Jewish Standard, February 3, 2-17

TEANECK RALLIES FOR IMMIGRANTS page 6
THE FRUITY TASTE OF TORAH page 8

STEVEN P. COHEN, FROM MONTREAL TO DAMASCUS page 10
DEAR RABBI ZAHAVY: IS A LIMO ON SHABBAT KOSHER? page 37
FEBRUARY 3, 2017
VOL. LXXXVI NO. 18 $1.00
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Ordaining
pluralism
Ora Horn Prouser of
Franklin Lakes shines
as head of the Academy
for Jewish Religion
page 18
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2017
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2 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 3, 2017
Page 3
Cuter together
Tweet me the St. Louis

In May 1939, as the Holocaust was
beginning, the United States turned
away the M.S. St. Louis, a ship carrying 937 mostly Jewish refugees from
Europe. They returned to Europe.
Great Britain took in 288 of them,
and they lived. The rest disembarked
in western Europe, and just over half
of them survived the Holocaust.
Last week, each one of their
names and their deaths were announced on Twitter, one at a time.
@Stl Manifest was launched last
Friday, International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It went through the
ships manifest, or list of passengers,
line by line, and then told how each
passenger was killed. Some of the
posts included photos.
The St. Louis set sail from Hamburg on May 23, 1939. Twenty-nine
of them were able to disembark in
Havana, though the Cuban government wouldnt allow the rest to
enter. Subsequent appeals to
the United States to let the refugees

enter through Miami were rejected.
A 1924 law had severely restricted
immigration from Germany, and anti-immigrant sentiment was prevalent in the United States at the time.
The feed is a project of Russel
Neiss, a Jewish educator. It came as
the question of whether to admit
refugees again is roiling the country.
On Holocaust Remembrance Day,
President Donald Trump signed an
executive order that temporarily
barred all refugees from being admitted to the United States, and also
banned citizens of several Muslimmajority countries from entering.
Many Jewish groups have opposed the ban, citing the Jewish
experience. In the description of @
Stl_Manifest, Neiss wrote #RefugeesWelcome.
The feed posted a tweet every
five minutes. It took more than a day
to run through the manifest. In the
end, the feed had more than 73
thousand followers, and one post
was reposted 42 thousand times.
Thousands of demonstrators including many Jews

flooded airports across
the country last weekend to protest President
Trumps executive order,
which among other things
temporarily banned travel
from seven Muslim-majority
countries. The Internet has
been saturated with images
from the various protests.
But this photograph
perhaps has resonated the
most on social media.
The photo, taken by Chicago Tribune photographer
Nuccio DiNuzzo, shows a
Jewish boy wearing a kippah and a Muslim girl wearing a hijab holding protest
signs while they sit on their fathers
shoulders at Chicagos OHare International Airport. The Jewish boys
fathers sign, like many other Jewishthemed signs seen at this weekends
protests, references the Holocaust.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the photo
has been liked more than 220,000
times on Twitter and retweeted more
than 110,000 times.
It also has been shared on Facebook thousands of times, including
by former San Francisco mayor Gavin
Newsom, who now is Californias lieutenant governor.
DiNuzzo identified the Muslim
father and daughter as Fatih and
Meryem Yildirim of Schaumburg, Illinois, and the Jewish father and son
as Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell and
Adin Bendat-Appell of Deerfield, Illinois. Rabbi Bendat-Appell is the
program director of the Institute for
Jewish Spirituality and the Center for
Jewish Mindfulness in Chicago.

Bendat-Appell told the Tribune that
Adins maternal grandparents were
Holocaust survivors who had lived
in refugee camps after the war. Our
tradition is not ambiguous about
remembering our history for the sake
of acting out in this world today, he
said.
He told the Tribune that he lifted his
9-year-old son onto his shoulders so
the boy could get a better view.
At the same time, Fatih Yildririm
told the paper, the 7-year-old girl got
tired of standing.
I just feel like if this picture, in
some small way, can bring a bit more
light and love into the world, Im so
happy about that, Bendat-Appell
said.
One concrete result: The BendatAppell family is hosting the Yildirim
family for Shabbat dinner next week.
GABE FRIEDMAN/JTA WIRE SERVICE
Candlelighting: Friday, February 3, 4:58 p.m.

Shabbat ends: Saturday, February 4, 6:00 p.m.
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CONTENTS
NOSHES ...............................................................4
BRIEFLY LOCAL ..............................................16
COVER STORY ................................................. 18
JEWISH WORLD ............................................ 23
OPINION ........................................................... 28
KEEPING KOSHER.........................................34
CROSSWORD PUZZLE ................................ 36
DEAR RABBI ZAHAVY................................. 37
CALENDAR ...................................................... 38
OBITUARIES .....................................................41
CLASSIFIEDS .................................................. 42
GALLERY ..........................................................44
REAL ESTATE.................................................. 45
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On the cover: Dr. Ora Horn Prouser signs a document at the ordination ceremony
at the Academy for Jewish Religion, where she is the executive vice president.
ROBERT LIEBERMAN
JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 3, 2017 3
Noshes
I wanted to take the risk because I was

already late for school and didnt want to skip
another week.
Manny Dahari, a 23-year-old green-card-holding graduate-student Jew from Yemen, one
of the 7 Muslim-ban-affected countries, on why he decided to get on a plane from Israel
back to the United States, despite lawyers advice that he wait; he was detained at JKF for
3 1/2 hours but eventually let in, the Forward reported.
NOT SO FUNNY:
Oy, coulda been

a contender
During his long
career, Robert
DeNiro, 73, credibly has
played two Jewish
gangsters, a Jewish film
mogul, and a Jewish boxing manager. He proved
he could do stand-up
comedy in the acclaimed
film King of Comedy
(1982). So I was hoping
his new film, The
Comedian, would be a
little gem. But advance
reviews arent good. I
recommend that you
rent it eventually because it still has mucho
Jewish content. DeNiro
plays Jackie Berkowitz, a
Jewish comic who is
trying to get stand-up
and internet audiences
to like him for his new
routines, not just remember him for the iconic TV
character he once
played. He loses his
temper during a performance, accosts an
audience member, and is
sentenced to community
service. There he meets
Harmony Schlitz (played
by Leslie Mann, 44, the
wife of JUDD APATOW
and an Apatow film
regular). Harmony is a
free spirit who just
assaulted her ex-husband. HARVEY KEITEL,
77, who made his first
film with DeNiro in 1973,
plays Harmonys father, a
Jewish real estate mogul
who bonds with Jackie.
(Opens Friday, Feb. 3)
All this sounds good,
but reviews say that the

comedy, stand-up or
otherwise, falls flat or
worse, and the relationship between Harmony
and Jackie veers from a
healthy father-daughter
type thing into creepy
romantic tension. (Look
for CHARLES GRODIN,
81, and GILBERT
GOTTFRIED, 61, in large
supporting roles, and
for BILLY CRYSTAL, 68,
who appears in a cameo
as himself.)
CBS special-premiered its new
sit-com, Superior
Donuts, on Feb. 2. But
after that, it moves to its
regular time: Mondays at
9 p.m. It stars JUDD
HIRSCH, 81, as Arthur, a
former 60s radical who
owns a donut shop in a
gentrifying area of
Chicago. Most of the
series is about how
Arthur interacts with a
young African-American
man he hires as his
assistant. Theres also a
lot of comedic and
dramatic schtick with the
shops very varied
patrons. KATEY SAGAL,
63, is a series regular,
playing a local police
officer.
Over on Fox, theres
a drama, A.P.B., which
starts on Monday, Feb. 6,
at 9 p.m. The basic plot:
Gordon Reeves (JUSTIN
KIRK, 47) is a high-tech
billionaire who witnesses
his best friends murder
Robert DeNiro
Judd Apatow
Harvey Keitel
Katey Sagal
Justin Kirk
Arthur Blank
in Chicago. He convinces the mayor and city

council to allow him to
take over the police force
in the troubled district
where the murder took
place, and reboot it as a
private police force. Kirk,
whose mother is Jewish,
probably is best known
for playing the Jewish
character Andy Botwin
on Weeds, the longrunning Showtime series.
Last year, I wrote a
special article for
the Standard about the
Jewish players who
appeared in the first 50

years of the Super Bowl.
I noted that NATE
EBNER, now 28, was
(and is) a very good New
England Patriots special
teams player who played
in the 2015 Super Bowl,
and that Julian Edelman,
now 30, a star Patriots
wide receiver, played in
the same Super Bowl.
About Edelman, I wrote,
in part: of his eight
great-grandparents, only
his paternal great-grandfather was Jewish. Still,
Edelman has called
Want to read more noshes? Visit facebook.com/jewishstandard
benzelbusch.com
himself Jewish, hes

visited Israel, and for the
last two years, hes
attended Yom Kippur services.
Both owners of
the 2017 Super Bowlbound teams are Jewish
(ROBERT KRAFT, 75,
Patriots, and ARTHUR
BLANK, 74, Atlanta
Falcons). I was curious
whether Blank, who cofounded Home Depot,
was a Republican, like his
Home Depot co-founder,
BERNARD MARCUS, 87.
Well, I found a year-old
USA Today article that

showed an interesting
pattern while the big
majority of NFL owners give donate mostly
to the GOP, most of the
Jewish owners, including
Kraft and Blank, give the
majority of their political
donations to Democrats.
Blank was the biggest
Obama donor among
NFL owners in 2008,
and Kraft was the biggest in 2012. So, Jewish
NFL owners, a very rich
group, are not so different from the collectively
affluent American Jewish
electorate. They put the
liberal Jewish tradition
ahead of other interests,
and give about 70 percent of their donations to
Democrats. Thats about
the same as the number of Jews who vote
Democratic in presidential elections.
Kraft is a bit more
generous to Dems than
Blank. Thats probably because he lives
in strongly Democratic
New England, and to his
credit, he built the Patriots stadium with private
money, alone. Blank, on
the other hand, has chosen to schmooze up the
strong Georgia GOP (and
Dems, too) with contributions and it paid off:
the Falcons new stadium, which will open in
July, is the beneficiary of
an estimated $600 million in public funds. N.B.
California-based Nate Bloom can be reached at

Middleoftheroad1@aol.com
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Local
Rally in Teaneck
Local women organize meeting to oppose Trumps immigration plans
JOANNE PALMER
t was very short notice.

Just before last Shabbat, President
Donald Trump, finishing off his first
week in office, signed an executive
order banning immigrants from some
countries for 90 days, and putting other
restrictions in place, thus instituting the
so-called Muslim ban for which he had
called during his campaign, and causing
havoc and heartache at airports around
the world.
On Saturday night, Jewish women, many
of whom had just learned about the situation after Havdalah, just after 6 oclock,
joined with Muslim and Christian women
and started to organize.
On Sunday, at least 300 people gathered
in Teaneck to rally against those executive orders. (Numbers are unclear; some
participants think there were about 400
people but do not think it seemly to argue
about crowd size.) The group that organized it, Teaneck Together, managed to get
a police permit, lifted parking restrictions,
speakers, and an impassioned crowd,
using social media, their own friendship
networks, and a shared sense of outrage.
We did everything via phone and Facebook on Saturday night, Shana Dworken,
one of the organizers, said.
The Facebook group that was the rallys
seed was created right after Mr. Trumps
inauguration, by women who had listened
to the speech, been appalled by its darkness and the implications that darkness
evoked, and decided that we had to do
something, Ms. Dworken said. This was
a way to do something. We couldnt go to
any of the marches particularly because
they all were on Shabbat, and so would
have required a great deal of planning and
often intricate childcare arrangements
so we started this group. There wasnt
a master plan, just a desire to support
one another, and to build bridges. So we
started adding people, with the intent that
we could mobilize if something came up.
But we didnt realize that something would come up so fast. So Yasmeen Al-Shehab, Tovah Gidseg, and I
started organizing.
Ms. Gidseg, like Ms. Dworken, is Jewish;
Ms. Al-Shehab is Muslim. One of the good
things to have come out of the situation is
that communities that had not been comfortable with each other often for deepseated and real historical reasons have
come to work together, and to build friendships that span the gaps between them.
The three women werent faced with
On Sunday, a hastily planned rally in Teaneck drew protesters against President Donald Trumps executive order on immigration, which seems targeted mostly at Muslims.
that sort of ideological question on Saturday night, though. Instead, this was a
testament to the urgency, Ms. Dworken
said. We are trying to do something, but
we dont have a plan or an infrastructure.
And, she noted, this is all women-driven.
Ms. Al-Shehab also was feeling shellshocked by the election, she said, and even
more by the darkness of Mr. Trumps inauguration speech. She went to Washington
for the march on Saturday, and it was so
amazing, so uplifting, she said. Friday
I felt like I was at a funeral, like someone
had died, but Saturday felt so hopeful.
That lasted all day. And then every day
after that has been a doozy.
Last Saturday night, Ms. Al-Shehab was
at a dinner party in Princeton when I
started seeing things from the Facebook
group on my phone, she said. They said
that they wanted to do a rally, and asked
me what I thought the Muslim community will feel about it. I said that I dont
speak for the Muslim community just for
myself but the people I know are pretty
upset. She signed on to help organize.
Her job was to find speakers. She lined up
Teanecks mayor, Mohammed Hameeduddin that one was easy, hes her brother
among many others, including newly
installed Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Dist.
5), Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Dist. 6), Bergen
County Freeholder Tracy Silna Zur, and
the rabbi of Congregation Netivot Shalom,

Nathaniel Helfgot.
The feeling was very positive, Ms. AlShehab said. It was empowering. And
the healing was personal as well as political. One of the issues of the Teaneck I
grew up in, versus the Teaneck of today,
is that today we are separate in our own
little worlds, she said. Rabbi Helfgot said
that we really have to talk about more than
our own problems, more than things like
yeshiva tuitions. Each community has
something that we are focused on right
now, but we have to get beyond that.
On Saturday, I was pretty frozen. Paralyzed. I feared what that will mean for all
of us. This guy Mr. Trump is really
making good on what he said. What does
a Muslim registry mean? It doesnt mean
that well all have to register right away.
It means that first hell ban people from
those seven countries, and nobody will
care. That wont be overt enough. It will
all happen subtly. They will label our civil
liberty organizations as terrorist, and
then the next thing will be that the person in the middle of the process of getting
a green card will vanish. It will be covert
and incremental, but all of a sudden, that
person you used to know just wont be
there anymore.
The rally gave her hope. Ms. Al-Shehab
grew up in Teaneck and went to public
school there, and she has chosen the same

path for her children.
My daughter, Zareena, is 13, and she
spoke at the end of the rally, Ms. Al-Shehab said. She said to me, the day after the
election, Where is my place in Trumps
America? The president of the United
States is supposed to protect me, but now I
feel that they are coming for me. Zareena
planned to talk about those feelings of
exclusion and fear at the rally.
But she didnt say that, Ms. Al-Shehab said. I asked her why, and she said,
Because I didnt feel that here. I didnt feel
that at all. Instead, I felt like I am going to
be a leader one day.
I was born in the hospital here, I go to
school here, this is my country.
Mayor Hameeduddin was among the
speakers. I think that President Trump is
really taking advantage of peoples fears,
he said. He is putting together some draconian policies, and hoping that people
will not question him, and instead fall in
line with those policies. It is very interesting to see the spontaneous reactions to
it. Without any organization, when people heard that other people were being
detained at the airports, they rushed there
to help.
You have an awakening of opposition
as we see what is and what is not acceptable in the American experience. There is
Local
a lot of room for debate and disagreement
about foreign or economic or domestic
policy, but something that no one in America could accept is people taking away
other peoples rights.
As for the Muslim ban, Mr. Trump might
have backed off that description of his
decision to ban refugees from seven majority Muslim countries although not such
majority Muslim countries as Saudi Arabia,
Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey, where terrorism is rife but where Mr. Trump seems to
have done or have wanted to do business
but his close campaign advisor, New York
Citys former mayor, Rudolph Giuliani,
explained that in fact Mr. Trump did see
it as a ban on Muslims. That is something
that no one should accept in America,
Mayor Hameeduddin said.
Mr. Gottheimer reported that he went
to the rally with his children, after having
spent the morning with them at the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jerseys
Super Sunday fund-raising drive. It was
hard to explain it to my 7-year-old, he
said. I told her how my grandparents
and great grandparents came to America,
and that my wifes grandparents fled the
Holocaust. I tried to explain to her that
we want people here who love America,
Congressman Josh Gottheimer addresses the crowd as Teaneck Mayor Mohammed Hameeduddin looks on.
and welcoming people here is part of what

makes this America, that this is our fabric,
and that of course the Jewish people know
about that most particularly.
Of course we have to be very careful
about who we let into the country, but

at the same time, when we start taking
blanket actions against any group, that
is completely counter to who we are
as Americans.
Not only is Mr. Trumps policy misguided

in its rejection of the American and Jewish ethos of welcoming the stranger, it
also is likely to be counterproductive, Mr.
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Local
This year, the taste of Torah is fruity

Tu bShvat marked at community-wide Torah study evening
LARRY YUDELSON
he taste of Torah doesnt get

much sweeter than at a Tu
bShvat seder, where the ancient
Jewish fiscal year of the trees is
celebrated by consuming fruit and wine in
a manner symbolic of kabbalistic theories
of the spiritual universe.
So its appropriate that this years Sweet
Taste of Torah, the evening of Jewish study
organized by the North Jersey Board of
Rabbis, takes place on Tu bShvat, the 15th
day of the Hebrew month of Shvat, and
that a model Tu bShvat seder will be one
of the evenings two dozen classes.
Sweet Taste of Torah is a wonderful
opportunity for the rabbis on our board to
teach the community Torah, said Rabbi
Ziona Zelazo, the chaplain at Valley Hospital and the programs co-chair.
Tu bShvat makes for a fruitful theme
for the evening. The other theme of the
Stewards of Creation: How Genesis 1

Informs the Torahs Environmental Laws,
The Development of Tu BShvat, Under
Your Vine and Your Fig Tree: Jewish Theology in the Writings of George Washington, War, Peace, and Cutting Down Fruit
Trees, and From the Tree of Knowledge
to the Burning Trees in Israel.
Rabbi David Widzer of Temple Beth El of
Northern Valley in Closter and the evenings
other co-chair, called his session Guardians of the Galaxy (Or At Least the Earth).
The class offers lessons on how we can
bring Judaisms environmental values to
life through what we eat, what we drink,
what we wear, and what we do, he said.
Its a great night of Jewish learning, he
added. You have the most motivated students, coming to learn from exceptional
teachers, who are teaching what they love.
Sometimes folks from my temple will come
to my sessions. I tell them to learn from
some of my fantastic colleagues instead.
The evening also gives him and
his colleagues a chance to learn
from each other in the hour
theyre not teaching.
We continue to learn from
each other, Rabbi Zelazo
said. We never stop learning
as rabbis.
Past years this is the eighth
year of Sweet Taste of Torah
have drawn 250 to 300 people.
A Tu bShvat Seder, Rabbi
Zelazo explained, has four
parts. They represent the four
different worlds the kabbalists
believe we live in, she said.
Like a Passover seder, the
Tu bShvat seder features four glasses of
wine, but with a visual twist. There is a
red wine and a white wine and two cups
in between, one red with a little white
mixed in and the other white with a little
red. You mix the two wines together as a
symbol of how life can be mixed, she said.
(At the model seder, the roles of red and
white wine will be played by cranberry
and apple juice.)
The seder also reflects how trees
[The class] offers

lessons on how we
can bring Judaisms
environmental values
to life through what
we eat, what we
drink, what we wear,
and what we do.
program, which takes place on Saturday
night, February 11, at Temple Beth Rishon
in Wyckoff, reflect that days Torah reading, which features the song Miriam leads
the women in singing after the Israelites
cross the Red Sea.
Besides the model seder, Tu bShvatthemed classes include The Tree in the
Midst of the Garden: Going Deep into
Being Human, Sex, Death and the Tree
of Knowledge: The Torahs Big Story,
A packed classroom at last years Sweet Taste of Torah
resemble men and men resemble trees,

she added. Just like trees grow from the
roots, from a place we cannot see into
the branching out that we can see, there
is so much in all of us that we cant see.
The kabbalists wanted us to get into our
inner essence and our potential to grow
and change.
Sessions dealing with the theme of song
include a sing-along, a niggun jam, a class
on Israeli songs, and some that look at the
biblical songs of Deborah and Solomon.
(There are of course a couple of sessions
that dont match either theme, including
one about Jewish humor and one examining Rabbi Shlomo Carlebachs teachings
following the 1986 Challenger disaster.)
Lois Ruderman, a student at the Academy
for Jewish Religion who is the rabbinic

intern at Temple Beth Rishon, will lead a
session taking a different artistic approach
drama. More specifically, bibliodrama,
which combines midrash with improv.
Its taking a Torah text and turning it
into an impromptu dramatic interpretation, she said. I guide the process. I
tell the story and then I say, If you were
Moses, what would you say? Or imagine that you are the waves of the Red Sea
engulfing the Egyptians. What would you
say? What would you do? Anyone is free to
say or sing any part of the story.
Its an opportunity to place yourself in
the story. Its quite liberating. Many times
we do that for Passover at the seders, she
said. This is the same kind of creativity.
Save the Date

What: Sweet Taste of Torah evening of study
Where: Temple Beth Rishon, 585 Russell Ave., Wyckoff
When: 6:30 p.m., Saturday night, February 11
How much: $15 online by February 8 at sweettastesoftorah.weebly.com; $20 at
the door (cash or check only)
We can never obtain peace in the outer world

until we make peace with ourselves. Dalai Lama
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World Packages
Do you have a friend, family member or neighbor who
just had a baby? Did you just have a baby? Let us know!
Wed love to welcome the baby to the community with
a special gift!
JCC on the Palisades
e
m
o
c
l
e
w
he
t
o
Project Cares: Babysitting 101 and

Learning to Work with Special
Needs Youth
rl
d
Visit jccotp.org/welcomebaby
Grades 6-8
Learn about child development, social skills, handling
emergency situations and more.
Tuesdays, Feb 7-Apr 4, 7-8:30 pm, $50 plus volunteer
work on: Mar 12, 19 & 26
Visit jccotp.org/teen-educational-programs for more
information or contact Shelley Levy at slevy@jccotp.org.
Programs made possible with the generous support of
the EGL Foundation.
Book Study Group:

Lecture & Discussion
Join Professor Ben Nelson as he leads our book
group in exploring both contemporary fiction and
20th century classics. Well read the following: The
Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, Light Years by James
Salter, Purity by Jonathan Franzen and Candide by
Voltaire.
Visit jccotp.org to sign up or call Judy at
201.408.1457.
Wednesdays, Feb 15, Mar 15, Apr 26 & May 17,
1:30 - 3:30 pm, $60/$75, $16/$20 per session
seniors
film
families
Monday-Friday
NEW! Mommy and

Baby Playgroup
A daily program for active seniors providing light

breakfast, exercise, current events, entertainment,
lectures, intergenerational programming, holiday
celebrations, musical programs, sessions on health
and wellness, nutritious hot kosher lunches and
door-to-door transportation.
Find support and friendship in our new playgroup!

Relax with your baby, enjoy the company of other
new parents, and get advice from facilitator Ann
Anderson, registered nurse and lactation consultant.
Wednesdays, Feb 8-Aug 16, 10-11:30 am, $15 drop-in
fee, $60 5 session pass
Mon, Feb 13, 7:30 pm, $7/$10 ($24/$35 series)
Participation is FREE. Suggested daily donation for

lunch ($4) and transportation ($5).
Visit jccotp.org/infant-toddler
Upcoming: Mar 6Fill the Void (Israel, 2012);

Mar 27Vertigo; Apr 24The Ma 2004
Contact Judi Nahary at 201.408.1450 or

visit jccotp.org/senior-services.
Top Films You May Have

Missed: The Manchurian
Candidate
Join us for a film/discussion. A platoon of US
soldiers is captured in this brillant political
thriller, starring Frank Sinatra and Angela
Landsbury, about the son of a prominent
political family who is brainwashed into being
an unwitting assassin. Coffee and light snacks.
SAC: Senior Activity Center
to register or for more info, visit
jccotp.org or call 201.569.7900.

Kaplen
JCC on the Palisades taub campus | 411 e clinton ave, tenafly, nJ 07670 | 201.569.7900 | jccotp.org
Local
Steven P. Cohen, 71
Remembering Teanecks back channel Mideast negotiator
LARRY YUDELSON
hat was a nice Jewish boy doing meeting

with Haffez Assad two months before the
Syrian dictators fatal heart attack in 2000?
The answer to that question tells the story
of Dr. Steven P. Cohen of Teaneck, who died last week at 71.
The meeting with Mr. Assad was the culmination of a quarter
century spent meeting with Arab leaders. The meetings first
were in Cairo, later in Beirut and Tunis, in Paris and Brussels,
and even and this was a sign the Cairo meetings bore fruit
in Jerusalem. Dr. Cohen made a passion and then a career
as a Jewish interlocutor who, with varying degrees of success,
helped tear down the personal and political walls between
Israel and its neighbors.
He was born in Montreal. His father was an immigrant
who came from Lithuania; his mother was born in Canada.
He went to a nominally Orthodox day school through high
school those were the days where a yeshiva high school
graduating class would have barely more than a dozen students and the faculty would be a diverse mix of Orthodox
rabbis, ardent secular Yiddishists, and non-religious Israelis. For college, he stayed in town, attending McGill University and majoring in social psychology. He was president of
the campus Hillel. His vice president was
Elaine Shizgal, a year behind him; they
married when she graduated in 1967, two
weeks after the Six Day War
The Cohens moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts; Steven earned his doctorate
in social psychology at Harvard and then
taught there for five years. The radical
student activism of the 1960s had birthed
a Jewish counterculture, and Steven was
active in it, first as a student and then as a
professor. He co-founded a magazine, Genesis 2, and became a leader in the activist
Jewish Student Network. In the wake of the
Six Day War, the Jewish counterculture was
advocating policies well to the left of Israels
Labor government. In exchange for not protesting the Israeli
prime ministers visit to America, the Network was granted
a private meeting with Golda Meir. Dr. Cohen peppered her
with questions about the Palestinians. She was not happy
but it was better than a public protest.
Dr. Cohens first involvement in the Middle East conflict
came in 1968. Students were beginning to mobilize in favor
of the Palestinians, and the Harvard Divinity School planned
a conference. Harvards Hillel rabbi called the school dean.
You need a Jewish student working with you, and Steve
Cohen is it, Elaine recalled this week.
He put together a remarkable conference that had Israelis
and Palestinians and Christians and Jews, she said.
In 1971, Steven worked with a senior colleague, Dr. Herbert
Kelman, who had fled Austria with his family in 1938, when
he was 11. The two men taught a graduate seminar on socialpsychological approaches to international relations. Among
their students was future Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir
Bhutto. This led to a workshop on conflict resolution that
brought Israelis together with Palestinians who identified with
the PLO.
The Yom Kippur War in 1973 shocked Steve, mobilized him,
and ultimately focused his energies.
He felt people didnt have access to the whole range
of news, Elaine said. So he and a friend started a mimeographed publication they called Mideast Probe. Listening to
Dr. Steven Cohen meets with Anwar Sadat in Alexandria in 1978.

Israel radio and BBC reports on a shortwave
radio, Steve would dictate the articles; William Novack, who later would co-author
The Big Book of Jewish Humor, would
type them; they would run off 30 copies
on a mimeograph machine to which they
had limited access, and then, in the middle of the night, they would deliver them
to thought leaders and op ed writers like
Anthony Lewis of the New York Times.
This went on for about six weeks, Elaine remembered.
Then Steve asked for a leave of absence from teaching and
went to Israel. There, he was sent to the front to use his psychological training to work with battle-shocked soldiers.
The realization that these Israelis were not the invulnerable soldiers of my childhood imagination had a real emotional
impact on me, he wrote in The Go-Between, a memoir published late last year. He vowed to devote my professional abilities to help prevent another traumatic war.
In 1975, Steve traveled to Egypt and Jordan and Lebanon
with Dr. Kelman and a Lebanese professor whom he had
befriended in America. In Egypt, he met a Cairo University
professor who headed the Centre of Political and Strategic
Studies, an institution focused on understanding Israel. This
professors political star was starting to rise. His name was
Boutros Boutros-Ghali. At Cairo University, Steve knocked
on faculty office doors, asking if anyone wanted to work with
them on conflict resolution. Someone called the police. Getting arrested, as it turned out, was the best thing that could
have happened to me, he wrote.
President Anwar Sadats spokesman learned of the arrest,
arranged for Dr. Cohen to be freed, and spoke with him at
length.
A year later, Boutrous-Ghalis center invited Drs. Cohen and
Kelman back for a roundtable discussion.
I told them that I believed the Israeli people would be
shocked by an Egyptian peace initiative, much as they had

been shocked by Egypt starting a war three years earlier,
Steve wrote in the memoir. I added that a surprise step by
Egypt toward peace might cause Israel to reconsider its ironclad vow to hold on to the Sinai.
Back in Israel, Steve updated top Israelis on what he understood to be Egyptian attitudes toward the possibility of a peace
surprise. When President Sadat surprised the world with an
offer to visit Israel, Dr. Cohen was not surprised. Soon he was
meeting with Dr. Boutros-Ghali in Jerusalem, when the Egyptian stayed at the King David Hotel as part of President Sadats
retinue on the historic visit to Jerusalem.
Dr. Cohen had established himself as someone who
could speak and listen to Israelis and Arabs and earn each
sides trust. Dr. Kelmans academic research had argued
that trusted third parties could work to help bridge conflicts; Dr. Cohen proved that true. Having premised their
response to Israel on non-recognition and non-negotiation and not particularly trusting American diplomacy
Egypt turned to Dr. Cohen to sound out whether the risk
of negotiation and dropping its posture of rejection would
be worth it. Even after President Sadat went to the Knesset and began direct talks, Dr. Cohen continued to play a
role as a go-between, sometimes meeting with President
Sadat, sometimes with Israeli leaders, sometimes relaying plans for meetings between Israeli and Egyptians in
European hotels. Those meetings paved the way for President Jimmy Carters summons to the two sides to what
became 13 days of negotiations at the Camp David presidential retreat.
Once Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty calling, among
other things for Palestinian autonomy, President Sadat felt
that it was time for the Palestinian Liberation Organization to
reach out to Israel. He summoned the PLOs ambassador to
Egypt for a conversation on how to do so. Among President
Sadats suggestions: Reach out to Dr. Cohen.
Local
And so it was in 1982 that Dr. Cohen first met with Yassir Arafat, in the PLO-controlled section of Beirut known
as Fatahland. It was shortly before Israel would invade
Lebanon to expel the PLO. Israelis could not legally
speak with the PLO, but at least one Knesset member
wanted to send a message to Arafat: Stop your activities
in Lebanon, or there will be an invasion.
Then let them come, Arafat told Dr. Cohen.
Of course, they came. And when Dr. Cohen next met
with Arafat and his senior aides, it was in Tunis, where
the PLO had relocated after the invasion of Lebanon.
Dr. Cohen met several times with PLO leadership there;
he later said that they did not believe that he was not
an Israeli agent, although he told them he was not. The
meetings led to more meetings between PLO officials
and actual Israeli intelligence agents; Dr. Cohen helped
arrange the rendezvous, sat at the table, and wrote up
the minutes in painful longhand. He ate the cheese but
not the meat at the meal the Israelis brought because he
kept kosher. The topic of these meetings: Israeli prisoners of war held by the PLO.
It would be seven years until the Oslo Accords
brought negotiations between the PLO and Israel to the
public light. There were other channels, and discussions
had many fits and starts as the desire to communicate
jostled with the realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and internal Israeli politics. Dr. Cohen would talk
with both Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin not always
the most trusting of partners. Last week, family and
friends eulogized him as an incredible listener. Reading
his account, you can see that it may have been this quality, as much as his neutrality, his position outside the
immediate political arena, and his ability to relay details
about his Arab interlocutors, that made him invaluable
to Israeli leaders.
After living two years in Israel in the 1970s, Dr. Cohen
began teaching at the CUNY Graduate Center in Manhattan, and the family moved to Teaneck. In 1985,
he returned to Montreal to head up the CRB Foundation started by billionaire Charles Bronfman. Then he
received funding to make his Mideast conflict resolution
work his full time endeavor. It was a task that involved a
lot of travel but no set location as a base. That enabled
Steve and Elaine Cohen to move back to Teaneck, when
she got a job as head of school at what is now the Golda
Ochs Academy in West Orange.
For his three daughters, his foreign travel was
mysterious.
We either werent allowed to know or werent
allowed to say where he was, his oldest daughter, Rabbi
Tamara Cohen, said. We called them trips to NeverNever Land.
After 1993, it seemed the world had caught up with
him. But it also put his work into a more public light.
For his children, There was a lot of pride and some
fear, she said. It was hardest for the youngest sister, Maya.
She was in high school in Montreal where there
was a backlash against Oslo, said the middle daughter, Rabbi Ayelet Cohen. Her friends would say, Your
father wants to give away the Golan in this very accusing way, as if he could give away the Golan.
It was in the 1990s that Steven began his visits to Syria
and talks with Assad. They had been arranged by a onetime army mate of Assads who lived in America. Assad
was clear that his goal was the Golan. Prime Minister
Rabin had indicated that he might be willing to return
the Golan Heights to Syria in exchange for peace. In
1999, Dr. Cohen helped broker a possible preliminary
deal with Aryeh Deri, the leader of Shas, the third largest party in the Knesset. The plan was that Deri would
travel to Syria, endorse trading the Golan for peace,
and Assad would return the bones of the Israeli spy and
national hero Eli Cohen to Israel.

But this was not to be. Deri was indicted for fraud even as
Prime Minister Ehud Barak ratcheted up conflict between his
party and Deris. When Barak met with Assad in Washington in
1999, the results were disappointing to the Syrians.
So in 2000, Dr. Cohen was hoping to help move the process
forward. What would have happened if Assad had lived more
than two months? The possibilities range from 1990s visions of
Edenic peace to contemporary visions of Syrian chaos.
Stevens career as a globetrotter ended in 2005, when he had
a septuple bypass surgery. He continued writing and analyzing
the Mideast conflict. He continued to go down to Washington for
quasi-official workshops with think tankers and former government officials..

People were always calling for advice and analysis and his
take on the situation, Elaine said this week.
Steven gave this summation in an article published in the
Forward posthumously: It is hard to imagine a future between
Israelis and Palestinians free of burning confrontation. Yet it is
worth recalling that hope for peace was no greater in 1986 than
it is today. Eventually, inevitably, the Israeli and Palestinian leaders will conclude as Peres, Rabin and Arafat did in their time
that there is no way of winning, and that finding a way of living
under better circumstances is the only realistic goal.
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Local
This is NOT a book club

Teaneck Jewish Center offers deep look at non-Jewish fiction through Jewish lens
very high level, he said.
In Lila, we dealt with the
Often it seems that no matquestion of grace, Rabbi Fridter where it is, no matter who
man said. What is the meaning
offers it, Jewish adult educaof grace in the Christian tradition, or continuing education,
tion? In our tradition? This is
or lifelong learning, or whata very Christian book, but one
ever the term du jour might be,
of the main tensions is that Lila
has one element in common.
keeps gravitating toward the
It often seems to assume that
Hebrew Bible.
most of the people who have
One of the major issues we
come together to learn are not
discussed had to do with peoples sense of salvation, which is
too smart; theyre not too educated, either Jewishly or genvery important in the Christian
erally, and they dont want to
tradition, he continued. We
bother their pretty little heads
had an intensive discussion of
too much. So just talk nicely to
what our traditions say about
them, the theory seems to be,
who can be saved.
This is not a book club,
maybe give them some cookies,
Ms. Rindner said. I hope that
and theyll go home happy.
we will develop a nice sense of
Thats not the approach that
community, but its not about
Rabbi Daniel Fridman of the
Sarah Rindner and Rabbi Daniel Fridman lead a discussion of Lila at the Jewish Center of Teaneck.
shooting the breeze about a
Jewish Center of Teaneck and

MICHAEL LAVES PHOTOGRAPHER
fun book. Its about analyzhis partner in a new venture,
ing and mining the books for
Sarah Rindner of Teaneck, are
Fridman said of his teacher.
Sherwood Andersons Winesburg, Ohio.
their spiritual and religious dimensions.
taking. Instead, they are starting with
The second and equally important
Note that neither author is Jewish, nor
We are coming at it as a community
other assumptions.
piece is that we are living in a time of short
are the books heavy on Jewish characof readers.
First, the question of why to read fiction
ters. But Jewish themes, quotes, allusions,
Her background includes an undergradattention spans, he continued. Social
in the first place.
uate degree from Stern College and a masunderstandings, and general worldviews
media and other technology have great
We think that reading books is a profoundly spiritual activity, Rabbi Fridters in English at Columbia, as well as six
are inescapable in Western literature, and
functional uses, but they are extremely
man said. And thats true on a number
years teaching at Touro. Her masters thebeyond that human themes are Jewish
disruptive and get in the way of thinking
sis was on modernism, focusing on a seemof levels. The great themes of literature
themes as well.
about things deeply. It is something religious leaders have to think about.
ingly disparate pair of poets, T.S. Eliot and
understand the human condition, the
He was inspired by a column by the
Robert Frost. I looked at what they were
dignity of the person, and confronting
influential writer and public intellectual
doing with religion and modernism, Ms.
suffering. These are all intrinsically spiritual matters.
Andrew Sullivan, who blogged feverishly
Rindner said. My thesis was that if you
Moreover, added Rabbi Fridman, who is
for more than a decade, back when blogconsider their philosophical background,
ging was new, and who has taken much
Orthodox, there is unimpeachable Orthothey are quite similar, even though they
dox dispensation for the study of literatime off since then, to recenter his soul.
seem so different.
ture. Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, who was
Mr. Sullivan wrote about that experience
So clearly her sensibility opens her to
a rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University and at
in an essay called I Used To Be A Human
new understandings of texts, and of small,
Being, published in New York Magazine
sharp similarities hidden behind obvious
last September. (Google it. Its worth it.)
differences, which would lend themselves
So Rabbi Fridman knew that as part of
to a reading group like this one.
I was really amazed by Rabbi Fridhis new rabbinate in Teaneck, he wanted
man, Ms. Rindner continued. He is a very
to explore reading literature, but to do it
thoughtful reader, and the Jewish material
through the lens of how this informs us
that he brought into the discussion wasnt
and interacts with our tradition. I needed
a stretch at all. Instead, it was an excelsomeone who is very talented, a partner
lent reading of the book, and of the Jewwho is an expert in contemporary and
SARAH RINDNER
ish sources.
classic literature and has a very strong
I feel that the ideas he brought wouldnt
Judaic background. He knew exactly who
have existed if he hadnt read the book,
The group drew about 30 people. They
he wanted Sarah Rindner, who teaches
she said. I really like this confluence of
came from our synagogue, and from other
literature at Touro College.
Judaism and literature, of thinking of Jewsynagogues in Teaneck, he said. They
She would pick the book and lead the
RABBI DANIEL FRIDMAN
ish texts from a literary perspective and
also came from Manhattan and Brooklyn.
discussion, Rabbi Fridman said. My role
thinking about literary texts from spiritual
Their ages ranged from 20s to 80s, men
is to present Jewish texts that interact with
and religious perspectives.
Yeshivat Har Etzion, in Gush Etzion outand women. Not everyone was Orthodox.
the text were reading, and may highlight
side Jerusalem, and who was Rabbi Joseph
The next meeting is scheduled for FebAnd we probably had everyone from every
or underscore certain points, where there
ruary 26 at 8 p.m.; the group meets in the
Ber Soloveitchiks son-in-law, also earned
profession from psychologists to teachis a strong Torah component.
ers to lawyers to accountants. Everyone
library at the Jewish Center of Teaneck, at
a doctorate in English literature at HarThe group has met once so far. The plan
vard. He felt that reading literature was
came with their own life experiences, and
70 Sterling Place. Everyone is welcome
is for everyone to read the book before
an indispensable part of the formulation of
everyone came well prepared.
youll feel more comfortable if you read
the meeting, and to discuss one book
ones spiritual character, and that unquesThe feeling in the room was electric. It
the book first. For more information, call
per meeting. The first book was Maritionably it is a lifelong endeavor, Rabbi
lynne Robinsons Lila; the next will be
was a great book, and we discussed it at a
the shul at (201) 833-0515.
JOANNE PALMER
We think that
reading books is
a profoundly
spiritual activity.
And thats true
on a number
of levels.
Its about
analyzing and
mining the
books for their
spiritual and
religious
dimensions. We
are coming at it
as a community
of readers.
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Local
Yes, they can get along

Former Teaneck resident talks about his company, Innitel, and its mix of employees
ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN
When he lived in Teaneck, Dan Leubitz
worked for the Port Authority of New York
& New Jersey.
This was not a job he could continue
once his family moved to Israel in 2006.
He did freelance work for a few years while
seeking a new direction.
Finally, in 2009, an only in Israel
moment happened that would lead him to
cofound Innitel, a Jerusalem-based enterprise software provider recently ranked by
Deloitte as the ninth fastest-growing Israeli
tech company.
That moment occurred at a bank in
downtown Jerusalem, where Mr. Leubitz
ran into Elie Rubin, an old friend from his
Betar Zionist Youth Movement days. I
hadnt seen this guy in 20 years, he said.
He asked me what I was doing, and he
told me he was working on a project with
contact centers. Right away, we started to
talk about a business concept.
At first, the self-funded company
Innitel employs Jews, Muslims, and Christians; here, Arab staff members are at
the joint Chanukah-Christmas party.
INNITEL
focused on installing hardware and

phones. In 2013 it pivoted to a cloud-based
infrastructure and began rapid expansion

in terms of both reach and size.
Simply put, Innitel software transforms

a basic call center into a fully automated
contact center that can manage not only
phone calls but also other forms of customer communications, including email,
Web-based chat, and instant messaging,
without hiring more employees.
Our software can quadruple sales and
make a team of four seem like a team of
20, Mr. Leubitz, now the companys chief
technology officer, said.
Innitel works with more than 10,000 call
center agents, mainly in Eastern European
countries and even in a few Arab ones.
This is where the story really gets
interesting.
With some Arab companies on board,
we needed Arabic customer support, Mr.
Leubitz said. Thankfully, being in Jerusalem it was not hard to find the right
employees.
Today, Innitels 38 workers are Arab
Muslims and Christians; Jewish immigrants from countries such as France,
Russia, Mexico, and Ukraine; and charedi
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Local
native Israelis.
Many of them were referred to Innitel by one of several
Jerusalem-based organizations striving to integrate these
chronically underemployed populations into the citys
burgeoning high-tech workforce.
Mr. Leubitz said that Innitels human-resources policy
is to cut the header off all rsums, so that the job applicants name and address dont factor into the hiring decision. These details easily could indicate ethnic group or
religious affiliation say, an Arab name or an address in a
charedi neighborhood.
We began to understand that developers and engineers in Jerusalem are a microcosm of Jerusalems overall
population, and our mix of employees reflects that, he
said. Were like a little U.N. You wouldnt normally see
some of these groups sharing a bus, but at Innitel we congeal nicely.
Mr. Leubitz, who is modern Orthodox, points with pride
to a recent joint Chanukah-Christmas party in the office.
Muslim employees get Islamic holidays off in exchange for
working on Jewish holidays.
I always know theres a Muslim holiday coming up
when some kind of traditional sweets appear in the office
kitchen, Mr. Leubitz said with a laugh.
It would be nave to assume that relationships in this
little microcosm of Jerusalem could be totally free of friction. But the management tries to nudge things in the right
direction.
Incidents in the so-called stabbing intifada which
began in the fall of 2015 and rears its head occasionally in
the form of rammings, stabbings, or shootings by residents
Innitel founders Dan Leubitz, left, and Elie Rubin. Mr.

Leubitz made aliyah from Teaneck.
INNITEL
of Jerusalem-area Arab enclaves naturally cause some

tension in the office.
People feel uncomfortable bringing up the recent
unpleasantness, and I say we need to talk about it in a
clear and open fashion, Mr. Leubitz said. At first its a
little awkward, but in the end it becomes a bonding experience, and people want to discuss more. There are so
many conversations that happen among us. If we are the
exception to the rule in high-tech, we could be a model for
high-techs in general.
In the beginning, he was not sure whether Arab and
charedi workers would stop and stand when public sirens
wail, heralding a reflective pause, on Israels Memorial
Day and Holocaust Remembrance Day. In their home
communities, the sirens often are ignored out of disdain
for the Zionist state. But indeed the employees do stand

silently, without being asked to do so.
Were a fast-growing company, and the growth fuels
our feeling of family, Mr. Leubitz said. I consider myself
on the right side of the political spectrum, but there is no
conflict. Were all on this island together, and as long as
there are respect and common goals there is no problem.
Nurturing a culture of tolerant diversity in a for-profit
company isnt motivated by altruism but by clear-eyed
practicality. Mr. Leubitz firmly believes that taking full
advantage of Jerusalems breadth of cultures, educations, languages, and skill-sets has helped propel Innitels
success.
The company has seen a nearly 800 percent increase
in revenue in the last three years, and in November it was
selected to take part in the London Stock Exchanges Elite
incubator program. A satellite office recently was opened
in Bulgaria to provide services on weekends.
Mr. Leubitz said that 80 percent of Innitels leads come
from referrals. Our marketing budget is less than our
monthly coffee bill, he reported.
Another factor in its success can be chalked up to the
founders roots in the United States. We bring Americanstyle support to the Middle East and Europe, Mr. Leubitz said. Good customer service is hard to come by in
this region. Its a point of pride that were making a big
difference.
Now 42, Mr. Leubitz is the only former New Jersey resident at Innitel, at least so far. He lives in Efrat, a community in the Gush Etzion bloc south of Jerusalem that has
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Sinai Schools annual benefit dinner set for February 26

Sinai Schools will hold its annual benefit
dinner on Sunday, February 26, at the
Marriott Glenpointe Hotel in Teaneck.
This years honorees are Ilana and Adam
Chill of New Rochelle, N.Y.; Malca and
Rabbi Chaim Jachter of Teaneck; Esther
and Moshe Muschel of Englewood, and
Orit and Moshe Zharnest of Fair Lawn.
The Chills and Jachters are parents of
Sinai students.
Sinai is known for its emotionally
engaging documentaries, which premiere

at the dinner each year. This years short
film, Jacobs Footprints, tells the story
of Jacob Adler, a young man with cerebral palsy who has been at Sinai since
first grade. Jacob is fondly known as the
Mayor of Teaneck for his enthusiastic,
friendly nature and unwavering positivity; he is an inspiration to everyone who
knows him.
This years film and dinner program
promise to be inspiring, moving, and widely

attended, with broad community support.
Over the past 35 years, Sinai has served
children with complex special needs from
across the region. Each of Sinais schools
is integrated within a partner Jewish day
elementary or high school, creating a fully
inclusive school community.
To meet each students specific academic, social, and emotional needs,
Sinai creates a completely individualized
Rabbi Shmuel Goldin

Steven and Debbie Siegler and their
children
Jacob Adler and his parents
Toby Eizik
program for each child. The professionalto-student ratio is greater than 1:2, and the
students receive a wide variety of cuttingedge therapies to meet their individual
needs. Without significant financial aid,
Sinais tuition which reflects Sinais own
costs is beyond the reach of the vast
majority of families.
For information or to make reservations
or a donation, call (201) 833-1134, ext. 105,
or go to www.sinaidinner.org.
Barbara Rotenberg
Daniel and Lindsay Setton and their

children
Moriah plans February 25 dinner at Hilton Meadowlands

Englewood, she was sisterhood co-president and treasurer. She volunteers in the
kosher kitchen at Englewood Hospital &
Medical Center, participates in the community Bikur Cholim, and was co-president of the Englewood chapter of Emunah.
Steven was on Moriahs executive committee and is involved with its early childhood
and Gesher Yehuda programs and board
committees. He has been a member of the
Ahavath Torah board and has volunteered
for Project Ezrah.
The Settons are parents of five Moriah
students. Lindsay volunteers for the
schools Sephardic cultural program,
admissions, and lifecycle committees, is
Breakfast and dedication in Washington Township

Temple Beth Or in Washington Township
will hold a library rededication in honor of
Teddy Fine, along with its third annual pancake breakfast, on Sunday, February 5, at 11
a.m. Mr. Fine will be honored for his years
of service to the readers of Temple Beth Or.

Event proceeds will fund technology
purchases for the religious school. Last
years breakfast enabled it to buy several
iPads. For information, call (201) 664-7422.
the early childhood liaison coordinator,

and sits on the board. She also chairs Ahavath Torahs welcoming committee and
coordinates community-wide events. Daniel is involved with the Sephardic cultural
program and organized a Sephardic minyan with parental involvement at Moriah.
Barbara Rotenberg, Moriahs middle
school coordinator, became a Moriah parent in 1980. She joined the Moriah staff in
1992 in the business and front offices and
in the Jewish studies department. A former
MAP treasurer, she was co-president of the
Frisch Parents Association, was a board
member at Frisch, and was co-president
Geulah chapter of Amit. Toby Eizik, known
as Nurse Toby, has helped hundreds of

Moriah students, many who now have children of their own in school. She also helps
out with special events, including siddur
plays and dinner choir presentations.
Rabbi Shmuel Goldin has led Congregation Ahavath Torah for over 30 years. He
has been considered to be Moriahs rabbinical posek for many years, answering
halachic matters pertaining to the school.
He also has helped bridge the school and
shul connection for many of its Englewood
families. Most recently, he taught eighth
graders the Names Not Numbers class.
For information, call (201) 567-0208, ext.
393, or go to www.themoriahdinner.org.
Norpac meeting to
host Senator Menendez
Gail and Benjamin Rieder welcome Senator Robert Menendez
(D-NJ) for a Norpac meeting on Sunday, February 12, at 10:30
a.m., in New Milford. Mort and Esther Fridman join the Rieders in chairing the meeting. For information, email Avi@NORPAC.net or call (201) 788-5133.
COURTESY NORPAC
The Moriah School in Englewood hosts its

52nd annual dinner on Saturday, February
25, at 8 p.m., at the Hilton Meadowlands
Hotel in East Rutherford. Debbie and Steven Siegler are the guests of honor. Other
awardees are Lindsay and Daniel (Moriah
1999) Setton, and Toby Eizik and Barbara Rotenberg, who are Rabbi J. Shelley
Applbaum award-winners. Rabbi Shmuel
Goldin will be given special recognition for
his years of service to the community.
The Sieglers, parents of four Moriah
students, have been involved since 2004.
Debbie was co-president of the Moriah
Association of Parents and is on its
board. At Congregation Ahavath Torah in
Briefly Local
Tenafly JCC upholds Shabbat policy
After months of discussions about
whether to continue its policy of closing
in observance of Shabbat, the Kaplen
JCC on the Palisades board of directors overwhelmingly voted to maintain
its current practice, reinforcing its mission and affirming the message it sends
to the community about the importance
of Shabbat.
Deeply rooted in Jewish values and tradition, the vision for the JCC is to be the
center point of Jewish life in our community and to engage all generations in our
mission and values, its CEO, Jordan Shenker, said. In this context, how we observe
Shabbat becomes an important issue and
its one that has been debated on and off
for years. We ultimately arrived at our
current decision to remain closed because
we exist as a JCC to build community and
promote Jewish engagement and believe
that closing for Shabbat exemplifies our
deep dedication to Jewish tradition and

values.
Our board prides itself on always
being open to discussions on how the
JCC can best achieve its mission and
serve our community, the JCCs president, JoJo Rubach, added. This kind of
open forum leads to insightful dialogues
where board members are encouraged
to express and dispute a variety of views.
I am proud of this process and our ability
to debate important topics like this one
in such a supportive and respectful manner, and arriving at this decision speaks
to our shared understanding of our values and mission.
The JCC celebrates and acknowledges
the diversity that exists within its community, and believes that it provides a
multitude of opportunities to achieve
this from Sunday through Friday,
according to its press release.
Save the date for Wayne dinner dance

Temple Beth Tikvah in Wayne will hold
its annual dinner/dance, Celebrating
Our House of Hopes 60th Anniversary,
on June 3 at the Brownstone in Paterson.
Ellen Goldin will be honored for her

25th anniversary of service to TBT, and
all past presidents will be recognized.
For reservations, call (973) 595-6565.
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Cover Story
Pluralism
at work
Above, Dr. Ora Horn Prouser of Franklin Lakes, talking to students

at the Academy for Jewish Religion. At right, the schools twostory loft space is in the old Otis Elevator factory in Yonkers.
Dr. Ora Horn Prouser of Franklin Lakes

talks about the Academy for Jewish Religion
JOANNE PALMER
ou can tell a lot about
a s c h o o l f ro m i t s
campus.
Take, for example,
the Academy for Jewish Religion.
Its in Yonkers, N.Y.,
an old city on the Hudsons east bank
New York States fourth largest just
north of the Bronx and just east of Bergen
County. Yonkers has gone through many
phases, including pervasive and demoralizing urban blight, but now its reviving.
The school is housed in the red brick
building that produced the first Otis
elevators, in 1892. Inside, the space is
highly specific, lovely (unless your taste
does not run in that direction if you

want modern or minimalist, forget it), all
double-height ceilings, huge old windows
looking out onto more red brick in the
sharp river light, unexpected corners,
loft spaces looking down into the maze
that is the library.
The building is not easy to find; you
enter its address into your GPS and then
drive around and around in maddening
circles as it continues to direct you into
dead ends. It seems that the only way to
get there is to give up, call, and ask for
help. But once youve found it, you realize
that its actually easy to get to, and youll
be able to do it on your own from then on.
So, really, if you wanted to put the ideas
of engaging and reengaging and redefining and retaining and renovating tradition
into bricks and mortar, you couldnt do

any better than the Academy for Jewish
Religions home.
And if you say that the school is a perfect metaphor for the pluralistic seminary, which trains rabbis and cantors for
jobs without tying them to denominations,
then youd also have to say that its executive vice president and academic dean,
Dr. Ora Horn Prouser, who comes to the
school with a strong denominational background, a willingness to both hold onto it
and to see far beyond it, and the creativity
that allows her to pursue groundbreaking
academic work while running the school,
is ideally suited to her job.
Dr. Prouser, who lives in Franklin Lakes,
is the daughter, wife, and sister-in-law
of New Jersey Conservative rabbis, and
earned all her academic degrees, including her doctorate, at the Conservative
movements Jewish Theological Seminary.
(Her father is William Horn, rabbi emeritus of the Summit Jewish Community
Center; her husband, Joseph Prouser, is
the rabbi of Temple Emanuel of North Jersey in Franklin Lakes; her brother-in-law,
Randall Mark, is the rabbi of Congregation
Shomrei Emunah in Wayne, and add for
good measure that her sister, Dassy Mark,
for decades was the director of United Synagogue Youths Hagalil region.)
On her mothers side, Dr. Prouser is
descended from a long line of Orthodox
rabbis; her grandfather, Moshe Yaakov
Mendelowitz, who studied at the Slobodka yeshiva, moved to Brooklyn, but
died young, leaving his family adrift. His
Cover Story
brother, Rabbi Sam Mendelowitz, lived in

Bergen County; the family mourned the
death of his widow, Rhoda Poplack Mendelowitz of Teaneck, a beloved teacher at
the Yavneh Academy for many years, just
a little more than a year ago.
Moshe Mendelowitz was an innovative
businessman; he created a system to ship
kosher meat across the country by having
local rabbis at various stops meet the train,
thus ensuring its continued kashrut. An
extant portrait of him shows a handsome
man, clean-shaven, fashionably, even nattily dressed.
When his wife, Rachel Mendelowitz, was left a young widow, at times she
would turn to the Lubavitcher rebbe for
advice. He was very kind to her, Dr.
Prouser said. He paid attention to her.
Her mother, Dena Mendelowitz Horn,

went to NYU. She was active in the Jewish
Cultural Foundation there, a precursor to
Hillel, and while she was there she wrote
the rebbe a letter about it. He wrote back,
a three-page reply, in English, about how
youth have to go out and spread Yiddishkeit, Dr. Horn said. The letter was framed
and hangs in her parents house.
William Horn grew up culturally Jewish, his daughter said; the family also
belonged to the Ocean Parkway Jewish
Center. William and Dena met at NYU,
and Rachel Mendelowitz decided to
check with the rebbe to see if William,
who had applied to the Jewish Theological Seminary and planned on becoming
a Conservative rabbi, was appropriate for
her daughter.
The rebbe approved of it, Dr. Prouser

said. He understood who my father was,
and that he didnt belong in a yeshiva. And
not only did he approve, he arranged for a
rabbi he knew, who was connected to him
but working at JTS, to check in on him and
see how he was doing.
Soon after Dena and William Horn married, they moved to Teaneck; almost-Rabbi
Horns student pulpit was the Ridgefield
Park Jewish Center, right over the town
line. When their daughter Ora the second of three children was about 2, in
1962, the family moved to Summit, to
the pulpit that Rabbi Horn held until he
retired. That was so lucky for our family, Dr. Prouser said. We were embraced
by the community. It was heimische. It
was home. The Horn children went to
the local Schechter day school, which

her parents helped to found, and which
since then has grown and become the
Solomon Schechter Day School of Union
and Essex. We got a wonderful education, Dr. Prouser said. The community
atmosphere was so strong! I still have very
close friends from my Schechter years.
Between school, shul, and USY, she and
her brother and sister were cocooned in a
tight, loving Jewish community. We were
very, very lucky, she said.
Ora Horn went to the joint program that
Columbia University and JTS ran, spent
her junior year at Hebrew University, and
then went straight to graduate school,
again at JTS. After she earned her doctorate, in Bible, she taught there. I like to say
that I went to JTS when I was 17 and left
Cover Story
leaned over to the guy next to me and said,
You know, Esau had ADHD. We chuckled,
and it was over and I kept thinking about
it, and I realized that many of the biblical
characters have special needs.
Her book, Esaus Blessing: How the
Bible Embraces Those With Special
Needs, was the result of that ideal. I
wrote it very carefully, based closely on
text, she said. There is nothing looseygoosey about it. I look at Esau with AHDH,
and also at Moshe and his speech problems. I also look at Yakov. We all know that
My practice has
changed very little,
but my thinking has
changed. I think now I
would call myself a
pluralistic Jew with a
Conservative practice.
Above, Oras parents, Rabbi William

and Dena Horn. At right, Ora with her
grandson, Matan.
From left, Oras son-in-law, Avi Kravitz; her son Eitan; Ora; her daughter, Shira Kravitz, and her husband, Rabbi Joseph Prouser.
Ora and her

son Ayal at the
Womens March
in Manhattan on
January 21.
when I was 40, she said.

She and Joseph Prouser were college
sweethearts and it worked, she said.
While she was in graduate school, he
worked toward ordination. Her dissertation was about lying and deception in
biblical narrative, she said. There are so
many lies in the Torah when you start
to go through and make a list, you realize that there are almost no biblical characters who didnt lie or werent lied to.
There were very few of them who arent
on either side of a lie.
My idea was that in biblical narrative, deception is a
legitimate tool that the weak
use against the more powerful, she continued. Weak, in
the context, doesnt necessarily mean of bad character. Its
about social status. Women
and younger sons Tamar,
Rebecca, and Jacob, for obvious example provide good
examples. Thats important
because Israel always was
small, she said. It doesnt
matter what historical period
youre looking at Israel was
small. It didnt have power. And if you add
to that the fact that the Torah was canonized either during or not long after the
time of Babylonian exile, when the Israelites had no land you put it together to see
that things are not always as they appear.
The one who appears to be weak can
be strong. It couldnt be accomplished
head-on, but through alternative means.
Its a message of hope, and its a huge message of the Torah.
After Ora Horn and Joseph Prouser married, in 1982, they and their three children
moved a few times, living most of the time
in Newington, Connecticut, and then in
Great Neck, on Long Island. Their oldest
child, Eitan, is a musician, who lives and
works on Long Island. Their middle child,
Shira Kravitz, is the support program coordinator for Sharsheret in Teaneck, and her
husband, Avi Kravitz, works at the Solomon
Schechter Day School of Bergen County in
New Milford. Shira and Avi have a baby,
Matan. The Prousers youngest child, Ayal,
is in a masters program in film studies; he
is also a circus coach and performer.
In photographs with their grandson,
Ora and Joe Prouser beam; when they
talk about him, their joy is apparent and
unquenchable.
In 2012, the Prousers moved to Franklin Lakes. Meanwhile, Dr. Prouser began
teaching at AJR in 1999, became its dean in
2001, and then added the responsibilities
of executive vice president in 2003.
She has continued her academic work as
well, focusing on a combination of Bible
and disability studies, she said. Shed
thought a great deal about children with
disabilities because it affects so many families; shed been reading about ADHD and I
went to a lecture, and heard someone talk
about Esau, saying that he was impulsive. I
after he wrestled with the angel, he left the

encounter limping, but people forget that
he kept on limping. The next chapter is the
rape of Dinah.
So imagine Yakov, who is learning to
live with a physical disability. He is scared
to take a physical stand about the rape
because he really cant take a stand. Its
not physically possible.
Dr. Horn also looks at Naomi and Jonah;
Naomi suffers from depression, and Jonah
from a learning disability that also leads to
depression, she said.
She loves the image of God, in Psalm
23, as having a staff and a rod. A rod is
a shepherds tool, she said, but a staff
is something you lean on. Its a cane. In
Psalm 23, God uses a cane. That is comforting, she said.
It doesnt mean that God always has a
disability, she said. It is just one metaphor for God. But it does remind us all that
we all, each one of us, is created btzelem
Elohim in Gods image she added.
Moving from the Jewish Theological
Seminary to the Academy for Jewish Religion entailed at least a partial paradigm
change for her, Dr. Prouser said. I had
been living as a poster child for the Conservative movement my whole life. Now, she
has embraced the academys pluralistic
worldview, but she has not had to sacrifice
any of the way she lives Jewishly, which
still is specifically Conservative, in order to
accept that paradigm change. That, after
all, is the particular genius of pluralism.
We define pluralism as not just that
we accept or tolerate different views, or
are happy that we sit around the table
with people who live Jewishly in ways that
are different or have different views than
ours, she said. Rather, we cherish these
differences. We know that each of us is a
Cover Story
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Dr. and Rabbi Prouser at the annual White House Chanukah party.
better person and a more thoughtful Jew

because we are connected to so many
people who observe in so many different
ways. It was very powerful for me to be
here, because when you are in a community with like-minded people you dont
actually have to think so hard about why
you do what you do. But when you are
in a community full of passionate, committed, sincere people, with full integrity
in their Jewish lives, who have such different views than you do, you are really
forced and in a very good way to ask
yourself a lot of questions.
Even with my strong Jewish background, I felt like I grew as a Jew when I
got here, she said.
My practice has changed very little,
but my thinking has changed. I think
now I would call myself a pluralistic Jew
with a Conservative practice.
Another advantage AJR offers its students is its flexibility. We have many
second career students, Dr. Prouser
said. Our students are so passionate, so
dedicated to serving the Jewish people.
This isnt something you do unless you
care deeply about being here. And by
teaching here, I am able to be with these
people all the time.
Students can take more than the
traditional five years to graduate, and
many do. Some chose it for that reason, some because they really believe
in pluralism, and they feel that pluralistic training will help them serve the
Jewish community, which is becoming
increasingly post-denominational and
pluralistic, Dr. Prouser said. And some
of them just walk through the door and
fall in love.
The school has about 50 students in its
nominally five-year ordination and masters degree programs, she said. They
come from such a range of backgrounds!
Some come to us with very little Hebrew,
and enter our mechina program. Some
come to us with a yeshiva background,
and some with a lot of Jewish studies in college. Some are Reform, some
Reconstructionist, and some Conservative, and a few although just a few

are Orthodox. And then a whole lot of
people say that they dont really fit into
any group.
We have students who were born
Jewish and students who werent. They
range in age from their 20s to their 70s;
we had a student in his 70s who said I
have been leading a community for 20
years, and it feels like I have been driving without a license. We have students
who live nearby, and students who fly in
every week.
How do students afford it? Dr. Prouser
pauses and then sighs. We offer some
financial aid, but not enough, she said.
We would love to make it easier. We
understand how hard it is, and how hard
people have to work to come here.
The academics are rigorous but the
teaching isnt always conventional, she
said. Our people know the importance
of being creative and flexible. We have
taught through arts, through story telling, through visual arts, through writing. And we are very proud that we have
taught through circus arts.
Im sure that we are the only people
in history to have done that, she said,
proudly, and no doubt correctly.
Students do find jobs when they graduate, she added. Some work in synagogues as rabbis and cantors, some work
in educational setting or in chaplaincy.
Some people work for themselves, as
freelance teachers, tutors, and life-cycle
officiants. Many of them prefer to work
one-on-one with individuals.
Placement here has always been very
personal, Dr. Prouser explained. We
try to make good shidduchs. We find that
people call us and say they want to come
to us for placement because we know
that we will work with them, and that
they like the quality of our students.
AJRs students can find jobs in congregations that are not affiliated formally
with any of the movements; they also
can be placed in congregations that are
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Cover Story
Rabbi Caren Levine is

ordained at the Academy
for Jewish Religion by
her own congregational
rabbi, Joseph Prouser.
Dr. Prouser finished a 5K walk to celebrate her recovery from knee surgery. Her
sons hold the tape as her mother looks on.
affiliated but have obtained waivers for

those positions.
The Academy for Jewish Religion just
celebrated its 60th anniversary. Many
people are surprised to learn that it is that
old. For a long time, AJR was a very small
institution, Dr. Prouser said. It started to
grow in the 90s, as the Jewish environment
changed, and has accelerated that growth
somewhat as the world around it continues to change, and pluralism becomes
increasingly valued.
Pluralism doesnt mean a loosening
of boundaries, she said. For example,
the school, does not accept patrilineal
descent, although both the Reform and
the Reconstructionist movements do, and
it does not accept non-halachic Jews as students. We studied it, she said. Its one
of those issues that often are revisited. Its
a hard one. We respect that people have
been living as Jews, and we have helped
them get formal conversions.
We also do not accept rabbinical or
cantorial students who are intermarried,
she said. I am comfortable with that decision. It is the right one for us right now.
The school also uses that approach
when it holds minyans. When we pray
together, we make a covenant as a community to all follow whatever is decided
by the prayer leader, Dr. Prouser wrote in
an essay for Studies in Judaism and Pluralism, the book that marks the schools
anniversary celebration. The leader
decides what kind of service to offer and
which of the many siddurim available to
use. Each minyan must include a mourners kaddish and cannot include anything for which a quorum traditionally is
needed should that quorum not be present. That is not to say that everyone finds
every service equally enjoyable or spiritually meaningful, Dr. Prouser said, but
thats not the point. And at times, when
people become exposed to new experiences, even ones they do not like, they
learn and grow.

A lot of people say that pluralism is
easy, because everything goes, but thats
not how it works, she said. It is so hard!
Its good hard work, but it is hard work.
We have learned that there is no one who
is entirely pluralistic without any borders
ever. We have learned that when you open
one border, you move on to another. Every
pluralistic community has to make decisions for itself.
AJR students from across Bergen County
praise both Dr. Prouser and the school she
runs. Each one has a story.
I was not looking to go to a seminary,
Cantor Lois Kittner of Bogota, who works
at Adath Israel, a Conservative shul in Morris Plains, said. Cantor Kittner had been
a cabaret singer, but I didnt have the
Hebrew, and I couldnt sight sing. I served
various congregations as a lay leader. And
then I served as a cantor at the Reconstructionist synagogue in Maywood, but I
wasnt ordained, and didnt want to make
believe that I had been.
And then an article came out in the
Jewish Standard by Lois Goldrich, called
From Cabaret to Cantor. It was about
her. That brought her to the attention of
cantors, who helped mentor and encourage her. Shed worked in a financial services firm, but lost her job in 2009, as the
result of the economic collapse the year
before, so she was at loose ends. My husband, Mason, said, Great! Now you can
go to the seminary. She was sure that
she wasnt qualified, but her husband, her
mentor, Cantor Saul Zim, and other friends
talked her into applying I was so remedial
that I didnt understand how they could
even look at me, she said. But of course
they did. In fact, they accepted her.
For the first two years, my dance was I
would say No, no, no, and Ora would say
Of course, of course, of course. I would
say I cant get through it, and Ora would
say Lets just give it a try.
She treats each of us so individually!

She could see that I really wanted to learn,
but I didnt have enough belief in myself,
and there are good reasons for that. Lets
just say that I was over 27 in fact she
was old enough to have grown children
but it was about letting me have my fears
and letting me work through them.
Ora was there for me, and she always
will be. She is my grounding. And I love
her, Cantor Kittner said.
Rabbi Ziona Zelazo of Franklin Lakes
was a cultural anthropologist who taught
at Montclair State University as an adjunct
professor for 14 years before she decided
to go to AJR. It was the only
seminary that was pluralist and
nondenominational, she said;
she didnt belong to any movement, so that appealed to her. It
allows you freedom to attend, to
listen, to learn from everybody,
she said. There is such diversity
in our Jewish community, and I
always feel that it is wrong to
go just one way, because then I
think that I am disrespecting the
other ways.
Rabbi Zelazo now works as a
hospital chaplain, and once a month she
leads meditative Shabbat services at Temple Beth Rishon in Wyckoff. She also performs life-cycle events.
She glows when shes asked to talk about
Dr. Prouser. There are no words that can
describe the amazingness of this woman,
she said. She is, first of all, a delightful person to be around, always smiling, always
making everyone feel loved and embraced.
And she is so smart! And her teaching skills
are exemplary. I could never have enough
of her perspective on the Torah; she is after
all a biblical scholar. And on top of it she
runs the school; she takes care of all of it,
administrative, financial, and all the relationships. She is the school.
Rabbi Beth Kramer-Maser of New City,
N.Y., was ordained in 2016. Shes the director of congregational learning at Temple
Beth El, the Reform synagogue in Closter. Ora is the heartbeat of AJR, she
said. She is at the epicenter of all that is
amazing there. She is a brilliant scholar,
and she couples that with the dignity and
compassion and wisdom of a leader. She
is brilliant but creative; she is serious but
she knows how to laugh. She just got the
whole package, along with a tireless work
ethic, and she cares so deeply about Jewish
pluralism, which is the great hallmark of

the AJR.
Its the idea that as a Jewish people,
we are so much stronger when we unify,
even with our difference, Rabbi KramerMaser said.
Lois Ruderman of Woodland Park will
be a rabbi in 80-some-odd days, she said,
but whos counting? I went to AJR because
I didnt really fit into the movement
schools, she said. The rabbinate is a second career for her; she trained and worked
as a speech therapist before she became a
full-time parent. When the youngest was
getting very independent, I knew that I had
She is, first of all, a

delightful person to
be around, always
smiling, always
making everyone feel
loved and embraced.
to do something else, but I didnt make the
effort until it was staring me in the face,
she said,. Someone took me to a synagogue in Newark. The rabbi there had studied at AJR while he worked as a lawyer. I
didnt know you could do that.
(The rabbi was Simon Rosenbach, who
heads Congregation Ahavas Sholom in
Newark and is a former assistant prosecutor in Middlesex County. He is another AJR
success story.)
Ms. Ruderman works at Temple Beth
Rishon in Wyckoff, where she is the rabbinic intern.
As for Dr. Prouser, she is kind and
patient and understanding and accepting,
Ms. Ruderman said. She is also visionary.
She wants to move this little school to bigger and better, to raise its profile, and to
support us, so that we can be the best rabbis and cantors we can be. We all feel very
supported and loved by her.
It is astonishing to note how often people use the word love when they talk
about Dr. Prouser. It is easy to understand
why, though, when you see her in the
school that was not new when she took it
over but she has helped to grow. The space
glows with light from outside; its also not
at all hard to see the light from within.
Jewish World
In rare unity, Orthodox, liberal denominations criticize Trump refugee ban
Two large groups representing Orthodox Jews
responded to President Donald Trumps executive
order barring migrants from seven mostly Muslim
countries and refugees from around the world by
warning against policies that would place any limits
on immigration based on religion.
With the combined statement by the Orthodox
Union and Rabbinical Council of America, all four
major American Jewish denominations have criticized
the executive order in some way. The Reconstructionist movement condemned the statement before it was
signed last Friday evening, while the Reform and Conservative movements condemned it on Saturday and
Sunday, respectively.
The Orthodox statement came on Sunday night. It
was first issued in December 2015, after Trump called
for banning the entry of Muslims into the United States.
It is extremely rare for all four movements, which
have split on everything from LGBT rights to Israel policy,

to unite in opposing a presidential action.
While the Orthodox organizations said that they recognize the need for protections against terrorists, they urged
the administration to protect religious freedom.
We call on all Americans to reaffirm that discrimination
against any group based solely upon religion is wrong and
anathema to the great traditions of religious and personal
freedoms upon which this country was founded, the statement says, and calls on the United States government to
recognize the threats posed by radical Islamists, while preserving and protecting the rights of all people who seek
peace, no matter how they worship God.
Trump has denied that Fridays executive order is a ban
on Muslims, although the statements by the Reform and
Conservative movements both assert that the policy is
tantamount to a religious test for refugees, travelers and

migrants. The executive order prohibits all refugees from
entering the country for 120 days, and adds an indefinite
ban on refugees from Syria. Citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan,
Syria and Yemen, are barred from entry for 90 days. Many
other Muslim-majority countries, including Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, and Turkey countries in which Trump seems to
have done or had planned to do business are not included
on that list.
A range of Jewish groups have opposed the order, and
Jews joined protesters at airports across the country on Saturday to protest the ban.
The Zionist Organization of America appears to be the
only major Jewish group to support the executive order
JTA WIRE SERVICE
unreservedly.
Trump ban order leads

Florida authorities to hold
7 Jews for over 6 hours
WASHINGTON Among the travelers delayed for
hours by the Trump administrations executive
orders banning travel from seven predominantly
Muslim countries were seven people with ties
to the Syrian Jewish community, according to a
report.
Florida Today, the states subsidiary of USA
Today, reported on Monday that federal authorities had detained the seven people disembarking
at Port Canaveral from a Royal Caribbean cruise
ship for more than six hours. At least three of them
were U.S. born, the news site said, quoting Ruth
Singer, an attorney involved in the case.
One woman, the mother of the three U.S. natives,
is Syrian but is not a citizen of the United States.
She has permanent residency a green card and
has lived in the United States for 20 years.
No explanation for the detention was given,
but there have been many instances since President Donald Trump issued the order last Friday of
authorities detaining green card-holding travelers
who have citizenship in one of the seven banned
countries, one of which is Syria.
Some members of the Syrian Jewish community
in the United States maintain ties with Syria so they
can travel there and supervise properties and businesses they still hold in the country. The U.S. Syrian Jewish community generally maintains friendly,
if quiet, ties with the Assad regime.
Singer told Florida Today that the seven were
treated well and quoted one of the men as saying
as he left, Its a good thing we were Jewish.
JTA WIRE SERVICE
www.thejewishstandard.com
Jewish World
BRIEFS
Iran reportedly tests ballistic

missile, defying UN resolution
Iran reportedly conducted a ballistic missile test last weekend
that appears to violate a United Nations resolution.
Iran launched the Khorramshahr medium-range ballistic missile at a well-known test site out of the city of Semnan, about 140
miles east of Tehran, U.S. officials told Fox News. The missile
flew about 600 miles before exploding in an apparent failed test

of a reentry vehicle.
U.N. Resolution 2231, which was put in place after the nuclear
deal between world powers and Iran was signed in July 2015,
forbids the Islamic Republic from conducting ballistic missile
tests for eight years.
Iran has once again defied Security Council resolutions and
revealed its true intentions. The international community must
not bury its head in the sand in the face of this Iranian aggression, Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon said. JNS.ORG
Netanyahu to visit
White House Feb. 15
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is
slated to travel to Washington to meet with President Donald Trump Feb. 15.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who
announced the meeting Monday, said that our
relationship with the only democracy in the Middle
East is crucial to the security of both our nations,
and the president looks forward to discussing continued strategic, technological, military and intelligence cooperation with the prime minister.
Following Spicers announcement, Netanyahu
issued a statement saying that he deeply appreciates Trumps invitation and that he looks forward
to discussing with him the areas of cooperation
between us that are so vital to the security and
wellbeing of our two countries.
Following Irans reported ballistic missile test
Sunday in defiance of United Nations resolution,
Netanyahu said on Facebook that he will meet
President Trump in Washington soon, and among
the issues I will address, is the need to renew the
JNS.ORG
sanctions against Iran.
UN chief Antonio Guterres:

clear that Temple Mount
was home to Jewish temple
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres, who assumed office Jan. 1, said it is completely clear that Jerusalems Temple Mount was
home to the ancient Jewish Temple.
Guterres told Israel Radio last Friday that it is
completely clear the Temple that the Romans
destroyed in Jerusalem was a Jewish temple, referring to the second of the two Jewish Temples. He
added that there is no doubt that Jerusalem is
holy to all three Abrahamic religions.
Guterress comments come amid ongoing Palestinian attempts to erase the Jewish connection
to Jerusalem. Last October, the U.N. cultural body,
UNESCO, passed two Palestinian-backed resolutions ignoring Jewish and Christian claims to the
holy sites in Jerusalem.
Palestinian offic ials quickly condemned
Guterress remarks.
The statements are a direct attack on the Palestinian peoples right in the holy city, biased in
favor of the site of occupation, and akin to granting legitimacy to Israels illegal presence in Jerusalem, said Fayez Abu Eitah, secretary-general of the
Fatah Revolutionary Council.
Ahmad Majdalani, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organizations executive committee, told
Chinas Xinhua News Agency that Guterress comments ignored UNESCOs decision that considered
the Al-Aqsa mosque of pure Islamic heritage, and
violated all legal, diplomatic and humanitarian
customs and overstepped his role as secretary-generaland [he] must issue an apology to the PalesJNS.ORG
tinian people.
More than 405,000 likes.
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Jewish World
Citing intermarriage threat,

Israeli rabbis blacklist families deemed not Jewish
ANDREW TOBIN
TEL AVIV Yael knew she would have to prove she
was Jewish. But she never expected trying to get married would turn into a nearly yearlong investigation of
her family.
In the end, Yael, who asked to go by a pseudonym to
protect her privacy, was barred from marrying in Israel,
and so were her mother and her older brother. Although
they had immigrated to this country as Jews long ago,
their lineage did not check out with the state religious
authorities.
Having an official Jewish wedding was always
important to me, she said. Now I feel like a secondclass citizen. Its very upsetting to me. Its very upsetting to my family.
Over the years, the Orthodox rabbis who control marriage in Israel have become increasingly stringent about
checking who is a Jew. More and more marriage applicants have been sent to rabbinical courts to be vetted.
And just last month, those courts claimed the authority
to put marriage applicants families on trial, too.
Anyone found not to be Jewish is added to a marriage
blacklist, as happened to Yael and her family.
Last month, lawyers from ITIM, a nonprofit that helps
people navigate Israels religious bureaucracy, appealed
to the Supreme Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem on behalf
of Yaels mother and brother, as well as for family members blacklisted in two other cases. ITIM lawyers argued
that the rabbinical courts had acted outside their legal
jurisdiction by adjudicating peoples Jewishness without
their consent.
Because Jewishness is passed down from mother to

child, the rabbinical courts bring in siblings or matrilineal relatives of marriage applicants and typically issue
a ruling that applies to everyone. According to experts,
this has been going on for at least a decade and has been
carried out routinely for the last year and a half.
Rabbi Seth Farber, ITIMs director, said that the chief
rabbinate, which officially controls much of Jewish life
in Israel and oversees the rabbinical courts, is waging a
destructive inquisition.
The rabbinate is challenging the very underpinnings
of Zionism by placing the personal status of every Jew
in doubt, he said. Instead of being a place thats welcoming to Jews, it has become a place that is looking to
undermine Jewish identity.
Elad Caplan, a legal consultant for ITIM, said the rabbinical courts investigate about 5,000 people for their
Jewishness each year, and find fewer than 10 percent not
Jewish. But he estimated that most of those people are
Jews, too, and simply cannot prove it.
It is outrageous, Caplan said, that Israel demands
documents that in many cases were created by countries
in the throes of violent anti-Semitism.
Do we really want a Jewish state that makes blacklists of whos a Jew and whos not? he asked. Have we
learned nothing from our history?
On Dec. 12, the Supreme Rabbinical Court ruled against
two of ITIMs appeals, saying the rabbinical courts were
acting legitimately, under a legal mandate to combat
intermarriage. The justices cited a draft amendment
Yourapets
dentalearlier in
to the courts regulations made
few days
health
is
just
as
response to ITIMs appeals.
A similar ruling on Yaels case is expected any day.

Rabbi Shimon Yaakovi, an attorney who directs the rabbinical courts administration, defended the Supreme Rabbinical
Courts ruling and said the rabbinical courts had to uphold
Jewish law.
We cant have someone walking around wrongly thinking
hes a Jew, and his family and friends believing it, he said.
SEE INTERMARRIAGE PAGE 27
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Jewish World
Intermarriage
FROM PAGE 25
I understand peoples need to be part of the Jewish

collective in Israel, but there are rules, and if we dont
obey the rules we undermine halacha. Judaism is not
being measured by feelings.
Yael said she always felt like an Israeli Jew. Her family immigrated from Belarus when she was a baby, she
explained in unaccented Hebrew, and she attended
public schools, observed Jewish holidays, and served
in the army. She even grew up hearing her maternal
grandmothers story of Holocaust survival, she said.
Then, she fell in love with a nice Israeli Jewish boy and
last fall agreed to marry him.
Just before the planned wedding date this summer,
the Tel Aviv rabbinical court scuttled her plans. In ruling that she was not Jewish, the court pointed to inconsistencies in her familys paperwork.
Yaels grandmother, who said her documents were
lost during World War II, was listed as Jewish on the
birth certificate of her daughter, Yaels mother, but as
Belarusian, not Jewish, on her sons birth certificate.
Also, Yaels mother was listed as Belarusian on her
immigration paperwork and as not Jewish on Yaels
birth certificate.
Yaels father is Jewish, but that is not relevant under
Orthodox Jewish law.
Experts said the chief rabbinate regularly began to
check the Jewishness of marriage applicants and others in response to the mass influx of immigrants from
Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union, mostly in the
1980s and 1990s. Immigrants need only be related to
a Jew to get Israeli citizenship, and several hundred
thousand non-Jews are estimated to have arrived in
those waves of immigration.
Over the decades, the experts said, the chief rabbinates worry about intermarriage has only grown. The
checks became official policy in 2002.
The closer the rabbis look into immigrants
backgrounds, the more nervous they get, which
makes them look even closer, said Shuki Friedman,
the head of religion and state research at the Israel
Democracy Institute.
But Friedman said that most non-Jewish immigrants
do not identify as Jews, and so need not concern the
chief rabbinate. Further, if the goal is to prevent
assimilation, he said, the rabbinical courts aggressive
vetting of marriage applicants and their family members is counterproductive, since it pushes people
away from Judaism.
Rabbi David Stav, a leading religious Zionist rabbi,

agreed, and said the practice is in no way required by Jewish law. If the court found out there was an attempt to
hide something or cheat the rabbis, I can understand they
have to check the persons Jewishness, he said. Halachically speaking, though, there is no need to check anything about someones story unless he gives you a good
reason to be suspicious.
Stavs rabbinical group, Tzohar, works to help non-Orthodox Israelis gain access to the chief rabbinates services. But
when Yael came to Tzohar for help before she was investigated
last year, she was disappointed. Roots the groups program

for helping immigrants from the former Soviet Union research
their Jewish heritage failed to prove she was Jewish and
reported its findings to the chief rabbinate.
After the rabbinical court ruled against her, Yael went her
own way. She had a private modern Orthodox conversion
and married her fiance in a wedding ceremony that was not
sanctioned by the chief rabbinate, and thus against Israeli
law. Still, Yael said she held out hope that the state would
recognize her, and her marriage, as Jewish before the weddings of any future children.
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Editorial
Jews and the Holocaust
e find the idea that President

Donald J. Trumps White
House, just a week after he
was sworn in, when his presidency still was new, saw fit to issue a statement acknowledging Holocaust Remembrance Day that did not mention Jews to be
profoundly disturbing.
At first, the omission was met with the
hope that it was a mistake. All presidential
transitions are chaotic, we are told, even the
ones that had been prepared painstakingly.
This is not one of those careful transitions.
The Jewish world hoped for an apology.
There certainly are mixed reactions to Mr.
Trump and his presidency in this world, but
even his most ardent foes thought this was
more likely a mistake than a tactic.
But very soon the presidents staff doubled, tripled, quadrupled down on the statement. Despite what the media reports, we
are an incredibly inclusive group and we
took into account all of those who suffered,
Hope Hicks, a Trump spokeswoman, said.
The chief of staff, Reince Pribus, soon
weighed in. I mean, everyones suffering in
the Holocaust including obviously all of the
Jewish people affected, and the miserable
genocide that occurred is something that
we consider to be extraordinarily sad and
something that can never be forgotten, he
said. But he did not want to say that the Jews
suffering during the miserable genocide
an odd qualifier, given that it is hard to imagine genocide being light-hearted was any
greater than anyone elses, much less that it
was aimed in particular at Jews.
Next, Mr. Trumps press secretary, Sean
Spicer, whose relationship with the press
has been spicy, went further. The presidents critics are pathetic, he said; Mr.
Trump went out of his way to recognize
the Holocaust.
Well, I think hes aware of what people
have been saying, Mr. Spicer continued.
But I think, by and large, hes been praised
for it. The president recognized the tremendous loss of life that came from the
Holocaust. He went to laud the presidents
support of Israel. But I think with respect
to Israel and the Jewish people specifically,
theres been no better friend than Donald
Trump when it comes to protecting Israel,
Jewish
Standard
1086 Teaneck Road
Teaneck, NJ 07666
(201) 837-8818
Fax 201-833-4959
Publisher
James L. Janoff
Associate Publisher Emerita
Marcia Garfinkle
building a better friendship with Israel,

he said. You look at what Prime Minister Netanyahu has talked about he welcomes this administration. He appreciates
the friendship and respect he has shown to
Israel and the Jewish people.
It is important to point out that Mr.
Trumps theoretical support of Israel as
unproven as it is at this point, with no crises
yet having arisen since he has taken office
has nothing to do with his recognition of
what happened during the Holocaust.
It is also important to point out that this is
how classic Holocaust denial is shaped. First
we are told that Jews are one group among
many; next we are likely to hear that fewer
Jews were killed than we have been led to
believe. Eventually, we will be told that if
Jews died, it was incidental to the war effort,
and nothing to do with their ethnicity. In
fact, that line goes, those annoying Jews just
want the worlds sympathy. Why? Because
nobody likes them.
Meanwhile, the Jews who survived the
Holocaust the ones with the tattoos, a
little faded now but still indelible, still clear
on their arms are growing old. Every year,
there are fewer of them left. And the Jews
who managed to escape the camps, the ones
who got out earlier, or who were hidden in
basements, or in convents, or in other peoples homes, either for love or for money
they too are growing older, and their ranks,
too, are thinning. Once we lose the last of
them, it will be harder to tell their stories,
the stories that even the stoniest-hearted of
us cannot listen to without crying.
It is no coincidence that Stephen Bannon, Mr. Trumps advisor and chief strategist, who now sits on the National Security
Council, has close ties to the anti-Semitic
white supremacist world. Yes, we know that
Mr. Trump also has a Jewish daughter, a Jewish son-in-law, and Jewish grandchildren.
We are told that constantly; we are in no
danger of forgetting. But it also seems that
Bannon trumps second- and third-generation Trumps.
We also note that Mr. Trumps Holocaust
Day statement came out the same day that he
signed his executive orders about refugees.
Perhaps that is coincidental, but it is terrifying.
JP
We hope that he changes course.
Editor
Joanne Palmer
Associate Editor
Larry Yudelson
Community Editor
Beth Janoff Chananie
About Our Children Editor
Heidi Mae Bratt
thejewishstandard.com
TRUTH REGARDLESS OF CONSEQUENCES
Correspondents
Warren Boroson
Lois Goldrich
Abigail K. Leichman
Miriam Rinn
Dr. Miryam Z. Wahrman
Advertising Director
Natalie D. Jay
Classified Director
Janice Rosen
Moral light on
Trumps temporary
immigration ban
ets begin with three unassail- same time the establishment of safe
able premises.
zones, primarily in Syria, where people
1 . A m e r i c a we l c o m e s
facing brutality could be protected. This
refugees and is a nation
way the president could have protected
of immigrants.
these immigrants at their origin. Trump
2. Islam, while not inherently a militant
seems to have the ear of Vladimir Putin
faith, is producing a disproportionately
and he could reach out to the Russian
high number of the worlds terrorists.
president to pressure Bashar Assad to
3. The first responsibility of an Ameri- create safe areas that are not bombed.
can president is to protect the Ameri- Trump could have told Putin that the
can people.
creation of these safe zones is essential
How can these three
if the two of them are to
premises co-exist? America
have a relationship. Even
should absolutely welcome
now Turkey administers
refugees and in that sense
some of the safe zones
President Trumps even
in the area, so we know
temporary ban of people
its possible.
living in danger is immoral.
Lets be honest. The Syrian immigrant crises is not
But the president also has
the fault of Donald Trump
to protect the American
but primarily the fault of
people, and many immiRabbi
grants, both in Europe and
American retreat from the
Shmuley
the United States, have
Middle East and inaction in
Boteach
taken advantage of the
Syria under Barack Obama.
openness of our democraHe refused to intervene in
cies to murder innocent
Syria, even as the slaughter there became an outright genocide
people. Also, dont the seven countries
of Sunni Muslims, including children
that are part of the ban, along with other
Muslim-majority nations, have a respon- in Damascus and Aleppo, being slaughsibility to fight extremists in their borders
tered by Shia militias, Assads Alawite
so they dont grow like a cancer, over- government, with the active support
running their own societies and export- of Hezbollah and Iran. Its a little hypoing jihad?
critical of President Obama to suddenly
Iran, for example, is one of the banned
come out, from his post-presidency vacation in Palm Springs, against the Trump
countries and follows in the footsteps
administrations immigrant ban when
of Jimmy Carters own ban of Iranians
Obama didnt even lift a finger to save
in April, 1980. But then Iran is also the
the children of Syria after Assad vioworlds foremost state-sponsor of terror.
Here is a moral path out of this morass. lated Obamas self-declared red line and
gassed Arab children. The immigrant criThe president had every right to
sis, which is tragic, resulted in large part
announce new vetting procedures for
from American inaction and retreat in
immigrants to this country. His is a new
the Middle East. There might never have
administration and it is legitimate and
been an immigrant crisis if Obama would
proper to reexamine border procedures.
have instituted a no-fly zone, safe zones,
But he should have announced at the
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Opinion
or supported moderate Syrian rebels against
Assad from the outset.
There can be no question that America must
take in immigrants. But these people should
have never been displaced in the first instance.
The West should have stopped Assad from
butchering his people at the source.
Now we have this crisis, and America must
accept the refugees it can while still vetting
immigrants to make sure American citizens
are safe.
President Trump could also have announced
from the outset that the immigration ban did
not apply to those brave souls who worked
with American forces in Iraq. He could also
have announced it did not apply to those who
have already obtained a green card and had
been properly vetted. The failure to do so left a
few hundred people stranded en route and the
mass outcry of those legitimately concerned
with the undermining of American values.
But all of this can and should be corrected immediately.
There is more.
Over the weekend the Trump administration faced justified criticism over its statement,
issued on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which did not reference the
centrality of Jewish mass murder as the very
essence of the German genocide. The Holocaust captures the murder of six million Jews
by the Nazis, something that President Trump
did not expressly mention in a statement that
should have been amended. Trump, who
is a strong friend of Israel and is extremely
devoted to his Jewish daughter, son-in-law,
and grandchildren, no doubt did not mean
to cause offense. But in something as serious
as the Holocaust intention is not what matters
but action.
There can be no discussion of the Holocaust without mention of the six million. We
can brook no compromise on this simple,
incontrovertible truth, even with very friendly
administrations like President Trumps.
I trust the administration will be much more
careful in future pronouncements.
The same is true of the presidents temporary ban on refugees coming into the United
States. Yes, the case can be made that extreme
vetting is necessary in an age of widespread
Islamic terrorism. But the president must
demonstrate a simultaneous commitment to
saving innocent Arab lives in Syria and Yemen
by establishing safe areas where refugees can
find immediate sanctuary.
The Jewish community should be at the forefront of calling on the president to safeguard
the lives of refugees even as he legitimately
acts to protect the American people against
possible infiltration by terrorist elements.
And whatever new procedures the president
seeks to put in place to properly vet refugees
must be done immediately so that Americas
gates do not remain closed and innocent lives
are not lost. We must welcome and protect
the persecuted.
America is and must remain a haven for refugees. No one knows this better, and no ones
voice should be heard more passionately on
refugees, than the Jewish community.
When the other becomes ours
The confidence with which otherwise intelligent peohese days, its rare to sit down and write
ple offer this presumption always astounds me.
something intended for public consumption without also considering the reaction
However, if numbers overwhelm you, lets focus
to it. Living in a vacuum is no longer a poson the 3.3 million Muslims in America. Thats 1 persibility, and this purported bubble I live in is incapable
cent of the countrys population; there are one million fewer Muslims than Jews here. Or maybe lets
of keeping out the noise of dissent.
get micro and discuss the projected 110,000 refugees
And so it was that when I began to write a firsthand
who are intent on escaping atrocities and oppression
account of the solidarity rally for Muslims and refugees that I attended in Teaneck this past Sunday, I iniback home for the freedoms our country has to offer
tially intended on relaying a message of hope here.
Arye
in the coming year. Do some of them hate Jews. PosDworken
sibly. Or maybe none of them? Thats also possible.
I sought to elucidate how unity and togetherness is
All I can say is that my notion of humanity is to
capable of vanquishing fear and hatemongering. But
consider the individual and not the mass. And when
most of all, I planned on recognizing my wifes efforts
the individual suffers, there is a pang in my soul that beckons me
in organizing a rally. Working with a few others, in less than a days
to respond.
time, they attracted nearly 400 attendees of all races, religions,
America is an incredible place when it purposefully welcomes the
and ethnicities.
stranger as its own, and the warm openness of our great nations
But like the distant drip from a leaky faucet, I can still hear those
embrace encourages a reciprocal willingness to belong. Its almost
critical of the unity, outreach, and empathy extended to Muslims.
impossible to not feel indebted to this country once it gives you a
Sometimes those oppositions come from laymen. Sometimes they
chance. Its almost impossible to not believe in freedom and diversity
come from clergy and communal leaders. And try as hard as I
when it truly becomes your home. Just as the Jews arrived here en
might, I cannot ignore it. I am not hardwired that way.
masse half a century ago, just as we have thrived and contributed in
These opinions are not just antithetical to mine. They are antithetical to what I think it means to be a Jew.
immeasurable ways once we were made to eventually feel welcome.
Is it naive, as some assert, to presume that a similar relationship
A few weeks back, I wrote an open letter to Jared Kushner for the
can blossom if other refugees are given a chance?
Times of Israel. I promised myself that I would not read the comments, but I did anyway, for reasons I cant articulate. It was there
Perhaps so, perhaps it is, but I made a decision as a parent to
that my fellow Jews callously spewed a barrage of names intended
to hurt me and wound my sensibilities. But theres one name in
particular that, in my mind, Ive strangely come to wear as an unintended badge of honor: libtard.
Libtard is a bullys childish amalgamation of the words liberal
and retard. Its not just liberalism. Its next-level liberalism. So
much so that the bully considers it to be retarded.
And since then, all I could think about was how I had arrived
at this place in life. A place in which someone a stranger, mind
you felt confident enough to label me as a liberal. Was he right?
Was he wrong? What did I say that made it so obvious to him? Is it
a label that I should happily embrace? Or is it an attribution that I,
as an Orthodox Jew, should disavow, because maybe religion is diametrically opposed to liberalism?
I am the product of the yeshiva system. I spent my adolescence
in Jewish day school, a year abroad in Israel, and then a few years in
YUs yeshiva program. All my life, I was inadvertently programmed
show my children what kindness and acceptance look like. These
to believe in an insular existence. And I could not understand the
are not values inherent to my nature, and I struggle to incorporate
efforts anyone would extend in advocating on the behalf of the
them into my day-to-day. But the struggle is worth it if the next generation can alleviate the permeating toxicity of divisiveness circulatOther. Yet I had a hard time aligning that communal isolation with
ing throughout our community.
the yearly recitation of never again. I found it increasingly difficult
Its worth erring on one side of history if it results in an intended
to ignore the suffering of others while teachers invoked Sanhedrin,
greater good. Its worth it, on a more selfish level, if my soul can suspage 37A which tell us, if one saves one soul, its as if he has saved
tain itself off the light of glimmering hope instead of withering away
the whole world. (Im aware that the Gemara specifies a Jewish
within the darkness of embittered skepticism and despair.
life, but I cant remember specifically how it was put, which means
So while we argue and debate with one another on where we
that the message is more important than the details. And surely any
should stand when it comes to injustices, even when theyre being
religion willing to place such an emphasis on one Jewish life is open
perpetrated against those who are not us, I still will do my best to
to recognizing the values of all others.)
speak out. I still will try to find a way to advocate. I still will attempt
I felt confused whenever I heard the story of our forefather Avraham bargaining with God on behalf of the irredeemable Sodomites,
to live my life as Hillel prescribed when he wondered, If I am only
but contributing and supporting non-Jewish humanitarian efforts
for me, then who am I? And I will do so not at y sacrificing my work
were discouraged. Being an ohr lgoyim a light unto nations as
Jewish causes, or in the place of them. The heart is wondrous in its
I started to see, recognizes our role in a larger world than just the
capacity to care, and incomparable in its potential to extend itself.
one we inhabit. It means considering the Others not as other, but
And its a shame, because I anticipate the vitriolic backlash.
as the Ours.
I anticipate the petty name-calling in the comments. I anticipate
But were talking about Muslims, the leaky faucet says. The Musan unleashing of an otherwise repressed and irrational fury. And
lims hate us. To which I reply, its an impossibility to judge and evalI anticipate those responses that are unequivocally derived out of
uate the hearts and the intentions of the totality of 1.6 billion people.
SEE OURS PAGE 30
America is an incredible
place when it purposefully
welcomes the stranger as
its own, and the warm
openness of our great
nations embrace
encourages a reciprocal
willingness to belong.
The opinions expressed in this section are those of the authors, not necessarily those of the newspapers editors, publishers,
or other staffers. We welcome letters to the editor. Send them to jstandardletters@gmail.com.
Opinion
President Trump: A modern King Herod?
he first couple weeks of the

Trump administration have
been eventful.
Mass post-election protests
have been succeeded by even broader
protests across the country and the globe
against the immigration ban. Condemnation from most religious groups, including
my own Conservative movement in Judaism, was levied against the presidents
order. The debate over its appropriateness and legality will probably continue
for a while, and the result will set constitutional precedents whose influence will be
felt beyond the issue at hand.
As a congregational rabbi who, like
most rabbis, serves a community of very
principled and intelligent people who fall
on either side of just about any political
issue, and as an American who loves his
country, I always have respected the president. I have sought to instill a respect for
the office, even as I believe that engaged
debate and protest ought to be encouraged
and protected. I do believe that our religious tradition teaches us certain values
that will intersect with American values,
values that at times come into conflict, or
are, at least, at play in a democracy that
has the right to redefine its statutes continuously. Protecting the stranger, lifting up
the underprivileged, providing universal
education and health care, and establishing the priority of a mothers health over
that of her unborn offspring are among the
values that are informed by my reading of
the Jewish tradition, and as such affect my
politics. And while the executive order on
immigration and refugees may pose the
greatest challenge to my Jewishly informed
values, it is not different in kind from any
disagreement about any the other values
I hold. As with all of these issues, I recognize there may be room for disagreement
on both the value itself, as well as its application to American society.
I assert unequivocally that my reading
of Jewish tradition, and all the more so of
American society, is not infallible. Debate
on values that we care about is the fabric
of an open society, and the only way that a
democracy can function and flourish.
But something different happened in

the immediate aftermath of President
Trumps inauguration. One of the White
Houses very first directives was to instruct
the National Park Service to stop releasing
aerial photos of the Washington Mall. People were using those images to compare
the size of the crowd that came to see President Trump to the crowd that came for
President Obamas inauguration in 2009.
The White House press secretarys first
statement was that Presidents Trumps
inauguration was met by the largest crowd
in the history of U.S. presidential inaugurations, and the president himself, in his
first public remarks after the inauguration
on the following day, excoriated the media
for claiming, falsely in his view, that his
crowd was significantly smaller than the
2008 crowd.
That the president chose to offer those

remarks at the CIA, standing in front of
the wall commemorating fallen agents,
was particularly striking, and for many,
myself included, it was painful. Then the
president hosted a bipartisan meeting of
congressional leaders at the White House,
where he claimed that were it not for
mass election fraud, he would have won
the popular vote against Hillary Clinton.
These actions and claims, which the president continues to affirm, ought to be cause
for alarm.
I understand the presidents logic. He
has proven himself a master of reading
triggered by the crash of the

the political landscape. At
construction bubble that hit
the CIA, where he needed
both the capital market and
to mend fences and establish his credentials as comthe massive labor force that
mander-in-chief, he aimed to
was idle once the Temple,
deflect the tension onto the
Herods principal building
media tension that until
project, was completed. But
then had been between himHerods legacy is tarnished not
self and the intelligence comonly by his polices, which set
munity. At the meeting with
Rabbi Dr.
the groundwork for the most
David J. Fine
congressional leaders, he
traumatic event in Jewish history before the Holocaust.
had to establish his authority to speak for the populist
He also became a monstrous
will in pushing a legislative agenda, so he
tyrant, ordering the murder of relatives and
affirmed that he does represent the majorrivals, of any one who posed a threat to his
ity of the electorate. And yet, his statelegitimacy, real or imagined.
ments and assertions do damage to the
Herod had become king of Judea through
prestige of the presidency, and ultimately
a surprise election in the Roman Senate. He
to the republic.
came into power through the cold machinations of his father, an Idumean strongman
I do not need to spill any more ink
who taught his son how to use patronage to
than continues to be spilled on the veracity of these claims. I write here about the
political advantage. Herods Idumean heritage was cause for the lingering question of
effects. I am mindful of the precedent of
whether he really was Jewish. He certainly
King Herod, the king of Judea at the start of
was not of priestly descent, as the Hasmothe first millennium. Herod sometimes is
neans before him had been. The Jewish ariscalled the Great and that is because he
tocratic establishment never fully accepted
was a great builder. His great accomplishments include not only Masada and Herohim as one of them. He never was able to
dium and Caesaria and other structures
shake the asterisk that clung to his title. The
throughout Israel, but also and especially
question of whether he was a legitimate Jewish king forever remains.
the extraordinary expansion of the Temple
The irony of the history of King Herod
in Jerusalem.
is that it was the imprudent actions that
But Herods legacy is tarnished by his vanity and insecurity, which was driven by his
he took against his enemies, the insecurity
inability to move beyond the questions of
driven by his obsession with the question
his legitimacy as king. The Temple today
of his legitimacy, that ultimately steered
the massive stones of the Western Wall are
him to secure a legacy of horror. No Jewish child dresses as King Herod for Purim.
all of it that remains was a palace of the
My plea to the president is that he learn
people. But Herod also built massive palaces
the lesson of our history and avoid the
for himself. Any visitor to Masada will note
errors of King Herod of Judea. Like Herod,
the overly luxurious regal suite on the northern end of the mountain. The king was used
the president can build great things. But
to golden, over-the-top luxury, and wasted
he can also destroy so much.
no expense in procuring the best architects
One Herod was enough for us.
and the best materials to build his palaces,
even if that meant taking on unprecedented
David J. Fine is the rabbi of Temple
debt. He managed to increase his leverage
Israel and Jewish Community Center of
by continued investment in more and more
Ridgewood, holds a doctorate in modern
building projects. The Jewish War that broke
European history, and is an adjunct
out in 66 CE, resulting in the destruction
professor of Jewish law at the Abraham
of the Jerusalem Temple, while a half cenGeiger and Zacharias Frankel colleges at
tury after Herods death, most likely was
the University of Potsdam in Germany.
Ours
Rabbi Simcha Bunim Bonhart of Przysucha,

Poland. The rabbi was known for carrying
two handwritten notes, one in each of his
pockets. The note in his right pocket read,
Bishvili nivra haolam, the world was created for me. The note in his left pocket read,
Vanokhi afar vefer, I am nothing but ashes
and dust. Rabbi Bunim took out one or the
other, depending on his mood, seeking either
self-worth or modesty.
But if I were to consider that Bunims
notes may not have been self-directed, but
rather provided him with a broader perspective, the sentiment that the world
was created for me would have been less

an ego boost, and more a reminder about
how a person should see the entirety of the
world. As a world that depends on me, and
maybe me alone. As if any discrimination,
maltreatment, or abuse happening to others were also happening to me.
Or alternatively, you can see your impact
on the world as inconsequential, your empathy is a resource, for hoarding. Or if it comes
to caring selflessly even when its at risk of
never being reciprocated, then count me
out. After all, the Others? To paraphrase
Bunims second note, theyre nothing more
FROM PAGE 29
fear and anger. Accusations lobbed by cowards from behind the keyboard will accuse
us the progressives of trading Judaism in
for liberalism.
This, however, will not dissuade me from
feeling the way I so passionately do feel.
Because the alternative is to wallow in apathy, or to presume that others will advocate
for us, if and when the time comes for them
to do so.
When I was a boy, I was told the story of
My plea to the
president is that
he learn the
lesson of our
history and
avoid the errors
of King Herod
of Judea.
to me than dust and ashes.

This past Sunday, I made my choice
when I stood in front of our town hall
alongside the concerned, the affected,
the worried, and, yes, the liberals, while
an American flag waved in encouragement directly above us. Bishvili nivra
haolam, I felt in my heart. The world was
created for me, and I will care for it as if it
were mine.
Arye Dworken of Teaneck is a creative
director at a New York City ad agency, an
essayist, and a freelance culture journalist.
Opinion
Should we remember the

Holocaust without mentioning the Jews?
o Jews have a special claim

on the historic catastrophe of
the Holocaust?
Do words with accepted
meanings still hold those meanings, even in
the age of Donald Trump?
The Cambridge, Oxford, Collins, MerriamWebster, and virtually every standard dictionary, as well as Wikipedia, all describe the
Holocaust in nearly identical language, as the
systematic murder of many people, especially
Jews, by the Nazis during World War II.
So why did President Trump fail to mention the Jews in his Holocaust Remembrance
Day statement last week?
In 1979, the U.S. Congress adopted
Joint Resolution 1014 to establish Days of
Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust.
The first lines is as follows: Whereas six
million Jews and millions of other people
were murdered in concentration camps as
part of a program of extermination carried
out by the Nazi party during World War II.
It was written by a Republican, Senator John
Danforth of Missouri.

His spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, said that
the administration gave it a lot of thought and
certainly didnt mean to offend anyone.
But who would have been offended at the
mention of the specially designed and systematic rounding up and murder of Europes
Jews, along with a recognition of the other
half of Hitlers victims?
Did Trump fail to grasp the meaning
of Holocaust Remembrance Day in the
first place?
Our last two Presidents, Obama and Bush,
specifically referred to the Nazis demonic
obsession with the destruction of all Jews in
their Holocaust Remembrance Day remarks.
And the U. S. Congress words are clear.
After all, we know how much our new
president hates the political correctness that
riles his sensibilities, as well as those of many
of his supporters. That is his explanation, for
example, for insisting on the inclusion of the
specific words radical Islamic before the
word terrorists.
resulted in the murder of one

The inclusion of the specific
third of the Jewish people,
identity of the majority of terrorists is important to Trump
along with countless members
and his supporters.
of other minorities, will forever
Many of us wonder if the
be a warning to all people of
near-unanimous support
the dangers of hatred, bigotry,
Trump received from white
racism and prejudice.
supremacists and self-avowed
We have no good answer as
anti-Semites in his campaign
to why President Trump failed
Steven R.
had anything to do with his
to mention the Jews in his HoloRothman
caust Remembrance Day Statedecision not to mention the
ment last week.
Jews in his Holocaust remarks.
But Trumps failure to menWe are repulsed and
tion the Jews is important.
enraged if this is the case.
It demonstrates a profound lack of appreWas this Trumps way to give a wink and
ciation of history, and once again, the true
a nod to those hate-filled Trump backers,
meaning of words.
instead of offering a sympathetic word about
The Nazis genocide against the Jews was
the historic suffering of the Jewish people? All
one of the most destructive, cruel, immoral,
he did was ignore the plain meaning of the
and satanic episodes of evil in human history.
words the Holocaust. Who would stand up
It must never be allowed to happen again.
for the truth, or the Jews, against Trump?
We want our president to know that and to
Finally, ask no more contentious group
speak of it that way.
of nations than those at the U.N. what International Holocaust Remembrance Day is all
about. In its November 2005 Resolution 60/7,
Steven R. Rothman of Englewood was the
it states the following:
U.S. representative from New Jerseys Ninth
Reaffirming that the Holocaust, which
District for eight terms, from 1997 to 2014.
The Jewish communitys

responsibility during Black History Month
t happened more than 16 years ago,

yet I doubt we in the Jewish community forget our emotional response as
Senator Joseph Lieberman became the
first of our heritage to be placed on a national
presidential ticket.
A conversation was started amongst our
co-religionists at the time; some saw the
moment with the elation of acceptance in a
world filled with anti-Semitism, while others
met it with great agitation, fearing that wed
be blamed for everything if Mr. Lieberman
was successful in his endeavor.
What many of us did not realize was how
other demographic groups would react. They
wait for their time to come; in hindsight, now
we know that the African-American community would have to wait only eight years
for the presidency of Barak Obama, but in
2000, that aspirational reality for a people
who have been out-hated only by us Jews
seemed light years away.
At the time, I was a young Orthodox Jewish staff member for Ed Towns, who was a
senior member of the Congressional Black
Caucus. Possibly I was one of very few if any
such staffers in the entire caucus. I remember
clearly how I felt the morning after Al Gores
announcement of Sen. Liebermans nomination. I felt a sense of jubilation; I hadnt gotten
much sleep that night, when I arrived at my
office early the following morning.

Apparently I was not the only one losing
sleep over the previous days events. As I
entered the office, the congressman was on
the couch in the reception area, looking at
the wall at a picture that was a quarter century old. It was of himself and his congressional boss at the time, Shirley Chisholm. He
had served under the first African American female presidential contender in the
nations history.
So then he turned to me, asking not as
a staffer, but as a Jew, how it felt to realize
what he referred to as a dream. I was young
and sarcastic, so I gave him a sly, arrogant
response. I said that just as Al Smith, as the
first Catholic nominee, had opened the door
for JFK, I knew that eventually somebody had
to open the door for me.
He roared with laughter, thankful to me
for lightening the mood. But since then I
have realized that Mr. Liebermans achievement had implications for everyone whose
people historically had faced bigotry and
oppression. It gave them hope. I saw in that
the congressman did not feel jealousy, but
instead a newfound belief in a system that
had wronged his people.
As Black History Month approaches, I
look at the many areas of commonality that
our community shares with its mainstream
African American counterpart. I understand that there

is a need to recreate our historic partnership in the fight
against bigotry.
Sadly, neither of our communities has paid enough
attention to ensuring that we
will understand each others
Michael
history and each others need
Cohen
for allies in the struggles that
surely lie ahead.
The key is education.
In 2017, Congressman John Lewis is in the
news because of controversial remarks he
made about President Trump, comments that
many of us perhaps do not agree with. But
how many in our community ever learned
about a young John Lewis who helped
transform our society, who formed the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Commission,
who led the freedom rides was clubbed at
the front line of the march over the Edmund
Pettis Bridge, who was one of the speakers
just before Martin Luther King Jr. delivered
his historic I Have a Dream speech? How
many of us knew that he left the organization
he created, very publicly, when his successor
kicked the Jews off its board?
Last year, on Martin Luther King Day, the
Simon Wiesenthal Center joined with New
York State Assembly member

Walter Mosley to screen a film
about Julius Rosenwald. At a
panel after the showing, many
in the audience admitted that
they had never known anything about the Jewish Sears
and Roebuck founder, who
dedicated his life and wealth
to ensuring educational opportunities for southern African
American children living under
the clutches of Jim Crow.
There are many such forgotten heroes in
this struggle who we need to learn about and
teach our children about. They will inspire
activism from our community, to encourage
us to stand up against anti-Semitism, to stand
for Israel, and to act in solidarity when other
minority communities need our help.
When we honor African Americans by participating in Black History Month, we honor
their struggle and we invite members of their
community to understand our struggles better as well.
Michael Cohen of Englewood is the eastern
regional director of the Simon Wiesenthal
Center. He represents his citys second ward on
Englewoods City Council, and he belongs to
Congregation Ahavath Torah there.
Opinion
A view from the pew
hen I was invited to write

a periodic column for the
Jewish Standard, a little
over three years ago, I
chose the title A View from the Pew for
two reasons.
One, my first column was my personal
reaction to the then recently released Pew
study of the American Jewish community.
The second reason was that after nearly
four decades as a community leader I was,
in my retirement, moving from being up
front on the bima to being another Jew
in the pew. I anticipated that this move
would give me a different perspective on
American Jewish life.
Three years later, I can confirm that this
is the case. As my participation in Jewish
life has changed from community leader
to participant and volunteer, my perceptions and perspectives on American Jewish
life have changed as well.
Today, I will share with you how my
view from the pew has enriched my
understanding of, and appreciation for,
two very different but innovative projects
of 21st-century American Jewish life. The
first is PJ Library, a creation of the Harold
Grinspoon Foundation. PJ Library is a program that sends preschool-age Jewish children books of Jewish interest. Ive known
about PJ Library for more than a decade;
I supported it when the YJCC, under the
leadership of Harold Benus and the amazing outreach work of Linda Ripps, brought
it to our northern New Jersey community.
However, its been my perspective as a
grandfather, reading a book about Chanukah to my 13-month-old grandson, that
has made me realize how powerful this
gift really is. Moreover, as I have interacted
with other grandparents, and with my

daughters peers, who are making use of
these books, and by attending programs in
their communities, I have come to realize
how reading a Jewish book to a child can
affect parents and grandparents.
The great strength of PJ Library is that
the Grinspoon Foundation has gotten Jewish communities around the world to buy
into a partnership in the future by insisting
that local community groups whether
they are federations, JCCs, or synagogues
share in funding the program. Today,
PJ Library truly is worldwide, publishing
Jewish books in English, Hebrew, Russian, Polish, and German. I believe that
PJ Library is a program that can help get
Jews of various religious streams, political
backgrounds, and national origins all on
the same page.
Another program that I have had much
more time to observe firsthand, and
have come to see with clearer eyes , is
Beit TShuvah, a residential rehabilitation center that uses Judaism, 12 steps,
and psychotherapy, to help people with
a spectrum of addictions. As many of you
know, my sister-in-law, Harriet Rosetto,
is the founder of Beit TShuvah, and my
brother, Rabbi Mark Borovitz, an ex-con
and recovering alcoholic and gambler,
has worked side by side with Harriet for
the last 28 years. Two weeks ago, when I
attended the Beit TShuvah gala honoring Harriet, I heard a Los Angeles-area
colleague, Rabbi Ed Feinstein, give gratitude for the vision, passion, and compassion of my brother and sister-in-law as he
spoke of the lives of children from his
community, and in his own family, that
have been saved because Beit TShuvah
the most connected society

has dared to confront our
humankind has ever known
Jewish community with the
but our connections are
truth. Addiction is a disease of our bodies and our
not true relationships, in
souls, and of our commuthe Jewish understanding of
nity. As we the people of
what community and family
the United States engage in
really mean. The bottom line
a great debate over health
message of Beit TShuvah,
care in our nation, there
as demonstrated by a crowd
Rabbi Neal I.
are many who fear that the
of nearly 1,000 Jews on SunBorovitz
day, January 22, in the same
gains made through the
ballroom where the Golden
Affordable Care Act of 2010,
Globes had been held two
in classifying addiction as a
weeks earlier, is this: Yes, We are our
disease worthy of healthcare insurance,
brothers keepers, and our sisters as well.
could be lost. Meanwhile, a shelter that
There, in the city that some see as La La
my sister-in-law opened 30 years ago,
Land, I saw a City of Angels. I saw the Jews
with a budget of well under $100,000,
of Los Angeles, across religious streams
and set up for a half-dozen Jews who
and political divides, come together to pay
were coming out of jail with nowhere
tribute to the work of Beit TShuvah, and
to go has grown enormously. It is now
raise $2 million dollars to fund treatment
a residential treatment center with 130
for people seeking a path to recovery.
beds and an equal number of outpatients
Friends, while there certainly are clouds
receiving services and with an $11 million
in the sky, above our nation and our world,
annual budget. Beit TShuvah is now the
my view, from my pew, is that programs
subject of a UCLA medical school study,
such as PJ Library and Beit TShuvah are
and it is a model that other faith communities are now modeling. Both President
reminders that yes, we can raise our own
George W. Bush and President Barack
Golden Globes, by shining a spotlight on
Obama have recognized Beit TShuvah
our problems, and brightening the lives of
for its innovative approach to the plague
others, by enlightening ourselves, and by
of addiction, which continues to infect
re-affirming the words of Pirke Avot: The
our American society.
time is short; the task of redeeming the
Some of you, I have no doubt, are askworld is great; and even if we ourselves
ing what the connection between PJ
will not witness that redemption, we are
Library and Beit Tshuvah may be. I see
obligated to work toward it
both of them as uniquely innovative Jewish approaches to societal situations. PJ
Neal Borovitz, rabbi emeritus of Temple
Library is saying to young Jewish parents
Avodat Shalom in River Edge, is a past
that we, the American Jewish community,
chair of the Jewish Community Relations
see ourselves as your partners in child
Council of the Jewish Federation of
rearing. Twenty-first century America is
Northern New Jersey.
learned so much from her, and now I feel

really confident about my acting, singing
and dancing. And probably all of her kids
feel that way.
Sixth, the shows that she has done are
incredible. All of her hard work really pays
off, and all the kids are always happy.
Thank you so much ! Love you Deb!
Sophie Knapp, Teaneck
knowing they excluded observant students. They did, however, allow Rachel
to appear on the regular Jeopardy! show
as one of the youngest contestants, at age
19. They flew her out to Los Angeles, all
expenses paid. Its terrific to see change in
the shows policy, and were looking forward to seeing Mr. Paley on Jeopardy!
Pauline & Dr. Herb Schneider, Bergenfield
Jeopardy memories
Trump and Kraft
Letters
Thank you, Deb
Hi ! My name is Sophie Knapp and I am an

8-year-old actress, singer, dancer, and gymnast. I read your article about Deb Roberts,
and I thought that maybe I could add a few
more amazing details about her (Theater,
magic, and love, January 27).
First, Deb cares about so many of her
students about their singing, acting, and
dancing. She cares about all of her kids, no
matter how old they are.
Second, Deb works SO SO SO hard to
make a beautiful show.
Third, Deb has helped so many of her
kids, including me, to train to be on Broadway and in movies and TV.
Fourth, Deb has come to ALL of my
shows, Broadway and off-Broadway. She is
so nice; she always says you were really
great, Sophie or I loved the show.
Fifth, Deb is a really good teacher. I have
Congratulations to Netanel Paley for

appearing on the Jeopardy! College
Championship! (A. I cant tell you. Q.
Who won? January 27) It was especially
gratifying to see that the producers have
changed their policy in regard to the taping schedule. In 1999, when our daughter
Dr. Rachel Schneider Jacobs, was selected
for the College Championship as a sophomore in Stern College, Jeopardy! only
Jeopardy host Alex Trebek with Rachel

Schneider Jacobs
taped the tournament on Saturdays, preventing Sabbath-observant contestants

from participating. The producers of the
show refused to move the taping, despite
Although I am a Giants fan, I read Kraft,

Blank are this years Jewish Super Bowl
heroes ( January 27). Toward the end of the
article Mr. Kraft, discussing his friendship
with Mr. Trump, says theyve had a lot of
fun together socially and worked together
on a number of philanthropic events.
Id love to know more about those philanthropic events, e.g. beneficiaries/donations.
Caryn Kasmanoff, Wyckoff
Opinion
The promise of Ahmed Hussen
e came to Canada as a 16-yearold refugee from

S o m a l i a . H e s
highly regarded across the
Canadian political spectrum.
He was just appointed as
immigration minister in the
cabinet of Prime Minister JusBen Cohen
tin Trudeau.
Now 40 years old, Ahmed
Hussen has a promising career
in front of him. And in these polarized, fragmented times,
he is exactly the kind of public figure we need when it
comes to clarifying the wider debate about immigration
and Islamism, human rights, and national security.
Trudeau, the leader of Canadas Liberal Party, often
has been lampooned as a kumbaya do-gooder, devoted
to his liberal conscience and slow-witted when it comes
to recognizing that fanatics across the world, with views
diametrically opposed to his, are gaining strength and
power. I will leave it to readers to judge whether any of
that criticism is fair, but I will say that Trudeaus
appointment of Hussen shows a boldness that
contrasts markedly with the approach of former
President Barack Obama, despite their broadly
similar worldview.
Obama, remember, regards the word
Islamist as an insult rather than a descriptor. But Hussen has a record of actually tackling Islamism in his own community, engaging
in the kind of political fight that Obama most
likely would have dismissed as a sop to the radical, nationalist right.
Writing in the Toronto Sun, columnist Tarek
Fatah, a close friend of Hussens though we
disagree on much, he noted told about the time the two
first encountered each other. In 2004, Muslim activists in
Ontario launched a campaign to introduce Islamic sharia
law in the provinces family courts, arguing formally that
they simply wanted the same rights that were granted to
the Catholic and Jewish communities under legislation
passed in 1991.
They were supported in this demand by Marion Boyd, a
former attorney general who wrote a report arguing that
it was impossible to sustain Catholic and Jewish law-based
family courts while denying them to the Muslim community. But Tarek Fatah and others werent buying it.
Opposing them was a much smaller group of secular
and liberal Muslims including yours truly for whom
this was a do-or-die moment, Fatah wrote. We knew
how the U.K. had let this happen many years before, only
to discover, too late, the Muslim community of Britain
being held hostage by Islamic clerics.
For Fatah and his fellow secularists, permitting sharia
courts in Canada effectively would have involved legal
surrender to a conservative clerical establishment. Homa
Arjomand, a Canadian-Iranian human rights campaigner,
eloquently summarized the problem as she pushed back
against Boyds recommendations. Our lawyers are studying the decisions of several arbitration cases and will bring
them to court and expose how women are victimized by
male-dominated legal decisions based on 6th-century religion and traditions, she said at the time.
Eventually, a decision was reached that neatly reflected
the dilemma that all liberal democracies face when balancing the need to strengthen secular values against the
demands of a vocal religious minority. Sharia courts were
not permitted in Ontario, which meant that other religions
Ahmed Hussen speaks in November 2016
If we are to avoid repeating

these same errors, we need
to learn from the past by
understanding that Islams
internal ssures can
work to our advantage.
also were prevented from resolving family disputes in
faith-based courts.
As Fatah tells it, Ahmed Hussen played a diligent
behind-the-scenes role in this episode. Newly minted as
a Liberal Party staffer, he introduced the secularists to
prominent Ontario politicians, allowing them to present
their case directly.
The importance of having someone like Hussen countering Islamist encroachment among Muslim communities
in the West cannot be overstated. As a child, he had seen
firsthand the horrors of the conflict in Somalia, which triggered an Islamist surge in that country nearly a decade
before the 9/11 atrocities. In Canada, he became a community activist, helping to secure $500 million in funds
to revitalize the community in which he lived in Toronto.
Moving into immigration law perhaps was the natural next
step for him to take.
Now that hes in Trudeaus cabinet, Hussen is well positioned to drive home a key message that is increasingly
being lost in the global agonizing over national security,
particularly in America. Simply put: Islamism and Islam
are distinctive concepts.
Distinctive does not mean, of course, that they are
entirely separate. The imperative of waging jihad in order
to impose the rule of sharia law did not suddenly appear out
of nowhere; rather, that struggle is grounded upon authentic Islamic texts, Islamic laws, and Islamic traditions. The
argument over whether Islamic radicalism is a distortion of
Muslim teachings (a default position held by politicians as
diverse as George W. Bush, Tony Blair, and Barack Obama)
or a faithful reflection of them (as argued by nationalists in
America and Europe) will continue to rage.
My own perspective, based on nearly two decades of
YOUTUBE
observing Islamists and their fellow travelers in the West,

is that a sledgehammer approach to the more fundamental issue of Muslim integration may play well politically in
the short term, but it is highly destructive in the long term.
Nobody could argue seriously that Islam is a united
body, after all. It is more accurately understood as a culture in the grip of a brutal civil war between Shia and
Sunni, between secular authoritarians and radical clerics,
between competing jihadi schools that is simultaneously
linked, ideologically and operationally, to monstrous acts
of terrorism against non-Muslims inside and outside the
Muslim world. There were plenty of warnings before the
9/11 attacks that this trend was growing, such as the 1994
Iranian-sponsored bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in
Buenos Aires, but Western politicians by and large ignored
or misunderstood where this tide was heading.
If we are to avoid repeating these same errors, we need to
learn from the past by understanding that Islams internal
fissures can work to our advantage. But there is nothing to
be gained from a situation in which the very word refugee becomes a pejorative, as is more and more the case in
America, or when we face legislative proposals that could,
for example, prevent Kurdish Muslims from Iraq and Syria
traditionally our close allies from entering our country.
In that sense, we can learn much from people like
Ahmed Hussen about the importance of nuance and
compassion. As a former refugee, he instinctively understands the plight of those driven from their homes by war
and genocide. As a human rights advocate, he grasps that
some groups are far more vulnerable than others which
is why he just announced that Canada will allow entry to
an unspecified number of Yazidis from Iraq, who have
been horribly persecuted by Islamic State, within the next
four weeks.
At the same time, Hussens record suggests that he recognizes the clear difference between practical support for
the victims of extreme cruelty on the one hand, and sinking into nebulous cultural relativism or knuckle-headed
bigotry on the other. Partisans of both left and right would
JNS.ORG
do well to consider that.
Ben Cohen, senior editor of TheTower.org and the Tower
magazine, writes a weekly column on Jewish affairs and
Middle Eastern politics. His work has been published in
Commentary, the New York Post, Haaretz, the Wall Street
Journal, and many other publications.
Keeping Kosher
Platters at Cedar Market
scoring big in Teaneck
With just days remaining before
Super Bowl 51 kicks off in Houston, the team at Cedar Market
in Teaneck is ready for the big
game with a wide array of delicious platters.
Cedar Market has affordable platters for practically
every occasion and taste, said
Eli Langer, chief marketing officer at Cedar Market. Our platters are perfect for celebrations,
meetings, or just kicking back
with friends while watching
the biggest game of the year.
Theyre made fresh to a customers order and piled high with a wide variety of tastebud-tempting deliciousness our
fans have come to know and love.
And in a world of limits, there truly
are none here. You can even build your
own platter, just the way you like, Langer
continued.
The deli, sushi, produce, and bakery
departments all offer platters. The growing supermarkets sushi bar even offers a
Challah baking in
and around the community
More than 100
women from Chabad
of Fort Lee came together for a challahbaking event that
included praying
for the healing of a
former preschool
student who is battling a serious illness.

Courtesy Chabad
Big Game platter, which is 20 percent

off ahead of Sundays matchup between
the Atlanta Falcons and the New England
Patriots.
Its not a party until a gorgeous Cedar
Market platter walks through the door,
Langer concluded. Thats when the real
game starts.
Cedar Market, 646 Cedar Lane, Teaneck,
(201) 855-8500 or thecedarmarket.com
Temple Emanuel of the Pascack Valley in Woodcliff Lake sponsored its

community challah bake last month; it drew more than 40 participants. The
challah making/baking in-a-box program originated with WIZO, with the
support of local sponsors, Benzel Busch and the Agresta Psychotherapy
Group. Instructor Debbie Rosalimsky, left, and Michelle Mandelman, its chair,
demonstrated various braiding techniques.
Courtesy TEPV
Waynes Shomrei Torah religious school students and their families learned
about and made challah for Shabbat. Each student took home a loaf; other
loaves were donated to the less privileged.
Courtesy Shomrei Torah
34 Jewish Standard FEBRUARY 3, 2017
Keeping Kosher
Kosher Market
Super recipes from

Kosher.com for the Big Game
Meats Chicken Deli Appetizing

Prepared Foods Groceries Frozen Foods Catering
67 A. East Ridgewood Ave. Paramus, NJ 07652
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beth JaNoFF ChaNaNie
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UNDER RABBINICAL SUPERVISION
While searching for fun, easy-to-prepare, somewhat footballish foods that

might work for the Big Game on Sunday, I went to Kosher.com. Choices there
include appetizers, main dishes, desserts, side dishes, appetizers, starters, soups,
snacks, salads, and more. It was like a treasure chest. The site even allows you to
create your own recipe box to save recipes. With some help from Kosher.coms
editorial staff, I picked the two easy recipes below that will be sure to score big
with your guests.
Honey mustard pretzel bits
2016
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1 12-ounce bag sourdough pretzels

2/3 cup oil
6 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup yellow mustard
2 teaspoons onion powder
Lisa moNohaN
WE ARE NUT FREE!
Preheat oven to 275 degrees. in a large bowl, whisk

together oil, honey, mustard, and onion powder.
Crush the pretzels into bits and add to the oil mixture, tossing to coat. Pour the pretzels onto a baking
paper-lined baking sheet in an even layer. Bake for
30 minutes, turning the pieces halfway through the
baking.
Challah Pastries cookies bobkas pies & More...
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Popcorn balls
Joy deVor
Serving The Kosher Way Since 1976
Pop the kernels in a pot or a hot air popper; onecup kernels should yield about 10 cups popped
corn. salt lightly and let cool. Place the popcorn
in a large bowl that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Combine the sugar, corn syrup,
water, salt, and butter in a medium saucepan over
a medium-high flame. stir occasionally until the
sugar dissolves and the butter melts. insert a candy
thermometer and boil the candy, without stirring,
until the thermometer reads 244 degrees. Once the
candy reaches the proper temperature, remove the
pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Pour
half of the hot sugary syrup over the popcorn in the
bowl and stir until its well distributed. (this is when
you should stir in any other add-ins nuts, candy,
etc.) Once the mixture is mixed well, pour in the rest
of the sugar syrup and stir until everything is coated.
Kosher.com is a one-stop resource to organize your

kosher cooking life, with top-quality kosher recipes by
favorite chefs, useful menu planners that can transform
the way you spend time in the kitchen, and shopping
lists to help you stock up on everything youll need to
make unforgettable meals. Kosher.com is geared for
everyone, from the newest cook still trying to figure out
how to make a boiled egg, all the way up to the gourmet chef looking for new and creative ideas to impress
important guests. For the newcomer to kosher cooking,
daN eNGoNGoro
1 cup popcorn kernels

nonstick cooking spray
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter or margarine, cubed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
wet your hands or spray them with nonstick cooking spray, then form the popcorn mixture into large
balls about 3 inches in diameter. re-wet or re-spray
your hands as needed. dont be afraid to firmly
press the balls together as youre forming them so
that they dont fall apart. Let the balls cool to room
temperature, then serve.
note: these popcorn balls taste best on the day
that they are made, but can be enjoyed up to 24
hours later. (after a full day, they begin to taste
stale.) if youre not eating them immediately, wrap
them individually in cling wrap.
there is basic information explaining what kashrut is

all about, and for the longtime kosher-keeper, there
are useful reminders, charts, and news about the latest
trends in kosher food.
Kosher.com also has videos to teach techniques to
take cooking to the next level, advice about wine pairings to elevate meals, articles about the latest cooking
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Everyone is welcome to participate. If you try a recipe, review it, and tell Kosher.com how it came out.
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Jewish standard FeBrUarY 3, 2017 35
Local
Crossword
THE DESSERT CART
Rally
FROM PAGE 7
Gottheimer said. We have allies around

the world, people who are supporting our
efforts. It risks our security when you are
cavalier in this way.
We always have to balance security
and our character, our freedom. It seems
to me that we have completely upended
this balance. In the way that Trump has
handled this, he has upended it all in one
fell swoop, and it has to be fixed. I am
hopeful that he hears the country, and he
takes swift action to repair the breach and
to reverse this dangerous course that he
is taking.
Rabbi Lee Paskind of Congregation Beth
Sholom in Teaneck, who has retired from
the pulpit rabbinate and now works for
the Conservative movements Rabbinical Assemblys social justice commission,
was at the rally. It was really amazing, he
said. It was a wonderfully diverse group.
There was a large number of mostly modern Orthodox men and women, and about
30 people from our shul, and then a lot of
people who appeared to be Muslim, and
others who appeared to be Sikhs, and
there were African Americans.
The feeling was that it was a cross-section of Teaneck. It was very impressive to
me that such a broad, diverse group would
come together around this issue. Its one
of our new presidents bread-and-butter
issues, but clearly there are a lot of people
who oppose it.
Speaking as a Jew, as a rabbi, I feel
that we have a strong moral imperative to
speak up for the vulnerable in our community and around the world, he added.
Get along
FROM PAGE 15
attracted many modern Orthodox Englishspeakers. His wife, Andrea, works in clinical research for a pharmaceutical startup.
Their children are 13, 12, 11, and 8.
My wife and I always thought about aliyah, but being in the New York area during 9/11 tilted our perspective, he said.
By 2006 we decided we had to make the
jump. We moved in August, after a pilot
trip in June.
Though he reports that he was making
strides in Ulpan, the intensive Hebrew
language courses offered free of charge to
all new immigrants, Mr. Leubitz has not
had much opportunity to flex his Hebrew
muscles since starting Innitel, because
the lingua franca at work is English. Perhaps surprisingly, many East Jerusalem
Arabs are much more fluent in English
BY YONI GLATT, KOSHERCROSSWORDS@GMAIL.COM

DIFFICULTY LEVEL: EASY
The notion that we are going to allow displaced people from Syria and the adjacent
countries to languish, that we are closing
our doors, is unconscionable.
What this president is doing whether
he is doing it or it is being done in his name
is frightening, Rabbi Paskind said.
But despite the bleakness of the immediate future as the rally participants see it,
something good is coming from it. Thats
the inclusiveness of the response, both
nationally and locally, Mayor Hameeduddin said. The women of Teaneck, particularly the women of Netivot Shalom and
other synagogues, pushed this forward
and made it happen. They inspired me. I
cant process it now, but it really was an
amazing day. Teaneck is really special.
That is who we are.
Ms. Dworken agreed. The group that
put together the rally is interfaith on purpose, but that is more of a side benefit to
its main goal figuring out how to oppose
what it sees as dangerous policies than
its major intent.
We are moms, she said. Most of us
also have full-time or part-time jobs, and
a lot of responsibilities. We dont have the
intention of making this group something
formal. We just want to see it grow.
We dont know what we will do next.
We are not the ACLU. We do not have
those resources. We would love to be able
to direct people to those resources. We
have to figure out the next step. Echoing Mayor Hameeduddin, we are still
processing it, she said. She is sure, however, that something will follow, and that
the feeling of forward movement, and of
friendship, will continue.
than in Hebrew.
Were attracting so many Arab-Israeli
candidates because one of their main
obstacles is Hebrew, he said.
Mr. Leubitz hopes that his experiences
will encourage other would-be American
immigrants who may be wary of trying to
start a business in Israel.
Aliyah helps you reinvent yourself,
which you need to see as a positive
adventure, he said. It takes chutzpah
to get started, but once we navigated the
business networks in Jerusalem we found
a lot of people and VCs we could talk to
in English.
The former member of the Young Israel
of Teaneck said that overall hes been
pleasantly surprised at how well he has
adjusted to life in Israel. There is one big
obstacle, though: not having Sundays to
hike in the Palisades, he confides.
www.thejewishstandard.com
Across
Down
1. Hand on a necklace
6. Stark on Weiss & Benioffs Game of
Thrones
11. Jong Un who had not recognized
Israel
14. Dont tell ___! (Shecket)
15. Where Ivanka went to sch.
16. Judge who heard Robert Shapiro
defend OJ
17. Dessert for comic Howie?
19. Theo Epsteins baseball town, for short
20. Bovine term for klutzes
21. Rabbinic speeches
23. Desserts in a Seinfeld classic
26. Possible cry at an IFA match
27. The ___nion (Haifa school)
28. In ___ of (have a bottle of
Manischewitz instead of a Yarden
Blanc de Blancs)
29. Had some gefilte fish, e.g.
30. El Al hold up
31. Shalosh, in Italia
32. Shabbat table staple
34. Edible ammo that would not work
in an uzi
35. Like a really easy puzzle... or a bit of
23 and 51-Across and 46-Down
39. The Facts of Life actress Charlotte
40. 1970 Sutherland-Gould classic
41. Yitzhak Ben-___ (Israels longest
serving President)
44. Israeli basketball star with the same
name as Gadot
47. Kenny G instrument, for short
48. Levin and Gershwin
49. Elvis middle name
50. Ramat ___
51. Popular Rosh Hashanah dessert
53. Prepare to fire a galil
55. Nora who was on SNL with Jon
Lovitz
56. Troop gp. Lewis Black volunteered for
57. Difficult one... or 17-Across & 11-Down
62. High-___ (better way to watch
Fauda)
63. Im ___ boy! (line from anti-Semitic
Ben Sharpsteens Pinocchio)
64. Music genre of Benny Goodman or
Brian Setzer
65. One way to make fire in Israel?
66. Simcha rooms
67. ___ Nahash
1. Tref son of Noah

2. Palindromic Biblical king
3. Weekday when the Torah is read; Abbr.
4. Crosswords are much better than it
5. Billy Joels daughter
6. U-boats, e.g.
7. Mo. Passover falls in
8. Item used to sew a kippah
9. One of Max Weinsteins drums
10. Three Men ___ Baby (Nimoy film)
11. Bow tie one would not wear
12. Where Ruth Bader Ginsberg went to
Cornell
13. Uncle of Jewish childrens music
18. Moonves of CBS
22. The Prime Grill buy
23. Diner order that isnt kosher, for
short
24. Show on Yes
25. Noise heard while going through
(Ben-Gurion) security
26. Former empire that ruled Israel
29. Chometz that is always in
Jerusalem?
30. Yoreh ___ (halacha compilation)
32. Jewish kings had a royal one
33. 50-Down, e.g.
34. Dell makes them; Abbr.
36. Mondelez International CEO
Rosenfeld or a 2011 hurricane
37. Obsolete way to send a copy of a
Torah piece
38. Book before Nehemiah
42. It sucks up challah crumbs, for short
43. Israeli man?
44. Ready to be bar mitzvahed, technically
45. Takes the rebbes notes off the
board
46. Flatter alternative to 23-Across
47. He anointed David
48. ___ guy... (words from a hocker)
50. Israeli airforce hero Epstein
51. Jean ___ Picard, Enterprise Captain
after Kirk
52. Biblical son of Seth
54. Baruch follower
55. Trucks that might bring packages
from Israel
58. Actress Gadot
59. Baby goat or ibex
60. Stranger ___ strange land
61. Ingredient used in this puzzles
theme answers
The solution to last weeks puzzle

is on page 43.
Dear Rabbi Zahavy
Your Talmudic advice column

expanded without nuance,
are boring and they would
while amazing new technolorather roam in the halls, or
gies have proliferated.
outside of the shul, and talk
The logic of these expanded
or play with their friends.
bans often is based on techniIm losing my patience with
cal justifications, rather than
a system that claims to guarantee Jewish continuity, but
on analyses of the acts themselves. Consider this. Talking
cannot train my kids to join
to another human being faceme in prayer or to sit with me
Rabbi Tzvee
to-face is obviously permitted
and listen and follow along
Zahavy
on the Sabbath. Socializing
with the synagogue services.
with other people in a shul or
What can I do about this?
Paying in Paramus
at a dinner or at Talmud study
group is a desired joyous activity of Shabbat celebration.
Dear Paying,
However, more than 100 years ago,
Without doubt, Jewish day school tuition
influential rabbis decided that talking on
is high, reaching over $40,000 a year for
Dear Limo Rider,
a telephone cannot be tolerated on the
the top elite New York schools. (You can
Yes, you acted properly. You respected
Sabbath, even though it was not readily
google Day School Tuition Spreadsheet
your father-in-law. You respected the
categorized as one of the prohibited Sabto find a crowdsourced spreadsheet with
bath labors. And my Orthodox colleagues
import ance of your situation. You respectthe tuition listings.)
fully asked your rabbi. By having someone
Yes, you are right to be critical and
extend that taboo to the use of a smartphone and to the latest forms of commudrive, you did not violate the direct Sabassess your ROI return on investment.
bath restrictions against performing fornications Twitter or WhatsApp or texts
If you look at the claims of the yeshiva
bidden labors.
or email or Skype.
champions, youd conclude that the only
To be clear, driving a car on the SabThats resulted in a major disconnect
institutions separating our Jewish combath involves burning gasoline, a form of
munity from assimilation and intermarbetween many young people (and possibly many older people) and the world of
riage and dissolution and disappearance
one of the 39 prohibited Sabbath labors.
Orthodox expectations. Recent studies
are day schools. And yet you cannot get
Accepting a ride from someone in a limo
have disclosed the emergence of a class of
your children to participate with you in
is several degrees away from that directly
half-Shabbat observant Jews, who see
synagogue services. And you rightfully
proscribed action.
nothing wrong with being social on Shabquestion the efficacy of the education
The criticism you received from others
bat on smartphones.
they are getting.
in this instance should be of no concern to
And without doubt, day schools do a
It seems like the more that modern
you, given the care with which you acted.
fantastic job of trying to educate our chilchallenges proliferate within a system of
Many of us know cases where real world
dren. But in some respects, they do fail.
taboos, the more the prohibition police dig
constraints and obligations lead sincere
Indeed, you seem poised to ask: Do day
in and become militant and vocal.
Jews to compromise their observances
schools really transmit new and needed
As a byproduct, you and your commitmore significantly than you did.
ment to our faith were scrutinized for your
values to children? Thats far from an open
One case in point. I live two blocks from
trip home from an important event by car,
and shut question. One part of the answer
an Orthodox shul in Teaneck. And I can
even though you consulted properly and
is that they cant do it without extensive
tell you that every week I see a gentleman,
acted in good faith.
parental commitment and assistance from
whom I surmise is representing himself as
Given these circumstances, do not fret.
the get go.
Orthodox, park his car across the street
Its clear that you acted appropriately.
You see, parents who already have
from me and walk over to the synagogue
decided to spend money on a day school
to attend the Sabbath morning services.
Dear Rabbi Zahavy,
are surely transmitting their values to their
Overall, you should know that Orthodox interpretations of Sabbath law have
Im paying a small fortune to send my kids
children every day. They try their best to
become more restrictive recently. For
to Orthodox day schools. But on Shabbat,
instill their values, whether a school effectively backs up those efforts or not.
example, the bias against permitting
they refuse to come into the shul to sit by
For sure, the day schools enroll a priselectronics and new technologies has
me during davening. They say the services
tine self-selected cadre of students, whose
highly committed parents are willing to
The Dear Rabbi Zahavy column offers mindful advice based on Talmudic
spend large sums of money to bolster their
wisdom. It aspires to be equally open and meaningful to all the varieties and
childrens Jewish commitments, knowldenominations of Judaism. You can find it here on the first Friday of the
edge, and skills.
month. Please mail your questions to the Jewish Standard or email them to
When such children grow up to marry
zahavy@gmail.com
Jewish partners and take on roles as fine
Dear Rabbi Zahavy,
I was brought up Orthodox and continue
to represent myself as such. I married a
woman who converted to Orthodox Judaism to marry me. Recently, my influential
father-in-law invited me to an important
high-profile gala dinner on a Friday night.
I did go to the dinner with my wife, and we
returned home in a limousine after sunset.
Before doing this, I asked my rabbi, and he
said that because of the circumstances I was
permitted to attend and to ride home. Still,
a lot of Orthodox people have criticized me
for going to the event and for taking the ride.
I want to know did I act properly?
Shabbat Limo Rider in Livingston
Sign up
for the Jewish Standard
daily newsletter!
and upstanding members of their communities, some of us will argue we should

allocate the bulk of the credit to the parents, not to the schools.
Now lets take a step back in examining
your predicament and look closely not at
the schools, but at the synagogue services
that do not seem to engage your children.
Its fair to ask, why should they? Regular
shul services are not designed to appeal
to children.
When I was young, I attended a junior
congregation at our shul. It was an abbreviated service for kids, and it was followed
by good cake and such. Yes, that was at
least a start at setting up an alternative to
appeal to kids.
When my children were young, I made
great efforts to involve them in the Sabbath services and to show them the value
of the details of the Torah readings and
other pertinent aspects of the davening. I
offered them rewards for their participation, and they complied with respect, and
sometimes, with enthusiasm.
You have made several assumptions of
cause and effect, overestimating the value
and necessity of day school education.
And you make presumptions about the
outcomes of your investments of time and
energy in that system.
If you want your kids to sit next to you
in shul, and to participate with you in the
services in some way, then work directly
on that. Do not assume that paying day
school tuition, no matter how high it is,
will get your kids to sit and pray with you
in the synagogue.
If they respond with any enthusiasm
towards our laws and customs, it will be
due most of all to your persistent creative
efforts with your children. Good luck,
because no matter how much tuition
you pay, the chances of your success are
not assured. Nor are they governed by a
money-back guarantee if your children
refuse to enter the synagogue.
Tzvee Zahavy received his Ph.D. from
Brown University and his rabbinic
ordination from Yeshiva University. He is
the author of many books about Judaism,
including Jewish Magic. The Book of
Jewish Prayers in English, Gods Favorite
Prayers and Talmudic Advice from Dear
Rabbi, which includes his past columns
from the Jewish Standard and other essays.
Visit www.thejewishstandard.com and click on

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N E W
J E R S E Y
R O C K L A N D
Calendar
Friday
FEBRUARY 3
Shabbat in Closter:
Temple Beth Els Shabbat
Unplugged Band
featuring members of
the congregation and
a guest, jazz violinist
Joe Deninzon, plays at
services led by Rabbi
David S. Widzer and
Cantor Rica Timman,
7:30 p.m. Deninzon
has played with Bruce
Springsteen, Cheryl
Crow, Smokey Robinson,
and Deep Purple. 221
Schraalenburgh Road.
Closter. (201) 768-5112 or
www.tbenv.org.
Relationship? An
informal discussion and
dessert reception follow.
180 Piermont Road.
(201) 750-9997 or www.
templeemanu-el.com.
Movie night in Jersey

City: Congregation
Comedians Kerri Louise,

Steven Scott, and the
Stone Twins perform
during the Glen Rock
Jewish Centers Comedy
Night, 9:15 p.m. 682
Harristown Road.
(201) 652-6624 or www.
grjc.org/form/comedynight.html.
Blood drive in
Englewood:
FEB. 11 Rachelle Weisberger

of Englewood
TO
MAR. 17 will exhibit her
latest works,
Transcendence I (above) and
Transcendence II, as part of
an upcoming group show, The
Primacy of Color II. The show
is at the Mikhail Zakin Gallery,
the Art School at Old Church,
561 Piermont Road, Demarest,
from February 11 to March 17.
Ms. Weisbergers work has been
exhibited in leading galleries in
the tristate area and is in private
collections. Ms. Weisberger, the
author of Biblical Beauty: Ancient
Secrets and Modern Solutions,
is a member of both East Hill
Synagogue and Congregation
Ahavath Torah in Englewood.
A lifelong supporter of Israel,
she is affiliated with Amit, Emunah
of America and Hadassah.
www.rachelleweisberger.com.
As scholar-in residence
at Congregation
Beth Aaron, Rabbi
Paysach Krohn will
discuss Tefillah: A
Way of Connection
8:15 p.m. After the
Shabbat morning main
minyan he will talk about
Becoming a Person of
Blessing, and in between
Mincha and Maariv he
will discuss The iPad,
the iPhone, and the iPod:
Becoming an Upper
Case Personality. 950
Queen Anne Road.
www.bethaaron.org or
(201) 836-6210.
Saturday
Congregation Ahavath
Torah holds a blood drive
with New Jersey Blood
Services, a division of
New York Blood Center,
9 a.m.-3 p.m. 240 Broad
Ave. (800) 933-2566 or
www.nybloodcenter.org.
FEBRUARY 4
David Horovitz
Shabbat in Closter:
Temple Emanu-El of
Closter welcomes
scholar-in-residence
David Horovitz, editor
of the Times of Israel
and a former editor of
the Jerusalem Post and
the Jerusalem Report,
during services, 9 a.m.
He will discuss 2017: A
New Administration, A
New Congress Whats
Next for the U.S.-Israel
Bob Klapisch
Baseball preview in
Teaneck: Bob Klapisch,
baseball columnist
for the Record, will
preview the coming
baseball season at the
mens club breakfast
at Congregation Beth
Aaron, 9:30 a.m. 950
Queen Anne Road.
www.bethaaron.org or
(201) 836-6210.
Tuesday
FEBRUARY 7
Talking about Elizabeth
Cady Stanton: At
Carolyn Enger
Piano concert in
Wayne: The YMCA of
Wayne concludes a
new Backstage at the Y
series with Romantic
Titles: What Do They All
Mean, a piano concert
by Carolyn Enger, in the
Rosen Performing Arts
Center, 11:45 a.m. The
Metro YMCAs of the
Oranges is a partner of
the YM-YWHA of North
Jersey. 1 Pike Drive.
(973) 595-0100.
Used book sale: The Fair

Lawn Jewish Center/
Congregation Bnai Israel
holds a sale, 9:45 a.m.6 p.m. Prices from 50
cents to $2. Proceeds
divided between Tackle
Kids Cancer and the
shuls social action
committee projects,
which include packing
supplies for the military
and weekend snack
packs for children in
need.10-10 Norma Ave.
(201) 796-5040.
noon. 176 West Side Ave.

(201) 435-5725 or www.
bnaijacobjc.com.
a meeting of REAP
(Retired Executives and
Active Professionals)
at the Kaplen JCC
on the Palisades in
Tenafly, David Wall tells
the story of Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, an
early womens rights
activist who had
special ties to Tenafly,
11 a.m. 411 E. Clinton Ave.
(201) 569-7900 or www.
jccotp.org.
Comedy in Glen Rock:
FEBRUARY 5
Shabbat in Teaneck:
Temple Beth Tikvah

hosts a holiday seder,
with treats including
chocolate, strawberries,
pomegranates, and chips,
10:30 a.m. 950 Preakness
Ave. (973) 595-6565.
Bnai Jacob in Jersey

City screens classic and
contemporary movies,
6:30 p.m. Popcorn and
soda. 176 West Side Ave.
(201) 435-5725 or www.
bnaijacobjc.com.
Sunday
Rabbi Paysach Krohn
Tu bShvat in Wayne:
Shimon Peres
Talking about Peres in
Wayne: Rabbi Emeritus
Israel Dresner discusses
The Life and Times
of Shimon Peres at
Temple Beth Tikvah,
1 p.m. 950 Preakness Ave.
(973) 595-6565.
Painting in Teaneck:
Camp fair in Tenafly:

The Kaplen JCC on the
Palisades holds a fair
showcasing its summer
camp programs for 3- to
15-year-olds, noon-2 p.m.
Activities include facepainting, a bounce house,
giveaways, arts and
crafts, performances,
sample camp activities,
and a tour of the JCC
facility. Families who
register their campers
at the fair will be
entered to win one free
week of any camp and
receive camp discounts.
(201) 408-1485, or jccotp.
org.
Monday
FEBRUARY 6
Lunch and
conversation: Rabbi
Aaron Katz leads a
discussion over lunch
at Congregation Bnai
Jacob in Jersey City,
Jewish Association
of Developmental
Disabilities offers a
two-session art therapy
Paint Night event for
people with special
needs, 16 and older, with
fun, food, and festivities,
at Congregation Beth
Sholom, 6 p.m. Dairy
dinner. Proceeds benefit
J-ADD. 354 Maitland Ave.
Register, (201) 457-0058,
ext. 24, or events@j-add.
org.
Judaism 101 in Spanish:

Rabbi Aaron Katz leads a
Spanish-language class,
Judaism 101, focusing
on history, philosophy,
and Jewish culture, at
Congregation Bnai
Jacob in Jersey City,
7 p.m. 176 West Side Ave.
(201) 435-5725 or www.
bnaijacobjc.com.
Mah jongg in Paramus:

Game On and Mah
Jongg, in support
of Sharsheret, for
novices and experts,
is at Yeshivat Noam in
Paramus. Registration,
7:30 p.m.; games at 8.
Refreshments. 70 West
Century Road. Email
karenperl18@gmail.com
or Mgell13@yahoo.com
or sharsheret.org.
T
a
e
t
c
Calendar
Creating a legacy:
Rabbi Daniel Cohen of
Congregation Agudath
Sholom in Stamford,
Conn., discusses his
book, What Will They
Say About You When
You Are Gone? Creating
a Life of Legacy, at Keter
Torah in Teaneck, 8:15
p.m. 600 Roemer Ave.
(201) 907-0180 or www.
ketertorah.org.
Wednesday
FEBRUARY 8
Cycle for Sharsheret
in Fort Lee: Jewish
Federation of Northern
New Jerseys Womens
Philanthropy holds
Sharsheret PINK,
(pampering, information,
nutrition, and kick-start)
at Cycle Bar, 10:30 a.m.
Enjoy indoor cycling
to raise breast cancer
awareness. Participants
are asked to bring
unopened travel-sized
moisturizers to donate to
Sharsheret. 2012 Hudson
St. Also February 12 at
Cycle Bar in Hoboken.
Sign up at http://bit.
ly/PINKDAYCBGiving.
Barbara, (201) 820-3953
or barbaraJ@jfnnj.org.
Hebrew reading in
Woodcliff Lake:
Temple Emanuel of
the Pascack Valley has
partnered with Read
Hebrew America and
Canada to teach adults
to follow synagogue
services, be involved in
their childrens Jewish
education, enhance ties
to Judaism, or learn to
read Hebrew. Five free
lessons. Sessions through
March 15 at 4:30 p.m.
87 Overlook Drive.
(201) 391-0801 or gail@
tepv.org.
Saturday
FEBRUARY 11
Shabbat in Teaneck: The
Jewish Center of Teaneck
welcomes Deacon
Kenneth Harris Jr. of
the New Hope Baptist
Church in Hackensack
for a community lunch
at 11:30 a.m., following
services at 9 a.m. In
honor of Black History
Month, he will discuss
Strengthening The Ties
Between the Orthodox
Jewish and African
American Communities.
70 Sterling Place.
(201) 833-0515 or jcot.
org.
Community Torah
learning in Wyckoff:
Sweet Tastes of Torah,
concentrating this
year on Shabbat Shira
and Tu BShevat, is a
community night of
study on music, the
environment, and more.
Desserts and socializing.
Presented by the North
Jersey Board of Rabbis
with support from
local synagogues. At
Temple Beth Rishon,
6:30 p.m. 585 Russell
Ave. (201) 652-1687,
sweettastesoftorah@
gmail.com, or
sweettastesoftorah.
weebly.com.
Yiddish music in
Teaneck: Musicians
Hudson Jewish, United

Synagogue of Hoboken,
and Moishe House
Hoboken, hold Spin
for Sharsheret at Cycle
Bar, 4 p.m. Enjoy indoor
cycling to raise breast
cancer awareness. 720
Monroe Street, C300.
(201) 820-3936 or
kimberlys@jfnnj.org.
Monday
FEBRUARY 13
Blood drive in Teaneck:
Holy Name Medical
Center holds a blood
drive with New Jersey
Blood Services, a
division of New York
Blood Center, 2-8 p.m.
718 Teaneck Road.
(800) 933-2566 or www.
nybloodcenter.org.
In New York
Sunday
FEBRUARY 12
Tu bShvat in Teaneck:
The Jewish Center
of Teaneck hosts a
community youth
party to celebrate the
holiday, with music, arts
and crafts, and healthy
delicious snacks, 10 a.m.
Families and friends
welcome. 70 Sterling
Place. (201) 833-0515,
ext. 1, or jcot.org.
On Monday evenings,
The series ends on March
beginning on February 6
13 with These Are Things
at 8:15 p.m., Rabbi Larry
of the Past: Jewish History
Rothwachs begins a lecMyths.
ture series, Halachic
Topics discussed include
Mythbusters, at Conmezonot bread, covergregation Beth Aaron,
ing mirrors in a house
950 Queen Anne Road,
of mourning, pregnant
in Teaneck.
women in cemeteries,
Join in to explore,
checking mezuzot and tefillin, fasting before bnai mitzdebate, and debunk
vah, shape of the luchot,
popular mythical beliefs
wearing a watch with tefilin the realm of halacha,
Rabbi Larry Rothwachs
lin, burial of a body that has
minhag, and Jewish tradition. On February 6,
a tattoo, taking food from a
the topic is The Times of Ones Life:
house of mourning, sheva brachot meals,
Lifecycle Myths. February 13 offers
Shabbat preceding a yahrzeit, reciting
Because Rite Isnt Always Right: Rityour own Kiddush, mishloach manot
ual Myths. February 27 will be Never
menus, seeing stars through the schach,
in a Million Years: Calendar and Holiand Eliyahu ha-Navis seder visits.
day Myths. The March 6 topic is New
For information, call (201) 836-6210 or
Food for Thought: Mealtime Myths.
go to www.bethaaron.org.
FEBRUARY 5
Seforim sale: Yeshiva
Universitys students
present the 30th annual
Seforim Sale, North
Americas largest Jewish
book sale, through
February 26, in Belfer
Hall, 2495 Amsterdam
Ave., on YUs Wilf
Campus in Manhattan.
www.theseforimsale.com.
Susan Levitan and Adrian

Banner offer an Evening
of Yiddish Song and
Folklore at Congregation
Beth Sholom, 7:30 p.m.
Refreshments.
354 Maitland Ave.
(201) 833-2620 or
www.cbsteaneck.org.
Sunday
Halachic mythbuster series
Singles
Sunday
FEBRUARY 5
Seniors meet in West
Nyack: Singles 65+
Cycle for Sharsheret

in Hoboken: Jewish
meets for a social gettogether at the JCC

Rockland, 11 a.m. All are
welcome, particularly if
you are from Hudson,
Passaic, Bergen, or
Rockland counties.
Refreshments. 450 West
Nyack Road. Gene Arkin,
(845) 356-5525.
Federation of Northern
New Jersey, with Bnai
Jacob Jersey City,
Local organizations
plan cultural outings
The Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey offers Reach for the Pomegranate,
a visit to the Tenement Museum and lunch at Reserve Cut Kosher Steak House. The
March 6 trip, at 11:30 a.m., includes a docent tour of the museum. Bus service is available. Couvert is $100 per person with a minimum $1,000 gift to JFNNJ. For information, go to www.jfnnj.org/pom.
The Jewish Federation of Northern New Jerseys Womens Philanthropy hosts a trip to
see Not That Jewish at New World Stages in New York City. The March 16 show is at
2 p.m. Couvert is $36. For information, go to www.jfnnj.org/notthatjewish.
The Renaissance Club of Temple Beth Tikvah in Wayne plans a theater party to the
Hunterdon Hills Playhouse to see Born Yesterday, Garson Kanins comedy classic,
which had a long Broadway run and made Judy Holiday (real name Judith Tuvim) a star.
Join the group on Thursday, April 27. A bus will leave the shul at 10:15 a.m. It costs
$55.50 for club members, and $60 for non-members, and includes bus, lunch, and
the show. Email Harry Stricker at hs3550@optonline.net for information.
Jewish Women International is going to see the American Ballet Theatre perform
Swan Lake at the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center on June 14. A bus will
pick up attendees at 200 Winston Drive in Cliffside Park at 10:30 a.m. Lunch is not
included. For information, call Arlene at (201) 224-4105.
Tri-Boro Hadassah also sponsors a June 14 trip to a matinee performance of Swan

Lake at the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center. For information, call (201)
384-3766.
Lifeguard course in Hackensack

Judy Leffel is running an American Red Cross lifeguard course at the Y in Hackensack. The
course goes for three Sundays in February. The swim pre-test is on Tuesday, February 7,
at 9 p.m. For information, call Jeff Craven at the Y at (201) 487-6600.
Save the date for benefit ride

The Jewish Family and Childrens Services of Northern New Jersey will hold the 7th
annual Wheels-For-Meals Ride to Fight Hunger on Sunday, June 1. The ride begins and
ends at the Jewish Home at Rockleigh. Since it began, more than 1,750 people have participated, raising more than $570,000 to fight hunger in the community. For information,
call (201) 837-9090.
Yanni headed to Englewood

The Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood presents
An Evening in Conversation with Yanni and His Piano on
Wednesday, March 8, at 8 p.m. Yanni will give his fans a
unique chance to interact with him on a more intimate level
and see the creative process behind his most beloved songs.
Each show is unscripted, and will unfold differently depending on the questions that are asked.
You can buy tickets at www.ticketmaster.com or by calling
bergenPACs box office at (201) 227-1030. BergenPAC is at 30 North Van Brunt Street
in Englewood.
Jewish World
Refugee ban puts Jewish asylum seekers in limbo

several hundred thousand of them have been
year after they
offered resettlement.
submitted their
Prime Minister Justin
application for
Trudeau of Canada and
asylum in the
some lawmakers there
United States, Shahi and
suggested that their country would be willing to take
his mother expected to be
refugees affected by the
let in.
As Iranian Jews who
White House crackdown,
applied for asylum
but have presented no
through a federally recconcrete plans on how and
ognized agency for refuwhen this would be done.
gee status, their case was
Rather than encourage
expected to be simple.
other countries to take in
Shahi (not his real name)
refugees turned down by
is in his late 20s and
the United States, Hetfield
already has two sisters
fears that Trumps executive order is likelier to have
waiting for him and their
the opposite effect: Other
mother. As of now, both
countries will be less willmother and son are in a
ing to bring in refugees.
third transit country.
But the lives of Shahis
If the United States,
family were plunged into
that has led by example,
further uncertainty on Fridecides its vetting process
day, when President Donisnt safe enough, well, that
ald Trump signed an execwill have huge implications
utive order suspending the
for other countries, Hetfield said.
admission of all refugees
The fact that the order
into the United States for
Demonstrators at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York protest President Donald Trumps executive order on
came on International
four months. The order
immigration on January 28.
BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Holocaust Remembrance
also imposes a 90-day ban
Day is especially painful,
on entry visas to all citizens
This inhumane act was done in the
he added, because the international law
one of the few Jewish groups to praise the
of seven predominantly Muslim countries,
most inhumane way possible, he said,
pertaining to refugees today is a direct
executive order on refugees enthusiastiincluding Iran.
cally, hailing it for addressing notable failunderlining the outrage that brought
result of the Holocaust and the failure to
Too fearful to return to Iran, Shahi and
ings of the U.S. vetting process.
thousands of people out on Saturday to
act and protect Jews trying to leave Gerhis mother dont know whether they will
many and Austria and other places in
Deteriorating conditions in certain
protest the executive order on refugees
be eligible to enter the United States in the
war-torn Europe before and during World
countries due to war, strife, disaster, and
and Muslim countries at airports around
foreseeable future. Trump is said to be
War II.
civil unrest increase the likelihood that
the country. Many Jews participated in the
mulling suspending indefinitely the intake
Another immigration professional from
terrorists will use any means possible to
rally, and Jewish community groups have
of refugees from countries deemed of
the United States, herself a refugee from
enter the United States, Trumps execuopposed the executive order vocally.
concern. The family is also unsure about
tive order on refugees says.
the Middle East, said she believed that the
On Saturday, a federal judge in Brooklyn
how long the transit country will agree to
While it acknowledges that security vetlanguage of the executive order signals
issued a stay of removal for the estimated
continue hosting them while the United
ting for visa applicants was toughened
that when it comes to the Muslim world,
100 to 200 people detained at American
States stalls on their application.
after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the order
the Trump administration seeks to turn its
airports under Trumps order. Some of
Shahis relatives are among several
says that the shutdown is necessary to
refugee program primarily into an escape
those people are children and U.S. legal
Jewish families and several hundreds of
carry out a review to make sure the curroute for non-Muslims. She asked not to
permanent residents.
non-Jewish ones handled by HIAS, the
rent vetting tools can determine that the
be quoted by name because things are
But that was only a partial victory for
former Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, a
individual seeking the benefit is who the
too unclear right now to make an offipro-refugee activists.
135-year-old Jewish agency that assists refugees and asylum seekers. The U.S.-based
A non-Jewish family of asylum seekers
cial statement.
individual claims to be and is not a security or public-safety threat.
agency once focused on helping Jews flee
from Syria was turned back in Ukraine
She cited a passage of the executive
But Hetfield says that the vetting procepersecution in Europe, but now is workto their camp in Jordan on Jan. 27. That
order that speaks of changes, to the
ing mostly with non-Jews in 30 countries.
dure in use now is so stringent that terhappened despite the familys having
extent permitted by law, to prioritize refrorists are not going to look to the refugee
ugee claims made by individuals on the
For decades, the Department of Justice has
obtained visas on Jan. 20 to enter the
program as a way in. They are going to try
basis of religious-based persecution, prorecognized it as an immigration facilitator.
United States as refugees following a
vided that the religion of the individual is a
a less intrusive method. We dont have any
There are hundreds and hundreds of
Homeland Security Department vetting.
minority religion in the individuals counworries about it.
people with approval notices who now
Citing Trumps order, airline officials did
try of nationality.
Hetfield could not provide figures for
cant come to the States, the groups CEO,
not let the family a mother and two
But thats not a good thing for religious
how often asylum seekers are denied visas
Mark Hetfield, said on Sunday.
daughters, 5 and 8 years old fly to the
minorities in Iran and elsewhere, the profor security reasons. Thats in part because
Of the approximately 85,000 refugees
United States, Hetfield said.
The mother and her daughters are seekfessional said.
Homeland Security neither specifies its
admitted into the United States last year,
ing to reunite with the girls father, who
Just as Iranian Jews have long been
reason for turning down applications nor
HIAS was responsible for resettling 3,884.
already is in Connecticut. They were let
flagged as a fifth column because they
offers any recourse for appealing it.
That includes 159 Jews, among them 89
back into Jordan, but in such cases, there
are welcome to resettle in Israel, now the
Whereas the United Nations estimates
from Iran and several others from Yemen.
is a risk that people who leave to become
same will happen to all the other memthat there are about 1 million people
Hetfield said that some of the families
bers of religious minorities in the region,
refugees in the United States will not be let
who meet its definition of a refugee
HIAS processed already had received a refugee visa but were turned away at airports
she said.
back in, or worse, Hetfield added.
not including Palestinians, who have a

JTA WIRE SERVICE
while trying to enter the country.
The Zionist Organization of America was
different refugee classification only
CNAAN LIPHSHIZ
Obituaries
Celia Altman
Celia Altman of New Milford died January 25.

She was a member of
the JCC of Paramus, a former member of the New
Milford Jewish Center and
the YJCC, and a life member of Hadassah.
Predeceased by her
husband of 55 years,
Lester, she is survived by
sons, Jeffrey (Denise), and
Larry (Susan); and three
grandchildren.
Donations can be made
to Temple Avodat Shalom, River Edge, or New
Jersey Sharing Network.
Arrangements were by
Louis Suburban Chapel,
Fair Lawn.
Steven Cohen
Steven P. Cohen, 71, of

Teaneck, died January 25.
See related story on
page 10.
He is survived by his
wife, Elaine, ne Shuzgal;
daughters, Rabbi Tamara
Ruth Cohen, Rabbi Ayelet
Sonya Cohen, and Maya
Orli Cohen; a brother, Professor Richard I. Cohen
of the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem; and five
grandchildren.
Arrangements were
by Gutterman Musicant
Jewish Funeral Directors,
Hackensack.
Ruthie Green
Ruthie Green, ne
Grosser, 72, of Wanaque,
formerly of Elmwood
Park, Fair Lawn, and
Pennsylvania, died January 26.
She worked for the Passaic County Department
of Youth and Family Services for 28 years.
Predeceased by her
husband, Clarence, she is
survived by children, Martin Levine, Sheri LevineShea ( Jim Shea), and Cari
Levine-Surace (Raymond
Surace); siblings, Eddie
Grosser (Eileen) and Anita
Fischer (Ted); and two
grandchildren.
Donations can be sent
to the Carcinoid Foundation or the Chai Center
for Jewish Life, Watchung.
Louis Suburban Chapel,
Fair Lawn.
Dr. Gerson
Grodberg
Dr. Gerson Grodberg of

Tappan, N.Y., 82, died
January
26. He was an oncologist/internist at Englewood Hospital and
Medical Center and a past
president of the Bergen
County Medical Society.
He is survived by his
wife, Arlene, ne Shrater;
children, Dr. Michelle of
New York City, Andrea of
Brooklyn, Jennifer of Colorado, and David of New
Haven, Conn.; brother,
Ira; sister, Rachel Brand;
and six grandchildren.
Eden Memorial Chapels,
Fort Lee.
Marcia LaPoff
Marcia Ellen LaPoff, 89,

of Paramus, formerly of
Monroe Township, died
January 30.
She was a Syracuse

University graduate,
attended the University of
Pennsylvania, and was a
lifelong supporter of Jewish organizations.
She is survived by her
husband of 65 years,
Norman; children, Cathy
Goldman (Bruce), and
Michael (Nancy); a sister,
Carole Schwartz of Israel;
grandchildren, Jeremy
Goldman (Amanda), Dr.
Samantha Goldman,
Rachel Heitin (Simon),
and Paul; and two
great-granddaughters.
Donations can be made
to the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum, American Refugee Committee,
or the Foundation for the
Benefit of the Holocaust
Victims in Israel. Arrangements were by Robert
Schoems Menorah Chapel, Paramus.
Obituaries are prepared with

information provided by funeral homes.
Correcting errors is the responsibility
of the funeral home.
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Seth Gribetz, President
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Gallery
3
n 1 Several staff members and
residents from the Jewish Home
at Rockleigh visited the Luther
Lee Emerson School in Demarest
last week. It was part of a Kids4Caring program during a school
Career Day event. The children
will attend the residents upcoming production of the Sound of
Music at the Jewish Home.
COURTESY JEWISH HOME FAMILY
n 2 Temple Israel & JCC in Ridgewoods third annual Cabaret

Night, held on January 21, included performances by the
Barnert Brass, made up of members of Barnert Temple in Franklin Lakes; singer/songwriter
Ariana Gates of Fair Lawn, the
Ridgewood Bollywood Dancers,
shown here; classic rock by
Macaroon 5 of the Glen Rock
Jewish Center; the North Jersey
Choral Society Vocal Ensemble;
storyteller Pam Grant, and the
folk/rock band Di Fir Kashes,
with members of Temple Israel.
JO ROSEN PHOTOGRAPHY
n 3 Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner

joins Solomon Schechter Day
School second graders from
Temple Emanu-El of Closter and
friends at their Chumash
ceremony. COURTESY EMANU-EL
5
n 4 Third and fourth graders from the religious school at Temple
Beth Tikvah in Wayne recently led kabbalat Shabbat services. They
sang with Rabbi Meeka Simerly and participated in a question and
answer session about Israel. COURTESY TBT
n 5 More than 80 participants enjoyed Jewish Mindfulness and

Meditation with Rabbi Dr. Laibl Wolf of Melbourne, Australia, hosted by Lubavitch on the Palisades in Tenafly. Here, Dr. Wolf leads participants in mindfulness with a deep-breathing exercise. A recording
is available at www.chabadlubavitch.org/laiblwolf. COURTESY LOTP
Real Estate & Business

Jewish Home to host
Parkinsons support group
A monthly Parkinsons support group will meet Thursday,
February 16, at the Jewish Home in Rockleigh. The program is free and open to all.
It will begin with chair yoga at 10 a.m., followed at 10:30
by a presentation on adaptive equipment possibilities
by Karen McElroy, an occupational therapist.
The Jewish Home is located at 10 Link Drive in Rockleigh.
TM
OLD TAPPAN SENSATIONAL

Yoga at the Gallen Center
Jewish Home unveils specialized

programs at Gallen Day Center
The Gallen Day Center, the Jewish Home Familys
daytime medical program for seniors, has unveiled
enhanced programming, expanded transportation,
and specialized tracks for those with Alzheimers,
Parkinsons, and neurological movement disorders.
The Gallen Center is a critical part of our suite
of Jewish Home at Home community services, says
Jewish Home Family President and CEO Carol Silver
Elliott. By offering stimulating programs tailored to
the individual needs of our members, we are enabling
people to stay in their homes while thriving in a social
environment with full medical capabilities.
The program runs from Monday through Friday
from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with door-to-door transportation included, as well as nutritious hot meals. Participants are picked up and dropped off at their homes
throughout Bergen and Rockland counties. Jewish
Home at Homes @HomeCare private duty aides are
also available to help with getting ready and winding
down before and after the program.
Gallen Day Center offers a sense of purpose and
structure to the lives of older adults with functional
and/or cognitive impairments, explains Gallen Center Director Susan Lilly. They socialize with peers
and enjoy therapeutic activities. Nursing and social
work services are provided. Due to its location, we
offer on-site medical services such as dentistry, podiatry, and rehab therapies plus beauty salon services.
It is like one stop shopping to make life easier for a
family caregiver.
The program accepts New Jersey Medicaid as well
as private payment. Additionally, there are several
types of grants available, including for veterans and
Alzheimers-related diagnoses. Call (201) 750-4238 or
email gallen@jewishhomefamily.org for more information. Mention this article for a free day for you or a
loved one to see what Gallen is all about.
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Jewish standard FeBrUarY 3, 2017 45
Real Estate & Business

New Jersey Realtors names Robert Oppenheimer of Cliffside Park as its 2017 president
New Jersey Realtors, the trade association serving more than 48,000 members,
named Robert Oppenheimer of Cliffside
Park president for 2017 during the Centennial Gala and Presidents Installation at its
annual Realtor Triple Play Convention on
December 6 in Atlantic City.
Also installed were president-elect
Christian Schlueter of Lacey; first vice
president Ilene Horowitz of Rockaway;
treasurer Jeffrey Jones, of Parsippany, and
Tg Glazer of Westfield, who will serve as
immediate past president. Oppenheimer
is the only Bergen County broker on the
state association leadership team.
It is a huge honor to serve as president
during New Jersey Realtors centennial year,
and I appreciate your confidence and support as I lead the association, Oppenheimer
said during the installation.

Committee (both as vice chair).
Among Oppenheimers goals
In 2014 and 2015 he was
is to advocate for private propon the Federal Financing and
erty rights and helping to protect
Housing Policy Committee and
home ownership. Home ownerCertified International Property
ship is the foundation of strong
Specialist Advisory Board .
communities and realtors are a
On the local level, he served
Robert
key entity in helping neighboras president of the Eastern BerOppenheimer
hoods prosper.
gen County Board of Realtors
Oppenheimer is the broker/
for four years and was named
owner of RE/MAX Fortune Properties in
their 2010 Realtor of the Year.
Englewood Cliffs and has been a realtor
Additionally he has served as a director
since 1986. He served as president-elect
for the New Jersey Multiple Listing Service.
in 2016 and first vice president in 2015 for
Oppenheimer is a graduate of New York
New Jersey Realtors. Oppenheimer has
University and has earned three realtor
also served in numerous chair and comdesignations; The Accredited Buyers Repmittee positions for the association, includresentative, Certified Residential Specialing the Risk Management and License Law
ist, and the Certified International Property Specialist.
Committee and Legislative/Political Affairs
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46 Jewish Standard FEBRUARY 3, 2017
He has consistently been a top producer in sales and rentals attaining RE/
MAX Platinum awards, Hall of Fame
Award, and Lifetime Achievement
Award, as well as the Distinguished Service Award considered the highest honor
a RE/MAX associate can attain.
New Jersey Realtors, the voice of real
estate for New Jersey for 100 years, is a
nonprofit organization serving the professional needs of more than 48,000 realtor
and realtor-associate members engaged in
all facets of the real estate business. New
Jersey Realtors is also dedicated to enhancing the ability of its members to conduct
their business successfully while maintaining the preservation of private property rights. For more information, visit
njrealtor.com.
Black Box presents Cloud 9

The Black Box Performing Arts Center presents a new production of Caryl
Churchills Cloud 9 in the heart of
Teaneck.
This new production of Cloud 9 is
directed by BBPAC Artistic Director Matt
Okin and produced by Huey Esquire and
Black Box Studios.
Cloud 9 will play four weekends, from
Thursday, February 9, through Saturday,
March 4, at Teanecks Black Box Performing Arts Center.
Cloud 9 created a sensation with its
1981 Off-Broadway premiere, directed
by Tommy Tune. Originally both parody and spoof of the Victorian Empire
and its rigid attitudes, especially toward
sex, the piece takes on new meaning in
todays interconnected world. In Act
One, there is Clive, a British functionary; his wife Betty (played by a man);
their daughter Victoria (a rag doll);
Clives friend Harry, an explorer; Mrs.
Saunders, who runs about dressed in a
riding habit; Clives son Edward, who
still plays with dolls and is played by a
woman; and Joshua, a native servant
who knows exactly what is really going
on. What really is going on is a marvelous send-up and a non-stop roundrobin of sexual liaisons. The second
act shifts to London in 1979, but for the

surviving characters it is only twentyfive years later, and all those repressed
sexual longings have evaporated along
with the Empire.
Cloud 9 plays the following 12-performance schedule:
Thursday, February 9, 8 p.m.
Friday, February 10, 8 p.m.
Saturday, February 11, 8 p.m.
Thursday, March 2, 8 p.m.
Friday, March 3, 8 p.m.
Saturday, March 4, 8 p.m.
Tickets are $20 ($18 for students/
seniors) and are available at www.blackboxpac.com/cloud.
Black Box Performing Arts Center is
located at 200 Walraven Drive, just off
Palisade Ave., Teaneck, NJ 07666 (GPS:
290 Walraven Drive).
Advisory: Due to graphic language and
content, viewer discretion is advised for
Cloud 9.
Sign up for the

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Visit www.thejewishstandard.com
and click on SUBSCRIBE TO THE DAILY
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Jewish Standard FEBRUARY 3, 2017 47

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TEANECK RALLIES FOR IMMIGRANTS page 6

THE FRUITY TASTE OF TORAH page 8

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2 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 3, 2017

Tweet me the St. Louis

the United States to let the refugees

Thousands of demonstrators including many Jews

Jewish Mindfulness in Chicago.

Candlelighting: Friday, February 3, 4:58 p.m.

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JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 3, 2017 3

I wanted to take the risk because I was

Oy, coulda been

but reviews say that the

in Chicago. He convinces the mayor and city

appeared in the first 50

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

himself Jewish, hes

USA Today article that

California-based Nate Bloom can be reached at

to our Volunteers, Participants

Congregation Bnai Israel

Its not too late

OF NORTHERN NEW JERSEY

t was very short notice.

the rabbi of Congregation Netivot Shalom,

school there, and she has chosen the same

and welcoming people here is part of what

about who we let into the country, but

Not only is Mr. Trumps policy misguided

Serving the Jewish community

All certified home health aides

This year, the taste of Torah is fruity

he taste of Torah doesnt get

Stewards of Creation: How Genesis 1

[The class] offers

A packed classroom at last years Sweet Taste of Torah

resemble men and men resemble trees,

for Jewish Religion who is the rabbinic

Save the Date

We can never obtain peace in the outer world

You are not alone.

NEW! Welcome to the

JCC on the Palisades

Project Cares: Babysitting 101 and

Book Study Group:

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A daily program for active seniors providing light

Find support and friendship in our new playgroup!

Mon, Feb 13, 7:30 pm, $7/$10 ($24/$35 series)

Participation is FREE. Suggested daily donation for