New Jersey Jewish News June 18, 2021 Flipbook PDF

New Jersey Jewish News June 18, 2021

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H EA LT H IN Y T LI HIS V I IN SS G UE & SE N IO R S

JUNE 18, 2021 VOL. LXXV NO. 39 $1.00

NEW JERSEY

JEWISH NEWS

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Israeli McDonald’s takes the pita plunge l Starting next month, McDonald’s will be a bit more an Israeli kind of place, the Israeli branch of the global burger chain announced last week. It will sell a selection of fast food dishes in pita bread. The McKebab and McFalafel — both will include tahini, lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles — will become regulars on the new menu. A crispy chicken serving also will be available in pita bread. Those hoping to taste a burger in a pita will be disap-

Candlelighting: Friday, June 18 - 8:13 p.m. Shabbat ends: Saturday, June 19 - 9:22 p.m. Find us on the web at njjewishnews.timesofisrael.com

pointed, however. That particular combination will not be offered. Though the pitas will be a first, McDonald’s did try selling falafel and kebabs around 10 years ago, served up in a tortilla. The chain said that this time around it will use an improved recipe for its falafel. The McDonald’s restaurant chain is the largest fastfood chain in Israel, with 210 branches across the TIMES OF ISRAEL country. Some of them are kosher.

Preserved in poop l Archaeologists discovered an extremely rare 1,000-year-old chicken egg during recent excavations in the central town of Yavne, the Israel Antiquities Authority said. It was almost fully intact. It was found during the excavation of an ancient Islamic-era cesspit. According to the IAA’s press release, the archaeologists were shocked to discover the fragile ancient chicken egg, which was perfectly preserved a millennium ago because it had been pillowed in soft human poop. Alla Nagorsky, an archaeologist with IAA, said that “even today, eggs rarely survive for long in supermarket cartons. It’s amazing to think this is a 1,000-yearold find!” She added that “the egg’s unique preservation is

evidently due to the conditions in which it lay for centuries, nestled in a cesspit containing soft human waste that preserved it.” “Eggshell fragments are known from earlier periods, for example in the City of David and at Caesarea and Apollonia, but due to the eggs’ fragile shells, hardly any whole chicken eggs have been preserved,” an IAA statement said. “In archaeological digs, we occasionally find ancient ostrich eggs, whose thicker shells preserve them intact.” This egg wasn’t quite intact, however. Instead, it “had a small crack in the bottom so most of the contents had leaked out of it,” the statement continued. “Only some of the yolk remained, which was preserved for future DNA analysis.” AMY SPIRO/TIMES OF ISRAEL 

This is the egg that archeologists discovered in an ancient cesspool in Israel. DAFNA GAZIT/ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY

NEW JERSEYJEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021 3

Noshes

“Jews from all streams, Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox, are our family. And family is always the most important relationship, and the one that needs to be worked on more than any other.”

A movie Weinstein won’t like; Jake Tapper; U.S. Open It was just announced that Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan will star in an upcoming film called “She Said.” They will play, respectively, Megan Twohey and JODI KANTOR, the N.Y. Times reporters who uncovered the HARVEY WEINSTEIN scandal. The film is based on Kantor and Twohey’s 2019 book, “She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement.” Kantor, 46, and Twohey won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2017 for exposing Weinstein’s conduct. When the “She Said” book came out, I wrote that Kantor said this in 2017: “I grew up around people with numbers on their arms — my grandparents are Holocaust survivors. It led me to think about the big questions we often ask in investigative journalism: ‘How could something like this have gone on? What allowed this

to happen?’” “Hellfire Club,” the first novel by CNN anchor JAKE TAPPER, came out in 2018. It got great reviews and sold well. It’s a page-turner, a thriller about a freshman Congressman, Charles Marder, who uncovers corruption during the height of the ’50s McCarthy era. Tapper’s new novel, “The Devil Will Dance,” has just been released; with Marder again a central character. In 1961, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy assigns Marder to investigate whether Frank Sinatra has Mafia ties. Along the way, Marder meets Sinatra’s Rat Pack — Dean Martin, SAMMY DAVIS Jr., Peter Lawford, and JOEY BISHOP. On May 17, Seth Meyers talked to Tapper, 51, about his book. He asked Tapper, “Who are you in the CNN Rat Pack? Are you the Sinatra? Or Dean?” Tapper replied, “I am kind of the Joey Bishop.

— Yair Lapid, Israel’s new alternative prime minister and minister of foreign affairs

Jodi Kantor

Jake Tapper

The funny Jewish guy who goes home to his wife at the end of the day. The sweet family man.” (Video on YouTube.) Meyer laughed and said, “We kind of figured that.” Earlier in the same video segment, they agreed that HENRY WINKLER, 75, is the “nicest man alive.” A Philadelphia Phillies baseball cap was visible behind Tapper a Phillie native, who explained that Winkler found out that he was a Phillies fan. So he mailed Tapper a signed cap that the late Tug McGraw, a Phillies’ star pitcher, had given him.

All this month, there will be extensive NBC coverage of the various qualifying events for the American team at the Tokyo Summer Olympics. The games are scheduled to begin on July 23. After the qualifiers are over, I will work with my friends at Jewish Sports Review magazine, and others, to vet the Olympic teams from any country and find out who the Jewish athletes are. I hope to provide an almost complete list by the time the games begin. Vetting can be tough. Athletes in socalled minor sports, like fencing and sailing, rarely have much

biographical info available. But they can win medals, too, and sometimes give us a reason to kvell. In the last 20 years, two Jews — a man and a woman — won gold medals in fencing and two other Jews — again a man and woman — won gold medals in sailing. The US. Open golf tournament, a fourround biggie, which begins on Thursday, June 17, and continues every day through June 20, will be on NBC’s Golf Channel. Check listings for exact coverage times. Two Jewish golfers have qualified for the Open: DANIEL BERGER, 28, and MAX HOMA, 30. Berger, who grew up in Florida, is the son of JAY BERGER, 54, and his wife, NADIA BERGER. Jay, now a tennis coach, was a top pro tennis player, and was ranked seventh in the world in 1990. Daniel was so good that he

California-based Nate Bloom can be reached at [email protected]

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turned pro at 20. Highlights of his pro career include being named PGA Rookie of the Year in 2015, winning his first PGA title in 2016, winning the 2020 Charles Schwab Challenge ($1.3M for first place), and winning the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach tournament. He earned $1.4M for that win. Homa, a California native, grew up in a Jewish home, went to Hebrew school, and was a bar mitzvah. He joined the pro tour in 2013. You have to call him a comeback kid. He was dropped from the PGA tour in 2017 due to many poor scores, but he did well enough in qualifying events to regain his PGA card in 2019 and went on to win his first PGA tournament that year. Last February, he won the Genesis Invitational/AKA the Los Angeles Open ($1.675M for –N.B. first).

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Members of the Greater MetroWest Solidarity Mission to Israel, which was in the country June 7 to 10, visited an Iron Dome battery near Sderot. SHACHAR SABAG

‘People think it’s checkers but it’s 3D chess’ MetroWest federation goes to Israel in the wake of the Gaza hostilities ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN

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6 NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021

COURTESY OF LESLIE DANNIN ROSENTHAL

COURTESY OF LESLIE DANNIN ROSENTHAL

ess than three full days passed from the time 25 members of the Greater MetroWest Solidarity Mission to Israel touched down at Ben-Gurion International Airport on the morning of June 7 until they headed back to Newark Liberty International Airport on the night of June 9. Yet the short visit left a strong impact on the group of Conservative, Orthodox, and Reform rabbis and cantors, and Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest and community lay leaders. Dov Ben-Shimon, the federation’s chief executive officer, said participants came bearing “a message of love and support and partnership from our Greater MetroWest Jewish community to the people of Israel.” “This wasn’t a trip,” he added. “It was a Michal Zur, the assistant director of Global mission in the best sense of the word — a Connections in Israel for the Jewish FederaDovid, a 85-year-old former tank commander and veteran of five sense of commitment, solidarity, community, and discovery.” tion of Greater MetroWest, lives on Kibbutz wars, talked about his fears for his neighbors because of the rockErez near the Gaza border. et attacks in Ashkelon. The packed itinerary included face time with residents of Ashkelon, where as a former tank commander and still retains a military “When they opened the iron door of the bomb shelter, 960 rockets fired by Hamas from Gaza wreaked bearing, she said. they found him injured but alive,” Ms. Dannin Rosendestruction between May 10 and May 21. thal said. She emphasized that Ashkelon is not disputed “When he talked to us about running for the bomb Leslie Dannin Rosenthal of South Orange — a past territory; it is within the pre-1967 borders, about eight shelter in his yard, he choked up,” she recalled. “A president of the federation and a member of both miles north of the Gaza Strip. strong mountain of a man like that chokes up over havthe Jewish Federations of North America’s board of ing to be in fear in his own home and being worried Mr. Ben-Shimon noted that JFGMW — one of the largtrustees and JFNA’s National Women’s Philanthropy’s est Jewish federations in North America and the largest about his neighbor across the street.” advisory council — said that one of the most impactful in New Jersey — supports the Jewish Agency for IsraThe neighbor was an elderly man whose house was moments of the mission was meeting Dovid, 85, a longtime resident of this coastal city. He served in five wars el’s Victims of Terror Fund, which responds quickly to destroyed by a rocket while he was in his safe room.

such tragedies. But beyond monetary support, the act of coming to Ashkelon and “listening, hugging, reinforcing a message of unity and being together, is vital,” he said. The group visited one of 10 Iron Dome installations to see how soldiers operate this mobile missile defense system, which destroys approaching projectiles with a reported 90 percent success rate. “We were awed by the professionalism and dedication of the young soldiers we met there,” Mr. Ben-Shimon said. “Some of these soldiers we met come from our own Greater MetroWest communities. We have dozens of young people who are serving as lone soldiers, and our Jewish federation maintains strong connections to as many of them as we can reach. Because — and this is a fact — there are more lone soldiers from New Jersey serving in the IDF than from any other state.” They later hosted a dinner for lone soldiers from MetroWest at ANU: The Museum of the Jewish People. Another visit that left a lasting impression on mission participants was Kibbutz Erez, a Gaza border community whose security has been enhanced through a 20-year partner relationship with the federation. “The kibbutz is literally five miles from the Gaza border,” Ms. Dannin Rosenthal said. “These people don’t have 15 seconds to run for the bomb shelter. What’s worse, even though all protections have been taken against terror tunnels, they were told to stay at home with the windows and doors closed, just in case.” Nevertheless, Michal Zur, who lives in Erez and is the assistant director of JFGMW’s Global Connections in Israel, told the group that she and her family decided to stay put, and she supports the idea of building an international industrial park between the kibbutz and the border that would employ some 10,000 Gaza citizens. “Michal said it’s necessary because they want to live in peace and dignity and they know their neighbors do, too,” Ms. Dannin Rosenthal said. Matt Gewirtz, the senior rabbi of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Short Hills and president of the Coalition of Religious Leaders of the State of New Jersey, said that Ms. Zur’s attitude is “extraordinary and courageous. “Her two reasons for staying are both based on Zionism. The first is that someone has to hold the border; if people move away, there is no border. The second is that by staying she is going to ensure she lives in a shared space with the Gazans next door. She differentiates Hamas from the Palestinians who live there, people just like her, with jobs and kids. Nobody here would imagine someone like this — a person who has reason to say ‘Let’s destroy these horrible people’ — showing an incredible appreciation of the nuances.” Ms. Dannin Rosenthal said that often it’s hard for Americans to understand the complexity of Israel’s geopolitical and security situation. Thinking about it “requires more depth than liking a meme on a Facebook page,” she continued. “The facts are multidimensional. People think it’s checkers, but it’s 3D chess.” She recommended that people read articles and posts from more than one point of view, and most importantly, that they make an effort to encounter Israelis at home. The federation has a new Israel emissary, Tamar Refesh, and soon it will welcome five Israelis on their gap year between high school and military service who will work locally in public and day schools, synagogues, and youth groups through a Jewish Agency program. “The best way to understand is to talk to Israelis, and we at Federation have the capacity to introduce people,” she said. “You have to sit and talk with people who

COURTESY OF LESLIE DANNIN ROSENTHAL

Local

This shared library was created by Jewish and Arab moms in Lod.

live this every day.” Because she did not want to alarm family, she did not tell them ahead of time that the group was going to go to Lod, the mixed Arab and Jewish city that has been suffering several weeks of racially motivated violence. “In Lod, we met with an Orthodox woman named Orit,” Ms. Dannin Rosenthal said. “She and her husband moved there from a nice Tel Aviv suburb so their children would see a more diverse face of Israel. During covid, she and other Israeli Jewish and Arab women in Lod created an outdoor library with books in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, and English.” Orit is involved in JFGMW’s Shared Society initiative for its partner communities. She and an Arab friend, a Muslim teacher who works in a Jewish school, described the challenges of living in Lod to the visitors. During the riots, Orit told them, she could see that synagogue very near her home was on fire. “These two women” — Orit and her friend — “definitely have different opinions on the situation and what’s needed to fix it,” Ms. Dannin Rosenthal said. “But they were listening to each other respectfully, and they continue to meet.” This encounter and the new government coalition that was coalescing while the mission took place gave her a hopeful feeling for Israel’s future, she added. Another stop was in the mixed Arab-Jewish town of Abu Gosh west of Jerusalem. There, the New Jersey delegation visited the Hinam Center, a hub for encounters and joint studies supported by JFGMW. They spoke with Jewish, Arab, and Druze participants in Hinam’s community initiative, Leaders for Cohesive Society. The mission began with a briefing from Avi Dichter, who is a former head of the Israel Security Service — the Shin Bet — and a former minister of internal security. Mr. Ben-Shimon described Mr. Dichter as “a man with unique insights into Israel’s security from over 50 years of service. It was clear that the assumptions and expectations of macro-strategy are balanced with the very real understanding of individuals’ pain and suffering. There are no easy answers or options here. And responsible decision-making takes time and intelligence and wisdom.” Next, the group went to the Israel Police Academy to meet Deputy Police Commissioner David Bitan, “a dear friend of Greater MetroWest, and received a full

overview of the dedication, professionalism, service, and selflessness of the police force these past months,” Mr. Ben Shimon said. “We heard ‘thank you’ from everyone,” he added. “Missions and groups aren’t really back yet. And a mission from GMW showing support and solidarity really means a lot.” Rabbi Gewirtz said he came away with the feeling that “it is as important as ever that American Jews stand behind the state of Israel. We have to be utterly devoted and out loud about it. I believe that without Israel we would not have American Jewry, so for selfish and selfless reasons we have to stand four square behind Israel. We can be all over the political spectrum — but still be unified in our love and support for our homeland.” However, he added, “There are complications that are searing on the Jewish spirit, about sharing that space with Palestinians. We have to be open and honest about these problems, understand the history of them, and talk about them. It’s a complicated narrative and here in the United States you get very simplistic 140-character messages that don’t come close to describing the reality.” The other members of the mission, in alphabetical order, were: Gary Aidekman, a past president and current board member of JFGMW and its Jewish Community Foundation. Barbara Drench, chair of the Jewish Community Foundation’s Centennial New Century Fund. Cantor Lucy Fishbein of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Short Hills. Rabbi Erin Glazer of Temple Sinai in Summit. Jill Hirsch Kotner, a staffer for Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill. Sheri Goldberg, chair of the JFGMW Community Relations Committee; AIPAC NJ Council; NJ Zioness; and Livingston Celebrates Israel. Cantor Meredith Greenberg of Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield. Rabbi Laurence Groffman of Temple Sholom of West Essex. Kenneth Heyman, a senior vice president with UBS Financial Services in Florham Park. Lori Klinghoffer, vice chair of the United Israel Appeal. Scott Krieger, immediate past president of JFGMW. Rabbi Steven Lindemann of Temple Beth Sholom in Livingston. Rabbi Ari Lucas of Congregation Agudath Israel in Caldwell. Rabbi Rachel Marder of Congregation Beth El in South Orange. Ruth Margolin, vice president of Jewish Family Service of Central NJ and board member of JFGMW and Congregation Beth Israel of Scotch Plains. Maxine Murnick, a trustee of the Jewish Community Foundation and JFNA, and co-chair of the Centennial Targeted Gifts Campaign. Beth Rosenthal, director of Philanthropic Leadership at JFGMW. Rabbi Michael Satz of Temple B’nai Or in Morristown. James ( Jimmy) Schwarz, past president of JFGMW and Jewish Education Association of MetroWest. Rabbi Pinchas Shapiro, executive vice president of the Jewish Educational Center in Elizabeth. Rabbi Leah Sternberg of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Short Hills. Rabbi Robert Tobin of Congregation B’nai Shalom in West Orange. NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021 7

Local

Aerial view of Abu Dhabi and the Persian Gulf

New AJC office in Abu Dhabi a ‘first’ UAE warmly welcomes new venture, local leader says LOIS GOLDRICH

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he American Jewish Committee’s Global Forums often are the site of important announcements, David Levy said. “Two years ago in D.C., we saw the launch of the Congressional Caucus on Black-Jewish relations,” Rabbi Levy, the Milburn-based director of AJC New Jersey, said. Last year’s forum, which met held, announced the launch of a similar body in the Senate. “We’ve been blessed to have a number of historic events,” Rabbi Levy said. “A few years ago, in Jerusalem, the Austrian president declared that Austria’s support of Israel is a core commitment of the country.” This year’s Global Forum, held online from June 6 to June 9, did not disappoint. At that meeting, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates’ minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, enthusiastically welcomed the AJC’s announcement that it has opened an office in Abu Dhabi. “We are thrilled to have you,” Sheikh Abdullah said. “We will do anything possible to make your presence as here worthwhile. Hopefully, your presence in the UAE is part of our journey, part of changing mindsets.” Rabbi Levy, now entering his fifth year with the advocacy organization, noted that Sheikh Abdullah attributed the warming of relations between the UAE and Israel to several factors. First, the pandemic. “There is recognition that science will play a much bigger role in our thinking going forward,” Sheikh Abdullah said, as quoted in an AJC press release. “It is only possible when you have successful 8 NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021

Rabbi David Levy

Ambassador Marc Sievers

technological countries, like the UAE and Israel, in the region come together. Such a partnership was due, but covid has made us move in that direction much faster.” He said that the UAE will host World Expo Dubai in October, and more than 190 countries will participate, including Israel and the United States. It will be the first time a Muslim-majority country hosts this kind of meeting. The Abraham Accords also are influential in warming relations between the UAE and Israel, he continued. “I really hope the Abraham Accords can excite the people of the region,” he said. “This goes beyond peace. It goes to a point where we are partners in seeing a better

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan

future for our kids.” To advance Israeli-Palestinian peace “requires leadership and parties understanding what is valuable. This has been missing.” Rabbi Levy said that he hopes that next year’s forum will be back in person and once again in Washington, D.C. Generally, he said, the number of people participating in these meetings is quite high. The 2019 forum, held live, drew more than 2,000 participants. “The whole virtual platform reaches hundreds of thousands of people,” he said. “There’s a significant viewership live, then many more catch up with recordings posted after the event.” The idea of opening an office in Abu Dhabi was first broached in 2019. “We’re very excited about this,” Rabbi

Local Levy said. “It will be the first office in an Arab country of a Jewish advocacy organization. We’ve spent 25 years sending missions to the Gulf States, engaging in discussions to build relationships that would be supportive of, or meaningful to Israel and the Jewish people. “If it wasn’t for those 25 years, we’d really be hustling,” he added. “The Abraham Accords opened up a new vista and a network of relationships. Our CEO” — David Harris — “felt it was critically important to move immediately and bring an office to the area and a high-level ambassador as its director, to really be in at the ground floor.” “AJC Abu Dhabi is truly historic,” Mr. Harris said in a press release. “It will enable AJC to expand on our decades of bridge-building in the region and create a wider network of stakeholders in the new relationships made possible by the Abraham Accords.” The office — its full name is AJC Abu Dhabi: The Sidney Lerner Center for Arab-Jewish Understanding — now is open for business, with Ambassador Marc Sievers as its director. Ambassador Sievers, who recently retired after 38 years in the U.S. foreign service, served in 12 posts in 10 countries, including in Rabat, Ankara, Algiers, Cairo, Riyadh, Tel Aviv, Baghdad, and Muscat. Most recently, until November 2019, he was ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman. Rabbi Levy called Mr. Harris a “visionary, who stepped up and said we have to be there.” He paid tribute as well to the late Sidney Lerner, whose family made a gift in his memory. Mr. Lerner was passionate about building

relationships between Israel and the Arab world, he said. “This is not just about opening an office,” Rabbi Levy said. “One of the missions of AJC is trying to promote and advance dialogue, relationships, and cooperation

One of the missions of AJC is trying to promote and advance dialogue, relationships, and cooperation between Arab and Jewish communities, Muslim and Jewish communities. between Arab and Jewish communities, Muslim and Jewish communities.” Years ago, he said, AJC launched online videos in Arabic, called “An al-Yahud,” explaining Judaism to Arabs and Muslims, with the goal of building understanding and showing why Israel matters so much to Jews.

There a Jewish community in Abu Dhabi, and a rabbi visits “pretty regularly,” he added. Over the last six months, Rabbi Levy has been joining them online for Shabbat services. “They’re mostly expats,” he said. “It’s a lovely little Jewish community.” The AJC prides itself on connecting with leaders in all walks of society — political, civil, and business — “doing direct advocacy with those who matter most,” Rabbi Levy said. It also is concerned with combating anti-Semitism, “in having a voice in combating tropes we’ve seen there,” in Abu Dhabi. “We need to get out the understanding of who the Jewish people are.” While the pandemic has been a factor in drawing countries closer to Israel – “It has attracted other countries, seeing how well Israel has done” – it also has presented a challenge to AJC, “which thrives on traveling the world.” Still, “we pivoted to technology to continue that advocacy and have not slowed it down,” he said. “We didn’t close up our tents.” Asked whether he thinks opening the new office will further the cause of peace, Rabbi Levy said, “I can’t help but believe that building relationships with other countries in the region, and encouraging better relations with Israel, will further cause of peace. The UAE government has warmly welcomed AJC. “They understand us as a great partner in building relationships.”

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Developing an eye Israeli museum’s Jewish Lens teen competition winner is from northern New Jersey JOANNE PALMER

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here’s a sort-of-new, sort-ofnot-so-new museum in Tel Aviv. The newly opened Anu — Museum of the Jewish People kept the second part of its name, the part after the hyphen, but Anu, which means “we,” replaces Beit Hatfutshot, which means “diaspora House” and admittedly is a mouthful. The museum bills itself as “the world’s only museum dedicated to celebrating and exploring the experiences, accomplishments and spirit of the Jewish people from biblical times to the present.” It’s technologically advanced, definitionally ambitious, includes genealogy databases searchable from home, and is newly open to visitors. The museum just held a competition for teenaged photographers called Jewish Lens. It was open to students from around the world; its theme was “My Connection to the Jewish People”; and it was judged by a well-known, American-trained Israeli photographer, Zion Ozeri. More than 2,000 young photographers from more than 30 countries submitted their work. Twenty of them won. Six of them are from the United States. One of those six is from New Jersey. She’s Maya Blau, who lives in Maplewood and is in sixth grade at the Golda Och Academy in West Orange. Maya’s win fits into the larger context of Anu’s focus on the interconnectedness of the Jewish people across time and space. Her grandfather, Larry Blau, also is a photographer; Maya’s talent is innate, Mr. Blau said, but he enjoys nurturing it. Both of them see their work, as a very young and a not-so-young photographer, as linking them to each other, to what they see and how they see it, and, not incidentally, to the Jewish people. The photograph Maya took is of a Chanukah menorah; there are two unlit candles in it, and smoke curls from the third candle, the shamash. The menorah is ringed by a bright circle of pastels. She took the photo about a week after Chanukah, Maya said, so chanukiot still were much on her mind. “I took it with my iPhone,” she said. “My grandfather just gave me a camera, though, so now I have my own camera.” The shot she sent to the competition was the result of a great deal of thought, experimentation, and effort. “It has a dark background,” Maya said. “I took a blue folder and put it in

This is the award-winning photo that Maya Blau took.

as background. My family has multiple menorahs, but I used this one because it’s my family’s travel menorah. We’ve been in Colombia with it, and a bunch of other places. It’s small, and easy to travel with, so I used it. “I took a bunch of photos, and my nanny, Maria, helped me. I tried taking photos of the candle without lighting it, but I liked it best where there was smoke around it, because it was frozen in time. My nanny held the candle to get the smoke right. “I also put my oil pastels around it because I love art so much, and I also wanted to put those two different kinds of art” — photography and drawing — “together. And I think that they kind of add a pop to the pictures. “I took it in 2020, and 2020 and 2021 have been a really dark time. I wanted something that was happy and

10 NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021

colorful,” she said. She entered the competition with the encouragement of her teachers, her parents, Shauna Schwartz and Jonathan Blau, and her grandfather, Maya said.

“I was really excited. My dad and my grandpa both talked to me about it. My grandpa talked to me about the photography part of it, and my dad talked to me about the Jewish part.” Maplewood is a town full of artists, and Maya appreciates that. “I love it,” she said. “I love how there are a lot of people who love art and culture, which I also love. And I feel like this town is family, and everyone supports each other.” She plans to learn more about photography from her grandfather. “He loves photographing animals,” she said. “He has a bird feeder at his house, and he taught me how to take photos of birds and animals. They have a big backyard, with a bunch of flowers, so I get to photograph a bunch of things. I love taking photos there.” Larry Blau, 72, lives in Ossining, in northern Westchester County. He fell in love with photography when he was 8 years old, living in Brooklyn; he worked at it with both heart and head, but then set it aside for his career as an accountant. He picked it up again in 2004, and since then devoted at least part of his time to it. Now, though, as a prostate cancer survivor, he has decided to wind down his business and focus on his art. So far, Mr. Blau said, Maya is the only one of his eight grandchildren to be interested in photography, but then, as he pointed out, she’s the oldest, so there’s still lots of time for the others to be drawn to it as well. (Another of his grandchildren is Maya’s brother, Oren.) But Maya has something that can’t be taught, he said. He believes that the ability to see as a photographer must see has to be innate, although if you have it, it can be developed (or, of course, it can be wasted). So “I am not going to teach her about the settings on

Maya’s grandfather, Larry Blau, with an hunter and his eagle in Siberia.

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the camera, or not at first. “I’m not going to teach her about differences in aperture or shutter speed, or how to balance a photo, or any of that stuff. I want to develop her eye, because to me that’s what photography is all about. “Later I can teach her how to set a camera, but first it’s about her eye. And if you don’t have that eye, you might as well just use your cell phone. “I love photography because it slows my world down,” Mr. Blau continued. “I see things that normally I would not see. I want to teach Maya how to slow her world down. I want to teach her to have patience, and how to see the shot before it is there. “To me, that’s what photography is all about.” He’s traveled to all seven continents and taken photographs on all of them, Mr. Blau said. He loves being surrounded by nature, by foreign vistas, by deeply unfamiliar sights in novel places, but, soon after he and his wife, Maya’s grandmother Olivia, finished a photography trip to the Serengeti in northern Tanzania, the two of them found themselves in covid lockdown at home. “The pandemic made me a much better photographer,” he said. “I couldn’t put my camera away, just because I couldn’t go to these exotic locations and take pictures of lions and elephants and giraffes and those beautiful birds. So we have a summer home

in the South Fork on Long Island, and I decided that I was going to expand my creativity.” So the Blaus went out to the island’s east end, and Larry Blau spent a lot of time among seagulls. “I thought, how do you take a unique and interesting picture of a seagull, when many people take seagulls for granted? So that’s what I concentrated on, and it made me a more creative photographer. “Now, I try to get into the world of my subjects. If I see a bunch of seagulls, I will lay down on a blanket — I will have my camera with me — and the seagulls will see me and back off, but once they become used to me being in their environment, they will come closer to me. They will let me into their world. “Honestly, I believe that I have communicated with some of these birds, by having patience. By letting them get used to me. “And that’s the kind of stuff I’m concentrating on with my granddaughter. I want her to develop her eye.” This summer, grandfather and granddaughter will work together; Larry plans to help Maya develop the patience she needs to go along with the eye she was born with. “I wasn’t with her when she took the picture for Anu, but when I see pieces like that from her, it really encourages me,” he said. “She is a diamond in the rough. “She really is extraordinary.”

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Camp and shul together Beth El in South Orange, Ramah in the Berkshires hire teen programmer together JOANNE PALMER

as these children have grown, we have realized how importleepaway camp is an incredant — how essential — it is to ibly emotional experience. It keep them Jewishly engaged immerses campers and staff once they are post-b’nai mitzvah adolescents. in the world that the camp “We’ve been brainstorming creates for them. Everything seems how to do that, and we realdeeper, truer, more profound. More ized that Jewish camping world magical. is successful at engaging this Jewish camping, which intentionally surrounds campers with the meldemographic, both as campers odies, scents, shapes, textures, and and then as counselors. “And we realized that our colors of Jewish life, which engages teenagers are not here over their senses as well as their intellects, Talia Feldman Rabbi Jesse Olitzky Rabbi Ethan Linden the summer. They are at often leads to a lifelong commitment camp.” to that life. group. He went further with it than most members But camp is only two months long, at most. It’s necSo when Rabbi Olitzky put all these factors together — could; in 2002, when he lived in New Brunswick, after essary to get back to real life — to family, to school, to camp as the incubator for lifelong Jews, adolescence as working his way up in USY’s Hagalil region, he became relationships with siblings and classmates and neighthe time when that passion is most effectively engaged, bors and teachers. To the need to walk the dog and the group’s international president. He also worked at lots of adolescents in his congregation, most of them clean the cat litter. To the surrounding reality that Camp Ramah in Nyack; that’s a day camp for children away for camp during the summer — he decided to hire camp eclipses but that eventually reasserts itself. but a sleepaway camp for its young staffers. “I undera full-time teen programmer, and to talk to a colleague, Meanwhile, back in the 10-month-long real world, stand that it was youth groups and camping during his friend Rabbi Ethan Linden, the director of Camp Jewish professional and lay leaders try to figure out my own teenage that were essential to the Jew I would Ramah in the Berkshires, about how best to work with how to bring the intensity and passion of camp into become, and to the role I wanted Judaism to play in my that new staffer shul for their preteens and teenagers. They know that life,” he said. The two institutions — the Camp Ramah network is a youth groups can make a difference, but how can they So the question is how he could bring that immersive mainstay of the Conservative movement both in North make it work? engagement to his own community. America and around the world — decided to partner in Rabbi Jesse Olitzky of Congregation Beth El in South “Our synagogue has been growing for the past this new enterprise. Orange knows how important it is to establish a Jewish decade,” he said. “It’s mainly been with young famiCamp administrators talk about 10 for two, Rabbi lies, and we have put all of our efforts into that demoidentity during adolescence. “I fell in love with JudaLinden said. “We work during the other 10 months of ism when I started USY,” he said; USY — United Synagraphic.” (The “we” Rabbi Olitzky talks about is the the year for the two months of utopia at camp. gogue Youth — is the Conservative movement’s youth shul’s other clergy, professional, and lay leaders.) “But “So we decided that we should be talking about two for 10,” Rabbi Olitzky said. The two institutions are hiring a teen program coordinator who will work mostly for the shul except during camping season, when she will be at camp. “For camps, this is a great opportunity to partner with a growing synagogue in our region that is thinking outside the box about the way they want to serve their kids and teenagers,” Rabbi Linden said. And it’s a way to offer someone who’s perfect for a camp a job during the year. “That’s the beauty of it,” he said. “Most synagogues’ youth programming in on hiatus during the year.” Although most of Beth El’s teenagers go to camp, most do not go to Ramah. That’s something else that the partnership might change, although it’s far from its main goal, both rabbis agreed. “We have a shared goal of helping kids go to a Jewish summer camp, and for finding the right cap for each child,” Rabbi Olitzky said. “It’s really more about the kinds of partnerships that the Conservative movement is going to need if it’s going to thrive,” Rabbi Linden said. Jewish camping is thriving across the Jewish world, he continued. “We hear a lot about how you can bring camp to shul. Really you can’t, because the intensity of the camp experience makes that not realistic. But what you can do is bring the kinds of people who make that experience. And they’re near peers for the teens. That’s also part of the magic.” Counselors and most other staff Before covid, Rabbi Olitzky and Beth El’s USY group went to see “The Band’s Visit” on Broadway. members “are not impossibly old. They’re someone

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the camper can grow into being. “And if that counselor is someone who is excited about Shabbat or tefillah or Israel, then that’s what the camper is excited about too.” “And then they can bring back that love of Jewish community, that excitement, that energy, back to the congregation, year after year,” Rabbi Olitzky said. He has hired a teen coordinator. Talia Feldman, 22, who has just graduated from the University of Delaware, will spend this summer at Camp Ramah in the Poconos, where she was a camper, and where she’d already agreed to work. Then she’ll go to Beth El, and next summer she’ll be at Ramah Berkshires. Ms. Feldman “grew up in the Conservative movement,” she said; she lived in Princeton with her family, went to community day school, and then to the Golda

Counselors and most other staff members are not impossibly old. They’re someone the camper can grow into being. Och Academy in West Orange. She’s been involved in both the Conservative and the larger Jewish community on campus; as part of Masorti on Campus “I was part of the team that started more regular Friday night, Saturday morning, and holiday services,” and she also did a great deal with Hillel. She majored in human services, focusing on counseling, with a clinical focus that involved lots of fieldwork, and minored in Jewish studies. “I’ve always been passionate about working with children,” she said; she’s spent most summers since she aged out

as a camper working as a staff member at Ramah Poconos. Most recently, she was a rosh edah — a unit leader. She also worked for the National Ramah Commission as an intern and as a campus coordinator, bringing camp to school. Oh, and there’s more. Her parents recently moved to South Orange, and joined Beth El. All in all, “when I first heard about this job, I thought it was too good to be true,” Ms. Feldman said. “It was the best of both worlds, working with kids in a synagogue setting and still having the

camp component. I’m very passionate about camp. This is a great opportunity for me to do something a little different and still to have camp in my life. “I am hoping to really connect with the teens, in whatever way that it happens,” she continued. “It might be oneon-one, or in small groups, however it works to connect with them, and to get them more involved in the programming that we will create together. Step One is getting to know them. I don’t want to do anything that isn’t exciting to them.” There’s little more exciting than being right out of college and given the opportunity to create something new, using skills you already have and working in an area that you love. That’s what Talia Feldman is looking forward to, and what Rabbis Jesse Olitzky and Ethan Linder are thrilled to have put in motion.

NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021 13

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Oheb Shalom to officially welcome new clergy Members also will pay tribute to longtime rabbi and cantor LOIS GOLDRICH

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heb Shalom’s new cantor, Eliana Kissner, is right. In asking her how it felt to be part of an all-female clergy team, I was indeed assuming that there is a default position: male clergy. Would I be asking that kind of question to a male cantor, hired to work with a male rabbi? “We have to ask ourselves where the question is coming from,” she said. Cantor Kissner, who grew up in South Orange, graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary’s cantorial school in 2021 and knew from the start where she wanted to work. In 2019, “very pregnant” with her second child but also seeking a job, “I saw a listing for a student cantor at Oheb Shalom,” she said. With her parents living in South Orange — and therefore able to provide “built-in babysitting and food” for the weekend — she seized the opportunity. “I thought it would be supercool,” she said. While she had attended Congregation Beth-El as a child — it was “the other Conservative shul” in town, she said — she had visited Oheb Shalom Congregation often, singing in a children’s choir, tutoring youngsters in Torah trope, and “being groomed at a young age by Cantor Lippitz,” the longtime chazzan of the congregation. Indeed, she pointed out, Cantor Lippitz was recruited immediately by the synagogue upon her 1987 graduation from the Jewish Theological Seminary as one of the first two female cantors in the United States. As the cantorial intern morphs into the shul’s cantor on July 1, she comes not only with her husband, Noah Ginsburg, and their two children, daughter Ma’ayan, 3 l/2, and son Raz, 1, but with a commitment to “create a musical culture emphasizing creativity and the arts; that honors the traditional liturgy of Oheb Shalom but is not afraid to innovate and try things that seem radical and wild. “The congregation honors tradition,” she said, but with the clergy change and the pandemic experience, “they’re up for anything. There’s an openness,” which paves the way for new things, such as outdoor Jewish rituals. “I really love working with people of all ages,” she said. “I feel strongly about the empowerment of elders,” and she mentioned a book “From Age-ing to Sage-ing” by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, that discusses this issue. But she also is looking forward to working with b’nai mitzvah and participating in adult education. “My desire is to integrate people at different points of their lives with this Jewish community,” she said. In addition, she said, she brings to her position “an appreciation for different types of Jewish music” and will incorporate many styles into her services. Acknowledging that congregants have different preferences in terms of their musical aesthetic, she said her goal is to “integrate and balance.” The synagogue itself is a model of diversity, she said, “affirming and embracing different types of Jews,” whether interfaith, queer, or Jews of color. “We affirm and embrace where they are. “I’m really excited about working with Rabbi Treu,” she said. “I’ve admired her for a long time. There’s an atmosphere of collaboration and love in the clergy team.” Being part of an all-female team offers both challenges and benefits, she added, calling it exciting to be 14 NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021

Cantor Elana Kissner

Rabbi Abigail Treu

part of something that would not have been possible 30 years ago. “When Cantor Lippitz arrived, she was one of first two women to be invested as a cantor at JTS,” Cantor Kissner said. “It was a huge thing. In one generation, there’s a hugely different picture.” One challenge lies in the fact that “you want people to feel they can come to you and feel closer to you and to have models of leadership. For Jews of color, nonbinary Jews, men, to not have someone physically represent them is a challenge. You need to make sure they feel seen and affirmed. “It’s an exciting time to be a cantor,” she continued. “For a while I tried to make it as a performer, doing auditions and shows, but not enjoying it. I realized over the years that all of the things a cantor does, I love doing. It combines all of those things under one title. There’s been an evolution in the role; it’s more of a clergy, a holistic role. There’s an opportunity to do more exciting and innovative things.” On June 30, Oheb Shalom will hold a ceremony at which Rabbi Mark Cantor will pass the Torah to Rabbi Abigail Treu as she begins her spiritual leadership of the congregation. The title of the ceremony, “Dor L’Dor: Celebration of Clergy Transition,” acknowledges the importance of the event, which is being marked with “a ritual of transition.” Rabbi Cooper has been with the congregation since 1998, and soon will become its rabbi emeritus. Rabbi Treu will become the synagogue’s rabbi on July 1. She is the former director of the Center for Jewish Living and the David H. Sonabend Center for Israel at the Marlene Mayerson Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, and she spent the last year as interim rabbi at Agudas Achim Congregation in Columbus, Ohio, helping to guide it through the pandemic. Her “pandemic gig” — leading the Ohio congregation mainly over Zoom, since in-person services were shut down — “was one of the weirdest rabbi gigs ever,” she said, adding, however, that it was the situation, not the shul, that was weird. She loved the congregation. Nevertheless, from this experience, “I learned how badly we are all in need of connection,” even if it be over Zoom or by telephone, she said. And from Zoom, she learned that connection with some of the most vulnerable and isolated members of the community can be maintained, even when they cannot attend services physically. She intends to keep that in mind. Oheb Shalom describes itself as an egalitarian, inclusive, diverse, and multi-generational community. What drew Rabbi Treu here? All this plus “love,” she said. “It is the most warm and welcoming congregation.” The

weekend before we spoke, some 300 people turned out at a picnic to welcome her. And while she already knew the congregation’s reputation for warmth, “I’ve been surprised by its vibrancy, the number of involved, super-active, and committed members. And the number of programs — I’m blown away. “My role at Oheb Shalom is to bring all people together with unbounded love, energy, and creativity, to ensure that anyone who experiences our congregation feels embraced. Everyone is welcome to find a home at Oheb Shalom.” The South Orange congregation, which was founded in Newark, is more than 160 years old and serves some 350 families. “Some family members have been there for 50 years — or their whole lives,” Rabbi Treu said. As senior rabbi, Rabbi Treu will take on a mix of pastoral duties and will teach, lead services, “and walk through life with this community.” She said the intergenerational community includes a preschool, Hebrew school, young family program, and offerings for lifelong learning. It will now also include her own family — with her husband, Pavel Vaynshtok, and her three children, Jonah, Naomi, and Eloise, adding to the mix. What is her role here? “In this post-pandemic world, my goal as a spiritual leader is to help people connect again, to re-emerge, to re-embrace life in new ways,” she said. “To help people connect to one another, deepen their spiritual lives, and continue to grow the community.” Reticent about listing her own positive attributes, she said, “I have a big heart full of love for all people, for those who are still trying to figure it out, for those who love Judaism and those who don’t.” Growth occurs through connection, she said, and she will “bring love to people and help them find ways to connect.” As for being part of an all-female clergy team, Rabbi Treu said, “just as all males have to find a way to make sure women are seen and heard,” so too will her team need to do this, but in reverse. “Being a great spiritual leader does not depend on gender,” she said. “I don’t want anyone to view me as a female rabbi, but simply a rabbi who recognizes that we all hunger for connection, no matter our age, race, income, gender, marital status, denomination, or other belief system.” Rabbi Treu is looking forward to the June 30 celebration, at which the departing clergy team “will have a chance to feel the love of the community, while the community itself will be able to mark the transition to new leadership.” The fact that both of Oheb Shalom’s new clergy members are female is not an issue for synagogue president Paul Schechner. “We are delighted to welcome Rabbi Treu and Cantor Kissner following an extensive search for the most well-qualified clergy,” he said. “We chose Rabbi Treu and Cantor Kissner because both have the requisite temperament and spiritual conviction to build upon our legacy of social justice and inclusivity. “When we convened our search for new clergy, we were not seeking female clergy specifically, only a rabbi and cantor who exemplified our mission and values. We were most fortunate to find Rabbi Treu and Cantor Kissner, who so exquisitely embody the whole of the congregation’s vision for the future while remaining rooted in our Conservative faith tradition.”

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Speaking for the Jews at Rutgers Jewish federation leaders meet with university’s president LARRY YUDELSON

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t’s not every day that you get a 45 minute meeting with the president of a university, who is responsible for more than 70,000 students. But then again, it’s not every day that top leaders of such a university manage to make fools of themselves while trying simultaneously to condemn anti-Semitism and not to offend strident anti-Israel groups. That’s what the leaders of Rutgers University did last month, when they first condemned anti-Semitism, then appeared to apologize for being insensitive to Palestinians in so doing, and finally issued a statement denying that they had apologized and reiterating that “At Rutgers we believe that anti-Semitism, anti-Hinduism, Islamophobia and all forms of racism, intolerance and xenophobia are unacceptable wherever and whenever they occur.” So last Thursday, a delegation representing five New Jersey federations — Northern New Jersey; Greater MetroWest; South Jersey; Heart of New Jersey; and Somerset, Hunterdon, and Warren Counties — met with Rutgers’ President Jonathan Holloway. “It was a positive conversation,” Jason Shames, CEO of the Northern New Jersey federation, said about the meeting. “There was a bit of an apology and acknowledgment that the Rutgers processes and procedures had failed,” Mr. Shames said. “President Holloway is

new — he’s been there about a year — and for the most part has been operating remotely. He was caught off guard by how quickly things escalated and got out of hand in terms of who gets to make statements. He made a mistake and he was honest that he made a bit of a mistake. “I can’t say that he made me feel better about their perceived capitulations to Students for Justice in Palestine, which I think is like a terrorist group on campus.” The first 10 minutes of the meeting was spent discussing the statements. During the rest of the time, the Jewish representatives talked about what they saw as the problems facing Jews at Rutgers and on other campuses. “Jewish kids are being harassed and intimidated, and it’s a one-way street, and it has to stop,” Mr. Shames said he told Dr. Holloway. “You don’t see movements from the Jewish community attack Muslims and Palestinians on campus and intimidate them. The bottom line is that there is no equivalency to how the Palestinians and their supporters conduct themselves and how we Jews conduct ourselves. “To the best of my knowledge, there are no incidents of Jews on campus threatening Palestinians. You don’t see Jews throwing firecrackers or punching Palestinians. It’s time for Rutgers and the world to see that. “We talked about how we represent 500,000 Jews in the State of New Jersey, and have a vested interest in feeling Jews can attend Rutgers and not

feel they can’t wear a yarmulke or support Israel. If you want to create a campus environment where hate isn’t tolerated, Jews deserve to be at the table with every other group who is targeted. It’s no different than racism. Jews can’t be marginalized, and we don’t want to be the only ones sitting at the table talking about why we’re the target. “I would like to see the university step up. They said they were at the beginning

of their fact-finding Jewish mission tour.” That same day, Dr. Holloway visited the Rutgers Chabad House and met with its rabbis and administrators. “We agreed that the division of student affairs needed to be more invested in making sure that Jews on campus feel more welcome on campus,” Mr. Shames said. “They will follow up with new measures.” “It’s clear that President Holloway is SEE RUTGERS PAGE 26

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Around the Community Sunday  JUNE 20 Halachic epistemology: Teaneck’s Congregation Rinat Yisrael continues its online series, “Shev Shemateta 101: An Introduction to Rabbinic DecisionMaking,” as Rabbi Chaim Strauchler discusses “Halachic Epistemology: Rabbi Aryeh Leib Heller’s Explanation For How We Know What We Know.” 8 p.m. For link:rinat.org.

Tuesday  JUNE 22 World’s best short films: The Kaplen

Ron Esposito

Traveling safely: Ron Esposito, a AAA traffic safety specialist, will discuss “Traveling Safely Today” online as part of Temple Israel & JCC in Ridgewood’s ongoing lecture series. Topics include preparing for your trip, where to go, how to get there, vehicle safety, staying safe on the road, train and bus travel, domestic and international air travel, and general safety tips. 8 p.m. For link: synagogue.org/ calendar.

Wednesday  JUNE 23 Founders’ dinner: The Chabad Center of Northwest NJ in Rockaway celebrates its 33rd anniversary at the Crystal Plaza in Livingston. Jared Hutter, Judson Kleinman, and Marlene Diamond are the guests of honor. 6 p.m. OneTorahWay. org/dinner or (973) 625-1525, ext. 202.

Maya Kessler is in the front row, fourth from left, and Samantha Marshak is pictured, third from the right in the front. COURTESY ISRAEL FREE SPIRIT

Sunday 

OU’s Israel Free Spirit was first Birthright post-covid trip to Israel

JUNE 27 Learning about Seville: Moises Hassan-Amselem presents “The Jewish Footprint in Seville- A Virtual Journey” for Congregation Rinat Yisrael in Teaneck, 9:30 a.m. For link: rinat. org.

COURTESY BRIS AVROHOM

JCC on the Palisades offers “Asbury Shorts 2021,” an evening of the world’s best short films, featuring awardwinning comedy, drama, and animated films curated from the top global film festivals. In-person at

the JCC adhering to CDC guidelines, or livestreamed. Zoom link sent before the show. 7:30 p.m. To register: jccotp.org/adultcreative-arts.

Rabbi Mordechai and Shterney Kanelsky stand before the crowd.

Celebrating a milestone birthday Rabbi Mordechai Kanelsky, the executive director of Bris Avrohom, celebrated his 60th birthday with family, friends, community members, and supporters of the Russian Jewish community. He followed the advice of the Lubavitcher rebbe, who said that a birthday should be celebrated with joy and friends, and by making new resolutions growing in

Torah and mitzvot. Many of the attendees told their stories and the personal impact that Bris Avrohom and the Kanelskys have had on them. Rabbi Kanelsky gave words of Torah and asked those present to join Bris Avrohom’s newly launched mezuzah campaign, which will give 7,700 mezuzahs to 1,800 Jewish families.

16 NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021

After a year without Birthright Israel trips, which takes young adults from across North America to Israel, trips resumed. The first group arrived in Tel Aviv in late May. It was organized and operated by the Orthodox Union’s Israel Free Spirit. Maya Kessler of Scotch Plains and Samantha Marshak of Branchburg were among 17 fully vaccinated participants, who come from diverse Jewish backgrounds in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Israelis also joined the trip, to help the Americans understand life in Israel. In compliance with Israel’s covid19 border entry guidelines, each tour group was allowed a maximum of 20 participants, and each one had to be vaccinated, present negative PCR test results before flying, and undergo serological testing upon arrival in Israel. “This has been 15 months where many college students and young adults were isolated at home,” the OU’s president, Moishe Bane, said. “Combined with the recent rise in anti-Semitic attacks here in the United States, it only reinforces how vital it is for our young adults to feel connected both to each other and our homeland, which is precisely the reason this program is so essential at this time.” “In our most anxious moments, the Jewish people have turned their hearts, minds, and prayers towards Jerusalem, the city that connects us

to each other,” the OU’s executive vice president, Rabbi Moshe Hauer, said. “How apropos that now, after surviving a pandemic and as we begin to see both a frightening resurgence of anti-Semitism and challenges to the sense of the Jewish collective, these young adults will be able to feel a connection to the Jerusalem they’ve now seen from up close. “Israel Free Spirit’s trips provide unparalleled experiences that help young adults build direct connections with the land and people of Israel, thereby tying them to their heritage. These times of uncertainty have only made these trips more vital,” he added. The Orthodox Union’s Israel Free Spirit has been an official Birthright Israel trip organizer since 1999. The organization provides free trips to Israel for young Jewish adults of any background. For many, the trip is the first time they connect with Israel and their Jewish identity in a deep way. Israel Free Spirit looks forward to continuing to welcome groups throughout the summer and beyond now that Israel’s borders have opened for Birthright Israel tours. “We’re thrilled to be the first organization, and Birthright Israel group, granted entry to Israel after such a long break,” OU’s Israel Free Spirit director, Yael Tamari, said. “This trip is a gift for the participants, and our team worked hard to ensure a safe, meaningful, and fun trip for them.” Go to ou.org.

Shabbat on the beach As the sun sets over White Meadow Lake, join the White Meadow Temple in Rockaway on Fridays at 7 p.m., on June 25, July 23, and August 27 for lively Shabbat services on the beach. Bring your own chair and a

head covering, and meet the group at Beach 3 on North Lakeshore Drive. If you can’t make the service in person, you can join on Zoom. Register at whitemeadowtemple. org or call (973) 627-4500.

Around the Community Documentary on diverse communities

The Jewish Family Serof Social Work, where she vice of Central New Jersey also obtained a certificate offers a Zoom program, in aging and health. “Brain Health Basics: Tips The program is funded for Staying Sharp, Keeping by the Lavy House Senior Your Brain Fit and ReducResource Center and the ing Cognitive Decline,” Standish Foundation. on Tuesday, June 22, at Everyone who registers 11 a.m. The free proand attends will be entered Alice Greenberggram will be led by Alice for a chance to win a $25 gift Sheedy Greenberg-Sheedy, who card to Trader Joe’s. manages JFSCNJ AlzheiTo register, email info@ mer’s Disease and Related Dementia jfscentralnj.org, or call (908) 352-8375; program. Ms. Greenberg-Sheedy coma Zoom invitation will be sent the pleted the masters of social work promorning of the program. gram at the Rutgers University School

Congregation B’nai Israel in Millburn will host a discussion of the documentary film “Milwaukee 53206 – A Community Serves Time” on Sunday, June 27, at 4 p.m. It includes a Q&A session with Chad Alexander, who is featured in the film. The discussion will be held outside the front entrance of the shul, at 160 Millburn Ave. Participants also can join in on the discussion on Zoom. The screening is the first in a series of documentaries that Congregation B’nai Israel will show for its “B’Tzelem Elohim” documentary film series. The series will include documentaries and scripted stories; the goal is to encourage a better understanding of challenges of diverse communities in both the Jewish and the global context. The United States has more prisoners than any other developed nation. “Milwaukee 53206” chronicles the lives of people who live in that zip code, home to the highest percentage of incarcerated Black men in America, up to 62 percent. The film shows the daily realities of all those affected by mass incarceration in America through three 53206 residents. This screening is a part of an outreach campaign presented by Odyssey Impact, a multifaith media nonprofit that creates and implements outreach

COURTESY JFSCNJ

Brain health basics

Fleishigs turns to Milchigs In time for Shavuot, Fleishigs magazine printed its first Milchigs issue, which was its biggest issue to date. That special Shavuot issue included a simple, delicious sheet pan ravioli recipe that takes no time to throw together. Milchigs has shared that recipe with our readers. Go to fleishigs.com.

Sheet Pan Ravioli SERVES: 4-6 2 packages frozen ravioli 3 cups baby spinach 2 cups heavy cream 1 cup half and half

2 teaspoons kosher salt 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 11⁄2 to 2 cups shredded cheese 1 ⁄2 cup grated Parmesan Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Arrange spinach on a half sheet pan and top with ravioli. Whisk heavy cream, half and half, salt, garlic and black pepper; pour over the ravioli, then top with shredded cheese and grated Parmesan. Cook uncovered for 30 minutes. Serve immediately. COURTESY FLEISHIGS MAGAZINE

Local artist to exhibit in Newark Irmari Nacht of Museum, InternaEnglewood was tional Museum of among 45 ar ti sts Collage, Bowdoin selected to exhibit College, Jimmy Cartheir work at the ter Museum, CleveNewark Museum’s land Institute of Art, “2021 New Jersey Arts Rutgers University, Annual: ReVision and Yuko Nii FoundaRespond” on view to tion, Lafayette ColAugust 22. Although lege, and Yale Art Ms. Nacht creates Museum. She exhibmany book-based its nationally and artworks with Jewish internationally, and “Books136CoronaAmerica” themes, her exhibreceived two New Jerby Irmari Nacht. ited piece, “Bookssey State Council on 136CoronaAmerica,” the Arts Fellowships focuses on the coroin Sculpture. navirus and was created during the The New Jersey Arts Annual is a pandemic. unique series of exhibitions highlight“It helped me to mindlessly slice and ing the state’s visual and performing fold, do repetitive actions, and then artists. Any artist living or working in break through the symmetry with wild New Jersey is eligible to submit works slivers expressing the changing world,” to be juried. In partnership with major Ms. Nacht said. “This combination of museums around the state, one exhichaos and order kept me grounded.” bition takes place each year, alternatMs. Nacht’s art is in corporate ing between host institutions. and public collec tions includFor information, call (973) 596-6550 ing AT&T, PSE&G, ADP, Newark or go to newarkmuseumart.org.

milwaukee53206.com

campaigns for documentaries to mobilize faith leaders and change makers to address the most pressing social issues facing our world. The “Milwaukee 53206” social impact campaign aims to engage, educate, and activate audiences and build stronger foundations of support for the children, parents, and families affected by mass incarceration in communities across the country. A film link will be emailed to registrants and the film will be online through June 27. There will also be a Zoom group to watch the film on Sunday, June 20 at 4 p.m. For more information, go to cbi-nj.org.

MYX Fusion and Royal Wine team up with new products for summer After years of success with MYX Fusions Moscato and Sangria, MYX Beverage LLC has entered the leading growth category of lower-calorie and low alcohol wines. They are offering—two new high-quality wines — MYX Light Chardonnay and Light Rosé. Both offer great flavor, fewer calories, and less guilt, all packaged in convenient four-packs of cans. “Early feedback has been incredible," notes Michael Sylvester, MYX SVP of sales. "Our current wholesale partners are excited about the category of lower-calorie wines. The combination of an incredible product, our outstanding wholesaler network, and our national selling team partner, Royal Wine Corporation, should light up sales in retail." MYX Light Chardonnay is a slightly dry wine with fresh, crisp notes of apple, Romagna pear, and lemon. MYX Light Rosé is delightfully refreshing and made from Barbera grapes showcasing hints of strawberry, raspberry, and citrus. The products, all gluten-free and kosher certified, will be available on June 21. Each can, sold in four-packs, and imported from Italy, has 125 calories.

NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021 17

Cover Story

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett addresses the Knesset on Sunday. ISRAELI GOVERNMENT PRESS OFFICE

When Israel’s prime minister lived in Teaneck O

LARRY YUDELSON

n Sunday, Israel swore in its 13th prime minister — and the third to have spent formative years in the United States. Golda Meir, who led Israel from 1969 through 1974, immigrated from Kiev to Milwaukee with her family when she was 8, in 1906; she only moved to Palestine 15 years later, not long after she married Morris Meyerson. (They changed their name to Meir after they made aliyah.) Benjamin Netanyahu, whose tenure as Israel’s longest serving prime minister ended on Sunday, spent two stints of his youth — one in elementary school, one in high school — in suburban Philadelphia, while his historian father taught Jewish history at Dropsie College. (On Tuesday,

New York Review Books will publish “The Netanyahus,” a comic novel by Joshua Cohen set in 1958-59, during the family’s time in American academia.) And now there is Naftali Bennett, Israel’s latest prime minister, who lived with his family in Teaneck for two years. He was a student at the Yavneh Academy, which moved from Paterson to its current Paramus address during his time there. Mr. Bennett was born in Haifa in 1972; his parents, Jim and Myrna, made aliyah from San Francisco a month after the Six Day War in 1967. Jim Bennett found a job with Haifa’s Technion university’s fundraising team. That took him, Myrna, and their family — Naftali and his two older brothers, Asher and Daniel — back to North America for two sojourns: first to Montreal for two years, when Naftali

18 NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021

Remembering Naftali Bennett’s two years as a Jersey boy

was 4, and then to Teaneck for another two years, when Naftali was 7. In Teaneck, the family lived in a house on Sussex Road at the corner of Emerson, across the street from Murray and Batsheva Goldberg. “They became very close and dear friends of ours,” Mrs. Goldberg said. “Every trip we went on to Israel after they returned, we spent time with them. Naftali’s father is deceased, unfortunately, but his mother is still a very close friend of mine. We texted each other last night and we texted this morning.” Mrs. Goldberg remembers young Naftali as “fun loving, quick, smart, very, very friendly, fun to be with.” He and his two brothers “were in and out of our house all the time,” she said. The Goldbergs have three children. A

daughter, Daniella, was in Naftali’s grade (but not in his class or ensuing class pictures); their sons, Efrem and Judah, were younger. They all took the school bus to Yavneh together. Jim and Myrna Bennett “were remarkable people,” Mrs. Goldberg said. “Wonderful, wonderful, dear people. Very bright, very thoughtful. “The whole journey of their life has been a very remarkable and interesting one. They moved to Israel as a young couple. They did not come from an Orthodox background. Over the years they became observant. They provided a very beautiful Orthodox home for their children and a beautiful life filled with true values and meaning. They laid the groundwork for their son’s rise to where he is now.” Other people who encountered young

Cover Story

That’s Naftali Bennett on the right end of the front row of this second grade class portrait.

Naftali Bennett is the third grader slouching in a striped shirt at the center of this Yavneh Academy class photo.

Naftali Bennett during those years have less clear memories. One classmate, who prefers not to be identified, remembers him as “the fastest runner on the playground.” Another, who also didn’t want to be named, agreed that “he was a good athlete. Fast. Skinny. He integrated himself into our punchball games. “He was a very nice kid. Friendly. He wore his tzitzis hanging out.” But others who were contacted did not remember much about the classmate who joined them for two of their elementary school years. “I have absolutely no memories of him at all — it was a long time ago!” one of them said. “He was with us only for a short while until the family moved on,”c, Yavneh’s longtime principal, who now lives in Israel, said. “He was in a class of outstanding students, many of whom today are accomplished adults.” “They were unusually smart, a really bright class,” Rebecca Gordon, Yavneh’s longtime secretary said, adding that “I don’t remember Naftali Bennett at all.”

The classmates whom Naftali joined for two school years, from the fall of 1979 through the spring of 1981, include Jeremey Dauber, a Columbia University professor and author; Adam Szubin, an attorney who served as director of the federal government’s Office of Foreign Assets Control as well as acting secretary of the Treasury; and Dena Kinstlinger, a ballerina who made history as the only Sabbath-observant Jew in the New York City Ballet. The small class — a photo from 1981 that includes Naftali Bennett shows 16 students, with one not present — also includes several who ended up in Israel. One former Yavneh student who does remember Naftali is Efrem Goldberg, now the senior rabbi at the Boca Raton Synagogue in Florida. Back in February, Mr. Bennett was a guest on Rabbi Goldberg’s podcast, “Behind the Bima.” This was six weeks before the Israeli elections on March 23, the fourth in two years. That’s the electon that picked the Knesset that just this week approved the narrow coalition that chose Mr. Bennett as prime minister.

That’s Naftali Bennett partially hidden on the left; on the right, Batsheva Goldberg stands next to her son Efram and behind her son Judah. That’s the oldest Bennett son, Asher, behind her.

Daniella Goldberg (center) takes a break from a year of study in Israel to visit her former neighbor, Naftali Bennett, in uniform to her left. NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021 19

Cover Story “We had a lot of fun on the school bus directly threatened by Lebanese missile fire. to Yavneh,” Rabbi Goldberg recalled as he Now he lives with his wife, Gilat, a professional began his conversation with his former pastry chef, and their four children in the town neighbor. of Ra’anana, 10 miles north of Tel Aviv. He said his lessons from the army were: Rabbi Goldberg asked Mr. Bennett what “First thing, always be on the attack. Don’t he took away from his years in America, let up for a moment. In 1995 I think I was numboth as a child in Teaneck and later on ber one in the IDF in the number of terrorists when, beginning in 2000, he lived in Manhattan while running the high-tech startup I neutralized. We killed a lot of Hezbollah terrorists. When we came in and had massive that made him a multimillionaire. ongoing operations on the offense, they had “Being in America back in ’79 to ’81 was no time to raise their heads and think how to a meaningful experience for me,” Mr. Bennett said. “Only when I was in America did hurt us. When we cloistered and went on the I fully learn to appreciate how great it is to defensive, it only encouraged them to hurt us. be an Israeli, to have a state where everyone “It’s a paradox. The more you want to around is Jewish. It was very meaningful, defend your people, the more initiative you especially in terms of my understanding of need to take.” how important it is to have a strong Jewish He quoted the Talmud: “He who wants to identity. I missed Israel very much when I kill you, you have to precede by killing him. was in Teaneck. I’m a huge believer in that. I saw it in Lebanon.” Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, Prime A second lesson from his army days: “Always “Teaneck back then was not yet Israel,” Minister Naftali Bennett, Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar, and Transbe innovative. Always surprise. Never go the he joked. “We annexed Teaneck a few years portation Minister Merav Michaeli. straight route because they’re waiting for you. ago.” Always go the indirect way. That’s vital.” Mr. Bennett spoke about his parents’ He declined Rabbi Goldberg’s invitation to apply Israel — “and also human rights.” influence on him. “The fact that my mom and dad were olim” — immiRabbi Goldberg asked his former neighbor how Judathose lessons to his political career. “I don’t want to grants to Israel — “was profound from my perspective,” ism informed his politics. Mr. Bennett is the first Israeli compare it to Israeli politics,” he said. “While I certainly he said. “They always appreciated the fact there was prime minister to wear a yarmulke (a small one, reporthave opponents, they’re not enemies. My left-wing edly affixed to his bald head with double-sided tape). this amazing state, notwithstanding the problems they friends are not less patriotic. They’re friends. Mistaken “To be fair, people are still afraid of it,” Mr. Bennett encountered. They never kvetched about it. I never friends, but friends.” said of his religiosity. “But being a deep believer in heard any complaints about the State of Israel. They Rabbi Goldberg recalled seeing his former neighbor Torat Yisrael and am Yisrael has a huge influence on forever felt in its debt. at an AIPAC event, where his talk followed that of for“My dad, may he rest in peace, really taught us by mer Labor party leader, then Jewish Agency head, and me. I think Israel is a miracle — a divine miracle, where personal example the value of self-reliance. That was now president of Israel Isaac Herzog. “The two of you humans and God have to work together. I’m a practical one thing. were so warm in embracing each other,” despite your person. I don’t think all of it is on you, but that doesn’t “The other was to fight for what you believe in. It’s different politics, Rabbi Goldberg said. relieve you from putting in all your effort,” he said, citing Pirkei Avot 2:16. something I think they brought from America. My dad Rabbi Goldberg moved the conversation to Israel “I work really hard and put in all my neshama” — and mom grew up secular in San Francisco in the ’50s Diaspora relations. “We can’t give up on each other,” soul — “and I also know you can do everything, and and ’60s. My dad was in fact arrested at a civil rights Mr. Bennett said. then have to have bitachon” — faith — “in Hashem,” Mr. demonstration at a hotel that would not admit African He said “there’s a true chasm” between the younger Bennett continued. “It doesn’t mean it’s always okay. Americans. I’m very proud of them. generations in the two countries. “In the entire West, “My same dad went to demonstrations against” the From my perspective, bitachon means that what does the younger generation tends to be more left wing. In Oslo Accords in the 1990s, Mr. Bennett said, refuting happen is from Hashem. Here on earth we have to Israel, the younger generation is more right wing. It has “the dichotomy that if you’re right wing you can’t be work as hard as we can to build a strong Jewish state, a to do with the reality on the ground. We tried the other for civil rights. No. You can be right wing, which means strong Jewish identity, to ensure we don’t give up one way and it didn’t work. “We have to create dialogue. We should listen more eretz Yisrael, am Yisrael, Torat Yisrael” — believing in centimeter of the land of the State of Israel, to ensure than talk, which is un-Israeli. I don’t know the precise the land of Israel, the people of Israel, the Torah of our next generation understands why we’re here, to solution. All I know is that I’m not giving up. build a strong economy. Bitachon means you do what “We’re in a new era. The Holocaust cannot be the you can, but you know that the rest is from Hashem.” After returning to Haifa with his family when he defining glue of the Jewish people. The Jewish state was 9 years old, Naftali ended up attending that city’s was founded indeed because of security needs, the coincidentally named Yavneh yeshiva high school; existential needs of the Jewish people before the he was an active participant in the Bnei Akiva youth Holocaust, but Herzl’s vision was one of a survival-based Zionism. He said it’s not working out in the group. After high school he was drafted into the Israeli Diaspora; something bad is going to happen. army, where he served in the Sayeret Matkal and “But shelter, that’s not a good enough vision. If we’re Maglan commando units as a company commander. looking for safe places, I think Perth in Australia is a safe After six years in the army, he studied law at Hebrew place. I wouldn’t necessarily choose Israel. University; then he started his first company, Cyota, “So the defining mission statement of the Jewish peoand came to America for a few years. Cyota offered ple is indeed building and fixing the world. To the libservices against online banking fraud to financial eral direction? To the conservative direction? All I know institutions. It was sold in 2005 to the Israeli-founded is we need to be a beautiful state, a vibrant democracy cyber security company RSA for $145 million. Mr. Bennett’s army service, both as a commando and that connects to Jews around the world. We need to figure out the degree of mutual influence.” later as a reservist who fought during the 2006 Lebanon war, was a key part of his resume for Israeli voters. He said that if he became prime minister, he would In his conversation with Rabbi Goldberg, Mr. Bennett “have two hats.” said that when he fought Hezbollah in Lebanon, he was One is the leader of all Israeli citizens, “Jews and nonDavid Hochstein, who now lives in Bergenfield, fighting “quite literally to defend my family. Taking down Jews alike, and I’m responsible for all of them equally. this week tweeted out a recent selfie with his a rocket in Lebanon was very personal for my family,” as “I’m also the leader of all Jews around the world, former Yavneh classmate Naftali Bennett. the northern city of Haifa where his parents lived was because Israel belongs to you.” 20 NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021

Jewish World

Shira Haas gives life to a devastating illness in the decorated Israeli film ‘Asia’ Shira Haas, the Israeli actress who vaulted into superstardom with her roles in the TV series “Shtisel” and “Unorthodox,” has a track record of playing multifaceted characters. Nonetheless, she faced unprecedented challenges when making the new film “Asia,” which dominated last year’s Ophir Awards (the Israeli equivalent to the Oscars) and is seeing a U.S. release this week. In the starkly photographed, minimalist film, Haas plays Vika, a tough yet sensitive kid struggling from a degenerative neurological disease. She lives with her single mother, Asia (Alena Yiv), a free spirit, and the two women are forced to come to terms with Vika’s accelerating condition. For Haas, who was diagnosed with kidney cancer at age 2 and saw her growth stunted as a result of her chemotherapy treatments, the role presented a unique challenge. “First, I had to deal with Vika’s physical condition, which changes from scene to scene, and it had to be very specific — from the way Vika holds a cup to the way she walks,” Haas said, over the phone from her home in Tel Aviv. “Though it is never spelled out in the movie, she has ALS” — Lou Gehrig’s disease. “We consulted with a doctor throughout.” Writer-director Ruthy Pribar based the story on the prolonged death of her own sister 14 years ago, recalling her mother’s relentless, selfless devotion over that period. Pribar, who wrote the script during her own pregnancy, said she often wondered if she could measure up to her own mother when she became a mother herself. She’s not convinced women are born to be mothers. “Being a mother is a daily process,” Pribar, who put the production on hold until after she gave birth, said during a phone interview from Tel Aviv. “I have good days, but also bad days, when I think who gave me the right to be a mother?” It’s a question few other filmmaking teams are quite as equipped to deal with. “Asia” is unusual for featuring a strong female presence both behind and in front of the camera: In addition to the writer-director, the cinematographer and editor are women, too. Among the nine Ophirs awarded to the film, eight went to women, including for best picture, best actress (Yiv) and best supporting actress (Haas). Throughout much of the film, set in a bleak, working-class Jerusalem neighborhood, the Russian-born Asia speaks to Vika in Russian, while Haas responds in Hebrew. Haas translated Asia’s Russian lines into Hebrew and memorized them in order to respond spontaneously in Hebrew when Asia talks to her. Breaking down Vika’s complex emotional journey as a youngster learning to face her own inevitable death, Haas said, required some deep soul-searching. “I read Elizabeth Kübler-Ross on the five stages of grief — from negotiation to depression to anger to denial to finally acceptance,” she said. “It was

COURTESY OF MENEMSHA FILMS

SIMI HORWITZ

Israeli actresses Alena Yiv, left, and Shira Haas play a mother and daughter in “Asia,” an award-winning Israeli film about to open in the United States.

hard. Even though the film is about death and grief, it’s also about love and connection between a mother and daughter.” Early in the film, Asia, who works as a nurse, is by turns an almost indifferent mom and/or a buddy. She and her daughter are close in age and even look alike; they could be sisters. At one point they share a cigarette. Vika envies

her mother’s easy sexual encounters and is saddened at her own prospect of dying a virgin. For Yiv, playing Asia as a nontraditional mother required an imaginative leap. “Asia’s distance from Vika, especially in the beginning, was difficult for me to understand,” she said from her home in Haifa. “Still, it’s a very familiar modern story where teenagers become the parents to the parents who feel little responsibility for their children.” Like any contradictory character, Asia raises many questions. Pribar and Yiv view her through a feminist lens, insisting that she has enjoyed her life and is no victim. Despite telling her daughter that “the only good thing I ever got from a man was you,” she’s not feeling sorry for herself: The statement instead is an expression of mother-daughter bonding. And the film’s ending, without giving away any spoilers, works to reset that bond. In Haas’s words, “Vika has allowed herself to become the child.” Even in its bleakest moments, the three artists insist “Asia” is a love story and an affirmation of life. “Asia” premieres June 11 in New York, with Haas and Pribar in person at select screenings, and expands to JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY more cities on June 25.

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Commitment. Compassion. Community. NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021 21

Jewish World

After Jewish groups are left out of Blinken’s Israel briefing, the White House promises to hire a Jewish liaison RON KAMPEAS WASHINGTON — When the veteran Jewish leaders logged onto a call to hear from the secretary of state about his trip to Israel, many were surprised by the guest list. While many of the groups typically present on such calls were represented, so was an official from the Holocaust museum here. What, they thought, did he have to do with Middle East peace? They were more taken aback when they realized who was absent: representatives of the major Jewish denominations, public policy groups, and an influential Jewish women’s organization. The absences from the June 4 call with Antony Blinken was the latest incidence of what Jewish leaders privately are calling a surprising tone-deafness for an administration led by President Joe Biden, whose ties with the organized Jewish community go back decades. The misstep accelerated calls on the administration to name a White House Jewish liaison and State Department anti-Semitism monitor, two positions that have gone unfilled even as the Biden administration staffs up in other departments and responds to a spike in reports of anti-Semitic incidents. The Trump administration drew Jewish organizational complaints for never naming a Jewish liaison and for waiting two years to name an anti-Semitism monitor. Previous administrations had filled those positions at their outset. The absence from the call of the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform movements, each with deep ties to Israel and long histories of seeking to influence peacemaking in the region, particularly rankled. “I know there is not currently a State Department special envoy nor a White House Jewish liaison but nonetheless, how can that be?” an official at one of the movements said in a letter sent to the State Department official, Kara McDonald, who organized the call. “No organizations have more direct and frequent, personal and emotional contact with the Jewish community than the religious streams or movements, their rabbis and synagogues, even as we emerge from Covid,” said the letter, which the Jewish Telegraphic Agency obtained. Beyond the denominations, the other conspicuous absences were of two major public policy groups with wide constituencies — the Jewish Federations of North America and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs — and the National Council of Jewish Women. The call was off the record, and no Jewish official on or off it would comment at length on the record, not wishing to alienate the administration. But Nathan Diament, who heads the Washington office of the Orthodox Union and routinely has attended such meetings for years, offered a terse comment: “It was unfortunate.” Since the call, the White House has told Jewish groups that announcements will come soon, according to a source close to the Biden administration. Biden’s nominations have been delayed in part by the exigencies of dealing with the coronavirus and rebuilding the economy, which has been devastated by the pandemic. A White House spokesperson did not offer comment. A State Department spokesperson suggested that the department would be more comprehensive in organizing future calls. 22 NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021

In this handout image provided by the Israeli Government Press Office, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, meets in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the first leg of his four-day trip to the Middle East on May 25, 2021. HAIM ZACH/GPO VIA GETTY IMAGES

“The Department of State, including the secretary, is fully committed to continuing to hear from a wide array of voices as the department moves forward on addressing challenges in the Middle East, as well as combating the scourge of anti-Semitism at home and around the world,” the spokesperson said. “Senior department officials will continue to speak on a regular basis with a variety of stakeholders, including community and religious organizations.” An insider close to the administration said the likeliest candidate for the anti-Semitism monitor job among the 10 known in April to be in contention is Emory University historian Deborah Lipstadt. The insider listed six possible candidates for the Jewish liaison job: Andrew Dolberg, who led Jewish outreach for the Biden campaign in Florida; Dan Siegel, who had the same job in Pennsylvania; Samantha Joseph, a senior adviser for Jewish engagement to the Biden campaign; Shelley Greenspan, a State Department official who helped launch the Jewish Women for Joe group during the campaign; Gabriel Barnett, the deputy director for the Jewish campaign for the Biden campaign; and Alex Goldman, the assistant Washington director for Bend the Arc, a Jewish social justice group. Those candidates all are in their 20s and 30s. Two candidates who are more senior and have appeared on the shortlist in the past, Matt Nosanchuk, who held the role in the Obama administration, and Aaron Keyak, who led Jewish outreach for the Biden administration, are not seen as likely because the Jewish liaison position is likely not to be a senior position. No one on or off the call believed the snubs were deliberate, pointing to other recent times when groups that were excluded had been treated respectfully by the Biden administration. Jewish Federations of North America and the Orthodox Union were among five organizations that got an immediate response last month after they requested quick action from the White House

to address rising anti-Semitism amid the Gaza conflict. And a full range of organizations that deal with domestic issues were on a call last Friday — the same day as the Blinken call — with two top Justice Department civil rights officials, Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke. They said that McDonald, the deputy assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, who is directing the office of the anti-Semitism monitor until one is in place and who organized the Blinken call, simply is unfamiliar with the organized Jewish community. Insiders noted that in March, when Blinken wrote a letter to say that the Biden administration “enthusiastically” embraced a definition of anti-Semitism favored by mainstream Jewish groups, he sent it to the American Zionist Movement, an umbrella group that does not deal with anti-Semitism. That, they say, was a misstep by McDonald, who did not reply to a request for comment on how she selected who would attend the Blinken meeting. McDonald is steeped in issues of religious freedom and anti-Semitism monitoring, which is why she might have included Robert Williams, the deputy director of international affairs at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. But his participation still was considered odd by others in the group: The museum is a federally and privately supported institution, not a Jewish or pro-Israel group. Blinken spoke briefly about rising anti-Semitism at the meeting. The bad feelings undermined what participants said was an otherwise good and productive conversation: Blinken assured participants that the Biden administration would hew to strict guidelines to keep post-Gaza conflict humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians from reaching Hamas, and would maintain restrictions on aid to the Palestinian Authority as long as it subsidizes the families of convicted terrorists. SEE JEWISH LIAISON PAGE 26

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Jewish World

A Hungarian will be the German army’s first rabbi chaplain since the Holocaust CNAAN LIPHSHIZ

HENDRIK SCHMIDT/PICTURE ALLIANCE VIA GETTY IMAGES

SEBASTIAN KAHNERT/PICTURE ALLIANCE VIA GETTY IMAGES

20 pertaining to the KSK elite comtalk,’” Balla recalled. mando unit. One KSK soldier with At 12, Balla began attending the Lauder Javne Jewish The thought of leaving his native alleged far-right tendencies, a serSchool in Budapest, which had opened the previous geant major, was arrested and had Hungary to study Judaism in Beryear after decades in which such schooling was banned lin “seemed totally crazy” to Zsolt been hoarding weapons, authorunder communism. He was on the path to making ities said. The army has about Balla when he first considered it. more room in his life for Judaism. “My parents never 250,000 people, including civilian “I mean, Germany of all participated on this journey but always supported me employees. places?” he said. through it,” he said. Combating such phenomena But a decade in the country Om Yom Kippur, his father would join Balla on the and highlighting the contribution that engineered the destruction 90-minute walk to the nearest synagogue, where Balla of Jews in the armed forces are also of European Jewry has changed would spend the whole day. “Then in the evening, my part of Balla’s job, he said. him. Balla became one of the father would pick me up with the car and we went to The rabbi’s own Jewish identity first rabbis ordained there in 70 McDonald’s, where I had a chicken burger,” he recalled. was built very gradually, preparing years. Then he inspired a folAs an Orthodox rabbi, Balla now leads a fully observant lowing worldwide as he prayed him in various ways to the chaplife, he added. laincy. Balla was born in Budapest alone from his Leipzig synagogue After high school, Balla studied to become an engineer. “But I also wanted to study abroad,” he said. “And to a non-Jewish father, a senior during the pandemic. Zsolt Balla, the son of a senior one idea was to study Jewish studies in Berlin.” army officer who ran a large base, And now he has made hisofficer who discovered he was tory — he’s been tapped to be He studied Judaism From 2002 to 2009, and he was and a mother who defined herself as Jewish when he was 9, believes the first Jewish chaplain to serve ordained at the Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary. He Jewish culturally but did not practice his life experience has prepared in the German army since the met his wife, Marina, an immigrant to Germany from any religion. His late father deliberhim for the new job. ately stayed away from his son’s brit Holocaust. the former Soviet Union, and they settled in her hometown, Leipzig, where Balla became the resident Orthomilah, his ritual circumcision. Balla, 42, said the fact that the dox rabbi of its Jewish community. “My father fully supported having me circumcised, army has restored the position of Jewish military chaplain — a move that happened last year at the urging of As the son of an army officer with experience in but he had to stay away because it was 1979, Hungary Germany’s organized Jewish community — is a clear technical fields and in secular life, Balla was an obviwas still communist, and if it ever came out that a ous pick for the new position of Jewish chaplain that sign that Jews “have a future in Germany.” But he said high-ranking officer participated in such a religious rite, the German army announced in 2020 at the encourhe understands why some might find it jarring that he he would have had real problems,” Balla said. agement of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, to is working for an institution that made the Holocaust At the age of 9, Balla began developing an interest in which the Jewish Community of Leipzig belongs. He possible. Bible stories, and not knowing that he was Jewish, he will continue to serve as the rabbi at his synagogue, “I completely understand any reflex like that,” Balla told his parents he would like to go to church. IRG, on top of his army duties. Balla said he also will said. “But at the same time, it stops being so difficult “At which point my mother told me, ‘We need to remain an active member of both the Orthodox after a certain time, a certain historical distance, Rabbinical Conference of Germany and the Conafter sufficient reforms and atonement. And I ference of European Rabbis. believe the distance has been reached.” His life trajectory has prepared him for workBalla cited the emphasis on ethics education in ing with service members who are largely nonobthe German army, known since its postwar overhaul as the Bundeswehr, as important to his deciservant, he said. “I grew up watching my father sion to join. Every member of the Bundeswehr, doing whatever he needed to do for the welfare regardless of rank or assignment, receives two of the soldiers on his base,” Balla said. “And I have hours each month of ethics instruction, which made a journey. I don’t want to turn my back to Balla said was “much more than in other countries who I was before or what I used to do before. I’m a because they understood the historical weight that continuation of it. It’s an organic development. And they have to carry.” The army also cultivates “inner that’s what I’m taking with me to the office.” leadership” that soldiers are encouraged to follow In the first few months on the job, Balla will focus even when it clashes with direct orders. on establishing the infrastructure for facilitating This is important because Balla wants more GerJewish life on German bases. This includes obtainman Jews to feel comfortable joining the army, ing Torah scrolls for on-base shuls, developing holiday events and packages, and community-building which has no mandatory conscription. About 300 activities. Jews already are serving; he hopes to help them Then there’s the issue of kosher meals. make Judaism a bigger part of their lives. “There isn’t kosher food on German army bases, “There’s the symbolism of the German army and that’s going to be something we look at,” Balla once more having rabbis as chaplains, and that’s said, although he noted that right now there is no great and important,” said Balla, who was ordained demand for it. Army personnel who wish to eat as an Orthodox rabbi in Berlin in 2009. “But we’re kosher-style go for vegetarian options, and the building a Jewish chaplaincy mainly for the soldiers: those who serve now but also with an eye few who eat kosher-certified food make their own to the future. It’s like construction. First you make arrangements with the Jewish communities near apartments, then the tenants will come. It’s a gradwhere they serve. ual process.” A large part of the job will be simply to be available, Balla said. But there are forces making the German army a “I want Jewish soldiers in the German armed less welcoming place for Jews. Rabbi Zsolt Balla sings at the memorial site of the former forces to know that they have an address,” he said. Last year, Germany’s Military CounterintelliGreat Synagogue of Leipzig, Germany, on December 10, gence Service said it was working on about 600 JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY 2020. suspected cases of right-wing extremism, including 24 NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021

Jewish World FIRST PERSON

Why Benjamin Netanyahu treated the Jewish media with contempt GARY ROSENBLATT Whether this week marks the last of Benjamin Netanyahu’s record-setting tenure as prime minister or is just a prelude to another never-count-him-out comeback, it seems a fitting moment to try to understand why he has consistently treated diaspora Jewish media with disdain. It’s something I’ve experienced personally on several occasions and may well reflect the prime minister’s attitude not just toward the Jewish press but toward American Jewry in general. It seems ironic, if not baffling, that Netanyahu would be rude to the one group of journalists who are most sympathetic and accommodating. But then he is a man of many contradictions, with remarkable skills and ugly traits, towering oratory and gutter-level charges, and great success in protecting Israel from outside threats while allowing the weakening of Israeli society from within. I have interviewed the prime minister one on one in his Jerusalem office, attended a number of meetings he’s held with the press, and heard him speak many times in the United States and Israel. Perhaps the most illuminating example of his contradictory behavior dates back to a visit he made to the U.S. when he first served as prime minister, from 1996 to 1999. During that visit 25 years ago, Netanyahu’s staff scheduled back-to-back sessions for him with two separate groups of journalists in a small conference room at his Manhattan hotel. The first group consisted of about a dozen major media figures, including the network news anchors of the day and A-list reporters. The second meeting was with the same number of editors of Jewish newspapers from across the country. As editor and publisher of The Jewish Week, I was invited to the second meeting. But thanks to an influential friend at the local Israeli Consulate, I was allowed to attend the first meeting as well, though I was asked to keep a low profile. When Netanyahu walked into the room with the media notables seated around a table, he was warm, friendly and upbeat from the outset. He greeted them individually by name, shaking hands, making small talk as he moved gracefully around the room. During the session he handled questions with aplomb, on point, articulate, and used colloquial expressions

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to reporters at the Jewish Media Summit in Jerusalem on December 6, 2016. JEWISH MEDIA SUMMIT

at times — it was easy to forget that he was the leader of a foreign country. He was thoroughly charming. About 15 minutes after the meeting, while Netanyahu was taking a break, my Jewish media colleagues were ushered into the room. When we were settled in, the prime minister reentered and immediately sat down at the head of the table. No schmoozing this time. He was all business and began: “OK, ask me your questions.” A bit taken aback by the abrupt opening, the chair of our delegation asked if it would be all right for us to introduce ourselves briefly, stating our names and professional titles. Netanyahu agreed. When it was my turn, the prime minister looked closely at me and said, “You look familiar.” I said, “I was with the first group here as well.” (What I wanted to add was, “I saw how engaging and friendly you can be if you want to make the effort. What’s your problem?”) For a split second, Netanyahu seemed a bit taken aback, but he just nodded and the intros continued.

The mood of the session could not have been more different than the earlier one. Though he was in the presence of loyal, influential Zionists who treated him with great respect, the prime minister was curt, contentious and clearly couldn’t wait to be done with us. “Ask me your questions” A few years later, when I was in Israel, I was granted a one-on-one interview with Netanyahu in his Jerusalem office. I was ushered in by an aide who announced my name as I sat down in a chair facing the prime minister. He wore a leather bomber jacket and was seated at his desk, reading through a document in front of him. “Go ahead, ask me your questions,” he said without looking up. He was using a yellow outliner pen to mark his reading material. I wasn’t sure how to proceed and waited for him to make eye contact. After a moment he repeated his request. I waited again — it felt like minutes but was probably only a few seconds — before proceeding, reluctantly, with the interview. I don’t remember the details of what transpired, only that I was thrown by

Netanyahu’s rudeness, and that the agreed-on 45-minute session ended abruptly when an aide came in to announce that the prime minister was needed for a pressing matter. It seemed prearranged; the prime minister got up and followed him out of the office without a word or gesture to me. One more: Five years ago, at a Jewish media conference in Jerusalem I attended with dozens of colleagues from the U.S., Europe and South America, Netanyahu addressed our group and was ornery from the outset. His manner was challenging and dismissive, interrupting the moderator, the Forward’s Jane Eisner, and suggesting alternative topics. At one point he evaded a question about his government’s relations with American Jewry and responded, in effect, “why not ask me about Israel’s impressive dairy output?” He then waxed eloquent on the subject and had an aide display a chart on the wall with statistics about Israel’s prolific cows. “After the session ended, some of the women journalists in the room were

NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021 25

Jewish World furious, sure that he acted as he did because I was the moderator,” Eisner wrote. “I appreciated their support, but male colleagues tell me that Netanyahu can be similarly dismissive to them, too.” How does one explain this behavior? I turned to two close colleagues and veteran Bibi watchers — journalist and author Yossi Klein Halevi in Jerusalem and Mideast expert David Makovsky in Washington — and asked why they think Netanyahu treats the Jewish media so shabbily. Is it because he doesn’t respect us as journalists? Or because he believes that diaspora communities are less relevant to Israeli politics? Or neither, or both? “Bibi treats his friends worse than anyone,” Klein Halevi responded, “which is why, at the end of the day, he doesn’t have any. He takes them for granted and abuses their trust. That’s why this new government is being led, in part, by three of his former closest aides,” Naftali Bennett, Avigdor Lieberman and Gideon Saar. “The American Jewish media was simply in his pocket,” Klein Halevi continued, “or so he assumed, and he could treat them with the special contempt he reserved for those on his side.” Makovsky believes Netanyahu views the diaspora Jewish media in the larger context of his attitude toward American Jewry — seen as declining dramatically in relevance. On a practical level, he noted, diaspora Jews don’t vote in Israeli elections and so are “less central for his [Netanyahu’s] purposes to cultivate.” Similarly, the prime minister focuses mainly on Israeli media, which he views as either for him or against him, so the diaspora media is less important. The prime minister has told those who meet with him privately that with the exception of the Orthodox, “American Jews will last another generation or two … due to assimilation and low fertility rate,” Makovsky said. “This has enabled him to discount the liberal attitudes and voting trends of non-Orthodox American Jews and not think of the impact of a few of his policies on the relationship.” In addition, Netanyahu has said in private that as long as he has the support in America of evangelical Christians, who vastly outnumber Jews, and the Orthodox Jewish community, he is in good shape. We don’t know exactly what Netanyahu is going to do next. He is unlikely to go anywhere quietly. Even now, with the new “change” coalition sworn in, no one who knows Bibi Netanyahu believes that he can be counted out.

Rutgers FROM PAGE 15

very much in favor of deeper engagement with the Jewish community, which we welcome and appreciate,” Dov Ben-Shimon, CEO of the Greater MetroWest federation, said. “It’s troubling for us in the Jewish community that there are significant anti-Zionist dynamics on campus. It was very important for us that the president heard that many Jewish students are being barred from progressive spaces.” Mr. Ben-Shimon was unable to make the meeting; he was represented by Linda Scherzer, director of the federation’s Community Relations Committee, who, like one other attendee, was teleconferenced in; everyone else was there in person. “We urged President Holloway to reject any attempt to connect anti-Semitism in this country to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 3,000 miles away,” Ms. Scherzer said. “Would Rutgers qualify its support for Asian Americans because of China’s actions against the Uyghurs? Would Rutgers withhold allyship with its Muslim community because of Saudi bombings of Yemen? To create such a linkage for American Jews is

Jewish liaison FROM PAGE 22

“Good conversation with Jewish community leaders on Israel and the West Bank & Gaza,” Blinken said on Twitter after the meeting. “I reiterated [Biden’s] commitment to combat antisemitism amidst a troubling rise in incidents and that Israelis & Palestinians deserve equal measures of security, opportunity, freedom and dignity.” Blinken, who is Jewish, had a call the same day with Palestinian-American groups. “Important conversation with Palestinian-American leaders about the violence in Israel, the West Bank & Gaza,” he said on Twitter. “We are

applying a double standard not used for any other people or faraway conflict.” Meanwhile, the group of allied New Jersey federations, along with the local chapters of the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee, have collected signatures for a statement against anti-Semitism. The list of signatories is headed by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, and it includes “over 60 interfaith clergy and presidents of NAACP chapters across the state,” Ms. Scherzer said. “It’s a pretty great effort. A combined effort of all of us to reach out to our respective contacts and get their names on board. We pulled this together pretty quickly — it started maybe the week before last. “Names are still coming in— it’s a living document, people can sign on line,” she said. Only one person she reached out to refused to sign. “Often people will say, where are our partners and our allies? I think they are out there, but often they need to be asked. “We asked.”

committed to rebuilding our relationship with the Palestinian people. Israelis & Palestinians deserve equal measures of security, freedom, opportunity and dignity.” Representatives of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the Israel Policy Forum, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, Hadassah, J Street, the Jewish Democratic Council of America, the Democratic Majority for Israel, the American Jewish Congress and the World Jewish Congress, as well as the Holocaust museum, were on the Jewish call. The Presidents Conference representative, CEO William Daroff, got

the first question, and Susie Gelman, the chairwoman of the Israel Policy Forum, was next, followed by the ADL and AIPAC. The IPF is relatively small, but its posture — emphatically endorsing a two-state outcome to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while opposing conditioning defense assistance to Israel — is closest to the Biden administration’s Middle East policy. The president of J Street, Jeremy Ben-Ami, was lower down on the list. The group also backs two states, but more recently has also joined a number of lawmakers on the Democratic left who say assistance for Israel should be up for review. JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY

Federal judge throws out anti-vaccination lawsuit, calls its Nazi analogy ‘reprehensible’ RON KAMPEAS A federal judge in Houston has thrown out a lawsuit by health workers objecting to a city hospital system’s coronavirus vaccine mandate on the merits — but she couldn’t help singling out one of the arguments for special derision. In her five-page opinion on June 12, District Judge Lynn Hughes writes that the lead litigant, Jennifer Bridges, “says that the injection requirement is invalid because it violates the Nuremberg Code,” the ethical code that emerged from the trials of Nazi

JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY/ NEW YORK JEWISH WEEK

26 NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021

physicians following World War II. “She likens the threat of termination to forced medical experimentation during the Holocaust,” Hughes says in the ruling, as reported by Ars Technica. Houston Methodist Hospital is a private entity, not a government, Hughes writes, and adds: “Equating the injection requirement to medical experimentation in concentration camps is reprehensible. Nazi doctors conducted medical experiments on victims that caused pain, mutilation, permanent disability and in many cases, death.”

Bridges was joined by 116 staffers from the facility, which has a staff of 26,000, in filing the lawsuit. In a CNN interview after the ruling, Bridges said she was comparing vaccination to Nazi practices in the 1930s. Comparisons between coronavirus protections and the Holocaust have proliferated on the fringes. A Georgia Republican congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene, apologized for making a similar comparison, after she toured the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington. 

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If you looking for carePresident, for your mom or dad, you may be surprised how diffi cult itServices is to findAssociation a qualified, of NJ By:areAdam Blecker, Seniors In Place LLC; President,atHome Health professional Certified Home Health Aide. There is a reason for this – one not talked about – There is a caregiver shortage in New Jersey – more so than in most other states. And that disparity is only going to increase as more and more New Jersey elderly look for safe ways to remain in their own homes. Don’t Worry. We Can Help. President, Seniors In Place LLC; President, Home Health Services Association of NJ Even given the current situation, Seniors In Place can still build you a bridge between your caregiving needs and the right caregiver. Here’s why: We are the largest, independent, private duty, • Because we have been in business for more than 20 years health care service firm in the state of New Jersey • Because we have loyal, well-trained, Certified employees who have a part our family for In many years • been In 2018 andof2019, Seniors Place was honored as New Jersey’s Family Business of fit • Because we have carefully selected, trained, and know each employee, and understand where they would best the Year Finalist out of 400 candidates • Because we are excellent at “building bridges to care” and finding the right person with the right chemistry to care • We are Accredited with Distinction by The for your family Commission on Accreditation for Home largest body in the If you need care for your lovedCare, one,thetalk toaccrediting us. state of New Jersey • caregivers are ourprivate employees, NOT We are the largest,Ourindependent, duty, independent contractors. They are statePlease call 973-376-1600 health care service firm in the state of New Jersey certified, insured, receive benefits, and are PRESS 1 FOR URGENT CARE • In 2018 andtrained 2019, In Place andSeniors regularly evaluated in was our stateSeniors In Place is: of-the-art continuing education center of honored as New Jersey’s Family Business • The #1 in-home and in-facility care agency in the state of NewIfJersey you are worried about your mom or dad, let our the Yearfamily Finalist out of 400 candidates • New Jersey’s largest, independent, family-run, private duty health care service firm help your family. We are Accredited with Distinction by The • Accredited with Distinction by The Commission•on Accreditation for Home Care, the largest accrediting body in New Jersey – years 2019, 2020, and on 2021 Commission Accreditation for Home • Proud of our caregivers, all of whom are state-certified, insured, benefi ts, Care, the receive largest accrediting body in the are provided continuing education, and are regularly tested in our own COVID-19 state of New Jersey testing center • Our caregivers are ourAdam employees, NOT Blecker, We are on call 24/7 and can help you find exactly the right care for your senior Mia Kebea, independent contractors. They are stateloved one.

with SENIORS IN PLACE

cker,

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Chad Blecker,

certified, insured, receive benefits, and are Richard Blecker trained and regularly evaluated in our stateBlecker, President; education center of-the-artAdam continuing Mia Kebea, Vice President, If you are worried aboutChad your mom or our dad,family let ourcare "Let Case Management; Blecker, Vice President, family help your family. for your family" Business Development; Richard Blecker, Chairman

In-Home & In-Facility care 973-376-1600 PRESS 1 FOR URGENT CARE Your #1 COVID-19 resource: www.seniorsinplace.com/coronavirus

Accredited with Distinction by The Commission on Accreditation for Home Care NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021 29

Healthy Living & Seniors Assistance available for Union County residents with disabilities The Personal Assistance Service Program (PASP) is a personal care assistance program that provides up to 40 hours per week of routine, non-medical personal care assistance to adults with permanent physical disabilities between the ages 18-70 who are employed, preparing for employment, attending school, or involved in community volunteer work and who are able to self-direct their own services. Personal assistants help with personal care tasks including, but not

Looking for assistance? Are you... • A permanently physically disabled resident of Union County between the ages of 18-70? • In paid employment, attending school or volunteering a minimum of 20 hours per month? • Capable of self-direction and able to supervise a personal assistant?

You may be eligible for up to 40 hours a week participating in the Personal Assistance Service Program (PASP)

For more information, please contact: Helen Alvarado | PASP County Coordinator 908-527-4845 or [email protected] Union County Department of Human Services Office for Persons with Disabilities & Special Needs www.ucnj.org A Service of the Union County Board of County Commissioners

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(855) 720-0555 30 NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021

limited to: bathing, dressing, eating, grooming, preparing meals, shopping, light housekeeping, driving or using public transportation. The goal of this program is to support individuals with physical disabilities so that they can remain active in their comUNION COUNTY munity. For more information, contact Helen Alvarado, PASP Coordinator, (908) 527-4845, https://ucnj.org/ departments/human-services/opdsn/

Always a good hair day with Wigs Etcetera A small shop with a large following, Wigs Etcetera is a family business opened in 1969 by Sheila (Mom) and later joined by daughters Erica and Lisa. Wigs and hairpieces are lighter and more natural than ever. Made of fine remy human hair or the amazing new synthetics, they have become part of a woman’s makeup routine, whether she adds a filler for the top, extensions for length and volume or full coverage. Wigs Etcetera specializes in any type

of hair loss, and is recommended by the doctors and hospitals in our tri-state area because of the glowing reports from their patients. The shop is known for sensitivity, quality merchandise and ongoing service. Wigs Etcetera is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10:30 a.m to 5 p.m. Appointments are required at this time and special appointments can always be accommodated.WIGS ETCETERA 2 W. North�ield Rd., Livingston, NJ, (973) 994-2444, www.wigsetcetera.com

Lester Senior Housing Experience life at Lester where we offer seniors assisted living, independent living, memory care, and respite stays at our beautiful campus nestled in Morris County. Whatever type of support you need, Lester Senior Living is fully equipped with an experienced team of care professionals, advanced technology, fun social clubs and bountiful dining options. The Lester campus of the JCHC provides services offered in the Jewish

tradition, but is welcoming to those of all faiths and backgrounds. Our independent living is sometimes called “enhanced” independent living because we are able to offer services and meal plans to our residents that help seniors stay independent longer. And if they do need to transition to Assisted Living someday, they only need to move across the courtyard! Contact us today to schedule your visit. Please call (973) 397-5077 to set LESTER SENIOR HOUSING up your tour.

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Healthy Living & Seniors

This protein boosts mice life expectancy by an average 30% An overexpression of SIRT6 increases longevity in engineered mice and enables them to stay vigorous without becoming frail ISRAEL21C STAFF Life expectancy was increased by an average of 30 percent in male and female mice engineered to have high levels of a protein called SIRT6, a team of international scientists reported in the journal Nature Communications. The mice also were better able to overcome age-related diseases such as cancer and blood disorders, and remained vigorous as they aged rather than becoming frail. The study was led by Dr. Haim Cohen, director of the Sagol Healthy Human Longevity Center at BarIlan University in Israel. Cohen’s research has long focused on how SIRT6 is involved in regulating biological processes such as aging, obesity and insulin resistance. The team used biochemical methods and metabolic analyses to uncover the mechanism through which SIRT6 acts as a type of “fountain of youth.” Whereas older animals generally experience a decline in energy, the bodies of mice with extra SIRT6 broke down fats and lactic acid to create sugar utilized for energy in their muscles and brain. “This discovery, combined with our previous findings, shows that SIRT6 controls the rate of

healthy aging,” said Cohen. “If we can determine how to activate it in humans, we will be able to prolong life, and this could have enormous health and economic implications.” Cohen did the study with his PhD student Asael

Roichman; Dr. Eyal Gottlieb from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology; Dr. Rafael de Cabo of the National Institute on Aging at the US National Institutes of Health; and Dr. Manuel Serrani of the Institute for Research in ISRAEL21C.ORG Biomedicine in Barcelona.

I M AG I N E Y O U R S E L F H E R E . . . Prof. Haim Cohen researches healthy longevity. PHOTO COURTESY OF BAR-ILAN UNIVERSITY

Spring Hills Livingston is your Senior Living Destination. This is the ideal time to choose your apartment/suite as many of our select suites are selling fast! Contact us today and reserve your choice apartment.

Israel comes first in global Pandemic Resilience Index NAAMA BARAK Israel’s health system was named the most resilient to Covid-19 in the world in a recently released Pandemic Resilience Index. The index, published by global consumer advocacy group Consumer Choice Center, surveyed 40 countries about their health systems’ preparedness and resilience to the pandemic.

R E S E RV E Y O U R S U I T E | 9 7 3 . 3 3 3 . 2 2 0 0

3 4 6 E A S T C E D A R S T. , L I V I N G S T O N , N J 0 7 0 3 9

SEE ISRAEL PAGE 32

NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021 31

Healthy Living & Seniors Wigs Etcetera

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Homewatch CareGivers of South Orange helps seniors re-acclimate with engaging activities As people start to emerge from over a year of semi-isolation or self-quarantine and lack of social activity and connections, many seniors are still finding it a strange world and hesitant about how to and how much to get back to normal life. While most of our local seniors have been vaccinated, and many are missing their friends and the programs which enriched their daily lives, some are still worried about staying healthy, variants and herd immunity. Family and social gatherings, religious services and organization meetings are still guided by a broad spectrum of rules making it confusing to know what to do. Homewatch Caregivers of South Orange is pleased to partner with local organizations and senior groups, to provide opportunities of engagement and enjoyment for seniors to test their comfort level as they venture out socially. To date, Homewatch has joined together with: • The JCC of MetroWest and Bnai Shalom Hazak, for an out-door, in-person Yom Yerushalayim Concert for over 110 seniors in West Orange.

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Commitment. Compassion. Community. 32 NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021

• Livingston Seniors, Arbor Terrace of Roseland, and Hauptman and Hauptman for an upbeat, outdoor concert for 90 seniors in Livingston. • Livingston Y for the National Senior Health and Fitness Day in Essex County. • The JCC of MetroWest and Bnai Shalom Hazak for another in-person concert for 100+ seniors from West Caldwell, West Orange, Livingston, Short Hills, Millburn, and Montclair. Additional programming is scheduled throughout the summer and fall, as people feel increasingly safe and more comfortable participating in group activiHOMEWATCH CAREGIVERS ties. Homewatch Caregivers of South Orange is a Best of Home Care Leader in Excellence provider serving seniors in Essex, Union, Passaic, and Morris counties, in their homes or in residential facilities. For more information about Homewatch, contact Randi Brokman at [email protected] or call (973)810-0110.

Israel FROM PAGE 31

The index examined five factors: vaccination approval, vaccination drive, time lags that put breaks on giving vaccines, critical care bed capacity and mass testing. While Israel did not have the highest number of ICU beds per capita or a high average of daily Covid-19 tests, it “is a clear winner when it comes to the speed of vaccinations” – which led to its top spot on the global list. Second place went to Israel’s neighbor, the United Arab Emirates, which also had a high vaccination rate. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Bahrain round off the top five places, while the bottom three went to Australia, New Zealand, and Ukraine. “The pandemic has put health systems globally to an emergency test and exposed both their strong and weak sides,” says Fred Roeder, CCC’s managing director and the index’s co-author. “In particular, that concerns hospital capacity, planning abilities, and the existence of a regulatory system that is able to act fast and efficiently when it comes to testing and vaccination, among other things.” “Moving forward, we hope our Index will help policymakers identify weak spots in our health systems so we can be better prepared for future ISRAEL21C.ORG crises,” he added.

Healthy Living & Seniors Brightview Senior Living ranked #1 by Fortune Magazine In 1999, Brightview Senior Living was founded to provide seniors a vibrant place to live. Today, Brightview owns and operates 42 communities from Virginia to Massachusetts and is supported by over 4,000 associates. Brightview was recently voted one of the top workplaces in senior living for employee satisfaction, according to this year’s Best Workplaces in Aging Services list. Brightview took the No. 1 spot among large providers for the second year in a row. What separates Brightview Senior Living from the rest? Brightview’s mission is to create vibrant communities by providing excellent service. Residents live in an environment of possibilities, independence and choice where they can receive the support they need to make the most of each day. Brightview Senior Living offers unmatched care and dedication to providing a fulfilling experience for its residents. Its services include Independent Living, Assisted Living, Dementia Care, and Enhanced Care. Brightview believes that each person, no matter how old or frail, has the possibility to grow and experience joy every day. For more information on Brightview Senior Living, go to www.BrightviewSeniorLiving.com, or to see how Brightview Randolph can meet your needs please call (973) 348-9857. BRIGHTVIEW SENIOR LIVING 

A path for continued engagement with Fellowship Freedom Plans Fellowship Freedom Plans are a long-term care solution that are uniquely designed to help you stay in your home and maintain your independence for as long as possible. Instead of a traditional Life Plan Community (CCRC), which involves you moving from independent living to assisted living and so on, Fellowship Freedom Plans allow you to simply stay in your home and age-in-place. You will have the opportunity to spend your independent living years in the comfort of your own home, knowing that if you should require care, Fellowship Senior Living will bring that care to you. Today and always, we provide a path for continued engagement for our members. What does that engagement look like? We provide our members with engagement through 4 key dimensions: Home Maintenance and Safety, Wellness, Socialization and Connectedness and Technology. Our ability to provide engagement through these dimensions, make Fellowship Freedom plans the most comprehensive choice for long-term care planning. The concerns of home maintenance, opportunities for socialization, participation in

wellness programs and the reassurance of quality of care when you might need it are all built into Fellowship Freedom Plans making the benefits of aging-in-place attainable and the outcomes successful. Fellowship Freedom Plans are uniquely designed to allow our members to pick and choose the benefits and activities that best meet their personal needs for living their active, independent life to the fullest. Lastly, the financial benefits of membership in Fellowship Freedom Plans include inflation protection to protect against the rising cost of long-term care, while persevering your assets and income by receiving care at a fraction of private-pay cost if and when you should need it. If you should relocate within the United States, our portability option keeps your coverage intact. For additional information about Fellowship Freedom Plans, contact Jennifer Kohan, Director of Membership Development at (908) 580-3850 or [email protected] Visit us online: https://www.fellowshipseniorliving.org/ long-term-care-plans/ 

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Healthy Living & Seniors

Rapid test checks freshness and vitamin levels of breastmilk MilkStrip cofounders are moms with PhDs in molecular biology who want to give parents quick answers to concerns about their little ones’ health ISRAEL21C.ORG

Everyone in the room liked her idea. And that’s how MilkStrip was conceived, with Beck as CEO and Shatz-Azoulay as COO. “We surveyed 1,600 women in Israel and found out that about half of them throw out pumped milk even when it still could be good just because they are not sure, and 58% are interested in knowing their milk contains all the nutrients needed,” says Beck. Shatz-Azoulay explains that vitamin C, which is essential for immune system development, degrades quickly in breastmilk once it’s left the mother’s body. Therefore they decided to develop test strips to ascertain freshness and vitamin C potency within three minutes.

F

our years ago, biotech executive Avital Beck decided it was time to found a startup. She invited former classmates from her molecular biology and genetics PhD program at the Weizmann Institute of Science for a brainstorming session. One of those friends, Hadas Shatz-Azoulay, brought her nursing baby and came up with the best idea: A home kit to check the freshness and vitamin content of refrigerated pumped breastmilk. “We were talking about tackling cancer, osteopoMilkStrip inventors Dr. Avital Beck, CEO, left, and Dr. rosis, diabetes – it was a very high-level discussion,” Hadas Shatz-Azoulay, COO. PHOTO COURTESY OF DIAGNOSESTRIP Shatz-Azoulay recalls. But she shared a more immediate concern: Was A startup is born her newborn receiving optimum nutrition from milk more things you can know now,” she says. The two experienced moms and scientists had never she expressed and stored? “Women have been breastfeeding for millennia, but birthed a startup before. “It had been 15 years between my first and fifth we’re not doing it the same way. For the first baby I Beck approached Moshe Friedman of KamaTech, babies. And I was getting the same answers today as I didn’t even buy a pump but by the fifth it was an obvious necessity.” w h i c h c o n n e c t s u l t r a - O r t h o d ox h i g h - t e c h was getting 15 years ago, even though there are so many

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entrepreneurs to investors and potential partners – even though she is religious rather than ultra-Orthodox. “He was openminded enough to accept us and that’s how we got connections,” Beck says. “We met our first investor, Gil Lemel, and he and his friends gave us half a million dollars to work on a prototype for six months. Within three months, we gave him two prototypes.” Following three years of development, MilkStrip entered the US and UK market in late 2020. Manufactured in Israel, MilkStrip Expiration and MilkStrip Vitamin C test kits are available on Amazon and Shopify for $19.99 each or $35.99 for both. The kits work with a free app. “We got an email a few months ago from a woman in the US. She said they’d had a hurricane and didn’t have power for four days. She had many frozen bags of breastmilk and didn’t want to throw them away, so she ordered a few boxes of MilkStrip Expiration from our Amazon store.”

The rapid test strips revealed that only one bag of milk had gone bad. MilkStrip helped her avoid throwing out all those bags of perfectly good breastmilk. Shatz-Azoulay related that one of her neighbors used the vitamin C test kit and saw there was none in her breastmilk. “It turns out she doesn’t eat fruits and vegetables and she’d known that could be a problem but seeing the vitamin C deficiency on the screen made it real to her. She realized that she needs to take vitamin C supplements for her baby’s health,” says Shatz-Azoulay. “There are companies that offer a full lab analysis of breastmilk for about $350 and we’re disrupting this market, giving answers immediately and at home and inexpensively,” says Beck, who writes a blog on emerging topics in breastmilk science.

DiagnoseStick

MilkStrip is the first in a line of planned products for parents from the company, which was renamed

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DiagnoseStick two years ago and is headquartered at the Rehovot Science Park. “We quickly understood a biological test strip like ours could be used with other fluids such as saliva,” Beck explains. “This is a bioconvergence startup using basic chemistry, biology, computer vision, AI and color recognition.” The next product in the pipeline will test a child’s saliva to check oral hygiene status. It could alert a parent to a budding problem that might be forestalled by better brushing or a visit to the dentist. “We’re giving parents answers about things they are worried about throughout a child’s life, starting with breastmilk, and giving those answers in two or three minutes without going to a doctor or lab,” says Shatz-Azoulay. “Sometimes parents feel their concern isn’t serious enough to go to a doctor and this way you can check. It’s just letting parents know more.” ISRAEL21C.ORG 

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NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021 35

Editorial What happened to dignified exits?

S

NJJN

ome things happen very quickly, really just about all at once, and others are more turtle-like. Seasons change slowly; because nature can’t read a calendar, it starts its first little advance notice of the big change about to come way ahead of time, so subtly that if you’re not looking you don’t see it. And then somehow it’s turned into summer, and the heavy things you’ve been wearing all along are just plain wrong and you have to dig out that stuff you’ve forgotten about for all these months. The pandemic happened quickly. We went from hearing some odd stories about some cruise ships far from here to deciding not to meet a friend for dinner to near total lockdown in about a week. Coming out of the pandemic isn’t happening in that same way, though. People are less comfortable taking their masks off than they were putting them on. Even though just about everyone old and healthy enough to have been vaccinated can take them off now, can face the world fully and proudly naked-faced, and even though statistics say that most people here who can be vaccinated already have been, some people stay masked. The habit of wearing a mask is new, but it seems that the entire pandemic experience was traumatic enough to engrain it firmly for many of us. When it comes to politicians, though, changes in circumstance do not seem to lead to graceful exists. Elections might or might not have consequences, it sometimes seems, at least in the heads of the sulky losers. We grew up knowing that one of the glories of our democracy was how seamlessly power could be handed from one person to another. We have always known that even without the goad of possibly prosecution, anyone

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running for office has a healthy enough ego to make losing an election painful. You don’t really have to squint to see it as a public humiliation. But throughout our history, our outgoing leaders have made a point of refusing to let anger, hurt pride, or wounded feelings show. They don’t lie about winning, and they don’t call the actual winners names. They refuse to compound what they see as humiliation by the voters by humiliating themselves, and in so doing they turn humiliation into grace. That, at least, is how it used to be. Now, not so much. There was an eccentric musician named Dan Hicks, whose group, the Hot Licks, played songs that managed to be funny and good at the same time. He had a song called “How Can I Miss You When You Don’t Go Away?” It goes, in part: “Your never-ending presence really cramps my style I dream that it won’t always be the same At first I was attracted but after a while Have you ever heard of the hard-toget game?” It continues from there. When politicians lose — or, for that matter, when they hit term limits, or retire, or decide not to run — it would be dignified for them to retreat. They can become elder statespeople, grizzled dispensers of age-old truths — that’s great — but it would be far better if they refrained from spittle-laced invective aimed at the winners who now occupy their thrones. In the United States, in Israel, it would be so much better if we could just get on with the future, instead of having to refight the invented battles that didn’t exist in the past. The winners won. Their opponents did not. That should be the end of it. —JP 

Editor Joanne Palmer Associate Editor Larry Yudelson Community Editor Beth Janoff Chananie Our Children Editor Heidi Mae Bratt

Publisher James L. Janoff

36 NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021

The rise and rise of Jew-hatred in America

T

he world will never become a betlike that between the German people and ter place until we resolve to fight their Fuhrer. Likewise, there is unkosher and resist evil. The globe will never and kosher hate. The former is practiced be peaceful until we are inspired to by Hamas against the Jews, the Klan against neutralize those who disturb the peace. And Blacks, and terrorists against democracies. It social cohesion will never be fully realized is an irrational loathing of evil against good. until those tear us apart are stopped. But then there is kosher hate, the desire on There are times when we need kosher the part of the good to stop evil from harming love, that is, the kind of love that brings us all the righteous. Kosher hate never allows us to together. And there are times when we need be indifferent in the face of evil. It removes kosher date, that is, the kind of revulsion for from us the possibility of ever being a neutral wickedness that causes us to say, “Enough.” bystander. This could not be more true than that of the It speaks volumes that when our African-American brothers and sisters watched a world’s oldest hatred, anti-Semitism, which man killed by a bad cop — and is out of control and getting us most cops are heroes — in Minworse by the day, including and nesota, they marched in their especially in the United States. millions through the streets Jews are being beaten in the of our nation, with so many streets of New York, assaulted emboldened by their refusal in Toronto, and terrorized in to put up with discrimination Los Angeles. any more. That’s kosher hate, Sadly, for me, none of this against racism, in action. particularly new. I spent 11 Rabbi And the Jews? Oh yes, we years as rabbi to the students rallied as well. After all the of Oxford University. I traveled Shmuley recent attacks in New York, our all over Europe, where Jews Boteach mainstream organization got are becoming a secret society, together at the end of May and afraid to display their Jewishness in the open. We just never believed that staged — get ready for this — an online rally!! it could happen here in the United States. Yes, an online rally. Which would be comical Is that going to happen in America? Will if it were not so pathetic. the most powerful country in the world Such timid displays of resistance to succumb to thuggery? Will the Jewish comanti-Semitism will never defeat the problem. munity surrender to anti-Semitism? Will we And unless we begin to show kosher hate to teach our kids to cower in fear? the perpetrators, we risk America, in terms of Not if we learn to practice kosher hate, anti-Semitism, becoming like Europe. a firm and moral determination to stop In the summer of 2017 I took my kids on anti-Semitism, racism, and every other form a journey to the major Holocaust extermination and concentration sites of Europe: of bigotry. There are, in essence, two forms of hate, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, France, and more. I chronicled that journey in my book just as there are two forms of love. There is moral love, like that between a mother “Holocaust Holiday: One Family’s Descent into Genocide Memory Hell.” The journey and child and husband and wife, and there started in Berlin, where, as we arrived in is immoral love, like that between a man and his mistress. Or, infinitely more odious, Tegel Airport, a security guard walked over Rabbi Shmuley Boteach lives in Englewood. His newest book “Holocaust Holiday: One Family’s Descent into Genocide Memory Hell,” is available on Amazon and on shmuley.com. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @RabbiShmuley.

Correspondents Warren Boroson Lois Goldrich Banji Ganchrow Abigail K. Leichman Miriam Rinn Dr. Miryam Z. Wahrman Advertising Director Natalie D. Jay

Account Executives Nancy Karpf Lauri Sirois Peggy Elias Robin Frizzell Brenda Sutcliffe Administrative Assistant Jenna Sutcliffe International Media Placement P.O. Box 7195 Jerusalem 91077 Tel: 02-6252933, 02-6247919 Fax: 02-6249240 Israeli Representative

Production Manager Jerry Szubin Graphic Artists Deborah Herman Bob O'Brien

Opinion

to me to plead that I remove my young sons’ yarmulkes so that they would not get hurt. Yes, we had arrived to commemorate the martyrdom of the Six Million, only to be told that in Europe the unkosher hatred had not abated. But America is different. It was always different. The Pilgrims came here to escape Europe’s religious persecution and intolerance. Enshrined in our constitution is the freedom to worship as we are and to express ourselves as we please. We dishonor our Jewishness and commitment to freedom by suppressing it. And we dishonor America by hiding it. Now is the time for a fierce generation of Americans to determine that they will no longer tolerate the intolerable or accept the unacceptable. We will determine to resist all those whose irrational hatred is tearing the fabric of America apart, beginning with those, from left to right, who are infected with the disease of Antisemitism, the world’s oldest and most malignant prejudice. Hatred of Jews has taken different forms: as the “other,” the killers of Christ, and the descendants of apes and pigs. This bigotry has been one of the few historical constants of the last 2,500 years. The degree of anti-Semitism ebbs and flows, often according to local conditions and the need for a scapegoat. Thus, when the Black Plague swept across Europe, Jews often were blamed. When the local economy declines, Jews are responsible. Christians and Muslims have accused Jews of using the blood of children to make matzah for Passover and hamentaschen on Purim. The Russian forgery, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” created the myth of the all-powerful Jews controlling the world. Hitler’s Mein Kampf portrayed Jews as the symbol of all evil and dehumanized them to the point where ordinary people helped him pursue a final solution to the “Jewish problem,” which led to the extermination of six million Jews while the world watched. As many others have noted, the establishment of Israel was the catalyst for new outbreaks of anti-Semitism. Jew haters now use “Israel” or “Zionist” as a euphemism for Jews and deny their bigotry. Natan Sharansky suggested a 3-D test for differentiating legitimate criticism of Israel from anti-Semitism. The first D is the test of whether Israel or its leaders are being demonized or their actions blown out of proportion. Equating Israel with Nazi Germany is one example of demonization. The second D is the test of double standards. An example is when Israel is singled out for condemnation at the United Nations for alleged human rights abuses while nations that violate human rights on a massive scale, such as Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, are not even mentioned. The third D is the test of delegitimization. Questioning Israel’s legitimacy — that is, its right to exist, is always anti-Semitic. As Sharansky correctly observed, a double

standard exists whereby Israel is treated differently than every other country and is singled out for criticism and demonization. The United Nations, the organization established to promote world peace, is a forum for Israel-bashing, where Israeli actions are routinely condemned and the perpetrators of atrocities against them are ignored. According to the NGO UN Watch, between 2012 and 2020, the General Assembly voted on 180 resolutions related to Israel, compared to 45 for the rest of the world. The Orwellian Human Rights Council, composed of some of the world’s worst human rights abusers — members have included China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, and Iran — has a permanent item on the agenda for just one country. Even after terrorist groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad committed war crimes by using civilians as shields and indiscriminately firing rockets at civilian neighborhoods, it was Israel the HRC accused of atrocities. The politicized International Criminal Court, which has no jurisdiction over Israeli actions, has given itself the mandate to investigate the only democracy in the Middle East for its alleged crimes. The demonization of Israel occurs in numerous UN agencies. In the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, for example, the World Health Organization found time to allow 25 delegations to accuse Israel of violating the health rights of Palestinians. By a vote of 82 to 14 with 40 abstentions, a resolution was passed requiring WHO to hold a similar discussion the following year and prepare a report on the “Health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan.” Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Chaim Herzog, put it best when he said the UN took an Alice-in-Wonderland perspective toward Israel. “In the UN building...she would only have to wear a Star of David in order to hear the imperious Off with her head at every turn.” Since five Arab armies invaded in 1948, Israel has been under attack by nations and terrorists seeking its destruction. While for a time Israel was viewed as David fighting the whole Arab world, it is now seen as Goliath trampling on the rights of the Palestinians. Israel alone among the nations is not allowed to defend itself when attacked. It is accused of perpetuating a cycle of violence and then if, God forbid, a civilian should be killed in a counterterror operation, it is pilloried for war crimes. The world has settled into a comfortable routine whereby terrorists attack Israel, the Israelis respond, and an outburst of anti-Semitism follows. As others have noted, the terrorists are like arsonists and Israelis are the firefighters — but it is the latter who is condemned. No country would tolerate a rocket attack on its capital, but Israel was vilified when it SEE BOTEACH PAGE 39

Riding with Jewish Family and Children’s Services

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hat a year it’s been. Jewish Family and Children’s Services of Northern New Jersey has been a lifeline to many of our neighbors in distress. The agency has seen a 400 percent increase in monthly food pantry appointments and emergency requests. I’ve heard about people showing up for help, often early or late, because they’re embarrassed to need help and they don’t want to Jamie Janoff be recognized. They have never needed assistance before, but they need it now. Which made joining hundreds of bike riders and hikers this past Sunday especially important. Our Jewish Standard team raised more than $5,000 for the JFCS, and equally importantly, we were able to have a dialogue with contributors about the importance of giving. So, about my journey. I’m a casual rider but enjoy a good challenge. Fifty miles seemed out of the question, but I went with door #2, the 28-mile trek. For the past few days, I’ve felt weak and I’ve been fighting a cold, but there was no way I was disappointing the many friends who believed and backed me, and my fellow riders. Off we go, on the most glorious day, and things are going surprisingly well. It’s funny how you forget about not feeling right when your surroundings change and you’re out of your house. And then … the dreaded hills. I made it through them all, but at mile 27, I really struggled with the final climb. I thought I had met my match. Imagine passing Benzel Busch on Grand Avenue in Englewood and making a right, about to climb up Palisade Avenue. Do I have your attention now? I remember looking to my left and Jerry Szubin, left, and Jamie seeing a couple passing me by with Janoff rode for the Jewish ease, and asking how that was possible. My partner for the day, Jerry Standard’s team. Szubin, is the Jewish Standard’s production manager and he’s a seasoned rider. He told me what I already knew — as with anything in life, training and repetition will make the difference. Either way, I will remember that couple. I want to be them some day. These strangers inspired me. And, more about life and our ride. We passed animals in three stages of existence. We saw a dead beaver, another that had recently been hit and still was struggling ( Jerry called animal control and on our return we noticed it had been removed from the road, condition unknown though), and the smallest fawn I’ve ever seen, probably within weeks of its birth. It was running, desperately trying to find a break in a fence so it could rejoin its mother and security and live another day. Three examples of existence. Not that I needed the lesson, but what I witnessed tied together the whole JFCS experience — the reason I made the trek. It’s that life is fragile. It can come to an end at any moment. Take chances. Push yourself. Do it today instead of tomorrow. Most important, that there are those in our community who depend on us to make a difference so they too can be made whole again, especially after a year like we all have just experienced. We live in a community that has an active and essential agency which is committed to helping me and you if we ever fall into hardship. That’s beautiful indeed. Jamie Janoff is the publisher of the Jewish Standard and the New Jersey Jewish News. NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021 37

Opinion I’VE BEEN THINKING

A Shakespearean-plus bar mitzvah

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n Rosh Chodesh Sivan, 5768 ( June 4, 2008), my oldest grandchild, Ezra Simon Goldberg, was born in Toronto to my daughter Raquel and her husband, Jason. Sharon and I were in Teaneck, ecstatic beyond words, though knowing that we wouldn’t be able to be in Toronto and see him in the flesh (okay, see them) until the brit milah, eight days later. What to do? Well, I did what any other grandfather with a new grandson would do; I took out the Encyclopedia Judaica Index volume and checked the date of his bar mitzvah. (You mean, that’s not what you would have done?) Problem. I learned that in 2021 his actual bar mitzvah day would be a Wednesday (okay), Shabbat would be parshat Bamidbar (so far so good), but Shavuot would start the following Sunday night, just 24 hours after Shabbat ended (uh-oh). What would out-of-town bar mitzvah guests do? Would they be able to return home in time for the chag? And if not, could Raquel and Jason possibly put them up? My Toronto kids were, as you might imagine, underwhelmed with my concerns. They were, understandably, more involved in preparing for a brit milah that would take place in a few short days rather than a bar mitzvah that was years off. And that’s where we left things. Fast forward 11 years. Raquel and Jason, at long last and in a timelier manner, turned their attention to bar mitzvah planning, focused on the Shavuot problem, and finally understood Grandpa’s wisdom. (Well, they might not have phrased it that way, but I’m the one writing this column.) And they solved it by announcing that they were moving

which outdid the Bard by one; that is, a celethe Shabbat bar mitzvah celebration to the bration in six acts. U.S. Memorial Day weekend occurring two Act One — Hanachat Tefillin. As tradiweeks later, which would also give American tion dictates, Ezra first donned tefillin 30 relatives more breathing room to travel to days before his actual bar mitzvah. But and from Canada. because of the lockdown, neither he nor Man tracht und Gott lacht; man proposes anyone else in the family could attend a and God disposes. A pandemic engulfed live service that morning. Rather, they the world, and although by the time of the Zoomed into the morning service of their scheduled bar mitzvah the United States Joseph C. shul, Shaarei Shomayim, as did Ezra’s had begun to open up, Canada had closed Kaplan Toronto and Teaneck grandparents and down even tighter by still requiring a mandatory 14-day quarantine of the few out-ofother family members in at least two country travelers allowed in, whether or countries. The tefillin were a gift from me and Sharon. We initially not vaccinated. (See “Notes from a Quarantine.”) Even had intended to buy them in Israel, but deciding against worse, Ontario imposed a harsh lockdown and strict that for pandemic-related reasons, we purchased them 10-person limit on all religious services. But a bar mitzvah comes only once in a young man’s from our local Teaneck sofer, Rabbi Abraham Teicher. Not life, pandemic or not. Indeed, it’s more than just a young only are they beautiful, but they came with a bonus — a man’s life. In an email exchange I had with a good friend session where Rabbi Teicher first showed Ezra (over Zoom) about the bar mitzvah, Giti wrote “mazal tov; a great rite and us (in the shop) all the components of his tefillin, and of passage.” I responded “for Ezra or for us?” and she then put them together and sewed them up while clearly replied “I actually meant you!” How true. We think of explaining and demonstrating every step in the process. rites of passage as things that happen to the star(s) of the I’ve been wearing tefillin for more than 60 years and this show — the bat/bar mitzvah girl/boy, the graduate, the was all new to me. I hope Ezra was as fascinated as I was. Act Two — Rosh Chodesh Sivan. Since this was his bride and groom. But it’s broader than that. Our youngest actual bar mitzvah day, Ezra finally was able to be one daughter’s wedding (see, “Ani Ledodi V’dodi Li”) and our of the 10 males over the age of 13 (I’m working hard not oldest grandson’s bar mitzvah are our rites of passage as to use the word adult) who can be counted in a minyan. well, and they too come but once in our lives. Raquel and Jason therefore arranged a bar mitzvah celSo he, Jason, and Jason’s father, Eric, were given three ebration, mainly for Ezra but touching the rest of us too, spots in Shaarei Shomayim’s morning minyan, with Eric

Photos, memories, and the New York Times

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t was a long rainy Shabbat when many of our grandchildren gathered at our home in West Orange to celebrate our granddaughter’s upcoming marriage a few days later. A nearby hotel housed the overflow crowd and we ate and sang together in that spirit of joyful anticipation of a major and extraordinarily happy lifetime event. A simcha! The feeding of the crew was my familiar assignment, which I did with joy and too much food. But of what use is a classic Jewish grandmother if she doesn’t overfeed you? Then again, how much can you eat? And how much can you play board games before they become bored games? And how much Israeli and American politics can you discuss while gazing at the pounding rain that made even a little walk drenching? Someone discovered our cache of photos, treasures from the past. All of our contemporary pictures are stored, foolishly no doubt, on our phones. And so we turned the pages of our family’s recorded history and examined the albums, beautiful reminders of days gone and often forgotten. We rekindled our stories and anecdotes, long untold, suddenly came to life and were shared. Which dog was in that photo became a disagreement. Gringo and Toto, generations apart, did resemble each other in that sturdy way that pure mutts teach us that they exemplify the survival of the fittest, that they haven’t been overbred to become fragile and sickly. We reached a conclusion. It was Toto, who lived a long if not particularly productive life, surrounded and indulged by a loving family. I 38 NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021

will never forget how Eitan, the eldest of the five boys who grew up with her, carried her out to the backyard with remarkable tenderness, when her own paws could no longer support her failing old body. Other pictures had their own stories. There were my parents and in-laws on their own wedding days, the spark of love and the glistening future they prayed for written all Rosanne over the striking photos. My in-laws never Skopp knew these grandchildren, not surviving to meet even the first. What a loss for all of them. My parents, who reached old age gracefully and of sound mind and body, are seen in photos holding babies and watching them grow, My father knew all but the last two, one of whom shares his name, Sam. This is no coincidence. And then there are the classic shots of babies. In each of our children’s families, the first child is highlighted, with numerous pictures of a single child. By the time siblings were born they were always relegated to that typical lack of total attention that number one kids always received. But, no matter, all were, and continue to be, loved, even if the spotlight was now shared. So we are blessed with many photos of little children, who belong to us, and without surprise, an overwhelming number of first baby shots. But, thank God, the others do exist and shine up our lives, even with a dearth of photos. And then there are pictures with stories. The classic in

my mind is my mother’s family when she was a teenager. She sits chastely on a chair next to her cousin, another girl, about a year or two younger, perhaps 14 to Mom’s 16. The two cousin’s two brothers, both significantly younger, both still wearing short pants, about 8 and 4 years old, also are in the photo. What makes this picture so fascinating is that years later, the middle child, who became a good-looking doctor and married young, had a mysterious age transformation, via the miracle of my great-aunt’s magic formula. In those bygone days, the early 1930s, it was definitely not chic or stylish for a younger brother to marry years before his much older sister. That would categorize her as an old maid, undoubtedly a fate worse than an inappropriate marriage or even death itself. So my great-aunt magically made her daughter the middle child and her son, he with the short pants, the eldest. This was gross revisionist history but only my picture, which hangs on a wall in our home, provides the total proof. One fine day a disaster of overwhelming proportions thankfully was averted. Their family, including the eventual husband of the formerly eldest but now middle child, who was never ever told his wife’s true age, were coming for a rare visit. It was literally 10 seconds before the doorbell signaled their arrival when I snatched the picture off the wall and secreted it in a safe place. Now it’s back on the wall. They won’t be visiting again.

Opinion leading shacharit, Ezra layning the special Rosh Chodesh Torah reading and receiving his first aliyah, Jason leading musaf, and Ezra’s mother, sisters, and local grandmother watching from nearby. All other family members, this time from three countries, Zoomed in. Act Three — Thursday Layning and Speeches. Two weeks later, immediate family and a few very close friends — including some of Ezra’s friends who already had turned bar mitzvah and could therefore be counted in a minyan — gathered in nearby Congregation Shaarei Tefillah for the more formal part of the bar mitzvah celebration. In an incredible act of generosity and an amazing demonstration of communal affinity, that congregation and its leadership (a special thank you to Rabbi Rafi Lipner) gave us their sanctuary — which was better suited to Ontario’s Kafkaesque rules than Shaarei Shomayin’s — in which to hold this service. (They also gave us the sanctuary for Shabbat services — see Act Five.) Being in shul and not on Zoom, we were all dressed in Shabbat finery as Ezra not only layned again (this time the beginning of his bar mitzvah parsha), but also led shacharit. The service was followed by a program, magnificently emceed by 9-year-old Aviva, which included speeches delivered live by Raquel, Jason, and Ezra, a delicious welcome by 6-year-old Liora, and personal Zoom addresses to Ezra by two of Shaarei Shomayim’s rabbis — R. Chaim Strauchler (soon to be my rabbi in Teaneck) and R. Elliot Diamond. Many friends (including close friends of grandparents) and relatives also attended over Zoom. All those attending live left with yummy breakfast boxes, the family took some photos, and then it was home for some rest and relaxation. Act Four — Friday Kiddush Boxes. With no possibility of guests coming to a kiddush, the kiddush had to go to

All this picture nostalgia reminds me of the New York Times, which screams at us “All The News That’s Fit To Print.” Recently it published an enormous photo montage of dead Gazan children. It was horrifying. I am a lifelong reader of that paper, even though it slants the news according to its own priorities, sometimes ignoring fairness, accuracy, and the most basic facts. For me it’s the old story of I can’t live either with or without it. In the past 65 years or so, I repeatedly have canceled and then resumed delivery. We are bound to each other even though I can’t stand its leaky ink, which shmears up my house, and I resent its high price. Even more, it infuriates me when it, self-hating Jews staunchly amongst its editorial and reporting staff, does what it did recently. The Times long has had a well-earned reputation for being unsympathetic to Jewish travails, even when they are of such major proportions as the Holocaust. Historians and longtime readers acknowledge that the murder of more than six million Jews hardly ever warranted more coverage than middle pages in the paper. How could it be? No one of us can honestly explain, or certainly justify, such abhorrent behavior. The Times is known as a liberal instrument and finds space to excoriate dictators and to be sympathetic to their victims. Jewish victims often seem to be the exception to that practice. Thus, in the recent Hamas-Israel war, which was fomented clearly and objectively by Hamas dropping a huge volume of unprovoked rockets on Israeli cities and towns, and everywhere that Israelis and, yes, Palestinians live. The New York Times seemingly sided with the perpetrator, Hamas, a known terrorist organization that plants its fighters behind children and other civilians, by

Joseph and Sharon Kaplan flank their grandson Ezra at his house in Toronto. the guests. Raquel, Jason, and Ezra therefore spent a large part of Friday morning and early afternoon delivering tasty catered kiddush boxes to more than 30 homes of nearby friends — in a dreary rain (and even some snow! Remember, it’s Canada). They had not seen some friends in over a year, so catching up slowed things down. Well worth it, I was told, though they came home dripping. And the

decrying Israel’s retaliation, which resulted in the deaths of innocent children. These children were framed on its front pages, with their tragic stories attached. Sad. Yes. Tragic. Yes. Israel’s fault. No. Of course not! As a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother it is painful to me to contemplate the loss of children to war. And when they are planted in sensitive places so that they can become victims, that is murder. It was a horrible and evil propaganda move that killed these children. It was squarely the work of Hamas. Israel fine-tuned its responses as much as was humanly and humanely possible. What in the world did the New York Times expect of our Jewish chayalim, our soldiers, that they do not respond and defend their country. Could America have been victorious in any war if they did not retaliate to enemy aggression? Clearly not. Shall we even remember Hiroshima? Nagasaki? How many children did America kill to win the war? Israel’s retaliation pales in comparison.

Boteach FROM PAGE 37

responded to just such an attack on Jerusalem. Over the next 10 days, more than 4,000 rockets were fired at Tel Aviv, Sderot, Ashkelon, and other communities within their range. The Arabs have been conditioned by the international community to engage in no-fault wars, where they are not blamed for setting the fire and then demand a return to the status quo ante after the firefighters put out the flames.

deliveries turned out to be a two-way street, with candy platters, flowers, molded chocolate, and cakes dropped off by friends and family filling up the dining room table. Act Five — Shabbat. Once again, immediate family and close friends — yet a different group of 13-year-old boys joined us this time — gathered in Shaarei Tefillah for shacharit led by Jason, followed by Ezra magnificently layning the entire parsha of Beha’alotcha and its haftorah and then leading musaf. (Not surprising; Ezra has been a shul person since the age of 3.) Ezra’s uncle Jon gave the drasha, and then home for a very small, backyard family meal with some speeches and, my specialty, grammen about Ezra. Act Six — Sunday Drive-by. Many of Ezra’s friends, other family friends, and relatives drove by at designated hours and got out of their cars for mazal tovs, chats, and swag bags. This was not the bar mitzvah Ezra imagined before the world changed in March, 2020, nor the one foreseen by Raquel and Jason or, indeed, any of us who have been looking forward to this event since 2008. But it was the way it had to be in 2021, and as adults — and this time I include Ezra in that category — we know the necessity of making the best of what life throws our way, while still creating warm and lasting memories, even if it’s not exactly what we anticipated. Raquel, Jason, and especially Ezra certainly made the best of this celebration in six acts — a simcha that was very much ado about something. Joseph C. Kaplan, a regular columnist, is a long-time resident of Teaneck. His work also has appeared in various publications including Sh’ma magazine, the New York Jewish Week, the Baltimore Jewish Times, and, as letters to the editor, the New York Times.

I have no solution to the disgraceful behavior of powerful self-hating Jews. I condemn it mightily. Throughout modern history there have been all too many childhood victims of war, none of whom have merited almost the entire front page of the Times. The tragic loss of their young lives should never be a moment that is cheapened and devalued as propaganda. This is clearly an abuse of the paper’s journalistic integrity. Shame shame on the New York Times. When we peruse our old pictures, here’s a wish that they reflect treasured days of our lives, and may there be many such times. Rosanne Skopp of West Orange is a wife, mother of four, grandmother of 14, and great-grandmother of three. She is a graduate of Rutgers University and a dual citizen of the United States and Israel. She is a lifelong blogger, writing blogs before anyone knew what a blog was!

And we American Jews? We have allowed this. We have allowed it by failing to publicly and forcefully support Israel, especially in its recent war, and by allowing Israel to become toxic, especially on campus. We have allowed it through our timidity and lack of resolve. We have allowed it because we are afraid of what the repercussions for us are of a robust defense of Israel. But we cannot hide, we cannot fear, we cannot surrender. Anti-Semitism in America is entering a new chapter, and the only question is whether we will fight it to make it better before it gets worse. NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021 39

Kosher Crossword

“SO I HEARD...” BY YONI GLATT [email protected] DIFFICULTY LEVEL: MEDIUM

The Frazzled Housewife

Papa and babka and our little strudel

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Across

Down

1. NYC highway 4. Most common foreign capital in crosswords 8. They’re Grand in Wyoming 14. Hi or lo follower 15. David Bowie genre 16. ___ Moore AKA P!nk 17. Blue Jays’ prov. 18. Video-game star Croft 19. Brother of (Wanda) Maximoff 20. Classic Uris novel 23. Famous female created by (Joe) Shuster and (Jerry) Siegel 24. Notable ship builder 25. “Chocolat” director Hallstrom 29. A’s and Jays 31. Made like King Solomon 33. President who should not have repeatedly messed with Israel 37. Architect Saarinen 38. “Rumor has it....”...or a hint to what’s literally happening with 20 & 23-Across and 58 & 64- Across 43. It can be soothing 44. Liam who’s been a Jedi, Nazi, and CIA agent 45. “Street Fighter” character who gives advice to Wreck-It-Ralph 47. Delete icon 52. Arab rulers 53. Strikes out 57. Til 58. Reason for decline in Jewish numbers 61. Got rid of a debt 64. Kind of block or map 65. Miracle feeling 66. Constructing crosswords is certainly an unusual one 67. Tatty alternative 68. Lana Del of song 69. Spanish dessert wine 70. “Don’t ___” (what would be a good slogan for the IDF) 71. 1760 make a mi.

1. Born and bred in Beverlywood, say 2. 2016 film about Deborah Lipstadt’s work 3. “Wheel of Fortune” freebies 4. Stare 5. Like many a Philistine, by David 6. A southern Key 7. Where Warren Buffett bought this community’s chametz, once 8. Record 9. Song taken from Psalm 22 10. Many a TikTok user 11. Mo. that often has some High Holidays 12. Kibbutz Yitzchak or Moshav Yisrael 13. First word in Brazilian town names 21. Irish carrier Lingus 22. “___ a crowd” 26. Giant Super Bowl winner Chris...who married the coache’s daughter 27. Dry 28. Jewish witnesses 30. “Cone” or “Cat” intro 32. Jyn of “Rogue One” 34. Current British princess 35. Graf of tennis fame 36. Each of the past three answers, e.g. 38. Israeli directory? 39. Hazeh, for one 40. Piece of “the San Francisco treat” 41. Humiliating type 42. “Boom” maker 46. Bank named on a credit card 48. Something you don’t want to get stuck in (with “a”) 49. Abode that’s abuzz 50. Hid (away) 51. Products of 49-Down 54. Father of Miriam 55. Weeping woman of Greek mythology 56. Big chunks of concrete or marble 59. Like most tennis players 60. Part of a name for some shuls 61. CPU environs 62. “How comfy!” 63. Livid feeling

The solution to last week’s puzzle is on page 44.

40 NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021

his will be the last column focused around the joy and excitement of the arrival of Gd #1 for a little while. I was on the phone with Meghan Markle a few days ago, comparing the reactions to the birth of her little Lili and the birth of my first granddaughter, and to be quite honest, Dil #1 produced quite an adorable child. I told Meghan to stop sending me pictures, because there is just no comparison. I don’t care how many of the photos have her baby dressed in the crown jewels — you just cannot compare! Those royals can be so narcissistic…. I finally just said to her, “Listen Meghan, if Lili wants to join our playgroup, she needs to bring her own tehillim because we can’t just go lending them out to just anybody.” I hope she got the hint. Truth is, Lili does have a much better security entourage, so I guess you take the good with the bad. Of course once she hears there is a dress code among oreos, the whole friendship might fall to pieces, but who knows. When the kids first told us that we were going to become, gasp, grandparents, they did it in a card that said “Nana” on it. So that got us discussing what we would want to be called. It used to be pretty simple. Grandma and Grandpa. Bubby and Zeidy. Saba and Savta. I had a Mama and a Papa. And these days, there are Mimis and Deedees and PopPops and just plan Pops or Pas. The possibilities are endless. Since I still haven’t established what Dil #1 should call me (yes, we all know that I am a difficult person, but whatever) the topic of “what should we call you” reached a new level. Dil #1’s mom is an established Savta, so that was off the table. With a name like Banji Banji, I thought that Grandma was a little too Ganchrow run of the mill, so, like with most things, I had to make this decision more challenging than it needed to be. But then, Dil #1 told me that her mom’s friend was called Babka. Hmm, Babka — that was perfect. To most people, a babka is a type of cake. It comes in chocolate and cinnamon, and other flavors if you are a creative baker. And though when people think of me, they don’t think cake — they might think, “that woman is driving me to eat a whole cake” or “it looks like that lady has eaten too much cake” — I thought it was perfect. I emailed Dil #1’s mom’s friend and asked for the back story on babka. Don’t worry, I knew who this person was, because I grew up next door to her parents in Fair Lawn. She explained to me how she got to Babka (don’t know if I have permission to share that, but it was a pretty simple, non-controversial explanation), I asked if it was okay if I used it, she said of course — and a new Babka was born. People have started asking me what Gd #1 is going to call me and when I say “Babka,” I usually get a laugh, followed by a “No, you’re kidding.” I never kid about cake. When someone responded with a snarky “Figures you would be called something different,” I was happy to retort that I did not make babka up. That’ll show her. (Sorry, I am working on becoming a better person, but it is a slow process.) As for Husband #1, he is going by Papa because his maternal grandfather was his papa. A friend had suggested that he try Papka because then we would be Babka and Papka, but I guess that was too much for him. So there you have it. Now the mystery of what Husband #1 and I are being called has been made clear, I am sure you were all waiting with great anticipation for the big reveal. Though, thinking about, I forgot to ask Meghan what Lili was calling her mother, but I cannot imagine that it is Babka (or Bubby or Savta for that matter, but you never know). And there you have it. I look forward to oversharing many more stories with you in the future, and I hope that you will enjoy reading them. Signing off for now, wishing all of you a healthy and enjoyable summer. See ya next week! Banji Ganchrow of Teaneck is looking forward to hearing screams of joy when all the kids leave for sleepaway camp in a few weeks.

Lifecycle B’nai mitzvah Reilly Huber

Reilly Abigail Huber, daughter of Rachel and Ryan Huber of Springfield, celebrated becoming a bat mitzvah on June 12, live and on Zoom, at Temple Beth Ahm Yisrael in Springfield.

Corey Leavy

Corey Leavy, son of Allison and Paul Leavy of Livingston and brother of Parker and Jaynie, celebrated

becoming a bar mitzvah on June 12 during Shabbat morning services at Temple B’nai Abraham in Livingston.

Ari Miller

Ari Miller, the son of Amy and Daniel Miller of Pine Brook, celebrated becoming a bar mitzvah on June 12 during Shabbat morning services at the Pine Brook Jewish Center in Montville.

Brooke Ritter

Brooke Ritter, daughter of Melanie and Joshua Ritter of Scotch Plains and sister of Brandon and Jordan, celebrated becoming a bat mitzvah on June 12 at Congregation Beth Israel in Scotch Plains.

BRIEF

Biden names Tom Nides ambassador to Israel RON KAMPEAS WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden nominated Tom Nides, a deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration, to be his ambassador to Israel. Nides, a banker, was the deputy secretary of state for management and resources from 2011 to 2013 and had good relations with Israeli diplomats, although he was less involved in substantive diplomacy.

Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to Washington, in his book “Ally” chronicling his ambassadorship, described Nides as “irreverent, hard-working, highly intelligent, and warm.” Oren said Nides quickly earned his “affection and trust.” Nides, who is Jewish, is a Minnesota native who has been close to Joe Lieberman since running his vice presidential campaign in 2000. Lieberman, then a

Connecticut senator, was Al Gore’s running mate and the first Jewish candidate on a major party presidential ticket. Some in the centrist and liberal pro-Israel communities had pushed to have Biden tap Robert Wexler, a former Florida congressman who now heads a nongovernmental group advocating for Israeli-Arab JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY peace, to the post.

Miriam Gershwin

Miriam Gershwin, 97, passed away on April 15, 2021 — 76 years after a letter reported her death at the hands of the Nazis. Miriam’s life began on August 13, 1923 in Memel, a city on the Baltic coast in current-day Lithuania. Her parents, Nathan and Feige Bengis Lichtenstein, both descendants of proud rabbinical families, raised Miriam and her older brother Mordechai in an Orthodox Jewish household, enrolled them in secular German schools, and lived comfortably until the Nazi threat forced them to flee in March 1939 to Kovno. After the Germans invaded Kovno and imprisoned Miriam’s family in the Kovno Ghetto, Miriam was ordered to clean the home of the ghetto’s Nazi commandant, a job that allowed her beyond the barbed wire. Risking her life, she secretly delivered messages from one ghetto to another. On one delivery, she met Nahum Girschowitz, whom she married on Purim in 1942. In September 1944, Miriam was torn from her family and transported by cattle car to the Stutthof Concentration Camp, in northern Poland. Liberated by the Russian Army in January 1945, she believed she was her family’s sole survivor until learning that her father and husband had both survived the Dachau Concentration Camp, and were in a refugee camp near Munich. Nathan and Nahum received the erroneous letter about her death one day before Miriam arrived after an arduous journey through post-war Germany. Fluent in English, Miriam became a valued worker for the immigration department of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. While residing in Munich she gave birth to her son, Sam. In 1949, with her father, husband and son she immigrated to America. Together they settled in Springfield, New Jersey in September 1952, and welcomed

their daughter, Faye, a few years later. One of ten Jewish families in town, she and Nahum organized religious services at a local parish before helping to found Temple Beth Ahm. In addition to raising two children, Miriam taught Hebrew school, volunteered for Hadassah and was a volunteer for nearly two decades at Saint Barnabas Hospital. She was an avid Mah Jongg player, an active member of her temple’s “minyanaires” club, the Springfield 4th of July committee, the Springfield Senior Citizens Group, an election poll worker and a lifetime member of the Springfield chapter of Hadassah. In her later years, Miriam was known as “Oma,” not only to her four grandchildren and four greatgrandchildren, but to their friends and community members who knew her for her generous spirit and genuine concern for others. She spoke to many groups about her experiences during the Holocaust, including local schools and Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation, who recorded her testimony. She was honored with the B’nai B’rith Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award, Sisterhood Woman of the Year and twice as Hadassah Woman of the Year. Miriam is survived by her son Sam (Laynie) Gershwin; her daughter Faye (Ira) Bodenstein; her grandchildren, Jason (Andrea) Gershwin, Marisa Gershwin, Nicole (Adam) Hunter, Daniel Bodenstein; and her great-grandchildren, Zachary and Owen Gershwin, Max and Maya Hunter. Graveside services were held on April 16, 2021 with arrangements by Ross’ Shalom Chapels of Springfield. Memorial donations may be made to Hadassah; The Holocaust Memorial Garden at Temple Beth Shalom, Livingston; The College Connection of Congregation Beth Israel, Scotch Plains; or the charity of your choice.

— Paid Obituary —

Sheila Kronisch

Sheila Kronisch, née Felzenberg, 84, passed away peacefully at home on Friday, June 11, 2021 surrounded by her loving family. She was predeceased by her beloved husband of 63 years, Myron, and by her brother, Leonard Felzenberg. She is survived by her four children, Elizabeth (and Marc Lesser), Jennifer (and Steven Benenson), Rebecca (and Robert Emert), and Matthew (and Belle Kronisch); 11 grandchildren (several with spouses or fiancees), and two great-grandchildren. Each one knew they meant the world to her. Sheila is also survived by her sister, Nancy Vines, nephews James and Gregory Felzenberg and David Vines, and niece Lauren Felzenberg. Born in Newark and raised in Maplewood and South Orange, Sheila lived most of her life in Livingston before retiring with her husband to Mount Arlington to enjoy the relaxation of life at Lake Hopatcong. In addition to her devotion to her entire family, Sheila was active in her community through the Parent Teacher Association while her children were in grammar school, as a longtime member of Temple Beth Shalom in Livingston, and in leadership positions for many years with the Essex County Section of National Council of Jewish Women. Through these organizations, Sheila began and participated in numerous innovative programs to improve the health and safety of children, women and families. Funeral services were private. To share messages of condolence, go to www.bernheimapterkreitzman.com . The family has requested that donations in Sheila’s memory be sent to National Council of Jewish Women or Lymphoma Research Foundation. — Paid Obituary —

NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021 41

Lifecycle In significant verdict, French court sentences Holocaust denier for death threats CNAAN LIPHSHIZ

France, handed down its guilty verdict and sentence last week to Ahmed Moualek, 53. Moualek had posted death threats against Gilles William Golnadel and Alain Jakubowitz, two well-known Jewish lawyers, as well as journalist Elisabeth Levy, La Montagne reported. Moualek is a former associate of Dieudonne M’bala M’bala and Alain Soral, Holocaust deniers who founded the now-defunct Anti-Zionist Party 10 years ago.

A French court sentenced a blogger who posted videos of himself calling for the murder of prominent French Jews was sentenced to five years in prison. The sentence, for promoting terrorism and making death threats, is among the harshest given in recent years over such offenses in France. The tribunal of Cusset, a town near Vichy in central

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Moualek was among the party’s founders. On the 2019 anniversary of the 2015 murder of four Jews by a jihadist at the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Paris, Moualek posted a video addressed to “the dirty Jews” in which he said, “You know it would have pleased me no end if the Shoah existed but I’m just sorry you weren’t on the train.”

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Lifecycle Jewish groups among recipients of MacKenzie Scott’s latest $2.74B in grants ASAF SHALEV Three Jewish nonprofit organizations will receive a slice of the latest $2.74 billion in grants handed out by MacKenzie Scott, philanthropist and former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Scott and her husband Dan Jewett announced that they were distributing new funds to 286 different organizations, bringing Scott’s total charitable giving since July 2020 to $8.5 billion. The latest grants include Scott’s first to Jewish groups. The three Jewish grantees are Maryland-based HIAS, which advocates for and gives aid to immigrants and refugees; Repair the World, a community service and social justice organization based in New York; and Afrika Tikkun, an aid organization founded by the chief rabbi of South Africa after the end of apartheid there. “Because community-centered service is such a powerful catalyst and multiplier, we spent the first quarter of 2021 identifying and evaluating equity-oriented non-profit teams working in areas that have been neglected,” Scott said in her announcement about the grants. “We chose to make relatively large gifts to the [organizations], both to enable their work, and as a signal of trust and encouragement, to them and to others.” Scott didn’t spell out why she gave any particular group or how much each had received. Repair the World released a statement announcing a $7 million “unrestricted” gift from Scott that will help get more young people involved in community service and advocacy on humanitarian and civic issues. “Mackenzie Scott and Dan Jewett’s generosity and vision validates the investments of Repair’s generous funders, and their gift is a clear challenge and invitation to do even more: more service, more partnerships, and more investments to elevate and expand service in American Jewish life,” said Cindy Greenberg, president and CEO of Repair the World. Meanwhile, HIAS announced it had received “a transformational grant” from Scott. “HIAS has been broadening our programmatic, advocacy and geographic reach to help people find safety, welcome and opportunity wherever they are,” said Mark Hetfield, president and CEO of HIAS. “With this investment, HIAS will accelerate our work to build the platform we need to respond to refugee emergencies wherever they arise and whenever we JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY can help.”

Lifecycle submissions Families are welcome to send b’nai mitzvah, births, and anniversaries, and funeral directors to send obits to: [email protected] For information on paid notices, call Lauri Siriois at (862) 309-8405

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INTRODUCING

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Together, Jewish Community Foundation and Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ are looking toward the future.

JEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION

In 2023 as we celebrate Federation’s milestone 100th anniversary, the Jewish Community Foundation is proud to introduce the NEW CENTURY FUND (NCF), a newly established giving society. NCF will recognize generous supporters who commit to a legacy gift to build a perpetual endowment for the UJA Annual Campaign of Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ. The NEW CENTURY FUND is for donors who establish an endowment gift commitment between $10,000 and $99,000.

Endow a gift today! For more information contact Debra Levenstein (973) 929-2947 [email protected]

Endowing an annual gift will enable Federation to continue to care for people in need locally, in Israel, and in 70 countries around the world for generations to come. For the first time in our history, hundreds of loyal supporters will be able to participate in securing the future. Together, we accomplish far more than any one person or organization can achieve alone.

Federation cares for people in need, builds Jewish community, and saves the world, one person at a time, every day. Building an inclusive community is a priority. Contact us and we will make every effort to meet your needs.

46 NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021

NEW JERSEY STANDS AGAINST ANTISEMITISM In recent weeks, our area has witnessed an alarming rise in antisemitic attacks – physical and verbal, in person and online. Antisemitism, like any kind of hate, is unacceptable in any form. There must be no caveats and no qualifiers when condemning anti-Jewish hate, violence against Jews, and antisemitism in all spaces. We unequivocally condemn these attacks, reaffirm our solidarity with the Jewish community, and call on all community leaders to join us.

WITH GRATITUDE AND DEEP APPRECIATION TO THE LEADERS WHO STAND WITH THE JEWISH COMMUNITY: NJ Governor Phil Murphy Gurbir Grewal, NJ Attorney General, Office of the NJ Attorney General Hon. Ras J. Baraka, Mayor, City of Newark Richard T. Smith, President, NJ NAACP Center for Non-Profits Chamber of Commerce of Southern NJ Church of the Holy Spirit Community Planning & Advocacy Council Fanwood Scotch Plains YMCA The Metuchen Edison Area Interfaith Association New Dover United Methodist Church Oranges & Maplewood NAACP Kevin Dawud Amin, AmirDirector, Masjid Wadud Darrin Anderson, Sr., CEO, New Jersey YMCA Alliance Br. Dawud Assad, Chairman of Religious Events Planning Committee, Islamic Society of Central Jersey (ISCJ) Rev. Melanie Barbarito, Calvary Episcopal Church

SPONSORED BY:

Amanda Block, Founder, GRACE

Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ

Elder David Buckner, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Jewish Federation in the Heart of New Jersey

Rev. Susanna Cates, All Saints Episcopal Church

Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey

Mohammad Chaudry, President, Islamic Society of Basking Ridge

Jewish Federation of Somerset, Hunterdon & Warren Counties

Yasmeena Chaudry, Administrator, Islamic Society of Basking Ridge Rev. Diana Doyle Clark, The Episcopal Church

Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey Jewish Federations of New Jersey

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Anti-Defamation League

Serkan Ercan, Member, Peace Islands Institute

Rev. George Erlandson, Community Presbyterian Church of Edison

The Rev. Jeffrey Roy, Rector, St. George’s by the River Episcopal Church

Buddy Evans, President & CEO, YMCA of Montclair

Rev. Chuck Rush, Senior Minister, Christ Church, Summit

Rev. Seth Fisher, First Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Hunterdon County

Rev. Blake Scalet, Pastor, St. John’s Lutheran Church

Rev. Diane Ford, Lincroft Presbyterian Church

Bishop John Schol, Greater NJ Conference of the Methodist Church

Rabbi Matt Gewirtz, President, NJ Coalition of Religious Leaders

Ardaman Singh, Sikh Faith Representative, Kaur and Singh Academy

Rev. Susan Gillespie, Lead Pastor, First Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Hunterdon County

George Stenbronn, Jr., CEO, Cumberland Cape Atlantic YMCA

Fr. Timothy Graff, Director, Social Concerns Office, Archdiocese of Newark Rev. Denison Harrield Jr., Wallace A.M.E. Zion Church Dr. Ali Houshmand, President, Rowan University Rev. David Jahnke, Fanwood Presbyterian Church Rev. Jack Johnson, Coordinator, NJ Coalition of Religious Leaders Rev. Erich Kussman, Saint Bartholomew Lutheran Church Ernest Lamour, President/CEORidgewood YMCA Christina Lelache, Pastor, United Methodist Church of Summit Rev. John Mason Lock, Rector, Trinity Episcopal Church, Red Bank, NJ Dr. Michael McDonough, President, Raritan Valley Community College Rev. Gladys Moore, ELCA Rev. Robert Morris, D.D., Founder, Interweave Priti Pandya-Patel, President, Asian Indian Chamber of Commerce Joseph Ritacco, Monmouth Center for World Religions and Ethical Thought

Rev. Jean St. Juste, Senior Pastor, Haitian Bethany Baptist Church Rev. Guy Sylvester, Director of Ecumenical & Interfaith Affairs, Roman Catholic Diocese of Metuchen, NJ Uma Swaminathan, President, NJ Chapter, Association of Indians in America Robin Tanner, Co-Minister, Beacon Unitarian Universalist Congregation Cardinal Joseph Tobin, Archdiocese of Newark Rev. Michael Todd, Rector, Church of the Holy Spirit Tina Truitt, President, Cherry Hill African American Civic Association Dr. Semaj Vanzant, Sr., Pastor – Teacher, Second Baptist Church Norma Vargas-Greenberg, Co-chair, Middlesex Black Jewish Coalition (MBJC) Rev. Joseph Wallace, Director of Ecumenical & Interreligious Affairs, Diocese of Camden Kerwin Webb, President, Greater Red Bank NAACP Rev. Barry Wise II, Pastor, Greater Mt. Moriah Baptist Church Rev. Julie Yarborough, Christ Church, Summit, NJ

TO SEE ALL THE SIGNATORIES AND TO ADD YOUR NAME TO STAND UP AGAINST ANTISEMITISM VISIT

NJAGAINSTANTISEMITISM.ORG

For the latest information & happenings in the Jewish community, visit us at jfedgmw.org

facebook.com/jfedgmw @jfedgmw

NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS JUNE 18, 2021 47

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