Vol. 1 No. 10 June 1, 2012 - 11 Sivan, 5772 Free Queens’ new cutting-edge medical treatment See Page 30 Connecting the Queens Jewish Community Distributed every other week Words of wisdom with R’ Fabian Schonfeld See Page 54 55 Yeshiva Tifereth Moshe 55th annual dinner to be held this Tuesday See Page 70 Rabbi Yonason Sacks appointed Rosh HaYeshiva at Lander College for Men See Page 65 Friday, June 1: Light Candles: 8:03 Shabbos Ends: 9:11 Friday, June 8: Light Candles: 8:07 Shabbos Ends: 9:15 SEE OUR AD ON PAGE 5 See Page 40 See Our Ad on Page 9 Mayer Gold of Seasons provides a unique and rewarding shopping experience See Page 41 See Our Ad on Page 44-45 on page 16 A CONVERSATION WITH GEORGE MARAGOS RePubliCan ChallengeR to Sen. gillibRanD FoR u.S. Senate A SinAi ExpERiEnCE BEFoRE SHAvuoS JEwS From ALL ovEr GAthEr In QuEEnS For mASSIvE ASIFA See page 48 see ad/article on pages 12/78 See page 56
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THE LANDER COLLEGE FOR MEN - BEIS MEDRASH L’TALMUD
is proud to announce the appointment of
סיני ועוקר הריםדבריו מעולפים בספירים
המוכתר בכתר התורה ובכל מדה נכונה
מודעה רבה לאורייתא
מוה''ר Rabbi Yonason Sacks שליט''א
as Rosh HaYeshiva of Beis Medrash L’Talmud
Lander College for Men - Beis Medrash L’Talmud 75-31 150th Street
Kew Garden Hills, NY 11367 718-820-4884 | http://www.touro.edu/lcm
ברוך הבא בשם ה'
Rabbi Sacks, a descendant of a long line of illustrious rabbinic figures, is a revered talmudic scholar, posek and gifted magid shiur, having served for over a quarter of a century as an eminent Rosh Yeshiva and Rebbe. He has led Agudas Yisroel
of Passaic for 18 years and is the author of numerous sefarim. Rabbi Sacks is a renowned talmid chacham and a
respected manhig b’Yisrael.
We welcome his leadership of our outstanding rabbinic faculty of Lander College for Men - Beis Medrash L’Talmud.
Rabbi Sacks will join בית מדרש לתלמוד in Elul 5772-2012.
Petition to Free PollardI have written a petition on a website that calls for the release of Jonathan Pollard from prison. I have consulted with Pol-lard’s lawyer and he said that there must be more activism on Pollards behalf in the Jewish and political communities if we want the President to care enough to re-lease him. There is power in numbers and so I have written this petition that I plan on sending to the White House.Dear Mr. President,As proud American citizens, we feel truly privileged to live in this great land of lib-erty, equality and opportunity for all. One of the many benefits of the United States is our great government in general and our extraordinary judicial system in particular. It is comforting for Americans to know that no matter how heinous a crime committed, all Americans are entitled to honest and fair judgment and punishment. Nothing can take this right away, no matter who the per-son or what the crime. It is with this perspective that I write this letter. Jonathan Pollard is one American citizen who has been failed by the Ameri-can judicial system and government. Pol-lard was a former US Navy Intelligence Analyst who for idealistic reasons gave classified information to Israel, an Ameri-can ally. The information did not harm America and his intentions were not to harm America. He admitted his crime, ex-pressed heartfelt remorse, and came to an agreement with the government, an agree-ment that was not upheld on the govern-ment’s end. Rather, Pollard was sentenced to a life in prison. The average sentence for his crime is 2-4 years. In fact, no one in U.S. history has served more than 14 years for a similar crime. Many top US officials who have seen his file agree that his pun-ishment is excessive and clemency would be appropriate. After more than 26 years in prison, enough is enough. Pollard was denied the opportunity to visit with his dy-ing father, and he was even denied the op-portunity of attending his father’s funeral. Pollard’s wife has suffered from cancer without the support of her loving husband. Furthermore, Pollard himself has failing health that is only being aggravated fur-ther by harsh prison conditions. The time has come for America to right this wrong. Mr. President, we urge you to do the right thing. Release Mr. Pollard from prison on humanitarian grounds. There is no reason to keep this man from suffering further at the hands of America. Nothing is being accomplished by forcing him to rot away in prison. Keeping Pollard in prison for a moment longer is an embarrassment and a mockery to the American Judicial system. Release Pollard now!For more information about the case, visit www.jonathanpollard.org.
Yael Fischman
...and what was accomPlished?
Millions of dollars were spent on Sunday,
Yom Yerushalyim, on a gathering of “al-most” right thinking Jews to discuss what was to been done about safely using the internet, a fact of progress that we all must learn how to use and live with.Was there any progress in learning what to do, or how to use it that we didn’t know before?There are filters that have always been in place if you didn’t want to receive cer-tain sites. And yes, all electronic devices have an off button that can be used in an emergency when some offensive material comes our way.So what was accomplished beside a group of our people stating that they know what’s good for us, spending a vast amount of money that could be used in areas like chi-nuch, feeding the hungry among us, aiding community issues, etc.?Showing the world that we still have a large contingent of people who live in an-other world and timeframe than today as shown by not allowing women to attend the event at the stadium and covering the graphic of a woman, completely and mod-estly dressed, that appears on two bill-boards on the field. This seems to be the outcome.
I really feel that the company that makes Cholula hot sauce should be compensated for interfering with an ad they pay for to be seen.All in all, good idea, bad show!
larry levine
GrateFul For the GatherinG
I would firstly like to applaud your paper for a job well done; I have seen it grow leaps and bounds. It is truly a wonderful addition to our ever-growing community.I would like to comment on the recent asi-fa that took place in our own backyard at Citifield, which I was fortunate enough to attend. The gathering had a profound im-pact on both my family and myself. While some people have doubted its effect, the message of the asifa has encouraged my office to add filters to the computers and to get rid of the Internet from my home, which I realized wasn’t really needed. I would like to give a big thank you to ev-eryone involved in organizing this event and I look forward to many other asifas.
a grateful Queens resident
don’t rain on mY Parade Who doesn’t love being part of the Israel Day Parade in Manhattan? Usually it’s a glorious Sunday, bringing out lots of young people, families blessed with little
children, many in baby carriages, and ag-ing people, young at heart, with carefree spirits, all experiencing the magic and ro-mance of the day. What excitement and pride in seeing the floats and marching bands go by and meeting up with people whom we haven’t seen in years. These very special moments release a surge of love for the very special place we call Israel.On behalf of the Committee for a PRO Israel Parade I called many sponsors and participants of the Parade and explained to them that we are upset the NIF has been allowed to march since NIF is an umbrella organization that provides grants to Israeli NGO’s like B’Tselem, who promote boy-cotting of Israeli products and promote Palestinian Rights, not Jewish Rights. We, the Committee for a PRO Israel Pa-rade, understand that the Parade wishes to have a large Tent or Umbrella under which many different groups can march. We too are supportive of this. However, we all share a common denominator in that we love Israel and want the best for Israel. Even a tent has boundaries, and there is some fine line that cannot be crossed in regard to who is invited to sit in our tent. Those who wish to destroy our home should not be invited or welcome to our tent unless of course, we don’t mind replacing our home with our tent. It is becoming very clear that the JCRC is going ahead with allowing the NIF to march in our Parade. While the JCRC runs the Pa-rade, the UJA-Federation has effective con-trol over the JCRC, as they appoint Board members as a right and contribute the major portion of JCRC funding. Richard Allen, a member of the Committee for a Pro-Israel Parade and founder of JCCWatch.org stated: “It is not surprising that the UJA-Federation is pushing these bash Israel groups to march in the June 3, 2012 Israel Parade. Published reports show that the UJA-Federation’s Chief Executive Officer, John Ruskay, worked with Noam Chomsky in one of the first political bash Israel groups; CONAME (Committee On New Alternatives in The Middle East). The reports stated the group CONAME specialized in attacking Israel. John Ruskay also gave over $1,000,000 of UJA-Federation Jewish Charity Dollars to the political George Soros funded group, Jewish Funds for Justice. So while deep down the JCRC might not want the NIF to march in the Israel Pa-rade, they most probably feel they have no choice in the matter. In fact, almost all the participants that we called, directors, presi-dents, principals, and secretaries, expressed agreement and sympathized with us that the NIF has no place marching in the Is-rael Parade. However, they did not want to say something that would be perceived as a “political statement.” Wasn’t that part of their agreement that had to be signed in or-der to be a participant of the Parade? So it looks like our campaign to stop NIF from marching will not succeed. Those who would like NIF to march are winning this battle. We do not control the purse strings. We do not have such leverage. Let no one be fooled by altruistic justifi-cation for allowing NIF to march based on the organizers’ desire to include “all kinds” of groups under their tent. We are not fooled by the hypocritical claim to be apolitical. No one makes stronger political statements then the voice of the NIF when they choose their grantees.
robin ticker
seekinG the truthUpon returning from a three-week visit to Israel I was shocked to read the opin-ion piece by columnist Asher Taub, titled “Rory Lancman?” Taub’s article contained factual inaccuracies. One example is the statement that Assemblyman Lancman is against tuition tax credits. False. A look at Rory’s record shows that he has sup-ported not only tuition tax credits, but has also voted for mandated services and TAP funding for yeshiva students. His own children attend day school, so Rory under-stands the cost and value of Jewish edu-cation for his family. It is commendable that the QJL allows for the expression of differing opinions and more commendable that they refuse to continue to expose their readership to misrepresentation of facts in-tertwined with one man’s opinion. Sy Syms says, “An educated consumer is our best customer.” Elected officials should say, “An educated voter is the best citizen.” We must think for ourselves and have enough self-confidence to make our own decisions.I urge all registered Democrats to attend as many candidates’ nights as possible. Ques-tion the candidates directly, listen carefully to them and choose the best qualified per-son to represent you in the United States Congress. Every vote counts.
Jan Fenster, Queens Jewish community activist
israel “a distraction”? Given the extraordinary threat that Israel faces from her neighbors, we were shocked to read in the New York Times this week that one of the candidates for New York’s 6th Congressional District, Council Mem-ber Elizabeth Crowley, called Israel “a dis-traction.” This is a wake-up call to all voters in Queens who value our country’s relation-ship with Israel that despite the Iranian nuclear threat, the growing Islamist move-ment in Egypt, the virtual civil war in Syr-ia and the continuous rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel, there are still some seek-ing federal office who do not take threats to Israel seriously.This flippant attitude towards Israel’s safety and security shows that certain candidates in Queens are simply not fit for the responsibilities of national office. We need someone in Congress who truly understands the threat faced by Israel and the United States, and who has the record to back it up. We’ve endorsed Rory in his campaign for the 6th District, because he is the only candidate, in our minds, who will deliver for Israel and the Jewish com-munity in Congress.
steve orlow, Former New York City Councilmaneli hertz, Author of Myths and Facts
Want to make yourself heard? The QJL welcomes letters to the edi-tor. Share your thoughts, concerns, and topics of interest with the com-munity that meets in the pages of the QJL. Please note the views ex-pressed in these letters are the opin-ions of the authors and not necessar-ily the views of the QJL.
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8-Day ForecastContents
Your Say .....................................8Stories of Greatness .................11A Shabbat Thought ...................13The Shmuz ................................15Shabbos Inbox ..........................17Shrinking It ..............................18Kashrus Kurrents .....................19Branded For Life .......................21This Week in History .................22Never Look Back .......................23TMS ..........................................30News .........................................33Real Estate ...............................41At a Glance ...............................43Asifa Feature ............................48Asifa Thoughts ..........................51As I See It .................................52Neighborhood Notables .............54Frontlines .................................55Penning Political ......................56Financially Forward ..................58Business Halacha .....................59Community Corner ...................64Bedtime Stories ........................73Debbie & Ezri ............................73The Fun Side .............................74Feelin’ Funny ............................76Parenting Simply ......................82The Informed Woman ...............85Fascinating 5 ............................87Minyan List ...............................88Classifieds ................................89
Stories of GreatnessThe Medrash tells us in this week’s parsha that with Hashem’s blessing, comes a very special (Divine) protec-tion. What is the definition of Hash-gacha Pratis - Personal Divine Inter-vention? A man was once the guest of honor at a charity function and he related the following true story:
I was walking down a dimly lit street late one evening when I heard muffled screams coming from behind a clump of bushes. Alarmed, I slowed down to listen and at once stopped in my tracks. It was then that I panicked when I re-alized that what I was hearing were the unmistakable sounds of a struggle: heavy grunting, frantic scuffling and a person being thrown to the ground. Then I saw it. Only mere yards from where I stood, a woman was being at-
tacked. My first thought was, “Should I get involved?” I was frightened for my own safety and rebuked myself for having suddenly decided to take a new route home from shul that night. What if I got involved and ended up in the hospital, or worse: what if I became another statistic? Maybe I should just run to the nearest phone and call the police? Although it seemed an eterni-ty – the deliberations in my head had taken only seconds – but already the cries were growing weaker. I knew I had to act fast. How could I walk away from this? No, I finally resolved, I could not turn my back on the fate of this damsel in distress, even if it meant risking my own life.
I must confess, I am not a brave man, nor am I athletic. I don't know where I found the courage and physical strength, but once I had finally
resolved to help the girl, I became strangely transformed. I ran behind the bushes and pulled the assailant away from the woman. Grappling, we fell to the ground, where we wrestled for a few minutes until the attacker jumped up and hastily ran away.
Panting hard, I scrambled upright and tried to relax my incessantly pounding heart. After a moment, I approached the young lady, who was crouched behind a tree, sobbing. In the darkness, I could barely see her outline, but I could certainly sense her trembling shock.
Not wanting to frighten her further, I at first spoke to her from a distance. “It’s okay,” I said soothingly, “The man ran away. You’re safe now.”
There was a long pause and then I heard the words, uttered in wonder, in amazement. “Father, is that you?” And then, from behind the tree, like an apparition, stepped my youngest daughter.
Rabbi Hoffman is the author of the popular “Torah Tavlin” book series, filled with stories, wit and hundreds of divrei Torah, including the “Torah Tavlin Haggadah shel Pesach” and “Likutei Torah Tavlin” in Herbrew. You’ll love this popular series. Also look for his book, “Heroes of Spirit,” containing one hundred fascinating stories on the Holocaust. They are fantastic gifts, available in all Juda-ica bookstores and online at: http://israelbookshoppublications.com. To receive Rabbi Hoffman’s weekly “Torah Tavlin” sheet on the parsha, e-mail [email protected].
What if I got involved and ended up in the hospital, or worse:
“But if you will not listen to Me and will not perform all of these com-mandments; And if you despise My decrees and your souls reject My ordi-nances so that all My commandments be not fulfilled thus breaking My cove-nant…” (Vayikra 26:14 and 15)
Our parasha deals with the subject of the Tochacha, the Admonition. The basic theme is that if we follow the in-structions of the Creator and observe His commandments we will have peace and success. On the other hand, should we ignore His directives and conduct ourselves in rebellious ways, we will suffer dire consequences both as individuals and as a nation. The lat-ter is introduced by two verses that at first sight appear redundant. Disobey-ing the laws, not hearkening and not observing the commandments would be a sufficient description of the phe-nomenon of apostasy and rebellion. Why there is a second verse immedi-ately following that describes essen-tially the same phenomenon with a more emphatic tone, i.e. “despise My laws”? Moreover, why is the lack of observance presented as a “despising” of the laws? Would it not be enough to describe objectively the abandonment of the laws?
The Midrash Sifra quoted by Rashi finds in these verses a progression of seven sins, each leading to the next, starting from the failure to study the Torah and ending with the denying the existence of G-d. This series of seven offences corresponds to the sev-en series of punishments that follow. This explains the connection between these two verses. The failure to learn Torah leads inevitably to carelessness in the performance of mitzvoth. The next transition is harder to understand. Why does the lack of observance of the commandments lead to their being regarded as loathsome and contempt-ible? Why is there scorn in the man who lacks faith?
The answer is found on a deep psy-chological insight in the Midrash. When one rejects a good idea or abandons a noble practice, one‘s con-science does not allow the person to rest and a feeling of shame or guilt invades the mind. The solution to this situation is to develop a theory or sys-tem, through logic or sophistry— that will regard the rejected idea or cus-tom as being passé, ridiculous and detestable. It is not enough for him to adopt a new concept or embrace a new formulation of morality; one has to reject the old one with force and intensity. Thus, the old idea must be
considered to be terrible and loath-some. The vehemence of the denial attests to the feelings of guilt inside. This is the basic concept of a “defense mechanism,” whereby a person cov-ers up true feelings and is unable to recognize the reality around him.
Freud once asked someone a ques-tion about a personal delicate matter and the person responded, “No, no, no” – to which Freud replied, “One ‘no’ would have been enough.” The psychiatrist perceived in the inten-sity of the response that the person was hiding some feelings of shame or guilt and perhaps feeling the oppo-site of what he was saying. Similarly, we find a story about Rav Chaim of Volozhin who had a student who had abandoned the yeshiva and ceased observing mitzvoth. On a visit to his rabbi, the student told the rabbi that he had many troubling questions of faith. Rav Chaim asked him, “Did these questions appear to you before you stopped being observant or only afterwards?” The student answered that these were questions that had sur-faced after he had abandoned the reli-gion. “In that case,” said Rav Chaim, “your questions are not really ques-tions; they are answers, and for an-swers I have no answers.” When peo-ple stray from a path of righteousness they are tortured by their conscience and the only remedy is to put down the old theory. It is not enough to em-brace the new; they need to tear down the old. The defense mechanism is a way of lying to ourselves in order to ward off truths that are too painful to bear or emotions that cause us agony. That is why the person will protest too much or too strongly or he will, as the student in the story, develop many questions, doubts and criticisms that did not turn up before. Nobody wants to feel they’re doing something wrong, therefore the vehemence of the denial and the intensity of the cri-tique. As Shakespeare writes about such people, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks” (Hamlet, Act III, scene II). When someone insists so passionately about something not being true we may suspect that he is covering up something, including the fact that he is not confident that he is correct in his rejection or denial.
On the emotional interpersonal level we find a parallel phenomenon. Indig-nation, for instance, is another form of disguising shame. People who are constantly criticizing others and feel-ing indignant about the ways people treat them are probably suffering from
a deep-seated feeling of shame and un-worthiness. The alternative to defense mechanisms is to experience pain and that is why we spend so much energy cultivating and maintaining our per-sonal defense mechanisms.
In our world we find many people who, even after receiving a Torah ed-ucation and upbringing, rejected their traditional ways and have gone astray. Yet, they are often disparaging of the Torah and the wisdom of its com-mandments with a vehemence that betrays a deep-seated insecurity about their new positions. Deep down they feel that there may be a truth in the Torah they discarded and now they need to justify their actions with scorn and disdain. Victims of the Holocaust who lost their faith always explain their position by saying that if there was G-d, how come He did not save them? Their resentment stems from a basic anger at G-d, which can only exist if there is a G-d. Otherwise, who are they angry at? In a similar fashion, those who reject the commandments and question with fervency the wis-dom or validity of the principles of To-
rah suffer from a disconnect between their outwardly expressed views and their true feelings within.
The insight of the Torah is that once you abandon the Torah you need to justify yourself at all costs and find ways to transform decline into ad-vancement, defect into progress, and abandonment into evolvement. Lan-guage and logic are then used as ve-hicles to assuage the conscience until the arguments end up in a theory that scorns and despises ancient truths and elementary moral principles. The opprobrium upon the Torah, as the proverbial vehement protest, hides a troubled soul and an uncomfortable conscience. The remedy to this spir-itual ailment is to return to the first cause: the neglect of the study of To-rah. By immersing oneself in study with an open mind, one may discover the basic truths that bring us serenity and meaning in our lives.
Rabbi Algaze is the founder and Rav of Havurat Yisrael, Forest Hills. He is a noted public speaker and author and is the President of the World Commit-tee for the Land of Israel.
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..And on the eighth day you shall circum-cise the fl esh of the Arlah..
Th e Jew has a distinct role amongst the nations Th e Sefer HaChinuch explains that Hashem separated the Jewish people from all the nations. We were given a distinct role in this world. Our lives and everything we do should be diff erent than any other people. To remind us of this, Hashem gave us a sign, a permanent reminder of our uniqueness – the Mitzvah of Milah. A change in our bodies shows that just as the body of the Jew is diff erent than that of a Gentile, so too is our soul. By all rights, the Jewish baby should have been born already circumcised, as this would have more clearly shown that the Jew is unique amongst the peoples. However, there is a second lesson that Hashem wanted to impart to us. Just like a person can take his body and perma-nently change it, so too, a person can change his very essence – his Nishoma. Th erefore, rather than creating the Jew circumcised at birth, Hashem gave us this Mitzvah to perform.
Question on the Sefer HaChinuch If Hashem wanted us to know that we are a nation apart from any other nation, wouldn’t that diff erence have been more clearly shown had the very genetic material of the Jewish person been diff erent? Th e Chinese are clearly distinct from the Occidental. Th e skin colors of various peoples show them as distinct races. Had the Jew been born circumcised, the entire world would have known that this people is set apart. Th roughout the millennium, every per-son would have clearly seen that the Jews are unique. From birth they were diff erent, so their very essence is diff er-ent. Yet that diff erence has now been lost. Any human can circumcise him-self; in fact, many do. Wouldn’t it have been a far more powerful lesson for us as a nation to know that we are diff erent because we were born that way?
A leopard can’t change its spots Th e answer to this question is based
on one of the greatest shortcomings of man – self-limiting beliefs. Oft en, a
person will fi nd himself thinking, “I am what I am. Th is is my nature, and there is nothing that I can do about it. Grant-ed, I may not be happy with the way that I act, granted I may wish that I were dif-
ferent, but what can I do? Th is is who I am.” Such thoughts become self-fulfi lling. If I sincerely believe I can’t change, then in fact I will not be able to. I won’t seek out the methods of change, I won’t have the motivation necessary to change, and the reality will be that I cannot change. Th is single concept can be the most damaging idea that ever crosses a per-son’s mind. We were created to change Th e Gra writes, “If not for changing one’s character traits, what is the pur-pose of life?” Change isn’t part of the Torah - it is the focal point of all of our Avodas Hashem. Th e reason we were put on this planet is to grow. All of the Mitz-vahs and beliefs focus on growth. But growth means taking who I am now and changing it. Taking myself from where I am, and willfully, purposefully chang-ing me. Whether it is in character traits, beliefs, trust, or honesty – whether it is in more clearly seeing Hashem or treat-
ing people with greater respect – every part of what the Torah demands of me is
about change. If a person were locked into the idea that he cannot change, then in fact he wouldn’t be able to. To such a person, the Torah has no relevance.
Th e answer to the question on the Sefer HaChinuch seems to be that this concept of man’s ability to change is so central to being Jewish that it warranted giving up another essential lesson. It is
true that had Jews been born circum-cised, it would have taught us that just as our body is diff erent, so too is our soul. Th at concept would have aided us in recognizing our mission in creation. However, the concept that “I can change the essence of who I am” is far more cen-tral to being a practicing Jew, and there-fore came at the expense of the weaken-ing the fi rst lesson.
Th e purpose of life is to change Th is idea has great relevance to ev-erything that we do. We oft en fi nd our-selves mired in thoughts that limit our ability to grow. “Th at’s just the way I am. What can I do? I didn’t choose to be born stubborn, or hot tempered, or selfi sh or arrogant. Ask my Creator why He made me this way.” While it is true that each individual was created with a diff erent nature and temperament, and it may well be that one person has a greater tendency to-wards anger, jealousy, or arrogance, the entire focus of our lives is supposed to be towards changing our natures. However, to do that, we must clearly see change as possible, as something within our ca-pacity. For that reason, Hashem gave us the Mitzvah of Milah to perform so that we can have a permanent reminder of our ability to change.
A Leopard Can’t Change its Spots - But a Man Can
Serving & Giving Back To The Community Since 1983
Parshas ShiminiBy R’ Benzion Shafi er
If I sincerely believe I can’t change, then in fact I will not be able to
The human is incapable of doing something wrong. The only way he can do something wrong
is by making it right
I Never Do Anything Wrongby R’ Benzion Shafier
The Parsha of SotahThe Torah describes the details of a So-tah: If a woman acts in a manner that causes her husband to suspect her of infidelity, he should warn her not to go into seclusion with that other man. If she violates this warning, then the hus-band is to take her to the Kohain. The Kohain will give her the “bitter waters” to drink. If she was unfaithful, she will instantly die. If she was not unfaithful, she will be redeemed and blessed.
When the Torah lays out the details, it uses an unusual expression: “If a man will ‘tistheh’ his wife.” The word “tishteh” comes from the root “sho-teh,” which means insanity. As if to say, if a man will accuse his wife of insanity. Rashi is troubled by the use of this expression. He explains based on the Gemarah, adulterers do not sin until a wave of insanity enters them. The Siftei Chachmim explains this to mean, “Until their Yetzer Harah teach-es them it is permitted.”
It seems clear from the Siftei Chachmim that the modus operandi of the Yetzer Harah is to convince the po-tential sinners that the act that tempts them is permitted. Only when he suc-ceeds — and they are convinced — will they then transgress.
This statement — people only sin when they are convinced that it is per-mitted — seems difficult to under-stand. If we are dealing with a pious, proper Jewish woman who got into a bad situation, she knows that the act that she wants to commit is forbidden. How can the Yetzer Harah teach her that it is permitted? On the other hand, if the Torah is be speaking about the opposite extreme - a woman who has gone off the path and just doesn’t care - why does she need the Yetzer Har-ah to tell her it is permitted? She just doesn’t care.
So on both sides of the spectrum, the Yetzer Harah either should not be able to convince the person that it is permit-ted, or shouldn’t need to convince them.
I never do anything wrongThe answer to this question is based on understanding one of the most consis-tent quirks of human nature: “I never do anything wrong.” Whether dealing with sophisticated adults or school-children, Supreme Court justices or convicted felons, the human seems never to do anything wrong. Wardens will tell you that their jails are filled with self-proclaimed innocent men. Criminals aren’t wrong. Villains aren’t wrong. Murderers aren’t wrong. You won’t find a gangster proclaiming, “Yes, it is evil to murder and pillage, but what can I do? I am weak and give
into my desires.” Instead, you will hear an entire belief system explaining that his approach is actually better for society and the world.
The question is, why? Why can’t man just utter the words, “it is wrong to steal, but I want to do it anyway”?
The inner workings of the humanThe reason for this has to do with the inner working of the human. Hashem created man out of two distinct parts. One is comprised all of the drives and passions found in the animal kingdom; it is simply base instincts and desires. The other part of man is pure intellect: holy, good and giving. That part of me wishes to be generous and noble and
only aspires for that which is good.
Because this part of me is made up of pure intellect and wisdom, it would never allow me to sin. It sees the results too clearly. It understands that all of Hashem’s commandments are for my good and that every sin damages me. Because of this crystal clear insight, the human would not have free will to sin. In theory, he could be tempted to sin, but he would never actually come to the act – it would be akin to sticking his hand in a fire. In theory he could do it, but it would never happen - it is dumb. So if Hashem created man with just these two parts, man would not have free will in a practical sense.
To allow man to be tempted, thereby to choose his course and be rewarded for his proper choices, Hashem put an-other component in man: imagination - the creative ability to form a mental picture and feel it as vividly as if it were real. Armed with an imagination, man can create fanciful worlds at his will and actually believe them. If man wishes to turn to evil, he can create rationales to make these ways sound noble and proper - and fool himself at least. If he wishes, he can do what is right, or if he wishes, he can turn to wickedness. Even his brilliant intellect won’t prevent him. He is capable of creating entire worldviews that explain how the behavior he desires is righ-teous, correct, and appropriate. Now man has free will.
The answer to the Rashi is on two levels. First off, we see the power of rationalizing. Even a fully mature, pi-ous woman who grew up in the best of homes can be convinced, on some lev-el, that illicit relations are permitted. The Yetzer Harah will use her imag-
ination and create clever and creative ways to explain that black is white, in is out, and immoral relations are per-mitted. As ridiculous as it sounds, that is the power given to the Yetzer Harah.
The second idea is that even the wom-an who seems to be off the derech and wouldn’t need an excuse – really does. No human can ever do something that is wrong. Because of the greatness of her soul and the truth she knows deep down inside, she understands that for a married woman to go to another man is forbidden. The only way that she can perpetrate this act is if she has a ratio-nal way of explaining how in fact it is permitted. The human is incapable of doing something wrong. The only way
he can do something wrong is by mak-ing it right.
There are two major concepts that we see in this Rashi. First, we see the greatness of the human. Without this superimposed force called imagina-
tion, man’s soul is so great that he couldn’t possibly sin. Second, because of the greatness of man’s soul, to al-low for free will, Hashem created this force that allows man to believe ex-actly what he wants to. So now even the very pious woman can be deluded into thinking the impossible: immoral relations are permitted. The power of her imagination is such that the Yetzer Harah can paint a picture that makes the forbidden permitted. And so, while we see the greatness of man, we also see how susceptible we are to being duped into believing whatever we wish to believe.
Born and bred in Kew Gardens Hills, R’ Benzion Shafier joined the Chof-tez Chaim Yeshiva after high school. After getting married, he moved with his new family Rochester, where he remained in for 12 years. R’ Shafier then moved to Monsey, where he was a Rebbe in the new Chofetz Chaim branch for three years. Upon the Rosh Yeshiva’s request, he stopped teaching to devote his time to run-ning Tiferes Bnei Torah. R” Shafier, a happily married father of six chil-dren, currently resides in Monsey.
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Children may not listen, but they hear everything. And this gives rise to the golden rule of parenting:
example, example, example
by Eytan Kobre
Don’t Miss out!!take aDvantage of the recent surge in golD anD silver prices
R’ Yitzchak Hutner z”tl once observed a father disciplining his son to daven. Every time the child would get up or divert his attention, the father stern-ly directed him to sit down and daven. It was a battle between father and son. “What are you doing?” Rav Hutner asked the father. “Rabbi, I’m teaching my son to daven.” “No, you’re not,” Rav Hutner shot back, “you are teaching your son to grow up to tell his own son to sit down and daven. If you want to teach him to daven, you daven!”
That is precisely the message of this week’s Hafto-rah, according to R’ Shimon Schwab. An angel ap-peared to the barren wife of Manoach, informing her that she would give birth to a son (Shimshon) and instructing her to raise the child as a nazir. Hear-ing this, Manoach begged Hashem to send the angel back to instruct him how to raise the child. The angel returned and reiterated that the child must be raised as a nazir.
But this episode is difficult to understand. If Manoach’s wife had already informed him of the angel’s instructions regarding the nazirite status of their future son, what was Manoach seeking? And, upon coming back, the angel simply repeated what Manoach had already heard from his wife. So what was accomplished?
Of course Manoach knew of the angel’s initial in-structions to his wife, says R’ Schwab. But that was not Manoach’s question. His question was one of parenting—how could a regular person possibly raise a child destined to be so different? That was a valid question. So the angel returned and explained to Ma-noach that that the only way to raise such a special child was for Manoach to become a nazir himself. The angel therefore told Manoach, “Everything that I have instructed your wife (regarding your future son), you should observe,” i.e., by becoming a nazir. Only by becoming a nazir himself could Manoach teach his son Shimshon to become one.
Rabbi Paysach Krohn tells of a teacher who caught one of his students stealing pencils from the other children. Ultimately, the teacher had no choice but to call the boy’s parents to discuss the issue. The boy’s father revealed the true source of the boy’s be-havior by exclaiming, “Why would he need to steal pencils? I bring home more than enough from the office to supply the entire class!” Priceless.
It is difficult to fault children for acting as their par-ents do, and the ben sorer u’moreh (wayward son) is no exception. The child is sentenced to death for his inevitable demise based upon specific indicia, including that he be an uber-glutton. Yet, for some reason that is difficult to understand, we are taught “there is no ben sorer u’moreh in Yerushalayim” (Tosefta Negaim 6:2). The Meshech Chochma ex-plains that, because of the sacrifices offered in the Bais Hamikdash, there was always an overabun-dance of meat in Yerushalayim. And not just any meat, but meat that could not go to waste and had to be eaten the day it was cooked. As such, peo-ple living in Yerushalayim were necessarily more gluttonous than those elsewhere. By extension, if a child from Yerushalayim was gluttonous, it was
neither an indication of a character defect nor a portent of things to come. His gluttony was merely the product of watching his father eat large quanti-ties of meat. Accordingly, no child from Yerusha-layim could be held accountable as a ben sorer u’moreh.
It should come as no surprise that we cannot expect our children to heed the call of “do as I say, not as I do.” Children may not listen, but they hear every-thing. And this gives rise to the golden rule of par-enting: example, example, example.
Adapting to this trickle-down theory of parent-ing mandates that we change our own behavior. Shlomo HaMelech writes “chosech shivto, sonei b’no,” loosely translated as “spare the rod, spoil the child” (Mishlei 13:24). Generally, this is un-derstood to mean that parents should not hesitate
to punish children (when appropriate). In keeping with our theme, however, the K’sav Sofer inter-prets this pasuk to mean that “chosech shivto” re-fers to one who refrains from disciplining himself. The parent who refrains from disciplining himself is the one who is sonei b’no (“hates his son”) be-cause he will necessarily set a bad example for his children.
And if you think this lesson is limited to those who already have children, you’re wrong. Quite the op-posite—this lesson applies with even more force to those who do not yet have children. R’ Samson Ra-phael Hirsch z”tl relates that a young couple once came to him asking for advice on how to raise their newborn child. “You’re late,” R’ Hirsch answered, “you should have begun the process years ago by
developing yourselves.”
The obligation to teach our children Torah is rooted in the second paragraph of Krias Shema (Devarim 11:19). There, the Torah instructs, “and you shall teach [Torah] to your sons to discuss [Torah], while you sit in your home, and while you walk on the way, and when you go to sleep and when you arise.” But if the goal is to teach our children to study To-rah, shouldn’t the point be to instruct them to learn Torah “while they sit at home and while they walk on the way, and while they go to sleep and while they arise?”
The answer, based on the above, is simple: if you want to teach your children to learn Torah in all places and at all times, don’t tell them, show them! You learn Torah at home, you learn Torah while you walk on the way, you learn when you go to
sleep and you learn when you arise. When you do, they will too.
Parents should remember that children will grow up to follow their example—not their advice. The following anecdote makes that abundantly clear. A man once
came to the Gerrer Rebbe z”tl (Bais Yisroel) and asked how to properly raise his son, who he believed was sure to become the next gadol hador. The Reb-be was taken aback and asked the man how he was so sure that his son was destined to become a great tzaddik. The man explained that when his son plays with Lego, he builds two small boxes and places one on his head and one on his arm. And if that is what the child does at such a young age, reasoned the man, just imagine what will be as he grows old-er! The Rebbe retorted, “Sir, stop davening Shacha-ris at home and go to shul in the morning.”
Eytan Kobre is a lecturer, writer, and attorney, re-siding in Kew Gardens Hills with his wife and chil-dren. He can be contacted at [email protected].
MARITAL ECONOMICS 101Obviously not all couples are challenged by the dramatic differences of financial at-titudes as displayed by Nomi and Tzvi. Yet, it is unlikely that any couple will agree totally or have precisely the same opinions as the other when it comes to financial concerns, just as is true with any other area of the relationship. Here are some points to ponder when engaging in such a discussion that could go in the wrong direction.It’s only money! Not to minimize the role it plays in our lives, and the fact that so many families are struggling to make ends meet, but let’s put things into a broader perspective. If our house B”H is in order and there is shalom bayis, do not give finances the power to destroy that. Unfortunately, the stress that ensues from finan-cial hardships often does impact on our relationship. Certainly, in the secular world, finances will often play a major role in marital discord. However, with a change of attitude and broader insight, such challenges can also be used as opportunities for growth in a relationship, shared mutual concern, and a strong sense of encourage-ment and hope. This is especially the case if the primary breadwinner has lost a job or suffered a cut in income.Don’t fight dirty. When there are differences, stay respectful. You’re not going to earn brownie points by saying something like “well what would I expect from you, your mother’s idea of a shopping spree is to spend an extra quarter in the thrift shop.” Or, “all your parents were concerned about was the label and if the address of the store had Fifth Avenue in it.” With such attacks we will lose the opportunity to communicate before we start. The same points can be made in a constructive, nurturing and supportive manner which easily sets the tone for compromise and resolution.Don’t jump to conclusions. Human nature is such that we tend to filter what we hear through the pre-existing lens that is ground by our experiences, background and sometimes unsubstantiated pre-conceived notions. So, before you arrive at your own interpretation or conclusions about the spending patterns of another individual, stop. Try to really hear, listen and absorb the point of view being expressed instead of conjuring in your mind why the person is wrong and what your counter argument should be. Quite often, if you listen closely, there may be more validity to their point of view than you would otherwise acknowledge. For example, a spouse’s preference for a better quality item that is more costly may indeed end up being more economical in the long run. Similarly, just because a spouse is a bargain hunter does not mean that quality has to be compromised.Be realistic. The focus is not about convincing the other that my way is better than yours. Accept individual differences to be perfectly normal and expected. There is no reason not to integrate them into the smooth functioning of your family. So begin with a realistic approach of what your budget allows for and proceed from there in a mutually supportive way. Such a framework allows for a considerable range of expression of the respective individual taste and preferenc-es. The spouse with the more expensive taste may choose one more costly outfit instead of three inexpensive ones - and that’s perfectly fine.Don’t dismiss hidden costs. As is the case with many things in life, there’s more than what meets the eye. Sure, it might make sense to you - if you enjoy bargain hunt-ing - to spend the extra time and effort to comparison shop. Your spouse may see it quite differently as he or she feels the cost of spending the extra time, and the patience and effort required are not worth it. If one tries to impose one particular approach on the other the end result is a frustrated, aggravated partner. Is it worth it?
Our previous discussion of psychoeconomics ad-dressed the pre-marital concerns. We are now mov-ing on to the situation of a happily married young cou-ple encountering some difficulties arising from their different financial perspectives. Our couple, Bracha and Chaim, was referred to me after they were mar-ried about two years. Bracha, a stay at home mom, cares for her one-year-old, and Chaim manages real estate. The couple reports having a good marriage and generally being able to work out their differenc-es. The one arena that consistently remains an area of conflict relates to what Chaim considers extrava-gances and Bracha feels comprise an essential part of a warm and comfortable home. The transcript that follows will help elucidate their differences.
Bracha Says:Chaim is a really good guy- I really can’t say anyone would make me happier. He tries his best and even though we have our differences, he has worked very hard during Shanah Rishonah to accept and respect our differences. We have B”H come a long way – but that’s why I’m here. I am confident that we can overcome this hurdle and I know Chaim is really happy about being here to learn how we can resolve this together. So let me get right to the point. I hate using stereotypes, but let me just say that my tastes are somewhat classier than Chaim’s. I’m not even sure that I’m describing it properly because Chaim does have good taste. But, for example, let’s take the house - I like to decorate and have things look really nice and presentable. I’m not talking Better Homes and Gardens, I just feel that a house should be and look like a home. It’s not either that I’m a big spender; I know Chaim works really hard to make a living. Even though we B”H have what we need, we don’t have lots of money. Like last week I wanted to go shopping with him to get some pictures. Our walls are quite bare and I thought a few nice prints would add a little flair. He did not get angry at me, but I could tell he was upset, so I encouraged him to talk about it. He said it’s not the money, because there was not much involved. He just wasn’t sure that we “needed” them. He thought it was smart-er to put away more money for the future when we will need it for our family. I understand where he’s coming from, but I think he’s missing the point here. Doesn’t the present mean something? Shouldn’t we enjoy life if we can do so with some minor finishing touches? Another example: I like to cook, so once in a while I’ll make him a steak or buy a more expen-sive cut of meat. I know he enjoys it and he thanks me profusely. At the same time I can hear his wheels turning and thinking – she could have made chicken! I know this will not break up our marriage, but we need some help here.
Chaim Says:Gee, never thought I would be talking to a shrink but I’m glad we’re talking to you and I appreciate that Bracha took the initiative. Bracha is the greatest! She had to put up with my Shanah Rishonah ignorance and she was so patient, caring and understanding. I can’t begin to describe it- I’ve learned so much from her and, B’’H, we have a really good marriage. She told you her concerns and you know, the more I lis-ten to them, which I really try to do, I can see where she is coming from. It’s just that there is something inside of me that can’t let go of it, and her really rea-
sonable requests just bother me too much. She re-ally is budget conscious and is a good shopper, so why can’t I just fargin those little things? In truth, I probably do enjoy the touches she adds. I really like the way she looks when she gets a new outfit, even though it doesn’t cost so much.
Therapist Says:It’s refreshing to help out a couple like Bracha and Chaim. They have a nice marriage and just want to make it better - what can beat that! This case was rather short term. After meeting with each of them alone over time we had three sessions together. The gist of our work focused on the nature of their back-grounds and how Chaim’s reactions were largely a result of his own experience rather than his real fi-nancial concern. Chaim comes from a family that had severe parnassah problems. The lack of funds was a source of much discussion and disagreement between his parents. Chaim and his five siblings were not at all shielded from this and were well aware that they could not af-ford many things that their friends took for granted. The impact this had on Chaim was quite obvious. He re-ported that since he was a young child he always worried that he would not have enough mon-ey. As a result he often took jobs, worked sum-mers and saved what he could. He would rarely buy anything for him-self. This did pay off because he was able to save enough for a large part of the down pay-ment on his house. The problem Chaim was fac-ing was that this mental-ity did not shift with his changed life situation. He B”H does earn a nice living, considerably more than his parents had earned, and does not have the financial stresses his parents had. But the fear is there. The fear of what happens if something goes wrong. Maybe the company he works for won’t need him - the economy could change. These were real fears, but certainly para-lyzed Chaim more than necessary. I decided to spend a few sessions with Chaim alone, be-cause I felt he needed to articulate and explore the depth of his fear be-fore he could move on.
This worked out quite well for him. In our last session together Bracha also reminded Chaim that even though they both agreed that she would be a stay at home Mom, she was willing to do part-time work at anything if Chaim felt they needed it, if Chas V’shalom, there was a change in economic condition.
Information presented is for illustrative purposes only and is not meant to substitute for consultation with a pro-fessional. Readers are welcome to submit their questions to: [email protected]. All questions will be held in confi dence, and if printed, any identifying infor-mation will be withheld.
Rabbi Yaakov Adler, LCSW, is an internationally renowned psychotherapist and lecturer. He has treated a broad spec-trum of the Orthodox community for three decades. For information regarding consultations, appointments, or upcoming workshops, please call the Queens office at718-575-0308 or the Lawrence office at 516-239-3303.
Overheard conversation between Mother and a pre-cocious seven year old at a typical supper table…
“Now dear you must eat your fruits and vegetables!”
“I just finished a delicious double portion.”
“Great what did you eat?”
“A yummy chocolate bar.”
Chocolate is surely nature’s sweetest combination of fruit and vegetable, sugar and cocoa beans. Choc-olate, the king of confections, continues to grow in popularity. Kosher chocolate is a delicious study of technology and halacha. Let’s explore the intoxicat-ing world of chocolate.
King David, Dovid Hamelech, extols Hashem’s acts of loving kindness by proclaiming metaphorically that he desires to drink from “Your river of delight,” “minachal adonecha tashkeim.” What is a river of delight? Let me give you a first-hand explanation. Before Hershey Park built Chocolate World, tourists were treated to a tour of authentic chocolate-mak-ing. Clearly etched in my childhood memories was a delicious river of chocolate cascading into a choc-olate-fall of millions of Hershey bars and Hershey kisses. It was awesome, to say the least.
Over the years, chocolate manufacturing has contin-ued to grow both domestically and internationally. Chocolate connoisseurship has reached new heights. Believe it or not, the most expensive chocolate to-day costs in excess of $90 a pound. The chocoholic delights at the sight of Belgium truffles, French bon-bons, Swiss chocolate, and other chocolate bars that abound. Today, most major chocolate manufacturers in the U.S. have reliable kosher certification. Some specialty chocolate manufacturers are kosher certified as well. Cholov Yisroel chocolate in particular has recently seen unprecedented growth. Today a cholov Yisroel consumer can feast on a Mars bar counterpart without having to compromise on taste or quality.
Chocolate raw ingredients make a long trek before becoming a familiar chocolate bar or chocolate cov-ered cherry. The prime ingredient in chocolate is the cacao bean, which grows in many regions of the world, including Africa, Central America, and South-east Asia. Two main varieties of trees produce ca-cao beans: the Forastero tree in West Africa which produces commodity quality cacao beans, and the Criollo tree, found in Venezuela and other South American countries, which produces premium qual-ity cacao beans.
The first stage of cacao bean processing is harvesting, which may be done by machete - a slow and tedious process, or by automatic shakers that shake an entire tree free of the cacao pods. Next, the pods are cracked open and the cacao beans are removed. Note that ca-cao beans, when processed for commercial use, will become cocoa beans. Cocoa beans are then spread out in the fields to ferment and sun dry, ridding the cocoa bean, also known as a nib, of much of its natural bitter taste and moisture. Once dried, the cocoa beans are packed in jute sacks and shipped overseas to the choc-olate manufacturers for further processing.
The cocoa bean is one of Hashem’s most dormant creations. In order for its potential to be fully realized, it requires processing to unlock the quality products contained within. The raw cocoa beans are cleaned and roasted in giant roasters - much like a coffee bean to unlock the nib’s delicious cocoa flavors. The cocoa bean is then ground into a paste known as cocoa liquor, the primary ingredient of chocolate. Cocoa liquor made from premium cocoa beans is rich enough to be made into chocolate. Cocoa liquor made from standard cocoa beans lacks richness and therefore cannot be made into chocolate without the addition of cocoa butter.
What is cocoa butter? The cocoa bean has over 50% natural fat. When squeezed under enormous pressure in a hydraulic press, the cocoa bean exudes fat that is yellow in color, similar to rich dairy butter. Hence the name cocoa butter. Unlike dairy butter, howev-er, cocoa butter is thicker, blander, and hardens at room temperature. What remains behind in this ex-traction process is a massive solid cake which, when ground, will be known as - you guessed it - cocoa powder. Ironically, for the chocolate manufacturer, the main commodity product is the cocoa butter, and the by-product is the cocoa powder.
Now the process of chocolate-making is ready to be-gin. Sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, milk pow-der, flavors and an emulsifier are the primary ingre-dients of chocolate. When these products are blended together, as we will soon see, they liquefy into liquid chocolate. Interestingly, liquid chocolate is over 50% sugar. The percentages of the other ingredients vary according to the type of chocolate being manufactured.
There are three major types of liquid chocolate: dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white (or compound) chocolate. Dark chocolate is a combination of cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, sugar, flavorings such as vanilla or vanillin, and butter oil, a dairy ingredient not to be confused with cocoa butter. Milk chocolate has pow-dered milk and milk crumb, a combination of milk powder and sugar, added to the “dark chocolate” mix. White chocolate really is not chocolate because it contains no cocoa liquor or cocoa powder, only cocoa butter. White chocolate is also known as a compound chocolate because additional vegetable fats are add-ed to the ingredient base. All varieties of chocolate undergo three basic steps of chocolate production: kneading the ingredients into a paste, grinding the paste into semi granular particles, and blending the ingredients in a conch. Solid chocolate requires tem-
pering as a final step to finish the product.
As any good cook or baker will tell you, there are certain tricks of the trade that set a great product apart from a good product. The trick of the chocolate trade is the blending, also known as conching. The conch is a large rotary blender that blends the chocolaty mass for hours on end at a temperature of 140°F. De-pending on the recipe, the chocolate may be conched for over 12 hours in order to fully homogenize the ingredients. Lecithin, an emulsifier, is added to help blend the ingredients. Conching releases any bitter aromas and flavors in the liquefied chocolate, and allows all the remaining delicious chocolate flavors and aromas to fully mature and develop into a sym-phony of chocolaty taste.
If the chocolate is being sold as liquid chocolate, no further processing is required. Industrial chocolate is shipped to the manufacturing customers in a heated transport, in which a constant temperature of 112°F is maintained to prevent solidification or hardening. Customers are typically bakeries, ice cream manu-facturers or candy makers who will further process the chocolate.
Solid chocolate must be tempered after conching in order to give it its luster. In the tempering process, the chocolate is heated to 113°F, quickly cooled, and slightly heated to 100°F. Now the tempered choco-late is ready to be molded into any variety of forms: large 50-pound cubes, 25-pound bars, or consumer sized chocolate drops.
With this overview, let us examine the issues that confront kosher chocolate making.
IngredientsAs with any manufactured food product, all ingre-dients require strict kosher certification. Mashgichim travel to cocoa bean plantations around the world, from Cemoi on the Ivory Coast to Venezuala in South America. All the additional ingredients require ko-sher certification, but they are pretty straightforward.
Interestingly, ingredients used in European choco-late processing present many more challenges than in domestic chocolate production. In Europe today, genetically modified raw materials are strictly avoid-ed. One essential product in chocolate manufacturing is lecithin, which, as previously mentioned, serves to emulsify and blend the ingredients being conched. Lecithin is made from soybeans. Nearly all soybean crops worldwide have been genetically modified. Consequently, lecithin has come under European fire.
Alternatives to lecithin were researched, and a seem-ingly innocuous product called ammonium phos-phatide was suggested. This product itself posed no kashrus problems. However, the one company in Denmark that manufactures ammonium phosphatide was a totally non-kosher facility, thereby requiring a massive kosherization. Due to the need of kosher am-monium phosphatide, the company agreed to become kosher certified.
Another ingredient issue confronting the European kosher chocolate manufacturer is traced butter oil. Butter is a commodity item in Europe, meaning that
butter can be sold by the government for various ap-plications for a cheaper controlled price. Chocolate manufacturers that supply chocolate to bakeries, cookie manufacturers, and ice cream companies, could use the subsidized butter oil and would pay a reduced commodity price for this ingredient. How-ever, chocolate manufacturers supplying chocolate to other types of companies would be charged the full non-commodity price for the butter or butter oil. In order to ensure that the manufacturer is not using the butter oil for other applications, the law requires butter oil manufacturers to put a minute amount of ingredients, called tracers, into the mixture to lit-erally track the use of the butter oil. Some of the tracers are innocuous colors or synthetic flavors. However, others contain triglycerides that could come from animal or vegetable sources. Therefore, reliable kosher traced butter oil requires strict ko-sher supervision.
It goes without saying that the vegetable fats used to manufacture kosher compound chocolate must have reliable kosher certification because these vegetable fats can be produced in the same facilities as tallow or lard.
What bracha do we make on chocolate?
As we saw through our tour of chocolate manufac-turing, the cacao bean is the fruit of the Forestaro and Criollo trees. However, the cocoa bean is in-distinguishable in its chocolate form. The question is: Does a fruit product that has been pressed into a paste, such as dates into date paste or apricots into fruit leather, retain its borei pri ha’etz status because the original product in its pressed version
is recognizable? The Shulchan Aruch concludes that since the fruit product retains its original status, the bracha does not change. However, the Remah explains that this is not the case regarding a fruit that totally loses its original form. Therefore, the proper blessing for chocolate would be sheha-kol. However, another halachic opinion posits that since the cacao bean was grown for the purpose of making chocolate, this is the essence of the fruit. In spite of the fact that it loses its original identity, the bracha should be borei pri ha’etz. The case in point in the Shulchan Aruch discusses spices that were ground and sweetened. The bracha that is to be made on sweetened ground spices is borei pri ha’etz because spices are made to be ground. Applying the same logic to the cacao bean, mean-ing that the purpose of the cacao bean is to be ground and liquefied into chocolate, the bracha on chocolate should be borei pri ha’etz. In fact, there are some poskim who opine that the bracha-on chocolate should be borei pri ha’etz, and not shehakol. However, the consensus of halachic opinion is that the bracha is shehakol.
Earlier, we mentioned that chocolate is over 50% sugar. Sugar is processed from vegetables such as sugar cane or sugar beets. In truth, the Shulchan Aruch also deals with the bracha on sugar. In any event, the amount of sugar used would not affect the bracha on chocolate, since the purpose of the sugar is to sweeten the cocoa ingredients. Sugar, therefore, is viewed as a secondary ingredient to the cocoa liquor, even though sugar is chocolate’s primary ingredient. According to all opinions the bracha remains shehakol.
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In the case of chocolate-covered nuts and fruits such as peanuts, almonds or raisins, does the combination of chocolate with nuts or fruits affect the bracha? Most definitely! However, there are many opinions regarding the proper bracha. The Mishna Berura
views the fruit as the dominant ingredient, and the chocolate that sweetens the fruit as secondary. The bracha on chocolate-covered fruits and nuts would follow the item that the chocolate is sweetening; in the case of fruit or nut, borei pri ha’etz, and in the case of peanuts, borei pri hoadama. Howev-er, others reason that the bracha is subjective and would follow the item that is more desirous. Still others maintain that the item that is more plenti-ful would be the dominant ingredient, while some halachic authorities maintain that one should make two brachos on chocolate-covered peanuts because both are of equal importance. Interestingly enough, the bracha borei pri ha’etz would suffice, b’dieved, for a chocolate and fruit combination because, in any event, the bracha on chocolate may be borei pri ha’etz, as we mentioned earlier. Rabbi Moshe Heinemann, Shlit”a, Rabbinic Administrator of the Star-K, maintains that the bracha is subjective. If the chocolate is more desirable, the bracha would be shehakol; and if the raisin is more desirable, the bracha on a chocolate covered raisin would be borei pri ha’etz.
King Solomon, Shlomo Hamelech, when extolling the virtues of Bnei Yisroel, Torah, andmitzvos exclaims metaphorically “Vayochal p’ri megadav,” “and he ate His delectable fruits.” Indeed this verse could certainly apply to the delights of chocolate, the most delicious fruit of the world.
Previously: Rose’s father manages to secure working permits so that she and her sister Bruncha can work outside the Warsaw Ghetto, but Bruncha has been recognized as a Jew, and is in danger. In a desperate move, Rose’s father tells her to go rescue her
sister and run away to Zhichlin, where he hopes they’ll be safer.
Branded for LifeThe QJL is very grateful to Mrs. Helen Hoffman for sharing her mother’s collective memoirs, “Branded for Life” with us. Rose Kurz’s story is a firsthand look at life through the eyes of a sweet, innocent girl who was forced to grow up way too fast. It covers but a few years in a life, yet encompasses the time of a worry-free childhood to the horrors of the Holocaust, and finally, to the process of rebuilding. We will serialize the 18 chapters of “Branded for Life” over as many issues. Trust us - you won’t want to miss a single word
Part Six: Zhichlin/Arbeitslagger (1940-42)Bruncha was indeed waiting for me by the lake when I came. She was so relieved to see me and she looked at me with such dependency that I felt as if I were the older one. My strong character was exactly what her gentle nature sought, and I remembered now how foolishly I had so often been jealous of her.We walked together, Bruncha and I, through fields and villages — eating whatever we could find along the way — besides the small provisions my dear mother had managed to scrape together for us. We had no idea how to get to Zhichlin by ourselves, and so we had to ask people for directions along the way. This was risky and we constantly prayed that H-shem send us the right messengers to help us reach our destination. Some-times we were lucky enough to get some food from non-Jewish Poles. At other times they allowed us to sleep in their barns. Bruncha and I would lie down on the soft hay and doze off out of sheer exhaustion after walking for so long. In the morning we would straight-en our clothes and pick the straw from each other’s hair. It always took me longer to remove the straw for Bruncha, since it blended in with her beautiful blond hair. The sun would dance in her shiny blue eyes, as we prepared together to meet each new day. The two of us looked nothing alike, with no outer resemblance at all to identify us as sisters. That didn’t matter. We were in-disputably similar. If one could have opened our hearts and looked inside we would have been identical twins. We both had a Jewish soul and a heart filled with fear. We both shared a love for our family, for each other, and for all of our Jewish brothers and sisters suffering so badly. We certainly were sisters — one blond and blue-eyed, and one black-haired and dark-eyed — but with identical bleeding Jewish hearts.Finally, after many, many days of walking, we arrived in Zhichlin. As we approached the town, we saw a Jew-ish child running through the streets with a Nazi and his big rifle close behind him. We quickly jumped into a ditch and waited until they were out of sight. This was our welcome to Zhichlin. After a while we ran over to a Jewish policeman and said that we are Jewish girls — granddaughters of Raizel Kuvent. He looked at us in disbelief and brought us to our grandmother.My grandmother was shocked to see us. She immedi-ately understood that something was very wrong. She burst into uncontrollable sobs, and could not stop cry-ing for a very long time. When our aunts and uncles came in, we were finally able to tell over the whole story. Everyone was terribly pained to hear about the conditions of the family back in the Warsaw Ghetto.Although conditions in Zhichlin were better than in the Warsaw Ghetto, we knew it was only a matter of time before Zhichlin, too, would be turned into a ghetto. When we arrived in the summer of 1940 the Jews of the town were already living separately from the non-Jews and shortly afterward Zhichlin, too, be-came a ghetto. Those familiar choking walls, the ra-tions, the hunger — now it was time for us to share the suffering of the other side of the family. My sister was sleeping in my aunt and uncle’s apartment while I slept with my grandmother. It gave my grandmother some comfort having us nearby, and of course we tried to help out in any way we could.In 1941 — about half a year after we came to Zhich-lin — people were being rounded up daily and told
that they were being taken to Arbeitslagger working camps. Some of these people were given jobs all day and came back to the ghetto at night. Others, howev-er, did not return, and we had no idea to where they were being taken.Early one morning we heard a loud banging on the door. My grandmother and I were still sleeping. I quickly jumped out of her bed and, without a thought, ran to the door. It was as if my feet had a mind of their own and even without my brain telling them to go — they went. I opened the door and saw a Jew-ish policeman with a piece of paper in his hand. How different he looked from the German officers whose eyes were so cold and cruel, without the slightest trace of human compassion. The Jewish policemen looked different, but they had difficult orders to follow. I al-ways felt sorry for them because I knew they had no choice. They had to carry out the ruthless orders of the SS or suffer the consequences. For a Jew — who was worlds apart from the Nazi beasts, this was a most trying and excruciating ordeal.The Jewish officer announced that he was looking for Bruncha Grizak and that she must come with him im-mediately. Since Bruncha slept by my aunt and uncle, she was not there. I had no idea what they wanted to do with Bruncha, but I had no intention of telling the police where she was. In a split second I made a de-cision, one of many we Jews had to make in the war, one that came from the very recesses of my heart, the heart of a loving sister. While my head had no time or leisure to think things through, my Jewish heart still pulsated within me, fully alive.I went instead of Bruncha. I decided so quickly that I forgot to take my shoes — so I ran back to get them and to kiss my poor, petrified grandmother. I was ac-tually quite optimistic, surprisingly so, and figured I was being taken to an Arbeitslagger and would return in the evening. I was still too young and naive to un-derstand that Nazi orders rarely yield positive results.I was taken with one thousand people to a large open space outside the ghetto and counted, as only the Ger-mans know how. We were crowded into trains and taken to a village called Palshilten, near Posen. When we stepped down from the trains, all you could see for miles around were fields with a barn here and there for animals. We were led to a huge bombed out castle where we were to sleep at night. There was absolutely nothing in that structure, except hay. We slept on that hay, which was strewn on the ground. There were no bathroom facilities, or anything else to allow us the luxury of feeling human. All day we worked in the fields. I remember the feeling of loneliness, of empti-ness. I felt as empty as that bombed out building that we slept in. But in all of my emptiness I comforted myself in the fact that I had spared Bruncha all of this misery. Little did I know then that my “act of kind-ness” to save my sister was just one of H-shem’s ways of picking me out to live. It was only a matter of time until Bruncha and all of my other beloved relatives in Zhichlin were murdered. Of course, then I had no way of knowing that such a thing would happen.Our work in the fields was tedious and tiresome. Once a month we were lined up and German Officers would come and make a selection. All of the weak people were taken away. We were told that they were being sent home, but we learned the truth only much lat-
er, that the ‘unnecessary’ human beings who were no longer contributing members of the Nazi war machine were simply not ‘entitled’ to exist.
One day the Nazis discovered that someone was miss-ing. Not only did they increase our workload and suf-fering — but they went out to search for him. The miles and miles of wide open space did not work to his advantage and in a very short time he was caught. He was placed in the middle of the field and we were all called out to watch how they removed his clothing and beat him until he was broken and bloody. After that we were all sent back to work, including him.At the last selection and final evacuation there were 100 people left. In the course of six months 900 people were taken away and disposed of — as one discards an old umbrella that is broken and torn and therefore useless. We, the final hundred, were greatly weakened and scared of what our end would be. The day finally came when the Nazis pulled up for the final selection at Palschilten. Early that morning, the Maester, the German guard who supervised our work in the fields and assigned our jobs, came into our quarters, covered me with a blanket, and took me outside. All my fellow Jewish prisoners were very concerned about me. Where was he taking me? What did he plan to do with me? He took me into a barn, placed me on a second-story level full of straw, and said, “Don’t move and don’t talk — I will come back for you.” My heart was beating wildly in my chest. Many thoughts ran through my mind as I lay there quietly from early morning until late at night. I allowed myself the luxury of thinking about my par-ents whom I hadn’t seen for over a year. I wondered how they were managing. I thought about Bruncha and my grandmother in the ghetto in Zhichlin. I hoped and prayed that they were all well and we would be reunited soon. I thought about the man who just a few days ear-lier had tried to escape and shuddered at the memory of his blood flowing freely after the many beatings he en-dured. Would I, too, be caught trying to escape and suf-fer similar tortuous blows? Why did the German Mae-ster bring me to this place? I had noticed many times that he had been watching me as I worked in the fields. Was it because he took a special interest in me since I was the youngest of the group or was it because he was planning to harm me in a diabolical way? Who knew? All I could do as I lay there alone, hour after hour, was hope and pray that H-shem would protect me.Finally the Maester returned. It was very late at night and he gently lifted me down and brought me back to the ruins where we slept. I noticed that there were a lot fewer people than when I left. They were all overjoyed to see me and explained that in the morn-ing the Nazis had come to make a selection from the one hundred people who had been left. They chose twenty-five people and the rest were taken away. The Maester had known that I would never pass the selec-tion — I was so small and weak, and would surely have been taken to my death. The German Maester — an unlikely messenger from H-shem — had saved my life. It was obvious that despite all the odds, the Creator of the World wanted me to live — and so I did. We had begun as a group of one thousand men and women wrenched from the ghetto in Zhichlin six months earlier, and ended up twenty-six souls, each weary and weak, each one a survivor — hand picked by H-shem — to live.
Ger Tzedek of Vilna burned at the stake7 Sivan, 1749:
Avrohom ben Avrohom, the famed “Ger Tzedek” (Righteous Convert) of Vilna, was born as Valentin Potozki, the son of Count Potocki, one of the richest landowners in Poland. As a student in Vilna he discovered Judaism and decid-ed to convert -- a capital offense in most countries in Christian Europe at the time. He fled to Amsterdam where he secretly converted to Judaism, assuming the name Avrohom ben Avrohom (“Abraham the son of Abraham”).
Upon his return to Vilna he lived incog-nito and spent his days locked away in the Bais Medrash learning Torah. One day while learning, he scolded a young boy who was disturbing those trying to daven and learn. So angry became this child’s father that he reported Avrohom ben Av-rohom to the “authorities,” who promptly arrested him.
Despite the pleas of his family and the church, Avrohom ben Avrohom staunchly
backed his current beliefs and refused to retract, brazenly declaring that the Jewish faith and religion was the ultimate truth and that he was willing to suffer any re-percussions that his beliefs entailed. After a prolonged period in jail he was handed over to the inquisition. Many efforts were made to “reform” him but to no avail. He was ultimately sentenced to burn at the stake.
The date of his burning was set for the second day of Shavuos. The Vilna Gaon was said to have sent a message to him in jail encouraging him to stay strong and offering to help him escape using “Shei-mos HaKedoshim.” Avrohom ben Avro-hom refused, saying that ever since he became a Jew his dream was to die “Al Kiddush Hashem” and as he came closer to realizing his dream he was not about to give it up.
Although it was dangerous for a Jew to be present at the time of the execution in the center of Vilna, nevertheless Lazer Zhishkes was not only able to witness it, he even succeeded in bribing an official who salvaged some of the ashes. These ashes were buried in the Vilna cemetery.
This Week in Jewish History
Week of May 20-26
Brooklyn Bridge opensMay 24, 1937:
After 14 years and 27 deaths while being constructed, the Brooklyn Bridge over the East River is opened on this day, connecting the great cities of New York and Brooklyn for the first time in history. Thousands of residents of Brooklyn and Manhattan Island turned out to witness the dedication ceremony, which was pre-sided over by President Chester A. Arthur and New York Governor Grover Cleve-land. Designed by the late John A. Roe-bling, the Brooklyn Bridge was the larg-est suspension bridge ever built to that date.
John Roebling, born in Germany in 1806, was a great pioneer in the design of steel sus-pension bridges.
He earned a reputation as a designer of suspen-sion bridges, which at the time were widely used but known to fail under strong winds or heavy loads. Roebling is credited with a major breakthrough in suspension-bridge tech-nology: a web truss added to either side of the bridge roadway that greatly stabilized the structure. Using this model, Roebling successfully bridged the Niagara Gorge at Niagara Falls, New York, and the Ohio River at Cincinnati, Ohio. On the basis of these achievements, New York State accepted Roebling’s design for a bridge connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan--with a span of 1,595 feet--and appoint-ed him chief engineer. It was to be the world’s first steel suspension bridge.
Just before construction began in 1869, Roebling was fatally injured while tak-ing a few final compass readings across the East River. A boat smashed the toes on one of his feet, and three weeks later he died of tetanus. He was the first of more than two dozen people who would
die building his bridge. His 32-year-old son, Washington A. Roebling, took over as chief engineer. Roebling had worked with his father on several bridges and had helped design the Brooklyn Bridge.
The two granite foundations of the Brooklyn Bridge were built in timber caissons, or watertight chambers, sunk to depths of 44 feet on the Brooklyn side and 78 feet on the New York side. Com-pressed air pressurized the caissons, al-lowing underwater construction. At that time, little was known of the risks of working under such conditions, and more than a hundred workers suffered from cases of compression sickness. Several died, and Washington Roebling himself
became bedridden from the condition in 1872. Other workers died as a result of more conven-tional construction acci-dents, such as collapses and a fire.
Roebling continued to direct construction op-erations from his home, and his wife, Emily, car-ried his instructions to the workers. In 1877, Washington and Emily moved into a home with
a view of the bridge. Roebling’s health gradually improved, but he remained par-tially paralyzed for the rest of his life. On May 24, 1883, Emily Roebling was given the first ride over the completed bridge, with a rooster, a symbol of victory, in her lap. Within 24 hours, an estimated 250,000 people walked across the Brook-lyn Bridge, using a broad promenade above the roadway that John Roebling designed solely for the enjoyment of pe-destrians.
The Brooklyn Bridge, with its unprece-dented length and two stately towers, was dubbed the “eighth wonder of the world.” The connection it provided between the massive population centers of Brooklyn and Manhattan changed the course of New York City forever.
Week of May 27-June 2
Hillary and Tenzing reach Everest summitMay 29, 1953:
At 11:30 a.m. on May 29, 1953, Ed-mund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenz-ing Norgay, a Sherpa of Nepal, become the first explorers to reach the summit of Mount Everest, which at 29,035 feet above sea level is the highest point on earth. News of their achievement broke around the world on June 2, the day of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, and Britons hailed it as a good omen for their country’s future.
Mount Everest sits on the crest of the Great Himalayas in Asia, lying on the border between Nepal and Tibet. The Eng-lish named the mountain after Sir George Everest, a 19th-century British surveyor of
South Asia. The summit of Everest reaches two-thirds of the way through the air of the earth’s atmosphere--at about the cruising altitude of jet airliners--and oxygen levels there are very low, temperatures are ex-tremely cold, and weather is unpredictable and dangerous.
The first recorded attempt to climb Everest was made in 1921 by a Brit-ish expedition that trekked 400 difficult miles across the Tibetan plateau to the foot of the great mountain. A raging storm forced them to abort their ascent, but the mountaineers, among them George Leigh Mallory, had seen what appeared to be a feasible route up the peak. It was Mallory who quipped when later asked by a jour-nalist why he wanted to climb Everest, “Because it’s there.”
A second British expedition, featuring Mallory, returned in 1922 reaching an impressive height of more than 27,000 feet. In another attempt made by Mallory
that year, seven Sherpa porters were killed in an avalanche. (The Sherpas, native to the Khumbu region, have long played an essential support role in Himalayan climbs and treks because of their strength and abil-ity to endure the high altitudes.) In 1924, a third Everest expedition was launched by the British, and climber Edward Norton reached an elevation of 28,128 feet, 900 ver-tical feet short of the summit, without using artificial oxygen. Four days later, Mallory and Andrew Irvine launched a summit as-sault and were never seen alive again. In 1999, Mal-lory’s largely preserved body was found high on Everest--he had suffered numerous broken bones in a fall. Whether or not he or Irvine reached the sum-mit remains a mystery.
Several more un-successful summit at-tempts were made via Tibet’s Northeast Ridge route. In 1952, a Swiss expedition navigated the treacherous Khumbu Icefall in the first real summit attempt. Two climbers reached 28,210 feet, just below the South Summit, but had to turn back for want of supplies.
Shocked by the near-success of the Swiss expedition, a large British expedi-tion was organized for 1953. In addition to the best British climbers and such highly experienced Sherpas as Tenzing Norgay, the expedition enlisted talent from the British Commonwealth, such as New Zea-lander Edmund Hillary, who worked as a beekeeper when not climbing mountains. Members of the expedition were equipped with specially insulated boots and cloth-
ing, portable radio equipment, and open- and closed-circuit oxygen systems.
Setting up a series of camps, the ex-pedition pushed its way up the mountain in April and May 1953. On May 26, two climbers launched the first assault on the summit and came within 300 feet of the top of Everest before having to turn back because one of their oxygen sets was mal-functioning.
On May 28, Tenzing and Hillary set out, setting up high camp at 27,900 feet.
After a freezing, sleep-less night, the pair plod-ded on, reaching the South Summit by 9 a.m. and a steep rocky step, some 40 feet high, about an hour later. Wedging himself in a crack in the face, Hillary inched himself up what was thereafter known as the Hillary Step. Hill-ary threw down a rope, and Norgay followed. At about 11:30 a.m., the
climbers arrived at the top of the world.Since Hillary and Norgay’s historic
climb, numerous expeditions have made their way up to Everest’s summit. In 1960, a Chinese expedition was the first to con-quer the mountain from the Tibetan side, and in 1963 James Whittaker became the first American to top Everest. In 1975, Ta-bei Junko of Japan became the first wom-an to reach the summit. Three years later, Reinhold Messner of Italy and Peter Ha-beler of Austria achieved what had been previously thought impossible: climbing to the Everest summit without oxygen. Nearly two hundred climbers have died attempting to summit the mountain.
Rebecca Just breathe, she told herself. It’s all going to be okay. Perfect – not just okay, but perfect. But that text kept coming back to her, threatening to find her. Rebecca just wanted to get away from it all somehow, but it kept following her. Her mother’s heartless good-bye lingering in her mind as she stood at the train station with just a suitcase, a suitcase, full of memories she just wanted to erase. Memories which had driven her away to where she stands now.
Away from the threatening texts. Away from the dysfunctional fight-ing between her parents. Away from the whole secular world which has dragged her down so low. Glancing back at her phone, the text message glared at her with its sharp stare. I’m going to find you... Find you. I’m going to…
“Hello, you must be Rebecca?” A middle age woman approached her with a smile from ear to ear.
Rebecca noticed the woman’s simple long black skirt, loose button down shirt and dirty blonde wig slightly askew. Swallowing she nodded, sud-denly snapping back to reality. “Yes, and you must be Mrs. Friedman?” The woman nodded enthusiastically. “Thank you so much for letting me stay with you,” Rebecca continued nervously. “Your husband has helped me endlessly!”
“Oh it’s our pleasure! Don’t even thank us,” Mrs. Friedman insisted as she reached for Rebecca’s suitcase and started opening the car trunk. “So my family is very excited to meet you,” her voice continued on and on unwaveringly. Rebecca sat down in the back seat of her old minivan and felt her phone vibrate once again. Slipping it out of her pocket she opened the text message and bit her lip as she read it.
“Becca uk u can’t do this. U can’t run away from me & do this hole relig thing. Come home b4 its 2 l8. Uk I still <3 u.”
Rebecca had bottled it all up for so long. She had tried to stay so strong and yet he kept doing this. Why couldn’t he accept it for the truth? She had left and wasn’t coming home. She was becoming religious. She was getting her life back on track. Her mother had accepted it. Her father had too. But Kevin, he just couldn’t accept it and he kept texting her and calling her.
“I just don’t understand why you
couldn’t realize that when it actually mattered.” Her fingers shook as she typed back her response. Her heart drummed rhythmically as her finger hovered over the send button.
No. She wouldn’t give him the sat-isfaction of knowing it had mattered to her.
“It’s over Kevin & I want u to plz stop txtn me.”
Running her fingers through her hair she tried holding back the inevita-ble tears. Tears because her moth-er wouldn’t even hug her goodbye. Tears because her parents would get divorced and she wouldn’t even be there for them. Tears because she wanted to do the right thing so badly, but everything was piling up against her.
Turning to look to the passenger seat Mrs. Friedman caught the glimmer of the tears trailing down Rebecca’s cheek.
“Are you okay?” she muttered ner-vously realizing how hard this was actually going to be. Rebecca wiped her tears away with her sleeve, embar-rassed that Mrs. Friedman had seen her crying. Biting her lip, holding back the rest of her tears, she nodded and turned to look out the window no-ticing the busy buzz of the Brooklyn community. So different than what she was used to. Finally it hit her and she wondered how ready she actually was for this.
Atara“She’s supposedly the best teacher our school has,” Atara excitedly explained over the phone. “She’s down to earth, funny and very deep all at once!”
“I know,” agreed Shira. “Everyone loves her. She’s perfect for a 12th
grade mechanechet.”
“Yeah especially with all this stress about seminary and everything,” Atara added, “She’s exactly what we need now!”
“Do you have any specific ideas where you’re even going to apply?” Shira asked.
“Not really,” confessed Atara. “But, hey, that’s why Mrs. Strauss will be so perfect. She will probably help out so much with the whole process.”
“That’s true,” Shira agreed again. “I can’t believe the summer is over in legit two days! Do you get that next summer we won’t be in high school anymore?!”
“It’s not normal!” Atara excitedly ex-claimed. “I feel like we were freshies yesterday! When did we get so old? I won’t be surprised if I start finding gray hair!”
“Cummon,” Shira objected, “We ar-en’t actually old. We have our whole lives ahead of us. By the way how’s your GO breakout going?”
Just as Atara was about to answer the doorbell rang. “Hold on,” she in-terrupted as she walked towards the door. The door squeaked gently as Atara opened it. Her mother stood in the doorway. Next to her mother, she stood nervously. Her long awkward skirt. Her baggy tee shirt. She tried looking confident but her uneasiness was spelled across her face.
“Atara,” her mother began, “Hang up
and say hello to Rebecca. She’s going to stay with us.”
“Hi,” Atara quickly muttered before turning from the door and walking away quickly before hurriedly ex-plaining, “Shira you will never believe what’s going on. My parent’s decid-ed to take this not frum girl in.” Atara looked back to where her mother stood with this unwelcome newcomer. For a second her eyes met Rebecca’s. She quickly turned away and added to her friend, “Crazy, you should see her!” Without letting her friend answer she hurriedly hung up, “I have to go.”
To be continued…
Never Look Backa new serialized story by Alti BukalovNew!
YUTTA ZICHERMAN CENTER FOR INTERVENTIONin memory of Yutta Zicherman,
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.com
International Dinner Chairman
AKIVA MEDJUCK
Journal Chairmen
LARRY GOLDFARBUSHER LANGSAMELI ROWE
Dinner Chairmen
BERNIE GLEZERMANHOWIE HERSHKOVICHSHAWN SAFDIE
The Legendary AwardRABBI RONNIEGREENWALD
The Outstanding Community Hero AwardRABBI CHAIM BORUCH(EDGAR) GLUCK
The Visionary AwardRABBI ZECHARIAHWALLERSTEIN
The International Educator AwardRABBI YYRUBINSTEIN
718.647.6228OHRNAAVADINNER.COMM
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Ohr Naava Tribute Dinner To Be Held June 18It’s been eight years since a humble basement program for some fifty girls blossomed into the international-ly-renowned operation and beloved women’s center called Ohr Naava. And after 8 years of providing night-ly inspiration to thousands of enthusiastic attendees, of offering nonstop growth, fun, and connection to grate-ful girls worldwide, at the upcoming Tribute Dinner on June 18, Ohr Naava has good reason to celebrate.
Established in 2004 by legendary educator and vi-sionary Rabbi Zechariah Wallerstein, Ohr Naa-va–founded in loving memory of Naava Katlowitz a”h–was originally created to fill a gaping hole in the community: that of giving Jewish women and girls of all backgrounds a place to recharge their spiritual batteries, build a supportive social network, and en-joy wholesome, creative programming.
Since its inception, however, the center has expanded exponentially, tackling additional contemporary needs that have cropped up–with wisdom, professionalism, and unprecedented energy. Upon realizing the want for a New York seminary offering the same level of education and inspiration as its overseas counterparts, the Ohr Naava team created Ateres in 2009, a hugely popular program in which students can also earn a re-spected Bachelors degree alongside their Kodesh stud-ies. Recently, an Ateres dorm was opened to house the overflowing student population from across the USA.
On the heels of this success, Rabbi Wallerstein soon founded Bnot Chaya Academy, a Brooklyn high school and dormitory with legendary mechanech Rabbi Ron-nie Greenwald at its helm. At Bnot Chaya, girls with nowhere to turn are afforded an exemplary education and a safe, supportive haven in which they can thrive.
The achievement was gratifying. But even with their flourishing high school, sought-after seminary, and paradigmatic nightly women’s program, the Ohr Naa-va team wasn’t satisfied: thus, GALtime, a unique LA and NY-based bi-monthly program for teens in 6th-12th
grade was created, and its jam-packed, thoroughly-en-joyed events reflect the yawning gap that’s been filled.
But there’s more. Introduced in 2011, Ohr Naava’s Shidduch Initiative is a first-of-its-kind program of-fering personalized guidance, encouragement, and networking opportunities for single girls. Staffed with two full-time shadchanim, as well a team of devoted volunteers, the Shidduch Initiative hosts monthly “meet the shadchan” get-togethers, personal appoint-ments, and singles events, all of which offer critical emotional and practical support at this often-difficult life juncture. Since its launch just three months ago, over forty dates have already taken place, and five shidduchim have been made.And in addition to the exciting shidduch division, soon to be inaugurated at the Ohr Naava Annual Dinner is the Yutta Zicherman Intervention Center, a multidisciplinary operation reaching out to wom-en and girls facing difficult life challenges. To be founded in loving memory of Mrs. Yutta Zicherman, a noble woman whose life embodied giving and in-tervening for others in times of crisis, the profession-ally-staffed center—whose scope and development will be determined by dinner proceeds directed to the operation—will carry on her legacy, connecting callers to a plethora of essential services addressing urgent emotional and psychological needs.At the Ohr Naava Tribute Dinner this year, Ohr Naa-va—and its numerous grateful supporters—will reflect on the remarkable journey, and pay tribute to the indi-viduals who made it all happen. Awardees include:Beneficiary of the Visionary Award, Rabbi Zechari-ah Wallerstein is the one who started it all—and the one who continues to be Ohr Naava’s lifeblood.Recipient of the International Educator Award, Rab-bi Y.Y. Rubinstein joined the Ohr Naava Staff this year, to the absolute delight of Ohr Naava and Ateres students. A renowned speaker and author who for-
merly served as staff lecturer at London’s Ohr So-mayach’s Jewish Learning Exchange, Rabbi YY, as he is fondly called, brings his innate warmth, cele-brated humor, and vast Torah knowledge to his au-diences, creating an instant rapport, and touching his listeners’ lives in meaningful ways.A pillar of community activism for over fifty years, Rabbi Chaim Boruch (Edgar) Gluck will be award-ed the Outstanding Community Hero Award for his complete dedication to the Jewish community.Rabbi Ronnie Greenwald, consummate educator and askan, will be bestowed the Legendary Award in recog-nition of his decades of tireless work in Jewish activism.The late Mrs. Yutta Zicherman a”h, for whom the soon-to-be-launched Yutta Zicherman Intervention Center will be named, is to be awarded the evening’s only posthumous award. A paradigm of graciousness and altruism, Yutta was deeply beloved by her fami-ly, friends, and community—and the countless indi-viduals who found themselves on the receiving end of her legendary kindness.The final award to be presented at the dinner is the Shidduch Initiative Award—this year, conferred to four exceptional individuals wholly committed to helping every Ohr Naava girl find her bashert. Rabbi Chaim Tuvia Hanson and Mrs. Zipporah Ginsburg, Ohr Naava’s full-time shadchanim, together with devoted volunteers Mrs. Lisa Elefant and Mrs. Judy Bodner, have already achieved outstanding results: over forty dates have materialized, and five Ohr Naa-va students have gotten engaged in just three months.This year, at the beloved organization’s Tribute Din-ner on June 18, join Ohr Naava’s friends in recogniz-ing the powers behind the victory—and in celebrating a movement that is changing the face of Torah Jewry.For more information about the upcoming dinner, email [email protected], call 718.360.1715, or visit www.ohrnaavadinner.com .
WARNING!The man depicted below is alleged to be claiming he
a Tzedakah collector and breaking into houses in Queens and Brooklyn
stealing valuables. He allegedly enters the house when you open the door
and is said to be extremely dangerous.
This is his picture
DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR FOR THIS MANHe has broken into two houses so far and is still on the loose.If this man comes to your door, call the police and be careful.
This ad was paid for privately on behalf of Chickens for Shabbos, a charity that feeds and clothes Jews in Israel and here in Queens.
Visit www.chickensforshabbos.com or send a check to The Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills Charity Fund, 150-05 70th Road, Flushing, NY 11367
500 West 185th Street | NY, NY 10033 | 212.960.5277 | www.yu.edu/osf
At YU, we understand the cost of Jewish living and the value of
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by Lorey Friedman
No doubt, we have all felt sad at times. But when the sadness incapacitates one from functioning in his/her daily life and the feeling of hopelessness seems overwhelming, it is time to seek medical attention. These symptoms, as well as others are signs of the major medical condition known as depres-sion. While there are various treat-ment options available for combating the symptoms of depression, many of-ten can cause side effects. Some may have sought treatment for depression only to find less than satisfactory re-sults from anti-depressants. Others on medication may feel that depression still has too much control over their lives. For them, it may be the time to consider a proven, non-drug treatment known as TMS.
Dr. Joshua Lamm, a Board Certified Psychiatrist with a private practice in Queens and Manhattan in gener-al psychiatry, remains on the cutting edge of new developments in his field. Seeing the need to bring an alternative treatment for depression and anxiety, Dr. Lamm is the first and only psychiatrist in Queens to offer Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, often referred to as TMS.
TMS is a brand new FDA approved non-medication treatment for resistant depression, and also commonly used for some anxiety disorders. This ther-apy is effective for most patients, in-cluding those who are suffering from post-partum depression and can even be given to nursing mothers. During the TMS therapy session, a coil device is placed over one’s head to deliver magnetic pulses to the brain. These pulses cause electrical changes within the neurons of the left pre-frontal cor-tex, which is the part of the brain that regulates mood. Cells are stimulated within the brain with magnetic fields, which increase activity and release neurotransmitters that change the way the brain thinks.
The procedure, which is non-invasive, has no significant side effects although some may experience mild scalp dis-comfort for the first few treatments. Each treatment session takes about forty minutes to perform and one can resume their regular activities imme-diately after each session. Depend-ing on each individual’s condition, to achieve the most effective result, one
needs to undergo multiple visits each week for three to six weeks.
Unlike other depression treatments such as medications, TMS is not asso-ciated with the common side effects of weight gain, sexual problems, sleepi-ness or memory loss. Even pregnant women can benefit from TMS without worrying about harming their child, since the TMS treatment remains lo-calized within the brain.
After a full course of treatment, TMS participants usually notice a signif-icant reduction in depression symp-toms. They notice improvements in anxiety, appetite, pain and energy levels. One patient who received TMS said, “My medication worked for some period of time and then stopped. Now, after TMS, I’m awake, can stay awake, be alert, and be func-tional.” This is a remarkable achieve-ment in treating a condition which so often can be stubborn and resistant to change. Another local sufferer of depression and anxiety disorder ex-claimed, “TMS has provided me with a magnificent, revitalizing experience that is indescribable.” However, it’s important to realize that no treatment works for every person and TMS is no exception.
Located on Union Turnpike in Fresh Meadows, smack between Kew Gar-dens Hills and Hillcrest, Dr. Lamm and his staff understand that those who seek a psychiatrist are suffer-ing or hurting in some way. Wheth-er one’s treatment is TMS or a more traditional form of treatment using one of the many medications that Dr. Lamm has vast knowledge and experi-ence with, counseling, evaluations, or follow-ups, a visit to Dr. Lamm’s of-fice is made as rewarding and pleasant as possible.
From one’s very first phone call to of-fice manager Sara Dratch, one will re-ceive professionalism, privacy, good cheer, warmth, helpfulness, and most importantly hopefulness.
In addition to Dr. Lamm’s proficien-cy at TMS therapy, Dr. Lamm is dis-tinctly known in the medical world as being an expert in psychopharmaco-logic treatments. He is board certi-fied in psychiatry and neurology. Dr. Lamm spends time with each of his clients, listening and understanding
Queens Now Home to New Cutting Edge Medical Treatment:
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Scenarios are based on the comprehensive cost of a YU undergraduate education for the 2011-2012 academic year, include all scholarships awarded, federal and state grants and loans received, and standard room and board. Additional fees are not included. Financial aid awards are based on many factors, are subject to funding availability and may vary significantly. This is not a guarantee of your actual cost to attend YU.
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them so that he can make an accurate diagnosis and use his knowledge of the medications on the market to pre-scribe the best treatment plan for each individual.
Dr. Lamm understands that his pa-tients want quick results and explains that it may take some time for the treatment plan to show effects. Each case is unique and an individual course of action to achieve success is worked out by the doctor and client. Along with Dr. Lamm’s expertise in medical treatment of psychiatric con-ditions, he maintains that sometimes the best medicine also needs to be combined with psychotherapy. Med-ical treatment often works best when accompanied by talking out one’s feelings and opening up about what is troubling so that a skilled therapist can provide the emotional support of-ten needed at this time.
Fortunately, Mrs. Rebecca (Rivkie) Lamm, a licensed, clinical social worker maintains her own private practice within Dr. Lamm’s office. Mrs. Lamm’s clients span all age ranges; she works with many adoles-cents, college-aged students, young married adults, middle-aged women, and senior citizens. She is helpful to individuals struggling with depres-sion, anxiety and low self-esteem. Using cognitive behavioral therapy, Mrs. Lamm believes in a collabora-tive approach in working with clients and is involved and interactive in her sessions. Her warm, friendly, sup-portive nature makes her an energet-ic and passionate advocate for all of her clients. She can be seen whether or not one is under Dr. Lamm’s care. Her sincere compassion comes di-rectly from her good heart, wisdom, and expertise in her field. As one local client says about Mrs. Lamm,
“Mrs. Lamm, with her skill and con-tagious warmth, provides a source of strength to me. She validates and understands me. With great care she helps me dissect the issues on my mind and together she helps navigate a healthier approach to looking and dealing with my personal concerns and challenges.”
The decision to seek psychiatric help is almost never an easy one. How fortunate the Queens community is to have within its midst a psychiatrist and a clinical social worker who pro-vide individualized attention to every-one who enters their office.
Dr. Lamm provides a combination of twenty-five years of clinical experi-ence and an active interest to embrace the new cutting edge techniques in his field like the TMS therapy he has now brought to the Queens community. In an atmosphere that is friendly, safe, and confidential, Dr. Joshua Lamm and Mrs. Rebecca Lamm take the time to try to understand everyone who turns to them for help.
Life is too good to be spent in darkness and despair. Experts in their fields, who are devoted to bringing back and maintaining quality of life, exist right in our own backyard.
To find out more about TMS therapy, to see if you are a candidate for this new method of treatment, to make an appointment with Dr. Lamm about TMS or other forms of therapy he can offer, call Dr. Joshua Lamm/Queens TMS Center at 718-217-7545. Ap-pointments or to speak with Mrs. Rebecca Lamm can also be made by calling the same office number.
Smiles, peace of mind, better days, and a revolutionary new medical treatment are waiting. They are only a phone call away.
Mr. and Mrs. Lazer BliskoMr. and Mrs. Joseph FaskaMr. and Mrs. Yitchok FeldmanMr. and Mrs. Yoel FridMr. and Mrs. Elliot FriedmanRabbi and Mrs. Je�rey GeizhalsDr. and Dr. Dovid GoldscheinMr. and Mrs. Mordechai GoldsteinMr. and Mrs. Richard Kirschner
Mr. and Mrs. Ralph ManelaMr. and Mrs. Hudi Newman Mr. and Mrs. Shimmy PelmanMr. and Mrs. Yaakov Pollack Mr. and Mrs. Yerachmiel SavetskyMr. and Mrs. Joel ShafranMr. and Mrs. Ari WeissMr. and Mrs. Michael Vatch
Yeshiva Tifereth Moshecordially invites you to attend its
55th Annual Dinner In Tribute To:
Mr. and Mrs. Amir AbramchikGuests of Honor
Dr. and Mrs. Richard GewanterParents of the Year
Rabbi Gedalia NewcombRebbe of the Year
Mrs. Shani ItzkowitzEducator of the Year
55
For Dinner information, please call: 718-846-7300or send us an email at: [email protected]
A leading member of Yemen’s dwin-dling Jewish community was attacked with a knife in the capital Sanaa last Tuesday by a Muslim who accused him of witchcraft.
Rabbi Harun Yusuf Zindani, 50, “was stabbed at Saawan market near the US embassy in northeast Sanaa,” his son Yehya said. “He received stab wounds to his neck and stomach.”
Yehya, who said his father was now in hospital undergoing surgery, said the attacker was a “well-known person who says my father has ruined and be-witched him.”
In 1948, Yemen’s Jewish community numbered some 60,000. But in the three years following the creation of the Jew-ish state that year, more than 48,000 were taken to Israel in a secret operation known as Magic Carpet.
The community continued to dwindle in subsequent decades and by the early 1990s it numbered only around 1,000 people. The lifting of a longstanding trav-el ban in 1993 sparked a fresh exodus.
Barely 300 people remain from the Jewish community in Yemen.
Rabbi Zindani is originally from the northern province of Saada where Zaidi Shiite rebels fought a bloody war against the regime of former strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Since 2007, authorities have moved members of the minority community from Saada to a safe neighborhood in Sanaa near the US embassy. Over the weekend, the country’s chief rabbi called on the country’s president to al-low the Jewish community and other minority groups to have seats in the country’s parliament.
“I demand the government’s new at-tention to this, to work to allocate seats for members of the community in the Consultative Council and Parliament, in order to feel real citizenship, non-dis-crimination, a right guaranteed by our law and the Constitution,” said Rabbi Yahia Youssef Moussa in an interview with CNN Arabic.
Rabbi Moussa said he emphasized to the president the importance of the Jew-ish community to Yemen and that the Jewish community would like to serve
in the government in order to help its own community and all the people of Yemen. (EJ Press)
Pakistani Doctor Accused Of Helping U.S. Gets 33
Years In PrisonA Pakistani doctor accused of helping
the CIA track down Osama bin Laden was sentenced last Wednesday to 33 years in prison for treason.
Shakeel Afridi was also fined $3,500 for spying for the United States, said Na-sir Khan, a Khyber Agency official, and Fazal Mehmood, an official from the trib-al court that handed down the sentence.
The court heard the case against Af-ridi for two months. The doctor was not afforded a chance to defend himself, which is in accordance with the laws of the tribal justice system, the two of-ficials said.
Afridi was present at the sentencing and was sent to the central jail in nearby Peshawar.
Afridi helped the CIA use a vaccina-tion campaign in an attempt to collect DNA samples from residents of bin Laden’s compound in the city of Ab-bottabad to verify the al Qaeda leader’s presence there.
Bin Laden was killed in the subse-quent U.S. raid on the compound in May of last year.
At least one legal analyst said Afridi’s sentence was a sham.
Islamabad-based lawyer Shahzad Akbar said the punishment was handed down by a tribal court in Khyber even though the alleged offense occurred in Abbottabad, which raises questions about the legitimacy of the proceedings.
“This judgment won’t last,” Akbar told CNN. “If this punishment is chal-lenged by Dr. Afridi’s family in the Superior Court of Pakistan, there is a good possibility that the sentence will be turned around.”
Human rights groups have often ac-cused tribal courts of violating the fair trial process guaranteed under Paki-stan’s constitution.
Akbar said the Afridi ruling could be a move by the government to save face without making a spectacle out of a sen-sitive situation. (CNN)
Survey: Facebook Wrecks Marriages
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg changed his status to “married” last Saturday and received over one million “likes” from his followers. But the site he founded isn’t always so marriage-friendly. In fact, lawyers say the social network contributes to an increasing number of marriage breakups.
More than a third of divorce filings last year contained the word Facebook, according to a U.K. survey by Divorce Online, a legal services firm. And over 80% of U.S. divorce attorneys say they’ve seen a rise in the number of cas-es using social networking, according to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. “I see Facebook issues break-ing up marriages all the time,” says Gary Traystman, a divorce attorney in New London, Conn. Of the 15 cases he handles per year where computer history, texts and emails are admitted as evidence, 60% exclusively involve Facebook.
“Affairs happen with a lightning speed on Facebook,” says K. Jason Krafsky, who authored the book “Face-book and Your Marriage” with his wife Kelli. In the real world, he says, office romances and out-of-town trysts can take months or even years to develop. “On Facebook,” he says, “they happen in just a few clicks.” The social network is different from most social networks or dating sites in that it both re-connects old flames and allows people to “friend” someone they may only met once in passing. “It puts temptation in the path of people who would never in a million years risk having an affair,” he says. Facebook declined to comment.
When couples do end up in divorce court, lawyers say Facebook posts are used to determine alimony and child custody. Last year, a superior district court judge in Connecticut ordered a divorcing couple to hand over the pass-words of their respective Facebook to the other’s lawyers. One lawyer says it’s an extremely useful vehicle to gather evidence. “It helps me cross-examine a witness.” Any pattern of behavior that’s recorded on Facebook relating to par-enting skills, excessive partying or even disparaging remarks about a spouse that violates a court order could be admis-sible in court. Of course, it’s not Face-book’s fault it’s being dragged through divorce court, he says, “It’s the people who use it.” (Smart Money Magazine)
Belgium’s health minister said she was “profoundly troubled” by the be-havior of her Israeli counterpart, Yaa-kov Litzman, after the charedi Ortho-dox minister refused to shake her hand at a conference.
“My hands are clean!” read a text that appeared on the official Facebook site of the Belgian health minister Laurette Onkelinx. “This is the second time a minister refuses to shake my hand because I am a woman. The first was Iranian. The second one was the Is-raeli health minister here in Geneva. This kind of fundamentalist attitude, connect-ed to a certain perception of religion and women, profoundly troubles me.”
Litzman and Onkelinx met last Wednesday at the annual World Health Assembly.
“The minister’s childish reaction demonstrates her ignorance,” said Mi-chael Freilich, editor in chief of Joods Actueel, Belgium’s largest Jewish pub-lication, which reported on the story. “Mr. Litzman’s refusal to shake Ms. Onkelinx’s hand had nothing to do with
any view on women or impurity. Ultra-Orthodox women are also forbidden from touching members of the opposite sex. It’s the custom. A more seasoned politician would have been aware of this sensibility in advance.” (Jewish Journal)
Man Who Thwarted Plane Bombing Thanked By El Al – 42 Years LaterYoel Lavi doesn’t immediately strike
you as a hero. But the 92-year-old grandpa certainly deserves the title: In 1970, he saved the lives of 154 El Al passengers when he prevented a bomb from being loaded on a Tel Aviv-bound flight from Frankfurt.
Only a handful of security officers
knew of Lavi’s laudable act. And only now - 42 years after the fact - did he fi-nally receive the thank you he deserves in the form of a plaque of appreciation from El Al and the Shin Bet.
Lavi immigrated to Israel as a teen, alone, in 1935, as part of the Youth Ali-yah, a movement that saved numerous kids from the Nazis. His entire family later died in the Holocaust. He soon enlisted with the Haganah, the army organization that turned into the Israel Defense Forces after the State of Israel was founded. He was one of the first of-ficials to join the Shin Bet, Israel’s in-ternal security agency, in 1949.
In the late ’60s, prompted by a wave of terror attacks involving planes, the Shin Bet deployed officers to large air-ports worldwide. After a brief training session, where he was taught to identify fake passports, Lavi was stationed in Frankfurt due to his fluency in German.
Unlike today’s harsh cargo security regulations, back then the policy was simple: Packages were delayed at the airport for three days to make sure that they didn’t contain a bomb that might go off midair.
On February 20, 1970, the head of El Al’s cargo department turned to Lavi with a request. A package that was on its way to Israel had a time sensitivity that required the three-day rule to be broken.
“He said that it was present for an im-portant man that had to arrive in Jerusa-lem on Saturday night,” Lavi recalled. “But I said it was out of the question.”
Lavi did not relent even when the dis-trict postmaster called him and tried to pressure him.
“My whole body was shaking when he called me on Friday afternoon at my home,” he said. “You have to realize that the postal service in Germany is a pow-erful institution. But I refused to give in.”
Finally, he advised the postmaster to send the packages with another airline. That night he could not fall asleep, and in the morning he reported the incident to the police at the airport.
Four hours later, the police com-mander stormed into his office and asked Lavi to accompany him. The two drove onto the airport’s runway, where they saw an Austrian Airways plane - with a “huge gaping hole” in its un-derside. The urgent package that Lavi refused to accept was then transferred to the Austrian aircraft, and exploded shortly after takeoff. Miraculously, the pilot managed to land the plane safely; none of the passengers were hurt.
“Back then, I didn’t feel like a hero,” Lavi said. The El Al flight arrived in Tel Aviv as planned, but a different flight that left at the same time from Zur-ich made for a painful reminder to the
catastrophe that Lavi prevented. Nine minutes after taking off, a bomb that was planted on the plane went off, kill-ing 38 passengers, including 15 Israelis.
“The public didn’t know about the thwarted attack, but we knew that dad prevented a big incident,” one of his sons, Udi, said. “I think that my dad is a great hero.” (YNet)
Israel In Mourning: Thousands Attend Levaya
Of The Family Killed In Tragic Car Crash
Thousands attended the heart-rending levaya of the Attias family last Tues-day, as the eight members of the fam-ily, killed in a car crash near Tiveriah last Monday, were brought to rest at the cemetery in Tzefas a day later.
The deceased are Rafi and Yehudit, the parents, aged 42; their daughter, Avia, 17; twin sons Shimon and Ely-shav, 16; Shira, 11; Tair, 9; and Noa, 5. The Attias family hailed from the small village of Bar Yochai. Rachel Atias, 7, was the only member of the family to survive the crash.
An initial investigation into the cause of the crash, which occurred on a wind-ing road near Tiberias, pointed to a brake failure.
Authorities indicated that Attias’s Mitsubishi had passed a mandatory yearly inspection three months ago, bringing new questions about the inci-dent to the fore.
They also believe the high speed of the car - which was traveling some 80 miles per hour when it veered off the road - was a result of the malfunction of the brakes rather than the fault of the driver.
Authorities believe that Attias lost control of the car near Tiberias after the brakes malfunctioned, and that the wheels caught fire after the car hit the highway’s concrete separation barrier. The car then jumped to the opposite side of the highway, broke through a fence, and raced through a field where it ultimately rolled into a swale and flipped over.
Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, speaking in Jerusalem last Wednesday evening, sent condolences to the survi-vor, Rachel, who was released from the hospital that day.
“Rachel, the entire nation is with you. We are all hugging you,” he said.
Police Detain Women At Kotel Over Prayer ShawlsThree women from the Women of the
Wall organization were briefly detained by police last Tuesday morning, the group said, for wearing prayer shawls, or talitot, at the Western Wall plaza.
According to a 2001 law, it is illegal for women to perform religious practices
at holy sites traditionally done by men in Orthodox Jewish practice, such as read-ing from a Torah scroll, wearing tefillin or a prayer shawl, or blowing the shofar.
Approximately 40 women from the Women of the Wall group, which cam-paigns for equal rights at the Western Wall plaza, went to the site last Tuesday morn-ing, the first day of the new month, to pray.
According to Sarit Horwitz, 26, one of the women stopped by the police, a policewoman approached her during the group’s prayer service and told her to adjust the talit she was wearing be-cause she was wearing it as a man does. A male officer then adjusted the talit for her without her permission.
Upon exiting the plaza, three women, including Horwitz, were briefly de-tained by the police who took their per-sonal identification and contact details,
although they did not give a specific reason for the demand.
The women were told that they would be contacted in order to present them-selves to the police for further inves-tigation and questioning because they had “offended the law.”
“It’s frightening to me that a woman wearing a talit is a criminal threat to the state of Israel,” Horwitz told The Jerusa-lem Post.
In 2004, an area abutting the Western Wall – adjacent to Robinson’s Arch, but separate from the Western Wall plaza – was inaugurated as a place of prayer for non-Orthodox Jewish groups to pray as they wish.
However, Women of the Wall prayer group chairwoman Anat Hoffman said the site is inadequate since there are no chairs, prayer books or Torah scrolls
available for use. Additionally, the prayer space is only open during operat-ing hours of the Jerusalem Archaeologi-cal Park where it is located, and there-fore is not available in the evenings. (JPost)
Miracle: Man Survives 180-Foot Plunge Over
Niagara FallsA man survived a plunge of at least 180
feet over Niagara Falls in an apparent sui-cide attempt last Monday - only the third person known to have lived after going over the falls without a safety device.
Niagara Parks Police said witnesses re-ported seeing the man climb over a railing 20 to 30 feet out over the Horseshoe Falls at 10:20 a.m. and “deliberately jump” into the Niagara River. Seriously injured, he surfaced in the lower Niagara River basin near the Journey Behind the Falls observa-tion platform and managed to make it to shore on his own.
“He waded ashore,” said Platoon Chief Dan Orescanin of the Niagara Falls, On-tario, Fire Department. “He must have gotten swept into an eddy, floated over there and was able to get out on his own.
“That’s another stroke of luck,” Ores-canin said. “If he was in the main current, he would have been swept down river.”
Orescanin said the man was conscious and talking at first but got quiet. He ap-peared to have chest injuries, including broken ribs and a collapsed lung, Ores-canin said.
The man was airlifted to Hamilton General Hospital with what police ini-tially said were life-threatening injuries. Hospital spokeswoman Agnes Bongers said later that the man was critically in-jured but was expected to survive.
Horseshoe Falls, on the Canadian side of the river, is the tallest of the three main falls, higher than the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls.
The man, believed to be in his 30s or 40s, was rescued after fire department rescuers rappelled down the steep and rocky gorge and pulled him in a basket back up the cliff.
About seven rescuers struggled to carry the basket up to a point where it could be lifted with ropes suspended from an aerial truck.
“We had to basically hand carry him back up, a foot at a time, up the rope,” the chief said.
Although several daredevils have survived trips over the falls in barrels or other contraptions, beginning with Annie Edison Taylor in 1901, few have survived unprotected. In 1960, 7-year-old Roger Woodward was swept over the falls wearing a life jacket and survived.
The last person to go over the falls unaided and live was a 30-year-old Ca-nadian man in March 2009. In October 2003, Kirk Jones, an out-of-work auto parts salesman from Michigan survived his plunge over the falls. (AP)
Study Suggests Congress May Be Getting DumberThink members of Congress act like
a bunch of high school students? You might be on to something. A recent study from the Sunlight Foundation found that members of Congress tend to speak at about a 10th- grade level.
The Sunlight Foundation analyzed every word spoken by every member of Congress on the floor of the House or Senate. Sunlight imported the words into a searchable database and then “ran them through an algorithm to determine the grade level of congressional discourse,” according to a buzzy story from NPR.
The finding: Congress is speaking at a lower academic level. Back in 2005, mem-bers of Congress spoke at a level equal to a high school junior. Now, the numbers have dropped off. Congress talks like a bunch of sophomores. Sunlight used something called the “Flesch-Kinkaid” scale to deter-mine speech level. Longer sentences and words with more syllables equal higher grade levels.
Some interesting factoids from the Sunlight Foundation’s study:
-”Prior to 2005, Republicans on aver-age spoke at a slightly higher grade level than Democrats. Since then, Democrats have spoken on average at a slightly higher grade level than Republicans.”
-On average, Congress members who are moderate speak at a higher level. Those on the far right and left speak at a lower level.
-Don’t assume you speak at a higher level than your representative. The aver-age American speaks between an eighth- and ninth-grade level.
It is tempting to see these results and say, “Congress is getting dumber,” but a piece from the Atlantic suggests another theory. Perhaps Congress is just getting better at getting its points across. After all, why make an issue or speech or anec-dote more complicated than it has to be? (The Upshot)
Half Of Detroit’s Streetlights May Go Out
As City ShrinksDetroit, whose 139 square miles con-
tain 60 percent fewer residents than in 1950, will try to nudge them into a smaller living space by eliminating al-most half its streetlights.
As it is, 40 percent of the 88,000 streetlights are broken and the city, whose finances are to be overseen by an appointed board, can’t afford to fix them. Mayor Dave Bing’s plan would create an authority to borrow $160 million to upgrade and reduce the number of street-lights to 46,000. Maintenance would be contracted out, saving the city $10 mil-lion a year.
Other U.S. cities have gone partially dark to save money, among them Colo-rado Springs; Santa Rosa, California; and Rockford, Illinois. Detroit’s plan goes further: It would leave sparsely populated swaths unlit in a commu-nity of 713,000 that covers more area than Boston, Buffalo and San Francisco combined. Vacant property and parks account for 37 square miles (96 square kilometers), according to city planners.
“You have to identify those neighbor-hoods where you want to concentrate your population,” said Chris Brown, Detroit’s chief operating officer. “We’re not going to light distressed areas like we
light other areas.”Detroit’s dwindling income and prop-
erty-tax revenue have required residents to endure unreliable buses and strained police services throughout the city. Be-cause streetlights are basic to urban life, deciding what areas to illuminate will reshape the city, said Kirk Cheyfitz, co-founder of a project called Detroit143 — named for the 139 square miles of land, plus water — that publicizes neighbor-hood issues.
Only major streets and intersections remain lit in the city of 12,000, once home to Chrysler Group LLC’s name-sake car manufacturer and Henry Ford’s first moving assembly line. Mayor De-Andre Windom, 45, said residents at first complained, though few do now. He’s considering grants and private funding to relight darkened streets. (Bloomberg)
Port Authority Hoping To Privately Finance $3.6
Billion Renovation Of LaGuardia Airport
It’s been ranked as the worst major airport in the entire country, but Queens’ LaGuardia Airport is in for a $3.6 billion face-lift.
The central terminal will be torn down piece by piece and rebuilt, CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer reported last Monday.
It’s cramped, it’s crowded and it’s dark. It handles 11.5 million passengers a year in a space designed for 8 million, and its gates are too small to handle many big planes.
“Some of the access ways especially ‘D’ are very, very narrow and when you compare it to other airports in the United States it’s pretty dingy,” Woodmere resi-dent Michael Zuckerman said.
“I avoid this airport as much as I pos-sibly can. I’d rather take transfers when possible rather than fly out of here,” Medford’s Scott Nudelman added.
LaGuardia Airport is definitely the place travelers love to hate, even though it’s the closest to the city. So, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has heard the complaints and is planning on doing the massive rebuild.
“The central terminal building was a fine facility when it was built in its day. It, today, services millions more people than it was designed to accommodate,” Port Authority Executive Director Pat Foy said.
The Port Authority is seeking a private company to foot the lion’s share of the bill, and it’s such a good deal 15 firms have expressed interest.
“Using private dollars for airport ter-minals is new to the United States. It is most certainly not new around the world,” Port Authority Deputy Execu-tive Director Bill Baroni said.
The new terminal will also have wid-er gates so bigger planes that can carry more passengers can land at LaGuardia, officials said.
“The airspace in the region is con-strained. One of the ways we can in-crease capacity here in the New York/New Jersey region, in particular, is to allow larger aircraft to access the central terminal building,” Foy said.
Construction is expected to begin in 2014 and could take as long as eight years because airport officials want to minimize passenger inconvenience. (CBS Local)
Brooklyn Leads City In Total Murders, Crown Heights #1
Just another reason to live in Queens. Brooklyn remains the city’s bloodiest borough - accounting for about 38% of last year’s murders, NYPD statistics re-leased last Friday show.
In delivering an analysis of last year’s homicides, the NYPD revealed that there have been 136 murders this year - a re-duction of 20% from the same period last year. But shootings are up 6% this year.
Of the 515 homicides last year, about 196 occurred in Brooklyn, mostly in a cluster of neighborhoods that include Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights and East New York.
The borough’s numbers are down slightly from 2010, when Brooklyn topped the charts with 42% of the city’s 536 murders.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Thursday that a host of tactics - in-cluding a partnership with local clergy to host gun buyback programs - has been used to combat crime in the borough.
“Due in part to this relationship, mur-ders in Brooklyn North fell by 13% last year, more than three times the citywide rate of decline,” Kelly said.
The Bronx logged about 29% of last year’s murders - slightly less than Man-hattan and Queens combined, the report shows. Only 3% of the slayings were committed on Staten Island.
The report also shows a significant ra-cial disparity in the killings.
About 62% of all victims were black, although that demographic makes up about 23% of the city’s population, the report shows.
About 38% of murder victims were black men between 16 and 37 years old, the stats show.
The records also show that nearly 75% of all victims had prior arrests and about 11% were confirmed gang members.
One in five homicide victims were women, 54% of them killed in domestic violence incidents, stats show. (NY Daily News)
Taxi Fares Could Jump By 20 Percent
The first taxi fare increase in six years could soon hit the city, officials said last Monday.
Citing inflation and rising gas prices, the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commis-sion announced that it is seeking public
input on a fare hike.Sources told DNAinfo.com New York
the increase would likely be between 16 and 20 percent.
“The fare hasn’t changed since 2006, so it is reasonable for taxi drivers and fleet owners to put this on the table,” TLC Commissioner David Yassky said in a statement. “We will consider their peti-tions over the next couple of months.”
Gas prices have risen 45 percent since 2006, from $2.70 to $3.90 per gallon, but taxi fares have not kept pace, the TLC said. Over the same period, the Metro-politan Transportation Authority’s sub-way fare has increased by 12.5 percent, the commission added. (DNA Info)
$1 Million Parking Spot Will Be New York City’s
Most ExpensiveYou’ll need a trunk full of cash to park
here.The city’s first million-dollar parking
space is on the market.The private garage at 66 E. 11th St.
costs six times more than the national-average price of a single-family home. Buying it would be the same as paying a $115 ticket for illegal parking every day - for 24 years.
For moguls or celebrities, however, the rare commodity of a Manhattan parking space inside their building, with a curb cut at the street, is a huge status symbol and selling point.
The hot space is about 12 feet wide, 23 feet long and more than 15 feet high. The spot could be “duplexed” if the buyer de-cides to install an elevator lift so he or she can slide both the Maserati and the Lamborghini in at the same time. The parking spot will have its own deed and
sales contract, and be charged mainte-nance fees, just as a condo would.
The city’s gaudiest garage is expected to hit the market this fall, after construc-tion is complete and the Attorney Gen-eral’s Office signs off on the building’s condo conversion.
Last year, developer Morad Fareed purchased the eight-story prewar loft building for $120 million and is in the process of converting the former parking garage into six luxury condominiums with mammoth, 15-foot-high ceilings.
The jewel in the building’s crown is the 8,000 square-foot duplex penthouse, with a private 3,000 square-foot terrace, which will be listed for $38.8 million.
The parking space isn’t the only ame-nity: the shower water will be pumped full of vitamin C and aloe, and the apart-ments will have heat reflexology floor-ing. The lighting patterns and air quality in the building are designed to provide its residents with a better night’s rest.
The sky-high price for a slab of con-crete is a sign of a resurgent real-estate market, experts said.
“If you have an opportunity to buy a space in your building, you’re going to take advantage of that,” said Robert Knackal, chairman of Massey Knackal. “The reality of New York City is that people are willing to pay more for a parking spot than the average person in
the country pays for a home.”The city’s second most expensive park-
ing spot is a 300-square-foot “en suite” sky garage that’s inside of a $7 million penthouse at 200 11th Ave. (NY Post)
Man Busted After Driving Zebra To Bar
It seemed like a good idea at the time.An Iowa man who took his pet zebra
and parrot to a bar was busted for drunk-en driving.
Jerald Reiter, of Cascade, was arrested last Sunday in the parking lot of the Dog House bar in Dubuque, where people had been taking photos of the animals.
Reiter said his small zebra and macaw parrot were pets and liked riding in the truck. He claimed he sometimes takes the animals into the bar, but the owner said they’re not allowed inside.
Officers gave Reiter a field sobriety test and charged him with drunken driv-ing. Reiter disputed the arrest, saying he was about to let a passenger, a person,
begin driving. He said he thought some-one who came to see the animals called police. (NBC Bay Area)
Drunk Man Run Over By Train, Emerges Unscathed
Ever woken with a hangover that felt like you’d been run over by a train? One Canadian man does — because he was.
A drunk man passed out on some train tracks in British Columbia last Sunday night and didn’t wake up until after 26 cars of the train had rumbled over him, CBC News reported.
Miraculously, he survived without a scratch, a stroke of luck police chalked up to his small stature and his incredibly drunk state.
“Had he have been rousted out of his state of unconsciousness and sat up or moved at all it certainly could have been a tragic end,” Sgt. Dave Dubnyk of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.
The train’s engineer saw the man ly-ing on the tracks in Elko, B.C., just east of the Rockies as he approached but couldn’t stop in time, Dubnyk said.
By the time the train stopped, 26 cars of it had passed over the man, and the engineer assumed he was dead. Not so.
“Rail personnel grabbed this gentle-man and seemed to rouse him out of his state of intoxicated unconsciousness. And he got up, grabbed his beer and was on his way,” Dubnyk told CBC News.
The drunk wandered off to a nearby campground before police caught up with him and hauled him off to the drunk tank.
Men Drive Stolen Church Van To JailTwo men in a hurry to visit a Califor-
nia jail found themselves behind bars when they allegedly hijacked a church van to get to there quicker, police said.
Dave Kendall, who works for the Church of Christ Within in Stockton as a driver for a van designated to give rides to people who can’t afford other transporta-tion, said he agreed to give Cortez Craig, 55, and Cornell Moses, 31, a ride to the San Joaquin County Jail to visit an inmate Tuesday and the men got angry when the stops he had lined up first took too much time.
“And I wouldn’t move fast enough for them, because I had other things to do. And they were impatient so they decided to assault me and take the keys by force,” Kendall said.
“They basically punched me in the head a few times, kicked me a few times, grabbed the keys and ran,” Kendall said.
Police said the men took the van to the jail as they had planned, but were quickly arrested on felony carjacking charges.
“These criminals were not very smart on Tuesday,” Detective Joe Silva said.
Kendall said the incident will not stop him from fulfilling his duties.
“I was homeless for the better part of thirty years,” Kendall said. “And if peo-ple are willing to help me, then I am will-ing to help people.” (UPI)
Turkey Probes Dead Bird It Suspects Is Israeli Spy
It’s a bird! It’s an Israeli spy! It’s a — well, it’s probably a bird.
Turkish authorities are investigating a dead bird they think might be an Israeli spy, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
According to the report, a farmer found the dead European bee-eater and noticed that its leg was banded with a ring that said “Israel.” (Bird-banding lets ornithologists track migration routes.)
He handed the bird’s body over to the government, and security officials inves-tigating it found what they reportedly considered cause for alarm: Its suspi-ciously sized nostrils.
The nostrils were large enough for Is-raeli intelligence agency Mossad to have implanted a surveillance device inside, according to the report.
But a bird expert told Yedioth Ahronoth that the bee-eaters often pass through Is-rael and Turkey during their migration from Europe, and a conservation society confirmed that the bird under investiga-tion was banded four years ago.
Birds banded in Israel have triggered suspicion in the region before. Last year Saudi Arabia detained an Israel-banded vulture carrying a GPS transmitter with Tel Aviv University’s name on it, sus-pecting it of an espionage plot. (NBC Bay Area)
Babe Ruth Jersey Sells For $4.4 Million
Babe Ruth equals big bucks.A baseball jersey worn by The Bam-
bino sold for more than $4.4 million last Sunday, a record for any item of sports memorabilia, according to the buyer and seller.
SCP Auctions, based in California, said the circa 1920 New York Yankees uniform top is the earliest known jersey worn by Ruth and it fetched $4,415,658 at the company’s April auction. That price broke the previous record of $4,338,500 set in 2010 for James Naismith’s found-ing rules of basketball.
Lelands.com said it submitted the win-ning bid for the jersey, which had been displayed for years at The Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum in Baltimore.
In addition, Ruth’s 1934 New York Yankees cap that was owned by former major league pitcher David Wells sold for $537,278 at auction. The colorful Wells bought the cap for about $30,000 from a collector and famously paid homage to his idol by wearing it on the mound with the Yankees during a game on June 28, 1997.
“This proves again that Babe Ruth is ‘king’ in the sports memorabilia world,” SCP Auctions president David Kohler said in a statement.
Also included in the auction was the high-end baseball card collection be-longing to former big league All-Star
Dmitri Young. Top prices were a 1954 Hank Aaron rookie card ($537,954) and a 1955 Roberto Clemente rookie card ($432,690). The proceeds will help Young begin a foundation to help kids and student athletes near his home in Ventura County, Calif., SCP Auctions said.
Other auction highlights included:• 1924-28 Babe Ruth H&B profes-
sional model game-used bat ($591,007).• 1968 Mickey Mantle autographed
New York Yankees game-worn road jer-sey ($366,967).
• Circa 1931 Lou Gehrig New York Yankees game-worn home jersey ($275,706).
• Bobby Thomson’s 1951 “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” cap ($173,102).
• Jackie Robinson 1950 All-Star game professional model bat ($133,234). (AP)
Bee Swarm Traps Family Inside Car In ManhattanA giant swarm of bees picked a Volvo
for its new hive, trapping a family inside their car.
An estimated 10,000 wild honey bees gathered on the passenger side of the car last Sunday afternoon as it was parked at Pier 92 on the west side.
The car owner says he and his fam-ily tried to drive around to shake off the bees, but when that didn’t work, he ran to get help.
That’s when a police officer, who is also a bee keeper, was called in to vacu-um up the swarm.
“You can see where they started to build a nest over there, wax in the mirror and on the side,” said NYPD beekeeper Anthony Planakis. “That’s what they were looking to do, start a new home.”
The driver’s wife and infant daughter were trapped inside until firefighters got them out.
No bees were harmed and they were moved into a new hive.
Moviegoer Punches Disruptive 10-Year-Old
In The FaceA Washington state man fed up with a
group of noisy moviegoers behind him stepped over the seat and punched a 10-year-old boy in the face.
The man, who told police he thought the person he hit was a grown man, was watch-ing “Titanic” in 3-D with his girlfriend and had asked the people sitting behind to quiet down and stop throwing popcorn, but they laughed at him, he said.
The 10-year-old lost a tooth and had a bloody nose in the confrontation.
Kim spent a night in the Kent city jail and appeared April 12 in King County District
Court and was released, said county pros-ecutor’s spokesman Dan Donohoe.
Kim was charged May 16 with second-degree assault. If convicted, he could be sentenced to three to nine months in jail, Donohoe said last Tuesday.
The boy, identified in the police re-port as KJJ, was at the theater with three friends. They said they were watching the movie and talking when Kim told them to be quiet. They quieted down, but KJJ says when he whispered some-thing, Kim jumped over the seat, threw an iced drink at them and punched KJJ in the face.
Kim said something to the effect of “You know what, I paid a lot of money to see this movie,” the police report said.
Kim told police the boys’ behavior was worse than talking. He says they were hitting him and his girlfriend with pop-corn, running back and forth in the aisle and bumping him with their arms. (AP)
Europe Soccer Games Get “Oracle Hog” To
Predict WinsForget rankings and coin tosses. A psy-
chic pig is the latest tool European soc-cer tournament organizers intend to use to predict who wins matches, Reuters reported.
Those behind the Euro 2012 champi-onships said they had found “a unique oracle hog, a real Ukrainian pig and a psychic which knows the mysteries of football” to deliver daily predictions dur-ing the games come June, according to Reuters.
The pig follows in the tentacle-steps of Paul, the now-dead octopus employed to predict results of World Cup 2010 match-es.
A statement by city officials in Kiev, Ukraine — where many of the Euro 2012 matches will take place — said the pig would predict the winner of the up-coming match every day at 4 p.m., Re-uters noted.
They said they hoped the animal would drum up public interest in the games in the same way Paul did two years ago.
Ukraine has been under international pressure leading into the games over its treatment of imprisoned opposition lead-er Yulia Tymoshenko.
Man Scales Airport Fence, Breaks into Jet for Fun: Cops
One man wasn’t taking any chances when it came to missing his flight.
A 28-year-old Israeli man is in hot water after he allegedly scaled a fence at the Nashville airport in the middle of the night, then broke into and boarded an American Airlines plane that was parked at a gate, The Tennessean reported.
“I own the world,” Ram Porat told police, according to the arrest report. “It was something I wanted to do and an ob-
stacle I wanted to overcome.”He never gained access to secured
areas of the Nashville International Air-port, but he did make it into the plane, parked at gate C-19, before airline em-ployees found him there and called the police.
Cops charged Porat with unlawful en-try to a secured airport area and aircraft as well as with vandalism and criminal trespass. According to Israeli newspa-per Yediot Ahronoth, he was released on $14,000 bail.
The Tennessean reported that Porat damaged the airport fence, which was marked with “no trespassing” signs as a secure area, in the process of scaling it.
Both papers reported that Porat had been arrested just last week for driving under the influence and drug offenses af-ter he was found with almost 16 grams of marijuana during a traffic stop.
Vial Of Ronald Reagan’s Blood: Auction Called OffAn auction house announced Thurs-
day that it plans to donate a vial contain-ing dried blood residue said to be from President Ronald Reagan to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation instead of selling the item.
The vial had been taken from a labora-tory that tested Reagan’s blood for lead in the days after he was seriously wounded by a would-be assassin in 1981.
Bidding for the items on the PFC Auc-tions website was at $30,086 when the item was pulled, according to the compa-ny. The bid deadline was set for Thursday evening.
After it was removed from the labora-tory by someone who worked at the lab, the vial was obtained during a February auction in the United States. The lot de-scription said the vial holds a “sample of President Ronald Reagan’s blood after an assassination attempt in 1981.”
Reagan’s family and his surgeon criti-cized the proposed sale.
“We are very pleased with this out-come and wish to thank the consignor and PFC Auctions for their assistance in this matter,” said John Heubusch, ex-ecutive director for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.
“While we contend that the removal of the vial from the hospital laboratory and the U.S. auction sale in February 2012 were not legal acts in our opinion, we are grateful to the current custodian of the vial for this generous donation to the Foundation Ensuring President Reagan’s blood remains out of public hands.”
The consignor, a collector of presi-dential memorabilia who asked to re-main anonymous, purchased the vial for $3,550 at the February auction.
“I just don’t think people should profit from it,” said Joseph Maddalena, of Pro-file in History Auction House in LA. “I would never do it. It’s kind of poor taste. Selling somebody’s blood? It’s a little creepy.” (Yahoo News)
Cops: NY Man Shoots Friend In Leg At His Request
Authorities say a northern New York
man had his friend shoot him in the leg with a rifle because he wanted to know what it feels like to be shot.
State police in St. Lawrence County say the shooting occurred around 5 p.m. last Sunday in the rural town of Stock-holm when 25-year-old Shawn Mossow of neighboring Norfolk relented to his friend’s repeated requests and shot him once in the right leg with a .22-caliber rifle.
The 24-year-old man from Norfolk is expected to make a full recovery. Police haven’t released his name.
Mossow was charged with reckless endangerment. He’s being held in the county jail on $10,000 bail. (AP)
She Was Mistaken For Dead; Now She’s
A New MomIt’s been six years since Whitney Cer-
ak’s funeral was held, after a case of mis-taken identity. Since then, she has got-ten married and recently became a new mom.
On April 26, 2006, Cerak was in a car accident in Indiana that killed five people when a truck lost control, crossing the median and smashing into a van full of students from nearby Taylor University. Initially, a girl who survived the accident and was covered in bandages in the hos-pital was incorrectly believed to be Laura Van Ryn, 22, another young blonde who resembled Cerak and was also in the ac-cident.
Five weeks after the crash, as the pa-tient began to regain her appearance and memory, the Van Ryn family began to have their doubts that she was their daughter. Meanwhile, Cerak’s parents held a funeral for her that was attended by more than 1,400 people. After hold-ing a vigil by her bedside for weeks as she recovered, Van Ryn’s family finally asked the girl her name, and she replied, “Whitney.’’
The Cerak family’s joy upon hear-ing their daughter was alive became the devastation of the Van Ryn family, who learned it was their daughter who died.
Cerak, now 25, has had plenty of ma-jor events in her life since the case of mistaken identity
In March of 2010, Cerak married Matt Wheeler in the same church where her death was once mourned. Four weeks ago, the young couple had a baby boy.
In the aftermath of the accident, Van Ryn’s body had been buried under a tombstone bearing Cerak’s name. In June 2006, the family had her body exhumed so they could have a private graveside service. They reburied her near family in Grand Rapids Township, Mich. Don and Susie Van Ryn moved to Michigan’s
upper peninsula to operate a Bible camp soon after Laura’s death.
“I think it changed our perspective on some things in life, and moving here, we could get involved in the ministry and do it now instead of waiting until we were older,’’ Susie said.
The families of the two girls remain close, with a relationship forged by an unimaginable ordeal. (MSNBC)
Boy In Washington State Rescued From Edge Of
WaterfallThere are some days in the Pacific
Northwest when its better to stay dry, indoors. Today is one of those days for William Hickman, 13, who nearly went over a 265-foot waterfall last Sunday.
Hickman was hiking with his father and some friends when he slipped and went over the edge of the upper falls, a 10-foot drop into a narrow, but deep pool that leads to the huge, cascading Wallace Falls.
‘I was thinking it wasn’t real, like, ‘This cannot be happening,’” said Hick-man. “When I fell, I was in standing po-sition with my hand up and I was com-pletely underwater and there was a lot of space below my feet.”
Hickman said as soon as he surfaced, he knew he had to get to shore or risk being swept over the 265-foot drop.
It was hours until Hickman was pulled to the safety of higher ground. Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Unit and Gold Bar Fire scrambled coordinate the rescue. Rescuers threw him a coat, a blanket and two pairs of socks to keep warm, as well as some food.
A helicopter was unable to reach him because of the position of the waterfall, but Hickman was still overjoyed to see it.
“I was like, crying, I was so happy,” he said. “I was like, ‘I’m going to get saved!’
He can joke about it now, but Hick-man says going over the drop, he thought he was going to die.
“Just luck or something, I don’t know.” (MSNBC)
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There are, unfortunately, con-cerns which must be addressed and dealt with accordingly,
in order to prevent and be proactive regarding safety while attempting to sell or market a home, co-op, proper-ty, etc.
When a “For Sale” sign is placed, as it should be ideally, potential buy-ers acting appropriately will tele-phone for information. Sometimes neighbors will be curious and may telephone as well. They may also approach the seller or the Realtor di-rectly in trying to procure informa-tion. I often jest that we should hang a rider with the “asking price” on it so as to eliminate the majority of “cu-rious callers.”
Sometimes, however, someone may try and gain access to a proper-ty. Many sellers have told me that both so-called potential buyers and even so-called brokers have simply knocked on the door in an attempt to gain access. Some of them may truly be curious and just have no patience
to wait for an appointment or sched-uled showing. This should never be encouraged. Even if the person is a legitimate qualified buyer or licensed broker, they should never be allowed access to the home. Per-haps only one owner is home. Per-haps a home-owner lives alone. Per-haps a child answers the door unsuper-vised.
It has been brought to my attention in the past few days that a male posing as a “tzedakah collector” has been approaching homes and try-ing to gain access. I have heard that
robberies have occurred through this person and warnings have been sent out to community members regarding the recent incidents.
I do not wish to unnecessar-ily scare any-one, but in this day and age, we all have to be cautious and certainly careful. I have instructed my family mem-bers/children not to open the door to “anyone.” Not even some-one in uni-form if they are coming unannounced.
Bezras H” through the zechus of our mezuzos (don’t forget to check them accordingly!) and our commu-
nity chessed and holy endeavors, we should all be spared any difficulties or losses, especially after just cele-brating the holiday of our unity as a nation.
Rabbi Gedaliah and Sarah Newcomb are NY State Licensed Realtors for over 12 years. While specializing in Kew Gardens Hills where they are long-time community members, they serve all areas in the Five Boros and Long Island. They hold several spe-cialty certifications and are members of the Long Island Board of Realtors and the Multiple Listing Service of Queens and Long Island. Rabbi New-comb is a beloved Rebbe at Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe. Sarah Newcomb has won multiple awards from RE/MAX NY and RE/MAX International. They make their home in Kew Gardens Hills along with their three children, Yosef, Bracha and Chevy. You can contact them by phone at 917-459-7549 or by emailing [email protected]. You can also visit their web-site at Queensrealtorteam.com.
Under the auspises of the Rabbi Israel D. Rosenberg Education program, we host many Scholars-in-Residence, notable guest lecturers and ongoing series of shiurim for both men and women
On the Shabbat after Shavuot (June 2) Scholar-in-Residence, Rabbi Yehoshua Grunstein of Israel, will present shiurim on the overall theme of One People: Pipe Dream or Possibility?
Noted author, musician and Breslov chassid, Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum from Yerushalayim, will be speaking in our shul on Sunday night June 3rd at 8:00 pm. His topic will be: Hitbodedut, the Divine Conversation. Suggested donation $10 per person.
The next in our highly successful and well attended Shiur HaChodesh for Wom-en by Women at Etz Chaim, will be on June 13th, at 7:45 pm. This will be the last for this season. The speaker is Rabbanit Miriam Miller, noted educator in Israel. Her topic is Emunah in the 21st Century. The Shiur is being supported by Linda Baron-Katz, the Biderman family, the Brandwien family, and the Witten-berg-Levin family. Refreshments are being sponsored by the Flamenbaum fam-ily. Other speakers in this series included Dr. Yael Ziegler, Dr. Avigail Rock, Reb. Abby Lerner, Prof. Smadar Rosensweig, Prof. Elisheva Carlebach, Elisa Stein Hain, Shani Taragin, among others.
What’s Happening at Congregation Etz Chaim of Kew Gardens Hills
Our 31st Anniversary Dinner takes place on Sunday, June 10th, when we will celebrate our
Guest of Honor
Alan Shermanand our
Synagogue Service Awardees
Lucy and James Schmeidler
This is just a taste of what awaits you when you pass through our doors. Why not stop by?
Terrace on the ParkStep inside the palatial Carrera marble lobby, adorned with dazzling Baccarat chandeliers and fine European antiques, and you have arrived. Your once- in-a-lifetime, fairy-tale event is about to begin at Terrace on the Park. For more than three decades, this magnificent venue has been the site of the most unforget-table weddings and exclusive social events, set against a backdrop of elegance, sophistication,
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Our exquisite Grand Ballroom, nestled high above the park, offers floor-to-ceiling win-dows with incredible views of the New York City skyline that are simply breathtaking. The Penthouse Suite offers a magnificent ballroom with a dramatic outdoor reception area and
panoramic views in an exclusive setting.
Terrace on the Park offers impeccable old-world service, combined with a personal dedi-cation to gratifying your dreams, creating un-
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Crest Hollow Country Club
Long known as one of Long Island’s finest ca-tering venues, the new Crest Hollow Country Club is an event venue like no other: a blend of classic elegance and contemporary Art Deco design; it’s perfect for a wedding reception, so-cial or corporate event that’s as inventive as it
is impeccable.
The result of a $4 million transformation in 2010, the Woodbury landmark is new inside and out with décor that is modern, bold and sophisticated … five-star nouveau cuisine that’s deliciously eclectic … and superior, white-glove service that’s been the hallmark of the family owned Crest Hollow for genera-
Queens may not be known as the largest Orthodox community in the Jewish world, but on Sunday, May 20, the spotlight of world Jewry shone on our borough, as it played host to the massive gathering of tens of thousands of Jews who met to discuss the ever-present dangers of the Internet. For months, all that people seemed to be talking about was the “asifa,” which was organized by Ichud Hakehillos Letohar Hamachane. The gathering was advertised as men only, but included thousands of women following the events in their neighborhoods via satellite connec-tion. In the days leading up to the event, it seemed impossible for one to get hold of a ticket, as they were sold out, and some even took to Ebay and Craigslist to find one. It was clearly the most anticipated Jewish event that took place in quite some time.
The actual event was held in Citi Field in Flushing (formally Shea Stadium), home to the New York Mets. The giant screens along the sta-dium, usually flashing out instant replays, were instead graced with the countenances of the respected elders of Israel who moved the crowds to tears with their majestic and inspirational words. And during the heartfelt readings of Tehillim, Mincha and Maariv they blazoned out the words for everyone to read along in unison. It was a whole different ball game!
The meticulous organization involved in publicizing the event, or-ganizing buses, security and other mass logistics was truly amazing. A whole section of the stadium was set aside for rabbonim, who came from every part of the United States and Canada, Europe and South America, and even from South Africa. The stadium began filling up at 5 p.m. and by 7 p.m. was filled to capacity with some 40,000 people. An overflow crowd spilled into adjacent Arthur Ashe tennis stadium, which holds 20,000.
The makeup of the crowd itself was very interesting, as it represented every stripe of Jew. What was also noticeable was the concern of the Chassidic community, which came out in great numbers. The gather-ing attracted important charedi Rabbonim and Rebbes, among them Rav Don Segal; the Pshevorsk Rebbe, Rav Leibish Leizer, from Antwerp; and the Rachmastrivka Rebbe from Yerushalayim. The challenges of the Internet respect no borders, as many tragedies were reported from the seemingly most-isolated Chassidic communities. One local Grand Rebbe - the Viznitzer Rebbe Rav Mordechai Hager from Monsey - who almost never attends any sort of event due to his strict opposition to have his image taken in public, reportedly felt it so important to attend this asifa that he had himself transported by wheelchair up to the dais.
One of the most impassioned speeches was in fact given by the elderly Skulener Rebbe, a Holocaust survivor, who spoke in Yiddish about the great damage that is happening, even in his world. The Rebbe implored the people to not be like animals whose heads look downward to the dirt, but rather to stand erect and lift their eyes heavenward as human beings and proud Jews.
The gathering began with a heartfelt Tehillim reading and Mincha, in-voking Hashem’s blessing on the efforts of our hands. Rabbi Ephraim Wachsman of Yeshiva Meor Yitzchok in Monsey was one of the first speakers. He spoke openly to the world media, who were covering this unusual event. He explained that in the upcoming festival of Shavuos, the Jews were marking the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, which sig-nified the introduction of Divine morality to all of Mankind. It is thus the responsibility of the Jewish people to ensure that the threat of immorality from the Internet should not derail us from the realization of our mission. This, he asserted, was the responsibility of all Jews, whether they wore black caftans or colourful shirts – we all share the same mission.
Rabbi Wachsman also pointed out that besides the issues of immorality
A Sinai Experience Before Shavuos:
The dais featured world-renowned rabbonim from all over the world
there were other negative ramifications in terms of maintaining the nature of our people. Quoting a Talmudic story, he interpreted homiletically in the name of Rav Yoel of Satmar that everyone can do Teshuva (repent) unless they become someone else. He asserted that the amount of time spent on the Internet was affecting our way of thinking and relating. This point was echoed many times during the conference. Rav Aharon Feldman, Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Yisrael Baltimore, who spoke at a follow-up conference the morning after the asifa at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Queens, and Rav Matisyahu Solomon, Mashgiach of Lakewood, both pointed out that students were finding it extremely difficult to concen-trate, as their eyes have glazed over from gazing for hours at the screen. He also pointed out the proliferation of Lashon Hara and cyber bullying and also shaming of Talmidei Chachamim through anonymous blogs.
The Dzibo Rav, Rabbi Yechiel Meir Katz, was a special speaker in-vited from Montreal. He spoke with emotion about the previous work of those Orthodox leaders who came to America and planted Charedi life on these shores. “Under their leadership, especially the Satmar Rav, television was banned from charedi homes; we must do the same with the Internet,” Rabbi Katz urged the gathering.
The crowed also heard from Sekulener Rebbe, Rav Yisrael Portugal, who asserted that many terrible illnesses are a result of the use of the defiled Internet and television. “Before hearing about a shidduch one should inquire if the family uses Internet. We must put an end to the internet before it puts an end us,” the Rebbe warned.
The deterioration of morality in the religious world was clearly de-scribed as the major casualty of the Internet. The evening became in-creasingly emotional as speaker after speaker wept, decrying the inva-sion of the sanctity of the Jewish home and the Jewish neshama with every sort of inappropriate content.
At the conclusion of the event, Harav Shmuel Vozner, considered to be one of the most important halachic poskim of our generation, spoke via telephone hook-up from his home in Israel, reading a list of strict rules regarding the use of the internet. Amongst them, he ruled that it is strictly forbidden to have any sort of Internet in the home - even if filtered - unless one has a clear dispensation from a competent Rav. “It is halachically forbidden for anyone to even enter a house that has unre-stricted Internet,” Rabbi Vozner declared.
Rav Vozner also declared that it is forbidden for any charedi-operated school to accept any boy or girl from a home that has Internet. “The internet is like a germ, and could be easily transmitted from one child to another,” the Rav warned.
At the end of the evening, the whole assembly read the prayer of the Shelah Hakadosh, which is customarily read on erev Rosh Chodesh Si-van, asking Hashem for success in raising children. The crowd of tens of thousands then proclaimed in massive unison the passage of Shema, Baruch Shem and Hashem Hu Haelokim, all which are usually read at the Neilah of Yom Kippur. This was followed by an intensely moving Maariv. The whole assembly then broke out spontaneously in song with “VeTaher Libainu.”
But not everyone was inspired or even positive about the event. Nu-merous protests took place outside the stadiums, including one by a group proclaiming that “the Internet is not the problem,” and another protesting rabbinical silence on the child abuse scandals.
The asifa also created a huge Kiddush Hashem, as the immaculate be-havior of the crowd wasn’t lost on event officials.
Citi Field maintains a diverse work force, including its Event Planning Staff; most of these individuals have had little or no previous exposure to the Orthodox community. “Everyone came away with a very positive impression,” said one staff member.
JEWS FROM ALL OVER GATHER IN QUEENS FOR MASSIVE ASIFA
continued on page 50
Harav Matisyahu Salomon arriving
Rav Ephraim Wachsman, keynote speaker, addresses the crowd
The day-after conference at the Crowne Plaza LaGuardia Airport
Members of the more than 28 agencies and departments involved in planning and executing the event echoed similar praise. They were astounded by the re-spectful and dignified behavior displayed by the attendees. The orderliness was a true Kiddush Hashem. The police department created an inner circle on the field that was declared a non-trespassing zone. Not one person attempted to cross the line. Members of the FBI also remarked on the absolute quiet and respectfulness that was evident while rabbonim spoke.
Toward the end of the asifa, Chief Diana Pizzuti of Patrol Borough Queens North, who oversaw the security coordination, was so touched by the self-discipline and co-operation of the attendees that she walked into the arena at the time of maariv to personally witness the crowd singing and daven-ing in unison.
For those representing communities outside of the NY area, there was a special program the next day revolving around the importance of setting up a Torah Awareness Group (TAG) type program in every city. The heads of the organization explained that their volunteers design a tailor-made Internet strategy for each family who consults them.
In the Q&A, R’ Nechemia Gottleib of TAG mentioned the new ISP from Israel called Nativ, which has Blacklist, Whitelist, and Grey-list designs, and promises to be a breakthrough in effective Internet filtering.
The event and its follow-up conference were truly of historic significance. Per-haps much of the community went to the stadium thinking that there was truly nothing our small community could do to harness the overwhelming universal power that the Internet and other technologies have unleashed upon the world. Indeed, a small band of protesters met the arriving busses dressed in caveman costumes and waving placards which accused the assembled of trying to return
to the Stone Age. But we all left the event with the confidence that Hashem would answer our prayers and grant success in our endeavors to take from modern technology only its blessings and free ourselves from its potential curses. Indeed, in his closing remarks to the rabbinic conference, Rabbi Matisyahu Solomon assured us that just as our ancestors accepted upon themselves the daunting task of keeping the whole Torah without knowing exactly how they would find the necessary strength and resources, so too would Hashem help us in our task, though we yet did not know how it would be accomplished.Rabbi Ze’ev Kraines is Rav of Ohr Somayach Sandton and Principal of Shaarei Torah School in
Johannesburg, South Africa. He attended the conference as a representative of the South African Jewish community at the behest of Chief Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein.
A Sinai Experience Before Shavuos: continued from page 49
On Sunday, May 20th, 40,000 people gathered at Citi Field in Queens at the behest of our Gedolim. We under-stood it was about the dangers of the Internet and hoped for guidance as to when it should be used and what safe-guards should be implemented. There is much that can be written about many different aspects of the Asifa. If you were there, you may have a complete-ly different view than what you are about to read. This is just one man’s thoughts about this historic event.
Why were we there? I don’t know if there are 40,000 answers to that ques-tion, but I am certain there are quite a number of them. The person sit-ting next to me, whom I know from Queens (the organizers must have matched zip codes for those that or-dered direct because we had about three rows of KGH people), turned to me and said, “I came here for two rea-sons.” I immediately replied, “Min-cha and Maariv?” With a quizzical look on his face, he wondered how I had guessed so fast. The truth is, that’s what I had primarily come for as well. Of course, I also wanted to heed the call of the Gedolim and want-ed to hear more about the Internet, but those would be extras for me. Crying out to Hashem with 40,000 people was more than enough reason for me to enthusiastically look forward to this event. Little did I know, I would re-ceive three huge bonuses.
Since it was erev Rosh Chodesh Sivan that evening, we said the tefilah of the Shlah, fervently praying for our chil-dren. Saying (or crying) that tefilah in unison is impossible for me to ade-quately describe, as was the “kabolas ol Malchus Shomayim” (recitation in unison of Shema, Boruch Sheim, and Hashem Hu H’Elokim - the very same way we end Yom Kippur). The last bonus was the singing of “vetaheir li-beinu” with many in the crowd sway-ing in unison shoulder to shoulder, followed by Maariv. I will remember and continue to be fueled by these mo-ments and the Maariv, b’ezras Hash-em, for a very long time, just as I still vividly recall the Maariv led by R’ Eliezer Ginzburg at my first siyum ha-shas many years ago. (I was not there as a Daf Yomi participant and did not complete the Shas.)
If you don’t understand Yiddish (I did not understand the vast majority of the Yiddish myself) and came only to hear about the Internet, you may be wondering if we were at the same event. Instead of what you have read thus far, some may have written some-
thing along the following lines:
I do not understand Yiddish and the bulk of time was spent on Yiddish speeches. I did not come away with clear guidance on how to handle the Internet. The only information I took away was the absolute necessity to use a good filter if one must use Internet for business, and that one should limit Internet use whenever possible, since it is potentially very dangerous spiritually and the “quick fix” of finding anything so fast is the antithesis of the toil and hard work necessary to grow and succeed in Torah and Avodas Hashem. I dav-ened Maariv with a “breakaway” minyan and left early, quite disap-pointed.
“Mi ho’ish ha’chofetz chaim, oheiv yomim LIROS TOV, netzor leshon-cho mei’roh u’sefosecha mi’dabeir mirmoh.” This familiar interpre-tation says if we restrain ourselves from speaking loshon hora, then we will see good and love our days. I don’t recall if I saw this somewhere or thought about this myself, but here is another possible meaning: if we desire life - love each day, make each one count. How do we do that? By seeing the good in ALL that Hashem gives us, sweet and bit-ter. It is ALL for our good, whether we understand it now, later, or never in this world. See the good in every human being, in every experience, in every situation. Rarely do we per-ceive anything as all good or all bad. If we win the lottery, that’s mostly good, and we will all take the money gladly, but there are negatives too: taxes, lots of new “friends,” possi-ble changes in lifestyle that is not for the spiritually better, etc. Similarly, rarely is a human being all good or all bad.
It is up to us to make this all-import-ant choice every day with each of the many encounters we have with peo-ple, as well as the countless experi-ences we have in life. Are we going to focus on the good or the bad? If we focus on the good, then we won’t have a desire to speak loshon hora. We will be able to glean many great relation-ships. We won’t miss the experiences we will miss if we focus on the bad.
Back to Citi Field. I would have pre-ferred more English speeches, shorter Yiddish speeches, would have liked to hear HaRav Matisyahu Salomon more
than the five minutes he spoke due to the late hour, would have appreciat-ed a more focused and unified guid-ance on Internet use, and I can prob-ably list a few more items that were disappointing. On the other hand, to organize a Kiddush Hashem like this was an amazing feat that should be congratulated. The awareness and “hock” about the Internet and its po-tential damage on us as individuals and as a Klal were also much need-ed and even inspired people who did not attend. As the Mashgiach (HaRav Salomon) said, just being there was a tremendous “mamad of gilui kvod Shomayim.” HaRav Wachsman was very inspiring, stating at the outset that we were there to protect the future of our children and Klal Yisroel. He
made many uplifting points, including the story he told of one man who de-cided to give himself a reward of one dollar every time he didn’t look at the b i l lboards on his way to work in Manhattan. After sever-al months, he had ac-cumulated $2,000 and bought a sil-ver Meno-rah, which certainly ra-diates much s p i r i t u a l light. The bags with tefilos and snacks giv-en out to so many thou-sands were a nice touch. The ushers c o u l d n ’ t believe we only paid $10 for tick-ets. They were very impressed by the de-corum, the politeness, and the rev-erence giv-en to the G e d o l i m . There is
The Citi Field Asifa: A Matter Of Perspective much more I can mention but my edi-tor may want to conclude the article at this point.
Expectations and preparation are also crucial for a better experience. As an example, knowing that most of the crowd would be Yiddish speak-ing, it was logical to anticipate a number of Yiddish speeches. Bring-ing along a Sefer, especially one fit-ting the aura of the evening, such as Mesilas Yeshorim, would have been a smart move and certainly would re-duce and perhaps eliminate any neg-ative feelings.
Ultimately, it was our choice. Walk away spiritually and emotionally charged and perhaps even taking ac-tion about our own Internet usage or walk away with complaints and good material for a juicy post-Shachris complaining session. Those who chose the former were uplifted and energized and took a positive step closer to Hashem in a number of ways. They walk away happy in this world and the next. Those who chose the latter end up unhappy and empty, in both worlds.
Ultimately, it was our choice: walk away spiritually and emotionally charged or walk away with good
material for a juicy post-Shachris complaining session
Community Unity: United We Stand – Divided We Fall
One of the most important as-pects of Judaism is its com-mitment to community. In
the past couple of weeks, we have had, Boruch Hashem, a couple of ma-jor opportunities to unify as a people, especially in Queens. I am writing this article after just returning from the Hachnosos Sefer Torah at Khal Nachlas Yitzchak. I am always ex-hilarated by events such as this. I get this warm and fuzzy feeling especial-ly when the Torahs of the designated shul come out to welcome the new one. The event brought out the best in our community. The weather was beautiful, the music “lebedik,” and the dancing was lively and invigorat-ing. Even those of us on the sidelines could not help but be caught up in the moment. I was so impressed with the “achdus” (unity) that the Hachnosas Sefer Torah generated. People from all the neighboring shuls came and danced at the joyous occasion. It did
not matter if you weren’t a member of Khal Nachlas Yitchok specifical-ly (the Torah was aptly dedicated in honor of Rabbi and Rebbitzen Oel-baum, two pillars of our community) or not, everyone joined in the sim-cha and revelry. It was a community event shared by all. We were united in purpose albeit for one day. It was a great feeling and a special source of pride for Kew Gardens Hills and Queens Jewry, as a whole.The other event, which coincident-
ly, happened that same evening, was the Asifa at Citi Field to highlight the negative aspects of modern tech-nology, especially the Internet. For-ty thousand people jammed into the stadium with another 20,000 seated in
another venue watching the proceed-ing on a giant screen. The Mets would be ecstatic to be able to get so many people to attend one of their games. Again, we Jews united in purpose. It was a great boost for Jewish Queens to have had this important and mon-umental event in our borough. So many times we are dwarfed by the clout that Brooklyn has, but this time we prevailed.
This sense of “achdus” was so infec-tious and heartwarming that it got
me thinking about what can we do to perpetuate this feeling for the com-mon good. I know that this is not an easy undertaking. Well-meaning people have and are entitled to dif-ferences of opinions as to what is appropriate in the community. We all have our own vested interests and agendas. We are constantly bicker-ing and getting into each other’s fac-es getting our points across.
I think this is part of our Jewish DNA. There is the old joke that if there are two Jews in a room there are three opinions. I know that to be true be-cause even in the small town in which I grew up in Massachusetts, north of Boston with a very small Jewish pop-ulation, we had two Orthodox shuls.
Being unified cannot just be for spir-itual uplifting and personal satisfac-tion; our ethics teach us that we must be concerned with the plight of our fellow Jews, especially in our own neighborhood. Each life is sacred and we are obligated to do what we can to help others. The Talmud expressed the concept of this commonality by stating, “All Jews are responsible one for another.” This is the true Jewish essence of Klal Yisroel (the Commu-nity of Israel).
I have commented in previous arti-cles about the poverty existing in our midst in Queens. I can tell you cate-gorically that there are many in dire straits, having difficulty making ends meet. As sad as it is to admit, there is hunger in our ranks. The Proph-et Jeremiah said that “Happier were the victims of the sword than the vic-
tims of hunger.” The Jewish sages viewed being impoverished as a great affliction and “He who is crushed by poverty is as if he were subject to all afflictions of the world.”
What are WE going to do about this? The Queens Jewish Commu-nity Council’s mission is to improve the economic, social and cultural prosperity of the needy residents of the borough. But we cannot do it alone. The onus is on every one of us. We need to rally as a united kehillah and work in unison to help those who are hurting. We must as-sume our collective responsibility to care for the poor and eradicate hun-ger as an expression of our solidar-ity. Please support QJCC’s efforts through its Project Chaim campaign. Donations can be made online at www.qjcc.org or by mail to:
QJCC 119-45 Union Turnpike
Forest Hills, New York 11375.
By the time you have read this, we would have just celebrated Shavuos. The Torah depicts the environment at Har Sinai (Mount Sinai), prior to the giving of the Torah, as a spirit of unity that engulfed B’nai Yisroel. The na-tion was described as “one man, with one heart.” The people were unified - united in purpose. We gathered to-gether to accept the 613 mitzvos as a means to strengthen our relationship with Hashem, our relationship with one another and our relationship with our community,
Reflecting on May 20th, I am remind-ed that it is written in Devorim that every Jew is responsible for writing part of the Sefer Torah. No one can write the Torah alone. Hashem com-mands us to participate in the process as part of the building of the Jewish community.
Let us be inspired by the events of the last couple of weeks; let us sol-idly unite “with one heart” to care for those less fortunate in our communi-ty. Not only should Jewish Queens be the focal point of momentous oc-casions, but also a model of “achdus” and “chesed” for others to emulate. (Did you hear that, Brooklyn?)
Cynthia Zalisky is the Executive Di-rector of the Queens Jewish Commu-nity Council. She can be contacted at [email protected]
It was a great boost for Jewish Queens to have had this important and monumental asifa
Anyone who has lived in Kew Gar-dens Hills within the past half-cen-tury is familiar with the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, and its Found-ing Rabbi, Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld. Sixty years after founding the shul, R’ Schonfeld recently assumed the title of Rabbi Emeritus and was suc-ceeded by his son and former deputy, Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld. In addition to serving as Rav of the YIKGH, Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld has been thorough-ly involved with the OU, serving in high-level Orthodox Union positions for at least 50 years, including the Joint Kashrut Commission; National Convention committees; Political Ac-tion committees; leadership of NCSY | Jewish Youth Leadership and its Ben Zakkai Honor Society; member of the Board of Governors; and his cur-rent position, member of the Board of Trustees. In 2008, he was one of the distinguished rabbis featured in the Jewish Action cover story, “50 Years in the Pulpit: Seven Veteran Rabbis Tell it Like it Was.” Lorey Friedman
talked to the Rav about our communi-ty, being a rav, changes in the Rabbin-ate, and more.
QJL: Can you talk a little about why you think Kew Gardens Hills is so special and what makes it a unique community?
RS: First of all, even though Kew Gar-dens Hills is really part of New York City, it has maintained a flavor of the suburbs. In 1950-51, when I first came to Kew Gardens Hills, I hoped it would be a stronghold for Torah and Yid-dishkeit, and Baruch Hashem, we have succeeded in that. Personally, I do not believe in labeling, like right wing, left wing. In Torah, we are all equal. We are all learning the same Torah. I feel that Kew Gardens Hills believes in this principle. It is a prime example of people living together, respecting each other and not feeling that one is better than the other. Baruch Hashem, all the shuls in the neighborhood subscribe to these same principles regardless of what they emphasize.
QJL: Can you explain to us the role of being a rav in a synagogue such as Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills?
RS: Although the role of a rav is to teach Torah, the role of a rav in a syn-agogue is really that of a committed social worker. A rav deals with all the daily life issues, whether it be social marital parental, etc. A rav works for and with the Jewish people. Our task as rabbis is to help the Jews. A rav must know the lives of his people. For example, a woman can be davening in my shul for twenty years, quietly in a corner, and I may not know the troubles she has. A rabbi must know his people and try to help. They must
know the rabbi is always available, any day, any time. The most reward-ing part of being the rav of the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills has been getting to know the people. I must also add, it is vital that a rabbi be in-volved in the civil life of his commu-nity. Get to know your Assemblyman, your Congressman, and your Senator. These politicians need to understand our needs to they can help us. When a rabbi calls on them, the politician should know who the rav is.
QJL: What advice would you give a boy who’s looking for a yeshiva in which to learn?
RS: My advice is to learn where he feels most comfortable. Learn where you feel at home. It is not a question of more frum or less frum. Learn Torah for its own purpose.
QJL: What is the most difficult part of being rav of the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills?
RS: Being with people in their greatest time of need, in a time of crisis, death or serious illness is the most difficult. A rabbi must really feel for what his people are going through. People are not fools. Patients know if their rabbi is visiting them in the hospital because it says to do so on his contract. A rab-bi must do and act because he really feels. Not because he has to, but be-cause he wants to. People, including the rabbi himself, know the difference.
QJL: What improvements, if any, can the Kew Gardens Hills commu-nity make to grow and improve?
RS: There is a serious problem. That problem is keeping people interest-ed in their community. People must be involved in their community. No one should say, “What’s this got to do with me?” People need to come out to
events and be supportive of not only their own shul’s events, but also of other shuls and community programs as well. We must be connected with the Jewish people here and in Eretz Yisroel. What happens in Eretz Yis-roel to our brethren should affect us as well. I think this is the area that we have to do some work in.
QJL: What changes have you seen in the Rabbinate and what advice would you give a man seeking to be a shul rav?
RS: First of all, he should understand that the Rabbinate has changed. To-day, there are less and less full-time
rabbis. Some rabbis have other jobs in addition to their role of congrega-tional rav. Furthermore, large con-gregational shuls are less and less. Breakaway minyans and shteibels are what exist today. Not that many peo-ple like big shuls today. This I feel is a problem. It can destroy the qual-ity of Jewish life and public activi-ty. The strength of the Jewish com-munity depends on its numbers as a unified whole. When politicians are looking for Jewish votes and are in-volved in Jewish activities, they turn to the shuls with the largest numbers. The Jewish voice is in its numbers. A rabbi representing a shul of 500 fam-ilies will get a call back from a per-son in authority much faster than the rabbi of twenty families. Even if one chooses to daven somewhere else, they should still stay a member of the larger community shul, because numbers on a membership list are important.
QJL: Thank you Rabbi Schonfeld for your time and wisdom. We wish the Rav well on his upcoming sur-gery. May he continue to serve his shul, his community and the Ribono Shel Olam until 120.
Words of WisdomAn interview with Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld, Rabbi Emeritus of
Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills and longtime Queens resident
Rory Lancman - A True Friend Of Israelby Joseph Frager, MD
I just finished a rally with Assembly-man Rory Lancman in honor of Yom Yerushalayim in Kew Gardens Hills. The fact that Mr. Lancman even held a rally at all in honor of one of the great-est miracles of all time - the reunifica-tion and liberation of Jerusalem - says volumes about the man. Eli Hertz, who knows a thing or two about who is a true friend and who is a casual friend of the State of Israel, came out in total and unequivocal support of Rory Lancman, stating that Rory is “a great public servant that among others will represent with honor the Jewish commu-nity and the State of Israel.” I too was asked to speak as Chairman of the Jerusalem Reclamation Project/Jerusalem Chai/American Friends of Ateret Cohanim. The fact that I was even acknowledged by a potential future Congressman makes it clear to me that Rory is not afraid to come out swinging if he has to, to defend the rights of Jews to live anywhere in the world, and in partic-
ular the Land of Israel, including the so-called Muslim (rightfully called Old Jewish Quarter) Quarter, where Ateret Cohanim has primarily been working for the past 30 years. This took courage and fortitude on the part of Rory Lanc-man. He has lots of both. He has made it his mandate to make sure that as his
first act as Congressman, he will fight the State Department’s “dinosaur” law against Jewish Americans born in Jeru-salem, to make sure that they are iden-tified as having been born in Jerusalem, Israel - not just Jerusalem. I also stood shoulder to shoulder with Rory at the recent Gush Katif Museum
Dinner in Crown Heights. Mr. Lanc-man called the expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif a “tragic blunder.” He has been working for years both as a civic leader and as an Assembly-man to make sure America does ev-erything in its power to help Israel in the event Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear
reactors. Rory recently appeared on ABC News, debating his opponents on just this issue. He is a fighter to the core. He helped Israel during Opera-tion Cast Lead in Gaza against Hamas in 2008-2009. He has been one of the most vocal political figures combating the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanc-
tions) movement (boycott movement against Israeli Products), penning an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post entitled “Anti-Semitism and Anti-Israel Ad-vocacy.” One of Rory’s significant contributions has been legislation he authored to protect journalists and authors who report on terrorism from
expensive and intimidat-ing lawsuits; “The Libel Terrorism Protection Act” was adopted by Congress as the “Speech Act” and has changed the face of anti-terrorism activi-ties, abilities and efforts. His op-ed with Ed Koch in the Daily News’ “Dems Must Confront Iran” in 2007 is already a must read “classic.”
All in all, I believe Rory Lancman is a Democrat that one could really get be-hind, and he will bring Israel Advoca-cy to a brand new level. Rory’s future is positive and bright.
Joseph M. Frager is a physician and lifelong activist.
by Joseph Frager, MDAfter close to 30 years of being Mesirot Nefesh, for rebuilding Yerushalayim brick by brick, stone by stone, though the leadership of Mati Dan and Ateret Cohanim, I felt it was time to recap and go over a few highlights. In truth, volumes could be written about the American involvement in Ateret Cohanim but I will try to just cover it in a briefer fashion. At the outset I would like to say that our efforts have been incredibly valu-able and important for the growth and development of every facet of Ateret Cohanim. Yes, we should all be living in Eretz Yisrael, but as long as we are here we have a lot more to accomplish. For starters, the Amer-ican Friends of Ateret Cohanim has raised close to $30 million since its first Dinner in 1986. This is no small feat and it is something to be quite proud of. Yes, we can do a lot better and yes, we need to do a lot better.It all began in the dining room of Mel Wadler’s house in 1984 when Louis Bloom, Z›L and Menachem Bar Shalom represented Ateret Cohanim. Jesse Maryles
was the President from 1985 until 1989 and Bibi Ne-tanyahu was the keynote speaker at our first dinner in 1986. In 1989, Jack Friedler, Z”L took over as Presi-dent and was helpful in the $5 million purchase of the St. John’s Hospice (later renamed Neot Dovid) in 1989. That was the year that General Ariel Sharon was the keynote speaker and also helped in making the acquisi-tion of the St. John’s Hospice a reality. He had moved into his apartment in the Wittenberg House the year before. In 1990, former ambassador Jeanne Kirkpat-rick of blessed memory (brought to the Dinner thru the efforts of then Chairman Joe Mermelstein) spoke and threw her support behind the work of Ateret Cohanim. She was the first major American political figure to do so and was particularly important coming soon after the move into the St John’s Hospice. The second major political figure to come out in support of Ateret Co-hanim was the Secretary of Housing and former foot-ball great Jack Kemp of blessed memory. He key-noted our dinner in 1992. Former President of the United States, Gerald Ford was supposed to speak that year but canceled because of illness. Jack Kemp was the only member of Bush Sr.’s cabinet to meet with Ariel Sharon. Sharon was otherwise considered per-sona non grata by the Bush White House at the time. Jack Kemp was also re-sponsible for spilling the beans on what James Bak-er (who was Secretary of State at the time) said about
the Shamir government. I cannot repeat his words here in public. I will fast forward the story to the year 2008 when Governor Mike Huckabee keynoted our Dinner. His later trips to Israel in 2008, 2009, and 2011 with Ateret Cohanim are the stuff of history. In 2008, he made it his business to visit the Shepherd Hotel, which at that time was singled out by the Obama administra-tion as the main obstacle to negotiations with Abbas. This was a huge boost to the morale of all of Israel. In 2009, he visited Beit Yonatan in Yemenite village as well as Kidmat Zion. He helped put both places on the political map. In 2011, he brought Jon Voi-ght and visited the Moskowitz Compound in the Har Hazeitim Neighborhood. Governor Huckabee helped move Ateret Cohanim onto a new level.
We hope and pray that we can continue to rebuild all of Yerushalayim to pave the way for the ultimate and eter-nal redemption - may it be, please G-d, close at hand.
The Vital Work of Ateret Cohanim
(L-R) Dr. Paul Brody, Executive Council, American Friends of Ateret Cohanim/Jerusalem Chai; Dr. Joseph Frager, Chairman of the Board; Governor Mike Huckabee and Assemblyman Dov Hikind, on a tour of Kidmat Tzion in Jerusalem, Summer 2009
Mr. George Maragos is the Nassau County Comp-troller. He’s also a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, challenging the current U.S. Senator from New York, Kirsten Gillibrand. The Republican pri-
mary for U.S. Senate is coming up on June 26.
Mr. Maragos fol-lows in the tradi-tion of the “men of means,” turn-ing from a suc-cessful business career to public service. Over 20 years ago he founded SDS Financial Tech-
nologies, a company that provides information and trading services to the financial industry. Prior to this he held positions in the banking and con-sulting industries. Mr. Maragos’ parents emigrat-ed from Greece to Montreal when he was 8, and he became a naturalized U.S. citizen at 36. Dovid Schwartz sat down with Mr. Maragos to discuss his views on Israel, tuition vouchers for yeshiva families and more.
Mr. Maragos, why would you like to be the U.S. Senator for New York?
I think our country is going in the wrong direction. Domestically, the unemployment crisis is historic. We’re not preparing our kids adequately to compete in the 21st century economy. We continue to be more and more dependent on foreign oil. Increasingly, our middle class families are having a hard time making ends meet, keeping up with their mortgages, the sky-rocketing cost of groceries.
You know, it’s incredible that it takes both hus-band and wife to be working in order to support their family – and they’re still having difficulty making ends meet. And even though you may have two professionals, they’re still struggling to pay the mortgage and send their kids to school. That has never happened before in our country. It used to be that even one wage earner would be ad-equate to support the family, but that doesn’t hap-pen anymore.
What should be done differently?
Well, I think we need to make our economy compet-itive. Certainly, health insurance reform has turned out to be a debacle. Our premiums have skyrocketed rather than come down, which was supposed to be the intent of the health care reform.
I’m the Nassau County Comptroller and we’ve seen our health insurance premiums go up 30% in the past two and half years. We have a large pool. Probably small businesses have experienced even higher rates
of increase. So what happens? 3 things: they don’t hire, they move jobs overseas, and more and more small companies are dropping coverage altogether. So rather than having more people covered by health insurance, you have less, as the costs are going up and its serving to kill jobs and move them overseas. That’s what the Obama administration has done - killed jobs and reduced our economic growth rather than growing it.
The Jewish community in particular has larger families than other New Yorkers, and many find tremendous help in government programs that as-sist everything from special services like special needs children to Head Start programs. Do you see any conflict between your ideology as a Repub-lican and the needs of religious and family voters who rely on government assistance to help their families?
No, I don’t. Some of the issues the Jewish com-munity is facing-- and you’re right, they have large families-- is education. Many families are paying a lot of money to send their kids to yeshivas. So they’re paying property taxes to support the public schools but they pay private tuition to send them to private schools. They spend more money than any aspect to educate to their kids. And yet this government does not allow vouchers to be used for that purpose. That is the biggest failure of gov-ernment. As a parent, you’d get a voucher if you don’t send your kid to public schools. If you elect to send them to yeshivas, then you get a voucher towards paying that private tuition and that offsets your cost. That’s more than any other social ne-cessity you can have. But because of the separa-tion of church and state, so called, they don’t allow vouchers to be used for parochial schools. That must change.
As for other social programs, we’re making it more attractive for people to stay home and receive unem-ployment and other benefits rather than go to work. I started very poor. My family was very poor. But I was given every opportunity to make something of myself. And rather than putting more people on en-titlements, which is what this government has done, we need to provide people with the educational tools and job opportunities to bring themselves up out of entitlements and be full participating members of our economy. And I think that’s what in a lot of cases the Republican Party is speaking to, and that’s some-thing that I truly believe in.
Your literature mentions that you personally believe marriage should be between a man and a woman. Do you make a distinction between your personal beliefs and what government policy should be?
No. I indicated my belief, and I will vote my belief as to what government policy should be. Now, we have a law here in New York that unfortunately got passed so we need to respect that, until we can repeal it. But it becomes very difficult to repeal such a situ-
ation where you’ve allowed it to happen. We should definitely not be encouraging it; maybe we should be speaking against it. But I think we’ve gone down a very dangerous road in terms of our moral fabric.
There are currently several court actions on the state and federal level to overturn that [New York] marriage equality statute. Are your supportive of these court actions?
I would be supportive, yes.
If elected Senator, would you feel the need to defend the current state of New York law in terms of fed-eral recognition of these marriages on the federal level?
No, I would not impose that on other states. I think there are only seven states that have passed marriage equality laws, and I would not be encouraging it on the national level. It almost seems that this gov-ernment – the Obama administration, and certainly supported by Gillibrand and Schumer – is dead set against attacking religion, and freedom of religion. So when it comes to passing same sex marriage laws, dictating contraception, requirements on the part of insurance and religious institutions, those are all to me an attack on freedom of religion. Very soon we might seem them also attacking freedom of speech.
Regarding foreign policy, you mentioned you be-lieve the current administration is misguided. How so?
I think they’re always in a crisis mode. They’re react-ing tactically to situations as opposed to strategical-ly. They’re making the wrong decisions that result in putting forces at play that they haven’t contemplated and therefore they don’t control. And that’s exactly what happened with the Arab Spring. We’re losing control. We have Islamic fundamentalists now seiz-ing those opportunities to come to power and ulti-mately threaten our security and certainly threaten the security of Israel.
As an example, we’re in Afghanistan - we’re pull-ing out three years longer than we needed to be in this Obama administration. Most of our successes happened using our covert operations. We’re fight-ing an enemy most likely now in Pakistan rather than in Afghanistan. And what we’ve been doing in Afghanistan is building schools, roads, and power plants. We didn’t go there to build a foreign coun-try. We have a need for schools and roads infra-structure here.
Should the U.S. military try to safeguard trade routes for oil exports from countries like Iraq and Libya so that gas prices shouldn’t be astronomically high as they are today?
It’s ironic to me that the Obama administration has turned down the building of a pipeline to bring oil from Canada so that we would reduce our depen-dence on foreign oil. And now we have to go to war
A Conversation with George Maragos Nassau County Nemesis to Senator Gillibrand
Constructive Unilateralism In Israel?by Manny Behar
by Warren Hecht
This past Sunday, May 20, more than 40,000 Jewish men packed Citi Field for a program involving the important issue of Internet use. What was over-looked was that this year, May 20, 2012, had other significance. It was the 28th day of Iyar, which is Yom Yerushalayim.
Yet the 45th anniversary of the liber-ation of the old city went unnoticed. Why was Citi Field not filled up to celebrate Yom Yerushalayim? Have we taken it for granted that we have access to the Western Wall? I was recently listening to a shiur by Rab-bi Mordechei Willig, who was learn-ing in Israel in 1967. Rabbi Willig described how it was before the Six-Day War. On a clear day, maybe you could see the Western Wall in the dis-tance. Rabbi Willig then described
the euphoria that engulfed the county when the old city was liberated. The first day that there was access to the wall, there was such a great celebra-tion. Rabbi Willig said that when he was on King George Street, he saw Chasidim dancing with secular Jews and non-Chasidish Orthodox Jews. It is forty-five years later and yet not one mention of the day. Have we al-ready forgotten thee, Jerusalem?
This same apathy has crept in when we deal with the founding of the State of Israel. We see how Israel for years has been vilified in the United Nations –the same United Nations that voted for its establishment. One has to re-member the miracle of a new country with no established military defeating five Arab armies. One also has to re-member that the state was founded right after the decimation of Europe-an Jewry in the Holocaust. Yet Yom
Hatzmaut goes by largely unnoticed.
We have a second chance to show our support and to give thanks. June 3rd is the Salute to Israel Day Parade. Also, on June 21, at 7:30 p.m. at the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, the Queens Jewish Community Coun-cil in conjunction with the Borough President is having our annual “Cel-ebration of Jerusalem.” Both events are important. They both receive media attention. The parade is being broadcast on television. What mes-sage does it send if there are few spec-tators at the parade?
What message does it send when a program celebrating the reunification of Jerusalem is sparsely attended? The message it sends to the wider community is that Israel, including its capital Jerusalem, is not important to the Jewish community. It emboldens the enemies of the Jewish people who
If I Forget Thee, Jerusalemwant to destroy Israel and return the Old City to those who refused to give us access to its holy sights.
It is easy to make excuses why not to come. On the other hand, think of the other events that people go to, such as a ball game or other entertainment. If one has time to do that, they have time to do something important and meaningful.
I was not part of the generation that was alive when Israel was established. I was too young to remember the Six-Day War. I do not want to be part of the generation if, G-d forbid, Israel is destroyed or Jerusalem is given away. We have it in our power to make sure that it does not happen.
Warren S. Hecht is the President of the Queens Jewish Community Coun-cil and a local attorney. He can be reached at [email protected]
In the May 23 edition of The New York Times, columnist Tom Friedman argues that it is time for Prime Min-ister Benjamin Netanyahu to take a bold step to secure the future of Israel as a Jewish democracy.
To be sure, the problem that Fried-man and others have raised is a real one. We are approaching the day when Arabs will outnumber Jews in Eretz Yisroel. The problem is even more serious than most of us real-ize. There are significant numbers of Jews who oppose the very idea of a Jewish state.
Many hardeim have ideological ob-jections to the creation of a Jewish state before the coming of moshiach. While the vast majority of hardeim are loyal to the state, there are a sig-nificant number who actively op-pose the State of Israel, demonstrate against it and even collaborate with the Palestinians. A showdown over the exemption of yeshiva students from military service, which may come very soon, could become very explosive.
On the other end of the spectrum there are a significant number of anti-reli-gious and anti-Zionist Jews who want to remove the Magen David from the Israeli flag, change the national an-them and change Israel from a Jewish
state to a state of its citizens.
If you add the numbers of anti-Zion-ist Jews on both ends of the politi-cal spectrum to the Arab population, there may well be a majority of the population in Eretz Yisroel today who oppose the very idea of a Jewish state. It is very much in Israel’s interest not to be involved in the day-to-day lives of Arabs in Judea and Samaria.
As a solution to this problem, Fried-man endorses a plan proposed by the former commander of the Israeli Navy, Ami Ayalon, which he calls constructive unilateralism. Under
this plan Israel would announce its acceptance of a Palestinian state and its willingness to reenter negotiations. Israel would renounce claims to sov-ereignty to all areas east of the West Bank security wall and end construc-tion of settlements east of the secu-rity wall and in Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem. Plans would be made to relocate Israelis currently living east of the security barrier. The IDF would remain in the West Bank and
no settlers would be forced to move until there is an actual peace agree-ment with the Palestinians.
Like most Israelis, I am strongly pro-peace. I do not want to see a single Israeli mother mourn the death of her son in battle. If I believed that the Oslo Accords would bring peace I would have supported them. If I thought that leaving Judea, Samaria and Gaza would save Jewish lives I would be for it. And I would be the loudest advocate of Ami Ayalon’s plan if I thought it had a chance of success.
There are two very serious problems with Ami Ayalon’s plan. Construc-tive unilateralism is what Ariel Sha-ron tried in Gaza in 2005. Sharon went even further than Ayalon ad-vocates in meeting Arab demands. All Israeli military forces were re-moved, settlements were uprooted and families were forcibly removed from their homes. In Gaza there is no occupation and there are no settlements. If occupation and set-
tlements were the real issue, Gaza should be an oasis of peace. What Gaza became was a launching pad for terrorist missiles aimed at Isra-el’s civilian population. So much for constructive unilateralism.
Another serious problem with Ayalon’s plan is that it is akin to a poker player showing his cards to his opponent before the game starts. In any negotiation, each party has its bargaining chips. If Israel announces in advance what it is willing to give up in negotiations before talks even start, the Palestinians will use Israel’s announced position as a starting point for the negotiations and make further demands.
I respect Ami Ayalon. He has devot-ed his life to defending the State of Israel. His contribution to the State of Israel and the Jewish people is far greater than mine has been or ever will be. I have no doubt that he is sin-cere in his desire to achieve peace and security for Israel as a Jewish democ-racy. But we’ve been down the road of constructive unilateralism before. Bibi Netanyahu is right in his insis-tence on negotiations with no precon-ditions.
Manny Behar is the former Executive Director of the Queens Jewish Com-munity Council and was an aide to several elected officials
If Israel announces in advance what it is willing to give up, the Palestinians will use Israel’s announced
position as a starting point for the negotiations and make further demands
Will World Economies Slide On Greece?by Gerald Harris
Greece is a small country with big economic problems. The country may even be teetering on the brink of col-lapse. Should US investors be concerned about what’s happening there? Some economists and market ma-vens think so. They warn that the debt crisis Greece is experiencing may be spreading to other countries in the Eurozone and that the ripple effects could be felt here.Fears about the economic problems in Greece are not new, but those concerns intensified early this month. That’s when many Greeks decided to stock up on euros because they were afraid that they would be replaced by the drachma, a local currency much less valuable.
Greek depositors withdrew the euro equivalent of near-ly $1 billion dollars from Greek banks in 24 hours. Some economists are worried this indicates that the entire Greek banking system is in growing danger of collapseHere’s why. Germany and other countries that have helped Greece insist on further austerity measures before giving additional help. That’s not going over well, as Greeks are balking at the prospect of further belt-tightening. Early this year the unemployment rate soared to 22%; among young people under 25 this rate tops 50%. And despite fiscal austerity and debt restructuring the debt level is rising sharply.The Greek economy needs additional assistance to
avoid collapse. Without it, there would be an immediate run on the banks, the country would have to introduce a new, local currency, and it would probably default on debt de-nominated in euros. According to some estimates, if Greece leaves the euro Greeks could see the value of their bank ac-counts decline by up to 50%.The best option Greek citizens have is to withdraw money from local banks and move it to another country – fast.
Contagion?Unfortunately, the problems now unfolding in Greece may be spreading to other coun-tries. For example, Italy is faced with having to pay much higher interest rates because of concern about debt and growth prospects; Moody’s down-graded the credit ratings of 26 Italian banks in mid May.Late last week Moody’s also downgraded 16 banks in Spain, including Banco Santander, the Eurozone’s largest bank, because of a weak economy and bad loans. Spain, the Eurozone’s fourth largest economy, also is suffering from a worsen-ing economy; the official unemployment rate in March
was 24.4%. At the same time, Ireland, Portugal and France are just some of the other countries facing their own set of severe problems. Why should an investor leave his or her money in countries where the value of the local currency could be downgraded dramatically? They won’t, and that’s why there could be a run on banks in all of these countries.The British newspaper Independent recently quoted Sony Kapoor of the European think-tank Re-define as saying “Whoever tells you that a Greek exit would be no big deal is an idiot, lying or disingenuous.”Italy’s former premier Ramano Prodi said the EU risks instant contagion to Spain, Italy and France if Greece leaves. “The whole house of cards will come down,” he said.And Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF, warned that a Greek exit from the eurozone could be “quite messy” with risks to growth, trade and financial markets.
Why should Americans care?One may be tempted to shrug in sympathy and then move on. After all, what does this have to do with us? Probably a lot. Many Americans have money tied up in Greece and other Eurozone countries either directly or through other investments. Moreover, it’s believed that many American banks have significant exposure to European economies and they would suffer signifi-cant losses in the event of a financial collapse.Other US businesses could also be impacted be-cause output at home would probably decline. With so much uncertainty and fear would businesses and consumers still purchase computers from American companies or would they hold on to the computers they have instead? Will farmers in Eurozone coun-tries buy new American machinery or hold off on those purchases for as long as possible?Between May 1 and May 18 The Dow Jones Industri-als declined nearly 900 points! Analysts attributed the selloff to fears about economic problems in Greece and their ramifications. But on Monday May 21 the Dow gained about 140 points. Does this mean that the decline is over and the market has reached a good buying point?Jim Rogers, a fabulously successful investor and longtime commodities bull, is pessimistic about the situation in the Eurozone. “The world’s got serious problems facing it,” he told CNBC. “I don’t particu-larly like saying it but it’s true. Unfortunately, there will be more debt and currency turmoil to come.”Just in case Rogers is right, investors would do well to keep the following adage in mind: caveat emptor.
by Ariel Tavor
The old adage, “People don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan,” can be especially true when it comes to financ-es. And, given the current economy, the best time to start taking control of your finances is today. Being financially responsible doesn’t just happen. It’s a con-scious decision you make to live within your means.
Slowly, American consumers are catching on. A na-tionwide survey on the financial state of U.S. house-holds, conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, found only 13 percent of households are currently saving 7 percent or more of their disposable income, although fully 36 percent of households expect to save at this level in 5 to 10 years. While that trend may be encour-aging, there remains ample room for improvement.
It’s Never Too Late to Plan No matter what stage of life you’re in, you should have a strategy that helps meet your current financial needs, while creating
a path to help you reach long-term financial goals. Whether you’re just starting out or are nearing retire-ment, a strategy is necessary, and the good news is no matter what your age, it’s never too late to start.A proactive approach now can help avoid disappoint-ments later on. Consider the following scenarios: Start a savings plan. By just saving a small amount today, you can make a huge difference later on. What financial goals can you set today to help make your dreams a reality?Are your loved ones adequately protected? Would your family or partner be able to maintain their stan-dard of living in the event something happened to you? Buy a life insurance policy — or increase your coverage — and make sure your loved ones are pro-tected.What about college expenses? If you’re a parent or guardian, it’s never too early to start saving for your
Taking Financial Responsibility: What’s Your Game Plan?children’s college expenses. Start a college education fund, so they won’t be burdened with student loans and can attend the college of their choice.
If you’re nearing retirement, consider what amount of your current income you can allocate into retire-ment savings vehicles, such as 401(k) plans, IRAs and other investments. With retirement possibly last-ing 20 or 30 years, the more resources you have, the more likely you’ll be able to enjoy it.
No matter where you are in life, a proper financial strategy will help you achieve your financial goals, maintain your current lifestyle and ease worries about the future. Take action today to help realize to-morrow’s goals and dreams.
This educational third-party article is being provided as a courtesy by Ariel Tavor. For additional informa-tion on the topic(s) discussed, please contact Ariel Tavor at www.arieltavor.com or 646-227-8294.
Mr. Schmeltz stopped off at Gershon’s Gourmet on Friday morning.“I’m here to pick up the order for the Schmeltz kiddush,” he said to the man be-hind the counter. The man returned a minute later with two bags and a box.“Here you go,” he said. “One tub of cho-lent, three potato and three noodle kugels, two cold cut platters, and salads. What’s the occasion?”“We’re celebrating the birth of our grand-son,” replied Mr. Schmeltz.“Mazel tov,” the man wished him.“Thank you,” Mr. Schmeltz replied. “The baby is really cute; he’s our first grandson!” Later that afternoon, the Schmeltzes went to the shul to arrange the food on the hotplates.“There seems to be an awful lot of cholent,” Mr. Schmeltz said to his wife. “Two tubs are
way more than we need!”“Oh,” said his wife. “I only ordered one tub of cholent.”“Well, I see two tubs,” said Mr. Schmeltz. “Could there be some mistake?”Mrs. Schmeltz examined the order and the receipt. “You’re right,” she said to her hus-band. “There is an extra tub. What do we do with it now?” She tried calling Gershon’s Gourmet, but they had already closed.Everyone who had come to help set up had a different idea.“If the cholent’s not yours, you can’t use it,” said one person. “Give it back after Shab-bos.”“What’s the point in doing that?” objected another. “There’s not much to do with cho-lent after Shabbos. Anyway, I don’t think the caterer can take the food back. It’s his mistake, so it’s his loss. Just use it!”
“That’s not fair,” chimed in a third. “If you want to use it, you have to pay. Split the cost 50/50.”Mrs. Schmeltz turned to her husband. “What do you say?”“To be honest, I’m also not sure,” he said. “But Rabbi Tzedek is already downstairs in the shul. Let’s ask him!”The Schmeltzes approached Rabbi Tze-dek. “We ordered food for the kiddush, and the caterer put in more cholent than we or-dered,” Mr. Schmeltz said. “What should we do now?”Rabbi Tzedek responded, “You can return the extra cholent without paying, or use it and reach an agreement afterward with the caterer based on how much it was worth to you.”“Why is that?” asked Mr. Schmeltz.“The extra tub was added inadvertently,”
Their Father’s DebtSubmitted by M. L.
Several years ago, Reuven borrowed $20,000 and wrote a simple IOU to Shimon. He passed away shortly thereafter.The due date for the loan passed, and Shi-mon contacted Reuven’s heirs to repay the debt. Knowing their father to be a man who paid his debts as soon as money was avail-able, they suspected that the debt had al-ready been repaid.
The two parties submitted their dispute to our jurisdiction.
Q: Are the heirs obligated to repay their father’s debt?
A: Generally, children have an obligation to repay their father’s debt from his estate. Even if the loan was made orally, the en-actment is in force; if necessary, beis din will force the heirs to pay their father’s debt
(C.M. 107:1).The relevant issue to be explored in this case is the fact that a borrower can claim that he paid a debt if the only evidence of the debt is an IOU with his signature (C.M. 69:2). It would seem that because the fa-ther could have effectively made that claim, the heirs are exempt as well from repaying this loan.However, the reason that this claim may not apply in this case is based on the prin-
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Gershon’s Gaffeby Rabbi Meir OrlianHalacha Writer for the Business Halacha InstituteSTORY LINE
FROM THE BHI HOTLINE
ISSUE #109 / PARSHAS NASOFRIDAY, JUNE 1, 2012
11 SIVAN 5772BUSINESSW E E K LY
under the auspices ofHaRav Chaim Kohn, shlita Restoring the Primacy of Choshen Mishpat
ciple that a person does not ordinarily repay his debts be-fore they come due. There-fore, if the father were to claim that he already repaid the debt before the due date of the debt, his claim would be dismissed (C.M. 69:5, 78:1). The presumption that a per-son does not repay his debt early is so compelling that a borrower might not even be believed if he claimed that he had been repaying the debt in regular installments (see Pischei Teshuvah C. M. 78:2). Furthermore, if a debtor dies and his heirs claim in beis din that their father informed them that he had repaid a debt before it came due, their claim is not considered credible since their father’s
claim is summarily dismissed (Shach 78:14).This should not apply if the father was known to pay his debts before the due date. Nevertheless, even in such a case we must assume that the debt was not repaid. As the father was well aware that most people do not prepay debts, he would have asked for a receipt as a legal proof that he settled the debt (see Imrei Binah, To’en V’nitan 15). Consequently, in this case as well, since the father died be-fore the loan came due, the claim that the loan was paid is not credible.Assuming that the father’s estate was worth at least $20,000, the heirs must repay that amount.
explained Rabbi Tzedek, “so it is considered as if you found an aveidah, a lost item, of the caterer.”“Shouldn’t we return it then?” asked Mrs. Schmeltz.“That would be true for a non-perishable item, like an extra bottle of soda,” Rabbi Tzedek said. “In that case, you would simply notify the caterer after Shabbos. If you used it, the ca-terer would be happy for you to pay its price (C.M. 267:21).”“On the other hand, cholent is perishable and minimally us-able after Shabbos,” continued Rabbi Tzedek. “The store is not even allowed to accept it back afterward for resale. Since it will effectively go to waste, the find-er should try to sell it on behalf of the owner (Sm”a 267:30). Alternatively, he can take it for himself at a fair price (Rema 267:24).”“What does ‘fair price’ mean?” asked Mr. Schmeltz.“Price is determined by the place and time the item is sold,” replied Rabbi Tzedek (Rosh,
Kiddushin 1:17). “Normally, if the ‘fair price’ is not clear, it should be evaluated by beis din, or at least by three knowl-edgeable people (Sm”a 267:24; Igros Moshe C.M. 2:45d). How-ever, late on a Friday afternoon, there is almost no market for extra cholent, other than you! Although you personally prob-ably don’t need a second tub, people are often willing to buy extra if it is available at a signifi-cant discount.” “How do we evaluate its value to us?” asked Mrs. Schmeltz.“That depends on whether you ordered sparingly or generous-ly; whether additional people came; how much other food there was,” replied Rabbi Tze-dek. “Foods such as kugel or cold cuts can be frozen or used during the week, so they would be worth more than cholent, which is not of much use later.”Mr. Schmeltz thanked Rabbi Tzedek.“If we decide to use the cholent, we’ll work something out with Gershon’s Gourmet,” he said.
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Q: What oath is required of a shomer (guardian) who does not return the en-trusted item?
A: If the guardian claims exemption — e.g. he claims the entrusted item was burned in a fire — he is required to include in his oath three elements (B.M. 6a; C.M. 295:2; Taz): 1) He was not negligent, but guarded the item properly.
2) The item was lost in the stated manner and is no longer in his possession.3) He did not misappropriate the item for his personal use beforehand. [If the guard-ian misappropriated the item, he remains liable until he returns it.]If the guardian will pay for the item — e.g. he admits it was lost through his negli-gence — he is still required to swear that it is no longer in his possession, unless the
item is a standard one readily available on the market. [Otherwise, we are concerned that he is scheming to “acquire” the item by admitting guilt and paying for it.] If the owner disputes the stated value, the guard-ian must also include the item’s value in his oath (C. M. 295:1).Nowadays, beis din discourages swearing and usually advocates a compromise in lieu of the oath (Pischei Teshuvah 87:19, 22).
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Chateau Steakhouse is a new Glatt Kosher restaurant in Fresh Meadows serving the Queens and Long Is-land communities. Upscale and ele-gant, Chateau Steakhouse is a grand 10,000-square-foot facility, with floor-to-ceiling windows with marble and wood décor adding immeasurably to the elegant ambience of this fine dining restaurant.
This beautiful restaurant offers two separate dining areas. One of the din-ing rooms features a large, dramatic and beautiful crystal chandelier. The second dining room soothes your senses with a dazzling wall-length waterfall. In this delightfully cozy setting, you’ll discover the kind of in-timate dining experience you’ll want to tell your friends about.
Do you enjoy dining in a casual at-mosphere? They also have a full sushi bar with an expert chef who makes delicious fresh creations. And you can always relax with a drink at their traditional bar, or in your own comfy hideaway in their secluded lounge area.
Chateau Steakhouse offers a full menu, including sushi, fish and meat as well as other delectable kosher fare. Under the supervision of Vaad
Harabonim of Queens, they offer the highest standard of service and qual-ity of kosher products. Their chef, James Knowles, has over 25 years of culinary experience.
A specialty of the house is dry-ag-ing meats. Signature dishes include a 24-ounce grilled Delmonico steak, red snapper fillet served with baby bok choy, pan-seared Long Island Duck with b l u e b e r r y port reduc-tion, and Chateau Mo-naco Chick-en. Daily fish specials tempt you to try some-thing tasty from the deep blue sea. Their fresh mar-ket fish is seafood as fresh as it comes. All of the meat they serve, i n c l u d i n g sausage slid-
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Testing and Training Interna-tional (TTI), a leading ca-reer-training program in the
Orthodox Jewish community, has added four new programs to help qualified candidates earn degrees in emerging and growing fields. Ac-cording to Mrs. Raizel Reit, founding director of TTI, the programs include Dietetic Technician, Interior Design, Administrative Assisting, and Medi-cal Assisting. “We are pleased to add programs that not only are very much in demand in this tough job environ-ment but are also well suited for a frum lifestyle,” said Mrs. Reit.
For students who enjoy the challenge of combining healthy eating with helping people, a career as a nutri-tionist is an excellent choice. This
new TTI program towards a degree in Dietetic Technician AAS is in part-nership with the University of Central Arizona, one of a select group of col-leges to be approved by the American Dietetic Association (ADA).
Following the coursework, TTI will assist students in fulfilling their in-ternship requirements, a very integral part of any nutrition program. Slots for internships are very competitive and there are many halachic issues in the cooking and serving of foods that TTI will help students navigate. There are numerous options for grad-uates, including opening consulting practices, working in nursing homes, medical offices, hospitals or gymna-siums, or continuing on to receive a Registered Dietician (RD) license.
For those with a flair for fashion, de-sign and creativity, a career in Interior Design is a perfect fit. TTI’s Interi-or Design program is in conjunction with the prestigious Art Institute of Pittsburgh. The certificate program offers students a comprehensive back-ground in design including courses in color theory, textiles, space planning and kitchen and bath design. Students can fulfill additional licensure require-ments and ultimately be prepared to sit for the NCIDQ exam. Students may also choose to continue with the Art Institute to earn an Associate’s in Kitchen and Bath Design or a Bache-lor’s in Interior Design.
Enormous opportunities exist for ad-ministrative assistants, who are always an integral part of any successful op-
eration, whether business, government or not-for-profits. This is a perfect profession for people who enjoy be-ing in the middle of a successful en-terprise. Working in conjunction with Erie Community College, students take 24 credits over the course of two semesters to complete the Certificate, all of which can be transferred towards a Bachelor’s degree at Excelsior Col-lege. Graduates can work in a broad range of settings in what can be an ex-citing, fulfilling and rewarding career.
For those who have what it takes to be part of a medical environment, a career as a Medical Assistant is an outstanding choice. In this new TTI program, students learn about admin-istrative duties for medical offices in-cluding coursework in Medical Cod-ing and Insurance, Medical Office Management and Professionalism in Health Care. This program, offered in conjunction with Kaplan Univer-sity, is designed to prepare students with the knowledge, technical skills, and work habits to become a Medical Office Clinician.
Graduates may be eligible to take the Certified Medical Assistant examina-tion given by the American Associa-tion of Medical Assistants or the Reg-istered Medical Assistant examination given by the American Medical Tech-nologists upon completion of this program. They can work in general medical and surgical hospitals, outpa-tient centers and offices of health prac-titioners. Medical Assistants actually work in patient care, such as taking vital signs, assisting doctors, and ad-ministering injections.
“The new programs,” says Mrs. Reit, “are consistent with our constant evaluation of career tracks that lead to promising futures for our students.” She added: “TTI selects only partner colleges and universities that have a reputation and a history of offering a quality education leading to a highly valued degree. The best evidence of our success is the significant num-ber of our graduates who find em-ployment in the most prestigious job settings and the many TTI graduates who are routinely accepted into lead-ing graduate schools.”
Testing and Training Internation-al (TTI) was founded in 1996 as a comprehensive flexible educational program designed to help Orthodox Jewish students earn a Bachelors or Masters degree from accredited insti-tutions without compromising their religious principles. Since its found-ing, TTI has serviced close to 8000 students on the undergraduate and graduate level.
TTI Launches New Programs for Emerging Career Opportunities to Help Orthodox Students in a Tough Job Market
On Monday evening, May 21, the annual Queens Reception for Shuvu was held at the home of Shuvu Co-Chairman R. Yossi and Aviva Hoch in Kew Gardens Hills. Despite the inclement weather, a large crowd gathered to be inspired by the warm words of Rabbi Moshe Tuvia Lieff, to enjoy the refreshments, and to show their support for Shuvu.
As Shuvu’s founder, Hagaon Harav Av-rohom Pam zt”l used to say, “Every Jewish child, without exception, is a precious jewel to Hashem. It is the goal of Shuvu to see that each one receives his or her birthright – a full Torah education. Then Eretz Yisroel will be-come truly worthy of the return of the Shechi-na.”
Rabbi Lieff, Rav of Agudas Yisroel Bais Binyamin of Avenue L in Brooklyn, and a passionate supporter of
this organization, spoke of his visits to Shuvu schools, and of the memorable encounters he remembers. He described the wedding that the parents of the Kallah, a
Shuvu graduate, would not attend to protest her marry-ing a Shomer Shabbos husband. In that case, the Mena-helet (Principal) of the school walked the Kallah to the
Chuppah, and the Shuvu administrators and students were thrilled to participate in the lively Simcha.
Rabbi Lieff shared another moving experience. A Shuvu student who was already Shomer Shab-bos returned home one Shabbos afternoon. She knocked on her door, but her brother refused to let her in unless she rang the bell. So she sat outside, and waited…. A few hours later her mother returned, and let her into their home. Her brother is now Shomer Shabbos - inspired, perhaps, by his patient sister.
As each participant made a donation to Shu-vu, he knew that he was not just supporting a school -- he was effectively part of a move-ment to return those previously lost souls to
their home within Klal Yisroel. He knew that he was a stepping-stone in fulfilling Rav Pam’s vision, ultimate-ly leading to the return of the Shechina.
Congregation Ohr HaTorah, under the leadership of Rabbi Refael Zavulunov, who is also the assistant director of the CHAZAQ organization, held its first ever Hachnasas Sefer Torah on Sunday May 20th. The writing of the final letters took place at the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, and was followed by a grand musical procession with cantor Avi Peretz and Uri Biton. The Torah was escorted to its shul, which is in the basement of Rav Henoch Savitsky’s shul on 73rd Ave. The Sefer Torah was sponsored by the Aronov family in memory of their parents Nekadam bas Avigail and Yehudah Ari ben Michal.
by Shira FragerWomen and their daughters paced the
rooms filled with ribbon-decorated cakes and pastries, searching for their reserved orders at the Sixth Annual Shavuot Bake Sale in Queens on Wed, May 24.
The event benefitted Avigdor’s Help-ing Hand, an organization that provides financial assistance to orphans and wid-ows marred by the death of their loved ones.
Yitty and Eli Glaser established Avig-dor’s Helping Hand after their son Avig-dor passed away in 2005, leaving behind his wife and three children. Their inten-tion was to keep Avigdor’s memory alive and to help others who faced similar challenges in facing the death of a close family member.
The bake sale took place in Kew Gar-dens Hills at the home of Alyson Walfish, where volunteers had spent days and nights preparing for the event. Tables and counters were covered with packag-es of cakes, boxes of cookies, containers of soup and small bouquets of flowers.
“I’m fairly new to the neighborhood and didn’t know about it,” said Zehava
Deitsch, who moved to Queens a few months ago. “I think it’s great- it’s like a one-stop shop where you can get flowers, soup and cakes.”
The tables were decorated with large white orchids, and vases of many differ-
ent types of flowers donated by Privet Flower Shop of Main Street beautified the environment. “It’s a great organiza-tion, we love to help in any way we can,” said Privet employer Rachel Kupfer,
who made the flower arrangement.The annual bake sale takes place in
different areas of New York City, includ-ing the local neighborhoods of Queens and the Five Towns.
According to Yitty Glaser, the orga-
nization fulfills two purposes. “We help spouses [who had been] struggling for six months and the second reason is [to help finance] weddings for orphans.” Accord-ing to Glaser, $2.5 million has been raised
since the organization started seven years ago. “It’s an amazing event, people have changed, and I’m proud to be associated with this community,” said Glaser.
Between 100 and 200 people showed up at the event. “We sent a lot of emails. We tried to reach different neighbor-hoods and get people involved,” said organizer Veeta Abramchik. According to Abramchik, at least 25 women were involved in the planning of the event.
Local community member Ida Sobel, who has been living in the area for sev-eral years spoke highly of the Walfish family and of the organization. “Walfish is a very special name, Avigdor’s Help-ing Hand is a wonderful organization,” she said. Sobel noted that events for this cause have been going on for several years, and was impressed with the efforts of the women who put the event together.
Frequent events are held to fundraise for Avigdor’s Helping Hand, such as bake sales, barbecues, and holiday re-ceptions.
“They work hard to raise money, ev-erything is voluntary,” said Sobel.
Shuvu Queens Reception Draws Large Crowd For Important Cause
Congregation Ohr HaTorah Celebrates First Hachnasas Sefer Torah
Shavuot- A Day Of Celebration, Cheesecake, And… Bake Sales
On Sunday, May 21, the Dov Revel Yeshiva Synagogue in Forest Hills held a special breakfast and video presenta-tion to celebrate Yom Yerushalayim. The event was well-attended by both members of the shul and their guests.
The festivities began with davening in the shul. The congregants enjoyed a special treat – the ceremonial reci-tation of Hallel by their very own Cantor David Rosenz-weig. Cantor Rosenzweig is renowned for his special gifts of chazanus and his unique style, and his talents were on full display in honor of the occasion. Davening concluded with a somber recitation of yizkor in memory of the sol-diers of the IDF that sacrificed their lives for the sake of their country.
Breakfast followed davening, with everyone enjoying a delicious and filling spread of bagels and lox. A big ‘yiyas-her kochachem’ is due to Gabe Nudell and Alan Pollak for planning and following up on all the details of the food.
The gathering was addressed by the rabbi, Rabbi Bin-yamin Blumberg. He spoke about the great miracles that
we commemorate on Yom Yerushalayim. Rabbi Blumberg reminded everyone that we are obligated to reflect on the different aspects of the miracle and to recall the many de-tails of the war, so that we can truly appreciate the abun-dant kindness of Hashem.
This message was kept in mind as everyone watched the video presentation and recalled the events of 1967. The 37-minute video began with a review of the events that led up to the Six Day War and the tremendous odds that were stacked against Israel at its outset. The video detailed the miracles that enabled Israel to secure each of its fronts and to retake the Old City of Jerusalem. All present were moved by the dedication and the supreme sacrifice of the Israeli soldiers.
Dov Revel Synagogue is located in the Dov Revel Ye-shiva building in Forest Hills, which is home to Bnos Malka Academy for girls. Please keep posted for details of future special events, including details of our second annual Summer Pizza and Parsha Lecture Series.
Rabbi Yonason Sacks, a revered and beloved Torah scholar, has been appointed Rosh HaYes-hiva of Beis Medrash L’Talmud at Lander College for Men (LCM), announced Dr. Alan Kadish, president and CEO of The Touro Col-lege and University System.
“Touro College is proud and honored to wel-come Rabbi Sacks to Lander College for Men/Beis Medrash L’Talmud,” said Dr. Kadish. “A world class talmid chacham and manhig b’Yisrael, Rabbi Sacks will add immeasurably to the already stellar rabbinic faculty of Lander College for Men. I have every confidence that his leadership and vision will meaningfully im-pact future generations with his skillful over-sight, knowledge and erudition.”
Rabbi Sacks will be joining Rabbi Doniel Lander who, in addition to leading Yeshivas Ohr Hachaim and serving as Chancellor of Tou-ro, will be a Rosh HaYeshiva of Beis Medrash L’Talmud as well.
A leading posek and author of 18 seforim, Rabbi Sacks descends from a long line of il-lustrious rabbinic personalities. His great-grandfather, the legendary Rabbi Zvi Pesach Frank, served as Chief Rabbi of Yerushalayim for more than 50 years. His grandfather, Rabbi Menachem Sacks was a leader of Jewish educa-tion in Chicago for nearly six decades, and his father, Rabbi Louis L. Sacks, was rabbi of Con-gregation Anshe Emunah in Delray Beach, FL.
For the last quarter century, Rabbi Sacks has been a leading figure in harbatzos ha’Torah as a Rosh Yeshiva and Rebbe. For the last 18 years he was a Rosh Yeshiva at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) at Yeshiva Uni-versity where he was ordained and awarded Semikha Yadin Yadin, an advanced rabbinic ordination. He has been the Rav of Agudas Yis-roel Bircas Yaakov in Passaic, NJ for more than 18 years.
“I am honored and humbled to serve with Rabbi Doniel Lander as the Rosh HaYeshiva of Beis Medrash L’Talmud at Lander College for Men,” said Rabbi Sacks. “Together with our distinguished Rabbinic faculty, I aspire to the advancement and enrichment of our Yeshiva, and the personal growth and development of each of our talmidim.”
Dov Revel Synagogue Celebrates Yom YerushalayimNoted Rabbi Appointed Rosh
Community Corner - Recent HappeningsRabbi Shimon Kessin Delivers Speech On Vital And Practical
Skills For A Successful Marriage And Relationship
by Susie Garber Why is marriage difficult? Rabbi Shimon Kessin
shlit”a, posed this question to an audience at Con-gregation Shaare Tova in a community shiur spon-sored by Chazaq and Eshel Avrahamon in memory of Netzer Nissanian, z”l and Yaeer Netzer Nissanian z”l, on Monday evening, May 14. There are specific skills which are not taught and which are necessary, Rabbi Kessin explained, drawing on his decades of experi-ence as a marriage counselor.
R’ Kessin began by relating a surprising thought: happiness is not the gauge of a relationship; the gauge is hurt. He taught that men and women react differently to hurt. Generally, men tend to withdraw and spend more time away while women tend to attack verbally or nag. This creates a vicious cycle where the person’s behavior promotes the exact opposite of what he/she desires. R’ Kessin pointed out that in any relationship it is inevitable at some point that someone will feel hurt. R’ Kessin imparted that a person is like an onion, and we need to peel away the top layers to discover the emotions underneath. If someone insults us, we’re cognizant of one emo-tion but we aren’t aware of other accompanying emotions such as, fear, rage and most painful of all, shame. In terms of positive emotions, R’ Kessin noted, everyone wants respect and love. For a woman, he stated, love is first and respect comes second, but for a man respect is first and love second. R’ Kessin emphasized that nagging erodes respect and neglect erodes love.
The question is, how do we handle this hurt? R’ Kessin detailed a way of “Hurt man-agement,” in which he specified a few key points/questions we need to know about our spouses: What does he/she expect? What hurts him/her? When our spouse is hurt what does that look like? What does he/she do?
He suggested creating a spousal profile because the priorities of our spouse need to be understood. He then enumerated eight sub skills necessary for success in any relationship.
1. Communication. We need to communicate if we’re hurt. We must commu-nicate so the other person can hear what we say and not feel that they are being put on the defensive. In this category, three styles of communication are possible and two must be avoided. The two that are wrong include: Passiveness, which means just swallowing hurt. This will come back and cause us to seek revenge; and aggressiveness, such as name-calling, which invades the other’s boundaries and attacks self- esteem. The proper mode of communication, R’ Kessin noted, is assertiveness. This means we don’t attack the other person; rather we inform them of how their behavior is affecting us. The essence of assertiveness is it informs the other and focuses on how the other person’s behavior has affected us. R’ Kes-sin emphasized that assertiveness is the single greatest communication skill as it helps to resolve conflicts.
2. How to Listen. The main idea in listening is to listen to the feelings behind the statement. If we listen carefully, we can hear when our spouse is hurt.
3. Apologize. This is the only way to remove hurt. We must be careful not to put the other person down when we apologize. R’ Kessin explained that many marriage counselors try to work out negotiations on various issues, but this won’t help where there is an accumulation of hurt because continuous hurt destroys trust. A person must know that his spouse will not intentionally hurt him/her. Thus, the “hurtee” must know the hurter didn’t mean to hurt them.
4. Forgiveness is a skill. It means realizing the other person didn’t mean to do it. This connects to the mitzvah of giving the benefit of the doubt. R’ Kessin pointed out that most people do not wish to hurt others. Often, people lash out to protect themselves from pain.
5. Criticism. The Torah says, “Reprove your neighbor but don’t get a sin be-cause of it.” This means don’t destroy his self-esteem. Reproof must be given in the proper way. First we must give a compliment or stroke. R’ Kessin compared this to banking: first make a deposit before transacting a withdrawal.
6. Accepting criticism. The recipient must realize that the purpose of the criti-cism is because his/her spouse wants a better relationship. It is not meant as a per-sonal attack.
7. Art of negotiation. The main goal needs to be a strong relationship not to win. Both spouses need to strive for a win-win situation.
8. Compromise. It doesn’t pay to win the battle and lose the war. R’ Kessin concluded that we only need one person with the right skills to change
and improve a marriage. He added an important point, that in order to maintain or to create joy in a relationship, husband and wife must go out together and spend time together at least once a week. This energizes a relationship.
May all those who are married and engaged merit beautiful strong shalom bayis and may all those who need to find their zivug find their proper zivug and build beautiful bayis neemanim filled with joy and proper communication.
YCQ E2K Science Enrichment Program Completes Their First
Programming/Robotics YearYCQ students in grades 7 and 8 E2K program finished their science modules this year in which they focused on com-puter programming and robot-ics. The students spent the fall science module learning basic programming skills using the Scratch program developed by M.I.T. They developed some very creative scenarios and programs which they shared which each other. This knowl-edge helped them with the spring science module when they took this skill and applied it to programming Lego Mind-storm Robots. Students, work-ing in pairs or groups, spent a few sessions building the ro-bots and then many others pro-
gramming them. One group got their robot to walk around the middle table without bumping into anything. Another was taught to move on hearing a loud sound. Still another was programmed to react to a piece of blue tape on the floor. There were many other variations and much excitement and creativity.Many thanks to Rabbi Lonner, the executive director, for purchasing the equipment needed for this very special after school program. Kudos to the members of E2K who were diligent in attending and participating.
First Of Its Kind!Intergenerational Shabbaton At Margaret
Tietz Nursing & Rehabilitation CenterSeven local high school students from Kew Gardens Hills and Hillcrest took part
in a unique Shabbaton experience under the auspices of NCSY. The group of teens, accompanied by a handful of NCSY staff members, joined the Shabbos morning minyan at Margaret Tietz Nursing & Rehabilitation Center and stayed on for the communal Shabbos lunch.
During the break between davening and the meal, the students had the opportunity to spend quality time interacting with the residents. With the lovely weather beckon-ing, many took advantage of the outdoors to sit with residents in the gardens and get to know them on an individual basis. The seudah that followed was replete with spirited singing, Divrei Torah and Chef Yossi and Eli’s trademark Shabbos food.
All involved were enriched by this remarkable Shabbos that brought together dif-ferent generations in an outstanding display of respect, warmth and camaraderie. “The presence of these kids added so much to our Shabbos, it was really beautiful. I believe this was the best Shabbos meal since we started having a communal lunch”, said Tietz resident, Reuven G.
Building on the success of this pilot Shabbaton, we anticipate many future joint weekend programs to be held at Margaret Tietz.
Shabbos Boxes For Hospital PatientsThe Sisterhoods of Temple
Immanuel, Temple Israel, and Great Neck Synagogue joined forces to assemble over 270 ‘Shabbat boxes’ for patients at nearby North Shore University Hospital and enjoyed a presentation by Rabbi Daniel Coleman about other new initiatives for Jewish patients such as modesty gowns.
On Thursday May 11, eighty Ezra students accompanied by numerous faculty and staff members boarded buses for Camp Moshava in Indian Orchard, PA. The week-end is an opportunity for students to bond with faculty in a less formal setting. They participate in all sorts of activities like sports, boating, team building, “KLASS KOMBAT,” a campfire, challah-making and learning sessions. The highlight of the retreat experience however, comes when Shabbos begins and the students who have committed to keep Shabbos for the weekend (some for the very first time) encounter a spiritual and exciting experience like no other they’ve ever experienced.
For the second year in a row, the travelling Chassidim joined Ezra Academy at the retreat and inspired and enlightened students and staff alike with their tefilot, singing, divrei Torah and messages of Chizuk. Students were excited to sing and dance with the Chassidim and truly moved to learn that they felt inspired by Ezra students who work so hard to observe mitzvoth in families where that is not always so easy or so welcome.
The Melave Malka provided two hours of non-stop dancing that really demon-strated how much inspiration students had absorbed over the Shabbos. The dancing led into a moving kumsitz where students sang and shared their thoughts about the weekend, their struggle to keep mitzvoth and their overall experience at Ezra Acad-emy. Despite the broken down buses on the return trip, the RETREAT 2012 was a huge success as it inspired students, faculty and guests.
Assemblyman Lancman Rallies With Jewish Leaders To Celebrate Yom
Yerushalayim, Calls For U.S. Recognition of Jerusalem As
Capital Of Israel Assemblyman
Rory Lancman, a candidate for Congress in New York’s 6th Con-gressional District, stood with Queens Jewish Commu-nity leaders today in front of a monu-ment to Theodor Herzl (the architect of modern Zion-
ism) in Freedom Square in Kew Gardens Hills to celebrate Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day), a day commemorating Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. As-semblyman Lancman called for the United States to adjust its policy and officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Despite the fact that Jerusalem is the center of government and foreign affairs in Israel, the U.S. State Department has not only refused to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, but has refused to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem, has refused to include “Israel” on identification documents given to American children born in Jerusalem and has opposed Israel’s land rights in East Jerusalem.
If elected to Congress, Lancman said he would work to pass the Jerusalem Em-bassy and Recognition Act, which would amend U.S. policy to recognize Jerusa-lem as the capital of Israel, and would enact key provisions to reflect that policy. The act would officially move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to a U.S.-leased 10-acre lot in West Jerusalem, and would strip the President’s authority to issue a waiver blocking the movement of the embassy. The law would also recog-nize Israel as the birthplace of American children, something Assemblyman Lanc-man called for in March in light of new developments in the “Jerusalem Passport Case,” Zivitofsky v. Clinton.
“Our government’s refusal to recognize the realty of Jerusalem as the eternal and undivided capital of Israel is a major obstacle to peace,” Lancman said. “Israel is never going back to the days when Jews were barred from praying at the Western Wall and blocked from being buried at the Mount of Olives, and when Jewish in-stitutions in Jerusalem were desecrated and destroyed. The sooner America helps the Palestinians accept this reality by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the quicker peace will come.
Lancman also said he disagreed with President Obama’s opposition to building housing in East Jerusalem.
“Jews have the right to live anywhere in the world, especially anywhere in their homeland, the land of Israel,” Lancman said.
Leaders of the Jewish Community in Queens also spoke, praising Assemblyman Lancman’s record of support for Israel and calling for the U.S. Government to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
“Rory is a great public servant who, among others, will represent with honor the Jewish community and the State of Israel,” said Eli Hertz, a veteran of the Six Day War, an expert on Jerusalem’s history as the political capital of the state of Israel and the author of Jerusalem: One Nation’s Capital Throughout History.
“Yom Yerushalayim is not just a holiday for the Jews, but it’s a holiday for other religions in the world,” said Alvin Warshaviak, Chairman of Community Board 8 and a Jewish community activist. “Christians, or someone from any other religion can come and visit the Kotel or the Wailing Wall, and that’s only because Israel and Yerushalayim are reunited.”
“Today we celebrate the 45th anniversary of one of the greatest miracles of the history of the world: the reunification and liberation of the holiest of holy cities, Jerusalem,” said Dr. Joseph Frager, President and Chairman of the Jerusalem Rec-lamation Project. “It’s an honor to speak about this issue here with Rory, who has been a fighter for the land of Israel more than anyone that I know, and G-d should give him the strength to win this seat in Congress and help the Jewish people and all peoples in their causes.
“Recently having visited Jerusalem, I saw first-hand the wonderful work of the Jerusalem Reclamation Group,” said Jan Fenster, a Jewish community activist who just returned from a trip to Israel. “I must say it’s an honor to be here with Rory Lancman, our future Congressman, who will be a spokesperson for justice and fairness not only in the United States but certainly in Israel and in Jerusalem.”
Luncheon with My Teacher: Novel Bais Yaakov Program
Motivates Studentsby Susie Garber
Mrs. Karen Geiger, fourth grade teacher at Bais Yaakov of Queens, recently dis-covered a novel way to motivate her students to behave with good middos and to excel academically as well. As an outgrowth of the R.E.A.C.H. program ((Respect, Empathy, Attitude, Cooperation and Honesty: a school-wide program which pro-motes good middos), Mrs. Geiger implemented a ticket/prize program, in which students could earn tickets and then choose from various prizes. Tickets would be earned for strong displays of cooperation and consideration of classmates, which fits with the goals of the R.E.A.C.H Program. The goal is to create a safe, healthy environment for the students’ emotional growth. This program was a follow-up to an anti-bullying training seminar the whole staff attended last year.
Mrs. Geiger recalled rattling off possible rewards, such as picking any class job or teaching a lesson to the class with Mrs. Geiger’s guidance. Somehow she heard herself suggesting, “Or you can have lunch with the teacher.”
To Mrs. Geiger’s surprise, many students opted for the lunch with their teacher. The students named it “luncheon” and they vied for this valuable prize. Soon, “lun-cheon” took on a life of its own. The results of this creative idea were beautiful middos in class and a unique chance for students to shmooz with their teacher and receive a full half-hour of undivided attention.
Mrs. Geiger said, “I found myself leaving early for work three times a week. My husband would say, ‘Where are you going?’ And I would explain I have a luncheon date with a student.”
Mrs. Geiger smiled. “I found that I really got to connect with my students on an individual basis and this has made all the difference this year. It’s changed my whole way of teaching. I still can’t believe how much the girls look forward to this and all want to do it. Now they’re asking, ‘Can we do dinner?’”
Yom Yerushalayim Program At Young Israel Of Kew Gardens Hills -
Appreciating Our Eternal Capitalby Susie Garber
A large crowd gathered for a special shalosh seudos program on Shabbos, May 19, at the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills.
Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld, Mora d’Asra of the shul, introduced the program com-memorating Yom Yerushalayim and celebrating the beauty of Yerushalayim. Rabbi Schonfeld recalled the end of the Six Day War when he heard the news that Yerush-alayim was back in Jewish hands.
Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld, Rabbi Emeritus of Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, spoke about Yerushalayim and our strong connection to the land of Israel. He ex-plained that the way to experience Israel is to live in Yerushalayim and go to the stores and talk to the people. He pointed out that the image portrayed by the media is false. He told about his recent experience living there for three months. While there, R’ Schonfeld related how he witnessed laudatory achdus and ahavah. He noted that he davened in a Satmar shul where Jews from all different backgrounds gathered with complete achdus to daven. “When you visit Israel you’re not in Paris, or Hong Kong, you’re home,” R’ Schonfeld emphatically stated.
The Rav concluded with a quote from one of the kinos for Tisha B’Av.“…When I went forth from Egypt, when I return to Jerusalem, gladness and joy,
while anguish and sighing will flee.”Rabbi Azaryeh Berzon, Rosh Yeshiva of Lander College and Founder of Yeshivat
Mivarseret Tzion, spoke with passion about Israel. He noted how his father, zt”l, and Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld travelled to Israel shortly after the Six Day War. They spoke of the tremendous outpouring of joy and gratitude to Hashem everyone expe-rienced on the 28th of Iyar, Yom Yerushalayim.
He quoted a Ramban about the curses listed in Parshas Bechukatai. The Torah states the land will be desolate, which means our enemies will not take over the land. This is actually a blessing. R’ Berzon explained that we have seen this over the past thousand years - the land only flourishes and grows when the Jewish people live there.
R’ Berzon spoke about the concept, “you are where you live – that your surround-ings have a huge influence on you. He emphasized that the whole land of Israel is centered around the Beis Hamikdosh and referenced gemorahs and tehillim that discussed this idea.
R’ Berzon then shared a story about a man who appeared to have spinal problems and was all bent over. After the Six Day War, this man stood at the Kosel at mincha time and recited the blessing, “Who straightens the bent.” Someone asked him why he was reciting this morning blessing in the afternoon. He explained that he had made a vow that he would stay bent over until Jerusalem was back in Jewish hands. Now he could stand straight.
R’ Berzon ended with a blessing that we should all see Yerushalayim rebuilt and Mashiach in our days.
Jewish Heritage Center Beginner’s Minyan: All Jews Are Responsible
For One Anotherby Susie Garber
In Kew Gardens Hills, we experience firsthand the feeling of being part of Klal Yisroel--one big family. As Shavuos recently passed and we committed ourselves to receive the Torah-- our beautiful blueprint of how to live our lives-- we need to reach out to those fellow Jews in our own neighborhood or in our families who don’t yet know the beauty of Torah.
The Jewish Heritage Center of Queens sponsors many outstanding programs that reach out to our unaffiliated Jewish brethren. One such program is a unique Begin-ner’s Service on Shabbos mornings on the first and third Shabbos of every month. If you know of neighbors, family members, friends or colleagues who might benefit from this service, please refer them to The Jewish Heritage Center. Many people may feel intimidated walking into an Orthodox shul. It can be overwhelming trying to follow and to find your place in the service. The Beginner’s Service is a small, nonjudgmental, warm place to learn to navigate the siddur and learn about Torah Judaism. The question and answer format makes it ideal for individualized learning. Many happy graduates of the Beginner’s Service now daven in regular shuls and have became active members of the frum Jewish community.
Rabbi Robert Garber leads the service and participants are always welcome to join us in our home for Shabbos lunch after the Beginner’s Service. It’s an opportu-nity to meet friends, learn about Judaism and connect with Hashem.
May we all spread the light of Torah to the far corners of the earth so that we may see Mashiach in our days.
Yeshiva Kesser Torah Annual Breakfast Draws Large Crowd
by Susie GarberOn Sunday morning,
May 20, Yeshiva Kesser To-rah held its annual breakfast at Yeshiva Central Queens. A large crowd gathered to show their support of the Yeshiva, which offers a wide range of minyanim and a warm friendly place to daven on Shabbos and Yom Tov. The Rabbi and
Rebbetzin’s warmth and hospitality are legendary. The yeshiva offers shiurim and an open bais midrash, as well as Carlbach davening Friday nights before Rosh Chodesh.
The guests of honor included: Zvi & Batya Fishman and Nitsan & Mindy Lavie.The Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Elyakim Rosenblatt, spoke first about the amazing power
we all possess to bring showers of brochos on ourselves and the world, if we toil in Torah. He shared two inspiring stories about Gedolim, whom he knew personally.
Rabbi Daniel Cohen then proposed a new unique campaign to write a new sefer Torah for the yeshiva. All the names of the contributors will be written on the cover of the Sefer Torah. In addition, additional names for Refuah Sheilemah or Leiluy Nish-mas will be written on the cover of the Sefer Torah. Everyone was invited to dedicate a Parsha for the Yeshiva.
Next, Rabbi Rabbi Asher Schechter, Mora d’Asra of Congregation Ohr Moshe, shared Divrei Torah and spoke about his congregants, Mr. and Mrs. Lavie.
Zvi Fishman shared a beautiful D’var Torah and spoke about his Hakaros Hatov to Yeshiva Kesser Torah.
Honoree Nitsan Lavie spoke next and he also mentioned his tremendous feeling of Hakaros Hatov and how Kesser Torah was where he found enthusiastic and spiritually uplifting davening. Though they live in another neighborhood, Mr. Lavie always tries to catch a mincha or maariv at the yeshiva. He also mentioned that for his daughter’s bat mitzvah, the whole family came in to daven shacharis at Yeshiva Kesser Torah.
Rabbi Rosenblatt’s original negunim and the warm friendly welcoming atmosphere combined with sincere heartfelt davening make this a very special makom Torah in our community.
Community Corner - Recent HappeningsCynthia Zalisky Honored
By The Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center
NYS Assembly member David Weprin and Dr. Arthur Flug, Director of the Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center of Queensborough Community College, recently presented Cynthia Zalisky with its first “Holocaust Freedom Award.” A child of Holocaust survivors, Mrs. Zalisky has devoted her adult life, both as an educator, lecturer and community activist, to combating Anti-Semitism and hate of all kinds using the lessons of the Holocaust as a template to create a better future seeking mutual understanding and tolerance for all. According to Dr. Flug, “Presenting the Kupferberg Holocaust Freedom Award to Cynthia Zalisky is both a recognition and affirmation of the many years she has committed herself to taking the lessons of the Holocaust to provide justice to those victims of discrimination and educating countless students and adults as to the need for them to recognize and appreciate their differences.”
In accepting the award, Mrs. Zalisky asserted, “It is importance to remember the lessons of the Holocaust so that hate will never again go unchallenged. We must reaffirm our commitment to honor the memory of the Kedoshim who perished and respect the survivors who are, Boruch Hashem, still with us.” She urged the many survivors in attendance to pass on the torch to their children and especially their grandchildren to ensure that the Shoah will never be forgotten.
Reception Benefitting Priority-1 Held In Jamaica Estates
On Motzai Shabbos, May 12th, a beautiful dessert reception was held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Howard Sipzner of Jamaica Estates to benefit Priority-1. The Sipzners have been close friends and supporters of Priority-1 since its incep-tion. The large crowd had the opportunity to hear about the powerful and effective educational techniques developed by Priority-1 under the guidance of its founder, Rabbi Shaya Cohen.
Priority-1, on the threshold of its 25th anniversary, is a multifaceted organization that has developed highly successful and innovative programs for students, teach-ers and parents. These programs are designed to address a broad range of needs in the rapidly changing Torah-education landscape of the 21st century.
For more information about the organization and its programs call: 516 295-5700 or visit: www.priority-1.org.
Unique Kiruv OpportunityAt this year’s Israel Day Parade, you can have an impact on thousands of
Jews. Am Yisrael Chai, a brand new grassroots outreach organization founded by Alan Shuchatowitz and Yosef Tannenbaum, is looking for male and female volunteers to distribute specially-prepared information publicizing outreach or-ganizations to unaffiliated Jews at the Parade which will be held on June 3. If you are interested, please contact Yosef Tannenbaum at [email protected] or Alan Shuchatowitz at [email protected] as soon as possible.
Uncluttered Domain Inc. Is Pleased To Invite Queens
Residents To Attend Our Upcoming Events In June:
Event Date: June 7, 2012“How to Talk so Adult Children Will Listen, and How To Listen So Adult Children Will Talk”Place: Atria Cutter Mill - 96 Cuttermill Road, Great Neck, NY 11021Time: 7:30 - 8:30pmFee: FREE
Event Date: June 14, 2012“What’s Your Organizing IQ?” (And a Packing Demonstration)Place: Home Depot - 172 Fulton Avenue, Hempstead, NY Time: 7:00 - 8:00pmFee: FREE
By Lorey FriedmanOn Tuesday evening, June 5th, Yeshiva Tifereth
Moshe will celebrate its 55th annual Dinner at the Sands in Atlantic Beach. Led by Rabbi Yaakov May, Rabbi Aharon Bookson, Rabbi Herbert Russ and Mrs. Adina Estersohn, Yeshiva Tifereth Moshe has been providing individualized, superior chinuch and gen-eral education to boys in the Greater Queens commu-nity. Anchored by an unparalleled faculty and admin-istration of talented, innovative and caring educators, the yeshivas goal is to teach and guide each talmid to become a mentsch, an educated, well-rounded young man with middos tovos and imbued with ahavas Torah and yiras shamayim.
One Rebbe totally on board with YTM’s goals is Rabbi Gedaliah Newcomb, who will be receiving the Rebbe Of The Year Award at this year’s dinner. As a seventh grade Rebbe, Rabbi Newcomb is faced with the formidable task of formulating shiurim that appeal to each student on his individual level. It is a delicate balancing act, maintaining just the right pace and level to challenge and motivate a lively group of seventh grade boys. Rabbi Newcomb possesses an inordinate amount of patience and a host of successful teaching techniques to accomplish his mission of limud Torah. With tremendous warmth, Rabbi Newcomb relates to the talmidim with compassion and sensitivity, solidi-fying relationships on a completely different plane, and creating a bond that often lasts not only after the school bell rings but for many years past graduation. In fact, on any given Shabbos, numerous bachurim can be found at the Newcomb home, seeking a private schmooze, a good vort, or some wise words of chizuk or advice.
In addition to his responsibilities at the Yeshiva, Rabbi Newcomb works with elderly patients as a certi-fied occupational therapist, providing them with skills to improve their quality of life, encouraging them all the while with warmth borne of genuine concern. Us-
ing these same personal qualities, Rabbi Newcomb mentors young boys approaching their Bar Mitzvah, instilling them with confidence to move forward into young adulthood. Yeshiva Tifereth Moshe is pleased to have the opportunity to express hakoras hatov to Rabbi Newcomb for his devotion to the talmidim with the Rebbe of the Year Award.
Another staff member of YTM, who demonstrates her innate love and concern for others, which has great-ly endeared her to her young students, is Mrs. Shani Itzkowitz. Mrs. Itzkowitz is being recognized for her twelve years of devotion to YTM with Educator of the Year.
Morah Shani has utilized her in-depth knowledge and many years of parenting experience to shape a Pre-1A curriculem that is child-friendly, creative and just plain fun. Nothing in Morah Shani’s class is “teacher generated.” The children make the projects them-selves and write in their own journals. The hands-on, child-centered approach reflects the research of today’s leading educators and sets a firm foundation for critical reading and social skills, while cultivating and enduring love for learning. This is clearly Morah Shani’s main objective. YTM is proud to acknowl-edge and honor Mrs. Shani Itzkowitz for her devotion to her students and to the yeshiva.
Moreover, the Hanhalah of Yeshiva Tifereth Moshe
is proud to recognize Amir and Debbie Abramchik, as their Guests of Honor at the upcoming dinner. They exemplify the famous words from Pirkei Avos, ”Who is honored? He who honors others.” Amir and Deb-bie excel in helping others in meaningful ways; they nurture close friendships and are deeply committed to their family, neighbors, community and Klal Yisroel. The Abramchiks have three sons in the Yeshiva and YTM is grateful to have them be an integral asset to their parent body.
Another couple in YTM’s “family” or parent body is Dr. Richard and Batya Gewanter. Their countless acts of chesed, as parents and as exemplary members of Klal Yisroel has no doubt earned them The Parents of the Year Award at this year’s Yeshiva dinner.
Amazing as it may sound, as Chief of Radiation Oncology for the Long Island regional network sites of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital, Dr. Gewanter spends countless hours coaching Little League games. He can be found setting up for the shul shalosh seu-dos, learning with others at Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim or leading the Ahavas Yisroel teen minyan. He has served on the Board of Congregation Ahavas Yisroel and given shiurim on medicine and halacha. Batya is on staff as on occupational therapist at Bais Yaa-kov and helps girls there learn critical life skills. The Gewanter home is an epicenter for hachnosas orchim and chesed. Their eldest child graduated YTM and they currently have a first grader at the Yeshiva. The Yeshiva is proud to recognize their countless acts of chesed to the Yeshiva and to Klal Yisroel.
Please join in and take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to support Torah education and acknowl-edge the work of Yeshiva Tifereth Moshe. For more information about the upcoming dinner and to put an ad into the journal, call (718) 846-7300.
Yeshiva Tifereth Moshe Dinner: A Night to Appreciate and Applaud
CHAZAQ To Host R’ Eliezer Krohn On ‘The Eternity Of Torah’
On Sunday Night, June 3rd, the CHAZAQ organization will host Rabbi Eliezer Krohn of Passaic/Clifton New Jersey. The rabbi is a popular lecturer and teacher who gives classes in Halacha in the tri-state area. He is a certified Mohel and is the son of the renowned Rabbi Paysach Krohn. The topic of the lecture will be “The Eternity of Torah.” Refreshments will be served at 8:00 p.m. and the lecture is scheduled for 8:30p.m. Men and women of all ages are welcome and admission is free of charge. The shiur will be held at the Beth Gavriel Community Center, at 66 - 35 108th St. For more information call or text 917-617-3636, email [email protected] or visit www.CHAZAQ.org
Rally For Jonathan Pollard To Be Held At Young Israel Of Jamaica Estates
The Jewish community of north-east Queens is planning a major event for 8 PM Monday evening June 4th at the Young Israel of Ja-maica Estates, located at 188th street right off the Grand Central Parkway.
The purpose of the event is to rally national (though we are starting lo-cal) support of the entire Jewish community for the humanitarian re-lease of Jonathan Pollard coinciding with Shimon Peres’ being honored in Washington by President Obama with the Presidential Medal of Honor.
It will be a night of prayer with Cantor Netanel Hershtik, and discus-sion with Member of Knesset Danny Danon, and a call to action for Jews nationwide to help accomplish the
mitzvah of pidyon shevuyim, our obligation to do what we can to free Jewish prisoners.
While Jonathan Pollard was rightly convicted for violating American laws, it is difficult for us Jews to understand why he has been singled out for such harsh and enduring punishment. Please join us and show your support for this important cause; it will be a giant step in righting this injustice and bringing the entire Jew-ish community together to perform this important mitzvah.
On Tuesday, June 5, Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe of Queens is hosting their 55th Annual Dinner at the Sands of Atlantic Beach. Rabbi Gedaliah Newcomb, a 7th Grade Rebbe, has been chosen as the “Rebbe of the Year” honoree. The QJL talked with R’ Newcomb talk about his favorite parts of being a Rebbe, his goals, and even a few of his teaching secrets.
QJL: Rabbi Newcomb, how long have you been with Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe?
R’N: Since 1999. Seems like only yesterday (smiles!)
QJL: What do you like most about teaching in a yeshiva like Tiferes Moshe?
R’N: Rabbi Noble’s cooking (laughs). Seriously though, Tiferes Moshe is a place where the boys look forward to coming to Yeshiva. I have heard that directly from the students’ mouths.
QJL: What is your approach to Chinuch?
R’N: It’s a secret (smiles). My approach is to un-derstand the boys and try to recall/feel what it was like to be a kid. If the boys feel they can relate to you and you to them, it is a whole different dynamic in the classroom.
QJL: Many teachers/rebbeim have differing takes on homework. What is your view?
R’N: That’s a tough one for me. The boys learn for over 3 hours daily just with me; then they go on to limudei chol. I am not in favor of homework as a protocol, but rather as a tool when needed. I am aware, however, that this matter is something that I need to improve upon.
QJL: Having control over a whole class of boys can be challenging. How do you maintain discipline in the classroom?
R’N: Respect, both given and earned, is the greatest maintenance of an atmo-sphere. If discipline is taught and modeled in the classroom, it is easier to maintain with regards to Hashem and mitzvos.
QJL: What is your goal as a “Rebbe”?
R’N: My goal is for myself and my talmidim to become as close to Hashem as we possibly can.
QJL: Being a teacher of Torah is such a big re-sponsibility. Is it ever overwhelming?
R’N: It is always overwhelming, in a passionate way (smiles).
QJL: If you could turn back the clock and choose a path in life all over again, despite the difficul-ties involved in teaching, the long hours of work and preparation at home, and sometimes sharing the burden of the yeshiva’s financial hardships, would you choose being a Rebbe once again?
R’N: Yes! (without pause and smiling). Every sin-gle moment one can feel the rewards of teaching.
QJL: How do you approach individual needs within the classroom?
R’N: All barriers can be overcome by truly “con-necting” with the boys; not simply lectures.
QJL: The boys seem fortunate to have such a caring, real, and fun Rebbe. Is there anything else you would like to say to the families of Queens?
R’N: I feel fortunate to teach boys from the local communities where I reside so that I can continue the amazing relationships built with the talmidim and their families. My family as well has benefitted
from these relationships and look forward to visits from current and former stu-dents. I also wish to express that I have learned so much over the years and grown personally from being around such professional and dedicated Rebbeim, Hanhala and staff at Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe.
QJL: Rabbi Newcomb, thank you for your time and congratulations on your well-deserved honor! May you continue to be a source of inspiration and knowledge to the boys you teach.
Community Corner - Interview
A Chat with Tiferes Moshe Rebbe of the Year Honoree, RABBI GEDALIAH NEWCOMB
The QJL thanks Mr. Spielman for generously sharing his tal-ents with us. Howard Spielman started illustrating professional-ly 50 years ago with the Jewish Press after impressing Arnold Fine with his drawings. All art-work featured in this column is original and has never been printed in any other publication. Mr. Spielman currently lives in Brooklyn. His son Spencer ca-ters for Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim in Queens.
(...Continued from last issue)Previously: The wise judge solves both men’s problems: the beggar now has a job and no longer has to beg in front of the baker’s store
...
A new story starts next issue.
Dear Debi and Ezri
Dear Debi and Ezri,I am 12 years old and recently, my mother started asking me to babysit my siblings when she goes out with my father. The problem is not my sib-lings. I love my siblings very much and they are not hard to handle. The problem is that when-ever I am the oldest one home I get very scared. This fear stops me from wanting to stay home and babysit. Please help me get over this fear!Scared Babysitter
Dear Scared Babysitter,First of all, we want you to understand that the fear of staying home alone, without your parents is very normal. One way to help you conquer your fear is asking a friend to come babysit with you. Inviting a friend over when you babysit can help make the experience into a fun one. If a friend is not available, music can help relax you and break up the silence. Also, keeping your parents’ cell phone numbers handy will help you feel more comfortable. Expressing your fear and concern to your parents will let them know how you feel. Perhaps they are unaware of your being uncom-fortable when alone. Maybe they can call a high school girl to come stay with you for at least some of the nights that your parents have plans. With time, your fear of being alone will decrease and eventually leave. Meanwhile, try these helpful hints. We wish you much hatzlacha!Sincerely, Debi and Ezri
to protect routes. It’s bad policy; it’s nonsense. The decisions the Obama administration is making are wrong-headed and are putting us in a position where we continuously have to go to war. That shouldn’t be the case. We shouldn’t be dependent on Middle East oil.
Dependence on Middle East oil and popular up-risings among African nations aside, there are actual aggressive nations in this world who have made no pretext or cover for the fact that they are hostile to the United States and its allies. Iran and North Korea are prime examples. Do you maintain an isolationist stance when it comes to Iran?
I think going into Iraq was a mistake. We created a situation there where the Shiites have taken over there, which are more aligned with Iran. The prior government was a check on Iran; they were natural enemies. Now we’ve withdrawn our troops com-pletely and slowly we see Iraq falling under the in-fluence of Iran. We’re less capable now to control Iran’s expansion than we were maybe five or ten years ago.
Do you think Iran is another Vietnam?
I don’t think it needs to be another Vietnam. We need to contain them; maybe the best way is through covert operations, to support a change in regime. I don’t think we want to send troops in. And what I’ve advocated - let’s support Israel. Let’s not sec-ond-guess Israel in what they want to do, if they want
to attack and destroy their nuclear capabilities. We don’t want another Vietnam. And I don’t think we should unilaterally go to war.
What do you believe the U.S. government’s stance should be regarding the State of Israel?
I think we should be supporting Israel in whatever de-cisions they want to take to protect their security and we should not be second-guessing them. And that’s what’s going on right now - we’re second-guessing them and having public debates and fights with Is-rael, which only plays into Iranian arms and maybe causes Israel to hesitate, rather than taking action to avert a nuclear Iran.
Concerning Israel, there are vocal factions here calling for a Palestinian state. Would you support the establishment of a free and independent Pales-tinian state?
Again I would support Israel. I think that makes sense. I think the Israeli government has come out in favor of that. But again, it has to be done in the context that Israel can live with.
Anything else you’d like to add?
I bring over thirty five years of business experience leadership, and the ability to help people focus on big ideas and big goals, that will restore our economic growth, bring back prosperity for everybody, provide the right size government and provide more opportu-nities for people to participate and become success-ful. Thank you.
A Conversation with George Maragoscontinued from page 56
Riddle Me ThisAn ant has six legs, a spider has eight legs and a mouse has four legs. In my zoo, I recently counted 612 legs, which came from an equal number of each of these animals. Can you identify how many animals there are in my zoo?
_______________________Sudoku
has a unique solution that can be reached logically. Enter numbers into the blank spaces so that each row, column and 3x3 box contains the numbers 1 to 9.
Solu
tion
will
app
ear i
n ne
xt is
sue.
Solutions to last issue’s puzzles
Answer: 102 animals: 34 of each.
Side-Splitting Stand-Up“I’m a little surprised how much everyone in show business wants a second term for Obama. An over-hyped sequel with a bloated budget — that’s not the Hollywood I know.” –Craig Ferguson“Mitt Romney once lost $2 billion. Then he found it in another pair of pants.” –David Letterman“This week investors will be able to buy shares of Facebook stock for the first time ever. It’s great – now you can lose all your money in the same place you lost all your time.” -Jimmy Fallon“I just read about a new 24-hour day care that’s opening in India. Yeah, it’s pretty cute, instead of playing telephone, the kids just play tech support.” –Jimmy Fallon
“Ron Paul made an announcement on Monday, saying he’s dropping out of the race for president. This was his third race for president. He ran in 2008 against John McCain and against Lincoln in 1860.” –Jimmy Kimmel“A Republican official says that Mitt Romney should pick ‘an incredibly boring white guy as running mate.’ When he heard that, Joe Biden said, ‘Thanks, I’ve already got a gig.’” –Conan O’Brien“This week Mitt Romney started giving speeches while standing in front of a giant U.S. debt clock. When asked what it was like campaigning with a large electronic object, the debt clock was like, ‘Not bad.’” –Jimmy Fallon“Mitt Romney and his family have a big two-day weekend plan. They’re going to hike to the top of his money.” –David Letterman“After losing billions of dollars, Mark Zuckerberg is being sued for hiding Face-book’s weak financial report. Apparently he put it somewhere no one will ever look – MySpace.” –Jimmy Fallon“Police in South Dakota arrested a 53-year-old man formerly from Chicago who’s try-ing to climb Mount Rushmore. The guy is in his 50s, from Chicago, and he’s desperate to get on Mount Rushmore. Oh my God, it’s Obama!” –Jay Leno “Mark Zuckerberg and his girlfriend got married — one day after Facebook raised $16 billion on the stock market. Zuckerberg listed the 10 things he loves about her, while she listed the 16 billion things she loves about him.” –Jimmy Fallon“Facebook is worth $100 billion. Today it was friended by Greece.” –David Letterman“President Obama gave the commencement speech at Barnard College the other day. He told graduates their future is bright unless they want jobs.” –Jay Leno
New Jewish WordsTorahfied (n.) Inability to remember one’s lines when called to read from the Torah at one’s Bar Mitzvah.
Jewbilation (n.) Pride in finding out that one’s favorite celebrity is Jewish.
Deja Nu (n.) The feeling you’ve seen the same exasperated look on your mother’s face, but not knowing exactly when.
Disoriyenta (n.) When Aunt Linda gets lost in a department store and strikes up a conversation with everyone she passes.
Jewdo (n.) A traditional form of self-defense based on talking one’s way out of a tight spot.
Mishpocha-dots (n.) The assorted lipstick and make-up stains found on one’s face and collar after kissing all one’s aunts and cousins at a reception.
Re-shtetlement (n.) Moving from Brooklyn to Boca Raton and finding all your old neighbors live in the same condo building as you.
Yidentify (v.) To be able to determine Jewish origins of celebrities, even though their names might be St. John, Curtis, Davis, or Taylor.
Minyastics (n.) Going to incredible lengths to find a tenth person to complete a minyan.
Dis-kvellified (v.) To drop out of law school, med school or business school as seen through the eyes of parents, grandparents and Uncle Sid. In extreme cases, simply choosing to major in art history when Irv’s son David is majoring in biology is sufficient grounds for diskvellification.
Shofarsogut (n.) The relief you feel when, after many attempts, the shofar is finally blown at the end of Yom Kippur.
Effect: This is an easy card trick where your spectator cuts the deck into several piles, only to find that the aces have magically risen to the top of each pile!
Secret: Before performing the card trick, remove the four aces from the deck, and put them on the top of the deck.
Performance:1. Ask your spectator (audience member) to divide the deck into four piles. The piles don’t need to be completely equal, but they should be somewhat even.2. Remember which pile has the four aces on it (it started off as the top pile). Point to any of the OTHER three piles, and ask your spectator to pick it up.3. Ask the spectator to take the top three cards from that pile, and place them on the bottom, and then to deal one card on top of each of the remain-ing three piles.4. Now, ask your spectator to do the same thing with the other two non-ace piles (place the top three cards on the bottom of the pile, and then deal one card on to the top of each of the remaining three piles).5. Finally, ask them to do the same thing for the last pile, (the one that has the aces).6. Now, pretend to concentrate, say some magic words, and turn over the top card from each pile- magically, the top cards are the four aces!
Have fun with this week’s Shabbos magic trick!
Although the trick might seem easy once you learn how it works, it is very con-vincing if performed properly. Go over the instructions, and practice the trick before performing it for anybody. Make sure that you are comfortable with all of the steps.
Good luck, and when performing magic, just remember to have fun! Visit our website to book a party, ask some questions, and even learn some more magic! After Shabbos, just go to www.JeremyTheMagician.com, click on Mag-ic Shop, and for a limited time use discount code “JeremyTheMagician” at checkout for a 10% discount on our already low priced amazing magic tricks!*
-Jeremy The Magician
Visit our website to book a party, ask some questions, and even learn some more magic!
ACROSS1. Geological formation5. Long-tailed parrot10. Ring14. Singing voice15. Religious meal16. Woodwind instrument17. Stupefy18. Heavy pin19. Entrance20. Decimal base21. Fit and healthy22. Located outside23. Newspaper piece25. Cover with liquid27. Female person28. Period of time29. Encountered32. No longer new35. Disastrous defeat36. Perceive sound37. Water pipe38. One of the senses39. One time only40. Remove from a positionof office41. Fiend42. Cleanse43. Argument in favor44. Musical work
45. Armed conflict46. Jinx48. Jury decision52. Gleam54. Peruse55. Spoil56. Bread57. Marine carnivore59. Information60. Not in favor61. Out of fashion62. Matured63. Converge64. Poplar tree65. Additional
DOWN1. You need dough to make it2. Change3. Unusual or dangerous feat4. Male offspring5. Hard rock6. Nimble7. Grotto8. Simian9. Moisture10. Fake11. Respite12. Musical symbol13. Cervid animal
21. Dull pain22. Belonging to us24. Small island25. Tennis term26. Expletive28. Belonging to you30. Apiece31. Woody plant32. Retail outlet33. Journey34. Companion35. Rascal36. Cache38. Peaks42. Lyric poet44. Metal-bearing mineral45. Undermine47. Unsound48. Rhyme49. Adult insect aftermetamorphosis50. Provide a service51. Commercial exchange52. Close violently53. Sharpen54. File57. Health resort58. Possesses59. Water barrier
We live in exciting times. I re-cently read an article about a company in England that,
in an effort to show people how to live green, created a prototype car that runs on coffee. They figured that if people can run on coffee, why not cars?
Okay, so there are still some bugs to work out. For example, in order to drive one mile, the car needs to burn an equivalent of 56 cups of espresso. And because the tank can only be so big, you would have to stop every 30 miles to refuel. Thankfully, there are coffee shops on every street corner.
“I’d like to buy 840 cups of coffee, and hurry! I’m late for work!”
And on top of that, you also have to stop every 60 miles to change the cof-fee filters. But on the other hand, the car smells great.
Maybe that’s not such a good thing, though, because you’d have to keep a constant eye on it, or people would keep siphoning coffee out of the tank while you’re at work. And come to think of it, at four bucks a cup, you may as well ride a bike. On 56 cups of cof-fee, you can go pretty much anywhere on a bike. You can cross oceans.
Thankfully, there is some other car technology that is actually closer to being ready. A company in Germa-ny is currently developing a car that a driver can steer with his eyes. This frees up his hands to do whatever it is he needs to do while driving, such as play with the radio. Okay, so he can’t do that, because he still needs his eyes to drive. But he can definitely do things he doesn’t need his eyes for, such as scratching his feet. He can at-tack his feet with both hands, so long as he keeps his eyes on the road.
Anyway, they plan on putting this car into production as soon as they have all the kinks worked out. I wouldn’t wor-ry. What’s the worst that can happen?
Okay, so you’ll have to stop rubber-necking at accidents. You also can no longer discipline your kids in the back seat, like you were able to back when cars were steered with your hands. And if you’re driving on mountain roads, you don’t want to look at the view.
Q: What if the driver dozes off? Or what if he blinks?
A: Actually, the car automatically stops when you close your eyes. So, for example, if you come to a red light, you have to close your eyes to stop the car, and then try to guess when the light has turned green again, based on the honking.
Q: But what if one of the passengers looks at the windshield? And what if everyone in the car is looking in a dif-
ferent direction?
A: They’ve fixed that problem too. In order to steer the car, the driver has to wear a modified bicycle helmet, so the car knows whose eyes to follow. So if you get this particular car, you’ll be sure to look really cool, driving around and scratching your feet with a bike helmet on.
“What’s with the bike helmet?”
“It helps me steer the car with my eyes!”
“Sure.”
They’re also solving a lot of the prob-lems by creating a second mode, where you can set the car to do all the driving on its own. The car will sense obstacles and speed limit signs, and you’ll be free to stare adoringly at your phone until you come to the in-tersection, when the car will stop and wait for you to space in and look in a particular direction.
But isn’t that just typical, though? So-ciety has a problem of people driving and texting at the same time, so instead of creating some kind of, I don’t know, hands-free texting device where you just talk into the phone and the phone types up what you say and sends it to the other person’s phone, which then reads the message out loud to the per-son, they went and made a hands-free car! Those silly Germans. What will they think of next?Now before I get a bunch of stern let-ters sticking up for the poor German scientists, I want to point out that I am not actually hurting anyone. In fact, a lot of the questions we’re asking are actually helping them improve their technology, so that one day, before we know it, cars will be able to drive en-tirely by themselves, and we’ll be able to go places without even being in the car. And in fact, humor columnists throughout the ages have always made harmless jokes about technology. Let’s go back in time and take a look:
Queens Jewish Link, June 1959Don’t Take the Belt! A Humor Column:
by Morris Kenneth SchmutterSo I hear that Volvo just patented something called a “seat belt”. Appar-ently, it keeps your pants up, but only if you’re sitting in a car. No, I’m just kidding. It’s supposed to keep you in your seat while you’re driving. Because otherwise you’ll just wander away, apparently. Maybe we
should start putting them on the seats in my classroom so my students will stop getting up.Seriously, what is this obsession with safety nowadays? When I was grow-ing up, we just roamed around in the back seat, and when my father wanted us to be quiet, he would hit the brakes, and we would all SLAM into the back of his chair. We had no seat belts, and we all turned out just fine, except that I no longer finish all of my
Queens Jewish Link, June 1910This is Not a Crank
A Columne of Humour: by Myron Hyman Schmutter
So Ford just came out with a car that doesn’t have a crank on the front. No crank? How are we supposed to wind it up in the morning? With a key? Not only that, but they say that this new car is supposed to go faster than a horse. They’re even throwing around words
like “horsepower”, like they’re taking actual horses and putting them under the hood. I looked under the hood, and I had no idea what I was looking at, but I definitely didn’t see any horses. Apparently, the car can do all this be-cause it runs on gasoline. Gasoline! Why don’t we just run our cars on dy-namite while we’re at it? We’ll just attach a few sticks to the back of the car, and hope we don’t have to make any sudden turns!
Also, when are they going to invent brakes?
Queens Jewish Link, June 1886Where Does One Stick the Carrots?
A Comedy (in that all are still alive at the end:)
by Melvin Clarence Schmutter
So I hear from the newsie on the cor-ner that they’re inventing a new kind of cart. I get all my news from the newsie – but not by purchasing a pa-per, mind you. I’ve discovered that if I stick around long enough, he eventu-ally screams out the entire contents of the paper, including Ziggy. (That Zig-gy is a delight! And what a marvelous head of hair he has!)
Anyway, it seems that the Germans are coming out with something called a “horseless carriage”, or “car” for short.
Q: Horseless? So it’s not going to move?
A: Apparently, it will move by itself. At least downhill. But my question is this: Does it have to be horseless? My horses have become part of the family; I don’t want to lay them off. Perhaps they can sit in the cab with me.
Q: What if the car breaks down? Do we take it to the side of the road and shoot it? Also, how is one supposed to make it go faster? There’s nothing to whip!
A: Perhaps you’re supposed to whip the car in front of you. Personally, though, I’ve never whipped my horse to make it go faster. I just give it coffee.
Q: Those crazy Germans. What will they think of next? So if the horse isn’t the one pulling the cart, who’s going to wear the blinders?
Queens Jewish Link, June 2012Wait. I just had an idea.
Mordechai Schmutter is a weekly hu-mor columnist for Hamodia, a monthly humor columnist for The Jewish Press, and has written three books, all pub-lished by Israel Book Shop. He also does freelance writing for hire. You can send any questions, comments, or ideas to [email protected].
Look Ma! No Hands!Feelin’ Funny
by Mordechai Schmutter
When I was growing up we had no seat belts, and we all turned out just fine,
Not for Profit Organizations: Are They Worth the Hassle??
by David Katz, Esq.
This article is the third in a series of articles published by the attorneys and staff at Revaz Chachanashvili Law Group, P.C. (or “RC Law Group”). The RC Law Group is a full-service law firm focused on the needs of small to mid-sized business owners and individ-uals. In the coming months we hope to be able to explore various topics relat-ing to our practice areas which may be of interest to business owners and indi-viduals. If you have any topics which you would like to see discussed or if you have any questions regarding infor-mation discussed in this article, please email us at [email protected].
One of the entity types which people are often too quick to create is the not-for-profit entity. This entity type is very attractive because it offers some very substantial benefits. Nonprofits receive preferential tax treatment on income, gains and expenditures. Usually, the most important benefit is the nonprof-it’s ability to issue a tax-deductible re-ceipt for donations. This benefit allows
the nonprofit’s donors to deduct their donations (from their income) on their personal tax returns. This benefit is a major motivation for people to donate money to nonprofit organizations. Non-profits are also typically exempt from state tax and sales tax.
However, as is always the case with corporate entities, the privileges come with a price. A nonprofit is granted certain benefits because it is deemed to be held in the public trust. In for-profit entities, owners can exercise a lot of control over the entity. The entity can be transferred easily, the assets sold, and partners can be brought on board. In a nonprofit, the assets and the entity do not belong to any owners. Instead, a board of directors manages the affairs of a nonprofit organization. The board of directors is required to make its de-cisions with the best interests of the group who the nonprofit is assisting. The needs of the managers and people running the nonprofit are not relevant concerns. In the event that the non-
profit has to be closed, the assets must go to another nonprofit and cannot be distributed to the managers or employ-ees. If ownership and control of assets is a big concern, then a nonprofit may not be the right type of entity for you. It is not uncommon for the nonprofits’ founder and leader, even after working for many years in the nonprofit, to be forced out of the organization that he or she started. This seemingly inequitable result could be made by a Board of Di-rectors that determined that removing the founder was in the best interests of the organization or sometimes due to politics and other internal struggles.
In addition, forming a nonprofit is much more difficult than forming a for profit corporation. Like a for-profit en-tity, the first step is to incorporate with the state. However, depending on the state and the purpose of the not-for-profit, you may first need to get con-sent from another state agency. In New York this is frequently the Department of Education. Many states are also very particular about contents of the certificate of incorporation and will heavily question the purpose and na-ture of activities. In addition, it is very important that when you file the cer-tificate of incorporation with the state you make sure that it will meet the ap-proval of the Internal Revenue Service when you later file for 501(c)(3) status.
Notably, a successful incorporation at the state level does not mean that an entity has the tax-exempt status that it may want from the IRS. In order to be exempt from income tax and to be able to accept tax-deductible donations an organization must file a form 1023 with the IRS and be granted 501(c)(3) status. Only a 501(c)(3) can accept tax-deductible donations. Other enti-
ties can be granted tax-exempt status for their income but their donors will not be able to avail themselves of a tax exemption for their donations.
Filing a 1023 requires significant ef-fort. The nonprofit must detail its purpose, its board, its budget, its key employees, any potential conflict of interest among its leadership, its fund-raising plans and many other things. In addition to reviewing the form, the IRS will conduct an independent examina-tion of the organization—including looking at its website. The IRS will often come back with questions and issues that they need clarified. Only when the IRS is completely satisfied will it grant the organization 501(c)(3) status. Then the nonprofit must file additional paperwork with its state to obtain state tax exempt status.
In future columns we will discuss prop-er governance of a nonprofit and vari-ous pitfalls that people may encounter when dealing with these entities.
David Katz primarily handles general business matters, corporate transac-tions, contracts, financial transactions, real estate matters and health care law. After graduating from Harvard Law School David practiced in the Banking group at Skadden, Arp, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP prior to joining RC Law Group in 2010. For David’s complete bio, please visit http://www.rclaw-group.com/david-katz.html.
DISCLAIMER: The information in this article does not constitute or contain le-gal advice. Neither the presentation of the information in this publication nor your receipt of such information creates a lawyer-client relationship or imposes any obligation on Revaz Chachanashvi-li Law Group, P.C.
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the journey. He will forever live on in the hearts of all those who knew him and especially with his wife Helen and their children, Jana and Daniel, & Avi and Ester.
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Parenting Simply
Catch Your Child Being Goodby Adina Soclof
The best parenting is done when you “Catch your child being good.”
Why is this important? Because it helps you see your child’s best attri-butes. It helps parenting become less stressful, and more fun, joyous and helpful. You can see your child in a new light and you can become more loving and less critical.
Giving attention to bad behavior reinforces bad behavior. Focusing on good and desirable behavior, however small, reinforces that be-havior. Not only that, but the way you perceive your children affects the way you discipline them. When you view them as bad, your disci-pline may come with lots of anger. If you view your children as good, your discipline will be softer, kind-er, firm and more effective. It might take a while to retrain your brain to look for the good but it is well worth the effort.
What is one simple way we can do
this? Become a “spin doctor.” Re-define your child’s most challenging traits in positive words. Understand that the thing about your child that might make you cringe is actually a glimpse of his greatness, his un-tapped potential. That is why the next time your child is defiant – try to see that they are courageous.
• When you look at your child’s messy room, instead of seeing a slob, appreciate the disorder as a sign of creativity.
• How about your wild, high-energy child? Can you envision him as an athlete?
• Don’t get frustrated with your picky eater. Think of her as a fu-ture gourmet chef.
• How about your shy child? View
him or her as thoughtful, inner-di-rected and observant, a future re-searcher.
• Do you think of your child has a “big mouth” because she is con-stantly talking and letting you know her opinion? Think of her as expressive, friendly, a future ora-tor.
• Is your child always fighting for what is hers? Perhaps she will al-ways work to seek justice in our
world.
• What about your daydreamer, can you imagine him as a visionary or inventor?
Remember, words power our thoughts. So negative words gener-ate negative thoughts that bring us
down. Positive words create positive thoughts that empower the people around us.
Let us love our children by seeing and appreciating their unique person-ality. Let us value our children for who they are and who they can be. So remember, “Catch your child be-ing good!”
Adina Soclof, a certified Speech Pa-thologist, worked as a Speech Pa-thologist in preschools for the de-velopmentally disabled in the New York area. She then worked as a Parent Educator for Bellefaire Jew-ish Children’s Bureau facilitating workshops. She has been featured at numerous non-profit organiza-tions and private schools in Cleve-land. Adina developed TEAM Com-munication Ventures and conducts parenting and teacher workshops via telephone nationwide. For more information, visit parentingsimply.com.
Understand that the thing about your child that might make you cringe
is actually a glimpse of his greatness
No job too small. We do everything... Electric Plumbing Timers Water filters installed Shabbos combination locks Painting and more...
Grace Meng of Queens, whose press releases note that she is the only Asian American serving in the New York state Legislature, recently visited Israel on one of those JCRC missions intended to build politi-cal support among politicians who may not have had a prior chance to see the country personally and meet its leaders.
I’ve read or heard many such accounts from elected officials on their return from such missions, but the one below struck me as particularly interesting and insightful enough to reprint in near-entirety here.
“The proud dedication of Israelis to their govern-ment, people and culture — obvious to anyone who
cared to look for it or even casually notice — has encouraged me to work at being a better American. The Israeli love of public life, their paper-thin and transparent separation between personal and public, showed me how we can love America just a little bit more and take our participation more seriously. I don’t believe it can be argued that we take our liber-ties and government for granted, or that, over time, we have come to treat privileges as rights. Worse, we have become increasingly apathetic about this all.
Many examples throughout our trip to Israel high-lighted my worries about American life.
We take for granted the voting rights hard fought for and guaranteed by our Constitution in the 15th and 19th Amendments. While Israeli voting participation
is around 70 percent, New York’s this past general election was at 40 percent — the lowest in the entire nation.
We do not take the importance and urgency of pre-serving our environment and its natural resources seriously enough. By law, every Israeli household is required to install devices in their homes to collect
solar energy, which they in turn sell to their energy companies to be put in regional and national power grids. Unlike many of her neighbors, Israel has nev-er had a drop of oil in her own land and has seized the opportunity to decrease dependence on foreign oils and develop themselves technologically and in-tellectually, preparing to operate an integrated net-work for nationwide use of electric cars.
We take for granted our democracy and its relation-ship with security. Israelis live daily with the threat and immediate proximity of life-threatening danger. Upon visiting the security fence in the West Bank, I witnessed firsthand how taking precautionary mea-sures and practicing emergency drills is a normal way of life. Safety is something that Israelis have definitely not taken for granted, and they take it seri-ously without the handwringing typical of our nation. The Israeli people are on the frontlines of defending democracy worldwide. The feelings of patriotism and the need to protect our safety are evident in the way they live every day but are not always evident in ours. Certainly every Israeli craves peace, but they also live in the world as it is and prepare their families as such. These measures are everyday ex-pressions of patriotism, more significant in their easy way than many American professions of faith after tragedies.
At Yad Vashem — one of the world’s most signifi-cant Holocaust memorials and education centers — I read a quote by Kurt Tucholsky: “a country is not just what it does, it is also what it tolerates.” As Americans and New Yorkers, we live the good and the bad sides of that insightful comment. As a nation and city of immigrants, recent and long-established, we tolerate and encourage a dynamic and open soci-ety with virtually open borders. But we also tolerate having the lowest voting percentage in the nation, we waste natural resources and we are not vigilant enough of our Democracy and our security.
I deeply believe that there is nothing wrong with America and New York that cannot be made better by what’s great about America and New York. The dif-ference between us and Israel is that their room for error and insincerity is miniscule. They simply don’t have the luxury of being indifferent. I love America and am honored to serve in public office, and this trip to Israel has renewed my commitment to being a better and more engaged citizen.
Grace Meng’s View of Israelis and Americans
Grace at the Knesset
insightful comment. As a nation and city of immigrants, recent and long-established, we tolerate and encourage a dynamic and open society with virtually open borders. But we also tolerate having the lowest voting percentage in the nation, we waste natural resources and we are not vigilant enough of our Democracy and our security.
I deeply believe that there is nothing wrong with America and New York that cannot be made better by what’s great about America and New York. The difference between us and Israel is that their room for error and insincerity is miniscule. They simply don’t have the luxury of being indifferent. I love America and am honored to serve in public office, and this trip to Israel has renewed my commitment to being a better and more engaged citizen.
I hope everyone had good Yom Tov and enjoyed the highlights of Shavuot, including all the delicious dairy ice creams you have in America! I also hope you still have room for one more dairy dish, because this recipe for quiche is pure heaven!
Ingredients for piecrust¾ cup all-purpose flour6 tbl cold butter, cut into small pieces¼ cup shredded Cheddar cheese5 tsp milk
DirectionsPlace flour in large bowl. Sprinkle in chopped butter; rub butter into flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in shredded cheese. Sprinkle milk over flour mixture, one teaspoon at a time, stirring lightly with a fork. Add just enough water to allow dough to form a ball and cleanly leave sides of bowl.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out dough on a floured board, and place in 9-inch pie/quiche pan.
Bake crust in preheated oven for 10 minutes, take out and coat with egg whites for extra shine and then place pastry back into oven for another
5 minutes.
Fill the pie curst with your desired fill-ings from be-low and cook for another 40
minutes or until you see the filling is held together.
Fillings
Spinach and Feta Cheese
1 10 oz. pkg. frozen chopped spinach 4 eggs ¾ cup cream 1¼ cup milk Salt and pepper to taste 2 tbl lemon juice 2 tbl parsley, chopped ¼ lb. Feta cheese, crumbled
Mushroom1 cup thinly sliced mushrooms¾ cup thinly sliced onion 4 eggs ¾ cup cream 1¼ cup milk Salt and pepper to taste
Vegetable¾ cup sliced zucchini¾ cup sliced carrot¾ cup mushroom5 ounces chopped spinach 4 eggs ¾ cup cream 1¼ cup milk
The Informed W manDishes from Down Under
Dairy Quiche With Assortment Of Fillings
A native Australian, Avi Jacobs studied hospitality and tourism in University before graduating with degrees in hospitality management and events management. Combining his studies, he has found a passion in creating events- from grand concepts down to the particular food types which suit the event. Having worked in events and hospitality and having the travel experience behind him allows Avi to keep varying his foods and offer different tastes and flavours. He now runs an events coordinating business and truly enjoys working with the people and food that come with the job. Avi lives in Mel-bourne with his wife Rina and son Naftali.
by Avi Jacobs
by Risselle Naimark
The right foundation can work wonders, and make your skin appear fresh and flawless by covering a host of imperfections. The following beauty tips can simply save the day, and prevent those cover-up mis-haps.
Oops, my Foundation... ...looks chalky or like a mask in pictures
There’s a good chance you are wearing the wrong shade and your foundation is too light. You may also need to check the ingredients for titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. Although these physical sun-blockers prevent UV damage, they can leave behind a gray cast on darker skin tones. Liquid foundations with chemical UV filters are a better bet for olive skin.
...sinks into my fine lines
After applying, use a damp makeup sponge and gen-tly press all over your face. This removes excess for-mula that can settle into the fine lines.
...aggravates my sensitive skin
Many formulas contain talc, preservatives or binders that can cause redness. Switch to a powder founda-tion with micronized minerals, which acts as a nat-ural sunscreen and gives a smooth and even finish.
...transfers onto my clothes
Dust with translucent powder to help keep the pig-ment in place. You can also cover your face with a scarf, before putting on a light top. You could also try a budge-proof formula and wait five minutes before getting dressed.
...doesn’t last past noontime
Try a light silicone primer. The silicone acts as a film between your skin and the humidity, preventing foun-dation from running down your chin. This also helps lock in your moisturizer. Primers are applied on top or instead of moisturizers and underneath foundation. You can also use a silicone based foundation, which does the same thing.
...doesn’t blend well and looks streaky
Exfoliate twice weekly to get rid of your dry and dead skin cells. This will help liquid and cream products glide over skin easily. If you use powder founda-tion, be sure to wait until your moisturizer is fully absorbed before putting on makeup, or the moisture will grab the powder, and make it difficult to blend.
Beauty Briefs:Foolproof Foundation
With these foolproof tips, your foundation should look soft and natural. You can now have a beautiful canvas, which acts as a wonderful backdrop for the rest of your makeup.Risselle Naimark is a Professional Freelance Makeup Artist. She carries a full line of personalized skincare, cosmetics and anti-aging products. Risselle is also avail-able for weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, makeup lessons , col-or analysis, and any of your beauty needs. She can be reached at 7l8 263-55l7.
If you trust the source, you’re most likely going to trust the information. That’s what makes the following medical myths so hard to discredit — you usually hear them first from Mom, Dad, or someone else you trust — but it is nice to know the truth.
1. Sugar HyperactivityThe Myth: Sugar makes kids hyperactive
The Truth: Many parents limit sugary foods, think-ing they cause hyperactivity. It’s right to restrict these treats, but the reasoning is wrong. These high-calorie foods offer little nutrition and can lead to obesity and other problems, but no scientific evidence says sugar causes hyperactivity. In fact, pediatricians at the Riley Hospital for Children recently noted: “In at least 12 double-blinded, randomized, controlled trials, scientists have examined how children react to diets containing different levels of sugar. None of these studies, not even studies looking specifically at children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, could detect any differences in behavior between the children who had sugar and those who did not.” This includes artificial and natural sources of sugar. In-terestingly, in the study, parents who were told their children had been given sugar when they hadn’t, noted that the children were more hyperactive. So it seems it’s all in the parents’ minds.
2. Body HeatThe Myth: You lose most of your body heat through your head
The Truth: Scientists traced the origins of the hat-wearing advice back to a US Army survival man-ual from 1970, which strongly recommended cover-ing the head when it is cold, since “40 to 45 percent of body heat” is lost from the head. Thus, the idea that we lose heat through our heads was born. But what they didn’t tell you was that the soldiers were fully clothed except for their heads. This obviously skews the statistics considerably. The fact is, com-pletely naked, you lose approximately 10% of your body heat through the head – the other 90% is lost via the other parts of your body.
3. Water ConsumptionThe Myth: You should drink at least eight cups of water a day
The Truth: The origins of this myth is most likely the fact that a 1945 government agen-cy said that the hu-man body needed around eight cups of fluid a day. This included the flu-id from all of the foods we eat and drinks like tea and coffee. Somehow, over time, “fluid” turned to “water”
and the modern water myth arose. This also lead to silly slogans like “if you are thirsty it is too late” – a concept that would seem to have been invented by water bottlers who have something to gain from ex-cess water consumption in the population in general. So, in reality, if you are thirsty, drink some water. If you are not, don’t.
4. Turkey SleepThe Myth: Eating turkey makes you sleepy because it contains tryptophan
The Truth: This is one of the most common myths on this list – and it pops up every year around Thanksgiving. But actually, chicken and ground beef contain almost identical quantities of trypto-phan as turkey does. Other foods such as cheese and pork contain significantly more of the chemical than turkey. So why do people think turkey makes them
sleepy? It is most likely due to turkey appearing at very large meals often eaten during the day rather than the evening. The heavy meal slows blood flow, which can cause drowsiness, and the timing can have a huge psychological impact. In other words, you are imagining it.
5. Midnight SnacksThe Myth: Eating at night makes you fat
The Truth: Secret snackers rejoice! This is a com-plete myth. It doesn’t matter what time of day you eat; as long as you eat only the total calories that you burn each day, you will not gain weight. If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight, and if you eat more calories, you will gain. It’s as simple as that. Having said that, the routine of three meals a day at the same time each day can have other benefits in life (routine is good and it helps humans work more effectively), but snacks at night are no worse than snacks in the morning or afternoon.
Bonus: Cold Colds
The Myth: Cold weather can give you a cold
The Truth: “Put your jack-et on or you’ll catch a cold!” How times have you heard that? You may not want to tell her this, but dear old Mom was wrong. Viruses (more than 200 different kinds) cause colds, not cold weather. In order for you to catch a cold, the
virus must travel from a sick person’s body to yours. This usually happens via airborne droplets you inhale when an infected person coughs or sneezes. You can also get a cold virus by shaking hands with an infect-ed person or by using something where the virus has found a temporary home, such as a phone or door handle. Colds are more prevalent during the colder months because people tend to spend more time in-side, making it much easier for viruses to jump from person to person.
Note: This list is only as ac-curate as the informa-
tion that we receive. Some information may not be up to date. We encourage our readers to send in any information regard-ing additional minyanim that you might know from the Queens area, or any cor-rections to this list, so that we may keep this list 100% up-to-date list.Also note - The Ma’ariv times reflect thesummer season which runs through Labor Day..
Key to AbbreviationsA AshkenazNS Nusach SefardEM Edut Mizrach (Sefardi)CL Candle LightingMin+ After MinchaShk ShkiahBM Beis MedrashYI Young Israel
Note: This is an older list, and some information may not be accurate. We encourage our readership to send in any information regarding additional minyanim that you might know from the Queens area, or anycorrections to this list, so that we may create a newer, more up-to-date list.
A = Ashkenaz NS = Nusach Sefard EM = Edut Mizrach (Sefardi) CL = Candle Lighting Min+ = After Mincha Shk = Shkiah BM = Beis Medrash YI = Young Israel
servicesThe Hospital Gown Gemach of Queens offers modest hos-pital gowns with tznius features. To borrow gowns, please email [email protected] or call Anna Ecker at 917-859-8177.
do you need a locksmith?Are you locked out? Are you moving to another house or apt? We’ll take care of your security and locks. Call Abe! 917-642-4080. Licensed Locksmiths, Commercial & Residential.
Knockout Pest control, inc. 800-244-7378: www.knockoutpest.com 10% discount with this ad.
Event Planner/Coordinator for all types of Events & occas. 917-373-2595 Need Advertising help? Contact us at 917-373-2595, [email protected] Do you need help w/your back and shoulder pain? Women only. Frum woman, reasonable rates. Contact Elena Saf-fern Melul, Licensed Massage Therapist at (646) 296-2635. Visit www.refahnala.com.
real estateHouse for sale in Kew Gardens Hills
Detached on 73 Ave near 147St, rare Large backyard, 3 plus bdrms, 3 full baths. Finished attic and bsmt, Central A/C, alarmed, move in condition.For sale by owners: 917-519-6185 or 631-523-3202
Basement apt for rent near chofetz chaimQueens College and all Shuls and Yeshivot. Furnished, full bath, studio, full kitchen. Looking for Shomrei Shabbat sin-gle, non smoker, no pets. Call 917-519-6185 or 631-523-3202
apt for rent in Jerusalem2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, fully equipped Kosher kitchen, Walk to Kotel, Located steps from Inbal Hotel. Call 917-519-6185 or 631-523-3202
apartment for rent K.G.HWalk-in 1 bedroom, lightly furnished apt. Clean, great loca-tion, near Jewel Ave and Main St, Separate Entrance. Available May 1, 2012.$1000 Call Esther 917 553-1988 or 718 575-1133
Pristine 6 bedroom expanded ranch on .7 acre. New kosher granite kitchen. Price reduced to $879. District 14. Taxes $33K. Call 516-661-8142.
Legal Two family house in Bayswater: Two bdrm, Living rm, dining rm, updated kitchen, washer/dryer, separate thermo-stat, full bath, private entrance, Call Tzippy (718) 873-9858.
Gorgeous 2 Bed/ 2 Bath apt. - far rockaway on the Ocean Gorgeous 2 Bed, 2 Bath Apt in FR for 2 month sublease. Fully furnished. 146 beach 9th St ,Far Rockaway, NY 11691. Avail Immediately. [email protected].
for rent by Owner, No Brokerage involved1BR nice, new kosher furnished basement - $750/month Includes utility, Internet & cable TV. Located in Bayswa-ter, Far Rockaway. Contact Sara (718) 337 - 0724.
Anita Harrison Real Estate specialist, Forest Hills. (917)887-3433 buy or sell Century 21 Benjamin Realty.
city center Jerusalem for rent By Owner. Lux. bldg, sleeps 4, central everything/wifi/cable, kosher granite kit., 20 mins. to Kotel, great loc. KOSHER ONLY. Avail. thru July 3rd 2012, email [email protected] or 516-987-9315.
for rent by Owner, No Brokerage involved1BR nice, new kosher furnished basement - $750/month Includes utility, Internet & cable TV. Located in Bayswa-ter, Far Rockaway. Contact Sara (718) 337 - 0724.
luxury vacation co-op for rent-ramat Beit shemeshStunning American Design, 3BR/2BA, inexpensiveSee: http://luxuryapartmentinrbs.webs.com/.
luxury duplex for sale in israel:5BR/3Bath, See http://luxuryduplex.weebly.com/index.html.
for saleKG Hills Detached colonial. 3+ bedrooms, 3 full baths, cen-tral KG Hills location. $739K. Please call Sarah & Geda-liah Newcomb, Licensed Realtor, 9174597549 Queensreal-torteam.com
Kew Gardens Hills- detached Charm Circle 5500 SFT 5.5 BR, 4.5 Bth, den, fin basement, w/guest suite, Central Air, 1995 con-struction, Detached garage, patio 718 896-8251- No brokers
for rent Sunny Isles Beach Luxury Condo, 2 bd., 2 bth, central air, balcony view of bay and ocean, TV and internet, laundry room, magnif. pool, health club and gameroom, lux. lobby and hi security, beach and major shopping areaYoung Israel Shul 347-776-1918
Kew Gardens Hills. New to Market. Charm Circle. De-tached Colonial. 3 bedrooms.Extra large backyard.Broker (646) 591-1979.
2 Bdr apt for rent in KGH NO BrOKer feePrime Location Across From Chofetz Chaim Yeshiva 144 & 76th Ave. Large Kitchen Area, Modern Bathroom, Pri-vate Parking Available, Eat-in Kitchen Area, Ample Closet Space In All Rooms, Brightly Lit Apartment w/Many win-dows. Call 917-375-6479.
JOB waNtedSeeking prt time job in bus. or med. office. Prior exp. working in human resources and med. billing. Strong cust. service., ppl skills, familiar w/Microsoft Office. Pls email [email protected].
Health para (shadow) w/many yrs exper avail for upcom-ing school yr. Approved by Board Of Ed, very friendly & caring, great w/kids. 347-416-1183, [email protected].
JOB Offer - HelP waNtedSimcha Day Camp is seeking warm high school age fe-male junior counselors. Email [email protected].
Searching for physician assistant for Endocrinology practice in Englewood, N.J. Competitive salary & benefits package offered! Submit resume to [email protected]
Looking for warm, cheerful female counselors, preferably lic. teachers, for camp Mini-Izzy in Great Neck to give our 2 & 3 YRO a great summer! For more info contact: Rabbi Osher Kravitsky (216)-570-0289.
Day Camp in Staten Island looking to fill a few Head Staff positions, including Division Head and Head of Chinuch. If interested, please send resume to [email protected].
OHEL is looking for mature and responsible volunteers to work with our children, adults and families.For more in-formation, please contact OHEL’s volunteer department at 718-686-3103 or email us at [email protected].
f/t Bookkeeping-secretarial Position availableGreat Neck Kollel looking for f/t bookkeeper - secretary. Please send resume to: [email protected]
Busy company in Brooklyn is looking for a full or P/T indi-vidual to post and items on eBay. Work includes data entry, photo editing and general maintenance. Prior experience a must. Email resume to [email protected]
Looking for teachers to fill fourth & fifth grade teaching posi-tions. Exp. preferred. Great salary. Excellent working condi-tions. Call 917-742-8909 or fax resume to 718-969-9600.
executive secretaryQueens Yeshiva seeking an executive secretary to work in a dynamic educational setting. Must have excellent com-puter and communication skills. Monday thru Thursday 9:00 – 5:45, Friday 9:00 – 1:00 Send or Fax resume to [email protected], or Fax to 718-441-3962
Bikur Cholim of Forest Hills & Rego Park looking for volunteers 917-742-2595. SHEVACH HIGH SCHOOL seeking an AP Psychology Teacher for school year 2012-2013/5773. Masters Degree required. Fax resume to 718-263-3759 or e-mail to: [email protected]
teacher/ MOraH- limudei Kodesh (M-f) Kinder-garten, P1a & elementary Grades. Kiruv-Type Yeshiva for Zissa Yiddisha Kinderlach in Flushing, Queens. Please fax resumes to (718) 217-8739, Email it to [email protected], Call (718) 217-4700 and ask for Rabbi Deutscher.
Job Title: Human Resources Manager – HRIS. Salary: Commensurate with Experience. Location: Hawthorne, NY (Westchester). Please submit your resume to [email protected].
Elementary yeshiva in NY Metro area seeking experi-enced General Studies Principal for upcoming school year. Must have strong knowledge of curriculum, administrative skills and passion for excellence in education. Excellent salary; please email cover letter and resume to [email protected]. All inquiries are confidential.
services waNtedOrg. looking for philanthropist, or anyone who to dedicate Sefer Torah, Institutional Projects, etc 917-742-2718. Looking for good specialized Patent lawyer w/ exp. 917-373-2595. Volunteer wanted to create website for Org. 917-742-2595. Web devr wanted, design exp, willing to pay min rate, fast worker, good for rec coll grad [email protected].
Flatbush women’s clothing store near nostrand ave and ave.jcall 718-253-3353 evenings. leave message
Misc.Rabbi ISO Motorcycle with low mileage.Contact Daniel Coleman [email protected]
Crafters United for Charity Help support Jewish Charities!www.ArtsAndCraftsForCharity.org
FREE Smartphone APP for Discounts to Kosher Restau-rants. The APP lets you find all the kosher Restaurants, Minyanim and Mikvahs in the USA and Canada. Search your iphone APP store, Droid Marketplace for KosherRes-taurantsGPS.
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MK Danny DanonChairman, World Likud,Deputy Speaker, Knesset
ORGANIZER: DR. JOSEPH FRAGERIn Memory of Mordechai Avrohom Ben R’ Shmuel and Malka Bas Zalman Yehuda z”l
CHAIRPERSONS: DR. PAUL & DRORA BRODYIn memory of Tzvi Elimelech (Harvey) ben Yosef and Baila (Bea) bas HaRav Yaakov Aryeh Brody z"l. In memory of Shraga Feival (Phil) ben Ze'ev Wolf Machnikoff z"lIn Honor of Yosef & Chana Aharoni,
CO-ORGANIZER: ARON HIRTZ In Memory of R’ Yehonoson ben R’ Yaakov Yehuda (Rev. Jonas) Neiman z”l,Yasfah Devorah bas R’ Noach (Devorah) Dear z”l, and Eliezer ben Yeshaya (Leslie) & Leah bas Yosef Halevi (Lillian) Hirtz, z”l
CO-CHAIRPERSONS: JACK AVITAL • DR. MARTIN & ESTHER EHRENBERG In honor of Franky Ehrenberg- Mordechai Gedalyahu z"l ben Moshe v'Esther• KEVIN & DORIS HURLEY• DR. MICHAEL KRAM • ARNIE & SARAH WALDMAN In honor of their Grandchildren• JERRY WARTSKI & FAMILY • HENRY & PARI SCHWARTZ CORPORATE SPONSOR: CBS INSURANCE GROUPPATRONS: • DR. MEYER & DEBRA ABITTAN In memory of Rabbi Asher Chacham z”l• ARYEH FAMILY In memory of HaRav Raphael ben Chacham Rebi Chia z"l & Aviva Rachel z"l bat HaRav Emanuel v’Malka• BART & DR. EMMA BAUM In honor of their children• MITCHELL & JANET FELDMAN In Honor Of Dr. Paul Brody • JACK FORGASH• DR. JOSHUA & SHIFFY FOX • RABBI & MRS. DOVID FULD• EUGEN & JEAN GLUCK • DR. STANLEY & RAINE SILVERSTEIN• MR. & MRS. HARVEY WOLINETZSPONSORS: (In Formation)
• DR. ABRAHAM ABELOW • HY ARBESFELD • MEIR APPEL• DR. JASON & RACHEL APPLEBAUM In memory of Dr. Shalom Zev (Seymour) ben Avraham z”l and Dr. David Yaakov ben Emanuel HY”D and Naava bat David Yaakov HY”D• DR. ALAN & DEBORAH BERGER • SOL & ZELDA BERGER • BLUMNER FAMILY In memory of Tzvi Yehoshua (Henry) ben Chaim and Leah Liba (Lillian) bat Simcha Dovid z”l• HARVEY & ANNE BRENNER In memory of Yosef ben Tzvi Dovid z”l • DRS. GARY & LILLIAN CHUBAK In memory of Ita Roiza (Ida) & Binyamin Tzvi (Benjamin) Chubak z”l• JACK COHEN In memory of Moshe Dovid & Faige z”l & Malka (Malvina) Graf z”l• CYWIAK FAMILY In memory of Elchanan Ben Ahron Mordechai z”l• HAROLD & LORRAINE DOMNITCH In honor of Dr. Paul Brody • DR. YEHUDA & JUDY ELIEZRI In memory of HaRav Avraham ben HaRav David & Shalva bat HaRav Avraham z”l • EDWARD FISCHBEIN • GLASER FAMILY In memory of Yechiel Avraham Avigdor z”l ben Eliyahu• DRS. FELIX & MIRIAM GLAUBACH • DR. ELLIOTT & ANN GREENFIELD• MARK & SANDY GOLD In honor of Dr. Paul Brody • DR. DOVID HURWITZ • MICAH KAUFMAN • JAY KESTENBAUM• DR. RICHARD KROL • DAVID & SURI KUFELD In memory of Ze’ev Menachem (Bill) ben HaRav Mordechai z”l, Frayde (Freida) bat Levi HaKohen z”l, HaRav Menachem Nuchum (Norman) ben Shlomo Antzis z”l • HERMAN & MINA KOTLER In memory of Louis & Esther Kotler z'l and Noach & Pearl Rodzynek z”l• LEE & CHERYL LASHER • SAM LEVITT In memory of Devora z”l (Deborah) Ron Bat Shmuel Yacov HaCohen• DR. HOWARD & GOLDIE LORBER In memory of Chana (Hannah) bat Asher z”l & In honor of their children Dr. Mark & Jennifer Lorber and Dr. Robert and Jill Kaufman and families • MARCUS & SARA LEHMANN In memory of Aryeh Isser (Leo) Ben Zvi Hersh Stein • RUBIN & CECELIA MARGULES In memory of Menachem Mendel (Manny) ben Yisroel Aryeh z”l & Moshe (Morris) ben Zishe Berkowitz • ROB MUCHNICK In Honor of Dr. Paul Brody • MICHAEL & DR. BONNIE ORBACH • MANNY POLAK • DR. JOSEPH & JUDY POLLAK • DR.MICHAEL & NICOLE POLLAK • DR. RICHARD ROLNICK• J. PHILIP & MALKI ROSEN In memory of Yitzchok Yair (Irving) ben Yehoshua Tzvi z”l & Tova Rivka (Toni) bat Zvi Yehuda z”l• STUART & TEENA RUBINFELD• DR. JONATHAN SCHEINER • MARK & CHANI SCHEINER • ALVIN & JUDY SEGAL• SCHNITZER FAMILY • CHAIM STERN • RON AND BETH STERN • JOSEPH & SUZY SOKOL In memory of Rosa-Velya bat Rav Yosef (Judith) Sokol and Shifra Rivka bat Chaim Meir (Sharon) Sokol Heisler • MICHAEL & SANDRA STERN In Memory of Chicken Lady Of Jerusalem, Chaya bat R' Meir, Clara Hammer z”l • JAY & HILLARY TERLINE • WEISS FAMILY In memory of Chaim Sender Yosef (Joseph) ben Chaim and Chaya Basya (Bertha) bas Pinchas z"l
MEDIA AFFILIATES: NACHUM SEGAL SHOW www.nachumsegal.com TALKLINE COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK - ZEV BRENNER
SPECIAL THANKS:• BARRY BROWN PHOTOGRAPHY • DR. MARVIN BELSKY • CHARLES BERNHAUT • BRODY BUNCH• HELEN FREEDMAN • YISHAI FLEISCHER OF ARUTZ SHEVA • DR. STEVE & ODELEYA JACOBS • BUDDY KORN OF JEWS FOR SARAH.COM • CHAIM LEIBTAG • SARA LEHMANN • RABBI PESACH LERNER • SHERINE LEVINE & RITA PINE of NCYI • HAINA JUST MICHAEL • RABBI BINNY MARYLES • RUTH & MILT MITZNER • RABBI YOSEF POPLACH of the National Council of Young Israel • MOSHE ROBBINS • TOVIA SINGER • JEFF WIESENFELD
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NOW, MORE THAN EVER, LET YOUR VOICES BE HEARD!Your attendance & support help to insure the survival
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SUNDAY
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Emcee:NACHUM SEGAL
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Featuring Films of Jewish Interest
North ShoreTowers Cinema
The 45th Anniversary of the Miracle of the Six Day War and the Reuni�cation of Jerusalem
The Fogel Family who were brutally murdered in Itamar. •The 8 murdered students from the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva who represented the best and brightest of the Jewish People who were gunned down in cold blood. Incredulously, 84 percent of the Arabs of Israel supported committing this heinous Genocide The 64nd Anniversary of the Establishment of the State of Israel • The 45th Anniversary of the Miracle of the Six Day War and the Reuni�cation of Jerusalem • Jerusalem's Integrity and Unity are the Heart and Soul of the Jewish People never to be tampered with or negotiated • The heroic front line families and communities of Greater Jerusalem including the Old City of Jerusalem, Abu Dis, Yemenite Village and Kfar Ha Shiloach-Silwan • The heroic pioneer families and communities of Yehuda, Shomron, the Jordan Valley and the Golan Heights • The heroic and brave families of Sderot who have withstood over 15,000 rockets and missiles over the past 12 years – No other nation in the world would tolerate this for more than one day, let alone 12 years • The heroic displaced families who lived in Gush Katif and the Shomron who were uprooted from their homes of over 35 years. • The Israeli M.I.A.’s: Ron Arad, Zachary Baumel, Tzvi Feldman, Guy Hever, Yehuda Katz, • Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev - the kidnapped soldiers who were murdered • The more than 3,000 victims of Oslo since September 13, 1993 • The brave United States Armed Forces who continue to valiantly �ght tyranny and terrorism the world over. • The heroic Israel Defense Forces who continually defend the Land of Israel and make us proud.
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בס“ד
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RABBI DR. ELIE ABADIE, Edmond J. Safra Syn. RABBI DAVID ALGAZE, World Comm. for Land of Israel / Havurat YisraelRABBI CHAIM DRUCKMAN, Former MK, Recipient Israel PrizeSCOTT FELTMAN, Executive Vice President One Israel Fund MARK LANGFAN, Exec. Council, Ateret Cohanim/ Jerusalem ChaiYOSEF MENDELEVITCH, Former RefusenikRABBI GERSHON TANNENBAUM, Director Igud HaRabonim
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