New Jersey Jewish Standard, January 31, 2014

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JSTANDARD.COM
2014 83
JANUARY 31, 2014
VOL. LXXXIII NO. 21 $1.00
YESHIVA GIRL NAMED TEANECK IDOL page 6
SCENES FROM A CIVIL RIGHTS PILGRIMAGE page 10
A TORAHS TRAVELS TO THE PASCACK VALLEY page 14
GROUCHO CALLED HIM THE WICKED WIT page 39
J e w i s h S t a n d a r d
1 0 8 6 T e a n e c k R o a d
T e a n e c k , N J 0 7 6 6 6
C H A N G E S E R V I C E R E Q U E S T E D
Standing
together
with Sinai
page 22
IN THIS ISSUE
A SUPPLEMENT TO THE JEWISH STANDARD, JEWISH COMMUNITY NEWS, AND ROCKLAND JEWISH STANDARD WINTER 2014
2 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 31, 2014
JS-2
According to the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Outlook Handbook, job
prospects for social workers are growing better than other occupations through 2018.
If you want to make a difference in your life and the lives of others, our Graduate
School of Social Work is for you. Our students are our top priority. Advance your career,
help others, and join our warm, supportive family.
- Dean Steven Huberman, Ph.D.
Visit: www.touro.edu/msw
RSVP: kerry.haley@touro.edu
Phone: 212-463-0400 X 5269
INFORMATION
SESSIONS FOR
SPRING 2014
CLASSES
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Thursday, February 20th
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Session will take place at 6pm
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JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 31, 2014 3
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NOSHES ...................................................5
OPINION ................................................ 18
COVER STORY .................................... 22
GALLERY .............................................. 36
TORAH COMMENTARY ................... 37
CROSSWORD PUZZLE .................... 38
ARTS AND CULTURE........................ 39
CALENDAR ..........................................40
OBITUARIES ........................................ 45
CLASSIFIEDS ......................................46
REAL ESTATE ...................................... 48
CONTENTS
Turning half time to kosher time
Afraid to watch the Super Bowl
half time show for fear of an un-
scheduled wardrobe malfunction
that offends your religious prin-
ciples?
Jewish radio personality Na-
chum Segal has the answer to your
prayers: a quality kosher alterna-
tive halftime show. Broadcast
from his studio somewhere in
New Jersey, the show features an
all-male lineup musicians Lenny
Solomon, Avromie Weisberger,
Jonathan Rimberg, Ari Boiangiu,
and Ethan Bill.
The show will be livestreamed at
www.nachumsegal.com and is be-
ing sponsored by Teanecks Cedar
Market as well as Empire Kosher,
the OU, and Nefesh BNefesh
Mr. Segal has sworn the perform-
ers to secrecy about their set lists.
But Mr. Solomon promises high
energy songs, including as many
of his Shlock Rock bands greatest
hits as he can fit into his allotted 15
minutes, and he was willing to dis-
close that he would play a parody
of a Jersey band.
The Shlock Rock jukebox of Jew-
ified rock songs includes two Bruce
Springsteen numbers. Mr. Solomon,
a Queens native who now lives
in Israel but spends up to three
months every winter touring the
United States, transformed Born
in the U.S.A. to Making Aliyah
Today and Glory Days to High
Holy Days.
He has also transformed one
song from one of the real Su-
per Bowl halftime acts, the Red
Hot Chili Peppers. Mr. Solomon
changed the words for the Chili
Peppers paean to a bank robber,
Dani California, to praise of the
Moroccan-born Israeli kabbalist,
Baba Sali.
While not strictly kosher, the
Chili Peppers do have Jewish roots:
One of their founding members,
the late Hillel Slovak, was Israeli,
and the band recently toured Is-
rael. (During the 1990s, the band
often performed wearing only
strategically placed socks, which
would render a wardrobe malfunc-
tion most unfortunate; with cold
weather predicted for Sunday, that
scenario is unlikely.) The other Su-
per Bowl halftime act, Bruno Mars,
has a Jewish grandparent.
Whether football itself is a
kosher sport either to play or to
watch has been a growing ques-
tion in light of findings about the
high rate of brain-damaging con-
cussions among players, as Dr. Lee
Igel wrote in our Big Game supple-
ment last week. Rabbi Aron Ye-
huda Schwab, dean of the Denver
Community Kollel, will be leading a
discussion on just that topic. Luck-
ily for hometown fans of the Bron-
cos, the discussion takes place in a
Denver kosher deli on Wednesday,
safely after the Broncos win or lose
in the big game.
LARRY YUDELSON
Borscht Belt for sale
Have you ever wanted to own a
piece of Catskills history?
Or perhaps youd like to replace
your dishes with service for a thou-
sand?
The contents of the famous Kut-
shers Hotel and Country Club go up
for auction on Wednesday. The old-
est and one of the last surviving Bor-
sht Belt hotels will be torn down
its sold to Indian billionaire Subhash
Chandra, who plans to replace it with
a health and wellness destination.
Among the celebrities who
worked or performed at Kutschers
and who may have eaten off the
dishes or slept on the beds that can
be yours are Red Auerbach, Duke
Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Dean
Martin, Woody Allen, Jerry Seinfeld,
and Wilt Chamberlain.
Anyone who wants to bid at the
auction, to be held at the hotel in
Monticello, N.Y., is advised to bring
cash and certified check. And dress
warmly not all the rooms are
heated.
Full details are at http://www.auc-
tionzip.com/Listings/2023713.html
LARRY YUDELSON
When Nixon waxed Roth
It didnt take much
effort for novel-
ist Philip Roth to
transform President
Richard M. Nixon into
the caricature Trick E.
Dixon, the presiden-
tial star of Roths oft-
forgotten 1971 novel
Our Gang.
Our Gang spent
18 weeks on the best-
seller list and was re-
viewed by the New York
Times as far-fetched,
unfair, tasteless, disturb-
ing, logical, coarse, and
very funny, but the book
seldom makes it into the
valedictory accounts of
the 80-year-old retired
novelist. (That might not be surpris-
ing for a work of political parody
written in three months.)
Perhaps the novels most notable
accomplishment was to transform
Mr. Nixon into a literary critic. Writing
in the L.A. Review of Books, historian
Jon Wiener has scoured the tran-
scripts of the tapes that Nixon kept
of all his White House conversations,
and he has discovered treasures of
American literary history as Nixon
and his chief of staff H. R. Haldeman
discuss Our Gang, Philip Roth, and
the young novelists oeuvre.
Herewith some selected tran-
scripts:
HALDEMAN: I never read Portnoys
Complaint, but I understand it
was a well written book but just
sickeningly filthy.
NIXON: Roth is of course a Jew.
HALDEMAN: Oh yes ... Hes
brilliant in a sick way.
NIXON: Oh, I know.
HALDEMAN: Everything hes
written has been sick....
NIXON: A lot of this can be
turned to our advantage ... I
think the anti-Semitic thing can
be, I hate to say it, but it can be
very helpful to us.
HALDEMAN: There are a lot
more anti-Semites than there
are Jews, and the anti-Semites
are with us generally and the
Jews sure arent.
Later that same day, November 3,
1971, Nixon returns with his special
counsel, Charles Colson.
NIXON: Roth is a bad man.
COLSON: Oh yes.
NIXON: Hes a horrible moral leper.
Mr. Roth had a long and successful
career in the years after 1971. But we
can only wonder how many more
copies he would have sold had his
publishers used the Nixon tapes in
their marketing and blurbed every
book: A horrible moral leper
Richard M. Nixon.
LARRY YUDELSON
Candlelighting: Friday, January 31, 4:53 p.m.
Shabbat ends: Saturday, February 1, 5:55 p.m.
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Noshes
JS-5*
It took me years of directing sharks,
aliens, and dinosaurs before I felt
ready to tackle the Holocaust.
Steven Spielberg, delivering the keynote address to a special U.N. General
Assembly marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Want to read more noshes? Go to facebook.com/jewishstandard
Mayor STEVE FULOP,
36, of Jersey City, is the
son of working class
Romanian Jewish im-
migrants. In 2003, Fulop
left Goldman-Sachs, his
employer since college,
and enlisted in the Ma-
rines. He was deployed
to Iraq with his Marine
Corps Reserve unit. He
was elected Jersey City
mayor last May. He is
seen as a reform Co-
rey Booker type with
a great future. Fulop
claims that long-sched-
uled meetings with state
government officials,
aimed at helping Jersey
City right after he took
office, were canceled
when he refused to en-
dorse Gov. Christie for
re-election.
Hoboken mayor
DAWN ZIMMER, 45, is
married to prominent
jewelry company owner
STAN GROSSBARD,
55. His companys most
famous product is the
radiant cut diamond,
which his father invent-
ed. Zimmer converted
to Judaism a few years
after her marriage. She
says that she and family
reserve Friday nights for
family and no work.
Zimmer says that New
Jerseys lieutenant gov-
ernor, Kim Guadagno,
told her that hurricane
recovery funds for
Hoboken would be held
up until she supported a
big real-estate deal. N.B.
Joyce Maynard
AT THE MOVIES:
Writer is tested
by Labor Day
David Wildstein
Steve Fulop Dawn Zimmer
Labor Day is
based on a criti-
cally acclaimed
2009 novel of the same
name by JOYCE MAY-
NARD, 60. JASON
REITMAN, 36, directed
the film and wrote the
screenplay. He says
that this film, a complex
drama, is very different
from his other films and
he just hopes he nailed
it. (His three earlier films
all were box-office and
critical hits: Thank You
for Smoking, Juno, and
Young Adult.) Labor
stars Kate Winslet as a
reclusive woman with
a 13-year-old son; their
lives change drasti-
cally when they meet
and decide to harbor an
escaped convict (Josh
Brolin). Opens Friday,
January 31.
As just about ev-
eryone living here
knows, the Super
Bowl will be played on
Sunday, February 2, in
East Rutherford. It will
be aired on Fox; kick-off
time is 6:45 p.m.
This is the first time
that a Super Bowl will
be played outdoors in a
cold-weather city, and no
doubt the NFL is praying
that another polar vortex
doesnt descend.
The games huge view-
ing audience is catnip
for companies trying
to make their products
much better known. Su-
per Bowl ads usually fea-
ture clever copy or big-
name endorsers, or both.
SodaStream, an Israeli
company that makes and
markets a carbonation
system that allows you to
make your own soda at
home, has seen its sales
rise incredibly in the last
decade, but it still isnt
an American household
name. So, its turned to a
celebrity spokesperson
and scored big-time
by signing SCARLETT
JOHANSSON, 29, to pro-
mote its product in TV
ads. The first ad featur-
ing the gorgeous actress
will air during the Super
Bowl. Johansson has en-
dorsed other products,
but this will be her first
big TV ad campaign.
If you are at all
like me a Jew-
ish/political news
junkie youre wonder-
ing who is Jewish among
the people being cited
daily in news reports
about the New Jersey
Bridgegate scandal(s).
I havent run them all
down, but here are a few:
DAVID WILDSTEIN, 63,
the former Port Author-
ity official implicated in
the massive GW tie-ups,
is Jewish according to
the Forward newspaper
which couldnt (yet)
run down how observant
his family was/is.
Following Billy Joel
on his Soviet journey
On Showtime: Billy Joel: A Matter of Trust A Bridge
to Russia premieres on Friday, January 31, at 9 p.m. This
documentary recounts how BILLY JOEL, 64, traveled
to the former Soviet Union in 1988 and become one of
the irst big Western acts to play in the then-still-Com-
munist country. The ilm includes footage of Joels Soviet
concerts and recollections. Also on Showtime: Quality
Balls, a documentary on the life of comedian/director
DAVID STEINBERG, 71, including many clips, pre-
mieres on Monday, February 3, at 9:30 p.m. Steinberg,
the son of a Canadian rabbi, comments on his almost
50-year career.
N.B.
Billy Joel
California-based Nate Bloom can be reached at
Middleoftheroad1@aol.com

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Teen Idol
Maayanot student crowned winner of Teaneck talent competition
LOIS GOLDRICH
I
ts about so much more than singing,
says Jack Aaken, co-producer of the
annual Teaneck Community Cho-
russ Teaneck Teen Idol contest.
Mr. Aaken, secretary of the chorus board,
said the singing group, which tries to sup-
port inclusiveness and diversity wants to
make sure we support our youth. Indeed,
he said, this is the only performance venue
where kids from all the schools in Teaneck
can get together and perform.
We want to give them a performance
opportunity, but our vision is to try to
help kids meet from all the different
schools, he said.
Last year, the chorus, which was founded
in 1999, received the Matthew Feldman
Award for Community Relations for those
efforts. The honor, presented by the
Teaneck Community Council, is the high-
est award for community relations, Mr.
Aaken said.
The seventh annual Teen Idol contest
won this year by 14-year-old Maayanot
Yeshiva High School for Girls student Atara
Schuh of New Milford brings the stu-
dents together, he said. The kids were so
supportive of each other.
They all know how difficult it is to per-
form, and there was a sense of community
and mutual support.
Participating students must be between
13 and 18 years old, and either live in
Teaneck or go to school there. While this
year saw some 40 applicants, in earlier
years the contest has drawn as many as 60
contenders.
According to Mr. Aaken, the 13 semifinal-
ists who sang on January 18 represented the
greatest range of schools in the contests
history, including the Maayanot, Yavneh
Academy, the Community School, Teaneck
Community Charter School, Teaneck High
School, and Thomas Jefferson Middle
School.
This couldnt happen without our vocal
coaches Gail Smith and William Wade,
Mr. Aaken said, noting that both are
accomplished musicians. Ive heard
from parents that its rare to get this
level of professional coaching. He
said that students come in with ideas
for songs, and the coaches help guide
them to songs that work for their voices
and ages.
This years judges included Jackie
Kates, a former Teaneck mayor who is
now Holy Name Medical Centers com-
munity relations and public affairs coor-
dinator; singer/actor Kahlil Daniel, who
won the first Teaneck Teen Idol contest
in 2005, and the Teaneck International
Film Festivals executive director,
Jeremy Lentz. They were asked
to pick the top five finalists. Ulti-
mately, however, the audience
voted for the winning performer.
Ms. Kates said shes been
associ ated wi th the con-
test since the beginning.
Its always great to spotlight
Teaneck talent, particularly
Teaneck youth. This event is
very special because we dont
have many opportunities for
young people who go to differ-
ent schools to get together and
work on something together.
Ms. Kates, a member of
the choruss advisory board,
said she can see that bonds
are developing. As each per-
former waits for his or her
turn, its clear that theyre
all in this together. You dont
see nastiness or competitive-
ness. Its great for the chorus
to make this opportunity avail-
able for kids to come together.
I feel privileged to be part of this.
Generally speaking, this was the highest
caliber of performers that Ive seen in any
year, she continued. There are always
kids who knock your socks off, but this
year there werent any clunkers. We had a
really great selection. There were so many
talented kids. Its wasnt easy to eliminate
some.
She noted that while the audience
includes the performers friends and fam-
ily members, she believes that the final
result is determined by talent.
Atara was great, she said. She brought
a whole different approach to it. Usually,
she said, students perform popular songs
or show tunes.
She was different, Ms. Kates said, not-
ing that one of Ataras choices was Leon-
ard Cohens Hallelujah.
It was spiritual, but not heavy. Her beau-
tiful voice and open heart brought a com-
pletely different element and she did it so
well. I was delighted to be able to choose
her.
Atara who also sang Let Her Go said
that while she was happy with her perfor-
mance, she truly did not expect to win,
particularly since so many members of the
audience were there to support singers
from other schools.
I had mixed emotions, she said. I was
shocked, proud, and very happy.
The teen said she is particularly proud
because she is the first Orthodox Jew to win
the contest.
I think the fact that an Orthodox young
woman won was very good for the Jewish
community, she said. I was really happy
and proud to represent the Jewish people.
Atara was awarded $250, a huge tro-
phy, and a two-hour recording session at a
New York studio. She was a little nervous
at first, she said, but it felt good to be there
and sing.
She has performed before, both with
the Teaneck-based Black Box Studios and
in school productions. Later this year, she
and some musical friends will put together
a concert to benefit Emunah.
Im so excited and honored to have been
chosen as the Teaneck Teen Idol, she said.
It was great to share the stage with other
great talents in our community, [ Jewish
contestants] Leora and Yechiel Hyman and
Talia Kupferman. I love singing, and to be
acknowledged in this way is something Ill
never forget.
Atara said that during the few weeks
between tryouts and the actual perfor-
mance, she got to know the other contes-
tants quite well.
It was a great experience to meet people
from other schools, she said, noting that
she probably would not have gotten to
know them otherwise. The competition
gave me a chance to meet them.
That is exactly what Mr. Aaken and the
Teaneck Community Chorus are aiming for.
Stressing the importance of community,
Mr. Aaken said that whats special about
Teaneck is its great diversity. The competi-
tion almost creates its own community of
performers.
It helps bring kids together, and when-
ever you create a sense of community, thats
nice. Im so happy were doing it.
Above, the ve nalists onstage at
the Teaneck Teen Idol contest. Left,
Atar Schuh, 14, of Maayanot Yeshiva
HIgh School for Girls, clutches the
winning trophy.
There are always
kids who knock
your socks off,
but this year
there werent
any clunkers.
JACKIE KATES
Local
JS-7*

Shaar Communities
Choose Your Gate. Open Your Soul. Find Your Community.

Upcoming Events: Check our Website for more details.
www.shaarcommunities.org

Rosh Chodesh Learning Series, Drink & Think
Wednesday, February 5, 2014, 7:3010:00 pm
Screening and discussion of the Academy Award nominated film The Gatekeepers
led by Rabbi Adina Lewittes and Amy Levin, J Street NY/NJ Regional Field Organizer.

Gate of Discovery trip to Berlin and Krakow
Jewish Remembrance and Renewal
April 27 May 7, 2014 Only 2 spots remaining! RSVP NOW!

Mosaic of the Mitzvot, A Bnai Mitzvah Program
A Six Part Series beginning February 9, 2014
This unique program uses the tri-state area as a living beit midrash/classroom and
prepares kids for the many and varied aspects of becoming a Bar/Bat Mitzvah.

Parents of LGBTQ Teens
Tuesday, February 11, 2014, 7:30 pm
New Jerseys first Jewish LGBTQ teen initiative, parents gather to discuss issues
relevant to their children and families.

A Magical Night with Shaar!
Thursday, February 27, 2014, 8:00 11:00 pm
An Evening of Magic, Music, Raffles and Refreshments.
With Special Guest, OZ PEARLMAN!

FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE!
February 28, 2014, 6:30pm
Enjoy music-filled, spiritual Shabbat services followed by a delicious dinner.

For more information or to RSVP contact joanne@shaarcommunities.org.
If you live in New Jersey, the answer is probably YES!
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We need your information by March 1st
for your free evaluation.
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ZOA leader critical
of Iran nuclear deal
Teaneck group hears Klein assail
interim agreement as lopsided
ARIELA RIVKIN
L
ast Sunday, approximately 100
people gathered at Congregation
Bnai Yeshurun in Teaneck to hear
the president of the Zionist Orga-
nization of America, Morton A. Klein, share
his views on the existential threat Irans
approaching ability to produce nuclear weap-
ons presents to the United States and Israel.
Specifically, Mr. Klein said that an interim
deal struck by the P5+1 fails to prevent Irans
rise as an imminent nuclear power. (The P5+1
is made up by the five permanent members
of the UN Security Council plus Germany.)
The talk, organized by Laura Fein, the
ZOAs executive director for the New Jersey
region, was the second Teaneck event in the
ZOAs ambitious schedule since the opening
of its new Bergen County office. Bnai Yeshu-
runs rabbi, Steven Pruzansky, launched the
evening with a warm welcome, and Ms. Fein
introduced Mr. Klein.
According to Mr. Klein, the deal, which was
put into effect on January 20, is just the most
recent manifestation of President Obamas
willingness to accept a short-term diplomatic
win even as it advances Iran down the path
toward nuclear weaponry.
The deal requires Iran only to stop enrich-
ing uranium to 20 percent that is to weap-
ons grade and to oxidize some of their
current stores, but it allows Iran to continue
research on other necessary elements of
nuclear weapons, such as the bomb-trigger
mechanism. Mr. Klein said that now that
Iran is free to pursue such auxiliary elements
without threat of repercussions, it likely will
be better able to produce a weapon after the
six-month period of sanctions relief than it
would have been otherwise. That is because
it already has the technology it needs for
uranium enrichment, and can quickly revert
the 5 percent oxidized stores back to 20 per-
cent later.
And, he added, the reduction of sanctions,
coupled with the Obama administrations
repeated claim that military action will be
avoided only as a last resort, has clearly weak-
ened Americas influence in the Middle East,
especially among its allies.
In Mr. Kleins assessment, if there are
to be no sanctions, and there is the prom-
ise of no military intervention, Iranian
behavior essentially is repercussion-free.
He asks, If we couldnt get Iran to stop
progress toward nuclear weapons with
crippling sanctions, how do we plan to get
them to stop [progress] now that weve
retracted them?
Mr. Klein also touched on the threats that
Zionist Organization of Americas President Morton A. Klein doesnt like the
interim nuclear agreement with Iran.
SEE MORTON KLEIN PAGE 35
Local
JS-8*
FIRST PERSON
Building bridges, tearing down walls
At Teaneck shuls
Shabbaton, teachers
learn and students
teach
JOANNE PALMER
I
t was so very smart.
There is a great deal to say
about the Shabbaton that
Congregation Beth Sholom of
Teaneck held last week it was warm,
welcoming, filled with the voices of
children singing in unison and adults in har-
mony, a prime example of a Conservative
movement organization not just surviving
but thriving. But the main thing that struck
me was how very smart it was.
Let me start with an explanation. The Jew-
ish Standard does not cover events on Shab-
bat. We honor the sanctity of the day and our
writers freedom to mark it as they choose,
free from the demands of work. But I have
gone to two Beth Sholom Shabbatonim so
far, not as a writer but as a person, and I can-
not resist the need to tell the story, so I called
participants on Monday. All quotes come
from those telephone conversations.
So back to the Shabbaton.
To begin with, it is huge. More than 250
people signed up for Friday night dinner, and
more than 300 for lunch the next day; more
than 300 registered for sessions. It is one of
the shuls most popular annual programs.
Beth Sholom is unusual in that it has more
than 30 rabbis on its membership rolls by
many counts more than 35 of them as well
as many other Jewish professionals and aca-
demics. You have a lot of people who are
knowledgeable on many levels Jewishly, its
rabbi, Joel Pitkowsky, said. Not only text-
based knowledge, but also about the Jewish
world.
The Shabbaton takes advantage of those
Jewish professionals. All the teaching is
done by members. The Shabbaton includes
three learning sessions, as well as the panel
discussion at its end; there are 19 options
for those sessions, as well as a simultane-
ous childrens track. The obvious clich to
apply here is an embarrassment of riches.
To anyone who loves Jewish learning, it is
a huge, colorful, savory, aromatic buffet of
glorious treats; you are given a small plate
and can take only what can fill it, and you
have only one chance at the line. You know
that you will leave behind more wonder
than you can grab for yourself; to be at the
Shabbaton is to know that and accept it.
The striking part of the classes, though,
is the level at which they are taught. The
assumption is that everyone there is smart
and well-educated, both Jewishly and gener-
ally. That seems to pay off; when classes end,
the kind of intellectual discussion that its not
always easy to find anywhere is everywhere.
Everyone seems to be talking ideas.
This years theme was Bridges and Walls.
It was a big year for Women of the Wall,
education committee chair Dr. Elaine Cohen
said. There are a lot of new partnerships
and collaborations in the Jewish world
those are bridges. This is a time when there
are so many divisions in Jewish life, and we
wanted to focus on the ways we can build
bridges. Thats building community. Teach-
ers must have their courses approved, but
they are free to use the theme as literally or
as figuratively as they choose.
The Shabbaton reflects a community of
learners, where the teachers also learn, and
the learners teach, Andrew Silow-Carroll,
the editor of Metrowests New Jersey Jewish
News, said. There is so much wisdom and
talent in the pews.
I can take a class from Steve Garfinkel
thats Rabbi Stephen Garfinkel, assistant
provost and assistant professor of Bible at the
Jewish Theological Seminary one of the
top Talmud teachers in the country, and then
when I look, there he is in my class, which is
flattering and intimidating at the same time.
And then I look again and see that the person
asking the question is Ben Sommer. Dr. Ben-
jamin Sommer is a professor of Bible at JTS.
Honestly, to have a class on this level, nor-
mally youd have to pay for it.
Adina Avery-Grossman, one of the leaders
of the childrens chorus, Tzipporei Shalom,
loves the Shabbaton but not as much for
the classes as for the music.
This is a shul that connects spiritually
through music, she said.
Speaking as someone who is less of a
serious learner than other people, this shul
provides me, and people like me, who are
more moved by music and arts, ways to con-
nect that are as legitimate as studying.
There are three choral groups that sing
at the Shabbaton and at the shul and
she loves each of them. Tzipporei Shalom,
of course, is Ms. Avery-Grossmans baby. (A
shared baby she and Cantor Ronit Wolff
Hanan created and lead it together.) The
chorus is for first- through eighth-graders.
(When theyve aged out, high-schoolers can
go on to HaZamir, the national teen chorus,
which happens to meet at Beth Sholom.)
When you first see the singers, youre struck
by their cuteness; when they open their
mouths, you forget that. They sing in seri-
ous, lovely, earnest, bell-clear unison. They
melt hearts.
The Russian choruss members are mi-
grs; they sing the songs of their history.
Theyre passionate, and they have access
to a repertoire that none of the rest of us
could possibly have, Ms. Avery-Grossman
said. They sing in Russian, in Yiddish, and
in Hebrew. The first Shabbaton I went to,
19 years ago, they had me at My Country,
Tis of Thee. They sang it in deep, thick Rus-
sian accents. There wasnt a dry eye in the
house.
The third choir, Tavim, is the adult a
cappella group. (On Shabbat, all the music
is a cappella.)
At the Shabbaton, the Russian chorus sang
after dinner, Tzippporei Shalom after shul on
Shabbat morning, and Tavim after lunch.
On Friday night, I went to the class taught
by Rabbi Dr. Michael Chernick. Talk about
bridges he spans much of the Jewish world
all by himself. A Yeshiva University-ordained
rabbi and identifying Orthodox Jew, he is a
professor of Jewish jurisprudence and social
justice at the Reform movements Hebrew
Union College Jewish Institute of Religion
in Manhattan.
He and his wife, the artist Miriam Stern,
are associate and very active members
of Congregation Beth Sholom.
He addressed the question of bridges and
walls in the Jewish community head on.
Throughout the ages, Jews started
building walls, he said. They built more
walls than bridges and a whole lot hasnt
changed.
Its different in smaller Jewish commu-
nities, where survival demands solidarity,
he added, but it seems to me that when-
ever Jews have the ability to make Shabbes
for themselves and nobody else they
tend to do so.
But that hasnt always been bad. Cre-
ative tensions come out of people taking
different stances on issues, and some-
times good things have come out of it.
Something that has come out of the ten-
sion between the denominations is the
building of interesting creative bridges.
For example, there has been a lot of
wonderful liturgical music that comes
from the Reform movement and makes
its way into Conservative synagogues,
although not Orthodox ones. And con-
versely, music that has become very
popular in Orthodox circles has made a
big dent in the musical practices of Con-
servative and Reform services Carle-
bach, chasidic music. So despite the fact
that there might be a lot of feuding and
fighting between the movements, when
it comes to improving the spiritual qual-
ity of davening, they are ready to cross
lines.
By the end of Shabbat, a panel that
looked at the future of the Conservative
movement still drew about 150 listen-
ers. Peoples stamina is amazing, Rabbi
Noam Marans, one of the panelists, said.
Some people are making a distinction
between Conservative Judaism as a set
of beliefs and ideology and the Conser-
vative movements institutions, Rabbi
Pitkowsky added, looking back at that
discussion. What does it mean if, as it
seems, the ideology is a success but the
institutions arent doing so well?
Its certainly going to be an ongoing
challenge for our movement to figure out
where we fit in, and who we are. I think
that there are tremendous successes in
our movement, and we have to continue
working very hard to retool the institution
to fit our current reality.
Note to anyone investigating the Con-
servative movements successes: Take
a look at Congregation Beth Sholom in
Teaneck.
Rabbi Joel Pitkowsky, Andrew Silow-Carroll, Adina Avery-Grossman with her husband, Harmon Grossman, and Dr. Elaine Cohen
To anyone who
loves Jewish
learning, it is a
huge, colorful,
savory, aromatic
buffet of
glorious treats
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Local
JS-10*
Aint gonna let nobody turn us around
To understand civil rights struggle, Shaar heads south for MLK Day
RABBI ADINA LEWITTES
AND AARON LEWITTES
TANNENBAUM
Last November, as part of Shaar Commu-
nities Gate of Discovery, which uses travel
as a setting for Jewish education and expe-
rience, seventeen of us, 13 adults and four
teens, took off for a weekend of time travel
backward and forward on the unfinished
journey toward civil rights in this country.
Atlanta, Montgomery, Selma, and Bir-
mingham in four days. The pace was swift
all the better to work off the fried calo-
ries which kept us going. (Did you know
they even fry beer down South?) With Billy
Planer of Etgar36 guiding us through our
itinerary, which was filled with legendary
sites and real-life heroes of marches and
demonstrations, along with text study,
singing, ritual, and discussion, ours was an
adventure that took us not only far away
from our familiar places but deep within, to
untraveled corners of our own inner moral
and spiritual landscapes.
The pencil factory where Leo Frank
worked, the AIDS Memorial Quilt, the Rosa
Parks Museum, the Southern Poverty Law
Center, the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Free-
dom Park, the 16th Street Baptist Church,
the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the
King Center and Memorial, and Ebenezer
Baptist Church all were on our agenda, as
were encounters with people who lived
through the chaotic, violent years of perse-
cution and the courageous, dangerous pro-
tests of the 1950s and 60s. Meetings with
rabbis and community leaders helped us
understand Southern Jewish life, then and
now, and the role of the Jewish community
in the struggle for freedom.
Three vivid scenes paint themselves into
our memories
The whole world
is a narrow bridge
Joann Bland was a 9-year-old girl when
she and her older sister, along with hun-
dreds of others, attempted to cross the
Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday
and Turnaround Tuesday in March 1965.
Their mother had died in Michigan, wait-
ing for a blood transfusion while the doc-
tors attempted to find black blood for
her. Her sister was badly wounded by the
violence inflicted upon the marchers, who
were finally able to cross unharmed two
weeks later, and who reached the Alabama
Capital building in Montgomery to demand
equal voting rights.
Joann still lives in Selma and gives tours to
those who come bear witness to its history.
In the small visitor center near the bridge,
in a room filled with books, memorabilia,
and pictures of the march, Joann shared
her tragic but redemptive story. On the wall
behind her was a framed copy of the iconic
photo of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. march-
ing arm in arm with now Congressman John
Lewis, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, and
others, all adorned with leis provided by
a delegation of supporters from Hawaii.
When we told Joann that the teens with us
all are students at the Abraham Joshua Hes-
chel School in Manhattan, named after the
man in the photo behind her, she pointed to
Rabbi Heschel and said with a smile, Who,
him? Santa Claus?
She explained that they had given him
that nickname because of his mane of
white hair and his white beard. Now thats
ecumenical!
We emerged into the sunlight from the
visitor center and formed our own line of
marchers as we crossed the Edmund Pet-
tus Bridge. With the teens at the head (they
always do seem to lead society forward)
we began our re-enactment. We sang as
we marched. The adults did their best with
some of the classic protest songs, but even-
tually we all broke into a rhythmic chant of
Rebbe Nachman of Bratslavs Kol haolam
kulo, gesher tzar meod, vehaikar lo lep-
hached klal All the world is a narrow
bridge, and the essence is not to be afraid.
It was a powerful cry of our traditions
call for courage as we traversed a cross-
ing haunted by the echoes of racial slurs,
blessedly drowned out by songs of freedom.
We waved to the cars as they passed (every-
one waves to everyone in Selma), hoping to
absorb some of the faith, determination and
bravery that put Selma and its bridge on the
map of human history.
A synagogue meeting
you didnt want to miss
After Friday night services at Temple Beth
El, the Conservative synagogue in Birming-
ham, we filed into a boardroom for our
Shabbat dinner together. After some eat-
ing and singing, we called a mock meeting
of the 1959 temple board to order. Under
debate was whether to provide accommo-
dations and shelter in the synagogue to
some Jewish northerners coming down to
support the protests. You might think this
would be an open-and-shut case, a simple
and obvious decision for the board to make.
But it wasnt.
Playing the roles of various community
members of different ages and back-
grounds, the group was deeply divided.
Some saw it clearly as a Jewish and
humanitarian obligation to do whats
right in the name of justice that is, to
take in the northern Jewish activists. Oth-
ers were more hesitant. They thought of
themselves as southerners first and Jews
second. They had good relations with
the whites around them. They had busi-
nesses that relied on white customers
and clients. A backlash again harboring
Northern agitators could get violent.
They had families to keep safe and a con-
gregation to protect.
It wasnt all just drama. In 1958, 54 sticks
of dynamite were placed outside the very
building we were sitting in. They did not
explode, only because the heavy rain that
fell that day doused the fuses.
Our debate was intense. We learned that
its easy for us as free, privileged modern
whites to condemn white leaders, espe-
cially Jewish ones, for not helping the black
community back then. But once we put
ourselves in the context of the Deep South
of the 1950s and understood the pressures
impacting those decisions, we humbly
acknowledged that if we had been in their
shoes, some of us might not have done any
better. Also, lets be frank: while its true that
Jews played a major role in the civil rights
movement, not all Jews were on the right
side of history. Some simply were racist.
Our vote was a stalemate. It still haunts
us.
The ultimate irony, of course, is that while
most Jews viewed themselves as southern-
ers first and Jews second, southerners
viewed them as Jews first and southerners
second.
Members of Shaar Communities Gate of Discovery headed South to retake the pulse of the civil rights struggle.

JS-11*
Clap hands, all peoples;
shout to God in a joyous voice
(PSALM 47:1)
Rev. Calvin Woods is a pastor and civil rights
activist who exudes as much energy and
passion today, at 80, as he did in his 30s,
when he spent his days and nights stand-
ing up to oppression and mobilizing his
community to demand justice. We waited
for him in Freedom Park, across the street
from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.
A few visitors to the monument-filled grassy
square meandered by. And then, strutting
his way towards us, came a man about 5
feet tall dressed in a sharp blue zoot suit,
pointy-toed alligator shoes, and a baseball
cap. Charisma oozed from every pore.
Rev. Woods came to tell us, or rather sing
us, his story. He described Birmingham of
the 1960s, the chaos from 50 years earlier
as police officers brutally crushed dem-
onstrations by children in the streets all
around where we stood. He relived the ter-
ror of the bombs that took the lives of four
young black girls at the 16th Street Baptist
Church directly across from us. He remi-
nisced proudly about his relationship with
Dr. King. But in the middle of his recollec-
tions hed stop, and shout out spontaneous
praises and salutations to God. Then hed
look us in the eyes and begin singing the
spirituals that fueled the civil rights move-
ment. Referring to the dogs that the police
would sic on the women and children pro-
testing in that very park and riffing on Joan
Baez, hed bellow, Aint gonna let no dogs
turn me around, turn me around, turn me
around and then hed shout at us to sing.
SING! he commanded. And we sang.
Boy, did we sing.
Wild and engaging as it was to experience
Rev. Woods in this way, it was also deeply
discomfiting. There we were, a band of
white people, singing the songs black peo-
ple sang in defiance of the whites who were
attacking them violently, with black people
all around us watching. White people, their
former oppressors and deniers of their
freedom, singing the songs that had carried
them through the harshness of legal, social,
and physical persecution. But Rev. Woods
didnt mind. He knows that the discomfort it
brings his visitors is precisely what catalyzes
us to serve as change agents in a society still
suffering from racial inequality.
Before he took his leave, he urged us
to keep learning the history of his people
in order to write a better future for us all.
Invoking his powerful faith and raising his
deep, rich voice, he praised and blessed us
using the verses from the Book of Numbers
we call the Birkat Kohanim or the Priestly
Blessing.
We thanked him, and then we blessed
him too. Using the same words, chanting in
Hebrew, we shared prayers for protection,
grace, and peace.
Rev. Woods presence lingered with us
throughout the rest of the trip. We reminded
ourselves of his teachings, and tried the
spontaneous praise-shouting once or twice.
We even tried it at Shabbat services back in
New Jersey. It definitely keeps a congrega-
tion paying attention. Or laughing.
Concluding thoughts
When we first arrived in the South, the Ala-
bama drawls and deep-fried everything
made us feel like we had landed on a dis-
tant planet. On the flight back, however,
we understood that the familiar homes to
which we were returning are inextricably
linked to the entire world, no matter how
seemingly foreign. We can no longer live
in blissful ignorance of the struggles and
injustices that ravage so many of our fellow
humans. Selfishness is the enemy of prog-
ress and societal change. If all northerners
decided to shy away from civil rights activ-
ism for fear of personal harm in the 1950s,
the movement may have failed to integrate
the South. Caution, of course, is under-
standable, but if we all focused purely on
our own comfort, our dynamic society
would become stagnant.
Our journey through the landmarks
and heroes of the civil rights movement
confirmed Rabbi Heschels timeless call to
action: In a free society, some are guilty
but all are responsible. We are profoundly
grateful for the fortune and freedom into
which we were born, but we cannot let our
incredible luck of birth blind us to our obli-
gation to all humankind. We are all part of
something far bigger than ourselves, and no
one can be whole until all human dignity is
recognized and respected.
Adina Lewittes is the rabbi of Shaar
Communities. Aaron Lewittes Tannenbaum,
her son, is a member of Shaars board,
a senior at the Heschel High School in
Manhattan, and an incoming freshman at
Yale University.
Rev. Calvin Woods, 80, resplendent
in a zoot suit and alligator shoes,
still feels the ferver of the 1960s civil
rights movement.
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Searching for the Giants Steve Tisch
PHIL JACOBS
A
ll of this started with a phone call to the New
York Giants office at MetLife Stadium.
Phyllis Hayes, the New York Giants assistant
for communications and medical services, was
pleasant when I explained that I was from the New Jersey
Jewish Standard and I was requesting an interview with
team co-owner Steven Tisch.
I made that first request toward the end of December.
I was forwarded to a nice man named Pat Hanlon.
Hes the senior vice president of communications for the
Giants. Mr. Hanlon responded almost immediately, and
just after the first of the year, he asked if I could send ques-
tions for such an interview.
Sure, no problem.
In the meantime, my brother-in-law Jon Pessah, who
is the former sports editor of New York Newsday and a
founding editor of the magazine called ESPN, is now work-
ing on a book about baseball.
So since he has delved into the high levels of sports, I
went right to him. The two of us came up with questions
for Mr. Tisch.
Before going any further, understand that Mr. Tisch is
the only person in this world to own two Super Bowl rings
and an Oscar figurine. He got the two rings for his two
Super Bowl wins as the teams co-owner. He scored an
Oscar when he produced the 1994 film Forrest Gump,
one of the highest grossing movies ever.
Born in Lakewood in 1949, he is a Tufts University grad-
uate who began his film career at Columbia Pictures. He
left to form his own company called Tisch/Avnet. It pro-
duced Tom Cruises breakout movie, Risky Business.
He even has a star on the south side of the 6500 block
of Hollywood Boulevard.
Mr. Tisch is from a family heavy with Jewish philanthro-
pists. His cousin James Tisch is the former president of
UJA Federation of New York and the former board chair-
man of the Conference of Presidents of Major American
Jewish Organizations.
Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice president of the
Conference of Presidents, told the Jewish Standard two
years ago that all of the Tisch family are identified [reli-
giously] and active philanthropically. I think that the Tisch
family is a model for the Jewish community and for oth-
ers in terms of their broad range of commitments in the
Jewish community, their involvement personally, not just
financially.
Giants co-owner and movie producer Steve Tisch
holds one of the teams Super Bowl trophies.
I cant answer
the questions
about his movies
or the Giants,
but I will tell you
that he is a
caring man, who
gives back to
the community
in big ways.
RANDY LEVINE

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JS-13
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Local
JS-14*
From Czechoslovakia
to Woodcliff Lake
Synagogue celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Memorial Scrolls Trust
ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN
O
n February 9, 1964, 1,564
Torah scrolls rescued from
Nazi-era Moravia, Bohemia,
and the Sudetenland began
arriving at the Westminster Synagogue in
London. The Memorial Scrolls Trust was
formed to administer these holy scripts,
many of them in unusable condition,
and to find guardians for them. Those
guardians were necessary because the
Czech Jewish communities from which
they came had been wiped out.
On the 50th anniversary of that day, the
Trust invited guardians including many
in the United States to take part in the
celebration by submitting a poster detail-
ing the present circumstances of the sal-
vaged scrolls.
In 1983, Ed and Enid Ruzinsky of Saddle
River arranged to have one of the Torahs
number 974 shipped to JFK Airport.
They picked it up and took it to its new
home at Temple Emanuel of the Pascack
Valley in Woodcliff Lake, where Ed was a
board member and later became presi-
dent. They had read about the London
collection in a Florida newspaper while
visiting Enids mother there.
In consultation with Rabbi Andre Ungar,
now rabbi emeritus of the congregation,
the Ruzinskys commissioned a cover for
the scroll in the style of a traditional black-
and-white prayer shawl. The short inscrip-
tion hints at the long and tortured journey
this sacred item took: Prebram, Czecho-
slovakia, circa 1850, Temple Emanuel,
May 18, 1983.
They told us it may not be a kosher
Torah since many of them had been dam-
aged, and we could use it only ceremo-
nially, Mr. Ruzinsky said. This indeed
turned out to be the case. Although a
damaged scroll may not be used for Torah
readings during services, it can be held by
worshipers during Simchat Torah, when
all of a synagogues scrolls are taken out
and displayed.
The community of Prebram dates back to
the Middle Ages and doesnt exist anymore,
Mr. Ruzinsky said. But we have photographs
of the synagogue that the Torah was in a
stately, august facility that was completely
obliterated by the Nazis. We have the names
of congregants and the rabbi that we came
upon through research.
The rescued Torah sits in a place of dis-
tinction, flanked by two kosher scrolls and
enclosed in a mesh screen. When you
sit on the bimah, you see the five scrolls
through the screen, and especially at
night when the ceiling lights are focused
on these scrolls, its beautiful, Mr. Ruz-
insky said.
Mr. Ruzinsky told the temples third-
grade religious school class all about the
Torah before the anniversary. He and the
students posed together for photos for
the poster, which the children adorned
with their names written in yellow stars
of David.
The pictures were taken by another
congregant, Simone Wilker, who with her
husband, Bernie, arranged for another
of the Czech Torah scrolls to find a home
at what was then the Solomon Schechter
Day School in Rockland County.
This Torahs cover, also resembling a
woolen prayer shawl, bears the words:
Krankenheim and We Remember.
Bernie and I were so taken with the
idea of having a Holocaust Torah to pro-
tect that we wanted to have our children
involved in this project, Ms. Wilker said.
And so we planned for our friends Helen
and Lenny Goodman to visit the Westmin-
ster Synagogue in London in 1984, and
procure a Torah for safekeeping for our
childrens school. It was important for our
children to remember that so many Jew-
ish communities were lost because of the
Holocaust.
Ms. Wilker discovered that many newer
members of Temple Emanuel did not
know the story of the Prebram Torah,
and the 50th anniversary celebration pre-
sented an opportunity to retell the story.
The timing dovetailed well with the
synagogues Torah-writing project, which
is taking place this year. Ms. Wilker was
delighted to discover that the same scribe
organization working on this project, the
Florida-based Sofer on Site, also is tak-
ing responsibility for transferring the
Holocaust Torah posters to the Memorial
Scrolls Trust.
As of press time, the Memorial Scrolls
Trust had not answered a query about
how many more of the Torahs were trans-
ferred to the North Jersey area.
Temple Beth Or of Washington Town-
ship has a rescued Torah scroll from Kyjov
in former Czechoslovakia, according to
Rabbi Ruth Zlotnick. It was acquired by a
congregant in 1989, but not through the
Memorial Scrolls Trust project.
Ed Ruzinsky holds the Torah scroll rescued from Czechoslovakia after the Shoah.
The community of Prebram dates
back to the Middle Ages and
doesnt exist anymore. But we have
photographs of the synagogue
that the Torah was in a stately,
august facility that was completely
obliterated by the Nazis.
JS-15
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very menu is individually tailored to your special event, whether it be a
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Local
JS-16*
Studying the Holocaust in the Muslim world
The Museum of Jewish Heritage A Living Memorial to
the Holocaust invites educators from Jewish schools to
participate in an education seminar focusing on the Holo-
caust in the Muslim world. The seminar, presented by
STAJE (Shoah Teaching Alternatives in Jewish Education),
will be on Sunday, February 16 from 12:30 to 5:15 p.m.
Although most of the Holocaust happened outside the
Muslim world, during the war years there were Muslim
rescuers as well as a small number of Nazi collabora-
tors. In the years following the Holocaust and the estab-
lishment of the State of Israel, the Holocaust has been
acknowledged, used, and denied in Muslim countries to
achieve a variety of goals.
This seminar will examine the history of the Holo-
caust in the Muslim world with Professor Meir Litvak,
director of the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies at the
Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv Uni-
versity, Professor Jeffrey Herf of University of Maryland
in College Park, and Professor Mehnaz Afridi, director of
the Manhattan College Holocaust, Genocide & Interfaith
Education Center.
The program is free; however, space is limited and
pre-registration is required. Email Dr. Paul Radensky at
pradensky@mjhnyc.org or call (646) 437-4310. A light
lunch for teachers will be available at 11:30 a.m.
Public transportation is available; teachers also will be
reimbursed for parking, up to $20 per person or vehicle,
upon presentation of an original receipt.
The STAJE seminars are made possible by the Confer-
ence on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany: The
Rabbi Israel Miller Fund for Shoah Research, Documen-
tation and Education.
Yachad conference to host educators
Yachad, the flagship program of the Orthodox Unions
National Jewish Council for Disabilities, presents Cre-
ating a Positive School Environment for Diverse Learn-
ers, a two-day conference for educators. The program,
presented by the International Jewish Resource Center
for Inclusion and Special Education, a Yachad division,
will be February 9-10 at Congregation Keter Torah in
Teaneck. The Sunday session will be from noon to 9
p.m., including dinner; Mondays session will run from
8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Nearly 200 educators are expected. There will be a
keynote speaker each day. Sunday at 1 p.m., Dr. Howard
Muscott will discuss Creating a Positive School Climate.
He is the director of the New Hampshire Center for Effec-
tive Behavioral Interventions and Support. Mondays
keynoter, speaking at 9 a.m., is Rick Lavoie, an educa-
tional consultant from Boston, who will address Its So
Much Work to Be Your Friend: Social Success. Featured
speakers include Dr. Jeffrey Lichtman, international
director of Yachad/NJCD; Rabbi Yaakov Aichenbaum,
director of the Limudei Kodesh Resource Room in the
Scranton Hebrew Day School; Dr. Jed Baker, who directs
social skills training for the Millburn public schools and
is the director of the Social Skills Training Project, a pri-
vate organization serving people with autism and social
communication problems; and Dr. Karen Gazith, director
of education at the Bronfman Jewish Education Centre
in Montreal and adjunct professor in the Department of
Educational and Counseling Psychology at McGill Univer-
sity there.
Sunday will feature seven workshops, and there will
be 26 on Monday. The program will conclude with a key-
note summation by Mr. Lavoie, When Elephants Fight,
Its the Grass that Gets Trampled. Email Batya Jacob at
batyaj@ou.org, or call her at (212) 613-8127. Hotel accom-
modations can be made through Yachad.
Early childhood fair needs volunteers
Shalom Baby of the Jewish Federation of Northern New
Jersey is looking for friendly, energetic volunteers to
help out at its first early childhood fair, set for Febru-
ary 23 at the Frisch School, 120 West Century Road in
Paramus. Parents will have the opportunity to meet rep-
resentatives from Jewish community early childhood
programs, and toddler-friendly performances will keep
children entertained. Volunteers, 16 years or older, are
needed from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. to help with set-up,
registration, welcoming and directing guests, serving
snacks, and clean-up. For information, contact Nancy
Perlman, nancyp@jfnnj.org or (201) 820-3904.
Shomrei Torah dinner will honor four in March
Congregation Shom-
rei Torah of Fai r
Lawns 39th annual
dinner is set for Sun-
day, March 2, at Con-
gregation Keter Torah
in Teaneck. The gala
event honors t wo
couples who have
been supporters of
both the synagogue
and the Fair Lawn
community.
Dinner honorees Ann and Joel Pogolowitz have been
involved in Shomrei Torah actively since they moved
to Fair Lawn in 1984. They have served in many shul
leadership positions for the past 30 years. Joel, a for-
mer president, is a member of the finance committee.
Ann is a member of
the Sisterhood Chesed
Committee and has
chaired the dinner
publicity committee.
The David I. Gold-
berg Ohr HaChesed
Award will be pre-
sented to Shomrei
Torahs dynami c
duo, Assistant Rabbi
Andrew Markowitz
and his wife, Sara. The Markowitzes have spearheaded
several successful community-building projects and
launched many educational initiatives.
Call (201) 791-7910, www.shomrei-torah.org/dinner, or
email dinner@shomrei-torah.org.
Ann and Joel
Pogolowitz
Rabbi Andrew and
Sara Markowitz
PHOTOS COURTESY SHOMREI TORAH
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RCBC
Glatt Kosher
Mediterranean Cuisine
39 East Palisade Ave Englewood, NJ
Sun-Thurs: 11am-10pm
Fri: 10:30am-3pm
www.HummusElite.com
201.569.5600
Super Bowl 2014
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$135 Serves 10
Moroccan Cigars
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JS-17
KAPLEN JCC on the Palisades 411 EAST CLINTON AVENUE, TENAFLY, NJ 07670 | 201.569.7900 | jccotp.org
TO REGISTER OR FOR MORE INFO, VISIT
jccotp.org OR CALL 201. 569.7900.
UPCOMING AT
JUDAICS
KAPLEN JCC on the Palisades
FAMILIES
Art Immersion Trip to Israel
WITH TOBI KAHN
Tobi Kahn, world-renowned painter and sculptor,
ranked the number one art gallery tour guide by New
York Magazine, has arranged an in-depth, insider tour
of Israeli museums and art galleries, as well as private
viewings of acclaimed artist studios. Enjoy this rare
opportunity to explore a week of exciting venues,
as Tobi leads the group with daily lectures and
ongoing, informal conversations about art and visual
thinking. For more information contact Judy Lattif at
201.408.1457 or email jlattif@jccotp.org.
Registration deadline: April 10.
TOUR & TRIP: May 1421, $5,300/$5,800
PROFESSIONAL CHILDRENS THEATER SERIES
Henry and Mudge: A Musical
PRESENTED BY THEATREWORKS USA
This award-winning, sold-out musical from
NYC is based on stories by Cynthia Rylant, who
writes about a young boy, Henry, his big lovable
dog, and his feisty cousin Annie, who nally
gets Mudge to do some very funny tricks. Filled
with love and humor. For more info call Inbal at
201.408.1493.
Sun, Feb 2, 2 pm, $12 advance sale per person/
$17 day of performance, if available
The Pew Research Centers
Report on Jewish Americans
What does being Jewish mean in America
today? Featuring Rabbi Reuven Kimelman,
JCC Rabbi-in-Residence, and the following
panelists: Jeremy J. Fingerman, CEO of the
Foundation for Jewish Camp; Rabbi Shmuel
Goldin of Congregation Ahavas Torah in
Englewood (Orthodox); and Rabbi David
Widzer of Congregation Beth El of Northern
Valley (Reform).
Wed, Feb, 12, 8:15-9:30 pm
JUDAICS
More Songs That She Loved:
A TRIBUTE CONCERT
Back by popular demand, join us for this joyous
evening dedicated to remembering Stephanie
Prezant. Featuring Susan Collins Caploe, vocalist, Udy
Kashkash, guitar and vocals, Shlomi Pilo, keyboard
and vocals, and other amazing musicians, friends
and family in the community. Funds raised from this
concert will help support the Stephanie I. Prezant
Maccabi Fund at the JCC. Register online at www.
jccotp.org. For more info, contact Sharon Kestenbaum
at skestenbaum@jccotp.org.
Sat, Feb 8, 8 pm, $30 per person,
$15 students to age 18
Etia Segall Judaic Programs
UNDERSTANDING THE LANGUAGE OF THE TORAH
Review and explore the Book of Exodus.
Mondays, Feb 3May 19, 9:30-11 am, $75/$90
HEBREW READING
An introduction to some of the minor prophets,
using their books as text. (No class 4/21)
Mondays, Feb 3May 19, 11:30 am-1 pm, Free
Tasting the Spice Route
WITH THE SAVORY SPICE SHOP
Join us for a celebration of the exotic world of spices
with experts from the Savory Spice Shop, who
willshare stories about famous spice routes and then
let us sample some of the spices that shaped our
world. Ofered as part of the UJANNJs One Book,
One Community, featuring By Fire, By Water by
Mitchell James Kaplan.
Wed, Feb 12, 11 am-12 pm, $8/$10
P
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Editorial
1086 Teaneck Road
Teaneck, NJ 07666
(201) 837-8818
Fax 201-833-4959
Publisher
James L. Janoff
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jstandard.com
Founder
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Editor Emeritus
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Mort Cornin (19151984)
Editorial Consultant
Max Milians (1908-2005)
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Ceil Wolf (1914-2008)
Editor Emerita
Rebecca Kaplan Boroson
KEEPING THE FAITH
Women, tefillin,
and tzitzit:
A myth-understanding
T
wo Modern Orthodox day schools in New
York SAR Academy in Riverdale and
Ramaz in Manhattan are embroiled in
controversy for allowing young women to
don tallit and tefillin, if they so choose.
From a halachic standpoint, there should be no
controversy. The Torah does not forbid women from
wearing either. Just the opposite; it seems to require
them to do so. Certainly, when it comes to wearing
fringed garments, we have the word of the Babylo-
nian Talmud tractate Menachot 43a that women are
required to do so. As for
tefillin, we have examples
of women who did both,
beginning in the Babylo-
nian Talmud itself. In BT
Eruvin 96a, for example,
it is clear that women may
wear tefillin if they wish to
do so.
Me n de c i de d t ha t
wo me n s h o u l d b e
exempted or prohibited
outright from wearing
either tzitzit or tefillin, the
Torah notwithstanding. There is no clear-cut expla-
nation for why they did so, as can be seen in the
just-cited Eruvin discussion and a longer one in the
BT tractate Kiddushin.
The Eruvin example focused on King Sauls daugh-
ter Michal. The gemara says that the sages did not
object to her wearing tefillin. On the other hand,
the Jerusalem Talmud says the sages did object to
her doing so. Some rabbis seized upon this to prove
that women are forbidden to wear tefillin (including
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz in his commentary to Eruvin
96a). That, however, violates a rule established by
the Babylonian authority Hai Gaon, who said that
where a conflict exists between the two talmuds, we
rely on Babylonian version (Teshuvot ha-Geonim No.
46 and elsewhere). Rabbi Isaac Alfasi (a/k/a the Rif )
echoes this in his commentary to BT Eruvin 104b in
another context, where he says we rely [only] on
our gemara, not on the Jerusalem Talmud.
JS-18*
Pete Seeger, 1919-2014
P
erhaps it is appropriate
that it was in this harsh,
frigid January that one of
the lead composers of the
soundtrack of our Jewish camp sum-
mers has gone to graveyard, to
quote one of his best known songs.
To everything there is a season,
Pete Seeger sang, catapulting the stoic
biblical wisdom of Kohelet to the top
of the pop charts and more signifi-
cantly, shaping our young minds and
hearts back in the 1970s.
In those summers, the Vietnam war
was simmering down and the PLO
war of terrorism was simmering up, and the details were
far from our eyes, isolated as we were from television
news and daily newspapers. But Pete Seegers message
burrowed its way into our hearts: A time for peace, I
swear its not too late.
This was long after his group, the Weavers, broke
up after being blacklisted in the McCarthy era, and a
decade after Joan Baez graced Martin Luther King Jr.s
March on Washington with his
Where Have All the Flowers
Gone, a song we sang in both
English and Hebrew. We had
no idea that one of the Hebrew
songs we sang Tzena, Tzena,
Tzena had been popularized
in America by the Weavers.
We just knew the songs, and
the name that reappeared in
the dittoed and mimeographed
songbooks.
Looking back on those sunny
July days, singing at the meals,
its hard to overestimate how
much his concise words affected us and our generation.
One by one, the giants of the 20th century have moved
on, scholars and sages and institution builders, but per-
haps no gift was greater than those entrusted to us by
Pete Seeger: The hammer of justice, the bell of free-
dom, and the song about love between our brothers and
sisters all over this land.
May his memory be for a blessing. -L.Y.
Improving the final chapters
of survivors lives
S
ome people might think that the recently pub-
lished book called And Every Single One Was
Someone was gimmicky.
Only one word Jew fills its 1,250 pages.
The word appears six million times in the book. Thats
4,800 Jews per page.
With the survivor community getting older and its
members dying, however, we are in favor of any book
that helps future generations validate the Shoah.
There are about 150,000 living survivors in the
United States, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum. Last week, the Obama administration under-
scored how important they are to the historic memory
of this world when it appointed Aviva Sufian as a special
envoy to the survivor community.
The White House said that it wants to help frail and
elderly survivors age in place, avoiding institutional care
whenever possible. For many survivors, institutionaliza-
tion can be a trigger to memories of concentration camp
incarceration. Also, some 25 percent of these survivors
are living below the American poverty line.
The Jewish Federations of North America also
announced an initiative to assess and communicate
the needs of Holocaust survival programs.
Now we have this new Geffen Publishing coffee table
book version to remind us about the Shoah.
Were sure that the sheer volume of page after page of
nothing but the word Jew is dramatic and will make
an impact.
Still, if you have to make a financial choice, perhaps
the $60 the book cost would make more of a difference
if it were donated to charities supporting impoverished
survivors. JFNA is a great place to donate, and we know
there are other good agencies as well that work with
survivors.
We must emphasize the importance of caring for our
survivors. The final chapters of their lives should be our
priority. While this dramatic new book might be here
for the ages, the story for 150,000 survivors is not yet
finished.
We remember the dead with reverence, but we still
must take care of the living. -PJ
Shammai
Engelmayer
Shammai Engelmayer is rabbi of Temple Israel
Community Center | Congregation Heichal Yisrael in
Cliffside Park.
KEEPING THE FAITH
Women, tefillin,
and tzitzit:
A myth-understanding
T
wo Modern Orthodox day schools in New
York SAR Academy in Riverdale and
Ramaz in Manhattan are embroiled in
controversy for allowing young women to
don tallit and tefillin, if they so choose.
From a halachic standpoint, there should be no
controversy. The Torah does not forbid women from
wearing either. Just the opposite; it seems to require
them to do so. Certainly, when it comes to wearing
fringed garments, we have the word of the Babylo-
nian Talmud tractate Menachot 43a that women are
required to do so. As for
tefillin, we have examples
of women who did both,
beginning in the Babylo-
nian Talmud itself. In BT
Eruvin 96a, for example,
it is clear that women may
wear tefillin if they wish to
do so.
Me n de c i de d t ha t
wo me n s h o u l d b e
exempted or prohibited
outright from wearing
either tzitzit or tefillin, the
Torah notwithstanding. There is no clear-cut expla-
nation for why they did so, as can be seen in the
just-cited Eruvin discussion and a longer one in the
BT tractate Kiddushin.
The Eruvin example focused on King Sauls daugh-
ter Michal. The gemara says that the sages did not
object to her wearing tefillin. On the other hand,
the Jerusalem Talmud says the sages did object to
her doing so. Some rabbis seized upon this to prove
that women are forbidden to wear tefillin (including
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz in his commentary to Eruvin
96a). That, however, violates a rule established by
the Babylonian authority Hai Gaon, who said that
where a conflict exists between the two talmuds, we
rely on Babylonian version (Teshuvot ha-Geonim No.
46 and elsewhere). Rabbi Isaac Alfasi (a/k/a the Rif )
echoes this in his commentary to BT Eruvin 104b in
another context, where he says we rely [only] on
our gemara, not on the Jerusalem Talmud.
Op-Ed
The most common argument heard against women
wearing tefillin is that the Mishnah exempts them
from all positive time-bound commandments.
(See BT Kiddushin 29a.)
The gemara that follows this, however, challenges
the absolute nature of the principle, citing several
examples of positive time-bound commandments
women must observe.
Also challenged in that discussion is whether wear-
ing tefillin is a time-bound commandment. Rabbi
Meir, for one, did not seem to think so. If it is not, of
course, then women clearly would be required to
wear tefillin because the time-bound principle does
not apply to it. That led some rabbis to flat-out pro-
hibit women from doing so. As explained by Rabbi
Abraham Gombiner (the Magen Avraham), this is
because [wearing tefillin] requires a clean body, and
women are not assiduous enough about keeping
clean. (See his commentary to the Shulchan Aruch,
Orach Chayim 38:3.)
Yet this, too, contradicts an established rule. In BT
Berachot 22a, a Land of Israel rabbi named Judah ben
Bathyra declared that words of Torah are not sus-
ceptible of uncleanness. That rule is confirmed two
centuries later in Babylonia, according to a discussion
in BT Chullin 136b, which states that the world has
adopted... that [view] of Rabbi Judah ben Bathyra....
(As an aside, the gemara at BT Megillah 32a says
that women may even appear on the bimah and at
the readers stand, for the same reason.)
The Kiddushin discussion also attempts to explain
the tefillin exemption by equating the mitzvah of
tefillin to Torah study, which it says women are also
exempt from doing (which some insist amounts to an
outright prohibition against women studying Torah).
The Torah, of course, seems to have a different view.
Says Deuteronomy 31:11-12, all Israelites must learn the
law, including women. [Y]ou shall read this Torah
before all Israel in their hearing..., men and women...,
that they may hear, and that they may learn....
The issue is muddled, however, by the time of the
Mishnah. In one place (BT Nedarim 35b), it states
bluntly, [A father] teaches Scripture to his sons and
daughters. In another place, BT Sotah 20a, however,
we begin to see divided opinions. Ben Azzai [says],
a man is required to teach his daughter Torah...,
[while] Rabbi Eliezer says, whoever teaches his
daughter Torah teaches her tiflot, a word that may
be translated as lechery, lewdness, unseemliness, or
frivolity, among other definitions.
How could anyone ban women from studying Torah
if the Torah insists otherwise? Simple; just parse the
sentence to fit the opinion. The verse in Deuteronomy
says, that they may hear and that they may learn.
According to Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah (BT Chagigah
3a), the Torah uses both learn and hear in the
Deuteronomy verse to teach us that the men came to
learn, [but] the women came [only] to hear.
All of this just touches the surface. Every argument
that can be raised to prohibit women from wearing
tefillin can be challenged effectively. Even more so
does this apply to the mitzvah of wearing tzitzit, as
BT Menachot 43a makes clear.
The two day schools should be commended for
what they did, not condemned.
What is most disconcerting, however, is the invec-
tive being thrown by some on the Internet at the two
SAR girls who asked permission to wear tefillin. They
have been subjected to the vilest curses and calum-
nies. Such disgusting behavior violates Gods law,
and in profound ways. Women wearing tzitzit and
tefillin does not.
JS-19*
PART I OF A TWO-PART SERIES
Are the Holocaust and Israel enough?
W
hen I was a teenager, Israel was very much at
the center of American Jewish concern, and
it was portrayed as a wonderful, exciting
place to me and my fellow Hebrew school
classmates.
There were all sorts of Israel-centered celebrations for us,
and of course, the blue-and-white JNF tzedakah boxes were
standard accoutrements of the classroom. My mother, a
rather assimilated and secularized Jew, was, as most Jewish
women I knew, a member of Hadassah, and a fairly active
one at that.
The Holocaust was a scant half decade in the past, and
American Jewry was supporting Israel with millions of dol-
lars in Israel bond purchases and other forms of monetary
gifts to Israel. Donors believed that they were giving so the
saved remnant of Eastern European Jewry could live in
peace and security, which given the realities of the Middle
East was nave in the extreme.
In the back of some (many?)
peoples minds, giving financial
and political support to Israel
also was a way of buying insur-
ance: Who could be sure of
safety even in America when a
civilized European country like
Germany could turn so viciously
on its Jewish population and
on the Jewish populations of
the countries under its heel?
Further, anti-Semitism was
not exactly dead, as Jews who
migrated to the suburbs from
the Bronx, Brooklyn, and the Lower East Side were quick
to discover. They were often welcomed by golf courses
and clubs that denied them membership, and occasional
synagogue desecrations that proved that Hitler might be
dead but his attitudes lived on.
That was during the late 1940s and 50s, and the Holo-
caust was still an event that could scare and move Jews to
action. Today, what is attractive about the Holocaust? Why
would young Jews with their lives and dreams ahead of
them want to identify too closely with the Holocaust, or
carry the burden of a history of persecution summed up in
it? To believe the Holocaust might be a major preservative
force for the next generation of American Jews is to believe
that depression can be a source of vigorous living.
Memorializing and learning from the horrors of the Holo-
caust is one thing. Using it as a means to capture the hearts
and minds of those who will either make or break the Amer-
ican Jewish future is quite another.
1967 saw a confluence of events and movements, how-
ever, that made American Jewry truly proud of being Jews
and fiercely attached to Israel. The winning of the Six Day
War and the recapture of the historical Old City and the
Temple Mount, the last standing remnant of the Second
Temple, turned Jews from eternal losers into winners. Fur-
ther, the black pride movement motivated American Jews
to assert their Jewish ethnicity more aggressively than they
ever had before. Being Jewish was in. Jewish studies pro-
grams grew like mushrooms after a rain and received gener-
ous Jewish support. A love affair with Israel flourished. Jews
flocked there, some as tourists and some to stay.
In this period of Jewish self-esteem, Jews became willing
to go public for persecuted Jewish communities. In major
Jewish population centers, hundreds of thousands of Jews
poured into the streets to demand freedom for Russian
refuseniks and a safe haven for Ethiopian Jews. Jewish lead-
ers no longer carried out discreet, polite, behind-closed-
doors petitioning for favors from the great and powerful.
Never again became the Jewish watchword.
At this time, regular meetings between Israeli and Amer-
ican-Jewish intellectuals and political figures were taking
place in a serious way. These meetings and seminars kept
open the lines of communication between the two largest
Jewish communities in the world. These conversations were
so meaningful and productive that participants thought
they had renewed the classical Land of Israel-Babylonia
dialogue. Who knew? Perhaps the two communities could
produce a new set of Jewish insights and values that would
inform Israeli and diaspora Jewish relations and life far into
the future.
But all that was then. By the 1980s, the conversation
ceased. Israel changed, and so did American mores.
As the Jewish community entered the mid-1990s, changes
in American Jewish relations with Israel began to become
evident, and became only more obvious as we entered the
new millennium. Startling information about the American
Jewish intermarriage rate sent shock waves through those
sectors of the Jewish community that cared deeply about
Jewish identity and continuity.
As more studies were done, it became clear that not only
were younger Jews less concerned about whom they mar-
ried, but their connection to Israel was highly attenuated or
nonexistent. Michael Steinhardt thought he might reverse
both trends by creating Birthright Israel, and its success for
those who went on the program cannot be dismissed. But
for the many young Jews between 18 and 35, sometimes
older, who have not taken advantage of this opportunity
and have no real interest in doing so, Israel is either not
on the radar, or when it is, frequently viewed negatively.
Whether these Jews are correctly informed about the reali-
ties of the Middle East is not the issue. The decline of the
claims of ethnicity is the true culprit. In short, these Jews
ask Why is a state primarily for Jews needed? or How
do others who are not Jewish fare in such a state? or Isnt
such a state sort of racist? or Why does a religious group
need a state?
Rabbi Dr.
Michael
Chernick
Are the traditional ways of providing Jewish identity
enough? Stay tuned for Rabbi Chernicks proposals.
Professor Michael Chernick holds the Deutsch Family
Chair in Jewish Jurisprudence and Social Justice at the
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in
New York; his area of expertise is the Talmud. Professor
Chernick received his doctorate from the Bernard Revel
Graduate School and rabbinic ordination from R. Isaac
Elchanan Theological Seminary, both affiliates of Yeshiva
University. He has written extensively about Jewish law
and lore and has lectured on these topics in the United
States, Europe, and Israel. SEE HOLOCAUST PAGE 21
Shammai Engelmayer is rabbi of Temple Israel
Community Center | Congregation Heichal Yisrael in
Cliffside Park.
Op-Ed
JS-20*
Europe courts Iran, shuns Israel
N
obody does dou-
bl e st andards
qui te l i ke t he
Europeans.
And if recent developments
are anything to go by, they will
remain the market leader in
this field of human endeavor
for quite some time.
Where the Middle East is
concerned, there are two com-
plementary messages coming
out of the European Union at the moment.
The first proclaims that Israel is a legitimate
target for boycotts and divestment for as long
as the occupation continues and here,
occupation principally refers to the west
bank and the eastern half of Jerusalem, fee-
bly eliding the fact that the Palestinian lead-
ership, through its insistence on the so-called
right of return, regards the entire territory
between the Mediterranean and the Jordan
as occupied.
As for the second message, that can be
neatly summarized in a potential advertising
slogan: Iran is open for business!
According to the Washington Post, Euro-
peans are banking on a business bonanza
with Iran, now that sanctions have been
relaxed in accordance with the deal on the
mullahs nuclear program reached last
November in Geneva. Both Irans president,
Hassan Rouhani, and its foreign minister,
Javad Zarif, rubbed shoulders with the global
business and political elite at
the World Economic Forums
annual powwow in Davos.
Leading French companies,
among them Societe Generale,
BNP Paribas, and Airbus, are
said to be sending executives
to Tehran by the planeload.
French car manufacturers like
Renault and Peugeot are drool-
ing at the thought of recovering
their one-time dominant posi-
tions in the Iranian automobile market. Euro-
pean carriers like Lufthansa and Austrian
Airlines are increasing the number of weekly
flights to Tehran in anticipation of growing
demand. The Dutch ambassador in Tehran,
Jos Douma, even held what he ludicrously
termed a speed-date session for companies
wanting in on the Iranian gold rush.
You wont, however, find a similar open-
ness towards Israel within the EU. As the
Financial Times reported, the enormous
Dutch ABP pension fund, as well as two
Scandinavian funds, are reviewing their
investments in Israel over as the Financial
Times exquisitely phrased it concerns
that the banks finance illegal Israeli settle-
ments in Palestinian-occupied territories.
This follows the decision by PGGM, another
Dutch pension fund, to divest its holdings in
five Israeli banks, citing their involvement
in the financing of settlements in the occu-
pied Palestinian territories.
In a statement explaining its decision,
PGGM asserted that its dialogue with these
banks about the settlements issue had not
yielded any results, and therefore it was
concluded that engagement as a tool to
bring about change will not be effective in
this case. For PGGM, engagement is futile
in the case of a democracy like Israel, but its
apparently effective in the case of communist
China. As the Dutch Jewish weekly newspa-
per NIW revealed, PGGM continues to invest
in Chinese banks and companies with oper-
ations in Tibet a nation that really knows
what its like to live under a brutal occupa-
tion. But when Maurice Willbrink, a spokes-
man for PGGM, was pressed by NIW about
the funds links with the Chinese regime,
he demurred, explaining the importance of
avoiding prejudicing the ongoing dialogue.
How should we assess these latest moves
in Europe? The EU has not, of course, joined
the boycott, divestment and sanctions move-
ment. Such a decision would at least take
guts, a quality that most European politicians
dont possess. Instead, its cautiously dipping
a toe into the poisonous waters of delegitimi-
zation. If the Israelis wont listen voluntarily
to the impassioned appeals of Europeans
on behalf of Palestinian rights, as the refrain
goes, then they will have to be pressured into
doing so. That, in part, explains why Euro-
pean governments continue to financially
support NGOs promoting BDS against Israel
and again, as the Israeli watchdog NGO
Monitor has noted, the primary offender
here is the Dutch government, which is back-
ing at least 17 such organizations.
Ive observed that many American Jews
tend to look at the European spectacle with
bewildered dismay. How is it possible, they
ask, that the continent of the Holocaust can
play such an active role in economic warfare
against the Jewish state? Dont Europeans
have the decency to realize that their history
determines that they should be doing the
opposite?
These arguments do not wash with
Europes political elite. Indeed, so deter-
mined are they to ignore the history of the
last century that the EUs ambassador to
Israel, Lars Faaborg-Andersen, had this to say
about Israels insistence on Palestinian recog-
nition of a Jewish state: I dont think we have
any clear position on that because were not
100 per cent sure what is meant by this con-
cept of a Jewish state.
What it means, Ambassador, is that never
again will non-Jews control the security
and well-being of the Jewish people. Weve
already been down that road with you, and
we dont intend to travel it again. JNS.ORG
Ben Cohen, JNS.orgs Shillman analyst, writes
about Jewish affairs and Middle Eastern
politics. His work has been published in
Commentary, the New York Post, Haaretz,
Jewish Ideas Daily, and many other
publications.
Slavery here and now
I
studiously avoid the
sports pages, but the
news has tri ckl ed
down even to me that
that the Super Bowl is upon
our state.
My husband, a committed
49ers fan, informs me that
this knowledge has been wide-
spread for some time.
Until recently, I was unaware
of something that should be,
but isnt, equally well-known: that slaves
will service fans at the Super Bowl. I am not
writing about underpaid or abused workers,
which is an injustice in itself. I am referring to
people who are unpaid and working out of
fear. The FBI anticipates both forced prostitu-
tion surrounding the Super Bowl and forced
labor for some hotel and restaurant workers.
Shamefully, major sporting events reli-
ably attract both johns and sex workers.
Even more shamefully, these events bring
through blackmail, beatings, and intimi-
dation underage girls and boys as well as
women and men who work as prostitutes.
Some are runaways who were helped by
pimps and now fear for their
lives if they try to escape.
Others are immigrants who
thought they were coming to
this country for dignified, paid
work.
Then, suddenly, they have
no choice and no voice.
This underbelly of sports
and entertainment is not the
only evidence of slavery in
our midst. In the words of
anti-slavery author and activist Kevin Bales,
Slavery is not legal anywhere, yet it happens
everywhere.
Experts estimate that approximately 27
million people worldwide work without
pay, under the threat of violence, and with
no means of escape available to them. They
work on farms and in nail salons; in factories
and on the streets; in mines and motels, quar-
ries and kitchens. They work in the homes of
free people.
Israel has its own human trafficking prob-
lem the very definition of shanda a public
shame for a Jewish state.
Federal government officials estimate
that at least 17,500 people are brought into
the United States each year and forced into
domestic service, agricultural work, pros-
titution, or sweatshop labor. Citizens and
residents also are enslaved. Overall, approxi-
mately 150,000 slaves currently work in the
United States. About half of them are below
the age of 18.
Sometimes we call these folks debt labor-
ers, victims of human trafficking, or, irrel-
evantly, immigrants. I prefer the word
slave. It is more accurate, less evasive.
Until last year, slavery was something
I thought about mostly on Passover. Now,
the subject has become a disturbing com-
panion; I think of it daily. In the past two
weeks, I attended two trainings on human
trafficking, one sponsored by the New Jer-
sey Coalition Against Human Trafficking
and the other by Truah North America,
a rabbinic social justice and advocacy orga-
nization. Some of this is me; I have become
obsessed. But my education and involve-
ment also are a reflection of a cultural shift.
We are becoming aware, and, as a result, we
are becoming increasingly disgusted, indig-
nant, and ready to make a change.
My consciousness was raised last spring,
when I received an email from the social
action committee of the Rabbinical Assem-
bly inviting rabbis to write and share outlines
for High Holiday sermons on the subject of
human trafficking. As a past member of the
committee, and wanting to be a good rab-
binic citizen, I volunteered. At that point,
I had no interest in giving such a sermon
myself. I planned to explore personal mean-
ing and personal goals on the High Holy Days.
I wanted to choose subjects that touched my
congregants lives directly.
In the course of my research, I read har-
rowing testimonies and statistics about con-
temporary slaves. I became haunted. I also
read books and articles about people who are
taking practical steps to free slaves. Among
them are Jessica and Julia Baer, two teenag-
ers from Fair Lawn, who, with the support
of their parents and community, have helped
free 30 slaves and counting. (The Jewish
Standard featured them in an article on May
3, 2013.) I was inspired.
As I considered the plight of slaves, I
thought of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschels
words in his last interview: How can I pray
Ben
Cohen
Rabbi Debra
Orenstein
Op-Ed
JS-21
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I believe all these questions are linked
to a larger question: Why is having a
distinct Jewish identity important at
all? Why cant we just be people like
everyone else? So it seems evident
that American Jewry cannot rely on
an Israeli sense of ethnicity/nationality
to save itself. Most American Jews are
thoroughly Americanized and Western-
ized, and a vigorous attempt to preserve
Jewish or any other variety of ethnicity
lately is viewed as xenophobic. Indeed,
a young Jew is likely to charge his or her
parents, rabbi, or Hillel director with
being racists when they advocate ever
so gingerly for marrying in or express
outright rejection of marrying out. Yet,
despite all this and the Pew Report, I for
one am not ready to accept doomsday
prophecies to be in order yet.
First, there are noteworthy pockets
of Jewish renewal here, in Europe, and
in Israel that are led primarily by young
Jews. Their existence provides reason
to hope that these enterprises can be
expanded. Second, the American Jew-
ish community has done a good job of
creating many points of entry for adults,
young and old, to engage in a relation-
ship with Jewish ideas and lifestyles. The
issues now are how we can successfully
encourage those who can make possible
an American Jewish future or with
some mazal even a renascence to enter
those portals, and what kind of Ameri-
can Judaism we can offer them when
they arrive.
Stay tuned for some interesting pro-
posals that provide answers to these
questions.
Holocaust
FROM PAGE 19
when I have on my conscience the aware-
ness that I am co-responsible for the
death of innocent people in Vietnam?
In a free society, some are guilty; all are
responsible.
In the end, I did speak on slavery,
among other topics, and I found that it
wasnt a remote or impersonal issue.
Sadly, slavery is right here, right now.
On January 15, 2014, three men and one
woman, ranging in age from 23 to 59,
were arrested for prostituting a 15-year-
old girl, after the 26-year-old man among
them befriended her at a party. The
accused live in North Bergen, Ridgefield
Park, Jersey City, and Union City. The vic-
tim is from Essex County.
In another sense, too, slavery is
immediate for us. The Bible repeatedly
demands that we continually remember
our experience of slavery in Egypt as an
impetus to treat others with compassion:
You shall not oppress a stranger, for you
know the soul of a stranger, having been
strangers in the Land of Egypt. (Exodus
23:9. See also Deuteronomy 10:18-19 and
Leviticus 19:33-34, among others.)
Every week, Shabbat is a remem-
brance of the Exodus from Egypt. Radi-
cally freeing and inclusive, Shabbat grants
everyone rest from labor:
You shall not do any manner of work,
not you, nor your son, nor your daughter,
nor your man-servant, nor your maid-ser-
vant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor
any of your cattle, nor the stranger who is
within your gates; that your servants may
rest, as you do (Deuteronomy 5:13).
Sometimes we talk metaphorically
about Shabbat liberating or releasing
us from overbooked schedules, excessive
work, and constant connectivity. Those
are powerful words and important con-
cerns. But the metaphor should not be
more real or urgent to us than are the
needs of living, breathing slaves who lit-
erally never get a Shabbes.
After speaking publicly about slavery,
I took on the personal goal of freeing 18
slaves this year. In the course of discuss-
ing spiritual intentions and tikkun olam
(repairing the world) with my 7-year-old
daughter, I told her that I was researching
mitzvah opportunities for the best way to
free 18 people. Never one to think small,
she asked, Why 18? Why not 100? And
so a more ambitious goal was born one
that I co-own with my daughter.
In a future column, I will share the
results of our efforts. Right here, right
now: there is a Super Bowl. And there
is a simple way we can all exercise our
responsibility to help.
The New Jersey Coalition Against
Human Trafficking is mounting a cam-
paign to raise awareness of contemporary
slavery during the halftime show. To par-
ticipate, you need only register at thun-
derclap.it and then tweet about human
trafficking during halftime (#HTchal-
lenge). Directions and sample messages
are available at halftimechallenge.net/
game-plan/pre-game/.
The goal is to raise an outcry against
slavery that drowns out even the Big
Game, even the halftime show, even the
Clio-worthy commercials.
Increasing awareness is certainly not
enough, but it is vital. Kevin Bales wrote,
If there was ever a tipping point when
slavery can be brought to a full stop, it is
now. Two key obstacles stand in our way:
lack of awareness and lack of resources.
If we create massive awareness on Super
Bowl Sunday, I believe that massive
resources will soon follow.
Here and now, lets join together and
find out.
Rabbi Debra Orenstein is spiritual leader
of Congregation Bnai Israel in Emerson
and a scholar-in-residence to communities
across North America. You can follow
her familys journey to free 100 slaves
at RabbiDebra.com; click on link called
freeing slaves.
Cover Story
JS-22
JOANNE PALMER
T
here recently was a student at
the Sinai Academies at the Rae
Kushner Yeshiva High School
in Livingston who was having a
hard time, according to Kushners princi-
pal, Rabbi Eliezer Rubin.
The Kushner students were always nice
to him, but it was very difficult to engage
him, Rabbi Rubin said. There were no
specific problems, more a kind of failure
to thrive.
The student enrolled in the drama club,
the rabbi continued. And then, yes, it hap-
pened, just like in the movies. When he
was comfortable performing and reading
a scripted part, his performance was just
exceptional. It was a moment of complete
communal crying. The students at the
school stood up and gave him a standing
ovation.
Contest for students highlights the
unity designed into schools diversity
Seeing
Sinai
It is important to realize that this was
not sympathy clapping Oh look! That
poor kid didnt fall down onstage! No.
Not at all. He gave was an exceptional
performance, and the ovation was admi-
ration for his hidden talent.
Sinai is like that. Its mission goes in both
directions. Created as a way to educate
Jewish children with special needs in a
way that exposes them to more typical stu-
dents, it also works to expose those typical
students to diversity.
This year, to underscore the truth that
the benefits of Sinai go in both directions,
the schools leaders created an art con-
test. Third- through 12th-graders in all of
the five Sinai partner schools the Rosen-
baum Yeshiva of North Jersey in River
Edge; the Maayanot Yeshiva High School
for Girls and the Torah Academy of Bergen
County, both in Teaneck; and the Joseph
Kushner Hebrew Academy, on the same
Livingston campus as the fifth partner,
Kushner High School as well as Sinai stu-
dents in all of those schools were invited
to enter essays and artwork that focused
on diversity.
The contest, called Together We Are
a Symphony Embracing Diversity and
Inclusion, was structured so that entries
were categorized by age as well as by art
form. Prizes were given to third- through
fifth-graders, sixth- through eighth-grad-
ers, and high schoolers; in each age divi-
sion there were four winners, with first-
and second-place awards given for both
essays and art.
The grand prize winner was chosen by
lottery from among the six first-prize win-
ners. Rivki Hook of Bergenfield, an eighth-
grader at RYNJ, who won first place in
her division for her essay, will be going to
Israel with her family, courtesy of a $5,000
prize from philanthropist Joe Sprung and
his Bear Givers.
Students at both Sinai and the partner
schools were encouraged to enter the con-
test; the entries carried no names so that
the three judges could make their deci-
sions based only on the work before them.
Its really our hope that the contest will
have accomplished something that weve
been doing since the beginning our
important intangible objective is to leave
an indelible lifetime impression on the
non-special-needs children who partici-
pated, as they invested their own creativ-
ity in conveying the importance of diver-
sity and inclusion, Sam Fishman, Sinais
managing director, said.
The winners were from the partner
schools, not Sinai, but that is neither
When he was
comfortable
performing
and reading a
scripted part, his
performance was
just exceptional.
RABBI ELIEZER RUBIN
Lily Levine, a fifth-grader at the Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey, offers her view of a world in harmony in
Together We Are a Symphony.
JS-23
surprising nor relevant, he added. We
have 122 students, compared to their
1,100. And the point of the contest was
to get the non-Sinai kids and their families
thinking about inclusion.
Mr. Fishman was not a judge, but he was
able to see the entries. There were a few
that knocked me over, he said. We got a
beautiful one from a Sinai student shes
the subject of our feature video at our din-
ner this year. She came to us in eighth
grade shes now in ninth in the middle
of the school year. Her former school just
was not working out.
She came to us angry and depressed. In
addition to her learning issues, she is deaf
in one ear and she had a lot of anger when
she came to us.
It was magical, how we were able to
make it work for her, and how happy she
became. She wrote an essay about what it
means to her not only to be at Sinai but to
be in the context of the inclusive environ-
ment, first at RYNJ and now at Kushner.
Mr. Fishman now works for Sinai, but
he came to it as a parent; he understands
firsthand the gaping hole in the commu-
nity that it fills. My wife, Esther, and I are
both from Fair Lawn, products of Jewish
day school education in the 60s and 70s,
he said. We grew up totally unexposed to
the reality of special needs, because they
were very much swept under the rug.
When our first child was born, in 1979,
and he didnt develop typically, we were
in our 20s, clueless young parents. When
he was turned away from a local yeshiva,
here in North Jersey, at age 5, we were at
a loss.
We didnt know what to do.
We had just moved back to Fair Lawn
when we heard about this fledgling
program.
Sinai, which had begun in 1984, in West
Caldwell, was only three years old when
the Fishmans sent their son there. He
is now 34 years old, went on to graduate
school, got his masters in special ed, and is
now a special ed teacher in Brooklyn, Mr.
Fishman said.
The statistics are impressive. Go back
29 years, and Sinai was just a little ripple
in a pond, Mr. Fishman said. Now its a
whole sea change in the way the Jewish
community and in particular the Jewish
education community thinks about kids
with special needs.
In the last three decades, Sinai has
served about 1,000 students. (The pro-
gram has grown about 10 percent a year
in recent years; when it began, it did not
have anywhere near the numbers it has
today.) We can point to those 1,000 lives
we have transformed.
But there is a bigger picture. For each
one of those 1,000 students, there are
2,000, 3,000, maybe more students who
have grown up side by side with them.
Because of the inclusion of our students,
we have seen non-Sinai students learn so
much about life from them. They learn
sensitivity, they learn chesed, they learn
that special needs are a natural part of life,
and they learn that its natural to include
people with special needs in their schools,
social circles, and communities.
It really is a generational change in atti-
tude. What I see in my childrens genera-
tion is that they are much better prepared
than my generation was to deal with a
curveball like the one that was thrown at
my wife and me.
Sinai does not pay lip service to the idea
that each child is different, with his or her
own set of strengths, problems, and learn-
ing styles and that is true of all children,
with or without special needs. Sinais stu-
dents include children with a range of
complex and sometime profound develop-
mental disabilities, as well as many other
issues, Mr. Fishman said, and each has
his or her own learning plan. The school
does not serve all the children who could
Sinais annual benefit dinner
Who: The Sinai Schools
What: Annual dinner and program, including a video bringing Sinais work to
vivid life
Where: The Marriott Glenpointe in Teaneck
When: Sunday, Feb. 9; buffet dinner at 5:15 and program promptly at 6:45
Why: To raise money for the unique institution that is the Sinai Schools by
honoring Marjorie and David Bernstein, Gail and William Hochman, Beatrice
and Cantor Joseph Malovany, Arielle and Aryeh Sheinbein, and the owners
of Maadan Caterers, Stuart Kahan & Yossie Markovic.
For reservations or more information, go to www.sinaischools.org and click
on the link for reservations and donation.
Rabbi Eliezer Rubin applauds the
benefits of unity in diversity and the
effect it has on students.
Sam Fishman, once a SInai parent, is
now its managing director.
SEE SINAI PAGE 24
Maayanot senior Carmi Kaye based her work on Psalm 150, where we are
told to praise God with the lyre and the harp, with drum and with dance.
Anya Weitz, a seventh-grader at the Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey,
draws the embrace of friendship.
Cover Story
JS-24
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benefit from it. The limitation is the cost. It is prohibi-
tively expensive. It is a miracle, frankly, given what it
costs, that we can do what we do.
The need is greater than we can serve,
and there are three limitations. One is that
we can grow only one child at a time. We
have to put so much into each child.
The second is the stigma. As inclusive as
we are, still there is some stigma.
The third is the cost. We work with our
families, and we fund raise to try to meet it,
but there still are families that are scared
away by it.
Dr. Zvi Marans of Teaneck is a pediat-
ric cardiologist and the president of the
Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey.
Both of those credentials make him a logi-
cal judge for the art competition, and he
agreed to undertake that responsibility.
Sinai perceives itself as a broad commu-
nity institution, and it obviously is grateful
for support from the community, includ-
ing federation, he said. Thats why I was
approached.
Then there is also the fact that I have an
affinity for children. I hang out with kids all
day long; some of them have physical and
mental disabilities, and I love all of them.
I also love the purity of thought and expression that
all children have, unadulterated by adulthood. Espe-
cially in artwork, their expression is so pure. There is no
manipulation. The lens they see through is their inno-
cence. I always enjoy that.
From that vantage point his own lens Dr. Marans
sees the great benefits of inclusion.
I saw that the kids in the schools where there are Sinai
students are deeply affected by living in an environment
with other kids who are different from them. I believe
that it is wonderful for the community. It creates diver-
sity and inclusion otherwise, theres not a
lot of it in their lives.
It is a strong feeling of mind that diversity
is good. I have raised my children that way.
It expands the mind, and they take that with
them for the rest of their lives.
Rabbi Dr. Yisrael Rothwachs of Teaneck
is Sinais dean, and he tells this anecdote:
About 8 years or so ago, we opened at the
Kushner high school. Some of the Sinai
students came to the high school program
from the Kushner elementary school, but
many were new to the Livingston campus.
A few weeks into the school year, one of
the administrators came to me and asked
if there was anything she could do to help.
I said no, everything was fine, and then
I shared with her how impressed I was that
our kids were so welcome there, because for
so many of them that feeling of being wel-
come was so new to them.
Without skipping a beat, she pointed out
that the vast majority of students in the
Kushner Yeshiva High School had grown up
with Sinai students at their side. Inclusion
and diversity were nothing new to them.
That how we all knew that the impact of the stu-
dents in our school is not just positive for them but
to the larger community, for their acceptance, their
understanding, their comfort. We are not the only
Sinai FROM PAGE 23
Rabbi Dr. Yisrael
Rothwachs
Dr. Zvi Marans
Dalia Mermelstein, a ninth-grader at Maayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls, draws a tree entwined
with a guitar and a saxophone; music floats above it.
SEE SINAI PAGE 26
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Cover Story
JS-25
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Dalia Mermelstein, a ninth-grader at Maayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls, draws a tree entwined
with a guitar and a saxophone; music floats above it.
Adina Zahtz, a fouth-grader at Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey, creates the Special Tree of Life.
The owls represent children at play.
Nina Gerszberg, a seventh-grader at Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy, celebrates sharing, kindness,
love, and strength, among other virtues.
SEE SINAI PAGE 26

JS-26
Cover Story
JS-26
Twenty-Eighth Annual
Interfaith Brotherhood/Sisterhood
of Bergen County
Breakfast
Featuring Keynote Speaker
Dr. Dorothy Marcic
Playwright, Author, Professor - Columbia University
Faith and Values
in Our Contemporary Society
Monday, February 17 - Presidents Day
10:00 am - 12:30 pm
Hasbrouck Heights Hilton
650 Terrace Avenue, Hasbrouck Heights, NJ
201-288-6100
$30 per adult / $15 per child, age 12 and under
Reservations required by February 7
To purchase tickets or for more information,
please call
Bahai Community 201-833-9146
Hindu Community 201-818-0969
Jain Community 201-967-9344
Jewish Community 201-820-3944
Muslim Community 201-220-8769
Protestant 201-403-4341
Community
Roman Catholic
Community 201- 935-6492
Sikh Community 201-566-4644
Sponsored by
THE BAHAI COMMUNITY - this years host
HINDU COMMUNITY | JAIN COMMUNITY | JEWISH COMMUNITY
MUSLIM COMMUNITY | PROTESTANT COMMUNITY
ROMAN CATHOLIC COMMUNITY | SIKH COMMUNITY
Help Feed The Hungry
Please bring one or more of the following:
Canned Hearty Soup | Boxed Baby Formula | Peanut Buter
& Jelly | Tomato Sauce | Pasta | Cold Cereal (Low Sugar)
Canned Fruit | Instant Potato | Macaroni & Cheese | Oatmeal
No glass containers, and please check expiraton dates.
Thanks
www.jstandard.com
organization promoting inclusion in the
community there is also Yachad and
the Friendship Circle, nonacademic ven-
ues so at the very youngest ages, our
kids are being exposed to diversity. And
all these groups affect each other.
There is a possible risk in all the
talk about inclusivity, Rabbi Rothwax
acknowledged; it is something that he
and the rest of the community take seri-
ously. They do not want to objectify the
Sinai students, making them into objects
of pity, on display for other students
edification. We are always sensitive to
that, he said. We have to be so careful
in how we portray our students.
Kushner High Schools Rabbi Rubin
agreed. Integrating students who learn
differently into the school creates an
atmosphere of respect and appreciation
for all the differences we have as peo-
ple, he said. As a result of Sinai, our
students behave sensitively toward each
other, and they realize that differences
have to be respected and appreciated.
Students also learn that by giving
to those in need, oftentimes they are
receiving through their acts of generosity.
These are qualities of character that we
want to develop in emerging adolescents.
We also benefit a great deal from the
Sinai staff, who bring a particular exper-
tise, Dr. Rubin concluded. They help
us become more competent in reaching
students who are different, even if they
are in the mainstream.
Elie Wiesel will be a video visitor at the Sinai Academies dinner.
Talking with Elie Wiesel
JOANNE PALMER
Sam Fishman, the Sinai Academies
managing director, also makes videos.
In fact, he has provided the vision for
the videos that are shown at Sinais
annual dinners. (For more about the
dinner, see the box on page 23.)
This year, as always, he made a
video that will be shown that evening.
Our dinner is known for its emotion-
ally compelling videos, and this one
is about two sisters whose lives have
been changed by Sinai, he said.
This year, though, he made another
video as well.
Elie Wiesel and one of the evenings
honorees, Cantor Joseph Malovany,
are old friends, and Mr. Wiesel very
much wants to be at the Sinai din-
ner. But because of his travel sched-
ule, Professor Wiesel did not know if
he could be there, so just in case he
wont be able to make it, he asked if
we could record his introduction in
advance.
That was a great thing for Mr.
Fishman.
It was really magical to meet
Professor Wiesel, he said. It was a
great honor to be with him, and to
hear him talk.
You feel the entire weight of Jew-
ish history in his presence, especially
when he talks about Jewish continu-
ity, the importance of Jewish educa-
tion, and the sacred responsibility as
Jews that we have toward children
and people with special needs.
On the video, Mr. Wiesel also talks
about the Malovanys.
Professor Wiesel speaks very per-
sonally and emotionally, from his
heart, about his feelings toward them;
about their closeness, and the joy of
the friendship, and the joy that Can-
tor Malovany brings to him through
his music.
The connection between the men
is generations old, born in Sighet, the
Romanian town from which they or
their forbears came. With a twinkle
in his eye, Professor Wiesel said that
he sometimes fantasizes about return-
ing to Sighet with Cantor Malovany,
and singing in the street together.
It conjures up an image that is
both ironic and sweet, he said.
Sinai FROM PAGE 24
A SUPPLEMENT TO THE JEWISH STANDARD, JEWISH COMMUNITY NEWS, AND ROCKLAND JEWISH STANDARD WINTER 2014
Being an entrepreneur means the
ability to evolve. SPACE has gone
through many growing pains
About Elvira Grau
Creator and Founder of SPACE
Elvira Grau is a Russian immigrant who built her
business from scratch in Englewood, NJ. A happily
married wife and a mom proves that women
really can have it all and is a frm believer that
hard work can lead to the American Dream. She
founded SPACE in 2005 when she discovered an
empty, 26,000 sq. ft. warehouse and envisioned a
one-of-a-kind, entertainment event SPACE!
Given the current economic climate,
what has been your strategy for
building awareness of SPACE for short-
term & long-term growth:
EG: Reputation is everything! Youre only as good
as your last party. I tell all my staff, there are no
second chances, and we only have one time to
get it right. Its like a Broadway play- the curtain
opens and were live. As long as wecontinue to
give our clients everything they want and more,
we will do well. Happy clients refer business, and
whether the economy is up or down, people still
need to celebrate milestones in life. I also work
with clients on their own budgets.
Q & A with Elvira Grau, the Creator of SPACE!
Please share with us what inspired you to create SPACE?
EG: As a mother frst and foremost, it was initially for my own personal need and my desire to create a safe, clean and climate
controlled environment for my own children. Having 4 kids who ranged, at the time, from 4-12 years old, I wanted to design an
entertainment space flled with a diverse array of games and attractions that appeal to all age groups. SPACE combines the best
aspects of a catering hall, a nightclub, and a gaming arcade; its conducive for both kids and adults. Weve created endless fun for kids
and an elegant venue for adults.
Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.
What is your proudest achievement as an accomplished entrepreneur?
EG: Repeat business! Im now hosting parties for the siblings, friends, and other family members of my current clients. I love when
families come back to me for parties for their second and third child after a birthday, bar/bat mitzvah or sweet sixteen. Its the biggest
form of a compliment to me.They trust me, and thats priceless!
What is your advice for someone interested in entrepreneurship?
EG: Never give up! If you have tenacity, perseverance, a true desire to succeed and passion for what you do, you will go far. I was told
many times to give up when I frst started. People said my idea wouldnt work. I didnt listen and I didnt give up, it works.
I operate with pure intentions and high integrity. I wake up every day and ask myself, what can I do today to make
my business better? What more can I do? As an entrepreneur, its always about whats next. You have to be on top
of your game.
- Elvira Grau
CELEBRATING OUR 8TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY
THE HOTTEST ENTERTAINMENT SPACE 26,000 SQ FT OF PURE EXCITEMENT!
VISION - SPACE IS TRULY A ONE - STOP SHOP
Dear Elvira,
There are a few events in life that take a year+ to plan and are so special and meaningful in our lives. Last Saturday was that day for us. We
went to many places looking for the best place to have our daughter Jessicas Bat Mitzvah. After visiting many places we came to meet you
and see your SPACE. We were immediately overwhelmed with the welcoming and confdence of you and your staff. Diana and your staff
made it so easy for us. You helped and guided us from day 1. You and Diana out did yourselves. From the moment we walked in we had
tears of joy.The place was beautiful and the designs were outstanding. The food was extremely tasty and elegantly presented. DJ Charlie was
unbelievable. He and his crew had everybody out on the foor. The place was flled with electricity!! On behalf of my wife, Jodi and myself
and our Bat Mitzvah daughter Jessica - we would like to thank you and all of your staff from the bottom of our hearts!
- The Leichter Family
201-567-3810 491 South Dean Street Englewood, NJ 07631
www.spaceodysseyusa.com
V I S I ON- SPACE IS TRULY A ONE - STOP SHOP
Being an entrepreneur means the
ability to evolve. SPACE has gone
through many growing pains
About Elvira Grau
Creator and Founder of SPACE
Elvira Grau is a Russian immigrant who built her
business from scratch in Englewood, NJ. A happily
married wife and a mom proves that women
really can have it all and is a frm believer that
hard work can lead to the American Dream. She
founded SPACE in 2005 when she discovered an
empty, 26,000 sq. ft. warehouse and envisioned a
one-of-a-kind, entertainment event SPACE!
Given the current economic climate,
what has been your strategy for
building awareness of SPACE for short-
term & long-term growth:
EG: Reputation is everything! Youre only as good
as your last party. I tell all my staff, there are no
second chances, and we only have one time to
get it right. Its like a Broadway play- the curtain
opens and were live. As long as wecontinue to
give our clients everything they want and more,
we will do well. Happy clients refer business, and
whether the economy is up or down, people still
need to celebrate milestones in life. I also work
with clients on their own budgets.
Q & A with Elvira Grau, the Creator of SPACE!
Please share with us what inspired you to create SPACE?
EG: As a mother frst and foremost, it was initially for my own personal need and my desire to create a safe, clean and climate
controlled environment for my own children. Having 4 kids who ranged, at the time, from 4-12 years old, I wanted to design an
entertainment space flled with a diverse array of games and attractions that appeal to all age groups. SPACE combines the best
aspects of a catering hall, a nightclub, and a gaming arcade; its conducive for both kids and adults. Weve created endless fun for kids
and an elegant venue for adults.
Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.
What is your proudest achievement as an accomplished entrepreneur?
EG: Repeat business! Im now hosting parties for the siblings, friends, and other family members of my current clients. I love when
families come back to me for parties for their second and third child after a birthday, bar/bat mitzvah or sweet sixteen. Its the biggest
form of a compliment to me.They trust me, and thats priceless!
What is your advice for someone interested in entrepreneurship?
EG: Never give up! If you have tenacity, perseverance, a true desire to succeed and passion for what you do, you will go far. I was told
many times to give up when I frst started. People said my idea wouldnt work. I didnt listen and I didnt give up, it works.
I operate with pure intentions and high integrity. I wake up every day and ask myself, what can I do today to make
my business better? What more can I do? As an entrepreneur, its always about whats next. You have to be on top
of your game.
- Elvira Grau
CELEBRATING OUR 8TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY
THE HOTTEST ENTERTAINMENT SPACE 26,000 SQ FT OF PURE EXCITEMENT!
VISION - SPACE IS TRULY A ONE - STOP SHOP
Dear Elvira,
There are a few events in life that take a year+ to plan and are so special and meaningful in our lives. Last Saturday was that day for us. We
went to many places looking for the best place to have our daughter Jessicas Bat Mitzvah. After visiting many places we came to meet you
and see your SPACE. We were immediately overwhelmed with the welcoming and confdence of you and your staff. Diana and your staff
made it so easy for us. You helped and guided us from day 1. You and Diana out did yourselves. From the moment we walked in we had
tears of joy.The place was beautiful and the designs were outstanding. The food was extremely tasty and elegantly presented. DJ Charlie was
unbelievable. He and his crew had everybody out on the foor. The place was flled with electricity!! On behalf of my wife, Jodi and myself
and our Bat Mitzvah daughter Jessica - we would like to thank you and all of your staff from the bottom of our hearts!
- The Leichter Family Woodcliff Lake 11/16/13
201-567-3810 491 South Dean Street Englewood, NJ 07631
www.spaceodysseyusa.com
V I S I ON- SPACE IS TRULY A ONE - STOP SHOP
JUNE GLAZER
L
ong before the hal l is
booked and the invitations
mailed, many families plan-
ning a bar or bat mitzvah
celebration often take on a
special project as a way to
deepen their connection to
Judaism and imbue the upcoming occa-
sion with added meaning. The project
they choose usually culminates with a
moving speech or video that will be pre-
sented at the party.
While any project that strength-
ens ties to Judaism is meaningful and
important, Rabbi Noah Greenberg has a
unique idea that culminates with some-
thing much more tangible, and one
that experience shows is deeply inspi-
rational. An artist and educator living
in Israel, he has figured out a way to
craft kosher tellin (phylacteries) out of
parchment through a process similar to
origami, and has created a program in
which participants make their own pair.
Tellin is the rst mitzvah assumed
by a Jewish male upon becoming a bar
mitzvah.
I dont think I have run across a
project in my whole life that would be
more appropriate and more directly
applicable for any student as a pre-bar
mitzvah project, said Simon Jacob
of West Orange. Past president of the
Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy/Rae
Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livings-
ton, he and his wife, Barrie, brought
Rabbi Greenberg and his program to
their home three years ago in advance
of their son Levi Yehezkels bar mitzvah,
and over the course of a Thanksgiving
weekend (not including Shabbat) 14
boys and three adults immersed them-
selves in the world of tellin-making.
The thought behind it is so fantas-
tic and the kids became so engaged. The
program is called Kesher Tefillin, and
kesher means connection. The proj-
ect creates a connection between the
child and the tellin. Youve never seen
a bunch of young teenagers so focused,
Mr. Jacob said of the group he gathered.
Tefillin are biblical in origin, and
are commanded within the context of
several laws outlining a Jews relation-
ship with God. Comprising two small
black boxes and leather straps, they are
worn one on the head and one on the
arm and donned each morning of the
week with the exception of Shabbat
and Jewish holidays. Usually, boys are
trained to start wearing them one or
two months before they turn 13 accord-
ing to the Hebrew calendar.
Many years ago, I was learning
with my son for his bar mitzvah and we
had just bought him a pair of beauti-
ful and expensive tefillin, said Rabbi
Greenberg, a native of Oakland, Calif.,
who moved to Safed in 1978 where he
maintains an artist workshop in his
home. As we were learning, I thought
to myself that Moshe Rabbeinu also
wore tefillin, and I started to think
Creating
tellin
ties
Unique tellin project engages
young teens with Judaism
The thought
behind it is
so fantastic
and the kids
became so
engaged.
SIMON JACOB
S-4 Jewish Standard, Jewish Community News, Rockland Jewish Standard WINTER 2014 BAR/BAT MITZVAH
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973.758.9800 631.367.1519
CHAPERONES
PROFESSIONAL, COURTEOUS
We supervise the kids while you
relax and enjoy the party.
www.BarMitzvahBouncer.com
Established in 1998
Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, Sweet 16s, and Graduation Parties
Country Clubs, Catering Halls, House Parties, Bus Rides
All Chaperones are certied school teachers
Available in NJ, NY, and CT

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about how he might have made them.
Obviously, he didnt have computers
and hydraulic presses in the desert.
The thought prompted Rabbi
Greenberg to experiment and he came
up with a way to fold goat-skin parch-
mentthe same material a kosher
Torah scroll is written onto create
the batim, or boxes, that hold the four
sets of biblical verses, hand-written by a
scribe, in which tellin are commanded.
The rst person to see the proto-
type that Rabbi Greenberg made was
Rabbi Loren Sykes, CEO and execu-
tive director of the Shirley and Jacob
Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center of the
United Synagogue of Conservative
Judaism. I was in Noahs workshop
about another matter when I saw the
tefillin sitting on his desk and asked
him about them. He explained and
I told him that this is something we
should gure out how to do with kids.
The rest of the story is Noah mak-
ing this mitzvah possible for them.
Rabbi Sykes, who is founding director
of Camp Ramah Darom in northeast
Georgia, brought a pilot program to
the camp that summer and campers
there have been making tefillin ever
since. Weve exponentially increased
the number of kids who are actively
involved in this mitzvah, he said.
Since that summer six years ago,
some 2,000 kids in camps, schools, and
private gatherings in the US and Isra-
el have participated in Kesher Tellin,
including Rabbi Sykes son Elan, who
was part of the pilot.
The focus was not so much on
how to fold it as it was on the inten-
tionlearning the laws related to tel-
lin and doing everything lshem kidu-
shat tellin [for the sake of the sanctity
of the tellin]. Having the experience
of folding and coloring, sewing and
tying, and putting the scrolls into the
compartments really gave me a sense
of ownership over the mitzvah. I put
on tefillin for the first time with that
pair and the experience was much more
meaningful, the younger Sykes said.
When I started this, I thought the
project was about the tefillin them-
selves, Rabbi Greenberg noted. As
Ive done it more and more, Ive real-
ized that its really about the wealth and
organic wholeness of our Jewish life and
heritage. The foundation of this pro-
gram is kidusha [holiness], which we
study in-depth. And, the kids really get
it. They truly integrate the concepts.
Rabbi Greenberg added that the
project, which takes 15 hours over sev-
eral days to complete, is complex, chal-
lenging, fast-moving, and hands-on.
In the process, the kids are learning
the Rambam, Shulchan Aruch, Mishnah
Brurah, and even the Gemara. If I were
a rabbi coming in with a bunch of books
and trying to teach them the same stuff,
theyd be asleep in two minutes. This
way, the kids dont even realize that
theyre learning, he said.
Greenbergs tellin have the has-
kama [approbation] of prominent rab-
bis in Israel and the U.S., including
Rav Nissim Karelitz of Bnei Brak, Rav
Yisroel Belsky of the Orthodox Union
(OU), and Rabbi Saul Berman of Yeshi-
va University, who has been a driving
force behind the project from the out-
set and answers the ongoing halachic
questions as they develop. In the Con-
servative Movement, Rabbi Joel Roth,
who serves as the halachic authority
for all the Conservative Movements
Ramah summer camps, also supports
the project.
People say this is a transforma-
tional experience in these kids lives.
Recently at Camp Ramah in the Berk-
shires, a mother told me that her son, a
public school student, did the program
three years ago and since then gets up
15 minutes early every day to put on his
tellin. And now, his father does, too. If
this story were an isolated incident, the
program would still be worth it, but I
hear anecdotes like this all the time. Its
incredible, Greenberg said.
For the past three years, the art-
ist and educator has presented Kesh-
er Tefillin in the Ethiopian communi-
ty in Israel, as well. One of the excit-
ing things were doing is working with
groups of Ethiopian olimfathers and
sonsas part of their aliyah-conver-
sion-bar mitzvah process. In Ethiopia,
many Jews were forced to convert to
Christianity and have crosses tattooed
onto their foreheads right at the spot
where the men wear the tefillin shel
rosh [the box that is placed on the
head]. When you see the fathers put-
ting on their tefillin on that spot. . . .
Rabbi Greenberg trailed off with emo-
tion. Were being given this opportu-
nity to negate the travesty that was done
to these people.
Ever the craftsman, Rabbi Green-
berg brings all his own tools and materi-
als along when he presents his program,
including kosher scrolls to insert into
the boxes. Under his direction, partici-
pants tie them with calf hair, put them
in each box, sew the boxes with sinews,
and tie ritzuotspecial knotsin the
straps, all in accordance with Jewish
law. The cap-off moment is when the
boys don their tellin for the rst time
and say the Shema. It is a moment like
no other, Mr. Jacob attested.
When our group did the project,
that moment was so intense. There
were very few dry eyes. To put on these
tefillin the kids made themselves and
to say the Shemait was an incredibly
beautiful, wonderful experience, and
the kids were so excited. They were so
into it.
This is really an inspirational pro-
cess, Rabbi Greenberg said. What
these kids come away with is ownership
not only of this one mitzvah, but of Jew-
ish existence in general. It is changing
peoples lives.
For more information about the
Kesher Tefillin program, visit the Web
site at http://www.kesher-tellin.com/.
ON THE COVER:
Sarah Fassbergs bat mitzvah photo by Todd France Photography,
56 West 22nd St., New York, NY. Studio: (212) 300-4264. Dress
from Party Girl in Tenafly.
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For more information please contact
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AMITs Bar and Bat Mitzvah Program offers the opportunity for your child,
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A mitzvah project triple
Israelis with special needs encounter nature with Lotem
I
f your bar or bat mitzvah child
is a lover of the great out-
doors, former Fair Lawn resi-
dent Alisa Bodner has a novel
idea for a chesed project.
Ms. Bodner, who moved to
Israel in 2010, is the Keren Kay-
emeth LeIsrael-Jewish National
Fund liaison with Lotem (www.
lotem.net), a non-prot dedicat-
ed to making nature accessible to
Israelis with disabilities reach-
ing about 30,000 people each
year.
Lotem maintains Israels only
accessible hiking trail together
with KKL-JNF, and also has an
accessible ecological farm the
only site of its kind worldwide
where people with special needs can
experience pressing grapes and olives,
drawing water from wells and baking
pita.
Lotem is the Hebrew acronym for
limudei teva mishulavim, mean-
ing integrated nature studies. Its also,
appropriately enough, the name of a
ower.
We work with Israelis who have
all kinds of physical, communication
and intellectual disorders, hearing and
vision impairment, and also battered
women together with their children,
and at-risk youth, says Ms. Bodner.
Dor giving a high ve to Ido, his Lotem guide.
SEE MITZVAH PROJECT PAGE 8
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SEE MITZVAH PROJECT PAGE 8
Jewish Standard, Jewish Community News, Rockland Jewish Standard S-7 Experience the Elegance
Celebrate your Bar or Bat Mitzvah in our elegant ballroom and stately lobby,
set amidst lavish gardens and the historic homes of Rockleigh. Our unsurpassed personal service
and custom menus enhance the magic of your special day.
26 Paris Avenue Rockleigh, New Jersey 07647 Tel. 201-768-7171
www.therockleigh.net
JewStd_Bar_ad_080109.indd 1 2/22/08 3:43:33 PM
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Lotems Mitzvah-to-Mitzvah program encourag-
es celebrants to contribute toward a specic program
that resonates with them. The options include:
Touching the Western Wall: Enable a group of chil-
dren with special needs to visit the Western Wall and
other important historical and religious sites in Jerusa-
lem, just like their friends and relatives.
Natures Way: Sponsor hands-on activities on
Lotems eco-farm for a group of children with special
needs. Activities are tied to the ancient agricultural
cycle in Israel and bring participants closer to nature
and their Jewish heritage.
Natural Integration: Sponsor a group hike that
brings children in a special-education class together
with children in a regular class for educational activi-
ties in nature. This program promotes acceptance
and understanding and fosters love and friendship
between children whose main commonality is love of
nature.
Integra-Teva: Help foster coexistence by sponsor-
ing an accessible hike that brings together Arab and
Jewish youth with special needs for joint activities in
nature.
Choosing one or more of these programs helps
them feel connected to the cause, says Ms. Bodner,
a graduate of The Frisch School and Queens College.
Theyre contributing a gift to children the same age
as them, who ordinarily wouldnt be able to go out and
enjoy nature. Its very hands-on and age-appropriate.
Even better, if the young celebrant plans to visit
Israel, he or she can arrange to join a Lotem hike
and even help guide it together with the soldiers and
national service volunteers who work with the organi-
zation. Or they can interact with people coming to the
eco-farm for nature activities.
This connects them even more to the whole pro-
cess, and they can really see the difference their con-
tribution is making, says Ms. Bodner. The volunteers
gain from the encounter as well.
After taking part in a recent Natural Integration
program, one Israeli eighth-grader admitted that
though she was initially apprehensive, This experi-
ence opened our minds. We are used to spending
time with people who are similar to us but we had the
opportunity to meet others. Essentially every person
that you dont know is different and when you think
about it again, you discover suddenly that there is no
such thing as normal and that everybody is unique. It
showed me to look upon the world in a different way.
Another 13-year-old on the program commented,
We need to accept differences regardless of who the
person is. The children from [the special-needs school]
have such happiness for life. They have such strong
willpower and they do not give up even in difculty.
This is something I need to take upon myself.
Lotem programs also offer a unique option for
bar/bat mitzvah children from abroad who them-
selves have special needs. The organization already
works with Birthright tours for members of Yachad, the
National Jewish Council for Disabilities, and arranges
one-day inclusive tours for visiting individuals or fami-
lies free of charge, to raise awareness of the organiza-
tion.
When we make our tours accessible, its not only
physical accessibility but also pedagogic accessibil-
ity, Ms. Bodner stresses. We provide each group with
guides who can give specialized instruction to t their
particular special needs and level of understanding.
From the United States, Ms. Bodner can be con-
tacted at (347) 236-3262 or Lotem@jnf.org.
She adds that JNF, a partner organization with
Lotem for the past seven years, offers this program as
well as other opportunities in its own bnei mitzvah
program geared to supporting Israel. For more on that,
see http://www.jnf.org/get-involved/celebrate/.
Two children from the Bet Chinuch School lead a child from the Ben
Yehuda School for Special Education.
Mitzvah Project
FROM PAGE 6
Jewish Standard, Jewish Community News, Rockland Jewish Standard S-9
as them, who ordinarily wouldnt be able to go out and
enjoy nature. Its very hands-on and age-appropriate.
Even better, if the young celebrant plans to visit
Israel, he or she can arrange to join a Lotem hike
and even help guide it together with the soldiers and
national service volunteers who work with the organi-
zation. Or they can interact with people coming to the
eco-farm for nature activities.
This connects them even more to the whole pro-
cess, and they can really see the difference their con-
tribution is making, says Ms. Bodner. The volunteers
gain from the encounter as well.
After taking part in a recent Natural Integration
program, one Israeli eighth-grader admitted that
though she was initially apprehensive, This experi-
ence opened our minds. We are used to spending
time with people who are similar to us but we had the
opportunity to meet others. Essentially every person
that you dont know is different and when you think
about it again, you discover suddenly that there is no
such thing as normal and that everybody is unique. It
showed me to look upon the world in a different way.
Another 13-year-old on the program commented,
We need to accept differences regardless of who the
person is. The children from [the special-needs school]
have such happiness for life. They have such strong
willpower and they do not give up even in difculty.
This is something I need to take upon myself.
Lotem programs also offer a unique option for
bar/bat mitzvah children from abroad who them-
selves have special needs. The organization already
works with Birthright tours for members of Yachad, the
National Jewish Council for Disabilities, and arranges
one-day inclusive tours for visiting individuals or fami-
lies free of charge, to raise awareness of the organiza-
tion.
When we make our tours accessible, its not only
physical accessibility but also pedagogic accessibil-
ity, Ms. Bodner stresses. We provide each group with
guides who can give specialized instruction to t their
particular special needs and level of understanding.
From the United States, Ms. Bodner can be con-
tacted at (347) 236-3262 or Lotem@jnf.org.
She adds that JNF, a partner organization with
Lotem for the past seven years, offers this program as
well as other opportunities in its own bnei mitzvah
program geared to supporting Israel. For more on that,
see http://www.jnf.org/get-involved/celebrate/.
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How to plan a bar/bat mitzvah in Israel
A
mericans wishing to hold their
childs coming-of-age ceremony
in Israel often think of the West-
ern Wall (Kotel) in Jerusalem, a
landmark with deep religious signifi-
cance. However, they need to be aware
of potential pitfalls of an event at this
spot and be prepared to consider less-
er-known alternatives, say Israeli event
planners who work with overseas fami-
lies.
The first thing to bear in mind is
that the Kotel is geared only to Ortho-
dox, gender-separated bar mitzvah ser-
vices, and only on Mondays and Thurs-
days (though any morning will do for a
rst tellin experience). Because the
site is so popular, numerous bar mitz-
vahs are usually going on simultaneous-
ly, and that brings logistical problems.
If you dont get there early, you
wont get a table [for the Torah read-
ing] and women wont be able to see
anything, cautions Adena Mark of A to
Z Events in Israel. Thats why we pro-
vide a service to reserve a spot for the
men and another for the women on
the other side of the mechitza [divider]
where they will be able to see and hear
as well as possible.
Still, the women wont see much
unless theyre standing on chairs. That
can be problematic for older guests or
those with physical handicaps. Just get-
ting to the Kotel along cobblestoned
streets and down stairs can be difcult
for guests with limited mobility, as well
as for parents with strollers. Parking is
tight near the site as well.
That being said, for people making
a once-in-a-lifetime trip I understand
their desire to do it at the Kotel, said
Ms. Mark, and thats why we provide
this service to make it easier. However,
if a family goes to Israel often, then I do
recommend doing a bar mitzvah some-
where else. There are so many beautiful
options in the Old City or in other cities
of great meaning such as Hevron, Tzfat
[Safed] or Meron.
For bat mitzvahs and non-Ortho-
dox bar mitzvahs, the Jerusalem
Archeological Park-Davidson Center
just south of the Kotel (known as the
Southern Wall) is a good alternative,
though the accessibility and parking
issues remain. This area includes Rob-
insons Arch, where many religious ser-
vices are held for visitors. The genders
are not separated, its not as inundated
with tourists and competing ceremo-
nies, and its easier for photographers to
get shots of the whole group. Unlike the
Kotel, however, there is a fee for admis-
sion and there are no chairs.
Another popular location for a bar
or bat mitzvah is Masada, the Judean
mountaintop where a band of Jewish
zealots fended off Roman forces until
committing mass suicide in the first
century of the Common Era.
We offer an amazing package to
do something in Jerusalem, like an Old
City tour, then make your way down to
the desert and have a big musical feast
in a Bedouin encampment and then a
ceremony at Masada the next morning,
said Nikki Fenton of Simcha in Israel.
That way you cover both the historical
and religious angles.
OFF-THE-BEATEN-TRACK
ALTERNATIVES
Lesser-known Jerusalem venues for a
bar mitzvah ceremony include Merkaz
Shimshon, a picturesque synagogue in
the Yemin Moshe neighborhood over-
looking the Old City; and the circular
Hecht Synagogue at Hebrew Univer-
sitys Mount Scopus campus, which fea-
tures a solid glass wall with a view of the
Old City skyline.
Dganit Altman of Loya Events
enjoys nding unique ethnic venues. In
the capital city, she schedules services
at synagogues catering to the Syrian,
Iraqi, or Indian communities, for exam-
ple. I can bring paytanim [hymnists] to
sing at the ceremony, she said.
Make Your Party a Splash!
Spacious Gym Supervised Activities & Games
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Two beautifully appointed ballrooms with a capacity of 50 to 500 people,
serviced by your choice of a wide variety of the fnest kosher caterers.
For something different, theres also a gym and pool. All amenities you
would expect from a fne catering establishment, but in a synagogue.
Make summer all year long!
A Fun Filled Active Way to Celebrate a Birthday,
Special Occasion or Time with Friends
Non-Competitive Games
Refreshing Heated Pool
Experienced Lifeguards
Refreshment Designated
Party Room
Have your special event at the
Jewish Center of Teaneck where families
have celebrated for over 80 years.
Conveniently located just 3 miles west of the George Washington Bridge
Rabbi Lawrence S. Zierler Sandy Hausler, President Rose Sigler, Administrator
The Jewish Center of Teaneck
Teanecks frst and most comprehensive,
full service Synagogue Center
70 Sterling Place, Teaneck, NJ
(201) 833-0515 www.jcot.org email: info@jcot.org
Affordable Elegance
Israel bar mitzvah Web sites
http://www.bar-and-bat-mitzvah-in-israel.com/, sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism
www.israel-bar-mitzvah.com, an independent handbook
www.barmitzvahinisrael.com
www.loyevents.com
www.nikkifenton.com
http://atozeventsisrael.com
For families of blended Eastern and
Western heritage, Ms. Altman favors an
early synagogue in the northern city of
Rosh Pinah, the first shul ever where
Sephardim and Ashkenazim prayed
together, and even the design and
nusach [liturgy] are all mixed.
Most families think of upscale res-
taurants and hotels for the reception
which cost considerably less than
at comparable venues in the United
States. But there are almost limitless
alternatives.
Ms. Altman recommends hiring
a personal chef specializing in ethnic
cuisine. The meal can be in a rented
villa or out-of-the-way restaurant in
Jerusalem or Tzfat, or weather permit-
ting outdoors. She enjoys arranging
women-only events on the eve of a bat
mitzvah, such as a private show by an
Israeli singer such as Ahinoam Nini; or a
challah-baking workshop with a master
baker; or an art or music workshop.
ARRANGEMENTS
While it is possible to make arrange-
ments without a professional planner,
the time and language differences alone
make communication difcult.
On-the-ground planners can sug-
gest interesting venues they have actu-
ally visited, put together family tours
with licensed guides suitable to the
guests ages and interests, and book
hotels and ights. They can arrange for
photography, owers, and favors, baby-
sitting and medical escorts, as well as
a rabbi for the religious portion of the
event.
We refer our clients to a rabbi and
he takes over the details of the service
itself, said Yael Adar of barmitzvahinis-
rael.com. The rabbi gets in contact
with the family before they arrive and
usually meets with them at their hotel
the day before the service.
On top of that, planners here say
they ll a cultural gap between overseas
clients and Israeli vendors.
There are excellent service pro-
viders here, but sometimes theres an
attitude of hakol yehiye bseder [every-
thing will be ne], said Ms. Fenton, a
former Brit. This casual approach takes
many English-speakers by surprise.
In Israel, many bar/bat mitzvah
events can be put together in less than
two months. However, ve-star accom-
modations in popular cities such as
Jerusalem or Tel Aviv need to be booked
up to two years in advance, especially
for high season. I had a group of 15
coming in December, and they con-
tacted me in June, said Ms. Adar. All
the hotels they wanted were already
booked.
In general, said Ms. Fenton, You
wont spend as much as you would in
New York or in London.
Ms. Mark says you can expect to
spend no less than $20,000 for a day-
time bar/bat mitzvah in Israel excluding
travel and accommodation costs.
Hashamayim hagvul [the skys the
limit], said Ms. Altman. Call me and
tell me your budget and Ill make it for
you.
A bar mitzvah at the Western Wall. ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN
JUDY LASH BALINT
JERUSALEM Its 9:30 a.m. on a sunny Monday morning in the Jew-
ish Quarter of Jerusalems Old City. Two large groups of revelers almost
collide in the alley leading to the main square.
Both groups are accompanied by a clarinetist and a drummer
belting out traditional simcha tunes, and in the middle of both are
13-year old boys dancing with beaming grandmas and uncles under
a small chuppah as they make their way under the stone arches from
the Western Wall.
Its the Israeli version of the bar mitzvah extravaganza, and its
repeated every Monday and Thursday (days when the Torah is read)
throughout the year. Boys from all over the country are called up to the
Torah for the rst time at the Wall, and then get danced up the steps to
the Jewish Quarter and on to a lavish
breakfast spread at one of the many res-
taurants or halls dotting the area.
But not every bar or bat mitzvah
age teen in Israel is fortunate enough
to have that kind of experience. For the
tens of thousands of youths from dys-
functional families who are cared for in
residential facilities, its often diaspora
Jews who make the difference between
having no bar/bat mitzvah at all, or hav-
ing a meaningful transition into Jewish
responsibility.
Zemira Ozarowski, coordinator of
donor relations for AMIT, a network
of educational programs that serves
28,000 Israeli children, is responsible
for the twinning program that encour-
ages American bar and bat mitzvah kids
to share their celebration with needy
Israeli kids.
Some of the Americans come over
with their families to take part in the
simcha they have sponsored, Ozarowski
explains, while others conduct fund-
raising projects at home and send over
funds to help support AMITs efforts
to inject joy into the lives of Israeli kids
from difcult backgrounds. Part of the
donation is designated for the Israeli
twin to receive a traditional bnei mitz-
vah gift of a siddur or tellin.
Some lasting relationships have
been forged, Ozarowski notes, and the
program was recently expanded to
include twinning between Israeli pre-
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A father helps his hard-of-hearing son put on
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Putting the mitzvah in bar mitzvah
How your kids can help Israeli kids celebrate their simcha
teens from established Jerusalem neigh-
borhoods and kids in AMITs Beit Hay-
eled facility in Gilo.
In Netanya, the Beit Elazraki Chil-
drens Home run by Emunah, a promi-
nent religious Israeli womens move-
ment with worldwide supporters, hosts
many bar and bat mitzvah twinning
events. American bnei mitzvah and
their families have sponsored sever-
al major projects at the home, which
houses almost 300 children whose fami-
lies cannot care for them.
Back in 2011, a group of budding
musicians from Teaneck raised more
than $20,000 as their bar mitzvah proj-
ect, which funded new equipment for
the music therapy program at Beit Elaz-
raki. Several times a year, American and
British bnei mitzvah join their peers
at Beit Elazraki for a lively party that
always features loud music and a festive
meal.
A popular bnei mitzvah activity for
institutional groups as well as individual
families is a visit to the Yad Lashiryon
Latrun Tank Museum a few miles west
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of Jerusalem. Elisha Kramer, a U.S.-born graduate
student, spent part of his army service as a tour guide
at the museum. Some weeks there would be two or
three bar mitzvah groups every day, Kramer recalls.
Its a great place for kids to learn about the need
for a strong Israel and the legitimacy of fighting for
Israel, Kramer adds regarding the outdoor museum
where more than 150 armored vehicles are on display
along with a moving memorial complex dedicated to
fallen Israeli soldiers.
Many bnei mitzvah want to take an active role in
their celebration, and Jerusalem Scavenger Hunts pro-
vides creative opportunities for learning and fun in and
around Jerusalem. Founder and director Tali Tarlow
explains that Israeli kids can train to guide their friends
and family on a fun-lled, educational, thematic navi-
gation through the city as they engage with its history
and gure out their place in its future. The program is
tailored to the interests of each child, who works with
one of the Scavenger Hunt professional guides and
educators to develop a presentation at one of the sta-
tions used in the Hunt. We believe a bar or bat mitz-
vah should be a special occasion and an opportunity
for a meaningful experience, says Tarlow, a long-time
informal educator who made aliyah from South Africa.
Any family thats been part of the Package from
Home Bar and Bat Mitzvah Project would agree with
that sentiment. Started by American immigrant Bar-
bara Silverman at the beginning of the Second Inti-
fada in 2000, the volunteer-run program prepares and
sends tens of thousands of care packages to Israeli
soldiers, focusing particularly on Lone Soldiers (sol-
diers without family in Israel) and wounded soldiers.
Bnei mitzvah in the U.S. can raise money for the proj-
ect, and those visiting can take part in the packaging
and distribution of everything from warm clothing to
toiletries to snacks. Each package includes letters of
appreciation for the soldiers, which kids are encour-
aged to write.
For children with physical as well as emotional
challenges, it takes a special effort to create a bar or bat
mitzvah program they can relate to.
At a recent ceremony in a Jerusalem synagogue,
63 deaf and hard-of-hearing children were called to
the Torah in front of parents who were visibly moved
by the moment, which was sponsored by the Interna-
tional Young Israel Movement and its Deaf Program-
ming Division in cooperation with the Jewish Agency.
Boys with cochlear implants opened up the brand new
prayer shawls provided by Young Israel with a our-
ish, while groups of girls chattered in sign language
and waited for their turn to recite a special blessing
for becoming a bat mitzvah. Ben Zion Chen, the head
of the Association for the Deaf in Israel, told the kids,
I grew up with hearing parents and didnt know what
Torah was. You are all very fortunate.
Rabbi Chanoch Yeres, director of the Deaf Programming Division of
International Young Israel Movement (IYIM), leads a 2013 bar mitz-
vah for 63 deaf and hard-of-hearing children. JUDY LASH BALINT
Its important that you know your rights and how
to deal with your deafness as you grow up, Mr. Chen
added, while a sign language interpreter translated his
words to the attentive students.
He didnt sleep all last night, said one parent
regarding her son, a profoundly deaf 13-year-old from
Ramle. Hes gone through so many operations, and
had so many difficulties in his short lifeits a joy
to be here with him and see how happy he is, she
exclaimed as her son took his place under the prayer
shawl spread over his group, while Rabbi Chanoch
Yeres, director of Young Israels Deaf Programming
Division, read the Torah portion. In true Israeli bnei
mitzvah style, the kids and their families, who had
come from all over Israel, were treated to a celebratory
lunch and a tour of the Old City to mark the day.
JNS.org
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A capella, when the voice is the instrument
HEIDI MAE BRATT
W
hen she was making her
daughter Hannahs bat mitz-
vah, Eleanor Hait was assidu-
ous in the planning of the
simcha. From the elegantly designed
invitations to the sumptuous buffet
lunch, attention to detail was appar-
ent in every aspect of the event, includ-
ing bringing beautiful music into the
Shabbat afternoon affair: A group of
young men serenaded guests from the
moment they entered the room, at their
tableside, and until they left, sated with
food and feelings of joy that come from
celebrating a young womans entre into
Jewish adult responsibility.
No band. No sound system.
No microphones. Just the voices of a
capella singers, who regaled family and
friends with songs in Hebrew, English,
and Yiddish.
A quiet luncheon is lovely, too,
said Ms. Hait. But it was nice to be able
to add music, and have the freilichkeit
(joyfulness), the ruach (spirit) of the
simcha enhanced in a Shabbat-obser-
vant way.
For the Sabbath-observant family
making a bar or bat mitzvah, a capella
groups are a perfect way to have music
at the event. From anecdotal evidence,
their popularity as Shabbat-friendly
entertainment for bar/bat mitzvahs
appears to be on the rise.
A capella inherently is a very spiri-
tual form of musical communication,
said Peggy Abraham, a singer. Its using
the human instrument, just the voice,
and communicating more directly with
your audience in a way that is experi-
enced more deeply. A capella music is
pure and can be transcendent.
An extension of the Shabbat zmirot
songs around the table, a capella at a
bar mitzvah takes the melodic tradition
and amplies it.
Theres something very spiritual,
organic and internal with a capella,
said Sam Bodi Bodenheimer, leader
of Spicerack Music and its Jewish arm,
Bsamim, which has played at many bar
and bat mitzvahs all over the country
and world, and other events, including
former New York City Mayor Bloom-
bergs Chanukah party.
Theres a sharing of a musical
connection with those in the audience.
There is no barrier. No one is on stage.
This right away can bring everyone
together, said Mr. Bodenheimer, who
grew up in Teaneck.
In fact, it is often part of the rou-
tine of a capella singers to go table to
table and sing to the guests, often taking
requests ranging from modern tunes to
Yiddish songs to Hebrew anthems.
Typically, the a capella groups range
from four to 10 singers with a variance
of vocal range. But Mr. Bodenheimer
said that when he assembles a group, he
looks for the most talented singers who
also are professional, can work collabor-
atively, have a good degree of expertise,
and whose voices will meld together in
perfect harmony.
Because there is no overhead for
a sound system, a capella is usually a
less expensive option than a traditional
band with prices ranging in the $500 per
singer range, he said.
For David Ross, founder and
musical director of Shir Soul Sim-
cha Band, his evolution into Jewish
music dovetailed with his evolution
into Jewish observance. Born and
bred in the mile-square Westchester
community of Ardsley, N.Y., Mr. Ross
said he brings his prior musical world
of Motown, pop rock, and blues and
fuses it with traditional Jewish tunes.
The result is a young, fresh, hip way of
expression that informs his band and
a capella music.
While Mr. Rosss is an all-male
Orthodox group, and he has worked
many Sabbaths with a capella, he has
also brought the group to Reform and
Conservative bar mitzvahs as well.
Mr. Ross, who lives with his family
in Teaneck, said his a capella group dis-
tinguishes itself in other ways, too.
Some of the groups are trying to
sound like bands. We dont try to imitate
a band. For me, its all about the voices
and singing. There is only one instru-
ment, and that is the voice.
Sam
Bodenheimers
Bsamin a
capella group
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In Italy, where Jews were silent
for half a millennium,
they now ock to celebrate
BARBARA AIELLO
I
remember it well. I was
a young girl, about 11 or
12 years old. It was a tran-
sitional time that some
now call the tweens, when
kids like me were starting to
explore larger society. As new
faces crossed my path and as
I made new friends, people
would do the usual thing and
ask me my name. Barbara
Aiello, Id say, and give them
a short lesson in pronouncing my last
nameId point to my eye and say, like
eye and the color yellow.
So far, so good. Then, if religion
came up, I had the chance to tell about
my Jewish background: the little Sep-
hardic synagogue my father sometimes
took me to and the holidays
and festivals we celebrated
at home. Some people would
look at me in disbelief and
say something that Ive
heard all my life. But youre
Italian. You cant be Jewish!
Looking back, it was this
experience and many others
like it that led me back home
to Italy to connect with my
Italian Jewish roots, and, as
a rabbi, to establish a synagogue in my
ancestral village of Serrastretta, in the
mountains of Calabria, near the toe of
Italys boot. Eight years ago, Sinagoga
Ner Tamid del SudThe Eternal Light
of the South Synagoguewas born.
Half a millennium ago, forced con-
versions caused Jewish belief and prac-
tice to go into hiding. Ner Tamid del Sud
is the rst active synagogue in Calabria
in 500 years. In the intervening cen-
turies, secret Jews of Southern Italy
crypto-Jews, or bnei anousimtook
their traditions into their homes and
into their hearts, waiting for the oppor-
tunity to be Jewish once again. That
opportunity became a reality in 2007,
when regular synagogue services began.
This development wasnt only
relevant to locals. Quickly, Jews from
abroad started requesting bar and bat
mitzvahs in our congregation, and
shortly after our establishment we had
our first instance of a family traveling
here from the United States to celebrate
the bar mitzvah of their son, Tyler. It
The Calabrian mountains of Italy. POTITO M. PETRONE
Rabbi Barbara Aiello
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became clear that the synagogue would both extend
a Jewish welcome to southern Italians eager to make
their own Jewish discoveries and open the door to this
remarkable piece of history to Jewish families around
the world.
I recall meeting face to face with Tyler, his par-
ents, and his younger brother. We had already studied
together via Skype on a weekly basis for about three
months, and we finally gathered in a small family-
operated hotel in Lamezia Terme, the town closest to
our village. I had driven down the mountain (the syna-
gogue is 3,000 feet above sea level) with our antique
Torah wrapped securely beside me, I was prepared to
share our scroll with Tyler and offer him an opportu-
nity to practice his verses before the big day.
After our study time, Tyler and I, along with the
entire family grandparents, aunts and uncles, and
cousins toured Timpone, the old Jewish Quarter
where a thriving Jewish community once lived and
worked nearly 500 years ago.
As we climbed the hill toward the center of the
quarter, I was able to point out the local Catholic
church, complete with a camouaged Star of David
indicating that the church had once been a synagogue.
As our walking tour continued and as we met some of
the residents of Timpone, all of whom have ancestral
Jewish heritage, our American families were astound-
ed to learn that despite concerted efforts to eradicate
established Judaism, an entire neighborhood held fast
to their Jewish traditions for centuries.
Over the years the bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah
experience in Calabria has been a lesson in Jewish
tenacity for the modern teens whose families opt out
of the big party to give their sons and daughters a
chance to see that in some parts of the world its not
easy to be Jewish.
In fact, on the day of the ceremony, our bar and
bat mitzvah students some of whom had traveled
from Chicago, New York, Canada, and Australia not
only assisted me with the service, but also met and
greeted Italian congregants who had journeyed great
distances just to participate in the ceremony. One fam-
ily came six hours by train so that their two daughters
could see a young girl read directly from the Torah
scroll. Their dedication amazed Charis, who had come
from Rhode Island to become Calabrias rst-ever bat
mitzvah. I carried the scroll to each of them, and I
could see in their eyes how happy they were, Charis
said.
Thanks in part to the international interest in our
bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah program, I was able to
renovate the synagogue space and enlarge it to accom-
modate our destination families, along with our grow-
ing bnei anousim congregation. In its new space, the
synagogue is congured in the Sephardic style, with
the ark on the Jerusalem wall and the reading table
opposite. Visitors often remark that the sanctuary is
reminiscent of the ancient Sephardic synagogues in
Spain, to which most Calabrian Jews trace their Jewish
roots.
When Im asked about our Jewish affiliation, I
explain that we are pluralistic, in that the service is
fully egalitarian with equal participation for men and
women as well as non-Jewish family members. And as
one of just two non-Orthodox synagogues in Italy, our
focus is on prayer and song in Hebrew, English, and
Italian so that everyone feels comfortable and under-
stands.
Here in the south of Italy, Jewish families date
back thousands of years to the time of the Maccabees,
when Jews left Judea and voluntarily came to Italy.
Centuries later at the time of the expulsion of the Jews
from Spain, a new group of Jews made their way from
Spain and Portugal to the islands of Sicily and Sardinia,
and eventually to lo stivalethe boot, as we call
the Italian mainland. The rich Jewish history of our
area, combined with my own family background that
includes a glimpse into secret and hidden Jewish tradi-
tion, is truly a rabbis dream. I am so grateful for the
opportunity to immerse our bar mitzvah and bat mitz-
vah students into the unique Italian Jewish experience.
JNS.org
Barbara Aiello is Italys first female rabbi and also its first non-
Orthodox rabbi. She can be reached at rabbi@rabbibarbara.
com. This story was a first published by www.Jewish.Travel, an
online Jewish travel magazine.
Italy
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modate our destination families, along with our grow-
ing bnei anousim congregation. In its new space, the
synagogue is congured in the Sephardic style, with
the ark on the Jerusalem wall and the reading table
opposite. Visitors often remark that the sanctuary is
reminiscent of the ancient Sephardic synagogues in
Spain, to which most Calabrian Jews trace their Jewish
roots.
When Im asked about our Jewish affiliation, I
explain that we are pluralistic, in that the service is
fully egalitarian with equal participation for men and
women as well as non-Jewish family members. And as
one of just two non-Orthodox synagogues in Italy, our
focus is on prayer and song in Hebrew, English, and
Italian so that everyone feels comfortable and under-
stands.
Here in the south of Italy, Jewish families date
back thousands of years to the time of the Maccabees,
when Jews left Judea and voluntarily came to Italy.
Centuries later at the time of the expulsion of the Jews
from Spain, a new group of Jews made their way from
Spain and Portugal to the islands of Sicily and Sardinia,
and eventually to lo stivalethe boot, as we call
the Italian mainland. The rich Jewish history of our
area, combined with my own family background that
includes a glimpse into secret and hidden Jewish tradi-
tion, is truly a rabbis dream. I am so grateful for the
opportunity to immerse our bar mitzvah and bat mitz-
vah students into the unique Italian Jewish experience.
JNS.org
Barbara Aiello is Italys first female rabbi and also its first non-
Orthodox rabbi. She can be reached at rabbi@rabbibarbara.
com. This story was a first published by www.Jewish.Travel, an
online Jewish travel magazine.
Standing up
for girls
One researcher explains how to really protect
our daughters during Bat Mitzvah
DR. BETH COOPER BENJAMIN, ED.D.
T
oday, outside of Orthodoxy, girls and boys par-
ticipate in identical bnai mitzvah rituals cel-
ebrated with equal enthusiasm by families and
communities. Given that ritual bar mitzvah has
existed since the Middle Ages while bat mitzvah was
inaugurated less than 100 years ago, we have certainly
come a long way. Where I work, though, were learning
that things might still be different for young men and
women during bnai mitzvah.
Recently, I spoke with my 12-year-old cousin,
whose social calendar is in full-tilt bnai mitzvah mode.
His reality is very different than that of his female
classmates; when I asked what he wears I was told he
has two shirts. I dont know if he nds the prospect
of wearing the same thing every weekend a snoozefest
or a relief. What I do know is that this relaxed noncha-
lance is not what I encountered when I was studying
girls experiences of contemporary bat mitzvah.
I work as the research director at Mayan, where
I co-lead a feminist leadership training program for
Jewish teen girls. Together with a co-facilitator and
nine Jewish girls in New York City-area high schools,
we conducted an online survey of pre- and post-bat
mitzvah girls in the tri-state area. In the survey, we
presented a series of story stems (written scenari-
os designed to elicit themes related to bat mitzvah)
and asked participants to complete the stories they
had been given and explain what the characters were
thinking and feeling. Story stems, like other projective
measures, allow respondents to articulate their experi-
ences and associations indirectly, without having to
claim them as their own.
In our research, we found that the meaning of bat
mitzvah is bound up with the ways girls are negotiat-
ing femininity in the crucible of puberty and at the
edge of adolescence. We learned that this milestone
raises challenging issues for girls, and we have some
suggestions for adults. In the complete report, I dis-
cuss various aspects of the bat mitzvah experience for
girls, but here I look specically at pressures girls face
around attire, femininity, and sexuality.
Girls narratives often took the shape of a mythic
quest for the perfect dress, suggesting that the ques-
tion of what to wear is one of great consequence for
bat mitzvah girls. This quest for perfection also reects
a mass culture that relentlessly targets girls with digi-
tally enhanced images that create impossible beauty
standards. What we noticed in these narratives is that
One of the best
things adults can
do is to create safe
spaces where
girls can talk.
SEE GIRLS PAGE 18
Events & Celebrations
February 28th
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respondents had internalized the belief that they will
be judged based on how they present themselves.
The extreme version of the anxiety is a belief that their
value as people is tied up with their clothing choice.
Respondents also wrote rich descriptions of bat
mitzvah dresses. Dresses were frequently described
as either babyish or matronly, and sometimes both
at once: It looked like a Barbie fairy princess turned
Grandma. Whats missing from these developmental
mash-ups of girlhood and old age is the state that girls
bodies are often beginning to resemble at around Bat
Mitzvah-age: sexually mature adulthood. Arguments
around hemlines and tzniut (modesty) are sometimes
proxies for a more difcult conversation about girls
maturing bodies, sexualization and objectification,
and their desire to assert and explore their sexuality.
Lots of adults are concerned about their daugh-
ters dignity or the solemnity of religious ritual. And
many girls want to express their identities, relate to
their friends, and not be coerced into looking like a
nun. So whats a parent or other caring adult to do?
Our research clearly shows that the bat mitzvah
unfolds in conversation with all the other inuences
and experiences in girls lives. One of the best things
adults can do is to create safe spaces where girls can
talk about their pressures and concerns as well as
excitement and anticipation. Strive for open-ended
dialogue rather than seeking out specic information
or correcting misperceptions. Cultivating a curious
(but not interrogative) attitude conveys respect to
young people, who may view adults as using conversa-
tions to assess or inform or x them.
Another important thing adults (both parents and
Jewish communal professionals) can do is to resist
the temptation to police girls bodies even under the
guise of protecting them. Its normal to feel protective
of young people and/or community norms. But girls
bodies and sexuality are often highly provocative for
adults, and its crucial for us to ask ourselves: Whats
coming up for me as I negotiate this issue? What do
I feel when a woman wears a short skirt or a low-cut
dress? What concerns me about my daughters cloth-
ing preferences? It can also be helpful to talk explicitly
with teens about the cultural pressures and marketing
messages that constrain girls choices and create nar-
row and impossible beauty standards.
Whether theyre on the bimah, in school, or hang-
ing out in their pajamas, tween and teen girls often
feel scrutinized and denigrated based on their appear-
ance and their actions. Its so common that we might
not even notice it, but criticizing a girl or woman for
violating or appearing to violate cultural norms of
sexual behavior and appearance (sometimes called
slut-shaming) demeans all girls and robs more dig-
nity and meaning from a spiritual milestone than any
hemline or high heel possibly could. And it clearly
discriminates. Look at the reaction to the MTV Awards
performance by Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke: both
performances were overtly sexualized, but Miley got
criticized while Thicke (whose song Blurred Lines
suggests that women dont mean it when they tell a
man no) was barely mentioned. Calling out this kind
of commentary is an act of courage and a powerful
action for adults to model. You can start by naming
it in the world around you (you will find plenty of
examples in the media, but you can also nd amaz-
ing examples of girls activism and resistance) and
reminding young people that a persons value has
nothing to do with what he or she wears.
Coming of age can be difficult for girls, as they
navigate a more complex social world and become
more conscious of external pressures and expecta-
tions from parents, peers, community, and society. But
we know it can also be a challenging time for adults,
who have to temper their support with restraint that
encourages girls to explore their identities and solve
their own problems.
This piece contains just some of the many nd-
ings from a longer report about our research on bat
mitzvah. The full report, Its Actually A Pretty Big Deal:
Girls narratives of contemporary Bat Mitzvah, is avail-
able at bit.ly/Lq9W33 ; to learn more about Mayans
resources for parents and educators, visit our website
at mayan.org
Dr. Beth Cooper Benjamin, Ed.D., is the director of research at
Mayan, where she serves as a vocal advocate for girls in the
Jewish communal world. She received her doctorate in Human
Development and Psychology from the Harvard University
Graduate School of Education and can be reached at beth@
mayan.org
This article was originally published by eJewish Philanthropy.
Reprinted by permission.
GIRLS
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many girls want to express their identities, relate to
their friends, and not be coerced into looking like a
nun. So whats a parent or other caring adult to do?
Our research clearly shows that the bat mitzvah
unfolds in conversation with all the other inuences
and experiences in girls lives. One of the best things
adults can do is to create safe spaces where girls can
talk about their pressures and concerns as well as
excitement and anticipation. Strive for open-ended
dialogue rather than seeking out specic information
or correcting misperceptions. Cultivating a curious
(but not interrogative) attitude conveys respect to
young people, who may view adults as using conversa-
tions to assess or inform or x them.
Another important thing adults (both parents and
Jewish communal professionals) can do is to resist
the temptation to police girls bodies even under the
guise of protecting them. Its normal to feel protective
of young people and/or community norms. But girls
bodies and sexuality are often highly provocative for
adults, and its crucial for us to ask ourselves: Whats
coming up for me as I negotiate this issue? What do
I feel when a woman wears a short skirt or a low-cut
dress? What concerns me about my daughters cloth-
ing preferences? It can also be helpful to talk explicitly
with teens about the cultural pressures and marketing
messages that constrain girls choices and create nar-
row and impossible beauty standards.
Whether theyre on the bimah, in school, or hang-
ing out in their pajamas, tween and teen girls often
feel scrutinized and denigrated based on their appear-
ance and their actions. Its so common that we might
not even notice it, but criticizing a girl or woman for
violating or appearing to violate cultural norms of
sexual behavior and appearance (sometimes called
slut-shaming) demeans all girls and robs more dig-
nity and meaning from a spiritual milestone than any
hemline or high heel possibly could. And it clearly
discriminates. Look at the reaction to the MTV Awards
performance by Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke: both
performances were overtly sexualized, but Miley got
criticized while Thicke (whose song Blurred Lines
suggests that women dont mean it when they tell a
man no) was barely mentioned. Calling out this kind
of commentary is an act of courage and a powerful
action for adults to model. You can start by naming
it in the world around you (you will find plenty of
examples in the media, but you can also nd amaz-
ing examples of girls activism and resistance) and
reminding young people that a persons value has
nothing to do with what he or she wears.
Coming of age can be difficult for girls, as they
navigate a more complex social world and become
more conscious of external pressures and expecta-
tions from parents, peers, community, and society. But
we know it can also be a challenging time for adults,
who have to temper their support with restraint that
encourages girls to explore their identities and solve
their own problems.
This piece contains just some of the many nd-
ings from a longer report about our research on bat
mitzvah. The full report, Its Actually A Pretty Big Deal:
Girls narratives of contemporary Bat Mitzvah, is avail-
able at bit.ly/Lq9W33 ; to learn more about Mayans
resources for parents and educators, visit our website
at mayan.org
Dr. Beth Cooper Benjamin, Ed.D., is the director of research at
Mayan, where she serves as a vocal advocate for girls in the
Jewish communal world. She received her doctorate in Human
Development and Psychology from the Harvard University
Graduate School of Education and can be reached at beth@
mayan.org
This article was originally published by eJewish Philanthropy.
Reprinted by permission.
Sprucing up the modern simcha
Personal attention can make all the difference
DIANA BURMISTROVICH
I
f the words kosher catering conjure
up visions of bland and unhealthy
food, and memories of bar and
bat mitzvahs past still haunt you,
remember that planning your upcom-
ing simcha doesnt have to be a monot-
onous process full of seen-it-befores or
tried-that-onces. With the help of cre-
ative kosher catering professionals or
by simply looking within yourself
your special day can be one of a kind.
By including yourself in the process
of creating (not just planning) your sim-
cha, the event itself automatically cre-
ates a more personal feeling. One way
to do this is by making invitations by
hand, which allows control over color
scheme, font, and design; you can make
the invitation an extension of your cel-
ebrations theme or personal interests.
Imbuing the invitation with your per-
sonal style makes the atmosphere both
more memorable and more meaningful.
Rebecca Friedman of Farmers
Daughter Catering in Asheville, N.C.,
suggests crafting your own table cen-
terpieces as a way to infuse
personality into the events
ambiance. She also men-
tions that many clients
want to work with the party
planner, rather than allow-
ing the planner to have
total control.
Others may break from
the traditional style of rst
having a cocktail hour
and then a formal dinner
for weddings, or from having separate
meals for adults and kids.
When working with a client, I
always ask them what theyre envision-
ing with regards to the ow of the cel-
ebration, Ellen Vaknine, vice president
of sales and marketing for New York
Citys Espirit Events kosher caterer, says.
Ms. Vaknine notes that for simchas
being planned for 2014, she is seeing
more people opt for the extended cock-
tail [hour] with passed hors doeuvres
and stations, without having a formal
sit-down dinner. That way, children,
young adults, and adults
have the option of spend-
ing more time together, and
kids dont have to face the ubiquitous
schnitzel and pigs-in-a-blanket offered
at so many simchas.
Even for the parents who do choose
to have kid food, Ms. Vaknine suggests
updating the presentation with funky
touches. Soup can be served in eggshell
bowls, and kebob skewers can be made
from bamboo.
Customizing menus to include
todays culinary trends is another way
to modernize an event. Ms. Friedman
who specializes in catering using
only organic and local ingredients, and
Tiny ice cream sundaes make for passable treats
to save sit-down time at your simcha FARMERS
DAUGHTER CATERING. Soup shooters in egg shell bowls
from New York City kosher caterer Espirit Events.
ELLEN VAKNINE
typically provides farm-to-table food
options notes the growing trend in
using vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, and
dairy-free foods as part of the simcha
menu.
Although kosher food is some-
times unhealthy, it is slowly getting on
board with foods that are more environ-
mentally friendly and healthier, says
Ms. Friedman. Ive had a bride who
grew her own herbs and greens to incor-
porate into my catering menu. It took a
year in advance [to plan], but everyone
remembered that part.
Ms. Friedman suggests looking into
old family recipes that can be used as
part of the catering menu. That will cre-
ate a catering menu that many guests
havent seen before, and relatives will
enjoy the sentiment.
Whether it is through personaliz-
ing decorations or bypassing traditional
kosher fare, party planning doesnt have
to be dreaded and stressful. With just a
little bit of creativity, and by recognizing
exactly what you want for your special
day, you can make your dream simcha
a reality.
JNS.org
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Jewish World
JS-27*
Humanity
defying rules
In Sundance premiere,
a look at Shin Bets methods
MATTHEW WEINSTEIN
PARK CITY, UTAH Perhaps the most difficult thing
about watching the new documentary The Green
Prince is feeling that you should not be there, that
everyone in the theater should be asked to leave before
any more Israeli intelligence secrets are divulged.
In 2010, when the Israeli newspaper Haaretz first
broke the story of how the son of Hamas leader Has-
san Yousef spent a decade as Israels top informer
in the west bank, it warned that Israeli intelligence
officials would not be happy to see so many of their
secrets revealed: how they recruit and handle Pales-
tinian agents, how they managed to break the sec-
ond intifada, and how they identified terrorist lead-
ers so they could be arrested or assassinated.
The film version, which had its world premiere
here this week at the Sundance Film Festival, is nar-
rated by two voices: the Green Prince himself, Mosab
Hassan Yousef, and his Shin Bet handler, Gonen Ben
Itzhak. Based on Yousef s autobiography, Son of
Hamas, the film tells the story of his odyssey from
young militant to spy for Israels security service to
Southern California asylum seeker fighting to avoid
deportation back to the Middle East.
Mr. Yousef s code name within the Shin Bet
was derived from the green of the Hamas flag and
his near royal pedigree among Palestinians. Told
through a combination of interviews, re-enactments,
and archival footage, his story takes the viewer
inside two worlds.
For Mr. Yousef, Hamas was our family business.
His father spent more than a decade and a half in
Israeli prisons for his leadership role in Hamas. Most
recently, he was arrested in 2011 and released on Jan-
uary 19, two days after the film premiered.
The younger Yousef was arrested when he was 17,
and not for the first time, for buying guns. It was
during the months-long confinement that followed
in Israels Megiddo prison that he came to under-
stand Hamas brutality. Mr. Yousef decided he had
been living a lie, and he agreed to become a spy for
his sworn enemy.
For Mr. Yousef s handler, turning the son of a
Hamas founder was a career-making achievement.
Mr. Ben Itzhak, the son of an Israeli army general,
was inspired to join the Shin Bet after the assassina-
tion of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
But all was not to end well for the agent.
Mr. Ben Itzhak grew close to his source, and from
the Shin Bets perspective he betrayed the agency,
trusting Mr. Yousef over his senior officers and
breaking with procedure by meeting with him alone
in the field and allowing him vacation time in Israel,
including a rental car and a hotel.
From Mr. Ben Itzhaks perspective, it was all nec-
essary to maintain the relationship and save Israeli
lives. Haaretz reported that the pair had prevented
dozens of planned attacks, including a plot to assas-
sinate President Shimon Peres and former Chief
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
Mosab Hassan Yousef, right, is the
subject of The Green Prince by
filmmaker Nadav Schirman, left.
The film is a documentary about Mr.
Yosefs work spying for Israel and
his friendship with his Israeli handler,
Gonen ben Itzhak, center.
LARRY BUSACCA/GETTY IMAGES
SEE HUMANITY PAGE 28
Jewish World
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So many people owe him their life and dont even
know it, Mr. Ben Itzhak told Haaretz.
Eventually Mr. Ben Itzhak was fired from the Shin
Bet, but the bond between him and Mr. Yousef grew
stronger. Mr. Yousef declined to work with other han-
dlers. He had reached his breaking point, after 10
years of living underground. He was allowed to relo-
cate temporarily to San Diego under the guise of need-
ing dental surgery.
The Israelis thought the break was temporary, but
Mr. Yousef had other ideas. Once in the United States,
he began a new life, joining a Christian church, writ-
ing a book, and applying for political asylum. But his
application was denied, and U.S. authorities began
proceedings to deport him as a terrorist.
In the end, only Mr. Ben Itzhak was willing to attest
to the veracity of Mr. Yousefs claims, flying from Israel
to San Diego for a decisive hearing in 2010. The gambit
worked, thanks in part to a campaign that included
letters from members of the Israeli Knesset and the
U.S. House of Representatives. Mr. Yousef remains in
Southern California to this day, disowned by his family
but embraced by many new friends and supporters.
At a Q&A following one of the screenings, Mr.
Yousef, Mr. Ben Itzhak, and the films director, Nadav
Schirman, spoke of their partnership in making the
film, referring to each other as close friends and broth-
ers. For Mr. Schirman, aside from the cloak-and-dag-
ger quality of the story and the revelations about both
Hamas and Shin Bet, the heart of the film is the rela-
tionship that evolved between his two subjects.
I found their connection so full of hope in the
sense of see what happens when people dare trust
one another and go against preconceived notions?
Mr. Schirman said. The best of enemies become the
best of friends.
Their humanity defies all the rules and breaks all
the boundaries. JTA WIRE SERVICE
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Humanity
FROM PAGE 27
BRIEF
Israel on Campus Coalition
hires new assistant director
The Israel on Campus Coalition on Monday announced
the hiring of Adam Maslia, previously a director of Jew-
ish and philanthropy programming at the Alpha Epsi-
lon Pi fraternity, as its assistant director.
The ICC, founded in 2002 as a partnership between
Hillel International and the Charles and Lynn Schus-
terman Family Foundation, is now an independent
organization that works closely with Hillel as well as
the national spectrum of pro-Israel campus groups.
The group hired a new executive director, Jacob
Baime, last fall.
Maslia will serve as an expert resource on pro-
Israel campus stratey, build and maintain relation-
ships with key officials at partner organizations, and
represent ICC at meetings, conference calls, and other
venues, according to an ICC press release.
Pro-Israel students need to be empowered, in any
number of ways, Baime said last October.
Weve got to deny Israels detractors the opportu-
nity to set the parameters of the campus conversation
about Israel, and at the same time, weve got to fortify
the confidence of the pro-Israel members of the cam-
pus community, he said. JNS.ORG
Jewish World
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Holocaust Remembrance Day
commemorated at Auschwitz
Nearly half the Israeli parliament marks event in Poland
CNAAN LIPHSHIZ
OSWIECIM, POLAND Watching thou-
sands of Poles dance to klezmer music
just 50 miles from the Auschwitz death
camp, Johnny Daniels could feel an
ambitious plan taking shape.
The experience last year at Krakows
annual Jewish Culture Festival prompted
Daniels, a 28-year-old Israeli and Holo-
caust educator, to organize the largest-
ever Knesset delegation to Auschwitz.
Nearly half the Israeli parliament was
in Poland Monday to mark International
Holocaust Remembrance Day and the
69th anniversary of the camps libera-
tion. They also conducted a joint ses-
sion with counterparts from the Polish
parliament.
At the festival, I realized the Holocaust had a huge
impact also on Polish society, and I decided to do some-
thing connected to how we relate to each other, said
Mr. Daniels, the director of From the Depths, a nongov-
ernmental education organization.
At the camp, the Israeli delegation made up of
58 Israeli lawmakers, including several ministers
marched to the Birkenau death complex in formation,
flanked by the Knesset guard and flying Israeli flags. All
of the major factions of the Knesset were represented
in the delegation, excluding Kadima, Hadash, and the
Arab parties, according to Israel Hayom. Participants
included MK Issawi Frej of Meretz, who is Muslim, and
MK Hamad Amar of Yisrael Beiteinu, who is Druze. The
Israeli delegation also included 24 Holocaust survivors.
Amid the snow-filled crematoria, they stopped to sing
the Israeli national anthem in the freezing wind before
breaking into smaller groups, many of them praying
and remembering murdered relatives.
Unlike previous Israeli commemorations in Aus-
chwitz including the 2003 flyover by Israel Air Force
fighter jets the visitors heard family stories from Poles
like Piotr van der Coghen, whose father, a resistance
fighter and medic, treated his Jewish fellow prisoners
as an inmate at the Plaszow camp.
Another Polish lawmaker, Ewa Wolak, spoke at the
joint interparliamentary session in Krakow about a
growing awareness among Polish priests and farmers of
the need to demarcate the countless mass graves of Jew-
ish Holocaust victims that dot the Polish countryside.
For Poles, the Knesset delegation arrived as Polish
interest in the Holocaust and Jewish culture continues
to grow, yielding a slew of recent books and movies
and the opening of several Jewish museums and cul-
ture festivals. Foremost among the new museums is
the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, whose core
exhibition is due to open later this year in Warsaw. The
number of annual visitors to the Auschwitz museum
has more than doubled since 1988, from 600,000 to
1.4 million.
There is a growing recognition of how the Holocaust
was an enormous loss also for Polish society, said She-
vah Weiss, a Polish-born Holocaust survivor and former
Israeli ambassador to Warsaw. Gradually, more and
more Poles are discovering the enormity of that loss
and are moved to attempt to recover some of it.
Holocaust studies and interest in Polish Jewrys heri-
tage is growing in Israel, too. Israels education ministry
last year announced a new program for teaching first
graders about the Holocaust; now, it is not taught until
junior high. Some 25,000 Israeli teenagers are sent to
Poland each year, at a cost of $30 million annually.
Joining the Israeli lawmakers was a delegation of
24 Holocaust survivors, including Noah Kliger, who
recalled reciting Kaddish with other Jews while sitting
on a heap of corpses in a Nazi railway car. They agreed
to pray only after the son of one of the dead agreed to
share his bread with them.
Eating the bread, I asked where his father was, Mr.
Kilger said in his speech. He said, Somewhere under
all these corpses.
Several U.S. politicians joined the ceremony as well,
including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who
spoke of a profound emotional experience, and Mike
Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas and Republi-
can presidential candidate.
As were standing here in our warm coats and still
cold, I cant imagine the suffering of those who were
forced to work here in pajamas, he said. The Knesset
stands here as testament that the will of good is better
than the will of evil. Their flag signifies how, had there
been a Jewish state, there wouldve never been a Holo-
caust. Thats why there must always be a secure Jewish
state.
Sending the Knesset members cost Israeli taxpayers
$130,000, according to an Israeli website called the
Marker Daily. Another $400,000 was raised by From
the Depths, Johnny Daniels organization, to cover
events surrounding the interparliamentary session in
Krakow.
A large chunk of the organizations budget for pro-
ducing the event came from Stewart Rahr, an American
philanthropist who grabbed some tabloid headlines last
year after he reportedly sent a video to friends show-
ing him having sex with three women in a limousine.
Knesset spokesperson Yotam Yakir and Mr. Daniels
both denied a New York Post report earlier this week
that Mr. Rahr had covered the Knesset members travel
costs as well.
Hes a good man and a major donor to Jewish causes
and also to this organization, Daniels said.
JTA WIRE SERVICE
Fifty-eight Israeli lawmakers marked International Holocaust
Remembrance Day at Auschwitz on January 27. CNAAN LIPHSHIZ
www.jstandard.com
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After lull, intermarriage
debate reignites
JULIE WIENER
I
ts back.
In the months since the Pew Research Centers
survey of American Jews renewed communal con-
cern about assimilation, the intermarriage debate
is flaring up again.
Jewish religious and communal institutions had been
shifting away from seeing intermarriage as a problem
to be combated and toward focusing on engaging the
intermarried. But in recent weeks, there have been sev-
eral high-profile warnings against abandoning the tra-
ditional Jewish emphasis on endogamy, or in-marriage.
When the leader of the Union for Reform Judaism,
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, gave a speech suggesting that high
intermarriage rates should be accepted by Jewish lead-
ers as the inevitable result of life in an open society, he
was criticized by the editors of two of Americas leading
Jewish newspapers. Meanwhile, a new group of Jewish
thought leaders has been convened by three longtime
advocates of Jewish in-marriage, hoping to influence the
post-Pew conversation on assimilation.
Pew gave a new impetus to the people who want
to promote a more overt pro-endogamy camp in the
community, said Jonathan Woocher, president of the
Lippman-Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah. Theres
been more coming up about it in the last couple months
than previously.
Partisans on both sides of the debate cite the findings
of the Pew survey, released in October of last year, in
support of their views. The survey found that 58 percent
of American Jews who married since 2005 have non-
Jewish spouses, a proportion that rises to 72 percent
among the non-Orthodox.
Advocates for in-marriage point to survey findings
that people with only one Jewish parent are much less
likely to identify as Jewish or engage in Jewish activities.
But their critics say the prevalence of intermarriage
means that the communal focus needs to be on engage-
ment rather than on what they see as futile efforts to
turn back the tide.
In his December speech at the Union for Reform
Judaisms biennial convention, Jacobs had called for an
audacious hospitality to welcome the intermarried and
others into the Jewish community.
Incredibly enough, however, I still hear Jewish leaders
talk about intermarriage as if it were a disease, Jacobs
said. It is not. It is a result of the open society that no
one here wants to close.
Jacobs speech, however, has met with some belated
pushback. The New York Jewish Weeks editor, Gary
Rosenblatt, wrote a January 15 column warning that
intermarriage becoming the norm poses a threat to
the sustainability of American Jewish life.
The next day the Forward posted an editorial saying
that the approach supported by Jacobs has so far not
proved sustainable. The paper concluded that encour-
aging Jews to marry other Jews is too essential to surren-
der to the uncertainties of American assimilation.
Mr. Rosenblatt and the Forwards editor, Jane Eis-
ner, both attended a January 9 meeting in New York of
some 25 Jewish thinkers who came together to discuss
the findings of the Pew survey and shape a communal
agenda in response. Hebrew Union College sociologist
Steven M. Cohen, the meetings lead organizer, said he
hoped the group would raise the level of anxiety about
the future of American Jewry.
Dr. Cohen gathered the group with two other veteran
advocates of in-marriage: Jewish Theological Seminary
historian Jack Wertheimer and Steven Bayme, direc-
tor of the Contemporary Jewish Life Department of the
American Jewish Committee. The three organizers
who were working as individuals, not as representatives
The debate over whether and how to encourage in-marriage is back. SHUTTERSTOCK
SEE INTERMARRIANGE PAGE 32
JS-31
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of their respective institutions were leaders a decade ago
in a short-lived effort called the Jewish In-Marriage Initiative.
But Dr. Bayme said that the new group, which he called a
work in progress, is less about mixed marriage than about
changing communal culture and priorities given the findings
of Pew. He said that participants shared a sense of disappoint-
ment that the Pew survey failed to awaken a sense of crisis
in the community, either because it was interpreted com-
placently by some or because the issues of assimilation and
mixed marriage are so divisive within the community.
Meeting participants have differing ideas about how
central the issue of intermarriage should be to the com-
munal conversion.
Im not particularly interested in a food fight between peo-
ple who think intermarriage is here to stay and we should
embrace it and people who think intermarriage is a problem
and we need to fight it, said Rabbi Joy Levitt, the executive
director of the JCC in Manhattan. Im interested in how we
build a Jewish life that is attractive, engaging, and deeply
meaningful to the people who are in it.
In a column on the meeting, Mr. Rosenblatt wrote that
papers presented for discussion showed intermarriage to be
not the sole cause, but rather the primary symptom of this
thinning of Jewish identity.
The challenge, in a sense, is how to convince a largely
satisfied and increasingly less passionate American Jewry
to strengthen its ties and commitment by promoting earlier
marriage, in-marriage, more children and intensive Jewish
education all steps that are contrary to prevailing
trends, he wrote.
Rabbi Jacobs, who said he learned about the meeting
only after the fact, said that there is a slippery slope
between discouraging intermarriage and making the
intermarried and their children feel unwelcome.
Asked whether he saw any value in encouraging in-
marriage, he noted that some interfaith couples are
more committed to Jewish life than some couples con-
sisting of two Jews. He said that talking about endog-
amy as an abstract concept is not the way to address
declining levels of Jewish engagement.
The way to address it is to have an experience of Jew-
ish life thats so profound, so deeply engaging, that the
question is not whos going to be my choice in terms
of partner, but what choices am I going to make in my
home? Rabbi Jacobs said.
His biennial speech, he noted, did not address only
intermarriage, but outlined a plan to step up program-
ming for youth and young adults and to engage more
people in Jewish life. Thats where the emphasis ought
to be, not in arguing about gravity, he said.
Ed Case, CEO of InterfaithFamily, a group that advo-
cates for including the intermarried in Jewish life,
expressed concern that the group convened in New
York would try to promote in-marriage. Its going back
to an old debate thats not productive, he said.
But there is also common ground between the two
sides in the debate. Even staunch advocates of in-
marriage emphasize their support for outreach to the
intermarried.
Its a bad tactic to make intermarried people feel
bad or to hector people that they should in-marry, Dr.
Cohen said, although he noted in-marriage still should
be an aspiration.
The way to encourage in-marriage is giving people
motivation to participate in Jewish life and giving them
the opportunity to construct strong social networks
with lots of Jewish friends, colleagues and associates
around them, he said.
Dr. Woocher, for his part, expressed doubt that the
recent talk of support for in-marriage would change the
communal debate. I would be surprised if we saw any
major re-addressing of this on a practical level in terms
of policies or positions, he said, adding: Which organi-
zation is going to step forward and do a pro-endogamy
campaign? JTA WIRE SERVICE
Intermarriage
FROM PAGE 30
The challenge, in
a sense, is how to
convince a largely
satised and
increasingly less
passionate American
Jewry to strengthen its
ties and commitment
by promoting earlier
marriage, in-marriage,
more children
and intensive
Jewish education
GARY ROSENBLATT
Jewish World
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Does God care
about football?
Mixed opinions on divine intervention
converge over the big game Sunday
HILLEL KUTTLER
BALTIMORE Rabbi Daniel Alter
expects some added fervency during
daily prayer services at the Denver Acad-
emy of Torah in the days leading up to
the Super Bowl.
Rabbi Alter, the modern Orthodox
academys head of school, recalls that
when the Colorado Rockies faced the
Boston Red Sox in the 2007 World
Series, his students were more focused
on prayer than ever before.
That created a conversation on the
role of prayer, he said. It brought up
questions: Does God care? We probably
will be having some of those conversa-
tions in the week leading up to the Super
Bowl.
With the Denver Broncos set to face off
against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday,
its likely Jewish students in Colorado
wont be the only ones praying with a
little extra zeal this week.
A poll taken earlier this month by the
Public Religion Research Institute found
that 22 percent of respondents believe
God plays some role in the outcome of
sporting events.
In its sampling of 1,011 adults, the
Washington, D.C.-based organization
found that 26 percent of respondents
pray for Gods intervention to help their
team and that 48 percent completely or
mostly agreed that God rewards athletes
who have faith with good health and
success.
Daniel Shapiro, the strength and con-
ditioning coach for the mens basketball
team at the University of Washington,
would seem to be among them. Players
and coaches for the Huskies regularly
assemble for pre-game prayers, a tradi-
tion maintained by many in pro and col-
lege sports, including two that Shapiro
has coached: the Sacramento Kings of
the NBA and the University of Dayton.
But Mr. Shapiro, who was at the Janu-
ary 19 NFC championship game that sent
the Seahawks to the Super Bowl, says the
prayer ritual is less a request for divine
intervention than an acknowledgment of
a higher power.
One thing Ive noticed is, they never
pray for a win, he said. They pray that
everyone stays uninjured and that He
lets us give our best effort, which I think
says a lot.
My take is its not up to God. If you
pray for a win, and then dont win then
what? He let you down? Its more about
we acknowledge your presence.
Larry Bensussen of Bellevue, Wash.,
who will be attending the game at
MetLife Stadium on Sunday, said he
doesnt think God cares much about the
games outcome either. But like the 21
percent of respondents in the religion
survey who say they don a favorite jersey
Benjamin Levy, center, flanked by students, is a teacher at the Denver
Academy of Torah. He is rooting hard for his hometown Seattle Seahawks,
but he is mindful of his students passion for their native Denver Broncos.
COURTESY BENJAMIN LEVY
SEE FOOTBALL PAGE 34
Jewish World
JS-34
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when viewing sports, Mr. Bensussen said he is superstitious
about what he wears for big games.
On Sunday, Mr. Bensussen will be attired in the No. 54
jersey of Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner and a proven
pair of good-luck pants, along with plenty of warm clothing
for the first-ever cold-weather outdoor Super Bowl.
Mr. Bensussen, whose wife, Shelley, is a past board chair
of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, will attend the
game with his two sons and a daughter, who also will wear
their good-luck jerseys. Shelley will be accompanying the
family east for the occasion, but wont be at the game. Too
cold, she said.
Favorite jerseys didnt work for Mr. Bensussen in 2006,
when he attended the Seahawks first Super Bowl appear-
ance, in Detroit. The Seahawks fell that day to the Pittsburgh
Steelers.
Back in Denver, Judaic studies teacher Benja-
min Levy, a Seattle transplant, said he might wear
a football helmet to class as protection, if not fan
identification.
When students baited him on his Seahawks alle-
giance, Mr. Levy responded that the better team could
be determined only in a Super Bowl matchup. Now the
day of reckoning is approaching.
Last weeks final exams limited the trash-talking
opportunities, but all bets are off in the coming days.
Mr. Levy, a first cousin of Mr. Shapiros, is bracing for
the onslaught.
If the Seahawks win, Im not going to gloat in their
faces, much as Id like to, he said. If the Broncos win,
how long until I can show my face until the taunting
stops?
But the Super Bowl is not all about competing
allegiances, even in Denver. A New York Jets season
ticket holder who won two tickets to the game in a
raffle decided not to attend and sold the tickets to his
brother, a Denver Academy of Torah board member,
who promptly donated them to the school. The acad-
emy auctioned them off in a fundraiser, resulting in a
$10,000 windfall for the school.
Its helping a wonderful cause in which kids
are being educated in Torah every day, said Kathy
Bashari, the Denver Academys director of develop-
ment. Everyone involved did amazing mitzvahs.
JTA WIRE SERVICE
Football
FROM PAGE 33
BRIEF
Details finally emerge
on the guard detail
for Adolf Eichmann
The identities of the Israeli prison guards who kept
watch over and ultimately carried out the execution
of Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann were finally
revealed on Monday, 52 years after his trial, Israel
Hayom reported.
Unit Aleph-1, a special Israel Prison Service unit, was
charged with guarding the Nazi architect of the Final
Solution during his trial, with his execution by hang-
ing, and with the cremation of his corpse.
At a conference for commanders of the Israel Prison
Service, a short film was screened that re-enacted the
measures taken by the special unit to guard Eichmann
during his six months of imprisonment, to hang him in
June 1962, to cremate his body, and to have his ashes
scattered at sea.
According to eyewitness accounts of the guards, the
unit contained 22 guards and four officers, carefully
selected to ensure that none was a Holocaust survivor.
Avraham Merhavi commanded the unit, which was
charged with ensuring that Eichmann neither escaped
nor committed suicide.
We did what we did out of loyalty to the State of
Israel and to the Jewish people, said Ovadia Zakuto,
who served as a guard in the unit.
JNS.ORG
Jewish World
JS-35
TELL A STORY ABOUT WATER THROUGH YOUR ART
Artists from northern New Jersey and Nahariya, Israel
will partner in a joint exhibition
Prize: Four winners will travel to Israel to participate in our
Partnership2gether delegation and exhibit their work in Nahariya in May 2014
Work will be exhibited at two receptions
OF NORTHERN NEW JERSEY
Jewish Federation
Sunday, March 23 | 6-7:30 pm
The Kaplen JCC on the Palisades
411 East Clinton Avenue, Tenafly
Water:
The Essence of our Lives
Work will be exhibited at the JCC until April 7 and at the Belskie Museum until May 4
Juried Show | Deadline for all submissions: March 10, 2014
Prospectus: www.jfnnj.org/artcontest
Sheryl Intrator Urman, Curator/Art Exchange Program Chair
Susan Penn, Partnership2Gether Community Task Force Chair
This program is sponsored by Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey,
The Kaplen JCC on the Palisades and the Belskie Museum of Art and Science
Contact: Galeet Lipke | galeetl@jfnnj.org | 201-820-3908
Thursday, April 10 | 6-8 pm
Belskie Museum of Art and Science
280 High Street, Closter
ARTISTS CONTEST
come from such Iranian leaders as Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei. He described the crowds that gathered with
Khamenei in the streets of Tehran, chanting Death to
America, even during negotiations, and he criticized
Secretary of State John Kerry for not responding either
to these threats and or to Khameneis describing Israel
as a rabid dog. Mr. Klein contrasted that to the State
Departments insistence to Israeli Defense Minister
Moshe Yaalon that he apologize and retract offhand,
private remarks about the pressure placed on Israel by
Kerry to make concessions to the Palestinian Author-
ity. This is how they act today. Imagine how they will
act tomorrow, with nukes, Mr. Klein said.
Mr. Klein also discussed the pending Menendez-Kirk
bill, which would create additional sanctions if Iran does
not comply with the interim agreement or continue to
negotiate toward a permanent agreement. Mr. Klein ques-
tioned why the Obama administration strongly opposes
this bill, which, he said, in fact strengthens the administra-
tions negotiating position by creating a consequence for
noncompliance. Mr. Klein questioned how the bill could
be found objectionable, since it takes effect only if the
current agreement is violated. There isnt even anything
for Iran to break! he said They didnt have to make any
concessions!
Finally, Mr. Klein discussed Israels possible need to
take military action if, as he predicts, the negotiations fail
to yield a deal that prevents Iran from acquiring nuclear
weapons. He expressed optimism about Israels military
strength and its potential to destroy or significantly delay
Irans program without sustaining unacceptable damage
in retribution. Regarding the possibility of U.S. military
support for such intervention, Klein cited a 2013 Pew
Research Center Poll that indicated that 64 percent of
Americans support military action if necessary to prevent
Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Finally, Mr. Klein said that the ZOA urges every
media outlet, every church, every synagogue, every
mosque, indeed, every Jewish and non-Jewish organiza-
tion that cares about peace, every columnist, every jour-
nalist and every blogger to insist Iran close its Fordow
nuclear plant and its Arak heavy water plutonium-pro-
ducing reactor, stop all enrichment and agree to remove
all its existing enriched uranium. [They] urge everyone
to support military action if Iran fails to comply. He
cited ZOA support from across the political spectrum,
from Democrats, such as Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who
represents a district in Queens and Brooklyn, to former
Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, a Republican. Truth
is not a political position, Mr. Klein said.
Mr. Kleins fear is that failed diplomacy leads only to
war. Moreover, he said, the deal does not call for Iran
to denounce terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hez-
bollah, and it doesnt even ask Iran to retract repeated
death threats against both Israel and America. It is a
crucial time for Israel. It is a crucial time for America,
Mr. Klein said.
Mr. Klein ended by quoting from one of Winston
Churchills novels, The Gathering Storm: We shall see
how the counsels of prudence and restraint may become
the prime agents of mortal danger; how the middle course
adopted from desires for safety and a quiet life may be
found to lead direct to the bulls-eye of disaster.
The fact that the Arab nations sandwiched between
Iran and Israel, including Saudi Arabia, have expressed
grave concerns over the most recent agreement is tell-
ing, Mr. Klein said. They understand that the agree-
ment has tipped the balance of power strongly toward
Iran and increased the likelihood that some day Israel
may have to act alone against Iran.
Morton Klein
FROM PAGE 7
BRIEF
Shin Bet: Terror attacks in west bank doubled but toll dropped
A report released by the Israeli security agency, Shin
Bet, shows that terror attacks in the west bank more
than doubled in 2013 from the previous year.
According to the report, there were 1,271 terror
attacks overall in 2013, compared to 578 in 2012. Most of
these were defined as hot weapon attacks, involving
shootings, firebombs, and grenades.
But the report also said that there were fewer Israelis
overall who were killed in terror attacks in 2013. During
2012, 10 Israelis were killed, a number that fell to six in
2013, with five of the deaths occurring in the west bank.
JNS.ORG
Gallery
JS-36*
n 1 The Academies at GBDS in
Oakland held an open house on
January 20 featuring science
experiments for first through
fourth grades. Environmental
biologist Sheila Barbach led
the program. COURTESY GBDS
n 2 Temple Emanu-El of Clo-
sters Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner,
left, his administrative assistant,
Chareen Kramer, and the ad-
ministrator of the shuls religious
school, Ashley Wood, joined with
other Emanu-El staffers earlier
this month to sort items at the
Center for Food Action in Saddle
Brook. COURTESY TEMPLE EMANU-EL
n 3 Students at Ben Porat Yosef
welcomed Rabbi Shalom Hammer,
an Israeli Defense Forces speaker,
who talked about koach hatefillah,
the strength of tefillah (prayer), and
living Kiddush Ha Shem (sanctifi-
cation of Gods name) by fulfilling
mitzvot (good deeds). The event
was part of BPYs yearlong tefillah
curriculum. The schools junior high
Judaic studies teacher, Rab Pinchas Yarhi,
joined with Rabbi Hammer and junior
high schoolers for the event. COURTESY BPY
n 4 Lenny Solomon and his Shlock Rock
Band performed at Temple Emeth for
children, parents, and grandparents
on New Years Day. BARBARA BALKIN
n 5 Noam Dolev and Jonathan
Ben Shahar painted paper trees
in honor of Tu bShvat at Gan Aviv
Fair Lawn. COURTESY GAN AVIV
n 6 Martin Luther King Jr. Day was
marked in the Bergen County YJCC
ceramics studio with I Have a Dream
clay camp. Under the guidance of in-
structor Teela Banker, participants,
created sculptures that reflected their
own dreams for the future, includ-
ing becoming a scientist, an artist, or
an Olympic athlete. COURTESY YJCC
1 2
3 4
5 6
Dvar Torah
JS-37*
s student ambassador progra
Terumah: Modeling the tefillin controversy

A
nearly 2,000-year-
ol d source of
latent discomfort
has surfaced yet
again in our greater commu-
nity with the recent decision
by two modern Orthodox
yeshivot the SAR Acad-
emy High School and the
Ramaz Upper School to
permit female students to
wear tefillin. Opinions have
run the gamut, ranging from
supporting different forms
of worshiping God when
there is halachic argument to
support it to seeing it as little more than
cherry-picking the sources.
This debate cuts to the heart of the way
we deliberate about our ritual practices
and how those practices can evolve over
time while remaining rooted in halachah.
In this weeks parasha, we read in Exo-
dus 25:8-9, Vasu li mikdash vishachanti
bitocham. Kichol asher ani mareh otcha
eit tavnit hamishkan veit tavnit kol keilav,
vichein taasu. (They shall make a sanc-
tuary for me, and then I will dwell among
them. According to all that I am showing
you the form of the sanctuary and the
form of all its vessels and so should you
make [it]. Rashi explains that the addition
of the letter vav in the pen-
ultimate word in the verse
implies that future genera-
tions will build their sanctu-
aries and its vessels accord-
ing to the tavnit (form) of
the sanctuary, or Mishkan.
According to Biblical schol-
ars, the Hebrew word tavnit
refers to a reproduction of a
material entity that exists in
reality or as an archetype or
model.
Todays important tavnit,
the important and criti-
cal debate of the issue of
women and tefillin, finds its origins in the
Mishnah (35-220 c.e.). Mishnah Berachot
3:3 says that women are exempt from the
mitzvah of tefillin. A baraita a teaching
that existed at the same time as the Mish-
nah but was left outside it on Kiddushin
33b lists tefillin as one of five examples of
positive time-bound mitzvot from which
women are exempt. The rabbis of the
Gemara then use the laying of tefillin to
establish a general rule that women are
exempt from all positive time-bound mitz-
vot (Talmud Kiddushin 34a). The ques-
tion then immediately turns to how we
know that women are exempt from tefil-
lin. The answer given is that by the rule
of juxtaposing biblical verses, womens
exemption from the mitzvah of tefillin
(a positive time-bound mitzvah) can be
learned from womens exemption from
the mitzvah of Torah study (a positive non-
time-bound mitzvah from which women,
as an exception from the general rule, are
exempt). Finally, the Talmud teaches us
that women were exempt from the mitz-
vah of Talmud Torah because the phrase
found in Deuteronomy 11:19, you shall
teach [the words of Torah] to your banim,
intends banim to be read not as children
but instead as sons.
The ramifications of these teachings
are significant once we connect them
to a mishnah in Masekhet Eruvin about
how many pairs of tefillin can be brought
in from outside the eruv on Shabbat. We
learn that Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehudah
agree that tefillin must be a positive com-
mandment without a fixed time, and that
women are obligated to perform all such
commandments (Eruvin 96B, Tosefta
Eruvin 8:15). Additionally, another bara-
ita recounts that Michal bat Shaul wore
tefillin and the rabbis did not object. The
ramifications of this argument would be
significant, for if we were to conclude that
the mitzvah of tefillin is not time bound
or Michal bat Shauls precedent of wear-
ing tefillin was halachically binding, the
Gemaras later conclusion that women
would possibly not be exempt from any
time-bound mitzvot would no longer be
binding (see reference above to Talmud Kid-
dushin 34a). Fast-forward 1,800 years and
the arguments for the sake of heaven today
are exactly the same as they were then.
The Jewish community can be proud
that it is raising knowledgeable young
men and women in educational environ-
ments in which the next generation of
Jewish leaders think critically about tak-
ing on the obligations and responsibilities
of mitzvot. In the spirit that todays sanc-
tuaries serve as archetypes of the ancient
Mishkan, so too should our halachic
understanding reflect the tavnit, arche-
types, of the past; that is, with respect to
women and tefillin, we should frame our
discussions as an important way of con-
tinuing our long tradition of thoughtful
debate surrounding differing ideas and
practices. At the same time, we should
praise those who grapple honestly with
existing, clear tensions within halachah
those who seriously commit themselves
to mitzvot and do so with respect for God
and the tradition, and who are devoted
to their prayer and school communities.
Rabbi Fred
Elias
Congregation
Kol HaNeshama,
Englewood,
Conservative
See Shammai Englemayers Keeping
the Faith column on page 18.
JS-38
Crossword BY DAVID BENKOF
271 Livingston St., Northvale, NJ
(Next to Applebees)
201-784-2665
www.booksandgreetings.com
MON.-WED. 10AM-6PM THURS & FRI.
10AM-8PM SAT. 10AM-6PM SUN. 12-5PM
RENEE,LANA
& JENNIFER
GRAZIANO
FROM VH-1
SHOW
MOB WIVES
HENRY
WINKLER
THE FONZ
&
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BRANDI GLANVILLE
HOUSEWIVES OF
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FEB. 6TH
THURSDAY,7PM
FEB. 10TH
MONDAY,4:30PM
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OF NEW YORK
FEB. 11TH
TUESDAY,7PM
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THURSDAY,7PM
Valentines Day
Gifts!
Large
Selection of
Valentines Day
Gifts!
Large
Selection of
KEN JENNINGS
Longest Winning Streak on JEOPARDY!
FEB. 3RD
MONDAY,4:30PM
TRIVIA CONTEST with
PRIZES
Across
1. Sign for Arthur Miller and Groucho Marx
6. It may contain Hebrew apps
9. Falashas (outdated term for Jews ___
Ethiopia)
13. Jewish attitude toward Amalek
14. President Chaim Herzogs wife
16. Destroy, as the Temples
17. Why are they ___ smart? (Andy
Warhols question about Jews)
18. C-___ (network that covered Jon
Stewarts routine at the 1997 White
House Correspondents Dinner)
19. What determines whether the letter is
sin or shin
20. Royal Pains actor Mark
22. Number repeated after Brooklyn in
Andy Sambergs new comedy show
23. Magilla Gorilla, e.g.
24. More like Jennifer Tillys character in
Bullets Over Broadway
26. Several small ones struck Israel in
October 2013
31. Reaction to a Jew in Maus, perhaps
32. ___ pair of poodles... (Jewish lullaby)
33. The South American Bnai Moshe con-
sider themselves ___ Jews
35. Fill it with falafel and humus
39. Tommy Lapid, by birth
40. King of CNN
42. ___ from birth (not a baal tshuvah)
43. Start and end of an Exodus phrase about
retaliation
45. New York top Judge Judith
46. Batman creator Bob
47. Israeli poet Goldberg
49. Pogroms, ___, and Jews (Sam Johnson
book)
51. Assimilates, as new olim
55. Elijah of Vilna, for short
56. Dessert nosh
57. Warsaw ghetto leader Adam
63. Bagels, technically
64. Painter Dorte Clara Wolff is better known
by this avian name
65. Sondheim song Were ___ Be All Right
66. Class Reunion novelist Jaffe
67. Liev Schreiber and Ben Stein, in college
68. God is ___ side (verse from We Shall
Overcome sung by rabbis alongside
Martin Luther King)
69. Act like ___ (Neil Diamond song)
70. Result of drinking too much
Manischewitz, maybe
71. Worthy of appearing in jewishjournal.com
Down
1. Challah unit
2. Kind of talk forbidden on Shabbat
3. Early aliyah group
4. Joseph used it on on his brothers
5. Without guidance from Jewish law, per-
haps
6. Doctor Zhivago author Boris
7. Schnook
8. Its ___! (reaction to a pogrom)
9. He wrote I have the true feeling of myself
only when I am unbearably unhappy
10. Half-diameters
11. Layer discussed in Davis Guggeheims An
Inconvenient Truth
12. Ask your cab driver in Israel to use it
15. Photographer Leibovitz
21. Tell all the non-Jews in your kindergarten
that Santa doesnt exist, for example
25. ___ Hai (location of a pre-State battle)
26. Ki ___ (Torah portion tht discusses the
half-shekel tax)
27. How to Raise Jewish Children ___ When
Youre Not Jewish Yourself (self-help
book)
28. Simon Weils mother
29. Kind of captivity in Jewish history
30. Something that might be found in a
geniza
34. Castle character actor
36. San ___ (nickname for the city with the
oldest and largest Jewish film festival in
the world)
37. Allen of Candid Camera
38. Daniel Boone actor Ed
41. Act like the soul of a Jew in Israels
national anthem Hatikvah
44. Suffix for mountain
48. Start of a kindergarten song
50. Miss on Broadway?
51. SAG-___ (union that LAs Jewish mayor
belongs to)
52. Bialystocks partner in The Producers
53. Brandeis scholar of U.S. Jewry Jonathan
54. Henrietta of Hadassah
58. Work for the Connecticut Jewish Ledger,
perhaps
59. You might put it on a steak at one of
Israels El Gaucho restaurants
60. One may do it in the Biblical sense
61. Unpleasant task
62. How most Jews feel toward an agree-
ment with Iran
The solution for last weeks puzzle is on page 47.
Arts & Culture
JS-39*
The breaktaking Brecher
JONATHAN E. LAZARUS
I
t would have been Irv Brechers
100th birthday this month. The
master of comedy and crankiness,
who was also a movie writer, direc-
tor, and TV pioneer, nearly made it to
95. Unlike Willy Loman, however, he did
it with a kveth and a retch, rather than a
smile and a shoeshine.
Bony, balding Brecher, the kid from the
Bronx, Irv the Nerve, the Wicked Wit of
the West, the genius who graduated high
school at 16 and at 21 married Eve, 15 years
his senior (thats a lot of math). Any way
you slice it, and in Irvs case it was mostly
corned beef, he boasted a resume his
contemporaries could only drool over,
and probably did, a curriculum vitae that
would make a gag writer gag with reflux
envy.
Just look at part of his oeuvre (and thats
not even a doctor joke): He single-hand-
edly penned two Marx Brothers movies,
At the Circus and Go West; supplied
funny stuff for Milton Berle, Henny Young-
man, and a host of vaudevillians; punched
up the laughter lines for Wizard of Oz,
wrote Shadow of the Thin Man, Meet
Me in St. Louis, DuBarry Was a Lady,
and Bye Bye Birdie, among others;
and for radio and TV created The Life
of Riley (it was anything but a revoltin
development) and The Peoples Choice,
featuring Cleo the basset, who charmed
millions with her world-weary voice.
And thats only part of his output. It
doesnt factor in the countless scripts he
polished, or the shtickilah he did at the
MGM commissary, or the laughter cum lox
he helped bring forth from the comedians
table at the Hillcrest Country Club in Bev-
erley Hills. He was fussed over and driven
to distraction by Groucho Marx, doted
upon by Jack Benny, respected by Milton
Berle (as much as Milton could respect a
fellow funster), and shrewdly partnered
into the TV business by George Burns.
How do we know all this minutiae?
Because a nudge named Hank Rosenfeld
followed Brecher around with a recorder
for more years than both probably would
like to admit, faithfully getting every jot
and tittle from the master.
The resulting collection of Brecherisms
allows a dandy and unpretentious little
book called The Wicked Wit of the West
to keep getting under your skin and tick-
ling your funny bones. Great literature its
not, but its definitely a ho-ho-ho of a page
turner from Teanecks own Ben Yehuda
press. And try not to mind that three fonts
of type are used. It actually helps clarify all
the nonsense.
Irv broke into cracking wise in the early
30s by supplying gags to columnists and
comedians while keeping his day job as
an usher at the Little Carnegie Playhouse
on 57th Street in Manhattan. Berle noticed
him after Brecher took out an ad in Variety
offering to write jokes so bad that even Mil-
ton wouldnt steal them. Of course, Berle
tried to bleed him dry for very little renu-
meration (including one disappointing
brothel visit). Even the western star Hoot
Gibson stiffed him on paying for some
comedy fluff.
Fortunately, Irv received an invite from
director Mervyn LeRoy to head west and
write Milton into New Faces of 1937. A bit
after that, he was introduced to Groucho,
and the legend whom Irv had hero-
worshipped just a few years before as a
teenage movie-goer told him to come up
with a treatment for a yarn about some
horse---- circus.
So began their beautiful friendship or,
since Groucho was involved, their fiend-
ish, frayed, fakakta friendship. Groucho
was way beyond high maintenance, but
Irv, after he learned not to cringe, actually
could write crackling dialogue by talking
aloud in his idols voice. And the relation-
ship ran so deep that Brecher was made
up to look like the leering Lothario for a
publicity shot with Chico and Harpo (each
of whom had their own mishagas) when
Groucho was unavailable.
Irvs career at MGM went into high flour-
ish, but it was almost undone by his all-
purpose and reflexive wit. Seems Louis B.
Mayer, the studios tyrannical boss, had to
stash his aunts son on the payroll as a non-
producing producer in a choice office with
a view of the Pacific. When a new writing
colleague asked Brecher over lunch what
the chaps job was, Brecher replied that if
the inept schnook spotted an iceberg float-
ing toward the lot he was to alert Mayer
by memo.
L.B. got a whiff of the story and
He was stiffed
for payment by
Milton Berle and
Hoot Gibson.
Thats Irv Brecher on the left and Irv Brecher on the right, made up to look like his idol, Groucho Marx, who couldnt make
it for a publicity shoot.
Irv with faithful Boswell Hank Rosenfeld.
Jonathan E. Lazarus is a former news
editor of the Star-Ledger. SEE BRECHER PAGE 48
Calendar
JS-40*
Friday
JANUARY 31
Shabbat in Closter:
Temple Beth El offers
Ruach Shabbat, led
by Rabbi David S.
Widzer and Cantor Rica
Timman, 7:30 p.m. 221
Schraalenburgh Road.
(201) 768-5112.
Saturday
FEBRUARY 1
Shabbat in Fort Lee:
Congregation Gesher
Shalom/JCC of Fort Lee
offers tot Shabbat, led
by Roberta Seltzer, with
songs, props, stories,
and a giant siddur, and
a family service led by
education director Cory
Chargo, 10:30 a.m. 1449
Anderson Ave. (201) 947-
1735.
Havdalah in Closter:
Temple Beth El invites
families with children,
ages 2 to 5, to Pajama
Havdalah, with art
project and pizza, 4 p.m.
Wear pajamas. 221
Schraalenburgh Road.
(201) 768-5112 or www.
tbenv.org.
Community Torah
learning: The Fair
Lawn Jewish Center/
Congregation Bnai Israel
hosts Sweet Tastes of
Torah, a community night
of study, discussion,
music, and fun, presented
by the North Jersey
Board of Rabbis with
support from the Jewish
Federation of Northern
New Jersey and local
synagogues. Havdalah,
6:50 p.m. Choice of more
than 20 classes. Snow
date February 8. (201)
652-1687 or www.jfnnj.
org/sweettorah.
Program for special
needs children: The
Friendship Circle of
Passaic County in Wayne
offers Saturday Night
Live with pizza, arts
and crafts, and hands-
on science experiments
with Mad Science! at the
Chabad Center, 7-9 p.m.
An opportunity for
parents to go out while
there is a supervised
program for the children.
Siblings welcome. (973)
694-6274 or www.
fcpassaiccounty.com.
COURTESY JCCOTP
Concert in Tenafly: The
Thurnauer Chamber
Music Society, the
professional chamber
music ensemble-in-
residence at the JCC
Thurnauer School of
Music at the Kaplen
JCC on the Palisades,
presents A Trio of
Trios, 7:30 p.m. As
its name suggests,
the program features
works in groups of
three by violinist Sharon
Roffman, cellist Yari
Bond, clarinetist Richard
Goldsmith, violist Max
Mandel, and guest pianist
David Kaplan. (201) 408-
1465 or www.jccotp.org/
tcms.
Films in Teaneck:
Congregation Rinat
Yisrael screens and
discusses two short
Israeli films, The
Rabbis Daughter and
Veahavta: And Thou
Shalt Love. 8 p.m. $5.
389 W. Englewood Ave.,
Teaneck. (201) 837-2795.
Memorial lecture in
Elizabeth: Bruriah
High School hosts a
lecture in memory of
Chaya Newman, its
longtime principal,
8 p.m. Rebbetzin Esther
Jungreis, founder of
Hineni International,
will discuss Turning
Negatives Into
Positives, and sign
books. Refreshments.
Rescheduled from
December. 35 North
Ave. in Elizabeth. (908)
355-4850, ext. 6214, or
Bruriah.theJEC.org.
Sunday
FEBRUARY 2
Bob Klapisch
PHOTO PROVIDED
Talking baseball in
Teaneck: The Mens
Club of Congregation
Beth Aaron welcomes
back Bergen Record
baseball columnist Bob
Klapisch for a preview of
the upcoming baseball
season, 9:30 a.m. The
A-Rod suspension,
Hall of Fame vote, and
players Robinson Cano
and Masahiro Tanaka
will be among the
topics. Question and
answer session and light
breakfast. 950 Queen
Anne Road. (201) 836-
6210.
War veterans meet
in Hackensack: The
Teaneck/New Milford
Post #498 Jewish War
Veterans meets for
breakfast at the Coach
House Diner, 9 a.m.
Prospective members
welcome. Route 4 East.
Past Commander Stan
Hoffman, (201) 836-0814.
Toddler program
in Tenafly: As part
of the shuls Holiday
Happenings program,
Temple Sinai of Bergen
County offers music,
stories, crafts, and
snacks, with a tzedakah
theme, for pre-k
students and their
parents, 9:30 a.m. 1
Engle St. (201) 568-6867
or educationoffice@
templesinaibc.org.
Intermarriage talk
in Teaneck: Rabbi
Joshua Leighton of the
Jewish Congregation
of Kinnelon discusses
The Inter-Married
Rabbi, at Temple Emeth,
10:30 a.m. The discussion
stems from a recently
push to allow HUC-JIR,
which trains Reform
rabbis and cantors,
to change policy and
admit intermarried and
interdating students as
well as to ordain rabbis
without prohibiting them
from pursuing interfaith
relationships and
marriages. 1666 Windsor
Road. (201) 833-1322.
Yoga in Emerson:
The Sisterhood of
offers an inspirational
yoga class, 10:30 a.m.
Bring a towel and yoga
mat. 53 Palisade Ave.
(201) 265-2272 or
office@bisrael.com or
www.bisrael.com.
Monday
FEBRUARY 3
Blood drive in Teaneck:
Holy Name Medical
Center holds a blood
drive in the hospital
parking lot, 1-7 p.m.
718 Teaneck Road.
(800) 933- 2566 or
www.nybloodcenter.org.
Tuesday
FEBRUARY 4
Networking in
Livingston: The Jewish
Business Network meets
for lunch at Fumio Grill,
11:30 a.m. 21 E. Northfield
Ave. Glatt kosher under
the Vaad of Metrowest.
www.jbusinessnetwork.
net or (973) 994-2344.
Rabbi Israel S. Dresner
Peace discussion in
Wayne: Temple Beth
Tikvahs rabbi emeritus,
Israel S. Dresner,
discusses Shalom Is
Not Only Desirable; It
Is Possible, for TBTs
Senior Daytime Series,
1 p.m. Coffee, tea, snacks.
950 Preakness Ave. (973)
595-6565
Wednesday
FEBRUARY 5
Play group in New
Milford: Shalom Baby
of Jewish Federation of
Northern New Jersey
offers play time, music,
storytime, snacks, and
crafts for new moms
and dads of newborns
through 3-year-olds,
to connect with each
other and the Jewish
community at a PJ/sleep
issues party, at Solomon
Schechter Day School of
Bergen County, 9:30 a.m.
Administered by JFNNJs
Synagogue Leadership
Initiative, funded by
the Henry and Marilyn
Taub Foundation. 295
McKinley Ave. (201) 820-
3917 or ellenf@jfnnj.org.
Caregiver support in
Rockleigh: A support
group for those caring
for people who are
frail or suffering from
Alzheimers disease or
related dementia meets
at the Gallen Adult Day
Health Care Center at
the Jewish Home at
Rockleigh, 10-11:30 a.m.
Topics include long-term
care options, financial
planning, legal concerns,
and the personal toll of
care-giving. 10 Link Drive.
Shelley Steiner, (201)
784-1414, ext. 5340.
Doctors discuss good
health: The Sisterhood
of Temple Beth Sholom
of Fair Lawn holds a
program with family
practitioner Dr Michael
Wiener and physical
therapist Dr. Paul
Wiener, 8 p.m. They
will discuss balance,
maintaining health, and
answer questions about
general health issues.
Refreshments. 40-25
Fair Lawn Ave. (201) 797-
9321.
Judaism in society:
Chabad of NW Bergen
County in Franklin Lakes
begins a JLI course, To
Be a Jew in the Free
World: Jewish Identity
Through the Lens of
Modern History, at the
Chabad Jewish Center,
8 p.m. 375 Pulis Ave.
(201) 848-0449 or www.
chabadplace.org.
Thursday
FEBRUARY 6
Networking in Fair
Lawn: The Jewish
Business Networks
womens group meets
at the Ives Architectural
Firm offices, 9:30 a.m. 14-
25 Plaza Road, Suite S-3-
5. www.jbusinessnetwork.
net.
Poker/bingo in
Bayonne: The Jewish
Community Center
of Bayonne holds its
annual Texas hold em
tournament and bingo
night. Doors open at
6:30 p.m.; tournament
at 7. Hot and cold hors
doeurves, desserts, beer,
Miguel Cervantes, left,
and Michael Jansen
star in Henry and
Mudge The Musical,
a Theatreworks USA Production at
the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in
Tenafly, Sunday at 2 p.m. 411 East
Clinton Ave. (201) 408-1493 or
www.jccotp.org/theaterseries.
JOAN MARCUS
FEB.
2
Calendar
JS-41*
wine, soda, and coffee.
The tournament will
be run by professional
dealers and equipment
from Wild Willys Casino
Parties. Proceeds benefit
the JCC Scholarship
Childrens Fund. 1050
Kennedy Boulevard. (201)
436-6900 or ellen@
jccbayonne.org.
Book discussion in
Washington Township:
Temple Beth Ors book
club meets to discuss
Mitchell J. Kaplans book,
By Fire, By Water,
7:30 p.m. 56 Ridgewood
Road. (201) 664-7422 or
www.templebethornj.org.
Justice Neal Hendel
PHOTO PROVIDED
Israeli Supreme Court
Justice in Teaneck:
Congregation Rinat
Yisrael joins with Nefesh
BNefesh in hosting Israeli
Supreme Court Justice
Neal Hendel who will
address The Journey
of an American Oleh
who Became an Israeli
Supreme Court Justice,
8 p.m. A graduate of
Yeshiva of Flatbush,
New York and Hofstra
universities, and a Talmud
student with Rabbi
Joseph B. Soloveitchik,
he made aliyah in 1983,
and continued his law
career in Israel until
he was appointed to
the Supreme Court of
Israel in 2009. 389 W.
Englewood Ave. (201)
837-2795.
Friday
FEBRUARY 7
Shabbat in Franklin
Lakes: The Chabad
Center of NW Bergen
County holds its monthly
character tot Shabbat
with songs, cartoon
character guests, food
crafts, and dinner, for
children up to age 6,
4 p.m. 375 Pulis Ave.
(201) 848-0449 or www.
chabadplace.org.
Shabbat in Closter:
Rabbi David S. Widzer
and Cantor Rica Timman
lead informal tot Shabbat
with songs, stories, and
crafts, 5:15 p.m., followed
by an optional Chinese
dinner at 5:45, and family
friendly service at 6:45.
221 Schraalenburgh
Road. (201) 768-5112.
Shabbat in Woodcliff
Lake: Temple Emanuel
of the Pascack Valley
holds a service for young
families, 6:15 p.m. 87
Overlook Drive. (201)
391-0801.
Shabbat in Emerson:
Congregation Bnai
Israel hosts a fun and
casual Adon Olam
service; members and
non-members are invited
to share a few stanzas
of Adon Olam sung
to various melodies,
7:30 p.m. 53 Palisade
Ave. (201) 265-2272 or
www.bisrael.com.
Saturday
FEBRUARY 8
Havdalah in Emerson:
offers Pajama Havdalah
for families with children
to age 8, along with their
parents, grandparents,
and siblings, 5:30 p.m.
Bring a bedtime toy and
pillow. 53 Palisade Ave.
(201) 265-2272 or www.
bisrael.com.
Mentalist/mind
reader in Wayne: Asi
Wind entertains at
Congregation Shomrei
Torah. Doors open at
7:30 p.m. Admission
includes one drink per
ticket. (973) 696-2500 or
office@shomreitorahwcc.
org.
Wine tasting in Franklin
Lakes: Barnert Temple
offers a gourmet dinner
with spectacular wines
from around the world,
7 p.m. 747 Route 208
South. (201) 848-1800 or
www.barnerttemple.org.
Music in Ridgewood:
Temple Israel and JCC
continues its season of
Winter Music Saturdays
with a concert by pianist/
congregant Jonathan
Taylor performing works
by Chopin. Havdalah
at 7:45 p.m.; concert
follows. 475 Grove St.
(201) 201-444-9320 or
www.synagogue.org.
Stephanie
Prezant
Tribute concert in
Tenafly: The Kaplen JCC
on the Palisades presents
More Songs that She
Loved, a tribute for
Stephanie Prezant, 8 p.m.
Ms. Prezant died in a rock
climbing accident in 2012
a month before she
would have graduated
from the University of
Delaware. Funds raised
will support the JCCs
Stephanie I. Prezant
Maccabi Fund. (201) 408-
1406 or www.jccotp.org.
Sunday
FEBRUARY 9
Blood drive in
Englewood:
Congregation Ahavath
Torah holds a blood
drive, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
240 Broad Ave. (800)
933-2566 or www.
nybloodcenter.org.
Get rid of clutter: The
sisterhood of Temple
Beth El in Closter offers
a fun workshop, Cut the
Clutter The Top 7 Tips
to an Organized Home,
9:30 a.m. Refreshments.
221 Schraalenburgh
Road. (201) 768-5112.
Toddler program in
Washington Township:
As part of the shuls
Holiday Happenings
program, the sisterhood
of Temple Beth Or offers
music, stories, crafts, and
snacks, all with a Shabbat
theme, for 2- to 6-year-
olds and their parents,
11:15 a.m. 56 Ridgewood
Road. (201) 664-7422 or
www.templebethornj.org.
Pajama party in
Tenafly: Lubavitch on
the Palisades Preschool
hosts a preschool pajama
party with a dairy dinner
and a bedtime story with
Meish Goldish a published
author, storyteller, and
entertainer, 5 p.m.,
11 Harold St. (201) 871-1152
or www.lpsnj.org.
In New York
Sunday
FEBRUARY 2
Maccabeats sing: The
Maccabeats will perform
live in concert at Park
East Synagogue, 11 a.m.
164 East 68 St. (212)
737-6900 or www.
parkeastdayschool.org/
community.
Singles
Saturday
FEBRUARY 1
Winter party: The
Mosaic Outdoor
Mountain Club of Greater
New York holds a winter
party at Ansche Chesed
in Manhattan, 7-11:30 p.m.
Doors open at 6:45.
Square dancing with
professional caller, a
live band, Girls on Top,
snacks, and games. $25
at the door. Register in
advance to volunteer for
a discounted admission
fee. 251 West 100th St.
(212) 502-0820 or www.
mosaic-gny.org.
CORRECTION:
Thanks for all the calls and emails about the Claremont Diner Salad recipe
that appeared in last weeks Super Bowl section. Somehow the vinegar disap-
peared from the ingredients.
Below is the corrected recipe from GRJC: Great Recipes from Jewish
Cooks! which debuted last year from the Glen Rock Jewish Center.
Again, go team. Dont overeat. Enjoy. And dont drink and drive!!! BJC
Combine cabbage, cucumbers,
carrots, and onion in a large bowl.
In a small bowl, whisk together the
vinegar, oil, water, and salt. Pour
over the cabbage mixture, toss and
coat and refrigerate for at least 12
hours. Drain excess liquid before
serving. Variation: Cut and add one
large green pepper cut into small
pieces. Marinate overnight and mix
well before serving.
Claremont Diner
Salad
1 medium head cabbage, shredded
2 cucumbers, thinly sliced
3 carrots, thinly sliced
1 Bermuda onion, thinly sliced
3/4 cup white vinegar
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
4 tablespoons water
3 teaspoons salt
Calendar
JS-42*
Haifa Symphony Orchestra
will perform at bergenPAC
The Haifa Symphony
Orchestra of Israel,
musically directed by
maestro Noam Sher-
iff, will perform on
Wednesday, Febru-
ary 5, at bergenPAC in
Englewood at 8 p.m.
Tickets will be avail-
able at 50 percent off
through February 4
at 10 p.m.; use code
FLUTE. Additional fees
and charges may apply.
Call (201) 227-1030 or
go to www.ticketmas-
ter.com or www.ber-
genpac.org.
The orchestra will
also perform at Kean
Universitys Wilkins Theatre on Sunday, February 2 at 4 p.m. Wilkins Theatre is on
Kean Universitys main campus at 1000 Morris Ave. in Union. Call (908) 737-SHOW
(7469) or go to www.keanstage.com. Boguslaw Dawidow will be guest conductor at
both concerts.
Boguslaw Boris Dawidow is the principal guest
conductor of the Haifa Symphony Orchestra. D NAGL
Bake challah,
do a mitzvah
The Jewish Home at Rockleigh is look-
ing for volunteers to help support its
new challah baking program, which
started this month on Thursdays at
10:15 a.m. Participants will prepare
small loaves and rolls for the challah
baking in the homes new portable
convection oven. The program will
provide room-bound residents with
the pleasures of baking. There will
be other baking projects as time goes
on, designed around the seasons and
holidays. The convection oven was
generously donated by Gutterman &
Musicant Jewish Funeral Directors in
Hackensack.
To volunteer, call Charlene Van-
nucci, director of volunteer ser-
vices for the Jewish Home Family,
at (201) 750-4237 or email her at
cvannucci@jewishhomefamily.org.
JHR resident Theresa Spag-
nuolo shapes the dough for a
challah at the Jewish Home at
Rockleigh.
COURTESY JHR
Juniors choirs
will entertain
Temple Beth Or in Washington Town-
ship is hosting the second annual Ber-
gen County Junior Choir Festival on
February 9 at 2 p.m.
Elementary school to high school
singers representing Temple Beth Or,
Temple Avodat Shalom in River Edge,
Congregation Beth Sholom and Temple
Emeth in Teaneck, and Temple Beth El
in Closter will sing a selection of tradi-
tional and contemporary Jewish music.
A dessert reception will follow. Beth
Or is at 56 Ridgewood Road. Call Beth
Felixson at (201) 664-7422 or email her
at bfelixson@templebethornj.org.
Maccabeats coming to Rockland
The Maccabeats, the popular a cappella
group that rocketed to fame in 2010 with
its Chanukah spoof of Taio Cruzs Dyna-
mite, will be the main attraction at a
family festival, Come in from the Cold,
hosted by New City Jewish Center on Sun-
day, February 9.
The festival, which includes brunch, an
indoor street fair, and the concert, gets roll-
ing at 11 a.m.; the concert begins at 12:45
p.m. Tickets cost $18 per person and family
pricing starts at $50. The cost for reserved
concert seating is $36; family pricing starts
at $100. All prices go up on February 1.
The street fair will sell everything from
Jewish art to childrens books and jew-
elry. A strolling guitarist, magician, and
pianist will entertain, and there will be
games and activities going on throughout
the morning. There will also be a raffle of
one- to three-week internships for college-
age students at various businesses and
organizations.
The Maccabeats came together in 2007
as Yeshiva Universitys student vocal
group. It is a phenomenon in both Jew-
ish and a cappella music, with a large
fan base; more than 10 million views on
YouTube; many television appearances,
including the Today show; and success
with two albums, 2010s Voices From the
Heights and 2012s Out of the Box. They
have appeared at the White House during
Jewish American Heritage Month.
Tickets are available online at www.
newcityjc.org. Vendors who wish to work
at the fair are welcome and should call
the synagogue at (845) 638-6900 or go to
www.newcityjc.org for more information.
The New City Jewish Center is at 47 Old
Schoolhouse Road, New City, N.Y.
OU marriage
retreat planned
for July 13
One of the Orthodox Unions signature
programs, its annual Marriage Enrich-
ment Retreat, returns this summer,
from Friday, July 11, to Sunday, July 13,
at the Woodcliff Lake Hilton. The pro-
gram is an initiative of the OU Depart-
ment of Community Engagement.
The adult retreat is geared toward
happily married couples who are look-
ing for a new level of marital content-
ment. The weekend is free from daily
distractions and routines, allowing
couples to concentrate on one another
and strengthen their marriage bonds.
Participants have ranged from newly-
weds to those married 50+ years, com-
ing from all walks of life.
Presenters include veterans of past
OU marriage retreats and Rabbi Dr.
Tzvi H. Weinreb, the OUs executive
vice president emeritus.
Registration is now open. For infor-
mation, call Hannah Farkas at (212)
613-8351 or email her at hannahf@
ou.org.
Announce your events
We welcome announcements of upcoming events. Announcements are free. Accompanying photos must be high resolution, jpg les. Send announcements 2 to
3 weeks in advance. Not every release will be published. Include a daytime telephone number and send to:
NJ Jewish Media Group
pr@jewishmediagroup.com 201-837-8818
Calendar
JS-43*
Modern Jewish
history
explored
The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute
begins To Be a Jew in the Free
World: Jewish Identity Through the
Lens of Modern History, the insti-
tutes new six-session course, on
February 4 at 8 p.m. at Lubavitch
on the Palisades. Rabbi Mordechai
Shain will teach the course.
Participants will tackle questions
of allegiance and issues in which
Judaism and contemporary society
appear to be in conflict.
The program is for those at all levels of Jewish knowledge, includ-
ing those without any prior experience or background in Jewish
learning. To register, go www.myjli.com or call (201) 871-1152 or email
rabbiyitzchak@chabadlubavitch.org.
Turning
fundraising
resolutions
into reality
The Not-for-Profit Industry Service
Group at SaxBST in Clifton hosts a
program with Danny Wood of Sandler
Sales.
A challenge not-for-profits face is
generating income from contributions.
As the need for contributions contin-
ues to increase and the number of non-
profits grows, finding and maintaining
a steady stream of donors and dona-
tions is becoming increasingly difficult.
Mr. Wood will offer tips on when to
ask for donations and how to get the
most out of relationships.
The program will be at the offices of
SaxBST LLP, 855 Valley Road in Clifton,
on Thursday, February 6, at 2 p.m. It
costs $39. For information, call (973)
472-6250 or go to www.saxbst.com.
Museum exhibit showcases
Iraqi Jewish heritage
Discovery and Recovery: Preserv-
ing Iraqi Jewish Heritage, a dramatic
exhibition of rarely seen artifacts
curated by the National Archives,
is on loan for a limited time in New
York at the Museum of Jewish Heri-
tage A Living Memorial to the Holo-
caust. The exhibit, set to run from
February 4 through May 18, features
24 recovered items including Jew-
ish books, documents, and religious
artifacts, and a behind-the-scenes
video of the fascinating preservation
process.
The exhibit details the dramatic
recovery of historic materials relat-
ing to the Jewish community of Iraq
in a flooded basement in Saddam
Husseins intelligence headquarters,
and the National Archives ongoing
work in support of U.S. government
efforts to preserve these materials.
The Museum of Jewish Heritage is the
only other U.S. venue for the exhibi-
tion besides the National Archives,
which displayed it from October
through January. The full collection
includes more than 2,700 books and
tens of thousands of documents in
Hebrew, Arabic, Judeo-Arabic, and
English, dating from 1540 to the
1970s. A special website, http://www.
ija.archives.gov, has been launched
to make the historic materials avail-
able online as they are digitized and
catalogued.
The museum is at 36 Battery Place.
For information, call (646) 437-4202
or go to www.mjhnyc.org.
116 MainStreet, Fort Lee
201.947.2500
www.inapoli.com
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You asked for it for the last 20 years and
nowits here! Chef Sams Basil Vinaigrette
House Dressing is nowbottled to go.
Bring this Ad in
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min. $40 purchase
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replicated in a similar version,
without approval from North
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Tik (Torah case) and glass panel
from Baghdad, either 19th or
20th century. In Jewish com-
munities throughout the Middle
East, the Torah scroll is generally
housed in a tik a rigid case
made of wood or metal.
COURTESY MJHNYC
Rabbi Mordechai Shain
COURTESY LUBAVITCH
ON THE PALISADES
Casino, Outdoor
Movie Theater,
Nightly Shows
Full Court
Basketball,
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Daily Kids
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6,000 Sq Ft
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Complimentary
Spa Treatments
GLATT
KOSHER
SUPERVISION OUR
12TH
YEAR!
Scholars-in-Residence Program Led by
RABBI ARYEH LEBOWITZ
Beis Haknesses of North Woodmere
Hosted by
JEFF BRAVERMAN
Passover Director
DAVID GROSS
www.jstandard.com
Jewish World
JS-44
Mr. Tischs Giants defeated the New
England Patriots in the Super Bowl twice.
The Patriots are owned by another Jewish
man, Robert Kraft.
So this year, Mr. Tischs G-men arent
playing in the big game, but the game is
being played at MetLife Stadium. Home
turf. So this year he gets to play the host of
the first northern venue for a Super Bowl
in an outdoor stadium ever.
Mr. Tisch also has helped the Jewish
community but kept outside the spotlight.
During a visit to the tiny Cuban Jewish
community last July, he learned that the
Cuban Maccabiah team did not have the
funds to pay for uniforms. According to an
account in the New York Jewish Week, Mr.
Tisch paid for the uniforms on the spot
at Temple Beth Shalom in Havana so the
team could compete in Israel.
Getting people to say nice things about
Mr. Tisch isnt difficult.
But before we get to that, here are a cou-
ple of the questions the Jewish Standard
sent to Mr. Tisch through Mr. Hanlon.
How does the world of football com-
pare to the world of Hollywood?
What gives you more satisfaction, win-
ning the Super Bowl or winning an Oscar?
Is it easier dealing with (Giants quarter-
back) Eli Manning or (actor) Tom Cruise?
Is it easier producing a hit movie than
winning a Super Bowl?
What does it take, besides luck, to win
two Super Bowls and an Oscar?
Mr. Hanlon told us that he turned the
questions over to Mr. Tisch.
At the risk of pestering Mr. Hanlon,
which were pretty sure we did, we kept
asking and asking about the questions and
an interview.
We extended the deadline. We told him
how important he was to the Jewish com-
munity of New Jersey.
As of Monday night, January 20, Mr.
Tisch wasnt answering, and for the most
part, Mr. Hanlon stopped as well; and last
week we got a final answer.
It was no.
So we decided to ask others to answer
the questions in lieu of Mr. Tisch.
One of them was Randy Levine,
president of the New York Yankees. Mr.
Levine knows Mr. Tisch and knows for
sure how to build a winning team.
Steve is a wonderful person, Mr.
Levine said. I cant answer the questions
about his movies or the Giants, but I will
tell you that he is a caring man, who gives
back to the community in big ways. Its
not an accident that hes so successful.
Hes worked for it, and hes won with it.
We also were able to get in touch with
Bart Oates. Mr. Oates has three Super Bowl
rings. He played center for the Giants from
1985-93 and won two Super Bowls. Then
he added one more ring playing for the
San Francisco 49ers in the 1994-95 season.
A local real estate broker, Mr. Oates
described Mr. Tisch as a caring human
being, who loved to be around his coaches
and players.
There was that part of him that loved
the Giants, and as a player it was easy
to see that in him. But we as players
respected him, because we knew that
he cared about the communities in New
York and New Jersey. I was proud to be
part of the Giants, because they were and
still are so loved by this community. Mr.
Tisch has a great deal to do with that.
Our last quotes about Mr. Tisch came
from someone who is familiar with
the Tisch family through UJA Federa-
tion of New York and wished to remain
nameless.
He is the real deal, she said. It is no
accident that he is a winner in everything
he does, and that winning includes help-
ing other people, and caring about the
Jewish community and the community at
large.
Mr. Tisch is involved in many chari-
ties, including as the Preston Robert
Tisch Brain Cancer Center at Duke Uni-
versity. He has been on the board of the
Sundance Institute and many arts orga-
nization. His Steve Tisch Foundation has
given generously to the Womens Cancer
Research Center and the Pediatric AIDS
Foundation. He is a member of the Board
of Advisors at the Tisch School of the
Arts at New York University.
And on Sunday, hell host what is argu-
ably this nations biggest party, the Super
Bowl.
Tisch
FROM PAGE 12
BRIEFS
New excavations
show horrors of
Sobibor death camp
A recent excavation has provided silent
testimony to the mass killing of about
250,000 Jews at the Nazis Sobibor death
camp in Poland, 70 years after the perpe-
trators tried to cover their tracks by raz-
ing the site to its core and planting what
was to become a thick forest. Their deci-
sion was prompted by a prisoners revolt.
Archaeologi sts Yoram Haimi and
Wojciech Mazurek, from Israel and
Poland, respectively, recently discovered
nine open-air cremation pits and a cabin
that housed Jews who were used for
slave labor. About 5 feet below the floor,
a man-made tunnel was unearthed. As it
led toward the barbed wire surrounding
the camp, the excavators believe it was
used as an escape route.
In 2012, Israel Hayom reported that
Haimi and his team had successfully
uncovered the road to heaven, a cyni-
cal name Nazis used for the walkway
thousands of naked Jews took to the gas
chambers. JNS.ORG
Lockheed Martin
announces deal
with Israel firm
to spur technology
American defense giant Lockheed Martin
is teaming up with the EMC Corporation
to jointly invest in developing Israelis
booming technology industry.
Our goal is to foster applied research
and continued growth in Israels technol-
ogy sector, said Lockheed Martin execu-
tive John Evans. We recognize evolving
global needs, as well as the wealth of
innovation taking place within Israel and
its universities.
Last Fall, EMC Corp. signed a deal
with the Israeli government to establish
a technology center in the southern city
of Beersheba.
Under their new deal, Lockheed Mar-
tin and EMC intend to work together to
jointly develop partnerships with Israeli
industry, government and academic insti-
tutions to focus on areas such as cloud
computing, data analytics, and cyber
technologies. JNS.ORG
Syrian opposition,
Lebanese military
blame Israel for
missile-site strike
Syrian opposition groups and the Leba-
nese military claimed on Monday that
Israeli Air Force planes bombed S-300
missile launchers in the Syrian port city
of Latakia on Sunday night.
The S-300 is an advanced Russian
anti-aircraft system. Despite the claims,
Russia has apparently not yet supplied
Syria with the S-300. The Lebanese mili-
tary said Israel planes entered Lebanese
airspace in the northern part of the
country at 10:45 p.m. Sunday and exited
at 11:55 p.m. over the Naqoura area of
southern Lebanon.
Other reports said the Latakia blast
was related to artillery fire that had no
connection to Israel.
Israel has issued repeated warnings
that it will not permit the transfer of
advanced weaponry from Syria to Leba-
non. The Lebanese terrorist group Hez-
bollah is a close ally of Syrian President
Bashar al-Assads regime. JNS.ORG
Netanyahu unveils
CyberSpark plan
for Beersheeba area
During the opening of the CyberTech
Conference in Tel Aviv on Monday, Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
announced the establishment of Cyber-
Spark, an international cybercenter in
the Negev city of Beersheba.
The prime minister, who made the
announcement with the president of
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and
the mayor of Beersheba, said turning
Beersheba into a cyberhub was an effec-
tive realization of the vision that Israels
first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion,
had for the Negev.
There is huge development in [Isra-
els] south, and housing prices are sig-
nificantly lower than in the Dan region.
Whoever has common sense should
head there, Netanyahu said, according
to Israel Hayom.
The cyberpark will include a high
school geared toward science and tech-
nology, and a cyber studies center. Staff
members have already been recruited.
JNS.ORG
World leaders
mark International
Holocaust Day
at United Nations
World leaders and other dignitaries held
a special ceremony marking Interna-
tional Holocaust Remembrance Day at
the United Nations on Monday.
The State of Israel is the only guaran-
tee that the future and fate of the Jewish
people will be held in our own hand,
Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Ron
Prosor said.
Oscar-winning Jewish American film-
maker Steven Spielberg, who directed
the famed Holocaust film Schindlers
List, praised the importance of hearing
Holocaust survivors stories.
It is a great accomplishment of our
species that the testimonies [of survi-
vors] can be heard in the high chambers
of society, said Spielberg.
In a video message, U.N. Secretary-
General Ban Ki-Moon reflected on his
first visit to Auschwitz last year.
JNS.ORG
Obituaries
JS-45
When someone you love
becomes a memory
that memory becomes a treasure
Unknown Author
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Milton Augenblick
Milton S. Augenblick of Somerset, for-
merly of Wayne, Paramus, and Wash-
ington Heights, N.Y., died on January
26 at home.
An Army veteran of World War II,
he received the European-African-
Middle Eastern Service Medal, Amer-
ican Service Medal, Gold Conduct
Medal, World War II Victory Medal,
and a Bronze Star. He was a self-
employed architect in Wayne before
retiring, and previously served as a
senior associate for Edward Durell
Stone in New York City. He was a
member and past commander of
the Augenblick-Marcus Jewish War
Veterans Post 669 of Paramus, which
was named for his brother, and the
American Institute of Architects.
He is survived by his wife of 65
years, Eleanor, ne Schall; children,
Barbara of Cliffside Park, Andrea of
Hackensack, and Meryl Finkelstein
(Robert) of Mendham, and four
grandchildren.
Donations can be sent to the
Alzheimers Association, Washing-
ton, D.C., or the National Multiple
Sclerosis Society, New York. Arrange-
ments were by Gutterman and
Musicant Jewish Funeral Directors,
Hackensack.
Sylvia Bekelman
Sylvia Bekelman, 83, of the Bronx,
formerly of North Bergen, died on
January 27.
She was member of Workmens
Circle Hudson County and is sur-
vived by cousins. Arrangements were
by Eden Memorial Chapels, Fort Lee.
Herbert Collins
Herbert Collins, 81, of Englewood died
on January 21 at home.
He is survived by his chil-
dren, Ellen Richmond (Mark),
Rhonda Sarner (Dr. David), and
Lance; five grandchildren, and a
great-grandchild.
Donations can be made to the
Ovarian Cancer Research Founda-
tion. Arrangements were by Robert
Schoems Menorah Chapel, Paramus.
Israel Erlich
Israel Izzy Erlich, 89, of Glen Rock
died on January 23.
Born in Poland, he was a Holo-
caust survivor, settling in Israel
before moving to the United States
in 1959. He owned Prospect Bakery
in Glen Rock and previously owned
bakeries in Ridgewood and Fair
Lawn. After retiring, he helped his
son at his shop, Bennys Luncheon-
ette in Fair Lawn.
Predeceased by a son, Benjamin
Benny, he is survived by his wife of
66 years, Dora, a son, George (Karen)
of Fair Lawn; six grandchildren, and
two great-grandchildren.
Donations can be sent to the U.S.
Holocaust Memorial Museum, Wash-
ington, D.C. Arrangements were by
Louis Suburban Chapel, Fair Lawn.
Frederick Feldman
Frederick Z. Feldman, 92, of Fair
Lawn died on January 28.
An Army veteran of World War II,
he was a Columbia Law School gradu-
ate. Before retiring, he was a lawyer
in New York and New Jersey. He was
a member of the New Jersey Bar
Association, Congregation Bnai Israel
in Fair Lawn, VFW, and the James I.
Platt Post #651 Jewish War Veterans in
Fair Lawn.
He is survived by his wife of 67
years, Shirley, children, David
(Norma) and Deborah Segal; two
grandchildren, and one great-grand-
child. Arrangements were by Louis
Suburban Chapel, Fair Lawn.
Beatrice Freeman
Beatrice Freeman, 95, of Hillsdale died
on January 22.
Predeceased by her husband,
Charles, she is survived by her chil-
dren, Roger, JoAnn Zweben Novack,
and Gail Miller; eight grandchildren,
and 16 great-grandchildren.
Donations can be made to a
favorite charity. Arrangements
were by Robert Schoems Menorah
Chapel, Paramus.
Bessie Hodes
Bessie Hodes, ne Maloratsky, 94, of
Wayne, formerly of Newark, died on
January 23.
Herbert, she is survived by her
children, Rebecca Sable (Ronald) of
Fair Lawn and Arnold (Debbie) of
Wayne; four grandchildren, and two
great-grandchildren.
Donations can be made to a char-
ity of choice. Arrangements were by
Louis Suburban Chapel, Fair Lawn.
Celia Kopp
Celia Kopp, 99, of Fair Lawn, died on
January 24.
Born in Passaic, she was prede-
ceased by her husband, Henry, and
a son, Marvin, and is survived by a
son, Larry (Barbara); three grandchil-
dren; eight great-grandchildren, and
a niece and nephew.
Donations can be sent to Valley
Hospital Foundation/Renal Care,
Ridgewood. Arrangements were by
Robert Schoems Menorah Chapel,
Paramus.
Jane Maier
Jane Maier of Washington Heights,
N.Y., died on January 21.
Born in Frankfurt, Germany, she
came to the U.S. in 1936. Before
retiring, she was a receptionist.
Charles, and a brother, Norman,
she is survived by a son Bruce
(Elissa) of Englewood, a brother,
Ted Berlin of San Francisco, and
two grandchildren.
Donations can be made to the
Solomon Schechter Day School of
Bergen County or Congregation
Kol Haneshamah of Englewood.
Arrangements were by Gutterman
and Musicant Jewish Funeral Direc-
tors, Hackensack.
Florence Reichman
Florence Reichman of Fort lee,
formerly of Fair Lawn, died on
January 5.
Born in Brooklyn, she was a
secretary/office manager.
Hillard, and a sister, Rosalind, she
is survived by her children, Marc
( Janet) and Ronnie Abramson
(Marc); five grandchildren,
and four great-grandchildren.
Arrangements were by Gutterman
and Musicant Jewish Funeral
Directors, Hackensack.
Robert Rothstein
Robert Rothstein, 91, died on January
25 at home.
Born in Brooklyn, he was a World
War II Navy veteran. Before retir-
ing, he owned Atlantic Paper Co., in
Lyndhurst.
He is survived by his wife, Ann,
ne Berliner, his children, Mark of
West Caldwell, Harry of Freehold,
and Elissa Lundy of Rochester, N.Y.,
and six grandchildren. Arrange-
ments were by Eden Memorial
Chapels, Fort Lee.
Betty Sharp
Betty Sharp, ne Edelman, 86, of
Audubon, Pa., died on January 27.
Predeceased by her husband, Stan-
ley, she is survived by her children,
David Sharp (Nancy) and Harriet
Sharp, and a grandson, Benjamin.
Contributions can be sent to the
Jewish Home Foundation, 10 Link
Drive, Rockleigh, N.J. 07647; the
Crohns and Colitis Foundation, 150
Monument Road, Suite 402, Bala
Cynwyd, Pa. 19004, or Main Line
Reform Temple-Beth Elohim, 410
Montgomery Ave., Wynnewood,
Pa. 19096. Arrangements were by
Goldsteins Rosenbergs Raphael-
Sacks, Philadelphia.
Abram Snitovskiy
Abram Snitovskiy, 94, of Bergenfield, died on
January 20. Arrangements were by Louis Suburban
Chapel, Fair Lawn.
Classified
JS-46
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We pay cash for
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is seeking to hire a
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send resume, certifcations and
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A CARING experienced European
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201-214-1777
www.daughterforaday.com
SITUATIONS WANTED
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7 A.M.-1 P.M. Experience. Excel-
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Please call Cimia 201-923-6467
A1 TAG SALE
Serving Community for 38 years
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Buy Outs Clean Outs
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Fully Insured
Oakland Rutherford
201-651-9494 201-438-7105
FOR SALE
KOSHER
Vegetarian Restaurant
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Call Bert at
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845-548-8400
RUBBISH REMOVAL
CHICHELO
RUBBISH REMOVED
973-325-2713 973-228-7928
201-704-0013
Appliances
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Construction
Debris
Homes Estates
Factories Contractors
INTERNWANTEDto join our professional staff as a
future funeral director.
The successful candidate will be expected to enroll for the Fall 2014 semester as a full-time student
at a mortuary science school. The Jewish Memorial Chapel will pay tuition and a stipend.
Qualifications: Meet enrollment criteria of a mortuary science school.
Be a knowledgeable member of the Jewish community.
Have excellent interpersonal skills.
Be willing to pursue a lifelong career as a funeral director.
Please send a cover letter and resume to: JMC Intern Search
fax: (973) 779-3191 or email: intern.JMC@gmail.com
The Jewish Memorial Chapel is a community owned non-profit funeral home that has been serving
the Jewish Community since 1921.
841 Allwood Road Clifton, NJ 07012
973-779-3048 Fax 973-779-3191
www.JewishMemorialChapel.org
Vincent Marazo, Manager
NJ License # 3424
PARTY
PLANNER
To advertise call
201-837-8818
Classified
JS-47
Solution to last weeks puzzle. This weeks puzzle is
on page 38.
DONATE
UNWANTED
Furniture Pianos Cars
Household Goods, etc.,
to Chabad of Fort Lee
to help your community
at no charge to you
We can clean out your
home or apartment.
Receive a generous tax write-of
201-886-1238
Insured Bonded
MOHEL
Rabbi Gerald Chirnomas
TRAINED AT & CERTIFIED BY HADASSAH HOSPITAL, JERUSALEM
CERTIFIED BY THE CHIEF RABBINATE OF JERUSALEM
973-334-6044
www.rabbichirnomas.com
MOHELS
Jewish Music with an Edge
Ari Greene 201-837-6158
AGreene@BaRockorchestra.com
www.BaRockOrchestra.com
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Roof
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201-487-5050
83 FIRST STREET
HACKENSACK, NJ 07601
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Fuel surcharge added up to 10% Additional charge may be applied to credit card payment
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JS-48*
OP E N HOUS E OP E N HOUS E

7 Dover Ct, Bergeneld
646 Mildred St, Teaneck
87 Jasper Ave, Teaneck
1001 East Lawn Dr, Teaneck
49 Surrey Ln, Bergeneld
2-15 Berdan Ave, Fairlawn
260 West Hudson Ave, Englewood
54 Spring Ave, Bergeneld
127 Westminster Ave, Bergeneld
793 Dearborn St, Teaneck
261 Schley Pl, Teaneck
1 Legion Pl, Paramus
575 Palmer Ave, Teaneck
5 Bedrooms
4.5 Baths
Large Deck
Newly Renovated & Expanded
$775,000
S UNDAY FEBRUARY 2nd | 1 pm- 3pm
SOLD UNDER CONTRACT

SELLING YOUR HOME?
Call Susan Laskin Today
To Make Your Next Move A Successful One!
2014 Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. Coldwell Banker is a registered trademark licensed to Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC.
An Equal Opportunity Company. Equal Housing Opportunity. Owned and Operated by NRT LLC.
Cell: 201-615-5353 BergenCountyRealEstateSource.com
summoned Brecher to the inner sanc-
tum. He had fired many writers for
much less. Instead, the mogul, appar-
ently sensing something special in Irv,
admitted his nephew was a schnor-
rer, but advised the contrite employee:
If its funny, put it on paper. In a later
anecdote, Brecher reveals Mayer at his
shrewdest and most unctuous, pleading
with a reluctant Judy Garland to star in
Meet Me in St. Louis.
Politically, Irv was a dyed-in-the-wool
liberal, unapologetic and merciless in
skewering his foes. Hes at his splenetic
best in mocking the brave, patriotic
hero of Hollywood who went and fought
three war films for his country, John
Wayne. But during the height of the Red
Scare, the Dukes flunkies had Brecher
briefly blacklisted for some innocuous
earlier associations with groups like
the Writers Guild. Irv had to compose
a semi-suckup letter to Wayne to get off
the hook, and the bad taste never left
him.
Irv and Eve knew tragedy with their
adopted son, John, a late-diagnosed
schizophrenic and alcoholic who died
at 55. Brecher loses all reserve and cyni-
cism when talking about him or their
daughter, Joanne, who tried to help John
recover. Irv also lost his beloved Eve to
cancer after 40 years of marriage. He was
lucky enough to meet Norma Schneider,
a widow, who loved him unconditionally
and even supported his efforts at stand-
up (with a walker) comedy when he was
nearly blind and past 90.
Lets sum it up with Brecher riffing
on the difference between a comic and
a comedian: The comedian says funny
things, the comic says things funny. He
reels off the comics Berle, Jim Carrey,
Ed Wynn, Bob Hope, Phyllis Diller, Jackie
Gleason (his first TV Riley before Bill
Bendix, who also did the character on
radio), and Ernie Kovacs. Cary Grant and
Jack Benny are classified as comedians.
Rodney Dangerfield and Jack E. Leonard
are both comic and comedian. Sid Cae-
sar? A genius defying classification. And
Fred Allen, just a sparkling radio wit.
Dont even go to the Marx Brothers.
Irv never got the epitaph he favored:
Here lies Irv Brecher, who doesnt rec-
ommend it. He did, however, recite
the Shma every evening before going
to sleep and dreaming the dreams only
comics (or comedians) can.
Brecher
FROM PAGE 39
Irv Brecher and Hank Rosenfeld with Irvs second wife, Norma Schneider, and
his niece, Nancy Bennett.
JS-49
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Ann Murad, ABR, GRI
Sales Associate
NJAR Circle of Excellence Gold Level, 2001, 2003-2006
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FORMER NJ
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CHOICE
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FIRST PLACE
REAL ESTATE AGENCY
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45 Monterey Ave. $300,000
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TEANECK
BY APPOINTMENT
Teaneck. 279,900
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Oversized Gar + 4 Pkg Spc.
TEANECK VIC/
BY APPOINTMENT
New Milford. $975,000
Contemporary Colonial. 2-Story Ent, LR, FDR/Wash Basin,
Ultra Granite Kit/Island/Dbl Appl, Fam Rm, 2nd Kit, Mudrm.
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5 Bedroom Colonial
in Estate Area South
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Fireplace, Formal
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EQUAL HOUSING OPPORT UNI T Y
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offce: 201-768-9300
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Call Merrill Langsam
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cell: 201-394-0024
www.merrill-langsam.com
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Spooked about buying a home?
B
uying a home can seem like a frighten-
ing experience especially in todays
market but you probably have noth-
ing to fear, according to Barbara Car-
rollo-Loeffler, director of residential and consumer
lending for Provident Bank, the oldest community
bank operating exclusively in New Jersey.
Knowing your surroundings and understanding
what is real and what is not are the keys to taking
the fear out of the home-buying experience, said
Carrollo-Loeffler. The more you know before you
actually start to look, the more fear-less your expe-
rience will be.
To help shed some light on the process, Car-
rollo-Loeffler offers the following responses to
common concerns often expressed by potential
homebuyers.
Fear: I have no idea what Im doing.
Response: There are great resources available to
help homebuyers learn as much as they can about
the buying and borrowing process, including the
simplest method talking with your local lender.
There are also home ownership counseling agen-
cies and first-time homebuyers seminars avail-
able throughout the region. By taking advantage
of these resources, potential homebuyers can gain
a better understanding of the environment and
where they stand in the process.
Fear: I wont ever find what I want.
Response: If you have a pretty good idea about
what you want in a new home and your parame-
ters are at least somewhat flexible you should be
able to find something close to what youre look-
ing for, especially in Central and North Jersey. Its
important to make your key requirements known
to both your lender and your real estate agent.
Fear: I feel like Im all alone.
Response: You are definitely not alone. Before
you even start your search, you should speak
with a mortgage professional who can explain
both what to expect from the process, and what is
expected of you, including things like loan options
and requirements, closing costs, insurance and
appraisals.
Fear: I may have credit issues.
Response: If you feel you might have a couple
of skeletons in your financial closet, start the pro-
cess early and get a free copy of your credit report
(available through the three major reporting agen-
cies at www.annualcreditreport.com). If there
are issues, work on repairing or correcting those
issues. In many instances, there are old debts or
other errors that can be removed from or cor-
rected on your report.
Fear: There is way too much paperwork.
Response: For most home purchases, there are
only four things borrowers need to get started.
Please be ready or expect to provide copies of the
following:
Proof of Income Most recent months pay-
stubs as well as documentation from other income
sources (investment property, alimony, child sup-
port, etc.).
Tax returns or W-2s for the previous two years.
Bank account and investment statements for the
past two months.
Documentation of existing loans or debt (latest bill
or annual statement)
Carrollo-Loeffler added that purchasing a home is,
above all, a positive, exciting experience, and poten-
tial homebuyers should make the most of the oppor-
tunity. She noted that Providents website offers addi-
tional tips on buying a home, as well as a detailed
infographic to help first-time homebuyers navigate
the process.
More information about Provident and its residen-
tial and consumer lending division is available at www.
ProvidentNJ.com.
JS-50*
FRIEDBERG
TM
EQUAL HOUSI NG
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ALPINE/CLOSTER
871-0800
CRESSKILL
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894-1234
TENAFLY
Visit us on the Internet to learn more about our properties and services:
www.friedbergproperties.com
Congratulations
To Our Top Achievers
We Move Nationally & Internationally
3221854-01
Freidberg
Thu Jan 19, 2012
3x8.5
process
Pat Griffin
subnite
Barbara
This ad is copyrighted by North Jersey Media Group
and may not be reproduced in any form, or replicated
in a similar version, without approval from North Jersey Media Group.
Ravit Advocat
Eleen Gong
Ronnie Lederman
Phyllis Buonomo
Nicole Idler
Margaret Martini
Nick DeCandia
Skip Kelley
Catherine Olsen
Harry Elias
Miriam Lambert
Barbara Ryder
Farrah Feggelle
Nana Landi
Nasrin Zahedi
For 2013
Jeff@MironProperties.com www.MironProperties.com
Ruth@MironProperties.com www.MironProperties.com/NJ
Each Miron Properties office is independently owned and operated.
Contact us today for your complimentary consultation!
ENGLEWOOD
Lovely 2 BR/2 BTH townhouse. $418,000
ENGLEWOOD
Quaint Colonial. Expansion possibilities. $758K
ENGLEWOOD
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ENGLEWOOD
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T
A
C
U
L
A
R
C
O
N
S
T
R
U
C
T
I
O
N
!
TENAFLY
Picture perfect 3 BR/2 BTH home.
TENAFLY
Spacious 4/5 BR Col. Great curb appeal.
TENAFLY
Sprawling Ranch on .97 acre w/babbling brook.
TENAFLY
One-of-a-kind manor. $3,748,000
U
N
D
E
R
C
O
N
T
R
A
C
T
!
S
O
L
D
!
A
L
R
E
A
D
Y
S
O
L
D
!
E
V
E
R
Y
L
U
X
U
R
Y
!
LEONIA
5 BR/4 BTH Col. $3,900/MO
PARAMUS
Lovely Ranch. Wonderful property.
TEANECK
Vintage Colonial. Prime Area. $649,900
TEANECK
Picturesque setting. Private oasis.
G
R
E
A
T
R
E
N
T
A
L
!
U
N
D
E
R
C
O
N
T
R
A
C
T
!
L
O
C
A
T
I
O
N
,
L
O
C
A
T
I
O
N
,
L
O
C
A
T
I
O
N
!
S
O
L
D
!
CHELSEA
Spacious ex 1 BR. Chelsea gem.
GREENWICH VILLAGE
Quintessential pre-war full-service co-op.
GREENPOINT
3,200 sq. ft. Greek revival details.
UPPER EAST SIDE
Continental Towers. 2 BR/2 BTH City views.
U
N
D
E
R
C
O
N
T
R
A
C
T
!
S
O
L
D
!
U
N
D
E
R
C
O
N
T
R
A
C
T
!
U
N
D
E
R
C
O
N
T
R
A
C
T
!
WILLIAMSBURG
Stylish building. Heart of Brooklyn.
UNION SQUARE
1 BR/1.5 BTH duplex w/loft. $699,000
SUNNYSUDE
Large L-shaped studio. Great location.
CHELSEA
Grand 3 BR/2.5 BTH. $3,750,000
S
O
L
D
!
J
U
S
T
L
I
S
T
E
D
!
S
O
L
D
!
I
N
D
I
G
O
C
O
N
D
O
M
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N
I
U
M
Jeffrey Schleider
Broker/Owner
Miron Properties NY
Ruth Miron-Schleider
Broker/Owner
Miron Properties NJ
NJ: T: 201.266.8555 M: 201.906.6024
NY: T: 212.888.6250 M: 917.576.0776
Remarkable Service. Exceptional Results.
The Gym of Englewood
schedules new programs
The Gym of Englewood has announced
a new schedule of classes and programs.
With the increasing competition
and options available to people looking
to join a gym or work toward a more
healthy lifestyle, it has become increas-
ingly important to keep the classes
fresh and exciting, and to keep offer-
ing members as much choice as pos-
sible to help them reach their fitness
goals in ways that fit into their hectic
schedules, said Nurit Chasman, group
fitness director at The Gym.
Some of the new offerings include:
Cycle Seen: Each 55-minute Cycle Seen
class at The Gym Englewood will feature
an instructor acting as a video DJ and put-
ting together unique sets of music to make
the spin workout more of a journey for
the mind and body. Music videos, visually
stimulating scenic videos, inspiring imag-
ery of bike races and music-only sections
will also be mixed in to give the classes a
different and less predictable pace.
Performance IQ: In this class at The
Gym, a wireless display will compile indi-
vidual and group performance on to a
single screen, enabling indoor cycling
studios to offer new class programming
and allow monitoring of your perfor-
mance data, including heart rate, calories,
power, and RPM in real time using group
display or an app.
Upper Body Ergometer SciFit
PRO1000: The Gym Englewood has
recently purchased the Upper Body
Ergometer SciFit PRO1000, a great
upper body (cardio) workout for anyone
with a lower body injury or disability.
The Cage: This functional fitness and
bodyweight exercise unit for outdoor
training includes monkey bars, rope
climbs, chin stations, ab boards and
much more, allowing users to enjoy the
outdoors while exercising. Functional
and bodyweight training is adaptable
to all ages and fitness levels from the
beginner to the most advanced obstacle
racer.
Teen Classes for Youth Program: Run
for six-week periods, sign up your teen-
ager (12-15 years old) for his/her choice of
classes including Teen Spin and Teen Boot
Camp. Instructors were specifically cho-
sen for their experience with kids. They
are dynamic and will make sure your kids
get some exercise and have a good time
doing it. The next classes start on Febru-
ary 12.
Its $90 for a six-week session and you
must sign up for six weeks with nonmem-
bers welcome at same price.
Walk-ins welcome at $20 per class.
Each class will be 45 minutes.
One make-up session per child.
For questions or additional information
about these and other services and
programs at The Gym Englewood, please
contact customer service at (201) 567-9399.
Fresh logo marks 175 years
for the Provident Bank
To celebrate its 175th anniversary, Provi-
dent Bank, the oldest community bank
operating exclusively in New Jersey, has
introduced a fresh logo.
Throughout our history, Provident
has adapted to meet changing market-
place needs, while retaining our focus
on customer commitment, said Chris
Martin, president and CEO of Provident
Bank. Because of our loyal customers,
we have been able to prosper and attain
this special milestone. The modern inter-
pretation of the beehive logo represents
Provident today and into the future,
while still embracing our heritage.
The decision to refresh Provident Banks
logo was made after conducting extensive
research with customers, employees and
the marketplace. The new logo retains the
beehive theme, which represents Provident
Banks commitment to strength and part-
nership, while updating the color, shape
and text font to reflect a modern look more
representative of the 21st century.
Customers will see the new logo through-
out Provident Bank this year in branches,
signage, advertising, communications and
on its website, beginning in February.
More information about Provident Bank
is available at www.ProvidentNJ.com.
Nicole Idler lauded by Friedberg
Nicole Idler was recently honored at
Friedberg Properties Bonus Lunch
celebration.
Nicole continually raises the bar for all
agents, said company head Marlyn Fried-
berg. She puts her clients needs above
her own. We are proud of her, and pleased
to have her at Friedberg Properties.
Ms. Friedberg further praised her pro-
fessionalism, integrity and caring.
Ms. Idler lives in Teaneck, where she
regularly attends town meetings and
events, but her real estate expertise
encompasses all of Bergen County. She
can be reached at her office (201) 894-1234
or on her cell (201) 906-9338.
JS-51
Jeff@MironProperties.com www.MironProperties.com
Ruth@MironProperties.com www.MironProperties.com/NJ
Each Miron Properties office is independently owned and operated.
Contact us today for your complimentary consultation!
ENGLEWOOD
Lovely 2 BR/2 BTH townhouse. $418,000
ENGLEWOOD
Quaint Colonial. Expansion possibilities. $758K
ENGLEWOOD
5 BR/4.5 BTH. + acre. $1,345,000
ENGLEWOOD
State-of-the-art estate. $2,400,000
J
U
S
T
L
I
S
T
E
D
!
L
A
R
G
E
P
R
O
P
E
R
T
Y
!
B
E
A
U
T
I
F
U
L
C
O
L
O
N
I
A
L
!
S
P
E
C
T
A
C
U
L
A
R
C
O
N
S
T
R
U
C
T
I
O
N
!
TENAFLY
Picture perfect 3 BR/2 BTH home.
TENAFLY
Spacious 4/5 BR Col. Great curb appeal.
TENAFLY
Sprawling Ranch on .97 acre w/babbling brook.
TENAFLY
One-of-a-kind manor. $3,748,000
U
N
D
E
R
C
O
N
T
R
A
C
T
!
S
O
L
D
!
A
L
R
E
A
D
Y
S
O
L
D
!
E
V
E
R
Y
L
U
X
U
R
Y
!
LEONIA
5 BR/4 BTH Col. $3,900/MO
PARAMUS
Lovely Ranch. Wonderful property.
TEANECK
Vintage Colonial. Prime Area. $649,900
TEANECK
Picturesque setting. Private oasis.
G
R
E
A
T
R
E
N
T
A
L
!
U
N
D
E
R
C
O
N
T
R
A
C
T
!
L
O
C
A
T
I
O
N
,
L
O
C
A
T
I
O
N
,
L
O
C
A
T
I
O
N
!
S
O
L
D
!
CHELSEA
Spacious ex 1 BR. Chelsea gem.
GREENWICH VILLAGE
Quintessential pre-war full-service co-op.
GREENPOINT
3,200 sq. ft. Greek revival details.
UPPER EAST SIDE
Continental Towers. 2 BR/2 BTH City views.
U
N
D
E
R
C
O
N
T
R
A
C
T
!
S
O
L
D
!
U
N
D
E
R
C
O
N
T
R
A
C
T
!
U
N
D
E
R
C
O
N
T
R
A
C
T
!
WILLIAMSBURG
Stylish building. Heart of Brooklyn.
UNION SQUARE
1 BR/1.5 BTH duplex w/loft. $699,000
SUNNYSUDE
Large L-shaped studio. Great location.
CHELSEA
Grand 3 BR/2.5 BTH. $3,750,000
S
O
L
D
!
J
U
S
T
L
I
S
T
E
D
!
S
O
L
D
!
I
N
D
I
G
O
C
O
N
D
O
M
I
N
I
U
M
Jeffrey Schleider
Broker/Owner
Miron Properties NY
Ruth Miron-Schleider
Broker/Owner
Miron Properties NJ
NJ: T: 201.266.8555 M: 201.906.6024
NY: T: 212.888.6250 M: 917.576.0776
Remarkable Service. Exceptional Results.
JS-52
RCBC
Like Glatt Express
Supermarket on
Facebook for daily
specials and offers!
1400 Queen Anne Rd Teaneck, NJ
201-837-8110
*While Supplies last the
week of February 2.
*
$
1
00
$
1
99
$
1
99
79
$
2
99
$
4
59
$
1
69
$
2
89
$
2
99
2 for
$
1
00
2 for
$
5
00
2 for
$
5
00
Arizona
Ice Tea/Lemonade
Gallon
Heinz
Ketchup
Squeeze
38 oz.
Heinz
Chili Sauce
12 oz.
Apple & Eve
Apple Juice
64 oz.
Heinz Vegetarian
Baked Beans 16 oz.
Tofutti
Cream Cheese
Parve Plain
8 oz.
Dannon
Yogurt
All Flavors
6 oz.
Ortega
Taco
Seasoning
1.25 oz
Kikkoman
Panko Bread
Crumbs
8 oz.
Mc Cain
French Fries
All Types
Taamti Sabra
Potato/Vegetarian
Cigars 14.4 oz.
Sabra
Guacamole
Classic/Spicy
8 oz.
Mashgiach Temidi / Open Sun & Mon 7am-6pm Tues 7am-7pm
Wed & Thurs 7am-9pm Fri 7am-3:00pm

New Jersey Jewish Standard, January 31, 2014

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Terumah: Modeling the tefillin controversy

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