Co m m u nity

Election 2011: the candidates

n Monday, The Jewish Standard e-mailed the legislative candidates in districts within its readership area the 36th 37th, 38th, 39th and 40th districts posing a series of questions that, in the opinion of the editorial staff (with input from communal professionals working in the field), were of greatest interest to Jewish voters. With one week to go before the election, it was reasoned, the candidates would have fully formed opinions on each issue raised. We did not count on the very damaging early fall snowstorm that left so many people without power for so long. As a result, sime candidates did not even receive the questions in time and of those who did, many had difficulty responding before our deadline. Some candidates chose not to respond altogether. In an effort to be fair to all of the candidates, we have chosen not to publish any responses in the print edition. Instead, we established a special website for this coverage, www.jstandardelect.wordpress.com. We urge our readers to visit that page and view the responses relevant to them. We also urge readers to visit the websites of individual candidates. While we edited the responses to fit the available

space, we made every effort not to distort a candidates views. In essence, then, these are their own words. A caveat: Because of redistricting, incumbents running for re-election in a given area may be newcomers to that area. The questions: 1. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing your district and the state of New Jersey right now? 2. In light of ongoing budget-cutting, what programs would you be willing to cut or, alternatively, what programs must be maintained? 3. What is your position on giving parents vouchers to be used at a school of their choice? Also on the topic of education, do you support the creation of charter schools? 4. Do you believe that religious institutions should remain tax exempt in this time of economic austerity? 5. What steps can be taken to deal humanely with undocumented immigrants? 6. What will you do to improve the quality of life for the growing number of older adults in our state? In this regard, what is your position on the creation of NORCs and on the critical issue of senior transportation?

7. In light of continuing budget cuts, and the increased need for services by nonprofit and charitable social service providers, what are your thoughts about the state finding an effective way to work in partnership with nonprofits to make them stronger? 8. As regards the above, do you support the incentive for charitable giving proposed in prior legislative sessions? 9. How would you address the area of special needs, given the current funding cuts? (Specific issues include early intervention, insufficient school age testing, funding for nonpublic special education schools, and housing for the developmentally disabled.) 10. How can the state best assure that the burden of the budget does not fall the heaviest on those program that serve people most in need and most vulnerable? 11. In this regard, what is your position on the closing of womens health centers that offer a range of reproductive as well as wellness services? 12. What is your view on non-public school support? Allocations for technology in these institutions have been eliminated, but other areas, such as transportation, are vulnerable to cuts as well. Would you maintain, increase, or cut these allocations?

Local mother seeks Help4Ezra

says bone marrow donors can save a life; invest in Jewish community
Lois GoLdrich

wo-and-a-half-year-old Ezra Fineman loves the alphabet and his tricycle. He also desperately needs a bone marrow transplant. Reconciling the two realities is not an easy thing for his mother. Sadly, said Fair Lawn resident Robin Fineman, the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation with whom she has been working closely has 14,000 cheek swabs from potential donors sitting on a wait list, but theres no money to process them. I was devastated when I found out. If this is the most likely [place] to find a match, Ezras may be sitting in a box. Fineman said it costs $54 to process one kit. Through her sons website in the Donors Circle section of Gift of Life, the family has raised some $110,000 which, she said, will pay for more than 2,000 test kits to be processed. Money has also been raised through appeals on Facebook and other social media. The last thing you need is a patient in urgent need and a donor sitting on a wait list, said Fineman. Fortunately, weve had time to do this campaign because Ezra has been stable. The youngster, she said, undergoes monthly hospital treatments not an easy process for a toddler. While he has managed to ward off most infections, Serious complications can develop liver complications, respiratory ailments, lymphoma. It can happen tomorrow, or when hes 50. Thankfully, he has been fairly healthy, although he had a rough spring and summer with frequent infections, she said. Every time he gets a low-grade fever, we go to the hospital to get IV antibiotics. Its hard to keep him in a hospital room. He cant go to the playroom, so

we bring a lot of toys, DVDs, and videos. Fineman said that in her experience, most people, once educated on the subject, are willing to help. Indeed, she said, The vast majority who have supported us by joining the registry or making donations are complete strangers. She noted that since tissue type is inherited, Ezras best chance is a genetically matched donor of Eastern European ancestry. While she has been urging both Jews and non-Jews to consider becoming bone marrow donors, she has focused her campaign on Gift of Life a public bone marrow, blood stem cell, and umbilical cord blood registry based in Boca Raton. According to its website, Gift of Life facilitates transplants for children and adults suffering from such life-threatening illnesses as leukemia, lymphoma, other cancers, and genetic diseases. They have more Jews than other registries in the United States, she said. A spokesman from the group said that while many thousands of donors do not identify their ethnic background, some 115,114 people in the registry have identified themselves as Jewish. Of this group, there are 3,300

Bone marrow drive will be held for Ezra Fineman.

active donors from Bergen County. I view joining the registry as an investment in the Jewish community, said Fineman. We want to ensure that there are as many potential matches out there as possible, even if theres not an immediate need. Its in everyones interest to make sure Jews are represented in the registry [so that] Jews have as much chance of finding a match as people of other backgrounds. She noted that Gift of Life founder Jay Feinberg has suggested that Jews may have a harder time finding matches, due to the destruction of bloodlines during the Holocaust. Maybe there were huge families that were left with one survivor, she said. Those lines were destroyed. I think thats applicable in Ezras case. Another problem is that Ezra has a chromosomal

mitzvah Day blood drives

Community Blood services is joining with the Jewish community on Mitzvah day to sponsor blood drives in four north Jersey communities. the drives will be held on sunday, nov. 6, at Jewish Community Center, e. 304 Midland ave., Paramus, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. temple israel, 475 Grove st., ridgewood, 8:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. temple sinai of Bergen County, 1 engle st., tenafly, 8:45 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. Glen rock Jewish Center, 682 harristown rd., 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

6 Jewish standard nOVeMBer 4, 2011

They were good to their mothers

Lecture series explores the lives of Jewish gangsters
deena YeLLin Fuksbrumer
s a youngster in Paterson, Edith been replicated: he fixed the 1919 World Sobel recalls how her ears would Series. Its been popularly said that had he perk up whenever she overheard applied his intellectual prowess to talmudic her parents talking about the Jewish gangstudies, he would have been remembered sters who became leaders in Americas as a dazzling sage, said Sobol. underworld. Names like Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Rothstein, according to popular legend, Siegel, and Longy Zwillman were whispered first met Meyer Lansky at a bar mitzvah celin hushed tones around the dinner table. ebration and helped get him into the bootSobol was intrigued by these tough characlegging business. When Rothstein was shot ters who were members of her own people. in 1928 in New York City, his funeral was They were brash, had chutzpah, and defied Jewish gangsters officiated by Rabbi Leo Jung, a renowned the stereotype of the weak Shtetl Jew. scholar and spiritual leader of an Orthodox always fascinated While not excusing their criminal ac- Edith Sobel. Now, synagogue on Manhattans upper west side. tivities, Sobel calls them a colorful, exciting she is lecturing about Rothsteins father was a respected member part of our American heritage that makes them. of the synagogue,and a friend of Rabbi Jung. for fascinating discussion. Today, Sobel is Erica Brown, in her book Confronting a Fort Lee resident and senior citizen who remains capScandal: How Jews Can Respond when Jews Do Bad tivated by Jewish mobsters and will deliver a talk about Things, said that Jung eulogized Rothstein as a great them at the JCC on the Palisades (JCCOTP) on three conphilanthropist to many charitable institutions while secutive Thursdays from November 3-17 at 1:30 p.m. The neglecting to bring up the less favorable parts of his program is titled: Jewish Gangsters: But they were good life. The eulogy, not surprisingly, raised a lot of discusto their Mothers. sion among Jews who questioned whether such an evil Sobel, a former editor of the Jewish Community News person deserves a eulogy. According to Brown, however, of Bergen and Passaic Counties, has parlayed her educaJung revealed that his act was a means of honoring the tion and experience into a career on the lecture circuit upstanding parents of this less than stellar character. delivering lectures critiquing literary, cinematic, cultural, Lansky was said to be responsible for helping to build and Jewish and Zionist subjects. In addition, she has up Las Vegas by financing Siegels casino development. facilitated an ongoing Autobiography Group for several The two men were longtime friends, but despite the years at the JCCOTP . friendship, Lansky eventually had Siegel killed after he Like many poor immigrants who were new to the lost too much money on his hotel. In 1970, fearing indictcountry and eager to climb up the ladder of American ment for income-tax evasion and a call to a grand jury, success, these Jews became involved in criminal caLansky fled to Israel, where he claimed citizenship under reers. Their ventures, most of which sprang up from the the Law of Return. Israel, however, eventually sent him Lower East Side of New York between World War I and back to the United States, where he faced several indictWorld War II, ranged from bootlegging, to racketeering ments. In 1973, he was convicted of grand jury contempt, and white slavery to murder, said Sobol. Todays Jews no but acquitted of income-tax evasion. I longer cook the competition as the gangsters did. Now While their acts of crime should be reviled, their acts they simply cook the books, she said. of good must be pointed out, said Sobol. They were There were some little known characters, like Monk passionate protectors of their families and of the Jewish Eastman, who never used brass knuckles or a blackjack people. Several of them raised money for Jewish causes, when he slugged a woman, said Sobol, or Samuel Red and provided aid and arms to the fledgling State of Israel. Levine, who was strictly Orthodox. He always wore a They protected the Jews in their neighborhoods from skullcap and used a special fleishik (meat) knife for the anti-Semitic attacks, and waged war against the Nazis times he had to cut a throat, she said. who gathered in New York, Boston, and other communiWhile many among the Jewish gangsters were known ties in the 1930s and 40s. There were recorded incidents as brutes, others were renowned for their intellect. in which the Jewish mob descended on Nazi rallies and Among them was Arnold (The Brain) Rothstein. Writer beat them up. Leo Katcher credited him with transforming organized They certainly werent good people, Sobel said, but crime from a thuggish activity by hoodlums into a big they were devoted to their families, the Jews in the neighbusiness, run much like a corporation, with himself at borhood and to the State of Israel. the helm. He also accomplished a feat that has never

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crossover in the gene controlling for HLA tissue typing. That contributes to our difficulty in finding a match in the registry. Still, she said, Theres more of a chance to find a match in the same ethnic group, so were focusing on the Jewish population. Fineman said that on Sunday, the communitys Mitzvah Day, she will do her first drive with the Paramusbased Community Blood Services. The groups HLA Registry helps people find unrelated, compatible donors for bone marrow and stem cell transplants. According to its website, it has registered more than 230,000 potential donors and has facilitated more than 1,000 bone marrow and stem cell transplants. Sundays bone marrow drive will be held at Temple

Israel and Jewish Community Center in Ridgewood. The synagogue was already planning a blood drive for that day, said Fineman, and Alice Blass, Jewish Federation of Northern New Jerseys Mitzvah Day coordinator, suggested incorporating a drive for bone marrow donors. Some 350 people have registered to become donors at the Bergen County drives that were held for Ezra in the past, said Fineman. There are many ways to help Ezra, she said. In addition to attending the upcoming drive, people can visit his website, www.giftoflife.org/help4ezra, where they can order cheek swab kits and make financial donations to help pay for the processing of kits on the wait list. For further information, visit Ezras Facebook page by searching Help4Ezra at www.facebook.com.

Our thanks to all who braved the elements to attend our Open House and helped make it a HUGE SUCCESS!!!

Jewish standard nOVeMBer 4, 2011 7

Interfaith dialogue hits stride on Day 2

seton hall conference focuses on areas of agreement
robert Wiener
mity reigned at the second day of a threeday interreligious conference at Seton Hall University, despite some disagreement among Jewish attendees over a papal emissarys previous days remarks on the Vaticans role during the Holocaust. The 10th annual conference of the Council of Centers of Jewish-Christian Relations served as a debut of sorts for Cardinal Kurt Koch, marking his first visit to the New York area since being appointed the Vaticans top envoy on Jewish relations in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI. In a Sunday afternoon lecture, Koch addressed the beatification of Pope Pius XII and concerns by Jewish leaders, who insist his canonization is premature until the Vatican allows a full examination of its Nazi-era archives. When Koch suggested that there are Jews who support his canonization, it raised eyebrows among some listeners. In the context of an essentially positive set of first meetings with American Jewry, the cardinals comments on the Pius XII controversy were disconcerting, wrote Rabbi Noam Marans, the American Jewish Committees director of Interreligious and Intergroup Relations, in an e-mail Monday. We repeat our belief that the full record in the Vatican archives of Pius papacy and activities during the Holocaust should be revealed as the necessary first step. Other attendees would later refute a subsequent story

in the Jewish weekly The Forward, which reported a palpable sense of frustration in the room among Jewish and Catholic attendees (see sidebar). There was little mention, however, of Kochs remarks on Oct. 31 during two separate panel discussions on the changing ways Catholics and Jews relate to one anothers religious beliefs. Judaism and Christianity are of equal validity, Michael Kogan, a professor of philosophy and religion at Montclair State University, told some 60 participants. They both worship the same God. Christianity is Judaisms outreach into the world. Judaism to me is a living relationship between a people and its god, or God and His people.We are a chosen people of God, but if human beings can make more than one choice, it would be perfectly silly to say God cant, he said. Seton Halls Rabbi Alan Brill, an organizer of the conference, spoke of the spectrum of Jewish belief. What do Jews believe? asked Brill, who holds the Cooperman-Ross Distinguished Professor Chair in Jewish-Christian Studies in Honor of Sister Rose Thering. We have a lot of separate meanings and moral orders. In any one congregation, you may have 10 people with 10 different Jewish religions. You may have somebody whos got a Judaism of AIPAC next to a Judaism of 12 steps next to a JewBu, a Jew who embraces Buddhist practice. Brill said he wrote his 2010 book, Judaism and Other

Religions, in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. I want Jews to learn more about Christians and Christians to learn more about Jews, he said. I am surprised when people in the dialogue dont know the spectrum of Jewish belief and Jews? Forget it. They cant tell between a Catholic, a Lutheran, and a Methodist. These are important issues. Kogan agreed. I dont think you can discuss Judaism in its fullness today without bringing in Christianity, said Kogan. You cant talk about Christianity and put the Christian-Jewish dialogue off in the corner. Asked whether Islam should be included as part of their interreligious dialogue, Kogan said, When I talk to Muslims I talk in terms of the radical monotheism that we share and the idea that halachah and sharia are closely related sets of laws. There are limits to the dialogue, however, he said. We cannot talk about a common text, he said. It is because Judaism and Christianity share a common text thatwe have thousands of years of fruitful discussion before us. In a second discussion, Catholic educators addressed the future of a Christian theology of Judaism. I dont believe that Christology the study of the belief that Jesus is the messiah has to result in antiSemitism, said Father John Pawlikowski, a Holocaust scholar and director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies

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8 Jewish standard nOVeMBer 4, 2011

Growing good relationships in our community is important

Michael Kogan, professor of philosophy and religion at Montclair State University, said, Judaism and Christianity are of equal validity. They both worship the same God. Christianity is Judaisms outreach into the world. Seton Halls Rabbi Alan Brill says many Jews cant tell between a Catholic, a Lutheran, and a Methodist. These are important issues. Father John Pawlikowski of the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago says the belief that Jesus is the messiah has the grave potential of resulting in anti-Semitism. Photos by RobeRt
WieneR

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Program at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. But historically it did, and I think the potential is quite grave for that to continue unless we adjust our Christology. Some Christology had the effect of making Jews second-class people. Philip Cunningham, director of the Jewish-Catholic Institute of Saint Josephs University in Philadelphia, said a 2001 Pontifical Biblical Commission document may radically change the way Christians relate to Jews theologically. The Vatican document, The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible, suggested that the Jewish messianic expectation is not in vain. For us Christians, the One who is to come will have the traits of the Jesus

who has already come and is among us, said Cunningham. That is a hugely important move. It doesnt simply state, The one who is to come will be Jesus which means both communities will converge in recognizing on the basis of different complementary traits that the coming one is the messiah. It think that is an enormously positive move forward, he said. We are not imposing that Jews have got to believe in things about God we Christians do, Cunningham added. This enables a freedom for us Christians to learn from the Jewish experience of God.
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Thursday, November 17 Homeownership day Friday, November 18 Small Business day Saturday, November 19 Customer appreciation and family fun day Monday, November 21 Education day

2011 Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. Member FDIC. NMLSR ID 399801 Materials expire November 21, 2011. ECG-670508

Robert Wiener is an NJJN staffwriter.

Forward got it backward, say organizers

Organizers of a three-day CatholicJewish dialogue at Seton Hall University contested a Jewish newspapers account of a speech by Cardinal Kurt Koch, the Vaticans chief envoy on Catholic-Jewish affairs. The board of directors of the Council of Centers on Christian-Jewish Relations issued a statement expressing its dismay at a story that appeared in the Forward, reporting on the councils 10th annual meeting at Seton Hall University in South Orange on Sunday. According to the Forward, Koch left many Christian and Jewish interfaith officials angry and distressed when he suggested that many Jews approve the potential canonization of the controversial Holocaust-era Pope Pius XII. Rabbi Eric Greenberg, director of interfaith affairs for the AntiDefamation League, was quoted as saying that Kochs assertion indicated the continuing challenges facing Catholic-Jewish relations. In their response, the council directors said the report gave a misleading impression of the twohour talk. A fuller account, the statement said, would have reported Kochs acknowledgement of Christian complicity in the horrific developments of the Shoah, his assertion that Jews are participants in Gods salvation even though they do not believe in Jesus Christ as the messiah of Israel and son of God, and that the Catholic church rejects missionary work directed at Jews. Some Jewish attendees also came away with a favorable impression of Koch, who is paying his first visit to the New York area since being appointed president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, which includes the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews. Although he was not present at the cardinals speech, Rabbi Burton Visotzky, director of the Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue at the Jewish Theological Seminary, had lunch with the cardinal at a JTS reception the day after the Vatican emissarys Seton Hall appearance. Koch was perfectly lovely, Visotzky told The New Jersey Jewish News. He was welcoming. He was warm. He reached out to the Jewish community, and we were happy to see that he was here in friendship and ready to work with us. It is no surprise that Catholics and Jews dont agree on everything, and there will be issues that we will have disagreements about. That said, my job personally as a rabbi is to first build a friendship that we can work together on going forward.
Robert Wiener

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JS-10 The context of text

imams and rabbis discuss interpretation
Jeanette Friedman
A group of rabbis and imams came together last Sunday at Temple Emanu-El in New York to discuss perspectives on the interpretation of foundational religious texts. The all-day seminar, attended by 30 leading scholars of sharia law and halachah was closed to the public, with the exception of an afternoon panel moderated by Rabbi Jack Bemporad of the Center for Interreligious Understanding (CIU), and scholar in residence at Chavurah Beth Shalom in Alpine. The event was organized by the CIU, the Interdisciplinary Program in Law and Education Columbia School of Law, Catholic University of America, and the Muslim Chaplains Association. After visiting Auschwitz with a group of imams last year, Bemporad realized that in addition to interfaith dialogue, leading Muslim and Jewish religious scholars needed to discuss foundational texts to improve relations and to study how those texts impact our lives today. Its also urgent, said Bemporad. At least 20 states are seeking to ban sharia, a legalization of Islamophobia. Understanding the commonality and differences in our texts goes far in explaining why attacks on sharia are also attacks on all religious law and religious freedom. From the Golden Rule to the Ten Commandments and everything in between, our laws, society, and understanding of each other are guided, and at times held captive, by the ancient texts of the Abrahamic faiths. How they are interpreted today is crucial, Bemporad said. The Koran, though based on the bible, is a different story from the one we hold in common with Christians, and it is one we need to understand along with understanding how these texts are interpreted by Muslims. Rabbi David Silver of Drisha, Prof. Josef Stern of the University of Chicago, and Rabbi Shaul Robinson of Lincoln Square Synagogue, all Orthodox, participated in the panel with Prof. Kecia Ali of Boston University, Imam Mohamed Hag Magid of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society in Virginia, and Prof. Ebrahim Moosa of

Duke University, who are all Sunnis. The text under study by Silver was the story of the binding of Isaac (the Akedah) that has a parallel in the Koran referring to Ishmael. Silver sees the Akedah as a place where Abraham puts himself in a sacred space to serve God within the law. The law is a limitation, he noted, and no law book is big enough to cover every contingency. The one thing that law can do is guide us to a place where we know what God wants from us. It is also about submission to Gods will.In the Jewish tradition, both are present, and different communities within Judaism interpret these things differently. The goal is the same, to be a human being fully in sync with God. Boston Universitys Ali specializes in Islamic religious texts, jurisprudence, women in classical and contemporary Muslim discourses, and religious biography. She outlined how technology, beginning with the printing press, made foundational texts available to everyone. She said, however, that the only way to be allowed to interpret the text was to master it. You have to be trained, otherwise there is hermeneutic chaos. She suggested that audiences be given better tools with which to judge who is giving out the information. Life experience is also important to bear on text. When you go to Google you get icky interpretations and people need to sort out reasonable answers. This remains a challenge.

Both rabbis and imams referred to Rabbi or Imam Google through the course of the afternoon, and generated a few laughs from the audience, but like Ali, they pointed out the dangers of pulling information off the net that is already out of context. Magid examined the Koran as a legal structure that allows people to deal with problems that arise in the modern world for example, in vitro fertilization and surrogate motherhood, the role of women, ethics as related to law, and vice versa. He described a number of situations in which people approached him by asking about a single verse. I would ask them, Have you looked as the verses surrounding this text? And have you looked in other places that talk about these things in the text? His answer resembles that of Hillel to a would-be convert: Go and study. There are texts that are ethically problematic in both religions. Robinson asked, Do you concentrate on those texts, or do you teach your children to be ethical, compassionate, and value life? At the conclusion of the conference, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik of the New York Board of Rabbis thanked the organizers. If Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar would have talked to each other the way we are talking and learning from each other today, we would be living in a different, far better world.

10 Jewish standard nOVeMBer 4, 2011