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 Page 3

Cloud theft? Who knew?

● Wow, those Israelis are smart. Un-
scrupulous, but smart.
At least according to Brigadier
General Gholam Reza Jalali, head of
Iran’s Civil Defense Organization, who
accused Israel of manipulating the
weather — specifically, cloud theft — to
ensure that rain would not fall over Iran.
The Islamic Republic is suffering from
drought.
“The changing climate in Iran is sus-
pect,” Jalali told a press conference,
Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency
reported. “On top of that, we are fac-
ing the issue of cloud and snow theft,”
he added, citing a survey showing that
above 2,200 meters, all mountainous
areas between Afghanistan and the
Mediterranean are covered in snow —
except in Iran.
The head of Iran’s meteorological ser-
vice did not endorse Jalali’s claim. He
“probably has documents of which I am
not aware, but on the basis of meteoro-
logical knowledge, it is not possible for
a country to steal snow or clouds,” said
the head of Iran’s meteorological ser-
vice Ahad Vazife, quoted by ISNA.
“Iran has suffered a prolonged
drought, and this is a global trend that
does not apply only to Iran,” Vazife said.
Rather than claiming credit for the
problem, Israel’s Prime Minister Benja-
min Netanyahu offered to help fix it. He
told the Iranians that Israel faced similar
water issues and found ways of dealing
with them, adding that Israeli technol-
ogy can help the Iranians.
General Jalali shows no signs of tak-
ing up Netanyahu’s offer.

Rare coin discovered in Jerusalem

Off the dead beat
● New York Times obituary
writer Margalit Fox — who is
Jewish, and who just pub-
lished a mystery about Sher-
lock Holmes’s creator, “Conan
Doyle for the Defense,” in
which the burly, mustachioed
physician-turned-hugely-
famous-and-successful writer
solves a mystery to exoner-
ate a falsely imprisoned Jew
(that’s not a spoiler; you can
find all that in promotional
material) — announced that
she was leaving that job.
She’s written final stories
about to more than 1,400
notable, notorious, or down-
right unusual people over her
14 years on the dead beat.
Ms. Fox’s written about
many prominent Jews, and
other Jews who perhaps
were less well known than
they should have been, given
their accomplishments. One
of them was Judy Protas,
an advertising executive at
Doyle Dane Bernbach, who
was the writer behind the
iconic advertising campaign
that sold Levy’s rye bread to
hungry consumers outside
the Jewish world.
The best-known campaign
featured a diverse group,
including an African-Amer-
ican boy, Asian- and Native
American men, and a choir-
boy. They all told everyone, in
magazine ads, in newspaper
ads, in huge subway post-
ers, that “You don’t have to
be Jewish to love Levy’s real
Jewish Rye.”
“Though its evocative tag-
line is often credited to Wil-
liam Bernbach, a founder of
DDB, or to Phyllis Robinson,
the agency’s chief copy-
writer, period newspaper
accounts and contemporary
archival sources make clear
that the actual writing fell to
Ms. Protas, who, working qui-
etly and out of the limelight,
set down those dozen du-
rable words,” Ms. Fox wrote.
● Remember coins?
Remember how
much space they
took up, and how
you never could
find them when
you needed them?
And then there’d
be a mint’s worth in
between the sofa
cushions?
Apparently, some-
one dropped a coin
down a sewer in Jerusalem’s City of David.
We’re not exactly sure when, but we do
know that the coin, which is rare, was mint-
ed 1,949 years ago. It was discovered during
an archeological dig last week.
Reut Vilf of the City of David Founda-
tion said the coin, discovered in the sewage
system running beneath ancient Jerusalem,
dates back to the year 69 C.E., the fourth
year of the Jewish revolt against Rome —
and the year in which the rebels despaired.
According to Israeli media reports, a
cache of bronze coins from that time was
found in 2014 in a village near Jerusalem
and more were unearthed in a cave by the
Temple Mount in 2018, from the second and
fourth years of the rebellion.
The coin found last week bears an inscrip-
CONTENTS
NOSHES ...............................................................4
BRIEFLY LOCAL ..............................................10
COVER STORY .................................................14
JEWISH WORLD ............................................. 18
OPINION ...........................................................20
DEAR RABBI ................................................... 26
D’VAR TORAH ................................................ 27
THE FRAZZLED HOUSEWIFE ................... 28
CROSSWORD PUZZLE ................................ 28
ART AND CULTURE ...................................... 29
CALENDAR ......................................................30
OBITUARIES .................................................... 33
CLASSIFIEDS ..................................................34
REAL ESTATE.................................................. 37
tion ancient Hebrew
lettering reading “For
the Redemption of
Zion” and an image of a
chalice.
Its other side depicts
the “Four Species” used
during Sukkot holiday—
the citron fruit, palm
frond, and myrtle and
willow branches—and
the words “Year Four,”
referring to the final
year of rebellion against the Romans.
The coin was found exactly in the same
place that Jews had been hiding in the
drainage channel under the street,” Vilf
said. Evidence of the rebels’ attempt to
hide under the city includes intact oil lamps
and whole ceramic pots that were found in
the sewer.
What does she think the coin’s inscription
means? “Freedom is an immediate thing,
while redemption is a process,” she said. “It
could attest to their understanding that the
end was near.”
Eli Shukron, an archaeologist with the
Israel Antiquities Authority, said that the
coin easily could have fallen into the drain-
age system through cracks of the stone-
paved road.
Candlelighting: Friday, July 6, 8:13 p.m.
Shabbat ends: Saturday, July 7, 9:20 p.m.
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JEWISH
JEWISH
STANDARD
STANDARD
MARCH
JULY 6, 2017 3
3, 2018
Noshes
BUGGED:
Paul Rudd back
as Ant-Man
“Ant-Man and the
Wasp” features
Marvel heroes with
the incredible ability to
shrink. PAUL RUDD, 49,
who starred in the hit
2015 film “Ant-Man,”
reprises that title role in
this film. Evangeline Lily,
who had a co-starring
role as the Wasp in the
2015 film, returns for the
sequel. The plot has
Ant-Man (AKA Scott
Lang) torn between his
new role as a husband
and father and the call of
duty when the Wasp
says she really, really
needs his help. (Opens
wide on July 6.)
MICHAEL DOUGLAS,
73, also reprises his role
as Hank Pym, an ento-
mologist who was the
original Ant-Man back in
the ‘60s. He passed the
baton, as it were, to Scott
Lang. Parental note:
The “Ant-Man” films are
lighter and more family
friendly than most Mar-
vel pics.
CBS “Sunday Morn-
ing” recently proclaimed
Rudd a “star” and I
agree he has turned
into one over the course
of 20 years. Of course,
I’ve written about him
before, but his newly
crowned star status, I
believe, means that he
deserves a recap of his
career and the Jewish
nuggets I’ve gathered
about him over the
Want to read more noshes? Visit facebook.com/jewishstandard
4 JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018
‘Why, why, why, why would you call camp to tell
them that I’m not wearing glasses? The yoetzet
pulled me out of sha’at menuchah so that she could take a
picture of me to show you that I’m wearing my glasses.’
- Universal, meet specific. Writing in Kveller, Rachel Mann quotes from her 11-year-old
daughter’s letter home. (Translation — a counselor pulled her from her rest period.)
years. Veteran readers
of this column may re-
member a few of them.
Rudd’s breakthrough
role came in the 1995
Paul Rudd Michael Douglas
megahit “Clueless.” He
played ALICIA SILVER-
STONE’s charming step-
brother, who, by movie’s
end, morphs into her
boyfriend. Many have
said that Rudd doesn’t
seem to have aged since
“Clueless.” That’s not Anthony Bourdain
true, but he does look
remarkably youthful.
I first knew Rudd was
a mensch when a friend, Let’s Eat
who then wrote for an
Orthodox blog, hap- Alicia Silverstone Rachel Weisz ● ANTHONY BOURDAIN, hands down, was the best
pened on Rudd and host of a travel and cooking show. (Bourdain was the
RACHEL WEISZ, now “formative years,” from “Forgetting Sarah Mar- always-secular son of a Jewish mother and a non-Jewish
48, sitting at a New 10 to 20, in a Kansas City shall” in 2008, and “I father). However, PHIL ROSENTHAL’s Netflix series,
York sidewalk café. suburb called Lenaxa. Love You Man” in 2008.
They were in New York “Somebody Feed Phil,” is at least in the same league as
He told Sunday Morn- He found time to
promoting their 2003 ing, “I learned early on court JULIE YAEGAR, Bourdain’s shows. It is a witty and interesting look at
movie, “The Shape that being funny helped 48, a publicist whose the cultures and food of the worldwide places Rosenthal
of Things.” My friend me [fit in]…certainly in mother is Jewish. They visits. The show’s complete second season starts stream-
asked Weisz about be- Kansas being Jewish was were married by a rabbi ing on July 6. Rosenthal, 58, was the co-creator of the
ing Jewish and she was an anomaly and I always in 2003 and have two megahit “Everybody Loves Raymond.” He has been mar-
standoffish. But Rudd felt a little on the periph- children, JACK, 12, and ried since 1990 to MONICA HORAN, 55, who played
plunged in and said, ery.” Still, his home life DARBY, 8.
“Jewish. I love to talk Amy, the wife of Raymond’s policeman brother, in
was very happy and Paul Go on line and watch
about Jewish.” had a big bar mitzvah in the Sunday Morning “Raymond.” (Raymond’s brother was played by BRAD
Rudd’s parents were Ontario, Canada, where a profile, first aired on June GARRETT, now 58.)
born and raised in Eng- lot of relatives lived. 17, called “Paul Rudd, the –N.B.
land, the descendants of Rudd worked as a tiny super-hero with a
Eastern European Jews. bar mitzvah DJ in Los big heart.” (Google the
His late father’s airline Angeles as he looked title). The profile covers
job meant that Paul and for his first good parts. Rudd’s comedy hits and founded the benefit and he visits in the hospital.
his sister, MANDY, were He first made his mark his surprising recent suc- his sister helps run it. (His Before “Ant-Man,” they
frequently uprooted. Paul in comedy hits. A partial cess as an action hero. It mother and sister, who were polite but really
was born in Passaic, lived list: “Clueless,” a recur- also focuses on “The Big still live in the K.C. area, don’t know who he was.
there till he was 5. The ring big role on TV’s Slick,” an annual week- are interviewed briefly.) Now they are thrilled to
family moved a few more “Friends,” “The 40-Year- end of fund raising to Rudd talks about how his have “Ant-Man” vis-
times, and then Paul Old Virgin” in 2004, benefit Mercy Hospital action role has brought it them.
spent what he calls his “Knocked Up” in 2007, in Kansas City. Rudd co- him closer to the kids –N.B.
California-based Nate Bloom can be reached at
Middleoftheroad1@aol.com
JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018 4
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JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018 5

Local
‘The synagogue is dead.
Long live the synagogue.’
Locally and across the country, synagogues change
but rumors of death have been greatly exaggerated
Ben Sales and
Joanne Palmer
F
or 10 years, Rabbi Dan Ain has
tried to take Judaism out of
the synagogue.
He’s convened Friday night
prayers in auditoriums with musicians like
Matisyahu and Lisa Loeb. He’s held Rosh
Hashanah services in a bowling alley/con-
cert venue. He scheduled an interview ear-
lier this month at an artisanal coffee shop
in Brooklyn and showed up in a T-shirt and
backward baseball cap, his long hair spill-
ing out of the sides above his long salt-and-
pepper beard.
Rabbi Ain was ordained, he said,
because he felt like the synagogue model
was old and tired. Just this month, he
compared the typical American Satur-
day morning prayer service to “a Civil
War reenactment.
“They’re dressed in the right clothing,
they’re saying the same words that were
said in 1863 in exactly the right ways,”
he said. “But there’s no stakes involved,
there’s no danger in their hearts. And for
a lot of people services can feel like that.”
Which is why it may be surprising that
this week, Dan Ain will become the pulpit
rabbi of a Conservative synagogue in San
Francisco that was founded nearly a cen-
tury ago.
To Rabbi Ain, it’s not a contradiction.
He is proud of the independent Jewish
programs he built in Brooklyn and down-
town Manhattan. But as he’s had kids and
watched the world change since 2016, he
says that he recognizes the need for stabil-
ity, a reliable community, and, yes, physi-
cal permanence.
An organization that holds Shabbat ser-
vices with the lead singer of Guster may
create a moving musical experience. But
Rabbi Ain knows that you can’t count on it
if you have to say Kaddish.
“I was always in the back of my mind
desiring of a community in which I could
have a shiva minyan for people,” he said.
“The ability to do stuff over a long period
of time is something I haven’t had the
opportunity to do because everything I’ve
been doing goes up and comes down.”
Rabbi Ain is one of several pioneers of
independent Jewish communities who
have, in one way or another, inched back in
the synagogue model they once rejected.
The informal model he represents
6 Jewish Standard JULY 6, 2018
Lisa Harris Glass Dan Ain
began about 15 years ago, when some Jew-
ish groups that thought the synagogue
was not responding to their spiritual and
ritual needs began forming. The groups
each were different, but they shared a few
themes: They did not have a permanent
physical space; they did not affiliate with
a Jewish denomination; and they did not
charge annual membership dues. While
some were founded by rabbis, others
were proudly lay led. Many, though not
all, were created by alumni of Conserva-
tive institutions.
Some, like Rabbi Ain’s Brooklyn orga-
nization, Because Jewish, which was
founded in 2015, were successful.
Among the most well-known of them,
Manhattan’s Kehilat Hadar, one of the first
independent minyanim, is in its 18th year,
and its founders are among the thought
leaders of a wave of traditionally commit-
ted egalitarian Jews. Ikar, a Los Angeles
community, is 14 years old. Its rabbi, Sha-
ron Brous, gave an invocation at President
Barack Obama’s second inauguration.
But those once-scrappy initiatives are
adopting traditional trappings. Ikar has
a building, like other large Jewish houses
of worship. Hadar just instituted mem-
bership and a board. Rabbi Ain has left
his organization for a pulpit. The lead-
ers of these communities say the move
toward institutionalism isn’t a betrayal of
their founding principles, just a necessary
response to what their organizations or
they themselves need.
In other words, the synagogue is dead.
Long live the synagogue.
“When we started, it was a scrappy
startup, and I can no longer describe it
that way,” Rabbi Brous, who was ordained
at the Conservative Jewish Theological
Seminary, said of Ikar. “People ask me,
with a building, aren’t you going to be a
regular synagogue? And I’m not worried
about it at all.
Sharon Brous Elie Kaunfer
“We’re really a question-driven and
idea-driven community. The building is
just driving us to ask these questions with
greater urgency.”
When Ikar was founded in 2004, it held
events and services in cafes, bars, and
private homes; it focused on drawing in
unaffiliated Jews. Ikar remains unaffili-
ated but is now constructing its own build-
ing. Rabbi Brous is also leading the com-
munity’s second annual mission to Israel
— a staple of traditional synagogues. Ikar
employs a large staff for its services, pro-
grams, and preschool.
It also has joined with six other inde-
pendent communities (including one
Renewal Judaism congregation) to form
the Jewish Emergent Network. The net-
work — which includes Romemu and Lab
Shul in Manhattan, and congregations
from Seattle to Chicago to Washington,
D.C. — is not a traditional movement like
Conservative, Reform, or Orthodox Juda-
ism, Brous says. Its member congrega-
tions differ in ideology, but collaborate
on fundraising and resources. And Ikar in
particular, she says, is still defined by the
ideas and priorities that animate it, not by
where it meets.
“What we learned early on is that a lot of
the successes and best practices of how to
engage people in Jewish life were inacces-
sible or missing,” Rabbi Brous said. “Peo-
ple are even more desperate to find a way
for their Jewish tradition and faith com-
munity to help them make sense of what
it means to be an American, to be a Jew.”
One of the founders of Hadar, Rabbi Elie
Kaunfer, says that it makes sense that older
independent communities look for per-
manence as they expand. In many cases,
he says, young prayer groups don’t have
a building not for ideological reasons, but
simply because they cannot afford one.
“Having a building is about the bene-
fits of having a space you control, which
does track onto organizational matu-
rity and the next stage of growth,”
Rabbi Kaunfer, who wrote the book
“Empowered Judaism: What Inde-
pendent Minyanim Can Teach Us
about Building Vibrant Jewish Com-
munities,” said. “Having a building or
a permanent space is not an ideologi-
cal step. It’s a practical step.”
Earlier this year, Hadar created a
formal nonprofit board and member-
ship structure based on either annual
dues or a certain amount of volunteering.
It has been meeting weekly in the same
space, the Solomon Schechter School of
Manhattan on West 100th Street, since
2011. Although most of the people who
came to services and helped run it were
recent college graduates, now Hadar is
creating more structured children’s pro-
gramming. That includes paid babysitting
every week, a regular children’s service,
and early dinner for kids when the com-
munity meets on Friday nights.
But the new board president, Emily
Scharfman, notes that the group still does
not have clergy or paid staff of any kind.
“Kehilat Hadar is deeply interested in
feeling like a permanent davening com-
munity,” she said, using a Yiddish word
for prayer. “I think that’s fundamentally
and deeply important to all of us here. I
don’t think wanting some kind of perma-
nency and routine is the same as the old-
fashioned synagogue model.”
Back in northern New Jersey, where there
have not been many examples of the kind
of synagogue-less minyanim that Rabbi Ain,
Rabbi Brous, and their peers have created,
but where many people have ventured
across the George Washington Bridge to
sample Hadar, Romemu, and LabShuls,
Lisa Harris Glass, the Federation of North-
ern New Jersey’s chief planning officer, lis-
tened to the story with complete aplomb.
“I wasn’t at all surprised,” she said.
“I would go so far as to tell you that I
expected it.”
Why? “Because I don’t think that the
synagogue model is broken. I think that
we fail to work the model.”
What does she mean?
First, she said, when we look at the
state of synagogues today and analyze
it, “we should insert the Chabad factor
as well.” Chabad often does very well;
their synagogues, built on a very differ-
ent model than the standard suburban
 Local

one, flourish in the suburbs. To do so,
they attract some formerly unaffiliated
Jews, but they also appeal to Jews who
had been paying dues elsewhere.
“We often hear that ‘Chabad is poach-
ing our members,’” Ms. Glass said. “That
they’re taking ‘our people.’ My response
to that is that people have free will, and
if they are choosing to go elsewhere, they
really weren’t yours to begin with.
“So how do these things” — the rise of
alternative minyanim and their growth
into space-seeking organizations, and
Chabad’s growth in the suburbs — “corre-
late? It speaks to working the model.
“What is attractive about these alterna-
tive minyanim and the Chabad houses of
worship? I think that there is an authen-
ticity in mission and action. That what
you feel in these types of institutions is
what many people don’t feel in tradi-
tional synagogues.
“I say many, not all, because you can
point to many examples of thriving tradi-
tional synagogues,” Ms. Glass said. Choos-
ing to mention nearby institutions that
still are outside the federation’s catch-
ment area, she cited Manhattan’s Congre-
gation B’nai Jeshurun and Park Avenue
Synagogue, Congregation Agudath Israel
in Caldwell, and the Orangetown Jewish
Center in Orangeburg, N.Y.
The problem, she suggested, is
“because, I think, there are many
instances where we have professionalized
and sanitized the synagogue experience —
and it should be anything but. So when we
start with rules and regulations, when we
start with money, which is how most start
their relationships, it doesn’t go well.” A
relationship that starts by telling you how
much money you will owe, and only after
that’s out of the way goes on to discuss
“you, and your Jewish journey, and what
place God has in your life,” is not likely to
succeed, she said.
“When you are single and you meet a
prospective partner, you do not say ‘Hi!
Will you marry me?’ You expect that you
will get to know that person, you will come
to care about one another, first. Most syna-
gogues do it the other way around.
“It’s ‘Hi! Will you member me? Will
you give me money so we can enter into
a relationship where I hope we will get
to know each other and care about each
other and live in sacred community with
each other?”
The conclusion she draws, Ms. Glass
said, is that “the model isn’t broken.
We know that there are places where it
is thriving. There just aren’t enough of
those places.”
There is some irony in alternative min-
yanim needing more traditional space,
because in a way it is so predictable, she
added. There are many stories of so-called
library minyamin, alternative minyans
that meet in shul libraries, at the same
time that the main service goes on in the
sanctuary. “The story is that the minyanim
grow and grow and grow. There is singing.
It is very freilich.
“What happens is that people start to
get older. They have kids. Now they want
to have a bar or bat mitzvah, but the space
is too small. So now the library minyan
wants to take over the sanctuary. They
want — maybe they need — the accoutre-
ments of a more traditional space, which
involves, you know, a mortgage. And
then the whole financial picture changes,
because then your need does.
“So hopefully they don’t lose that which
makes them less traditional, even though
they really do have to have a more tradi-
tional dues conversation.
“We don’t know yet, one way or the
other, how they will work out,” Ms. Glass
concluded. “But I was not surprised at all
to hear about these changes.”
An example of how institutional con-
cerns can lead to a successful prayer group
shutting down comes from Makom, an off-
shoot of a Dallas Conservative synagogue,
Congregation Shearith Israel. Makom once
counted 1,500 participants — a large num-
ber for an indie minyan in a midsize Jewish
community like Dallas. Makom was active
from 2012 to 2015, and met for services in
a loft space wallpapered with whiteboards
that attendees were free to draw on before
the davening began.
Differences with the synagogue led to
Makom’s folding, and its founders, Dani-
elle Rugoff and her husband, Rabbi David
Singer, moved to San Diego, where he is a
Hillel rabbi. But Ms. Rugoff says they are
exploring a return to Dallas, where they
could re-create Makom as a fully indepen-
dent organization.
“There’s nothing out there for Conserva-
tive Jews that was relevant and compelling,
that also was a space where Jews by choice,
Reform Jews, interfaith couples, where
people could come in and be able to really
witness and feel a Judaism that was closer
to something that they would practice,”
she said. “Talking about big ideas and the
value of life and everything else Judaism
can offer is something people want.”
For Rabbi Ain, the choice to move from a
bowling alley to a bimah is partly practical
See Synagogue page 35

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Local
Cohens fund seekers of peace
Money to go to building bridges, working for peace, in Stephen Cohen’s memory
JOANNE PALMER
I
f there is to be any hope for peace,
the late Stephen P. Cohen believed,
it would have to come from human
relationships. From people talking to
each other out of the hot glare of the public
eye. From backchannel diplomacy, because
that allows a degree of honesty, of genuine
connection, that more open and therefore
more theatrical communications do not.
That’s why his family set up the Stephen
P. Cohen Seekers of Peace Fund at the
New Israel Fund. Last week, the Cohens
announced the fund’s first grant, for
$20,000, which will go to a Jerusalem-based
project called “Lowering the Walls.”
Dr. Cohen — who was born
in Montreal and taught in such
institutions as Harvard, where he
earned his doctorate, and who
created and ran the Middle East
Institute for Peace and Develop-
ment at CUNY’s Graduate Center
— lived in Teaneck for decades.
He and his wife, the Jewish edu-
cator Elaine Shizgal Cohen, were
active members of Congregation
Beth Sholom there. Dr. Cohen
died in January 2017. He was 71. Elaine Shizgal Cohen
Now, Dr. Cohen’s widow — also
called Dr. Cohen — along with their three
daughters, his brother, her brother, and some
others, created the Stephen P. Cohen Seekers
of Peace Fund. The fund, according to its mis-
sion statement, was founded to further Ste-
phen Cohen’s understanding that “the best
approach to resolving conflicts among and
between parties locked in political, cultural,
and religious disagreements is through direct
communication and face-to-face dialogue.”
The fund is not a foundation. It’s com-
plicated to set up a 501 (c ) (3), Dr. Cohen
learned, and if she and her board had
done that, they would have had to send
out their own requests for proposals,
and then evaluate the responses, and the
whole proposition “seemed overwhelm-
ing.” So the fund had to become part of a
larger organization. “We looked at the New
Israel Fund,” Dr. Cohen said. “I wanted to
find a project that really reflected Steve’s
values, and his approach to working on
conflict resolution. I also wanted to find
an area where our friends and relatives,
across a fairly wide spectrum from liberal
to progressive, would be comfortable.”
(The family has few friends or relatives to
the right of center, she clarified.)
In making the choice of the New Israel
Fund, Dr. Cohen said, she knew that she
was picking a group that had been the tar-
get of “attempted vilification. But it is really will go to different groups.
doing well, and the recent attacks by Prime
Minister Netanyahu resulted in 3,000 new
Israeli donors to the fund.” (In early April,
8 JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018
Dr. Steven Cohen meets with Anwar Sadat in Alexandria in 1978.
Mr. Netanyahu accused scale, and so the Cohen funds it receives
the NIF of being anti-Israel can make an actual, noticeable difference
and blamed the organiza- for the children with whom the program
tion for the reaction to his works. The program brings Arab and Israeli
back-and-forth decisions kids together; because it’s about build-
on expelling migrants.) ing bridges, the activity to which Stephen
“There isn’t such a cul- Cohen devoted his life, and also about edu-
ture of philanthropy in cation, which has been the propelling force
Israel as there is here,” she behind Elaine Cohen’s decisions, it seems
added; that makes the new a perfect way for Dr. Cohen to help Dr.
NIF donors even more wor- Cohen’s memory flourish.
thy of note. (NIF officials John Ruskay is the executive vice president
estimated that some 95 per- of UJA-Federation of New York and a decades-
cent of the Israelis who gave in response to long friend of both Steve and Elaine Cohen.
Mr. Netanyahu’s comments were first-time “We were part of related communities
NIF donors.) that were trying to renew Jewish life, from
“The NIF works in the areas of human the early 1970s onward,” Dr. Ruskay said.
rights and democracy, shared social and “I was involved in the New York chavurah
economic justice, and religious freedom,” movement, and he was in Chavurat Shalom
Dr. Cohen said. “So we decided to look at in Boston. We were both involved in Jewish
initiatives for strengthening democracy. educational renewal.
Those are areas where we knew that Steve’s “We have been doing this for a very long
friends and relatives would be happy to time.”
make a donation.” He describes his friend Steve as someone
Elaine and Steve had three daughters, whose work was both invaluable and hid-
Tamara, Ayelet, and Maya; Tamara and den. “Steve was a pioneer in recognizing the
Ayelet both are rabbis. They also have five urgent need to reconcile Israelis and Pales-
grandchildren. The family and friends tinians,” Dr. Ruskay said. “From the mid
on the advisory board, each of whom 1970s on, he devoted so much of his life to
is extremely well connected in the Jew- working with the highest officials of govern-
ish world, “set up a designated fund, and ment on both sides. He did much of it totally
through outreach, we have raised $132,000 privately — it was backchannel diplomacy.
in the United States, and about $5,000 in He also supported people-to-people endeav-
Canada,” Dr. Cohen said. She jump-started ors, which led to greater understanding.”
the fund with a gift, and then approached He remembers a story about his friend
many of her husband’s friends, students, Steve. “There was a crisis in Beirut, and he
and colleagues. They were generous. simply went to Beirut and started walking.
The goal is to give away about $30,000 “He wanted to find Arafat.” That was Yasir
in grants for five years. “It is a spend-down, Arafat, the head of the Palestine Liberation
not a foundation,” Dr. Cohen said. The Organization; the crisis was the siege of
advisory board plans to give away another Beirut, which ended in Arafat’s expulsion
$10,000 this year; it has not yet started to from Lebanon. Dr. Ruskay doesn’t remem-
decide where the money should go next ber the specifics of the episode; what he
year, but Dr. Cohen is fairly certain that it remembers is his friend’s irrepressible
chutzpah — and seemingly contradictory
Lowering the Wall, which will receive but nonetheless enormous capacity to
$20,000 from the fund, is an anti-racism keep secrets, if bridges could be built on
program based in Jerusalem; it’s small those untold truths.
“His memory can provide both a model
for what one person could do and can
inspire others to seek ways to bridge the
impasse,” Dr. Ruskay said.
Dr. Eva Fogelman, a Manhattan-based
psychotherapist who specializes in trauma
in general and the trauma of second-gener-
ation Holocaust survivors in particular, also
sits on the advisory board for the Stephen
Cohen fund.
Dr. Cohen changed her life, Dr. Fogelman
said.
She remembers the first time she saw
him. It was in 1972, at a conference of the
Network of Jewish Students, an activist
group that was both very much of its time
and very, well, Jewish. “I remember that
after the official program was over, a whole
bunch of people got together in one of the
rooms — it was a very dingy room, some-
where in New York,” she said. “He was pon-
tificating about vocation versus avocation. It
always sort of stuck in my mind.” Dr. Cohen
always did have strong opinions.
Later, Dr. Fogelberg moved to Cambridge,
where Steve and Elaine Cohen lived; they
were active in the same political and egalitar-
ian religious groups and came to know each
other well. She remembers that “Steve had
a shortwave radio, so when the Yom Kippur
War broke out in October of 1973 we would
listen to the news.” Steve and a friend, Bill
Novak (who went on to write books about
Jewish humor) put together a newsletter
called the Mideast Probe, Dr. Fogelberg
recalled. “Then a whole bunch of us who had
cars would deliver them to influentials in the
neighborhood.” Those so-called influentials
included such New York Times columnists as
Anthony Lewis, and the information in the
newsletters in fact occasionally did surface in
Lewis’s columns. “Most people did not have
shortwave radios,” Dr. Fogelberg pointed out.
“One of the things that Steve always said is
that information is power.”
When Dr. Fogelberg worked on the doc-
torate, Dr. Cohen was her advisor. “He was
a major influence in my life, intellectually,
personally, socially,” she said. “He always
was a feminist in his outlook, and in those
days we had very few religiously committed
Jews who were feminist.
“We did not know about all his activi-
ties,” she added. “We didn’t know about
his meetings with people like Arafat. He
kept them quite secret. We knew that he
was doing things, but we didn’t know what
he was doing.
“I am just one person whose life Steve
influenced in a major way,” Dr. Fogelberg
concluded. “He believed in me, and what
it was that I could do — and that changed
my life.
“So this advisory board now is trying
to make sure that the work he started will
continue.”

Local programs win Women’s Initiative Challenge Grants
Orthodox Union grants planned to support
women’s learning, spirituality, sense of community
ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN
T
hree inaugural local programs
have won Women’s Initiative
Challenge Grants from the
Orthodox Union. The grants
are earmarked to support the spiritual,
religious, and communal growth of Ortho-
dox women.
The Summer Women’s Beit Midrash
(Congregation Keter Torah, Teaneck),
Women’s Professional Mentorship Pro-
gram (Congregation Darchei Noam, Fair
Lawn), and Women’s Institute of Learning
and Leadership (Congregation Shomrei
Torah, Fair Lawn) are among 16 innovative
programs in 11 states selected from a field
of 93 applicants.
Gail Stechler, a member of Keter Torah,
explained that she and fellow congregant
Yael Landman participate in many of the
shul’s existing learning programs. They
wanted to offer a more intensive text-based
option for women on summer evenings,
geared particularly for teenagers return-
ing from gap-year programs in Israel that
devote many hours to deep textual study.
Twice-weekly classes in Jewish law
and Talmud will be offered for beginners
and advanced learners during the Three
Weeks — the semi-mourning period that
begins with the fast of the 17th of Tam-
muz on July 1 and ends with the fast of
the 9th of Av on July 22 — taught by three
female teachers engaged specifically for
the program.
In addition, the Summer Women’s Beit
Midrash at Keter Torah will arrange evening
study partners for women who may be stu-
dents or professionals, as well as one-on-
one tutoring for girls 10 years old and older.
Tutors will be eligible to receive a stipend.
“We’re trying to expose women to
areas of learning which the shuls in
the community do not usually offer to
women,” Ms. Stechler said. “We also
wanted to give women an opportunity to
teach as well as learn.”
The program is free of charge and open
to the greater community.
“If there is enough interest in beginners
Talmud, we may continue it throughout
the year,” Ms. Stechler said.
Congregation Shomrei Torah is launch-
ing the Women’s Institute of Learning and
Leadership, promoting multifaceted pro-
gramming for girls and women of all ages,
including a mentorship program, a bat
mitzvah program, and virtual learning in
both class and study-partner settings.
Dr. Sara Markowitz, clinical psychologist
and the wife of the shul’s rabbi, conceived
of the program “with an amazing group of
women.”
Rena Levin of Teaneck, left, and Shoshana Charnoff, an educator from the OU’s
JLIC program, work together at a women’s learning event at Queens College.
“It’s always been on my mind that
there is something we could do more for
women,” she said. “I had different types
of ideas and the OU challenged us to
think about this with our collective wis-
dom as women.”
Scheduled to start in the summer or
no later than the High Holiday season
in early fall, the Women’s Institute of
Learning and Leadership is designed to
tap into existing talent in the 300-family
synagogue to enhance the Jewish study
opportunities and personal connections
of girls and women.
“A lot of people don’t have the capabil-
ity to learn interactively, perhaps if they’re
confined to the house or working full
time,” Dr. Markowitz said. She also envi-
sions mentoring relationships between
younger women or girls and older women.
“I think there will be an undercurrent
of empowering leadership informally, and
we hope to have formal leadership train-
ing for different ages as well,” she contin-
ued. “We’ll start in our own shul commu-
nity, with a core group, to pilot different
aspects of the program, so that we can
monitor that it’s making the impact we
want it to. Eventually we could open it up
to a lot of people.”
Shira Donath, wife of the rabbi of Con-
gregation Darchei Noam and also its
yoetzet halacha — a certified adviser in
laws and practices relating to a married
COURTESY OU
couple’s intimate life — is using the OU
grant to create the Women’s Professional
Mentorship Program to begin in October.
“We are always trying to come up with
new and innovative programs for the com-
munity,” Ms. Donath said. “We already
provide women’s leadership and learning
programs. In general, there’s a lack of pro-
fessional mentorship opportunities, par-
ticularly for women, and Orthodox women
have unique challenges in the workplace.
So we wanted to put a religious spin on a
professional development program.”
Those unique challenges can include,
for example, how to handle a project dead-
line that coincides with a two- or three-day
Jewish holiday when the woman will not
be at work; how to deal with the expecta-
tion of attending a business conference
that takes place on Shabbat; and how to
answer interview questions about Sabbath
and holiday observance.
“We’re planning to have three ‘See You
In Person’ meetings throughout the year,
in which we’ll bring in professionals who
have expertise in a certain area,” Ms. Don-
ath said.
“Our first speaker will talk about what
a mentorship relationship is on a prac-
tical level, and will give a survey to the
women in our program to match up men-
tors and mentees based on skills they want
to improve or are strong in. We’re hop-
ing these mentor pairs will speak once a
Local
month and we’ll check in by email to see
how it’s going and suggest prompts for
conversations.”
Another in-person session is planned
on the question of how to give and receive
effective feedback at work. The third ses-
sion will feature breakout discussion
groups on issues such as work-life balance,
ethical dilemmas, and practical advice
about modest dress, behavior, and kashrut
in the workplace.
“Our shul is growing rapidly; currently
we have about 135 member families and
the majority of the women work profes-
sionally,” Ms. Donath said. “Even if women
are reaching or past retirement age they
could serve as mentors. We’re also open to
stay-at-home moms mentoring each other.”
She said the OU grant “will allow these
women to feel connected and empowered
in a way that they haven’t before.”
Dr. Adina Shmidman, founding direc-
tor of the OU’s Department of Women’s
Initiatives, which was launched this year,
said that the challenge grant “captures
the positive energy of so many commu-
nities. Once these programs are piloted,
they can be offered widely in other com-
munities so that they too can benefit
from the wisdom and experience of suc-
cessful initiatives.”
Applications for the challenge grant
were evaluated based on the creativity of
the proposed program, the target audi-
ence, and whether the project could be
replicated in other communities.
The Women’s Initiative ran a Shavuot
speaker series for women and by women
in member shuls across North America;
many of those shuls had not ever hosted
women educators in this capacity. Upcom-
ing programs include a multi-city training
course to sensitize mikvah attendants to
medical and mental-health needs, an eve-
ning of spiritual inspiration between Rosh
Hashana and Yom Kippur, and the cre-
ation of the Women’s Impact Institute, a
leadership training program.
“For more than a century, the Orthodox
Union has addressed the religious and spir-
itual needs of the American Jewish com-
munity,” the OU’s president, Moishe Bane,
said. “Ever-changing circumstances and
challenges, however, compel the ongoing
exploration of new approaches to advance
our connection to God, both as individuals
and collectively as a community.
“We therefore feel particularly privileged
to be partnering with women of extraordi-
nary vision and commitment from across
the community, to pursue exciting and
innovative initiatives seeking to enhance
the religious and spiritual growth of the
contemporary Jewish woman.”
JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018 9
Briefly Local
From left, Schwartz Realty’s President Moshe Schwartz; Meilech Weber, CEO of
OJBA; Ezra Friedlander, CEO of the Friedlander Group; Yossi Menczer; NJJBA’s
executive director David Rosenberg; Maksim Sheyn, senior vice president of
Investors Bank; Joel Epstein, COO of Fabuwood; Ari Stahl, vice president of Gel
Spice; Nathan Herzog, president of Royal Wine Corp.; Phillip Goldschmiedt, CEO
of Poly-Version; and Abe Rosenberg, vice president of US Chocolate Co.
North Jersey Jewish Business Alliance
meets with Washington officials
During the NJJBA’s day of advocacy,
members met with Senator Cory Booker,
praised NJJBA members for employing so
many workers. He talked to them about
soon-to-be established opportunity zones,
new business incentives in low-income
neighborhoods that help to create jobs.
The group also met with Senator Menen-
dez’ senior staff at the Senate Hart Office
Building to talk about transportation,
trade, and taxes. Members thanked Mr.
Menendez for his advocacy for New Jersey
and its Jewish citizens.
The group had lunch with members of
New Jersey’s delegation to the U.S. House
of Representatives, where the conversa-
tion centered on challenges facing New
Jersey businesses. Representatives at the
AJC global forum
in Jerusalem
The American Jewish Committee’s annual
global forum was held in Jerusalem this
year in honor of Israel’s 70th anniversary.
More than 2,400 AJC members, including
400 college students, met at the Interna-
tional Conference Center to listen to many
leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu; Sebastian Kurz, Aus-
tria’s federal chancellor; Boykin Borisson,
the Republic of Bulgaria’s prime minister;
Tzipi Levni, co-leader of the Zionist Union,
and Miss Israel and Miss Iraq.
AJC is the leading global Jewish advo-
cacy organization. Locally AJC has two
offices — in its New Jersey and Rockland/
Westchester/Fairfield regions. Its national
headquarters are in Manhattan.
10 JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018
lunch included Leonard Lance (R-Dist. 7),
Tom MacArthur (R-Dist. 3), Josh Gottheimer
(D-Dist. 5), and Bill Pascrell (D-Dist. 9). The
group also met with staff for representa-
tives Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Dist. 12),
Donald Norcross (D-Dist. 1), Chris Smith
(R-Dist. 4), and Frank Pallone (D-Dist. 7).
Nathan Herzog, president of Royal
Wine Corp., who was the NJJBA’s mission
co-chair, summarized the day in Washing-
ton: “Seeing the high regard that the Alli-
ance is treated with by the highest levels
of government is a testament to the strong
unified voice that the NJJBA created.” He
added, “If you are not a member of the
Alliance yet, this is the time for you to sign
up to have us assist you at the local, state
and federal levels of government.”
Participants in the AJC Global Forum
in Jerusalem included Dov Wilker, the
executive director of AJC Atlanta, and
his mother, Simone Wilker of River
Vale, representing AJC New Jersey.
 PHOTO PROVIDED
NCJW honors future leaders
At a recent board meeting of the Bergen
County section of the National Council
of Jewish Women, eight graduating high
school seniors were awarded $1,000
college scholarships. The students were
chosen based on their academic records,
in recognition of their leadership accom-
plishments in school and community,
and their commitment to Jewish values.
Marjorie G. Aerenson Memorial Schol-
arships were awarded to Rebecca Bran-
don (Westwood Jr./Sr HS/ Brandeis Uni-
versity) and Deanna Javer (Mahwah HS/
Adelphi College). Lauren Cohen (Pas-
cack Valley HS/Tufts University) was the
Kabakow Family Scholarship awardee.
Dina Gelsey (Northern Valley Regional
HS/ University of Rochester) received the
Wolfeiler-Simon Scholarship. Tal Kamin
(Bergen County Academies/University of
Michigan) earned the Bach Scholarship.
Sofie Kravitz (Northern Valley Regional
Teaneck Norpac meeting
hosts Senator Robert Menendez
Drs. Esther and Mort Fridman hosted a
Norpac meeting featuring U.S. Senator
Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jer-
sey, at their Teaneck home.
Senator Menendez chairs the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee. He was
the first New Jersey Democrat to oppose
the Iran deal in 2015 and has been a
co-sponsor or co-author of most major
bipartisan bills on American security
funding to Israel and Iran sanctions.
Discussing moving the U.S. Embassy
in Israel to Jerusalem, Menendez said:
“The opening of the U.S. embassy in Jeru-
salem is grounded in the conviction that
the U.S. should recognize the historical
Jewish connection to Jerusalem. Over
two decades ago, U.S. law established the
location of the U.S. Embassy in Israel, a
law that I voted for. This move was never
a matter of if, but when.”
During the meeting, Senator Menen-
dez was optimistic about U.S. relations
with Israel, and that the Democratic
party would continue to support the
Scholarship awardees
Lauren Cohen, So-
fie Kravitz, Rebecca
Brandon, Dina Gelsey,
Deanna Javer, Tal
Kamin, and Nicole
Matanov. Melanie
Leider is not pictured.
NCJW BCS
HS/Ithaca College) received the Zimmer-
man Family Scholarship. National Coun-
cil of Jewish Women Bergen County Sec-
tion Scholarships were given to Nicole
Matanov (Academies at Englewood/
Occidental College) and Melanie Lieder
(Ridgewood HS/Middlebury College).
Evalyn Brownstein, the scholarship
committee co-chair, presented the
awards. “Among the scholarship criteria
were each candidate’s academic record,
meaningful participation in school and/
or community activities, and financial
need,” she said. “This year’s recipients
raised the bar in every way.”
Other committee members included
Grace Fuld, Phyllis Grossman-Kaplan,
Peggy Kabakow, Elizabeth Warms, Hen-
rietta Wolfeiler, and Nanette Matlick, the
other co-chair. For more information on
NCJW BCS, go to www.ncjwbcs.org or
call (201) 385-4847.
Dr. Mort Fridman, left, with Senator
Robert Menendez. COURTESY NORPAC
relationship. He said that fringe elements
within the party would not change the
dialogue on Israel in Congress as long as
pro-Israel advocates continue their work
on Capitol Hill.
Senator Menendez has been in Con-
gress for 20 years and is up for re-elec-
tion in November.
 Local

Daniel Frenkel, 13, who raised nearly

$1,500 for his bar mitzvah project, and
Shira, Robert, and David Feuerstein, join Susan Greenbaum, Deborah David Feuerstein, 23, bike ride founder. Donna Weintraub, Karen Farber, and Allison
Glasser, Jaymie Kerr, and Mara Miller. Schwartz enjoy the day.

JFCSNNJ supporters bike

and hike to fight hunger
On Sunday, June 17, Jewish Family & Chil-
dren’s Services of Northern New Jersey
held its 8th annual Wheels for Meals Ride
to Fight Hunger. This year’s ride, which
attracted nearly 200 cyclists and hikers,
raised more than $100,000 to help hungry
families in Bergen and Passaic counties.
Beginning and ending at the Jewish Home
at Rockleigh, the ride took cyclists through
the Hudson Valley and offered challenging
Iris Wormser,
Madlen Megar,
bike routes of 3, 10, 25, and 50-miles.
The day’s proceeds support two JFCSNNJ Rachel Ehrlich,
programs — Kosher Meals on Wheels, which Jeff Bader,
Diane Siden,
distributes more than 45,000 meals to
and Laurie Bader
homebound seniors each year, and the JFCS
on the event’s
food pantries in Teaneck and Fair Lawn,
inaugural hike.
which feed nearly 500 families in northern
New Jersey. Great weather, energetic volun-
teers, and delicious food kept participants
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JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018 11

Briefly Local

Representative Josh
Gottheimer (D-NJ
Dist. 5), right, with,
from left, Phil Cohen,
Dr. David Green, and
Sarah N. Stern.
PHOTO PROVIDED

Gottheimer wins EMET award

VALLEY CHABAD
Representative Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ Dist.
5) was awarded the Speaker of Truth award
by the Endowment for Middle East Truth.
Sarah N. Stern, EMET’s founder and
Chabad women’s group goes president, and Dr. David Green, who
chairs its executive committee, presented
to Lubavitcher rebbe’s grave in Queens Mr. Gottheimer with the award for his
On June 24, Hindy Drizin, back row left, led a group from Valley Chabad’s Women’s “continuing excellence in standing up for
Circle to the ohel (gravesite) of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Shneerson, the Lubavitcher Israel and speaking the truth about the
rebbe, in Queens. He died 24 years ago. Middle East.” In Congress, Mr. Gottheimer
Throughout Jewish history it has been the traditional custom to pray at the gravesite has led several bipartisan initiatives to
of the righteous to beseech the Almighty for blessing. The visit was a time of spiritual strengthen U.S.-Israel bilateral missile
connection, blessing, and renewal. For more information, go to valleychabad.org or defense cooperation, combat the boy-
call (201) 476-0157. cott of Israel, and help protect both the
United States and Israel from the threat of
a nuclear-armed Iran.
“For 70 years, the unbreakable bond
between the U.S. and Israel has been
rooted in our shared values of freedom,
democracy, and the rule of law,” Mr. Got-
theimer said. “It is now more important
than ever for members of both parties,
to remember our ally Israel’s strate-
gic importance to our country. EMET’s
efforts to recognize and inculcate strong
support for Israel, on both sides of the
aisle, demonstrate the organization’s
ongoing commitment to strengthen-
ing the historic bipartisan relationship
between our two countries.”

Emeth congregants
rally for change
Rabbi Steven Sirbu, front left, along with Temple Emeth
in Teaneck members who participated in the Humanity in

BARBARA BALKIN
Support of Families Belong Together rally at the Glen Rock
Borough Hall on June 30.

Rabbi Chaim Bronstein, left, with the dean of RIETS, Rabbi Menachem Penner; Evan Genachowski; Matthew LeVee; Daniel Reich; Judah Kerbel; Jonathan Drory;
Yechiel Neuburger of Teaneck; Dr. Norman Blumenthal; Rabbi Neal Turk, the mashgiach of the semicha program and director of the RIETS/Ferkauf program; Profes-
sor Laura Turk; Dr. Arlene Steinberg, and Dr. Rosalyn Sherman. COURTESY YU

Teaneck’s Neuburger among grads of YU mental health counseling program

The joint mental health counseling program
offered to students in Yeshiva University’s
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary,
in conjunction with the Ferkauf Graduate
School of Psychology, recently celebrated
the graduation of its second cohort.
T h e 1 8 - m o n t h p ro g r a m , wh i c h
combines the mental health expertise and
resources of Ferkauf with the experience
and spiritual guidance of the RIETS fac-
ulty, provides in-depth training in mental
health counseling, which is an increas-
ingly important component of modern
rabbinic responsibilities. Students take
six graduate-level courses designed to
address the unique challenges faced by
communal leaders, including two founda-
tional pastoral psychology courses, which
are required within their first two years of
semicha studies. Students receive a certifi-
cate in mental health counseling as well
as semicha. The coursework also can be
applied toward a master’s degree in men-
tal health counseling with an emphasis in
pastoral psychology at Ferkauf.
At a ceremony on YU’s Wilf campus at
the end of June, seven semicha students
received their certificates of completion.

12 JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018

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Jewish Standard JULY 6, 2018 13
Cover Story
‘Masala
Mamas’
Dr. Elana Sztokman’s
book of Indian recipes and
stories is full of Jewish values
JOANNE PALMER
T
here is almost nothing overtly
Jewish about the book called
“Masala Mamas.”
The book called “Masala
Mamas” is a deeply, overwhelmingly
Jewish book.
Both these things are true at the same
time.
How can that be?
“Masala Mamas,” written by Brook-
lynite-turned-Israeli Elana Sztokman, is
a cookbook featuring kosher vegetarian
Indian recipes. It’s an art book, full of
lusciously, extravagantly colorful pho-
tographs of food and the women who
create it. And it’s a storybook, telling the
tales of those women’s lives.
The Masala Mamas are Indian women
who moved from villages to a massive
slum called Kalwa, itself a tiny part of the
massive city of Mumbai. They’re all poor
and uneducated, at least if you count
only formal education; they’re all rich in
life experience and knowledge.
These women take care of their fami-
lies, and then they come to a central
kitchen in Kalwa to prepare meals for
schoolchildren.
That’s all local.
They’re funded by a group called
Gabriel Project Mumbai, founded by
Dr. Sztokman’s husband, Jacob Sztok-
man. Jacob was a high-tech marketer in
2012, when he went to India and was
affected by what he saw there to the
point where he could not let it go. “So
he started the organization to help the
kids he saw; to help fight child labor
and promote education.
“Jacob found kids working in sew-
age,” Elana said; she meant that literally.
Children had to work if they and their
families were to eat, and the sewage
14 JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018
—well, that’s what was underfoot. “He
wanted to get them out of the sewage
and into class.
“He started working with NGOs” — non-
governmental agencies — “and he found
that he had to provide them with food.
“It’s very simple,” Elana said. “If
schools provide food, the children will
go to school.” Once they’re in school,
they can eat — and once they’re not hun-
gry, they can learn.
“Literacy is everything. A kid who
has literacy and math skills and some
English has opportunity. That changes
everything. It changes their whole life
trajectory.”
Just as Jacob was realizing that the
most productive thing he could do
would be to get children food in their
schools, “he met a group of women who
were looking for an enterprise. It was a
good shidduch.”
So Gabriel Project Mumbai “out-
sources the project of feeding the kids,”
Elana said. “We pay the women to do it.
They do all of it.” They make the meals,
and they deliver them. Altogether, she
said, they feed about 1,000 3- to 14-year-
olds in the three schools that Gabriel
Project Mumbai runs every day.
Dr. Sztokman is a writer and anthro-
pologist; she’s also “a supportive
spouse,” she said. Just as the women’s
need for work and the children’s need
for food came together, so did her back-
ground and talents.
She’s written three books; “The Men’s
Section: Orthodox Jewish Men in an
Egalitarian World” won the National
Jewish Book Council award for women’s
studies in 2012, and the next year her
“Educating in the Divine Image: Gender
Issues in Orthodox Jewish Day Schools”
won another award from the council,
this time for education and identity.
 Cover Story

(It’s rare for a writer to win the award

twice, much less in consecutive years.)
Her doctorate is in sociology and
anthropology, and she specializes in
gender studies, so it was both a logical
and emotional decision to write about
the women. “I really wanted to write
from a cultural perspective,” she said.
“I really wanted to show the world of
women’s culture.
“My dissertation was about educa-
tion as an arm of culture, and here I’m
writing about food as the arm of a cul-
ture — and particularly women’s cul-
ture, and most particularly women’s
hidden culture.
“I was coming at it not as an expert,
not as an anthropologist, but just try-
ing to convey the women’s love for
what they are doing, and for who
they are.
“These are women who so often are
completely unseen,” she continued.
“They are not literate. Most of them
got married in their early to mid teens.
They are women who nobody thinks
about or cares about. But they carry
so much life with them! They carry tra-
dition and ideas and dreams and pas-
sions. I really wanted to show that.”
Almost all of the photographers
whose work illuminates the book are
volunteers, amateurs, although you
wouldn’t know that to look at the pho-
tos. The layout was done by an Israeli
artist, Shoshana Balofsky, who had the
idea to edge the pages in every section
with a pattern from a sari one of the
women was wearing. Each section dis-
plays a different women’s sari pattern.
“The real Jewish story about this
is that Gabriel Project Mumbai is the
only Jewish organization tackling pov-
erty in Mumbai,” Dr. Sztokman said.
“We are the only Jews there.

JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018 15

Cover Story

“There are a lot of Jewish organizations that talk the
Jewish talk about social justice, but this is the only one
running programs that actively engage on that issue.
When we were opening a new building, and he affixed a
mezuzah on our door.
“We bring Jewish volunteers to work,” she continued.
“They’re with JDC Entwine.” That’s the American Jewish
Joint Distribution Committee’s Project Entwine, a “one-
of-a-kind movement for young Jewish leaders, influenc-
ers, and advocates who seek to make a meaningful impact
Jacob and Elana Sztokman
on global Jewish needs and international humanitarian
issues,” its website tells us.
“It sends dozens of volunteers from all around the
world and exposes these young Jewish adults to the issues
of global poverty, global hunger, global malnutrition, and
child labor,” Dr. Sztokman said. “We are the gateway for
young Jewish adults who want to get firsthand experience
understanding these global issues.
“The Jewish volunteers come from around the world,”
she added. “From every continent.
“But we don’t want to overemphasize the Jewish con-
nection,” she said — but she said so reluctantly, and only
after being pressed to expand on the Jewish connection.
“We don’t want to say ‘Look how great we are!’ We want
to say ‘Look at how great these women are.’ That’s why we
did the book the way we did it.
“We don’t want to be insensitive to them. We don’t want
to be the great white Jewish saviors, coming in to rescue
them. That’s why we play ourselves down.”
And that’s because she, like her husband, like Gabriel
Project Mumbai, exemplify not only the Jewish value of
tzedaka — of giving charitably, both of tangible objects
and of your time and energy and love — but also of tzniut.
Of modesty. That’s a value often thought to be connected
only to physical presentation, but also has to do with the
less tangible refusal to show off and preen.
In “Masala Mamas,” the very Jewish Elana Sztokman
expresses that Jewishness by providing the Indian women
whose work and love suffuse the book to define that Jew-
ishness for and with her.

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 Cover Story

Mysore Bhajji (Yogurt Fritters) Palak Paneer (Spinach and

By Jayshree Kondwal White Cheese Stew)
INGREDIENTS By Kalpana Gawde
1 cup all-purpose flour (maida)
1/2 tsp baking soda INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup grated fresh coconut 1 cup spinach, chopped
1 tbsp sugar 1 green chiii pepper, chopped
1/2 tsp salt 1 inch ginger
1 inch ginger, grated 2 cloves gariic
1 tsp jeera (cumin seeds) 1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp chopped coriander 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
2 small green chili peppers 1 tsp turmeric
1 cup soft white cheese, either paneer, 1/2 cup onion, finely diced
cottage cheese or ricotta 1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp garam masala
METHOD 1 tsp salt
1. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda. 8 oz paneer, cubed
coconut, sugar, salt, ginger, jeera, and coriander. Add
chopped and deseeded chili peppers — and remember METHOD
to use rubber gloves when handling them. 1. Boil a pot of water and cook the spinach for 2-3
minutes. Drain the spinach and blend green chili pepper,
2. Add the cheese. and knead well. The dough should
ginger and garlic in a blender or food processer. Drizzle
not need any liquid other than the liquid in the cheese.
water to aid in the blending process, but not too much
Set aside for 1-2 hours to rest.
— that will make it too liquidy. It should form a paste.
3. When the dough is ready, make golf ball-sized balls
2. In a frying pan, heat the oil over a high heat.
out of the batter. Heat oil in a pan or pot, and deep fry
Add cumin seeds, turmeric, and onions. Cook over a
the balls in oil until they are brown on all sides, around
medium heat until the onions are brown, approximately
4-5 minutes each. Turn in the middle. Remove the bhajjis
6-7 minutes.
from the oil with a slotted spoon and rest them on paper
towels to continue to drain excess oil. 3. Add spinach paste. coriander powder, garam masala
and salt, and cook for 5 minutes.
Serve with your favorite chutney.
4. Add paneer. Cook for five minutes.
Garnish with cheese.

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JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018 17

Jewish World

Netanyahu is welcoming authoritarians

Does that make Israel safer?
CHARLES DUNST

I
t has become a staple of his stump speeches to audi-
ences in Israel and abroad: Far from being isolated
politically, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
argues, Israel is forming new and stronger alliances with
a host of countries around the world.
In recent years, Netanyahu has either visited or hosted Pres-
ident Vladimir Putin of Russia, Prime Minister Viktor Orban
of Hungary, and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, among
others. Netanyahu plans to host Orban in July and Filipino
strongman Rodrigo Duterte in September.
Netanyahu touts these leaders’ support for Israel in inter-
national forums. But critics say he is cozying up to authori-

HAIM ZACH/ISRAELI GOVERNMENT PRESS OFFICE

tarian governments and turning a blind eye to some of their
regimes’ efforts at Holocaust revisionism and anti-Semitic
dog-whistling.
That criticism is being heard again as the Foreign Ministry
of Israel confirmed this week that Netanyahu will host Orban
from July 18 to 20. Many Israeli lawmakers have urged Netan-
yahu not to do so, citing among other things the right-wing
Hungarian leader’s campaign against the Hungarian-Ameri-
can philanthropist George Soros, a campaign that many con-
sidered to be obliquely anti-Semitic.
Tamara Cofman Wittes of the Brookings Institution criti-
cized the upcoming visits on Twitter, writing that the Israeli
government is “hosting Orban and now maybe Duterte? Sad
company to keep.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban, hold a joint
Netanyahu’s defenders say he is willing to extend diplomatic news conference at the Parliament building in Budapest on July 18, 2017.
overtures to both democracies and authoritarian regimes in
what he sees as a necessary pursuit to ensure Israel’s survival. vice president at the Foundation for Defense of Democ- decision-making. Shapiro said that rolling out the red
“Israel often has no choice but to maintain ties with unsa- racies, said. “As a country that has found itself isolated carpet for authoritarians is an ill-advised attempt to
vory or authoritarian regimes,” Jonathan Schanzer, senior by its neighbors and sometimes shunned by Western adapt to a diplomatic reality promoted by President
Europe, Israel has been forced to try and find friends Donald Trump in which relations with Russia, China,
in unlikely places.” and Hungary are prized, while those with Germany, the
“This outreach” to unsavory regimes, Schanzer clari- United Kingdom, and France are diminished.

S aam m yy’s’s fied, “should not be conflated with the alliance that it “Israel has long, and justifiably, considered itself part
S m m shares with the United States that is based on values.” of the club of democracies, as an expression of its self-
Critics of the outreach say it is coming at a time of identification as a Jewish and democratic state,” Shapiro
resurgent right-wing nationalism, and that Israel is on said. “Today, as a wave of illiberalism challenges the dem-
North Jersey’s Premier Italian the wrong side of a history that usually has worked ocratic world — from America to Europe to Israel itself
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201.947.2500 Semitic dog-whistling. with Orban is more than tactical.
3493212-01

www.inapoli.com
18 JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018

Needless to say, Netanyahu
has pointedly refrained from
criticizing Trump for any of
his questionable statements
on racists and Jews, including
his post-Charlottesville
equation of neo-Nazis with
anti-racist demonstrators.
HAIM ZACH/ISRAELI GOVERNMENT PRESS OFFICE
“Both strive for ethnocentric illiberal-
ism,” he wrote. “Both share a disdain for
liberal values, especially those admired
and cultivated by the vast majority of
American Jews. Both agitate against
immigrants. Both are sworn enemies of
the free press. Both feel an affinity with
Russian strongman Vladimir Putin and
both have tied their country’s fates to
Donald Trump.
“Needless to say, Netanyahu has point-
edly refrained from criticizing Trump
for any of his questionable statements
on racists and Jews, including his post-
Charlottesville equation of neo-Nazis
with anti-racist demonstrators.”
Schanzer disputes such insinua-
tions, heard often on the Israeli left,
that Netanyahu feels a personal affin-
ity for far-right regimes. Schanzer notes
the Jewish state’s history of forming
self-interested relations with unpalat-
able regimes.
“The outreach to the African nations
is a good example of how none of this is
new,” he said. “In the early years after
the founding of the state, Israeli diplo-
mats labored to reach out to the African
states. Israel took Africa for granted.
Now Netanyahu has rekindled some of
those relationships. So, no, I don’t think
this is Netanyahu specific.”
Tsilla Hershco, a senior research asso-
ciate at Bar-Ilan University’s Begin-Sadat
Center for Strategic Studies, says that
Netanyahu’s critics are setting up a false
choice between authoritarian and dem-
ocratic regimes.
“Netanyahu is pursuing legitimate
objectives of expanding support in
Europe and elsewhere for Israel’s posi-
tion on vital security issues,” Herscho
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CHEMI SHALEV
said. “Despite obvious disagreements
relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
Netanyahu’s recent tour to Germany, Brit-
ain, and particularly to France reflects
the importance he attaches to their posi-
tions towards Israel’s security concerns.”
Elliot Abrams, senior fellow for Middle
Eastern studies at the Council on For-
eign Relations, pushed back against the
insinuation that Netanyahu is pursuing
an authoritarian charm offensive, inten-
tionally and specifically courting author-
itarians in the pursuit of a new sphere
of alliances. Instead, Abrams suggested,
Israel is intent on — and increasingly
successful in — cultivating allies where it
can, even among unsavory regimes.
“Israel remains isolated by many of its
neighbors in the Middle East and is the
subject of endless attacks in every U.N.
agency,” Abrams said. “Moreover, it is
the target of a well-financed BDS move-
ment, especially in Europe. It has been
the goal of every Israeli government to
break the isolation, and Netanyahu has
had more success than any predecessor.”
Abrams lauded Netanyahu’s ability to
manage simultaneous relationships with
the United States and Russia, as well as
China and India, the latter of which
he calls “the world’s most populous
democracy,” although writers in Foreign
Affairs, the New Yorker and The Econo-
mist have criticized Indian Prime Minis-
ter Narendra Modi’s recent “authoritar-
ian streak.”
“In my view, Netanyahu’s success-
ful effort to improve Israel’s global ties
should not be criticized as an ‘authori-
tarian charm offensive,’” Abrams said.
“Yes, Orban visits, but so does Modi.”
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JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018 19
Editorial
Fireflies and
everyday magic
L L
ast Shabbat, one of my rabbis addressed the pervasive
unease that seems to infect just about everyone we
know. The feeling of not-quite-rightness, of doubt, even
of fear, that haunts so many of us. It’s not just about
politics, although of course it’s also about politics. It’s about the
profoundly unsettling feeling that comes from realizing that solid
ground is not solid, that things we thought we knew are not true,
probably weren’t true all along, and that as impossible as it ever is
to predict the future, now we can’t even pretend to know.
It’s remarkably unsettling.
Take care of yourself, he said. Each one of you should take care
of yourself. Do whatever social advocacy or social justice work
you feel impelled to do, but also take care of yourself.
It sounded awfully pabulum-y, but still it stuck with me,
because he was right.
It’s been very hot this week. That’s a change (and unsettling in
itself, even though we know that of course seasons change, and
it’s been so cool and so wet for so long that some ridiculously
steamy heat had to be coming).
I take care of myself by walking, so I did.
I’ve been taking my dogs out at twilight, when the colors
change and the close humid sky gets more velvety and the shad-
ows not only lengthen but get very fuzzy around their edges.
And as I’ve walked — in the city, in the suburbs, in parks, wher-
ever there are cement-free patches of ground — I’ve seen tiny flick-
ers of light.
Fireflies.
When they’re not lighting up, they’re hideous, grotesque bugs.
But when you walk at dusk, and you start to see little flashes of
colored light, and at first you think it’s your eyes, and then you
think great, now I’m hallucinating, and then you start to see more
and more of them, little bursts of light that never seen to illumi-
nate when you’re looking directly at them, but always go off just
to the side of your field of vision, until the patch of grass is spar-
kling with lights, little miniature Fourth of July skies come to earth.
I don’t know why that happens. It must have something to do
with the heat and the moisture, although I am profoundly not a
scientist, so I have no idea how it works.
I also know that it must be a metaphor, and the obvious ones
are, well, obvious, and who wants that? But to stand there in the
growing dark, watching these lights burst into being and glow and
move and then extinguish, seeing more and more of them as your
eyes and your spirit adjust yourself to them — it’s magic.
Just plain magic.
I am not suggesting that regular old fireflies, and the everyday
magic they perform at dusk on hot summer nights, will help us
heal the divisions we face, both as Americans and as Jews. That
would be far too easy.
But I do think that there is everyday magic all around us, and
getting the chance to see it, being able to stand at the edge of a
field of fireflies, is healing.
I hope that each one of us gets to see fireflies dance. —JP
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20 Jewish Standard JULY 6, 2018
Truth regardless of consequences
How porn insults women
and damages relationships
ast month I published a new book called Second, porn is inherently boring and slowly
“Lust for Love,” co-authored with the teaches men to be desensitized to the female body.
actress Pamela Anderson. The media Why else do you think that the way porn operates is
commented on the strange pairing of an to show men one image they click on, only to have
international sex symbol with an author and activist. tons of other images appear immediately? (Again,
But Pamela is much more than just an author and I have only heard these reports from friends.) The
activist. She is a woman dedicated to help rescuing revelatory nature of porn quickly overexposes men
marriages and relationships and especially salvag- to the female body, thereby having the curious effect
ing men from the ravaging effects of porn. of demagnetizing the body and leading to decreased
Our collaboration in this book project began attraction. Porn then becomes like an entry drug,
with a joint op-ed about the harmful effects of say, marijuana, where the hit quickly dissipates and
pornography. Our objections were not based on ever-stronger hits are required. Hence the quick
religion but on our joint desire to heal marriages. graduation from so-called soft porn to hardcore
Many people criticized Pamela as being hypocriti- porn, and to pornographic addiction where men are
cal, since she has appeared on more prepared to destroy careers, lives, and
Playboy covers that any other model relationships in pursuit of a fraudulent
(or so my friends tell me). Pamela fix that never can be satisfied fully.
responded that Playboy is not porn I once debated Larry Flynt, the head
but art. I respectfully disagree. But of Hustler, in front of thousands of
at least we both agree that hardcore people in Los Angeles. My close friend
porn, especially as found on the inter- Roseanne Barr was the moderator.
net, is soul-destroying for men. Over the past few weeks Roseanne and
Here’s why. I have been in the news for the pod-
First, porn teaches men to see casts we’ve recorded where she has
women as a means rather than an end. Rabbi emotionally and profusely apologized
Men who consume large quantities of Shmuley for her tweet about Valerie Jarrett. On
porn are trained to look at a woman Boteach that evening, I told Larry that he was
and not see their equal but rather proof positive of just how boring porn
the walking fulfillment of male desire. was. Because if a naked woman actu-
While pornography and the evils of slavery are in ally was endlessly exciting to men, then a smart
no way comparable, there is a similarity in that the businessman like Flynt would pay one woman to be
abomination of slavery lay in the gradual training of Miss January through December instead of having to
white men and women to look at their black coun- waste money hiring 11 other women.
terparts and see not a fellow human but a walk- But overexposure breeds boredom bordering on
ing bale of cotton. Whites were conditioned to see contempt. Porn works only in quantity and never
blacks not as equals, possessed of personal dreams individually.
and ambitions, but rather as a means to their work Which leads us to the boredom that porn brings
ends. The great German philosopher Immanuel to a marriage. How is a wife — however attractive —
Kant called this way of life, treating humans as a meant to compete? Which explains why Judaism is
means rather than an end, as the ultimate form of so insistent on modesty even within marriage. In
immorality. Jewish law a husband and wife wear pajamas, lin-
By the same token, while it does not involve an gerie, bathrobes, etc., rather than parading around
inherent moral abomination like selling God’s chil- the bedroom naked. The erotic obstacle of clothing
dren on the block, porn similarly conditions men actually makes the body more, not less, electrifying.
to see women as a means to an end. No wonder, In “Lust for Love,” Pamela and I discuss the three
then, that we are witnessing a deterioration of male secrets of erotic desire, namely, unavailability, mys-
respect for women, just as porn has come to satu- tery, and sinfulness. Lust is increased through frus-
rate our society. trated desire, something that pornography entirely
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is the author of 32 books, including “Lust for Love,” co-written with Pamela Anderson.
Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.
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lacks. The two week of prohibited sexual relations
in the Jewish marriage actually serves as a catalyst
for desire.
Heinz Ketchup is essentially tomato sauce. But
they make it pasty just to ensure that you wait.
Remember the commercials? “Anticipation…”. Porn,
with its instant gratification, paradoxically makes sex
a complete bore.
Which leads me to an essential point. Men who are
y porn addicts are fundamentally bad lovers. For sex
. to truly be exciting it requires novelty. Married cou-
ples find novelty in new adventures together, going
vertically — deeper and deeper into the human per-
, sonality — in order to find newness. But porn addicts
simply look at new bodies. They discover the same
old boring porn routine — not to mention the same
t sexual positions — played out by new actors. (This,
too, my friends have told me.) They are not chal-
, lenged to discover vertical renewal, substituting it
instead for horizontal renewal, the lazy man’s solu-
k tion to the problem of sexual boredom. As such, they
become fundamentally bad lovers.
Which leads to my conclusion. Men are not sup-
posed to be experts in the female body, just as
t women are not meant to be experts in the male body.
Rather, upon exposure to the body of the opposite
f overhead, leaving a trail of fizzy sparks, and
. artillery shell, illuminating the sky with a
Overexposure
- breeds boredom
bordering on
contempt. Porn
works only in
- quantity and never
t mind. My parents were Holocaust survivors from Poland.
individually.
sex there is supposed to be an instinctual, electri-
fying response that draws us closer to our spouse,
r allowing us to fulfill the beautiful biblical mandate
of being “bone of one bone and flesh of one flesh.”
But porn addicts, who ingest thousands of
— images of the female body, become objective rather
than subjective about a woman’s body. They lose
the capacity to have their emotions, especially love,
- impact their attraction. And they gradually lose
the ability to be excited by their spouse’s body and
marital sex. All of which is, of course, tragic to the
. marital bond.
That’s why it’s time for men in general and hus-
- bands in particular to take the pledge: No more porn.
- Find the erotic excitement you crave in fulfilling and
y lasting marital relationships rather than a pursuit
that is fundamentally dehumanizing to women and
deeply disrespectful to your wife.
The opinions expressed in this section 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.
Opinion
Independence Day
W
e always arrive just before sunset.
The streets are blocked off by police
cars, the red and blue rollers producing
their own light show. People in shorts
and t-shirts and flip-flops saunter down the patchwork of
streets that filter into the park. Strings of party lights criss-
cross decks and backyards, music shifting like stations on
a radio as we pass each home. People carry folding chairs
out to their front yards, or to the strip of grass by the curb,
bantering with their neighbors while they wait for the sun
to go down.
There is already a crowd at the park, but there’s nothing
to worry about, the field is wide, room enough for every-
one. We choose a spot, unfold our chairs, and settle in. A
Sousa march drifts towards us from somewhere. By this
time, the sky is deepening from aqua to Prussian blue, the
air heavy and warm. Swallows and cicadas streak over our
heads. Barefoot children, too excited to sit, run in circles
over the grass. Kids wearing glow stick necklaces whirl
toys that light up in all the colors of the rainbow.
Finally, the blue fades to black. Somewhere
in the dark, we hear the pop pop pop of far-
away fireworks. The towns around us already
have begun. Without warning, a rocket zings
just when I think it’s a dud, it bursts like an
shower of golden glitter.
The first fireworks I ever saw were
glimpsed from the windows of my parents’
bedroom. Bang, bang, bang, BANG!! Like the Helen
loudest thunder I’d ever heard. Terrified, I Maryles
ran back to my room and buried my head Shankman
under my pillow. It sounded like war.
As a little girl, war was very much on my
Visiting my mother’s family in Canada, the grownups
talked about The War while we waited for someone to take
us to an amusement park. Night after night, news stations
reported on the war in Viet Nam, and in the morning, the
newspaper on the table reported it some more. Posters
declared that War was not healthy for children and other
living things. Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were
assassinated. Riots broke out on the West Side, with fires
consuming entire city blocks. At the Democratic National
Convention, protesters clashed with police. A couple of
years later came the Yom Kippur War. War seemed to be
the natural state of things.
Having experienced the horror and chaos of World War
II Poland, my dad loved freedom and democracy like only
someone who has been denied them can. My father and
his family were rejected by the U.S. consulate two or three
times. Permission was granted only when American cous-
ins took responsibility for them.
After Dad spent a couple of years in a Brooklyn
yeshiva, my grandfather told him it was time to get a
job. Dad’s dream was to become a watchmaker. He
would land a new job every Monday and get fired every
Friday, after telling his new boss that as an observant
Jew, he couldn’t work on Saturdays. The only employer
who would tolerate his Sabbath observance was a dental
technician — so Dad became a dental technician. Soon
after, he was drafted into the American army, where he
spent two years making dentures for Uncle Sam. Talk
about total immersion! Every young man from a foreign
country should serve for a year or two. It’s a very effi-
cient way to absorb American culture.
Mom arrived 10 years later, after spending a decade
in a DP camp in Germany and two years in Montreal.
(The State Department rejected her family’s immigra-
tion applications again and again. My grandfather was
a leather craftsman, my grandmother was in business.
Okay, okay, so her business was trading on the black
market. You do what you gotta do.) Having been exposed
to the best and the worst people can be,
she had a surprisingly liberal outlook on
almost everything. She befriended all kinds
of people from all walks of life. She learned
how to cook tuna noodle casserole, chow
mein, and meat loaf, drove carpools, built
snowmen, and drilled us on our multipli-
cation tables. Though English was not her
first (or second) language, she volunteered
for the PTA and registered her children for
swimming and ceramics, Girl Scouts and
summer camps and sports teams.
Having escaped violent, repressive, mur-
derous regimes, my parents embraced the
dream that is America. They worked hard,
paid taxes, bought a house, cheered on their kids at base-
ball and basketball games, voted in every election, knew
their local alderman by name.
Though neither of my parents received so much as a
sixth grade education, they saw to it that my siblings and
I all graduated college. One brother is a doctor, my sister
is an executive at a television network, my older brother
works in the restaurant business, and I write and teach
art. We are loyal and committed Americans. None of us
has joined a gang, turned to crime, or is dependent on
government handouts.
I don’t know exactly what I’m going for here, as the
celebration of our country’s independence takes place
amid talk of border walls, turning immigrants into crimi-
nals, separating children from their parents, misplacing
some of those children in the system, and denying entry
to desperate people who are fleeing for their lives. Maybe
I just want to celebrate one immigrant family’s love for the
country that took them in.
Above my head, rockets explode into violet hearts,
yellow smiley faces, a bouquet of shimmering red and
gold and green chrysanthemums. As if we had prac-
ticed in advance, the crowd in the park says “oooh” and
“ahhh,” in unison. Sparks gush up from the horizon like
a fountain made of fire. Gold streamers arc down from
the heavens. Red, white and blue lights hold their spi-
dery shapes for the space of a heartbeat, then float to
earth like stardust.
Helen Maryles Shankman of Teaneck is an artist
and writer. Her work appears in many fine journals,
including The Kenyon Review, Gargoyle, Jewishfiction.
net, and Cream City Review. Scribner recently published
her second novel, “In The Land of Armadillos.”
Jewish Standard JULY 6, 2018 21
Opinion
End the stigma around mental illness
D
octors often say that high blood
pressure is the silent killer. Sadly,
I think a new illness has claimed
that moniker — mental illness.
Robin Williams hanged himself, and then
Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain commit-
ted suicide in the same week, proving that
depression is not limited to the underprivi-
leged and that mental illness is as indiscrimi-
nating as the weather. Rabbi
My brother committed suicide, which David-Seth
makes me all too familiar with the unending Kirshner
wake of pain, hurt, questions, and what-ifs
that survivors are left with after the irrevocable
deed is done. Nothing good comes from taking your own
life. Perhaps we can hope that the afflicted are free from the and respond in a more hands-on manner.
burdens, struggles, and challenges that are invisible to us
but inescapable for them.
Still, suicide leaves more questions than answers, more
pain then relief, and more tears, and those tears do not
diminish with time.
If anything positive can come from these deaths of well-
known personalities, I pray that it will shine a light on the organize meals and delivery of said meals for her family. As
serious nature of mental illness and how pervasive it is in
our society.
As a congregational rabbi with a unique peephole into
people’s families and lives, I can claim with certainty that
almost every family has someone who is suffering from a
Justice Kennedy and a kosher court
F
ollowing Justice Kennedy’s retire-
ment from the Supreme Court, the
continued viability of Roe v. Wade
has dominated the headlines. Amer-
ican Jews are overwhelmingly pro-choice, and
many if not most want the courts to uphold a
constitutional right to abortion under nearly
any circumstance.
In what should amount to a surprising twist,
some have argued that overturning Roe would Mitchell
threaten Jews’ religious freedom. Rocklin
Their argument goes like this: In some cir-
cumstances — namely when the life or health
of the mother is in danger — Jewish law may
permit or even require a mother to procure an
abortion. Thus, bans on abortion could, in the-
ory, prevent women from terminating a preg-
nancy in a case where their religion obligated
them to do so. Let’s ignore for a moment the
fact that the overwhelming majority of abor-
tions are not performed to save a mother’s
life, and that any abortion regulation would Howard
include an exception for such cases. Instead, Slugh
let’s focus on the ways in which this argument
stems from a distorted understanding of reli-
gious freedom.
The irony of this particular pro-choice argument is that
liberal Jews are advancing it even as they are quick to
accuse traditional proponents of religious liberty of
seeking to impose their religious views on America. In
truth, traditional proponents just want to be left alone. It
has been secularist Jewish organizations that have joined
non-Jewish colleagues in seeking the hegemony of their
moral values. Traditionalists request accommodation,
22 Jewish Standard JULY 6, 2018
mental health challenge. These illnesses do
not discriminate between religion, color,
sex, or race. Depression is the most notable
of those conditions, but I have seen my share
of paranoia, obsessive compulsive disorder,
anxiety, and bipolar disorder. All of them are
rampant in communities like ours. The differ-
ence between these illnesses, and say, cancer,
is that we still seem to whisper when someone
is suffering from mental illness disorders. We
cover them up for fear of being outed. We are
petrified that we will be stigmatized as crazy
and we will be only a step away from having
Nurse Ratchet overseeing our daily activities.
With cancer, though, we feel empathy in a different form,
A member of our community recently was diagnosed
with breast cancer. Our community jumped into action.
Some volunteered to help with her kids’ carpools, another
was deputized with shopping and household errands, while
a Google sign-up sheet was created to keep straight who will
keep her company during chemo treatments and who will
a rabbi, it made me proud to see our synagogue commu-
nity respond without missing a beat. It was beautiful, empa-
thetic, humane, and the core of what we do as a place of
worship and as a people.
I wonder, though, if the same person were to say that she
while too many otherwise liberal Jews seek
domination.
Americans seeking traditional religious lib-
erty exemptions do not wish to impose their
views on their neighbors. Religious liberty
protections allow for the creation of a neu-
tral space, one in which citizens with differ-
ing viewpoints can coexist without trampling
on each other’s beliefs. Laws like the Religious
Freedom Restoration Act merely state that
whenever possible, the government must
exempt religious adherents from laws that
conflict with their sincerely held beliefs.
Exemptions are not mandatory or auto-
matic; if a religious exemption would prevent
the government from accomplishing a com-
pelling mission, then no exemption is granted.
Religious liberty laws do not prohibit the gov-
ernment from enforcing a law against most
Americans; they simply require exemptions
in cases where the law would put an intoler-
able and unnecessary burden on religious
people. For instance, prisons are not required
to accommodate religious practices if doing
so would be unsafe for inmates. If the govern-
ment can both achieve its goals and protect Americans’ con-
science rights, then it must do so. In a very real sense, then,
religious liberty laws protect pluralism and demonstrate a
live-and-let-live attitude.
The Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby case illustrates this
principle. The plaintiff, an arts and crafts store named
Hobby Lobby, which is privately owned by the Green family,
sought an exemption from a regulation requiring employ-
ers to provide health insurance covering abortion-inducing
was suffering from depression and could not get out of bed,
or from OCD, or was hoarding, or perhaps was unable to leave
the house because she needed to have exactly 14 steps to get
to the front door and she could not seem to get the cadence
for that exact walk down. Or if she were afraid to go out of the
house for paralyzing fear. Would we respond in the same way?
Are we still whispering the names of these conditions, and
keeping a distance as if they were contagious?
We build walls around mental illnesses to keep ourselves
away from them, out of fear of catching it or simply of being
near it. That only makes the disease more acute for the
afflicted, and creates a vicious downward spiral for those
working toward healing.
Judaism is not immune to suicide. Six biblical characters
take their own lives, some from despair, others from sad-
ness. Whether it is Abimelech, Samson, Saul, Ahitophel, or
Zimri, we know that this epidemic is not new. It is high time
for us as a Jewish community to address this topic. The rab-
bis of all denominations even stopped burying the victims of
suicide in separate parts of the cemetery, claiming that such
a death is a result of an illness.
Now it is time to go further.
In order to bring more hope to the afflicted and to curb the
prevalence of suicide, we need to adjust how our communi-
ties deal with mental illness. I suggest the following steps:
• Don’t whisper about mental illness. The strides the LGBTQ
community achieved came as a result of people being bold
enough to come out and share their identities and story. We
drugs. The Greens argued that providing such insurance
would violate their religious liberty, and therefore they
requested a religious liberty-based exemption.
The Greens did not argue that abortion-inducing drugs
should be outlawed, that their employees should be pro-
hibited from buying such drugs, or that the government
could not require other employers to purchase such insur-
ance. The Greens made a much more modest claim: they
should not be required to participate in a process that they
considered sinful.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby, find-
ing that the government had not proven that exempting
employers with sincere religious objections would prevent
it from achieving its goal: ensuring that women had access
to the drugs in question. The law continued to apply to
the vast majority of Americans, and the government was
free to fill the gaps through other methods. The court con-
cluded that since both the Greens and their employees
could be protected, an exemption was appropriate.
The same is true for a long list of other individuals who
have brought traditional religious liberty claims. People
like Native American feather dancers who want access to
eagle feathers, Amish people who want to homeschool
their children, Muslims who want access to halal food in
prison, and Sikhs who want to wear turbans in the mili-
tary are not trying to impose their faith on anyone. All of
them merely are trying to observe their religions in peace.
This brings us back to abortion. Too many Jewish pro-
choicers have, on the other hand, demanded a blanket
constitutional right to abortion in virtually all circum-
stances. They insist upon such a permissive abortion
regime because, in some circumstances, Jewish law
may permit or require a mother to procure an abortion.
But they are not arguing that they would need specific

have embraced breast cancer patients with pink
ribbons, annual walks, and a month of pink end-
zones in the NFL. So too do we have to come out
about mental illness and embrace those who are
stricken. Drawing near to those with health chal-
lenges and making Google spreadsheets for meals
and carpools are no less important for the person
suffering from depression as it is for the person
receiving chemo. Sicknesses might present differ-
ently, but being ill takes all of us off our game. We
all can benefit from help. That comes from being
able to say in a full-throated way that we are sick,
battling a mental illness, and need help, or that we
are helping someone with a mental illness.
• Mental illness needs a ribbon too. I am not sure
what colors are available. Orange is for gun con-
trol, purple is sexual abuse awareness, and yellow
is for our soldiers and those who are MIA. Perhaps
gray, but the color really does not matter as much
as being able to wear our awareness on our pro-
verbial sleeve. Let’s talk about it more freely, and
create awareness and support.
• Mental illness is not contagious. We have to
stop treating it like the cooties. Do not be afraid to
help those in need, get close to them, and be the
support they desperately require and will benefit
from in this time of need. Equally important, do
not wait to be asked to help. Be proactive. Sheryl
Sandberg says that the best support she received
after her husband’s sudden death was someone
asking her, “what do you NOT want on your
religious liberty-based exemptions from an
abortion ban. Nor are they arguing that a state
may achieve its goal of protecting the life of the
unborn, so long as it does not unnecessarily
infringe on their religious beliefs. Quite the con-
trary. They are arguing that the Supreme Court
should maintain that all Americans have a right
to abortion to prevent the remote possibility
that laws prohibiting abortion might, occasion-
ally, interfere with their religious beliefs.
This maximalist argument is a distorted fun-
house mirror version of that made by traditional
religious liberty proponents. Whereas the tra-
ditionalists ask for an exception and peaceful
coexistence, some otherwise liberal Americans
demand that the entire country be governed
by their religious dictates, with no exceptions
allowed. This despite the United States being an
outlier in allowing for abortions in virtually all
cases, including, for instance, those involving
horrific pain to unborn babies.
Ironically, the very same Jewish organiza-
tions demanding that the law follow their reli-
gious views on abortion have accused tradi-
tional proponents of religious liberty of wanting
to impose their religious views on the nation.
Sadly, groups like the American Jewish Commit-
tee and the Anti-Defamation League side with
those whose policies would rob Jews of the abil-
ity to practice their faith freely should it fall out
of favor with the mainstream.
It is these opponents of religious liberty who
have tried to impose their views on America.
They have tried to coerce: Catholic nuns and
evangelical pharmacists into providing abor-
tion-inducing drugs; religiously affiliated crisis
hamburger?” Being present will not cure mental
illness any more than carpools cure cancer. But
your presence and support matter.
• Know the numbers. We are not miracle work-
ers or magicians. We cannot make the disease
go away, but we can help. Sometimes, the illness
needs more resources then a Google spreadsheet
can offer. Know the numbers of suicide preven-
tion hotlines. Keep the numbers of accredited
psychiatrists close, to be able to offer the support
that is beyond our grade of expertise. Do not try
to wear a cape or offer simple solutions and solve
the problem.
I would do almost anything for another day with
my brother. I cannot bring him back. I can do my
part, however, to ensure that others do not have
to suffer the pain I live with daily. This starts with
recognizing the affliction and being supportive any
way we can.
Try these small steps. Make your life and our
world a place where all can feel it is worth living
in. Together, we can support those with a men-
tal health affliction and bring more awareness to
those in need.
Let us act before it is too late.
David-Seth Kirshner is senior rabbi of Temple
Emanu-El of Closter, immediate past president
of the New York Board of Rabbis, and the
president of the North Jersey Board of Rabbis.
pregnancy centers into advertising for state-sub-
sidized abortions; and a cake artist into custom-
izing a celebratory wedding cake for a same-sex
wedding despite his conscientious objections.
These religious individuals were not discrimi-
nating against anyone nor interfering with any-
one’s ability to procure goods or services, which
were readily available from other sources. But
this was not good enough. Supposedly tolerant
organizations insisted that these conscientious
objectors participate in a secular agenda or be
crushed by the law.
As we debate the next Supreme Court nomi-
nee and consider how American law ought to
protect religious liberty, we ought to pursue two
broad and interrelated goals. First, when pos-
sible, American law should accommodate those
who wish to practice their religion. Second,
we should attempt to build a society in which
Americans of all types can live in harmony.
This includes promoting a healthy democ-
racy by allowing perfectly reasonable debates
about changes to our abortion laws that would,
if anything, bring them more in line with those
in other Western nations.
Rabbi Mitchell Rocklin is a resident research
fellow at the Tikvah Fund. He is also a chaplain
with the rank of captain in the New Jersey Army
National Guard and a doctoral candidate in U.S.
history at the City University of New York. He
lives in Teaneck with his wife and two daughters.
Howard Slugh is the general counsel of the Jewish
Coalition for Religious Liberty, as well as an
attorney practicing law in Washington, DC.
A boy from Honduras is shown being taken into custody by U.S.
Border Patrol agents near the U.S.-Mexico border near Mission,
Texas, on June 12, 2018. 
A history of
our border crisis
T
he separation of chil-
dren from their parents
at our border has a long
and nebulous history.
What makes the situation so con-
fusing is that it doesn’t involve any
single law so much
as a series of inter-
related laws, judicial
decisions, and policy
changes over 20 years
or so concerning the
admission and deten-
tion of asylum seekers
at the U.S. border.
The story begins
in 1996 with the pas- Michael
sage of the last major Wildes
immigration law, the
Illegal Immigration
Reform and Immigrant Respon-
sibility Act (IIRIRA, pronounced
“Ira-Ira”), which created two sets
of rules concerning the detention
of those seeking asylum. The first
set of rules governs the detention
of so-called arriving aliens, non-
citizens who present themselves at
a U.S. port of entry. If they pass a
credible fear test — that is, a series
of questions testing whether they
meet the basic eligibility require-
ments for asylum, such as a fear
of returning — then arriving aliens
are provided a hearing before an
immigration judge. Importantly,
they are not eligible for release on
bond, however, even by an immi-
gration judge.
Different rules apply to aliens
apprehended farther than 100
miles from the border or within the
interior of the country. Like arriv-
ing aliens, these people also are
provided a hearing before a judge,
but unlike them, they can request
Jewish Standard JULY 6, 2018 23
Opinion
John Moore/Getty Images
bond to secure their release.
Around the same time, the Clin-
ton administration reached the
now-famous Flores agreement in
a lawsuit with plaintiffs who chal-
lenged the legacy-INS’s child deten-
tion policies. The
terms of the Flores
agreement became
nationwide policy. It
mandated the trans-
fer of unaccompa-
nied minors from
Customs and Border
Protection to Health
and Human Services
J. within 72 hours and it
set limits on how long
such children may
remain in jail — usu-
ally 20 days.
Despite the humane treatment
the Flores agreement afforded to
minors, the overwhelming majority
of immigrants at the time could not
avail themselves of its terms. Most
border-crossers in the 1990s were
adult males seeking U.S. employ-
ment so they could send money
back to their families. Compared
to today, very few people brought
their children. That was due in part
to the dangerous conditions at the
U.S.-Mexico border.
Most of these policies remained
relatively static during President
Bush’s administration, save for
the 2008 reauthorization of the
Trafficking Victims Protection Act
(TVPA). One of its key provisions
included streamlining the rules for
obtaining permanent residency
for children whom a family court
judge has deemed abandoned,
the so-called “Special Immigrant
See Border page 32

I’VE BEEN THINKING

Ani ledodi v’dodi li

S
ince my retirement (It’s not an ugly up somewhat on uncompleted New York
word, Ernest, despite your letter of Times crossword puzzles; and starting to go
1/5/18), the two most frequent ques- to morning minyan twice a week in addition
tions I’ve been asked are (a) are you to Shabbat and yom tov (I know, I know, it’s
enjoying it and (b) what are you doing with no big deal but it’s better than my previous
yourself? no times a week).
While the answer to the first is short and And, oh yes, actively participating in the
sweet (absolutely!!), the answer to the sec- preparation for my daughter Gabrielle’s wed-
ond is a bit lengthier. ding to Allen Glenn, which took place two
What I’ve done so far during this suppos- Joseph C. weeks ago.
edly initial decompression period includes Kaplan I always thought I had participated actively
(and this is only a partial list): joining a gym in the preparation for my daughter Raquel’s
with my wife (and actually using it), trying wedding almost 14 years ago. I now realize,
hard to do my daily 10,000 steps (record to date is 18,988 however, that as a busy practicing lawyer I didn’t really
— if I’d known I was so close I would have made sure to understand what was encompassed by preparation. Now
do 12 more), and participating in the men’s weekly physi- — after attending every (yes, every!) meeting or visit with
cal fitness class at Teaneck’s Rodda Senior Center; taking every potential (and then actual) caterer, wedding venue,
online courses at the Tikvah Fund with Meir Soloveitchik florist, and printer; after driving to Brooklyn more times
(“Jewish Ideas and the American Founders” — quite good in the past six months than in the past 16 years; after being
though I had expected even better) and at the Harvard the designated driver for many mother-of-the-bride gown
Extension School (“World War II and Society in the 20th shopping trips and all bridal gown and mother-of-the-
Century”), attending a number of excellent daytime pre- bride gown fittings in Manhattan and Brooklyn (some-
sentations at Lamdeinu (and I plan to continue to fre- body had to sit waiting in the car since legal spots are so
quent this worthwhile Teaneck program), and continuing hard to find and parking garages are prohibitively expen-
to look for a daytime shiur/class that meets my interests sive in New York City); after visiting more gemachs than
(unfortunately, I didn’t meet certain basic requirements I knew existed, covering everything anyone might need
to join Rabbi Adler’s Women’s Humash class); listening to for a wedding from blusher veils (yeah, I never heard of
numerous audiobooks (usually while walking or exercis- them either) to hair combs to wedding shtick for danc-
ing and thus getting double my money’s worth, or, if you ing to Sheva Brachot flowers; after reviewing, and often Joseph Kaplan and his daughter Gabrielle dance to
consider I listen at double speed, quadruple); catching See Ani ledodi page 36 what the family calls the Rainbow Song.

Letters
Don’t compare immigrant
separations to the Holocaust
I am writing in response to recent comparisons made in
many media outlets between the immigration crisis and
the Holocaust. I sympathize with the separation of the
children from their mothers and agree that measures
should be taken by both parties to ensure a resolution as
quickly as possible.
However what these media outlets are doing is ethically
and morally wrong. They are comparing the current immi-
gration crisis to the Holocaust . As the daughter and grand-
daughter of Holocaust victims and survivors from Buchen-
wald and Auschwitz I am outraged. The illegal immigrants
and their families were not forcibly thrown out of their
homes by the United States, placed in cramped cattle cars
without food and water, and sent to fake showers, real gas
chambers, and ovens to be cremated. Many during the
Holocaust were separated from their parents to be exter-
minated. While the conditions in the detention centers are
not idea , I am sure they are far better than those offered
to the children in the concentration camps in Europe dur-
ing WWII, when six million Jews were murdered, extermi-
nated for no reason other than being Jewish.
The Jews did not voluntarily run to these concentra-
tion camps. There were no classes, movies, or doctors,
not enough food or water for those who were kept alive
in the camps. What about all the photos the liberat-
ing armies took of the survivors and how they looked
in the concentration camps? What about the piles of
corpses stacked on top of each other? How could anyone
compare the atrocities committed to the Jews then with
the current events?
By doing so not only are these media outlets minimiz-
ing and belittling Nazi atrocities, they are sending a mes-
sage to the world that our country is guilty of annihilating
innocent men, women, and children for no reason, as the
Nazis did. If only the men, women, and children of the
Holocaust would have received the same treatment as cur-
rent illegal immigrants and children.
My parents are alive and fully aware of the immigration
issues . My father just turned 90 and my mother is 84.
Both are very independent and active members in their
community in Queens. They are also outraged. They have
to live with the horrible memories of the atrocities from
1939 through 1945, when they were liberated. Their par-
ents were murdered in front of their eyes. Their brothers,
sisters, cousins were sent to gas chambers. The majority
of our family in Poland was wiped off the face of the earth
by the Nazi atrocities. They were not buried. They were
cremated. How do you think they feel?
The journalists and those guilty of making these com-
parisons owe an apology to every Holocaust survivor as
well as to every mother, father, and child brutally mur-
dered by the Nazis. Shame on them for comparing the
atrocities committed by the Nazis with the current politi-
cal situation of the illegal immigrants and children.
If you don’t agree with the policies find some other way
to protest and stop making this irrational analogy.
Dr. Renee Reifer Fishweicher
Fair Lawn
Prouser’s right about Sessions
Rabbi Joseph Prouser, a serious student of American his-
tory, has hit one out of the park in his piece about Attor-
ney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions (“Biblical ref-
erence by Sessions is malign in every respect,” June 29).
Rabbi Prouser points out the basis of our Founding
Fathers’ view of the Bible — one that is counter to Ses-
sions’ interpretation. America, at its beginning, was right
in sync with the distrust of absolute monarchy reflected
in the Israelite experience. From Samuel on down, the
king was always to be regarded with suspicion.
Selective citing of biblical references is nothing new.
In fact, it is endemic not only in America, but also
among Islamic jihadists who cite sections of the Koran
to justify their violence and terrorism. So AG Sessions
finds himself in some odd company.
I too wish to contribute a biblical citation. In last
week’s Haftarah portion, the words of Micah were read.
He was one of the 12 minor prophets. The reading con-
cludes with a famous statement on morality and God
(Micah 6:8): “It has been told you, O man, what is good,
and what the Lord requires of you/Only to do justice,
And to love goodness, And to walk humbly with your
God.”
If Jeff Sessions and his boss would like some different
bedtime reading, I suggest that the Prophet Micah would
be a good place to start.
Eric Weis
Wayne
See Letters page 36

24 Jewish Standard JULY 6, 2018

 Keeping Kosher

Englewood ShopRite remodels

ShopRite of Englewood has unveiled its renovated
modernized store, featuring a new full-service kosher
marketplace. Visitors to the store, at 40 Nathaniel Place
— Palisades Court will find a brand new expanded
store, offering a large selection of organic, local, and
gluten-free foods and products that reflect a variety of
cultures. Stop by the store to meet Craig Solomon, the
chef at ShopRite’s Kosher Marketplace.
Featured are OU supervised kosher seafood, deli, hot
and cold prepared foods, and meat department. There
is also kosher cut fruit, vegetables, dried fruit, and nuts
and more kosher bakery items. New kosher grocery
items were added to aisle 10, and in the kosher frozen
doors in aisle 16, and kosher dairy doors in aisle 17.
There is a newly paved and expanded parking lot
and larger, customer friendly checkout area. Shop-
Rite customers will also find a variety of new beer,
wine, and liquor at the ShopRite of Englewood’s
Wine & Spirits Store.
“We are really excited to introduce our remodeled
store — equipped with great new hot and cold food
options including kosher, as well as an all new modern
look — to our loyal associates and customers,” said
Terry Glass, co-CEO of Glass Gardens, Inc., a family
owned business that operates 11 ShopRite stores in New
Jersey and New York. “We thank our shoppers for their
patience during this major renovation, which added
more than 20,000 square feet and really enhances
the shopping experience and value equation at the
ShopRite of Englewood.” The new kosher market place at the Englewood ShopRite

Cedar Market is your summer shopping destination

Think of Cedar Market in Teaneck as your barbecue and
celebration go-to store. Add some flavor to summer barbe-
cues with Cedar Market’s variety of smoking chips; flavors
include maple, mesquite, hickory, and wild cherry smok-
ing chips. Wood grilling planks come in cherry, alder, and
cedar flavors. Check aisle 3 for a new line of Cedar Market
spices, along with Budweiser Sweet & Smoky BBQ sauce
and Primal Kitchen Mayo in avocado oil and chipotle lime
avocado oil flavors. No barbecue is complete without Yoni
brand hot dog and burger buns in aisle 5. Another great
seasoned veggies and kabobs. Add a custom cake; the
bakery can make just about any cake you can imagine.
Cedar Market, with more than 5,000 Facebook likes, is
Kosher Market
giving away a $100 gift card to one of its first 1,500 Insta-
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Cedar Market delivers your orders. Let its friendly staff
shop for it and deliver it to you. For information, email
orders@thecedarmarket.com. Serving The Kosher Way Since 1976
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DELI • RESTAURANT • CATERING

July is national grilling month
Kosher.com, the premier online com-
munity for kosher cooking and living,
offers many backyard barbecue tips
and recipes to keep it simple and deli-
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enjoying the sunset from your deck
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“We love the relaxed vibe of sum-
mer that just makes everything seem
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Nayman, editor in chief of Kosher.
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level of culinary expertise may be.”
It’s all about the burger. Case in
point: in “Six 3-Ingredient Burger
Recipes,” Nayman shows how easy it
is to transform plain ground beef into
something special with the addition
of basic items you probably already
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Six 3-ingredient burgers
Courtesy of Chanie Nayman
Enhance ground beef with these
flavorsome trios:
1. Splash of soy sauce + sprinkle of
fresh or dried basil
+ crushed garlic clove
2. Squeeze of ketchup + hefty
sprinkle of seasoned salt
+ splash of soy sauce
3. Loads of sautéed onions + fresh
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4. Diced raw onion + teriyaki sauce
+ dried mushroom powder (or if
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hefty pinch of Trader Joe’s coffee
rub
6. Generous squeeze of sriracha +
sprinkle of dried ginger + dollop
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•
Grilled salad? Why not? Many veg-
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JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018 25
Dear Rabbi Zahavy
Your talmudic advice column
Dear Rabbi Zahavy,
Our U.S. government recognized Jerusa-
lem as capital of Israel on May 14, 2018,
and dedicated its embassy there, moving
it from Tel Aviv. I don’t understand how
we can continue to commemorate the 9th
day of Av as a sad fast day that memorial-
izes Jerusalem as a destroyed desolate city,
when the facts of today totally contradict
that. Doesn’t the reality of today’s circum-
stances make it time to abolish the fasting
and mourning of that day?
Puzzled in Paramus
Dear Puzzled,
We need to ask in general — why should
we cede to religion the ability to legislate
our emotions? What is the benefit of mak-
ing people sad and mournful through ritu-
als? Religion can do this, to a degree. By
requiring fasting, by forbidding weddings
from taking place, banning music for three
weeks, by prohibiting haircuts and shav-
ing, religion can try to manipulate moods
and motivations. But why?
For many Jews who choose to become
less observant, Tisha B’Av fasting and
lamenting are among the first religious
practices that they will abandon when
leaving rigorous practices behind. After
all, they may rationalize that it is a rabbinic
rather than a scriptural practice. And it’s
not relevant anymore, now that Israel has
been rebuilt.
And yet, in spite of such arguments and
developments, intelligent, learned Ortho-
dox clergy stand steadfastly behind the
commemorations and the rituals associ-
ated with them. What do they see that you
don’t see — and that I at times have not
seen or agreed with? Is there some pro-
found wisdom in making laws for fasting
and mourning and recalling destructions?
Rigorous practitioners will say yes, there
is, because the sacred locus of Judaism was
taken from us by force and violence.
We lost our holy place — the Temple —
the address where God dwelled.
But you might argue, should we not get
over that? Should the sages not recognize
that they themselves created vibrant alter-
natives to fill the sacred void? Look at all
our synagogues, temples, and yeshivas.
Perhaps then there is another more
powerful message and purpose for Jews
embedded in the collection of mourning,
fasting and lamenting actions for Tisha
B’Av.
The stark fact we learn from the past
is that evil exists — that eventually our
Tzvee Zahavy has been a professor of advanced Talmud, halachah and Jewish law codes,
Jewish liturgy, Jewish history, Near Eastern and Jewish studies, and religious studies at
major U.S. research universities and seminaries. He is a prolific author who has published
numerous articles and books about Judaism and Jewish texts. He received his Ph.D. from
Brown University and his rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University. Go to www.tzvee.
com for details.
26 JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018
enemies will practice evil to
attack the core of our spirit and
to try to destroy it, and us along
with it. We have seen it in ter-
rifying instances of our history.
We should not forget. We must
not forget. Because evil can and
will happen again.
We keep on seeing it in the
annals of our people. For us Rabbi Tzvee
as Jews: Pogroms. Persecu- Zahavy
tions. The Holocaust. For us as
Americans: Pearl Harbor. 9/11.
And more.
Our enemies will target our sacred
places, where they target us as Jews.
Where they attack us in our secular Amer-
ica, they will go after our core institutions
of commerce, military might, and sym-
bolic political meaning,
So yes, we need to memorialize our
memories of evil and suffering in our
sacred tribal rituals. It is a matter of essen- not true anymore.
tial self-preservation. The ways we do that
— trying to manipulate emotions — may
seem crude and superficial — but that is
what we have.
You may argue that through education
and monuments and cultural events we
can reach the same end. We don’t have to
fast and ban haircuts. Perhaps that is true.
But this is what we have, and perhaps we
ought not abandon the practices and les-
sons inherent in them.
I am sure that if we turn our backs for
one hour, our enemies will not just harm
us. They will assail the core of our inspi-
ration. They again will burn our temple,
plow over our sacred city to teach us that
they have defeated us, to demoralize us to
our essences.
They will fly into our tallest buildings,
blow up our planes, terrorize our cities, to
undermine the security of our lives.
That is how evil thinks. We have seen it.
We memorialize it in ritual practice. We
teach it. We must do that to preserve our-
selves as a people, as Jews. We must do that
to preserve ourselves as free Americans.
Fasting and mourning are some of the
means we have to keep the sad gruesome
realities of the world in front of us so that
we may avert the next potential effort by
the forces of evil to cruelly assault us for
being who we are. It will happen again. We
need to remember that and be ready.
But at the same time we must be truthful
in what we say in our liturgies and rituals.
Thirty-two years ago, on August 13,
1986, I wrote an op-ed that
was published in the Jeru-
salem Post saying that Jeru-
salem is not desolate. My
underlying point was that
when we pray, it’s false to
say that Jerusalem today is
in ruins.
The title that the editors
assigned to the op ed was,
“Some prefer to give it a
new meaning,” although
that’s not exactly what I
said. Here is the editorial:
“I shall be fasting this week [for Tisha
B’Av]. But this year, more than ever before,
I feel silly mourning over the destruction
of Jerusalem. I really do not know what
to do when it comes time to listen to and
recite for myself the classical laments for
the fast of Tisha B’Av. Much of what we say
about Jerusalem in the synagogue is just
“It is obvious to anyone and everyone
that Jerusalem does not lie in ruins. On the
contrary, this is my fourth extended visit to
Jerusalem in the last seven years. Over the
last seven years I have watched as build-
ings spread out from the center of town to
the new neighborhoods. Now Jerusalem
sprawls across the hills of Judea, south and
north from Gilo to Ramot and beyond.
“On the ninth day of Av this year the
observant Jews of Jerusalem will congre-
gate in synagogues throughout the city to
mourn and lament. What they say inside
these halls will not reflect the reality
immediately outside them.
“And so this year I have resolved to add
a few silent paragraphs to my prayers.
Then when I leave the synagogue and step
out into the rebuilt city of our people, I will
feel that I have been candid in my medita-
tions and forthright in my worship. I shall
say something like this:
“‘Jerusalem is not desolate. It stands glo-
rious above our Land. Our capital looks
down on the miracle of the modern state
of our people, rebuilt by the sweat and
labor of our brethren and sisters. A thou-
sand settlements testify to our return and
we are homeless no more.’
“‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are not
homeless. Beautiful buildings abound,
apartments, condominiums, villas, large
and small. Hotels and hostels, old and
new. Whosoever wishes may come and
live here. Whosoever is hungry shall find
sustenance here.’
The Dear Rabbi column offers timely advice based on timeless Talmudic
wisdom. It aspires to be equally respectful and meaningful to all varieties
and denominations of Judaism. You can find it here on the first Friday of the
month. Send your questions to DearRabbi@jewishmediagroup.com.
“‘Enemies do not govern our land. The
Knesset, the site of our self-government,
stands at the center of our new metropo-
lis, a vibrant testimony to our freedom.
Independent and sovereign, we struggle
with each other and with the states of
the world, and somehow, we manage to
live in harmony among ourselves, and
to survive in the swirling community
of nations.’
“‘Yes, the Temple was destroyed. Buy
we have built other edifices in its stead.
Long ago, in another age, our national
center was taken from us by forces we
could not resist. But now we have built
new structures where we symbolize
and express our spirit, our minds and
our creative energies, and most of all,
our freedom.’
“‘A great synagogue and many more
stand in our capital. They serve as the
many beating hearts of our spiritual
organs. In dozens of yeshivot, teachers
build the religious minds of our youth.
Schools abound. When school is in ses-
sion, wherever you turn there are chil-
dren on their way to classes from kinder-
gartens to high schools, soaking up the
knowledge of our world.’
“‘A great Hebrew University answers
to the essence of our wider educational
appetites, in the capital of our nation. In
its laboratories, classrooms and libraries,
students try to unravel the mysteries of
nature and society and strive to construct
a new and better order.’
“‘The Israel Museum, the Bezalel
School, the Jerusalem Theatre and other
institutions small and large. cater to our
cultural needs. In Jerusalem we display
our past and our present. We sing and
dance and we mourn no more. We paint
and draw and sculpt and adorn the urban
hub of our people, the crown of our land.’
“‘As we watch, day-by-day, luxury
hotels go up and up. Lush green gardens
bloom before us. We repose in parks and
swimming pools. We find our needs in
supermarkets, bakeries and department
stores. And we indulge our extravagances
in shops and markets, elegant restaurants
and offbeat cafes.’
“‘The city of Jerusalem has been
rebuilt. Still, the work is never done. And
the struggle will not end. But: our city
is not desolate. How can we mourn? We
must, yes, we are obliged, indeed, it is
the highest duty, for us to celebrate. For
SEE DEAR RABBI PAGE 27
 D’var Torah
Parshat Pinchas
Moses and Pinchas: Contrasting models for modern political leadership

P
arshat Pinchas is a very problem-
atic section of Torah for me. It is
the climax of not only the Book
of Numbers but of the entire wil-
derness epic of Israel. Before the text goes
into the festival calendar of sacrifices we
find a narrative that seems to note the con-
clusion of the Israelites wilderness epic.
In Numbers 27:12 we read: “Adonai said
to Moses ‘ascend these heights of Abarim
and view the land that I have given to the
Israelite people. When you have seen it, you
too shall be gathered to your kin as was your
brother Aaron. ….”
Moses’ response here, in verses 27:15-19,
is very different from the one we will hear
two months from now, when we read the
end of Deuteronomy. Rather than plead-
ing for his life, as he does in Deuteronomy,
Moses acquiesces to the news that he too
will die in the wilderness, asking God only
to insure communal continuity. “Adonai
Source of the breath of all flesh appoint
someone over the community who shall go
out before them and come in before them
and who shall take them out and bring them
in so that Adonai’s community may not be
sheep that have no shepherd,” he pleads.
Adonai answered Moses: “Single out
Joshua ben Nun, an inspired man, and lay
your hand upon him. Have him stand before
Eleazar the priest and before the whole house
of Israel and commission him in their sight.”
Finally, in verse 27:22 we are told, “Moses
did just as God had commanded.” This bib-
lical phrase, acknowledging obedience to
God’s command is found first in Genesis,
referring to Noah building the ark. Its repeti-
tion throughout the Torah is a way that the
Torah expresses man’s obedient acceptance
of God’s ultimate authority.
Juxtaposed with this narrative is the
story of Pinchas, the son of Eleazar and the
grandson of Aaron. Pinchas is praised for
zealously executing Zimri, an Israelite, and
Cozbi, a Midianite woman with whom Zimri
apparently was going to have intercourse at
the Tent of Meeting.
The text in Numbers 25:10-13 reads: “Ado-
nai spoke to Moses saying: Pinchas ben Elea-
zar, ben Aaron, the priest, has turned back
my wrath from the Israelites by displaying
among them his passion for me, so that I did
not wipe out the Israelite peo- father’s condemnation of it.
ple in my passion. Say there- In noting that the Torah text
fore, I grant him my ‘briti sha- defends Pinchas’ action, my
lom,’” which JPS translates as brother asks, How often do
my pact of friendship, rather any of us justify our words
than its literal meaning, peace. and deeds by saying that we
The text continues: “It shall are doing the only thing pos-
be for him, Pinchas, and his sible to save our community,
descendants after him, a pact of our family, or our country?
priesthood for all time, because Rabbi Neal I. How often do we use some
he took impassioned action for Borovitz good reason to cloak our own
his God, thus making expiation Rabbi Emeritus ambition, our own self-will,
Temple Avodat
for the Israelites.” Shalom River Edge etc., to justify taking drastic
I find these verses very Reform action? How often do we pub-
problematic for a 21st-century licize and magnify one bad
Jew. Numbers 25:10-13 can and thing that someone has done,
has been interpreted by some as God’s com- and forget all the good that they do? How
mending Pinchas for his act of vengeance. often do we get even with another person,
In the three previous verses of Torah that while proclaiming that we are doing these
formed the maftir for last week’s Torah things in the name of God?
reading, Pinchas, we are told, rose up from Truth be told, Pinchas can be a model for
among the community and murdered an either or both, either a superhero who fights
Israelite man. We learn this week the man for truth, justice, and the American way of
was Zimri, who died with his Midianite con- life — or a terrorist. There have been years
cubine, Cozbi. Moreover, for contemporary when I have read the story of Pinchas and
Jews, our question is: What distinguishes condemned him. Yet there have been other
the Pinchas of this week’s Torah read- times when I have read this same story and
ing from ISIS or Hamas terrorists or Yigal praised him. This year I find myself both
Amir? Amir is the Israeli Jew who murdered embracing and wrestling with the Pinchas
Prime Minister Rabin, justifying his action who is within me and the Pinchas-like fig-
by comparing himself to Pinchas and Rabin ures who are all around me.
to Zimri. In the contemporary world there When I listen to the zeal for vengeance on
are far too many who, in the name of their our news channels, the hatred based on fear
god, violate the fundamental precept You of the other that so many of our societal lead-
shall not murder that is at the foundation of ers use as a tool to retain power, I must say to
Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. the Pinchas of our parasha: No! No, I cannot
Every year when I read this parasha I justify or even condone your actions. Enough
ask myself: Where is the line between zeal with fear based violence! Every hateful action
and zealotry? Is the cliché “might makes does not justify an equal opposing reaction.
right” in fact an existential truth? Is Pinchas Is it not Pinchas-like zeal and self-righ-
praised here only because he is the high teousness on both sides of our political
priest? Or are he and his descendants given divide here in America in 2018 that has led
the priesthood, as the Torah says, because us to the crisis on the U.S.-Mexican border
of his zeal for God? in the name of We the People of the United
Pinchas is what my brother Rabbi Mark States? Where is the Aaron, whom our rab-
Borovitz likes to call a truly “both/and” bis have characterized as the quintessen-
character. tial peacemaker? Where is the Joshua who
In his book “Finding Recovery and Your- can lead us in a battle for security while
self in Torah,” Mark writes of this Pinchas- simultaneously teaching us to live in peace
Zimri confrontation by noting that Zimri is a with people with whom we differ politi-
descendant of Shimon and Pinchas of Levi. cally and ethnically?
He recalls the story of their conspiratorial In his new book, “The Soul of America,”
act of vengeance against Shchem and their Jon Meacham points out that America has
lived through a number of other periods of
darkness, when political leaders and large
numbers of the electorate have been con-
sumed by fear, greed, and ignorance and
turned away from the ideals of our nation.
And then we have seen a correction that
has put our nation back on track toward the
ongoing creation of a society based upon
the ideals of our founding documents.
As American Jews we know this the-
sis to be true. In 1787, with the adoption
of the Bill of Rights, the United States of
America became the first nation on earth
to extend citizenship to Jews and guaran-
tee freedom of religion for all. Conversely,
we have a right to remind and remember
that the very same fears of immigrants
overrunning America today — that they’d
take jobs away from native Americans and
change American culture — were heard
a century ago. The results of those fears
were the immigration laws of 1921 and
1924, limiting immigration from eastern
and southern Europe. Those barriers led
to “no room at the inn” signs for millions
of European Jews in the 1930s and 40s. We
in northern New Jersey can remember that
these immigration quotas were ignored
and refugee status was extended to more
than 500,000 Jews from the former Soviet
Union in the period from 1980 to 2000.
That granting of asylum was welcomed by
our community, and together with govern-
ment support, and the funds raised by our
UJA-Federation, thousands of those asy-
lum seekers were absorbed and integrated
into our northern New Jersey community.
Moses is described for us throughout the
book of Numbers as a humble yet asser-
tive human leader. He gets angry and frus-
trated, but at the end of each conflict he
chooses the best possible direction to lead
his people. His leadership style is to be a
teacher who recognizes the human fears
and failures of the people and seeks ways to
overcome them. When he left Egypt there
was an erev rav — a mixed multitude — who
joined in the Exodus. Moses didn’t ask any-
one of them for birth certificates. He asked
them only to pledge their allegiance to God.
Are there not some salient messages in
this narrative from Numbers for 21st century
America and for Israel as well?

Dear Rabbi
FROM PAGE 26
with God’s help, but in accordance with
our own will and with our own hands, we
have raised Jerusalem beyond its highest
heights. Never before in all of our history
has this city attained such glory.’
“‘And so that is what I shall add as I
conclude my lamentations on Tisha B’Av
this year. I shall be cheerful this year, and
I will not mourn. But I shall do so silently,
because this is my own private devotion.
Will others join me?’”
That was my message three decades
ago. Today, we witness the embassy move
and the amazing infrastructure changes,
including a modern light rail, and new
buildings and businesses and population
growth and so much more in Jerusalem.
We must not ignore the past and we
cannot predict the future. But we should
not ignore the present.
So I’m not quite ready to abolish Tisha
B’Av, but surely I would recommend
that we modify the liturgy we recite so
that it describes present day Jerusalem
more accurately.

JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018 27

Kosher Crossword
“SEEING STARS” BY YONI GLATT
KOSHERCROSSWORDS@GMAIL.COM
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: EASY
Across
1. Forehead covering
6. New School or Juilliard deg.
9. “Anything ___?”
13. Sharon, of Israel
14. Methuselah, for sure
15. Some take them on on Shabbat
16. Madison Square Garden record holder
18. “True ___” (2010 remake)
19. On the Caribbean, e.g.
20. Echad, at the Louvre
21. “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” author
Eric
22. Cheap(er) B’way buy
24. Busy fabric pattern
25. Awe
28. Used Elmer’s
29. NYC neighborhood of Cong. Kehilat
Jeshurun
30. “It’s been ___ pleasure”
33. Brides’ escorts
36. The Kings, on scoreboards
37. Flying Avenger...or experience in
the Bible given to the ends of 16 &
59-Across and 10 & 27-Down
39. Go toe-to-toe
40. Some Dead Sea locales
42. Washington, e.g.
43. One ___ million
44. Uses a star scale
46. A bird that walks in water
48. Dieter’s cut of pie
50. Tolkien title letters
52. Mexican shekels
53. War stat.
54. Blanchett of “Blue Jasmine”
58. Where to sing “Aloha Oe”
59. Baseball’s homerun king, to purists
61. Said in Hebrew?
62. Noshed
63. Imbecile
64. Behavioral quirks
65. 1980s video game console, for short
66. Academic heads
28 JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018
Down
1. “___ O’Riley” (song by The Who)
2. Ben Canaan and Gold
3. It was turned to blood
4. Ice cream, in Pisa
5. Shrewd
6. Jupiter has many
7. Escape (from)
8. Bigotry-fighting org.
9. Planning to marry
10. Comic behind the fictional musical
“Fatwa!”
11. Exxon Valdez mishap
12. Lauder of lipstick
17. Extend beyond (with “out”)
21. ___ella De Vil
23. ___ Maga
24. Assign, as a portion
25. Big commotion
26. You might take one on faith
27. He played Apocalypse in “X-Men:
Apocalypse”
28. Greek Earth goddess: Var.
31. Early or late follower
32. Guessed amts.
34. What Jews do after blessings on wine
and challah
35. Burn
38. Gingrich of Georgia
41. Slowly enjoys food, to a Brit
45. They may block or catch TDs
47. Where Asteroids might be found
48. Bug-hits-windshield sound
49. Israeli bank
50. Actor’s homework
51. Desk material, perhaps
53. Pal, in Adelaide
55. Met solo
56. Bugs or Mickey
57. Creatures in 50-Across
59. Dad of Kylo
60. “First” or “Kool” ending
The solution to last week’s puzzle is
on page 35.
The Frazzled Housewife
Freaky Friday —
camp version
T
he movie Freaky Friday was Which can border on creepy, but you
quite clever. are getting your money’s worth, no mat-
For those of you who never ter what you need to do!
saw the original 1970s ver- Back to son #1’s first summer in sleep
sion — Jodie Foster plays the daughter. away camp…we got to the bus and
In the remake, which came out in 2003, learned that his counselor was also the
Lindsay Lohan plays the daughter. The bus counselor. So, what is a crazy par-
mother and daughter magically switch ent to do? Well, you start talking to the
places, so the daughter takes counselor. Telling him
on the mother’s persona how special your kid is.
and the mother takes on the How it is his first summer
daughter’s persona, thereby away from home and that
learning what it feels like he should be sensitive to
actually to be in the other that. How he is a picky
person’s shoes. eater, so please make sure
It was very entertaining, they find something for
heartwarming, blah blah him to eat. How it is hot
blah. Wouldn’t it be nice if out, so please make sure
that happened in real life? Banji he drinks. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Well, to an extent it does. Ganchrow Keep in mind this coun-
For those of you with selor is all of 17 years old.
children and for those of Keep in mind that the
you who have been fortunate enough counselor is looking at you like you are
to send your children to camp — more nuts. Keep in mind that this counselor is
specifically sleep-away camp — Freaky hoping that if he keeps nodding, you will
Friday happens when your adorable think he is really listening to you and you
child, who once was a helpless camper, will tip him accordingly.
becomes the person in charge. The all- And then your kid becomes that coun-
knowing, all-responsible counselor. selor. And you wonder when that hap-
I was thinking back to the first time pened. And you wonder how you ever
son #1 went to camp. Husband #1 and thought that your kid’s counselor had
I brought him to the bus, all nervous as much power as you thought he did —
about sending our precious firstborn off and now parents are thinking that about
to a faraway land. A land where the only your kid. (Which, of course, he does,
form of communication was through because your kids are perfect.)
letters. Handwritten letters. Do you Yup, that is Freaky Friday — camp edi-
remember those? If you were a really tion. Or just plain freaky. When I took
diligent parent, you would mail some son #3 to the bus stop, where he was
letters before camp even started so there the bus counselor, he actually brought it
would be mail waiting for your child in up. How weird it is for him not being the
camp. Now that is a good parent! camper any more, being the counselor
Handwritten letters came before the instead. It also is pretty funny that his
invention of bunk notes. Bunk notes, for older brother, son #2, is his direct super-
those not familiar with them, are emails visor, since he is the division head. As
that you can send to your child and then the mom, I think it is just adorable that
those emails are printed out and deliv- one son is the other son’s boss.
ered to your child’s bunk. This was a But that is how life is. You go from
genius invention. A real money maker. being young to being old. You go from
And now the camps have their own ver- listening to those older and wiser to
sion of bunk notes. When you are a first- becoming the one who is older and
time bunk note user, you write to your wiser (in theory, not always in practice).
kid every night, trying to use every one And you hope that your kid’s counselor
of the characters allotted to you. As you knows what he is doing when your kid
get older and more tired, you fall asleep has absolutely no clue.
forgetting to write to your child, and as Don’t worry, if your kids are in my
a result, your poor kid ends up getting kids’ bunk, they are in good hands…
no emails for a week and then 14 emails
on the same day. Since you don’t want Banji Ganchrow is the mother of three
to waste the money you spent on these capable boys. In fact, she wishes they
bunk notes, you end up writing to your were as capable in private as they are in
kids’ friends who are in the same camp. public. But that is for another column.
And then your kid becomes
that counselor. And you
wonder when that happened.

‘Bad Jews’ author talks about Jews (and other things)
Josh Harmon’s newest effort, ‘Skintight,’ also looks at Jews
CURT SCHLEIER
T
here was a substantial (and as
might be predicted) negative
reaction to a recent New York
Times list of the 25 best plays
produced since 1993. No one was more
outraged than the reader who argued that
because not one Joshua Harmon play was
included, the list “can therefore [exple-
tive] right off.”
I’m on the phone with Harmon, 36, to
discuss his new play, “Skintight,” and I men-
tion this to him. “I did not see that,” he says,
adding, “but I assume it was my mother.”
It wasn’t mom, but rather a theatergoer
who recognized the seeds of greatness in
Harmon. In just four productions, Harmon
has established himself as the Great Jewish
American playwright of his generation, in
the tradition of Neil Simon, Wendy Was-
serstein, and Alfred Uhry. I mention this to
him, too, and he demurs. Sort of.
“It’s not something I aspire to,” he says.
“Not something I thought about a great
deal. I’m just trying to write plays I want to
see and those plays tend to include charac-
ters from my background. I can’t say that
[I’m the Great Playwright].
“But I’m very happy to have someone
else say that about me.”
So I will.
Harmon is known most
famously as the author of “Bad
Jews,” an exploration of Jewish
identity — more on that later.
“Skintight” asks the question,
What is love? A brilliant Idina
Menzel plays Jodi Isaac, a mid-
40s lawyer who flies to New
York from Los Angeles osten-
sibly to surprise her wealthy
father, Elliot ( Jack Wetherall),
on his 70th birthday.
But she’s really made the Joshua Harmon
trip in search of familial sol-
ace; her 50-year-old former husband has
thrown himself and his 24-year-old girl-
friend — Jodi had discovered them in her
bed — an engagement party attended by
all “my friends with my kids at my favorite
restaurant.”
But Elliot couldn’t care less about her or
his grandchildren. He’s more interested
in his 20-year-old boyfriend, with skin
so smooth “I’d like to sleep in a bed with
sheets made from” it.
For the record, just because the play
questions the meaning of love doesn’t
mean that its author understands it. “I
don’t know that I have a clear answer,” he
says. “That’s why I wrote the play.”
“Skintight” is very funny — at times
Arts & Culture
From left, Jack Wetherall, Idina Menzel, and Eli Gelb.  JOAN MARCUS
hilarious — but it’s also sad, make friends. I don’t think Willie Loman
and its major characters
are not very likable. Elliot
is cold and self-absorbed. Jodi is needy.
Her son, Benjamin (Eli Gelb), is the only
one who has a sense of his family’s history.
He’s in Hungary, majoring in queer stud-
ies, and he says:
“I’m living in the place our family lived
in for centuries and, I mean, if you want
to see a Jewish name in Hungary you have
to go to the Holocaust memorial.” Still, he
comes off as foppish to the point of being
an almost offensive caricature.
Getting theatergoers to like his charac-
ters is not a priority for Harmon. “Likabil-
ity is not a question that interests me ter-
ribly,” he says. “I feel if you want to meet
likable characters you should go to a bar-
becue. I don’t think theater is a place to
or Blanche Dubois are particularly likable.
“To me, the point of a play is to see char-
acters in difficult situations, see how they
navigate them and maybe empathize with
them. My favorite plays are not about peo-
ple I like, but people who intrigue me.”
Still, a Jewish grandpa who doesn’t like
his kid or his kid’s kids? “I think there are
a lot of people like that,” Harmon says. “A
lot of people who are unhappy with their
parents and their grandparents. I know
that’s not true for all people, but I’ve seen
it through careful observation and in talk-
ing to friends and people I know.”
But he did not experience that dys-
function personally. On the contrary, he
grew up in Westchester County in a com-
fortable upper middle class, conserva-
tive Jewish home; unlike poor Benjamin,
he had loving grandparents. In fact, his
grandmother was in part responsible for
his career.
“She took me to a lot of shows in New
York and really encouraged me. She just
died in April. She was sort of an Auntie
Mame figure who would take me to wildly
inappropriate museum exhibits and
plays.” Among them (when he was just
10 years old): “Medea,” by Euripides, in
which a scorned wife murders her succes-
sor. ( Jodi, are you listening?)
Unlike “Bad Jews” his new work has no
single starting point. “Bad Jews” had its —
you should pardon the expression — gen-
esis in a Holocaust remembrance service
while Harmon was in college.
“Instead of having the survivors there,
it was the grandchildren speaking about
their grandparents,” he says. “But I found
the experience much less moving than any
previous ceremony. Something about that
not being moving stayed with me. And
made me ask ‘What does it mean for my
generation to be inheritors of this legacy?’”
The play, which made stars of Tracee
Chimo and Ridgewood’s Michael Zegen,
was about a religiously observant woman
fighting her secular cousin over a chai
necklace that their survivor grandfa-
ther had managed to smuggle out of the
camps, a gift he wants to give to his non-
Jewish girlfriend.
On the face of it, given its title and plot,
you’d think “Bad Jews” would be a niche
production, but it is one of the most pro-
duced plays in the world, with lengthy
runs from England to Australia — places
whose residents are unlikely to know
much about Manhattan’s Upper West Side,
where “Bad Jews” is set.
“I think the trick is to write very specifi-
cally about a specific group of people, and
that somehow taps into something that is
universal,” in this case “cultural assimila-
tion,” Harmon says.
Still, Harmon was surprised by the
play’s success. “It’s what you hope for
when you set out. That you will be pro-
duced. On one level the success is bizarre.
I wasn’t prepared for it. I’m not sure any-
one could be.”
On the other hand, it hasn’t reduced
his level of anxiety. “Anxiety is like a suit-
case you carry with you and periodically
unpack,” Harmon says. “Before ‘Bad Jews’
it was will I ever have a production? Then
it becomes about writing the next play.
How it will be received?”
Sounds like the subject of a play about
this Jewish writer.
“Skintight” is at the Laura Pels Theater
through August 26.
JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018 29
Calendar
Saturday
JULY 7
Women’s song circle in
Teaneck: Join a z’mirot
song circle, for women
only, at Congregation
Bnai Yeshurun,
6-7 p.m. 641 West
Englewood Ave. Email
WomensZmirot+owner@
groups.io.
Rabbi Chaim Eisenstein
Shabbat in Teaneck:
Rabbi Chaim Eisenstein,
a member of Yeshiva
University’s faculty
at the Gruss Kollel
in Jerusalem, is the
scholar-in-residence
at Congregation Beth
Aaron in Teaneck. After
Musaf he will discuss
“The Heart of the Three
Weeks: Processing the
Halacha and Machshava
of This Challenging
Period.” At 7:05, his topic
will be “The Majesty of
Shabbat in the Thought
of Rav Soloveichik and
Chassidut,” and after
Mincha, he will give a
shiur, “Highlights from
the RIETS Israel Kollel:
The Top Ten of Hilchot
Basar bi-Chalav.” 950
Queen Anne Road.
(201) 836-6210 or www.
bethaaron.org.
Sunday
JULY 8
Casino trip: Hadassah’s
Fair Lawn chapter takes
a trip to the Tropicana
Casino in Atlantic City. A
bus leaves the Fair Lawn
Jewish Center/CBI at
9 a.m. ; be there by 8:45.
$30; includes $25 back
from the casino. Bring
a valid ID. Park on the
street, not in the Jewish
Center parking lot. 10-
30 JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018
10 Norma Ave. Varda, series in Overpeck Park,
(201) 791-0327. Thursday , supported by Bergen
County Executive Jim
JULY 12 Tedesco and the Board
of Chosen Freeholders,
opens with Billy Gilman,
a finalist on Season 11
of NBC’s “The Voice,”
7:30 p.m. Seating is
available on the park
lawn. Bring chairs/
blankets; a food vendor
Film in Teaneck: will be there. Series
Congregation Beth continues July 19, 26, and
Aaron screens “Persona
Non Grata: The Story
Aug. 9.
S
of Chiune Sugihara,” 8
p.m. Afterwards, Rabbi
Rabbi David Fine
Saturday h
Judaism & Islam: The JULY 14
Michael Miller, executive
CSI Scholar Fund of T
vice president of the 2
Jewish Community the JCC of Fort Lee/ Afternoon tea in
Relations Council of Congregation Gesher Teaneck: AMIT Hindy i
Greater New York, Shalom presents visiting Weinstock-Geula e
scholar Rabbi David
who was invited by the
Fine of Temple Israel &
chapter offers a Shabbat w
Japanese government to summer afternoon tea
Pianist Eric Clark f
attend a memorial there JCC in Ridgewood, with
a new series, “Judaism
to honor the memory JULY
on the 100th anniversary of Anita Scharf, z”l, at a performs in concert
13
of Chiune Sugihara’s & Islam Through the private home in Teaneck, T
birthday. 950 Queen Ages.” Refreshments 5 p.m. Guest speaker
on Friday, July 13,
f
Anne Road. (201) 836- at 12:30 p.m. , program Shira Schiowitz, tanach at Temple Emeth in
at 12:45. Lecture, p
6210 or www.bethaaron.
“The Umayyads and
instructor at SAR High Teaneck, beginning at 6 p.m. The e
org. School, discusses “
Jerusalem — The Devarim (Deuteronomy)
evening includes a barbecue, short A
Tuesday
Abbasids and Baghdad.” as a Handbook for family-friendly service, and oneg. i
Series continues July
19, Aug. 2, and 9. 1449
Life.” Register, www. 1666 Windsor Road. Reservations T
JULY 10 amitchildren.org/
Anderson Ave., Fort Lee. geulachaptertea. for BBQ, (201) 833-1322 or www. h
(201) 947 1735 or www. emeth.org.
Information, Genene I
geshershalom.org. Kaye, (212) 477-5465 or
t
Blood drive in Teaneck: GeneneK@amitchildren.
Sara Schatz of Teaneck, org. of YIPC and Dr. Shani
Postpartum depression: D
a 20-year-old college Ratzker, icebreakers,
The Jewish Center
student, chairs a New Sunday of Teaneck offers
round robin speed
dating, musical Havdalah
c
York Blood Center blood
drive at Young Israel of
JULY 15 “Postpartum Depression: and kumsitz bonfire with
Raising Awareness and
Teaneck, 3-9 p.m. 868 singer/musician Rabbi
Meditation retreat in Breaking the Stigma” Michael Nadata, meals,
Perry Lane. Sign-up with social workers
online at tinyurl.com/ Tenafly: Mark Van Buren, and housing. Hosted
R
a yoga, meditation, and Arona Berow and Marilyn by Rachel Ruchlamer
youngisraelblooddrive. Laves, 7 p.m. 70 Sterling
Walk-ins welcome. mindful living trainer, and Dr. Shani Ratzker.
“Bonnet Bouquet”
Questions, Sara,
(201) 708-5249 or
leads a meditation retreat
at the Kaplen JCC on
Place. JCOT.org. Shidduchprojects@gmail.
com or (201) 522-4776.
p
by artist saraschatz01@gmail.com. the Palisades, 12:30 p.m. A
COURTESY JCCOTP
Entertainment in
Half-day guided silent
retreat teaches how to
Singles Wednesday s
Artist reception: Artist Wayne: The summer incorporate meditation JULY 18 p
Leslee Fetner is at a concert series at the into a daily routine. Hagit Friday p
reception in her honor Wayne YMCA opens Tal, (201) 408-1477, htal@ JULY 6 Lunch in Nyack: w
for her show “Making an with the “Illusions of jccotp.org, or jccotp.org/ Singles 65+ from the
meditation.
n
Impression,” including Lyn,” 7 p.m. Series runs Shabbaton in Passaic: JCC Rockland meet for
monotypes, etchings, through August 30. The lunch at Amici Italian s
Music in Paterson: The Shidduch Project
and solar prints, at the Metro YMCAs of the hosts a Shabbaton for Restaurant, Central 7
Double Entendre plays
Waltuch Gallery at the Oranges is a partner of modern Orthodox/ Nyack, N.Y., 12:30 p.m. T
Kaplen JCC on the the YM-YWHA of North music from the British Individual checks. 425
Isles for the Lambert machmir young p
Palisades in Tenafly, Jersey. 1 Pike Drive. professionals, 23-39, at North Route 59. Gene,
6:30 -8:30 p.m. Art (973) 595-0100 or www. Castle concert series at (845) 356-5525. A
Lambert Castle, 5 p.m. Young Israel of Passaic-
on display through wayneymca.org. Clifton. Includes three S
3 Valley Road. Limited
August 31. 411 E. Clinton
seating. (973) 247-0085 interactive meals, oneg o
Ave. Nina Bachrach, Concert in Teaneck: with speakers including
The free Bergen County or lambertcastle.org. d
(201) 408-1406 or Rabbi Yaakov Glasser
nbachrach@jccotp.org. Summer Music Concert d
t
c
n
m
i
f

Deni Bonet
Summer concerts
honor Year of the Woman
To celebrate the strength of women in
2018, the Rosen Performing Arts Center
in the Wayne YMCA, both kicks off and
ends its Eight Summer Concert series
with women who have earned their
fame in their professions.
Lyn Dillies, who opens the series on
Thursday, July 12, at 7 p.m., is the first
female illusionist in history to receive the
prestigious Milbourne Christopher Acad-
emy of Magic award from the Society of
American Magicians. Past recipients
include David Copperfield, Penn and
Teller, and Siegfried and Roy. She also
has won the Merlin Award for Female
Illusionist of the Year from the Interna-
tional Magician’s Society.
Eight weeks later, on August 30,
Deni Bonet leads a troupe of musi-
cians with her ultra-high-voltage violin
Raising awareness of
postpartum depression
Arona Berow will tell her per-
sonal experience with post-
partum depression, and then
psychotherapist Marilyn Laves
will talk about the phenome-
non from a more clinical per-
spective, on Sunday, July 15, at
7 p.m., at the Jewish Center of
Teaneck. The program, “Post-
partum Depression: Raising
Awareness and Breaking the
Stigma,” will explore causes Arona Berow
of perinatal mood and anxiety
disorders, how postpartum depression
differs from the baby blues, available
treatments, and what we can do as a
community to ensure that women do
not suffer in silence.
Ms. Laves, who specializes in perinatal at the Jewish Board of Family and Chil-
mood and anxiety disorders, has worked
in mental health and substance abuse
fields for more than 20 years offering
More than 410,000 likes.
Like us on Facebook
Lyn Dillies PHOTOS COURTESY YMCA
performance. She has performed at a
sold-out show at Carnegie Hall and at the
White House for President Obama, she
tours with Cyndi Lauper, and she
has recorded with R.E.M. and Sarah
McLachlan.
July 12 ticket holders will receive a free
ice cream float in the Y’s atrium, begin-
ning at 5:45.
Tickets are $16 for each show or $100
for eight shows. Subsequent shows, all
on Thursday nights at 7, include tributes
to such greats as Cole Porter, Judy Gar-
land, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, the
Bee Gees, the Rolling Stones, and Peter,
Paul and Mary, plus the comedy of Ross
Bennett.
For more information, call (973) 595-
0100 or go to www.MetroYMCAS.org/
ROSENPAC.
Marilyn Laves
psychotherapy, clinical supervision, pro-
gram oversight, and training.
Ms. Berow, a licensed social worker, is
the Partners In Caring social worker for
the Jewish Community Services program
dren Services. For more information, go
to JCOT.org.
Amit’s Shabbat tea
Amit’s Hindy Weinstock Geula chapter is
hosting a summer afternoon tea in mem-
ory of Anita Scharf, z”l, on Saturday, July
14, at 5 p.m., at a private home in Teaneck.
Shira Schiowitz, a Tanach teacher at
the SAR High School, will speak about
“Devarim (Deuteronomy) as a Handbook
For Life.”
In addition to teaching Tanach, Ms.
Schiowitz is a mentor for new teachers and
co-director of professional development
at SAR. Before, she taught at Ma’ayanot,
where she also chaired the Tanach depart-
ment. She was the assistant dean at Lam-
deinu in Teaneck during its first year.
She is married to Rabbi Kenny Schiowitz,
who had been the leader of Congregation
Save the date for Supplies for Success
Volunteers are needed to unpack and
set up supplies on Monday, August 20,
and then fill up backpacks on Wednes-
day, August 22, for Jewish Federation of
Northern New Jersey’s Supplies for Suc-
cess drive. Brand new backpacks are filled
with supplies for hundreds of disadvan-
taged kids returning to school this fall in
northern New Jersey.
Four Tops Temptations
Temptations and Four Tops
coming to Englewood next spring
Tickets are on sale for the Temptations
and the Four Tops, who will perform at
the Bergen Performing Arts Center in
Englewood next year on Thursday, May
9, 2019, at 8 p.m.
The Temptations began their soul hits in
the 1960s. Founding member Otis Williams
still performs with singers Ron Tyson,
Terry Weeks, Larry Braggs, and Willie
Greene Jr. The Temptation’s hits include
“The Way You Do the Things You Do,” “My
Girl,” and “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.”
facebook.com/jewishstandard
Calendar
Shaare Tefillah of Teaneck for the last 14
years.
Donna Hoenig, Anita Scharf ’s daugh-
ter, remembers “while I was growing up
in the Bronx, my mother was very dedi-
cated to Amit (then known as Mizrachi
Women). Her dedication to Israel through
her involvement with Amit taught me the
importance of raising funds to help chil-
dren in Israel. It is an honor that the mem-
ory of my mother is perpetuated through
this annual memorial shiur.”
To register, go to www.amitchildren.org/
geulachaptertea. For information, email
Genene Kaye at GeneneK@amitchildren.
org, call (212) 477-5465, or go to www.amit-
children.org.
Donations are also needed — $18 fills one
backpack; $72- four; and $180- ten. Sup-
plies for Success is sponsored by Genesis
Foundation, Artistic Tile, and Myron. Kati
Frisch Grossman and Michal Levison co-
chair the project.
For information, call Beth Figman at
(201) 820-3947, email bethF@jfnnj.org, or
go to JFNNJ.org/supplies.
PHOTOS COURTESY BERGENPAC
The Four Tops also hit the scene in the
1960s, with hits like “Baby I Need Your
Loving,” “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie,
Honey Bunch),” and “It’s The Same Old
Song.” Today the group includes original
member Abdul Fakir with Ronnie McNeir,
Harold Bonhart, and original member
Lawrence Payton’s son Roquel.
Tickets are available at www.ticketmas-
ter.com, www.bergenpac.org, or through
the box office, (201) 227-1030.
JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018 31
Opinion
Border
FROM PAGE 23
Juveniles” or “SIJ.” SIJ is intended for children who are
in the United States without a parent and do not intend
to reunite with that parent after obtaining legal per-
manent resident status. Once a family judge declares a
child abandoned, the route to obtain a green card under
the TVPA is remarkably easy. An applicant merely files
a form with United States Citizenship and Immigration
Services, attaching the family judge order. In 2010-11,
the definition of “abandoned” was broadened to include
children who have been abandoned by only one parent.
The election of President Obama in 2008 changed the
admission and detention landscape precipitously through
his government’s incremental policy adjustments, mostly
designed to create a more favorable environment for
asylum seekers at the border. One such change came in
2009, when Obama’s Department of Homeland Security
broadened its use of statutory parole authority to provide
entry to aliens crossing the border specifically to pursue
claims of asylum. Historically, parole had been used for
medical emergencies and to bring in witnesses for crimi-
nal prosecutions, but President Obama expanded its use
of parole to provide entry to any asylum applicant who
successfully passed a credible fear test at a port of entry.
That is a rather low bar by any objective standard. Most
importantly, by paroling these arriving aliens into the
United States, President Obama removed the primary
deterrent associated with someone presenting himself at
a port of entry to apply for asylum — the prospect of man-
datory detention without bond, as required by IIRIRA.
A more immediate reaction sprang from President
Obama’s creation of the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals program in June of 2012. By its terms, DACA was
quite limited. It provided work authorization to a small
subset of children and young adults who were brought to
the United States illegally. Nevertheless, DACA breathed
The election of
President Obama in
2008 changed the
admission and
detention landscape
precipitously through
his government’s
incremental policy
adjustments, mostly
designed to create a
more favorable
environment for asylum
seekers at the border.
new hope into a generation of young immigrants and
their family members, many of whom had given up
ever securing any lawful status. Taken together with the
simultaneous discussions on immigration reform then in
Congress, there was a feeling in the air that real change
was about to come.
That air of change drifted south to Central America, a
region that then was plagued by an uptick in gang vio-
lence throughout Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
32 JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018
Within a year of DACA’s implementation, rumors of a
child-based amnesty program emerged throughout
Tegucigalpa, San Salvador, and Guatemala City. News-
papers in those countries reported tales of coyotes lur-
ing young mothers with stories of the “Obama waiver,”
which supposedly granted immediate work authoriza-
tion to children and their parents who were caught at
the US border. By 2014, these rumors turned into a full-
on border crisis, first with children being sent alone,
and then families traveling together.
What happened during the border crisis was that
while nobody actually found the elusive “Obama
waiver,” these migrants did discover and promulgate
knowledge of the weak points in America’s border
policy. First came the unaccompanied minors, who
qualified for green cards so long as a family court judge
deemed them abandoned, which they always did. Again,
the definition of “abandoned” was stretched rather thin.
Our office represented one child who, according to his
family lawyer, blurted out in his abandonment hearing
that he “talked to his dad all the time.” The family judge
nonetheless used the stretched definition of one-parent
abandonment, finding the kid to be abandoned and giv-
ing him a straight path to permanent residency. The joy
wouldn’t last, however, as the SIJ parents soon learned
that granting SIJ cut them off from receiving any immi-
gration benefits from their children.
With the weaknesses of SIJ exposed, the migrants soon
discovered a second weak point in President Obama’s
border policy: the expansion of parole to anyone who
passed a credible fear test at a port of entry. As stated
above, this policy encouraged non-citizens to stand in
line at a port of entry, recite a few rehearsed lines to
an asylum officer — “I’m afraid to return home” — and
instead of staying in jail during the next 45 days, wait-
ing to see a judge, as required for arriving aliens under
IIRIRA, be paroled into the country for a wait of five to
10 years to have a full immigration court hearing. In the
ensuing years, stories appeared in newspapers about
how border crossers actively sought out border officers,
rather than sneak past them, as they did in years past.
The third weak point was discovered only after Presi-
dent Obama’s administration attempted to accommo-
date the increasing number of families streaming across
the border in 2014-15. To handle this newly reconstituted
migrant flow, Immigration and Customs Enforcement
began to hold families together in special family deten-
tion units as they awaited their hearings before an immi-
gration judge. The few such detention centers ICE had
on hand quickly filled up. At the same time, at least one
federal judge found that holding families in detention
centers violated the children’s rights under the Flores
Agreement. In short order, President Obama’s admin-
istration gave up on family detention altogether, and
instead simply would release anyone found crossing the
border illegally with a child.
In sum, a Central American migrant in 2014-15 was
almost spoiled for choices on how to enter the United
States. For instance, she might apply for asylum at a port
of entry, and so long as she passed the credible fear test,
she would be paroled in to the United States without
fear of mandatory detention as per IIRIRA. Alternatively,
she might bring her child with her through the desert.
If she were caught, she knew, the administration lacked
the resources to keep her detained very long, and she
likely would be released in a matter of days. And then,
if her asylum claim failed, her child likely could obtain a
green card under the more expansive abandoned child
SIJ definition.
This brings us, finally, to Trump’s current and ill-
advised child separation policy. The first thing Trump
did with his first executive action was to vastly curtail
At bottom, President
Trump’s family
separation policy was
an ill-conceived
solution to discourage
asylum applicants from
using their children as a
shield to avoid
detention when
crossing the border.
CBP’s use of parole, particularly for asylum seekers.
Because asylum seekers at ports of entry once again
would be detained for the duration of the asylum pro-
cess as mandated by IIRIRA, the migrant flow shifted
away from the ports of entry and back to illegal border
crossings. In crossing illegally, the applicant could guar-
antee a bond hearing before an immigration judge (and
if released, could spend more than five years waiting for
a hearing).
At bottom, President Trump’s family separation pol-
icy was an ill-conceived solution to discourage asylum
applicants from using their children as a shield to avoid
detention when crossing the border, while also avoiding
the legal pitfalls that plagued the prior administration’s
use of the family detention centers, which already have
been declared to violate the Flores agreement.
The logic of the policy is as follows: President Trump’s
Department of Justice begins by prosecuting illegal bor-
der crossers in criminal court. In doing so, ICE transfers
jurisdiction over the applicant’s custody over to the U.S.
Marshall’s Service, which mandates separation for all
people waiting for criminal prosecution. While the parent
remains in Marshall’s Service custody, the child promptly
is transferred to HHS custody, as per the strict rules of the
Flores agreement, and possibly released altogether. When
the parent finishes the criminal proceedings, he or she is
given back to ICE to be held until he or she obtains bond,
or has an asylum hearing before a judge.
While the system is unbelievably cruel, its underly-
ing question remains unanswered: how does the United
States effectively discourage the trafficking of children
across the desert so the parents can avoid detention,
while simultaneously upholding the human rights pro-
tections for these same children as provided by the
Flores agreement?
President Obama’s administration essentially tried to
open our borders to parole for anyone who could pass a
credible fear interview, but this policy only resulted in a
border crisis and a doubling of cases before our already
full immigration courts. Trump, meanwhile, violates our
remaining moral authority by resorting to tactics that
are universally condemnable. So long as families con-
tinue to flee gang violence in their home countries, and
so long as they see the United States as their ultimate
destination, the shining city upon a hill, we will continue
to wrestle with this issue.
Michael J. Wildes, a Democratic former mayor of
Englewood, will be on the ballot for that position in
November. He is the managing partner of Wildes and
Weinberg, PC, specializing in immigration law, and a
former federal prosecutor. The firm’s website is www.
wildeslaw.com.

Richard Cantor
Richard S. Cantor, 78, of Parsippany, died June 26.
Born in Brooklyn, before retiring he owned a
limousine company and was a member of Temple Beth
Am in Parsippany.
Predeceased by his wife, Roberta, née Hochhauser,
he is survived by children, Fred of Airmont, N.Y., and
Lauren Cantor of Madison; and three grandchildren.
Arrangements were by Eden Memorial Chapels,
Fort Lee.
BRIEFS
Holocaust survivor,
women’s rights icon,
laid to rest at French Pantheon
Holocaust survivor and women’s rights powerhouse Sim-
one Veil was given one of the highest honors in France
last week when she was buried at the esteemed Panthéon.
Thousands of people attended the ceremony.
Veil, considered one of France’s most beloved and
trusted public figures, died at the age of 89 just a year
and a day before the burial, and was interred in the Paris
house that contains the remains of Voltaire, Emile Zola,
Louis Braille and Victor Hugo.
Veil is only the fifth woman to be buried at the historic
site. She joins scientist Marie Curie, resistance fighters
Genevieve de Gauelle-Anthonioz and Germaine Tillione,
and the wife of chemist Marcellin Berthelot, Sophie.
The coffin of Veil’s husband, high-ranking civil servant
Antoine, who died in 2013, was placed next to hers. The
coffins were displayed for 48 hours at the French Holo-
caust Memorial, which she helped found, to allow the
public to pay their respects, and then Republican Guards
escorted them through Paris to the Panthéon.
Simone Jacob and her family were deported to Aus-
chwitz in 1944, when she was 16. Her mother, father, and
brother were killed in the Holocaust. When Veil returned
to France, she supported European reconciliation and
became a fierce advocate for women’s rights, working to
legalize abortion in 1974. She was elected the first presi-
dent of the European Parliament in 1979.
Veil’s acceptance into the Pantheon was the result of
nationwide petitions. Her arrival at the Panthéon was
attended by former presidents Francois Hollande and
Nicolas Sarkozy, as well as President Emmanuel Macron.
 JNS.ORG
Israeli poll shows little faith
in Trump plan to achieve peace
A recent survey shows that Israelis do not believe that a
proposal by U.S. President Donald Trump will be success-
ful in achieving peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
The survey, conducted by the Israel Democracy Insti-
tute and Tel Aviv University, shows that nearly 75 percent
of Jewish and Arab Israelis believe a plan by the Ameri-
can administration has either very low or moderately low
chances to succeed.
An overwhelming 77 percent of respondents said they
believe Israel’s interests are important to the American
president, with more than 60 percent saying they believe
the interests of the Palestinians are not.
The poll also showed that while more than half of
Obituaries
Anita Salat
Anita R. Salat, née Sergey, 86, of Fair Lawn, formerly of Obituaries are prepared with
Paterson, died July 2. information provided by funeral homes. Correcting
Predeceased by her husband, Arlen, she is survived by errors is the responsibility of the funeral home.
children, Jill Cohen (Daniel) of Saddle Brook, and Jeffrey
(the late Meryl Schwartz) of New York; sister, Esther
Gerber (the late Ralph) of Fair Lawn; and nephews and
their families.
Arrangements were by Louis Suburban Chapel,
Fair Lawn.
Funeral Planning Simplified
BergenJewishChapel.com
201.261.2900 | 789 Teaneck Road, Teaneck, NJ 07666
respondents supported negotiations with the Palestin-
ians, less than 20 percent believed the talks would lead Owner/Manager Daniel W. Leber, NJ Lic. No3186
to peace.
Another recent poll of Israelis showed strong favorable
feelings toward Trump and his policy on Israel. A June poll Robert Schoem’s Menorah Chapel, Inc
by the American Jewish Committee found that 77 percent Jewish Funeral Directors
of Israelis approve of his handling of U.S.-Israel relations, Family Owned & m anaged
with 85 percent in favor of his transfer of the U.S. Embassy Generations of Lasting Service to the Jewish Community
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Birthright Israel celebrates Gary Schoem – Manager - NJ Lic. 3811
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over the word, as well as 1,500 soldiers from various units
of the Israel Defense Forces, gathered at the 18th-year
mega-event marking Birthright Israel’s 18th birthday at
Sultan’s Pool in Jerusalem on June 27. The celebration was
the largest one in the history of the project, which started
in 1999.
In a recorded greeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu said, “Birthright Israel is a life-changing experi-
ence for so many. Young men and women see the miracle
of Israel for the first time often and firsthand. They take
pride in our democracy and our land of opportunity, and
become active participants in the greatest story ever told:
the rebirth of the Jewish people.
“I thank all the participants and supporters around
the world. I look forward to another 18 years and
beyond of Birthright Israel’s great success. Mazal tov …
congratulations!”
Hatikvah 6 and the 2018 Eurovision song-contest winner
Netta Barzilai performed for the oversized crowd.
The party included greetings from leading philanthro-
pist Dr. Miriam Adelson, who was there with her husband, We continue to be Jewish family managed,
Las Vegas casino owner and major Republican party
donor Sheldon Adelson, and Birthright Israel co-founder
knowing that caring people provide caring service.
Charles Bronfman. It also featured an awards ceremony GUTTERMAN AND MUSICANT
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with the aim of strengthening identity among young Jews ALAN L. MUSICANT, Mgr., N.J. Lic. No. 2890
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at the party “because they are busy defending the State of at the Funeral Home or in Your Own Home
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JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018 33
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 Classified

Solution to last week’s puzzle. This week’s puzzle is Synagogue
on page 28. FrOM PaGe 7
— fundraising was tough in Brooklyn — but it’s also ideologi-
cal. He believes that by attracting a group of like-minded
young people, he was missing out on the sometimes diffi-
cult but also intricate mosaic of a typical synagogue com-
munity. People may not agree on everything and they’ll
come from different generations, he says, but they will be
there both for bar/bat mitzvahs and funerals. Today’s polit-
ical polarization has only reinforced that notion for him.
“There’s a trend to silo ourselves,” he said. “I think there
is a real reluctance for people to enter into synagogue life
because of all of the meshugas that comes with commu-
nity, all of the real intermingling of people and different
personalities. But the fragmentation leaves people isolated
and lonely.”
Rabbi Ain sounds like Rabbi Brous as he says being in a
permanent and more traditional space will not necessarily
have to mean letting go of experimental musical experi-
ences, or even sometimes meeting at a cafe in a T-shirt.
Rabbi Kaunfer also says that as some prayer groups have
become more like synagogues, synagogues have adopted
practices and melodies pioneered by the prayer groups.
Others still dislike the idea of permanence. If the sec-
ond iteration of Makom does end up happening, Ms.
Rugoff says, it will still appeal to people who are still
looking for something other than what their parents’
synagogue has to offer.
“I don’t think Makom would ever become a brick-and-
mortar synagogue,” she said. “I think we’re talking about
people where the idea of membership doesn’t make sense
to them. I built a community I wanted to raise my family
in, and no matter where I go, I’ll be looking for that.”
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Jewish standard JULY 6, 2018 35

Opinion
Ani Ledodi
FROM PAGE 24
redrafting, all the various vendor contracts (without,
unfortunately, being able to charge my old hourly rate);
and after signing numerous checks — now I have a better
appreciation for what preparation truly means.
Of course, I also learned about the myriad number of
ways things can go wrong: deadlines not met, alterations
requiring re-alterations, finished products not looking
the way they were promised or containing (our) typos
thus requiring reprinting, mail not being delivered (both
invitations and response cards), and one of my two new
bow ties ordered specifically for the chuppah arriv-
ing the day after the wedding, to name just a few. (In
truth, this is exaggerated. Not everything went wrong;
indeed, many more things went smoothly and just as we
planned. But it’s human nature, I guess, that the screw-
ups seem to be more memorable.)
And yet, thoughts of all the good, the aggravating, and
the expensive experiences of preparation evaporated
from my mind the moment I clasped Gabrielle’s right
hand and my wife Sharon clasped her left and we began
walking slowly down the aisle to the Chabad anim zem-
irot, with smiles on our faces and tears — perhaps only
metaphorical but there in some sense nonetheless — in
our eyes.
As I stood under the heirloom hand-painted silk
chuppah that was personally created by our artist
daughter Daniele for Raquel’s wedding, and that we
hope will continue to be used at family weddings, I felt
that although it’s not a Jewish custom, I gave Gabrielle
away twice: first, when she dropped my hand, and
accompanied by Sharon and her almost-but-not-quite-
yet-mother-in-law Marla, circled Allen seven times,
and then a second time when, after Allen put the wed-
ding ring on her finger while reciting the traditional
Jewish declaration of marriage, she responded with a
more modern halachic declaration that she accepted
the ring and thereby became married to him kedat
Moshe v’Yisrael. That sealed it. While she’ll always be
my daughter and in some ways my baby, there’s now
another man in her life with a relationship, though dif-
ferent, that equals mine. It’s heartwarming and heart-
breaking all at the same time.
There were many other special moments. Prior to
the wedding we celebrated at a joint aufruf at a part-
nership minyan at Darchei Noam, where Gabrielle and
Letters FROM PAGE 24
Remember why the refugees flee
The horrors occurring on our borders and beyond have
the attention of the nation. However, one aspect has not
had enough attention. That is the relationship between
our decades-long failure to solve the drug problem and
our delegation to the criminals of the role of supplier.
Our country casts a dark shadow on the Central Ameri-
can nations from which these refugees are fleeing. It is
our demand for illegal drugs that creates the criminal
syndicates that control the supply of drugs and therefore
become so rich, powerful, and violent that no local gov-
ernments can control them. The helpless people at our
doorstep are our responsibility because their plight is
caused by us.
Until we have a same drug policy under which Ameri-
can addicts can obtain their needed drugs through legal
36 JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018
Allen had back-to-back aliyot, and were showered with
candy bags as they stood together on the bimah after
a joint mi shabeyrach was recited. And one week later
our nuclear family again celebrated, this time at a more
private Shabbat Kallah in our home, with a few family
guests from the Upper West Side, Canada, and Israel.
At the wedding, there also were countless mean-
ingful moments, both private and public: watching
my daughter Micole playing her oldest sibling role to
perfection and being the necessary calming influence
on her younger sister when times became tense; run-
ning between the traditional chatan’s tisch and the
increasingly popular kallah’s tisch, where Gabrielle’s
sisters, relatives, and friends chanted Shir HaShirim,
joyfully sang, and spoke words of Torah and poetry,
and Gabrielle sang a memorable blessing of shehechi-
yanu; accompanying Allen, with his father, Ray, to the
badekin; kvelling over our grandchildren, Ezra, Aviva,
and Liora, the most handsome ring bearer and cutest
flower girls ever ( just try to convince me otherwise);
listening to Allen’s aunt Nancy reciting under the out-
door chuppah (rain threatened but it held off, thank
God) a special tefillah found in R’ Amram Gaon’s 9th
century siddur that in a lyrical alphabetical acros-
tic enumerates the reciprocity of love and support
between bride and groom.
And: Gabrielle and Allen’s good friend, Rav Ezra Selig-
son, lovingly officiating at his first wedding; warmly
greeting and celebrating with friends, some made in
just the last few years and others dating back to first
grade (you do the math); exuberant family simcha danc-
ing (Kaplan, Glenn, and Kaplan-Glenn); a surprise song
written especially for Gabrielle and Allen and sung to
them during the program; the quiet generosity of my
first son-in-law, Jason, who took charge of the exhaust-
ing and critically important job of packing everything
and everybody needed for the wedding, getting it and
them to the shul on time, unpacking and knowing where
everything was, and then doing the same thing for the
trip home; and, well, and on and on.
So I will end with the moment that personally
touched me the deepest. I’ve been an avid Peter Paul
& Mary fan since I bought their first record album (yes,
record album) when I was a high school junior, and
all of their music now lives on my iTunes app. All of
it. And over a period of more than 20 years, I put all
four of my daughters to bed by singing PP&M’s ten-
der and emotional paean to the special parent-child
channels, and not from criminals, we will be complicit in
the violence and crimes that propel these desperate men
and women and children to our border.
It is high time that we legalized drugs and created a
sane, legal way for addicts to obtain them. By doing so,
not only would we reduce the flow of refugees, but we
would greatly benefit both the people of Central America
and our own people.
Norman H. Rosen
Englewood
Be careful walking home
from shul in the dark
A quick errand immediately after Shabbat had me driv-
ing on local streets, passing people still walking home
from synagogue. As I drove I was shaken to see how much
While she’ll always be
my daughter and in
some ways my baby,
there’s now another
man in her life with a
relationship, though
different, that equals
mine. It’s heartwarming
and heartbreaking all
at the same time.
relationship, a revised cover of John Denver’s “For
Baby (Bobbie).”
“For Baby” was scheduled for my dance with Gabri-
elle. But since the band member who knew it wasn’t
present, there was no one to play it. Not a problem,
though. I gave my iPhone to the sound technician, and,
on an otherwise empty dance floor, Gabrielle and I were
able to dance to Mary’s touching rendition of what the
Kaplan family calls the Rainbow Song, thus allowing me
to sing softly in her ear, probably for the last time, these
oh so special words.
“I’ll walk in the rain by your side/ I’ll cling to the
warmth of your tiny hand/ I’ll do anything to help you
understand/ I love you more than anybody can.
“And the wind will whisper your name to me/ Little
birds will sing along in time/ The leaves will bow down
as you walk by/ And morning bells will chime.
“I’ll be there when you’re feeling down/ To kiss away
the tears that you cry/ I’ll share with you all the happi-
ness I’ve found/ A reflection of the love in your eyes.
“And I’ll sing you the songs of the rainbow/Whisper
all the joy that is mine/ The leaves will bow down as you
walk by/ And morning bells will chime.
Joseph C. Kaplan, a regular columnist, is a long-time
resident of Teaneck. His work also has appeared in
various publications including Sh’ma magazine, the New
York Jewish Week, the Baltimore Jewish Times, and, as
letters to the editor, the New York Times.
darkness, poor street lighting, dark clothing and head-
lights from oncoming cars created low visibility and sub-
sequently a dangerous environment for tragedy.
This isn’t a new issue in suburban communities, but I do
not see many people actually wearing the reflector straps
offered by many synagogues. I didn’t notice one person
from the exiting crowd making use of these important
items.
One suggestion: Perhaps near the exit doors synagogues
could provide a ready, permanent supply of a reflective
patch that could easily clip onto clothing. There may be a
greater likelihood for people to take one and use it.
Some reminder for safer nighttime walking is especially
crucial during the warmer months.
Susan Berger
Teaneck

Holy Name awarded state
funds to support end-of-life care
Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck announced that
Villa Marie Claire hospice was awarded a state budget
appropriation for the second consecutive year to fund
the development of a model for end-of-life care in New
Jersey. Signed into law by Governor Murphy, the $3
million appropriation was sponsored by Senator Paul
Sarlo (D-36), Assemblyman Gordon Johnson (D-37),
and Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-38).
“Holy Name is proud to continue leading this com-
prehensive effort to improve the quality of end-of-
life care in New Jersey, using Villa Marie Claire as a
statewide model,” said Michael Maron, president and
CEO of Holy Name Medical Center. “One of the most
important healthcare reforms our state must address
is improving care for patients in the final chapters of
their lives. We know that while life-extending care
and other medical treatments may lengthen life, it
may be at the expense of quality of life. Our goal is to
Kids of Courage takes Miami
It’s kickoff time! For Kids of Courage, supporting sick
children and their families is its core mission. With
amazing trips, community events, electrifying week-
ends, and the greatest team through it all, K.O.C. does
what it takes to bring kids joy and adventure, no matter
what their diagnosis. As K.O.C. celebrates its 10th year,
the organization laces up for another action-packed
marathon weekend in Miami Beach, Florida.
It’s the group’s eighth year running, walking, and
rolling through the marathon, and you can already feel
the excitement! On Sunday, January 27th 2019, Kids of
Courage will join thousands of individuals and teams at
the Fitbit Miami Marathon and Half Marathon, as part
of a fun, inspiring, and courageous weekend. The funds
raised to compete with Race For Courage will go toward
an organization that creates bright smiles and incredible
experiences for seriously ill children — and turn their
dreams into reality, mile by mile.
Runners and walkers from across the country will
Four evenings of music on tap
at Overpeck Park concert series
Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco and the
Board of Chosen Freeholders invite everyone
to the free music concert series at the Overpeck
County Park Amphitheater this July and August.
Thursday, July 12: Billy Gilman — Gillman was a finalist on Season 11 of NBC’s The Voice.
Thursday, July 19: “Home Again” — a tribute to the music of Carole King.
Thursday, July 26: “New York Bee Gees” — a group that performs songs from every decade
of the Bee Gees catalog.
Thursday, August 8: “Radio Nashville” — a new wave country act that covers hits from artists including
Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum, Blake Shelton, Band Perry, and Miranda Lambert.
help patients and families understand the difference
and maximize the moments they share in their final
months, weeks, days or hours together.”
According to the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care
Report, New Jersey is ranked lower than any other
state in the nation in the use of hospice and pallia-
tive care. It also revealed New Jersey residents spend
44-percent more days in the intensive care unit com-
pared to the average American and 30 percent more
days in the hospital in the last six months of life.
“This funding supports the full spectrum of end-of-
life care, encompassing the patient, family, caregiver,
provider, and community,” Maron said. “Creating a
standard for the appropriate use of end-of-life-care
resources will result in a reduction in state and fed-
eral costs stemming from unnecessary hospital admis-
sions, ER visits, procedures, tests, and treatment.”
The budget appropriation will support the project’s
come together with K.O.C. and Team Courage for a 4
day/3 night stay at a 5-star luxury hotel on the beautiful
beaches of Miami, stepping off their flight and into cus-
tom K.O.C. gear. The fully catered weekend includes all
meals, an uplifting Shabbos experience, K.O.C.’s famous
pre-race pasta party, a victory party, admission to the
marathon or half marathon, and of course the oppor-
tunity to meet their courageous campers and dedicated
volunteers.
“It’s bound to be our biggest year yet,” says Howie
Kafka, co-founder of Kids of Courage. “With over 100
people joining the Race For Courage team, we are
thrilled to see the sense of community that will take
place!”
Along with the Miami air, your participation in this
wonderful event will warm the hearts of Couragers even
before the start line.
Get a head start and register today at RaceForCour-
age.org for the experience of a lifetime.
Seating is available on the park lawn and people
are welcome to bring chairs or blankets; a food
vendor will sell food.
All concerts begin at 7:30 p.m.
 Real Estate & Business
eight key initiatives, including the development of a model
for end-of-life-care in New Jersey, which will address every
aspect of care in the two years leading up to a person’s
death and the 12 months following it; the development of
education, training, and state certification courses for doc-
tors, nurses, social workers, and other healthcare profes-
sionals; research comparing end-of-life-experience and
quality of life for those enrolled and not enrolled in hospice
programs; and policy recommendations for the state legis-
lature to consider.
For information about Villa Marie Claire, go to VillaMar-
ieClaire.org or call (201) 783-8870.
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If assistance is required in completing the application,
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JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018 37
Real Estate & Business

SELLING YOUR HOME?

BRIEFS

Jewish woman becomes mayor of Mexico City

According to exit polls, the first woman
to be elected mayor of Mexico City is also
the city’s first Jewish one: local politician
and scientist Claudia Sheinbaum.
Sheinbaum entered politics after
working as an environmental engineer
at the National Autonomous University
of Mexico.
“Just because I might look like a skinny
scientist doesn’t mean I’m not going to
crack down on crime here,” she told
attendees at a Mexico City rally. “I will.”
Sheinbaum’s grandparents emigrated
to Mexico City from Lithuania and Bul-
garia, and she told a Jewish audience in
the city that they would celebrate all the
Jewish holidays together.
Mexico City is home to almost all of
Mexico’s Jews, which is a community of
approximately 40,000 people. JNS.ORG

IDF grants entry to six Syrians

in wake of Assad attacks
In what the Israel Defense Forces called
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children and two Syrian adults were
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cal supplies, 30 tons of clothes and shoes,
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“The IDF is monitoring what is going
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a variety of scenarios, including continu-
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to act to protect Israel’s security interests,”
a military spokesperson said.
Israel has treated thousands of chroni-
cally ill and war-injured Syrians since 2013,
and supplied hundreds of tons of humani-
tarian aid to nearby Syrian citizens.
Of the 4,800 people treated in field
and public hospitals in northern Israel,
approximately half were children.
A clinic Israel opened in cooperation
with international aid organizations on
the border in 2017 has treated an addi-
tional 6,000 Syrian patients.
JNS.ORG

3.500 % Rate
4.375%
3.935%
Rate Rate

3.611%
APR*
APR* 4.430% APR*

Make your arrangements today!

Finding the right mortgage to fit your needs should be quick, easy and
painless — exactly what you’ll find when you work with our Mortgage
Specialist at NVE. Plus, our decision makers are local — providing a 88
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7 2018
smooth and hassle-free process from start to finish.
WE CLEAN OUT:
Call today at 201-816-2800, ext. 1233, Basements •Baseme
Attics • Garages • Fire Damage
or apply online at nvebank.com Construction Debris • Hoarding Specialists
Constru
WE RECYCLE
CALL TODAY FOR A FREE ESTIMATE CALL
201-66•1845-600-5941
201-661-4940 - 4940 2
NMLS #733094
*APR = Annual Percentage Rate. APR is accurate as of 5/15/18 and may vary based on loan amounts. Loans
are for 1-4 family New Jersey owner-occupied properties only. Rates and terms are subject to change without
notice. The 7-year loan at the stated APR would have 84 monthly payments of $13.44 per thousand borrowed
We do not transport solid or hazardous waste
We d
based on a 20% down payment or equity for loan amounts up to $750,000. The 15-year loan at the stated
APR would have 180 monthly payments of $7.33 per thousand borrowed based on a 20% down payment or
equity for loan amounts up to $750,000. The 25-year loan at the stated APR would have 300 monthly
payments of $5.49 per thousand borrowed based on a 20% down payment or equity for loan amounts up to
$500,000. Payments do not include amounts for taxes and insurance premiums, if applicable. The actual
payment obligation will be greater. Property insurance is required. Other rates and terms are available.
Subject to credit approval.
www.thejewishstandard.com
Bergenfield I Closter I Cresskill I Englewood I Hillsdale I Leonia I New Milford I Teaneck I Tenafly

38 JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018

JEWISH STANDARD JULY 6, 2018 39
Your one stop grill shop
We carry a wide assortment of High Quality Beef, Lamb, Veal &
Poultry along with pre marinated, ready to grill items.
You can find an array of Spices, Sauces and Condiments to
compliment our meats.
Don't forget our Fresh Fruits & Vegetables...
They go great on the grill or even as
a healthy snack or dessert!

Heading upstate for visiting day,

we’ll pack up some of your favorites to go.
Send us an email to orders@thecedarmarket.com