NORTH JERSEY/ROCKLAND

MAY 3, 2019
VOL. LXXXVIII NO. 33 $1.00 88 2019

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Page 3

Ashkelon’s road safety illusion

● That conflict between legal
pedestrian and criminal driver never
ends well for the pedestrian.
So what is to be done?
The Israeli city of Ashkelon is trying
something new. It painted an eye-catch-
ing trompe l’oeil crosswalk that actually
is on the ground, of course, but seems,
through the magic of art, to hover
above the road.
“I believe that with this innovative
solution coming to our city, we will see
fewer accidents and fewer casualties,”
Ashkelon’s mayor, Tomer Glam, was
quoted as saying. LARRY YUDELSON

Sweden and the survival of the Yiddish CONTENTS

NOSHES .........................................................4
BRIEFLY LOCAL ........................................ 16
● In 2009, the history of COVER STORY .......................................... 20
Yiddish culture took a JEWISH WORLD .......................................28
strange and Swedish turn. OPINION ..................................................... 42
That year, Sweden KEEPING KOSHER................................... 45
passed its language law, THE FRAZZLED HOUSEWIFE ..............47
affirming Sweden as its CROSSWORD PUZZLE ...........................47
national language but CALENDAR ................................................ 48
recognizing five minority OBITUARIES ...............................................53
languages — among them, CLASSIFIED ADS ..................................... 54
Yiddish. REAL ESTATE.............................................57
The decision to include
Yiddish as a minority PUBLISHER’S STATEMENT: (USPS 275-700 ISN 0021-6747)
language goes back a de- is published weekly on Fridays with an additional edition
every October, by the New Jersey Jewish Media Group, 1086
cade earlier to 1999, when Teaneck Road, Teaneck, NJ 07666. Periodicals postage paid
the Minority Language at Hackensack, NJ and additional offices. POSTMASTER:
Send address changes to New Jersey Jewish Media Group,
Committee of Sweden 1086 Teaneck Road, Teaneck, NJ 07666. Subscription price
recognized five minority is $30.00 per year. Out-of-state subscriptions are $45.00,
Foreign countries subscriptions are $75.00.
languages: Finnish (Fin-
The appearance of an advertisement in The Jewish Standard
land was long part of the does not constitute a kashrut endorsement. The publishing of
Swedish empire), Meän- a paid political advertisement does not constitute an endorse-
ment of any candidate political party or political position by
kieli (rel+ated to Finnish), the newspaper or any employees.
Sami (also related to Finnish and spoken by the States, the two countries where most Yiddish- The Jewish Standard assumes no responsibility to return
Lapp people), Romani (spoken by the Roma, who speakers live. unsolicited editorial or graphic materials. All rights in letters
and unsolicited editorial, and graphic material will be treated
perhaps are better known as Gypsies, and originat- It also means that there are government funds for as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyright
ed in India), and Yiddish. the creation of Yiddish culture, and for the transla- purposes and subject to JEWISH STANDARD’s unrestricted
right to edit and to comment editorially. Nothing may be
No, the latter two do not have secret origins in tion of official materials into Yiddish. reprinted in whole or in part without written permission from
Scandinavia. But the government decided that Which brings us to the latest offering from the publisher. © 2019

Romani and Yiddish had historical importance. urskola.se, an official Swedish website featuring
Sweden has about 20,000 Jews. Its Yiddish-speak- educational videos in a variety of languages: Titled Candlelighting:
ing Ashkenazic community dates back only to the “Charles och arternas uppkomst” in Swedish, which Friday, May 3, 7:36 p.m.
18th century, when it joined the Sephardim who Google translates to “Charles and the origins of
had been there for centuries. Perhaps 1,500 Jewish species,” it’s a Yiddish-language video providing a Shabbat ends:
Swedes are native Yiddish speakers, most of them basic introduction to the theory of evolution. Com- Saturday, May 4, 8:41 p.m.
elderly. bining nature videos and animations, it features a
If this strikes you as a slim basis for an official mi- Swedish-accented Yiddish narrator, animation, and
nority language, we wouldn’t disagree. Nonetheless, Yiddish words like selektzia — selection — and yeru- For convenient
that is official policy. sha — inheritance. home delivery,
Which means that Yiddish has a higher legal sta- One more reason for chasidim to insist on filtering call 201-837-8818 or
tus in Sweden than it does in Israel and the United their internet. LARRY YUDELSON
bit.ly/jsubscribe

JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019 3

Noshes “When I’m flying through the water
with my tail, I forget all my worries.”
— Michelle Koretsky, co-leader of Israel’s mermaid
community, as quoted in an Associated Press
photoessay on Israeli mermaids, who have a
thousand-member strong Facebook group.

MOVIE MELANGE:

Romance beckons
and so do seniors
“Long Shot,” a seems plausible. Most Sage co-starred as Uninterrupted” was
romantic critics say that Rogen Alara Kitan in the first created by by NBA
comedy/drama and Theron make us two seasons of “The star LeBron James,
starring SETH ROGEN, like their characters Orville,” a Fox sci-fi se- who hosts, and by
36, and Charlize and believe in their ries. Sage’s character’s African-American
Theron, opens on May characters’ romance. recent departure from businessman Maverick
3. Rogen plays Fred “Long Shot” was di- the show was written Carter. It began as a
Flarsky. He’s a brash rected by JONATHAN so that she can come web series; HBO
reporter for a liberal LEVINE, 42, who also back easily. It appears picked it up in 2018.
alt-weekly — but the helmed “50/50” in that Sage left “The Or- The premise is that a
job he loves disap- 2011. “50/50” was a ville” to free herself up number of mostly
pears when a conser- quite good movie, in for other projects. African-American
vative media baron which Rogen gave his Jonathan Levine Halston Sage Early in April, I wrote celebrities gather at a
buys his paper. Shortly best dramatic perfor- about the Netflix se- barbershop and have a
thereafter, he runs into mance to date. The ries “No Good Nick,” wide-ranging unscript-
Charlotte (Theron), his “Long Shot” screen- which began stream- ed conversation. Race
old babysitter, who play was co-written by ing on April 15. I said it and career issues have
now is the Secretary of DAN STERLING, 50ish, was about a teen girl been major topics in
State. Fred charms her who has written for who infiltrates a nice past episodes. The
with his self-deprecat- many smart TV come- family with hidden bad second HBO episode
ing humor and his dy series. By the way, intentions. I said that premieres on May 4 at
memories of her Flarsky is revealed to Sean Astin, who plays 10 p.m., with Seth
youthful idealism. As be a Jewish charac- the family’s nice father, Rogen as one of the
she prepares to make ter early in the film. A discovered as an adult barbershop guests.
a surprise presidential friend who accurately that his biological The other six guests
run, she hires Fred to monitors such things father is Jewish. I also include NFL star DeAn-
punch up her speech- says that Flarsky is the Kalama Epstein Lauren Lindsay Donzis noted that KALAMA dre Hopkins, songwrit-
es. They have chemis- first explicitly Jewish EPSTEIN, 19, who plays er/singer Pharrell
try and begin a lead character in a ma- group. Judy holds back Sean’s son, has a Jew- Williams, and actor
New offerings
romantic affair. That jor 2019 film. on telling Jen some- ish father and identifies Don Cheadle.
affair threatens to “POMS,” opening air on netflix thing that would rock as Jewish. Well, I just The documenta-
torpedo her campaign May 3, is a feel-good ED ASNER, 89, Jen’s already shaky learned that LAUREN ry “At the Heart of
because Fred has a lot movie comedy about has a supporting world. LINDSEY DONZIS, 14, Gold: Inside the USA
of foibles in his past. a woman, played by role in “Dead to “The Last Summer,” who plays Astin’s other Gymnastics Scandal”
Advance reviews are Diane Keaton, who Me,” a 10-episode series an original Netflix film, child, is Jewish. Both premieres on HBO on
quite good. Rogen has moves into a retire- that begins streaming also starts on May 3. her real-life parents May 3 at 8 p.m. Dr.
become a better actor ment community May 3. Christina The plot is familiar: High are Jewish. Her previ- Larry Nassar, who sex-
over the years and and starts a cheer- Applegate plays Jen, a school grads wrestle ous credits include a ually molested hun-
Theron is very adept leading squad with sardonic widow set on with love and friendship recurring role on the dreds of young gym-
in seemingly every her fellow residents. solving her husband’s during their final sum- Disney series “Liv and nasts, is at the story’s
film genre. A romantic RHEA PERLMAN, 71, recent hit-and-run mer together before Maddie.” center, and Olympic
comedy lives or dies plays one of the squad murder. She bonds with heading off to college. star ALY RAISMAN,
on whether we like the members. I hope this Judy (Linda Cardenalli), HALSTON SAGE, 25, Over on HBO 24, will be featured in
main characters and flick is not too old- an upbeat woman she has a large role as Erin, The HBO series the documentary.
whether their romance folks cute. meets at a support one of the grads. “The Shop: –N.B.

Want to read more noshes? Visit facebook.com/jewishstandard California-based Nate Bloom can be reached at
Middleoftheroad1@aol.com

High performance cars are really attractive. So is high performance service.

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4 JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019

OPENS MAY 8 The most comprehensive exhibition on Auschwitz featuring more
than 700 original objects never before seen in North America.

Museum of
Exhibition Tickets Jewish Heritage
at Auschwitz.nyc A Living Memorial
to the Holocaust
Lower Manhattan

to Rector St or to Bowling Green

JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019 5

Local
Dennis Ross: Partial West Bank
annexation need not kill peace prospects
Former ambassador to speak in Paramus
LARRY YUDELSON
D
ennis Ross doesn’t need
much of an introduction.
He’s the former State
Department official who
worked with Secretary of State James
Baker on the Madrid peace confer-
ence during the Bush administration,
who played a lead role in negotiations
between Israelis and Palestinians
during the Clinton administration, and
who President Obama called back for
another round of peace efforts. He now
is a fellow with the Washington Insti-
tute for Near East Policy.
And next week, he’s speaking in
Paramus. (See box.)
At the core of his talk is his next
book, due out in September: “Be
Strong and of Good Courage: How
Israel’s Most Important Leaders
Shaped Its Destiny.”
The book profiles Israeli leaders
David Ben-Gurion, Menachem Begin,
Yitzhak Rabin, and Ariel Sharon.
“It points out how they evolved, how
and why they made what were tough
decisions,” Mr. Ross said.
This is not meant as abstract history.
“My book says what lessons can we
draw from the past to see if it can be
applied to the future,” Mr. Ross said.
And the book looks at “the role the
U.S. played in making some of the deci-
sions easier, by making commitments
and assurances that could be offered
to Israel to make more tailwind for the
Israeli prime minister to make more
difficult choices.”
In other words, while the book looks
back, its key message is addressed to
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Net-
anyahu and is about Israel’s future, and
the “tough decision” Mr. Ross wants
Mr. Netanyahu to make.
“If Israel stays on the path it is on,
by default it will become one state
for two peoples,” he said. Avoiding
that undesirable outcome “requires a
hard decision.”
The decision he has is mind is not to
accede to the Palestinian demand for
statehood immediately. “That’s not
possible because the Palestinians aren’t
ready for it,” he said.
Instead, the decision he would
approve would be “to adopt a posi-
tion that would preserve the possibil-
ity of separation. It takes a courageous
6 JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019
Dennis Ross
decision on the part of the prime min-
ister to say that we’re going to build
within the settlement blocs but not out-
side them. We’ll build to the west of the
separation barrier but not to the east.
This will preserve the option of separa-
tion, even if the IDF stays where it is.
“It’s not a simple decision. It takes a
courageous decision on the part of the
prime minister. But if you don’t make
a conscious decision, you’re headed to
one state for two people. With 105,000
Israelis living to the east of the sepa-
ration barrier already, you may soon
reach a tipping point.”
So how does this plan fit with the
increasing talk within Mr. Netanya-
hu’s Likud party of annexing parts of
the West Bank? And with the Trump
administration’s promised plan for
Middle East peace?
Mr. Ross said that depends on how it
is couched.
He would advise the Trump admin-
istration to tell Prime Minister Net-
anyahu: “Don’t do any unilateral
annexation before we release our
peace plan. If the Palestinians reject
the plan in advance, we could be in a
position where we tell the Arabs that
if they reject the plan, and there’s no
diplomacy, we would support the prin-
ciple of Israeli annexation, with the
understanding that the final border still
has to be negotiated.
“The truth is, in any peace agree-
ment Maale Adumim and Gush Etzion
are going to be part of Israel.
They were part of it in the Clin-
ton parameters I was working
on.” (Maale Adumim and Gush
Etzion both are suburbs of Jeru-
salem, home to many Israeli
Jews, and for a long time the
understanding has been that
they will stay with Israel, no
matter what else happens.)
“It shouldn’t just be done uni-
laterally,” he continued. “Where
the context is created because the Pal-
estinians have said no once again, if
in exchange the administration gets a
commitment that areas east of the bar-
rier will not have Israeli sovereignty —
and I would say stop building there as
well — that would be giving the Israelis
something and also getting something
in return. The U.S. could use it with
Arab leaders, to get Arab leaders to say
they’ll stay engaged with some kind
of peace diplomacy. It’s a way to take
advantage of the plan at a time where
prospects are at best uncertain.”
If Israel stays
on the path it
is on, by
default it will
become one
state for
two peoples.
And public support from Arab
leaders for any peace plan is key to
its success, Mr. Ross said. That’s what
the “Clinton parameters” that Pales-
tinian leader Yasser Arafat rejected in
2000 lacked.
“We did get Arab support. The prob-
lem was that it was private support.
Private support means nothing. You
have to create a new reality” — and that
takes public support.
“You’re not going to get Arab leaders
to stand up and say a plan that doesn’t
provide for a Palestinian state or a cap-
ital in some part of Arab Jerusalem is
serious,” Mr. Ross said.
But the time is ripe for the right plan,
he believes.
“The level of fatigue with the Pales-
tinians by Arab leaders is growing. The
recognition of their common security
interest with Israelis is growing. But
they wouldn’t come out and say the
Palestinians should accept something.
The most you’ll get is for them to say
that a plan is serious and the basis for
serious negotiations.” For that to hap-
pen, though, the plan “must cross a
certain threshold. If not, they won’t
expose themselves to charges that they
betrayed the Palestinian cause. They
just won’t do that.”
What does he think of the Trump
administration taking a tough line with
the Palestinians?
“There’s a certain logic to it,” Mr.
Ross said. “The problem is that what
should have been done at the same
time was some effort to show that there
was some recognition of and concern
for Palestinian needs as well.
“The administration’s approach
has two elements that make sense,”
he continued. “One is that the Pales-
tinians should understand that every
time you say no to what’s on offer, the
next time there is less. That’s abso-
lutely the right approach.
“Number two, the fact that there
needs to be an adjustment to reality.
That too was right, both conceptually
and logically. The problem is that you
haven’t given the Arab leaders or Pales-
tinians anything for them to know that
this is an administration that will take
their concerns into account.
“I didn’t have a problem with the
U.S. decision to move its embassy to
Jerusalem. But it wasn’t prepared the
way it should have been,” he said.
Mr. Ross thinks that Mr. Trump
could have told the Palestinians that he
was committed to keeping his promise,
and that it should matter that the pres-
ident fulfills his promise. And he could
have asked them, “what would make it
 Local

The way it’s been done creates a bar. It makes Who: Ambassador Dennis Ross

it harder for the Arabs to do the things you When: Sunday, May 12, 6:15 p.m.

want them to do. There isn’t an Arab leader Where: JCC of Paramus/

other than Assad who thinks Israel shouldn’t Congregation Beth Tikvah,
E 304 Midland Ave., Paramus
be in control of the Golan Heights with Iran in How: (201) 262-7691 or
Syria, but they condemned the move. jccparamus.org

more manageable for you?”
And when Mr. Trump announced
his decision, “when he said we’re not
recognizing the boundaries of Israeli
sovereignty, all he had to do was add
a clause: because we understand the
Palestinians have claims and it has to
be solved in negotiations.”
Similarly, “I’m quite sympathetic
with the decision that was made to
stop funding UNWRA,” the United
Nations organization that oversees
Palestinian refugees. “Why not on the
same day say, here are the specific
programs we’ll provide through a dif-
ferent mechanism?
“The way it’s been done creates a bar.
It makes it harder for the Arabs to do
the things you want them to do. There
isn’t an Arab leader other than Assad
who thinks Israel shouldn’t be in control
of the Golan Heights with Iran in Syria,
but they condemned the move. The bal-
ance you should be striking is to send a
message that’s adjusting to reality, but
creates a climate where you give them
something they can point to.”
Having offered suggestions for Mr.
Netanyahu and for the Trump admin-
istration, does Mr. Ross have advice for
American Jews?
“The one thing for American Jews, as
it relates to Israel, is to keep in mind that
you have your counterparts there. One
shouldn’t lose sight of that. For the more
progressive Jews, you have your counter-
parts in Israel you can completely iden-
tify with and it helps you. Build bridges
to them.
“Understand and recognize what Israel
is. It’s a country with a vibrant free press.
It’s a country ruled by law. There’s no
other country in the Middle East where
the attorney general, appointed by the
leader, intends to indict him.” (He’s talking
about Attorney General Avichai Mandel-
blit, whose department has indicted Mr.
Netanyu on three charges of corruption.)
“There’s a lot of polarization here,
a lot of alienation from the adminis-
tration,” Mr. Ross said. “That affects
views of Israel as a result. Don’t forget
that Israeli is a genuine democracy. You
may not like the results of elections,
but the potential for accountability is
always there.

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JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019 7

Local

Honoring a sister’s memory

Englewood preteen raises more than $13,000 for Tackle Kids Cancer
ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN

T
welve-year-old Ayelet Poupko of Englewood
has never forgotten how the child-life special-
ists at Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital
brought a measure of comfort and joy to her
younger sister Chana Tova while the little girl was being
treated for cancer.
She recalls that in those heartbreakingly difficult
months before Chana’s death in June 2014, at 2½, activi-
ties such as “art projects and little push trolleys you could
ride on” brought a smile to Chana and her two older sis-
ters when they’d visit her at the Hackensack facility.
Earlier this year, Ayelet decided that in lieu of gifts
for her bat mitzvah she would ask well-wishers to
donate to Tackle Kids Cancer, which raises money for
pediatric cancer research and patient-care programs
as part of the Children’s Cancer Institute at Hacken-
sack Meridian Health.
Ayelet, now a sixth grader at Ben Porat Yosef in Para-
mus, requested that the gifts be designated specifically
for the Child Life Program as a way of memorializing From left, Maureen McLaughlin of Tackle Kids Cancer; Dr. Michael Harris of Hackensack Meridian Health
Chana and bettering the lives of other children in treat- Hackensack University Medical Center; Ayelet Poupko; her mother, Dr. Shoshana Klein Poupko, holding
ment at the hospital. baby Rachel; Elana Poupko; Rabbi Chaim Poupko; pediatric hematologist-oncologist Dr. Alfred Gillio,
“I didn’t want any stuff,” Ayelet said. “Those kids and Lauren Willis of the Hackensack University Medical Center Foundation.
need it more.”
On April 12, Ayelet presented Tackle Kids Cancer with for some of the items and bringing them to the hospital said New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning matched
a check for $12,000. Days later, the grand total contrib- herself. Because my kids spent so much time there, they the $17,500 the girls had raised. That came to a total of
uted in Ayelet’s honor by 100 people climbed to $13,250. go back and visit often, and we take gifts at holiday time.” $35,000 to benefit pediatric cancer research.
Ayelet plans to write a thank-you note to each donor. Amy Glazer, the executive director of development for
Ayelet did not think that her fund-raising appeal would the children’s hospital and Tackle Kids Cancer, said the
raise so much money. staff feels “incredibly grateful” for Ayelet’s contribution.
She had asked for a wish list from Tara Mullen, a senior The Child Life Program is not funded by insurance and
child-life specialist at Sanzari Children’s Hospital.
Ms. Mullen has many strong memories of Chana.
depends largely on philanthropy, she explained.
“As a family-centric program, the Joseph M. Sanzari
Earlier this year,
“I had the pleasure of working with Chana during her Children’s Hospital boasts a robust Child Life team to Ayelet decided that
treatment,” she said. “As a child life specialist, my focus
is to help children cope with the many demands of
provide socio-emotional support to the patient and his
or her siblings,” Ms. Glazer said.
in lieu of gifts for
treatment through play, expressive activities, and edu- “Our Child Life staff integrates play therapy, perfor- her bat mitzvah
cation. I had the honor of working with Chana and her
sisters over the course of her treatment. Chana loved
mance, music, and art into the treatment of children.
Their work helps children to better understand their
she would ask well-
playing, especially with her sister, and spending time diagnosis, channel their emotions during their illness wishers to donate to
out of her room.
“Much of my time spent with Chana was walking her
or injury, and provide an alternative method for them
to communicate.
Tackle Kids Cancer,
around the unit in a little red wagon, often accompanied “Ayelet’s generosity and kindness will impact which raises money
by ‘Mickey baby’ and a couple of other stuffed friends. countless patients and their siblings.”
“Chana was an incredible little girl, with the wisest This is not the first time that the Poupko family’s for pediatric cancer
blue eyes and playful and warm spirit. I feel so honored
to have spent time with her and to have met her sisters
contributions have made an impact at the hospital
where Chana was treated.
research and patient-
and parents, all of who are still so invested in the care and In 2017, the family learned that the Alfred N. San- care programs.
treatment of children at the Children’s Cancer Institute at zari Family Foundation was planning to renovate the
Hackensack Meridian Health Hackensack University Med- Audrey Hepburn Children’s House and asked to par- Ayelet, who turned 12 on February 24, and Elana, 10,
ical Center, as well as the child life department.” ticipate by creating specially equipped rooms for Sab- welcomed a new baby sister, Rachel, two months ago.
So when she was asked to chose items in Chana’s mem- bath-observant families on the Hackensack University The whole family went to the children’s hospital to pres-
ory, Ms. Mullen was glad to pick four expensive but very Medical Center campus. ent Ayelet’s bat mitzvah gift money.
useful pieces of equipment: Pack ‘n Play portable crib/ The Poupkos raised $100,000 in just two weeks, pri- Last year, Ms. Mullen came to talk to Ayelet’s class at
play yards, white-noise machines to help children sleep marily from members of Englewood’s Congregation Ben Porat Yosef about the Child Life Program. Ayelet said
through the beeping of monitoring equipment, LEGO Ahavath Torah, where Rabbi Chaim Poupko then was that hearing about the work of child-life specialists helped
sets, and premium modeling clay. associate rabbi and now is rabbi. The rooms have been raise awareness for the good it accomplishes. Judging by
“Ayelet set a goal of $3,600 to cover all this, but our in regular use since they were completed that March. their generosity, adults in the local Jewish community
community has been unbelievable,” said her mother, And last June, proceeds from the annual “Heartbeats” clearly were touched as well.
Dr. Shoshana Klein Poupko, a therapist at Family Service student production at Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School “I think people understood the real need for
League in Montclair. for Girls in Teaneck were donated to Tackle Kids Cancer. the money because they saw an example of how it
“We’ve talked about the possibility of Ayelet shopping Dr. Poupko, then a faculty adviser for the production, helped,” Ayelet said.
8 JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019
 Jewish National Fund Women for Israel Presents

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Featuring Siggy Flicker

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JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019 9

Local

With a little help from his friends

Israeli film ‘Redemption’ to play in Closter
LARRY YUDELSON

I
n the beginning was the friendship.
Cinematographer Boaz Yeho-
natan Yaakov and director Joseph
Madmony had worked together on
two of Mr. Madmony’s films.
They clicked, despite the fact — or per-
haps because of the fact — that Mr. Mad-
mony had left the religious world of his
youth, and Mr. Yaakov embraced Ortho-
dox Judaism and Chabad as an adult.
“I think that we have a lot in com-
mon because both of us made a drastic
change,” Mr. Madmony said. “It’s about
telling yourself a different story. We both Boaz Yehonatan Yaakov
chose another story than the one that we
were raised with.”
So it was natural that Mr. Yaakov
would bring his idea for a film to Mr.
Madmony. The fictional idea concerned
a baal teshuva who left his life as a rock
star when he embraced religion, only to
rejoin his band on a reunion tour years
later in hopes of raising enough money to
treat his daughter’s cancer. They worked
together on the script of what became
“Redemption,” which went on to win the
audience award at the Jerusalem Film Fes-
tival and will play in Closter next week as
part of the IAC Cinematec. (See box.)
“At first, the story sounded a little bit
too melodramatic,” Mr. Madmony said. Joseph Madmony
“But Boaz was a really good friend of
mine. I started to write it almost unwill- helpful as studying in yeshiva.
ingly. Because I knew it was so important “Many times we see stories about peo-
to him, I couldn’t tell him no. Step by step, ple who fight something that is trying to
I fell in love with the story.” hurt them. What’s special about this story
The final film is not melodramatic, is that Menachem is in a fight for himself,
he said. with himself. It’s a story which each one
“It’s more like a slice of life. The text is of us lives. We grow up and get taught
very realistic.” about all the enemies that are on the
For Mr. Yaakov, the beginning of the a lot of sacrifice on both sides. A very big or three seconds — that happened in my outside, but the most important enemy
story was another friendship — his friend- and deep appreciation. life, when I was going to have my picture which you have to deal with is yourself.
ship with the man who led him to become “I wanted to tell a story about friend- taken for my ID card. This enemy disturbs your basic ability to
Orthodox, and to whose memory the film ship. And being an Orthodox Jew who is “Slowly we started building the charac- just be happy.”
is dedicated. very close to Chabad, the whole essence ter in a certain way, close to my life story Mr. Yaakov grew up on movie sets. His
“This friendship was maybe the most of redemption is in the air all the time. I — though I always kept working as a cine- father, Rony, now retired, was a film pro-
significant event in my life,” Mr. Yaakov understood and felt the fuel of the redemp- matographer during the whole process of ducer, “one of the main ones who estab-
said. “It was a very strong friendship, with tion is what you sacrifice from yourself and becoming Orthodox.” lished the film industry in Israel. I always
give of yourself to someone else.” As Menachem came into focus, so did knew that dealing with movies and films is
What: Film “Redemption, Friendship, Mr. Yaakov said, “turns life the lessons he learned from reuniting my life.”
showing as part of the IAC better for people who give from them- with his friends in the band. In high school, he took a film class and
Cinamatec, with discussion led selves to someone else. It has the biggest “He starts to see his faults — faults which realized that cinematography gave him an
by Rabbi Paul Kerbel effect when it is hardest to do it.” I had and have, in a certain different vol- outlet for his emotions and feelings. In the
Where: Temple Emanu El, 180 When it came time to expand the initial ume. Having a true partner like Yossi, who army, he worked as a cinematographer in
Piermont Road., Closter synopsis they had prepared to get fund- knows me well, helps me to be able to see the educational corps. At 24, he went to
ing into a full script, they realized that the those faults from the side. It’s very hard Los Angeles where he worked on films —
When: Thursday, May 9. 7:30 p.m.
reception and refreshments, 8 p.m. main character — Menachem — was “basi- for a person to see his own faults because and had an existential crisis.
screening and discussion cally underdeveloped,” Mr. Yaakov said. he loves himself very much. “L.A. showed me something which was
“I started to see some pictures and “This movie is an event in my life which very hard to understand. In L.A., the life
How much: In advance, $22, $18 for
events from my own life. The first scene, is much more than making a movie. It’s an of a simple human being who isn’t rich
Temple Emanu El members. $25 at
the door. where he gets his picture taken and finds inner process that is part of my whole life enough or beautiful enough or powerful
he can’t hold a smile for more than two journey, which can be as fulfilling and as enough is useless,” he said. “It was very
10 JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019
 Local CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF PRACTICE
REPRESENTING BUSINESSES,
FAMILIES AND INDIVIDUALS
We are looking forward to continuing to serve you.
Steven Morey Greenberg, Esq.
hard for me to live with. I came from Israel, which is a
Greenberg & Lanz, LLC
very small place, a very warm place. Suddenly to see
people just walking in the street and nobody cares about Please phone us for a free consultation
them, was very hard.
“I said to myself, ‘You came to the end of the world regarding these matters
where all your dreams are. And it’s a place you don’t
want to live in. What do you do now?’ Two University Plaza · Hackensack, NJ 07601
“I was feeling stuck for two years, which created a
certain kind of darkness. Then I met my friend Yosef, Phone: (201) 487-7755 · Fax: (201) 487-0087
the movie is in his memory. He was a baal teshuva. He smg@greenberglanz.com · www.greenberglanz.com
started to talk to me about the essence of God, who cre-
ated this big black feeling I was in, but it’s okay. Slowly,
slowly, I started to see things differently.”
He compares this experience to when he first
picked up a movie camera in high school. “It was the
second light that came into my life after cinematog-
raphy,” he said.
Mr. Yaakov was able to nurture both lights. In
“Redemption,” Menachem wasn’t able to do that.

I said to myself, ‘You

came to the end of
the world where all
your dreams are. And
it’s a place you don’t
want to live in. What
do you do now?’
“He stopped dealing with a basic core of his being,
the way that his soul can express itself through music.
He became Orthodox, but on the other hand he’s in a
certain way the walking dead because he doesn’t deal
with it. When the movie ends, he understands that the
music is something he can’t give up. He understands that
it’s not about giving it up, but lifting it up.”
Even though the mix of religion and professional
passion wasn’t a problem for Mr. Yaakov, Menachem’s
conundrum “is like the voices and dilemma I always had
in my head. In the movie they have a different volume,
so we can have a movie which talks about a journey.”
And while he is a filmmaker, not a rock star, he wrote
some of the songs in the movie.
“There’s a part in the movie where Menachem sings
to his daughter in the hospital. He sings, ‘Give us joy for
your basic essence of being.’ The song just happened
when I was going to synagogue one Friday evening. I
was very sad because of something. I was thinking about
what could get me out of this captivity of being sad. I
thought that if I can be happy for the very essence of
God’s being, nothing can take me captive.
“Some sentences came together. Suddenly I had a
small feeling of music to it. I started singing to myself
walking to the synagogue.”
“It’s very powerful because the movie doesn’t really
have any acts of religious ceremonies. You don’t see him
pray. You don’t see him asking for God to help him.
This one song is a certain kind of prayer.”
JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019 11
Local

The most insidious weapon

DARIUS GROSS

A
s the sun fell on the town
of Łódź, Poland, dozens
of people crowded inside
a cattle car. Among them
was Manny Buchman, who had been
forced to do this when he was 17 — and
now, at 92, he was doing it again. This
time willingly.
Seventy-six years ago, Manny expe-
rienced unbelievable suffering and sur-
vived. He hid in Hungary, was captured,
jumped out of the cattle car into a snow-

PHOTOS ASHER STROBEL LEADERSHIP PROGRAM

bank, was subjected to forced labor, and
endured several death marches. Eventu-
ally, Manny was liberated and made it to
Israel. This April, he retold his story at
the very same sites where he had lost
everything. I feel privileged that I was
there to hear him speak.
At Auschwitz, Manny had to reimag-
ine the massacre of his family. But this
time, he had his daughter Diane, his
grandsons Aryeh and Joey Strobel, and
17 other high school seniors to shed
tears with him. I was there too, as one
of the those seniors, participating in the Students from the Asher Strobel Leadership Program unfurl an Israeli flag outside the gates of Auschwitz.
annual Asher Strobel Leadership Pro-
gram. It’s sponsored by Diane and her would have spelled Manny’s doom. man at the front of the line has gray shattered and twisted off innocent faces.
husband, Ron, in memory of their son But Manny, it is obvious that you were hair and a cane. The guards’ body lan- The mountains of millions of shoes, stolen
Asher; we went to Poland after spending the strongest person on the Asher Stro- guage in the photograph shows them from once-active feet. The pillows, sewn
the academic year working on our lead- bel Leadership Program. To return to simultaneously making the same deci- and stuffed with heaps of Jewish hair.
ership skills. such a dark place, to relive the horrors sion: One guard pushes the man for- I have always had a personal attach-
Manny uses a cane to walk. He often you suffered, was extraordinarily brave. ward to the right, before the command- ment to the events that unfolded in
has trouble hearing. The Nazis believed It’s the sheer force of selfless willpower ing guard has even finished pointing in Poland and Auschwitz. My father’s par-
this to be weakness, and that weakness one could only expect from a Holo- that direction. ents both survived the Holocaust. My
in a Jew made him useless to the Third caust survivor. When I saw this picture, something Babi’s brother and Zeidy’s entire family
Reich. At the selection lines, these traits At a museum inside the Auschwitz inside me began to churn. I stumbled were sent to the Auschwitz gas cham-
labor camp, a photograph on the wall through the rest of the exhibit, trying in bers. Their shoes could have been in
Darius Gross lives in Englewood and is a shows several SS guards making “selec- vain to process the kaleidoscope swirl- that pile, and their hair used to sew that
senior at SAR High School in Riverdale. tions” from the newly arrived Jews. The ing around me. The piles of eyeglasses, SEE INSIDIOUS PAGE 56

Holocaust survivor Manny Buchman is surrounded by students as he Students drape themselves in the flag of Israel as they walk the train
relives his experiences both in Nazi captivity and fleeing from it. tracks leading to Auschwitz.
12 JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019
JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019 13
 JS-14*

Local

‘kaddish.com’
Novelist Nathan Englander will discuss
life, work, and everything else in Teaneck
Joanne Palmer

Y
ou look at the photograph of Nathan
Englander — he’s handsome, pensive, still,
in an empty, dramatic space, sitting there
like the pure quintessence of novelist. You
know. A Writer.
And then you talk to him, maybe a little intimidated by
his work — he’s just finished a new novel, “kaddish.com,”
and he’s going to be talking about it in Teaneck on Sun-
day night (see box) — and he’s not at all what you expect.
He’s warm, charming, incredibly fast-talking, jumping
from idea to idea with unassailable if unfollowable logic.
Even on the phone, you (or at least I) are totally dis-
armed, entirely charmed, thoroughly if abstractly in love.
Okay. Enough of that.
Nathan Englander began his career about 20 years
ago with his first book, a short story collection called
“For the Relief of Unbearable Urges.” He’s published
four books since then, some of them short-story collec-
tions, some of them novels. He grew up in the Orthodox
community on Long Island, went to the school then

called the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County — bet-
ter known as HANC — lived in Israel for five years, now
lives in Brooklyn, and is both no longer Orthodox and
as thoroughly deeply, authentically, and inescapably
Jewish as anyone possibly could be.
Like the main character of “kaddish.com,” he’s
nearly 50 now; as with that book’s Larry, his father
died in 1999. That’s when the book opens, after a page
dedicated “For my sister,” for real, with a description
of the relationship between Larry and Dina as the little
brother stays with his big sister for their father’s funeral
and shiva. Dina lives in Memphis, Tennessee. The rest
of the book is set 20 years later; Larry’s evolved into
Reb Shuli — formally Shaul — returned to the Orthodox
life he’d once rejected, a husband, father, teacher, and
son. But whoops! He didn’t handle his obligation to say
kaddish for his father properly.
From there, the book takes off, part fable, part magic
realism, part mystery, deeply touching, occasionally
weird, almost always funny.
Not that everyone finds it funny, Mr. Englander said.
He’s been chasing around the country talking about the
book, and he’s struck by how varied the reactions to it
have been. “My mom thinks it’s a sad book,” he said.
Other people have laughed their way through it.
“When I was in grad school, I would think that I had
written the funniest story in the world, and I’d put it
up, and my friends would be like, ‘I cried.’ And I would
put up something sad, and they’d say, ‘I laughed my
head off.’
“What the reader thinks is really interesting to me,
and it has been comforting and lovely.”
One of the most striking parts of the book is how
good-natured it is; it leads its hero through unlikely
and perilous adventures in Memphis, Brooklyn, and
Jerusalem, and it’s got an unfashionably, satisfactorily
happy ending.
Sandee Brawarsky of Teaneck, the Jewish Week’s
culture editor, will interview Mr. Englander at Beth
Sholom on Sunday night. She’s known him for more
than 20 years, since before his first book came out, and
has watched him change and grow.
“He is very exuberant,” she said. “He talks a mile a
minute. He starts in one place and then will talk about
something else and quotes a lot of people and he always
makes sure to attribute the quote. It’s very circular.
“He talks about how he talks in a circular way, and
his writing is very clear. And how that circular way of
talking is very Jewish.” (It was one of his first writing
teachers, the writer Marilynne Robinson, who taught
him at graduate school at the University of Iowa Writ-
ers’ Workshop, who’d pointed that out to him, she said.)
On Sunday, they will talk about “his career, how he
has gotten to where he is now,” she said. “He looks up
to both Malamud and Roth, and in some of the scenes
you can see his connection to Philip Roth.” (There
aren’t many of those scenes, but they are pretty hard
to miss.) “We will talk about the book and Orthodoxy
and faith and religion, and how he is secular now but
he is really drawn back in.”
“I have all my high-falutin’ reasons for books to get
written,” Mr. Englander said. “There are so many sin-
cere reasons, emotional reasons, literary and conscious
and intellectual reasons, but I always compare it to being
a gymnast. With writing, you are always starting again,
and figuring it out again. Reflecting on your own life.”
Okay. So his life. He may be secular — no, he is secular
— but his pull toward Jewish life is so strong that you can
practically see it between the words on the pages of his
book. Ms. Brawarsky sees it. “He is decidedly secular,
but his friends tease him about how soulful he is,” she
said. “He will catch himself doing all sorts of halachic
things. And now he has discovered the world of secular
Joshua Meier
Judaism — that you can be secular and Jewish.”
What can be more Jewish than the concept of saying
kaddish?
“‘kaddish.com’” is “a journey book,” Mr. England
said. “It is about somebody trying to find something.”
The book’s premise is the need to say kaddish. “There
is a father who is religious, who needs an advocate,” the
man who will say kaddish for him, three times a day, for
11 months. “There can be nothing clearer. If you don’t
say the kaddish right, he’s burning in the fire for real. If
you are traditional or Orthodox, the expectation is that
someone will do it. If you are not, then not. Just not.
“That set up the story for me.”
It feels necessary to say that the book takes the need
to say kaddish absolutely seriously. It is not a joke.
Nothing about the Orthodox life that Shuli leads is a
joke; it’s his interactions with the outside world that are
funny, and they come from him.
“Resilience is not rejection,” he said. “It is a form
of love.”
Who: The Jewish Week’s Sandee Brawarsky will
interview writer Nathan Englander; after they talk,
there’ll be a question-and-answer session and
book signing.
When: On Sunday, May 5, at 7:30 p.m.
Where: At Congregation Beth Sholom, 354
Maitland Ave.
Why: As part of the shul’s series, “New Horizons in
Jewish Literature.”
How much: It’s free.
For more information: email or go to
www.cbsteaneck.org

14 Jewish Standard MAY 3, 2019

 CLEAR VISION IS A DROP AWAY
Could eye drops be the secret to curing vision problems? A new procedure in
development at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem uses nano-particle drops
to adjust the refraction of light through the cornea. Rather than wearing glasses or
contacts, or removing portions of the cornea with laser surgery, patients of the future
will "see the light" with a lower risk of complications.

Shaare Zedek medical professionals lead the way with ground-breaking solutions.
Israel’s preeminent hospital in the heart of Jerusalem for more than a century helps
patients heal through compassionate care and cutting-edge treatments.

Join us at www.acsz.org/donate, because when it comes to medical innovation,

we’ve got an eye on the future.

www.acsz.org | national@acsz.org | 212.764.8116

JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019 15

Briefly Local

Tanya Steel, center, featured speaker, and Jordan Shenker, the JCC’s CEO, with the Lavish Brandi Rubin and Lorin Cook, event co-chairs,
Lunches committee. serving at the senior lunch.

Lavish Lunches and much more

More than 200 people were guests at Lavish Lunches
at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly. The
annual culinary adventure raises funds to support JCC
programs and services for senior adults in the com-
munity. The day began with a light breakfast at the
home of Michele and Daniel Ross; it featured a pre-
sentation by Tanya Steel, a global leader in the food
world, and a testimonial from Debbie Himmelfarb,
who described how her 94-year-old father enjoys his
time in the JCC’s Senior Center. The day continued as
guests enjoyed lunches of their choice at local homes
and other venues.
The JCC hosted its annual Mitzvah Lunch one week
later. There, seniors gathered for an afternoon of din-
ing and dancing with their extended families, friends,
and caregivers, as well as JCC members and staff who
volunteered to help the seniors. The Taub Audito-
rium was decorated with centerpieces made by chil-
dren in the JCC Early Childhood program. Live DJ
entertainment included music from the 1940s, ’50s
and ’60s, and young ballerinas from the JCC Dance
Department staff and all the caring and generous
members of our JCC community, who offer their
time, open their hearts, and give their support to
bring seniors together for incredible experiences
that enlarge their social world, and most importantly,
bring them joy.”
Proceeds from the day support the JCC as it pro-
vides care for seniors in the community — many of
those seniors otherwise would be homebound. The
JCC Senior Services Department delivers a broad
range of social, cultural, educational, and recreational
programs for older adults and their caregivers. High-
lights include the Kaplen Adult Reach Center, a social
adult day care for people with Alzheimer’s disease
and dementia; REAP, which offers extensive program-
ming for active retirees; the Club, a social group for
people with mild cognitive impairment; the Senior
Activity Center, and intergenerational programs with
children in the JCC’s Early Childhood Center. Many of
these programs offer door-to-door transportation in Speaker Tanya Steel and Michele Ross, a
wheelchair-accessible vehicles, programs for the arts, morning breakfast host. PHOTOS COURTESY JCCOTP

School performed. lectures and concerts, discussions on current affairs,

“Days like these are special,” the JCC’s CEO, Jordan
Shenker, said. “Our center is a place where seniors
can come to make friends, share in programs that
keep them connected to their community, and find
a sense of purpose. Discovering this all in one place
is rare, and it is programs like Lavish Lunches, which
brings the whole community together, that make it
possible. Caring for seniors is a core component of
our mission, and we are so grateful to the Senior
exercise, sing-alongs, dancing, and birthday and holi-
day celebrations. These programs allow seniors to age
in place successfully and remain engaged and con-
nected to their community. The JCC also serves more
than 24,000 free hot kosher meals annually.
Lorin Cook and Brandi Rubin were the day’s
co-chairs, and the committee included Orly Chen,
Stephanie Cohn, Alissa Epstein, Merle Fish, Kiera
Flynn, Jenna Gutmann, Jackie Pollack, Michele
Ross, Jennifer Schiffman, Riki Shulman, Jillian Som-
berg, Francie Steiner, and Yifat Yechezkell. Sponsors
included the Kaplen Foundation, Englewood Health,
Artistic Tile, the Dean Foundation/Francie & Stephen
Steiner, ShopRite/Treeco, Gilly’s Organics, Orly Chen/
Re/Max Properties Plus, M Ross & Associates LLC,
MYRON, and IAC Israeli American Council.
To make a donation to programs for seniors, go to
jccotp.org/lavishlunches.

Israel Bonds-Bergen
meets in Cresskill
From left, Vered Buskila, Lee
On March 28, Israel Bonds Bergen County Women’s Division held a
Schwartz, executive director of
parlor meeting in Cresskill which resulted in more than $100,000 in
Israel Bonds Metro NJ, Annette
purchases and intentions to invest. It was hosted by Annette Stern.
Stern, and Marc Rosen, Israel
Vered Buskila, a former Israeli Olympic sailor and vice president
Bond’s registered representative
of the Olympic Committee of Israel, was the guest speaker.
for Bergen County. COURTESY
For more information about the event or investing in Israel
ISRAEL BONDS
Bonds, call Marc Rosen at (201) 881-1596 or email him at marc.
rosen@israelbonds.com.

16 JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019

 71
Gala Teaneck Community-Wide

t zm a u t
Yom Ha’ a

Please plan to join

hundreds of your friends Celebration This event will be suitable
for all adults and for children
in celebration of
Yom Haatzmaut! from sixth grade and up.

Wednesday evening, May 8, 2019 | 7:00 pm

Jewish Center of Teaneck, 70 Sterling Place
You are invited to a special program
T’fillat mincha
A Yom Ha’zikaron presentation from chayal Omry Naftali
T’fillat maariv chagigit
Jewish Center’s Social Hall -
an evening of Israeli music and dance
featuring the acclaimed Jonathan Rimberg

Sponsoring Shuls
Congregations Beth Aaron, Beth Abraham, Bais Medrash of Bergenfield,
Bnai Yeshurun, Jewish Center of Teaneck, Keter Torah, Netivot Shalom, Ohr Saadya, Rinat Yisrael,
Shaare Tefillah, Shaarei Orah, Young Israel, and Zichron Mordechai
We thank our generous sponsors Drs. Morton and Esther Fridman,
Ellen and Dr. Richard Gertler, Nathan J. and Shari Lindenbaum and Rochel and Joseph Stechler.

JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019 17

Briefly Local

Large turnout for seder at Chabad in Franklin Lakes

More than 130 people joined the annual community Passover seder at Chabad in Franklin Lakes. Participants enjoyed a three-course dinner, inspirational stories,
Passover games, and all the traditional seder rituals. Go to www.chabadplace.org for information on upcoming programs.

Temple Emeth celebrates Remembering Lillian Adler

25 years with Cantor Tilem and her Rockland contributions
Teaneck’s Temple Emeth will important part of the spiri- The Holocaust Museum organizations, includ-
mark 25 years of Cantor Ellen tual life of many congregants. & Center for Tolerance ing the federation,
Tilem’s musical leadership She was the only cantor on & Education, Israel where she was a board
with a celebratory weekend the Teaneck Clergy Council Bonds, JCC Rockland, member, the Holocaust
from Friday, May 31, to Sun- at that time, and she led an and Rockland Jewish Museum & Center for
day, June 2. On Friday at 7:30 interfaith children’s choir Family Service Wom- Tolerance & Educa-
p.m., the Shabbat service that performed at the annual en’s Philanthropy at tion, Israel Bonds, JCC
will feature a musical tribute Thanksgiving service. Jewish Federation & Rockland, and Rock-
to Cantor Tilem, with past At the shul, Cantor Tilem Foundation of Rock- land Jewish Family
and present choir and band teaches religious school, land County will honor Service, which also are
members participating. The adult education, and bnai Lillian Adler, z”l at this event sponsor s.
festivities will continue on Cantor Ellen Tilem mitzvah preparation. She year’s Women’s Philan- Lillian Adler, z”l S i g g y F l i c ke r o f
Sunday, June 2, at 5 p.m., at a BARBARA BALKIN added a music and mitzvah thropy meeting on Sun- Tenafly is the keynote
gala honoring the cantor for class to the school curricu- day, May 19, at 10 a.m., at the Rock- speaker. An Israeli-born American,
her leadership. lum to connect the historical, ethical, and leigh. Through her work and her Ms. Flicker is a staunch supporter of
Cantor Tilem came to Temple Emeth in spiritual lessons of Hebrew school with example, Ms. Adler taught Rockland Israel and the Jewish people. Dietary
1994 after being ordained at the Hebrew Jewish musical heritage. Cantor Tilem has County the importance of tzedakah laws will be observed. For more
Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion’s shared a strong clergy partnership with and how to act with loving kindness. information, go to rjfs.org.
School of Sacred Music. Her education Rabbi Steven Sirbu for nearly 16 years. She was involved in many Jewish
included hospital chaplaincy training, and Cantor Tilem lives in Teaneck with her
she is a member of the American Confer- husband, Peter, and their three daugh-
ence of Cantors. ters, Eve, Leila, and Eliana. For more
One of Cantor Tilem’s early innova- information on the festivities, email Lisa
tions was creating a service for spiritual Eig at Lisa_eig@yahoo.com or call (201)
healing and wholeness, which remains an 833-1322.

Faith leaders
meet with
Gottheimer
Faith leaders met with Congress-
man Josh Gottheimer, the Demo-
crat who represents New Jersey’s
5th District. The gathering takes
PHOTO PROVIDED

place every six months, to give

the leaders a chance to interact
with one another as well as with
the congressman.
Leaders at the meeting included Rabbi Loren Monosov, front row, fourth from left and Cantor Alan Sokoloff, behind her
in the back row, left of the U.S. flag, both of Temple Emanuel of the Pascack Valley in Woodcliff Lake; Congressman Josh
Gottheimer, front row, center; and to his right, Rabbis Nathaniel Helfgot, Congregation Netivot Shalom of Teaneck, and
David Fine, Temple Israel & JCC in Ridgewood. Rabbi Rachel Steiner of Barnert Temple in Franklin Lakes is behind them.

18 JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019

 Elaine Abrams Miriam Josephs
Roberta Abrams Jewish Federation celebrates 25 years June Kozak Kane
Dana Post Adler of the international women’s program, Helen Kaplan
Elaine Adler Margaret Kaplen
Lucille J. Amster
Anonymous
Lion of Judah Endowment Miriam Kassel
Ellen G. Kaufman
Dina Bassen Donna Kissler
Barbara Bender Ruth Kornheiser
Ella Berman Throughout the month of May, we pay Joan Krieger
Rosalie Berman Madelene Kupperman
tribute to these 92 special women from
Angelica Berrie Lee Langbaum
Gail Billig northern New Jersey who have ensured Rina Lerner
Gale S. Bindelglass Zelda Levere
their Jewish legacy by endowing their
Anita Blatt Sue Ann Levin
Myrna Block Lion level gift to Jewish Federation of Tina Lieberman
Vivian Bregman Northern New Jersey. Lisa Mactas
Nancy G. Brown Rita Merendino
Nancy I. Brown Ruth Merns
Belle Bukiet Linda Mirelson
Geri Cantor Barbara Moss
Rebecca Citron Barbara Norden
Ruth Cole Judy Opper
Marion Cutler Susan Penn
Deborah Goodman Davis Jo-Ann Hassan Perlman
Mariam Davis Jayne Petak
Suzette Diamond Cheryl Phillip
Dana Egert Adele Rebell
Bambi Epstein Martha Richman
Eleanor Epstein Sylvia Safer
Jeanne Liss Epstein Barbara Seiden
Nancy Epstein Pearl Seiden
Robin Epstein Thank you for sustaining vibrant Paula Shaiman
Rella Feldman Susan Sher
Jewish life for future generations.
Merle Fish Sylvia Shirvan
Sharyn J. Gallatin Carol Silberstein
Eva Lynn Gans Barbara Smolin
Rani Garfinkle Michele Sweetwood
Judy Taub Gold Marilyn Taub
Stephanie Goldman Rosen Yvette Tekel
Rosalind Green Lilo Goldenberg Thurnauer
Dr. Adrienne Greenblatt Louise Tuchman
Elizabeth Halverstam Beate Voremberg
Arline Herman Jayne Petak Donna Kissler
Endowment Foundation, Chair Paula Shaiman
Helen Wajdengart
Yona Donner Hermann LOJE Co-chairs Jacqueline Weiss
Marjorie Immerman For more information, please contact Gail White
Joyce Joseph Robin Rochlin at 201-820-3970 | robinr@jfnnj.org Arlene Zweifler
Len Fisher at 201-820-3971 | lenf@jfnnj.org

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JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019 19

 Cover Story
Fighting stigma
Not alone
Local groups partner to offer
symposium on mental health issues
Y
Joanne Palmer
es, of course sunlight is the
best disinfectant.
But it’s not as if all you
have to do is tug a bunch
of problems out into the
backyard at noon and let the sun bleach
them clean.
It’s a process. Even metaphorically,
it’s a process. In order to heal mental
health issues, you have to be able to
acknowledge their existence and then
face them straightforwardly if you are
to stand a chance. The more the stigma
is allowed to block them from sight, the
more they fester. The more they are
freed from stigma, the more they can
be assessed, diagnosed, discussed, and
dealt with.
Lianne and Etiel Forman know about
this process firsthand. Their daughter
Elana, one of their five children, had
abused drugs and alcohol since she
was in high school; a gifted student, she
managed to keep her problem hidden
for years. She’s now in recovery, and
her parents, both lawyers and promi-
nent members of Teaneck’s Orthodox
community, have dedicated themselves
to helping make other parents’ paths
easier, or at least better marked, than
theirs had been.
Last April, they called a community
meeting that drew a huge crowd — esti-
mated at somewhere between 600 and
20 Jewish standard MaY 3, 2019
700 people, far more people than chairs
or even standing room — at the Torah
Academy of Bergen County. Since then,
they’ve created their own group, Com-
munities Confronting Substance Abuse,
and have held other meetings. The com-
munity’s interest has remained strong.
Now, Communities Confronting
Substance Abuse is partnering with
Refa’enu, a Teaneck-based group started
by local writer and activist Dena Croog
to combat the stigma and increase the
understanding of mood disorders and
mental illness, to offer a symposium on
mental health and addiction on May 5.
(See box.)
Some of the feedback she and her
husband got after their earlier panels
and discussions “said that it was great,
but narrowly focused,” Lianne Forman
said. “It was a lot about addiction, and
it focused on schools and teenagers.
One person said to me, ‘We don’t have a
teenager, so it’s not relevant to me.’ And
you can’t cover everything.”
But she knows that drug addiction
is a symptom rather than a cause, an
indicator of an underlying problem,
although certainly a problem in itself;
so “although our organization is still
focused and will continue to be focused
May is mental health awareness month. Here are stories about
three programs, two in Bergen County and one in Rockland,
about mental health and the Jewish community.
on substance abuse and addiction
awareness education and prevention,
we partnered with Refa’enu. The pur-
pose of the partnership is to say that
addiction is a mental health disease, and
there are other, broader mental health
issues that we want to tackle together.
“Addiction is a disease,” she said. “Sub-
stance abuse is a symptom, like depres-
sion. You can be addicted to anything — to
gambling, to shopping, to sex, to overeat-
ing, to anything that produces a feeling
of completeness. It is self-medicating, and
you cannot break away from it.”
Many people can gamble, shop, over-
eat, or do many other things without
developing an addiction to them, she
added. It’s a risk “to people who are psy-
chologically prone to it. If you are not,
so okay, so you engage in that behavior.
So what? But if you are, then that behav-
ior becomes everything to you, to the
exclusion of everything else.” And that
turns into a very big problem.
She and Ms. Croog started talking
“about how we wanted to do a commu-
nal event; when we first started talking,
it was about getting on the map, mak-
ing people aware of our existence. And I
sensed that she had a kindred spirit. We
both want to help other people, based
on our own experience.
“We are not into politics or posturing.
We just have two organizations that are
aimed at helping other people.”
Although both she and Ms. Croog are
Orthodox, both of their organizations
and the May 5 symposium are “open
to everyone,” she said. “Ours has never
been aimed only at Orthodox Jews.
It’s aimed at Jewish schools. These are
issues that touch everyone.”
The symposium will open “with a key-
note conversation” between two people,
Dr. Norman Blumenthal and Lisa Twer-
ski, she said. (Dr. Blumenthal is a clinical
psychologist who, among many other
impressive credits, works with children,
specializes in trauma, and heads a pro-
gram at RIETS at Yeshiva Univer-
sity; Ms. Twerski is a highly
credentialed social
worker who specializes in domestic vio-
lence and substance abuse.) It won’t be
a lecture; the organizers are aiming for
a less formal, less frontal, more engag-
ing affect. The conversation will focus
on stigma. “How does it manifest itself,
specifically in the Jewish community? Is
it different in faith-based communities?
How do we eliminate it?
The focus on stigma is “because it’s a
barrier for a lot of things,” Ms. Forman
said. “It’s a barrier to understanding
what the other person is going through.
If you don’t understand, if you have
misconceptions, that would lead you to
stigmatize someone. The stigma is a bar-
rier that stops us from being supportive,
from both an individual and a commu-
nal viewpoint.
“There are two problems. One is that
what people think they already know is
see sTiGMA page 22

‘Life After Suicide’
Rabbi and doctor who lost loved ones will speak in Closter
A
Joanne Palmer
t his first High Holy Day sermon at
his new shul, in 2007, Rabbi David-
Seth Kirshner told the congregation
about his brother Gabriel’s suicide.
Rabbi Kirshner, still in his 30s,
new at his job, was standing at the bimah in the
big, packed sanctuary at Temple Emanu-El of Clos-
ter; there was another, similarly sized congrega-
tion, the other part of the Emanu-El community,
to whom he’d tell the story the next day. It’s a
wealthy, committed, well-educated, self-assured
group, and it would have been understandable had
Rabbi Kirshner decided to wait for a less high-pro-
file, arguably less risky time to tell his story. He per-
haps could have decided never to tell his story.
But that’s not what he did.
Instead, he told them about his oldest brother, who
begged his family to be allowed to stay in Baltimore
JS-21
Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner Dr. Jennifer Ashton
when the family headed to their father’s next stop —
his father, Sherman Phillip Kirshner, was a Conser-
vative rabbi, and he had taken a new pulpit in Penn-
sylvania. His wife and their three younger sons, of
course, went with their parents, but Gabriel longed
Cover Story
to go to the Orthodox boarding school that had
such a good reputation. It offered stability, aca-
demic and spiritual growth, and friendship.
Gabriel came home from that first year of
school changed, his brother David said. He did
not go back. In some ways, he never came back.
But eventually he went on with his life, got mar-
ried, got ordained, had a daughter. Seemed
okay.
But he wasn’t. When he was 36, in 1996, he
died of suicide. Later, his devastated family
learned that the principal of the school he’d
gone to was a monster. As Rabbi David Kirsh-
ner wrote in an op-ed in the Jewish Standard,
“When silence equals death,” on August 3, 2012, his
brother “was molested and raped from 1973 to 1975.
“He was not alone. Dozens of his classmates and
hundreds of boys before and after Gabriel were sexu-
ally molested and raped by the ‘rabbi.’
See suicide page 26
Jewish Standard MAY 3, 2019 21
 JS-22

Cover Story

Stigma productive to intervene at the beginning

from page 20 stages of any mental health problem, she
based on misunderstanding and mis- said. If you wait, “it can become more
conception. The second is that peo- serious, and require even greater effort
ple believe that it doesn’t affect them, or intervention.
since they don’t have a family member “When there is a low-level case of anx-
or friend they’re aware of who has that iety or depression, or a new budding
problem. They believe that it will never case of addiction, being able to treat it
affect them, so what’s the point of learn- sooner rather than later increases the
ing about it? possibility of the intervention being
“But it can affect you. And even if successful,” she said. “Not necessarily a
it doesn’t affect you immediately, if it quicker resolution, but a quicker road to
affects someone in your community, Dena Croog Leanne Forman Efrem Epstein healing than when somebody has been
then it affects you too. addicted for longer, or depressed for
“There are no guarantees. That is not only with many local Orthodox shuls help people who have a disorder. longer, or anxious for longer. You are
why we are so insistent on awareness but also with the Union for Reform Juda- “I think that it is important not to oth- just fighting so much more then to get
and education. Even if it’s not relevant ism, as well as with the non-movement erize people who have a disorder. It’s to them, to help them, to get the disease
to you now, who knows what the future based Ruderman Family Foundation, unintended, but sometimes it comes under control.”
will bring? which concentrates on disabilities and out a little bit. Sometimes it comes out as It’s not only friends or family who can
“And then, for the sufferers them- inclusion. ‘they are suffering, and we need to help be slow to admit that there’s a problem,
selves, stigma is a barrier in getting help. But beyond that, she said, “Lianne them.’ As someone who has a mental ill- she continued. Sometimes it’s the per-
If they feel that they are out of the norm, and I are coming from different direc- ness, it is more empowering to think of son. Admitting that you have a problem
that they are not accepted by the com- tions in that the Formans are coming as it from my perspective. can be inherently scary; if that problem
munity, then they either will try to hide parents of someone who has substance
their issues or they will break away from abuse issues. They are coming from the
the communities.” family’s perspective, the parents’ per-
There’s a tension in being part of a spective, which is really important.
tightly woven faith-based community, “But I am coming from a first-person But it can affect you. And even if
she said. “I think that faith-based com-
munities — not just the Jewish communi-
perspective.”
Ms. Croog wrote an op-ed in this
it doesn’t affect you immediately,
ties, but faith-based as opposed to secular paper in 2014. The headline was “I if it affects someone in your
— are more insular and more concerned
with helping each other. If you are living
have bipolar disorder,” and the first line
was “Well, that’s out of the way.” She’s
community, then it affects you too.
in a system and community that empha- been very open about her disorder —
sizes your relationship with God and with which, she said, is shared by about 9.5 “I think it’s important to have more is fogged in shame or misinformation, it
your fellow man, then you have a won- percent of Americans, including a pro- events like this, with different organi- can seem even scarier. “If if you have a
derful opportunity to be supportive. You portionate number of Jews — and has zations coming together,” she said, pre- niggling idea that you really do have a
have the chance to band together and worked to destigmatize it. She’s a mov- cisely because they can provide a spec- problem, who can I talk to? And maybe
become a better fellow man.” ing writer, whose columns deal with trum of vantage points. “It is important they’ll rush me right away to rehab, or on
Dena Croog agrees that combating living with bipolar disorder — and also for the community to see it from differ- medication. That can be a scary thing.”
stigma is important, and feels strongly living with children, living in a family, ent viewpoints. To see many plotlines Think of it this way, she said. If you
that it makes sense to include the symp- living in the Jewish community, and coming together.” need knee surgery, you ask your friends.
tom that is substance abuse in the just plain living. Her work shows that It’s vitally important that people Who cares if everyone soon knows that
understanding of the underlying issue a mood disorder is another part of life. understand more about mental illness, your knee isn’t so good? But if you’re
that is mental illness. She’s glad for the She destigmatizes by example. Lisa Twerski said; the conversation that asking for help with substance abuse,
chance to partner with the Formans, “It’s important that both the family will open the symposium “is to help well, maybe you don’t want anyone to
and she also feels strongly that recogniz- perspective and the first-person per- them understand what mental health know. So maybe you don’t ask. And any-
ing the problems and working toward spective are recognized as valid and stigma is and how it gets in our way, how way, who would you ask? No one you
solutions should not be confined to the important,” she said. “Now there are it affects all of us, even people who are know has asked. In public, at any rate.
Orthodox community. “Refa’enu is non- more people who talk about it from a not struggling with mental illness and And so it continues.
denominational,” she said; she’s worked family perspective, and about how to do not think they have family members The community also has to know what
with mental illness. its resources are, Ms. Twerski said; in fact,
“Stigma deepens and widens prob- the workshops that will follow the open-
Who: Communities Confronting Substance Abuse and Refa’enu, along with
support from many other local organizations lems in the community, because we act ing conversation include information
out of fear and ignorance. Then, we are about where people can turn for help.
What: Present the Mental Health and Addiction Symposium
more likely to buy into the stereotypes She tells a story. “There was a young
When: On Sunday, May 5, from 9 to 11:30 a.m. of mental illness, about what a drug woman who had a serious depressive
Where: At Yeshivat He’Atid, 1500 Queen Anne Road, Teaneck addict looks like, or what a mentally ill episode after a breakup in high school,”
How much: It’s free person looks like.” she said, careful to blur the details. “The
Paying attention to what you see can mom didn’t want to think of it as any-
Who will speak? Speakers include Dr. Norman Blumenthal, Lisa Twerski,
matter. thing more than typical teenage angst,
representatives of the Bergen County Narcotics Task Force, Dr. Jeff Berman,
“There is a lot of nuance and subtlety, even though the daughter was saying,
Dr. Kenneth Carpenter, Dena Croog, Ruth Roth, Efrem Epstein, Lesley Gabel,
Rabbi Zvi Gluck, Dr. Rebecca Harcsztark, Dr. Lee Hindin, Dr. Matis Shulman, and especially in the beginning stages of men- ‘I need help. I need someone to talk to.’
Ashley Sudol. tal illness,” she said. “That is the time to But the mom just tried to get her out of
catch things and attend to them. If we it. It wasn’t full-on depression, but it was
Workshop topics include what’s going on locally, misdiagnosis, family
don’t pay attention — if we don’t have the more than teenage angst.
communication, peer support, text study, marijuana, sexual abuse, eating
disorders, brain chemistry, opioids, and vaping. education, if we are afraid to learn about “It was low-level enough so that the
it because we’re afraid it can be frighten- mom was able to pull her daughter back
For more information: Email time2talkaddiction@gmail.com or go to www.
ing — then that is a missed opportunity.” into the mainstream high school expe-
time2talkaddiction.org
It’s far better, easier, and more rience, but the daughter later said that
22 Jewish Standard MAY 3, 2019

ever since then, she’d struggled with ran-
dom thoughts and with mood changes.
“She got engaged young, and then,
on the eve of her wedding, she had a
full-blown psychotic break of some sort.
Obviously that was devastating. You
wonder what might have been different
if her mood had been stabilized and the
problem had been attended to and dealt
with, from the time she started showing
some problems.
“She was fairly well stabilized after
that; medication was really helpful,
and therapy was really helpful, but it
put a bomb in her relationship and in
her plans, and it seemed to come out of
nowhere.
“I understand the concerns that a
parent would feel, putting a teenager on
medication and into the network of ther-
apy. It’s a hard choice. You have to make
hard choices.”
Is there anything particularly Jewish
about any of this? Not really, Ms. Twer-
ski said, although each group thinks that
the stigma its members face is unique,
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or at least far worse than anyone else’s.
“I do a lot of work with domestic vio-
lence, and once, years and years ago, I
was asked to be on a multicultural panel
on domestic violence,” she said. “I was
the last speaker. And everyone said the
same thing. Everyone went into it think-
ing I will say what is different about our
culture, but it was all the same.” In the
end, she didn’t say much about the Jew-
ish community; instead, she told them
that she’d sound just like everyone else.
“I think we have similar struggles,”
she said.
“We are very family oriented,” she
added. “That is our strength. We take
care of our children.” But the need to
show that your children always are spec-
tacularly wonderful can get in the way
of acknowledging them as real people,
with problems. And that is not at all
unique to the Jewish community.
Efrem Epstein, the founder of Elijah’s
Journey, will run one of the workshops.
Elijah’s Journey advocates for suicide
awareness and prevention. Its name
Happy Mother's Day
comes from the story of Elijah; the
group’s tack is unusual in that it works
with Jewish texts to show how some
Jewish foundational figures, who are
shown to be flawed but overcome those
flaws, face — and face down — thoughts
of suicide. Elijah, the great prophet who
we evoke at times of transition and lim-
inality, who we call to at Havdalah as
day turns to night and Shabbat to the
week, was so overcome that he wanted
to end his life. In Mr. Epstein’s transla-
tion of the Book of Kings, “I have had
enough — let me die!” Elijah said. “I
have dreams, goals, and values that I
will never achieve. What reason is there
for me to live?” And God, speaking
softly, told him to “go on a journey and
reassess.” And he did.
“In the context of Jewish texts, it is
more organic” to discuss the idea of
suicide and its prevention,” Mr. Epstein
said. “It is easier to assimilate it as a Jew-
ish issue.
“That’s the hiddush,” the innova-
tion, the new insight — “that we offer,”
Cover Story
he said.
Elijah’s Journey also stresses the
importance of “listening to the best
practices from experts in mental health
organizations,” he said. “Many syna-
gogues say that they want to do pro-
grams, ‘and there is somebody in the
synagogue who is a social worker, so
let him run it.’ The research is very cut-
ting edge. To be a mental health profes-
sional, you have to be trained in suicidal
ideation. Synagogues do not.
“So there are two separate things,
texts and best practices.” Both matter.
“The stories about mental health are
so very much part of our heritage, just
like stories about tzedakah, or about car-
ing for the elderly. In the Book of Ruth,
we learn about the kindness Boaz shows
to Naomi and Ruth. In many other sto-
ries as well, we learn about acts of
chesed, about how to support some-
body who is struggling.”
That’s exactly the support the com-
munity, at its best, can give people suf-
fering from mental illness, he said.
Jewish standard MaY 3, 2019 23
 JS-24

Cover Story

Lo Levad
the family, and they never mentioned to me how the
son had died. They really didn’t want to talk about it.”
So he thought about it, and “I decided to tell a piece
of my own story,” Rabbi Leiken said. Not all his story,
he added. “Just a real small piece.” But still.
No one should have to feel alone “When I was a freshman in college, at Brandeis, I had
a panic attack during orientation week,” he said. “I was
sitting at an event where they were talking about junior

R
Joanne Palmer Leiken grew up in Shaker Heights, out-
side Cleveland; he’s been gone from
ecently, Rabbi Brian Leiken there for a long time, but “my mother
of Temple Beth Sholom in called this summer to tell me that a
New City knew that he had friend who I hadn’t spoken to in 20
to talk. years had just passed away,” he said. “I
As a rabbi, as a leader, talked to a number of friends, trying to
he had to make clear that he also is a per- figure out what had happened.” Rabbi
son in order to lead. And as a person, he Leiken is in his 40s. That’s not a time
had to make clear that he is imperfect — in of life when you expect your friends to
other words, as fully human — as the peo- start dying off. “Nobody knew, and the
ple it is his job to lead. family wasn’t saying.
So, at the High Holy Days this fall, he Rabbi Brian Leiken “Later, I learned that it was suicide.
talked about suicide and mental illness. “It was only when my mother was
He’ll be talking about it again on Wednesday, May talking to his stepmother, when she said something like
15, at the launch of Lo Levad — “you are not alone” — a ‘It was what you think it was.’” No one would use the
joint project of the Rockland Board of Rabbis and Rock- word suicide.
land Jewish Family Service. (See box.) “It reminded me of when I was just out of rabbini-
The sermon was triggered by two things, Rabbi cal school and had to officiate at a funeral for a family
Leiken said. that had lost an 18-year-old son to a drug overdose. I
The first was the death of a high school friend. Rabbi remember spending two and a half hours talking with
year abroad, discussing the options and the possibil-
ities. I remember feeling sweaty, and also incredibly
depersonalized, as if my body were not connected to
my mind. As if I were out of my body.” It was a strange
and scary feeling.
“I remember feeling disoriented a lot during orien-
tation week — I think a lot of people feel that, but I was
feeling it on a different level.
“So I told my new friends — and they were very new
friends, brand new friends — and they called an ambu-
lance, and I went to the emergency room at Beth Israel
Deaconess Hospital right down the road. And they
brought me a brochure that said, ‘So you have panic dis-
order,’ and they gave me Xanax, and they sent me home.
“I was back in the emergency room the next day.”
“I stayed in school that year” — it was the 1994-95
school year — “but it took a number of months for me
to begin the process of healing. And it began a lifelong
ongoing battle with anxiety and depression that most
likely I inherited from my family, and it’s been quite a
journey for me.”

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As a rabbi — and as a person — he can learn from
it. “It has offered me a lot of context for understand-
ing other people’s journeys and battles,” Rabbi Leiken
said. “So I decided, this last year, to tell that part of my
story, knowing that it really runs much deeper than I
was sharing.
“The results of what I was sharing blew me away.
“All of a sudden, I had people coming over to me, tell-
ing me their stories. Telling me their challenges. I had
a lot of parents who were talking to me about the paths
their children were walking.”
Those parents suffered from a twofold problem,
Rabbi Leiken said. “First, there is the stigma. The
embarrassment. And then there’s the other part, that I
didn’t know would be as much of an issue as it is.
“It’s helplessness. People feel helpless. Mental health
is not simply a science, but also an art.” (That of course
is true of all medicine, he added, but it’s particularly
true of mental health.) It involves both minds and bod-
ies, and the connections aren’t necessarily clear. “And
when it comes to kids and adolescents, who don’t really
know what’s going on with their bodies anyway….” And
the more confusing everything seems, the more people
“feel very much alone,” he said.
“We are not so good at understanding the way that
our emotions and our feelings and our bodies affect
us,” Rabbi Leiken continued. “We have become very
fixated on finding quick fixes.” That doesn’t work.
Instead, “it is necessary for us in the synagogue
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world not simply to talk about mental health issues,
but to open our spaces and bring in resources, to have
other people talk, teach, advocate, lessen the stigma.
We have to normalize our conversations, to make it so
that mental health isn’t something you just leave out.”
Rabbi Leiken has been greatly influenced by the work
of Brené Brown, and most particularly by her book
“Daring Greatly.” “She speaks about the importance of
vulnerability, of opening ourselves up,” he said. “She
says that we have a fear of being vulnerable because we
fear that it will hurt us. But the truth is that vulnerabil-
ity is how we feel connections.”
Synagogues should offer those connections, but too
frequently they do not, he added. “Modern synagogues
have become a place of disconnection,” demanding
individuality in all things. “It has ripped apart what
community has meant, to become just another exam-
ple of consumer culture. The synagogue has become
another extension of our individualistic world, but tra-
ditionally it has been a place where people connect to
each other, and to God.
“The first thing in the Bible that isn’t good is loneli-
ness,” Rabbi Leiken said; that’s when God created Eve
to complement Adam. “That’s why we want to empha-
size Lo Levad. You are not alone.
“Remember that the word ‘synagogue’ comes from
the Greek word for ‘gathering space.’”
The program that will launch on May 15 will involve
Rabbi Leiken and another guest on a panel, and rabbis
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Cover Story
will talk about mental health issues on two Shabbatot
during May, according to Carol King, a social worker
who is a clinician with Rockland Jewish Family Service
and is heading the initiative. “This is a launch,” she said.
“We are not doing the equivalent of National Broth-
erhood Week,” a one-and-done nod to feeling good.
Instead, she said, this “is the beginning of something
that we chose to make a lifelong part of our Rockland
Jewish community.”
“We decided to start small,” Rabbi Leiken said. “This
year, our goal is just to make clear that we want to do
something. We are going to unveil a poster in our area
synagogues that will designate it as a safe space. The
goal is to use this launch as a way of beginning the con-
versation in the community this year. Next year, we
hopefully will have something bigger.
“My hope is that we can build a leadership circle
around this issue, and I hope that the team can find a
way of helping this issue permeate our walls. It is not
enough for me to just tell a story and Carol to just bring
a panel. It has to find a way to live and breathe within
the life our community.”
Who: rockland Board of rabbis and rockland
Jewish Family service
When: wednesday, May 15, from 7 to 9 p.m.
Where: rockland Jewish Community Campus,
450 w. nyack rd # 25, west nyack, n.Y.
Arielle’s Gallery
Hand-Crafted
One-of-a-Kind American Crafts
Fine Custom Framing
Jewish standard MaY 3, 2019 25
 JS-26

Jewish World

Suicide
from page 21
“Gabe did not tell anyone he was
molested. He only acted out. His abuse
was one of many facts we learned after
his suicide. I also learned that Gabe’s
wicked temper, severe homopho-
bia, fear of intimacy and of touching
another person, as well as the addic-
tions that plagued him, all came from
the abuse, not his DNA. His attendance
at this school led to these behaviors
and ultimately to his premature death.”
Rabbi Kirshner’s anger practically
burned through the newsprint; it still
nearly burns through the computer
screen. But he harnesses it through
action.
When he spoke about his brother’s
suicide, he said, “I spoke in the first
person, as the brother, the survivor
of suicide, and I also spoke as a rabbi
who deals every single day with people
dealing with mental health issues of all
varieties. Depression is the most com-
mon, but I also deal with people who
have bipolar disorder, anxiety, OCD. It
is all prevalent and rampant.”
As a result not only of theoretical
understanding but also of experience,
“I believe that we have a responsibility
to destigmatize mental health issues,”
he said.
Not only are mental health issues
prevalent, even “rampant, and every-
where, but the number of children
between 5 and 18 who have gone to
the emergency room with suicidal
ideation has doubled in the last eight
years,” Rabbi Kirshner said. (That’s
according to a report by CNN, which
quotes an April 2019 paper in the jour-
nal JAMA Pediatrics. The startling jux-
taposition of 5-year-olds and suicide
comes from JAMA.)
“I’m not a physician or scientist, but
clearly there is so much more pressure
on them that they didn’t feel before,”
Rabbi Kirshner said. “It is very signifi-
cant that social media has poured fuel
on the issue.
“There also is a significant dearth of
licensed therapists and psychiatrists
who focus on kids and adolescents,” he
added. “For every 100,000 kids who
are diagnosed with a mental health
challenge, there are only 17 licensed
doctors to work with them.”
And then there’s the stigma. “There
isn’t anyone in the synagogue who
doesn’t have someone in the family or
in the family orbit who has not suffered
from cancer or from mental illness,”
he said. “The difference is that we talk
much more openly and more responsi-
bly about cancer, and we’re still whis-
pering about mental illness.”
To open up the conversation, to
destigmatize it, to legitimize it, Rabbi
Kirshner and Temple Emanu-El are
presenting a conversation between
Rabbi Kirshner and Dr. Jennifer Ashton
on May 16. (See box.)
Dr. Ashton, who belonged to Tem-
ple Emanu-El at one point in her life,
is the chief medical correspondent for
“Good Morning America” and ABC
News. She’s a practicing ob/gyn. She’s
also the author of the about-to-be-re-
leased memoir “Life After Suicide,”
which she wrote because two years
ago, her newly ex-husband killed him-
self. He was a successful physician, and
he jumped off the George Washington
Bridge, which she could see from her
Fort Lee window.
The two will talk about suicide and
stigma, Rabbi Kirshner said. “My goal is
to destigmatize it so we can talk about
it. I want people to be able to talk to
their clergy and physicians about it,
and to know that good support, good
medicine, good therapy can make the
situation better.
“I think it’s a Jewish responsibility
to be in front of this,” he added. “We
choose life. Our community has to be
prepared.”
Emanu-El is billing the evening as
an “intimate conversation,” and in fact
Dr. Ashton and Rabbi Kirshner have
much to talk about. Most of Dr. Ash-
ton’s book tells her story, but she also
includes interviews with other people
who have been affected by the suicides
of people close to them. She includes
Rabbi Kirshner’s story.
Dr. Ashton’s story, as she tells it in her

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Jewish Standard
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 JS-27

Jewish World

book, is of a family of super high achiev-
ers; both she and her husband were
relentless strivers, apparently effort-
lessly reaching goals and then immedi-
ately refocusing on other, harder ones.
She has, she points out in the book, two
full-time careers, as well as two children,
a son now in Columbia and a daughter,
an ice hockey player who went to high
school as a boarder at Lawrenceville,
now headed to Harvard. She and her
husband had a once-close relationship
that loosened gradually but apparently
inexorably. They ended up divorced but
still not only co-parents but also tenta-
tive friends, apparently about to work
out the terms of their new relationship,
when he jumped.
The book traces the family’s regroup-
ing, their pain, their resilience, their
working together toward new under-
standing, their fragility, their stumbles,
their growth, and over all their love for
each other. Dr. Ashton grieves for her
marriage as well as for her husband,
and her children have to figure out how
to redefine themselves.
She talks a bit about spirituality,
which some of the other people she
interviews find in many places — in
churches, in new age understandings
of life and death. She tells stories of
her ex-husband appearing to her, in
dreams, in semi-awake moments, or
in the appearance of objects that are
connected to him and hadn’t been
there before.
She talks about the unexpected dif-
ficulties that widowhood brings. Some
of them even are tragicomic — how do
you get a cremated ex-spouse’s ashes?
Who do you bring with you when
you pick them up? And how do you
dispose of them? (She figured out the
answers to the first questions. The dis-
posal one — not yet. There’s no hurry,
she’s learned.)
Dr. Ashton had been somewhat pub-
lic about her husband’s suicide since it
happened — as a public figure, she says
repeatedly, she really has little choice
anyway — but it wasn’t until about a
year later, when first Kate Spade and
then Anthony Bourdain very pub-
licly killed themselves, that she made
the choice to tell her story. At the end
of her book, she describes going on
“Good Morning America” not as a dis-
passionate expert but as a bereaved
widow, a survivor, the mother of
survivors. It is important to tell the
story, she has learned over the course
of these two years. It can’t bring any-
one back to life, but maybe it can keep
the next person from climbing over the
guard rails, taking a deep breath, and
jumping.
Those all are questions that Rabbi
Kirshner and Dr. Ashton will explore
together.
Who: rabbi david-seth Kirshner
and dr. Jennifer ashton
What: will talk about her new
book, “Life after suicide: Finding
Courage, Comfort, and Communi-
ty after Unthinkable Loss.”
When: On thursday, May 16, at
7:15 p.m.
Where: at temple emanu-el, 180
piermont road, Closter.
How much: the evening is free,
but reservations are required.
Reservations: go to templeema-
nu-el.com/drjenniferashton or call
(201) 750-9997.

585 Russell Avenue, Wyckoff, NJ 07481

201-891-4466 www.bethrishon.org

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Breakfast: 9:30-11:00 am community!
Presentation: 10:30 am

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SUNDAY, MAY 19 AT 10:00AM
High Energy, Participatory Worship Services
Adult Education Programs Avenue,
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$10 per&adult,
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For more
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Jewish standard MaY 3, 2019 27
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Jewish World
Famed Nazi hunters
Beate and Serge Klarsfeld
say it feels like the 1930s
RON KAMPEAS
WASHINGTON — It’s not an unfamiliar
frame for describing the rise of the new
nationalism: There’s a bad wind blow-
ing through the West, and nothing less
than democracy is at stake.
What makes it especially unsettling
for Beate and Serge Klarsfeld is that
they have lived through it before — and
spent a subsequent lifetime trying to
make sure that ill wind did not return.
“There is a bad wind in Europe,
and democracy is losing its influence,”
Serge Klarsfeld said in an interview
Monday, just before he and his wife
Brightview. received the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Life!
Museum’s Elie Wiesel Award for their
Bright lifetime of hunting Nazis and forcing
Europe to confront its past.
In their final years, the Klarsfelds
have taken to arguing that the best
means of preventing the return of
anti-Semitism and corrosive prejudice
is protecting institutions like the Euro-
pean Union.
The rise of nativism in the United
States and Europe, the persistence
of anti-Semitism, and a number of
high-profile anti-Semitic attacks — these
elements do not surprise the couple.
Independent Living: It’s the carefree Instead, they take the long view. Live
retirement you’ve dreamed of! At Brightview, long enough, said Serge Klarsfeld,
Let Your all you have to do is what you want to do. who is 83 (Beate is 80), and what went
Life
around will come around again.
“It’s an atmosphere like the begin-
Bright Assisted Living: Highly trained
associates provide the care you need.
ning of the ‘30s, and the authority
of the state is at stake,” Serge Klars-
Shine Wellspring Village®:
feld said.
“We are sorry to see each Saturday
Compassionate professionals the Gilets Jaunes,” the populist “yel-
at Bergen County’s Premier low jacket” movement demanding
deliver our highly specialized
Senior Living Community dementia care program increased economic benefits in France,
he said. Some of its followers include
in a state-of-the-art
nativist and anti-Semitic elements “on
neighborhood. the streets with anti-Semitic slogans
against Jews coming from the extreme
right. You see people with the hand like
Call Mary or Marianne to a Hitler salute, publicly.”
schedule your personal visit. They also are not surprised by white
201.479.9437 supremacy’s resurgence in the United
396 Forest Avenue • Paramus, NJ 07652 States, nor the murderous attacks car-
www.BrightviewParamus.com ried out by white nationalists, most
recently in a synagogue in the San
Diego area last weekend.
“There was always the Ku Klux Klan,”
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Serge Klarsfeld said. “There were very
many violent actions against Jews and
black people, against others, it cannot
disappear in a few decades.”
Explicit anti-Semitism and to a lesser
degree racism fell out of favor after
World War II, but always existed below
the surface, the couple agree.
“Anyone who wants to find an enemy
finds an enemy in the Jew,” Beate Klars-
feld said.
The Klarsfelds have been given many
national awards over the decades. They
perhaps are best known for track-
ing down Klaus Barbie, the notorious
“Butcher of Lyon,” in Bolivia. They also
exposed Kurt Lischka, who served as
chief of the Gestapo in Paris.
As the publisher of a recent joint
biography, “Hunting the Truth,” puts
it, “they were born on opposite sides
of the Second World War”; Beate to a
German father who served in the Weh-
rmacht, Serge to a Jewish father who
was deported to Auschwitz.
(In 1986, the couple got the Holly-
wood treatment. They were portrayed
by Farrah Fawcett and Tom Conti in a
well-received made-for-TV film.)
The Klarsfelds are using the influence
they have accrued through their lifetime
of work to help the institutions they say
have protected Jews and other minori-
ties. They have published ads in France
urging votes for the pro-European
Union parties in the next European Par-
liament elections at the end of May.
“The fight against anti-Semitism is
not the priority,” Serge Klarsfeld said.
“The priority is the defense of democ-
racy to defend the republican state of
France and democracies in other states
in Europe.”
Democratic institutions, and the
the expansion of the European Union
after the breakup of the Soviet empire,
is what has kept the peace for seven
decades on a continent wracked by war
for centuries.
In a back-and-forth dialogue, the
Klarsfelds list the elements they say
have eroded attachment to the Euro-
pean Union among Europeans: a
resentment of the flood of migrants
after the 2011 Arab Spring, partic-
ularly in Eastern Europe, where
1245 Teaneck Rd.
Teaneck
837-8700
 Jewish World

homogeneous societies were ill pre- Agency, the Klarsfelds acknowledge an

pared for assimilating other cultures; a
decline of Holocaust education; inter-
ference by China and Russia, which
are hostile to a unified Europe; and the
pan-European ultranationalist move-
ment promoted by Steve Bannon, Pres-
ident Donald Trump’s former adviser.
They also blame a generation of Euro-
peans who took progress for granted.
And they say the erosion of trust in
democratic norms comes from three
directions: the left and its anti-Zion-
ists; the right and its ultranational-
ists; and Islamists who live among the
migrant communities.
“It has to be done much more,” Beate
Klarsfeld said of Holocaust education,
particularly among the migrant young.
“It’s not the priority today to work with
the youth.”
Her husband adds, “The young gen-
eration never suffered from wars, hun-
ger, they never suffered from losing their
families, they don’t know what is war,
they see war on TV, in other countries.
They don’t understand the risk of los-
ing democracy and losing the European
Union, which is the protector of Jews.”
Serge and Beate Klarsfeld receive an award from the U.S. Holocaust Memori-
al Museum in Washington, D.C., on April 29, 2019.
In a separate interview with Agence
France-Presse, Serge Klarsfeld took aim
at Trump.
“I have not heard President Trump
take a strong position against the
far right here, whereas in France, in
RON KAMPEAS
Germany and elsewhere in Europe,
leaders of states always have a firmer
response,” he said. “Either he fails to
see the danger or he doesn’t believe it
is dangerous.”
Speaking to the Jewish Telegraphic
anomaly: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu embraces the very authoritar-
ians they hope to defeat in the next par-
liamentary elections. And Trump, who
has worked closely with Netanyahu on
Middle East policy, also has derided the
international institutions the Klarsfelds
say preserves security for Jews.
“We are grateful to President Trump
for what he did for Israel, and we
understand that Israel has diplomatic
reasons for allies in Eastern Europe,
authoritarian regimes like Poland and
Hungary,” Serge Klarsfeld said. But the
cross-European institutions are critical,
he said. “Europe, it’s a continent that
has only known wars for centuries and
centuries and for 70 years you have no
more wars.”
The Klarsfelds are resigned to the
fight to preserve that peace, even if it
outlasts them.
“You never know what will happen
after you disappear, you never know
whether your side will be victorious or
not,” Serge Klarsfeld said. “You can leave
a legacy to help others.”
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Jewish World

Poway, a California
haven, left shaken
as hatred hits home
GABRIELLE BIRKNER

POWAY, CALIF. — With hundreds of people gath-

ered to show support for the victims of a shoot-
ing inside his synagogue, Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein
recounted the moment when he came face to
face with the gunman and what happened next.
He described watching a congregant’s husband,
a doctor, faint as he attempted to give CPR to his
bloodied wife, and hearing their daughter call out
Hundreds gather on April 28 for a vigil supporting the victims of the synagogue shooting in Poway, Calif., in terror.
just north of San Diego. GABRIELLE BIRKNER “This is not supposed to happen,” Goldstein
told the crowd, who had gathered for a candle-
light vigil at a park Sunday in this community 20
miles north of San Diego. “This is not a pogrom.
. This is Poway.”
Poway’s landscape is textbook Southern Cal-
ifornia, with its tract houses, red-tiled roofs,
manicured lawns, and palm trees off in the dis-
tance. This affluent community of about 50,000,
it turns out, is not immune to the gun violence
that has made schools and cities across the coun-
try synonymous with bloodshed. It’s not immune

NORPAC Mission to Washington

to the recent wave of anti-Semitic hate that has
left toppled tombstones, spray-painted swastikas,
and back in October, the 11 dead bodies of mostly

Tuesday, May 21, 2019 elderly synagogue-goers in Pittsburgh.

But a day after a gunman entered Chabad of
Poway, killing congregant Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60,
and injuring three others, including Goldstein,
the Jewish community here teetered between dis-
Anti-Semitism is at a dangerous high. Israel’s critics are becoming bolder belief (“Poway of all places?”) and the conviction

and louder; we can’t afford to sit on the sidelines. that in a post-Pittsburgh world, all Jewish com-
munities are possible targets. (“Yes, even Poway.”)
“After 9/11, when they first started with all the
Come make a difference on NORPAC’s Mission to Washington D.C. [synagogue] security — with the cameras and the
locks and the security glass — I always thought,
‘This is overkill for Poway,’” said Janet Pollack,
57, who is a member of the city’s Reform con-
gregation, Temple Adat Shalom. “That it came
to this small, very peaceful community is a lit-
tle overwhelming.”
Rabbi Mendy Rubenfeld, the Hebrew school
director at Chabad of Poway, said the city is a
warm, welcoming place for religious Jews. In the
16 years that he’s lived here, “I never received an
Roundtrip transportation to DC from NY-NJ. Glatt Kosher meals included. unkind statement. No one has so much as shown
Additional Information and Registration at NORPAC.net or call (201) 788-5133 me the finger.”
After a gunman motivated by his antipathy for
REGISTER BEFORE MAY 12TH Jewish support for immigrants killed worship-
pers inside Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue,
Adults -- $185, Students/Young Professionals (Under 30) -- $125 Rubenfeld knew such an attack was likely to hap-
Call about special Clergy and College Student rates. Minimum age: 12 pen again somewhere. He just never thought it
would be here.
But Douglas Stone, 70, a friend of Rabbi Gold-
stein, said that since the Pittsburgh murders,
he’s been keenly aware that hate-fueled violence
could happen in any Jewish community, includ-
ing his own.
“We always say ‘never again,’ but here we
Paid for by NORPAC are,” said Stone, a member of Adat Shalom and
an active participant in Chabad’s programming
for people with disabilities. (Stone’s son has
Down syndrome.)
30 JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019
 Jewish World

P E S A C H T O S H AV U O T 5 7 7 9

OU Women’s Initiative Sponsored Speakers and Host Synagogues

The crowd at the vigil included Muslim women in hijabs and Sikh men MRS. RIVKA ALTER MRS. RACHEL BESSER DR. RIVKAH BLAU MRS. DANIELLE BLOOM
in turbans. GABRIELLE BIRKNER DAT Minyan Cong. KINS Cong. Schara Tzedeck Beth Jacob Congregation
Denver, CO of West Rogers Park Vancouver, Canada of Irvine
Chicago, IL Irvine, CA
Given the threat, Stone said, also compelled her family to spon- JEC Elmora Avenue Shul
Elizabeth, NJ
“I’ve thought about getting a gun” sor an event last month at Chabad of
for protection. Poway featuring the stepsister of Anne
Saturday’s shooting took place Frank, Eva Schloss.
on the last day of Passover and six Not two months later, the building
months to the day after the Pitts- where Schloss told her story of sur-
burgh massacre. It closely followed viving the Holocaust and stressed the MS. RAIZI CHECHIK MRS. CHANNAH COHEN MRS. ESTHER MS. ELANA
two other deadly attacks on houses importance of speaking out against Suburban Torah East Denver EISENMAN FLAUMENHAFT
Livingston, NJ Orthodox Synagogue Cong. Sha’arei Torah Young Israel of Holliswood
of worship, one targeting Muslims in injustice “to make it a safer and bet- Denver, CO Cincinatti, OH Holliswood, NY
New Zealand and another targeting ter place for everyone” was a scene
Christians in Sri Lanka. of violence.
The Poway attack has shaken the At around 11:30 a.m. Saturday,
local Jewish community. (The city is as more than 60 congregants wor-
home to about 700 Jewishly affiliated shipped inside the sanctuary, a
families, according to Rabbi David 19-year-old gunman identified as John
Castiglione of Adat Shalom.) But its Earnest entered the building and DR. CHANNA GELB MISS CHANA GOTTLIEB MRS. MICHAL MRS. RACHEL
impact on how Jews live and pray in began firing shots. Goldstein heard a Cong. Shaare Tefilla Cong. Beth El - HOROWITZ KOSOWSKY
Dallas, TX Atereth Israel Cong. Adath Israel Cong. Rinat Yisrael
this quiet hamlet — home to a Reform, loud noise, went to investigate, and Newton, MA Hillside, NJ Teaneck, NJ
a Conservative, and an Orthodox syn- found a bloodied Lori Gilbert-Kaye
agogue — remains to be seen. lying on the floor in the lobby. She
Rene Carmichael, who works for had come to take part in the memorial
the city of Poway, said it’s common Yizkor prayer service for her mother,
to see Orthodox Jews walking to ser- who died last year.
vices along Rancho Bernardo Road,
one of the city’s main thoroughfares, MRS. LYNN KRAFT MRS. RACHELI MRS. NORMA MINTZ DR. RONA NOVICK
on Saturday mornings and Jewish Cong. Rodfei Sholom LUFTGLASS Beth Jacob Congregation Young Israel of Hollywood
San Antonio, TX Cong. Beth Aaron Oakland, CA Hollywood, FL
holidays. She said in the wake of the
deadly violence targeting Chabad, If you were Teaneck, NJ

she hopes “people will be offer-

ing words of kindness to them” as
sick, she’d
they walk. be there
But Leah Golembesky, a longtime
member of Chabad of Poway, said
giving you
newfound fear now will accompany chicken soup. MRS. AVIVA ORLIAN PROF. SHOSHANA
SCHECHTER
DR. RIVKA SCHWARTZ DR. MARIAN
STOLTZ-LOIKE
the walk to synagogue. Cong. Beth Hamedrosh
Wynnewood, PA Westwood Kehilla
Young Israel of West
Hempstead & Cong. Eitz Cong. Ohr Torah
“Now we are too scared to walk Goldstein, who was shot in the Los Angeles, CA Chayim of Dogwood Park Edison, NJ
with a kippah,” said Golembesky, 37, hands, lost a finger in the attack. Bikur Cholim Machzikay West Hempstead, NY
Hadath Seattle, WA
of San Diego, whose husband was Almog Peretz, who was visiting and
worshipping at another area Chabad originally from Sderot, Israel — a city
on Saturday. “We saw these type of that is a frequent target of Hamas
incidents coming.” rockets — was hit in the leg. Peretz’s
Golembesky said her young chil- niece, Noya Dahan, 8, also suffered
dren have faced anti-Semitic harass- shrapnel wounds during the shooting.
MISS DEBBIE STONE MRS. RACHELI TAUBES MRS. BLIMA
ment at area public schools and that Gilbert-Kaye, the sole fatality, was Cong. Ohav Sholom Cong. Sons of Israel ZELINGER MAGED
a Poway house with Chanukah deco- remembered as thoughtful and gen- Merrick, NY Cherry Hill, NJ Young Israel of West Hartford
Cong. Beth Sholom West Hartford, CT
rations was vandalized with swastikas erous. Her friends said she would Providence, RI
in the past year. drop off gifts for no other reason
The incidents inspired her to than that she was thinking of them,
help organize the March for Light, and would send not one greeting FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT OU.ORG/WOMEN/SHAVUOT
a December rally in support of the card for a birthday or an anniversary
San Diego-area Jewish community. It SEE POWAY PAGE 32
JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019 31
 SENIOR Jewish World

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Poway and Jonathan Morales, an off-duty
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FROM PAGE 31 Border Patrol agent. Earnest was
apprehended and has since been
*Age 55 and up. Not valid with any other offer discounts or coupons. Dine-in only, for a “Literally, it was no less than three charged with one count of first-degree
limited time at participating restaurants. ©2014 IHOP IP, LLC cards for every occasion,” her friend murder and three counts of attempted
since childhood, Lisa Busalacchi, 61, said. murder. Local law enforcement is
® Gilbert-Kaye worked for a com- treating the shooting as a hate crime.
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GUTTER
S
G pany that made promotional goods, As unlikely a target as many con-
such as tote bags, for businesses sidered Poway to be, the Chabad had
ut

Eliminate Clogged Gutters for Good!

ter

and sporting events, and often she convened a meeting about synagogue
Helm

donated the extras to Chabad. security last fall in the wake of the
et

Another longtime friend of Gil- Pittsburgh shooting.

Ro

$350
CUSTOMER LOYALTY SALE
ofin
g

bert-Kaye, Michelle Silverstein of “We memorialized the victims of

nearby La Jolla, said they would talk the Tree of Life massacre, and then
on the phone every day, and some- we gave them tips about what to do
times twice a day. They discussed if hate comes knocking at the door,”
everything from family life to world said Poway Mayor Steve Vaus, who

OFF
* events to politics, on which “we
agreed to disagree — profusely,”
according to Silverstein, who said
Gilbert-Kaye was a vocal supporter
of President Donald Trump.
“If you were sick, she’d be there
FOR OVER
Expires May 31st!
38 giving you chicken soup,” Silver-
attended the meeting with represen-
tatives of the San Diego County Sher-
iff ’s Department. “Tips like, if you can
run away, run away; if you can hide,
hide; if you can’t hide, challenge
the shooter.’”
During Saturday’s shooting in

0% Interest
YEARS stein said, adding that her friend Poway, “all of that happened, and
Call for a FREE Quote Until 2021
†
“would give and give and give, and I have no doubt that that meeting
Senior & Veteran Discounts she believed in giving anonymously contributed to saving lives,” the
FOR GUTTER PROTECTION
was the highest degree of tzedakah,” mayor said.
or charity. At the vigil Sunday evening, which
Last year, Gilbert-Kaye and Silver- brought together Jews and non-Jews
3 Eliminate clogged and overflowing gutters stein celebrated their 60th birthdays — the crowd included Muslim women
Handles

“
22RAIN
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Gilbert-Kaye was buried on Monday pital following the shooting.
afternoon after a memorial service at Looking out at the fearful, despair-
Chabad of Poway. She is survived by ing congregants, who had made their
CALL: her husband, Howard Kaye, a phy- way out of the synagogue, the rabbi
201-754-5202 sician, and their daughter, Hannah
Kaye, 22.
got up on a chair, his hands bleed-
ing badly.
*Min. purchase of 50 linear feet required, offer expires 5/31/19. Offer applies to Gutter Helmet only and must be presented at time of estimate, cannot be combined
The gunman was chased off with “I said, ‘Guys, Am Yisrael Chai” —
with any other offers and subject to change without notice. Void where prohibited by law. †Subject to credit approval. Interest accrues during promotional period but
all interest is waived if paid in full within 24 months. Lednor is neither a broker nor a lender. Financing is provided by 3rd party lenders, under terms & conditions
the help of two Chabad congregants, the Jewish people live.
arranged directly between the customer and such lenders, satisfactory completion of finance documents is required. Any finance terms advertised are estimates only.
†Based on an independent 2014 national marketing study. DC# 420218000007 MD MHIC #48622 VA #2705036173 © 2019 Lednor Corporation.
Oscar Stewart, a U.S. Army veteran,  JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY

32 JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019

UPCOMING AT KAPLEN JCC on the Palisades
IAC CELEBRATES

Yom Ha’atzmaut at the JCC

Come celebrate Israel’s 71st birthday and
Mother’s Day at the biggest Yom Ha’atzmaut
celebration in Bergen County! Enjoy a taste
of Israel with Israeli food, an online scavenger
hunt, “Women of Valor” Mother’s Day themed
activities, fun with Israeli Scouts and community
partners, and so much more.
Sun, May 12, 11:30 am – 2:30 pm, $20/family in
advance, $25/family at the door, $10 for Rubin
Run registrants

Yom Hazikaron
COMMEMORATION DAY FOR THE ISRAELI
SOLDIERS AND TERROR VICTIMS

Join us in our annual communitywide

commemoration ceremony to remember and
honor Israeli fallen soldiers and terror victims.
Ceremony is in Hebrew with English translation.
Tue, May 7, 7 pm, free

JCC U Spring Term PA

KEEP LEARNING
Top professors and experts present
on a diverse array of topics. On May
16th in the morning Rutgers professor
Paul Clemens will present Leopold and
Loeb—The Trial of the Century and in the
afternoon Columbia Law School lecturer
Jess Velona will present Great Speeches
of the 1960s—From Kennedy to King.
Thur, May 16, 10:30 am-2 pm, $35/$42

SENIORS ADULTS COMMUNITY

Free Preventative Health Social Adult Day Care for Hazon CSA
Programs for Seniors People with Alzheimer’s COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE

Stay healthy, access early treatment when
necessary, and reduce your overall medical
expenses. We offer blood pressure, nutrition
and pulmonary monitoring. Check out our
website for upcoming educational health
presentations by Englewood Health at
jccotp.org/seniors-special-events
For more information call Judi Nahary
201.408.1450 or email jnahary@jccotp.org
PA Program offered as part of the JCC Patron of the Arts
Program. Find out more at jccotp.org/patrons.
and Dementia
Montessori-style social day care program
promotes independence, self-esteem and
cognitive abilities for those living with dementia,
in a vibrant, community center atmosphere.
Aides and companions are welcome.
Mon-Fri, 9 am-4 pm, Sun, 11 am-4 pm
(Partial day options available)
Ask for a FREE 3 day trial! For more information
visit jccotp.org/senior-services or contact
Judi Nahary at 201.408.1450
Enjoy fresh, organic produce on a weekly basis!
Join our CSA community and build an evolving
relationship with your food, the land on which
it is grown, the farmers who grow it, and other
CSA participants.
Registration Deadline May 24.
Season runs Tuesdays, Jun 11-Nov 5.
Visit jccotp.org/csa for details and to sign up.
TO REGISTER OR FOR MORE INFO
VISIT jccotp.org
STAY IN THE KNOW! LIKE US ON
facebook.com/KaplenJCCOTP

KAPLEN JCC on the Palisades TAUB CAMPUS | 411 E CLINTON AVE, TENAFLY, NJ 07670 | 201.569.7900 | jccotp.org

JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019 33

 JS-34*

Jewish World

New York Times says its controversial cartoon

shows ‘creeping numbness’ to anti-Semitism
it even questioning Israel’s very foundation as a Jewish

I
MARCY OSTER
n an editorial published on Tuesday, the New
York Times editorial board wrote that the news-
paper’s publishing “an appalling political car-
toon” is “evidence of a profound danger — not
only of anti-Semitism but of numbness to its creep.”
The Times also acknowledged its own historical con-
tributions to the rise of anti-Semitism.
“In the 1930s and the 1940s, The Times was
largely silent as anti-Semitism rose up and bathed
the world in blood,” it wrote. “That failure still
haunts this newspaper.”
The editorial said that “anti-Semitic imagery is partic-
ularly dangerous now,” citing last Saturday’s attack on
the Poway of Chabad synagogue and the release, also
on Tuesday, of the Anti-Defamation League’s annual
audit of anti-Semitic incidents, which shows that the
number of assaults against American Jews more than
doubled from 2017 to 2018.
“Jews face even greater hostility and danger in
Europe, where the cartoon was created,” the edito-
rial also said.
The editorial also acknowledged that criticism of
Israel can be couched in anti-Semitic terms. “This is also
a period of rising criticism of Israel, much of it directed
at the rightward drift of its own government and some of
state,” it said. “We have been and remain stalwart sup-
porters of Israel, and believe that good-faith criticism
should work to strengthen it over the long term by help-
ing it stay true to its democratic values. But anti-Zion-
ism can clearly serve as a cover for anti-Semitism — and
some criticism of Israel, as the cartoon demonstrated, is
couched openly in anti-Semitic terms.”
It also accused President Donald Trump of doing
“too little to rouse the national conscience” against
anti-Semitism. “Though he condemned the cartoon in
The Times, he has failed to speak out against anti-Se-
mitic groups like the white nationalists who marched
in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 chanting, ‘Jews will not
replace us,’” the editorial board wrote.
The cartoon, which appeared in the opinion section
of the newspaper’s international print edition on Thurs-
day, April 25, showed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu as a dachshund-like guide dog wearing a
Star of David collar and leading a yarmulke-topped
President Donald Trump.
In its first statement in response to the cartoon,
the Times acknowledged that the image was “offen-
sive” and “included anti-Semitic tropes.” A second
statement that Sunday, April 28, said the newspa-
per was “deeply sorry” and that the decision to pub-
lish the image was the product of “a faulty process”
This is the cartoon that appeared in the New
York Times’ international edition last week,
showing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu as a guide dog wearing a Star of
David collar and leading President Donald
Trump, wearing a kippah.  NEW YORK TIMES
resulting in “a single editor working without ade-
quate oversight.”
The Portuguese cartoonist Antonio Moreira Antunes
told the Jerusalem Post in an emailed response to ques-
tions from the newspaper that he did not mean for his
work to be seen as anti-Semitic.
“To illustrate this situation, an analogy occurred to
me with a blind man (Trump) led by a guide dog (Net-
anyahu) and, to help identify him, little known in Por-
tugal, I added the Star of David, symbol of the State of
Israel and central element of its flag,” he wrote.
Antunes did not explain why he drew a kippah on
Trump’s head.  JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY

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34 JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019

 LAST
CHANCE!
YOU’RE INVITED TIME IS
RUNNING
OUT!

TEACH NJ
ANNUAL DINNER

MAY 15, 2019

6:30 PM Featuring the Honorable
Phil Murphy
Newark Museum Governor of New Jersey
49 Washington St.
Newark, NJ 07102

Host Committee*
In formation

Anonymous Susan Love and David Farber Debbie and Sam Moed
Cross River Bank Nancy and Dr. Eric Fremed 
Leslie and Josh Ostrin
Susan and Dr. Yaakov Bagley Vicki and Sonny Gindi Sarit and Shai Perry
Harriet and George Blank Hadassah and Baruch Halberstam Leyla and Daniel Posner
Daniele and Steven Bleier Danielle and Ralph D. Hanan Cheryl Weiner Rosenberg
Roni and Yehuda Blinder Freida and Michael Harris Margie and Sammy Saka
Chedva and David Breau Alissa and Shimmie Horn Ronnie and Marc Schlussel
Naomi and Josh Caplan Shari and Nathan J. Lindenbaum Joy and Barry Sklar
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Teach NJ Executive Committee

TO RSVP AND PURCHASE TICKETS, PLEASE VISIT TEACHCOALITION.ORG/NJ/DINNER/

JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019 35

 NOW OPEN
Jewish World
How Jewish organizations
train people to prevent
shootings like one in Poway
JOSEFIN DOLSTEN
The Most Exciting New Retirement Community Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein said his
Chabad of Poway could not afford to
Has Arrived in Rockland County. hire an armed guard. Had it been able,
or if the government had helped the
synagogue bring in one, he believes
Brightview brings carefree, resort-style living – with no large the deadly attack there Saturday could
entrance fee – to Rockland County. have been averted.
“If I had the funding, we may have
Brightview Lake Tappan offers access to tri-state shopping, been spared,” he said to the New York
culture, entertainment, and endless on-site opportunities for a Times. “How many more dead bodies
rewarding retirement. will we have to see before we act?”
But hiring a security guard should
not be the only priority in terms of
Reserve your security, Jason Friedman said. He’s the
apartment today! executive director of the Community
Security Service, an organization that
Call Cindy or Dorothy to
schedule your visit.
has trained more than 4,000 Jewish
Independent Living • Assisted Living
volunteers across the country in how
to keep their synagogues safe.
Dementia Care 845.205.7102 Hiring a guard can be “a great first
31 Hunt Road | Orangeburg, NY 10962 | On the Reservoir
step,” Friedman said, but “if your con-
gregation is not engaged in the secu-
rity process, you’re not getting the full
extent of what you’re paying for.”
ALL JCC CAMPS ARE NOW OPEN TO THE PUBLIC! The shooting at the Poway syna-
gogue, in which a 60-year-old woman
P E@RitFsObReM ANCE was killed and three others, includ-
ing the rabbi, were injured, is the lat-
st
est chapter in an ongoing American
SK IN SUMM
AT
ER
KL
discussion about security in the age
NEIL
CAMPS
of mass shootings. Like the massacre
six months ago at Tree of Life in Pitts-
burgh, the shooting in suburban San
Diego is being mined for lessons in
safety by a Jewish community deeply
shaken by a rise in anti-Semitism.
The Community Security Service, or
CSS, anticipates attacks on synagogues
like the one in Poway. It focuses on pre-
ventive “boots-on-the-ground” mea-
sures by training community members
to spot suspicious behavior and thus
avert attacks. Synagogues are encour-
aged to post trained volunteers at their
entrances to watch for potential attack-
ers and to make their members aware
of their surroundings.
INTERESTED A HIGH QUALITY AND “What we’re trying to show is that
FUN DRAMA CAMP FOR THIS SUMMER? there are a lot of ways they can make
themselves safer, it just takes time and
Come to one of the JCC’s drama camps featuring 2 musical theater commitment,” Friedman said.
camps (featuring fully stages performances of Pirates and Pinafores CSS had not worked with the
and Beauty and the Beast) or our incredible comedy workshop!
Chabad synagogue in Poway, Fried-
Full Day: 9 am - 4 PM with extended day options. Bussing available. man said. Neither had the Secure
Community Network, another secu-
Includes lunch, snack, and swim time with towel service. rity group that also works with syna-
gogues and Jewish groups.
For more info or to sign up contact Allyson Carolan, Dance and
Dramatic Arts Director, at acarolan@jccotp.org or 201.408.1495. In the fall, the Chabad did convene
an event about synagogue security fol-
KAPLEN JCC on the Palisades TAUB CAMPUS | 411 E CLINTON AVE, TENAFLY, NJ 07670
lowing the Pittsburgh shooting on what
to do in the case of a future attack.
36 JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019
Poway’s Mayor Steve Vaus, who
was at the meeting with representa-
tives of the San Diego County Sheriff’s
Department, said that law enforce-
ment shared tips, including “if you
can run away, run away; if you can
hide, hide; if you can’t hide, challenge
the shooter.’”
During Saturday’s shooting in Poway,
“all of that happened, and I have no
doubt that that meeting contributed to
saving lives,” Vaus said.
Two people intervened with the
shooter. One was a community mem-
What we’re
trying to show
is that there
are a lot of
ways they can
make
themselves
safer, it just
takes time and
commitment.
ber, Oscar Stewart, who ran toward
the shooter and chased him out of
the building, according to the county
Sheriff ’s Department. “Mr. Stewart
risked his life to stop the shooter and
saved lives in the process,” the Sheriff’s
Department said in a statement Sunday.
An off-duty Border Patrol agent, Jon-
athan Morales, shot at the attacker, hit-
ting his car.
Friedman says focusing exclusively
on arming congregants can distract
from other safety measures synagogues
can take.
“Weapons certainly have their place
in security, but one has to be care-
ful not to substitute the presence of
a weapon for tried-and-true security
theories and training,” Friedman said.
Post-Pittsburgh, he said, the number of
synagogues seeking training from CSS
“dramatically increased.”
Still, there’s a long way to go.
“I don’t think that there are many
synagogues across the country that are
really prepared” for an attack, Fried-
man said.
The Poway attack came as no
SEE TRAINING PAGE 38
 SOLIDARITY SHABBAT

ENOUGH
IS
ENOUGH

STRONGER TOGETHER.
In light of the horrific act of terrorism this
past weekend, the northern New Jersey Jewish
community stands strong with our brothers and
sisters in Poway, California.

To fight terrorism and hate, consider attending a

Solidarity Shabbat service this weekend. “Fill the
seats” of our shuls and send a message of unity
and strength. If you haven’t been to synagogue in
a long time, come this weekend just to show your
support. Tell all perpetrators of hate and bias –

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

We mourn the passing of

LORI GILBERT KAYE z”l
#ENOUGHISENOUGH

@JFNNJ
www.jfnnj.org | 201.820.3900

JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019 37

Jewish World

Training
FROM PAGE 36
surprise to Michael Masters, who heads the Secure
Community Network. SCN coordinates security for Jew-
ish organizations across the country and is affiliated
with the Jewish Federations of North America and the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations.
“We have seen an increase in targeting of houses of
worship generally, and we have seen an increase in tar-
geting of Jewish houses of worship specifically,” Masters
said from Poway, where he is meeting with community
leaders in the wake of the shooting.
“That coincides with an increase in anti-Semitic inci-
dents around the United States and around the world, as
well as an increase in hate crimes against our community
and an increase in threats.”
SCN has worked with 147 federations across the
country, as well as with more than 50 partner orga-
nizations and 300-plus Jewish communities, to
provide security assessments. After conducting an
assessment, it recommends security strategies tai-
lored to the needs and circumstances of the partic-
ular organization.
Friedman said the threat picture itself also has
changed in recent years.
When CSS was founded in 2007, the primary
threats came from international terrorist groups
such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and al-Qaeda, as well
as large white supremacist organizations. Now they
often come from people who aren’t necessarily
affiliated with a group. That means the targets have

Celebrate Israel’s
changed too. As a result, less prominent commu-
nities, like the Squirrel Hill neighborhood in Pitts-
burgh or Poway, 20 miles north of San Diego, are

INDEPENDENCE DAY
more vulnerable.
“Ten years ago they probably wouldn’t be identi-
fied as targets of this kind of attack,” Friedman said.
“Now, due to these homegrown violent extremists,

Yom Ha’atzmaut
they’re able to attack more locally, with a focus on
their own locale.”
Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the federal govern-
ment has made more money available to houses of
worship, especially synagogues and mosques, and
other vulnerable institutions. This year’s spending
bill included $60 million for fiscal year 2019 to fund
the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which helps
Join Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey synagogues and other houses of worship, religious
day schools, and a variety of nonprofits improve
the security of their buildings.
GUEST SPEAKER
BERGEN COUNTY ISRAEL NITZAN, Israel’s Deputy Consul General
The Department of Homeland Security, which
administers the program, awards grants of as much
Thursday, May 9, 2019 PERFORMANCE as $150,000 to eligible nonprofits at risk of terrorist
11:30am THE MORIAH SCHOOL CHOIR attacks. The nonprofits use the funding to acquire
and install items ranging from fences, lighting, and
Bergen County Administration Building IN PARTNERSHIP WITH video surveillance to metal detectors and blast-re-
One Bergen County Plaza, Hackensack James J. Tedesco, Bergen County Executive
sistant doors, locks, and windows.
Board of Chosen Freeholders
The Poway suspect, a 19-year-old nursing stu-
dent, is believed to have posted an online manifesto
on a forum popular with the alt-right that said he
GUEST SPEAKER was inspired by the Tree of Life synagogue gunman
ISRAEL NITZAN, Israel’s Deputy Consul General
JERSEY CITY in Pittsburgh and the shooter who killed 50 people
at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The
PERFORMANCE
Thursday, May 9, 2019 SOLOMON SCHECHTER DAY SCHOOL
suspect also called President Donald Trump “Zion-
2:00pm ist, Jew-loving, anti-white.”
OF BERGEN COUNTY Masters said that after Pittsburgh and Poway,
City Hall Council Chambers IN PARTNERSHIP WITH the conversation surrounding future attacks has
280 Grove Street, Jersey City The City of Jersey City | Mayor Steven M. Fulop changed.
The Municipal Council | Office of Culture Affairs “We used to say it’s a question of ‘not if but
Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County
when,’” he said. “Now we say ‘not when, but when
again?’” JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY

GUEST SPEAKER Gabrielle Birkner contributed to this report from

ASSEMBLYMAN GARY SCHAER, 36TH DISTRICT Poway.
WAYNE PERFORMANCE
Wednesday, May 15, 2019 ACADEMIES AT GERRARD BERMAN DAY SCHOOL More than 411,000 likes.
12:00pm
Wayne Y
REMARKS BY
AYA ADUT, Israeli Youth Shlicha Like us on
1 Pike Drive, Wayne
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
Wayne Y | Shomrei Torah
Facebook.
Ariella Noveck
AriellaN@jfnnj.org | 201-820-3944 facebook.com/
jewishstandard
38 JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019
 JS-39*

Jewish World

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JS-40*
Jewish World
DR. B. AVIVA RACHELI BLOOM
PREMINGER POLEYEFF Sharon Osbourne at the Hollywood Palladium in Hollywood in 2016.
Osbourne, Simmons among celebs
VOLUNTEER NEXT GEN AWARD
slamming Eurovision boycott calls
Josefin Dolsten
More than 100 artists and prominent
people in the entertainment indus-
SPECIAL ON-SITE RAFFLE: try have denounced calls to boycott
SILENT AUCTION
10:00 - 11:30 AM
next month’s Eurovision Song Contest
HOME GYM in Israel.
Sharon Osbourne, Stephen Fry,
and Gene Simmons are among the
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this week.
The signatories said the “spirit of
togetherness” embodied by the Euro-
vision “is under attack by those calling
to boycott Eurovision 2019 because
it is being held in Israel, subverting
the spirit of the contest and turning
it from a tool of unity into a weapon
of division.
“We believe the cultural boycott
movement is an affront to both Pales-
tinians and Israelis who are working to
advance peace through compromise,
exchange, and mutual recognition,”
Corbyn wrote forward to a book
that says Jews control banks, press
In 2011, British Labour Party leader
Jeremy Corbyn wrote a forward to
a book alleging that banks and the
press were controlled by Jews.
Corbyn wrote the forward prais-
ing the new edition of JA Hobson’s
1902 work, “Imperialism: A Study,”
for a new edition issued eight years
ago. That was four years before he
became head of the Labour Party,
whose leaders have been accused of
tolerating anti-Semitism in the par-
ty’s ranks and even encouraging it
with anti-Israel as well as what some
have deemed anti-Semitic rhetoric.
Corbyn, a far-left, anti-Israel
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
it continued.
The letter was organized by Creative
Community For Peace, a nonprofit
organization that aims to counter cul-
tural boycotts of Israel.
On Monday, Netta Barzilai, the Israeli
singer who won the 2018 contest with
her pop hit “Toy” — giving her nation
the right to host this year’s competi-
tion — criticized calls for boycotting
the event.
Calls to boycott the contest taking
place in Israel have come from sup-
porters of the Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions movement against Israel,
including musicians such as Pink
Floyd’s Roger Waters and British singer
Peter Gabriel.
The Eurovision semifinals will be
held in Tel Aviv on May 14 and 16, fol-
lowed by the grand final on May 18.
 Jewish Telegraphic Agency
politician, has faced allegations that
he is promoting anti-Semitism in
Labour, though he denies it.
In the book, Hobson describes
the global and financial system as
controlled by people “united by the
strongest bonds of organization,
always in closest and quickest touch
with one as other, situated in the very
heart of the business capital of every
state, controlled, so far as Europe is
concerned, by men of a single and
peculiar race, who have behind them
many centuries of financial experi-
ence, they are in a unique position to
control the policy of nations.”
 JS-41

Jewish World

NYC shuts two Jewish schools and reopens five

in a heightened campaign to combat the measles outbreak
Marcy Oster to maintain medical and attendance records on site, were emergency order to be vaccinated.
authorized to reopen this week, the New York Daily News As of Monday, 423 cases of measles have been con-
New York City officials have closed two religious reported. firmed in New York since the beginning of the outbreak in
Jewish schools in Brooklyn for failing to comply In addition, 57 individuals have received summonses October, with 348 of the cases in Williamsburg, according
with Health Department orders regarding the mea- for being noncompliant with the Health Department’s to the Yeshiva World News. Jewish telegraphic agency
sles outbreak.
Tiferes Bnos and the Talmud Torah D’Nitra pre-
school are barred from opening until the Health
Department approves plans from the schools to
prevent unvaccinated students from coming to
school, according to reports. Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey
Earlier this month, Mayor Bill de Blasio declared
a health emergency and ordered unvaccinated welcomes
people living or working in four ZIP codes in the
largely charedi Orthodox-populated Williamsburg
Teachers and Educators
neighborhood to get the vaccine or be required to
pay fines of up to $1,000.
to an

Addressing Anti-Semitism
“Schools that continue to disregard our direction
during the outbreak will be closed down until they
can prove to the Health Department that they will
comply,” said the health commissioner, Dr. Oxiris
Barbot. “The reality is, the longer it takes schools
through Education Training
and individuals to comply with our order, the lon-
ger this outbreak will continue.”
Five schools closed by the Health Department for Wednesday, May 15, 2019
failing to comply with the regulations about barring
unvaccinated students, and compelling the schools 4:00 - 6:00 pm
Jewish Federation
50 Eisenhower Drive, Paramus
RSVP Today!
jfnnj.org/training

BIAS HATE
The book also says: “Does anyone seriously
suppose that a great war could be undertaken
by any European State, or a great State loan
subscribed, if the house of Rothschild and its
connections set their face against it?”
The Rothschild family is historically Jewish
and for centuries has been one of Europe’s
wealthiest families.
A Labour Party spokesman told the news-
paper that Corbyn’s praise was of the over-
all political analysis and that he “completely
rejects the anti-Semitic elements.”
The Board of Deputies of British Jews sent
a letter to Corbyn on Wednesday expressing
“grave concern” about the forward. The let-
ter called the book “pure and unequivocal
racism and there can be no apology for that.”
 Jewish Telegraphic Agency AriellaN@jfnnj.org | 201.820.3946

Jewish Standard MAY 3, 2019 41


Editorial
Feeling safe
M
aybe a sanctuary was never meant
to be a safe space, as least as we
think about safe spaces now.
A sanctuary is a holy space.
It’s set apart, separate, other than; it’s a place
where encounters with each other, with God,
with our own thoughts and assumptions and
desires, can happen, and such encounters can
be intense, even frightening. It’s a place where
music and words and ideas can transport us
to other places, other worlds, other states of
being. None of that is safe.
But a sanctuary is supposed to be a place of
physical security. We are not supposed to be at
physical risk there. It is supposed to afford us the
physical safety that allows our emotions and souls
to be open and vulnerable, to allow us to crack
enough to let life and light trickle and then pour in.
It’s not just us. Terrorists have killed people in
shuls, in churches, and in mosques. Guns erupt.
Bombs explode. Evil is unleashed.
We have been getting emails from our syn-
agogues and our kids’ schools and our local
Jewish institutions, telling us about security
upgrades (and often about increases in dues, but
security isn’t free). When we go to those places,
we see more guards. More of them are armed,
and fewer of them smile.
Last winter, a few months after the massacre
in Pittsburgh, I was in a nearly empty shul social
hall. There were two children, maybe around 7
or 8, playing together. I overheard one of them
point at the doors in the back of the room and
tell the other one that it was where the attack
would come from, and this, he said, pointing in
another direction, is where we would run. He
didn’t sound scared, just matter of fact, almost
nonchalant. He was just saying. I, on the other
hand, was shocked and unnerved.
This is a grimly topsy-turvy time, when sanc-
tuaries aren’t safe, when lies don’t matter,
when reality is whatever the loudest person
around says that it is.
How to fix it? No clue.
But it is clear that it’s not by giving in to it. Not
by lying in response to lies. Not by demonizing
others as we have been demonized. By remaining
clear-eyed and open minded. By paying attention.
By being kind to each other. By understanding that
history has great arcs, but it doesn’t reverse fully.
By understanding the humanity in each of us.
By continuing to show up. —JP
Jewish Editor
Joanne Palmer
Standard Associate Editor
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Community Editor
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James L. Janoff
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42 JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019
JS-42*
KEEPING THE FAITH
We help haters when we do nothing
It’s time to say dayenu and prod our political leaders
W
hat will it take for us as individuals and as
a community to finally rise up against the
two great scourges of our day — gun vio-
lence and the full-blown re-emergence of
Jew-hatred here and around the world?
What will it take for us as individuals and as a commu-
nity to get over the notion that protecting the fortunes of a
political party or a particular candidate is more important
than demanding action from our government officials of all
parties on gun violence and hatred, especially Jew-hatred?
Some weeks ago, my column dealt with the rise of
Jew-hatred in the United States and around the world.
It included this: “Is it not time for a rally to combat
anti-Semitism; a rally for us to shout out
loud that we are mad as hell and we won’t
take it anymore?” So far, there has not been
a peep from anyone regarding that sugges-
tion or offering an alternative.
The statistics regarding right-wing
extremist violence — Jew-hatred, in partic-
ular — are beyond frightening. I cited these
statistics before. Here in the United States,
beginning in mid-2015, Jew-hatred suddenly
exploded, going up 34 percent in 2016, and Shammai
another 57 percent in 2017. According to the Engelmayer
FBI, more acts were committed against Jews
and Jewish institutions in the United States
in 2017 than were committed against all other religious
groups combined — and that trend, the FBI says, contin-
ued in 2018.
New York City, according to Police Department statistics, tate what they see.… Certainly, the president, among
saw more hate crimes against Jews in 2018 — up 22 percent
over 2017 — than for all other religious groups combined.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, there were
50 murders committed by right-wing extremists in the
United States in 2018 — with one out of every three vic-
tims being Jews. Given the killing last Shabbat of 60-year-
old Lori Gilbert-Kaye at the Chabad House in Poway,
Calif., this year likely will be as bad, or worse.
Make no mistake about who is committing these hei-
nous acts. Says the ADL:
“Right-wing extremists collectively have been responsi-
ble for more than 70 percent of the 427 extremist-related
killings over the past 10 years, far outnumbering those
committed by left-wing extremists or domestic Islamist
extremists — even with the sharp rise of Islamist-extrem-
ist killings in the past five years.”
Shammai Engelmayer is rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel of the Palisades, now in Fort Lee.
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Make no mistake, either, about who has given cover to and
in turn is in part responsible for the increased violence from
the extreme right: President Donald J. Trump.
The column I referred to above came out the week
following the mass killings of Muslim worshippers in
Christchurch, New Zealand. In it, I noted that repeated
remarks made by President Trump “have helped spur
on the hatred from the right (not just here but, as the
horrific massacre in New Zealand and the murderer’s
so-called ‘manifesto’ show, around the world, as well).”
A reader took exception to that and thereby dismissed
the point the article was making.
The perpetrator of that horrific crime in Christchurch
was a 28-year-old self-identified white
supremacist. It was he, not I, who pointed
the finger at Trump’s rhetoric. While he
said he did not support many of Trump’s
policies, he did say, in his manifesto, that
Trump was one of his role models. Trump,
he said, was for him “a symbol of renewed
white identity and common purpose.”
The ADL’s national director and CEO
Jonathan Greenblatt has said that some of
Trump’s rhetoric comes “right out of the
white supremacist playbook,” as he put it
to the Washington Post. He had this to say
to the Los Angeles Times: “When leaders
at the highest levels use incredibly intemperate language
and repeat the rhetoric of extremists, we shouldn’t be
surprised when young people — let alone others — imi-
everyone, has the biggest bully pulpit.”
Despite all the evidence of the severe uptick in right-
wing extremist violence, Trump continues to downplay
the threat as nothing alarming. “I think it’s a small group
of people that have very, very serious problems,” he said
after Christchurch.
The actions of his administration match his words.
Despite its attempts at blowing smoke to obscure what
it has done, the Department of Homeland Security
recently disbanded the very unit charged with moni-
toring domestic terrorism, which is mainly right-wing
extremist terrorism.
Yes, Trump has had harsh words to say about neo-Nazis
and white supremacists, but those words came only after
almost unrelenting pressure from Republicans as well as
Democrats. There is no getting around the fact, however, that
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he repeatedly downplays the threat,
despite all the evidence to the con-
trary, and that he uses code words and
dog-whistle phrases that are as good as
a wink and a nod to the haters.
That being said, the Democratic
Party has to assume some responsi-
bility, as well. The anti-Jewish rhetoric
coming from Minnesota Representa-
tive Ilhan Omar is a case in point, as is
the response from the House Demo-
cratic majority, which, to quote House
staffers, passed a tepid “kitchen-sink
resolution” because it could not bring
itself to condemn outright anti-Jewish
speech. Most of the Democratic presi-
dential hopefuls either have been silent
regarding Omar’s hateful rhetoric, or
they have been supportive of her.
The big question, of course, is what
we can do about it.
We need to let everyone know we
are mad as hell and we won’t take it
any longer. Dayenu!
It should not matter whether we are
Democrats or Republicans, pro-Trump
or anti-Trump. It should not matter that
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
supports Trump and wants to name a
moshav after him on the Golan Heights.
What should matter is that we are not
safe even in our own sacred spaces.
What should matter is that we want our
children in day schools and yeshivot to
be safe from the kinds of violence we
see elsewhere. What should matter is
that Jew-hatred is on the rise, along
with other forms of race hatred, and
rather than doing anything construc-
tive to reverse the trend, our politicians
are giving license to the haters.
We cannot continue to sit on our
hands and hope it will go away. The
problem is growing, not shrinking.
Trump may be playing to his base, but
his Jewish supporters must remind
him they are part of his base, too, and
they will not support him in 2020 —
not with votes and not with money
— unless he changes his tune, and
unless his administration puts battling
domestic terrorism back at the top of
the nation’s agenda in a forceful, effec-
tive way. The Democratic Party may
be playing to the anti-Jewish elements
within the left, but its supporters must
let them know that to do so will mean
a loss of support. Financial and elec-
toral, from Jews.
If we receive a funding solicita-
tion from one political candidate or
another, we should answer it with:
“I will be glad to donate when you
come out with a comprehensive pro-
gram to battle the growing hatred
in America, especially anti-Semi-
tism, and when you propose and
fight for effective gun-control legisla-
tion. Pious statements are no longer
JS-43*
enough. Tepid statements will turn
me away completely.”
Every synagogue should organize
petition drives with similar sentiments,
and send copies to all candidates for
every office at every level. Synagogues
also should organize voter registration
and get-out-the-vote drives, and publi-
cize that they are doing so.
Each of us should write letters to
Trump, our House members, our two
senators, and to the chairs of both
major political parties. We should then
follow up by calling their offices. Con-
tact information appears at the end of
this column.
We should organize a continuous
stream of meetings with local churches
and mosques to express solidarity —
one-shot solidarity sessions are noth-
ing but photo-ops. We may be the
biggest targets of the haters, but they
are targets, too, as recent events attest.
And we should make sure the media
are there to cover each of those meet-
ings each time they are held.
Finally, we should push our national
organizations to convene a massive
rally on the National Lawn against hate
and against gun violence — and we
should attend that rally, and encourage
others to do so.
Here are the relevant addresses for
those letters:
President Donald J. Trump, The
White House, 1600 Pennsylvania
Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500.
Phone: (202) 456-1111
Senator Robert Menendez, 528 Hart
Senate Office Building, Washington,
D.C. 20510. Phone: (202) 224-4744. Fax:
(202) 228-2197
Senator Corey Booker, 717 Hart Sen-
ate Office Building, Washington, DC
20510. Phone: (202) 224-3224. Fax:
(202) 224-8378
Senator Charles Schumer, 313 Hart
Senate Office Building, Washington,
D.C. 20510. Phone: (202) 224-6542
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, 478 Rus-
sell Senate Office Building, Washington,
DC 20510. Photo: (202) 224-4451
Rep. Josh Gottheimer, 213 Cannon
House Office Building, Washington,
DC 20515. Phone: (202) 225-4465. Fax:
(202) 225-9048
Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. 2409 Rayburn
House Office Building, Washington,
DC 20515. Phone: (202) 225-5751. Fax:
(202) 225-5782
Rep. Nita Lowey, 2365 Rayburn
House Office Building, Washington,
D.C. 20515. Phone: (202) 202-225-6506
Ronna Romney McDaniel, Chairman,
Republican National Committee, 310
First St. SE, Washington, DC 20003
Don Perez, Chairman, Democratic
National Committee, 430 S. Capitol St.
SE, Washington, DC 20003
Opinion
Thanks for the iMemories
T
he images have blurry edges and help when our babysitter quit. Perhaps we
deep shadows. had a new baby.
But there I am, playing guitar We bought our first camcorder in 1996,
and singing “Twinkle Twinkle when our daughter was born. It was the size
Little Star” to my daughter, who is a little of a hardcover book, and surprisingly heavy.
more than a year old. The video is from the It cost a fortune, and the resolution wasn’t
two short years when she was an only child, nearly as good as what we get on any cell
before her brothers were born. Today she is phone today. Over the next few years, video
married, and about to begin graduate school. recorders kept getting smaller and smaller.
Click. Now it’s summertime, we’ve put By 2010 we all owned flips. Flips faded out
the Slip ‘N Slide out in the yard, and chil- when everyone graduated to smartphones.
dren are running and diving onto the slip- VCRs vanished as we replaced them with
pery plastic sheet. At this point, we live in DVD players, and then the videotapes were
the suburbs and have three kids. We must packed away in a box, where they languished
have moved recently, because Son #2 is a for a decade and a half, gathering dust.
skinny toddler with long curls and no pants, A few weeks ago, Jon found our tapes and
my daughter sounds like she is perhaps 6, mailed them to a place called iMemories.
and Son #3 doesn’t exist yet. The nice people at iMemories uploaded the
Click. I hear my husband’s voice from contents of our videotapes to the cloud, in
behind the camera. “Helen,” no particular order, where
he calls. The box from our new we can watch them on any
lightweight double stroller is of our devices.
lying sideways on the floor. Pok- Click. The past passes
ing out of it are two very small me by over and over
bottoms, and one little pair of again. I watch the ghosts
sock-clad feet. Again, Jon calls, of our parents. I watch our
“Helen! Have you seen the kids? sweet children. I listen to
I can’t find them!” Giggles issue their sweet voices.
from the box. It shakes as the lit- Younger me appears
tle feet wiggle excitedly. Helen in the frame. Look at my
Click. Son #2 is in a Jolly Maryles curvy figure! Look at my
Jumper hung from a doorframe. Shankman glorious curls! My glowy
With great concentration, he skin! No wrinkles! No
bounces up and down on his glasses! No gray hairs!
little Fred Flintstone feet. His curls bounce, In the days that we were having a child
too. He gives me a happy, toothless smile. every two years, I was always nursing some-
As I watch this video, son #2 is finishing his one. I never got more than four hours of
year at a yeshiva in Israel. sleep at a stretch. I was also working part
Click. Now there’s a party. I don’t know time as a graphic designer in the city. We
what it’s for, but our nieces and nephew lived on the second floor of a brownstone in
from Israel are visiting us in our apartment Brooklyn, and our pre-K was 10 blocks away.
in Park Slope. I watch them on the screen. I didn’t have a license, so the double stroller
They are achingly young, adorable, playing was my vehicle. I’m sure the me in the video
with the toys that line the living room. Each is tired.
of these children has already been through A rush of emotions overwhelms me. I want
the Israeli army. They all are married now, to reach out with both arms, grab everything
three of them with children. back and hold it tight. This time, I promise I
My husband enters the frame. So hand- won’t let time slip through my fingers. I want
some, so sexy! He walks over to talk to his to hit the pause button and keep everyone
mother. My heart catches. His mom passed just as they are on screen, right now. I want
away in 2006. to tell the Helen in the video to relax. I want
Here are my brother and sister, who have to tell her to stop fretting, to stop thinking
come in from the city for whatever event this about tomorrow, to stop cleaning, to stop
is. My brother addresses the camera, though doing things, to cuddle the kids, to just be.
I can’t hear what he is saying. The camera To stand still and enjoy the moment.
pans to the left, and I see my mother. But of course, this is only a video.
This December, Mom will be gone 10
years. But in the video, she’s smiling and Helen Maryles Shankman of Teaneck is an
chatting. She has grown out her hair, artist and writer. Her work appears in many
though it’s pinned back for this occasion. I fine journals, including The Kenyon Review,
feel like I could touch her if I just reached Gargoyle, Jewishfiction.net, and Cream City
out my hand. Why is she in New York? Per- Review. Scribner recently published her
haps this is one of the times she flew in to second novel, “In The Land of Armadillos.”
The opinions expressed here are those of the authors, not necessarily those of the newspaper’s editors,
publishers, or other staffers. We welcome letters to the editor. Send them to jstandardletters@gmail.com.
JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019 43

Opinion
Single-payer health care is bad for the Jews
T
“ he only thing that worries me is the depersonal-
ization and dehumanization of politics that has
come about with the progress of civilization. An
ordinary human being, with a personal con-
science, personally answering for something to somebody
and personally and directly taking responsibility, seems to
be receding farther and farther from the realm of politics.
Politicians seem to turn into puppets that only look human
and move in a giant, rather inhuman theatre; they appear
to become merely cogs in a huge machine, objects of a major
civilizational automatism which has gotten out of con-
trol and for which nobody is responsible.”
— Vaclav Havel, playwright, dissident, President of Czecho-
slovakia and the new Czech Republic upon acceptance of
the Onassis Prize for Man and Mankind, Greece, May 1993
As the discussion about single-payer health care is heat-
ing up as the 2020 presidential election season begins, I
can’t help but think about little Charlie Gard. If you hav-
en’t heard about Charlie, he was born in the United King-
dom on August 4, 2016, with a genetic disorder called
mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome (MDDS) and
he died on July 28, 2017. Although MDDS is fatal, there
is at least one experimental therapy that shows promise,
and Charlie’s parents wanted to give him this chance.
Although they raised private funds to enable him to
try this therapy, the state would not allow them. With a
socialist (or as some politicians use the term single-payer)
health care system, as in the United Kingdom, once a per-
son is admitted to a hospital, they are no longer even min-
imally in charge of their own care, even if they are willing
to pay directly. Charlie’s only possibility for life rested
with the state, not with his parents.
State-provided health care sounds like a great idea, but
is it? Over the years we have all heard stories of people
that couldn’t access not only the best but even adequate
LETTERS
Guide dogs (and their owners)
should be welcome in shul
I was wondering if you could hear me screaming over
Rabbi Shammai Engelmayer’s March 29 op ed, “A short-
sighted approach to guide dogs in shul.” As a mother
of a son who is legally blind and has a guide dog, I am
saddened to think that there are rabbis who could be so
narrow minded. (And that is putting it nicely…) As I read
through the perceived justifications for not allowing a
guide dog in a synagogue, I was livid.
Thankfully, the column ended on a high note.
I would hope that Rabbi Engelmayer’s readers come
away feeling as I do; that what we need in our Jewish com-
munity is to support one another, and that the idea of
excluding an individual or individuals because they are
different, i.e. blind with a guide dog, should not be toler-
ated just because a rabbi (mis)interprets the meanings of
words in our Jewish teachings. Not for one minute.
Simone Wilker, Washington Township
Get medical advice from doctors
Kudos to Dr. Harry Banschick for his learned and dis-
passionate explanation of why children should be vac-
cinated for measles and other diseases. (“Vaccines do
not harm children. They save lives,” April 12).
Dr. Banschick’s view, honed by long experience as a
44 JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019
JS-44*
medical treatment in places where the state
runs the health care system. Rarely covered
in the press, most incidents are told directly
by the people that came to the U.S. to get
the care they required in a timely manner.
Yet, this reality seems to elude many of
those elected to represent us.
A recent example is Congresswoman
Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, a proud social-
ist, who made clear that she is a fervent Martha
believer in the single payer health system Cohen
based on, as she puts it, being “successful
in many different models, from Finland to
Canada to the U.K.” She must not have spoken to Charlie
Gard’s parents or all those waiting in line in Canada for
months just to see a specialist. Or perhaps she doesn’t
care about the loss of work or suspension of life, some-
times for over a year, waiting for commonplace surgeries
like cardiac bypass or hip and knee replacement. Or per-
haps she hasn’t taken the time to read about the patients
that were being treated in hospital hallways and being
kept in ambulances in the U.K. until there was a place to
treat them due to inadequate government funding.
My own understanding of how desperate the situation
is in Canada dates back years when working with Cana-
dian artists and production people who bought Ameri-
can insurance for their relatives so that they could access
care when the Canadian system’s labyrinth was too pain-
ful for their loved ones to endure. But those promoting
single-payer health care don’t seem to be aware of this,
nor of the crisis in the Department of Veterans Affairs.
As AOC said this month regarding the VA, “All I can
think of is that classic refrain that my parents always
taught me growing up: ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’”
she said. “That is the opening approach we have seen
when it comes to privatization, it’s the idea that this
thing that isn’t broken, this thing that provides some of
distinguished pediatrician over many decades, under-
scores the danger of trusting perhaps well-intentioned
but clearly ill-formed laymen who gratuitously dispense
medical advice. In particular, Orthodox rabbis lacking
either scientific or medical background, who nonetheless
advise their followers to oppose vaccinations, are espe-
cially culpable in the spread of measles our community
is currently experiencing.
Such individuals would be better advised to stick
to advice in matters spiritual and leave the medical
opinions to others who are more eminently qualified,
like Dr. Banschick.
Fraser P. Seitel, Fort Lee
Shame on Trump supporters
I can’t begin to express the anger I have towards the
National Council of Young Israel’s constituency (“An
Orthodox organization’s gala dinner is mostly a tribute
to Donald Trump,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency,” April 2).
Under the pretense of religion, these ‘observant Jews’
are shameful. They are similar to the Christian Right that
espouse righteousness but truly hate. It doesn’t matter
that Trump has told so many lies the world has lost count.
(His father was born in the Bronx!) It doesn’t matter that
we have made enemies of our allies. It doesn’t matter that
he is a crook, that he has ripped off many of his workers.
the highest quality care to our veterans
somehow needs to be fixed, optimized, tin-
kered with until we don’t even recognize it
anymore.”
Translation, 22 veterans a day killing
themselves doesn’t register as an issue for
AOC. Neither do the thousands of veterans
who killed themselves waiting for health
care. In fact, in the past 18 months, 22 vet-
erans took their own lives at VA centers
according to a recent article in the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, and more than 6,000
veterans commit suicide each year. An
inordinate percentage of suicides are by veterans, but
that won’t stop her from blasting the privatization of
even a portion of the VA, so that these brave soldiers can
access care in a more timely manner. It also allows sol-
diers who live far from a VA facility to get care closer to
their home. Starting in June, the VA Mission Act will allow
at least 1.5 million VA patients to seek care from the pri-
vate sector with taxpayer funds if they wish, according to
Military Times.
And that is what seems to bother AOC. No, you can’t
determine your own health care, even with the docu-
mented inadequate care, secret waitlists, and long driv-
ing times to reach a facility. Interestingly, when people
asked her to become a recipient of VA care and forgo her
medical insurance options as a member of Congress, she
seems to be eerily silent. Oh yes, the rules are for thee,
not for me — she is a socialist.
And though she is the recent poster child with her bom-
bastic rhetoric, so many in the current field for president
share her vision, and many Americans don’t have the
SEE SINGLE-PAYER PAGE 56
Martha Cohen is an award-winning producer and creative
executive. She lives in Fort Lee with her husband and son.
It doesn’t matter that he says he is smarter than all sci-
entists and has destroyed any progress we have made
against climate change. Offshore drilling is now restored
and it is killing our wildlife. It doesn’t matter that he
makes fun of how people look. It doesn’t matter what
happened in Charleston — which was a white suprem-
acy event — because “both sides were at fault.” It doesn’t
matter that his children have used their personal emails
but Hillary should go to jail. His children were declined
for security clearance but he approved them.
Immigration has always been at the heart of Juda-
ism. He is an ignorant, hateful human being but, hey,
as someone is quoted in your article said, “The stock
market went up — I’ve made tons of money.” Same
person is quoted as saying Trump is doing away with
Obamacare. Have you seen a new plan? Obamacare is
not perfect, but wanting to eliminate it without a new
plan because it has the name ‘Obama’ on it is more
than foolish. It’s disastrous. He speaks of eliminating
pre-existing conditions. Is that OK?
Being an honest, compassionate human with true
family values doesn’t seem to matter to these “obser-
vant Jews.” Trump’s support of Israel should not be
the deciding factor in choosing Trump as their presi-
dent. Shame on them!
Sandi Kleinman, Old Tappan
 Keeping Kosher

Cedar Market is restocked and ready to go

Cedar Market is filled with all your favorite everyday
items. The store has restocked the aisles with cere-
als, breads, pastas, snacks, and more. The bakery
is filled with a variety of breads, baked fresh daily,
and with delicious pastries and cakes. Stock up and
save today.
There is a variety of new items in every depart-
ment. The team at Cedar Market strives to go above
and beyond the needs of their customers and offer
great customer service. Fruit, vegetable, cake, and
sushi platters are always available to order. Follow
Cedar Market on Facebook and Instagram to see new
items, tastings, flash sales, and more. Cedar Market
just launched a redesigned website, filled with all
the store info, menus, delivery details, and more. If
you are not already signed up for its weekly savings
email, go to www.thecedarmarket.com and sign up.
Cedar Market is at 646 Cedar Lane in Teaneck. For
more information, call (201) 855-8500 or email info@
thecedarmarket.com.
Kosher Market
Meats ✡ Chicken ✡ Deli ✡ Appetizing
Prepared Foods ✡ Groceries ✡ Frozen Foods ✡ Catering
67 A. East Ridgewood Ave. · Paramus, NJ 07652
201-262-0030
www.harolds.com
MON-WED 8-6; THURS 8-7; FRI 8-4; SUN 8-3; CLOSED SATURDAY
UNDER RABBINICAL SUPERVISION

Southern Jewish cuisine at book events Happy Mother’s Day!

As part of the “One Book One Community” project sponsored by the Jewish
Federation of Northern New Jersey, meetings in Fair Lawn and Hoboken will
involve Southern Jewish cuisine. They’re based on this year’s book selection,
“Among the Living” by Jonathan Rabb.”
The Fair Lawn Public Library offers “A Taste of Southern and Jewish
DELI • RESTAURANT • CATERING
Cuisine” on Monday, May 13, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Enjoy Southern Jewish Avi & Haim 894 Prospect Street
dishes at this free event. Recipes will be provided ahead of time for anyone Proprietors Glen Rock, NJ
Under Rabbinical Supervision Tel: 201-445-1186
who would like to prepare and share their recipes. To RSVP, go to fairlawn-
www.koshernosh.com Fax: 201-670-5674
library.org. For questions, call Leslie Kruegel, the library’s head of refer-
ence and adult services, at (201) 796-3400 or email her at leslie.kruegel@
fairlawn.bccls.org. The library is at 10-01 Fair Lawn Ave.

The Moishe House Hoboken has a Southern Jewish cooking gathering on Tuesday, May 14, at 7:30 p.m.
Foster Village DINE
IN OR

Jewish recipes will be given a southern twist, and refreshments will be served. For location information Kosher Delicatessen TAKE
OUT
and to RSVP, text (704) 907-5803 or email moishehousehoboken@gmail.com. For upcoming events, go to
Moishe House Hoboken on Facebook.
APPETIZERS · SALADS
SOUPS · ENTREES
SIDE DISHES · DESSERTS

Great Food, Great Service, Reasonable Prices

469 S. Washington Ave. • Bergenfield, N.J.
Mother’s Day brunch selection from Kosher.com 201-384-7100

BETH JANOFF CHANANIE

Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 12. A thought-

ful store-bought or homemade card always
is welcome, and a delicious brunch at home
is a great idea. I use Kosher.com, the premier 19-09 Fair Lawn Ave.
online community for kosher cooking and liv- fair lawn, nj 07410
201 796-6565 tel
ing, as my go-to for tips and recipes. The recipe 201 796-8501 fax

will work great with anything else you serve,

including omelets, French toast, or pancakes.

Honeydew FIRST PLACE FIRST PLACE

cucumber salad BAKERY
7 Time Winner
CHALLAH
9 Time Winner
DRESSING INGREDIENTS
This salad feels so fresh and clean. The flavors come 1/4 cup olive oil We Are Nut Free!
together to yield a delicious, healthy dish that can be juice from 1/2 lemon
enjoyed on its own or can complement an entrée of 1 tablespoon honey
fish, chicken, or meat. 1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
SALAD INGREDIENTS
1 medium honeydew melon, diced DIRECTIONS
2-3 Persian cucumbers, diced In a small bowl, mix the olive oil, lemon juice,
1/4 red onion, finely diced honey, salt, and pepper. In a large serving
1 avocado, diced bowl, combine the honeydew, cucumbers,
1/2 bunch parsley, finely chopped onion, avocado, and parsley. Pour the dress- Challah · Pastries · cookies · bobkas · pies & More...
1 handful sweetened dried cranberries ing over the salad and toss well. Garnish with
WHERE QUALITY AND FRESHNESS COUNT!
1 handful roasted sunflower seeds cranberries and sunflower seeds. www.zadiesbakeshop.com · zadiesbakeshop@yahoo.com
– Recipe by Binah
JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019 45
 JS-46

46 Jewish Standard MAY 3, 2019


The Frazzled Housewife
Take me away
W
hen you think about
it, the holiday of Pass- over, they were all going crazy! Any
over is a truly a unique relative Velvel had was crawling out of
time for the Jews. We
are celebrating and commemorating
our freedom from slavery. Our escape
from an evil empire. There is an entire
book dedicated to telling the story. The
Hagaddah. It is the only book, I think
— and don’t quote me because I totally
don’t know what I am talking about —
that has a song just for the youngest
child to sing. The manishtana. It is a
book that religious and non-religious
Jews alike read together. The seders
are like Thanksgiving for some Jews;
everybody gets together for a really big
meal. Some of these families want to be
together and want to see each other and
others, well, don’t and don’t.
And for the Orthodox Jews, and pos-
sibly some others as well, even though
it is a holiday celebrating the release
from slavery, we are enslaved to clean
the entire house from top to
bottom and use a whole new
set of dishes, utensils, pots,
pans, glasses, and food, for
that matter. I am not sure
how that makes any sense at
all, but it has been going on
for thousands of years, so I
guess it just stuck. No rabbi
is finding a way around that
one. Matzah is matzah and
bread just isn’t. Banji
Over the holiday, I was Ganchrow
trying to see if I could find
the history of going away for
Passover. That has become a true mon-
ey-making proposition for those in the
business. For those of you who don’t
know about the whole “going away for
Passover” deal, allow me to explain it to
you. (Though, I must say that I think that pet. (True story, but not mine.) You are
going to a hotel for Passover came from
a rebbetzin in some teeny-tiny village off ulously hiked up prices — ridiculous!!!
the beaten path in Yemensvelt who com-
plained to her rosh-yeshiva husband that
in between the 17 kids, three part- time
jobs, and a shaital machar business, she
isn’t going to have time to kasher the
house for Pesach.
And since he is the chief rabbi of
Yemensvelt, he certainly can’t help.
So he sent a telegram to his friend who
owned a hotel and owed him a favor for
a bris he performed when the actual
mohel got caught in a snowstorm.
His friend replied back, “For you, my
chaver, for you, my dear friend Velvel —
for you I will make my hotel kosher for
Passover so you and your wife and your
17 children could be away and relax and
not have to worry about a thing!”
Well, when word got out in the vil-
lage that there was going to be a hotel
JS-47*
Kosher Crossword
“Common Addresses” By Yoni Glatt,
koshercrosswords@gmail.com
Difficulty Level: Easy
that was going to be kosher for Pass-
the woodwork to ask if he could get a
deal. “My vife ees good wit de kinder-
lach. Maybe she runs camp?” Ahh and
the first barter for service was born….
When my mom’s parents were alive,
we had Passover together in our house
and it was really special. They died pretty
young, and after that, we would go with
my dad’s parents to the Concord every
other year. The other year, we went with-
out them to the Concord. The food at the
Concord was the best. Was it actually
kosher for Pesach? No one is really sure.
But there have been some really frum
hotels that we have been at that served
ice cream that was definitely not parve.
But it was really really good and totally
worth it to eat it right after a steak…
My point is this. No one messes with
Passover. No one gets a rabbi to say,
“Naa, matzah isn’t going to work for you
this year. Just buy a pizza
and eat it in the closet.”
It’s just not happening.
But the invention of the Across Down
1. Ride the waves 1. The Kings of the NBA, on scoreboards
Hotel for Passover is a
5. ___ Asar (book of twelve prophets) 2. Mysterious obj. in the skies
totally different thing.
9. Former Laker Odom 3. Went wild
Now that is people cel- 14. Off in the distance 4. Like many samples
ebrating their freedom! 15. They lay eggs 5. Destination of many a disappearance?
Eating breakfast and 16. Not quite right? 6. Common crossword puzzle actor
then tea room and then 17. Andy Samberg and Elon Gold, e.g. Stephen
19. Jackie who also could have been men- 7. “Raggedy” doll
lunch and then barbe-
8. “After all ___ and done... “
cue and then Chinese
tioned in 17-Across
20. Low laborer 9. Rabbi Norman or keyboardist Robert of
food and then dinner 21. Subject of the film “Goodbye Chicago
and then more tea room. Christopher Robin” 10. Antioxidant berry
You’re away from 23. Org. for Woods 11. Mecca visitor
home, so you don’t have to worry about 25. Sam who directed “Spider-Man”, and 12. “This instant!”
how clean the inside of your oven got others 13. Fleming or Zellweger
28. Skating surface 18. Lt. Worf portrayer Michael
or which of your kids’ friends will still
29. “Business” for Meir Lansky and Arnold 22. Yiddish author Sholem
insist on bringing Oreos over in his Rothstein 23. North or South
pocket, for you to find all over the car- 33. Actor Schreiber 24. Show pleasure
34. Producer on “Frasier” 26. It’s not the same company as Lacoste
on vacation from food shopping at ridic- 35. Sinai or Ararat 27. Bracha made on most cakes
36. “The ___ near!” (doomsayer’s phrase) 30. “___ Malkeinu”
38. What can come before the starts of 31. Bad, in Bethlehem
You are on vacation from your kids,
the circled letters in this puzzle 32. Furious
because these programs have the best 40. Middle-East terrorist group 37. Body of water
day camps — and even if they aren’t, 44. He often annoys Homer 39. Parshat Ki ___
what could really happen to your kid in 46. Twizzler bit 41. “The War of the Worlds” invaders
a seven-hour day? (I am kidding. Every- 48. Folded Mexican food 42. Sulfuric, for one
one is vetted, more or less…) 49. A Jewish founder of Facebook (no, not 43. Gideon had 71
that one) 45. First Bond flick
So there you have it. Going away for
53. Modern prefix with friendly 47. Lair for Wayne and Grayson
Pesach was originally from the great 54. Add comments to a text 49. Bakery treat
rabbis of Yemensvelt, and for those who 55. 6-pointers, in the NFL 50. In the realm of possibility
can afford to go away or are related to 56. London’s Scottish counterpart 51. He plays a very famous Stark
someone who can afford to take you 59. Flushing Field 52. Artery’s opposite
away, just know that you have the bless- 61. “Gone With the Wind” star Clark 53. Encouraged, with “on”
62. He took a bullet rescuing Jewish hos- 57. BBQ side dish
ings of all of these shtark rebbes who
tages in 1972 58. Obtains
came before you. 67. Where to snorkel in Israel 60. Tot
68. Hebrew eve 63. Trump’s is still happening
Banji Ganchrow of Teaneck was very 69. Be aware 64. Aviv preceder
upset when she saw her pool was 70. Brees and Bledsoe 65. Like January in Melbourne
replaced by a swing set and then when 71. Bulldog’s school 66. NYC hood with many Jewish singles
72. Approximate figures: Abbr.
she went to 1 p.m. lunch, there was no
table or lunch…. Oh well…. The solution to last week’s puzzle is on page 55.
Jewish Standard MAY 3, 2019 47
 JS-48*

Calendar
educational director at Israel with Professor
Yeshiva University, and Alan Dershowitz in
Lisa Twerski, author conversation with
of “I’m So Confused, JNF’s CEO, Russell
Am I Being Abused?” Robinson, at the
speak at “It Can Rockleigh, 26 Paris
Happen to Anyone,” Ave., Rockleigh.
a mental health and Registration, 9:30 a.m.;
addiction symposium program at 10. JNF.
on eliminating stigma, org/NNJbrunch or
at Yeshivat He’Atid. Jacqueline Yehudiel,
Refreshments, 8:30 (973) 593-0095, ext.
a.m.; program at 9. 823.
Sponsored by CCSA
and Refaenu. 1500 Speaker in Wyckoff:
Queen Anne Road. Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin,
Time2TalkAddiction@ senior rabbi of Temple
gmail.com or Solel in Hollywood,
Time2TalkAddiction. Fla., is the guest for the
org. distinguished speaker
series at Temple Beth
Rishon. Breakfast
buffet, 9:45 a.m.,
followed by the talk,
“American Jews are
from Mars: Israeli
Jews are from Venus,”
10:30 a.m. 585 Russell
Ave. (201) 891-4466 or
bethrishon.org.

Rabbi David Stav Holocaust memorial

MAY Pianist Peter Frankl, the renowned performing artist program in Emerson:
who is professor emeritus at the Yale School of Music, Thoughts on Israel’s Milton Esterow, author

6 will teach a master class at the JCC Thurnauer School

of Music at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades on Monday,
future: Rabbi David
Stav, chief rabbi of the
city of Shoham and
of “The Art Stealers,”
talks about Nazi
theft and reparations
May 6, from 4 to 7 p.m. The class, in the Eric Brown Theater, is part of the chair of Tzohar, an at Congregation
B’nai Israel’s Yom
the Thurnauer School’s annual Sylvia and Jacob Handler Master Class Israel organization that
HaShoah program,
fosters Jewish identity,
series. It is free and open to the community. 411 East Clinton Ave., discusses “The Jewish 10:30 a.m. 53 Palisade
Tenafly. jccotp.org/Thurnauer or (201) 408-1465. COURTESY JCCOTP Future of the State Ave. (201) 265-2272 or
of Israel” for an adult bisrael.com.
education program at
Congregation Rinat Yom HaShoah in
committee at Hackensack: Temple
Friday  Saturday  Congregation Rinat
Yisrael, 8:45 a.m. Dr.
Sunday  Yisrael in Teaneck,
9 a.m. 389 West Beth El screens
MAY 3 MAY 4 Woolf gives the drasha MAY 5 Englewood Ave. “The Invisibles,” a
(201) 837-2795. docudrama that
at the 8:30 and 9 a.m. chronicles the lives of
Shabbat in Closter: minyans. At 6:05 p.m.,
Temple Beth El of four young German
he will speak about Jews who survive
Northern Valley has “Hunting, Dancing,
a mini-concert with the Holocaust, 1 p.m.
Masquerading Memorial service
organist/pianist James and Halakhah: The
Rensink, 6:30 p.m., follows. Refreshments.
Remarkable World 280 Summit Ave. (201)
followed by wine, fruit, of Italian Jewry,” and
and cheese. Services 342-2045.
after 7:20 Mincha, he’ll
at 7:30 led by Rabbi look at “A History of Piano music in
David Widzer and Humra: Not Everything Suffern: Israeli-born
Cantor Elizabeth Rabbi Dr. Jeffrey Woolf You Might Expect.” Dr. Norman Blumenthal
Alan Dershowitz pianist Itay Goren
Goldmann. 221 Co-sponsored by the performs a solo
Schraalenburgh Road. Shabbat in Teaneck: Religious Zionists of Mental health/
Breakfast for Israel: program featuring a
(201) 768-5112 or www. Rabbi Dr. Jeffrey America-Mizrachi. 389 addiction
Jewish National new sonata written
tbenv.org. Woolf of Bar Ilan West Englewood Ave. symposium in
Fund hosts the especially for him by
University is the (201) 837-2795. Teaneck: Dr. Norman
Northern New composer Randall
scholar-in-residence Blumenthal, director
Jersey Breakfast for Svane, as well as works
for the adult education of trauma at Ohel and

48 JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019

 JS-49*

Calendar

by Handel, Haydn, Club discusses Haim in Emerson:

and Brahms, at the Hazaz’s story “The Congregation B’nai Shabbat in Closter:
Suffern Free Library, Sermon,” 8 p.m. Israel continues a Rabbi David S. Widzer
1:30 p.m. 210 Lafayette 70 Sterling Place. Jewish meditation and the Sisterhood of
Ave., Suffern, N.Y. (201) 833-0515. series for participants Temple Beth El lead
(845) 357-1237. of all ages and services celebrating
the role of women in
Marking the Monday  levels, led by Rabbi
Debra Orenstein, Jewish life, 7:30 p.m.
Holocaust in Jersey MAY 6 7:30 p.m. Learn about 221 Schraalenburgh
City: Temple Beth and enjoy Jewish Road. (201) 768-5112 or
El and Congregation meditation texts and tbenv.org.
B’nai Jacob of techniques. Also May Itay Goren Israel Nitzan
Jersey City and the Shabbat in Emerson:
14. 53 Palisade Ave. Rabbi Debra Orenstein
United Synagogue (201) 265-2272 or Community Yom Yom Ha’atzmaut in
of Hoboken gather Ha’atzmaut/ Hackensack: Jewish and certified yoga
bisrael.com. teacher Andrea Collier
for a Yom HaShoah Hazikaron in Federation of Northern
program at Beth-El, Wyckoff: Temple New Jersey marks lead participants to
2:30 p.m. Holocaust Wednesday  Beth Rishon joins with Yom Ha’atzmaut at incorporate yoga
poses and Jewish
survivor Ernest Mathias MAY 8 the congregations the Bergen County
mindfulness into the
will speak and show of Temple Emanuel Administration
parts of the film of Pascack Valley, Building, 11:30 a.m. traditional service at
Tal Heinrich Yoga & Torah in Congregation B’nai
“The Last Refuge,” Closter: Temple Woodcliff Lake; Beth Israel Nitzan, Israel’s
about the Jewish COURTESY JFNNJ
Haverim Shir Shalom, Deputy Consul General Israel, 7:30 p.m. Wear
Emanu-El offers comfortable clothes
community of émigrés Talking about Israel: “Yoga & Torah” with Mahwah; Congregation will speak and the
who found refuge in Beth Sholom, Teaneck; Moriah School of and bring a yoga mat
The Jewish Federation instructor Shari Brooks or towel. 53 Palisade
Shanghai. Music by of Northern New and Cantor Israel and Temple Beth Tikvah, Englewood’s choir will
the USH Choir. 2419 Wayne; Barnert perform. JFNNJ.org. Ave. Reservations,
Jersey continues Bruria Singer. It’s a (201) 265-2272 or
Kennedy Boulevard. “FedTalk: Israel,” a holistic workout that Temple, Franklin
(201) 333-4229. Lakes, and the Yom Ha’atzmaut in bisrael.com.
series of discussions stretches the mind and
body while connecting Montebello Jewish Jersey City: Jewish
focused on current
issues in Israel. Tal spiritually with Torah Center, Montebello, Federation of Northern
New Jersey marks Yom
Sunday 
N.Y., to celebrate
Heinrich of i24 News, teachings, song, and
Israeli Independence Ha’atzmaut at City Hall MAY 12
an international news prayer. 10:30 a.m.
180 Piermont Road. Day with a concert at Council Chambers,
station based in Tel 2 p.m. Israel Nitzan,
Aviv and New York, will (201) 750-9997 or Beth Rishon, 7:30 p.m.
templeemanu-el.com. Israeli-born pianist Itay Israel’s Deputy Consul
discuss “International General will speak and
Media Bias Against Goren will accompany.
Yom Ha’atzmaut in Program sponsored by the Solomon Schechter
Israel,” 7:30 p.m. 50 Day School of Bergen
Eisenhower Drive. jfnnj. Orangeburg: The the Jewish Federation
Orangetown Jewish of Northern New County’s choir will
Kobi Malkin org or (201) 820-3946. perform. JFNNJ.org.
Center celebrates with Jersey. 585 Russell
SUSAN WILSON Israeli food, live music, Ave. (201) 891-4466.
Tuesday  and dancing, 6:30 p.m.
Concert for Israel 8 Independence Ave.,
in Ridgewood: MAY 7
Orangeburg, N.Y. COURTESY JCCOTP
Temple Israel & JCC Reservations,
in Ridgewood hosts (845) 359-5920 or ojc. Benefit run in Tenafly:
its annual concert artzeinu@gmail.com. The Kaplen JCC on
in honor of the the Palisades hosts
America-Israel Cultural Yom HaShoah in the annual USTF-
Foundation. It features River Edge: River Dell authorized Rubin
Israeli pianist Shir Hadassah, the Friends Run, a family-friendly
Semmel, violinist Kobi of the River Edge community race, with
Malkin, and cellist Julia Library, and the River Film screening: 8K trail run, 10K run, 5K
Yang, all students at Rabbi Chanoch Kaplan run/walk, and a new
Edge Cultural Center Temple Emanu-El
the Juilliard School of host a screening of Prayer and in Closter screens health expo. Race day
Music, who will play Dr. Eric Goldman “An Apartment in “Redemption”; registration available.
spirituality: Chabad
works by Beethoven Berlin” at the River of NWBC in Franklin reception with Lead sponsors include
and Brahms at the Film discussion in Edge Public Library, refreshments at 7:30, the Kaplen Foundation,
Hackensack: Dr. Lakes offers six
shul, 3 p.m. AICF 7 p.m. Dr. Michael Riff, sessions on the Jewish film at 8, followed Englewood Health,
supports artistic life in Eric Goldman will director of the Gross by discussion with the Rubin and Rubach
discuss the movie “A art of prayer and
Israel. Sponsored by Center for Holocaust spiritual experience Assistant Rabbi Paul families, the Jewish
congregant Richard Borrowed Identity” and Genocide Kerbel. 180 Piermont Standard, Tenafly
and other Israeli films at the Chabad Jewish
Schnaittacher. Dessert Studies at Ramapo Center, led by Rabbi Road. (201) 750-9997 Nature Center, and
reception with the at Bergen County College in Mahwah, or templeemanu-el. NorthJersey.com.
section of the National Chanoch Kaplan,
artists. 475 Grove St. will introduce the 7:30 p.m. 375 Pulis com. 411 E. Clinton Ave.
(201) 444-9320 or Council of Jewish film and lead a post- (201) 408-1404,
Women’s “Timely Ave. (201) 848-0444
synagogue.org
Topics and Tasty
screening discussion.
685 Elm Ave.
or chabadplace.org/jli. Friday  rubinrun@jccotp.org,
or jccotp.org/rubinrun.
Carol King music in Treats,” 1:30 p.m., at (201) 261-1663, ext. 4. MAY 10
Paterson: Gerard and Senior Source at the
Shops at Riverside,
Thursday  Yom Ha’atzmaut
Diane Barros present Author in Paterson: Shabbat in Closter: in Emerson:
“One Fine Tapestry: A second floor. ncjwbcs. Linda Barth presents
MAY 9 Congregation B’nai
Cantor Israel Singer
Carole King Tribute,” org. “New Jersey Originals: Israel celebrates Israel
Parsha learning: and Adam Kohane
for the Lambert Castle Technological perform favorite songs, Independence Day,
Concert series at Yom Hazikaron Marvels, Odd Temple Emanu-El in with music and Israeli
in Tenafly: The Closter offers “Parsha including some from
Lambert Castle, 5 p.m. Inventions, Trailblazing their new CD, during food, after services at
3 Valley Road. Limited Kaplen JCC on the Characters, and More,” for Dummies,” 11 a.m., 9 a.m. The Solomon
Palisades holds a exploring the weekly services at Temple
seating; doors open at based on her book, Emanu-El in Closter, Schechter Day School
4:30. (973) 247-0085 commemoration for for the Passaic County highlights of the Torah of Bergen County’s
Israeli soldiers and reading. 180 Piermont 7 p.m. 180 Piermont
or lambertcastle.org. Historical Society Road. (201) 750-9997 choir will perform,
terror victims, in at Lambert Castle, Road. (201) 750-9997 and the men’s club
Hebrew with English or templeemanu-el. or templeemanu-el.
Book discussion in 7 p.m. 3 Valley Road. will sell Mother’s Day
translations, 7 p.m. com. com.
Teaneck: The Jewish (973) 247-0085 or plants and flowers.
Center of Teaneck’s (201) 569-7900. lambertcastle.org. 53 Palisade Ave.
Leaves of Faith Book (201) 265-2272.
Jewish meditation
JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019 49
 JS-50*

Celebrate Israel in Israel’s future:

Tenafly: The Jewish
Federation of Northern
New Jersey and
the Kaplen JCC on
the Palisades offer
the community-
wide family-friendly
“Celebrate Israel @71”
celebration with food
trucks, Israeli music,
Mother’s Day Israeli
brunch, children’s
activities, activities
with the Israeli Scouts,
live Israeli music, and
more at the JCC,
411 E. Clinton Ave.,
11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
(201) 408-1427, jccotp.
org.
Ambassador Dennis Singles
Ross, who played a
leading role in shaping
U.S. involvement in
Sunday 
the Middle East peace MAY 5
process for more than
12 years, working with Seniors meet in West Alan Levy,
the administrations Nyack: Singles 65+ Howard
of presidents George meets for a bagels and Chernin, Glenn
H.W. Bush and Bill lox brunch at the JCC Kissler, and
Clinton, speaks at Rockland, 11 a.m. All are
the JCC of Paramus/ welcome, particularly if Alan Golub at
CBT, 6:15 p.m. East you are from Hudson, the JHF’s 2018
304 Midland Ave. Passaic, Bergen, or golf outing.
(201) 262-7691 or Rockland counties. COURTESY
JCCParamus.org. 450 West Nyack Road. JEWISH HOME
Gene, (845) 356-5525. FAMILY

Tee off with Jewish Home in June

Community learning program
scheduled in Teaneck on May 11
Congregations Rinat Yisrael and Beth
Sholom will hold their fifth annual
Community Learning Program, “Liv-
ing in diaspora: Home or Exile?” at
Rinat Yisrael on Shabbat, May 11, from
5 to 7:15 p.m. Hundreds of participants
are expected at the afternoon of Jewish
study. Source material will be provided
‘Exodus’ at Englewood Library
The film “Exodus,” based on Leon Uris’
novel, will be shown at the Englewood
Public Library on Wednesday, May 8, at
6 p.m. The film gives the backstory to
the creation of the state of Israel in 1948,
in the aftermath of World War II. Those
under 18 will not be admitted without a
parent or guardian. The library is 31 Engle
St. For more information, call (201) 568-
2215 or go to englewoodlibrary.org.
Passaic Chabad Center offers
five-week Hebrew crash course
Rabbi Mayer Gurkov of Wayne leads
a five-session new course, “Read It In
Hebrew” at the Chabad Center of Passaic
County on Thursdays at 7 p.m. The flash-
card-based language course, developed
by the Jewish Learning Institute, prom-
ises users to learn to read Hebrew in five
weeks. The first two lessons focus on the
letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the
last three introduce vowels and teach
Teen choir auditions by HaZamir
The B ergen C ount y chapter of
HaZamir: the International Jewish
High School Choir, conducted by Can-
tor Ronit Wolff Hanan, holds an open
rehearsal for eighth- to 11th-graders at
50 JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019
in Hebrew and English and participants
will divide into small groups of 8 to 10
for the participatory text study. Rabbis
Yosef Adler and Joel Pitkowsky will offer
brief presentations, and refreshments
will be served. Register by May 5 at
cbsteaneck.org/event/community-learn-
ing-2019.html.
COURTESY ENGLEWOOD LIBRARY
students how to read words.
“Read it in Hebrew” is designed for all
people at all levels of Jewish knowledge,
including those without any prior expe-
rience or background in Jewish learning.
The course is open to the public, and
attendees need not be affiliated with a
synagogue, temple, or other house of
worship. For more information, call (973)
896-0343 or go to jewishwayne.com.
Congregation Beth Sholom in Teaneck,
Sunday, May 5, from 1 to 3 p.m. For
information, call (201) 906-444, email
HaZamirBergen@gmail.com, or go to
hazamir.org.
The Jewish Home Foundation of North
Jersey’s 25th annual Golf, Tennis &
Card Outing will be held at the Mon-
tammy Golf Club on Monday, June 3.
Funds raised will benefit programs
and services that enrich the lives of
seniors in the community, both in JHF
facilities and in their homes. Howard
Chernin, a longtime supporter of the
annual fundraiser, is the honoree.
Mr. Chernin is the co-founder of Cam-
bridge Wilkinson, a global investment
banking firm headquartered in New
York City.
The Jewish Home Family and its
member entities — the Jewish Home
at Rockleigh, Jewish Home Assisted
Living, Jewish Home at Home, and the
Jewish Home Foundation — are not-
for-profit organizations that provide
long-term care, sub-acute rehabili-
tation, elder abuse shelter, outreach
programs, and outpatient services
for the elderly and their families in
Bergen, North Hudson, and Rockland
counties. The Jewish Home Family’s
bergenPAC to feature Chicago
The Bergen Performing Arts Center
presents “Chicago Live in Concert”
for the Benzel-Busch concert series on
Wednesday, June 19, at 8 p.m. Starting
in the late 1960s, Chicago scored 21 Top
10 singles and five consecutive Num-
ber 1 albums. Their hits include “Sat-
urday In The Park,” “Feelin’ Stronger
mission is to develop and oversee
the best possible care, services, and
advice for the elderly and their fami-
lies at home and in their facilities, now
and in the future, consistent with Jew-
ish tradition and values.
The June 3 outing begins with
brunch at 9:45 a.m.; golf has a shot-
gun start at 11:45; round-robin tennis
tournament is at 1 p.m.; cards (bridge,
mahjong, canasta) at 12:45; and cock-
tails and dinner at 5:30. Attendees can
play golf, tennis, mahjong, canasta,
or bridge. The charge for golf is $600
per person, including brunch and din-
ner; tennis $350 per person, including
brunch and dinner; and card games,
$180 per person, including brunch
and snacks during game time. Dinner
only is $200 per person. Sponsorship
opportunities begin at $250 and do
not require attendance.
Fo r m o re i n f o r m a t i o n , c a l l
Molly Shulman at (551) 444-3166
o r e m a i l h e r a t M S hu l m a n @
JewishHomeFamily.org.
Every Day,” “Just You ‘N Me,” and “Call
On Me.” While Chicago’s sound and
its active members changed over the
years, the legendary band still is rock-
ing out for fans across the country.
For tickets go to ticketmaster.com or
call bergenPAC’s box office at (201)
227-1030.
 JS-51*

Calendar

Health panel in Woodcliff Lake

The Lewin Fund to Fight Debbie Besson, cardiologist
Women’s Cancers presents Dr. Raval Zankahana and,
“Own Your Health,” a panel radiologist and women’s
at Temple Emanuel of the digital imaging specialist
Pascack Valley, moderated Dr. Lisa Weinstock — offer
by Dr. Sharyn N. Lewin, on an interactive discussion
Sunday, May 5, from 10:15 about the latest research
a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Dr. Lewin, and prevention. Sponsors
the fund’s executive direc- include Holy Name Medical
tor, is the medical director Center, Temple Emanuel of
of gynecologic oncology at Dr. Sharyn N. Lewin the Pascack Valley, Myriad,
Holy Name Medical Center Sharsheret, Valley Chabad,
in Teaneck. The day includes brunch, Hadassah, OJC, and Temple Israel and
free babysitting, and on-site genetic test- JCC. The shul is at 87 Overlook Drive. For
ing and counseling. more information, call (929) 224-2293 or
The experts on the panel — nutritionist go to TheLewinFund.org.

Rockland taking registrations

A walkabout to Brooklyn arts for Celebrate Israel parade
The Adult Department at the Kaplen JCC Jewish Federation of Rockland County a bagel, water, a snack, and a parade
on the Palisades offers the Greenpoint Art plans to march in this year’s Celebrate T-shirt (while supplies last). $18
Excursion: North Brooklyn Renaissance Israel parade — “Only In Israel” — on includes all of the above plus bus
on Monday, May 13, at 9:30 a.m. June 2. A bus will leave from the Rock- transport to and from the parade. Reg-
Tour guide Ronnit Vasserman offers an land Jewish Community Campus in the ister by May 13 to guarantee a shirt. To
overview of street art in one of Brooklyn’s morning and return in the afternoon. register, to go jewishrockland.org or
hottest neighborhoods. Participants will The cost, $10 per person, includes call Emma at (845) 362-4200, ext. 180.
spend a few hours with Ronnit, exploring
the Greenpoint art scene and visiting artist
studios and galleries, and they will stop at
some of the neighborhood’s most talked
about cafes, as well as a Rite-Aid that still
COURTESY JCCOTP

has some of the architectural elements of

the movie theater it used to be. Lunch is
the participants responsibility and choice.
The tour will be a rigorous walk at a brisk
pace, so comfortable shoes are recom-
mended. Cost includes round-trip bus Greeks and
from the JCC. To register or for more information, call Michele at (201) 408-1496 or Watermelons”
go to jccotop.org/adult-day-trips-tours. by Noah Elam.
COURTESY JCCOTP

Teens to stage ‘Curious Incident’
and benefit autism programs
Tenafly High School’s award-winning per-
forming arts department presents “The
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-
Time” from May 2 to 4. The cast will hold
a talkback at the end of the performances
to raise awareness for autism and will be
collecting donations to support programs
Tenafly High
School stu-
dents rehearse
May art exhibit in Tenafly
“The Curious The Waltuch Gallery at the Kaplen JCC
Incident of on the Palisades presents “Taming
the Dog in the Tigers: Paintings by Noah Elam,” on
Night-Time.” display through May 30 at the Waltuch
PHOTO PROVIDED Art Gallery.
Elam was born in Brazil, where he
attended the Escola Nacional de Belas
Artes in Rio de Janeiro. In the early
1970s, he began exhibiting in one-man
shows at popular galleries in both Sao
Paulo and Rio de Janerio. In the 1980s,
he won an international award in Bra-
for people with autism at the Kaplen zil, was featured in a group exhibition
JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly. The at the Taipei Art Museum in China and
thought-provoking play by Simon Ste- at the World Trade and Cultural Cen-
phens is based on the best-selling novel ter in Amsterdam. In 1989 he moved
of the same name by Mark Haddon. to Jerusalem’s Old City, where he had
For more information, email sahncoo-
per@tenafly.k12.nj.us.
many solo exhibitions at the Lucian
Krief Gallery. His more recent exhi-
bitions include solo shows at the Pat-
erson Museum and the Etervana and
Atrium Galleries in New Jersey, and
the Riverdale Y in New York. His works
are also prized in private international
collections as well as permanent collec-
tions in museums worldwide, including
the Museum of São Paulo, Brazil.
The Waltuch Art Gallery is a commu-
nity space that exhibits thematically
Jewish artwork, or art produced by
Jewish artists. For more information,
call Nina Bachrach at (201) 408-1406
or email her at nbachrach@jccotp.org.
JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019 51
Jewish World

On the social media battlefield, the Israeli army has weaponized snark
SAM SOKOL

JERUSALEM — In late April, just hours before the start

of Passover, the British Labour Party tweeted out holi-
day greetings to its more than 671,000 followers.
“As Jewish people prepare for Passover, we’re wish-
ing everyone in the Jewish community chag sameach,”
read the now deleted message, which was accompa-
nied by the image of a Star of David, a kiddush cup —
and a loaf of bread.
The image of a food specifically prohibited on Pass-
over, in a tweet from a party battling allegations of insti-
tutional anti-Semitism, immediately created a firestorm
on social media.
Responses ranged from enraged to humorous. Join-
ing the fray was the Israeli army, whose official account
tweeted a “Happy Holidays” message with a similar
image featuring matzah, an Easter egg, and a Druze
pilgrimage site.
Responses on social media were mixed. Some users
deemed the IDF’s foray into British politics to be “pure
Jewish humor.” Others, such as Jerusalem Post contrib-
uting editor Lahav Harkov, criticized it as “just another
case of the IDF being inappropriate on social media …
which, while funny, is really not their place.”
Others, like Times of Israel military correspondent
Judah Ari Gross, suggested that the tweet had crossed
a boundary.
“Just the Israeli military casually getting involved in
another country’s internal politics,” he tweeted.
In recent years the @IDF Twitter account has begun
to adopt the vocabulary of social media, using language,
memes, and, notably, snark in a way that is uncommon
for large government-run institutions. It has racked up
one million followers in the process.
The IDF’s social media team is fully aware of its edgy,
and occasionally controversial, branding. Earlier this
year, the team leader, Maj. Keren Hajioff, appeared to
revel in that reputation, posting a picture of herself and
her soldiers dressed as trolls — a nickname for social
media users who like to bait their enemies.
This lighthearted and sometimes cutting approach
is a radical departure from the army’s earliest forays
into social media, said Aliza Landes, a former soldier
in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit who was responsible for
dragging the military into the social media arena during
Operation Cast Lead in 2008. Initially meeting push-
back from commanders skeptical of social media, Lan-
des and her comrades weren’t even allowed to tweet
without permission from the highest levels.
“The only thing I was allowed to tweet without get-
ting permission from the IDF spokesman, a brigadier
general, was what we were sending out on beepers,”
she said. “If you look at our earlier tweets they are com-
pletely ridiculous. The army used to expect Twitter to
adhere to army language rather than to try and engage
in Twitter language. I’m very proud the little side proj-
ect I started has become this big and is managed by
some very excellent people.”
Asked about the IDF’s Labour tweet, Landes said
that while she is “a huge believer, people should stay
on topic in their area of expertise.” The IDF did manage
to generate a lot of attention, she noted, and “if that’s
the goal, then they are achieving their objectives.”
The IDF has certainly managed to garner attention. It
recently celebrated its millionth follower with a tweet
proclaiming “We got 99 problems but 1 million follow-
ers on @Twitter ain’t one,” a riff on a Jay-Z song with
52 JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019
A giant symbol of Twitter with an IDF logo superimposed dominates a picture of Israeli tanks.
 QUIQUE KIERSZENBAUM/GETTY IMAGES; PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JTA STAFF
the lyrics “ninety nine problems but a bitch ain’t one.”
According to Gross, the army’s social media approach
may have been outside its purview but stemmed from
an effort to fill a vacuum left by the Foreign Ministry
and Prime Minister’s Office.
“These various government offices are aware of the
IDF’s provocative social media activities and evidently
accept them,” the journalist said. ‘It’s not a case of
negligence. Nor is it a case of someone accidentally or
If you look at our
earlier tweets they are
completely ridiculous.
The army used to
expect Twitter to
adhere to army
language rather than
to try and engage in
Twitter language.
unwittingly overstepping their bounds. This is an active
decision. The government knows what is going on, and
the IDF is clearly not being told to stop.”
Humor and sarcasm seem to be the order of the day.
One tweet, which was retweeted nearly 900 times,
contained a video riffing off Facebook’s auto-generated
Happy Birthday messages. In the IDF version, members
of several terrorist groups wish Qasem Soleimani, the
head of Iran’s Quds Force, many happy returns. At the
end of the clip, the cake explodes.
In response, one reporter tweeted that he did “not
know with what weapons World War III will be fought,
but World War IV will be fought with memes.”
Another tweet, which garnered nearly 10,000
retweets and more than 31,000 likes, included a crude
map of the Middle East that appeared to have been pre-
pared in the rudimentary style of MS Paint. It showed
an arrow pointing to Syria labeled “where Iran is” and
another pointing to Iran labeled “where Iran belongs.”
As with many on social media, the IDF does not
appear to believe in subtlety, with one message stating
baldly “A #BlackHole isn’t the only thing that sucks light
and spreads darkness … COUGH COUGH Iran’s Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps.”
Iran and Hamas seem to be the IDF’s favorite oppo-
nents on social media, although the United Nations also
has come under virtual fire.
And while some of the IDF’s choices have gener-
ated criticism, its combative tone online also has gen-
erated support with journalists, including i24 news
anchor Eylon Levy, who posted that “we can add the
IDF Twitter account’s snark to the inventory of Isra-
el’s lethal arsenal.”
Likewise, columnist Ben Caspit has called Major
Hajioff the “IDF’s secret weapon against Hezbollah.”
According to British journalist David Patrikarakos,
whose best-selling book “War in 140 Characters” chron-
icled the rise of the IDF’s social media team, “to contest
the social media space, you need to be edgy.
“The big problem institutions have is they are too
risk averse,” he said. “You can contest the taste some-
times, but humor does work.”
Patrikarakos said sometimes you cross the line, “but
on balance it’s better to be edgy and in tune with the
medium in which you operate than not. That’s some-
thing that the IDF social media unit has got very right.”
Explaining why the IDF decided to employ a some-
times sarcastic voice on social media, spokesman Lt.
Col. Jonathan Conricus said that his unit was “trying
to adapt to the relevant media where we are operat-
ing and to use the tools at our disposal in the way best
suited to achieve our goals.”
The IDF, he said, was “exploring boundaries.” While
his soldiers “plan and assess and think what is appro-
priate,” it’s a “process of trial and error,” and “you
won’t know what is OK, what’s acceptable and what’s
frowned upon, until you do it.”
Conricus took issue with the characterization of his
SEE SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE 56
 JS-53*

Obituaries

Evelyn Lieblich Gertrude Sitzer Eugene Stamper

Evelyn Lieblich, née Deroff, 94, of Wayne, formerly
of Rockville Centre, N.Y., died May 1.
Predeceased by her husband, Sanford, and
son, Richard, she is survived by her daughter,
June Kaplan (Barry) of Englewood, and four
grandchildren.
Arrangements were by Louis Suburban Chapel,
Fair Lawn.
Gertrude Sitzer, 96, of Boca Raton, Fla., formerly of
Brooklyn and New Milford, died April 28.
She was a former member of the New Milford Jew-
ish Center and Hadassah.
Predeceased by her husband, Melvin, a son,
Michael, and a sister, Adele Mermelstein, she is
survived by children, Patricia Garfunkel (Sanford) of
Maryland, and Albert ( Jeanette Pelland) of Rocka-
way; a sister, of Norma Ingram; five grandchildren,
and one great-grandchild.
Donations can be sent to Hadassah. Arrangements
were by Louis Suburban Chapel, Fair Lawn.
Eugene Stamper, 91, of Teaneck died April 27.
He was a professor and administrator at NJIT and
was awarded for leadership in energy conservation
and community zoning.
Predeceased by a daughter, Emily, he is survived
by his wife, Sally, daughter, Marcy, and sister, Sheila.
Arrangements were by Gutterman and Musicant
Funeral Home, Hackensack.

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 JS-55

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Jewish Standard MAY 3, 2019 55

Local/Opinion/Jewish World
Insidious
FROM PAGE 12
fabric. But somehow, for me, that particular photograph
encapsulated the total magnitude of the Holocaust.
When that old man stood before the Nazis, they did
not feel the light behind his eyes, the wisdom in his
face, the weight of his spiritual presence. Nazi ideology
blocked that off, and supplanted it with a different per-
ception. The SS guards saw a weak, parasitic, wrinkled,
and (worst of all) Jewish organism that needed a crutch
to walk. And they all instantly knew where to send him.
This picture is not only evil, but alarming. Hitler had
mastered the ability to manipulate basic human cog-
nition. If the perpetrators of the Holocaust had only
an ideology of racism, they could not have carried out
their monstrosities. Even if a man absolutely hates his
neighbor, he cannot cause him harm — unless he no
longer perceives the neighbor as a conscious entity, a
living soul, fundamentally his equal.
Single-payer
FROM PAGE 44
information or the experience of what this single-payer
experience means when this is your only option.
One of the most fervent backers of universal
health care was the late Congressman John Dingell.
He was the longest-serving member in the House
(1955-2015) and was succeeded by his wife, Debbie
Dingell, representing their Michigan district. Lesser
known is that Dingell’s father served before him,
meaning a Dingell has represented the district since
1932. Why is this important? When you are removed
from the life of a constituent for too long, as Dingell
was, you get funny ideas. Rather than understand-
ing that an elected leader is a servant of the peo-
ple as President Harry Truman reminded so many,
there are those that begin to believe that their con-
stituents are to follow them. As dingell said in an
interview in March 2010 during the health care
Social media
FROM PAGE 52
unit’s work as snark, saying that flexibility on social
media is key.
“I grew up as an infantryman,” he said. “You adapt
your activity to the battlefield and the lay of the land.”
Asked if the IDF has any guidelines, such as avoiding
political matters, the spokesman replied that “everything
is case by case” and that given the rapid pace of social
media, “opportunity favors those willing to take it and to
a certain extent willing to take a risk.”
Conricus recalled a recent incident in which a Labour
member of Parliament tweeted out a video purportedly
showing Israeli troops beating a Palestinian. The video
turned out to be from Guatemala.
“Perhaps in the past some people would’ve felt it’s not
the place of the IDF to respond and demand an apology,
but we see it as our duty to fight against different efforts
to delegitimize the IDF, which [occur] in traditional
media and online, mostly on Twitter,” he said.
At the end of the day, Conricus said, the goal is
to strengthen Israel’s “soft power” by expanding its
56 JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019
But each propaganda poster, each rally, each pub-
lic shaming, subtly changed people’s perceptions. So
when the atrocities began, perpetrators did not merely
believe their actions were justified — they saw vermin,
and treated them like vermin.
This tactic to control people has been used for millen-
nia, and the Nazis perfected it. Certain ways of thinking
can undermine the way we experience reality itself. If
the Nazis could deny fundamental truths about human
worth, how can we avoid falling into the same trap? It
should terrify us that our beliefs can so readily skew
our perceptions, crippling our ability to discern reality.
We all perceive each other through different lenses.
Truth comes to us by working to see the nuanced whole
of each person — not just one fragmented perception or
fleeting idea.
As Holocaust survivors age, each generation per-
ceives them differently. The children of survivors know
them as complicated parents, powerful family builders,
debate, “…it takes a long time to do the necessary
administrative steps that have to be taken to put the
legislation together to control the people.”
The famous writer and freedom fighter Vaclav Havel,
imprisoned for his fight for human rights in Czechoslova-
kia against the communist, totalitarian repression of the
Soviet Union, became the country’s President after the
Velvet Revolution. He understood this dangerous phe-
nomenon of empowering politicians and bureaucrats to
create rules dor which they are never held responsible.
Health care is just one area that many in the current
political and bureaucratic class are working hard to cede
to the state to operate. If we let this happen, we do it at
our own peril. The American character is based on our
thirst for liberty, free from the imposition of oppressive
restrictions on the way we live our lives, and on rejection
of having the state make choices for us; and the impor-
tance of personal responsibility.
This is especially important for the Jewish people, who
have been able to live freely and prosper here because of
presence online. But the only way to do that is “by being
active and engaging and broadening horizons, and some-
times you do that through controversy,” he said, although
the IDF is open to criticism if it gets something wrong.
Former IDF spokesman Peter Lerner recalls an ear-
lier era of social media.
“When I was in charge of social media, it was
expected of organizations and bodies of size and influ-
ence to be regal to a certain extent, to show some level
of statesmanship” and not engage in sarcasm, he said.
“The reality today is somewhat more complicated than
that, and the IDF is embracing that way of communicat-
ing in quite a good way.”
While Lerner said that he had not been a fan of the
army’s subtle jab at Labour, he said that overall he
believed his successors had done a good job at push-
ing boundaries.
The IDF’s new approach, however, has upset some
people working in pro-Israel advocacy.
“I can understand why they want to be funny and
amuse people, but they lose sight of the fact sometimes
that it’s a professional organization that is responsible for
using deadly force,” said one social media professional
and community leaders. Non-Jews usually pity them
as victims. My generation hears the incredible stories
— and some of us are lucky enough to have surviving
grandparents — but unfortunately, we will remember
survivors as elderly.
Therein lies another layer of tragedy. We are the last
generation to know these heroes, but we know them
only as old men and women. It’s difficult for kids to
see that survivors once were outwardly vital, young,
and exceptional — and inside, that’s still who they
are. Thanks to my experience on this program, I have
learned how to see past the surface.
My generation is the last personal link to these sto-
ries. It is our responsibility to learn them, and to truly
know the people behind them. I hope we can bear
witness to more than a vague tale and an old wrinkled
face. And I pray we can convey the strength of the sur-
vivor to our own descendants, so that their light shines
brightly through the ages.
personal liberty, the freedom to choose our path, and the
ability to be judged as an individual.
Providing health care directly from the state may
seem like a good idea, and there are well-intentioned
people who support this. But these decisions cannot
be taken lightly nor be made by assuming it will all be
good. Sacrificing personal liberty is a tremendous and
irrevocable price.
Asked what he learned after leaving Scientology after
30-plus years, the multiple Oscar winning screenwriter/
producer/director Paul Haggis said in Alex Gibney’s doc-
umentary “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of
Belief”: “What I take away from it is that we lock up a
portion of our own mind. We willingly put the cuffs on,
we willingly avoid things that will, could cause us pain if
we looked. If we can just believe something then we don’t
really have to think for ourselves, do we?”
Ceding the power to decide our own destiny is guaran-
teed to end in pain and, for some, death. Don’t be fooled.
Remember Charlie Gard.
I can understand why
they want to be funny
and amuse people,
but they lose sight of
the fact sometimes
that it’s a professional
organization that is
responsible for using
deadly force.
working on public diplomacy issues. He asked not to be
named so as not to damage his relationship with the IDF.
“Joking about using lethal force is something that can
be seen as asinine and immature,” this person said.
 JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY

Age-Friendly
Englewood marks
Older Americans Month
Age-Friendly Englewood is celebrating “Older
Americans Month” in May with various activities
that encourage older adults to connect, create, and
contribute.
On May 9, Age-Friendly Englewood is sponsoring a
concert at bergenPAC featuring The Temptations and
The Four Tops. Those who enter the code MYGIRL
may receive a 10 percent discount on tickets.
On May 18, Age-Friendly Englewood is hosting an
“All-Ages Dance Party” in Depot Square Park. DJ Scott
Reddin will spin hip-hop, salsa, and rock ‘n’ roll,
including favorites of all ages, encouraging people of
different ethnicities to come together and dance. The
Dance Party is part of the Art Walk being held from 1
to 5 p.m. that day, sponsored by the mayor’s Cultural
Affairs Committee for Arts and Entertainment, the
Chamber of Commerce, the SID, and Age-Friendly
Englewood. The public is welcome at all activities
free of charge.
On Mondays and Fridays throughout May, and
until June 14, people are encouraged to “Walk and
Move” at the Winston White Stadium 50 Durie
Age-Friendly
Englewood seeks
to help the
community become
more livable for
people of all ages.
Ave., at 6:30 p.m. In addition, every Wednesday at
6:30 yoga is available at the Mackay Park gatehouse
entrance on Englewood Avenue. BYO mat! Both of
these series of activities are sponsored by the Engle-
wood Health Department and Englewood Health.
To register, call the Health Department at (201) 568-
3450, ext. 508.
This year’s theme for Older Americans Month
is “Connect, Create, Contribute.” Age-Friendly
Englewood is promoting this theme by encouraging
older adults and their communities to connect with
friends, family, and services that support participa-
tion; create by engaging in activities that promote
learning, health, and personal enrichment; and
contribute their time, talent, and life experience to
benefit others.
Age-Friendly Englewood is a community-wide
project that is working to ensure that residents of
Englewood can age in place in their homes and in
the community with dignity and independence.
Age-Friendly Englewood seeks to help the commu-
nity become more livable for people of all ages, with
particular attention to the rapidly growing number of
older adults. An age-friendly community is one that is
a great place to grow up and grow old.
For more information, contact Janet Sharma at
(201) 410-6645.
 Real Estate & Business
Black Box presents award-winning ‘Sweat’
“Sweat” finds the heartbeat of
America with the story of a group
of factory workers whose friend-
ship is tested as they explore issues
of loyalty, finances, and race.
Winner of the 2017 Pulitzer
Prize, Sweat is hailed as “passion-
ate and necessary…a masterful
depiction of the forces that divide
and conquer us…Sweat communi-
cates its points with minimal fuss
and maximum grit. Along with the
rage, despair and violence, there’s
humor and abundant humanity…a
cautionary tale of what happens
when you don’t know how to
resist” (Time Out NY).
Black Box’s produc tion is
directed by Matt Okin and features
Kymbali Craig, Michael Gardiner, Black Box cast members rehearse for a production of “Sweat”
Alex Hughes, Kirsten Lewis, Ken- by Lyn Nottage.
trell Loftin, Arthur Pogh, Ellen
Revesz, and Laurence Wallace. (preview performances, open to $25 for students or seniors.Tickets
“Sweat” is sponsored in part by the public, are May 2 and May 3) at are now available at www.black-
Fairleigh Dickinson University. the Black Box Performing Arts Cen- boxpac.com. Group rates for 10 or
“Sweat” plays Thursday through ter, 200 Walraven Drive, just off more are available by calling (201)
Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday Palisade Avenue. 357-2221. Tickets can also be pur-
at 2 p.m. from May 4 through 19 Tickets are $30 for adults and chased at the venue.
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See all available properties at
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Martin H. Basner, Realtor Associate
(Office) 201-794-7050 · (Cell) 201-819-2623
450 Cumberland Ave. $585,000
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Game Rm Bsmnt. 2 Car Gar.
550 Maple Ave. $319,900
Perfect Starter Home. Univ Area. Charm Col. Encl Porch, LR/Fplc+Alcove, Stained
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TEANECK - TUDOR STYLE! $420,000 ALL CLOSE TO NY BUS / HOUSES OF WORSHIP /
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JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019 57
Real Estate & Business
A medical first in New Jersey:
Englewood Health neurosurgeon
uses fluorescence technology
to ‘light up’ tumor cells in the brain
Englewood Health is the first hospital
in New Jersey to use a novel fluorescent
technolo�y that makes brain cancer cells
“light up” when viewed through a spe-
cial microscope. The innovative optical
imaging agent — called Gleolan — enables
surgeons to see and remove malignant
glioma cells remaining in brain tissue
during surgery, while also avoiding parts
of the brain responsible for vital func-
tions such as speech and movement.
“This is game-changing technol-
o�y for glioma surgery,” explained Dr.
Kevin Yao, the Englewood Health neu-
rosurgeon who performed the first pro-
cedure in early March. He removed a
four-centimeter malignant glioma from
a woman in her 70s who was experi-
encing headaches and confusion and
had noticed changes in her speech
prior to receiving her diagnosis.
High-grade gliomas are highly chal-
lenging brain cancers to treat success-
fully and are not always operable. The
tumor often comes back after treat-
ment. Techniques that permit the
surgeon to remove as much tumor
tissue as possible could enhance a
patient’s outcome.
Gleolan is a medication called ami-
nolevulinic acid HCl. The patient
drinks the medication two to four
hours before receiving anesthesia for
the surgery. During the operation, the
neurosurgeon views the brain through
special blue-light filters on a surgical
microscope. Under this blue light, Gle-
olan helps tumor cells to “fluoresce,”
glowing a red-violet color. The medi-
cation is designed to make cancerous
brain cells glow, but not noncancerous
cells. Gleolan was approved by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration in June
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58 JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019
2017 for use during surgery for high-
grade gliomas, and is commercially
available to all patients.
During the procedure at Englewood
Health, Dr. Yao removed the tumor tis-
sue he could see with the naked eye.
He then viewed the area through the
microscope and could see that there
were cancer cells remaining, and was
able to remove those as well. “It was
empowering because I could actu-
ally see the tumor cells and was able
to remove more during surgery than I
would have been able to without this
technolo�y,” he noted.
The technique adds to the arsenal of
tools that surgeons use to “map” the
location of a brain tumor. Current tech-
niques provide a rough idea of a tumor’s
location. However, brain anatomy can
change during an operation as the tumor
is removed and tissue shifts. Intraopera-
tive MRI is also used to map brain tumor
location, but it is costly and resource-in-
tensive, requiring all equipment in the
operating room to be MRI-compatible.
Unlike existing brain mapping tech-
niques, Gleolan provides real-time infor-
mation showing exactly where glioma
cells are lurking in the brain.
Dr. Yao added that Gleolan, com-
bined with functional imaging and
testing, showed him that the patient’s
tumor tissue was near, but not in, areas
of her brain responsible for speech.
“Every extra millimeter of tissue that
I remove can improve her survival,
but can also dramatically affect her
speech. Gleolan allowed me to maxi-
mally and safely remove the tumor,”
he explained. “I think this approach is
going to change the standard of care for
glioma surgery.”
WE
D
W
CALL
2 0
facebook.com/jewishstandard - 6
We
‘A Work of Heart’
Valley Hospital program will illustrate
latest advances in valve disease treatment
The Valley Hospital will host a free
community health program, “A Work
of Heart,” on Tuesday, May 7, from 2 to
3:30 p.m. at The Dorothy B. Kraft Cen-
ter, 15 Essex Road, Paramus.
Life can change in a heartbeat. Each
year, more than five million Americans
are diagnosed with heart valve disease,
a condition where one or more of the
valves of the heart do not open or close
properly, preventing blood from flow-
ing freely through the heart. While
some people experience few symp-
toms, others may feel short of breath or
feel too tired and weak to take part in
regular activities.
If you or a loved one suffer from
heart valve disease, you’ll want to join
J
J im
im More than 411,000 likes.
Like us
on Facebook.
RESIDEN
TODAY
1
do not
Artist Marco Santini
puts the finishing touches
on the pole he painted
in the Salud Cafe,
located inside NJ Eye
and Ear in Englewood.
His design features
words of positivity in
more than 50 languages,
including Hebrew.
Dr. Sean Wilson, director of Struc-
tural Heart Disease Program, The
Valley Heart and Vascular Institute,
to learn about the latest advances in
heart valve disease care, including
transcatheter aortic valve replace-
ment (TAVR), an innovative and min-
imally-invasive option for patients
with severe aortic stenosis. As a less
invasive treatment, TAVR is helping
patients resume their regular activities
much faster than compared to typical
recovery times associated with tradi-
tional heart surgery.
The program is free but registration
is required. For more information or
to register, call (877) 283-2276 or visit
ValleyHealth.com/Events.
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the
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JEWISH STANDARD MAY 3, 2019 59