Community Mourns R' Yossie Stern, zt”l - Amazon S3

OF BERGEN COUNTYMarch 6, 2014 • 6 Adar II 5774 Distributed weeklyVol. 1 No. 26 www.jewishlinkbc.com

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BPY Students Study Science and Halacha of Organ DonationBy Elizabeth Kratz

Paramus—Did you know that there are 120,000 people cur-

rently waiting for lifesaving or-gan transplants in the U.S.? The sixth, seventh, and eighth grad-ers at Ben Porat Yosef Yeshiva Day School (BPY) recently spent an entire school day engaged in a special “Discovery Learning Day,” where they studied the science, religious, and social aspects of blood, kidney, and bone marrow donation.

The students were intro-

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AIPAC Packs Them In: Reassessing Power in the Service of PeaceBy Maxine Dovere and Combined Services

Washington, DC—More than 14,000

people, the largest group ever to participate in an AIPAC conference, de-scended on the city to prepare for their trips to Capitol Hill, where they

Project S.A.R.A.H. Advocates for Abused WomenBy Elizabeth Kratz

Teaneck and Clifton—Sixteen years ago, a group of women

began to worry about Orthodox Jewish women who were vic-tims of domestic violence or sex-ual abuse. Abused Jewish wom-en had almost nowhere to go. The shelter system in New Jer-sey didn’t know a thing about kosher food or Shabbos, and the close networks of Jewish families made reaching out for help diffi -cult, because the family’s privacy could be compromised.

There were no formal services at the time to assist Jews if they needed help in this way. A local rebbetzin told the group that if a victim presented herself to the rabbi, “We just took them in to live with us,” she said.

These women formed the New Jersey Women’s Consor-tium on Domestic Violence. It had representatives of Shelter Our Sisters in Bergen County, the Passaic County Women’s Center, representatives of Bergen County

Community Mourns R’ Yossie Stern, zt”l By JLBC Staff

Teaneck—More than 1,000 mourners packed into Con-

gregation Bnai Yeshurun on Motzoei Shabbos. February 22, as rabbis and family members offered words of praise and fare-well in their eulogies for an out-standing role model, a champi-on of tzedakah, Rabbi (Yosef) Yossie Stern. Known to those who loved him simply as Yos-sie, this pillar of the communi-ty succumbed after complica-

RYNJ 7th Grade Jaguars Going to Finals!By Eitan Warburg

It took a week for the snow to clear away, but the

YMSSA 7th Grade Basketball 2013/2014 regular season finally came to an end on February 18th with the RYNJ Jaguars’ 77-59 victory over the defending champs, the SAR Sting. It was a tight game throughout, but the

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Rabbi Yossie Stern, z”tl

BPY teacher Jean Meyers works on blood typing with a middle schooler.

The Qatar Channel Between Gaza and IsraelBy Shlomi Eldar, Al-Monitor, Israel Pulse

Translator(s) Danny Wool

Hamas has already come to terms with the fact that its

southern border with Egypt — including its only gate to the out-side world, the Rafah crossing — will not open up in the near future. After the initial shock and anxiety over the anti-Ha-mas mood prevalent among the

new Egyptian regime, the time has come for the movement’s leadership to recognize and ac-cept this. In the absence of any other option, vital communi-cation channels with the Israe-li side were developed to ensure that life goes on as normally as possible in the Gaza Strip.

One Israeli security source de-scribed the situation thusly: “Ha-

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Israel’s Gas Deals Hinge on Regional ConditionsBy Alex Traiman/JNS.org

Haifa—In early 2014, the partners con-trolling the Tamar and Leviathan nat-

ural gas fi elds off the northern coast of Israel have signed supply contracts with Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, es-tablishing the Jewish state as a formida-ble regional energy supplier in the Mid-dle East. The deals, and the degrees to which they can be successfully imple-mented, highlight a growing number of continuously fl uctuating regional devel-opments that affect Israel’s geopolitical position.

A $500 million supply contract was signed in mid-February to provide 66 billion cubic feet of natural gas to two Jordanian entities, the Arab Pot-ash Company and the Jordan Bromine Company, from Tamar. In January, a $1.2 million supply contract was signed to

provide energy to the Palestinian Au-thority.

Jordan, like Israel, has become desper-ate for sources of energy as Egypt ceased to be able to provide consistent fl ow of Natural Gas to its neighbors. ”Providing natural gas to Jordan can be looked at in a strategic context for Israel,” Delphi Global Analysis founder David Wurm-ser—who consults for one of the major energy fi rms invested in the Leviathan basin, home of the Leviathian fi eld—told JNS.org. “Jordan serves as an impor-tant fi rst line of defense for Israel against more radical eastern forces.”

Wurmser, a former Mideast adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, explained that by supplying Jordan with its ener-gy needs, Israel “can help ensure that Jor-dan keeps its interests aligned westward, as opposed to eastward. …If Jordan does not get its energy supply from Israel, it

could instead turn its sights toward Russia, which has re-cently demonstrat-ed growing interest in increasing its role as a power player in the region,” he said.

To deliver natu-ral gas to Jordan, Is-rael could poten-tially reverse the direction of the Egyptian-Israel pipeline without build-ing new infrastructure, and then send the gas from Egypt to Jordan. But this less expensive model likely would not prove reliable, given the instability in the Si-nai Peninsula since the start of the “Arab Spring” revolutions. “The Egyptian-Israel pipeline has developed a habit of blow-ing itself up,” Wurmser said. Instead, Is-

rael is expected to develop infrastructure to send natural gas being delivered to Is-rael’s Dead Sea works, across the sea to Jordan’s facilities.

The contract signed with the Pales-tinian Authority, meanwhile, may prove more diffi cult to implement in the long run. Palestinian energy needs are cur-rently provided by Israel through its electricity grid. Yet the Palestinian Au-thority has consistently failed to pay for electricity consumption, and has racked up tremendous debts to the Israel Elec-tric Company (IEC). In a somewhat iron-ic move, the PA is seeking to be able to produce its own electricity and cease re-liance on the IEC by purchasing Israe-li gas. “The deal may simply represent a shifting of energy debts from the Israel Electric Company to Israeli natural gas,” Wurmser told JNS.org.

Natural gas delivery to the PA will not begin until the Leviathan fi eld’s reserves begin to be pumped to Israel, a process that is currently not moving as fast as once anticipated due to tremendous in-frastructure costs. Israel recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Woodside Energy, a large Australian-based energy player, to assist with some of the infrastructure costs and to open additional export opportunities, yet Is-raeli partners would still be liable to pay several billion dollars for their share of the infrastructure investment.

If the deal with Woodside Energy stalls, Leviathan’s partners may have no choice but to turn to Gazprom, Russia’s major natural gas conglomerate. Such a move, while providing additional capital for the development of Leviathan infra-structure, may again strengthen Russia’s hold in the Middle East.

In February, Egypt signed an arms agreement with Russia—representing a major shift in regional alignments. Be-tween the signing of the Israeli-Egyp-tian Peace Accords in 1979 and the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, Egypt had distanced itself from Rus-sia, aligning instead as a staunch ally of the United States. Yet with U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East in disarray, once reliable U.S. allies are now looking for new power backers, and the Russians are taking advantage. “Recently, Jordan began developing nuclear energy, and turned to Russia for assistance,” Wurm-ser said.

“If the United States will not be atten-tive to the needs of its longtime allies in the region, they should not be surprised when those allies look for backing else-where. … U.S. policy in the region over the past several years has been anything but reliable,” he said.

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After AIPAC and J Street, Israel’s Third Lobby: ZPAC?By Ben Caspit, Al-Monitor, Israel Pulse

www.al-monitor.com

…The overtures are under way, do-nors are lining up and plans are being spun: America’s right-wing Jewry is talk-ing about establishing its own AIPAC, a counterweight to J Street. The temporary name is ZPAC, a jest of sorts, something like, “If they are A, then we are Z.”

A right-wing Jewish attorney from Florida by the name of Joseph Sabag is said to be at the front of this nascent venture, yet behind this front are much more prominent names, some of whom are past—and maybe also present—do-nors to Netanyahu. This is an interesting idea, which, if materialized, could rock American Jewry to an extent.

Indeed, most American Jews, rough-ly 70%, identify with the Democratic Party. They will vote for the Democratic presidential nominee even if he is not a staunch supporter of Israel. Obama would be a case in point. The thing is that there is also a minority, which is no less opin-ionated and vocal, perhaps even passion-ate. Not all Jews who support Republicans are right wing (in the context of Israel’s right wing), and by the same token not all right-wing Jews in the United States are Republicans. What is certain, however, is that American Jewry also consists of a robust and zealous backbone of passion-ate right-wing ideologues whose mem-bers have been traditionally opposed to the establishment of a Palestinian state. They espouse views that do not conform to Netanyahu’s current policy of a two-state solution, which he adopted in his 2009 Bar-Ilan address. These are well-off people associated with Israel’s right wing and its variants over the years. People like late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (in his previ-ous incarnation) and of course Netanya-hu, who drew behind them a fl ock of ad-mirers that reached deep into the pockets to extend their help.

Today, these Jews feel isolated. Netan-yahu’s path—at least the stated one—is not their own. J Street, they say in closed forums, supports the idea of a “state of all its citizens.” From their standpoint, J Street is not a Zionist organization (an assumption that I factually dispute). Ac-cording to their view, AIPAC is the gov-ernment’s mouthpiece; it will invariably support any Israeli government. In this respect, it is like the United Nations—it’s neutral. What we have here is a situation whereby the left has a growing lobby in Washington (J Street). The Israeli govern-ment also has a huge lobby in Washing-ton (AIPAC), and only we, they say—the real right wing that has not changed its positions the way Netanyahu has over the years—have no representation in Washington. We don’t have an orderly mechanism to apply pressure on Presi-dent Obama in such a sensitive situation as the one we are in right now. There is no organized Jewish lobby that will make it clear to Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry that the unrelenting pressure on Israel will have an adverse ef-fect on Democrats in the next elections. There is no one to oversee this struggle

and bring the authentic voice of Israel’s right wing to American legislators, media and public.

If ZPAC is in fact established, it will herald a dramatic event, giving Israel three large lobbies in the United States. Even the old-hat joke about two Jews locked up in the same room yet having three opinions is nothing compared to this reality which eclipses any imagina-tion. On one hand having three lobbies is very nice. On the other hand, quan-tity is not always a sure stamp of qual-ity. Instead of coming up with one uni-form Israeli position and rallying efforts around it, the average American legisla-tor will fi nd himself facing a host of lob-byists and activists pulling him in three different directions, all for the good of the same country. I would not venture to estimate what such a cacophony would produce in terms of pro-Israeli benefi ts, but it will surely give you a big headache.

Among the things Netanyahu will be pondering..., one will surely be his part-ner and rival Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman. A short while earlier, the prime minister could have read here in Al-Mon-itor (or heard it on Israel’s Channel 10 tel-evision network) the scoop about Liber-man’s decision: Despite the temptation and the thought-out plan presented to him how to take over the Likud Party, he has decided to run separately in the next elections. The Yisrael Beitenu Party has been resuscitated.

Encouraged by the reversal of his nosedive in recent polls, Liberman has made up his mind to end his affair with the Likud Party. In the interim, he re-leases an interesting ultimatum. If the Governability Law, which is expected to introduce changes into Israel’s elec-toral system, is not endorsed by the Knesset on March 10, “this will be the end.” In other words, he is disbanding the government.

[Bibi met with Obama this week.] Pal-estinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will arrive to D.C. on March 17, and the negotiations with the Palestinians are on the agenda. Obama knows that un-less he scores a goal now, he never will. He is already preoccupied with the mid-term elections, after which he will start limping toward the end of his presiden-cy. This is the last chance for a fi nal push, and that’s exactly what will happen.

Obama’s tougher job awaits with Ab-bas, who’s now the side holding up the publication of the document. U.S. Special Envoy Martin Indyk’s teams have man-aged to come up with some agreements (albeit vague ones) with the Israeli side. Netanyahu has taken a clear strategic de-cision to the effect that he will not be the one to derail Kerry’s endeavors. He will roll with Kerry even at the prospect of paying a political price. The problem is that the Palestinians are throwing Ker-ry’s proposals out the window. They are unwilling to recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people. They insist on the right of return while refusing to be jostled into the outskirts of Jerusalem. Worst of all, they claim that they have no positive incentive and that they get nothing in re-turn. They have no carrots with which to face their own people. On the contrary,

they say. Israel continues to build in the territories as if nothing is going on.

In his own voice and resorting to crea-tive visual illustrations, Obama has been making it clear to Netanyahu and Abbas what failure of the negotiations would mean. He warned them of what could unfold if no document were presented, if the deadline were not extended and if no agreement were reached on the basis of which the talks could proceed. The price would be stiff. Both sides have already heard and received an itemized bill, but this time the president will do it in his own voice, in the Oval Offi ce, maybe also tete-a-tete. This is going to be serious.

Being the easier customer, Netanyahu will be required to make gestures allowing Abbas to demonstrate greater fl exibility. What kind of gestures? Agreeing, for exam-ple, to release the 16 Arab-Israeli prisoners who are expected to be freed in the frame-work of the current deal, to which the Is-raeli government (and the Israeli public as well) is strongly opposed. Netanyahu will reply to Obama by the same token: Why is it so easy for you to demand of us to re-lease heinous murderers yet you fi nd it so hard to release Jonathan Pollard who will soon have served 30 years in prison under harsh conditions, especially in light of the fact that he never murdered anyone? I do not rule out an agreement of some sort be-tween Netanyahu and Obama on Pollard’s release in the foreseeable future.

Netanyahu will try to shift the con-

versation with Obama to his favorite top-ic—Iran. He craves to explain to Obama how dangerous the current situation is, how the sanctions regime is collapsing right before our eyes and how the Ira-nians continue to fool the world, trying to buy time. It is doubtful that Obama will satisfy Netanyahu in this regard. The American president is now focused on the diplomatic process. If he is focused, Netanyahu will have to focus as well.

Then it will be Abbas’s turn. In this case, this is truly a dead-end. Obama is ex-pected to use all the cards and levers at his disposal. It is questionable whether the president of the Palestinian Authority will be able to withstand the pressure. In addition to the prisoner issue, he is also expected to raise a demand for a construc-tion freeze in the territories. Obama will whisper in his ears that Israel has already put a freeze on construction beyond the separation fence and that a token freeze in the rest of the areas could be squeezed out. This will be Abbas’s moment. Will he spread his wings and soar, or will he pre-fer to stay in the warm, cozy nest of in-transigence? What is depressing about all of this, is that even if he does soar, it is not to the sky or the horizon, but rather to the extension of the negotiation peri-od en route to the next impasse.

Read more: http://www.al-moni-tor.com/pulse/originals/2014/02/zpac-aipac-j-street-netanyahu-washington-mahmoud-abbas.html#ixzz2uxCYAj8B


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Ramon Center at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University

Ramat Gan, Israel— The Ramon Foun-dation, in cooperation with Bar Ilan

University, is developing a new educa-tional center for space, technology and science, to be named for Israeli astro-naut Ilan Ramon. Former NASA astro-naut Dr. Garrett Reisman and NASA Ames Research Center Chief Scientist Jacob Co-hen recently met in Ramat Gan with sen-ior offi cials from the Ramon Foundation and BIU, top Israeli educators, academ-ic scholars, and aerospace experts to dis-

cuss the venture. The “Ramon Campus” will feature a

scientifi c and educational center to pro-mote science education and encourage the emergence of groundbreaking ide-as among youth and adults. It will be es-tablished near Modi’in, about 22 miles southeast of Tel Aviv.

Once Israeli Minister of Science and Technology, Bar-Ilan University Presi-dent Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz worked closely with the Israel Space Agency and

befriended the Ramon family. At the meeting in Ramat Gan he said, “Our life is a chain that cannot be disconnected. The Sages say that righteous people nev-er pass away because their infl uence con-tinues to be felt. This can be said of the late Ilan Ramon, who is a source of in-spiration to children, scientists, and in-dustry alike. Ilan’s wife Rona carries the torch, expressing this continuity through a variety of activities linked to the fi eld of space exploration.”

Saudi Concerns With American Policy

Al-Monitor.com—In the framework of overall relations with Gulf coun-tries, Saudi Arabia considers the Amer-ican proposal to transform the Gulf Cooperation Council into a security or-ganization similar to NATO as one that conforms to its own aspirations for the council. But this proposal, which would have been a major triumph for Saudi policy in the Gulf, was rejected by smaller Gulf states that saw in it a strengthening of Saudi dominion over them. Riyadh’s opinion of the Iranian threat differs from Washington’s. Sau-di Arabia considers the growing politi-cal infl uence of Iran in the Arab world a threat equal to that of nuclear weapons, while the U.S. prefers to differentiate between Iran’s nuclear capabilities and its cultural, political or even religious influence in the region. Riyadh also con-siders the growing Iranian infl uence a catalyst for its Shiite minority and an instigator for that minority to demand more political participation and reli-gious equality in the kingdom. This, to Saudi Arabia, is a bigger threat to its se-curity that any Iranian nuclear weapon.

Lev Tahor Leader LiedThe Toronto Star reports: Shai Fima,

a young boy from New Milford who was kidnapped by Lev Tahor told a Ca-nadian TV station that they paid him to lie on their behalf. He now claims he was indeed kidnapped by Lev Tahor. The decision to grant refugee status to Lev Tahor leader Rabbi Shlomo Hel-brans was based, in part, on that testi-mony. Fima said he was paid $5,000 in 2003 to deny he was kidnapped and to say the leader was being unfairly perse-cuted. That video was part of Helbrans’ successful refugee application that claimed he was being targeted in Israel for his anti-Zionist beliefs. This fall, the group fl ed their home in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts and resettled in Chatham, Ont., where a judge upheld the Que-bec decision to remove children from their care. An appeal of that judgment is scheduled to be heard in Chatham on March 5.

MK Stern Threatens ‘Shadow’ Rabbinate

The Jerusalem Post reports that MK Elazar Stern (Hatnua) threatened to es-tablish a “shadow rabbinate” if chief Rabbis David Lau and Yitzchak Yosef continue their opposition to his conver-sion bill. He told the Sochnut’s Board of Governors that if the rabbis won’t budge “We [will] establish new Ortho-dox institutions here in Israel.” His bill would allow as many as 30 local batei din to be in charge of the process in their towns, instead of in the four state-sponsored batei din. The bill recently passed its fi rst reading in the Knesset. According to news reports, the rabba-nut is worried its power would be re-duced and standards would deteriorate, so they threatened to stop cooperating with the Knesset. Stern told the Post, “If [the chief rabbis] continue to object, we

CONTINUED ON P. 13


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NEWS

Jews, Hunters, and Sunday Hunting BansBy Dmitriy Shapiro/JNS.org/Washington Jewish Week

For most Jews in the United States, hunting laws are not a concern. Fol-

lowing World War II, most Jews settled in urban or suburban areas, far from roaming turkeys, elk, bears, and deer outside of the occasional casualty in the highway emergency lane. Therefore, few even realize that the same seeming-ly archaic statutes that in some places prevent liquor purchases on Sundays, otherwise known as blue laws, also re-strict hunting.

That troubles Josh First, a business-man, former congressional candidate, and political activist in Harrisburg, PA, who happens to be a proud hunter. He is also an Orthodox Jew, meaning that his observance of Shabbat—and an 1873 Pennsylvania law that outlaws most large-animal hunting—necessitates go-ing the whole weekend without fi ring a shot.

First has signed on as an adviser with Hunters United for Sunday Hunt-ing (HUSH), which brought a lawsuit against the state’s Game Commission af-ter years of unsuccessful attempts to re-

peal the Sunday hunting ban in the state legislature. It’s even become a campaign issue in the Keystone State’s gubernato-rial race, with U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-PA)—after fi ve terms in Congress rep-resenting areas in and around Northeast Philadelphia—making the law’s repeal part of the platform in her challenge to Republican Gov. Tom Corbett.

Pennsylvania has the largest hunt-er population in the U.S., according to LehighValleyLive.com. The most recent poll conducted by Quinnipiac Univer-sity showed Schwartz, a member of the greater Philadelphia Jewish communi-

ty, would beat Corbett 45-35 percent. Although Schwartz is Jewish, First still fi nds himself in a minority of a minor-ity. He’s the only Jew in HUSH.

“Culturally, Jews are traditionally ur-ban and politically liberal and not ex-posed to hunting or trapping,” First said, explaining why there are so few Jewish hunters. “And these are practices that are considered, let’s be honest, goyish.”

First regularly goes hunting for deer, bears, and wild turkeys with other Or-thodox Jews from Harrisburg, New York City, and Los Angeles, and said he keeps his hunting cabin strictly kosher.

“I think overcoming judgementalism and cultural bias is probably the biggest challenge,” he said. “If you tell a religious Jew in New York that you’re hunting, most of them think, ‘You couldn’t possi-bly be Jewish. Jews don’t hunt.’”

The Religious ViewAs the political battle plays out in

Pennsylvania, those such as First face an internal religious debate. Although First is confi dent hunting is acceptable to traditional interpretations of Jewish law, others, such as Rabbi Dovid Bendo-ry, rabbinic director of Jews for the Pres-ervation of Firearms Ownership, disa-gree.

“In Jewish law, hunting for sport is pretty universally prohibited,” said Ben-dory. “Hunting because you need the an-imal in some way is permissible—hunt-ing where the animal is going to be used, if not by you but by someone else. Then it becomes a discussion as to whether or not it’s an appropriate activity to en-gage in, and the reality is, in the modern world, there are few situations in which the Jew is hunting to use the animal.”

“Using” a hunted animal can present some problems, since an animal that is killed before ritual slaughter is not con-sidered kosher. Another legal issue sur-rounds the general prohibition of un-necessarily infl icting pain on another living creature.

First, however, believes that most of the Orthodox opinion on the subject comes from a lack of hands-on experi-ence.

“You have to see something with your own eyes, you have to do some-thing with your own hands, you have to witness something in order to under-stand what it is,” he argued. “For some-body to sit at their desk and pontifi cate on something they don’t know a thing about is shameful. It is not being a real halakhic authority.”

First points out that no part of an animal he and his group hunts is wast-ed; they will even distribute its meat to their non-Jewish friends. Bendory isn’t moved by such a stance.

CONTINUED ON P. 15


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will do other kashrut certifi cations and other weddings and other conversions without them. It can be a shadow rabbin-ate… Every day that this law doesn’t pass causes assimilation here in Israel.”

Israel Sending Refugees to UgandaThe Jerusalem Post reports that 1,500

migrants will voluntarily leave Israel by end of month. Unnamed Israeli offi cials told reporters that 700 African “migrants” have already taken the $3,500 stipend and returned to their “home” countries in Feb-ruary so far, says Interior Minister Gide-on Sa’ar, while other reports say that 40 were headed to Uganda, which Ugandan offi cials refuse to confi rm. Israeli author-ities expect well over a thousand African migrants to voluntarily leave the country over the course of February. In January and December, 773 and 325 migrants re-turned home, according to Interior Min-istry fi gures. Many are afraid to leave for Uganda, because they are not sure of their status and are afraid they will be deported to their home countries, the home coun-tries they fl ed Israel says the relocations are done on a voluntary basis.

King Abdullah II: Jordan is Not the Alternative Homeland

Petra—His Majesty King Abdullah II, in a meeting with the Prime Minister, the Pres-ident of the Senate, and the Speaker of the Lower House, the President of the Judicial Council, the President of the Constitution-al Court, and members of the permanent

offi ces of both chambers of the parliament, said he wanted to discuss the notion that many people have of calling Jordan the “al-ternative Palestinian homeland.” The King said that the group is guilty of sedition and had gotten an early start this year, and in-stead of naming names, he would rather focus on political and economic reform. The King affi rmed that Jordan’s position is very strong and that Jordan is familiar with all the details of the negotiations related to fi nal status issues, especially “Jerusalem, the refugees, borders, water and security.” He pointed out that Jordan helps all parties to support prospects for achieving peace in the Middle East.

Stifling Criticism of Israel Could Backfire

Haaretz reported that 1,800 Jewish lead-ers brainstormed a new program to engage young Diaspora Jews. Among their conclu-sions was that attempts to stifl e criticism abroad of Israeli policies could backfi re. “If you want to engage young people with this country, you have to teach them that it’s about wrestling as well as hugging Is-rael,” said Jewish Agency Director-Gener-al Alan Hoffmann in an interview with Haaretz. “If the message is that you can only hug Israel, you will lose these young people.” The forum was known as the “Government of Israel and World Jewry Joint Initiative.” Among its recommenda-tions is that the government of Israel dou-ble its investment over the next fi ve years in educational programs that target Jews abroad from 400 million shekels a year to 800 million shekels a year ($114 million -

$228 million). According to the proposal, Jewish institutions and philanthropists abroad would contribute 2 shekels for eve-ry 1 shekel allocated by the Israeli govern-ment toward these programs.

Israel Bolstering Ties with ChinaJNS.org—A special delegation headed

by Israeli National Security Council chief Yossi Cohen will leave for China in the coming weeks to hold a strategic dialogue with Chinese offi cials. Political sources say Israel cannot ignore China’s growing standing as a world power and the sub-sequent need to reinforce Jerusalem’s ties with Beijing. Israel maintains strategic di-alogues with a number of key nations, in-cluding Germany, Britain, France, Italy, and Russia. These dialogues focus, fi rst and foremost, on issues pertaining to de-fense and security, alongside fostering sol-id economic ties. Israel is barred from col-laborating with China on defense matters due to various agreements it has with the U.S. and other key Western nations, and its ties with Beijing have so far been pre-dominately based on bilateral trade.

Israel-Peru Ties StrengthenedJNS.org—Israeli President Shimon Pe-

res recently welcomed Peruvian Presi-dent Ollanta Humala to his home recent-ly. Humala, visited Israel as part of a larger tour of the Middle East, and also met with Prime Minister Netanyahu. “Peru hopes to strengthen ties with countries in the Mid-dle East, promoting areas of mutual inter-est to support development, environment conservation and intercultural dialogue

while giving a boost to trade and invest-ment ties and strengthening cooperation in key areas,” the Peruvian congress said in a statement ahead of the trip, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Palestinian Corruption May Hamper Creation of a PA State

TIP—A series of recent developments have refocused attention on links between weak Palestinian institutions and endem-ic Palestinian corruption, underlining dec-ades-old worries that internal structural barriers that may hamper the creation of a viable Palestinian state. Analysts have long called attention to at least four fundamen-tal dynamics that risk rendering any Pales-tinian state a failed state: a lack of political legitimacy for Palestinian governments, a lack of economic sustainability in either the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, the ex-istence of rival governments in territories claimed by the Palestinians for a state, and the inability of Palestinian governments to check armed groups unconnected to those governments. Pressure is mount-ing on PA President Mahmoud Abbas to appoint a deputy president amid mount-ing accusations of corruption throughout 2013. Shin Bet head Yoram Cohen blast-ed the PA as a “corrupt” organization and assessed that a recent uptick in Palestin-ian violence stemmed from the lack of a “fi nancial horizon” in the West Bank. The European Court of Auditors reported that roughly billions of euros of Europe-an assistance provided to the PA between 2008 and 2012 had been “misspent, squan-dered or lost to corruption.”

CONTINUED FROM P. 10


LOCAL NEWS

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Digital Safety Takes Front and Center in TeaneckBy Jeanette Friedman

Teaneck—Two Teaneck councilmen, Elie Katz and Yitz Stern (whose credit

card needed to be replaced when Target was hacked a few months ago) organ-ized a Staying Safe in a High Tech World seminar held last week at the Richard Rodda Community Center on Colonial Court.

Police Captain Kenneth Croonquist gave an overview of Internet crimes and what the issues confronting inter-net users were. They covered the gam-ut—sexting, bullying, inappropriate con-versations, online banking and online purchasing, email dos and don’ts, user-names and passwords, phishing and mal-ware, ID Theft, and how to protect and warn your children of the dangers of the web.

Councilman Yitz Stern told JLBC that more than 60 people from all walks of life came to learn how to protect them-selves from scammers and cons. Teaneck Detective Ed Lievano talked about how younger high school kids have been sexting inappropriate photos and com-ments on Facebook and other social me-dia sites, and how, when he is investigat-ing a case and needs information on the next hot social media site, he asks his own kids for advice because they know a lot. He advised parents to keep an eye on their kids.

Bergen County Assistant Prosecu-

tor Brian Sinclair advised parents about what to do in cases of cyberbullying and how it is prosecuted. He also talked about how child porn is created on the net, often by search image fi les for “self-ies” posted by young teenagers, or by just looking for faces and digitally manipulat-ing them. (Think of how Facebook cre-ates a movie of your life from your post-ings.)

People were warned about the kinds of data they send over unsecured wi-fi networks, and how people can sit in front of your house in a vehicle, typing away on a laptop, downloading vital in-formation from your machines because you didn’t password your wi-fi network. Your best bet to avoid wi-fi hacking, he said, was to stick with hard wire—ca-ble.

State Investigators Aziza Salikhov and Brian Morgenstern were fountains of information about how people can fi nd you anywhere you go and how to protect yourself and your children. Sa-likhov talked about on-line purchasing, and how corporations aggregate data, so much so and so quickly, that if your cell-phone GPS system is turned on, within fi ve minutes of walking into Macy’s at the mall, they will text you a 20% off cou-pon. Stern said it was mind blowing. “It makes 1984 look like kindergarten,” he said.

“We were fortunate to have people from all three levels of government: mu-

nicipal, county and government coop-erate together and provide us with the benefi ts of their varied and broad expe-rience in these matters,” said Stern. “We were fortunate to have seasoned experts from State, County and Municipal gov-ernment speaking and providing us with the benefi ts of their varied and broad ex-perience in these matters.”

Although there were no prepared fl i-ers fi lled with tips for the audience to take home, JLBC staff searched the net for some tips our readers might fi nd useful. A very useful site we found was http://www.commonsensemedia.org/ed-ucators/educate-families/tip-sheets.

A site that offered good information about how to avoid bad apps was found at http://www.itwebafrica.com/compa-ny-news/588-phoenix-software/232360-avoiding-malicious-apps#sthash.bLVY-kcpf.dpuf cyber safety tips compiled from various sites around the net:

Password Security (from the Microsoft Small Business

Center and http://www.bloggernews.net/1author/identity-theft-speaker)

Robert Siciliano, who speaks about cyber-security issues, reminds every-one that spammers like to steal pass-words for services like online banking, eBay, or e-mail accounts so they can send more spam messages. Legitimate e-mails will NEVER ask for your username or password and very rarely contain attach-

ments. When in doubt about changes to your online services, open a new brows-er window and log into your account to check for yourself.

Kim Komando advises fi nding a “great password” because cyber-attacks do hap-pen and people will do whatever they can to access your network and fi les. They use programs that will try myriad combinations of letters and numbers un-til they crack your code. The longer your password, the more digits and letters, up-per and lower case numbers it has, the better. Such a password can take two years to crack. Learn more here: www.ge-odsoft.com/howto/password.

Kommado says people give away their passwords to everyone without even realizing it. Hackers posing as some-one from your Internet service provider could call in and get a password by “test-ing the service.” The hacker might re-quest a user name and password to log in and test the connection from the ISP’s end. Don’t give anyone numbers over the phone.

* Don’t use only letters or only num-bers.

* Don’t use names of spouses, chil-dren, girlfriends/boyfriends or pets.

* Don’t use phone numbers, Social Se-curity numbers or birthdates.

* Don’t use the same word as your log-in, or any variation of it.

CONTINUED ON P. 76

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LOCAL NEWS

Yeshiva University and the Bergen County community celebrate the RIETS Chag HaSemikhah.

Keynote address delivered by

Rabbi Lord Jonathan SacksKressel and Ephrat Family University Professor of Jewish Thought

Lessons for Today’s Jewish Leadership

Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary | Chag HaSemikhah

“Whether or not you can bend the halakhic prohibition on hunt-ing by saying, ‘Well, I’m shoot-ing the animal for my non-Jewish friends here,’ is a highly debatable question,” he said.

“There has to be a purpose,” added Rabbi Chaim Schertz, sen-ior rabbi at the Orthodox Kesher Israel Congregation in Harrisburg. “Halakh ic authorities do not feel that this is a Jewish value; howev-er, from my perspective, the skill involved in being able to under-stand how animals live and what the woods are like and to be out-doors—to have the ability to sur-vive—that to me is an important skill to attain. But it does not re-quire me to actually kill any ani-mals,” continued the rabbi.

Yet Schertz noted an opinion by Rabbi Yechezkel ben Yehuda Landau, who in his 18th-century work, Noda B’Yehudah, wrote that it might even be acceptable for Jews to hunt for sport in certain cases. Since animals were creat-ed for people’s use, the logic goes, it could be argued that deriving pleasure from the sport of hunt-ing is a tangible use.

Even if the question of wheth-er it is permitted for Orthodox Jews to hunt can be murky, the rules of Shabbat are clear, and the Sunday hunting ban remains an issue in states other than Pennsyl-vania.

The Sunday Hunting Coalition, which includes the National Rifl e Association, the National Shoot-ing Sports Association, and the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance among its members, is lobbying for leg-islation to repeal Sunday hunting bans in the 11 states that still have full or partial bans on the books. Unlike Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecti-cut, and Delaware, which all have full Sunday hunting bans, states such as Maryland and West Vir-ginia have partial bans in which Sunday hunting laws are decid-ed by individual counties. Accord-ing to Jake McGuigan, the National Shooting Sports Association’s di-rector of state affairs and govern-ment relations, this year’s efforts are focused on repealing Virginia’s Sunday hunting law; Pennsylvania is next on its agenda.

The Virginia General Assem-bly recently passed House Bill 1237, which would allow Sunday hunting on private property. Writ-ten permission from the property owner would be required. The bill is expected to pass the Virginia State Senate this week and signed by Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who has publicly expressed his position in favor of the measure.

This article is exclusive to JNS.org.

Hunting Bans CONTINUED FROM P. 12

Rinat to Host Rabbi Avishai David

Teaneck—This Shabbat, Cong. Rinat Yisrael, 389 West Englewood Ave.,

hosts Rabbi Avishai David, Rosh Hayeshi-va, Yeshivat Torat Shraga, Jerusalem. Rab-bi David will speak after Friday evening’s Kabbalat Shabbat, deliver the Drasha at the 9:00 a.m. minyan and speak after Shabbat mincha (5:20 pm) on: “Halachic Parameters for the Recitation of Hallel.”

Rabbi Avishai David heads Yeshi-vat Torat Shraga in Bayit Vegan, and is the rabbi of Beit Medrash Torani Leumi

in Beit Shemesh. He studied under Rab-bi Joseph Dov Soloveitchik and received his smicha from RIETS. After serving as rabbi in Providence, St. Louis, and Toron-to, Rabbi David became the Rosh Hayes-hiva of Michlelet Mevaseret Yerushalay-im (MMY) and then of Torat Shraga. A much sought after teacher and speaker, he is the author of Dorosh Darash Yosef, a sefer on the weekly parsha based on the shiurim of Rabbi Soloveitchik.

For questions, please call 201-837-2795.


NEWS

tions from heart surgery. He was just 64 and his untimely death was shocking. “So much of what he did we will nev-er know—but he changed the world,” said Rabbi Ephraim Wachsman of Monsey, in his eulogy of Stern, who was a member of CBY since the late 1970s.

The turnout was much larger than expected. Police car headlights and fl ares lit the night as offi cers attempt-ed to direct traffi c; an adjacent room in the beis midrash was opened so those standing in the back could sit, but it was standing room only and the overfl ow crowded the hallways.

Rabbi Yossie Stern was born in 1949 in Brooklyn to Holocaust survivors and moved to Teaneck with his young family about 40 years ago. He started his career as a teacher and eventually went into the jewelry business. It was during this time that he became aware of a family in his shul that was in deep trouble, and decided to refocus his life on helping others, in a modest, unas-suming, and confi dential way.

In 2001, the rabbi became found-er and executive director of what is today one of Jewish Bergen Coun-ty’s most prized chesed organizations and a model for others in the Jewish world: Project Ezrah. It was his brain-child; he personally developed its goals, priorities and protocols. When we praise the good Project Ezra does, we are praising Yossie Stern.

Project Ezrah and its staff, its as-sociated volunteers, contributors and board members do chesed every day in our community, and there is a time and place to talk about the project. But now is the time to acknowledge the individual contributions of its leader—who never sought the spot-light, who never took credit; who was a model of human kindness and a gi-ant of chesed.

“We don’t know what it’s like when a pillar is removed from us. His life was bounded by Torah, avodah (work) and gemilus chassadim (acts of kind-ness),” said Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, mara d’asra (spiritual leader) of Con-gregation B’nai Yeshurun and a close friend of Rabbi Stern. Pruzansky told some stories of his personal regard for Stern, sharing how he was a gavra rab-ba. A gavra rabba, according to Rab-bi Isaac Bernstein, z”l, is not simply a talmid chacham (an expert in Talmud-ic law), but someone who lessens Jew-ish suffering, someone who loves Jews

so much, he will do whatever neces-sary to lessen their pain.

Pruzansky said Rabbi Stern was a great friend and a personal support to him and many others in the commu-nity. He was a fi xture in the shul, often learning b’chavrusa (with a partner) at all hours of the day and night, and al-ways present in a quiet supporting way, never without a caring, friendly face.

“His mindset, his goal was always on the prize—to bring help and comfort to Jews,” Pruzansky said. “He helped hun-dreds of people get back on their feet. His goal was to help people in the short term, put them back on their feet, with self-respect. He always said this to oth-ers: You will weather this storm, you will be able to handle your fi nances, you will recover, and you will help oth-ers.”

“Many of these stories cannot be shared,” said Rabbi Ari Zahtz, Congre-gation B’nai Yeshurun’s assistant rabbi. He was referring, of course, to the pri-vate struggles of so many in the com-munity. People who stood to lose not only their homes or possessions, but their children, their marriages; people who needed urgent help in the short term, and a new vision for their lives in the longer term.

Sometimes, these were not people simply down on their luck, or having a little trouble fi nding a new job; there

were diffi cult cases, people who need-ed a reason to get up every day and continue. In some cases, people who came to Rabbi Stern needed a new ca-reer; in other cases, clothing and food and help with the rent. But in all of the cases, they needed a loving heart and a kind face to tell them it was going to be okay.

Rabbi Zahtz described how when we experience something traumatic in life, we “can choose to take it with us in our lives, or leave it behind,” he said. Rabbi Stern decided to take his expe-riences, and the stories of others, and use what he learned to help more peo-ple. The effects are beyond measure. “His work and effect on Bergen Coun-ty cannot be fathomed.”

“Even when things are diffi cult, es-pecially when things are diffi cult: ‘It’s all good,’ my father would say,” said Shai Stern, one of Rabbi Stern’s sons. This too, is min hashamayim (from heaven).

“If you blend the loving heart to want to help someone, with the chachma to understand how to help someone, that was Rav Yossie,” said Rabbi Wachsman.

“He was my rebbe in chesed. He taught me what it means to care,” said Zahtz.

Rabbi Stern is survived by his wife Rivka, and children Devorah, Nava, Shai and Effi e and their families.

Community Mourns R’ Yossie Stern, zt”l

CONTINUED FROM P. 1

50 Eisenhower Drive, Paramus, NJ 07652 • (201) 820-3900

Zvi S. Marans, MD President

Jason M. Shames

Rabbi Yossie Stern

Founder and Executive Director of Project Ezrah. We salute his lifelong dedication to Jewish learning

Y’he Zichrono Baruch. May his memory be for a blessing.

The Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey

OF NORTHERN NEW JERSEYJewish Federation



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Record Number of U.S. Dentists Planning Aliyah Take Israeli Ministry of Health Licensing Exam in New Jersey

Paramus — An unprecedented num-ber of 20 dentists from around the United States who are planning to make aliyah recently gathered to take the Israeli Den-tistry Licensing Exam, which was held for them at the Nefesh B’Nefesh offi ces in Paramus, New Jersey. This is the largest group ever to take the test outside Israel.

Dentists who immigrate to Israel must pass the Dentistry Licensing Ex-

amination given by the Ministry of Health’s Dentistry Department in or-der to practice their profession in Isra-el. The test has two parts—theoretical and practical—and takes place twice a year in various languages. Following the unique cooperation between Nefesh B’Nefesh and the State of Israel’s Min-istry of Health, it was decided that the dentists would be given the opportuni-

ty to take the fi rst theoretical exam in the United States to help expedite the process of obtaining an Israeli license and make the process easier for them. The dentists still have to complete the practical part of the exam when they ar-rive in Israel. This part of the exam must be taken within three years of taking the theoretical exam.

“I think it’s an amazing thing to be able to have the opportunity to take the Israeli Government’s Dentistry Licensing Exam while I am still in the U.S.,” said Debbie Goldschmiedt of New York City, one of the dentists who took the exam. “This new option is saving a lot of wait-ing time and energy, and more impor-tantly, it will enable me to start work-ing as a dentist and earn a living in Israel shortly after my aliyah.”

Debbie Goldschmiedt - Planning to Make Aliyah

Nefesh B’Nefesh To Hold Mega Fair in Times Square on March 9th New York—Nefesh B’Nefesh will be

conducting an Aliyah Fair in con-junction with Israel’s Ministry of Ali-yah and Immigrant Absorption, The Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Kay-emeth LeIsrael and JNF-USA. The Ali-yah Fair, which will take place in New York on March 9th, will incorporate Al-iyah-related seminars and workshops, as well as personal consultations with staff from The Jewish Agency for Is-rael, Tzofi m Garin Tzabar and Nefesh B’Nefesh, including representatives from the ‘Go North’ and ‘Go South’ programs. Representatives from var-ious Israeli municipalities, high schools and universities, MATI busi-ness development for entrepreneurs, real estate developers and agents, fi -nancial consultants, insurance agents and shippers will also be present for participants to consult with.

The Israeli Minister of Immigra-tion and Absorption, MK Sofa Land-ver, will be the guest speaker at the

New York event. Participants will ben-efi t from workshops and seminars on various topics such as: Careers in Isra-el, Financial Planning, Taxes & Budg-eting, The Israeli Healthcare System, Introduction to the Aliyah Process, Al-iyah Rights and Benefi ts and the ‘Go North’ and ‘Go South’ Programs. In ad-dition, representatives of The Jewish Agency for Israel will speak about the process for verifying Aliyah eligibility and the various programs it offers to assist immigrants in their transition to Israeli life.

To date, Nefesh B’Nefesh has as-sisted over 38,000 Olim. More than 50,000 North American and British Jews have attended Nefesh B’Nefesh pre-Aliyah informational seminars throughout the US, Canada and UK, including specially tailored programs, events and individual counseling ses-sions. For a full schedule of these Ali-yah fairs, please visit www.nbn.org.il/mega


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MUNICIPAL CORNER

Fair Lawn Road ImprovementsBy Kurt Peluso, Fair Lawn Council Member

Fair Lawn roads have been heavi-ly damaged because of harsh winter

weather. We have too many potholes, and water main breaks are becoming more and more frequent. The Fair Lawn Council recently added more funding to improve our roads and I will contin-ue to look for long term fi xes to these problems. Since many of the major roads in Fair Lawn are owned by the County and there are some very dan-gerous intersections the County needs to fi x, I will continue to work with Ber-gen County representatives to bring so-lutions to Fair Lawn.

I will also be working on stabiliz-ing our taxes by planning long-term. We have great services in Fair Lawn and we have to fi nd a way to maintain them while keeping costs down. I and

another member of the Council will be working on fi nding long-term solutions for our future.

On the national level, the Biggert Waters Act can have a huge impact on local residents who live along the Pas-saic and Saddle Rivers. I am proposing that the Council reach out to our feder-al representatives in a show of solidari-ty to delay implementation of this act. If the House of Representatives does not prevent this bill from being passed, insurance rates for many of our neigh-bors will increase dramatically.

At our February 25th Council meet-ing, a resident spoke about our U.S. vet-erans’ ongoing needs. I will be working with the Council to petition Congress to do more to help our returning men and women, especially when it comes to funding treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Tackling the Commuter Parking ProblemBy Elie Katz

When I fi rst joined the

Council there was a vote on an ordi-nance to restrict parking on John-

son Avenue between the hours of 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Monday thru Friday. My friend, Mrs. Ross, a resident who lives on Johnson Avenue, was in the audience that evening and I asked her what she thought about the pro-posed parking ordinance. Her re-sponse surprised me.

“Oh yes,” she said. “We need this because we live so close to Teaneck Road and commuters have infi ltrat-ed our street and park all day, leaving us no room for our cars or our guests to park. What’s worse is that several commuters come early in the morn-ing, wake us up with the slamming of their car doors, park all day, and when they get home from New York they dump their trash on our lawn.”

I was surprised at the level of her frustration; the parking problem had become so diffi cult that residents were willing to give up some of their own freedom and conveniences in order to control the situation.

Teaneck is one of the largest com-muting towns in Bergen County, and the problem did not end on Johnson

Avenue. Week after week, month af-ter month, a majority of residents living on neighboring blocks chose what I dubbed the “Nuisance Ordi-nance,” restricting parking to the hours of 10 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., Mon-day thru Friday. It is a Nuisance Or-dinance because the restrictions are a nuisance to both the commuters and the residents. In fact, ultimately, rather than solve the problem, it ac-tually ended up pushing the problem along to adjacent blocks.

The parking restrictions acted as a band aid solution to the commuter parking problem. On one street, the police department conducted a sur-vey over a period of four days. Of the 103 vehicles recorded, 72 were from out of town. I spoke to our town-ship attorney and was advised that Teaneck streets belong to every Te-aneck taxpayer and we can’t allow only residents from a certain block to use the parking exclusively on that one block. Council can restrict out-of-town commuters from parking, but that would not solve the prob-lem, since many of the commuters lived in Teaneck and drove from one side of town to the other to park near a bus line.

I knew that we, as a community, needed to encourage and help facili-tate commuter parking. Mass transit is good for the environment, conven-

ient for residents and most impor-tantly saves money. I was empathet-ic to the homeowners who lived next to the bus line and who simply want-ed quality of life and a place to park by their own home.

Every commuter has his/her own little secret commuter parking spot in town tucked away on residen-tial streets that were not yet saddled with the “Nuisance Ordinance,” and as long as the neighbors didn’t com-plain, then it was safe to park there. But that solution was always short-lived as block by block, streets along the bus routes on Teaneck Road and River Road were quickly becoming restricted parking areas. In 2009, NJ Transit estimated that over 11,000 people daily started their bus route in Teaneck. That number has since increased.

Representatives from NJ Transit said they were very willing to reroute buses to Teaneck commuter lots. The problem was that Teaneck simply did not have a large parking lot to accom-modate that much volume. After ex-amining all of our municipal and mer-chant lots and fi nding that there was not suffi cient space, I turned to Far-leigh Dickenson University and Glen-pointe, two of Teaneck’s largest prop-erty owners, and asked if we could use some of their parking lot space for resident commuter parking. Both FDU and Glenpointe were very sym-pathetic, but they simply did not have the available parking spaces. Bergen County representatives said they were not able to accommodate commuter parking in Overpeck Park. Holy Name Hospital was looking for more parking for its own use, so it couldn’t offer help either. A New York bus service that runs a daily route to Port Authority and Wall Street was not willing to stop in Teaneck. The owner of the Spanish Transport Agency who operates the little green buses that travel on Route 4 daily was asked if he would consider running a

daily shuttle service to take commut-ers to bus lines, take seniors to shop-ping and doctors visits, and take res-idents around town from one point to another. Although he thought the idea had merit, he could not fi gure out the economics to make it work.

Determined to fi nd a solution, I held a commuter parking meeting with residents when I was mayor to get their feedback and suggestions. We placed fl yers on car windows, ad-vertising the commuter meeting in-formation, along blocks around the bus routes that had not yet adopted restricted parking rules. The meet-ing was very well attended, and some non-Teaneck commuters attended as well. The bottom line was that we needed to fi nd a way to create a commuter parking area, chase away the out-of-town commuter parkers, and help give our residents who live on blocks around bus routes their streets back.

Without a large lot to work with, I collaborated with the Manager and Council to create several pocket commuter parking areas in town for which residents can purchase an an-nual tag. Problem solved? Not exact-ly, but it is being worked on and ad-dressed with the limited options we have. I intend to continue to work on the commuter parking problem in Te-aneck and to keep adding more con-venient commuter parking options.

Teaneck Commuters can go to the Clerk’s offi ce and purchase a com-muter parking tag for $50.00 per year (less than $4.25 per month) and park in the following designated com-muter parking areas: Teaneck Road/Beveridge Street Lot; Teaneck Road/ Church Street Lot; Teaneck Road/ Or-chard Street Lot; Queen Anne Road/ Degraw Avenue; American Legion Drive/North Street/ Chestnut Avenue State Street Parking Lots (between Palisades Avenue and Teaneck Road). And we are working on three more ar-eas.

For more information, email me at: [email protected] or call me at 201-715-5179.


LOCAL NEWS

Documentary Highlights Jewish Home at Rockleigh’s Unique Alzheimer’s Care By Elizabeth Kratz

Rockleigh—Alzheimer’s slowly takes away the special memories—as

unique as fi ngerprints—that we share with our family members. As those who have looked after aging parents and grandparents are painfully aware, it is considered a degenerative disease, and while its causes are unknown, its well-understood phases are progressive and can last many years.

According to a new documentary fi lm featuring local residents, people affl ict-ed with the illness most often require a “continuum of care,” which starts out perhaps with a social worker or medical professional visiting the patient at home, and extends to differing degrees of other support: day habilitation, kosher “meals-on-wheels,” assisted living, or longer term care. Their families also are in great need of support.

The fi lm, part of the Visionaries docu-mentary series, describes the experience of fi ve local families dealing with varying stages of the disease as part of a profi le of the unique, collaborative approach of the Jewish Home Family, based in Rock-leigh, New Jersey.

Narrated by veteran fi lm and televi-sion actor Sam Waterston, Visionaries is a non-profi t documentary fi lm series made by Massachusetts-based Bill Mosher and Elizabeth Turner for public television. It is presented by WGBH-Boston and dis-tributed to 140 public television stations around the country. Funding for the doc-umentary was provided by both national supporters and by local members of the community in Bergen County, who care passionately about giving this issue a na-tional stage.

The Alzheimer’s narrative is a personal one for fi lmmaker Mosher he told JLBC. “When my mother came to live with us on Cape Cod, the only help available for us was private nursing care. There was and remains only a patchwork of ser-vices with home care, day care, support groups, nursing care, all separate and un-connected to each other,” he said.

Mosher added that his team looked at 125 care facilities before choosing the

Jewish Home Family to profi le. “Most of the organizations we reviewed toss around the phrase ‘continuum of care,’ but they had made no commitment to keep folks in their homes. There are very few organizations that can step in at the moment of diagnosis and stay with the family through end-of-life care,” Mosher said.

Alzheimer’s, which is the most com-mon form of dementia, affects many as-pects of an individual’s personality, rob-bing people of their memories little by little. People affl icted begin to forget even the names and faces of their loved ones, who are often the very people car-ing for them as the illness progresses. Therefore, the families are in great need of support as the illness moves forward, and the Jewish Home Family is sensitive to this.

For example, in the documentary a husband described how his wife was part of the Jewish Home Family’s day health care program, but as the disease pro-gressed he became unable to care for her at home. While he began to visit her eve-ry day in her new long-term care setting, each evening she said she was ready to “go home.” Instead of explaining that she is “at home,” which caused considerable distress, he now takes her out for a half hour drive, only to bring her right back to

her long-term care facility at Rockleigh. Strategizing about the least painful or

disruptive way for families to respond to their loved ones in the midst of the dis-ease is part of the kinds of palliative ap-proaches discussed in the targeted sup-port group that the Jewish Home Family hosts, which seeks to assist family mem-bers at every stage of the disease. Anoth-er husband described how it was helpful for him to hear experiences of those deal-ing with other stages of the illness, so he can look to the future, plan, and prepare

for those stages that his wife has not yet reached.

“The show we produced demon-strates that it is possible to help a fam-ily foresee and plan the future. That is huge,” said Mosher.

“We’re not just responding to the need in very focused way, but we have our eyes wide open, and we understand that the experience that people have with Alzheimer’s disease means there’s a need for a continuum of care—be that with home visits, adult day care, assisted living, or even long-term nursing home care,” said Melanie Cohen, the executive director of Jewish Home Family.

“When we were contacted a year ago by Visionaries, they were interested in doing a profi le of an organization that had a successful model for people serv-ing those with Alzheimer’s disease,” said Cohen. “Visionaries is trying to bring at-tention to organizations that are making a difference, with approaches and ideas that can be replicated in other commu-nities.”

The 26-minute fi lm about the Jew-ish Home Family is set to air on stations nationally early next month. While our local public television affi liates may choose to air the documentary anytime, the fi lm can also be viewed at the Jew-ish Home Family website at http://www.jewishhomefamily.org.

The Jewish Home Family hosted a “Cruise Week” at the Rockleigh facility complete with music and dancing for the participants.

Veteran television actor Sam Waterston hosts the documentary that profi les Rockleigh’s Jewish Home Family.


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LOCAL NEWS

“Waste Not Want Not”Shearit HaPlate of Bergen CountyBy Estelle Glass

Teaneck—According to a recent Huff-ington Post Survey, Americans end up

throwing away nearly half of their food, almost $165 billion worth, wasted annu-ally. In fact, an average family of four ends up disposing of up to $2, 275 worth of food each year.

About 10 years ago, Josh Klavan, a Ber-gen County resident, decided to do some-thing about this excess. Inspired by a sim-ilar organization in Monsey, he started Shearit Ha Plate, a non-profi t organization dedicated to collecting, repackaging, and donating leftover food to those in need. Josh acknowledges that through his “ded-

icated and diverse volunteer base they are not only able to rescue food that is going to waste but also help so many people in our community that can use the assistance.”

Through Shearit Ha Plate, individuals in need, or those who know of such indi-viduals, can contact the organization and arrange to pick up meals that are stored and refrigerated in a volunteer’s garage. These donations come from the leftovers of local kosher businesses and caterers with accepted kosher supervision, such as Ma’adan, Best Glatt, Poppy’s Bagels, Shelley’s, and Sababa Grill among many others. Because of kashrut concerns, no personally prepared food is accepted. Josh and his wife Esther personally pick

up the food from the donors and dedi-cated volunteers then repackage the do-nations so they can be picked up for de-livery within 24 hours. The recipients are treated respectfully and the pickups are private, always maintaining the self-es-teem of the individuals involved.

Now that Purim is approaching, the organization is gearing up for its annu-al Post-Purim Food Drive. There will be a pod stationed outside co-founder Yoni Lieber’s home at 1212 Kensington Ave., Te-aneck, where one can drop off all those extra, packaged Shalach Manot candies and drinks. No opened boxes or loose candy will be accepted. Other drop-off points are at local shuls: Keter Torah, Ri-nat, Beth Aron, Beth Abraham and Sha-rei Tefi lah, as well as at residences at 927 Red Road and 777 Dearborn Ave. both in Teaneck and 178 Sherwood Place in En-

glewood. All donations will be directed to various children’s centers like Tomor-row’s Children, food pantries, and even to our servicemen. Donating your extras in this way is a wonderful way to avoid those calories, perform a mitzvah, and clean for Pesach at the same time.

To learn how to donate food or mon-ey to Shearit Ha Plate, please visit their website at SHPBC.org. or call 225-don8-fud. All monetary donations are tax ex-empt and are used to cover the cost of refrigeration and repackaging of food. If you wish to become a volunteer, contact Susan Fisch at srdfi [email protected], Fern Amper at [email protected], or Daniel Chazin at [email protected].

This Purim and all year long let’s avoid unnecessary waste by donating to Shearit Ha Plate so that others can have enough to eat.

NORPAC Hosts Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA)NORPAC recently sponsored Sena-

tor Mary Landrieu (D-LA) at a sit-down dinner hosted by Jack Halpern at Abigael’s restaurant. Sen. Landrieu has worked to strengthen collaboration be-tween the U.S. and Israel on energy de-velopment and has authored legislation that bolsters that relationship by encour-aging increased cooperation between the two countries’ academic, business, gov-ernmental, and other sectors. In Octo-ber 2011, Sen. Landrieu organized the fi rst ever oil and gas trade mission to Israel with the help of the Department of Com-merce and the critical work of the South-west Louisiana Economic Development Alliance.

Senator Landrieu is a sponsor of the bi-partisan Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act (S.1881) introduced by Senators Menen-dez and Kirk to impose further sanctions on Iran if it does not reach a satisfacto-ry agreement on its nuclear program after the interim 6-month deal. She is among the 16 Democrats who signed on to the legislation, even though the bill is unpop-ular with the administration.

NORPAC members thanked the Sen-ator for her staunch support, and asked her where she saw the future of U.S. rela-tions with Iran going. She answered that, while she favors diplomacy, the bill gives President Obama the tools to make head-way with Tehran’s leaders.

Senator Landrieu recently became chairwoman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee which handles is-sues ranging from offshore drilling and revenue sharing to nuclear power gener-ation and the creation of national parks. She communicated her excitement at Is-rael’s recently discovered offshore gas fi elds, which could potentially keep the country energy-independent for almost a century, and she looks forward to advanc-ing America’s joint research with Israel on energy development projects. Her new position, coupled with her strong stance on Iran and commitment to energy re-search and development, makes Mary Landrieu an important Member of Con-gress to the U.S.-Israel relationship.

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Legal Services, Jewish Family Service, Jewish Women International (formerly B’nai B’rith Women), National Council of Jewish Women, and one of the founders of Tomchei Shabbos.

“These were all Jewish women that were aware that there were problems go-ing on with domestic violence, but the services were not organized and were not designed to address these problems,” said Esther East, executive director of Jewish Family Service of Clifton and Pas-saic.

“Out of these monthly meetings Pro-ject S.A.R.A.H. evolved in 1999. The name stands for Stop Abusive Relationships At Home,” East explained.

Project S.A.R.A.H is today a statewide project with the central offi ce in the Jew-ish Family Service in Clifton. The organi-zation has three pillars: community out-reach, direct services, and prevention. Its philosophy is to remove barriers to treat-ment.

“One of our original goals was not to create multiple services but to create one service for all the families in New Jersey. It works in the Jewish Family Service sys-tem throughout the state. For example, a woman in Cherry Hill can call JFS locally and say she needs services through Pro-ject S.A.R.A.H and she will get someone trained in domestic violence response to work with her,” East explained.

The small staff at Project S.A.R.A.H is

led by Elke Stein, director of domestic vi-olence and sexual abuse services at Jew-ish Family Service of Clifton and also Pro-ject S.A.R.A.H’s director. She is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), who works with a rabbi (who is also a social worker) who does rabbinic outreach, as well as three other clinicians who work on clini-cal services, outreach, and prevention ac-tivities.

“We provide a kosher kit, which is available at every women’s shelter in New Jersey at any time, which will pro-vide enough non-perishable kosher food for 24-48 hours for a woman and three children until we can get better food to her,” said Stein.

The staff in all these shelters has now been trained to have understanding of the cultural and religious needs of Ortho-dox Jewish women. “If you can imagine for a moment that you are already in cri-sis and running away from a home into a communal living system, but the fact that the staff will have basic understand-ing of your need for Shabbos observance and kosher food will reduce the amount of trauma,” said Stein. “There was and is a tremendous amount of denial about the problem,” said Stein. “We had to address the issue by dealing with the denial, so we had to do a lot of community educa-tion. We are constantly involved in edu-cation and training,” she said.

“Denial exists at every level in our community, so that many women them-selves are also in denial. Parallel to the project of working on denial—once we break through—we have to have the ser-

vice available,” Stein said. Abuse happens even in the most ob-

servant homes, even though we all know that Jewish law in theory should pro-ject people from this, that every person should be treated respectfully. Sexual abuse and domestic violence is the lack of respect for the integrity of another hu-man being, Stein explained. “How can you be an observant Jew and do this, is a question asked very often,” said Stein.

All services in Clifton are free of charge. While every Jewish Family Ser-vice has its own policy in terms of servic-es, many go to the Clifton location for an-onymity, said Stein.

Project S.A.R.A.H created clinical ser-vices with mental health support and training. Dr. Cheryl Kramer, a nation-ally recognized expert in domestic vi-olence trained the staff so they would be equipped to take these cases. Eve-ry Jewish Family Service in the state of New Jersey has been trained with Project S.A.R.A.H.

“We’ve added the prevention piece in the last few years. If we can prevent a woman or a man (we do have men who are victims) from getting into these sit-uations, we can spare them years of an-guish and heartache,” said East.

“We also have gone into the area of prevention of child sexual abuse, where we have brought the Aleinu Safety Kid program to schools in New Jersey. It is a national child sexual abuse preven-tion program, with three parts: a parent program, a teacher program, and a child program. We have brought it to many

schools in the last few years, including Moriah, Yavneh, RYNJ, and BPY. And we’re going back to the schools a second time,” said East.

The Aleinu program was developed by Debbie Fox and the Jewish Family Ser-vice in Los Angeles. She came and trained Project S.A.R.A.H staff at the Hillel School in Passaic about four and-a-half years ago. “Since then we have been the provider of those services in the New Jersey area,” said Stein.

Types of services that Project S.A.R.A.H. provides are direct clinical ser-vices, support groups for men and wom-en, psychiatric services, vocational coun-seling, and children’s services—both for children who have witnessed domestic violence and for those who are child sex-ual abuse victims. Project S.A.R.A.H bene-fi ciaries also have access to pro-bono le-gal services.

The program started with a very small federal grant from VAWA, the Violence Against Women Act. “It identifi ed Jew-ish women as an underserved group, be-cause the barriers are religious and cul-tural, with a lot of shame and denial, because the community is so intercon-nected,” East said.

“Both the state and the federal gov-ernment recognized that we needed spe-cifi c services to reach this population. They provide the broad funding to keep us going. But it doesn’t come every year, and it’s restricted. So private fundraising fi lls in the gaps between what’s covered

Project S.A.R.A.H. CONTINUED FROM P. 1

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Please join us at our8th Annual Breakfast

Sunday, March 23, 20149:30 – 11:30 A.M.

Congregation Rinat Yisrael389 West Englewood Avenue

Teaneck, NJ 07666

Keynote Speaker

DR. DAVID PELCOVITZ Gwendolyn & Joseph Straus Chair in Jewish Education

Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, Yeshiva University

Guest of Honor

LORETTA WEINBERG New Jersey State Senator

Community Service Award

RABBI NEIL AND ANDREA WINKLER

Aleinu Hero Award

MOLLIE KIDORF FISCH

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Project S.A.R.A.H.Stop Abusive Relationships At Home

by services and what things actually cost us,” said East.

“We have a federal $100,000 grant now for outreach and prevention that is ending in September, and that grant is not going to be available anymore. So we’re going to be seeking private funding to fi ll that gap.

“As our outreach efforts have im-proved, the whole project has expanded because more people are taking advan-tage of the services. It takes an enormous amount of time for people to be able to move something in their lives, so they can walk out the door. It can take years,

whether they stay in their relationship or not. We have built the services around each family. We have never turned any-one away,” said East.

“One of the reasons we have been able to do this is because of the generosi-ty of the Bergen County community. The annual breakfast is the largest fundrais-ing we do each year,” said Stein.

The annual breakfast is on Sunday, March 23, at Congregation Rinat Yisrael in Teaneck. The guest of honor is Senator Loretta Weinberg, the New Jersey Senate Majority Leader. Rabbi Neil and Andrea Winkler, Mollie Kidorf Fisch, and Sara Schlussel will be honored with service awards. The keynote speaker is Dr. David Pelcowitz of Yeshiva University. Sign up to attend the breakfast at http://project-sarah.org/.

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would spend hours convincing members of Congress to continue to support Isra-el, and to fi nd a way to let Iran know that the U.S. and her allies were serious about sanctions. The conference followed on the heels of a White House meeting be-tween Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama.

The meeting between the two lead-ers, which followed a blunt interview the President gave to Jeffrey Goldberg, a reporter for Bloomberg, raised tensions before the confab. On the Sunday before the AIPAC conference, the President told him that “time was running out” for Isra-el and said, “There comes a point where you can’t manage this anymore, and then you start having to make very diffi cult choices. …Do you resign yourself to what amounts to a permanent occupation of the West Bank? Is that the character of Israel as a state for a long period of time? … If Palestinians come to believe that the possibility of a contiguous sovereign Pal-estinian state is no longer within reach, then our ability to manage the interna-tional fallout is going to be limited.”

In the Goldberg interview, Obama also described the Israeli government’s settlement policy as “aggressive” and urged Netanyahu to take the next step. “If not now, when? And if not you, Mr.

Prime Minister, then who?” Obama asked rhetorically.

Among those at the conference were AIPAC members from Bergen County and Riverdale, as well as Chairman of the Sen-ate Foreign Relations Committee, New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, who warmly welcomed the 500 members of AIPAC’s New Jersey delegation. When he sent out the text to his speech, he also sent out a Purim message to the Jewish community nationwide. He wrote:

“The timing of the speech seems fi t-ting because too often the past is, truly, prologue, and next week—March 15th—is the start of Purim, a holiday that marks the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient empire of Persia—now Iran. As the story goes, a plot had been hatched to destroy all Jews in the Persian empire, but Mordecai and his adopted daughter, Esther, foiled the plot and the day of de-liverance became a day of celebration and feasting: Purim.

The parallel is all too obvious when it comes to the situation today in the Mid-dle East, and the protection of the Israe-li people from the threat posed by a nu-clear Iran. Let us pray that—if the time should come—together we will be like Mordecai and Esther, we shall foil Iran’s nuclear plot, and deliver the Jewish peo-

ple again as well as protect the world from a nuclear threat.

In his speech, Menendez mentioned Obama’s upcoming trip to Israel, and said he was hopeful that with, “we will not only re-engage and re-connect but we will make real progress towards a two-state solution. …But let’s be clear. If we are to get there, it is critical that the Palestin-ians come back to the negotiating table and stop the stunts, the distractions, and the grandstanding at the United Nations.”

One of the hottest issues on the agen-da was Iran and as the sponsor of the sanctions bill and three other bills that would act to convince Iran to give up its nuclear weapons development. “The greatest threat to Israel’s security is Iran,” said Menendez. “It is clear to everyone in this room that there can never be any daylight between the United States and Israel. Not ever. But certainly not when it comes to Iran’s drive to achieve nuclear weapons capability. We cannot, we must not, and we will not stand for a nuclear Iran. Period.”

The boycott, divestment and sanc-tions movement was also high on the agenda. Bob Cohen, AIPAC’s new presi-dent-elect, called up AIPAC members to “fi ght exclusion with inclusion.” Nathan Guttman of The Forward thinks the “em-phasis on BDS suggests that AIPAC may be shifting its focus to issues where it can score some easy wins. Unlike President Obama’s fi ercely-defended Iran policies, the anti-Israel movement has few fans among the American people or its elected government, making it a tempting target.”

In his speech to the enthusiastic crowd, Netanyahu characterized BDS as another form of antisemitism. Its propo-nents he said, “openly admit that it they the dissolution of the State of Israel,” and he added that BDS sets back peace by hardening the Palestinian position. He asked “How could anyone fall for the BS in BDS?”

He said that “Beyond our traditional trading partners, countries throughout Asia, Africa, Latin America, these coun-tries are fl ocking to Israel” wanting Israe-li technology. “The BDS boycott move-ment is not going to stop that, any more than the Arab movement could stop Isra-el from becoming a global technological power. They are going to fail.”

At the heart of the conference howev-er, was the special emphasis this year on promoting bi-partisanship—always an AIPAC policy mainstay. Michael Kassen, AIPAC’s chairman of the board, opened the convention by making it clear: “We must affi rm bipartisanship in our own ranks if we want support for Israel to be championed by Democrats and Republi-cans alike,” The Forward’s Guttman not-ed that the message was repeated time and again. In a closed-door meeting of AIPAC’s National Council, Yossi Siegel, its chairman said that it is important to “cre-ate an atmosphere in which everyone can feel at home,” and that political di-versity is the key to AIPAC’s strength. He advised those who go up to the hill and fi nd folks on opposite sides of the aisle going at it, to intervene and make sure bi-partisan spirit is maintained.

AIPAC Packs Them In: Reassessing Power in the Service of Peace

CONTINUED FROM P. 1


EDITORIAL

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

To the Editor:Just wanted to let you know how

pleased I am with the caliber of the Jew-ish Link. I think the articles are well re-searched, the editing is of the fi nest qual-ity (puts the other Jewish- focused papers to shame) and it is balanced.

Unlike most of the other papers, you are also not afraid to print the truth, even when it is unpopular and your reader-ship isn’t very happy to hear it. In short, your paper operates following the high-est principles of journalism.

Many thanks,Jonnie Sofer,

Teaneck

To the Editor:Kudos to Rabbi Steven Pruzansky,

the current spiritual leader of Cong. Bnai Yeshurun of Teaneck, for his brilliant, er-udite and lawyerly rejoinder to Dr. Mark Levie’s defense of Rabbi Avi Weiss.

As is his wont, Rabbi Pruzansky claims that his original letter regarding Rabbi Weiss’s offenses “stated calmly, without personal attacks of any sort” his position regarding Rabbi Weiss’s many “public breaches of Jewish tradition,” as well as Rabbi Weiss’s propensity for “dis-torting the mesorah.” Rabbi Pruzansky’s eloquent attack was delivered with char-acteristically humorous, nay, even scin-tillating turns of phrase. Also, one can’t help but be emotionally moved at his mentioning three times in his commu-nication the fact that Dr. Levie is Rabbi Weiss’s son-in-law, although one won-ders how this is relevant to the Rabbi’s polemic contra Weiss.

His letter’s most memorable sentence was ”it matters little whether the concert (involving a church choir at Rabbi Weiss’s shul) is celebrating the birthday of Martin Luther King, Martin Luther, Dean Martin or Nat King Cole.” This sentence, so rich in innuendo, so replete with racist over-tones, so demeaning towards both a U.S. national holiday and a venerated African American leader—this sentence alone veritably enshrines Rabbi Pruzansky as a prophet in our times, an oracle, a Moses who breaks the tablets over the heads of the Jewish people exclaiming “Oops, sor-ry, they slipped!”

From whence comes Rabbi Pruzan-sky’s ability to scold Rabbi Weiss, a man who has shown boundless chesed to in-dividuals in need, who has risked life and limb on behalf of Soviet Jewry, who has nurtured a community of spiritual growth and development in Riverdale and beyond? Is it that Rabbi Pruzansky envies Rabbi Weiss’s ability to publish a NYTimes OpEd?

Hasn’t Rabbi Pruzansky gained suf-fi cient public, if not international rec-ognition in the past, whether by pro-claiming at Bnai Yeshurun, shortly after assuming the mantle of spiritual lead-ership, that he would “understand” it if someone assassinated then-Prime Min-ister Yitzchak Rabin; or by openly at-tacking former Prime Minister Arik Sha-ron as a traitor to Israel; or by calling for the abolishment of the synagogue’s Isra-el Independence Day celebration in re-sponse to policies of the Israeli govern-ment that he opposed; or by attempting to block a Kiddush for Friends of the

IDF, due to his abhorrence of the Israe-li government’s direction. For someone who claims to have “zero interest in de-bating personalities,” he certainly has been charitable about doing exactly that quite incessantly.

Perhaps we should heed the Mishna’s dictum of “Do not judge your friend un-til you stand in his place.” Perhaps we should sympathize with Rabbi Pruzan-sky’s plight. After all, he spent most of his career as a criminal lawyer and his back-ground no doubt splendidly informs his enlightened approach to evaluating Rab-bi Weiss’s activities.

The Talmud advises us that “Torah scholars spread peace in the world.” Would that this become true in Teaneck, on the pages of the Jewish Link and throughout the Jewish world.

Pinchas S. SteinTeaneck, New Jersey

To the Editor:Rabbi Yossie Stern was an individual

with a special vision and the incredible strength to implement it. The cases that walked through Project Ezrah s doors were heart wrenching and would bring many of us to tears. But Rabbi Stern lis-tened, empathized and had the unique ability to think through the situation me-thodically. Like an experienced doctor, his ability to read an individual and pre-scribe the right action was uncanny. For some it was his affectionate smile and others a fatherly guiding hand. We miss him dearly, but he left so much behind to carry us forward.

We are fortunate that Rabbi Stern

created an organization with great pro-cedural stability and staffed it with very capable talent, trained in his special ways, so that operations could continue to run smoothly under a variety of cir-cumstances. Rabbi Stern s primary con-cern was the welfare of Project Ezrah and its clients and he ensured that wel-fare with a strong organizational archi-tecture.

Project Ezrah never stops working and over the past several weeks the or-ganization has been operating as usu-al; the offi ce staff continues to assist old and new clients. Every day clients are go-ing through hardships and Project Ezrah has been there to assist in every manner from paying a utility bill to helping cre-ate a resume. The organization has been running smoothly under the guidance of senior staff members who are perform-ing the same functions they have been for many years. As members of Project Ezrah s Executive Board we are maintain-ing the same close and continual contact with the organization as we have in the past.

Although our loss is great, Project Ez-rah continues to fulfi ll its objective: to help those in need.

Nahum FelmanBarry Sklar

Daniel WalzmanAaron Wertentheil

Co-Founders/Co-PublishersMoshe Kinderlehrer

Mark (Mendy) Schwartz

EditorJeanette Friedman

Contributing EditorsNina Glick

Elizabeth KratzPhil Sieradski

Advertising Director Yaakov Serle

Associate EditorAliza Chasan

Sales Development Ken Goff stein

Sales Representative Maxine BenderSimon Worman

Technical Editor/

Database CoordinatorMoishie Rosenberg

Sports EditorSteve Gutlove

Designdesign2pro.com

ContributorsSarah Abenaim • Larry Bernstein

Rabbi Sam Frenkel • Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Glick Estelle Glass • Chavie Hagler

Gail Hochman • Robert Katz • Banji Latkin • Harold Nussbaum • Sara Prager

P’nina Seplowitz • Bracha Schwartz Rabbi Mark Staum • Tzvi Silver

Jordana Schoor • N. Aaron Troodler • Chemmie Sokolic • Rayzel Yaish • Nancy

Zweibach • Temimah Zucker •The Jewish Link of Bergen County

PO Box 3131 Teaneck, NJ 07666

Phone: 201-371-3212Email: [email protected]

Advertising: [email protected]/Home Delivery:

[email protected] The Jewish Link of Bergen County, an independent publication,

promotes honest and rigorous conversations about Judaism,Israel and issues aff ecting our community. The opinions refl ected in articles from our contributors do not necessarily re-fl ect JLBC’s positions, and publishing them does not constitute an endorsement from JLBC. We simply off er food for thought. We reserve the right to accept or refuse submissions and edit for content and length. We also reserve the right to refuse ad-vertising that in our opinion does not refl ect the standards of the newspaper. We are not responsible for the kashrus of any prod-

uct advertised in the Jewish Link of Bergen County.

OF BERGEN COUNTYTHE JEWISH LINK

Nafal Ateret Rosheinu

It was a shock. He was just 64, and a lead-er in the community who showed us

how to live. He didn’t lecture us. He didn’t stand at a pulpit and talk. He sat and lis-tened to the sad and desperate circum-stances our neighbors fi nd themselves in, and did something about it. His name was Rabbi Yosef Stern, z”tl—Yossie to many of Teaneck’s old timers, friend and adviser to the then young couples learn-ing to cope with mortgages, parenting, and tuition, some of them in the most dire straits imaginable.

Our eyes fi ll when we consider the enormity of the loss, and realize he is not with us anymore. The crown of our Jew-ish community is suddenly gone, and so

young, with so much left to do—leaving a void at the very heart of our communi-ty that will be hard to fi ll.

How does one replace an erliche per-son and an anov whose door was always open to all, who understood the true meaning of chesed and tzedakah, who sometimes dispensed very tough love, and lived by the notion that it was much more important to teach people HOW to fi sh, instead of just feeding them fi sh? How do you teach his love for the pintele Yid, even for those in the community who seemed to be miles off the derech or nev-er knew it existed in the fi rst place? How many kids did he bring back and help put through school? How many lives did he

save? What do we like to say when we talk about those who rescued Jews dur-ing the Holocaust (and of course, he too, knew all too well about those realities): “He who saves one life it is as if he saved a nation.” How many nations has Yos-sie Stern saved? We will never know, be-cause Yossie kept it all quiet. Anonymous and pristine, transparent and just—the way they taught us about tzedakah when we were kids. He kept it pure.

They say that there are among us 36 righteous people who keep the world safe from destruction. We believe that Yossie Stern was one of the 36. May he be a Melitz Yashar for all of us, and hope that we can follow in his footsteps.

We Couldn’t Do It Without You

It is hard to believe how fast a year can go by when you are focused on serv-

ing the contemporary Orthodox com-munity in Bergen. It’s an experience that has opened our eyes into how our neighbors interact, and how we mesh together as a Jewish communi-ty that spans a diverse and well-mean-ing world. We could not make this a successful newspaper without the as-sistance of all of our well-wishers, readers and advertisers, people who channel us news stories, feature writ-

ers, colleagues from the world of Jew-ish journalism, and all of those who have stepped up to the plate to be part of this adventure. (When one of our colleagues in the news business heard what we were about to do, he told us we were out of our minds… in not so polite terms.)

Our partners in this venture include family members, friends, school report-ers, shul reporters, people from local or-ganizations and groups—in a word, all those who care about a Jewish world

with the universal values of chesed, tzedakah, midot and avodah, as well as mesorah and Torah.

We knew it would be a gamble and a rollercoaster ride, as well as a learning ex-perience for all of us. We acknowledge that it is our community that makes us strong and inspires us to do better. With all that, next week we will take another gamble and give the weekly newspaper business a shot. We shall see how it goes, and pray it won’t be too bumpy a ride. Thanks for coming along.


RABBI YOSSIE STERN ZT”L

MOCHABLEU

Our Crown Has FallenThe passing of Rabbi Yossie Stern has

left a hole in our hearts and an abyss in our community. It is said that world exists because of 36 righteous people. Rav Yossie, z’l, was one of them.

By Ari Weisbrodt, February 23, 20014

Dear Rabbi Stern:I will never forget the last words

you spoke to me, about two weeks ago. Like most of the things in your life, our conversation must be kept confi dential. But, the last thing you said was how proud you were of me. I wondered, at the time, if you remem-bered the very fi rst thing you ever said to me. It was about 38 years ago. Most of the other grown-ups in town had written me and my friends off as mis-creants. Not quite ne’er-do-wells. We weren’t bad kids by any measure. Just loud. And insensitive. Maybe a little misguided. It was easier to ignore us.

But you wouldn’t. In your quiet, dig-nifi ed way, you encouraged us to get in-volved in our community. To give back. You singularly reminded us of all the gifts and advantages we received simply because we were growing up in Teaneck, America. You didn’t make us feel bad. Or that we were bad. To the contrary. You made us feel like each of us mattered. Your love for every Jew, every human be-ing, big and small, was an earth-shatter-ing revolution. None of our parents or teachers could reach us in the way you did. And, looking back I realize you did it without trying. You didn’t strategize. Or play games. You did it simply and with-out pretense. As a ten year old, I wanted to be a better person because I wanted you to be proud of me.

Last week, I listened to your son eulogize you. I remember him as a baby. Big cheeks, huge smile, and a giggle that was infectious. I haven’t

seen him in 30 years. He is a man now. You probably knew that. Most of what he said about you, I already knew. Frankly, everyone knew. But, I didn’t know how much he loved you.

That sounds silly. Every child loves their father and everyone loved you. But, he made a case for your legacy that sur-prised me. Yes, you learned Torah all day and night. Yes, you had a jewelry busi-ness. You started Project Ezrah and devot-ed every waking minute to helping the mal-affected fi nd jobs, pay bills, and get back on their feet. I just assumed you did all of this at the expense of your family. After all, we are taught that Moshe Rab-benu’s family life suffered because of his service to Am Yisroel. So, I think you’d get a pass if you couldn’t attend your child’s siddur play. Or parent teacher conferenc-es. Or if you were too tired listening to communal maladies to listen to familial problems.

But, once again, I underestimated you. Listening to your son describe

your life together—business trips, chavrutot, quality time, and some laughs thrown in along the way—lis-tening to how unconditionally, with-out reservation, he loved and respect-ed you, was yet another lesson you taught me. Lots of people contrib-ute. They donate time, money, ener-gy. There are activists and leaders and role models. You have undoubtedly read about them in the newspapers or on their blogs. They are heroes.

But, dear Rabbi Stern, you didn’t want attention. Or respect. You didn’t want anything. Your every breath was motivated by love. Nothing more. You loved your community. You loved people. Jewish, and not so Jewish. You loved your wife and children. And, yes, you loved the young trouble mak-ers who constituted the earliest gen-eration of a nascent Jewish communi-ty in Bergen County.

When you are motivated by love, life is good even when it’s not. Ironical-ly, your heart was fi lled with more love than its walls could hold. Your love just couldn’t fi t. I suppose it was inevitable. The human heart is just not made to hold as much emotion, as much benevolence, as much kindness as you dispensed on a daily basis.

I spent decades chasing your ap-proval. Two weeks ago, it seemed in hand. But, I reject it. I am not wor-thy of your pride. You are a giant and I constantly struggle with my inner and outer good.

You deserve credit for yet another soul. And I pledge mine to your mem-ory. Every day, I will endeavor to per-form an act of love and kindness. Not in your memory or in your honor. You would hate that. But, simply because I should know better.

Thanks to you.

Appreciations From Our Neighbors

We are utterly stunned at Rabbi Stern’s passing, and share with the com-munity the sad realization that a great tzaddik has left us. His boundless ca-pacity to give will remain life lessons for all of us. We know how hard he worked for us, but seeing the outpour-ing of grief and affection expressed on Saturday night, we were amazed at the breadth of his contribution to our com-munity, to Klal Yisrael, and to the world at large. May his memory be a blessing.

A current Project Ezrah client.

I join a long line of those grateful for Rabbi Yossie Stern’s transformative acts of kindness. His ability to push to help, push to elevate and his push to educate any Jew who crossed his path was re-markable and will be greatly missed.

Elyse Hansford

Rabbi Stern, z”l, was an amazing man who dedicated his life to helping

others. He was there for my family after the tragic loss of my late husband Ova-dia, z”l. I will always be grateful to him for getting my family through a very dif-fi cult period. Shamayim just welcomed a wonderful angel.

Susan Lazar Mussaffi

Yossie was the go-to guy, if you knew a family that needed help—all kinds of help. From monetary, job-related or personal problems, he always managed to fi nd a solution. He always did it with a smile and kept it completely confi -dential. He helped so many ba’alei te-shuva in their quest for Jewish knowl-edge, and was readily available at any moment to help. Project Ezra should be named Project Yossie but I guess it al-ready is, because Ezra=Yossie Stern. We should all learn from his example. May his memory be a blessing for all Klal Yis-roel.

Honey Senter


POINT/COUNTERPOINT

Women & Tefi llin and Partnership Minyanim: A Response to Rabbi Herschel Schachter

CONTINUED ON P. 32

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By Aaron Koller

Rabbi Herschel Schachter shlit”a

recently published re-sponsa on two issues that have been hotly debated in the Mod-

ern Orthodox communities, and by others interested in those communities in recent weeks and years. The fi rst subject was part-nership minyanim, in which roles techni-cally open to women but traditionally not afforded them, are in fact given to wom-en. The second was the question of wom-en wearing tefi llin. The responsa are wide-ly available online, and the latter, at least, has been translated into English by a jour-nalist.

I do not have the knowledge or the hubris to disagree with any halakhic de-cisions of Rav Schachter, one of the most knowledgeable authorities of our time, and a teacher from whose writings I have learned much over the years. However, in these cases Rav Schachter relies primari-ly on sociological arguments, rather than halakhic arguments, in arriving at his con-clusions, and on these grounds, there ap-pears to be more to discuss.

Specifi cally, the core argument offered by Rav Schachter rests on two tenets: (1) for sociological and political reasons, partner-ship minyanim and women wearing tefi l-lin are dangerous, and (2) sociological and political concerns are themselves halakhic arguments, and therefore these activities are halakhically prohibited.

There are two reasons why Rav Schachter’s responsa will have basically no effect on the state of these issues – one re-lated to each of the tenets.1

The second tenet of the argument is that rabbinic authorities are uniquely fi t to judge all matters and are not confi ned to the legal domain. Rav Schachter ex-plains that ascertaining the law is a more complex process than looking up a spe-cifi c passage, since the answer is often not where one expects it to be. It should be noted that nowhere in these respon-

1 The dynamics of some of these issues have recent-ly been discussed by Ronit Irshai in a penetrating ar-ticle: “Dignity, Honor, and Equality in Contemporary Halachic Thinking: The Case of Torah Reading by Women in Israeli Modern Orthodoxy,” Modern Juda-ism 33 (2013), 332-356.

sa does Rav Schachter ever explain where the answer to these particular issues may be found. Rav Shachter’s point appears to be that one who has studied enough Torah will intuit the answer to diffi cult questions may not be able to explain where the an-swer is to be found, even post facto.

This position seems to refl ect the idea known as da‘as Torah and, for the most part, those who are involved in partner-ship minyanim and women who wear tef-illin do not believe in its validity. It is not at all clear that this is a break from tradi-tion; in fact, the concept of da‘as Torah the way Rav Schachter understands it is rela-tively recent, and many prominent rabbin-ic authorities in the Yeshiva University and Modern Orthodox camps do not accept such a sweeping claim, either.2 Elsewhere, Rav Shachter spoken of reach ha-halakhah “the scent of the halakhah,” which only great Torah scholars can detect. But this, too, is a claim to which many would not assent.

Rav Schachter’s argument, therefore, is to re-assert something that is itself a point of contention between supporters and opponents of partnership minyanim and women wearing tefi llin. The halakh-ic manual on partnership minyanim quot-ed by Rav Schachter clearly affi rms that halakha can be found in texts, not people, and denies that “great” rabbinic authorities have special powers. For Rav Schachter to simply assert that this is not true is to beg the question, and this kind of argument will have no effect other than rallying the troops.

The fi rst tenet of the argument – the so-ciological considerations themselves – rais-es a more serious issue. WIthin the analy-sis offered in these responsa, the danger of the Conservative movement looms large, just over the horizon, on our left. This was in fact a serious consideration in the 1950s and 1960s, when Rabbi J. B. Soloveit-chik, the revered teacher of Rav Schachter, was offering this type of argument on such issues. It is also the argument that Rav Schachter has been making since at least 1985.3 (It is striking how many times over the course of the two responsa Rav Schachter asserts that a question is moot because Rabbi Soloveitchik already ruled on it.)

It should be obvious that this kind of argument requires competent cost-benefi t analyses of the various options from a so-ciological perspective. No such analysis is provided in either document. In fact, there is good reason to believe that the Ortho-dox community would be putting itself in more serious danger by refusing to allow such innovations as partnership minya-nim than by allowing them. The people in-volved in such initiatives are not on their way to Conservative Judaism – unless they

2 Lawrence J. Kaplan, “Daas Torah: A Modern Concep-tion of Rabbinic Authority,” in Rabbinic Authority and Personal Autonomy (ed. Moshe Sokol; Orthodox Fo-rum; Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1992), 1-60.

3 See the discussion and sources in Adam Ferziger, “Feminism and Heresy: The Construction of a Jewish Metanarrative,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 77 (2009), 494-546.


POINT/COUNTERPOINT

The Boundaries and Essence of Orthodoxy: A Response to Dr. Aaron Koller

By Avrohom Gordimer

Sometimes, a cri-tique is incorrect

because its author did not fully under-stand that which he or she was critiquing.

And sometimes, a critique is incorrect be-cause its author did not appreciate the values, systems, and parameters at play.

In the case of Dr. Aaron Koller’s cri-tique of two recently published halakhic decisions of Rav Hershel Schachter, both of the above characteristics unfortunate-ly apply. (In one decision, Rav Schachter ruled that Partnership Minyanim (public prayer groups which identify themselves as Orthodox, in which women lead parts of the service) are not halakhically sanc-tioned, and in the other decision, Rav Schachter censured the recent permit-ting of girls to lay tefi llin at two liberal Orthodox high schools in New York City.

Although one could quite easily pre-sent a blow-by-blow rebuttal of the de-tails of Dr. Koller’s critique, I am more in-terested in the fundamental issues that underlie the critique—issues which have gained prominence in recent discussion about the boundaries of Orthodoxy, that extend far beyond Dr. Koller’s critique.

(For the record, Dr. Koller misunder-stands Rav Schachter’s decisions as being

based on a “Daas Torah” model, where-as Rav Schachter was instead clearly es-tablishing that halakhic adjudication requires a comprehensive mastery of halakha and the resultant deduction of halakhic axioms and values, both neces-sary to rule on the highly-complex issues at hand. Dr. Koller overlooks the other half dozen halakhic reasons presented by Rav Schachter in these decisions as the bases for his rulings, and he shock-ingly labels Rav Schachter’s decisions, all of which were presented with solid halakhic sourcing, as sociology and not Halakha—all while intermingling verbi-age of deference toward Rav Schachter with that of mild impudence.)

What interests me more in this case is the underlying thesis of Dr. Koller’s cri-tique—a thesis that is common to near-ly every effort to advocate or legitimize contemporary Jewish religious innova-tions under the banner of Orthodoxy. Hence, I utilize Dr. Koller’s critique here as a point of reference for a far broader topic.

Dr. Koller, after his attempt to de-bunk the halakhic methodology of Rav Schachter’s rulings, turns to two fronts: cost-benefi t analysis from a sociological perspective and fi nding meaningful lead-ership roles for women within Ortho-doxy. Let’s look at each of these, as a fo-cus on these same fronts, with the same

arguments, is to be found in the writings of nearly all others who have promoted positions similar to those of Dr. Koller.

Dr. Koller writes:“In fact, there is good reason to be-

lieve that the Orthodox community would be putting itself in more serious danger by refusing to allow such innovations as partnership minyanim than by allowing them. The people involved in such initia-tives are not on their way to Conservative Judaism—unless they are pushed there by responsa that grant them no place in Or-thodoxy. These innovative practices, far from being a gateway to other denomina-tions, may actually be halakhically accept-able ways to keep more people in the com-munity.”

In other words, the need to keep peo-ple within Orthodoxy should validate the practices which Rav Schachter ruled are prohibited, as there is some halakh-ic opinion out there that permits these practices. Aside from the use of sociologi-cal concerns to challenge the integrity of halakhic methodology – a vast area be-yond the expertise of anyone other than halakhic experts of the highest caliber – this position argues that enabling people or actions to identify as within Ortho-doxy is a consideration that should in ef-fect dictate halakhic standards.

Such a position has virtually no prece-dent in halakha and amounts to a radical

reform of the contours of Orthodox Ju-daism. The notion that one should com-promise normative Orthodox standards in order to include within Orthodoxy ac-tions which violate those standards is foreign to Orthodoxy. (Yes, there are rab-bis who consider Partnership Minaynim and other such endeavors permissible, but these rabbis are not halakhic author-ities on a par with those rabbinic sages who oppose such endeavors. The fact that a rabbi of far lesser halakhic exper-tise considers something permissible, or forbidden—especially in a matter of im-mense weight and complexity—does not provide license to follow that rabbi’s opinion, and usually does not at all fac-tor into the halakhic equation.)

Although every effort must be made to bring people close to Torah and iden-tifi cation with Orthodoxy, redefi ning the halachic parameters thereof toward this effort has no basis or sanction. If one feels that he or she cannot fully adhere to halakha, that is one thing, but to rede-fi ne Halacha in a way that classifi es ac-tions which otherwise do not conform to it as halachically sanctioned is unac-ceptable, violating millenia of halakhic tradition and adjudication.

Dr. Koller then turns his attention to the issue of enabling women to fi nd

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are pushed there by responsa that grant them no place in Orthodoxy. These innova-tive practices, rather than being gateways to other denominations, may actually be halakhically acceptable ways to keep more people in the community, if that is a com-munal goal. If these practices are judged to be inherently non-Orthodox, that will be the best way to ensure many people go to the Conservative or Reform movements.

It is no doubt obvious to everyone that these two issues are merely symptomatic of the much broader, and much more sig-nifi cant issue of gender roles in the Ortho-dox community. So let me put it bluntly: the biggest threat to the stability of the Or-thodox community is the inability to ac-commodate to the changed social realities of modern society in ways that are halakhic yet innovative. If the Orthodox communi-ty cannot fi nd space for its women to take on meaningful roles of religious leadership in thought, Jewish law, and practice, then the best, brightest, and most motivated women and men will fi nd a spiritual home elsewhere. Our community’s rabbis, along with our other leaders, must take up this issue in order to steer the Orthodox com-munity in a direction that is both faithful to tradition while ensuring a vibrant future.

In sum, my point is not to criticize the conclusions of the response; there are very serious halakhic issues involved in both

the wearing of tefi llin by women and keri-yat ha-Torah in partnership minyanim. In-stead, my contention is that no matter how cogent the argumentation, these respon-sa will not change the situation at all. The notion that rabbis, even great rabbis, have special powers to craft public policy has al-ready been rejected by the women who put on tefi llin, the Orthodox rabbis and other men and women who support them, the women and men who attend or support partnership minyanim, and many other more traditional Modern Orthodox people. And it remains eminently possible to disa-gree with Rav Schachter’s sociological anal-ysis of the dangers facing our community.

These responsa, then, are the equiv-alents of a politician’s speech to rally the faithful. Those who anyway objected to the innovative practices will point excit-edly to these texts as support for their al-ready-held position. Those who support-ed the practices will deny that these texts have any authority. And all that will have been accomplished is a rise in the rheto-ric of condemnation and denunciation that all too often plagues our communi-ty. For our community’s sake, more discus-sion and open dialogue, and less condem-nation, is needed in the near future.

Aaron Koller is a professor of Jewish Studies at Yeshi-va University.

Women & Tefi llin and Partnership Minyanim: A Response to Rabbi Herschel Schachter



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mas realized that if they have any chance of fi nding a light at the end of the tunnel, it won’t be in the Rafah region, but actu-ally at the Erez and Kerem Shalom cross-ings, which link Gaza to Israel.”

Hazem Balousha, a contributor for Al-Monitor’s Palestine Pulse, gave a very ac-curate description of the enormous em-barrassment felt by the movement’s leaders over the relationship between senior Hamas member Ghazi Hamad and the Israeli Gershon Baskin, a relationship that emerged out of necessity because there were no other options. It is worth remembering that the private channel between Baskin and Hamad succeed-ed in the past, when all others failed, in obtaining the release of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. This channel has continued to operate on oc-casion, even after the deal was reached, particularly when it became necessary to relay messages rapidly between the two parties to avoid military escalation.

But the Baskin-Hamad channel is not the only channel of communication be-tween Hamas and Israel. Another im-portant and even more intricate means has been put together via Qatari repre-

sentatives who link Israel and Hamas, and even relay position papers between the leaders of the two sides, doing so with the support of senior leaders in the wealthy emirate.

Ever since the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in July 2013, Qatar has been accused by the new Egyptian re-gime of supporting the Muslim Brother-hood. The charge is based mainly on the openly critical position taken by the Qa-tari news network Al Jazeera toward the overthrow of deposed President Moham-med Morsi by the Egyptian military.

Suddenly, and with no prior collu-sion, Hamas and Qatar fi nd themselves sitting together in the defendant’s chair. They have both been accused of collab-orating with the Muslim Brotherhood, arch-nemesis of the new Egyptian re-gime.

Qatar currently funds several large economic projects in Gaza, such as the establishment of a large hospital. It also funds the building of new infrastructure and the renovation of existing decrepit infrastructure. This includes Gaza’s crum-bling sewer system, which poses a health risk to Gazans (while threatening Israel’s groundwater resources). Qatar also in-vested tens of millions of dollars to pave Salah al-Din Road connecting the north-ern Gaza Strip with the south.

Furthermore, Qatari architects, en-gineers and other professionals, along with some foreign experts representing Qatar, enter Gaza through the Erez Cross-ing with permits issued by Israel in coor-dination with Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign

Affairs and Economy Ministry.Additionally, the Qataris have com-

mitted to procuring all required raw ma-terial from Israel, not only because they have no other choice, but intentional-ly, out of the belief that this would sof-ten the Israeli position. The purchases are currently valued at tens of millions of dollars, and in the coming years the total investment could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. In other words, Is-raeli corporations benefi t from the exist-ence of projects funded by the Qataris in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas also benefi ts because the pro-jects enliven Gaza’s battered economy by providing employment for hundreds of locals. And the Qataris believe it bene-fi ts them because they see Israel as a vi-tal bridge to the heart of the US admin-istration.

One of the Qatari intermediaries of-fered the following cynical description of the emirate’s activities in the Gaza Strip: “We are rebuilding the ruins left by Israel in Gaza, while at the same time helping the Israeli economy.”

This business collaboration has also resulted in the creation of a “diplomatic” channel of communication between Qa-tar, Israel and Hamas. Qatar is helping to relay messages between the head of Ha-mas’ political bureau, Khaled Meshaal, and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Hani-yeh on one side, and Israeli contacts on the other. One of these is a prominent Is-raeli businessman, known to be a close confi dante of Israeli Prime Minister Ben-jamin Netanyahu. Unlike the Baskin-Hamad channel, which is used to relay messages as quickly as possible in times of crisis (or to prevent an impending cri-sis), the Qatari channel was created to es-tablish long-term strategic understand-ings between Hamas and Israel.

Hamas and Israel, through Qatari me-diation, realize now more than ever that

neither of them will vanish from the map. This means that they must reach an understanding that will enable them to live together.

Similar attempts in the past have end-ed in failure. In the spring of 2006, for example, Meshaal sent messages to Is-rael through a European intermediary, to no avail. Now the situation is differ-ent. The confl uence of interests could lead to accommodations that could nev-er have been reached in the past. The Ha-mas movement is in crisis and suffers from prolonged isolation. Israel is fi ght-ing off a wave of international boycotts, and it is obvious to everyone that any new military adventure in Gaza, justifi ed as it might be, would harm Israel’s pub-lic image.

What remains to be bridged is the psychological barrier. The leaders of Ha-mas deny, and will probably continue to deny, having any contact with Israel. After many years of bloody warfare be-tween Hamas and Israel, and with so many ideological red lines set up by the movement, any compromise, indeed even any contact with Israel, could be considered an act of surrender by the general public in Gaza and elsewhere. Meanwhile, in the eyes of most Israelis, Hamas remains a terrorist organization, which means that there can be no con-tact with it whatsoever.

But reality inevitably trumps ideolo-gy. So far, common interests have man-aged to bridge even the most impossible of chasms.

Read more: http://www.al-moni-tor.com/pulse/originals/2014/03/qatar-egypt-gaza-israel-investments-communi-cation-channel.html?utm_source=Al-Monitor+Newsletter+%5BEnglish%5D&utm_campaign=ee03aca8c9-January_ 9_20141_8_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_28264b27a0-ee03aca8c9-93120189#ixzz2v0e22uXl

The Qatar Channel Between Gaza and Israel

CONTINUED FROM P. 1

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ME’ACHAOREI HAPARGOD

Repeating My Vows on our One Year AnniversaryBy Robert Katz

My fi rst column in the fi rst ever is-

sue of JLBC ended with the following words:

31 years later, and the boys have not returned: Yehuda Katz. Zvi Feldman. Zachary Baumel—all three in the same battle with nary a word of their fate, except for a shard of a military dog-tag that found its way to the grimy hands of Yasir Arafat.

Countless prime ministers, presidents and politicians both in Israel and the world over have come and gone, many of them having stained the world with their greed and corruption. Netanyahu? Sharon? Olmert? Barak? Peres? Rabin? Shamir? Begin? Where are they? Why hasn’t their return been negotiated? God only knows.

Welcome to my fi rst column in this fi rst edition of this brand new newspaper. How could I possibly not devote it to Yehu-da? As I stand in shul every Shabbos and hear his name read among the missing, I want to burst out and cry. Out of sorrow. Out of frustration.

Dear God. Bring them home already.Sometimes, I guess, we have to pray a

little harder for the things we so desper-ately want. Or maybe He isn’t able to de-liver- because while God created a beau-tiful world, it is man- not to mention terrorists- who destroy it.

On June 11, 1982, at the age of 22, Ye-huda Katz was captured at the battle of Sultan Yakoub, at the same time as Zvi Feldman, Zachary Baumel, Hezi Shai and Aryeh Lieberman. Hezi Shai and Aryeh Lieberman were later freed in a prisoner exchanged. Zachary, Zvi and Yehuda remain captives, held incommu-nicado for over 31 years.

Oh there are websites devoted to the MIA’s release, but few have been updat-ed in the last decade, it seems. Jewish Virtual Library has a page devoted to them. Number of times shared? 0. Face-book likes? 0. “Google” the latest news of “Yehuda Katz, Israeli soldier,” and the

page stares blankly and harshly right back at you, cruel in its refusal to yield any information. Israel’s own Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not updated their Soldiers Missing In Action page since October 2012. Really?? Yes really. They still list Gilad Shalit as missing.

Should I be so naïve as to think that International Red Cross would get in-volved? How about our good friends over at Amnesty International? The Na-tional Council of Young Israel is famous for its embrace of the Jonathan Pollard case. Who among our alphabet organi-zations will step up after all these years and say, “Yeah, it’s worth it—let’s re-

visit the Israeli MIAs.” Malcolm Hoen-lein, Chairman of the Conference of Presidents—talk to us. Go right ahead folks—use it as a fund raising tool. At this point, I don’t think any of us care, other than to see him brought back home- dead or alive. Even evidence of his passing would be meaningful. Let the family sit Shiva, let the world pay their respects, allow his brother Avi to say Kaddish, and bring an end to this embarrassing chapter in Israel’s brief history.

Thousands of Arab terrorists with blood on their hands have been re-leased since Yehuda’s capture. Released for other MIAs like Gilad Shalit and not just in trade for Jewish fl esh, living or dead, but for the chance at peace. Has no one had the negotiating skills to pull aside an Arafat, an Abbas, and say, “look, just give us the damn info or else no one gets released?” I’m incredulous.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m too close to the situation. Maybe 32 years is too long a time. Maybe the difference makers have given up. Maybe the Chief Rabbin-ate is too scared to rule on their status. You go tell that to the Katz, Baumel and Feldman families. And to the families of Ron Arad and Guy Hever too. Not me.

Yehuda Katz is my second cousin and a boyhood idol of mine. I hereby public-ly repeat my vow to keep his memory alive through the pages of this newspa-per, on each and every Jewish Link an-niversary.

Yehuda Katz on right with other members of my family.

POLITICAL PONDERINGS

Overcoming the TurbulenceBy N. Aaron Troodler, Esq.

I will not easily forget my recent trip to Israel. The

magical experience of be-ing in Israel is only part of

that. What I will remember most is a con-fl uence of events and conversations that caused me to contemplate the current situ-ation in the Jewish State in a very meaning-ful and substantive way.

It began on the fl ight from New York to Tel Aviv. Prior to taking off, the pilot in-formed us that we would probably experi-ence some degree of turbulence during our journey because of the weather. I’ve been caught on many turbulent fl ights, but the turbulence we encountered on that fl ight was unlike anything I’d ever experienced be-fore. For more than half an hour, the plane rocked back and forth and bounced up and down. The severity of the turbulence had me, as well as my fellow passengers, won-dering if we would make it to Israel in one piece. One woman seated behind us won-dered aloud if she would ever see her chil-dren—who were not traveling with her—again. It was a harrowing experience.

Once we landed safely, I realized that that kind of turbulence was especially ap-propriate on this trip to Israel because Israel is presently experiencing her own version of turbulence and is on an extraordinari-ly bumpy ride. With the tension between the various religious camps and the secular

community at fever pitch, Israel is on the precipice of sociological calamity. There are distinct differences of opinion on an array of issues, including army service for those in the haredi world and the role that reli-gious life should play in Israeli society.

My wife and I were pleasantly sur-prised when our daughter, who is current-ly in school in Israel, met us at Ben-Gurion Airport unannounced. Together, we took a taxi from the airport to Jerusalem. During our journey, the taxi driver, Eli, engaged me in conversation—in Hebrew. Our dialogue quickly morphed into a deep philosophical and sociological discussion, putting my lin-guistic skills and conversational Hebrew to an early test.

Eli is a secular Jew who goes to shul twice a year—on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. He is also a very proud Israeli. He served in the Israel Defense Forces and con-tinued his military service in the army re-serves. As we drove along Highway 443 and passed a number of Palestinian villages, he spoke of our Arab neighbors with great dis-dain.

Despite his lack of connectivity to re-ligious life, Eli told me that the most im-portant thing to him is Jewish identity. He wears his Jewish identity on his sleeve and noted the Jewish pride which manifests it-self in everything that he does. We said our good-byes in Jerusalem, and spent our fi rst Shabbat in Efrat.

Chofni, the taxi driver who drove us

to Tel Aviv from Efrat, is an observant Jew. While he has never been to the United States, he told us he has visited Italy, Eng-land, and Germany, though he did not truly enjoy those countries because he was con-cerned about antisemitism and never felt at ease there. Chofni declared he only feels comfortable in Israel.

As we drove through the winding hills, Chofni pointed out the majestic beauty of the land and the spectacular scenery. He told me that the more people come to Isra-el, the better off Israel and the Jewish peo-ple will be. “Eretz Yisrael belongs to Am Yisrael, and Am Yisrael belongs in Eretz Yisrael,”Chofni proclaimed.

After the deep discussions with our driv-ers and spending some time observing in-teractions between Israelis hailing from varying points on the religious spectrum, I realized the turbulence Israel is experienc-ing is self-infl icted and certainly avoidable.

My two drivers, one secular and one re-ligious, may have different perspectives, yet there is a commonality that ties them together. There is a deep love of Israel that transcends any ideological divides. The grat-itude they feel for having the privilege of living in a Jewish State that they proudly call home is genuine. The appreciation they have for the Land of Israel and all of its nat-ural beauty and historical and cultural sig-nifi cance is heartfelt. They are two people with divergent backgrounds who share an unbreakable bond, namely, their love of Is-rael.

As Israel continues on its turbulent jour-ney, we ought to spend more time fi gur-

ing out how to repair the potholes on that bumpy road so we can have a smooth ride. Israelis [and all Jewish people] must stop highlighting the disparities between them and focus on the one unifying factor that can help them rise above their differenc-es: their appreciation of the Jewish State. While Israel may mean different things to different people, there is no denying the fact that it is the Jewish homeland for all Jews, irrespective of one’s religious beliefs or background.

Yes, army service requirements and re-ligious doctrines are important issues that merit a healthy debate. However, we can-not allow disagreements over these issues to tear at the fabric of Israeli society and cause a rift that further exacerbates an al-ready tenuous situation. People need to take a step back and stop fi ghting amongst themselves in order to focus on the things that unite us, not divide us. As we Jews fi ght a needless and senseless internal battle, our enemies on the outside view the infi ght-ing as a sign of weakness and it emboldens them.

By shifting the focus to the love and ap-preciation of Israel that virtually all of us feel, perhaps we can help stop the turbu-lence and enable the Jewish State to move forward smoothly.

N. Aaron Troodler is an attorney and a principal of Paul Revere Public Relations, a public relations and political consulting fi rm. Visit him on the Web at TroodlersTake.blogspot.com, www.PaulReverePR.com, or www.JewishWorldPR.com. You can also fol-low him on Twitter: @troodler


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Pioneering Consortium Advances Role of Research in Jewish EducationWith permission from e-jewishphilanthropy.com

The Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education (CASJE) has an-

nounced a fi rst-of-its kind collabora-tion among practitioners, researchers, and funders of Jewish education. With gifts to the Stanford University Gradu-ate School of Education, the Consortium will lead efforts to identify key education questions, assist researchers in design-ing more robust methods, and facilitate work that translates research fi ndings into strengthened practice—in informal and formal Jewish education.

The key to the Consortium is creating the conditions for collaboration among scholars of practice and scholarly practi-tioners in the world of Jewish education. Those involved with the Consortium al-ready include a host of scholars from over 20 universities, hundreds of practi-tioners in an array of Jewish education venues and organizations, and a small but growing contingent of funders from across the Jewish world.

Offi cials from the AVI CHAI and Jim Joseph foundations told eJP they will be supporting this effort with, respectively, $2.1 million and $1.5 million—for a total of $3.6 million—an unprecedented in-vestment in applied research in Jewish

education. Gifts are intended to provide a portion of the support needed for the work of the Consortium over the next six years. The gifts follow initial contri-butions totaling $450,000 in 2011 from the two foundations, along with sup-port from the Mandell and Madeleine Berman Foundation, with which initial Consortium partners developed “proof of concept,” and evolved the fi rst itera-tion of the Consortium’s goals and struc-ture.

Over the last two years, a group of more than 350 researchers, graduate stu-dents, practitioners, strategic funders of Jewish education, and leading scholars have worked to launch the Consortium. Their aim was straightforward: creating an enterprise that would strengthen the reach and effectiveness of Jewish educa-tion by basing content, strategy, and de-sign on the results of applied research. CASJE is based on a three-part model: re-search, practice, and support from phi-lanthropists interested in the growing fi eld of Jewish education. All three el-ements will address the most serious challenge facing practitioners: building programs with high quality evidence to guide their educational strategies. In March, the Consortium will begin ac-cepting proposals (in response to its fi rst

RFP) for applied studies in Jewish educa-tional leadership.

They also focused on promoting re-search in three key areas of research: the development of educational leaders in Jewish education, teaching and learning about Israel, and the fi nancial sustaina-bility of Jewish education. They brought together leaders from Jewish day schools, camps and other educational settings with university scholars, along with lead-ing philanthropists in the sector, to iden-tify priority issues for research and new ways to promote such work.

Over the next six years, CASJE’s goals are concentrated in three key areas:

Sponsoring, managing, engaging, and sharing research: In order to invest en-ergy and resources most productively, CASJE will work collaboratively with re-searchers, practitioners, and funders to determine which important research questions to pursue and ensure the re-sulting fi ndings are shared and applied.

Developing funding strategies for ap-plied research in Jewish education: CAS-JE will work with an array of philan-thropic actors to develop and support the core work of the Consortium, and specifi c programs of applied research.

Expanding the talent pipeline of Jew-ish education researchers: CASJE will ex-

pand the opportunities for new schol-ars (doctoral students, recent Ph.D.’s) to participate in signifi cant research pro-jects and benefi t from mentorship by senior scholars. In addition, the work of the Consortium will include identifying and cultivating “cause-friendly” senior re-searchers and emerging scholars in the fi eld of general education.

“We at AVI CHAI believe that devel-oping a strong evidence base, as well as a culture and processes for creating and using it, is within reach,” said Yossi Prag-er, the AVI CHAI Foundation’s executive director for North America. “Since such an evidence base will advance the fi eld’s ability to make education, program, and funding decisions.”

Chip Edelsberg, executive director of the Jim Joseph Foundation said, “This collaboration of such diverse individu-als, some of whom have never before contributed to the study of Jewish edu-cation, is unlike anything I have experi-enced in more than 20 years of Jewish communal work. The collective hope of these accomplished academicians and talented Jewish education practition-ers is that CASJE can catalyze an entirely new generation of applied research to in-form, improve, and enrich Jewish educa-tion on an ongoing basis.”


POINT-COUNTERPOINT- REDUX

meaningful roles within Orthodoxy:“[T]he biggest threat to the stability of

the Orthodox community is the inabili-ty to accommodate to the changed social

realities of modern society in ways that are halakhic yet innovative. If the Ortho-dox community cannot fi nd space for its women to take on meaningful roles of re-ligious leadership in thought, Jewish law, and practice, then the best, brightest, and most motivated women and men will fi nd a spiritual home elsewhere.”

This argument, representative of those of many other advocates for halakhic innovation in the interests of egalitarianism, has confused Orthodox Judaism with Western secular political and professional systems. The basis for such systems is that of rights; every mem-ber of the party, every practitioner, and every constituent should have the right

to lead and the right to fi nd self-fulfi ll-ment through free practice. The focus is on personal expression and self-advance-ment, whether for altruistic or self-serv-ing reasons. Western secular society has placed great import on self-realization and the individual being able to serve as a leader and practitioner in any sphere that he or she so desires, and the above sentiments of Dr. Koller and others re-garding Orthodoxy fi t into that model.

In contrast, the essence and purpose of Torah observance is submission to God, of surrender to His Will. Rav Soloveitchik zt”l articulated this beautifully through the message of the Akeidah (the Binding of Isaac), wherein the foundational val-

ue of Torah being that of surrender to the Divine Imperative is elucidated. As one of my friends commented, Judaism is about responsibilities, whereas Western secular values are about rights. It is not that anyone’s rights should be denied, but when it comes to Torah values and practice, religious expression must fl ow from a sense of surrender to the Will of God and not be manifest as a form of self-advancement, the expression of privileg-es and rights, or a demand to lead, result-ing in departure from Orthodoxy should this demand not be realized. Such an ap-proach wholly misunderstands what Or-thodoxy is about.

While Rav Schachter’s recent deci-sions may not infl uence any hard-core advocates of Partnership Minyanim and of women laying tefi llin to change their ways, the decisions will enlighten those who are unclear about these issues, and the decisions serve the critical role of ex-plaining both what goes into halakhic adjudication as well as the complex hala-chic factors and forces that must be part of the process. Moreover, these decisions of Rav Schachter affi rm that there are in-deed meaningful boundaries to Ortho-doxy that can only be formulated with great halackhic mastery and gravitas, and that legitimate manifestations of Torah practice must always emanate from sur-render to the Will of God and never be an expression of the Will of Self.

Avrohom Gordimer (CSL ’96, RIETS ’93, ‘YC 89) is a member of the Executive Committee of the Rab-binical Council of America, as well as the New York Bar. The opinions in the above article are solely those of the author and do not refl ect the opinions of any other individuals or entities.

The Boundaries and Essence of Orthodoxy: A Response to Dr. Aaron Koller


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Etz ion Dinner on April 2 The Etzion Foundation (Yeshivat Har

Etzion and Migdal Oz) will hold its Annual Dinner on April 2, 2014 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in NYC. With the theme Generation to Generation, this year the Foundation is honoring Da-vid and Dassie Schreiber of Woodmere with the Dor l’Dor Award; Rella Feld-man and her daughter Mindy Hecht of Teaneck with the Gemilut Chasadim Award; and Rav Mordechai and Debby Friedman of Alon Shvut with the Keter Torah Award. Special Guest, Chief Rab-bi of Great Britain Ephraim Mirvis will deliver the keynote address. For more information or to make reservations/donations, please contact the Etzion Foundation at 212-732-4874 or visit us online at www.thegushdinner.org.

Beth Aaron Celebrated its 38th

Honoring the Friedmans and the Feinbergs

Teaneck—Two couples instrumental in building Congregation Beth Aaron

into the thriving kehilla it is today were honored by 275 guests at the shul’s 38th Annual Journal Dinner recently. Guests of Honor Roz and Ira Friedman were feted for 23 years of service to the shul. With his fi nancial background, Ira offers his expertise as the Financial Arrange-ments committee chairman and negoti-ator of the rabbi’s contracts and led the Constitution Committee. Roz, as a librar-ian with a love for children, participated in the Library Committee, was chairper-son of the Youth Committee, and served on the Rabbinic Search Committee. They are also involved in several communi-ty efforts and work quietly behind the scenes to help those in need. The Shelly Leffel Service Awardees, Barbara and Kal Feinberg, will be making Aliyah this sum-mer to join their children who have al-ready forged that path. They have been in Teaneck since 1974, when Beth Aaron was

a nascent congregation, with just a small group of families, and they have been involved in its growth ever since. Kal served in numerous capacities on several committees from Building to Dinner to Gabbai. Barbara was involved with many shul activities, and served as Sisterhood president for two years. Most notewor-

thy to current members is that Kal has served as a very talented Baal Tokeah for 36 of the last 37 years, blowing shofar for the main minyan on Rosh Hashanah eve-ry year. Rabbi Larry Rothwachs, beloved rabbi for the last 11 years at Beth Aaron, spoke fondly of each of the honorees and made presentations to them on behalf

of the shul. Kal spoke movingly about the meaning of shofar and shared one last tekiah with the kehilla at the end of the evening. He also presented a shofar from his private collection to the shul as a keepsake. For more information about Cong. Beth Aaron, and to be hosted for a Shabbat, visit www.bethaaron.org.

David and Dassie SchreiberMordchai and Debby Friedman

Rabbi Ephraim MirvisRella Feldman and Mindy Hecht

Rabbi Larry Rothwachs and Beth Aaron President Larry Shafi er (r) presenting Ira & Roz Freidman with gift

Rabbi Larry Rothwachs (r) and Beth Aaron President Larry Shafi er presenting Kal & Barbara Feinberg with gift


EVENTS

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Seminar at Beth Aaron: Investing in Israeli LifeTe a n e c k — B a r u c h

Labinsky, author of the critically acclaimed book, A Financial Guide to Ali-yah and Life in Israel, will speak at Congregation Beth Aaron on Motzei Shabbat, March 8, at 8:30 p.m. The free program will provide practical tips and informa-tion for those contemplat-ing aliyah as well as offer-ing tips to those who want to offer fi nancial advice to their children and/or grandchildren living in Israel. He also will discuss excellent investment op-portunities in economically sound Israel and offer suggestions on how one can improve portfolio diversifi cation, while

simultaneously supporting the State of Israel.

Licensed by the Israel Securities Authority as an investment portfolio man-ager, Baruch specializes in working with olim (new immigrants), who are suc-cessfully transitioning their fi nances to Israel. Baruch lectures regularly for aliyah organizations in Israel and around the world on var-

ious fi nancial topics. He made aliyah in 1993 from Canada and has lived in Beit Shemesh with his family for the past 17 years. Mr. Labinsky can be contacted at fi [email protected] or 011-972-2-991-0029.

OHEL’s “Devoted Dads” Workshop Draws Capacity ParticipantsBrooklyn—OHEL recently hosted

over 40 post-divorce “Devoted Dads” in a workshop for the non-residential father. The need to address the specif-ic concerns and challenges of the non-residential parent was clearly evident as fathers came from as far as Lakewood and Long Island to attend this event in Brooklyn.

David Mandel, CEO of OHEL, not-ed the increasing rate of divorce in our communities and how non-residential fathers have the opportunity to great-ly impact the development of their chil-dren. Dov Wilkes, LCSW from OHEL’s Tikvah Center, discussed the various

changes that fathers and children ex-perience as a result of divorce. Practical techniques were offered for Devoted Dads to utilize in both their visitation and their on-going communication with their children. The challenge of Devoted Dads feeling stigmatized was addressed as well, and the need to de-velop support systems was emphasized throughout the event. The response was enthusiastic and participants stayed to talk long after the offi cial event end-ed. They asked that more workshops be held so that they could learn more. Fa-thers can stay tuned for the next work-shops at ohelfamily.org/devoted

Student Diplomats Debate International Politics @ YUNMUN

New York—Over 450 delegates con-vened in early February for the Ye-

shiva University National Model Unit-ed Nations (YUNMUN) conference, held at the Stamford Plaza Hotel and Confer-ence Center in Stamford, CT. YUNMUN XXIV brought together student ambas-sadors from 46 yeshivas and community day schools across three continents, hail-ing from 15 states and 39 cities around the world. In addition, 60 YU undergrad-uates and 65 faculty advisers joined the conference, which is a student-run simu-

lation of the workings of the real United Nations that allows participants to learn about the complex landscape of interna-tional diplomacy.

Prior to the event, students were as-signed a country and appointed to one of 15 committees dealing with issues of in-ternational concern, including the Coun-ter-Terrorism Committee, the Interna-tional Criminal Court, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Children’s Fund. To argue their points ef-fectively, students conducted research

on that country’s interests and policies, adding to their knowledge of world af-fairs and to their facility with communi-cation and critical evaluation.

This year’s conference included pres-entations from Ambassador Ido Aharoni, consul general of Israel; Rabbi Kenneth Brander, vice president for university and community life; David Mitzner, Dean of the Center for the Jewish Future; YU Pres-ident Richard M. Joel; and Rabbi Lord Jon-athan Sacks, Kressel and Ephrat Family University Professor of Jewish Thought.

Isaac Wolfe, a junior at the Akiva He-brew Day School in Southfi eld, MI, at-tended for the second time. He represent-ed Turkey in the United Nations Human Rights Council and took home the award for best delegate. “The highlight of the event is the people who are attracted to YUNMUN,” Wolfe said. “These people are smart, but they know how to have a good

time. Everyone in my committee had an awesome time with each other debating and arguing, but at the end of the day we always found ourselves laughing togeth-er.”

“I love the dialogue, the intellectual stimulation and most of all, all the types of kids that come,” said Moshe Klein, a senior at the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy in Rockville, MD, who repre-sented the United Kingdom as a member of the Security Council. “I gained a lot of life skills such as public speaking, socia-bility, and confi dence.”

YUNMUN XXIV also featured an up-dated range of Research and Media Center services open to help facilitate a more productive and interactive confer-ence. Closing ceremonies included the presentation of awards to the best dele-gates and honorable mentions for each UN committee.

25th Anniversary to Benefi t MADD and BIANJTwenty-fi ve years ago, Steven Benven-

isti’s parents were asked to donate his organs as he lay in a coma for 10 days after being struck by a drunk driver. Miraculously, Steven fully re-covered and now dedicates his life to helping the injured as an attorney and partner at the law fi rm of Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C.

On March 25, 2014, Steven’s fami-ly, friends, and colleagues will gather at Seasons in Washington Township to celebrate the 25-year milestone and, more importantly, to honor and bene-fi t two charities he holds close to his heart, Mothers Against Drunk Driv-ing and The Brain Injury Alliance of New Jersey, hosted by Davis, Saper-stein & Salomon, P.C. Donations made by guests will go directly to their char-ity of choice and representatives from each charity will be on-site to educate attendees on their cause and raise ad-ditional money through various raffl es and fundraisers.

Mothers Against Drunk Driv-ing is a non-profi t organization es-tablished by a mother who lost her daughter to a drunk driver’s reck-lessness. The organization’s mis-sion, “to stop drunk driving, sup-port the victims of this violent crime, and prevent underage drink-ing,” highlights the importance and signifi cance of every donation. An-other non-profi t organization, The Brain Injury Alliance of New Jersey, was founded by the parents of chil-dren who suffered from brain inju-ries. BIANJ creates support groups, advocates for brain injury victims, and raises awareness through edu-cation and prevention campaigns.

If you are interested in attend-ing the event or would like to make a donation, please contact Dan-ielle Craft at Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C. by email: [email protected] or by telephone: 201-907-5000.


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Fifth Avenue Synagogue Yom Iyun On Sunday

Sunday, March 9, 2014 New York—Saturday night we change the

clocks and lose an hour. How do you make up that lost hour? Join us at Fifth Avenue Syn-agogue and make every minute mean some-thing. This year speakers are fl ying in from Is-rael, Miami, Toronto, and Baltimore. There are six sessions offered for each of the three hours of the seminar, offering 18 topics rang-ing from psychological, religious and political insights to studies of Purim, the month of Adar, Jewish Art, Jewish humor, Jewish music and much more. Complimentary breakfast. Fam-ilies, singles & children welcome. Great Chil-dren’s Program, lunch included, ages 3-11, 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Admission is free. Fifth Avenue Synagogue 5 East 62 Street, NYC 10065, (212) 838-2122 www.5as.org. RSVP to (212) 838-2122 or [email protected] Questions? Email Yom Iyun Chair and FAS President, Jacob D. Gold, at [email protected]

TABC Honors Six on March 30

Teaneck—Torah Academy of Bergen County (TABC)’s 31st Annual Dinner will take place on Sunday, March

30, 2014 at Congregation Keter Torah. The gala begins at fi ve o’clock in the evening with hundreds of attend-ees expected to be on hand to honor this year’s well deserved individuals for their contributions to TABC. This year, TABC honors Isaac and Wendy Shulman, Alisa and Stephen Levy, Dr. Garry Katz, and Yaacov Apfelbaum.

Isaac and Wendy have been residents of Te-aneck for 35 years or so. Isaac has been on the TABC Board of Directors for 18 years and has been involved in several development projects, includ-ing chairing an earlier building project back in 2003, and now chairs the building committee. Wendy and Isaac are founding members of Con-gregations Rinat Yisrael and Zichron Mordechai, where Isaac ran the building project for its new building.

There is virtually no part of the new TABC Building that has not been touched by the tal-ents of Alisa Levy. As Chair of the Interior Design Committee, Alisa has applied her good taste and remarkable attention to detail to every square inch of the new TABC. Alisa also serves on TABC’s Board of Directors, and helped launch and man-age the Teen Learning Program, and chaired the Recruitment Committee. Alisa also sits on the Executive Board of the Teaneck Mikvah Associ-ation, is involved in its day to day management and co-chairs its Annual Women’s Event. Ste-phen is president of Leasco Automotive Sales & Leasing.

Dr. Garry R. Katz is in his 40th year in the fi eld of education. For the last 12 years he has served with distinction as a highly respected histo-ry teacher and as the Director of College Guid-

ance at TABC. He presently teaches AP Honors Amer-ican History to the tenth and eleventh grades and AP US Politics and Government to the twelfth grade. As TABC’s Guidance Counselor, he has introduced many

new initiatives and programs to help our students earn acceptances to the colleges that are right for them.

A graduate of TABC’s Class of ’01, Yaacov Apfelbaum is a dedicated Alumnus who more than 10 years later con-tinues to give back to his Yeshiva. After graduating high school Yaacov learned at Reishit Yerushalayim, and then continued on to study Accounting at Yeshiva Universi-ty. In a short time, Yaacov has gained valuable profes-sional experience working at Ernst and Young, Medco Health Solutions, Warner Chilcott, and most recently, at Actavis. During his years at YU and continuing until to-day, Yaacov has served in coaching capacities for both the TABC JV and Varsity Hockey Teams (he is presently Assistant Coach for the Varsity Team). Yaacov is married to Aliza (Strassman).

For more information, please call Teri Normand, Ex-ecutive Director, at 201-837-7696 x 115, or contact us at [email protected].



FOOD

Elegant Tastings on the Hudson: Kedem’s Kosher Food and Wine Experience Goes UpscaleBy Bracha Schwartz and Jeanette Friedman

New York City—Imagine a room the size of a football

fi eld and a triple-decker ba-teau mouche (yes, a boat tied to Pier 60) fi lled with literal-ly thousands of alcoholic bev-erages and tons and tons of kosher “bites”—the kind we would see on ABC’s The Taste…or the bottles and bottles of mixologist competitions on cable TV—all of it overlook-ing the glittering Hudson Riv-er as it refl ects the light from the cityscapes on both banks, and where at least 1,500 most-ly Orthodox foodies mixed and mingled.

Dozens of caterers, restau-rateurs, and purveyors (like Sa-bra salads, Abeles & Heymann) set up on the west side of the pier, facing the twinkling lights atop the Jersey Palisades. On white linen cloths and fancy plastic plates, they turned out tastes of their signature dishes.

The eastern side of the pier was fi lled with tables display-ing hundreds of wines from 32 international vineyards and myriad liquors from around the world—from the fi nest un-blended Scotches and a slew of icy vodkas, to the sweetest cor-dials, and all in between. (Spir-it selections were only avail-able to members of the press and folks in the biz.) All of them owned and/or distributed by Royal Wine Corporation, spon-sor of the always sold-out event. (Tickets were $45 person.)

For desserts, guests had only to walk through a door and climb a gangway to be wel-comed aboard the Hornblower Hybrid, a glass-encased bateau mouche, washed with pink-tinted spotlights highlighting the mixology bar, featuring Bartenura Moscato as its main cocktail ingredient. The bar-tender, a pro from the Burning Waters Cantina on MacDougal Street, offered dessert wines and trendy cocktails.

Fancy cakes produced by Teaneck’s own Cake & Co. on Queen Anne Road offered cake pops and a display of Cake Boss-worthy creations. And for those who preferred their cal-ories with lots of sugar, there were sweets, cookies, and gela-tos in abundance. The hottest sweet fl avor of the night? Any chocolate/peanut butter com-bo. “Tea-totalers” found their niche at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf station, while others could sip some delicious fresh-brewed French roast before heading home.

This year’s attendees came from what seemed to be all walks of Contemporary Ortho-doxy. Couples of all legal ages—from married couples in their 30s-40s dressed in upscale busi-ness attire to shidduch dates and college kids who wanted to socialize (gathering in droves around Got Cholent?’s table). In previous years, there had been a much larger haredi presence, and people more interested in eating than buying product and networking. While many guests came to enjoy, many others came to seek out prod-ucts for their shops and servic-es. And that is what the Wine and Food Experience is really about.

Gary Landsman, a former Royal marketing executive now involved in a new start-up business, said the fair was designed to showcase wine for the coming Purim and Passo-ver holidays. “Royal has a beau-tiful, large portfolio of over 1,000 kosher wines. People are afraid to deviate so this is an opportunity to taste and per-haps fi nd a new favorite.” It’s also a place for parents to shop for caterers if they have a sim-cha in the offi ng.

Teaneck’s own Etc. Steak-house was represented by owner and TABC alum Seth Warsaw. He served a delecta-ble morsel of pink peppercorn crusted rib-eye steak with red amaranth salad, orange zest scallion and pomegranate mo-lasses, followed by chocolate caramel peanut nougat, a high-light of the show.

Across the aisle, Chagall Bistro, a two-year-old French restaurant in Park Slope, Brooklyn, served a beautiful bite-sized stack of applewood smoked-salmon, a millefeuille with basil focaccia, bowfi n caviar and celery root coulis, and another bite of cured duck pastrami with relish and bal-samic ginger emulsion—tru-ly a feast for the eye as well as the palate…and worth a trip to Brooklyn.

Pomegranate, Brooklyn’s mega source for fresh and pre-pared food, had the largest dis-play with four different sta-

tions: prepared sausage; hot foods; dips and salads, and Shabbos classics.

Le Marais, the Manhattan steak house, offered grilled hanger steak with a ragu of winter vege-tables, while JewMaican of-fered authen-tic Jamaican food that tast-ed as if it were just fl own in from Negril or Montego Bay.

Silverleaf Caterers had a beautiful display with plates of what they call Mos-chata Duch-

esne Salad: roasted butternut squash, tahini, fresh pome-granate, and kale. Wolf and Lamb served a bite of pastra-

mi-wrapped marinated apri-cots with ginger glaze and pineapple chutney. Abeles & Heymann offered a pepperoni product that any Italian would love.

Come Purim, some people may drink until they do not know Haman from Morde-chai, but those who attended the Kosher Wine and Food Ex-perience at least know the dif-ference between cabernet and chardonnay, and have a new take on kosher tastes.

Bon Appetit!

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FOOD

Comfort-Stuffed VegetablesBy Lisa Reitman-Dobi

Attractive stuffed vegetables dress up any fi sh or dairy meal, and their petite

size is ideal for your next hors d’oeuvre platter. You don’t have to wait for small, spring vegetables; a mature zucchini or yellow squash cut in quarters, mushroom caps, and year-round small tomatoes are perfect. I like to use a small melon-baller to scoop out the interior fl esh, but if you do not have one, a demitasse spoon gives you the control you need to keep the veg-etable cups from breaking. You’ll be de-lighted with how they look, and certainly pleased with how they taste! (If you want to make them pareve or are lactose intol-erant, leave out the parmesan cheese and add a pinch or two of your favorite fresh herbs.)

What you need:• Melon baller or small spoon• Medium size bowl• Non-stick sauté pan• Spatula• Small baking dish that doubles as a

serving dishIngredients:

• 1 large zucchini, washed and dried• 1 large yellow squash, washed and

dried• 8 medium to large button mush-

rooms, cleaned• 6 large cherry tomatoes • 1 shallot, fi nely chopped• 1 clove of garlic, fi nely chopped

• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme, fi nely chopped

• ½ to ¾ cup vegetable stock • 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan• 1 T. Parmesan for topping off the

stuffed vegetables• Olive oil for sautéing • 1 tsp. butter• Salt and freshly ground pepper (to

taste)• Dash of cayenne, op-tional

What you do:Preheat oven to 350

degrees.Cut off both ends of

the zucchini and do the same with the yellow squash. Cut each into four pieces (each about two inches long). Place any leftover pieces in the bowl. Using a small spoon or a melon baller, scoop out about ¾ of the interior from each piece. Do not get too close to the bottom; you want a nice, little cup. Set the carved-out squash piec-es aside. Chop the pulp, along with any leftover pieces of squash, and place in the bowl.

Remove the stems from the mushrooms.

Set the caps aside. Chop the stems and add them to the bowl with the squash. Carefully remove the top of each toma-to. Scoop out the seeds and most of the pulp. Set the tomato cups aside.

Heat the olive oil in the non-stick sau-té pan. Add the shallots, and sauté just for a minute. Do not let them burn. Add the garlic and sauté for one minute at most.

Add the butter (or other fat) to the pan, along with the chopped zucchini and mushroom mixture. Sauté until all the moisture has evaporated, about six min-utes. Add the fresh thyme and season with salt and pepper to taste, sauté briefl y to blend the fl avors. Transfer the mixture back into the bowl, allow to cool, then stir in the 2 tablespoons of Parmesan.

In the sauté pan, melt about one tea-spoon of butter and gently sauté the mushroom caps until they are just sof-tened. Set aside.

Place the squash cups in the sauté pan, scooped side up, and add just enough wa-ter to steam them until they are slightly softened. You can slightly cover the pan. Do not overcook them. You just do not want them to completely raw before cre-ating and baking the stuffed cups.

Fill each vegetable cup with the stuff-ing. Arrange the fi lled cups in the baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and freshly round pepper. Sprinkle with dash of cayenne if desired. Pour about half an inch of stock into the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle the reaming tablespoon of Parmesan over the tops.

Bake for about 15 minutes. They may take longer, depending on how soft the squash and mushrooms were before be-ing stuffed. Check on them after 15 min-utes, and add a bit more stock if neces-sary to prevent scorching.

Serve with a large spoon and a dinner fork to hold the cups intact. Enjoy!


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Move Aside For the SidesBy Gail Hochman

Side dishes are of-ten so delicious that

they become the star of the meal. There are mil-

lions of side dishes that we can make; some of us keep using the same ideas over and over. It’s easy; they are tried and true. Sometimes, however, it is fun to go out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself with new ones. You can always try them out on your family and then on your special guests.

I often make this as a substitute po-tato side dish instead of the usual pota-to kugel.

Creamy Scalloped Potatoes4-6 medium potatoessalt, pepper to taste3 tablespoons margarine3 tablespoons fl our2 tsp. instant chicken soup mix1 ½ cups boiling waterpaprikaPreheat oven to 350. Slice potatoes

very thin. Arrange layers of potatoes in a well greased 2-quart casserole. Sprinkle each layer with salt and pepper. Over me-dium heat, melt margarine. Add fl our and soup mix; mix until smooth. Add boiling water and cook over medium heat, stir-ring until bubbly and thick. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour hot sauce over po-tatoes. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake cov-

ered for 45 minutes; then uncovered for 30 minutes…or until tender and golden brown.

Red Rice1 cup rice2 ½ cups water1 small can tomato sauce1 tsp. salt3 tbl. oil3 tbl. sugarPut all ingredients in a pot and bring

to a boil. Lower fl ame for ½ hour (keep stirring)—so easy, so fast!

Sweet Potato Balls2 lbs sweet potatoes boiled and

mashed1 egg slightly beaten½ tsp. salt1 can pineapple chunkscrushed cornfl akesSauce: ½ cup brown sugar½ stick margarineMix mashed sweet potatoes with

salt and beaten egg. For 2 inch balls, make indentation and insert pineap-ple chunk. Roll in crushed cornfl akes. Spray baking dish with Pam and put all the balls in. Cook sauce ingredients and pour over the balls. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until brown. Makes a great presentation.

LOCAL NEWS

OU Advocacy Launches Mini Advocacy Missions to Trenton

The New Jersey offi ce of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center has launched

a series of mini advocacy missions to Trenton with its fi rst group of delegates from Bergen County. Bringing small groups from communities throughout New Jersey to the Statehouse to meet with legislators, the missions provide participants with the unique opportuni-ty to have small, more personalized dis-cussions with their elected offi cials and give legislators an opportunity to hear about the challenging issues—such as tuition affordability—that are affecting their constituents on a micro level.

Currently, New Jersey Jewish day schools receive less than $100 per child in basic services, such as technology and nursing. As part of its 2014 legisla-tive agenda, OU Advocacy-NJ seeks to in-crease that amount to $500 per student, as well as help pass a special education bill that will permit district funding for programs and services for special needs students in religious schools and a tax credit program to assist families sending their children to non-public schools.

In the past two years, OU Advocacy-NJ restored funding for technology aid for the non-public school community, in-creased the amount of nursing aid, and ensured that non-public schools would be included in joint purchasing agree-ments between school districts.

During the visit to Trenton, the delega-tion met with Assembly Members Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-37 Bergen), who is a co-sponsor of the special education bill, and Tim Eustace (D-38 Bergen) to discuss the items at the top of OU Advocacy’s legisla-tive agenda. They also met with Assembly Members Gordon Johnson (D-37), Holly Schepisi (R-39), Patrick Diegnan (D-38), Up-endra Chivukula (D-17), Nancy Pinkin (D-18), Gilbert “Whip” Wilson (D-5), and Sen-ate President Stephen Sweeney.

The group included members of OU Advocacy’s retiree network, which is co-sponsored by Staje, a Jewish organization dedicated to fostering a culture of mean-ingful and purposeful living among re-tirees and empty nesters. To learn more about Staje, visit staje.org.


FOOD

Sustainable Hechshers: Buying Green and Keeping Kosher By Michael Rogovin

When I started to keep kosher, I

knew about the main kosher symbols in the U.S. There was the OU, OK, Kof-K, and

a few others. There were also regional symbols, but I did not come across them too often. Some, like a plain K, were not reliable because the company mak-ing the food certifi ed its own kashruth. It didn’t necessarily mean the food was not kosher, but the community under-stood that independent, third-party cer-tifi cation was a greater guarantee than the claims made by the manufacturer. Others were not reliable because the standards were not up to par with ex-pectations.

Today’s consumers look for many things when they buy products, whether it is food, household cleaners, paints, ap-pliances, or other goods. We want to buy products that refl ect our values. Not just compliance with obvious halakha (like meeting minimal kashruth standards), but values like is the product safe? Is it durable? Does it cause harm to the en-vironment through its use or disposal? Was it made in a way that pollutes or de-stroys the environment? Are the workers exploited or paid a fair wage? Were ani-mals treated well? These are all Torah val-ues, and our purchases can and should support those businesses that share our values (and conversely, we should not be complicit in others violations of those values or halakhot).

No one can possibly examine each

and every product to answer questions like these, yet consumers want to know they are not compromising personal or Torah values and ethics in the process. And so,

• Avoid self-serving claims by compa-nies promoting their own products.

• Know what each symbol means and what the standards are.

• Know which hechsherim are reliable and refl ect the values you want when shopping for green, and who stands be-hind them.

Just like the kosher world, there are many symbols attesting to green prod-ucts. I will try to help make sense of the standards and symbols in order to help you make better choices when shopping for your home, family, and business.

Let’s start with food, since we are al-ready using kashruth as an analogy. Once we determine that a food is kosher, what does it mean to add sustainability to the mix?

• Agricultural practices that do not de-plete nutrients from soils and do not pol-lute waterways.

• Avoiding or minimizing chemical pesticides and herbicides that leave res-idues, and can harm benefi cial wildlife.

• Minimizing transportation and stor-age, since both degrade the nutritional value of many foods and add to the en-ergy footprint (which creates pollution and adds to greenhouse gases responsi-ble for climate change).

• Supporting local family farmers that grow diverse crops, rather than agricul-tural conglomerates that grow mono-cultures that reduce bio-diversity and re-quire more chemicals

• Reduce excessive and unnecessary packaging.

• Ethical practices for labor, animals, and business practices.

Here are some signals that indicate you are being misled by clever marketers or buying wasteful products (a practice called “greenwashing”):

Labels that say “natural,” “pure,” “bet-ter for the environment,” “green,” or “sus-tainably farmed,” without other proof. Lots of things are natural, including ar-senic, but you probably don’t want it in your food.

Hormone-free and Cage-Free poultry. All poultry is, by law, hormone free; “cage-Free,” applies only to eggs, not chickens raised for meat. This is designed to mis-lead you into thinking that a particular brand is better when it is not true.

Terms like “free-range,” “cage-free,” or “pastured,” may not mean what you think they mean, and may not be veri-fi ed. Terms like “pastured” are not regu-lated, so it has no legal meaning. It does not guarantee an animal ever went out-doors.

A green logo that is used only on one brand is like a plain K—it may or may not be meaningful.

Excessive packaging, i.e., fresh fruits wrapped in plastic or on styrofoam trays; small products packed in big boxes.

In general, foods that are organic and/or produced locally (within several hun-dred miles) are environmentally prefer-able. Products with minimal, compact or no packaging are better for the envi-ronment, and will likely save you mon-ey. After all, you pay for the materials and labor to package the food. Other sustain-

able factors, humane practices, fair labor standards, and business ethics, are hard-er to determine without third-party certi-fi cation.

While not exhaustive, the following lists some of the most common and re-liable eco-labels. Most are independent with no confl icts of interest and high, transparent standards. It is frustrating to report that few kosher meat and dairy products, even those that purport to fol-low ethical and sustainable guidelines, are third-party certifi ed at this time. The two ethical kosher meat producers (KOL and Grow and Behold) boast high-er standards than any other kosher meat purveyor, but neither can obtain the ma-jor third-party certifi cations on animal welfare because certifi cation requires stunning prior to slaughter (KOL is certi-fi ed as a green business). Fairway sells ko-sher Murray’s Chickens; while Murray’s has third-party humane certifi cation for the raising of its birds, the kosher line is not certifi ed because they cannot be stunned. (Meat will be covered in more detail in a future article.)

Few kosher dairy products are made with milk from cows that are rBST-free, let alone truly pastured or organic. Nei-ther service that certifi es humane animal treatment lists any kosher dairy produc-er among their products. Only competi-tion and consumer demand will likely force companies to seek certifi cation.

Michael Rogovin is Chair of the Teaneck Environ-mental Commission and is accredited as a LEED® Green Associate. He consults to homeowners and businesses seeking to make their buildings, opera-tions and lifestyle more sustainable.

DEFINITIONS OF CERTIFICATIONSUSDA Organic. Covers various agricultural practices,

including pesticide and other chemical use, non-GMO, no growth hormones, and other factors. Produce, dairy, and meat.

Food Alliance. Covers safe and fair working condi-tions, humane animal treatment, and environmental stewardship. All foods, but no kosher meats currently certifi ed.

Fair Trade Certifi ed. Labor standards; pesticide use. Coffee, cocoa, sugar, rice, and some tropical fruits.

Protected Harvest. Holistic approach to farming and minimizes pesticides. Fruits and vegetables.

SCS Certifi ed Sustainably Grown. Ecosystem man-agement and protection, resource conservation, ener-gy effi ciency, waste management, labor practices, com-munity benefi ts, quality, safety and purity. Food and fi ber products.

SCS Certifi ed Pesticide Residue Free. Products con-tain no pesticide residues within the limits of laborato-ry detection. Fruits, vegetables, grains, and fi bers.

Rainforest Alliance Certifi ed. Farms managed sus-tainably; fair and safe labor practices and protection of

wildlife and habitats. Foods and beverages. Some ko-sher foods.

Demeter Biodynamic. Grown without the use of synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, or animal by-products, and are free from genetic engineering. Produce, cheese, eggs, meats (currently no kosher meat or cheese).

Marine Stewardship Council. Seafood harvest-ed according to strict environmental standards. A number of fresh and frozen kosher products are available with this certifi cation.

Non-GMO Verifi ed. Free of genetically-modi-fi ed additives. Although GMOs are kosher, for those who wish to avoid them, the certifi cation is availa-ble on many kosher products.

Bird Friendly. Coffee that is organically grown, plus the growers maintain forest cover that pro-vides habitat for birds and other wildlife.

Certifi ed B Corporation. B Corps meet rigor-ous standards of social and environmental perfor-mance, accountability, and transparency. Some ko-sher products are made by companies that meet this standard.

Certifi ed Humane. Eggs and dairy products from animals raised with no unnecessary antibiotics, in humane conditions, and with access to clean water. OU-certifi ed eggs are available with this label. No ko-sher meats are certifi ed since stunning is required.

Animal Welfare Approved. Eggs and dairy prod-ucts that come from farm animals raised to the highest animal welfare and environmental stand-ards, on pastures and with high-welfare slaughter practices from birth to slaughter. No kosher cheese currently available; kosher meats cannot be certi-fi ed since they require stunning prior to slaughter.

Three logos relate specifi cally to kosher foods (they are in addition to kosher approval, supplementing and not supplanting kashruth hechshers). They are:

Magen Tzedek. Denotes practices related to envi-ronmental sustainability, labor, animal welfare, and business ethics.

Tav Hayosher. Addresses fair labor standards and practices in U.S. kosher restaurants.

Tav Chevrati. Certifi es fair labor standards and prac-tices in Jerusalem kosher restaurants.

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PARENTING

ShoppingBy Banji Latkin Ganchrow

I hate shopping. I have always hated shopping.

This could be because my mother and sister

love shopping. I would come home from school and my mom and sister would be at the mall. They could shop all day and all night. My mom has got-ten locked into malls around the coun-try. My dad would be with my brother and me, in the car, waiting for them at the designated location and we would actually see all of the lights go out inside the store. Where was my mom? There were no cell phones to call her. So we would just sit in the car and wait. And wait. An hour or so later, there would be my mom and sister, weighted down by various sized shopping bags, escort-ed by mall security, coming from the other direction. “We didn’t realize how late it was,” they would explain. My dad

would grumble something and off we would go. Good times.

Going shopping with my mom, when I absolutely had to, was an exercise in extreme patience on my mother’s part (perhaps if I had exercised more, shop-ping would not have been such a chal-lenge. I blame it on all of the fudge my dad, brother, and I would eat in the car while waiting for my mom who was locked in the mall.) It was a nightmare. There was screaming and yelling and hair pulling. I still remember reading the sign in the dressing room that said, “These rooms are being monitored to prevent shoplifting” and I would speak to the mirror saying, “Please get me out of here!!” hoping the security person on the other side was 1. female, and 2.will-ing to save me from the whole ordeal.

But with all of the things I could say about my mom, she has the patience of a saint. She would bring me things to try on until I had a new wardrobe. This was not an easy feat.

Fast forward to today (well, not ac-tually today, it was last week) and here

I am, the mother of three boys, who have little to no interest in shopping. It is on a strictly need-to-buy basis only. Son #2 has been wearing dress pants that were handed down to him from someone in town (yes, my chil-dren wear hand-me-downs, and I am proud to admit it.) Anyway, said pants have developed rips in the hems, by the pockets; basically, they are falling apart. Son #2 keeps insisting he does not need new pants. He is fi ne look-ing like a homeless man.

“Please,” I beg, “let me buy you some new pants!” Even his father, the man who is still mourning the loss of Syms and the $50 suit, admitted the poor kid needed pants. “Fine,” son #2 said. “You can buy me pants, but I am not going with you.” Well, there was a college bas-ketball game on, totally understandable why he didn’t want to go shopping (to be read with heavy sarcastic overtones.)

So off I went to the mall with the ripped pants. I felt like Goldilocks be-cause at store number one, the pants were too expensive, at store number

two, the pants were too cheap look-ing, but at store number three, the pants were just right. And I could open a charge and get an additional 20% off! (Still not Syms, but you do what you can.)

You might be wondering how I knew what size to buy since I had no son with me to try the pants on (you probably were not wondering that, but I will tell you anyway). Well, I would go from pair to pair and hold up the ripped pants to the new pants and see how they lined up. The salesman told me that he had never seen anyone do this before. He wanted to know why I didn’t insist my child come with me (I did not tell him why). And though I fi nd it hard to be-lieve that no mother has ever done what I was doing, I am proud to say that son #2 now has a brand new pair of pants—actually a whole new suit. He looks adorable in it and there was no scream-ing, yelling or hair pulling. And the team he stayed home to watch won…(I actual-ly have no idea if this is true, I just need-ed an ending.)

What Fisher Price Can’t ProduceBy Sarah Abenaim

We were packing for vacation and,

as always, I made a bag of toys and games for the kids so that during any down time, fl ight-

delays, or rainy days, they would have entertainment that didn’t rely on a small, portable screen. My “travel toys” have changed over the years. Whereas it used to be small cars, polly pockets, mini-Bar-bies, and coloring books, I now can pack games: Scrabble Slam, Uno, Old Maid, Ba-nanagrams. This is fun and engaging for all of us, even the adults.

But what I neglected to think about was my 10-month-old baby. This happens quite often, especially at the supermar-ket, where I fi ll up the cart with things my husband and I like and things the kids like, and somehow skip the baby aisle, even the though the baby is usually strapped to my chest. (He is not a fan of

shopping carts. Gotta work on that one.) Then, when I get home, I realize the er-ror of my ways and am forced to actually make baby food, because that seems eas-ier than going back to the store. This cre-ates the fallacy that I am a “really good mother” because I make my own baby food, but I assure you, I am not, because sometimes I don’t use organic produce. And not everything is infused with kale. It’s either that, or he starves.

And so, mid-packing, I realized the baby would most defi nitely not enjoy Uno cards. He would probably love Ba-nanagrams, but I would not love fi shing the tiny tiles out of his mouth. He was also not quite at the age to play with toy cars or to do anything with a marker other than lick it. A quick scan of the playroom led me to the corner in which his toys were contained in a large Tupperware: bulky rattles and shake-y things, animals with squiggly arms and bouncy legs, groggers that weren’t just for Purim, fake remote controls and phones. Each item would

keep him busy for a total of one minute, and would waste precious space in my carry-on bag. I did the math: not worth it.

I needed something that was both en-tertaining and boasted a nearly invisible mass. Years ago, I fl ew with my eldest as a baby, and a balloon kept her busy the entire time. But there were no balloons fl oating around the house, and as our departure time drew nearer, I grabbed a few disposable latex gloves from under the sink and fi gured these might double as an engaging infl atable activity. I also remembered to pack him some Cheerios and food. I know—best mom ever.

For the entirety of the fl ight, the rub-ber gloves remained in my bag. The baby was quite happy to chew on the head-set the steward handed out, and I think he was rather disappointed when they collected these at the end of the fl ight. He had grown so attached. He also kept busy by poking his fi nger into the air conditioning vent, gnawing on the al-ready scuffed armrest, opening and shut-

ting the tray table, spraying Cheerios on three rows of people, and crying because there was no crib for him to take a nap. We were probably that family, the one you glare at on your fl ight and wonder why they thought it was a good idea to ever leave their home? Needless to say, we won’t be on any fl ights to Israel in the near future, so don’t curb your traveling plans because of us.

The vacation was wonderful, but the baby was happy to be home, to have his crib, his non-organic, home-blended foods, and his cheery, colorful toys. But most of all, he was relieved to see his best friend waiting for him on the fl oor of his room: his elephant-cool-mist-humidifi -er. He squealed with delight when I put him on the fl oor near his long-nosed friend (who was turned off), and reached over to give it/him/her a big hug. It might make a good travel toy, next time.

Sarah Abenaim is a freelance writer living with her husband and four children in Teaneck. She is working on her fi rst book. More of her essays can be found at www.writersblackout.wordpress.com.

Rabbi’s Musings (& Amusings)By Rabbi Dani Staum

“Okay kids, bed-time…” Time for the nightly routine of whisking our chil-dren into bed.

I turn to our 3-year-old, “Avi, what CD do you want to listen to tonight?”

I know the answer, but I ask anyway to humor myself. He wants to listen to the same CD he listened to last night, and the night before, and the night be-fore that. Some nights I’ll try to sneak in a different volume of the same sing-er (e.g., Uncle Moishy V instead of Uncle Moishy IV just for the sake of variety). Invariably, within two minutes, the jig is up and I am angrily summoned back

to rectify my “mistake.” Is it normal for a child to want to lis-

ten to the same thing repeatedly, seven nights a week? [What’s that you say? Six nights a week because of Shabbos? Well, actually, to our vexation, for the last two Shabbosim we have come upstairs after the seudah to hear the usual CD blaring because the alarm went off…]

The answer is a resounding yes; it is indeed normal. In his fascinating bestseller, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell discusses the profound psy-chology invested into children’s televi-sion programs and why certain shows are more popular among children than others. He quotes Daniel Anderson, a researcher at the University of Massa-chusetts, who explains: “If you think about the world of a preschooler, they

are surrounded by stuff they don’t un-derstand, things that are novel. So the driving force for a preschooler is not a search for novelty, like it is with older kids, it’s a search for understanding and predictability. For younger kids repeti-tion is really valuable. They demand it. When they see a show over and over again, they not only are understanding it better, which is a form of power, but just by predicting what is going to hap-pen they feel a real sense of affi rmation and self-worth.”

In other words, for young children who are struggling to make sense of the vast and unpredictable “adult world,” predictability breeds a feeling of com-fort and security. Therefore, give a young child the choice between some-thing new and exciting or something

he is familiar with, he will generally pick the familiar.

One of the best ways to grant a child a sense of predictability is with con-sistency. Families that have structure, boundaries, and routines usually have children who feel safe and secure. On the other hand, children who lack struc-ture and consistency in their lives often feel vulnerable and insecure, both with themselves and their surroundings. In the world of education this is a truth that tragically asserts itself too often.

So, believe it or not, listening to that same CD again is indeed healthy for my child. However, I do feel that certain children’s tapes should come with a “Pa-rental General Warning” which reads, “Hearing this tape too many times can endanger parents’ already fragile sanity (or whatever is left of it).” If you have children, or younger siblings, you know exactly what I mean.


HEALTH

Consuming A Variety of Foods Can Help You Appreciate Your Neighbor

By Chemmie Sokolic

“Why doesn’t he think like me?”

“How can she not see that she’s wrong?”

“How can they be happy living like that?”

I’m sure you or someone you know may have had thoughts like these at one time or another. I’m sure it’s only natural. After all, we must all believe in our own actions if we are to be content within our own skin. But if our actions are the “right” actions, shouldn’t every-one think and act similarly, or, at the very least, understand your point of view?

Closer to home, in our own communities, sentiments such as “they’ve totally misrepre-sented what Judaism is all about” or “we can’t associate with them because they’re [not frumenough/too stringent]” are, unfortunately, not unheard of. In my opinion, this mindset is an inbred disease that affects most Jewish com-munities around the world, to a lesser or great-er degree. I also believe that this mentality, if left unchecked, will ultimately destroy us, tear-ing our religion apart from the inside out.

But enough of that. Let’s get back to talk-ing about one of my favorite topics—food—and the title of this article. How on earth can your neighbor have anything to do with the food you eat? Perhaps more than you think…

I’m sure you’ve heard the terms bandied around—carbs, fats, protein—and the multi-

tude of arguments and discussions regarding which ones you should consume more of and which ones you should try and reduce. But what exactly are they, and is “going low carb” or eating “reduced fat” foods really as healthy for you as the media and food companies might have you believe?

Some background. There are six classes of nutrients: carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vita-mins, minerals, and water.

CARBOHYDRATES (aka “carbs”) comprise molecules containing carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, i.e., “sugars.” Specifi cally, there are three types of carbohydrates: simple sugars (such as fruits), starches (such as potatoes and bread), and celluloses or fi brous (such as let-tuce—yes, vegetables are carbs). Carbs are the preferred fuel for the body.

PROTEINS are complex compounds that are made of different amino acids, which uniquely contain nitrogen, and are the build-ing blocks of our body.

FATS, comprising molecules called triglyc-erides, are solid at room temperature (fats that are liquid at room temperature are called oils), and provide insulation from extreme tempera-tures, as well as carry nutrients such as fat-solu-ble vitamins around the body (see below).

Carbs, proteins, and fats are known as “ma-cronutrients” because they comprise the class-es of chemical compounds humans consume in the largest quantities and which provide bulk energy. There are also “micronutrients,” including VITAMINS (substances that help es-

sential body reactions take place, and include water-soluble and fat-soluble varieties) and MINERALS (inorganic substances that are in-volved in water balance, nerve impulse stim-ulation, acid-base balance, and energy reac-tions).

Finally, WATER carries nutrients to cells and carries waste products away from cells. It also serves as a body lubricant and, through sweat (or “perspiration” if you’re more genteel), helps maintain body temperature.

Of course, these six nutrients do far more than the above brief outline, and each will be discussed more thoroughly in future articles, but the important concept to internalize here is that we all need each of these nutrients to survive; no one nutrient is more important than the other. Indeed, too much or too lit-tle of any single nutrient increases the risk of health and/or performance complications.

In short, any extreme is a bad extreme, and one should never totally eliminate any nutrient from your diet. The best strategy for maintain-ing a healthy nutrient balance is to eat a wide variety of foods, regularly consume fresh fruits and vegetables, and avoid a monotonous intake of the same few foods day after day. This will ensure optimal nutrient exposure, and avoid potential nutrient toxicities that may result from an excess consumption of vitamins and/or minerals. Although a little of something may be good for you, it does not necessarily mean that more is better. No single food has all the nutrients a person needs to stay healthy, so con-

suming a plethora of foods covers all depart-ments.

I think you can see where I’m going with this. Hashem could have just as easily created a single food that would supply us with all the nutrients we need, rather than have us scav-enge around looking for many different types of food. Of course, while we were a fl edgling nation in the desert, He did exactly that, in the form of manna. Alas, we all must leave the nest at some point in our development, as did the Bna i Yisrael. We all must come to realize that life is not about the singular answer, but about appreciating the amazing variety that Hashemhas graciously provided us. This is true of both the foods we eat, and the people we meet. Eve-ry person, by mere virtue of his presence in this world, fulfi lls Hashem’s desire in some way, whether that reason is known to you or not. Perhaps, instead of denigrating these “others,” we should make a more concerted effort to try and understand them, and, conceivably, come to realize their importance in the world too.

Just as we should try and eat a variety of foods in moderation, eat with respect and consideration—and always eat with appre-ciation—so, too, should we treat our fellow human beings, prizing each of our differenc-es instead of quelling them. Food is so much more than something that merely sustains us, and society is so much more than something that merely retains us. Be a “light unto the na-tions” —illuminate them as well as ourselves.

Chemmie Sokolic is an ACSM-certifi ed Personal Trainer, and owner of Frum & Fit LLC. Chemmie can be reached at chemmie.sokolic@frumandfi t.com. Visit www.FrumandFit.com or www.Facebook.com/FrumandFit for more information.

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HEALTH AND FITNESS

Daahlink, Can We Talk About Your Posture? By Rivki Chudnoff, PT, MSPT

When I was a physical therapy student, I did a rotation at a New York City

hospital. As a Midwesterner, this was par-ticularly exciting. I had the opportunity to work in THE CITY and the added perk of treating some of the feistiest elderly ladies Manhattan had to offer.

Part of my role as a physical thera-py student was to evaluate their posture. Most days it would go something like this: Me: “Mrs. Rosen (insert: berg, fi eld, some-thing...), please stand up straight.”

My patient: “But I AM standing straight!”

As I would look over at my patient, hunched over, with a rounded back, her neck craned upward like a turtle from its shell, I would wonder to my 20-something self, “How on Earth can she think that is standing straight?”

Several years and 12 hours of induced labor later, I caught sight of a woman hunched over, pushing a stroller down the street, and thought: “My, how can she stand with such poor posture, so hunched over?” It took longer than I care to ad-mit, for my sleep-deprived mind to pro-cess that I was looking at my own refl ec-tion in a store window. “How could I be so hunched over?” I thought. “I have such fi ne posture; I thought I WAS standing straight!”

The answer is neuroplasticity. Sim-ply put, our brain starts to accept adapta-

tion in posture and physiology as the new norm. If you stand, sit, eat, read, commute, and work with poor postural alignment, eventually your brain starts to perceive that position as upright, and it takes con-scious effort to retrain it back to a correct position. So yes, your mother may have been correct; if you make that face, it will stay that way.

We are constantly hunched over, cran-ing our necks to view computer screens and devices, when driving, and of course while participating in our new favorite past time, snow shoveling. As care givers to babies, we hunch over to hold them, nurse them, carry them, chase them, and yes, push them in strollers. In these mo-ments, we are often more preoccupied with the task at hand, with where we need to get to or the safety of the other children tagging along, than we are conscious of our own posture.

Our beloved adolescents are, unfortu-nately, some of the worst culprits of poor posture. They are burdened by their heavy (what in the world have you got in there?) backpacks and are slouching under the six inches they grew...this week. Ever self-con-scious of their own miraculously develop-ing bodies, standing with their shoulders rolled inward and backs hunched over. We fi nd them hiding under their own shoul-der blades, hoping no one will notice that their bodies are undergoing a beautiful metamorphosis. Parents, help them get a clue. Guide them to proper posture, be-

cause they are never too young to start bad habits that will accompany them into adulthood.

As for many of my elderly patients, there was a limit to how much could be done to help correct their posture, as they were often frail, and very osteoporotic, by that point. For most people, though, it is not too late to retrain their bodies to attain and maintain proper posture. Good pos-ture is not only a cosmetic issue, it can have a direct impact on one’s health and well-be-ing. Poor posture can lead to fatigue, neck, shoulder, and back pain, problems with breathing, and tension headaches.

Correct your posture by looking at yourself standing sideways in a mirror. Notice where your back may be curving over, your shoulders elevated and rolled inward, and neck craning forward. Try to straighten yourself while using the visu-al feedback you see in your refl ection to guide you. Lift your chin, roll your shoul-ders down and back. Squeeze your shoul-der blades together, pushing your chest outward. Utilize your stomach and trunk muscles to support your upright position. Activate them by sucking in your stomach muscles (do not hold your breath), and by squeezing your gluteal muscles. During pe-riods of prolonged sitting at work or when traveling, take frequent breaks to stretch and self-correct your posture.

Properly aligned posture may feel weird and be diffi cult to maintain at fi rst, as your body is not yet used to being in

this corrected position. When practiced over time, it will become easier, as your body relearns what upright looks and feels like. Developing a habit of regular exer-cise, including core muscle strengthening, and over-all fl exibility training will facili-tate muscle balance development and re-duce fatigue of the postural muscles that support posture and activity. All of your ef-forts will surely help develop a healthier, stronger, and less hunched over you.

Rivki Chudnoff , PT, MSPT is a NY/ NJ licensed physi-cal therapist with over 14 years of experience work-ing in both pediatrics and women’s health rehabili-tation. Her practice addresses the needs of women in areas related to pelvic pain, sexual dysfunction, prenatal and postpartum related pain, and incon-tinence. Rivki currently resides in Bergenfi eld with her husband and their children. She can be reached at rivkichudnoff @gmail.com

052-616-3433 . 054-942-1188 . [email protected] . www.candycornerisrael.com

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HEALTH AND FITNESS

At the forefront of crisis intervention and rehabilitation since 1998

WEB: OurPlaceNY.org TEL: 212.248.4141 EMAIL: [email protected]

PROVIDING AT-RISK JEWISH TEENS WITH A SECOND CHANCE

OUR PLACESaving Lives. Saving Souls. Saving Our Future.

Coconut Oil ClarifedBy Bess Berger, RD, CDN

We were told to avoid coconut oil like the plague. Now it sits proud-

ly on the shelf, often near the olive oil. We were warned it could lead to a variety of negative health consequences. What happened?

In some cultures, coconut oil has been used as a primary dietary staple as far back as one can research. South Pa-cifi c Islanders and Polynesian communi-ties have relied heavily on coconut oil for food preparation as well as their caloric intake, possibly as high as more than 50% of their caloric intake, and have very low rates of heart disease. On the other hand, American levels of heart disease, obesi-ty, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease have skyrocketed over the last number of dec-ades even though we dutifully decreased our coconut oil consumption.

Coconut oil is a naturally occurring saturated fat. However, it has a different molecular structure which doesn’t neg-atively affect health the way other satu-rated fats, especially processed fats, seem to do. Previous studies involved refi ned, hydrogenated coconut oil. More recent-ly, studies involving non-chemically or unprocessed coconut oil show positive health benefi ts.

Coconut oil has shown to improve overall immune function. It seems to fi ght off not only bacterial and viral ill-nesses but yeast, fungal, and strep as well.

Coconut oil has also been studied and has positive effects on hormones, such as improving thyroid function and me-tabolism. In addition, it may improve in-sulin resistance which could impact and be benefi cial for people with metabolic syndromes, diabetes, and blood sugar is-sues. Heart disease, lowering cholesterol, and improving cholesterol ratios are oth-er areas coconut oil continues to be stud-ied—with positive indications.

Some studies have shown that coconut oil can aid in digestion, vitamin absorp-tion, and irritable bowel syndrome. In ad-dition, studies are looking into how it may affect Alzheimer’s disease. Some profes-sionals are recommending it topically for skin irritations, scarring, and wound care.

As soon as a product becomes popular for health and especially weight loss, its label becomes particularly confusing. Co-conut oil may be labeled “cold pressed,” “virgin,” “bleached,” “deodorized,” or “re-fi ned.” Most of these terms refer to how the oil was processed and whether or not it was heated during extraction. More processed coconut oil can contain par-tially hydrogenated fats. This is the type of fat that can turn into trans fats, some-thing to be avoided! I recommend keep-ing it simple and looking for “virgin” co-conut oil as it generally means the oil is unprocessed or chemically treated.

Coconut oil can be used in a variety of cooking and baking situations. Coconut oil is a good option since it withstands

heat better than olive oil. An increase in vegan diets has helped put it on the map since it is a plant-based fat. It is also non-dairy and therefore is a good butter sub-stitute for those with dairy allergies.

Coconut oil can be added to vegeta-bles, and its fl avors compliment nicely with onions and garlic. It can be used in stir fries with vegetables, chicken, and fi sh as it compliments those fl avors as well. Some enjoy it on toast instead of butter.

Coconut oil also works well for bak-ing. For example, it is a healthier option for pie shells and dough yet it retains a fl akiness and fl uffi ness necessary for baked goods.

At this time, coconut oil recommenda-tions are not conclusive and vary depend-

ing on age and health. With coconut oil gaining more and more popularity there is a trend to add it to lots food options, some of which people had previously not added to their diet. At this time, I generally rec-ommend using coconut oil in place of oth-er fats. For example, if one were to butter bread, try spreading coconut oil on it. If you were going to add oil or butter to broc-coli, see if you like how coconut oil tastes on it. If one were to add oil or a healthy fat to a smoothie, try adding coconut oil.

Bess Berger is a Registered Dietitian and practic-es in Teaneck. She consults and counsels on gener-al nutrition and medically-nutrition related issues. Bess can be reached at 201 837 0546 or [email protected]

Breastfeeding Signifi cantly Reduces Cancer in Kids

(JNS.org) Breastfeeding can signifi -cantly reduce the risk of children getting cancer according to a new study con-ducted by Israel’s University of Haifa. According to the study, children who were breastfed decreased the chances of developing cancer by 60 percent.

“We asked the mothers in the study about breastfeeding, nutrition, expo-sure to pets, exposure to detergents, etc.,” said Dr. Keinan-Boker, a profes-sor in the University of Haifa’s School of Public Health and deputy director of the Israeli Health Ministry’s Center for

Disease Control.Additionally, the study compared

children who were exclusively breastfed up until four months old with children who stopped being breastfed before that age, and found that those who were exclusively breastfed had decreased the chances of getting cancer by 40%.

The study, which was funded by the Israel Cancer Association, inter-viewed 190 people whose children de-veloped leukemia or lymphoma before the age of 19 as well as 348 mothers from healthy children.


NEW IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Staying Healthy by Staying Warm and Catching a NapBy Mariola Strahlburg

It has been unusually cold these past few weeks. Even though the tempera-

ture is below freezing, I see children and adults who are not dressed appropriate-ly for the weather. Why is it so important to stay warm?

Our bodies need warmth to process food, to eliminate waste and to provide good fl ow in the lymph system to keep our immune system strong. We lose the most heat through the top of our heads, fi nger and toe tips. We need to keep our core warm (around the navel and below) in order to process and eliminate.

Look at the birds, do you see how puffed up they are?

We should do the same: Wear a warm hat, warm gloves, warm socks and good boots. Add an extra layer of heat-retain-

ing clothing such as silk or wool long-sleeved undershirts and silk or wool long johns.

Cheaper than an electric blanket, a hot water bottle under your feet and on your belly at night are perfect on those cold nights, when the sheets are icy, and it takes forever to warm up the bed. Don’t forget your children. They love the hot water bottles as much as we do.

Cold weather is for warm drinks, so please skip the ice, refrigerated drinks and ice creams until the warmer weather is here again. Your body will thank you and you will stay healthier during the winter.

It’s not just about keeping warm! Naps are good for you, too.

Babies, toddlers and children benefi t greatly from taking a nap….if their par-ents let them. Yes, there are some parents who do not think naps are benefi cial and

yet they get very disturbed when their young children disintegrate toward even-ing and become impossible to deal with. Maybe a nice nap would have helped?

The ritual of daily napping for adults has been well established for hundreds of years in Europe and is even popular today in China. Millions of Chinese workers nap for an hour after eating lunch at their desks.

Studies have shown that we are more alert, think more creatively and have bet-ter recall when we nap. On top of that, we are more relaxed, have better moods and more energy. Some studies show we may even have better motor skills, espe-cially for people who do precision work.

Now that I have convinced you a nap is essential, how much time should you allocate? 10 to 20 minutes seems to be the max. Longer naps leave many people feeling groggy and less alert.

Here are some other pointers: • take a nap at a time of the day when

your energy is low:• early afternoon is often the best

time • fi nd a room with low light levels• set an alarm (Zen version would be

great) with soft gong to gently lure you back to your daily activities

• upon awakening, stretch and drink some lemon water.

Mariola Strahlberg, a Monsey resident, is a li-censed acupuncturist who founded Shining Moun-tain Children’s Center in March 2004. Subsequent-ly, she opened Shining Mountain Center for Peaceful Childhood, Inc., a non- profi t to provide scholarships to children who could otherwise not attend the pro-gram. She is also President of the Janusz Korczak As-sociation of the USA.

Removing the Emotional MaskBy Temimah Zucker

The holiday of Pu-rim brings various

images to my mind. I think of the charac-ters in the Purim story, of the classic cartoons

we have all seen in Megillot and books. I think of hamentashen and wine bottles. I think of scrolls and noisemakers. And I also think of masks.

Masks stick out in my mind as they represent the idea that an individual is hiding behind a false image. On Purim we don costumes and hats, masks and face-paint. This is to commemorate the hidden miracle by, in a sense, hiding our-selves. Additionally, it is to remember the idea that the decree for the Jews was “turned on its head” from death to life; we therefore celebrate by dressing up

and portraying the opposite of ourselves. I raise this idea because of what I see

constantly, not only personally, but with others around me: to protect ourselves, we often wear different masks. One ex-ample would be a mask of joy while in reality the person is truly very sad. An-other may take the form of an aggressive, perfectionist student who throws him-self into his work to mask his real feel-ings of self-doubt and low self-esteem.

My mask began as a way to cope, but eventually transformed my body and mind. When an individual is working to make sense of negative emotions, either consciously or subconsciously, a coping mechanism is developed. This may in-clude venting, journaling, or listening to music. Others turn to food; some peo-ple overeat when emotional or upset, and others under-eat. In any case, the in-dividual is really masking a deeper feel-

ing that often stems from insecurity, doubt, shame, or sadness. Think of a dif-fi cult time in your life. How did you deal with the situation? The method I suggest most includes making sense of and pro-cessing the situation, and speaking about it with someone whom you trust. There are other positive ways to deal with dif-fi cult feelings or situations, but there are also many negative ways, that serve as a mask. We hide behind these masks, sometimes unaware that we have even donned them; we believe that the nega-tive behaviors we take on are “natural.”

When I began wearing my mask—de-veloping my eating disorder—I was not fully aware of what was going on. I knew I believed that restricting food intake would somehow help, but I was not at-tuned to the purpose that my eating dis-order served. Discovering the purpose of my eating disorder, why it developed,

and what it gave me allowed me to move forward and fi ll this need in a healthy manner. At that point my mask had be-come melded onto me, not only onto my face but onto my entire body. There were moments when I felt that there was nothing left of me besides my mask, that it had completely taken over. But I was still there, and with the right help I was able to slowly peel it off.

When something diffi cult or stressful takes place I encourage you to take a step back and resist putting on the emotional mask, or take it off if you fi nd it already place. Focus instead on processing and expressing how you feel.

As the joyous holiday of Purim ap-proaches I look forward to dressing up in costume in a spirit of fun and to com-memorate the history of the day, and I en-courage you to do the same. Don the mask on Purim but be careful to notice the emo-tional mask you may wear, and remind yourself to be comfortable removing it and expressing how you feel instead.

Dreams and MilestonesBy Rabbi Mordechai and Nina Glick

It was not long ago that our son-in-law,

Moshe, told us of his dream—his wish—to begin a newspaper in Teaneck. He even told Nina that she would be one of his assistants in the pro-cess as soon as we would make our move from Montreal to Bergenfi eld. Truthful-ly, we were doubtful that this pipedream of his would come true. We knew that he loved the “newspaper business,” as he had been the editor of the Commentator at YU, but wondered if he would be able to actu-alize his desire.

With this issue of the Link, we are able to celebrate its fi rst anniversary. Quite amazing when one looks back and won-ders where the time went. For the two of us we have a similar reaction when peo-ple ask us how long ago we moved here and we realize that what seems like sev-

eral weeks is almost one and-a-half years. Many family events now revolve around which week the Link will be delivered to door steps. Even while we consider our many family visits to Montreal, Nina wor-ries about getting her Community Calen-dar in order, her chesed opportunities ac-curate, etc. There is a sense of obligation and pride.

Admittedly, with the soon to be week-ly delivery of the Link, we will come upon new challenges and heightened admira-tion for the determination that has seen this project to its fruition. We have seen countless friends and acquaintances who have expressed their desire to move to new communities, change professions, explore other living options, wallow in the despair of not being able to try some-thing new. Watching Moshe reminded us of when, after one year of the rabbinate in Brantford, Ontario, we made a critical decision to move back to Boston and re-invent the Glick Kosher Butcher Store in

Malden, MA after the passing of Morde-chai’s father.

Our uncles, partners in the business, were terrifi ed when their brother Hymie suddenly passed away after returning to his home following Shacharit on a Sunday morning. All the years of hard work and now they were scared and tired. We left the rabbinate, moved to Brookline, and de-cided to “remake” the store into a modern self-service butcher store. When we look back now, we say to ourselves, “Were we totally-off-the wall crazy?” A humungous loan was taken from a Boston bank and we spent hours deciding about what type of tiles should be on the fl oor and what shape the sign should be. The only thing that we didn’t think about was the fact that we had no business acumen at all. In fact, on the day the store opened, Morde-chai neglected to have change in the cash register. We didn’t anticipate that we were ready for changes in the food industry, but the ladies who came into the store regu-

larly asked for personal service from each of the Glick brothers, and did not want to go to a showcase to choose cellophane-wrapped packages of chopped meat.

After one year of watching our bor-rowed money get lost forever, we B”H were called by the Young Israel of Val Royal in Montreal to consider leading their congre-gation. Some of their teenagers had met us at an NCSY Shabbaton and suggested this young rabbinic couple to the lay leaders of the shul. In Boston, we lost our shirts, but maintained our self-esteem and did follow our dream, thinking we would make our fortune in business. Had we not done that we always would have wondered what could have or should have been.

We encourage everyone young and old to follow their dreams. It is never too late and we are so proud of Moshe and Dena for going after theirs. The Link fi lls an im-portant void in the community, and the initiative that was taken by them is one that makes parents proud.

HEALTHY LIVING WITH MARIOLA


HEALTH AND FITNESS

Breast Cancer Screening Study Disputed by SpecialistsBy Bracha Schwartz

The Canadian National Breast Screen-ing Study (CNBSS), published last

month in the British Medical Journal and widely circulated in US Media, conclud-ed after 25 years that the death rates from breast cancer were the same in women who were screened with mammogra-phy and those who were not. They also concluded that 25 percent of the can-cers found from screening were overdi-agnosed. However, breast imaging spe-cialists who looked at the data found the study to be deeply fl awed and disput-ed its results. National expert Dr. Dan-iel Kopans, MD, professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School told industry journal Medscape Medical News that he personally reviewed the mammograms in 1990 and found the quality to be poor.

Dr. Catherine Dang, MD associate di-rector the Breast Cancer Risk Reduction Center and a surgeon at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, also told Medscape that “there was no information about tumor state, tumor characteristics or characteristics of study participants. It is unclear whether there was any strati-fi cation for age, family history or oth-er risk factors.” The American College of Radiology (ACR), in a statement criticiz-ing several aspects of the study, also not-ed that the participants in the trial were supposed to be assigned to screened or not screened groups randomly, but in

fact had clinical exams before the study and many with suspicious fi ndings were placed in the mammography group. The ACR says that the CNBSS trial “should not be used to create breast cancer screening policy as this would place a great many women at increased risk of dying unnec-essarily from breast cancer.”

Specialists in our area also found the study fl awed and said it would not affect the way they practice. There was general agreement that early detection of breast cancer is critical to a patient’s treatment and prognosis, and that mammography is still the gold standard, as a starting point, for early detection. Overdiagnosis, the issue raised by the study, cannot be determined because physicians still don’t have the tools to know which cancers are harmless and which are not.

Dr. Lisa Weinstock, a breast imaging specialist and Director of Women’s Dig-ital Imaging of Ridgewood, said early de-tection of breast cancer is critical for a patient’s outcome. ”Finding cancer ear-ly leads to less invasive treatment and fewer complications. It’s not just about survival, it’s about quality of life.” Dr. Weinstock said that women should be screened according to their individual risk profi les, which she prepares for all patients. “Individual characteristics such as family history and breast density de-termine when and how women should be screened for breast cancer. Breast density can obscure cancers on a mam-

mogram. Who knows how many wom-en in the Canada study had tumors that weren’t seen on the mammogram be-cause they had dense tissue?” Dr. Wein-stock said additional imaging such as Ul-trasound or MRI can be necessary when mammograms are inconclusive. She ini-tiated a bill in the New Jersey legislature to require women to be notifi ed about the risks of breast density obscuring tu-mors on mammograms. Beginning later this year, all New Jersey mammography patients will be sent a letter stating that they should ask their doctors about the density results of their mammograms. New Jersey is now the fourteenth state with a breast density notifi cation law. (Disclosure: The author is a consultant for Dr. Weinstock).

Patients are generally referred for mammography screening by internists or gynecologists. Dr. Jennifer Ashton, M.D., F.A.C.O.G., an Englewood based gy-necologist and

ABC News Senior Medical Contrib-utor on Good Morning America/ World News with Diane Sawyer and Co-host of The Doctors Show, said the Canada study will not infl uence her recommendations. “It is well-known that mammography is not the perfect imaging test, but data does support that it can and does detect cancers and saves lives. As a board-certi-fi ed Ob-Gyn, I will continue to recom-mend annual screening mammography to my patients 40 and over after an ex-tensive discussion with her regarding the risks, benefi ts and options to screening.”

Dr. Laura Klein, Medical Director of the Breast Program at The Valley Hospi-tal in Ridgewood, said the conclusion of the Canada study that mammograms lead to over diagnosis may be correct, but the impact cannot be quantifi ed. “I know that some breast cancers will nev-er progress to a life threatening disease, but we don’t know how to select which to treat and which to observe. Until we have those tools, we need to identify and treat all cancers. It is not acceptable to

wait until a tumor is large and palpable. We still believe that early diagnosis can lead to cure.”

Twenty percent of cancers found are Ductal Carcinoma in Situ (DCIS) accord-ing to Dr. Klein, a condition some experts are saying should be reclassifi ed as not be-ing cancer. Dr. Klein cautions that while that is true, some will progress to invasive disease. “We used to base treatment on the size and lymph node involvement of a tumor,” Dr. Klein said. ”Now we attempt to treat based on individual biology. The more we know about the biology of the tumor, the more we can personalize treat-ments and use targeted therapies.”

Dr. Klein cautions that reports in the daily papers regarding research studies may present conclusions which are eas-ily misinterpreted. ”I had a patient who read a story about a trial that conclud-ed women with a certain type of can-cer didn’t benefi t from further treatment such as surgery and radiation. I explained that she didn’t fi t the criteria of the study, but she still chose no further treatment.”

Dr. Klein said the Canada Breast Can-cer Screening Study will not change her opinion of mammography. ”Mammog-raphy continues to be the most accessi-ble, with good sensitivity and specifi city, while being a cost effective modality for screening women for breast cancer. The data still supports that mammography saves lives. It is the best screening modal-ity we have.”

Breast cancer is a risk for all wom-en. However, while women in the gen-eral US population have about an eight percent chance of developing breast can-cer by age 70, the risk is slightly higher among the Ashkenzi Jewish population, largely due to a genetic mutation. Accord-ing to the National Institutes of Health, it is estimated that in the general US pop-ulation, between one in 400 and one in 800 people will have a faulty gene put-ting them at increased risk for breast can-cer. In the Ashkenazi Jewish population, the incidence in about one in 40.

Dr. Lisa Weinstock, Director of Women’s Digital Imaging in Ridgewood


FEATURES

Memories of Another Bad WinterBy George Friedman

As we suffered through another in a never-

ending series of snow-storms here in northeast New Jersey, I was remind-ed that we just celebrat-

ed the 45th anniversary of the Great Snowstorm of February 9, 1969, also known as—for rea-sons that will be explained later—“The Lindsay Storm.” As bad as it has been around here this winter, that storm was worse. Much worse….

“Snow Rapidly Turning to Rain”When I was a kid (I was 15 in 1969), I loved

the weather, especially snow storms. I haven’t changed as I close in on my 60th birthday. Prob-lem was, I lived in Douglaston, in northeast Queens, New York. The proximity to the rela-tively milder Atlantic Ocean meant that many a snowstorm became a rainstorm. I hated that, and often wished that—just once—the dread-ed rain/snow line would halt its inexorable northward march just south of Douglaston. I later learned you have to be careful what you ask for.

The forecast was for snow rapidly mix-ing with and changing to rain, with highway and urban fl ooding. My friend Gene—another weather guy—and I were disappointed and an-noyed as usual. I should point out that Gene is my only childhood friend who actually grew up to become what he said he would become: a weather forecaster. He retired a few years ago after a long career at the National Weather Ser-vice and was and is the best forecaster ever. I planned on becoming an astronaut but—spoil-er alert—that didn’t happen. He’s also the only childhood friend with whom I’ve stayed in close contact. Yup, those weather bonds are du-rable. Even though he’s on the west coast, we still get on the phone to talk about approach-ing storms. Gene saw something in the weath-er maps most professionals didn’t. The day be-fore the storm was to hit, he said, “I’m not so convinced it’s going to turn to rain. If that’s the case, watch out!” WABC weatherman “Tex” An-toine had similar reservations and doubts. Said he on Saturday night (the storm started Sun-day morning), “It may be dicey north of 125th

Street. I’ll be back with my apologies on Mon-day.”

Rain? What Rain?Sunday dawned cloudy and gray. It start-

ed sleeting and raining at daybreak, which an-noyed me greatly. But then, miracle of mira-cles, the rain/snow line shifted south, and it turned to snow. Lots of snow. Hours and hours and hours of wind-driven snow. The City (that’s what New Yorkers call Manhattan) offi cially re-corded 15 inches of snow. Not Douglaston. It is the highest natural point in New York City—about 260 feet above sea level, and is also the easternmost point in New York City. That com-bination gave us—ready—30 inches of snow! That’s right, 2.5 feet. The drifts were incredible, six feet in some places.

The Aftermath: Lindsay’s FollySomebody evidently forgot to tell then-

Mayor John V. Lindsay that Queens was part of New York City. We didn’t see a snowplow for days, and we had no school for a solid week. Food supplies vanished. Residents were furi-ous, thus the storm’s moniker, “The Lindsay Storm.” As an industrious teen, I sprang into ac-tion with my friends. Normally, we got $3-$5 to

shovel a walk and driveway. For this storm the price was $10-$15 (come on—it was 30 inches and drifts). Adjusted for infl ation, that’s about $65- $100, a ton of money for a 15-year-old. My Mom made us do elderly neighbors for free, but they ended up tipping nicely. And when the shul’s custodian and snow shoveling ser-vice didn’t show up, we did that one for free, too. She said Hashem would reward us for the mitzvah. And indeed He has, many times over.

After a while, a city plow showed up, but it got stuck in the snow. They dispatched an-other plow to pull it out of the drifts, but the towing chain broke and then that plow got stuck, too. We got to know the drivers, Eddie and Bill. People let them stay warm in their homes, use the facilities, and eat a meal. But after several days, the roads were still im-passable and the grocery stores started run-ning out of food. My parents dispatched my brother, me, and some friends to hike to the Bohack’s supermarket on Northern Boule-

vard (about a mile away) where, rumor had it, a supply truck had made it through. To-day, word would be spread instantly by social media and iPhone apps; back then it spread through phone trees.

We loaded up on milk, bread, eggs, and ce-real and trudged back with our mother lode. We heard stories about price gouging by en-terprising teens, but we just charged face value to our neighbors. But folks were re-ally grateful, and we got crazy tips, as much as $5 (over $30 today)! Speaking of enterpris-ing teens, we heard on the radio that motor-ists were stranded on the Long Island Express-way, a few blocks from our house. We also heard about price gouging: $1 for a plain bagel ($6.50 with infl ation), which at the time cost pennies. This really annoyed me, so off I went with friends to the bagel store which was one of the few places open. We bought a ton of bagels, the owner threw in free cream cheese, and off we went to the LIE, where we gave

out the bagels for free. But again, folks were grateful and we got tips galore, even though we tried not to take them. My Mom insisted we put part of the tip money in the tzedakah box. We also got a bunch of requests for cof-fee, so for hours we went back and forth deliv-ering hot coffee.

Lessons LearnedEventually, spring came and the snow melt-

ed. The life lessons learned, however, have en-dured. First and foremost, you have to be care-ful what you wish for. Second, it’s not always about money; you just have to do what’s right and let the chips fall where they may. Third, lis-ten to your Mom. She knows what she’s talk-ing about. Last, don’t trust the so-called ex-perts. Better to place your trust in Hashem, which, of course, is actually Lesson Number 1.

George Friedman and his wife Ellen are members of Congregation Beth Aaron. They have lived in Te-aneck for 37 years. He never did become an astro-naut. His parents still live in Douglaston and his mother, Gloria, still tells the author what to do.


FEATURES / FICTION

Mazel Tov By Estelle Glass

June 2013Suddenly the bride felt faint. The

pounding of the music was relentless as the band grew closer. Oblivious to her discomfort, tearful relatives and smil-ing friends hastily lined up in two long rows to face her while they clapped their hands and sang along to Od Yeshoma. As she smoothed the bridal veil, her mother leaned in and kissed her daughter light-ly on the forehead. “I’m so happy, Ayala. Mazel Tov.”

Swiftly, they came into view; her chos-sen, wearing a dark suit and a too big hat, followed by a crowd of sweaty, beaming friends. Yossi was pale and looked like he, too, might pass out, but both fathers supported the boy under his arms, prop-ping him up like a ventriloquist’s dum-my. Ayala looked down and tried to read from the Tehillim clutched tightly in her hands, but the loud beating of her heart distracted her. She wondered how it would look if she threw up, just as every-one was beaming at her; 23 year old Ayala Gewirtz, a kallah at last. It had been three months since she and Yossi had met.

March 2013The girl took another look in the mir-

ror and applied a fi nal coat of lip gloss, hoping its shine would somehow offset the frown on her face. She tried not to think of the huge exam she had the next

morning. Her dream of getting a license as a sonogram technician hinged on her passing, yet her mother had insisted that she attend her cousin Sora’s lechayim.

“This is more important than school,” Ayala’s mother insisted. “I know how it is, believe me. People forget about you. You have to be seen so people will remember to set you up.”

The entire time that she had been getting ready, her mother’s voice kept drifting up to her room from the kitch-en below. In despair, she tried to hum to drown out the now familiar litany.

—You’re 22 already. This is the fi fth Lechayim you’ve gone to this month.”

— “La La La” sang Ayala.— “And Sora is only 19.”— “I know, Ma,” she muttered, and

added to herself, “You won’t let me for-get.”

— “Some of your friends are mothers already,” her mother continued.

— “And some are divorced,” she an-swered sotto voice.

Now Ayala called downstairs. “I’m ready to leave, Ma. You wait for Daddy. We’ll go to the party separately, Okay? I have to get home early, gotta’ study.”

Her mother ran up the stairs and rushed into her daughter’s bedroom for a fi nal inspection. “Let me look at you fi rst. Oh, Ayala. What am I going to do with you? You can’t wear that sweater to a simcha. It’s not dressy enough. It’s for school, not a party. And it’s so bright!”

When she got to her aunt’s house, Aya-la understood once again why her moth-er had been horrifi ed at her defi ance.

“I don’t care,” she stubbornly told her-self. So what if every girl here is dressed up. They all look like clones in their black dresses with a stupid Kiki Rikki under-neath. Same hair that already looks like a sheitel, identical shoes and tights…All a guy has to do is to close his eyes and pick one out of the crowd. They’re all the same.” She combed her long, curly hair back with her fi ngers. “I don’t want to be like everyone else!” But, already, her head had begun to throb.

She pushed through the crowd searching for her cousin. She would just wish her a quick mazel tov and go home to study. All the girls she passed wore the same broad smile as they tried to con-vince themselves how happy they were for the kallah while wondering when it would be their turn. When she fi nally reached her cousin, Sora enveloped her in a huge hug.

“Ayala, it’s so great that you’re here. Im yirtza Hashem by you.” Then she turned to the young looking boy standing next to her. He nodded and smiled shyly. “Eliezer, this is my favorite cousin. First thing we have to do is to fi nd her a guy. She’s so great.”

Next to the couple, an elaborately dressed woman in a large blonde sheitel swiveled around to study Ayala.

“Ah, so you’re the famous cousin. I’m Eliezer’s Aunt Rifka. I heard so much about you, mamaleh. She took Ayala’s’ arm and walked her to a corner of the liv-ing room where she peppered her with personal questions.

“So, what do you do now?“Where did you go to seminary? I

know you were in Bais Yaakov with my Etti. Did you go to camp? Where? You have a job? Doing what? How wonderful!

Ayala answered as politely as she could while trying to mask her irritation. She wondered who had asked the chos-sen’s aunt to check her credentials for a possible shidduch.

“I’ve had a lot of mazal making shid-duchim,” the woman continued. She smiled brightly, revealing huge teeth. “Ask anyone. I’ve had such nachas from making wonderful combinations. And at all ages,” she added briskly.

And that’s how Ayala met Yossi. Any-one could see that they had so much in common.

He was “older,” 25 already……She was “older,” just turned 23. He volunteered for Chai Lifeline; she had been a counselor in Camp HASC. He learned and went to school at night; she went to school and worked part time. He was short; she was petite. They both liked shwarma!

Six weeks later they announced their engagement. On their lengthy dates they found enough to talk about: their class-es, their volunteer work, and mostly how their parents were driving them crazy. He didn’t seem to care that she wanted to work, although he also said he wanted a large family, and soon. She didn’t like that he didn’t know much about what was going on in the news and worried that the last novel he read was in high school.

Still, he was sweet and kind. He opened the door for her and compli-mented her on the clothes her mother hated. She liked his jokes. Her parents encouraged her. It was time, she guessed. So, he asked and she said yes.

June 2013The music and the clapping were

deafening as the boy she barely knew lifted her veil and pulled it over her face. His hands were shaking and he had hard-ly looked at her. Ayala blinked back tears but no one seemed to notice. They were all too busy being thrilled. After all, look how it had all turned out thanks to Eliez-er’s aunt. Like a fairy tale. A few short weeks and now…The lucky couple’s life could begin in earnest. Mazel Tov! What a simcha!

PROFILE

Stuart Kaplan, A Teaneck Voice for J StreetBy Stephen Tencer

Teaneck—Stuart Kaplan, a past president of Teaneck’s Congregation Beth Sho-

lom, is a member of the Executive Com-mittee of the Northern New Jersey Chapter of J Street. The committee organizes meet-ings, educates the public, lobbies Congress, and uses the media to send J Street’s mes-sage. In an interview with JLBC he was asked about what J Street stands for and what enticed him to get involved.

J Street’s central message is that Isra-el must negotiate for a two-state solution with the Palestinians. Otherwise, Israel will have to choose between being Jewish or being democratic. And without a peace deal, Israel’s security will remain in doubt. Asked what draws him to be concerned with Israel, Mr. Kaplan said he once lived in Beer Sheva for three years doing botani-cal research. He strongly believes that Isra-el is the Jewish Homeland and is of central importance to Jews throughout the Dias-pora. Kaplan and other J Street members

have many strong ties within the Jewish community.

To defi ne J Street’s place in the politi-cal spectrum, Kaplan makes it clear that J Street is vehemently opposed to the BDS (boycott, divest, and sanction) Movement, which includes economic and academic boycotts of Israel and Israelis. Unlike Peace Now, they are not an Israeli organization lobbying the Israeli government. J Street believes that the Israeli people and gov-ernment must make their own decisions. Rather, they encourage Americans to join them in petitioning the American govern-ment to act on behalf of Israel’s interests, and to give leaders on both sides the sup-port they need to take bold moves toward peaceful coexistence.

J Street has over 150,000 supporters, and petitions our government to help Is-rael achieve peace and security. Their slo-gan is “Pro Israel, Pro Peace.” They think this would be best achieved by a two-state

CONTINUED ON P. 62


SPECIAL NEEDS

Grandma—What Did You Say?

By Zev Grossman and Bruce Maier

Part three of four articles on Financial Planning for Special Needs Families

In the initial article of this series, “If the Patriarchs Were My Clients,” we proposed six tenets for Special Needs Family Planning. They were:

1. Create a written fi nancial plan2. Create a Will and other Estate

documents 3. Choose your fi duciaries wisely 4. Create a Special Needs Trust5. Fund your trust6. Create a Letter of Intent—Share

your loveThis article will focus on steps three

and four; choosing the right helpers and one of the legal profession’s great inventions, the Special Needs Trust.

Growing up in suburban Long Is-land, a second generation American, it is not surprising (although perhaps dis-appointing) that I did not learn much of the mamme loshen—the mother tongue. Nevertheless, my Grandmoth-er would, from time to time, verbal-ly hit me aside the head with one of her classic Yiddish expressions. These I often appropriated and found most useful on my secular friends. Howev-er, there was one expression that I was never able to integrate into a conversa-tion, until now!

Like every good one-liner, it needs a setup, so permit me to digress. In our fi nancial services practice, one of the fi rst questions we ask a new client is, “Do you have a will?” The answer, it seems, is almost inevitably “no.” Most of our clients don’t neglect their wills because they don’t have the time, or be-cause they don’t want to pay the legal fees, or even because they don’t con-sider it important. We have found that they often don’t have wills because they are afraid to make the wrong deci-sion about who should be their fi duci-aries. The fi duciaries are the executor, the guardian, and the trustees. Clients are often afraid that someone they

pick won’t be able to do the job, or they are afraid of offending someone by not selecting him. Often they just can’t think of anyone who they trust. This is particularly true when a special needs child is involved. Well, as my Grandmother would say, “Di Vakst vi a tsibele mitn kop in dr’erd!” You grow like an onion with your head in the ground. A time comes when you must pluck your head out of the ground and make hard decisions.

Here are a few pieces of informa-tion to help make the decision pro-cess easier. To start, you should under-stand the different types of fi duciaries. The Executor executes your Will. He cleans up after you, distributes your assets to the heirs and trusts and pays your outstanding bills and taxes. The Trustee manages and distributes assets left to a trust for the benefi t of an heir, such as a minor or disabled child. The Guardian raises your child if you can-not. Choosing a Guardian is perhaps the most diffi cult planning decision you will make. The Guardian will be responsible for your child until he or she reaches the age of majority (usual-ly 18). For families with special needs children, the Guardian is taking on a commitment that may last your child’s entire life.

It is important to know that your selection of fi duciaries is not irrevo-cable. They can be changed and some-times should be. Grandparents can be-come too old or pass away; siblings grow up and can take on fi duciary re-sponsibilities; trusted friends move in and out of one’s life. In addition, the fi duciary can have multiple roles or just one. It may be most convenient and appropriate to have the Guardian of your child also be the Trustee of his assets. However, if the Guardian isn’t comfortable managing money or, if you feel it creates a confl ict of inter-est, select someone else to be the Trus-tee. Further, fi duciaries can hire help. If a fi duciary is not familiar with the fi -nancial, legal, or accounting issues of the role he has been tasked with, he can hire professionals to guide him. This includes assistance navigating the educational or governmental services available for the special needs child, or even emotional support in dealing with the new responsibilities. The cost of that advice is usually paid for by the

estate. If you are worried about offending

a friend or family member by not se-lecting them to be a fi duciary, it is im-portant to know that you only need to discuss your selection of fi duciary with the candidate of your choosing. You are not required to tell anyone else. If you cannot think of an appro-priate person for any of the fi duciary roles, there are professional fi duciaries available, including banks, trust com-panies, legal fi rms, charities, and more.

Finally, think about your choice of fi duciaries before you sit down with the lawyer. The lawyer’s offi ce is not the best place to have the argument with your spouse about whether your sister would be a better choice than your spouse’s brother.

My estate planning instructor taught me that families with special needs members have two fears: (1) as-sets set aside for their loved one will be consumed to meet medical costs or (2) having assets will disqualify that special needs individual from receiv-ing government aid. A simple and ele-gant strategy for addressing both con-cerns is to create a Special Needs Trust, sometimes referred to as a Supplemen-tal Needs Trust.

A special needs trust directs the trustee not to use trust assets for any purpose that would overlap with the benefi ts provided by government agencies. Agency benefi ts usually in-clude only the basics: food, clothing, and shelter. If you take a minute to think about what you spend money on for yourself and your kids, the list in-cludes education, entertainment, trav-el, transportation, hobbies, and sports, to name a few. It goes well beyond the basics covered by the agency benefi ts, and that is the role of the special needs trust—to provide those elements that enhance life and add fun and depth to every day.

Usually, a special needs trust is funded upon the death of the parents of a special needs child. Until then, parents can provide what a child needs without gifting assets to them. Word-ing in the will directs any inheritance for that child to the supplemental trust rather than to the child directly.

The asset threshold for disqualify-ing someone from receiving govern-ment aid is exceedingly low. For sup-plemental security income (SSI), it is $2,000 (or $3,000 if married); for Med-

icaid it is about $14,500. While parents may plan to fund the trust upon their death, it is often a good practice to cre-ate the special needs trust ahead of time. That way others, such as grand-parents, have an appropriate place to direct their gifts. Even a good haul from a bar mitzvah can create prob-lems, although most government pro-grams usually kick in after the spe-cial needs individual has completed the educational programs, around age 21 or 22. So there is plenty of time to spend down the bar mitzvah gifts.

One last thought. Some clients avoid the trust structure by passing on all the assets to another child and charging them with the responsibili-ty of taking care of their special needs sibling’s fi nancial needs. Divorce, col-lege fi nancial aid, unemployment, or other economic stresses can often get in the way of that being an effective strategy.

Choosing fi duciaries and setting up an appropriate structure for providing for heirs is certainly a challenge. While mistakes can have long-lasting and sig-nifi cant consequences, planning cor-rectly can help avoid them. A good and knowledgeable attorney and qualifi ed fi nancial professional can be invalua-ble guides that can help you sidestep a minefi eld of issues, but it is impera-tive that you drive the process. As my Grandmother was fond of saying, “take your head out of the ground” and just do it.

This general information is not in-tended and should not be construed or relied upon as legal advice. AXA Advi-sors and its affi liates and associates do not provide legal or fi duciary advice or services and you should consult with your own qualifi ed professionals re-garding your particular circumstances.

Zev Grossman and Bruce Maier are registered rep-resentatives who off er securities through AXA Advi-sors, LLC (NY, NY 212-314-4600), member FINRA, SIPC, investment advisor representatives who off er investment advisory products and services off ered through AXA Advisors, LLC, an investment advisor registered with the SEC, and agents who off er an-nuity and insurance products off ered through AXA Network, LLC. AXA Advisors and its affi liates and associates do not provide tax, accounting or legal advice or services. Please contact your tax and le-gal advisors regarding your particular circumstanc-es. AGE-89835(11/13)(exp.11/15). The authors can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected]


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SPECIAL NEEDS

The Filmmaker and Films of Sinai SchoolsBy Jenny Gans

Teaneck—Many who viewed the 2013 Sinai Schools video Heroes

felt the powerful strength of emo-tion conveyed by the Minchen-berg family. With Sinai’s help, a child with profound learning dis-abilities developed into a strong young man able to take his place in the community as a bar mitz-vah. With over 10,000 hits on You-Tube and other social media chan-nels, the video was a viral success.

Sam Fishman, managing di-rector of Sinai Schools, who also serves as its fi lmmaker with fi lm editor David Jasse of DMJ Digital Media, said he felt the connection viewers made to the 15-minute video contributed to the large in-crease in attendance at their annu-al dinner in 2014.

In the months following the release of Heroes, people who had never heard of Sinai called the school offi ce and wanted their child to experience what they saw. As they watched the Minchen-bergs tell Tuvia’s story, they be-came partners in their journey. They went through Tuvia’s ups and downs with his family, and when he arrived at his bar mitz-vah, viewers empathized with the enormity of his accomplishments.

How does Fishman decide which families to feature in Si-

nai videos? Fishman said the audi-ence must fi rst “connect emotion-ally” to the family and their story and expressed his gratitude to each of the “courageous and gen-erous” families who have allowed their stories to be told.

Fishman describes the cho-sen stories as those “too big to re-main inside the confi nes of my heart.” Often the decision to ask a family to share its story hap-pens in a fl ash of inspiration. The videos most often tell the story of one family, but they commu-nicate the essential story of Si-nai Schools, telling the story and showing the magnitude of the as-sistance Sinai is able to provide for students with special needs. They allow the audience to see the changes in the child, and then

shows them how the positive transformation impacts the fam-ily and beyond.

In Heroes, Rabbi Yehuda and Laurie Minchenberg describe the progress of their three children, thanks to Sinai. Tuvia was seen as a baby with profound disabil-ities; he started in Sinai in 2007 and achieved his goal: in 2012, he read his bar mitzvah parsha fl aw-lessly—the culmination of his parents’ hopes for him. Fishman, who was at the simcha, stood and listened to Tuvia read from the To-rah, and at that moment felt he had to share this story with the world. “Everyone should experi-ence the thrill and the pride of Tu-via’s bar mitzvah,” he said.

In 2014, Sinai told the story of Sara and Soshie Weisz in Sisters,

and the viewer was shown what a difference just a few months made as the girls embraced Sinai. Because things, unfortunately, did not work out in the school the girls had been attending, they found themselves at home and without a school in the fall of 2012. A few months into the school year, their mother, Tova Weisz, approached Sinai and asked for their much needed help.

“We knew we had to make it work for the girls. This was so clearly the right place for them,” said Fishman. A few months af-ter Soshie started in Sinai, Weisz called Fishman to express her dis-belief at the positive change in Soshie. She had evolved from an angry, lashing out teenager, whose processing disorder and disabili-ty meant she might not graduate eighth grade with her peers, to a happy, friendly, and motivated student. She was overjoyed to re-port that Soshie would be advanc-ing to high school.

When Sam heard her story, he knew it had to be told. Soshie’s story is one of hope, with a fu-ture and goals that hold so much promise. One of the qualities that makes Sisters unique is that it is narrated by Soshie herself. With insight into her life and her per-sonality, and with a wry sense of humor, Soshie highlights her teen-

age side, like any other smart high school student, from her unique perspective of a student in need reaching out for help.

Soshie’s sister Sara, is also a student in Sinai Schools is in the fi lm, which presents Sinai’s Maor High School at the Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in Living-ston. While the Sinai high schools housed in Ma’ayanot and TABC in Teaneck provide functional aca-demic programs for students with developmental disabilities, Maor is an academically oriented high school, catering to students with learning disabilities who are col-lege bound—they take a full ac-ademic load and prepare for col-lege like other students their age, but may need smaller classes, ad-ditional tutoring, or have other ac-ademic or social needs addressed.

“People don’t realize what lev-el Sinai Maor is on,” Fishman said. Seeing Soshie’s success at Maor on fi lm, Fishman said he hopes the message will reach parents look-ing for this kind of academic envi-ronment for their child.

Sinai spends more than $60,000 per child, and relies on the community’s help for its con-tinued success and help them pro-vide fi nancial assistance to fami-lies in need of its services.

Watch Sara and Soshie’s story at https:/www.sinaischools.org/sisters. To see all of Sinai School’s videos here: https://www.sinais-chools.org/videos

Sara and Soshie Weisz are featured in 2014’s Sinai Schools video, Sisters.

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SPECIAL NEEDS

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Securities offered through AXA Advisors, LLC (NY, NY 212-314-4600, member FINRA, SIPC. Annuity and insurance products offered through AXA Network, LLC. AGE88221 (12/13) (exp. 12/15)

Putting the Mitzvah in Bar MitzvahBy Judy Lash Balint/JNS.org

Rabbi Chanoch Yeres, director of the Deaf Programming Division of Inter-

national Young Israel Movement (IYIM), leads a 2013 bar mitzvah for 63 deaf and hard of hearing children. Credit: Judy Lash Balint.

Jerusalem—It’s 9:30 a.m. on a sunny Monday morning in the Jewish Quar-ter of Jerusalem’s Old City. Two large groups of revelers almost collide in the alley leading to the main square. Both groups are accompanied by a clarinet-ist and a drummer belting out tradition-al simcha tunes, and in the middle of both are 13-year old boys dancing with beaming grandmas and uncles under a small chuppah as they make their way under the stone arches from the West-ern Wall.

It’s the Israeli version of the bar mitz-vah extravaganza, and it’s repeated eve-ry Monday and Thursday (days when the Torah is read) throughout the year. Boys from all over the country get called up to the Torah for the fi rst time at the Wall, and then get danced up the steps to the Jewish Quarter and on to a lavish break-fast spread at one of the many restau-rants or halls dotting the area.

But not every bar or bat mitzvah age teen in Israel is fortunate enough to have that kind of experience. For the tens of thousands of youths from dysfunctional families who are cared for in residential facilities all over the Jewish state, it’s of-ten Diaspora Jews who make the differ-ence between having no bar/bat mitzvah at all, or having a meaningful transition into Jewish responsibility.

A father helps his hard of hearing son put on tefi llin for the fi rst time at a bar mitzvah organized by the International Young Israel Movement and the Jewish Agency for Israel. Credit: Judy Lash Balint.

Zemira Ozarowski, coordinator of do-nor relations for AMIT, a network of ed-ucational programs that serves 28,000 Israeli children, is responsible for the twinning program that encourages Amer-ican bar and bat mitzvah kids to share their celebration with needy Israeli kids.

Some of the Americans come over with their families to take part in the simcha they have sponsored, Ozarowski explains, while others conduct fund-rais-ing projects at home and send over funds to help support AMIT’s efforts to inject

joy into the lives of Israeli kids from dif-fi cult backgrounds. Part of the donation is designated for the Israeli “twin” to re-ceive a traditional bnei mitzvah gift of a siddur or tefi llin.

Some lasting relationships have been forged, Ozarowski notes, and the pro-gram was recently expanded to include twinning between Israeli pre-teens from established Jerusalem neighborhoods and kids in AMIT’s Beit Hayeled facility in Gilo.

In Netanya, the Beit Elazraki Chil-dren’s Home run by Emunah, a prom-inent religious Israeli women’s move-ment with worldwide supporters, hosts many bar and bat mitzvah twinning events. American bnei mitzvah and their families have sponsored several major projects at the home, which houses al-most 300 children whose families can-not care for them.

Back in 2011, a group of budding musi-cians from Teaneck, NJ, raised more than $20,000 as their bar mitzvah project, which funded new equipment for the music therapy program at Beit Elazraki. Several times a year, American and Brit-ish bnei mitzvah join their peers at Beit Elazraki for a lively party that always fea-tures loud music and a festive meal.

A popular bnei mitzvah activity for institutional groups as well as individ-ual families is a visit to the Yad Lashir-yon Latrun Tank Museum a few miles west of Jerusalem. Elisha Kramer, a U.S.-born graduate student, spent part of his army service as a tour guide at the museum. “Some weeks there would be two or three bar mitzvah groups every day,” Kramer recalls. “It’s a great place for kids to learn about the need for a strong Israel and the legitimacy of fi ghting for Israel,” Kramer adds regarding the out-door museum where more than 150 ar-mored vehicles are on display along with a moving memorial complex dedicated to fallen Israeli soldiers.

Many bnei mitzvah want to take an active role in their celebration, and Jeru-salem Scavenger Hunts provides creative opportunities for learning and fun in and around Jerusalem. Founder and director Tali Tarlow explains that Israeli kids can train to guide their friends and family on a fun-fi lled, educational, thematic naviga-tion through the city as they engage with its history and fi gure out their place in its future. The program is tailored to the

interests of each child, who works with one of the Scavenger Hunt professional guides and educators to develop a pres-entation at one of the stations used in the Hunt. “We believe a bar or bat mitz-vah should be a special occasion and an opportunity for a meaningful experi-ence,” says Tarlow, a long-time informal educator who made aliyah from South Africa.

Any family that’s been part of the Package from Home Bar and Bat Mitzvah Project would agree with that sentiment. Started by American immigrant Barbara Silverman at the beginning of the Second Intifada in 2000, the volunteer-run program prepares and sends tens of thousands of care packages to Israeli soldiers, focusing particularly on Lone Soldiers (soldiers without family in Israel) and wounded soldiers. Bnei mitzvah in the U.S. can raise money for the project, and those visiting can take part in the packaging and distribution of everything from warm clothing to toi-letries to snacks. Each package includes letters of appreciation for the soldiers, which kids are encouraged to write.

For children with physical as well as emotional challenges, it takes a spe-cial effort to create a bar or bat mitz-vah program they can relate to. At a recent ceremony in a Jerusalem syna-gogue, 63 deaf and hard of hearing chil-dren were called to the Torah in front of parents who were visibly moved by

the moment, which was sponsored by the International Young Israel Move-ment (IYIM) and its Deaf Programming Division in cooperation with the Jewish Agency. Boys with cochlear implants opened up the brand new prayer shawls provided by the IYIM with a flourish, while groups of girls chattered in sign language and waited for their turn to recite a special blessing for becoming a bat mitzvah. Ben Zion Chen, the head of the Association for the Deaf in Israel told the kids, “I grew up with hearing parents and didn’t know what Torah was. You are all very fortunate.”

“It’s important that you know your rights and how to deal with your deaf-ness as you grow up,” Chen added, while a sign language interpreter translated his words to the attentive students.

“He didn’t sleep all last night,” said Orna regarding her son Shai, a profound-ly deaf 13-year-old from Ramle. “He’s gone through so many operations, and had so many diffi culties in his short life—it’s a joy to be here with him and see how happy he is,” she exclaimed as Shai took his place under the prayer shawl spread over his group, while Rabbi Chanoch Ye-res, director of the IYIM Deaf Program-ming Division read the Torah portion. In true Israeli bnei mitzvah style, the kids and their families, who had come from all over Israel, were treated to a celebra-tory lunch and a tour of the Old City to mark the day.

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PURIM LOBBY PROJECT Roll out some dough, and use our fillings to make tasty ‘tashen that you bake at home. For more info, call 201.408.1426.

Wed, Mar 12, 2-5 pm, $1 for 2 hamantaschen

Purim is a holiday of fun! Bring your children in their favorite Purim costumes to the Rubach Family Purim Carnival, where they can enjoy train rides; inflatables; crafts, games and prizes; character visits; a dark room/tunnel experience, clairvoyant, cotton candy and more. There will be a fabulous costume parade at 2:45 pm that will conclude with a Megillah show. For more info, call 201.408.1484.

SUN, MAR 16, 1- 4 PM Carnival opens at 12 noon for families with children with special needs

Suggested entrance donation: $1 per person or non-perishable food item to be donated to the Center for Food Action.

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PURIM COOKING A fun cooking class in Hebrew for parents and children. For more info, call 201.408.1427.

Ages 3-7 with caregivers, Sun, Mar 9, 11 am, $20/$25

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RELATIONSHIPS

How to Love (Conservative, Reform, Hasidic, Reconstructionist, etc.) JewsBy Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Glick

I grew up in a nominally Orthodox fami-ly in a city near Boston. But had things

gone as they were going, I would have undoubtedly gone into adolescence as a non-committed Jew.

It was the year of my bar mitzvah. My father’s parents, who had retired and moved to Eretz Yisroel several years be-fore, decided to come back to spend close to a year near their children and grand-children. Though I couldn’t communi-cate with them (they only spoke Yiddish and my parents successfully kept that as a private language for hiding things from the children), they seemed like an im-pressive religious couple. That, together with the fact that a close friend decided to transfer from a local public school to Maimonides, convinced me to join him. After winning the battle with my par-ents because, I suspect, of my grandpar-ent’s support and possible promise to help with tuition, I enrolled in Maimon-ides at age 13. I went into grade 9, got sup-port in Hebrew, was excused from Lat-in and French, and was welcomed into a wonderful class. Following high school, I went to YU and on to the rest of my life as a rabbi and later as a psychologist.

At YU, I became a bit of a haredi for a while, but later settled into right of cent-er Modern Orthodoxy, a position I have continued, though with some discom-

fort. The discomfort relates primarily to the somewhat negative attitudes that many Orthodox people have toward an-yone who acts, believes, or simply ex-presses ideas that are against those of the group. While we live in a time that peo-ple are becoming a bit more accepting of those that are somewhat different from them, in general, we nevertheless follow the “party” line with regard to anyone who is off-track. If we are Orthodox, we look down upon anyone who is Reform, or sometimes too open (e.g., Chovevei), and certainly against those who are inter-married, and probably haredi or Hasidic. If we are very haredi, the censure is gen-erally even stronger, with opposition be-coming demeaning, and in some groups, even violent!

What happened to Ahavat Yisroel? Is Yisroel only those who wear the same bekeshe, hat, or yarmulke? I under-stand that accepting almost any posi-tion involves disagreement with those who accept a different view. But can’t we disagree somewhat gently, and act re-spectfully with those that we differ with?

My high school, Maimonides, was in Roxbury (and later moved to Brookline shortly after I fi nished high school). Rox-bury (or more correctly, Dorchester) was, at the time, the home of the Bostoner Rebbe, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak Horowitz. z’tl. The rebbe was born and raised in Bos-ton. But while at the time he didn’t have

a single adherent who was a chosid, and few who were Shomer Shabbos, he nev-ertheless was a rebbe in the fullest sense of the term. He led fabrengen, often for students who were not at all religious. I often participated when he baked mat-zoh in his homemade basement oven to the cries of “l’shem mitzvah matzohs.” He was always available to anyone who called.

I remember the time, more than 50 years ago, that he contacted Senator Ted Kennedy to arrange transport for a crit-ically injured 9-year-old from the bush areas of Maine to Boston for emergen-cy care on Kennedy’s private small plane. (See the wonderful Artscroll book, And the Angels Laughed, or Feldheim’s The Bostoner by Hanoch Teller, for a better ap-preciation of The Bostoner Rebbe.)

The rebbe sponsored a dinner in Bos-ton on behalf of the Lakewood Yeshiva attended by the Rav, Rav Yosef Soloveit-chik, Rabbi Sheneur Kotler, and many others. And he was on the presidium of Agudath Yisroel and a member of Moet-ses Gedolei HaTorah. He was a true rebbe, who loved every Jew of every stripe. We would be very hard pressed to fi nd some-one today of his caliber.

In 1965, when my wife and I were to be married, there was no question that the Mesader Keddushin would be the Bostoner. Nina’s parents, at the time, were members of the Jericho Jew-

ish Center in Jericho, Long Island (Con-servative), and wanted their Rabbi, Rab-bi Stanley Steinhart, to co-offi ciate. The rebbe, of course, agreed and the two rab-bis, together with Rabbi Pinchas Stolp-er, who was head of NCSY at the time, joined in co-offi ciating at our wedding. Could anyone imagine that happening today?! What happened? Can someone today call a Reform Rabbi “Rabbi….” and not be soundly criticized?

I will remain somewhat right-wing Orthodox, but how I wish that others, especially Orthodox Jews, would be, as they should be, gentle and respectful of others—even those that are VERY differ-ent.

P lease feel free to contact me regard-ing this (or any) topic. You can do so anon-ymously by writing to [email protected] . Dr. Glick was a clinical psy-chologist in private practice for 35 years as well as a rabbi of Congregation Ahavat Yis-roel. If you would like to submit a question, or contact him for an appointment, he can be reached at [email protected] or by calling him at 201-983-1532.

The Bostoner Rebbe with Rabbi Stanley Steinhart and Rabbi Pinchus Stolper

The Identity CrisisBy Reuben E. Gross, Ph.D.

In the legendary town of Chelm lived

many philosophers and savants. The sto-ry is told about one of these ruminators

who developed the fear that when he disrobed his distinctive garments at the public bathhouse, he would lose his dis-tinctiveness, look like everybody else, and lose his identity forever. In order to forestall this catastrophe, he tied a string around his ankle, but was thunderstruck one day when he noticed that the string was missing and that another Chelmite (probably a philosopher with the same

problem) had a familiar looking string around his ankle. At this point the savant exclaimed “Woe is me! If he is me, who am I?”

Nor were the Chelmites the only peo-ple who struggled with the problem of identity. Many centuries earlier, the Greeks, struggling with the same prob-lem, exhorted their citizens with the wis-dom of the Delphic oracle: Know thyself. But the Chelmites and the Greeks are not alone in this matter. Many American Jews, especially singles, are also confront-ed with this problem. Why is the identity crisis especially important and problem-atic to singles?

Today’s singles confront a problem very different from that of their par-ents and grandparents. We live today in a fl uid mutli-ethnic, religious, and cul-tural society and a high level of perme-ability among groups. The less discrimi-nation, the more mixing. To whom do these single men and women owe their allegiance? Where do they belong? Who shall they marry?

A single man in his early 30s boasted that he dates women “of all races, ages, religions, levels of education, and inter-ests.” Although he had a vague hope that fellow members of the singles workshop I was conducting would compliment him on his broadmindedness, in fact, he wasn’t too surprised when the reac-tion was: “You’re all mixed up...you don’t know what you want.” A more penetrat-ing assessment would have been: “You

don’t know who you are.”The famous psychoanalyst Erik H.

Erikson highlighted the resolution of the identity crisis as one of the most im-portant developmental phases a person must pass through if he is ever to devel-op a healthy personality capable of going onto the next steps, including intimacy with a partner for a lifelong experience.

According to Erikson, the identity cri-sis refers to the individual’s ability to in-tegrate inner strivings, meanings, di-rections, values, and goals with outer demands. Failure to integrate one’s per-sonality results in identity diffusion—or confusion. The person doesn’t know who he is, what he stands for, or how he’s going to end up.

Settling down into the coveted “meaningful relationship” involves mak-ing a defi nitive statement about oneself, one’s values, goals, and aspirations. It also demands a long, hard look into oneself for a determination of the single’s rock bottom non-negotiable desiderata in a spouse. But this is not easy to achieve, and for this reason all too many people fl oat about the marriage supermarket unable to choose from the many differ-ent, competing offerings that come their way. They don’t know who they want, because they don’t know who they are.

How then does one solve this monu-mental problem? Easier asked than an-swered; however, any one of the follow-ing or a combination of them may be helpful:

The individual should carefully scru-tinize his affi liations, associations, be-haviors, activities, and any commitments in terms of time, money, and loyalties. He should examine his life with a fi ne-toothed comb, asking himself questions and challenging his position every inch of the way. Is this what he really believes? Is he comfortable in such and such a set-ting? Are his long term goals being repre-sented here? Is he true to his heritage, his family, himself? In the words of one of my mentors: “If you want to know anoth-er person, ask him two questions: What are you doing and with whom? Why that person and why that thing?”

Barring unusual problems, most sin-gles eventually come to terms with who they are, narrow the range of their dat-ing partners, and fi nd someone compat-ible with whom they feel comfortable enough to build a satisfying and reward-ing life. However, if after many years of dating, a person doesn’t know who s/he is or what s/he wants, s/he should im-merse himself in self-searching and val-ue clarifi cation activities with the goal of fi nding out who s/he really is.

Reuben E. Gross, Ph.D., is a NJ dually licensed Psychologist and Marriage Counselor. He is a Fellow, Academy of Clinical Psychology and a Diplomate in Psychotherapy A.B.P., and A.B.P.P. Dr. Gross has a pri-vate practice in Teaneck, NJ. Letters, comments and questions are invited. To read more articles on relat-ed topics go to Dr. Gross’ website: www.Marriage-CounselorNJ.com.

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PROFILE

The Talmid Chacham Called Sollyby Elizabeth Kratz

Bergenfi eld—The joy of Purim came a couple of weeks early this year, as

crowd favorite Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, mara d’asra, but better known as ‘min-ister,’ of Congregation Shearith Israel of Manhattan and director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University, recently came to Con-gregation Beth Abraham as a scholar-in-residence.

With immense mirth and energy, Rabbi Soloveichik, or ‘Solly Soloveichik,’ as he indicated he’s been known since el-ementary school, brought with him his unique brand of joie de vivre-inspired chi-nuch, a melange of Torah and history, re-ligion and scientifi c analysis, peppering each talk with references as distant as the year 1290—the year the Jews were ex-pelled from England—and as new as the age of Harry Potter. Salting the talks lib-erally with a diverse and wide breadth of knowledge, it all conveyed a genius-lev-el command of Talmud, history and pop-ular culture. The lightness of his touch made his Torah messages all the more ef-fective.

Explaining to the congregation his re-cent move to Manhattan’s Upper West Side to head Congregation Shearith Is-rael, otherwise known as the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, Soloveichik proudly told the sizable crowd that he is the “tenth minister” of the congregation since the Revolutionary War. The oldest synagogue in America, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue has known con-gregants dating back to that era who are buried in the shul’s cemetery, including Jonas Phillips, a Jew who was a contem-porary of George Washington.

Jonas Phillips was in fact the subject of Soloveichik’s fi rst talk, ‘The Yiddish Letter and the Declaration.’ A Torah Jew in the diffi cult era of unrest in Colonial America, Phillips had the foresight to re-fer, in a letter to a Dutch business associ-ate, to his new colonial home in Yiddish as a ganze medina (a whole country), in 1776, when America was little more than a “ragtag band” of 13 independent states.

It was more than ten years before the era of the Constitutional Convention, which began the organization of the col-onies into the United States, the concept Phillips described, said Soloveichik. This and many other important historic pa-pers relevant to the early Jewish history of America are stored in the archives of either his shul or in the New York Histor-ical Society, which is housed nearby.

One of the key messages of the talk was that fi delity to Judaism was present in the public square during the forma-

tion of our country, as evidenced also by a subsequent letter Phillips wrote to George Washington and the members of the Constitutional Congress, seeking to participate in the legislature as a Jew-ish American, without having to take the Christian religious exam required for fed-eral offi ce holders.

A particularly entertaining aspect of Soloveichik’s talks was his continu-al tongue-in-cheek references to his new status as a Sephardic Jew given his place-ment in his just-adopted pulpit. Solovei-chik’s lineage as part of the Brisk rabbinic dynasty is well known—he is a grandson of the late Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik and a great nephew of the late Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, known in YU circles as “The Rav.” (While the names are spelled differ-ently, the families are the same).

The difference in practices between “us Sephardim,” and “you Ashkenazim” considerably impacted the life of a reign-ing British monarch, Soloveichik ex-plained in his fi nal talk. He was referring, of course, to “a shidduch gone terribly, terribly wrong,” otherwise known as ‘The Yibbum of Henry VIII.’ The lecture, a So-loveichik standard, essentially provided a crash course in British history in the age of the Tudor monarchy while also providing a strong understanding of the halakhic parameters of yibbum (levirate marriage), chalitza (levirate marriage’s rit-ual dissolution), the Jews of that era in It-aly (the Jews had been expelled from Eng-land in 1290 by Edward I), and the role of the expulsion of the Jews from England in the creation of the Church of England.

Henry VIII’s major goal in seeking to dissolve his marriage—to his dead brother Prince Arthur’s wife Catherine of Aragon—was to try to have a legitimate male heir by marrying Anne Boleyn. His marriage to Catherine did not produce any surviving male children, and Anne Boleyn would not accept a status other than wife, so he tried to fi nd evidence that his marriage was invalid by research-ing the Old Testament concept of levirate marriage. Differences between how the Ashkenazim and Sephardim practiced yibbum and chalitza impacted the course of the story, and therefore the course of British royal history.

In short, Henry VIII blamed his mar-riage to Catherine on his inability to pro-duce a male heir, and sought to have it annulled or invalidated, arguing unsuc-cessfully to the Catholic Church that his marriage was unnatural and was essen-tially cursing his offspring. With many relationships with other women on re-cord, he sought to ensure the continuity of his dynasty, but instead caused its ex-tinction within one generation.

Soloveichik’s other two talks were as different as they were inspiring. In his Shabbos morning drasha, entitled ‘Shat-nez at the Nobel Prize,’ he described Dr. Robert Aumann’s receipt of the award and the complications that arose due to Aumann’s Jewish observance. Since the tuxedos provided by the King of Sweden contained shatnez (a forbidden mixture of wool and linen), Aumann had to have tuxedos for himself and his 20-plus fam-ily members tailored in Israel, “Because, of course, the Israelis are well known for their intimate knowledge of formal wear,” Soloveichik joked.

Nonetheless, fi delity to Judaism and to the Jewish people, as in the lecture about Jonas Phillips, was evident in the Aumann lecture. The most rewarding moment of his visit to Sweden was, Au-mann reported, seeing the Israeli fl ag fl y over the Swedish royal palace.

The fi nal talk was a purely Torah-based shiur called ‘Purim Drinking: A Less than Sober Refl ection,’ that includ-ed commentary on the comparison of the words Yom Hakippurim and Purim. Rabbi Soloveichik stressed that there are two essential forms of wisdom: Wisdom of the heart and wisdom of the mind. Wisdom of the heart is emotional and represents our real inner longings. Wis-dom of the mind, in contrast, is ration-al and utilitarian and often seeks to sup-press our real desires.

What we do on Purim, when we are

told to drink until we can no longer tell the difference between Mordechai and Haman, is drink until we turn off the wis-dom of the mind and therefore allow a full manifestation our innermost long-ings for closeness to Hashem. Similarly, on Yom Kippur, we are doing tshuva (re-pentance) for all those instances where we allowed our utilitarian calculations to impede our spiritual progress.

With four spirited lectures over one Shabbos, with topics including both old world Jewish history and new world mir-acles, punctuated with strange and won-derful “only in New York,” stories involv-ing hobbits in Central Park who know about Manhattan’s eruv, saleswomen in F.A.O. Schwartz who are fully versed in stuffed versions of animals that can be korbanos, the congregants of Beth Abra-ham in Bergenfi eld will not soon forget the inspiring and entertaining Torah of the Talmid Chacham called Solly.

Rabbi Meir Soloveichik

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PROFILE

BPY Honors Judy Heicklen: A Woman of the WorldBy Aliza Davidovit

Teaneck—It makes sense that Judy He-icklen, President of the Jewish Ortho-

dox Feminist Alliance (JOFA), was initial-ly trained as a CPA because her words and deeds actually add up. Heicklen, who today is also a Managing Director at Cred-it Suisse, says that what fundamentally drives her and Judaism is tikkun olam, repairing the world, and that is exactly what she strives to do on a daily basis, and on many fronts.

This extremely savvy and educated woman, with a BA in Economics from Princeton University and an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business, not only uses what’s in her head to make this world a better place, but also what’s on it! In the middle of her interview with The JLBC, Heicklen had to get off the phone to get her fi rst haircut in two years so that she could donate that hair to Zichron Menachem, where it will be used to make a made-to-measure wig for a child suffering from the alopecic ef-fects of cancer.

Heicklen, a mother of three herself, seems to be the culmination of her par-ent’s wisest teachings. Her mother had told her to reach for her dreams—and she did—ascending rather high on the corpo-rate ladder while maintaining her reli-gious beliefs and keeping Shabbat. The Wall Street bell may ring at 4 p.m., but for the past 26 years, every Friday, Heicklen is out of the offi ce by one o’clock sharp. Her job has taken her around the world. She has lived in Tokyo, Sydney, Singapore, London and now Teaneck… from whence she commutes to Manhattan.

She has achieved uncommon success

as a woman in a heavily male-dominat-ed industry. But dreams and aspirations aren’t a fi nal destination for Heicklen be-cause she doesn’t aspire for herself as much as she does for her children and the Jewish people. And that is where her father’s teachings come in: Be the change you want to see; make it happen!

And it is those dual impetuses that make Judy Heicklen the perfect presi-dent of JOFA—a position she has held for four years after being voted in by an all-female board of 25. JOFA is the leading organization advancing social change around gender issues in the Or-thodox Jewish community (men will soon be appointed to the board). The or-ganization aims to expand the spiritual, ritual, intellectual and political opportu-nities for women within the framework of halakha by advocating meaningful participation and equality for wom-en in family life, synagogues, houses of

learning and Jewish communal organi-zations to the full extent possible with-in halakha.

The core JOFA belief is that fulfi ll-ing this mission will enrich and uplift the entire Jewish people. “This is where my passion is,” says Heicklen, “where or-thodoxy and feminism intersect.” JOFA provides women with vast resources in-cluding the halakhic sources that permit them to touch a Torah scroll, say Kid-dush on Shabbat, and recite Kaddish. “I have 70-year-old women who come up to me and tell me they have never seen the inside of a Torah scroll,” she shares. “We try and raise awareness about pos-sibilities.”

Heicklen and her group celebrate the achievements of women studying at the highest levels of Torah and working to-wards rabbinical roles such as Maharat and Rabba throughout the Orthodox community. “We hope and pray for con-tinued success and advancement in this arena” she says. “We don’t tell people what they must do but rather educate them as to what is permitted based on Jewish law and varying interpretations of halakhic sources.”

As far as agunot (women who can’t get a religious divorce from their hus-band), Heiklen says, “We moved a lit-tle way forward but nowhere near far enough.” And even for this banker who is used to dabbling in millions and tril-lions, when it comes to agunot, she says, “even one is too many.”

As for women’s place in prayer, JOFA in the past condemned the arrest of Anat Hoffman and support Sharansky’s Wom-en of the Wall Proposal which calls for a section for egalitarian prayer at the

Kotel. “JOFA recognizes the reality that Jews have many different approaches to prayer,” their website says. As for her own approach to prayer, Heicklen has a hard time with the liturgical passage which reads, “Shelo Asani Isha,” (thank God for not making me a woman). “How do I explain to my children what that means?” asks Heicklen, who has two daughters and a son.

But perhaps Heiklen, who is also a board member of the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education and the Halakhic Organ Donor Society, really doesn’t need to explain anything at all because she teaches by example. This week she is be-ing honored by Ben Porat Yosef (BPY) at its 12th annual dinner, to be held at Con-gregation Keter Torah in Teaneck. She has been involved with BPY since its be-ginning, serving on and providing criti-cal support to the BPY Shorashim Capital Campaign Steering Committee and ded-icating the school’s indoor gym equip-ment and Hebrew book lending library. And though the school is honoring her, she can’t speak highly enough about the school: “BPY is celebration of diversity.” She feels. “It started as Sephardic school and was fully integrated and celebrates a multiplicity of practice. They also focus on Hebrew and bring in Israeli teachers from whom the students learn not only the culture but also their accents. And they excel in secular studies with an em-phasis on experiential learning.”

When asked which biblical heroine she could most relate to, Judy Heiklen said, Devorah. “She wasn’t afraid to step up into a leadership role and be out there while at the same time doing the right thing for her people.”

solution. Continued occupation would re-quire the continued oppression of Pales-tinians, while a one-state solution would require Israel to choose between remain-ing predominantly Jewish or allowing its Jews to become a minority in a democrat-ic state.

Several years ago, Kaplan was invited by a friend to attend a local meeting of J Street. He was so impressed that he at-tended their conference in Washington, D.C. and has done so annually ever since. Last October’s conference attracted 2,800 supporters, the biggest crowd ever, in-cluding 900 students from J Street Univer-sity college chapters. There were a wide-range of speakers, including VP Joe Biden, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, U.S. negotiator and former ambassador Mar-tin Indyk, and Israel’s Chief Negotiator and Minister of Justice, Tzipi Livni. Mem-bers of Knesset from Labor and Meretz were joined by MKs from Shas and Li-kud. Their two days of workshops includ-ed some on how to respond to objections

to a two-state solution. Their traditional day of visiting Congressional offi ces was limited by the government shutdown at that time.

J Street members believe that choos-ing to be a democracy instead of a Jewish State or continuing the status quo would be a disaster for American Jews and would loosen Israel’s ties to the U.S. This view has wide support, including now from PM Benyamin Netanyahu and AIPAC. Ne-gotiators from both sides say they seek a two-state solution, not to satisfy the oth-er side, but in order to be able to control their own people’s futures. J Street sup-ports Secretary of State John Kerry in his mission to bring Israel and the Palestini-ans together to come to an agreement that they think would be to their own best in-terests.

Mr. Kaplan paraphrased Israeli jour-nalist and author Ari Shavit as conclud-ing that such an agreement is impossi-ble, but must be achieved nevertheless. Kaplan thinks that such an agreement is both necessary and achievable, though very diffi cult for both sides to reach. Amer-ica’s role must be to encourage and foster the attempt.

He referenced Rav Hillel, saying that Is-rael must stand up for itself, but must also consider others affected by its decisions, and there is no better time to do that than now. Waiting will only allow more per-

ceived offenses by both sides and thus more grievances. And with all the insta-bility in the region, an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal would bring some degree of lo-cal stability to both parties. It might also open the door for new regional alliances for Israel with those who share a common enemy.

Palestinian Authority Pres. Abbas is more prepared to make a deal than the more revolutionary Arafat ever was. Nei-ther population wants to maintain the sta-tus quo. Kaplan believes that a majority of both Israelis and Palestinian Arabs would welcome any deal on which their leaders could agree. And the Arab League has said that they would accept a deal agreed to by the Palestinians. Israel Times reported last week that the majority of Israelis, includ-ing rightwingers, are ready for peace and want it now.

Kaplan does not see much diffi culty with geographic problems. Israel can ne-gotiate land swaps of PA land for some of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Resettlement arrangements could be dealt with for those who are displaced. Arrange-ments have been proposed to keep Jeru-salem united while also the capital of two states. Any line of demarcation with-in Jerusalem would mainly lie along the borders of the two populations’ areas of residence. Such an agreement has been acceptable to either side at various times.

The Palestinians have accepted that the right of return cannot be universally ap-plied, though specifi c arrangements are yet to be worked out.

J Street believes that building econom-ic ties between the two parties is not a necessary precursor to peace, but will de-velop after a deal has been agreed upon. Kaplan is sure that Sec. Kerry is offer-ing both sides economic carrots to move them along.

J Street welcomes American negotia-tions with Iran as a peaceful route to solv-ing some of Israel’s problems with that country. Both Netanyahu and Abbas are threatened by Iran’s nuclear threat and military interventions. Kaplan noted that Netanyahu is currently less vocal in his warnings about carrying out the current stage of those negotiations and, instead, makes clear what outcomes he demands.

For more information, Kaplan sug-gests viewing the national J Street website at jstreet.org and the posts of the Northern New Jersey Chapter on either Facebook or Twitter. To better understand J Street’s views, Kaplan recommends the Israeli movie The Gatekeepers and any of the fol-lowing books: A New Voice for Israel, by J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami, The Cri-sis of Zionism by Peter Beinert, The Un-making of Israel by Gershom Gorenberg, Israel, a History by Anita Shapiro, and My Promised Land by Ari Shavit.

Stuart Kaplan, A Teaneck Voice for J Street



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ARTS

PURIM, PURIM, PURIM THREE SHPIELS FOR ALL THE FAMILYThe National Yiddish Theatre-Folksbiene and The City University of New York Present the Spring Season Mainstage Performance

March 2-March 16, 2014Starring Tony Nominee Stephen Mo Hanan and TV’s Avi Hoffman

With Stacey Harris, Andrew Keltz, Rebecca Keren, Hannah D. Scott, Alan Schmuckler, Adam Shapiro, Rachel Arielle Yucht

This is FREE. First Come First Served. For tickets call (646) 312-5073

This event was made possible through the generosityof the Tuchman and Adler families.

The Migile of Itzik Manger Back by popular demand for two weeks only! FOUR-STARS-The NY POST AND THEN FREE READINGS OF TWO PURIM SHPIELS ON MARCH 11

PURIM, PURIM, PURIM THREE SHPIELS FOR ALL THE FAMILYThe National Yiddish Theatre-Folksbiene and The City University of New York Present the Spring Season Mainstage Performance

March 2-March 16, 2014Starring Tony Nominee Stephen Mo Hanan and TV’s Avi Hoffman

WWWith Stacey Harris, Andrew Keltz, Rebecca Keren, Hannah D. Scott,Alan Schmuckler, Adam Shapiro, Rachel Arielle Yucht

This is FREE. First Come First Served. For tickets call (646) 312-5073( )

This event was made possible through the generosityThi d ibl h h h iTh d bl h h hof the Tuchman and Adler families.

The Migile of Itzik Manger Back by popular demand for two weeks only! FOUR-STARS-The NY POST AND THEN FREE READINGS OF TWO PURIM SHPIELS ON MARCH 11

A Freylekhn Purim (A Joyful Purim)A reading of two one-act comedies: The Diary of Yachne-Sosye by Miriam

Hoffman based on the s ory by Herbert Herschel Tuchman z”land

A Gilbert and Sullivan Purim Shpiel by Chana Mlotek z”lWith Shira Averbuch, Leyzer Burko, I. W. “Itzy” Firestone, Rachel Hirsch, Richard Kass, Tony

Perry, Eyal Sherf, Miryem-Khaye Seigel and Suzanne Toren- Musical Director, Zalmen Mlotek

Directed by Motl DidnerTuesday, March 11, 2014 at 7 pm

Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Avenue

Folksbiene Focuses on PurimBy Jeanette Friedman

Riverdale—This season the National Yiddish-Folksbiene is concentrating

on Purim with the return of The Megile of Itzik Manger and an evening of Purim Shpils, free to the public, in addition to a series of free programs and schmooz-es on Yiddish culture. The NY Post gave last year’s production of The Megile four stars (the TimeOut NY loved it,too), and the new mainstage version, starring To-ny-nominee Mo Hanan and Avi Hoff-man, kicks off the theatre’s 99th year. So

catch it during its two-week run. The play premiered earlier this week at Baruch’s Center for the Performing Arts and runs through March 16, with one break in the schedule for a night of Purim Shpils.

On Tuesday night, March 11, the troupe will present a free reading of two hilarious skits—one by a Holocaust sur-vivor in Kosice who, immediately after liberation, wrote love letters to his wife-to-be in Tel Aviv, Mandate Palestine. Her-bert Herschel Tuchman, z’l, author of The Hands of Time, was 89 when he decid-ed to write his memoirs for his grandchildren and asked me to help. We spent

many long days together cracking jokes in Yiddish, with him telling me his sto-ry of survival and rebirth, and also sto-ries about my own father when they hid in Budapest together, and then end-ed up living on the same block in Crown Heights.

When he died, his daughter, Ruth Tuchman Adler, the force majeur behind her father’s book, found the letters. They were handwritten and typed, on yel-lowed, brittle sheets of paper in Hungari-an, Yiddish, broken German and Hebrew. Many crossed in the mail. Many were lost. But among those fascinating letters, we found a sheet of onionskin typed sin-gle-space on both sides, in transliterated Yiddish, that he had written to his bride-

to-be, Mindu Maggid, to amuse her. It was the hilarious tale of a couple

from the shtetl who end up in Vienna because Yachne has an infl ammation of the lungs. It gets funnier and funnier, un-til you almost fall over laughing. It will presented, as a reading, free to the pub-lic on March 11, Tuesday night at 7 at Ba-ruch, along with another one-act play for Purim, a delightful musical written by the late Chana Mlotek, z’l, mother of Zal-men Mlotek, the Folksbiene’s Artistic Di-rector. Imagine Queen Esther, Achashvei-rosh, Mordechai and Haman in a Gilbert and Sullivan production. Don’t imagine. Go see it. This is a tribute to her and a great way to remember her with laugh-ter and song.

Go get reservations. It’s free.

Located in the Jewish Center of Teaneck Director: Chavie Hagler

[email protected] 201-345-1974 www.sinaischools.org/netivot.JL

12 month Day Habilitation

program for young adults with

developmental disabilities

NETIVOT is a qualifi ed, approved provider of adult day services

in the State of New Jersey.

A Path to Independence

Individualized Goals

Life Skills

Vocational Preparation

Job Placement & Support

Educational Workshops

Jewish Life

Community Integration

Navigating Public Transportation

Computer Skills

Social Growth

Fitness

Swimming

Let SINAI's Netivot program create

a path easing the transition from a structured

high school setting to adulthood


LOCAL PROGRAMMING

Rabbi Yair Silverman of Moed Visits NJTeaneck—Rab-

bi Yair Silver-man, founder of the Israeli organ-ization Moed, vis-ited Keter Torah and Netivot Sha-lom last Shabbos. Silverman creat-ed Moed seven years ago as an or-ganic, grassroots community in Zichron Yaakov, in the north of Is-rael. It is an open and inclusive ke-hillah comprised of Jews from a range of nation-alities, beliefs, and socio-eco-nomic groups. “What unites us is our approach to inquiring with openness, foster-ing mutual respect, engaging dia-logue, and pursuing dreams,” said Silverman.

Last year, Moed hosted over 300 programs, ranging from city-wide holiday events to individu-al life-cycle celebrations. “When we conceived of this project we were trying to fi nd a way to truly empower kids and their families to do good. We want them to feel ownership and responsibility to the adult world they are about to enter. The goal is not to just in-still Jewish values, but teach the children how to act on them so

they will carry them throughout their lives,” said Silverman.

Materials and programs that Moed has developed have been used in a wide variety of com-munities seeking meaning. “The model that we have incubated locally in Zichron Yaakov has the promise to transform Israeli communal society by empower-ing multiple ways to connect to Jewish life and community,” he said.

His topic at Keter Torah was “Wine, Purim and Israel: Striving for Excellence.” At Congregation

Netivot Shalom, his lecture was about “One People, Divided; The Culture of Controversy: Machlo-chet in the Talmud.” On Motzei Shabbat, he spoke at the Teaneck home of Shifra and Dani Bend-heim. His topic there was “Uni-ty without Uniformity: Building Community in Israel.”

The Moed welcoming com-mittee was comprised of Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot, David (Doo-die) Miller, Aliza Neuer-Engel, Rabbi Jacob J. Schachter, Jona-than Schor, Pamela Scheininger, Dr. Lisa Schlaff, and Gail Steckler.

Children visit a hospital through a Moed Chesed program.

NCSY Assists in New OrleansBy Aliza Chasan

Eight and a half years have passed since Hurricane Kat-rina devastated New Orleans and organizations like

NCSY are still making relief trips. This past week, Rabbi Ethan Katz, Regional Director of New Jersey NCSY, led 29 teenage girls- 20 from NCSY and nine from local pub-lic schools- on a relief trip to the Louisiana city.

“The condition in the poorer neighborhoods hasn’t changed that drastically in the last few year; it’s still in horrible shape,” Rabbi Katz said.

The fi ve day trip was packed full for the girls: they worked with Habitat for Humanity, did a tour of the Jewish neighborhood, worked with Apex to help at risk youths, spent Shabbos with the local communi-ty, visited a Jewish Senior Citizens Home, and worked with Green Light New Orleans to help people in poorer neighborhoods with energy conservation.

Day one with Habitat for Humanity involved work-ing on two houses at opposite ends of the completion spectrum- at one house they were doing fi nal landscap-ing and at the other they were laying beams for the base of the house.

“The girls truly gave it their all, working a full day; they worked to their maximum,” said Becky Katz, a Ma’ayanot math teacher who accompanied the girls on the trip.

Eliana Koehler, one of the Ma’ayanot students on the trip, said that though everyone felt exhausted by the fi rst day’s end, it was a satisfi ed exhaustion, one of ac-complishment.

“I was amazed to see, despite the lack of sleep, that everyone possessed an enthusiastic smile and was ex-cited to help make a difference. For us, it was not just nailing boards and neatening lawns, it was a warm feel-ing knowing that we built a home,” Koehler wrote in a blog she kept on the trip. “We built a place for a fami-ly to grow, prosper, make memories, cry, laugh, and eve-rything in between. We created that atmosphere. It was therefore not surprising to see the surrounding en-thusiasm because there was a reason. The idea that we were a small gear in a larger machine that would one day make a loving home, that was a common thought threading through every single mind in the group.”

Not all of the work done was manual labor. The girls also created Purim related programming at a local Jewish Day school and visited a Jewish Senior Citizens home that does not normally receive teenage visitors because, according to Katz, there are no Jewish teenag-ers in New Orleans. Over Shabbos, the program partic-ipants gave divrei torah in the shul and over the meal.

The old Shul in New Orleans was destroyed by Hurri-cane Katrina along with many sefarim and sifrei Torah. The girls visited the cemetery where the ruined books were buried. Dr. Murray Leben, Chairman of the NJ NCSY board who joined the students on the trip, was es-pecially touched by the local Jewish community’s story.

He and Rabbi Katz both bought one of their daugh-ters with them. “I specifi cally wanted to expose them to the tremendous chessed we give out and the tremen-dous inspiration we get back,” Dr. Leben said. “I think we get more than we give.”

Koehler agreed that she, and the 18 other students, received something important. “As we walked away, al-though we all looked the same, we were changed. We had a new perspective as to what it meant to give and what an impact that can make,” she said. “It was only one day, not even 24 hours but the power of those hours is something that I will never forget.”

This was a fi rst time trip for both Leben and Becky Katz, but the 12th trip for Rabbi Katz and the 22nd NCSY trip to the city overall. The trips are part of an ongoing project to help teenagers learn the gravity of natural dis-asters and give them the ability to help those in need.

“It lets you see what high school students are capa-ble of doing when you let them try things,” Mrs. Becky Katz said.


SPORTS

Jags were able to pull away in the fi nal quarter led by Eitan Warburg’s 30-point effort.

With RYNJ’s victory, play-off seeding became offi cial. Both RYNJ and Moriah earned fi rst- round byes with identical 9-1 records. RYNJ was awarded the top seed based on a coin toss. Led by captains Eit-

an Pfeiffer, Eitan Warburg, and Avi Wolk, the RYNJ Jags led the league in scoring, averaging over 54 points a game and fi n-ishing off their regular season on a six-game winning streak.

In the fi rst round of the play-offs, third-seeded Noam hosted Yavneh, the sixth seed. Yavneh had pulled off an up-set and thus faced RYNJ in the second round this past Monday night.

As the game began, Yavneh and RYNJ traded buckets, with RYNJ up at the half by two baskets. Yavneh’s sharpshooters, Daniel Hirsch and Jack Reinhart, were on fi re, but the Jaguars answered back with their own one-two punch of Eitan Pfeiffer and Dani Heideman.

Midway through the third quarter, RYNJ made a defensive stand. Led by some tenacious defense by both Eitan Warburg and Ari Katz, who forced multi-ple turnovers, and Avi Wolk’s shot block-ing, the Jaguars were able pull away and build their lead to double digits.

With the Jaguars’ victory, there re-mains only one more obstacle between the Jaguars and the championship. At the time of this printing, the Jaguars were awaiting the winner of the Mori-ah/SAR semifi nal game. For an up-to-date schedule and results, visit the league site ymssa.org.

Congratulations to the Jags on a great run; good luck in the fi nals!!

RYNJ 7th Grade Jaguars Going to the Finals!!!

CONTINUED FROM P. 1

CONTINUED ON P. 69

Team HASC—A Runners PerspectiveBy M. Alper

While sitting on the plane on the way back from the A1A half mara-

thon weekend in Fort Lauderdale, Flor-ida, I refl ect on the thrilling adventure I’ve just experienced. I had just spent three days with Team HASC, days that were nothing short of miraculous. It’s been some time since I’ve had such na-chas and joy, since I was so fully choked up with emotion. So far, it has been the most exhilarating journey of my life.

Six months ago I decided to run to help raise funds for the incredi-ble Camp HASC, where I am honored to work during the summer. Living at Camp HASC is an eye-opening experi-ence. As a counselor, I was introduced to a variety of diagnoses, medical terms, and therapeutic treatments con-cerning the care of children and adults with special needs. Working with them is awesome and fulfi lling. But fl ying down to Florida, spending Shabbos in a beautiful hotel, and running a half marathon with these same special ne-shomas is something I could have nev-er imagined.

The days before the marathon were fi lled with a great mix of emotions, mostly joy. All was going well until we received a call on Wednesday, February 12, 2014 when our hopes and dreams came tumbling down. We got an e-mail that let us know that two out of three of our larger group fl ights to Florida had been cancelled. The terrible snow-storm that gripped the East Coast that week left snow and ice on the runways, leaving us at Team HASC stranded. We thought we could rent some buses and drive down, but that dream too was cancelled when the Team HASC com-mittee deemed it unsafe.

Thankfully, with the help of Eli Rowe and Jet Blue, Team HASC was able to organize a chartered plane that left JFK airport on Friday morning. Team HASC arrived in Fort Lauderdale on Friday afternoon excited to begin the anticipated marathon weekend. The excitement and the emotions were pal-pable from the moment of our arrival.

We were warmly greeted by the Team HASC committee and staff who worked tirelessly for months to make the event happen for the precious ne-shomas of Camp HASC.Our Shabbos was fi lled with ruach, the spirit in the room vibrant. From the riveting Kabba-las Shabbos to the heartwarming drash-es, zemiros and Havdalah, every mo-ment was inspiring and uplifting. We were zoche to hear from campers’ par-ents and siblings’ testimony as to what HASC stands for.

Over Shabbos, I could not stop watching the smiles and pride on the faces of over 160 current and past staff who took a weekend off to fl y down to Florida to improve the quality of


SCHOOLS

duced to the science of organ donation by their science instructor Aaron Ko-gut, who was one of the day’s organiz-ers, along with Dr. Stanley Fishman, di-rector of BPY’s general studies program, who originated the discovery learning day concept. Elementary school science teacher Jean Meyers also assisted with the day’s events. While this was the fi rst discovery day for the growing middle school (this eighth grade is the fi rst such grade the school has had), the elemen-tary students have already had several such days, including one on bridge build-ing, which took the students in depth on the engineering aspects of construction and architecture.

The unit the students are studying in science is body systems, and the dis-covery learning day added the additional facets of halacha and social responsibili-

ty to provide the group with a more com-plete and memorable learning experi-ence. They learned in great detail what is required of individuals donating blood, bone marrow or kidneys, and spent lab-oratory time typing blood and doing kid-ney dissections.

Rabbi Ephraim Simon, director of Te-aneck’s Chabad House, spoke to the stu-dents about his altruistic experience of donating his kidney to a stranger. The students were rapt as he described his in-itial response to an email containing an appeal to help a child desperately in need of a kidney donation. After deciding to go through the testing process, it turned out

that a match for the child had already been found, but Simon decided to move forward anyway, because “if I was going to do it for a child, I could it for a mother or a father,” he said.

“It is pikuach nefesh, literally saving a life,” he said. Describing a year-long pro-cess of testing for matches, Simon even-tually donated a kidney to a frum father who lives in Brooklyn.

“To be able to save a life, inspire my children, and my congregation, it was one of the greatest experiences of my life,” he said. “My only regret is that I can’t donate my kidney a second time,” Simon said.

The second special presentation came from Dana Tunick, a recipient of both a heart and kidney transplant. She provid-ed a description of her health before and after her transplants, and punctuated her talk with some of the religious and social aspects of the donations. While Tunick’s sister was the living donor for her kidney, a more diffi cult part for the students to process was when Tunick discussed the complexity of her relationship with the family members of the person who do-nated her heart. The students asked sev-eral incisive questions about the heart donor that Tunick answered with sensi-tivity.

With many hard facts learned about organ donation, including the mechan-ics of dialysis and how one can live with only one kidney, the students moved to the study of the halakha and the re-ligious aspects of organ donation, with text study and discussions on the consid-erations of the personal risk to individ-uals. The day ended with a lively debate of the pros and cons of organ donation, with “Judge Kogut” ruling in favor of or-gan donation.

BPY partnered with Gift of Life for the day and presented an opportunity to adults dropping off children, or oth-ers in the larger Teaneck community, to register as a possible donor with a cheek swab and join the Gift of Life Bone Mar-row Registry.

Headquartered in Boca Raton, Flori-da, Gift of Life is one of the nation’s pub-lic bone marrow and blood stem cell registries, which focuses on gathering donors who are ethnically Jewish. It is a world leader in facilitating transplants for children and adults suffering from many life-threatening diseases, among them leukemia and lymphoma. Gather-ing donors since 2000, there are now al-most 236,000 people are members on the registry. Eighteen new members signed up at BPY on Discovery Day.

“Judge” Aaron Kogut presides over a debate on the effi cacy of organ transplantation and donation.

BPY Students Study Science and Halacha of Organ Donation

CONTINUED FROM P. 1

TABC’s Math-Science Expo 2014By Annie Devine

On Tuesday night February 25th, the Torah Academy of Bergen County

(TABC) was treated to 10 high quality Pow-er Point presentations on topics in math-ematics, physics, chemistry, and biology during its annual Rabbi Hershel Solnica Memorial Math-Science Expo 2014.

The evening began with opening re-marks from Rosh HaYashiva Rabbi Adler, who spoke of the chochma invested in the building of the Mishkan. Dr. Berman, the Expo coordinator, next read from the Rav’s novel interpretation of Avraham’s eshel and how it relates to scientifi c atti-tude. David Berger presented his work on iron oxidation. Next, the Koslowe broth-ers, Yehudah and Hillel, presented the mathematics behind the game “Spot It.”

This was followed by the 1st place pres-entation of Jacob Rosenberg on prevent-ing damage to satellites by solar ejec-tions. He convincingly demonstrated how simple magnets could defl ect a so-lar wind. He modeled his approach from the earth’s protected magnetic fi eld. Sim-cha Wagner and Matan Leff took 2nd place for their smooth presentation about gene

transfer. Aviad Sussman and Tamir Felsen took 3rd place for their work into electron-electron repulsion and how it related to the Pauli Exclusion Principle. Yair Knoller and Jonah Ganchow related Boyle’s Law and Hooke’s Law to human lung dynam-ics. Ben Shelling and Ben Book developed a novel method of hydrolysis via proton seeding. A. J. Book demonstrated how the 40 malkos of the Torah are in great

agreement with NASA calculations. Jere-my Rosenblatt solved the pycrete puzzle. Alexander Haberman and Aaron Respler solved a long-standing problem involving the dread of fi refi ghters: fl ashover.

The judges were Mrs. Arielle Shein-bein (Chair of Sciences, YNJ), Mr. Avi Goldenberg (Esq.), and Dr. Robert Ferlau-to (Director of Strategy & Best Practic-es, Colgate-Palmolive Co., ret.). After the

presentations were over, the judges said the high quality of all the presentations made it very diffi cult to decide on the winners. It was a long deliberation while everyone waited anxiously.

Both Dr. Berman and Mrs. Golden-berg, the Expo co-coordinator, would like to publicly thank TABC for providing an environment where Chochmas HaShem can be so effectively studied.

Five MTA Students—Three Teaneckers—are National Merit FinalistsFive, count’ em, FIVE, MTA students achieved National Merit Scholarship fi nalist

status this year, and three of them live in Teaneck. Ori Putterman, Elliot Fuchs and Yitzchak Lindenbaum of Teaneck, and Aryeh Klein of Monsey and Daniel Ja-roslawicz of Manhattan, are among the top 1% of the 1.5 million students nation-ally who took the PSAT/NMSQT exam in their junior year. MTA has consistently done well on the PSAT—four MTA students earned the designation last year. Now MTA boasts the greatest number of male semifi nalists of all Yeshiva High Schools nationwide.


SCHOOLS

YU Students Cover Four Winter Missions Around the World

New York—As participants on winter mis-sions organized by Yeshiva University’s

Center for the Jewish Future, more than 90 students traveled to Kharkov and Sumy in the Ukraine; Kiryat Malachi, Kiryat Gat, and Dimona in the Negev region of Israel; areas of New York that were heavily damaged by Hurricane Sandy; and cities across the Mid-western United States to make an impact and hone their leadership skills.

“Our hope is that these experiences have empowered our students to explore their own unique creative gifts, and to re-alize through engagement—through leav-ing their comfort zone—that they are not only empowering others but transforming themselves,” said Rabbi Kenneth Brander, vice president for university and communi-ty life at YU and the David Mitzner, Dean of the CJF.

In the Ukraine, 20 students volunteered in partnership with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to gain a bet-ter understanding of the challenges Jewish communal life in the region has faced in re-cent history, such as communist persecu-tion and antisemitism, and how Jews there are working to renew and restore their rich traditions.

Forty-two students participated in “Counterpoint Israel: Winter Camp,” a 10-day mission aiming to empower Israe-li teens from low socio-economic back-grounds. Serving 850 teens in seven student-run camps, the curriculum focused on English enrichment and self-exploration through art, encouraging students to exam-ine their Diaspora roots and develop a per-

sonal narrative based on their fi ndings as part of a larger “Israel-Diaspora Relations” theme.

“Over the past winter and summer mis-sions, I’ve met and bonded with so many of the sweetest, funniest and most sincere kids,” said Sam Weinstein (’15SB) of Teaneck, NJ, a returning counselor on the trip. “I keep

coming back because I feel like we’re making an impact among the youth of Kiryat Mala-chi, and each year that we return only adds to that impact and makes it more concrete and long-lasting.”

Back home in the U.S., 24 students par-ticipated in “Jewish Life Coast to Coast,” an interactive learning and volunteer expe-

rience that gave them the opportunity to study how different Jewish communities across North America cope with the varying challenges they face, as well as how each one functions on a day-to-day level to meet the unique needs of its members.

A group of 20 YU students devoted their winter break to a different kind of com-munal challenge in their own backyard: partnering with Nechama, a Jewish disas-ter relief organization, to repair damage to neighborhoods hit hard by Hurricane Sandy. As they did everything from putting up drywall and painting to installing insula-tion in crawlspaces, students were able to help four families get a little closer to recov-ery after the storm’s long-lasting impact.

The CJF’s Winter Missions are run with support from the Jim Joseph Foundation and Repair the World.

A student drum circle in Kharkov Student teaching in Kiryat Gat

Touro College Adds Degree: Teaching Science

New York—In partnership with New York Medical College (NYMC), Touro College’s

Graduate School of Education (GSE) will be of-fering a Master of Science in Biology Education starting in fall 2014. The new degree will allow graduates to meet the requirements for New York State teacher certifi cation to teach biolo-gy at the middle and high school levels, as well as teach environmental and general science courses. This is the fi rst time that the two Touro graduate programs have worked in partnership.

The schools see the partnership as one that will benefi t future teachers. They will

be exposed to the latest in pedagogical tech-niques and training and the most current re-search and practices in biomedical science.

“This program is an important collabora-tion between the Graduate School of Educa-tion and New York Medical College, and will allow us to add a science program to the broad array of master’s programs,” said Dr. Lamar Miller, dean of the Graduate School of Edu-cation. “And it reinforces Touro College’s com-mitment to serving the public schools.”

The program, which will be offered primari-ly at NYMC in Valhalla, N.Y., consists of 10 cours-

es for 30 credits. It combines biology content, teaching skills, and teaching practice in middle and high schools.

The program has been designed as a two-year, part-time program to accommodate those who have employment or family re-sponsibilities, and includes evening and on-line classes. While the focus is on developing teachers for middle and high schools, gradu-ates can participate in a “downward exten-sion” that provides training for teaching sci-ence to fi fth graders. Enrollees will develop a network of connections that will serve them well as they teach. They will have access to NYMC faculty and researchers.

CHESED

Yeshiva University’s Third Annual Cake Wars to Raise Money for Breast Cancer Awareness

New York—More than 40 cakes in rad-ically different shapes, sizes, and

colors fi lled Room 501 in Yeshiva Uni-versity’s Furst Hall on February 12 at the end of its third Annual Cake Wars. Spon-sored by Fairway Market, the cake-deco-rating competition celebrates National Sharsheret Pink Day Around the World, an event held on high school and college campuses worldwide to promote breast cancer awareness. Each cake was deco-rated by a team of students, many wear-ing pink bandanas, face paint, or repre-sentative clothing.

Now organized through Sharsheret, a national nonprofi t organization that seeks to provide a community of sup-port to women diagnosed with breast cancer, Sharsheret Pink Day Around the World was originally conceived of as a way to spread awareness of the group by then-YU student Tzvi Solomon (’13SB). The Wilf and Beren Sharsheret student clubs were brainstorming ways to sup-port the Sharsheret Pink Day campaign when they decided an “Ace of Cakes” event, modeled off the popular Food Net-work show, would be a fun way to raise money and student involvement in the cause. The fi rst Cake Wars was a hit—and has only grown in numbers since then. Close to 500 students turned out for this

year’s event. “It’s a fun and memorable way to

teach students about Sharsheret and the risks of breast cancer while empower-ing them to make a difference,” said Da-vid Bodner (’14YC), president of the Wilf Campus Sharsheret Club, who has served as one of Cake Wars’ chief organizers since its inception.

Beren Campus Sharsheret Club Presi-dent Caroline Guttman (’14S), who wore a sign that read “In Honor of Mom” and was also an organizer of the orig-inal Cake Wars, agreed. “By all of us be-ing here tonight, we are showing our un-shakable support for Sharsheret as an organization, as well as the women bat-tling breast cancer,” she said. “This event signifi es what Sharsheret and our broad-er Jewish community is all about—be-ing there for each other, understanding our responsibilities toward one another, and realizing how as Jews we are all tied together and have the ability to lift each other’s spirits.”

The evening began with a talk by Sharsheret representative Rachel Fliesher, who shared her experienc-es as a breast cancer survivor and how Sharsheret had helped her through them. “Coming to Sharsheret was like coming home,” she said, explaining

how the organization had connect-ed her with another Orthodox breast cancer survivor who could guide her through the chemotherapy and radia-tion processes with unique insight and empathy. “It’s the Jewish way; it’s what we do. In Psalms, it says ‘The world will be built on acts of kindness.’ Those are our acts of kindness.”

Forty student teams with names like “For Goodness Cake” and “The Pink Pan-thers” then got to work spackling frost-ing, sprinkling toppings, and carving shapes inspired by the theme of the night, “Sharsheret: Linking Lives,” as doz-ens of fellow students looked on and cheered for their favorite teams. Top-pings were donated by 16 Handles, Cedar Market, and Strauss Bakery.

“Ours is inspired by the Winter Olym-pics,” said Shoshana Halpern, of Cake It or Break It. “It’s going to incorporate the fi gure-skating and the breast cancer rib-bon.” Teammate Shai Berman explained the thinking behind it: “The same cour-age you need to compete in the Olym-pics, that’s the courage you need to fi ght breast cancer.”

Susie Senders, a member of the “Mas-ters of Cake” team, painstakingly replicat-ed a Jenga board to illustrate how all peo-ple are linked. “We love Sharsheret and

think this is a great way to come togeth-er and be a part of something so much bigger and so beautiful,” she said. “I have friends and family who’ve gone through cancer and this is a way to show support for them.”

Cakes were judged on creativity, in-corporation of the evening’s theme, cleanliness, and overall quality. This year’s competitors faced tougher critics than ever before: The all-star judges’ pan-el included Gabrielle Peneux, a cake dec-orator from 16 Handles; Elan Kornblum, publisher and president of Great Ko-sher Restaurants Magazine; Shifra Klein, editor of Joy of Kosher Magazine; Ran-di Glickberg, vice president of Fairway Market; Rachel Fliesher, a representa-tive of Sharsheret; and, last but certain-ly not least, Mauro Castano, pastry chef and right-hand man to chef Buddy Valas-tro on TLC’s hit show, Cake Boss.

“I am thrilled to be a part of Yeshiva University’s Pink Day Cake Wars compe-tition,” said Castano. “I’m glad my baking expertise and participation in this year’s event can benefi t Sharsheret, a wonderful organization, and further raise awareness of breast cancer and help those battling it.”

At the end of the evening, a cake deco-rated by the Frosted Five and shaped like a double-scoop ice cream cone draped in the breast cancer ribbon was awarded fi rst place. “Let’s Cream Cancer,” the cake read. The team’s prize? A free cake-deco-rating class in Cake Boss’s famous Carlo’s Bakery in Hoboken, NJ.


SCHOOLS

Bruriah Students Take Holocaust Commemoration into the PresentBy Leah Rothstein

Elizabeth— Innovative educa-tor Joel Glazer, author of It

Happened in My Classroom, has, for many years, run a unique Holocaust education program with his classes at Bruriah High School for Girls. This year, Glazer has added a brand-new compo-nent to the program, taking it be-yond education to taking action.

His students will be raising funds to donate to the organi-zation Efrat C.R.I.B. (Committee for Rescue of Israel’s Babies), which is dedicated to helping women who are considering abortion because they lack enough financial resources to raise the child. Efrat provides counseling, medical advice, and fi nancial assistance to sup-ply the women with what they need to care for a baby during its fi rst year, including cribs, stroll-ers, diapers, and other basics.

Since 1977, Efrat has saved over 50,000 children. For the sum of $1200, sponsors can bring a new Jewish life into the world.

Glazer is challenging his classes to raise this sum, not by asking their parents for money but by giving themselves and coming up with creative ways to raise funds. Eleventh grader Nurit Esral was chosen head of the fundraising committee, giv-ing the students ownership of their efforts.

Glazer got the idea after he heard about Efrat and what they do. He donated the required amount himself and received materials from Efrat about the baby who had been born thanks to his donation.

“I had an epiphany. I wanted to transition from the museum project to something relevant to the present day, not just learn-ing about the loss of Jewish chil-dren in the Holocaust but actu-

ally taking meaningful action to restore Jewish lives ourselves. Each student will be able to look back and say, ‘We did this. When we were in high school, we saved lives.’” He added, “If my students remember me for nothing else, they’ll remember this, and I’ll be happy.”

On Tuesday, February 11, the junior class (Class of 2015) opened their World War II/Holocaust Museum at Bruri-ah (in Elizabeth, NJ). The Muse-um follows the chronology of events before, during, and after the war, and concludes with a section portraying the creation and history of the State of Israel. The Museum is open to visitors, with students serving as the do-cents and leading tours of each section.

Everyone in the 11th grade contributed truly incredible Museum displays; many talent-ed students produced spectac-

ular original paintings, sculp-tures, and other creative and thought-provoking depictions of the events.

“Through all the research and thought that went into cre-ating the Museum, we’ve gained an invaluable perspective on our Jewish heritage and identi-ty,” said Bruriah student Rochel Hirsch, a curator of the muse-um. “We are all extremely grate-ful to be given the opportunity

to create what we hope will be a fi tting tribute to those who per-ished and those who survived.”

Glazer considers this one of the most important things he is doing as an educator. “I believe this program is unique, to active-ly engage students in literally sav-ing lives. I hope it will be adopt-ed by other educators as well.”

Please email [email protected] if you wish to schedule a visit of the museum.

Frisch & Kushner, Chesed 24/7

In a time when media outlets are satu-rated with stories of violence and evil,

it is important to hear stories about acts of kindness. In an egocentric so-ciety where we seem to focus on con-stant taking, it is heartwarming to real-ize those still practicing the art of giving. Institutions like The Frisch School and Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School pro-mote and cultivate a “culture of chesed,” where compassionate giving is the name of the game, and this week they gave hospital patients a unique gift un-like any other.

Both schools joined in a unique pro-ject of Chesed 24/7, an organization ded-icated to servicing hospital patients and their families. The students were part of the innovative “Shabbos in a Box” Pro-gram—sending specialized care packages to patients stuck in hospitals over Shab-

bat, such as Columbia Medical Center, Mount Sinai Hospital, and Sloan Ketter-ing.

“Shabbos in a Box” sends a bit of the warmth of Shabbat to patients from all walks of life and communities and com-forts them with a little “taste of home.” Volunteers assemble Shabbat essentials and treats such as electric candlesticks, a challah cover and tablecloth, a bottle of grape juice, and more. Over 200 complet-ed boxes are then delivered by Chesed 24/7 volunteers or hospital chaplains each week, giving patients and their fam-ilies an emotional boost and the feeling that they are not alone.

It was incredible to have so many young students join together to be a part of the 24/7 operation, helping countless families who they had never met and learning how they could make a fami-

ly’s stay at the hospital less overwhelm-ing. They managed to collectively create and personalize over 175 boxes, enclosing sweet notes of hope in each box.

The “Shabbos in a Box” project joins

many different schools and communi-ties together in one common goal; help-ing those who are dealing with illness-es and medical crises. And that is a story worth sharing.

Yeshivat Noam Bayit Rishon MuseumBy Aliza Peyser, Middle School Social Studies Teacher

Yeshivat Noam’s 6th graders have been studying the ancient Assyr-

ian and Babylonian Empires and no-ticed that these empires extended into the Land of Israel. Using their textbooks and Tanach, the students learned Jewish history from a new angle as they studied the experienc-es of the Jewish people under the rule of the Assyrians and the Babylonians. The Assyrians destroyed the King-dom of Israel and formed an unsuc-cessful siege around Jerusalem, and the Babylonians destroyed the Beit

Hamikdash and the Kingdom of Ju-dah. In order to experience how arti-facts help us understand history, each student studied one of fi ve artifacts from this time period: the Lachish Re-lief, Chizkiyahu’s Tunnels, Sennach-erib’s Annals, the House of Ahiel, or clay bullae. The students researched the artifacts using historical articles as well as pesukim in Tanach. Once the research was complete, each stu-dent wrote a small informative piece, which will appear next to the arti-fact in our “Bayit Rishon Museum.” The students are currently busy creat-ing their artifacts, and what they have created so far is wonderful.

life of our beloved campers. One dedicat-ed counselor, whose schedule did not al-low him to spend Shabbos in Ft. Lauderd-ale, fl ew through the night after Shabbos ended, and arrived just in time to push his camper during the marathon. Run-ning with Team HASC is not about tim-ing and fi nishing fast. I had a different goal in mind: my campers. Eighteen chil-dren with special needs completed the half marathon with the help of dedicat-ed staff and family members. As I ran the

course, I witnessed fi rst-hand the com-mitment required of my peers. There were counselors stopping on the side to give their campers necessary medica-tion, feeding children through G-tubes (Gastrostomy Tubes) during the race, and counselors who had to fi nd a safe place to change campers, despite the added minutes to their fi nishing time.

The commitment didn’t stop there. Strollers and wheelchairs needed to be fi xed throughout the race and each coun-selor made sure that campers were safe by providing essential padding for cush-ioning and support. I know that I don’t speak alone when I say that there real-ly aren’t enough adjectives to adequate-ly describe the pure devotion these Mala-chim give to these special children .

Team HASC—A Runners Perspective


CONTINUED ON P. 82


SCHOOLS

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President’s Day at RYNJ

Kindergarten students at RYNJ learn about Presidents’ Day in style.

The Doctor is In

Dr. Michael Berenbaum, an American scholar, professor, rabbi, writer, and

fi lmmaker, who specializes in the study of the memorialization of the Holocaust, spoke to Moriah’s 8th grade about Holo-caust remembrance and the importance of taking testimony from Holocaust Survi-vors for Names Not Numbers

Upstanding at Moriah

In honor of Chodesh Adar I, students at Moriah have formed Aharon’s Upstand-

er Alliance. Pictured is the Moriah Up-stander Hall of Fame. Each class nominat-ed their Upstander from history and then did a project related to him or her. An Up-stander is someone who comes forward to speak out for human rights, justice and ethics.

Ben Porat’s Second Grade Chumash Play

Ben Porat Yosef second graders received their chumashim at a p resentation on Sunday, February 23rd. The children, in costume, performed various biblical

scenes as part of the celebration. Second grade teachers, standing (left to right) are: Michal Paran, Aliza Strassman,

Tamar Feman, Shani Farkas, and Rav Eli Danziger.

Dental Health Month at Yeshivat Noam

An integral part of the Yeshivat Noam mission statement is Parent Partner-

ship. The Health Committee, a sub-com-mittee of the “PSP-Parent-School Partner-ship” created and implemented a month full of programs and visitors to teach our students about dental health.

Dr. Eytan Chen of Growing Smiles in Englewood, NJ visited Early Childhood and fi rst graders with his “Dinno Dennis” to enable the students to practice proper brushing techniques.

Yavneh Bake Sale to Benefi t iShine a Huge Success!

The third annual Yavneh Academy Early Childhood Department Bake Sale was a huge success! The Ganon & Gan yeladim prepared an assortment of baked

goods, including Rice Kripsie treats, chocolate dipped pretzels, and brownies. The yeladim were also in charge of creating posters for the event and selling the items. The students were able to brush up on their math skills and be a part of a wonder-ful mitzvah all at the same time!

The Early Childhood students raised over $900 for Chai Lifeline’s iShine, a unique after-school program that offers homework assistance and exciting recrea-tional activities for children living with illness or loss in their family. Yasher koach!

Yeshiva University Job FairNew York—Yeshiva University’s Cent-

er for the Jewish Future (CJF) and In-stitute for University-School Partner-ship (YU School Partnership) hosted their annual Jewish Job Fair last week. The event was free and open to the public.

In addition to showcasing a variety of professional opportunities at well-re-spected Jewish schools, organizations, and nonprofi ts, the event provided a ro-bust networking forum for job-hunters who sought information on everything from scholarships and internships to ca-reer development programming.

Rabbi Maccabee Avishur, associate director for teaching and learning at YUSP said, “Schools and candidates en-gaged in a systematic process that will

help schools identify the best candi-dates for their openings an d help job seekers land the best jobs.”

Dozens of Jewish day schools and community organizations from across North America and overseas attended to meet and conduct interviews with candidates. Participating organizations included University Jewish Chaplain-cy, Organization for the Resolution of Agunot, the Orthodox Union, Aish NY, Fresko Foods, Camp Mesorah, the American Israel Public Affairs Commit-tee, Ohel, Camp Kaylie, and Areyvut , and more than 52 schools participated.

Contact the Center for the Jewish Future at YU to fi nd out more about these programs.


SPORTS

Frisch JV Topples Heschel to Advance to the Yeshiva League Semi-FinalsWhen Heschel sees Frisch Captain

Andrew Langer #23 coming, they should bar the door—with double locks. After torching the Heat for 41 in the Rubenstein Tournament in December, Langer picked up right where he left off and dropped 28 (playing only three quar-ters) on Heschel to lead the Cougar blitz over the number 2 seed from the Man-hattan Division.

From the opening tap, this one was never in doubt. Sophomore Captains Langer, Noah Schechter, and Mayer Scharlat smothered the Heat in the back court, and with the help of the starting frontcourt of Zack Cohen (2 points) and Isaac Weinstock (a sweet baseline jump-er for 2 and a ball-splattering block), Frisch closed out the fi rst quarter up 20-4.

The second quarter saw more of the same, with Sophomore C Gideon Bench-abbat getting in the act with a patented charge and Freshman G Isaac Laifer turn-ing up the pressure with 4 points and 2 steals in the period. Heschel, to its credit, did not back down, and made a push that was rebuffed by the Cougars, who went into the locker room up 39-14.

Langer opened the third quarter with 8 straight points and that was that. A 14-5 Frisch run led to a 59-21 lead at the close of three quarters.

The fourth quarter saw every Cougar get on the court and fi nish the game on a strong note, sealing the 76-37 victory that vaults Frisch into the semifi nals.

Langer’s 28 (3 steals, 3 assists) were complemented by Scharlat’s 10 points (5 steals and 5 assists), Schechter’s 4 points (2 steals and 2 assists) and an energetic Lai-fer’s 6 points (4 steals and 2 assists). Soph-omores Scott Levine and Captain John Seidel also netted 6 each, while Fresh-man G Josh Dukas chipped in with 5.

The JV Cougars (20-1; 10-1) await news of their semifi nal opponent, which may depend on tie-breakers and a coin fl ip be-tween teams in the Eastern Conference.

John Seidel dives for a ball. Credit- Lisa Applebaum

Yasher Koach of the Week: Saul and Tova LejtmanSeveral months ago, Teaneck’s own

Saul Lejtman decided he was go-ing to run a race. Saul is not one of the many regulars that you would fi nd run-ning up and down the mountainous terrain known as West Engelwood Av-enue in the wee hours of the morning, let alone the hills of Jerusalem. In fact, when Saul signed up for the Jerusalem Half-Marathon it was his fi rst step into the running subculture.

As training began, Saul was quick to develop a tremendous amount of re-spect for runners and their physical ca-pabilities.

Professionally, Saul is a local dentist and has many years of experience bring-ing smiles to his patient’s faces. He did not want this experience to be about himself, he wanted to use it as a vehicle to make other people smile. After some research, Saul joined “Team Lifeline-Is-rael,” which supports “Chaiyanu,” the Israel affi liate of the world-renowned organization, Chai Lifeline. He also in-spired his daughter Tova (studying in Michlalah for the year) to join his quest.

Chai Lifeline is an international chil-dren’s health support network dedicat-ed to bringing joy and hope to serious-ly ill children and their families. The funds that are raised go towards the year-round services and programs pro-vided for these special children. Giv-ing to these children and helping them smile was indeed the desired achieve-ment that Saul was looking for.

The race, which takes place in two weeks, is approximately one month before the 6th yahrtzeit of Saul’s late brother-in-law (a man missed by all of Bergen County) Mitchell Gross, a”h. All of the money Saul raises will be in memory of Mitch, a terrifi c athlete and tremendous person who still touches lives almost six years after his untime-ly passing.

Saul and Tova encourage everyone to become a partner in this endeav-or and to please visit their page http://www.teamlifeline.org/israel/my/te-nafl ysmiles and donate any amount to bring smiles to the faces of ill children in Israel.

TABC Varsity Storm Over the Cougars in Round One of the Playoff sBy Noah Mahpour

The TABC Storm came into the play-offs hungry for a victory over their

cross-county rivals, the Frisch Cou-gars. After a tough defeat against the Cougars in the last game of the MYH-SAL regular season, TABC looked to capitalize on its home court advan-tage and advance to the next round of the playoffs.

Both teams proved early on that they would not go down easily, as they traded baskets back and forth throughout the fi rst quarter. Justin Hod and Rami Laifer led Frisch’s of-fensive attack and took advantage of a few key TABC turnovers in the sec-ond quarter to go on an extended run. Frisch pushed its advantage at the close of the fi rst half, and appeared to be repeating its play from the two teams’ regular season match-up. De-spite great effort, the Storm faltered on the offensive end and entered the halftime break down by 7 points, 24-17.

The Storm came out with a re-newed defensive effort to begin the second half, and once TABC’s shots began to fall, the tide of the game changed in the Storm’s favor. After losing on its home court on “Senior” night, the Storm was not about to al-low the Cougars to defeat them again. Behind the incredible play of Yehosh-ua Zirman (’14), who fi nished the game with a double-double (19 points, 10 re-

bounds), as well as 5 blocks and 4 as-sists, the Storm was able to go up by 5 at the end of the third quarter, and never looked back. Defensively, TABC only gave up 4 points to Frisch in the crucial third quarter, which was one of the main reasons the Storm saw a 12 point turnaround after the halftime break.

Alex Hirt (’14) came up big for the Storm, leading the charge back in the second half, scoring 14 points, includ-ing four 3-pointers. Solo Shulman (’15) and Moshe Brum (’15) were the Storm’s anchors on defense, each scoring 7 points, as well as adding crucial steals and rebounds late in the game. Dan Poleyeff (’15), Azi Fine (’15), and Jared Breen (’14) all logged crucial minutes in this playoff battle, and helped TABC advance to the second round, with the fi nal score reading 51- 45.

Yavneh Tops Noam in a Playoff ThrillerThe Sunday afternoon playoff match-

up between these two 7th grade bas-ketball teams was a bit of a paradox. On one hand, Noam, led by Yechiel Kaiser, Benny Matheson, Avi Bodoff, Joe Baron, Jacob Lehrer, and Sammy Nat came in with a 7-3 record, and had already beaten Yavneh, which barely squeaked into the playoffs with a 3-7 record. On the other hand, on opening day, Yavneh had taken Noam to overtime on a Moshe Scharlat buzzer beater before losing, and demon-strated that they could stay right with the talented Knights. Could the boys from Farview Avenue pull off the upset?

The Knights started out hot, taking a 4-0 lead, but two long jumpers by Schar-lat and forward Yosef Borodach tied it up at 4 all (no threes in this league, folks). Back-to-back buckets by forward Dan-iel Hirsch and stifl ing defense anchored by point guard Jack Reinhart (who also crashed the defensive boards with aplomb) and big man Isaiah Anderson gave Yavneh an 8-5 lead after one quarter.

Yavneh shuffl ed its lineup to start the second, and guards Ari Rosenberg and Leo Danishefsky joined forward Eli Jara-show getting out on the fl oor. With more lockdown defense and Anderson domi-nating the boards, taking a huge charge, and adding three buckets, Yavneh ex-tended its lead to 16-9 at the half as Re-inhart drove the lane and put in a layup with fi ve seconds left. Kaiser and Mathe-son had acrobatic baskets for Noam to keep the Knights close.

The defensive battle continued as the teams were scoreless until the six min-ute mark of the third period when Bar-on hit a sweet baseline jumper to pull the Knights within 5. Borodach then an-swered with two big shots, Anderson another, and Yavneh extended its lead.

Noam came right back behind Nat and Kaiser and at the end of three Yavneh’s lead was cut by one, at 22-16 going into the fi nal stanza.

Rosenberg opened the scoring in the fourth with a jumper from the wing and then Anderson pushed the lead to10 with a driving swoop to the hoop. Rosen-berg drilled another from the baseline and Yavneh was up 28-16 with 5:45 left. And then Rosenberg and Hirsch did that swish thing again, pushing the lead to 32-18. But anyone who plays Noam knows that Kaiser would be leading a run before all was said and done. He did not disap-point. 4 straight points by Kaiser and a slicing lefty drive by Matheson got the Knights their momentum back as they pulled within 8 with 1:18 left. But, after a foul, Anderson stepped to the line with all the pressure on his shoulders and drained two free throws—nothing but net—stopping the run and pushing the lead back to 10 at 34-24.

With the lineups shuffl ed for the end of the game, the Knights scored again, but Caleb Koppel put an exclamation point on the upset and the total team ef-fort for Yavneh with a ferocious block to close the door on the 34-26 win.

Yavneh now meets top seed RYNJ in the semifi nals.

Credit- Lisa Applebaum



SPORTS

Looking for UmpiresThe Yavneh Youth league is looking for

high school umpires for softball this spring!! It’s $25 a game on Sunday morn-ings and occasional weeknights. Require-ments are a solid knowledge of baseball

rules and coming to at least one train-ing session. Please contact Corey Berman with any questions and/or sign up by emailing [email protected]

Ma’ayanot Swim ReportBy Jennifer Sanders

The Ma’ayanot Swim season recently came to an end. It was a very compet-

itive team this year that won two meets against Bruriah and Frisch, came in sec-ond place in one group meet, and lost an-other.

Led by our excellent coach, Esther Lowensteiner, the team practiced since September, sometimes after long school days with other commitments to attend to after swim practice. We wish Esther a Mazel Tov on her recent wedding and hope we can share in many simchot to come.

SAR JV Boys Basketball Sting the StormBy Michael Courtney

SAR JV Boys Basketball defeated TABC in the quarterfi nal round in true nail-

biter fashion. The game was neck and neck throughout in a defensive slugfest, with no team taking a large lead.

After being held to only 2 points in the fi rst, SAR scored 11 in the second quarter. For the night, the Sting hit four 3-pointers, including two by Eitan Hain and one each by Michael Klein and Eli Friedman, accounting for 12 of the team’s points. Hain led SAR with 8 points over-all while Ariel Smith and Michael Klein played shut-down defense on TABC’s best offensive player, Tai Gerzberg, through a tight box and one matchup. However,

the night belonged to Smith. Tied at 26, TABC scored with 44 sec-

onds to play. With 16 seconds to go, Si-mon Kofman missed the fi rst of two free throws after making a great drive to the hoop. He cramped up, yet courageously fought through the pain and swished the second to go down one. SAR immediate-ly fouled TABC and their big man missed the fi rst of a one-and-one with SAR get-ting the defensive rebound. Smith took the ball and went coast to coast, driving without fear and draining a short jump-er despite getting fouled (but no foul call) with 4.4 seconds to play. With SAR up one, TABC called timeout. The SAR de-fense stiffened up and won the thriller.

On to Flatbush for the semis!

It’s Going to Be Another Exciting Year of RYNJ 6th Grade BasketballBy Ikey Gutlove

On February 12th the 6th grade RYNJ Jaguars started their season in Deal,

NJ. On the eve of the year’s biggest snowstorm, the Jaguars suffered a 49-45 defeat. Even so, led by Shmulie Coates (22pts), the Jaguars showed sparks of greatness battling back from a double digit defi cit,

With a sour taste in our mouths, the Jaguars returned home determined to get on track. In game number two we hosted a terrifi c team from BPY, but RYNJ was up to the task. Led by the sharp shooting of co-captains Yonatan Kaye (16 pts) and Ikey Gutlove (18 pts), and phenomenal team defense, RYNJ topped BPY by 4.

The night before our third game, co-captain and swing-man Yonatan Kaye suf-fered an injury that made him unavailable for the remainder of the regular season. In the pregame talk, our coaches told us that it was our job to step up and fi ll the void created by Yonatan’s injury. Unfortunate-ly for the very talented visiting team from RPRY, we listened and stepped it up. The defense, spearheaded by Yonah Hook, Yisroel Rothwacs, and Orel Bolour, shut down RPRYs talented backcourt. A pair of clutch free throws down the stretch sealed the game for the Jaguars.

Last week we were visited by a team from Westchester Day School; this game was truly a valiant team victory. Each and every member of the available 11-man roster contributed on both ends of the court.

The 3-1 Jaguars have big shoes to fi ll following in the wake of last year’s team and a tough road ahead of them with many talented teams to play in the weeks ahead.

Ikey Gutlove at the line to seal the game for RYNJ6B

Noam Hockey Off to the Championship!By Yoni Kirsch

The Noam Knights hockey team beat Moriah 4-1 on Monday night. It was an

outstanding game all around and a great team win.

It was 2-1 at the end of the 2nd, but the Noam Knights hustled and netted 2 in the third. Charlie Bendheim had 2

goals, Akiva Wieder had 1, and Ari Solo-man had a goal. Wieder, Sammy Weiss, Yehuda Saks, and ET Dubin were jump-ing in front of shots, playing amazing de-fensive games.

We will be playing the winner of the SAR-YNJ game in the championship. The Noam Knights are motivated, and will bring home the trophy to Noam.

Moriah 6th Grade Off To a Great StartBy Zach Horowitz

The Moriah sixth grade boys and Coach Dovey Forman

have started the season with two impressive wins. The team has a 14-man roster: Jason Aranoff, Ei-tan Chasman, David Cohen, Jon Comet, Joseph Forman, Isaac Horowitz, Gaby Katz, Coby Kin-zelberg, Daniel Leifer, Rafi Lew-is, Aaron Lubat, Ethan Schechter, Dean Shein, and Evan Solomon.

Game number one was on Feb 18th when they traveled to Westchester to play WDS. Moriah won by a score of 64-6 as they were lead by game-high scorers Horowitz with 14 and Chasman with 10.

Two days later, Moriah hosted SAR at Yeshivat Noam, due to a water leak in the

Moriah gym. It was a tough game for Mo-riah, but they pulled it off winning 36-32. Horowitz, again, had the game high with 9 points followed by Lewis with 6.

Moriah hopes to stay undefeated as it faces Noam on March 3.

RYNJ Lady Jaguars Roll to FinalsBy Sarena Wiederkehr

After capping a perfect 10-0 regular sea-son with a win over YCQ, the RYNJ

girls basketball team secured the top seed in the playoffs.

On Monday night they faced Barkai, a team they had beaten by only a nar-row margin during the regular season.

After trailing early, the Jaguars caught up and, at halftime, the score was 22-19, RYNJ leading.

In the third period, the Jaguars started pulling away with a quarter ending score of 33-23. The fourth quarter was all Jag-uars again and the fi nal score was 45-29.

The Jaguars will face second-seeded Ma-gen David Yeshiva in the fi nals next week.

Yisrael Feld Named Skyline Rookie of the YearThe Skyline Conference announced to-

day that among its men’s basketball all-conference members is Yeshiva guard Yisrael Feld, who was named the Skyline Conference Rookie of the Year, as well as a second-team All-Skyline member for the 2013-14 men’s basketball season.

Feld had an outstanding fi rst year with the Maccabees, leading the team and fi nishing high in the conference in several statistical categories. The 6’0” Te-aneck native averaged 16 points per game, which led the Maccabees, and is current-

ly fourth in Skyline (not all Skyline teams are fi nished playing) and dished out 2.92 assists, which was fi rst on the team and ninth in the conference. He connected on 34 3-point fi eld goals and shot 34.3% (34-for-99) from behind the arc.

A fi ve-time Rookie of the Week selec-tion, he scored 20 points or more eight times this season. He also netted a sea-son-high 28 points in three games, in-cluding a game at Sage College on Dec. 8, at Old Westbury on Feb. 8, and vs. Mari-time on Feb. 22.

Yavneh 6th Grade Girls Off to a Perfect StartBy Coach Jen Sanders

The Yavneh 6th grade girls’ basketball team has had a very strong start to its

season. Each game has been a real team effort with every player able to score and playing aggressive defense. I’m very proud at how hard the team works to play un-

selfi shly. The girls have been able to make over 30 points each game on jump shots, put backs, and break-away layups.

With a 4-0 record so far, Yavneh fac-es two tough teams this week in SAR and Moriah. We are hoping to come out ag-gressively on defense and work together as we have been to score baskets.


SPORTS SCENES AROUND BERGEN COUNTY

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Standard Bar/Bas Mitzvah Packages include Free Photo Favor Booth or $100 Discount & Over 30 Games

Standard Bar/Bas Mitzvah Packages include Free Photo Favor Booth or $100 Discount & Over 30 Games

Congrats to the Bergen Broncos 4th Grade Team on winning their second consecutive Hoop Heaven Championship. Front Row: Harry Orlinsky, Ari Chasman, Netanel Weiner, Josh Orlinsky Back Row: Elijah Mosberg, Eli Saks, Jonny Levine, Gabe Shein, Ben Haber, Netanel Hyman and Coach Elli Orlinsky

Congrats to the Bergen Broncos 5th Grade Team on winning their 1st Hoop Heaven Championship. Front (kneeling) David Matheson, Avery Stepner. Standing: Jeremy Weiss, Noam Kinderlehrer, David Gellis, Jonah Schachter, Ben Fuld, Eytan Suss, Zachary Levy, Ezra Baron

MGBL 2B jump ball, Credit- Leonard GrunsteinNoah Gutlove shoots for MGBL LYNLY Insurance

Max Milstein blocks Sasson’s shot, Credit- Amanda Leifer

Yonah Hook takes it to the basket for RYNJ 6B

Zev Rosenbaum, playing fi rst for the Yeshiva University Macs

Bergen Broncos Champs!


REAL ESTATE AND FINANCE

Your Credit ScoresBy David Siegel

Coca-Cola won’t re-veal its secret in-

gredient, Colonel Sanders keeps his spe-cial combination of spices in a vault, and

Moish the Morasha baker won’t tell any-one the secret recipe for his delicious cin-namon buns.

Likewise, no one seems to know ex-actly the formula for how the credit agen-cies determine people’s credit scores. Credit repair specialists have a gener-al idea of how certain events will im-pact a persons credit score, but there’s no way to know exactly how many points one’s score will drop because of a specif-ic event or how many points it will in-crease when somebody takes certain ac-tions.

Considering how important the cred-it score can be to someone purchasing a car or a home, it is imperative to do all you can to get the highest score possible. Does it really matter how high your score is? If you were seeking to refi nance or purchase a home and your credit score is below 620, you may not even be able to get a mortgage at all. If your credit score is below 720, even if you have high in-come and a low loan-to-value, your inter-est-rate is likely to be higher than if you have 780. The savings over the life of the loan could be signifi cant. Furthermore certain banks will not even permit cer-tain types of mortgages when the score is below 700. So, yes, the credit score is very important. Here are some important ideas and tips to consider in regards to your credit scores and how to improve them. We will address both people who are new to world of credit and people who have suffered and who are trying to repair their credit.

Scores will typically drop signifi cant-ly due to bankruptcy, short sale or fore-closure. It is hard to win back those points. However, the fi rst step is to re-quest your credit and confer with an es-tablished credit repair company in order to help you on the road to better cred-it scores. If you are new to the world of

credit, you also may have challenges to get a high credit score.

Request your own Credit Report. It is important you request your credit rather than have a third party obtain or “pull” it. Third party pulls will hurt your score and every point counts. Go to www.My-fi co.com and order both the report and score. The report is important because it will tell the credit repair professional why your scores are low and provide a road map to potential improvement. It is important to recognize that you may have to wait a lengthy period of time be-fore you obtain acceptable scores. How-ever, a professional may fi nd a way to help and the sooner you start work on rebuilding, the sooner your scores will improve.

If you had a complicated tax situa-tion, you wouldn’t use a computer pro-gram to do your tax returns. You would seek out a professional. Rebuilding your credit scores is hopefully something you will only have to do once in your life. Seek out a professional and have him re-view your report. I had a borrower with a 691 and we required a 700 score to ap-prove his mortgage. By working with a credit repair company, we raised his score to over 770 in 30 days. Unfortunate-ly, very often when someone tries to ad-dress their credit issues with the credit agency, they cause more damage by mak-ing certain damaging statements that be-come part of the offi cial record.

Correct mistakes and negative items. The fi rst order of business is to make sure there are no incorrect items on the re-port. This is where a professional will be most helpful. If you fi led for bankruptcy, were all the discharged items indicated as discharged? If a debt still shows open, it needs to be corrected. Many credit re-ports show small open judgments like medical bills that people don’t realize ex-ist. You may have thought the insurance company was paying the entire bill and ignored the note from the doctor which was later followed by a statement from the collection agency. Now you have a $100 judgment which is hurting your credit and needs to be paid. Another bor-rower with this same problem couldn’t

be approved while his report showed a judgment. By addressing this early it re-moves the issue when you are trying to get approved and helps your credit score so that it is suffi cient when the lender pulls your credit.

If you have had recent fi nancial dif-fi culties, you may assume your cred-it scores are ruined forever and feel you have no hope of repairing them. You may fear ordering your scores for fear of see-ing low numbers. That is the exact time to review the damage and start on a plan to repair and rebuild.

Obtain a secured credit card and a se-cured loan. You may have a debit card be-cause you don’t want to get started with credit cards again. Credit is what got you into this mess. While wanting to avoid repeating old mistakes is commendable, debit cards won’t help you rebuild your credit score. A secured credit card is one where you deposit a small amount to a bank account (as little as $200 or less) and the credit is limited to that amount. You won’t be able to owe a high balance because the bank won’t let you past the $200 limit. This will help you start to re-build your scores. If you are new to cred-it, you will likely be able to get a credit card, but in case you have a problem, you can consider this option.

Varied Accounts. Getting one or two credit cards is not enough. Try to get other types of accounts. Credit agencies like to see you have credit cards, install-ment loans, car loans etc. The more types of credit you are responsibly using, the quicker your scores will climb. As is true with regards to secured cards, banks will issue you a secured installment loan. I understand you don’t want debt, but it is important in the overall path to fi nancial strength.

Open Credit. Okay, so you will get these credit cards and loans, but you don’t want to use them. You are like a gambler who must stay away from the casino. Un-fortunately, if you don’t show the credit agencies you are responsible, you won’t help your scores. You will need to use the cards and pay them back. Again, you can keep the limit very low and make it a pri-ority to pay these cards every month. If

you are trying to build your scores, this is very important. Use your credit and pay it responsibly.

Loan balance to limit. It is better to have two cards with low balances relative to the limit than to have one that is al-most maxed out. Your scores will do bet-ter if you can remain at 30% of the limit (i.e., $3,000 balance due on a $10,000 lim-it). Many people like to use just one card. To help your scores, use more than one card so the balance on any one card re-mains below 30% if possible.

Authorized User Here is a little known fact I learned from a credit repair company. The credit agencies also look at the age of your credit. If you are just starting out, or have given up all your old credit and are starting fresh, this will be refl ected in your scores. However, once you have a credit card, you can sneak into the aged status by becoming an au-thorized user on another person’s card. This should help you get some benefi t from their aged cards.

So while we don’t know exactly how all these strategies will impact your scores, we do know generally that they will move them higher. And just like we don’t have to know how to bake the cin-namon buns to enjoy them, as long as we get the credit scores high enough to get the rate and approval we want, we don’t need to know the exact formula.

David Siegel is a Home Lending Offi cer with Citi-bank in its Englewood offi ce. Siegel can be reached at [email protected] or 201-419-1330. NMLS# 277243

Building CreditBy Eli Garfinkel

“Having no credit history can be as det-rimental, or worse, than having a bad credit history.”

There are fi ve fac-tors that make up your credit score:

1) Payment History: Your payment history accounts for 35% of your credit score. The goal is to establish a record of full, on-time payments. Recent history is given more weight.

2) Amounts Owed: Your debt accounts for 30% of your credit score. Credit bu-reaus look at both your total debt and your debt-to-credit-limit ratio. Not all debt is bad, but a lot of credit card debt is defi nitely frowned upon.

3) Length of Credit History: How much history you’ve already established accounts for 15% of your credit score. This can make it diffi cult for young peo-ple who are just starting out.

4) New Credit: Recent credit acquisi-tions account for 10% of your credit score and new accounts are handled with sus-picion.

5) Types of credit used: The types of credit utilized account for 10% of your credit score. It’s helpful to diversify.

Question: Will I build a credit history if I am an “authorized user” on my par-ents’ credit card?

Yes. One way to get started to build credit is to have your parents, or anoth-er relative, add you to their account as an authorized user. This allows you to have a card and start building a credit histo-

ry, based on your parents’ management of the account. Your parents can mon-itor your use of the card—and can easi-ly have you removed from the account if your spending gets out of hand. I once aptly heard it explained as follows: “It’s like having training wheels.”

Question: Do I have to actually use my credit card to build a credit history?

If your goal is to build a credit his-tory, charging something and then mak-ing payments on time demonstrates responsible use of credit and helps to create a good credit score. If you’re just starting out, it typically can take many months of using a card to generate a FICO score. In addition, some credit card issuers may close your account if it’s inactive for an extended period of time. Thus, it’s advisable to use the card for routine purchases—like fi lling up your gas tank —and paying the balance in full each month.

Question: How do “secured” credit cards work?

Secured cards are another option to help people establish credit or re-pair damaged credit. They essentially al-low you to “buy” credit, putting up your own money as collateral and then spend-ing on a card, usually up to a limit equal to your deposited amount. The issuing bank reports your payment record to the credit bureaus, helping you to build a credit fi le. You should, however, make sure that the card reports to all three ma-jor credit bureaus.

Eli Garfi nkel of Funding Resources Mortgage Com-pany is an experienced and reputable loan offi cer. Eli specializes in great customer service and deal-ing with complex cases. Eli is available to answer any mortgage questions, without any obligation. Eli can be reached by phone or text at 732.278.6526 or via email egarfi [email protected] or in the of-fi ce at 732.364.7373 ext 22.


REAL ESTATE AND FINANCE

What’s “Hot” On the Financial Runway?By Elozor M. Preil

Each season, fashion designers present

fl ashy, exaggerated wo-menswear and mens-

wear designs that quickly translate into the latest retail trends to market to the masses. What fi nally hangs on the rack at the mall is often a dramatically tamed-down version of what fi rst appeared on the runway, but fashionistas can see the connection.

A similar migration of product often occurs in the fi nancial services industry. Strategies and products once designed by creative fi nancial professionals working for large institutions, after some altera-tion, may eventually become available to “retail investors,” the industry name for individuals and small groups. If you skim the fi nancial press, one of the current hot topics for new fi nancial products is “Al-ternative Asset Classes.”

Alternative Asset Classes: What are they?

The number of items that might qualify as alternative asset classes is head-spinning. But all alternative assets have one feature in common: their in-vestment performance tends to have “a low level of correlation to fi xed-income and equity markets” (from an investope-dia.com defi nition). This means that if the stock market zigs, alternative asset classes might zag. When interest rates go up, income from alternative asset classes might go down—and vice ver-sa. The rationale for alternative assets

is fairly simple: since fi xed-income and equity markets occasionally go down, it makes sense to fi nd profi table alterna-tives. Again quoting investopedia.com: “Combining different types of alterna-tive assets into a portfolio can produce a more optimal asset allocation, and re-sulting performance benefi ts that are particularly visible during sustained periods of weak equity market perfor-mance.”

There are many investments which might qualify as alternative assets. Some, like real estate, art, collectibles, or precious metals, fi t the bill because they are not equities, bonds or other pa-per assets. Other items qualify as alterna-tive assets because they act as “hedges”; they are structured to provide positive returns when regular paper assets de-cline. Hedge funds get their name be-cause they typically consist of devices (such as options) or investments (like private equity, or currency futures) cho-sen for their non-correlation to whatev-er is happening in the larger stock and bond markets.

Alternative assets tend to be illiquid in comparison to traditional assets, and the minimum purchase price is typical-ly steep—you can’t build an art portfo-lio with monthly withdrawals from your checking account. In the past, many of these alternative asset classes have been available only to institutions or other “sophisticated investors,” i.e., those who theoretically have either enough mon-ey and/or experience to afford the high price points and accept the liquidity and investment risks.

But just as high-end fashions are re-packaged for mass consumption, it ap-pears alternative asset products are showing up on the radar screens of re-tail investors. A July 2012 survey commis-sioned by a prominent broker of life in-surance and investment products found that,

“The trend toward alternative as-set classes among retail investors has been growing steadily for the past sev-eral years…Over the last decade, mar-kets have experienced record volatility. We’re entering a new era of diversifi ca-tion and alternative asset classes are be-coming a signifi cant part of that devel-opment.”

Part of the repackaging of alternative assets for retail investors is fi nding ways to lower the price of entry. One of the easier ways to make alternative assets re-tail-friendly is to package them as funds, which allows for the sales of shares to in-dividual investors. An October 27, 2012, Wall Street Journal article highlighted how some mutual fund companies are changing their tax status to qualify as re-al-estate investment trusts (REITs). While a typical REIT fund portfolio might own offi ce, industrial, and residential prop-erties, some of these new REITs consist of “cloud-computing data centers, cell phone towers, prisons, billboards, and document-storage facilities” —all cho-sen because their fi nancial performance is not connected to traditional fi nancial markets.

In a similar way, insurance compa-nies use hedging devices in their indexed annuity products. This combination of

opportunity for growth with a guarantee against loss within the format of an an-nuity allows retail investors to indirect-ly receive the benefi ts of alternative as-set classes.

Alternative Asset Classes: A Passing Fad or Here to Stay?

No matter how complex they may seem, most fi nancial products are simply different confi gurations of fundamen-tal economic concepts. At fi rst, their ar-rangements may seem impossibly diffi -cult to comprehend, but with repeated exposures they make sense. So, as retail investors gain a better understanding of fi nancial products and their applications, it follows that interest in alternative as-set classes will increase.

This proliferation of alternative asset classes at the retail level doesn’t mean everyone should own some. There are times when what’s trendy just doesn’t fi t. That’s why a team of good fi nancial professionals is helpful. Not only can competent fi nancial professionals be a great resource for explaining alternative assets, they also might be just the right people to say “that doesn’t look good on you.”

Elozor Preil is Managing Director at Wealth Advisory Group and Registered Representative and Financial Advisor of Park Avenue Securities LLC (PAS). He can be reached at [email protected] See www.wagroupllc.com/epreil for full disclosures and dis-claimers. Guardian, its subsidiaries, agents or em-ployees do not give tax or legal advice. You should consult your tax or legal advisor regarding your in-dividual situation.

* Don’t use any word that can be found in the dictionary — even for-eign words.

* Don’t use passwords with double letters or numbers.

Microsoft recommends having users change their passwords eve-ry 30 to 90 days, but encourages you to change monthly. Account Logon (www.accountlogon.com) and Robo-form (www.roboform.com) are pass-word management programs; both offer free versions. Consider keeping copies of all business passwords in a safe. Keep personal passwords safe, too.

Robert Siciliano’s E-Mail Dos and Don’ts:

DO scan attachments with anti-vi-rus software every time before view-ing.

DON’T open attachments that you are not expecting, regardless of who they come from.

DO verify that the apparent sender actually sent the original e-mail if you doubt the validity of a message. Call the sender or send an e-mail by creat-

ing a NEW message. Do NOT reply to the original message.

DON’T reply to suspicious messag-es or forward them to friends.

DO be particularly cautious when you receive e-mail about services and Web sites that you use.

DON’T click on links or copy Web addresses from within messages.

Delivery Error and Virus Notifi ca-tion Messages from emails you didn’t send are good signs that your email has been spoofed… NEVER open an at-tachment unless you know what it is and who sent it.

Malware and VirusesMalware is stealthy and hides in

places like search engines, tech-relat-ed sites, entertainment sites and web ads. Malware can even be waiting for you when you download what seems to be an innocent app. Install antivi-rus especially on Android phones.

1. People are watching you. Mo-bile devices don’t mask passwords/Sit against a wall when using your mo-bile in public. Cover your device with your other hand when entering PINs

2. Click with discretion. 3. Don’t get reeled in by phishing e-

mails. Delete them.Stay with app stores. Never down-

load from mobile-only sites or those crammed with ads. Download only from app stores you trust.

Make sure your devices are pro-

tected with the most up-to-date anti-malware protection. Get the best anti-virus and malware software you can fi nd, scan your fi les often and ena-ble automatic updates for all software or apply new updates and patches as soon as they are released.

Never download an app sight un-seen. Always review the permissions. Some platforms, such as Android will clearly show what permissions a par-ticular app requests before download. Any unusual permission requests should raise the alarm. For example, why should an app want to access your contacts?

Credit Cards1. Don’t give your account number

over the phone unless you’ve initiat-ed the call.

2. Get a card that has added securi-ty features, like a photo ID.

3. Never write your account num-

ber or PIN on the outside of an enve-lope or postcard.

4. Draw a line through blank spac-es on charge slips above the total to prevent any changes.

5. Don’t sign a blank charge slip un-less absolutely necessary, and only if it’s in an actual store.

6. Save receipts. 7. Always check receipts against

your monthly statements. If anything looks fi shy, report it within 60 days of the statement’s mailing date.

8. Make a list of card numbers, ex-piration dates, and the toll-free num-bers of your credit card companies. Keep this record in a safe place, sepa-rate from where you keep your cards.

9. Carry only the cards you need, especially when traveling.

10.Never lend your card to anyone, and don’t leave cards or receipts lying around your room, no matter where you live.

Digital Safety Takes Front and Center in Teaneck


See something

happening near your

home? Know of an

event coming up in

your community?



LIFE IN ISRAEL

Tel Aviv’s Religious ReawakeningBy Gedaliah Borvick

I have always valued Tel Aviv’s importance as Is-

rael’s largest econom-ic hub and as a lead-

ing center for medicine and education. I also appreciate its wonderful muse-ums, parks, and performing arts ven-ues. As Tel Aviv is known for its hip at-mosphere and famous 24-hour culture, I never expected the city to become a destination for young religious people. I was wrong.

HistoryEver since its establishment in 1909,

Tel Aviv has always been home to reli-gious Jews. In the early years, the city even had prohibitions against some forms of commerce on the Sabbath.

Interestingly, Tel Aviv is the only ma-jor city in Israel that has only Jewish plac-es of worship, an important factor which attracted many Hasidic rebbes. By the 1960s, there were close to fi fty Hasidic sects that were based in Tel Aviv.

But by the early 1970s, the city began to become more chic and housing pric-es skyrocketed. Observant Jews began to leave in droves and most of the city’s 500 synagogues experienced dramatic de-clines in membership.

RenaissanceAround the time of Israel’s 2005 disen-

gagement from the Gaza Strip, many peo-ple felt a visceral need for Jews in all seg-ments of society to reconnect. A number of religious organizations became active in Tel Aviv, aspiring to improve relations between the city’s religious and secular populations and strengthen the city’s syn-agogues. In addition, groups of young fam-ilies—called garinim (literally “seeds”)—

started moving into Tel Aviv to help revitalize the city’s religious environment.

Olim Another element that has infl uenced

the Tel Aviv religious landscape has been the arrival of numerous European—pri-marily French—observant Jews. With a fl air and passion for fi ne cuisine, many of these immigrants have opened kosher restaurants, bakeries, and gourmet food stores.

Singles SceneNotwithstanding the infl ux of young

idealistic families and European immi-grants, probably the main infl uence on the religious upsurge in Tel Aviv has been the large religious singles scene, which has expanded dramatically in recent years. This late-20s and 30s crowd covers the full spectrum of religiosity and many of these residents have a strong liberal bent. Tel Aviv is a perfect city for this spir-itual resurgence, as it is relatively open-minded and accepting of nonconform-ists.

Educational and Social ProgramsNew and innovative congregations

have been established throughout the city, which address the needs of profes-sionals and students from diverse cultur-

al and religious backgrounds. The city’s renewed religious vitality has also affect-ed the older synagogues, as a number of these establishments now offer innova-tive programs and lectures.

In addition, numerous outreach cent-ers are thriving in their efforts to help secular Jews explore their heritage. There are many learning centers that offer a full spectrum of classes on practically every level from beginner to highly advanced. Most of these centers augment their learning programs with social and en-tertainment programs, serving as vibrant hubs for Jewish activities and addressing the need for healthy environments for singles to meet.

Changing CultureAlthough Tel Aviv continues to be pre-

dominantly secular, there is no mistak-ing the increased interest in religious activities among the city’s secular popu-lation. In Tel Aviv’s tolerant environment, many people who have spent their lives shunning religion are fi nally discovering their Jewish roots.

Gedaliah Borvick is the founder of My Israel Home (www.myisraelhome.com), a real estate agency fo-cused on helping people from abroad buy and sell homes in Israel. To sign up for his monthly market updates, contact him at [email protected].

Aerial view of Tel Aviv. Photo credit: (Photo: CC-BY-SA Utrecht1, Wikipedia)

The Shell Synagogue. Cong. Heichal Yehuda. Photo: David Hochhauser

Tel Aviv’s Great Synagogue. Photo: Miriam Woelke

Azrieli Center. Photo credit: (Photo: CC-BY-SA Rastaman3000, Wikipedia)


TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT

Young Entrepreneurs from Around the World Meet In CaesareaCaesarea—ID² - Israeli Designed Inter-

national Development, an exclusive three-day gathering of 70 young Jewish innovators, entrepreneurs, and interna-tional development professionals from Israel and around the world, took place recently in Caesarea. Coming togeth-er across sectors—private, government and NGOs—attendees looked at how to harness Israeli innovations, technol-ogies, and the spirit of entrepreneur-ship to provide solutions to some of the developing world’s most pressing chal-lenges.

Under the theme “Entrepreneur-ship for Development,” the gather-ing was organized and co-chaired

by Danielle Abraham, policy advisor to MASHAV, Israel’s Agency for Interna-tional Development Cooperation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Dan-iel Ben Yehuda, Deputy Director of the Pears Program on Innovation and International Development, Tel Aviv University. It was created as part of Schusterman Connection Points, an initiative launched by the Schuster-man Family Foundation, a global en-terprise that supports and creates in-novative initiatives for the purpose of igniting the passion and unleashing the power in young people to create positive change in Jewish communi-ties and beyond.

Israeli Company Launches World’s First GPS-Based Mobile App By Rebecca Modell

New York and Jerusalem—CathMaps+, the world’s fi rst HIPAA-compliant

mobile application for cardiac patients and people living with elevated risk of a cardiac incident has been launched in the U.S. It integrates a patient’s cardiac history with an interactive map of cath labs throughout most of the world. CathMaps+ mission is simple: to use mobile technology to provide peace of mind and emergency assistance to hundreds of thousands of Americans in their most urgent time of need. The app was created by Danny Oberman, an Israeli who made aliyah from Austral-ia in 1975. Oberman had a cardiac event last year, and decided to create an app that would alleviate some of the anxie-ty patients at risk might have by steer-ing them to the closest places for help.

CathMaps+, owned by Kickstart LLC, is available for most Android and

iOS users, and provides cardiac patients with tailored emergency tools in case of a follow-on incident, as well as GPS mapping of the nearest catheterization labs. It also allows cardiologists fast ac-cess to critical medical history in an emergency, ensuring more informed, personalized, and effective treatment.

According to the CDC, each year ap-proximately 715,000 Americans have a heart attack. Of these, 525,000 are a fi rst heart attack and 190,000 happen to people who have already had a heart at-tack.

CathMaps+ is the only app to inte-grate a patient’s cardiac history with an interactive map of catheterization fa-cilities throughout most of the world. CathMaps+ is accurate, fast, and easy to use. It is also private, though with user permission, information can be shared with loved ones, caregivers or emergen-cy professionals.

“By creating and launching the Cath-

Maps+ app, it is my hope that heart dis-ease patients and their families will be equipped with a sense of normalcy and peace of mind as they go about their

daily lives, and even travel,” said Ober-man. “As a life or death condition, the idea of suffering a repeat incident can be an almost constant concern. This app will help offset patient anxiety while also serving as a valuable tool for cardiologists and the medical commu-nity overall.”

CathMaps+ is available on the App Store and Google Store for $4.99. Cath-Maps+ has plans to release the app in additional languages throughout 2014. For more information, please visit at:• Website: www.cathmaps.com • Facebook: https://www.facebook.

com/cathmaps • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=aZxhOuM49zI • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=63zfqtA8vCk • Twitter: https://twitter.com/Cath-

Maps • Google+: https://plus.google.

com/100473119854239375230/posts

Danny Oberman

Garb’s GadgetryBy Shneur Garb

Several doctors I know say they are constantly bombarded with small

questions any time they bump into someone they know. Working in the information technology fi eld is much the same, except instead of “What does this ache mean?” or “Why do I feel like this?” I get “How come my screen freezes twice a day?” and “Why won’t this load?” What my medically-minded friends say about people’s bodies, holds true in cy-berworld—the only way to stay digitally healthy is to be proactive.

Think of this column as “Dear Abby” for your computer, or your own private appointment at the Genius Bar without the hassle of mall parking.

Here are some basics for setting up your home or offi ce computer. This means installing necessary software, making sure your calendars are properly backed up, and setting up remote access so you can get to your data from anywhere.

Many of the programs and apps desk-top and laptop users use on a day-to-day basis are coupled with the pieces of software that run in the background of a computer, and can be hard to fi nd, or even harder to update. Users will fi nd themselves having to visit a host of websites—sometimes upwards of 20 or more—to get the basic software that is taken for granted, such as Java, Adobe Reader, VLC Player, and so on.

In comes the Holy Grail for IT profes-sionals: NiNite.com. NiNite is a website that allows the user to check off any of more than 50 commonly used applica-tions and necessary tools, and download and install them with about three clicks. The brilliance of this website is that it ac-tually scans your computer briefl y and fi nds exactly what type of operating sys-tem you use. It then uses this informa-tion to seek out the correct version of the programs you’d like installed, down-loads and installs them. While doing this, if you already have one of those pro-

grams installed, it automatically down-loads and installs the update. Oh, and it also makes sure that none of those an-noying toolbars or add-ons come along for the ride. The best part is it’s free.

With telecommuting becoming more popular, clients often ask me what the best software is for gaining remote ac-cess to their PC or MAC. I must stress that you should fi rst check your compa-ny’s remote access policy before proceed-ing on a remote solution. Once you have the go ahead, “remoting in” can benefi t both the employer and the employee. Some companies have their entire team work remotely and come into the physi-cal offi ce only once or twice a week. The same solution that works for the offi ce can work for your home. If you are away on vacation and want to check some-thing on your home computer, remote software is essential.

The three leading companies that do this are LogMeIn, TeamViewer, and GoTo-MyPC (all three of which can be accessed from their websites). The beauty of these programs is in their simplicity. Go to the website. Create an account using a sim-

ple email-based authentication. You’ll be prompted to download their software at the end of the process. Make sure Java is updated to its most recent version (downloaded via NiNite). Once you’ve in-stalled that small application you can ac-cess that computer anywhere you can get on the Internet, just by logging on to the website. Additionally, each of these companies has apps available for An-droid and iPad tablets and smartphones. Voila! You’ve never been so connected.

Each application has its strengths and weaknesses. Finding the right one depends on your specifi c needs. But, as with so much in life, with experience comes knowledge. If you use one of these resources, write in to tell me how it worked for you. If you’re having trou-ble with one of them, write in with your question. This column is your forum, and together we’ll control+alt+delete all your technology problems.

Shneur Garb is the founder and CEO of the Garb IT consulting group based in Teaneck. To have your computer and network questions addressed in this column, please email [email protected].

Elie Y. Katz Now Has An App!

There are apps for virtually everything today: from weight loss, home, health, shopping, travel and even an Elie Y. Katz app. Now residents can have, for the very fi rst time, their own free Elie Y. Katz app. The app is available free for Iphones and Android phones in the Istore and Google Play Store. Among many of its features, the app gives you the ability to stay informed about the latest infor-mation happening in and around Teaneck. Want to report a prob-lem in town? Get involved? The Elie Y. Katz app can do that too.

Designed by: Mobilized Marketing Located in Teaneck. To learn more, email

Email: [email protected] or visit www.mobilizedmarketing.com or call: (646) 801-0174


BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT

The On-line Gaming Worker: Computer Whiz or Professional Athlete?By Michael J. Wildes, Esq.Reprinted with permission from The Jewish Press

The online gaming industry, already extremely popular throughout the

world, has fi nally received the United States government seal of approval: New Jersey is the fi rst state to change its laws to legalize online gaming, allowing for a relaxation and diversifi cation of its cur-rent gambling laws.

E-gambling is an exciting new busi-ness frontier in the United States, and foreign nationals already want in. More-over, given the success of online gaming in Europe, U.S. gambling and casino com-panies will undoubtedly seek to import international talent to help the industry grow and fl ourish.

Numerous studies have shown the many positive effects which the casino gaming industry has on communities around the world as it helps bolster the marketplace with its highly profi table in-come. In addition to the billions of dol-lars generated in gross revenues by casi-nos, state and local governments can tax gaming revenues and, in turn, help fund public education, public safety, housing, and health care, and many other pro-grams. The gaming industry also creates additional employment opportunities. The commercial casino industry alone is responsible for providing hundreds of thousands of jobs.

In fact, the federal government now recognizes gamers of League of Leg-ends, the multiplayer online battle are-

na video game, as professional athletes. As such, foreign players can obtain visas to work in the U.S., just like soccer icons David Beckham and Pele. Under current U.S. immigration practices, internation-ally recognized individual or team ath-letes may be granted visas which allow them to be temporarily employed in the United States for up to fi ve years. Now, both players and business profession-als in the online gaming industry may obtain permission to work in the U.S. and contribute meaningfully to the U.S. economy.

The O-1 visa classifi cation was estab-lished to ensure that the world’s most tal-ented, prolifi c, and intellectual individu-als can practice in their fi elds of expertise in the United States. This important non-immigrant visa is granted to an individ-ual who possesses extraordinary ability

in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics, or who has a demonstrated record of extraordinary achievement in the motion picture or television industry and has been recognized nationally or in-ternationally for those achievements.

The P-1 nonimmigrant visa classifi ca-tion is granted to the individual athlete who is coming to the United States to participate in an individual event, com-petition or performance in which s/he is internationally recognized with a high level of achievement: evidenced by a de-gree of skill and recognition substantial-ly above that ordinarily encountered so that the achievement is renowned, lead-ing or well known in more than one country. An athletic team which desires to come to the United States to partic-ipate in team events must show that it has achieved signifi cant internation-

al recognition in the sport and that the event in which the team is participating is distinguished and requires the partici-pation of athletic teams of international recognition.

The immigration law fi rm of Wildes & Weinberg, P.C. has been servicing the immigration needs of prominent Amer-ican and International fi rms, banks, in-dustrial, fi nancial and manufacturing concerns, law fi rms and performers in connection with the personnel needs of their foreign national employees for more than fi ve decades. The fi rm has suc-cessfully obtained visas including H-1B visas for specialty occupations, for many professionals in the gaming and gam-bling industry including online gaming, and has had much success in represent-ing companies and individuals seeking to enter the U.S. for gaming industry em-ployment purposes.

* This article is based on information available as of its publication and is not intended to be all-inclusive or to furnish advice in a particular case. We are not re-sponsible for any changes in regulations that may occur subsequent to publication. Please feel free to contact our offi ce for fur-ther information and advice.

Michael J. Wildes, is the Managing Partner of Wildes and Weinberg, P.C. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and was the Mayor of Englewood–where he lives. Wildes and Weinberg, P.C. has offi ces in New York, New Jersey, and Florida. Contact: [email protected] and visit the fi rm’s website at www.wildeslaw.com.

Why Write About Donna’s VIP Nails?By Abe Sussman

After my last article about the “West Englewood Diet,” I received emails

and feedback from readers who really ap-preciated my mentioning of Donna’s VIP Nails in the story. Comments I got ran the gamut from “Best nail salon in Ber-gen County” to “They are the nicest peo-ple and I am glad that they are getting the recognition they deserve” and “My fa-vorite place in the world.”

It seems an unlikely story for me to write about a nail salon. While I am not embarrassed to say, and I will admit pub-licly, that I have gotten a manicure and pedicure a few times in my life—and I did so at Donna’s VIP Nails on West En-glewood Avenue—I can’t for one minute claim to have any real expertise or great knowledge about the topic.

And before you pass any judgment or get any ideas about me, there was no color or polish involved in my mani/pedi. So I turned to my wife, who I would consider a real professional, maybe even a connoisseur in the “nail salon fi eld”—by experience (lots of it), only not by any special education or training.

I asked my wife why it is that Don-na’s VIP Nails is so popular and able to attract this “cult-like” following that I re-ceived those emails about the place? Her response was, “Abe, there are fi ve rea-sons why women chose a nail salon: price, service, convenience, comfort, and cleanliness. VIP Nails has all fi ve and then some.” She explained how VIP is very reasonably priced and of-ten has specials. She said that VIP has a very warm and comfortable feeling in-side, the owner is a doll, and she hires

nice and pleasant employees. They have massages, waxing, and easy parking. There are always appoint-ments available; they store your colors, and they have a mikva spe-cial (which may be TMI—too much information for my column—so women can inquire about that spe-cial on their own).

Most of all, the place is kept very clean. If a place and its equip-ment are not kept clean and its tools not properly disinfected, people can get in-fections or even get sick (Google Nail Sa-lon Horror Stories).VIP has the highest standards of cleanliness with licensed employees certifi ed by the Health De-partment. (Some tips I found online are: If you don’t bring your own tools with you, make sure the salons have been properly disinfected, which means that

they’ve been fully immersed in an EPA-approved disinfectant for at least 10 minutes. All disinfectants are required to be bactericidal, fungicidal, and verid-ical, and are usually—but not always—a clear blue color.)

Donna’s VIP Nails is open seven days a week and their hours are very conven-ient. The salon is located at 180 West En-glewood Avenue, Teaneck. 201-833-4004.

Direct Line Carpets II Opens on Cedar Lane

Teaneck—Direct Line Carpets II, a new family-owned carpet and fl ooring

store, formally opened on Cedar Lane near the intersection of Palisade and Cedar, early last week. The store is the second branch of a 27-year-old family-owned business and is being run by Na-than Rosenberg, the son of founder Abra-ham Rosenberg.

Nathan, a Teaneck resident, studied at the local Yeshivas Bais Mordechai (Yeshi-va Gedolah) of Teaneck. The Rosh Yeshi-va, Rabbi Eliyahu Roberts, was present at the opening event to put up the store’s mezuzah and give his former talmid a bracha for success in the new location.

The store represents northern expan-sion for the Howell-based business whose

main operation serves the Lakewood area. Direct Line Carpet II currently in-stalls well over one million feet of carpet and fl ooring each year. They supply, sell, and install all types of fl ooring including different grades of carpet, hardwood, VCT Tiles, and laminate. The Teaneck store will have has dozens of installers who can handle virtually any size job.

According to Nathan’s father, Direct Line II has an excellent reputation and hopes to continue that tradition in the Northern NJ/Teaneck area. The hours for new store will be Monday – Thursday, 11-5, and Fridays from 11-2. A formal ribbon-cutting ceremony is being planned in the next few weeks. Please feel free to con-tact Direct Line II with any questions by calling Nathan Rosenberg at: (732) 779-7151 or via email at: fl [email protected]


HISTORY

Rescuing Chagall’s Paintings, Abandoning ChagallBy Rafael Medoff/JNS.org

The new George Clooney fi lm, The Monuments Men, tells the thrilling

story of U.S. military personnel who, dur-ing World War II, risked their lives to res-cue paintings by the likes of Rembrandt, Picasso, and Chagall that the Nazis had stolen.

But for Connecticut civil rights attor-ney Bill Bingham, the story is one of trag-ic irony. His father, Hiram Bingham IV, was a dissident U.S. diplomat who helped rescue Marc Chagall after the Roosevelt administration abandoned the painter—the same administration that later made such efforts to recover Chagall’s paint-ings. Save the artwork, abandon the art-ist? It’s a peculiar legacy, as Bingham ex-plains.

Q: Is it true that Chagall was initially reluctant to leave Europe?

Bingham: “Chagall had lived in France for most of the previous two decades. Like many Jews, he felt bound to it by family ties, by the familiar sights and sounds and pleasures, and of course by the general uncertainty that goes with starting a new life halfway across the world. So when the pro-Nazi Vichy government took over in 1940, he wasn’t immediately ready to make the break.”

Q: How did your father come into contact with him?

Bingham: “Dad was a vice-consul at the American consulate in Marseilles. Of-fi cially he was supposed to implement the Roosevelt administration’s visa pol-icy, which was basically to look for rea-sons to reject visa applications from Jew-ish refugees. But unoffi cially, Dad was actively helping Varian Fry, an American journalist who came to France in 1940 to rescue refugees.”

Q: How did the U.S. government re-spond to Fry’s mission?

Bingham: “Under pressure from El-eanor Roosevelt, the president very re-

luctantly agreed to let Fry rescue a few hundred prominent European intellectu-als and artists. FDR could accept the idea of saving the ‘cream of European civiliza-tion.’ Helping ordinary Jewish refugees was a different story, unfortunately.”

Q: What exactly did your father do to help Fry?

Bingham: “He surreptitiously issued travel documents for refugees—docu-ments that the other consular offi cials refused to approve. He hid refugees in his home when they were fl eeing from the Nazis. He even helped smuggle the famous novelist Lion Feuchtwanger out of a French forced-labor camp—he had Feuchtwanger dress in women’s clothes and pretend to be my dad’s mother-in-law. It wasn’t just Fry and Bingham—Fry built a network of several-dozen rescue activists, some of them French, some of them American expats who were living in Europe.”

Q: So what happened to Chagall?

Bingham: “In the fall of 1940, the Museum of Mod-ern Art applied to the State Department for a visa for Chagall. The museum prom-ised that it would have ex-hibits of Chagall’s paint-ings and would make sure that he could support him-self. But that wasn’t enough, apparently. The adminis-tration stalled and stalled on the application. Months went by. Finally Fry took Chagall to see my father. Fry wrote in his diary that on the spot, my father ‘got him an immigration visa with no affi davits at all. In fact, all he had in his dossier was a letter from me [Fry].’

“The delays were almost fatal. Because of all the stall-ing, Chagall was still in

France when the Vichy police carried out a huge roundup of Jews in April 1941, and Chagall was imprisoned.

“Fry and my father personally inter-vened to get him out. Chagall and his wife, Bella, left Spain on May 7, 1941. If it had been left up to the Roosevelt adminis-tration, he might never have gotten out.”

Q: And his paintings?Bingham: “The Chagalls managed to

take some of the artwork with them. But some of it was left behind. And of course some of it was in museums or private collections in Europe—which is how the Monuments Men ended up fi nding some of it, three years later.”

Q: Why did Fry’s rescue mission come to an end?

Bingham: “The Nazis and the Vichy French complained to the Roosevelt ad-ministration about what Fry was doing. The United States wasn’t yet in the war and it still maintained relations with

Nazi Germany. So Secretary of State Cordell Hull sent a cable to all the Amer-ican consuls in France, ordering them to refrain from helping Fry, since he was trying to ‘evade the laws of govern-ments with which this country main-tains friendly relations.’ Hull also sent a cable directly to Fry, demanding that he immediately return to the U.S. Fry and my father ignored Hull. So the adminis-tration canceled Fry’s passport, forcing him to leave France. And it transferred my father out of Marseilles—fi rst to Por-tugal, then to South America. That en-sured he would be far away from any more opportunities to help Jewish refu-gees get to the United States. Altogether, they saved about two thousand refugees. They could have saved many more if the administration had just left them alone.”

Q: How do you feel about the work that the “Monuments Men” carried out?

Bingham: “They deserve credit for what they did. I’m glad they rescued all those precious paintings and artifacts. But I’m troubled that in a case like that of Chagall, the Roosevelt administration was so interested in saving the artwork and not very concerned about saving the artist.

“And the other irony is this—they were so interested in saving artwork, but if their abandonment of Chagall had led to his death, think of all the great works of art that never would have come into being—from the Chagall murals in Lin-coln Center and the Metropolitan Opera House, to the stained glass windows at the Hadassah hospital, in Jerusalem. So in a sense, Fry and my father and their comrades not only saved lives but did a great service for the art world, and all of humanity, for generations to come.”

Dr. Rafael Medoff is director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, in Washington, D.C., and author of 15 books about Jewish history and the Holocaust. The latest is “FDR and the Holocaust: A Breach of Faith.”

Vienna and JerusalemBy Elli Fischer

On a recent trip to Vienna, I found

myself wandering the streets of the Innere Stadt late at night. I was struck by a cer-

tain incongruity. Everything above eye level was German to the core: its lan-guage, its architecture, and its ever-pre-sent tributes to great kings, princes, composers, and artists. Yet at street level, storefronts, kiosks, and conversations expressed a wide variety of languages and places of origin.

Vienna’s multiculturalism is no acci-dent. For most of the second half of the 20th century it was the gateway to the West from the Eastern Bloc. In the 16th

and 17th centuries it was where European Christendom stood fi rm against the ad-vance of the Ottoman Empire. The city became great as the capital of the Habs-burg Empire, which included a wide va-

riety of ethnic groups and nationalities. I began to wonder: Do the Viennese

minorities from Hungary, the former Czechoslovakia, the former Yugoslavia, and the former Soviet Union look upon their city as home? Do they view them-selves as part of the nation and civiliza-tion that created it?

In the 1800s, the answer would have been no. By the middle of that century, the Czechs, Slovaks, Romanians, Serbs, Bosnians, Croats, Hungarians, Poles, and Ukrainians—to name a few—in the em-pire had decided that they were not Ger-mans, that Vienna was not theirs and they were not Vienna’s.

National movements had begun springing up throughout Central Eu-rope. The inexorable march toward dis-solution of empire and national self-de-termination was underway, though it would take more than a century, numer-ous bloody wars, and displacement of millions before self-determination was fi nally and fully exercised.

Among the Jews of the empire, there were certainly some who embraced dual and even triple identities (German/Hungarian/Jewish, for example), yet this empire was also the birthplace of Jew-ish nationalism. Israel, the manifesta-tion of Jewish self-determination, pre-fers to compare itself to Western states, but conceptually it belongs in Central Europe. As Czechs, Slovaks, and Ukrain-ians within the empire began to articu-late national aspirations, the Jews did, too. When the imperial powers sought to bring civilization to the Jewish com-munities of the Carpathians, the reac-tion was an unprecedented assertion of Jewish national identity that denied the possibility of being a German or Pole of the Mosaic faith. It was in this context that Jewish nationalism and proto-Zion-ism were fi rst articulated by rabbis re-jecting assimilationist trends.

It is thus no accident that political Zionism was conceived in Vienna by a Hungarian Jew whose family had mi-

grated from Serbia. It was this man, The-odor Herzl, who recognized that despite the large and prominent Jewish commu-nity in fi n de siècle Vienna, it was not the Jews’ city. Indeed, Vienna also played a part in the rise of Nazism, a movement that sought to purge the pure German nation of foreign infl uences and con-taminants. The Jews, who had no home-land in Europe, were the ultimate for-eigners.

Jerusalem, in this sense, is Vienna’s opposite. It has changed hands dozens of times and contains the remnants of numerous civilizations. It had four dif-ferent masters in the 20th century alone. Yet a Jew can walk its streets and feel that the city belongs to him and that he belongs to the city. It was thus on the al-ienating streets of Vienna that the Jews remembered and were drawn toward Zion.

Elli Fischer is a writer, translator, and editor from Modiin, Israel. He will be scholar-in-residence over Pesach on a riverboat touring the Danube. This ar-ticle fi rst appeared in the Intermountain Jewish News.


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Jewish Spain’s Myriad Attractions Leave No Time for a SiestaBy Irvina Lew/JNS.org

My passion for speaking Spanish, watching Flamenco, drinking Rio-

ja, admiring artwork, walking a labyrinth of narrow streets, and inhaling the scent of orange blossoms intensifi es on every visit to Spain. These interests infl uenced my choice of careers as a Spanish teach-er and travel writer. On repeated trips studying at the University of Salaman-ca, walking the Camino de Santiago, driv-ing to Galician wine estates, vacationing in Mallorca and Marbella, experiencing spas in Bobadilla and Alicante, attending the Expo in Seville and the Olympics in Barcelona, the culture continues to fas-cinate me. It also prompts me to pay re-spect to my Jewish heritage by visiting Jewish communities and attempting to understand what happened there, if not ever comprehending why.

I visited Chamberí, Madrid’s old Jewish quarter (Judería Vieja), for the fi rst time last November to have lunch at La Escu-dilla, the city’s only kosher restaurant. Its address on Calle de la Santísima Trinidad (Sacred Trinity Stret) and close to the Ig-lesia (Church) subway stop illustrates a common practice in Spain: after the Jews were expelled in 1492, Christians took over the former Jewish neighborhoods and Christianized the public sphere.

Viviana, the chef and owner, person-ally serves homemade Sephardic dishes: hummus, beets, eggplant, carrots, and a tomato-onion-cucumber salad followed by a bright, vegetable-studded couscous and a simple roast chicken. Skewered beef was served to a nearby table.

A statue of Maimonides at the syna-gogue in the Juderia in Córdoba. Credit: Irvina Lew.

She suggested that I visit Beth Yaacov Synagogue, where I was told that the Jewish community numbers 3,000-4,000. If you go, make an appointment and take a passport for security checks.

Viviana also recommended the near-by Carnicería Elias, a kosher food store. When I arrived, it was closed for a mid-af-ternoon work break (2 or 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.) and I was reminded of the once-prevalent practice of siesta. Small shops are still shuttered in the afternoon, while large department stores like El Corte Inglés, where the Gourmet Department stocks

kosher foods, re-main open all day.

Dining at 10 p.m. is another cul-tural pattern that endures. Tour-ists notice this be-cause restaurants are empty before 9:30 p.m. Spaniards meet friends at cas-ual Tapas bars at 8 p.m. and have a sherry, beer, or wine served with tapas—manchego (cheese), aceitunas (olives), and salt-ed almendras (almonds)—and discuss where to dine. Raciones (small plates to share) are available a la carte and some are vegetarian—tortillas (egg and potato pies) and papas bravas (roasted potatoes with a spicy tomato sauce), or pan to-mate, (tomato puree on toast). Tapas can either precede dinner or replace dinner.

The name Lavapiés, the “new” (pre-1492) Jewish quarter of Madrid, is a refer-ence to the tradition of the washing feet before entering the ancient Temple. To-day the area is a multiethnic mix of art-ists, intellectuals, and immigrants who mingle at tapas bars that line the streets. I was introduced to a gem: La Musa de Espronceda, where the bar is lined with platters of huge portions of open-face Basque sandwiches. It’s just a short walk from the church of San Lorenzo, a for-mer synagogue, Atocha Railroad Station, and the Museum of Reina Sofi a.

Reina Sofi a is a must-see, for me, to pay homage to Picasso’s Guernica, the iconic anti-war painting the artist creat-ed after Franco bombed the little Basque village. General Franco had previously in-vited Picasso to display a painting at the World’s Fair in Paris 1937, and the famed cubist artist refused to give the mural to Spain until after Franco’s death.

Reina Sofi a is one of three major art museums in the Museum Triangle on or near Paseo del Prado, a beautiful tree-lined boulevard dominated by The Pra-do Museum and extraordinary early 20th-century palace hotels: the Ritz and the Westin Palace. The Prado houses ex-traordinary works by artists like Goya, El

Greco, Velazquez, Titian, Rubens, and Van Dyck. Nearby, the Thyssen-Bornemisza is a private museum displaying Italian, Ger-man, and Dutch masters—favorites like Chagall, Renoir, Klee, and Van Gogh—and even works from the Hudson River School. Nearby, there are exhibits at the gorgeous Palacio de Cibeles, where the rooftop offers amazing city views. It’s also fun to have a drink on the rooftop of the ME hotel on Plaza de Santa Ana.

Madrid’s architecture also lures visi-tors to make it the home base of a Jewish heritage vacation. It’s a city with 17th-cen-tury Hapsburg architecture near the Pla-za Mayor, ornate 18th- and 19th-century buildings during the Bourbon reign, and early 20th-century opulence along the vibrant Gran Via. And, there’s lots to do: the Rastro, a Sunday morning market at Puerta del Sol, designer boutiques along Calle Serrano, the gardens of Buen Reti-ro, and restaurants and galleries galore.

From Madrid, it’s easy to visit smaller cities where vestiges of the once vibrant Jewish community survive. Traveling on day trips via high-speed AVE trains is an easy and comfortable way to go, lug-gage-free. The train from Madrid’s Ato-cha Station to Toledo—which once had the largest Jewish population—takes 35 minutes. Jews, Muslims, and Christians lived in this multicultural medieval city. Of 10 synagogues, two that were convert-ed into churches post-1492 survive. Sin-agoga del Tránsito is now Museo Sefar-di, and the 12th-century Sinagoga Santa Maria la Blanca has stunning Mudejar arches and fl oor tiles (notably, it’s on the

street of the Reyes Catolicos, the Catholic kings). The El Greco Museum is worth a visit, and so is the Parador.

The AVE rail trip to Segovia leaves from Chamartin Station and arrives 35 minutes later. The former Sinagoga May-or, now the Corpus Christi church, opens the Jewish quarter. Segovia’s highlight is the medieval menorah that dates from the Jewish Golden Age in Spain. It is lo-cated at the Jewish Museum in the Jud-ería within the former home of a promi-nent resident Abraham Seneeor.

Córdoba, a UNESCO World Herit-age Sight, is less than two hours via AVE from Madrid. The Judería—near the Tourist Offi ce in Plaza Juda Leví—is no-table because its 14th-century synagogue is the only one in Spain not turned into a Christian building, and because there’s a monument to Maimonides, the Jewish doctor and religious thinker.

More time is required for some desti-nations. By adding an overnight, visitors can leave Cordoba for Seville in time for dinner and stay at a charming, small four-star hotel in Santa Cruz, Sevilla, called Hotel Casas de la Judería. It’s located on Calle Santa Maria de la Santa, next door to a church with that same name that once was a synagogue. This hotel resem-bles a tiny village comprised of a series of pastel townhouses, some dating to the 16th century, fronted by fl ower-fi lled courtyards and siding narrow paths. There are arches and columns, expansive rooms, and suites.

Add another day for Granada, where the Fountain of the Lions at the amazing Alhambra Palace was a gift from the Jew-ish community. At the entry to the palace, visitors can see artisans at work creating taracea—geometric patterns inlaid into wood boxes, tables, and chessboards.

In Cosmopolitan Barcelona, just two and a half hours from Madrid via the AVE rail, Jews, including the 13th-century sage Nachmanides, once comprised 15% of the population. Here, like many plac-es in Spain, there are hints of a vanished world—but one that I never tire of ex-ploring.

Irvina Lew (www.irvinalew.com) is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the Society of American Travel Writers.

As the team members were lining up for the start of the race, the an-nouncers noticed how the participat-ing runners from Team HASC were brimming with enthusiasm. Thou-sands of runners attended this event, and so many asked what HASC was and what it stood for. As Team HASC member, I was proud to say that it was an organization for children and

adults with special needs. As mara-thon runners listened and grasped the enormity of what they were witness-ing, I heard a runner utter the follow-ing two words: “Good Lord!” It was a massive public Kiddush Hashem.

Numerous individuals stopped by the Team HASC tent to inquire about Camp HASC and expressed impressed they were with our turnout, enthusi-asm, and dedication. One gentleman asked to take a picture of my T-shirt so he could look up the organization on the Internet. As I was leaving the marathon, two runners from another group came over and said, “We were extremely impressed to see college kids pushing children with special needs. You did well and it’s so com-

mendable.”What did they see? Two Team

HASC counselors were pushing a boy with special needs in a jogging wheel-chair. They were about 100 feet from the fi nish line and instinctively un-buckled their camper. They pushed the wheelchair aside, and struggled with the camper, hand-in-hand, stride for stride, to cross the fi nish line with their arms raised. The crowd roared with cheers and I felt my eyes well up. What an incredible display of de-votion, self-sacrifi ce and love. I was so proud to have the z’chus to be a part of such an amazing organization.

Disregarding any physical or men-tal disabilities that they may have, 18 campers with special needs crossed

the fi nish line of their own accord. Among the fi nishers was a camper with cerebral palsy. He walked over the fi nish with his counselors line. Another camper with a prosthetic leg raced through the fi nish line on crutches with his counselors cheer-ing right beside him. As each camp-er crossed the fi nish line, tremen-dous cheers and thunderous applause erupted spontaneously from stran-gers and spectators watching the in-credible sight unfolding before their eyes.

To learn more about supporting and or joining TEAM HASC please contact Alyssa or Avi Sacks at [email protected] or visit us at www.teamhasc.com

Team HASC—A Runners Perspective



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GOWNS

Fairlawn Gown Gemach

Gowns (wedding gowns, mother of the bride, bridesmaids and fl ower girls) are loaned free of charge. Please call for appointments. The number is 201 797-1770. The gemach has relocated and new address will be given at time of confi rmation of appointment. For donations or any other inquiries please contact [email protected]. Appts are not made by email. The Fair Lawn Gemach is under the auspices of Anshei Lubavitch of Fair Lawn.

Adult Clothing

Chabad of Maplewood NJ. Contact: Lenny Levy, 201-836-7376 or email [email protected]

Furniture Donations

Email [email protected] of a picture of what you›d like to donate and a recipient can be matched. Email [email protected] for information

RINAT CHAIM GEMACH

NEWLY FORMED IN MEMORY OF RENEE CHAYA LEVY.Donations of medical supplies are welcomed (wheel

CONTINUED ON P. 84


GEMACHS AND CHESED OPPORTUNITIES

Dining Guide

chairs, portable commodes, walkers, canes, crutches, etc.) Please only equipment in good condition will be accepted. For more information or to donate to equipment to the gemach call Yehiel Levy at 201 357 5495.

The Bikkur Cholim of Passaic- Clifton’s

Medical Equipment Gemach

Wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, canes, scooters and other medical equipment to lend them out at no charge. For more information or to schedule a pick up contact Yael Gotteib at 973-778-9320.

Housewares G’mach in Teaneck collects brand new, still in their boxes, serving china platters, mixing bowls and many other house ware items for new Kallahs in need. For more information or to donate contact Sara Beth Fein at [email protected].

The Jewish Book Gemach collects Jewish books for 4th- 8th graders. If you have books for donate or would like to receive books please contact Moshe and Shifra Schapiro at [email protected].

Congregation Ahavath Torah 240 Broad Avenue, Englewood) collects fl ower centerpieces than can be brought to the homebound or those in the hospital. For more information call the Shul at 201-568-1315.

Yad Leah collects modest and contemporary clothing, infant through

adult, to be sent to Israel. Donated clothes must be in either excellent or like- new condition. For more information regarding drop off locations contact Jessica Katz at 973-594-9118 or via email [email protected]

The Kallah Gemach collects donations for Kallahs in need. They collect any unopened new items in their original boxes from people who have received gifts that they do not want and off er them to those less fortunate. All the items go to Passaic where the girls can come and see what they may be able to use. We collect things like Judaica, household items, small appliances, giftware, etc. For more information contact Carrie Cooper at 201-801-9028 or via email at [email protected].

Bikur Cholim Wheelchair Gemach - 201 836 2907.

CHILDREN WITH

SPECIAL NEEDS

The Friendship Circle is a social organization for children with special needs that involves them in a full range of recreational activities. Teenage volunteers are the key to keeping our programs running! Volunteers can visit a child at home weekly for a play date, join a monthly program on Sundays with sports, music, art, and baking, join us for holiday programs, camps or cooking programs. Volunteers must be in 7th grade or older. For more information or to volunteer please call Zeesy Grossbaum, Director of Bergen County Friendship Circle [email protected] or via phone at

201-262-7172. Feel free to check out their website: www.BCFriendship.com.

Sinai Schools

Sinai Schools services children and adults with learning and developmental disabilities. There are various volunteer opportunities available, such as driving young adults to their job sites and shadowing some of the students at various community activities. For more information or to volunteer contact Aggie Siletski at 201-833-1134 x105 or via email at [email protected] or visit their website at www.sinaischools.org.

Yachad- National Jewish Council for

Disabilities

YACHAD, The National Jewish Council for Disabilities, is dedicated to enhancing the life opportunities of individuals with disabilities, ensuring their participation in the full spectrum of Jewish life. New Jersey Yachad touches our community on a daily basis, providing inclusive programs for individuals with special needs and emotional support for all members of the family. Services include parent support groups, sibling support, information and referral, socialization programs, weekend respite through monthly shabbatonim, over a dozen summer camp programs, vocational training, sensitivity training workshops, advocacy, family retreats and so much more. For more information please contact Chani Herrmann at [email protected] or call 201-833-1349.


List your events in our Community Calendar.

Advertise your services in our growing Classifi eds

section! Call (201) 371-3212 or editor@

jewishlinkbc.com


LOCAL LEARNING

The Jewish Link of Bergen County has an affiliate paper serving Queens, NY -The Queens Jewish Link -

serving Kew Gardens Hills, Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, Rego Park, Hillcrest, Fresh Meadows, Holliswood,

Great Neck, & West Hempstead.

917.549.6145www.QueensJewishLink.com

[email protected]

The QJL is delivering for free to nearly 8,000 households,

area stores and shuls.

Successful Learning with the Shas Chaburah System

Have you ever dreamed of making a Si-yum HaShas every year? Would you

want a broader background of the Gemo-ra and the complex sugyas you’re learn-ing? Do you remember the Gemoras you learned last year and two years ago?

For the past 16 years, the “Shas Chabu-ra,” the brainchild of Lakewood resident Rabbi Sender Dolgin, has enabled thou-sands of men and boys to maximize their learning potential in a way that they nev-er thought possible before, and in so do-ing has literally changed their lives.

Rabbi Dolgin initiated the concept of the Shas Chabura at the age of 49 after he determined to make his own learn-ing more goal-orientated, more fulfi lling, and more effectively remembered. In-vestigating scientifi c studies on memo-ry retention, he discovered that the mind loses its retention of new material in pro-gressive stages. From here he deduced that reviewing this material before these “cut-off” dates would prevent it from be-ing “lost.” Melding these fi ndings to the age-old concept of constant review, Rab-bi Dolgin devised a simple yet effective method to learn and remember Shas.

The system works as follows: A new blatt Gemora is learned each day (day 1) in 1½ to 2 hours, or a new amud is learned in ¾ to one hour. It is then re-viewed at fi ve progressively longer inter-vals—the next day (day 2), then a week later (day 9), then a month later (day 39), then 3 months later (day 129) and thereaf-ter once a year (day 366). It is then suffi -cient to learn each blatt or amud once a year. Each review takes 20-30 minutes for a blatt and 10-15 minutes for an amud. Af-ter the fi rst year when all reviews are in place, six different blatt or amudim are learned each day, one new and fi ve old. The total approximate time for the blatt schedule is 4 hours, and 2 hours for the amud schedule. Subsequently, if a per-son learns a blatt a day with the reviews for 8 years, he will have seen every Ge-mara between 3-12 times (with an aver-age of 6-7 times for every blatt). He will then be able to spend 3-4 hours a day to learn through Shas, learning 8 blatt a day and 6 blatt on Shabbos or 54 blatt a week and thereby finish the entire Shas once a year! An amud a day will take twice the time, but the goal—to be able to fi nish the entire Shas once a year—is achieva-ble.

It should be emphasized that every review of the daf base (original blatt) is helpful in retaining past learning, and al-lows for a deeper understanding of that blatt based upon the accumulation of the other dafi m that has been acquired since learning the blatt the previous time. It is fair to say therefore that he will under-stand 30% the fi rst time but he will con-stantly increase his understanding with each review as he is connecting the blatt to more and more other dafi m each time he reviews it. By going forward and back-ward simultaneously, the whole picture becomes clearer and clearer, creating the true simchas HaTorah that continues to grow with each review.

In practice, this is not as complicat-ed as it sounds. The Chabura provides a convenient pocket calendar (Talmudo B’yado) to check off each day’s learning

and review list. In addition, Rabbi Dolgin himself is available to answer questions and offer assistance. Rabbi Dolgin is now in his 13th year of completing Shas annu-ally in honor of his father’s yahrzeit and is familiar with every area of Shas.

Obviously a degree of diligence is re-quired, but the Shas Chabura was not designed specifi cally for those with spe-cial intelligence or a prolifi c memory. Through using this method, however, a person can emerge as an accomplished talmid chochom who not only goes through Shas but “knows” it. Moreover he not only knows the Gemora he’s learn-ing; he also knows the Gemoras that eve-ryone else is learning too!

There are two chaburas in Bais Me-drash Govoha that use the Shas Chabu-ra method during second seder and there are also numerous Chaburas in many yeshivas in Eretz Yisroel where the Shas Chabura is very warmly re-ceived.

The review method can also be used when learning Mishnayas, Shulchan Oruch, and T’nach, etc. In addition, it does wonders for children. In Eretz Yisroel there are currently thousands of children learning Mishnayas using this system through the V’debarto Bom Mishnayas Organization, founded and directed by Rav Yitzchok Aharon Sha-piro. The benefi ts are phenomenal,

providing background knowledge for learning Gemora and getting a child ac-customed to constant review.

Shas Chabura is the not the “only” route to accomplishment in Torah learning. But when asked to comment on the Shas Chabura, at Beit Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, Rosh Yeshiva Harav Aryeh Malkiel Kotler said, “Many talmidei chachomim have tried this system and have seen great success.” The Mashgiach, Harav Matisyahu Sala-mon shlita, responded, “This program is gevaldik, mamish gevaldik”!

For more information contact the Shas Chabura at 732 447 4201/ 730 9496, ([email protected])


MIDDAH OF THE MONTHFriendship. A friend is someone that you can trust. How can you be a good friend this week?

WORD FINDFind the bold italic words on this sheet.

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© 2014 The Famous Abba www.thefamousabba.com

Brought to you by:

CANDLELIGHTING IN JERUSALEM: 5:01 P.M.

SUPER SHABBOS SHEET

Can you judge these situations favorably?

• You did not receive an invitation to your party.

• Your sefer was missing from the book shelf.

WORD CMRLESAB (scramble)

TIHEG RAEFHT YBBA

DBOLO LEMHO KDNAES(

spot the differenceWhich one is different?

SAVED SING

MIGHTYTEN

people should bring. If a

did wrong, it can be from the cattle, flock, or fowl.

offerings must be brought with salt. If a person wants to showoffering from the cattle, flock, or a goat. If the

accidentally or the entire Jewish people made

accidentally, he can bring a she-goat or sheep

offerings for a person who does not want to be a witness, does not want to treat things with

oaths or does not keep his oaths. A special offering is brought if a person is not sure whether or not he sinned.

PARSHA SKIT ideas Act out these scenes with friends and family.

•

•

who AM I? I was raised by my uncle

named after me.

WEEK IN REVIEWRecall and share a good thing you did for someone and/or a good thing that someone did for you.

At a Purim Seudah, what is the order of the

CROSSWORDComplete the crossword by translating each

Hebrew word into English.

ACROSS

DOWN1.

1

5

6

400 5090 10 5300 4080 9 4200 3070 8 3100 2060 7 26 1

A Purim minhag...

COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS

OU Advocacy AlertUrge Governor Christie to Increase Funding for

Non-Public Schools New Jersey Jewish day schools re-ceive less than $100 per child in basic services, such as technology and nursing. With the governor’s budg-et for Fiscal Year 2015 scheduled to be released on Feb-ruary 18th, we urge you to call Governor Christie and ask that he increase that amount to $500 per student. It is vital that the governor hear from his constitu-ents.

Please go to the link below to take action on this im-portant issue.

http://advocacy.ou.org/action-alerts/#/9.American Friends of Beit Issie Shapiro is selling

adorable, completely assembled mishloach manot packages with net proceeds going to tzedakah. Each beautifully decorated box will include a few delicious treats as well as a donation card for the special chil-dren of Beit Issie. Boxes are $100 for 15 or $8 each, pay-able to AFOBIS (American Friends of Beit Issie Shap-iro). Cash, check, or credit card ayments are accepted. Beit Issie Shapiro, based in Ra’anana, is a leading or-ganization providing a range of services for children with developmental disabilities and their families in Israel. Here is a link to their website: http://www.be-itissie.org.il. If you are interested in purchasing, please reply via email to [email protected] or call me at 201-928-0542

Leket Israel, Israel’s National Food Bank and largest food rescue network, is selling printed Purim cards. Eve-ry $1 donated provides 10 pounds of fresh fruits and veg-etables for 1 needy person for a week. It costs $36 for 18 cards and envelopes, $70 for 36, $90 for 54, and $170 for

108. Unlimited Purim e-cards and video cards are avail-able for $18. To order, call Elena at (201) 331-0070, ext. 2 or purim.leket.org.

Sharsheret Purim CardsPurim cards come in packages of 12 for $36. Orders

may be shipped directly to you or picked up from the Sharsheret offi ce in Teaneck, 1086 Teaneck Road, Suite 3A .

Project Ezrah Purim Packets BUY A BUNCH pick up your Project Ezrah Purim

packets prior to Purim day and distribute them on your own. Place orders immediately. Order online at www.ezrah.org and click on the Purim icon – www.ezrah.org/purim. Orders must be received by Wednesday, Febru-ary 26th.

Health Care Reform: How Does It Affect Me? Tuesday, March 18th 8:00PM

Join us for our upcoming national teleconference and webinar, “Health Care Reform: How Does it Af-fect me?”, as we share emerging updates impacting the health care landscape in the wake of the Afforda-ble Care Act. Health care reform presents opportunities and challenges for all Jewish women and families facing serious illness, particularly for those of you with con-cerns about your breast and ovarian preventative care, screening, treatment, and follow-up care. Ask your ques-tions during a live question and answer session follow-ing the presentation. This program was made possible with support from the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York.

To register, email [email protected] or call 866.474.2774.

Support Group for Adults Living with Crohn’s or Colitis.

Jewish Family Service of Bergen and North Hud-son County is offering a six-session Support Group for adults living with Crohn’s or Colitis. This six-session group will discuss overcoming challenges while identi-fying methods of coping with feelings of stress and anx-iety. The cost of the group is $25 per session, with an in-itial screening fee of $50. For more information, or to set up a Screening, please call 201-837-9090.

BeCounted4Israel [email protected] & [email protected]

THANK YOU TO SCARLETT JOHANSSONInformation from: www.standwithus.com, www.

aipac.org, & www.honestreporting.comTEXT TO USE AS IS OR ADAPT: I applaud you, Scar-

lett Johansson, for your courage in resigning as global ambassador from Oxfam International and rejecting the demands to boycott Soda Stream. This Israeli company over the Green Line serves as a model of Israeli-Palestin-ian cooperation, employing more than 900 Palestinians who earn the same wages and enjoy the same benefi ts as Israeli Arabs and Jews. Hopefully, your actions will in-spire others to follow your example and resist pressure from the anti-Israel boycotters whose real goal is to iso-late, defame, and destroy Israel as a Jewish state. I wish you continued success in your career. (Your signature.)

CONTACT: [email protected] (appar-ently, her publicist


Call Paul (516) 284-9271Or Fax (516) 596-6661

WANTED FOR

Men's Clothing Store In Monsey

Must Be Experienced In Menswear

Full Time/Part Time

Retail Sales and Management StaffCOMMERCIAL INSURANCE AGENCY

HIRING EXPERIENCED INSURANCE

PRODUCERS TO HANDLE INBOUND SALES.

NICE SALARY + COMMISSION.

ALL LEADS ARE PROVIDED BY AGENCY.

GREAT ENVIRONMENT.

EMAIL RESUME TO:

[email protected]

COMMUNITY CALENDAR MARCH 6TH

SHABBAT MARCH 7 – 8TH

Scholar in Residence, Rabbi Avishai

David, Congregation Rinat Yisrael,

389 W Englewood Ave, Teaneck

Rabbi David heads Yeshivat Torat Shraga in Bayit Vegan and is the Rabbi of Beit Medrash Torani Leumi in Bet Shemesh. He is the author of “Dorosh Darash Yosef” a sefer on the weekly parsha based on the shiurum of Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik

Scholar in Residence, Rabbi Hayyim

Angel, Congregation Shaarei Orah,

1425 Essex Road, Teaneck

Rabbi Angel will speak many times over Shabbat. He is the National Scholar of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals. As well he teaches at Yeshiva University. He has published over 100 scholarly articles, primarily in Tanach, and is the author or editor of eleven books.For further information contact 201 833 0800 or offi [email protected].

MOTZEI SHABBAT

MARCH 8TH

Community Wide Adar Concert

8:30PM Cong Ahavath Torah 240

Broad Avenue, Englewood

EDON PINCHOT in concert preceded by winners of CAT Youth Open Mic Night, Hyatt Aronoff , Sam Goldberg and Kira

Solomon. Food and drink available for purchase through Noah’s Ark. Tickets available at the door $20 per person. For further information contact the CAT offi ce at 201-568-1315.

Paint Night and Wine Tasting Melave

Malke 8:30PM

Proceeds to Chesed 24/7 which provides hospitality and bikur cholim rooms in Bergen County hospitals. Taking place at a private home in Monsey. [email protected] or [email protected] GABAY MARBIM B’SIMCHA TOUR ASHAR, 360 New Hempstead Road, New City Sponsored by Adolph Schreiber Hebrew Academy of Monsey. For tickets https://www.JewishTickets.com

Ma’ayanot High School for Girls

Annual Scholarship Dinner,

Congregation Keter Torah 600

Roemer Avenue, Teaneck

Honoring Mark and Bracha Bluman with Keter Shem Tov Award, Ernie and Sallie Levi as Parents of the Year and Abbie Rabin with the Faculty Appreciation Award. For further information contact Pam Ennis at 201-833-4307 ext 265.

SUNDAY, MARCH 9TH

PURIM CARNIVAL 10:30AM – 1:00PM

Cong Shomrei Torah, 19-10 Marlot

Avenue, Fairlawn

$10.00 per child (adults free) additional cost of $5 for a dairy lunch including pizza, pasta, bagels, ice cream and more. Carnival games, magician, clown, face painting, spin art, three giant moon bounces and more. Dedicated in memory of Josh Bender. Contact carol at [email protected].

Chevra Kadisha Seudah 6:25PM Young Israel of Teaneck 1021 Warren Pkwy Teaneck Mens and Women’s Chevra Kadisha seudah on the Yahrzeit of Moshe Rabbeinu following davening. Membership in the Chevra Kadisha is not required. Cost of the seudah is $13 per person. Checks to be returned to Bnai Yeshurun offi ce at 641 W Englewood Avenue, Teaneck 07666 and reservations necessary.

8:00PM Eric Brown Theatre, Kaplan

JCC on the Palisades 411 East Clinton

Ave, Tenafl y

Rebecca Teplow, composer and singer will perform and sing songs from her two albums, “Tefi llot/Prayers” and “Kahveh/Hope” which are available on iTunes and

CDBaby.com

THURSDAY, MARCH 13TH

Thursdays, 9:30 – 10:30PM Beis

Medrash of Bergenfi eld(MBOB) 371

South Prospect Ave Bergenfi eld

Heichal HaTorah is pleased to present a new Chaburah given by Rabbi Pesach Skulnick, Senior Ram. There will be a Hachana Seder for those interested from 8:30 PM - 9:15 PM, Maariv will be at 9:15 PM and the Chaburah. For further information email [email protected]

MONDAY, MARCH 17TH

New Beginnings, 1:30PM Cong Beth

Sholom, 354 Maitland Ave, Teaneck

Dr Phil Yucht, a guitar player and singer will lead the audience on an autobiographical musical journey of his multi-faceted life. For the fi rst time New Beginnings will be joining with Teaneck-Hadassah . The program is free and sponsored by the Heilbronner Family, whose father, the late Kurt Heilbronner was a past president of the Jewish Center of Teaneck. For further information contact Aviva at 201 837-3791 or the Center at 201-833-0515 ext 200.

TUESDAY, MARCH 18TH

Yeshivat Noam’s Parent Education

Committee sponsors a weekly shiur

9:45 – 10:30 AM Yeshivat Noam, 70

West Century Road, Paramus

“Prophetesses, Queens and Villains: Exploring Women in Tanach,” taught by Aliza Weinberg, 8th grade Tanach Enrichment Coordinator.Paramus, NJ. The weekly shiur has been generously sponsored by an anonymous donor and is free of charge.

Yeshivat Noam Annual Dinner

Congregation Keter Torah, 600

Roemer Avenue, Teaneck

Honoring Becky and Avi Katz, Renee and Murray Schneier and Mrs Linda Stock. For further information contact [email protected].

FREE NATIONAL TELECONFERENCE

AND WEBINAR 8:00PM

Health Care Reform: How Does It

Aff ect Me?

Sharsheret invites everyone to register at [email protected] or call 866-474-2774 to learn more about how the new Aff ordable Care Act presents opportunities and challenges for all Jewish women and families facing serious illness. Questions can be asked during a live session following the presentation.

CHESED OPPORTUNITIES

Old Pair of Tefi llin??

Yad Eliezer will restore and give to underprivileged Bar Mitzvah boys in Israel. Please call 201-692-1157 or email [email protected]

1st - 5TH Grader who needs help

with homework???

Through the Pay-It-Forward program, the students of Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls are happy to provide free tutoring for your 1st - 5th grader. Sessions, which take place at Ma’ayanot (1650 Palisade Avenue, Teaneck), meet every Wednesday at 4:40 PM - 5:30 PM from now through May 28th (except for 3/19, 3/26, 4/16, 4/23, 5/21). Please contact Mrs. Ivy Weiner at [email protected] or 201-833-4307, ext. 237 for more information.

BERGEN JEWISH SPECIAL NEEDS

Have a child with a problem and want some direction? Contact Susan Berger at [email protected]

Care One – desperately needs help

in forming a minyan.

A kosher rehabilitation and nursing center located at 544 Teaneck Road, 4 blocks south of Holy Name Hospital, is in need of volunteers to maintain continuity of its Shabbos and weekday minyanim, which its residents look forward to each week. This is a wonderful chesed opportunity that can be combined with the mitzva of Bikur Cholim. Questions, or to volunteer to daven, lain, give a d’var Torah, etc., call Rabbi Siev at (201) 287-8519 or email to [email protected]

Sharona Nagler Care One visitation

program is a Bnai Yeshurun program reaching out to volunteers to commit at least once a month (or more if preferred) to visit people staying in Care One. Contact Arianne Weinberger at [email protected], Ari Wartelsky at [email protected] or Alana Green at [email protected] for further information.

Tomchei Shabbos of Bergen County

In need of volunteers to pack and deliver. Please contact [email protected] for further information.

Jewish Family Service of North Jersey, located in Fair Lawn, is in need of volunteers who can deliver kosher meals to homebound and disabled people living in Fair Lawn. Meal deliveries are made Mondays thru Fridays, between 11:30

am and 12:00 noon. Substitute drivers for any weekday are needed, as well as volunteers who can commit to driving once a week on a regular basis.Please call Francine Cuff @201-796-5151 if you are interested in volunteering.

Bikkur Cholim of Passaic- Clifton helps provide rides for Cholim and frail residents to medical appointments. Rides are available to local Passaic and Clifton destinations as well as to Hackensack, Englewood, Manhattan and other medical canters as necessary. For more information or to volunteer contact the Bikkur Cholim at 973-249-8811.

Bikur Cholim of Teaneck is looking for volunteers to visit the Jewish patients at Holy Name Hospital on a daily basis and Shabbosim. Volunteers must be 16 years

or older to visit the hospital on their own. For more information or to volunteer please call the Bikur Cholim at 201-836-4950.

Shearit HaPlate of Bergen County, Inc. is our area’s only kosher food rescue organization that collects prepared food leftover from local caterers and restaurants, and then repackages and distributes it to those that can benefi t in a respectful way that helps ensure the recipient’s privacy and self-esteem. To Become a Recipient: If you or someone you know would like to be notifi ed when food is available, please respond to this email. The information will be kept confi dential within the organization, and no qualifying questions are asked. [email protected] [email protected]




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Sun - Mon: 7am - 6pm | Tue: 7am - 7pm

Wed - Thu: 7am - 9pm | Fri: 7am - 3:30pm

From creative Misloach Manot to delicious meats

for the Seudah, Glatt Express is stocked for Purim!

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