Rotary Club president. Joel exhibits Service
Above Self in his daily activities and promotes Rotary
by his actions and involvements. He has been involved
with fundraising projects that have been undertaken by
the club through active participation and support.
In addition to working with senior citizens, Goldin
enjoys being a part of and contributing to the community something that is not lost upon his fellow
Rotarians.
He is a great, great person, said Larry Bauer,
Teaneck Rotary Club vice president. What else can I
say? He did a great job with Taste of Teaneck and he has
great ideas and has always been very helpful.
I look at my role in assisting seniors as a social
worker, a family member, a rabbi, a consultant, and an
advisor with a whole host of responsibilities to these
individuals and their families, Mr. Goldin said. I am
proud to represent Heritage Pointe, a community that
caters and is connected to seniors needs.

OPEN HOUSES

SUNDAY, JANUARY 10
TEANECK

Roy Keisar; Ecaterina Gerson; Ariela Keisar; Dr. Agneta


Golan; Tamara Segal; Friedberg agents Nasrin Zahedi,
Marlyn Friedberg, and Rebecca Schub; Ester Muschel;
Mr. And Mrs. Hillel Caplan

325 Johnson Ave.

$670,770

1-3 PM

581 Northumberland Rd.

$515,000

1-3 PM

30 Canterbury Ct.

$395,000

1-3 PM

156 Copley Ave.

$850,000

1-3 PM

1342 Princeton Rd.

$549,000

1-3 PM

ALPINE/CLOSTER
TENAFLY
RIVER VALE ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS TENAFLY

Col on 50' X 132' Prop. LR open to DR, Den, .5 Bath, Ultra Isle Eat
in Kit, Fam Rm/Bath & Sliders to Patio. 2nd Flr Master BR/Walk-in
Closet & Priv Ultra Bath. 2 more BRs + Bath. C/A/C, 2 Car Gar.

894-1234
768-6868

972 E Lawn Dr.

$320,000

1-3 PM

34 Minell Pl.

$364,900

1-3 PM

1505 Jefferson St.

$599,000

12-2 PM

TM

5 BR, 3 Bath Col. Exp & renovated throughout. Great Loc. Deep 135'
Prop. Multiple Fplcs. LR, Huge DR, Mod Eat in Kit open to Fam Rm.
Fin Playrm Bsmt. C/A/C.
Charm Sandstone Dutch Col. Cov Front Porch. LR/Fplc, DR/Built-ins,
Mod Eat in Kit leads to Fam Rm. 4 (2nd Flr) BRs, 2.5 Baths (incls
Master), Fin Bsmt. 150' Fenced Prop. C/A/C. W Englwd Area.
4 BR, 3 Bath Col. Master Suite & Laund on 1st Flr. Kit/2
Dishwashers + Serv Window to Great Rm/Skylights. All Large BRs,
Fin Bsmt. 50' X 130' Lot.

ENGLEWOOD

GRACIOUS

$749,900

Grand Olde Dame w/character & charm + modern updates, high ceilings,
beautiful hardwood floors, 2 fireplaces, renovated eat-in kitchen w/granite & lots
of cabinets, 6 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 2 porches, 2 stairwells,
finished attic, enclosed park-like back yard.

CRESSKILL
Orna Jackson, Sales Associate 201-376-1389

666-0777

568-1818

894-1234 871-0800

Let Us Finance Your


House Purchase
Direct lender
2 to 3 day approval
Closings within 30 days
Northern NJ Appraisers
FHA loans w/55% debt ratio
Credit scores as low as 580

Spacious & Beautiful! Expand & Remodeled CH Colonial/272 Deep


Prop. 6 BRs, 5.5 Baths. Oak Flrs. LR/Fplc, Lib, Banq DR, Gorgeous
Designer Isle Kit open to Fam Rm & Deck. Super Master BR + 3
more 2nd Flr BRs. Fin 3rd Flr/Guest Suite + Priv Bath. Recroom
Bsmt/Bath+Brm. Multi Zone HVAC. Quality Throughout.

C Club Area. Large LR/Fplc open to DR, Large Eat In Kit. 4 BRs, 2
Baths. Bsmt. Gar.

Charm Col. Ent Foyer, LR/Fplc, Form DR, Kit/Lov Encl Porch, .5 Bath.
2nd Flr: 3 BRs/Dual Ent Full Bath. Att Gar.
Prime W Eglwd Area. Perfect for Entertain & Extended Fam. Oversized LR/Fplc + DR, Mod Kit/Bkfst Rm open to Fam Rm + Den. 1st
Flr BR + Bath. 2nd Flr: Skylit Master BR + Bath + 2 more BRs &
Bath.

BERGENFIELD

428 Windsor Rd.

$489,000

1-3PM

Totally Updated. Identical 2 Fam. 80 X 105' Prop. Oak Flrs. Large


LR, DR open to New Kit, 2 BRs, New Full Bath. Fin Bsmt/.5 Bath. All
new Sep Utils, C/A/C, Whole House Generator. $489,000

ALL CLOSE TO NY BUS / HOUSES OF WORSHIP /


HIGHWAYS / SHOPPING / SCHOOLS & NY BUS
For Our Full Inventory & Directions 2015
Visit our Website
READERS
CHOICE
www.RussoRealEstate.com
Larry DeNike
President

MLO #58058
ladclassic@aol.com

Daniel M. Shlufman
Managing Director

MLO #6706
dshlufman@classicllc.com

FIRST PLACE

(201) 837-8800

Classic Mortgage, LLC


Serving NY, NJ & CT

25 E. Spring Valley Ave., Ste 100, Maywood, NJ

201-368-3140

www.classicmortgagellc.com

MLS
#31149

More than 317,000 likes.

Like us on Facebook.

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JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 53

Real Estate & Business


Links Residential
welcomes Alain Spira

How to choose a health club


TONY SANTOMAURO

Links Residential is proud to welcome Sales Associate Alain


Spira to its growing team.
Mr. Spira received his MBA from Columbia University and
provides clients with a unique perspective, having a background in banking and business.
A genuine people person with the drive and determination
to offer his clients the best service, Mr. Spira s background
and experience have helped him develop a perspective on
the market with a special concentration on the financials of a
transaction. His focus is working with real estate investors and
helps keep all eyes on the bottom line.
Mr. Spira was born in Antwerp, Belgium, and lives in Riverdale, N.Y., with his wife and children. He is a member of the
National Association of Realtors, the Eastern Bergen Board of
Realtors, and the New Jersey MLS.
To learn more, visitwww.LinksNJ.com or call at (201)
992-3600.

Alain Spira

Learn about residential property in Israel


Representatives of Tivuch Shelly Ltd., which
specializes in new real estate projects and
in providing information and counseling
about acquiring and maintaining residential property in Israel, are coming to town
to help you find your ideal home in Israel.
Meet with Shelly Levine and Neria Niazoff
on January 17 at 8:00 p.m. at Sammys Cafe
in Teaneck to hear more about their projects in Israel, including:
A great opportunity in the heart of Jerusalem in Arnona with three beautiful buildings overlooking the old city.
The final 51 cottages in Bet Shemesh
(Sheinfeld), one of the the most successful
communities in Israel.

Givat Haela, also in Beit Shemesh . The


fastest selling values- driven community in
Israel.
Modiin , Efrat, and a new project in Mazkeret Batya with beautiful houses cottages
and apartments in the heart of Israel.
Purchase now and receive special winter prices.
Real estate information booth will be at
Sammys January 11-22, from 11 a.m. to 2
p.m.
For more information, contact Neria at
(201) 657-1969 or (201) 205-2270 x. 2 or
neria@tivuchshelly.com, or Shelly at (646)
704-1185. Sammys Cafe is located at 1439
Queen Ann Rd., Teaneck.

SELLING YOUR HOME?

Although I do not necessarily believe in


New Years resolutions, I understand the
principle of wanting to start or break a
habit that would improve ones wellbeing.
Choosing the right health club is one of
the most important factors in starting and
maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Here are the five most important steps to
take when choosing the right health club.

1. Where to begin

In many ways you have already begun the


process. You know how important it is to
you and your loved ones to take care of
your health. Research can begin by locating the clubs within a 12-minute drive from
your home. Lack of use has been identified
as the main reason for health members
failure to continue with their exercise routine. Therefore, finding a location club near
home or work is best.
Once you have identified clubs within
your targeted area, it is time to turn to listing what you want from a health club. This
would go hand in hand with your health
and fitness goals, needs and desire. Some
may prefer a club with minimal features
while others desire the full health club
experience. With the proliferation of new
fitness centers you should have plenty
of options. Costs of a new membership
should range anywhere from $10 to $160
monthly. This depends largely on the amenities offered. One should not purchase a
membership solely on cost. Remember
you usually get what you pay for. Like me
you, probably want a club that has a good
reputation (check Yelp reviews), has been
in business for a number of years, is new
or recently renovated, is well kept, is clean
with courteous and knowledgeable staff,
and has nice members.

2. Goals and Needs

Finding the right health club should meet


with your health and fitness goals as well
as the experience you expect. If you know
that you are out of shape or have been told
by a doctor to get moving but just dont
know what to do, your best option would
be to stay away from the low-cost, no-frills
experience. You should then consider a
club with professional certified personalized instruction. The last thing you want to
do is to join a club and go in and just try
stuff out. Most clubs will offer a complimentary fitness assessment and orientation
as part of the new membership offering.
You receive a great fitness baseline and a
plan to achieve your goals. Make sure that
you take advantage of this service.

3. Shop Around

Call Susan Laskin Today


To Make Your Next Move A Successful One!
BergenCountyRealEstateSource.com

Cell: 201-615-5353

2016 Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. Coldwell Banker is a registered trademark licensed to Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC.
An Equal Opportunity Company. Equal Housing Opportunity. Owned and Operated by NRT LLC.

54 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016

Once you have narrowed down your health


club options to those clubs that meet your
criteria, it is time to make a list and then
plan a visit. You have already researched
the distance to each location. Do not go
from club to club. Make sure that you
restart your journey from home or work.
This will give you an actual experience.
Make sure that your visits are at the time
you would actually be traveling. You should

take note of the parking facility some


clubs have dedicated secure member parking, while others share parking with other
tenants. Look at the outside of the club as it
may be an indicator of the overall maintenance associated with your potential new
club. Once inside, notice the receptionist: Is
he or she smiling, alert and welcoming? Do
you feel comfortable when you first walk
in? Take your time. Use your five senses
throughout your visit.
The better clubs will make sure that you
register and walk through the club with a
membership advisor. The membership
advisor will ask questions to better understand your goals and needs. Be sure to be
honest with your responses. This will help
them help you. You should notice the membership advisors attire, professionalism,
and gauge his or her true objective. Is it to
help you or help them?
Be sure to notice the cleanliness and
maintenance of the club, the member and
staff interaction, the music, and the equipment availability and spacing. Ask for a
trial visit. The better clubs will be happy
to offer you a free day guest pass. Beware
of the first-time visit offer. Some clubs will
offer you a special discounted membership for enrolling the very first visit. No
need to enroll the first visit unless you are
absolutely convinced that this is the right
fit for you. All clubs legally offer a three day
money back guarantee to protect against
super aggressive sales tactics.

4. Evaluation

You have visited the clubs that meet your


criteria. The next step is to make use of
your trial visit. Speak with members during
your trial visit and gauge their responses.
Observe the interaction between member
and staff as well as member and member.
Make sure that you get and understand all
that is offered you and your financial obligations. Read the membership agreement
and do not be afraid to ask questions. Stay
away from clubs that include an annual
maintenance fee or upgrade fee. That
should be considered in your monthly
dues. Cost and price should be weighted by
the product and services rendered. They
should be not the overriding factor in your
selection. Remember that you get what you
pay for.

5. Decision

Time to make a decision and join a club.


The right time is now. There is no time for
procrastination. Not joining now and waiting for later is making a decision, a decision
not to join. Dont wait for Monday or next
week. Excuses get in the way of reaching
and maintaining your goals. The best step
is taking a step.
Resolve to get fit. Start today and your
future self will thank you.
Tony Santomauro is the owner of TSG
The Santomauro Group. He is a 40-year
veteran and expert in the health and fitness
industry. TSG manages and operates
Glenpointe Spa and Fitness in Teaneck along
with several other facilities in New York and
New Jersey.

The Art of Real Estate


NJ:
NY:

Jeffrey Schleider
Broker/Owner
Miron Properties NY
FORT LEE

LIS JUS
TE T
D!

201.266.8555
T: 212.888.6250
T:

FORT LEE

201.906.6024
M: 917.576.0776
FORT LEE

SO

Ruth Miron-Schleider
Broker/Owner
Miron Properties NJ

M:

LD

FORT LEE

CO TH
LO E
NY
!
\

CO UN
NT DE
RA R
CT
!

1 BR/1.5 BTH w/office & terrace. $205,000

Beautiful 2 BR/2.5 BTH with skyline views.

Oversized & renovated 1 BR/1.5 BTH. $138,000

Magnificent 2 BR/2.5 BTH corner unit.

TENAFLY

TENAFLY

TENAFLY

TENAFLY

SO

LD

LIS JUS
TE T
D!

SO

LD

SO

LD

Lovely 3 BR/2.5 BTH home. Great area.

Build your dream home in prime Tenafly loc.

Sprawling Ranch on magnificent acre.

One-of-a-kind updated split-level.

ENGLEWOOD

ENGLEWOOD

ENGLEWOOD

ENGLEWOOD

CO UN
NT DE
RA R
CT
!

SO

EX
T
TO RAO
W R
NH DI
OU NA
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LD

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Amazing 4 BR Center Hall Colonial on acre.

Spectacular Beacon Hill home. $1,695,000

Beautifully renov Col. Picturesque property.

LOWER EAST SIDE

WILLIAMSBURG

MIDTOWN EAST

UPPER WEST SIDE

N
FE O
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AC UE
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Boutique rental. 3 BR. $3,995/month.

Stylish luxury bldg. Heart of Brooklyn.

Sleek 3 BR/3.5 BTH penthouse. $8,290,000

Magnificent 4 BR/3.5 BTH corner unit. $6,995,000

CROWN HEIGHTS

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GREENPOINT

J
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J
SO UST
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Brick building. 3 extra large apartments.

Contact us today for your complimentary consultation!

Jeff@MironProperties.com Ruth@MironProperties.com
www.MironProperties.com
Each Miron Properties office is independently owned and operated.

JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 8, 2016 55

STORE HOURS

646 Cedar Lane Teaneck, NJ 07666

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Fresh

8
$ 99
7
$ 99
6

Nile
Perch

Chuck Eye
Roast

$ 99

ea.

FISH
Fresh

Fresh

Beef Shoulder
Roast

Ground
Chuck

Great for Cholent

Lb

lb.

Beet Salad

Yummy
Roll

$ 99

Vegetable
Roll

Cedar Markets Meat Dept. Prides Itself On Quality, Freshness And Affordability. We Carry The Finest Cuts Of Meat And
The Freshest Poultry... Our Dedicated Butchers Will Custom Cut Anything For You... Just Ask!

Lb

Save On!

69

$ 49

Grapefruits

EA.

MEAT DEPARTMENT
Fresh

Sweet
Red
Peppers

Bosc
Pears

Cello Red Delicious


Apples
Onions

69

BAGS

Chicken
Breast

LB.

2 LB. BAG

Farm Fresh

Crunchy

ORGANIC ORGANIC ORGANIC

Farm Fresh

Loyalty
Program

ORGANIC ORGANIC ORGANIC

Squash PRODUCE

MARKET

TERMS & CONDITIONS: This card is the property of Cedar Market, Inc. and is intended for exclusive
use of the recipient and their household members. Card is not transferable. We reserve the right to
change or rescind the terms and conditions of the Cedar Market loyalty program at any time, and
without notice. By using this card, the cardholder signifies his/her agreement to the terms &
conditions for use. Not to be combined with any other Discount/Store Coupon/Offer. *Loyalty Card
must be presented at time of purchase along
with ID for verification. Purchase cannot be
reversed once sale is completed.

CEDAR MARKET

6
$ 99
4
$ 99
9

$ 49
15 OZ.

15 OZ.

14 OZ.

PROVISIONS
Hod Golan
Ultra Thin
Turkey Sliced
FOR

Aarons
Chicken
Bologna

2 $6
99
4 OZ.

We reserve the right to limit sales to 1 per family. Prices effective this store only. Not responsible for typographical errors. Some pictures are for design purposes only and do not necessarily represent items on sale. While Supply Lasts. No rain checks.

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