North Jersey Jewish Standard, February 13, 2015

A VISIT TO FRANCE page 7
DECODING ESTHERS SECRETS page 10

THIS BUS IS BOUND FOR SHABBOS SERVICES page 12
GETT, A FILM OF RELIGIOUS BUREAUCRACY page 43
FEBRUARY 13, 2015
VOL. LXXXIV NO. 21 $1.00
NORTH JERSEY
84
2015
JSTANDARD.COM
Vax
facts
and
reax
A look at what
Jewish law
and area
Jewish schools
have to say
about vaccines
page 22
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2 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 13, 2015
*New Jersey Department of Health, Cardiac Surgery in New Jersey report, October 2014
Page 3
A long correction for a small error
LeOr wants to
light up policy debate
When we hear of a new Jewish orga-
nization starting up in these recessionary times, our first question often is:
What are they smoking?
In the case of the year-old LeOr, the
answer is pretty obvious. Its tag line is
Illuminating Jewish Perspectives on
Drug Policy Reform.
Our goal is to erode the stigma, so
that the Jewish community at large
can see that supporting marijuana
legalization is not just the right thing to
do, its the Jewish thing to do, said Roy
Kaufmann, who founded LeOr with his
wife, Claire.
Speechwriter for Oregons governor
by day, the Israeli-born Kaufmann, 36,
is a staunch opponent of Americas
decades-long War on Drugs. Launched
by President Richard Nixon in the 1970s
and expanded during the Reagan era,
the ongoing drug war has resulted in an
unprecedented number of U.S. citizens
and a disproportionate number of
African-American males being sent
to prison for drug-related offenses.
The seeds of LeOr to illuminate
in Hebrew were planted when the
Kaufmanns began to lament the lack
of Jewish communal involvement in
pushing for marijuana legalization.
Theres a disconnect between the
civil rights issue and the number of
Jewish people who, lets be honest,
enjoy the cannabis plant, said Claire
Kaufmann, now a marketing and
branding consultant for the burgeoning
cannabis industry. It seems to me to be
a contradiction.
Specifically, it outraged the couple
that while white Americans
themselves included could casually
smoke marijuana and get away with it,
their black counterparts were far too
often arrested and incarcerated for the
same low-level crime.
Roy Kaufman led the first campaign
to legalize marijuana in Oregon. He
was struck by how few rabbis and
Jewish communal leaders jumped on
board. After the failed bid, he turned
to Dr. Bronners Magic Soap Company
for seed funding to back his idea for a
Jewish pro-cannabis group.
Dr. Bronners has played a leading
role in hemp and marijuana legalization
efforts since 2001, when David
Bronner, the companys president and
grandson of the spiritually minded
German-Jewish soap maker, launched

a successful lawsuit against the Drug
Enforcement Agency to allow hemp
imports into the United States. The
Vista, Calif.-based company uses nonpsychoactive hemp oil imported from
Canada in its all-natural line of soaps.
Bronner, 41, was raised Protestant,
but he also grew up reciting the Shema,
and he said he feels a strong connection
to his Jewish roots. His grandfathers
universalist All-One message touted
on famously wacky soap labels with
references to Rabbi Hillel and Jesus
remains at the core of the companys
progressive philosophy.
But the opponent of marijuana
reform with the deepest pockets also
is Jewish: billionaire Sheldon Adelson,
who pumped $5 million into the
campaign to defeat a Florida ballot
initiative that would have legalized
medical marijuana. The casino
moguls Israeli-born wife, Miriam, is a
drug addiction specialist who runs a
rehabilitation center in Las Vegas and
believes that marijuana is a gateway
drug to harder, more dangerous
substances a belief that legalization
advocates dispute, citing studies to the
contrary. (One study estimated that 60
percent of casino revenues come from
players with a gambling addiction.)
While its cause is different from
other Jewish organizations, perhaps
what makes LeOr most unique is that
it proudly displays a photograph of
President Nixon on its about us page,
along with a quote from a conversation
between Mr. Nixon and top aide H.R.
Bob Haldeman, recorded by the Oval
Office taping system:
You know, its a funny thing, every
one of the bastards that are out for
legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the
Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob,
what is the matter with them?
REBECCA SPENCE/JTA WIRE SERVICE
They say you learn

the most from your
mistakes.
As mistakes go,
one in a movie
review two weeks
ago was minor.
Eddie Cohen,
one of the four
first members of
the Israeli air force
mentioned in our
review of the new
film Above and
Ezer Weizman
Beyond, may not,
in fact, have been an
Israeli.
Like the Americans profiled in the
film, he was a foreign volunteer in
his case, from South Africa.
Not a big mistake but an
important one for one of our readers,
who, as it turns out, was Eddie
Cohens cousin. (The cousin prefers
to keep his own name out of this
paper. Im private, he said.)
Eddie Cohen had qualified as a
pilot in the South African air force
after the end of World War II, his
cousin told us. When Israels war of
independence broke out in 1948, he
was among the 800 South Africans
who went north to fight for Israel a
disproportionately large delegation,
which was nearly a quarter of all the
foreign volunteers.
Whether Mr. Cohen would have
returned to South Africa or not well
never know. He was the first casualty
of the nascent air force, killed when
his plane was shot down over the
Negev.
Neither his plane nor his body were
discovered until a couple of years
later. Our reader remembers that Mr.
Cohens squad mate Ezer Weizman
called Mr. Cohens parents and

asked them to come to Israel for the
funeral. (Weizman would command
the Israel Air Force between 1958
and 1966 and then serve as Israels
president from 1993 to 2000.)
Our reader remembers visiting his
cousins grave on Mount Herzl during
a 1955 visit to Israel.
Our reader left us with this
memory of his cousin from before
the war. There was an ice skating
rink right outside of town. And
Eddie Cohen was a champion skater.
Skaters would skate up a ramp and
jump over barrels. And no one could
fly over more barrels than Eddie
Cohen.
And one more bit of family lore.
Eddie Cohens sister married a man
named Lubowitz and they had a son
named Manfred. Manfred Lubowitz
went on to record hit records
under the name Manfred Mann. The
most successful was a cover of the
song Blinded by the Light by a
young New Jersey musician, Bruce
Springsteen.
Amazing how much you can learn
from one small mistake.
LARRY YUDELSON
Candlelighting: Friday, February 13, 5:10 p.m.

Shabbat ends: Saturday, February 14, 6:11 p.m.
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CONTENTS
NOSHES ...................................................4
OPINION ................................................ 18
COVER STORY .................................... 22
FINANCE
& CHARITABLE GIVING ................... 33
GALLERY ..............................................40
TORAH COMMENTARY .................... 41
CROSSWORD PUZZLE .................... 42
ARTS & CULTURE .............................. 43
CALENDAR ..........................................44
OBITUARIES ........................................ 47
CLASSIFIEDS ......................................48
REAL ESTATE......................................49
JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 13, 2015 3
Noshes
Niggunim [are] Chassidic melodies that sound

similar to the scene in Star Wars when the
bad guys ship is arriving.
Singer and former chassid Matisyahu, in an essay describing his escape
from the cage of strict Orthodoxy timed to promote his new single
THE GUYS:
Brett, Felix, Oscar

back in limelight
Comedian BRETT
GELMAN, 38, who
co-stars in the FX
series Married, cowrote and co-stars in a
new special for the
Adult Swim corner of
the Cartoon Network.
Dinner with Brett
Gelmans Family will
premiere on Friday,
February 13, at 12:30 a.m.
(DVR it!) This live-action
special, which probably
will have a lot of Jewish
content, co-stars Patti
Lupone as Gelmans
mother and TONY
ROBERTS, 75, as his dad.
Roberts had big roles in
several WOODY ALLEN
films.
A new version of
The Odd Couple,
the famous 1965
stage show written by
NEIL SIMON, now 87, will
premiere on Thursday,
February 19, on CBS. The
show stars Matthew
Perry (Friends) as
Oscar, a slovenly, longdivorced sports writer,
and Thomas Lennon as
Felix, a neat-freak
photographer. As you
probably know, they are
old friends; when Felixs
wife leaves him, he
moves into Oscars
apartment. LINDSAY
SLOANE, 37, plays Emily,
who lives in Oscars
building and attracts the
guys romantic attention.
Sloane has been a TV
guest star or series
regular since she was a
teen. She was a star of
Grosse Pointe, a
short-lived but critically
praised series that was a
parody of Beverly Hills,

90210.
Because it is such a
great joke, I have little
doubt that a segment
from the original play
will make the new series.
Felix starts leaving Oscar
notes reminding him to
do chores. Finally, Oscar
blows up at Felix and
says, You leave me little
notes on my pillow. I told
you 168 times I cant ..
stand .. little notes on
my pillow! We are all out
of Corn Flakes. [signed]
F.U. It took me three
hours to figure out that
F.U. was Felix Unger!
Neil Simon says that
many people have speculated that he gave Felix
Unger that name simply
to set up this joke. Simon
denies it, though. He says
that the joke came to
him way after he created
a character whose initials
are F.U.
Saturday Night
Live, which was
created in 1975 by
LORNE MICHAELS (born
Lorne Lipowitz), will
celebrate its 40th
birthday with an anniversary special that will air
on NBC on Sunday,
February 15, at 8 p.m.,
with a red carpet special
starting on NBC at 7 p.m.
Michaels has been the
producer of the show for
most of its long run. (He
wasnt its producer from
the fall of 1980 until the
spring 1985) and he is
very much a hands-on
executive. He has the
ultimate say in cast
hiring, firing, and promo-
Brett Gelman
Tony Roberts
Neil Simon
Lindsay Sloane
tion. SNL and NBC have

been very quiet about
what the special will
contain (new stuff or
mostly clips?). However,
most of the guest list has
been leaked. The
following tribe members
will be on the special:
Two JERRY SEINFELD and PAUL SIMON
were not cast members. The other three
ADAM SANDLER,
ANDY SAMBERG, and
MAYA RUDOLPH were.
Beside those three,
here are the past 40
years of Jewish cast
members (main cast
or featured player):
LARAINE NEWMAN,
GILDA RADNER, AL
FRANKEN, HARRY
SHEARER, SARAH SILVERMAN, BILLY CRYSTAL, CHRISTOPHER
GUEST, VANESSA BAYER, RACHEL DRATCH,
JON LOVITZ, CHRIS

KATTAN, ROB SCHNEIDER, PAUL SHAFFER,
BEN STILLER, ROBERT SMIGEL, GILBERT
GOTTFRIED, and ALAN
ZWEIBEL. FYI: Kattan
is the son of a Jewish
father and non-Jewish
mother and always has
been secular. Likewise,
the secular Christopher
Guest has a non-Jewish
first name, but his mother is an American Jew
and his father is a British
Jew. He actually holds
the title of 5th Baron of
Haden-Guest. Its a complex story but suffice
it to say it is not an old
title it was created in
1950 so Guests grandfather, a big Labour Party
supporter, could sit in the
House of Lords and help
balance out other parties members.
Lisa Cholodenko
N.B.
Slap may resound

as a big hit on NBC
An eight-part miniseries, The Slap, started last night
Thursday, February 12, at 8 p.m. on NBC. Its based on
a big Australian novel and TV series of the same name.
NBC is clearly trying to compete with HBO with this
prestige series: LISA CHOLODENKO, 50 (The Kids are
Alright), who got a Golden Globe nomination for HBOs
Olive Kitteridge, is the principal director and JON
ROBIN BAITZ, 53, a respected playwright and the creator of TVs Brothers and Sisters, wrote the pilot. The
title refers to what develops when a man slaps a child he
isnt related to at a suburban barbecue. Co-stars include
Peter Saarsgard (MAGGIE GYLLENHAALs husband)
and Uma Thurman (whose non-Jewish maternal grandfather fled Nazi Germany rather than betray his Jewish
business partner).
N.B.
California-based Nate Bloom can be reached at

Middleoftheroad1@aol.com
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benzelbusch.com
1/21/15 2:48 PM
Local
Family pays tribute to Tikvah program
Ramahs special needs initiative spurs their sons personal and Jewish growth
LOIS GOLDRICH
or the past five years, 20-yearold Adam Berzin of Ramsey

has spent his summers at
Camp Ramah Wisconsin, at the
camps Tikvah program.
Created more than 40 years ago and
offered at nine Ramah camps in the
United States and Canada, Tikvah welcomes children, teens, and young adults
with a wide range of learning, developmental, cognitive, and social disabilities,
enhancing Jewish identity and teaching Jewish values in a supportive, inclusive, fun environment, according to its
website.
Parents Rita and Mitch Berzin clearly
believe that the program more than fulfills this commitment.
We make the effort to send Adam
to this program, which is so far away,
because the effects on his self-esteem,
independence, and identification with
the Jewish community have been so
powerful, Ms. Berzin said. While other
Ramah camps have programs of this
kind, what made this one unique for us
was that it was more inclusive.
Adam has high-functioning autism, she
said. Hes not so below his peers that he
needs a tremendous amount of support,
but he needs more than his typical peers
and he needs to be challenged. This program included him so he didnt feel he
was in a parallel camp, but rather one
that fully included him, where he did not
feel separate. The Berzins also chose
the Wisconsin camp because it offers the
program to people in Adams age group.
He loves it, she said, recalling that
one year she put Adam in a camp that
was geographically closer but not as
inclusive. It didnt group kids according
to their abilities, she said. It put them
all together. After that summer, Adam
was lobbying to go back to Ramah,
despite the fact that usually hes not a
self-advocate. He really wanted to do it.
Adam lives for his summers, she said,
telling people that his summer home is
at Camp Ramah Wisconsin.
The camp plays to the kids strengths.
At school, he never quite felt like he quite
fit in; he was used to being told what he
couldnt do, not what he could do she
said, noting however that Adam, who
plays saxophone, participated in the
Ramsey High School marching band. At
camp, they had him play the Star-Spangled Banner before a big baseball game.
They picked out what he likes and let him
excel at it.
Adam Berzin, right, celebrates bowing with Joseph Eskin, head of the Tikvah program at Camp Ramah Wisconsin.
There are programs for children with

disabilities in this area, but few if any that
include the children with their typical
peers, she continued. Generally they
are segregated programs, but thats not
what the real world is like. Finding inclusive experiences for children is difficult,
especially for teens and young adults
who are not greatly impaired. Inclusion is
what I think Ramah Wisconsin does well.
The children are so well integrated that
they really feel as if there are no differences. And the typical peers start to see
that the Tikvah campers have strengths
and good qualities.
Over the Martin Luther King weekend,
Adam and two other campers from New
York and New Jersey went to Chicago to
attend a Tikvah/Atzmayim Shabbaton.
(Atzmayim is the vocational arm of the
special needs program.)
The excitement in my home was palpable for weeks, Ms. Berzin said. He
had a great time, and it was an experience that has energized him to return to
camp for the Atzmayim vocational program this summer.
The Shabbaton was special, among
other reasons, because he got to fly
on a plane back and forth. [Kids] need
to separate from their parents. We may

coddle them too much. This was a great
opportunity for him.
Getting to the airport too late to meet
the other campers and counselors outside, Adams parents took him to the
security gate. He navigated through security by himself and found his friends at
the gate waiting for him to board.
He did it, his mom said.
Ms. Berzin said Adam, who graduated
from Ramsey High School where we
fought to have him mainstreamed now
attends a transition program. She hopes
that he will attend college next year.
Camp has been good preparation for
that, she said, adding that hes learned
to ask for help when he needs it.
People with Adams disability tend to
have a lot of anxiety, she said. Theyre
afraid of trying, afraid of failing. But
when Adam comes home from camp,
he brings with him a growing sense of
independence.
Things he would not attempt at home,
he had to do at camp, she said. He had
to work in the kitchen packing lunches,
so I told him if you could do it there, you
can do it here. They also had to clean
their cabin.
Adam comes home from camp with

more self-esteem, she said. You could
just see that he was more of his own person. He didnt seem to need as much
prompting and encouragement.
On the Jewish front, although Adam
had a bar mitzvah, and did well, there
was not much to connect him to the
Jewish community after that, said his
mother. At Ramah he put on tefillin and
did morning prayers. He loves Shabbat.
You can see a greater sense of [ Jewish]
identification.
Ms. Berzin said that because kids with
learning and emotional differences have
trouble with change, it is particularly
helpful that Adam generally can look forward to seeing the same campers and
counselors year after year. It provides
continuity, she said. His move to the vocational program will also be smooth since
last years Tikvah program was pre-vocational, and Adam spent one day a week in
the camp office, distributing mail.
It will be an easier transition, his
mother said, noting that he will be living with other campers in an arrangement that resembles a college dorm. The
group will be responsible for planning
and making meals and will be treated as
staff more than as campers.
Ms. Berzin believes this will help Adam
when he goes to college.
Were looking for a program with a
focus on work skills, she said. This will
help prepare him for that. His camp living arrangements also will help him prepare for living in a dorm.
It also helps that throughout the year,
Tikvah campers get together weekly on
Sunday evenings for an online Shavua
Tov talk, she said. Its run by the counselors who usually have a theme they
discuss and relate to the campers daily
lives. Then they all speak regarding their
week. Its something that keeps them all
connected, since they are from different
states.
Adam also participates in community
activities. He plays with teen jazz groups
at the music school at the Kaplen JCC on
the Palisades in Tenafly to keep his skills
up, Ms. Berzin said. Thats because there
arent enough people with musical abilities in his transition program.
He has also discovered the Chabad
Friendship Circle and has a student come
visit him once a week, she said. And while
hes not a good fit for the groups community events, he volunteers with Chabad of
Woodcliff Lakes sports league. In addition, he volunteers one day a month at the
Mahwah Center for Food Action.
Local
FIRST PERSON
French Jews face

uncertain future
A look at some stories from a local leader
DR. LEONARD A. COLE
n the wake of the terror attacks at the

Charlie Hebdo magazine office and
the Hyper Cacher grocery store a
kosher market I participated in a
Jewish Agency mission to Paris.
Our delegation of Americans and Israelis
arrived last week to show solidarity with the
French Jewish community. We also sought
to better understand the threat of heightened anti-Semitism in France (and, indirectly, elsewhere in Europe). We met with
more than 40 French Jewish community
leaders and activists, all of them open to
sharing their concerns.
On January 7, Islamist terrorists murdered
a dozen Charlie Hebdo staffers as retribution
for the magazines cartoon depictions of the
prophet Mohammed. Two days later, another
terrorist held a bunch of Jewish grocery
shoppers hostage, killing four, which French

President Francois Hollande acknowledged
as an appalling anti-Semitic act.
Following the attacks, an anti-terror
march in Paris drew more than a million
participants. Led by Hollande and other
world leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, many in the
crowd held signs declaring Je Suis Charlie
(I am Charlie). A few signs said Je Suis Juif
(I am a Jew). But despite the commendable
show of unity and of respect for the attack
victims, the threat of terrorism remains
undiminished. Given the rise in anti-Semitism, the Jewish community seems especially vulnerable.
The Jewish population in France is about
500,000 and shrinking. The Muslim population is 5,000,000 and growing. These
trends are sources of anxiety for many
French Jews as they weigh their options.
Gross and
Schechter
Families
Tranquil gardens and ponds on 16 acres of property.

A large number of connecting guest rooms.
Guest rooms outtted with Hiltons renowned
Pillow Top Beds and plush duvet covers.
On premises tennis, volleyball and basketball courts
as well as a walking track and a nearby golf course.
Elegantly designed grand ballroom for your dining pleasure.
Heated indoor pool and jacuzzi.
Stimulating Scholar in Residence program including
Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter
Rabbi Dr. Gil Perl
Rabbi Yaakov Trump
Herb Keinon, Jerusalem Post Columnist
Nightly entertainment
Spectacular tea rooms
Professional day camp program
For more
information
contact
Sandra Charabi, 29, is a survivor of

the Hyper Cacher attack. As we stood in
front of the grocery store, now closed,
she recounted her harrowing experience
there. Sandra, who has long, straight black
hair and an open, friendly smile, had just
gone into the store; she was trying to
decide what to buy for Shabbat dinner
when a gunman entered, shooting. Amid
the chaos and yelling, she and four or five
others ran downstairs to the basement.
She locked herself in the toilet, where she
remained for five hours, when finally the

police ended the siege.
Sandra still is frightened. As a result of
the attack, a life in France no longer seems
possible. She and her boyfriend soon will
immigrate to Israel.
They will not be alone. In 2014 some
7,000 French Jews made aliyah, more than
double the previous years number. With
assistance from the Jewish Agency, 15,000
are expected to make aliyah this year.
PRESENTS
SEE FRENCH JEWS PAGE 46
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JUDAICAHOUSEOFTEANECK
Dr. Leonard A. Cole of Ridgewood at the memorial to victims of the Charlie

Hebdo attack in Paris.
LEONARD COLE
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Local
State of the Jewish nation

Filmmaker presents pro-Israel documentary in Teaneck
ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN
Award-winning documentary producerdirector Gloria Greenfield will be in Teaneck
on February 24 for the screening of her newest work, Body and Soul The State of the
Jewish Nation, at 7:45 p.m. at the Teaneck
Cinemas on Cedar Lane.
The film examines the profound connections between the Jewish people and the
land of Israel over the past three millennia,
through interviews with historians, archaeologists, political scientists, religious leaders,
and international law and media experts.
Among the 16 interviewees in the film are
Harvard professors Ruth Wisse and Alan
Dershowitz; the UKs former chief rabbi,
Lord Jonathan Sacks, Israeli archeologists
Israel Finkelstein and Aren Maeir; Professor
Eugene Kontorovich of Northwestern University School of Law, and Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch.
Ms. Greenfield, founder of
the nonprofit Doc Emet Productions in Lexington, Massachusetts, said she began conceptualizing the film toward
the end of 2012 as an antidote
for Jewish illiteracy, particularly in the Diaspora. (Emet
Gloria Greenfields Body and Soul will be screened in
means truth in Hebrew.)
Teaneck on February 24.
By Jewish illiteracy I am
referring to the lack of knowledge about our more than
and management expeStephens of the Wall Street Journal.
Gloria Greenfield
rience into the founding
3,500-year-history, about our
Patt y Borodach of Teaneck, who
of Doc Emet Productions
liturgy and about our texts,
attended the Manhattan screening, said
in 2007. As former executive director of the
she said. At a time when the enemies of the
that the experts in the film all had more
David Project, she launched groundbreaking
Jewish people and Jewish state are engaged in
or less the same message about the historic
Israel advocacy training programs for Ameria vigorous campaign to erase our history and
Jewish claim to the land and how that has
can students in Israel.
fabricate pseudo-history, multigenerational
developed over time. But they were many
Doc Emets first two releases were The
ignorance of what it means to be a member
different voices male and female, young
Case for Israel Democracys Outpost and
of the Jewish people of who we are, and
and old. It wasnt didactic like a history lesson. It was people speaking from the heart
Unmasked Judeophobia a film about the
where we came from makes us dangerously
and from the mind in a way that was easy
resurgence of lethal Jew-hatred around the
vulnerable.
to absorb.
world.
The film project also attempts to reMs. Borodach added that she was pleasBody and Soul premiered in Jerusapolish the honor of Zionism, which is the
lem last October. It was followed by a postantly surprised at the makeup of the audinational liberation movement of the Jewish
ence. It was a very diverse audience
screening discussion with Robert Wistrich,
people, and to expose the vicious campaign
in terms of age and religious leanings,
Yoram Hazony, and Eugene Kontorovich,
to destroy the Jewish people through the erasure of our history, she added.
she said. I had expected to see only the
moderated by journalist Melanie Phillips.
Ms. Greenfield sowed some 30 years of
Orthodox.
Its North American premiere, at Symphony
strategic planning, marketing, publishing,
Ms. Greenfield said she is getting positive
Space in Manhattan, was emceed by Bret
Are the winter blues

getting you down?
feedback about Body and Soul from Jews

and gentiles alike. She wants the film to be
seen by everyone from policymakers to
educators to students to good and decent
people.
Even those who self-identify as advocates of Israel require much deeper understanding of the centrality of the land of
Israel to Jewish identity, of the intellectual
history of the development of Zionism, and
of the legal history of Jewish rights to sovereignty in the land of Israel, she added.
The film has been shown in Texas, Alabama, Washington, Michigan, Indiana, and
Vermont and is scheduled to be screened in
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Washington D.C., New York, Connecticut, California, New Hampshire, Canada,
South Africa, and England over the next few
months. It will be shown in New Brunswick
on February 26 and in Jersey City on April
19, and will be available soon with subtitles
in seven or eight languages.
The Teaneck screening of Body and
Soul is sponsored by the New Jersey chapter of the Zionist Organization of America
and American Friends of Yeshivot Bnei
Akiva. The latter organization supports a
network of 74 schools throughout Israel.
American Friends of YBA is excited to
promote Body and Soul, which reflects
the values of modern Zionism, American
Friends of Bnei Akivas associate director,
Natalie Sopinsky, said. This the Bnei Akiva
ideology the unbreakable Jewish bond to
the land of Israel, the ancient history and
eternal spiritual connection, and the modern call to all Jews to support the Jewish
state with their heart and their hands.
Im sure American Jews will enjoy
this film, and will find it educational and
enriching.
The Teaneck screening will be followed
by a discussion with Ms. Greenfield, and
preceded by a private wine and sushi reception for sponsors paying $36, $75, or $125.
General tickets cost $12.50 until February 17,
or $15 afterward. DVDs of the documentary
will be available for $14.95.
For more information, go to www.bodyandsoulthemovie.com, or email the ZOA at
ZOANJ@zoa.org, or call (201) 424-1825.
Do you find yourself not wanting to get out of bed?

Are you lacking in energy?
Having difficulties concentrating on every day tasks?
Are you withdrawing from friends and family?
These can all be signs of Seasonal Affective Disorderalso known as
winter depression. JFS has compassionate mental health clinicians on
staff to help you manage these overwhelming feelings.
For more information on our services please contact us at 201-837-9090 or visit our website at www.jfsbergen.org
Jewish Federation
OF NORTHERN NEW JERSEY
ISRAEL FILM FESTIVAL

OPENING NIGHT
MONDAY, MARCH 16 | 7PM
HILL START
RAMSEY THEATRE
SUNDAY, MARCH 8 | 7PM
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18 | 7PM
SATURDAY, MARCH 7 | 9PM

TENAFLY CINEMA 4
IS THAT YOU?
RIDGEFIELD PARK LUXURY CINEMAS 12

Discussion with Is That You actress Suzanne Sadler
TUESDAY, MARCH 10 | 7PM
HILL START
Discussion with George Robinson,
lm critic with The Jewish Week
GETT
TEANECK CINEMAS
Discussion with Rabbi Jeremy Stern,
Executive Director, Organization for the Resolution of Agunot
SUPER WOMEN
Discussion with Boris Fishman, author of A Replacement Life
KAPLEN JCC ON THE PALISADES
WAYNE YMCA
THURSDAY, MARCH 12 | 7:30PM
CUPCAKES
KOLO KLUB, HOBOKEN

Young Professionals Event
ZERO MOTIVATION
Discussion with Bur Ashrov,

Captain (Res.) in the IDF Spokespersons Unit
Thank you to
our sponsors
Between 89th and 90th
THE GREEN PRINCE
KAPLEN JCC ON THE PALISADES

Discussion with counterterrorism
expert Olivier Guitta,
Managing Director at GlobalStrat
LESLIE BILLET, ISRAEL FILM FESTIVAL CHAIR
DANIT SIBOVITS
DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR ISRAEL ENGAGEMENT
DANITS@JFNNJ.ORG | 201-820-3907
PURCHASE TICKETS ONLINE
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Mitchell First continues his sleuthing
of spellings and historical clues in
Esther Unmasked.
Avi & Shneur

FASKOWITZ
Exploring
mysteries
present
Passover Director
DAILY
LIVE MUSIC
DAVID GROSS
JONATHAN
RIMBERG
JEFF BRAVERMAN
By World Famous
from Nafshenu
Orchestra
Host
Local scholar
unearths clues
to textual and
historical questions
ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN
7 1 8 - 9 69 - 9 1 0 0 | i n f o @ m a j e s t i c r e t r e a t s . c
om | www.majesticretreats.com
Was Purim heroine Esther a real person

or a figment of the Jewish imagination?
According to Teanecks Mitchell First,
Queen Esther and King Achashverosh
can be identified with the Queen Amestris and King Xerxes Greek historians
have mentioned.
How he reaches this conclusion is
outlined in his newest book, Esther
Unmasked: Solving Eleven Mysteries of
the Jewish Holidays and Liturgy, published by Kodesh Press, released this
week just in time for the annual Yeshiva
University book sale that continues
through February 23.
Ten of the essays in this heavily
researched anthology have already been
published in earlier forms in such periodicals as Hakirah, Biblical Archaeology
Review, AJS Review, and Journal for the
Study of the Old Testament, as well as
online at seforim.blogspot.com.
Several of Mr. Firsts articles are the
first of their kind, no pun intended.
Especially groundbreaking are his
identification of Esther in secular
sources; the origins of the fast (taanit)
of Esther; his discovery of an alternative

Hebrew spelling of the famous phrase
ltaken olam from the Aleinu prayer,
usually cited as a source of the modern
Jewish value of tikkun olam, repairing
the world, and the implications of his
finding that the order of the Hebrew letters ayin and peh were reversed in
ancient Israel.
Mr. First, an attorney by profession
and a Jewish historian by avocation and
academic training, says that it took a village to produce the book. That village
is populated by fellow members of the
townships Congregation Beth Aaron,
where he often has lectured on his studies over the last two decades with the
encouragement of its former spiritual
leader, Rabbi Ephraim Kanarfogel, and
now by Rabbi Laurence Rothwachs.
If I lived on an island, I could never
have accomplished any of this, he said,
naming the most influential Beth Aaron
contributors to his research and the
development of his ideas as Sam Borodach, Rabbi Moshe ( Jordan) Yasgur,
Rabbi Ezra Frazer, Rabbi Mordy Friedman (now in Israel), Meylekh Viswanath,
and Allen Friedman.
Local
Rabbi Yasgur walked home from
shul with me for years and was willing
to listen to me ramble on about the origin of Taanit Esther, no matter what
season it was in the Jewish year, Mr.
First said. He also shared his own varied and creative insights and tremendous library with me.
His curiosity about the authentic
wording of Aleinu was piqued when he
happened to sit in a pew next to Yehiel
Levy one day and saw that Mr. Levys
Yemenite prayer book contained a different spelling of ltaken olam.
A talk by Rabbi Rothwachs is what
motivated Mr. First to research the
Mishnaic interpretation of the phrase
Arami oved avi from the Passover
Haggadah. That is in the book, too.
Beth Aaron members sometimes
pointed me to articles and sources that
I was not aware of, and it was always
beneficial to hear their different perspectives on whatever issue I was working on, he said.
Esther Unmasked has a preface
by Rabbi Hayyim Angel, the national
scholar at the Institute for Jewish Ideas
and Ideals at Yeshiva University.
Mitchell First forthrightly questions several basic traditional Jewish
assumptions and demonstrates why
they often lack a sound foundation,
Rabbi Angel wrote in the preface. He
then combines extensive research into
primary sources, the contributions of
other contemporary scholars, and his
own original ideas to build stronger
structures in the pursuit of truth.
Mr. First, whose earlier book, the
1997 Jewish History in Conflict, dealt
with rabbinic chronology, says he did
not set out to produce a book about
mysteries. Many Beth Aaron congregants, however, said that they had wondered about the same questions he was
researching and speaking about at shul.
Turning each oral presentation into a
fully footnoted essay took another four
to six months.
I was just fortunate to be able to find
the time and have the necessary scholarly background to delve into these topics; I have a masters degree in Jewish
history from YUs Bernard Revel Graduate school, Mr. First, who earned his
law degree at Columbia University,
said. Because I am not an academic, I
had no deadlines and was not forced to
publish prematurely. This gave me the
patience to come up with strong, wellresearched answers to the mysteries.
The identity puzzle to which the
books title refers rests on the general assumption that Esthers name
does not appear in secular sources.
Mr. First found that by the mid-19th
century, scholars agreed that Achashverosh was the king whom the Greeks
called Xerxes. But the identification of
Esther with Amestris, Xerxes queen
as described by Herodotus, was rarely
suggested because of certain passages

in Herodotus that made the identification problematic.
What I discovered is that it is very
easy to identify her with Esther,
Mr. First said. The name essentially
matches MSTR vs. STR; the is at the
end of Amestris is just a suffix added
by the Greeks. On close analysis, the
difficulties raised by the passages in
Herodotus are easily surmountable.
Before so many sources were available online, Mr. First spent many Sundays in the libraries of Yeshiva University and the Jewish Theological
Seminary. These days, YU will email
scholarly articles for free, and there
are websites devoted to developments
in Jewish scholarship, such as thetalmudblog.wordpress.com and genizah.
Mr. First, an
attorney by
profession and a
Jewish historian
by avocation
and academic
training, says
that it took a
village to
produce
the book.
org, the latter containing fragments
from the Cairo Genizah that shed light
on early liturgical versions.
In addition to written resources, he also
emailed professors across the world with
specific questions. Most have responded
and been very helpful, he said.
His most surprising discovery concerned the authentic spelling of the
famous phrase in Aleinu. His research
led him to understand that the prayer
originally referred not to repairing
the world under divine sovereignty but
to establishing a world under divine
sovereignty. Tikkun olam may be a
widespread concept in Judaism, but it
is not found in Aleinu, he concluded.
In addition to the subjects mentioned
above, the book examines the origin of
the word mechilah (forgiveness); the
meaning of the cryptic Mishnaic statement Ani Ve-Ho, recited in the Sukkot liturgy; the meaning of the names
Maccabee and Chashmonai in relation to Chanukah; what may have motivated the Syrian-Greek king Antiochus
to issue harsh decrees against the Jews,
and the early wording of the Haggadahs Four Questions. (Spoiler: it used
to be three, not four.)
Come Home
for the Holiday.
Have plans for Passover? Consider yourself invited to
Jewish Home Assisted Living, where you can spend the
entire eight days as one of the family. Take part in our
famous gourmet Seder. Read from the Haggadah and
sing favorite Passover melodies with your new-found
friends. Break the matzah and enjoy home made charoset
prepared by one of our very own residents.
Did we mention your family is also welcome to join us
for the Seder? Plus, your eight-day stay with us includes
a cozy studio apartment, delicious Kosher for Passover
meals served in our warm and welcoming dining room,
and a full schedule of intriguing activities. What could
be more inviting?
Make your reservations to join us this Passover by calling
Anette McGarity at 201-666-2370.
A Member of The Jewish Home Family
201.666.2370 www.jhalnj.org
685 Westwood Avenue, River Vale, NJ 07675
Lauren Levant, Executive Director, Jewish Home Assisted Living
Local
Take the Shab-bus

Horizontal Shabbat elevator picks up congregants in North Bergen and Cliffside Park
LARRY YUDELSON
Youve been walking to synagogue every
Shabbat for years. For decades.
Now your shul is closing. Well, merging. But all the services are taking place in
the other partner in the merger, the synagogue thats just a bit stronger than yours,
that has been able to keep a rabbi on its
payroll.
But that synagogue is five miles away.
Five miles is too far for a comfortable
Shabbat morning stroll.
What are you to do?
Are you just going to stay home on
Shabbat?
Are you going to go against your conscience and start driving on the Sabbath?
You raise these concerns with the rabbi
of what would be your new synagogue.
It turns out that the rabbi has been
worrying about the same thing.
It was weighing on my mind, said
Rabbi Shammai Engelmayer of Temple
Israel of Cliffside Park and pending resolution of merger negotiations Beth El of
North Bergen, both Conservative congregations. These people would be left without a shul if we merged, and the merged
shul would be in Cliffside Park.
So Rabbi Engelmayer made you a
suggestion.
What if I could come up with a halachic
alternative that would get you to shul? he
said.
And to convince you that his offer is
legit, he promises to run his proposal by
Rabbi Mayer Rabinowitz of Teaneck, who
is on the faculty at the Jewish Theological
Seminary and until recently a member of
the Conservative movements Committee
on Jewish Law and Standards.
Rabbi Engelmayers idea: A Shabbos
elevator, except instead of going vertically,
it goes horizontally.
A Shabbos elevator, common in Israeli
hotels, is an elevator programmed to run
continuously up and down the building,
stopping at every floor. No one has to press
a button to open the doors.
Since Rabbi Engelmayer cant build a
subway line connecting Hudson and Bergen counties, his horizontal Shabbos elevator is a Shabbos bus. The Shab-bus, as
he calls it, is not, as of now, a bus; its a
six-seat cab with a non-Jewish driver, hired
from a local cab company. Like the Shabbos elevator, which stops on every floor,
the Shab-bus stops at every stop along its
run and waits for two minutes whether
or not anyone is getting on or off. Like an
elevator, it takes the same route and makes
the same stops in both directions. It makes
two runs in the morning, and then two
runs after services.
In coming up with the idea, Rabbi Engelmayer reached back to the days when
he studied in the Orthodox yeshiva that
ordained him.
One of the things we were taught once
which always stuck with me is that theres
no issur no prohibition on going on a
bus on Shabbos. The prohibition is getting
What if I could
come up with
a halachic
alternative
that would get
you to shul?
RABBI SHAMMAI ENGELMAYER
on the bus if nobody else is at the stop, or

getting off if theres no one else on the bus,
and, obviously, paying for it, he said.
Those who ride the bus sing its praises.
I love it. What can I tell you? Myra
Beth Brodsky said. She lives in Guttenberg,
a four-block-wide town in Hudson County
next to North Bergen, and has been a
member of Beth El there since forever.
She walked to Beth El. I like waking,
but its too dangerous to walk from here to
Cliffside Park, she said.
Its very convenient, very comfortable,
and the drivers are exceedingly nice, said

Pearl Sodow, who has lived in Cliffside
Park for 40 years. She and her husband
use the bus now. Before, sometimes they
would walk to synagogue and sometimes
they would drive.
The question of a Shabbos bus has
been a matter of sporadic discussion
among experts in Jewish law over the
decades. In 1930, Rabbi Ben Zion Uziel,
the Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel, told a
rabbi in Bombay that Jews could ride a
trolley to and from synagogue if it were
driven by non-Jews, made no stops specifically to pick up Jewish passengers,
traveled through predominately non-Jewish neighborhoods, and did not require
the Jewish riders to pay a fare or carry
a ticket. Later, however, he reversed this
decision.
Rabbi Uziels ruling was cited in the
1980s in a responsum by the Union for
Traditional Judaism, a group that broke
from the Conservative movement in opposition to its decision to ordain women as
rabbis. (Rabbi Rabinowitz, by contrast,
had advocated for womens ordination on
the Law Committee.) The unions Rabbi
David Novack admitted that a halachic
case could be made, at least in theory,
for permitting a Shabbat bus, but ruled
against it.
More recently, an Orthodox rabbi, Jack
Simcha Cohen, wrote a halachic defense
of the idea in his book Shabbat, The Right
Way: Resolving Halachic Dilemmas. Rabbi
Cohen, who was born in Asbury Park and

died last summer, was rabbi emeritus at
Congregation Aitz Chaim in West Palm
Beach, Florida, the first Orthodox synagogue in Palm Beach County.
Im looking at the greater good, Rabbi
Engelmayer said. Shuls drying up in a
community is a tragedy, especially if there
are people in the community who need to
go to shul. We have people coming now
from North Bergen who hadnt come to
shul in years.
Besides letting people who couldnt
walk come to shul, the Shab-bus service
also provides a safer way to get to shul for
people who are happy to drive on Shabbat, even though they can no longer drive
safely. If I can prevent them from doing
that then that would be wonderful, Rabbi
Engelmayer said.
He would like to expand the service into
Edgewater.
The obstacle, however, is money. The
$100 weekly fee for a cab is a strain on the
synagogues budget. A full van would cost
$300 or more weekly. Thats not the kind
of money we have right now, said Rabbi
Englemayer, who is seeking donors for the
bus.
Meanwhile, the Shab-bus and the
merger with Beth Israel has infused his
congregation with new life on Shabbat
morning.
We used to average 25 people, now we
average around 40, he said. Its really
wonderful to see.
Wouldnt You Feel Better

Knowing Mom or Dad is Well
Cared For While Youre Away?
Relax We Have a Respite Stay Apartment
Waiting at our Weston Assisted Living Residence
When caregivers are unavailable or family members are away,
theres no need to stress about the care of your loved ones.
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Weston Assisted Living Residence.
These accommodations, for seniors who need some help with the tasks
of daily living, are available from 10 days up to two months and provide
a true home away from home amidst luxury surroundings.
To learn more about our short-term respite stays,

call David Rozen at 973-929-2725 and enjoy your stay!
Respite stays at Weston Assisted Living

Apartments include:
A fully decorated and well-equipped apartment
Three delicious meals a day in our elegant dining room
An assistance alert pendant
Wellness Services and access to our professional nursing team
Full range of programs and activities
Transportation to area shopping centers and outings
Concierge service
The Lester Senior Housing Community
Voted Best Choice

in Senior Living
Weston Assisted Living Residence

903-905 Route 10 East, Whippany, NJ
www.jchcorp.org
Owned and Managed by the Jewish Community Housing Corporation of Metropolitan New Jersey
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iSSue DAte:
Buying anything old. One piece or house full.
Visitors at this years Kosher Food and Wine Experience sample the wares.
SigNAture oF APProvAl:
Buying anything old. One piece or house full.

Will Travel. House Calls.
New location, bigger crowds

for Royal Wines kosher
sampling extravaganza
Please
or fax yourAve,
comments
and/orNJoK.
346callPalisade
Bogota,
SigNAture oF APProvAl:
ED PERETZ
Checkup
Checkup Party!
Sunday,
September
Sunday,
March7,15,2008,
8:508:50
amAM
to 1topm1 PM
64 kids, 8 hygienists, 4 doctors,
1 magician, tons of giveaways!
he said. People are more open minded,

interested in trying new products.
Whites are coming back, France is coming back, but more importantly people
are willing to try more.
For those who couldnt make it out,
below is a sampling of new and different
tastes at this years KFWE.
IParty!
f there was a theme for this years
Kosher Food and Wine Experience, it might be Go Big Or Go
Home.
Restaurateurs and winemakers showcased innovations and old favorites at
Royal Wine Corp.s annual extravaganza.
KFWE drew about 2,500 people to New
Yorks Metropolitan Pavilion on Monday,
its biggest crowd yet. Last year, organizers had a yacht docked at Chelsea Piers
to accommodate overflow from the
2,000-plus crowd. After several years at
the Piers, the event moved to the Pavilion this year to accommodate the evergrowing interest.
The atmosphere is more alive, said
Mordy Herzog, Royal Wines executive
vice president. It was great every year,
but theres more room, so people are
more relaxed.
There are five other KFWEs around
the world, in Israel, England, Minnesota, Miami, and Los Angeles, with two
more U.S. additions slated for next year.
But New York is the home turf for Bayonne-based Royal Wine, which marked
its ninth KFWE in the city.
With more than 30 restaurants, caterers, and specialty food stores at the
showcase, food seemed to take the spotlight. But its still a wine show, and Royal
had plenty of wines and spirits to highlight. The trend in kosher wine right now
seems to point to France, according to
Mr. Herzog.
It shows our palates are maturing,
Selection Bokobsa
Chateau La Tonnelle
Sunday, September 7, 2008, 8:50 AM to 1 PM

64 kids, 8 hygienists, 4 doctors,
1 magician, tons of giveaways!
If you have
been to ourParties
office, you always
have seen the
collages
Checkup
fill
up of
happy facesearly,
of Checkup
Parties
past.
so call today to make
Checkupsure
Partiesyour
always family
fill up early,issonot
call today
make
lefttoout.
sure your family is not left out.
See our video on YouTube!
Teaneck Dentist
Drs. Bloch, Gertler and Frohlich
General Dentistry
100 State St., Teaneck, NJ 07666
www.teaneckdentist.com
This cabernet sauvignon and merlot

blend has been aged for 12 months in the
barrel, resulting in a smooth, light fruit
flavor. It retails for $30-$35.
Eau-De-Vie De Figue
The distillation process removes alcohol from brandy and leaves a smooth
flavor. For this five-time distilled
brandy, Bokobsa raised the alcohol content from 37 percent to 45 percent. The
extra distillations have removed much
of the alcohol that scratches the throat
but left a lot of flavor, which comes as
it passes down the throat, said Lionel
Bokobsa, whose family has been making wine since the 1860s. This brandy
has been in development for two years
and will be available for retail in a few
weeks at approximately $35.
If you have been to our office, you have seen the collages of
happy faces of Checkup Parties past.
Checkup Parties always fill up early, so call today to make
Like us on
sure your family is not left out.
Dont miss it! call today! 201-837-3000
Teaneck Dentist
Drs. Bloch, Gertler and Frohlich Elvi Wines
This Spanish winery has been making
General Dentistry
kosher wine since 2003. The Herenza
Semi recently joined its line of Her100 State St., Teaneck, NJ 07666Rioja
enza Riojas. The Semi is aged six months
in oak and at least six months in the botwww.teaneckdentist.com
tle. The Herenza Crianza Rioja is aged
Local
FINE YARNS PATTERNS

Handmade Dolls
Handcrafted Jewelry
two years in oak, while the Herenza Reserve Rioja is

aged three years.
Silverleaf Caterers
Our concept is taking non-meat items and turning
them into a main dish, said Silverleafs David Heisler.
I use it as a challenge.
Silverleaf showcased three unusual dishes to meet
that challenge:
The All American: A hot dog, spicy fries, and
ketchup wrapped in pizza dough.
BBQ Sundae: A scoop of mashed potatoes and
bourbon barbecue pulled brisket topped with gravy
and served in a parfait dish.
Pastrami Chicken Waffle: A pastrami and green
onion waffle triangle with buttermilk fried chicken
topped with a balsamic glaze.
The dishes were specially created for the KFWE and
will soon make their way to Silverleafs menus.
15% OFF
$25 purchase or more
Cannot be combined with
other offers. Exp. 3-2-15
Gift Certificates
381 MAIN ST.

HACKENSACK
428 Hillsdale Ave., Hillsdale, NJ

201-664-4100 www.yarndiva07642.com
Abeles & Heymann

A&H was formed by Leopold Heymann and Oscar
Abeles Mr. Heymanns widow, Sophie, has just
stepped down as the mayor of Closter. The companys
hot dogs can be found in supermarkets across the
country. Its the kosher dog of choice at the Yankees
and Mets ballparks, and also the Teaneck Doghouse.
Co-owner Seth Leavitt of Englewood showed off the
Hillside-based companys new beer- and whiskey-flavored dogs, which have been on the market for about
a year.
We were trying to find a trend we can start, he
said. We thought whiskey and beer infused hot dogs
would be a great alternative to a regular hot dog.
Palisadium
Owner Joseph Abadi has been to KFWE a few times
but this is the first year as an exhibitor. Its a bunch of
people that just want good food, he said. People like
good food with their wines.
The Cliffside Park catering hall, which offers a
glatt kosher menu, showcased chicken lollipops in
spicy mango salsa and a braised short rib and risotto
ball.
Plates have been flying off the table, Mr. Abadi
said early in the evening. We made about 2,500 of
each hors doeuvre and hope we have enough.
NOW U
KOSHER!
Gemstone Catering
Amid the booths of sushi, pastrami, desserts, and
innovatively prepared but otherwise standard dishes
something not typically found on the kosher scene
stood out: Quince Wood Smoked Rocky Mountain
Oysters, aka, bull testicles. Halfway through the night,
Gemstone was sold out of the delicacy.
Cake & Co.

This is the second year at KFWE for Krystina Gianaris,
owner of Teanecks Cake & Co. The excitement of last
year drew her back, she said, and she came with wineinfused desserts created just for this event: chocolate
cake with a merlot-infused custard and a vanilla cake
with a white zinfandel-infused mousse.
Sprinkles
Pareve mocha ice cream, Kedem grape juice sorbet
offered a sweet respite for palates overwhelmed by
savory meats. The Sprinkles team is just happy to
meet people at KFWE, co-owner Ari Hoffman said.
Sprinkles makes pareve ice creams and sorbets from
its Hackensack-based factory for its five stores in the
metro area.
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Local
Menachem and Rena Schnaidman
Rabbi David and Chani Moss
Ari and Sharon Wieder
Rabbi Donny Besser
Maayanot dinner set for March 7

Maayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls in
Teaneck will hold its annual scholarship
dinner on Saturday, March 7, at Congregation Keter Torah in Teaneck. Seven people
will be honored during the evening.
Rena and Menachem Schnaidman will
receive the Keter Shem Tov award for
their commitment to Maayanots mission,
growth, and success. Rena Schnaidman
has been an active Parent Council member, started an early version of the
schools Parnes Hayom program, served
on the Maayanots Middle States Accreditation Committee, and is a supporter of
the schools Adult Education Program.
Menachem Schnaidman has served on
Maayanots executive board, has been
its financial secretary and president, and
has sat on the finance and development

committees.
Chani and Rabbi David Moss will receive
the Amudei Maayanot award for their
commitment to ensuring a Maayanot
education is available to all, regardless
of financial need. He has worked on the
schools annual dinner committee for
many years and is chair of the schools
development committee. She has been a

member of the board and the executive
board, where she is a vice president; she
also chairs both the governance and nominating committees.
Sharon and Ari Wieder are being recognized as Parents of the Year for their devotion to enhancing Maayanots academic
community. Ari Weider has served on the
board and Sharon has been an active Parent Council member, where she served as
vice president for two years. They have
worked together on the schools annual
dinner and recruitment committees.
Rabbi Donny Besser, the schools mashgiach ruchani and Talmud and halacha
teacher, will receive the Teacher of the
Year award.
All funds raised will help underwrite
Maayanots scholarship program, which
awarded more than $1 million to families
in financial need this fiscal year. For information, email Pam Ennis at ennisp@maayanot.org or call (201) 833-4307, ext. 265.
Ben Porat Yosef students attend U.N. ceremony marking Holocaust

Junior high students at Ben Porat Yosef
in Paramus visited the United Nations last
month, where they heard Israeli President
Reuven Rivlin and others mark the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.
In addition to hearing President Rivlin, who delivered part of his speech in
Hebrew, the students listened to presentations by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, Holocaust survivor Jona
Laks, and the Holocaust Educational Trust
ambassador from the United Kingdom,
Charlotte Cohen.
The students were particularly taken
by Mrs. Laks story and message. She
implored them, as part of the next generation, to take seriously their responsibility
never to let this dark chapter in history
repeat itself.
The Holocaust didnt have to happen then, and we have to make sure that
it does not happen in our generation,
sixth-grader Aliza Cohn of Bergenfield

said. We have the responsibility to make
sure of that.
The students were also moved by Ms.
Cohen, 17, who is a youth adviser to the
United Kingdom Holocaust Commission.
She was appointed to that position by Prime
Minister David Cameron. The students felt
Teaneck shul honors Project Ezra guests

Congregation Beth Sholom in
Teaneck welcomed more 50
guests from Project Ezra, an independent, nonprofit grassroots
organization serving the frail
elderly on New Yorks Lower East
Side. More than 30 volunteers,
from ages 6 to 76, helped serve
lunch and spend time with the
guests. Entertainment was by the
Bergen County chapter of HaZamir: the International Jewish High
School Choir, as well as Cantor
Estelle Epstein, Glenn Shepard,
and Rabbi Ned Soltz.
empowered listening to a person close to

their own age speak in front of a large audience about tolerance, acceptance, and the
significance of education in countering negative stereotypes and impressions.
Attending this ceremony gave the students a sense of history and also inspired
them to realize their own ability to impact
the world. It was amazing to sit in the

same room where so many important
decisions happened in our history, to
hear how people sympathize with the history of the Jewish people, and to gain an
understanding of how we can make a difference, eighth-grader Ariel Chechik of
Bergenfield said.
Local
Holocaust memorial observance
needs candle-lighting families
The Jewish Community Council of Greater
Teaneck will hold its annual observance of
Yom Hashoah on Thursday, April 16, at 7:30
p.m. at Teaneck High School. The keynote
speakers, Nancy and Howard Kleinberg,
met in Bergen-Belsen, where Nancy saved
Howards life. For up-to-date information on
the memorial, go to www.teaneckyomhashoa.org. A reception for survivors and their
families will be held at 6.
The Holocaust Commemoration Committee is looking for six families to serve as

candle lighters in the program. To qualify,
there must be representatives of three generations, including a survivor, from each
family who are willing and able to participate. For information and to participate,
call Regina Koenig at (201) 387-1511 or email
regimk325@aol.com.
Friends of IDF to hear

wounded copter pilot
The New Jersey chapter of Friends of the IDF will gather
on Thursday, February 19, at 8 p.m. at Congregation
Bnai Tikvah in North Brunswick. Noam Gershony, a
veteran of the second Lebanon war, who won a gold
medal in wheelchair tennis at the 2012 Paralympics, is
the guest speaker. He was severely wounded while serving as an Israel Defense Forces Apache helicopter pilot.
Today, Mr. Gershony travels the world, sharing his
triumphs, and serving as an inspiration. The shul is at
1001 Finnegan Lane. For information, email FIDFs New
Jersey director, Howard Gases, at Howard.Gases@fidf.
org, or call him at (646) 274-9650.
Presidents Day service will feature

Gettysburg Address in Hebrew
Temple Emanuel of North Jersey will
hold its second annual Presidents Day
service on Monday, February 16, at 8:30
a.m., followed by breakfast. The traditional service will include the Gettysburg
Address, translated into Hebrew, set to
haftarah trope, and chanted, in tribute
to the prophetic quality and moral clarity of Lincolns words and leadership.
Mayor Paul Aronsohn of Ridgewood,
State Senator Loretta Weinberg, Bergen
County Freeholder David Ganz, Bergen
County Freeholder Tracy Silna Zur, NJ
State Assemblyman Robert Auth, and
Mayor Steven Fulop of Jersey City all
are expected to be at the service. Robert
Yudin, the chair of the Bergen County
Republican Organization, and that bodys
executive director, Karen OShea, will be
The shuls Torahs adorned in red,

white, and blue.
there as well. Guests will offer greeting at

the breakfast or take roles in the service
itself.
Keep us informed
Noam Gershony

COURTESY FIDF
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RACHAEL AND DOV EISENBERGER
young leadership award
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Editorial
Vaccinate your kids
e understand why some

parents are afraid of getting
their children vaccinated.
First, its unpleasant. It
scares small children, and it hurts them, and
sometimes they run low-grade fevers for the
next day or so, and it makes them crabby. Children come to distrust their doctors and their
offices because they get hurt there. All in all,
its an experience parents would like to avoid.
Secondly, although the myth that vaccines
cause autism has been roundly debunked, it
lingers (particularly because often, and coincidentally, symptoms of autism surface just
around the time children are vaccinated).
There is so much that is unpredictable and

scary about raising children. Having a child
turn out somehow to be off is a huge fear.
It is better to blame it on an outside experience, something pushed on you, than it is to
think that its in your genes, or in your environment, or somehow in your stars.
Thirdly, few of us and certainly no one
young enough to have a child young enough
to vaccinate remember how serious measles
could be. We have no innate fear of it. So its
spotty. Big deal. Stay out of school a few days,
try not to scratch, and its over. The truth that
measles can kill, and can leave some of its living victims brain-damaged, seems like a scare
Jewish experiences
irst, please permit me to write in the

first person. I could say that we have
had a busy weekend going from one
extraordinary Jewish experience
to the other and that would be accurate,
because my husband went with me but the
implied we of that sentence sounds more grandiose than is good for me. (Or for us.)
Assuming that permission is granted, please
let me tell you about my weekend.
From Friday night to motzei Shabbat, my
husband and I joined 350 others at the Shabbaton at Congregation Beth Sholom in Teaneck.
You may say that the Conservative movement, to which Beth Sholom belongs, is in
great trouble. United Synagogue, which speaks
for its shuls, is ever-shrinking and seems incapable of attracting any but the most unfavorable publicity; Koach, its college program, was
discontinued, and USY, its jewel, has gotten
itself into trouble over a clumsily worded statement about interdating.
But none of that resonates in any way at
Beth Sholom.
The Shabbaton offered three time slots
for classes. Altogether, including sessions for
kids, there were 48 separate meetings. Each
one was taught by a shul member. And the
wild profusion of riches overwhelmed. Andy
Silow-Carroll on Jewish jokes. Rabbi Eliezer
Diamond on irony in Talmud. Rabbi Rebecca
Sirbu on the makeup of the Jewish community.
Dr. Benjamin Sommer on the biblical origins of
Jewish
Standard
1086 Teaneck Road
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James L. Janoff
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Marcia Garfinkle
kabbalistic theory. Dr. Eitan Fishbane on mysticism. Rabbi Cathy Felix on Jews in the Civil War.
And that, by the way, was a random list of
offerings.
Shabbat included performances by the childrens choir, Tziporei Shalom, as well as one
by the adults, and a song they sang together. It
ended with four personal stories, each extraordinarily moving, culminating in Irina Katzs
personal story of leaving the Soviet Union,
going first to Israel and then to Fair Lawn. We
all sat open-mouthed, barely breathing as she
spoke.
Every shul claims to be warm and welcoming; that is, in fact, practically a mantra, voiced
even by places that are frigidly off-putting.
Beth Sholom truly is those things, and intellectually and spiritually compelling as well.
That was my first weekend experience.
Next came the panel at Bnai Jeshurun in
Manhattan, which attracted many people from
this side of the river to listen to second-wave
Jewish feminists Judith Plaskow and Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Orthodox feminist Elana Sztokman, Orthodox Rabba Sara Hurwitz, and Stern
Colleges Professor Joy Ladin, the first (and I
assume the only) openly transgender woman
to teach at an Orthodox institution, among
many others.
It provided a wide-ranging exposure to ideas
being widely discussed, debated, even fiercely
argued in the Jewish world right now.
Last, we went to the dinner honoring the
Editor
Joanne Palmer
Associate Editor
Larry Yudelson
Guide/Gallery Editor
Beth Janoff Chananie
About Our Children Editor
Heidi Mae Bratt
jstandard.com
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Warren Boroson
Lois Goldrich
Abigail K. Leichman
Miriam Rinn
Dr. Miryam Z. Wahrman
Advertising Director
Natalie D. Jay
Business Manager
Robert Chananie
Classified Director
Janice Rosen
tactic, even though its the truth.

But the unpleasantness passes quickly, vaccines do not cause autism, and measles do kill.
It is a Jewish value to take care of yourself
and your children, and of the larger community. In this case, although the effort is made
to put those two at odds with each other a
parents right not to vaccinate is at war with
the communitys right to herd immunity that
is not right. Parents have the responsibility not
to fall for anti-science conspiracy theories that
tell them that to vaccinate their children is to
give in to some outlandish plot. Parents have a
responsibility to themselves, to their children,
and to their community that demands that
they vaccinate their children.
We hope that our community takes that
JP
responsibility to heart.
Sinai Schools. The Sinai program takes students with disabilities and places them in
mainstream Jewish schools while educating
them using programs tailor-made for each
child. It is an extraordinary model, inclusive as
appropriate and separate as necessary, done
with love, care, and a huge amount of thought.
The expertly made videos shown throughout the presentation which was mercifully
short and therefore breathtakingly tasteful
were particularly moving because they managed the difficult balance between kindness
and sugarcoating. The videos did not downplay the difficulties, but they gave hope.
Perhaps the most heartrending of all the
wrenching videos was the story of Nathaniel
Richman Cohen, who died in 2007, when he
was 21. Nathaniel had suffered from Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a progressive disease that doomed him to an early death. His
parents knew that, but they never gave up
on him. They fought for him and loved him.
Sinai Schools helped Nathaniel get meaning,
purpose, friendship, community, and structure, just as it does for all its students. Just as
any good school does.
The dinner drew together a huge range
of people, mainly but not exclusively from
the local Orthodox world. In fact, you could
make the argument that the dinner itself
modeled on a small scale the inclusion/separateness dynamic that makes the school so
strong.
Three communities. Each different, each
strong, each proud, each wonderful.
-JP

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KEEPING THE FAITH
The media
is not the
message,
its the mess
opping the news this year,

and especially this week, is
the news.
That is not good news
for anyone, because we depend on
the media to be the great safeguards
of democracy.
The recent Ebola scare is an excellent example. For several weeks,
Ebola-related reports dominated
the news, including such broadcast
come-ons as how to avoid contracting Ebola on subways and in elevators at 11.
News outlets knew there that
was no possibility of an Ebola epidemic, and every story carried a
throwaway line saying so, but the
barrage of Ebola-related stories and
how they were played or displayed
scared so many people that nearly
40 percent of Americans feared an
Ebola outbreak was imminent. That,
wrote Maggie Fox, a senior health
writer for NBC News, on NBCs website, might be our fault. Us, as in
the news media, and the entertainment media.
The Ebola scare was good for ratings, which translates into profits.
In the news business, business is
business.
We often see this when it comes
to weather reporting and I do not
mean the recent mostly responsible warnings about a monster
storm. I refer, instead, to the kind
of broadcast come-ons used in the
Ebola scare: Theres a hurricane
in the forecast at 11; A stormy
Shammai Engelmayer is rabbi of
Temple Israel Community Center
| Congregation Heichal Yisrael in
Cliffside Park and Temple Beth El
of North Bergen.
Founder
Morris J. Janoff (19111987)
Editor Emeritus
Meyer Pesin (19011989)
City Editor
Mort Cornin (19151984)
Editorial Consultant
Max Milians (1908-2005)
Secretary
Ceil Wolf (1914-2008)
Editor Emerita
Rebecca Kaplan Boroson
Opinion
commute in the mornreporter for the Assoing for some at 11.
c iated Press, Matti
Too often, a hurricane is
Friedman, the article
in the forecast, but it is
exposed how outright
so far offshore that the
hostility towards Israel
only thing we will expe and Jews at the AP
rience is some mild rain.
and other major media
As for that stormy comresults in routine dismute, it will happen
tortions and false
Shammai
somewhere else.
reporting that demonEngelmayer
izes Israel and fuels the
Then there is the
growing anti-Israel and
Brian Williams news
anti-Semitic sentiment
cycle circus. The NBC
Nightly News anchor and managing in most of the world.
If there had been such a thing as
editor was caught in a 12-year-old lie
meant to augment his credibility as a news reporting 2,000 years ago, it
fearless reporter that he was on a is almost certain that the majority
Chinook helicopter that took fire in of sages of blessed memory would
Iraq in 2003. He was an hour away have advocated for a free press. They
from the attack. Williams has been also would have insisted, however,
suspended without pay for six months that this free press report only that
which people need to know, that all
by NBC News.
Hyped-up come-ons and souped- the facts be presented without spin,
up reporting creds are not the most and that the report be true in all its
dangerous concern, however. High in particulars.
According to the Babylonian Talthe news recently and especially in
the last week, as the number of cases mud tractate Pesachim 118a, those
climbed above 100, including the most who spread untruths and those
recent addition of a 1-year-old Jersey who encourage them to do so by
City child is the current measles out- listening to them, and by extenbreak, which began in December.
sion by reading them, deserve to
Measles was supposed to be just a be thrown to the dogs, rabbinic
bad distant memory in the United hyperbole meant to emphasize the
States. That it may be making a come- seriousness of lashon hara, evil
back, we are told by nearly every speech. The hyperbole was drawn
responsible source, is because an from this Shabbats Torah reading.
increasing number of parents have Exodus 22:30 ends with you shall
refused to allow their children to be cast it to the dogs, while the next
vaccinated. They base their objections verse (23:1) begins with, You must
mainly on a 1998 study that was pub- not carry false rumors.
lished in the British medical journal
Another principle of Jewish law is
the Lancet. The study of just 12 chil- lifnei iver, or the placing of a stumdren purported to show a correlation bling block before the blind. This prinbetween the measles vaccine (which ciple and the category of sinful behavalso protects against mumps and ior it spawned derive from Leviticus
rubella, or German measles) and 19:14, which warns us not to put a
stumbling block before the blind.
autism.
This is a general principle that goes
The study was under attack from
the time it was published. In 2010, it beyond its simple meaning. As the
was proven an elaborate fraud, as Babylonian sage Samuel said, one
another British medical journal, BMJ, application of the verse is that it is
put it following its own investigation forbidden to deceive people (see BT
in 2011. Nevertheless, as BMJ said in tractate Chulin 94a). Using truth to
an editorial, the damage to public distort the truth (theres a storm in
health continues, in part fueled by the forecast; the vaccine controversy) is putting a stumbling block
unbalanced media reporting.
There is no vaccine controversy. before the blind. This principle goes
The measles vaccine does not cause hand in hand with another halachic
autism in anyone. That is the only principle that derives from the same
thing the media should report. It is verse gneivat daat, or the stealing
just not what sells newspapers and of knowledge.
spikes broadcast ratings. Anti-vacBy not reporting accurately, the
cine proponents continue to per- consumers of news are being denied
petuate the autism myth virtually all the facts they need to make an
unchallenged in print and on the air. informed decision.
Equally dangerous or perhaps
President Thomas Jefferson, a
even more so because of the role it staunch advocate of a free press,
surely plays in keeping peace from believed newspapers should base
breaking out between Israelis and themselves on true facts and sound
Palestinians is the story told in principles only.
an article recently published by
He added, wistfully, Yet I fear such
online in Tablet. Written by a former a paper would find few subscribers.
Morning blessings in the handwritten 1471 siddur.
COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY OF JTS
Who am I? Who am I not?
raised are You, Lord our

not create her a man. We cannot tell from these
God, Ruler of the Unibooks if these formulations were widely used.
verse, Who has made me
After all, these texts were intended as gifts for
a woman and not a man.
women who could read, presented by people
This radical reformulation of one of the most
who could afford to hire a scribe.
controversial of the series of morning benedicBoth the time and the place are worthy of
tions that are incorporated into
mention because women in
the daily Jewish liturgy is not the
Renaissance Italy, including Jewish women, had more promiproduct of second-wave feminism. It is much older.
nence and power than they did in
We find it in a manuscript sidsome other parts of Europe. The
dur written in Ferrara, Italy, in
time is just before the advent of
1471 by Rabbi Abraham Farissol
Hebrew printing, which standardized texts, making it unlikely that
(1451-1525), a well-known scholar.
anyone would scribe a siddur just
Actually, there are two such manuscripts, one in the Jewish Theoto have an innovative text. Paralogical Seminary Library in ManAnne Lapidus
doxically, in our digital age we
Lerner
hattan and the other in the Jewish
are able easily to personalize our
National and University Library
texts, creating family and group
in Jerusalem. Both were written
haggadot and grace-after-meals
by Farissol, and both include this somewhat
booklets, perhaps even siddurim.
unusual formulation. Further, there is a less wellHow could this proto-feminist formulation be
documented prayer book, written for a woman
recorded in a traditional siddur? Famously, Jewish men praise God for not having created them
in Shuadit, a Judeo-Provencal dialect, that
women, while women praise God for having
praises God for having created her a woman,
without mentioning that in so doing God did
SEE WHO AM I? PAGE 41
Opinions expressed in the op-ed and letters columns are not necessarily those of the Jewish Standard.
The Jewish Standard reserves the right to edit letters. Be sure to include your town.
Email jstandardletters@gmail.com. Handwritten letters will not be printed.
Opinion
An inconvenient text
magine discovering that someone

you trust a colleague, mentor,
close friend, or relative has been
less than honest with you.
Even if it was a minor deception, you
would feel hurt and angry. Imagine further
that you gather up the courage to confront
the person. But when pressed to explain,
he offers a patronizing and somewhat
sanctimonious defense: My actions were
completely justified. I had my reasons.
Yes, I could have been more transparent,
but why wouldnt you trust me? If you
must have an explanation, here it is . . .
The explanation is lawyerly and contrived. Still, you hold out hope that this
was a lapse in judgment by someone generally trustworthy. But as you examine this
persons past behavior, a pattern emerges
of deliberate omissions and half-truths.
This scenario may sound familiar to
followers of an unfolding chapter in the
world of Jewish books.
ArtScroll Mesorah Publications is releasing an updated version of Mikraot Gedolot (the Torah with commentaries). The
new edition features vowelized and punctuated versions of the most important
medieval commentaries, such as Rashi,
Abraham Ibn Ezra, and Nahmanides,
making them more accessible to general

readers.
In at least one instance, however,
ArtScrolls editorial reach extended
beyond formatting. As Marc B. Shapiro
recently revealed on the Seforim Blog,
the publisher deleted comments by Rabbi
Samuel ben Meir (Rashbam) without alerting its readers. Later, ArtScroll defended
the move.
Rashbam was a grandson of Rashi. Like
Rashi, Rashbam belonged to the eleventh
and twelfth-century school of exegesis
centered in northern France, which was
inclined toward peshat or simple reading of Scripture, and de-emphasized the
deeper but less contextual midrashic style
(derash). But while Rashi tends to present peshat alongside derash, Rashbam was
dedicated exclusively and almost fanatically to peshat, often criticizing his grandfather for veering too far from the plain
sense of the verse.
The lines missing from the ArtScroll edition are from Rashbams commentary to
Genesis 1:4-5, on the phrase and there
was an evening, and there was a morning,
one day. The Talmud cites these words
to support the halachic view that the day
begins at sundown. But Rashbam reads the
peshat as follows: There was

an evening (at the conclusion
of daytime) and a morning
(at the end of night), one
day; that is, the day begins
in the morning and lasts until
the next daybreak.
It goes without saying that
Rashbam did not intend to
David S.
undermine Jewish practice
Zinberg
he was a leading Talmudist
and known for his extreme
piety. Still, his contemporary
Ibn Ezra wrote a scathing critique of this
exegesis, motivated largely by sectarians
who actually began the Sabbath in the
morning.
In a written reply to inquiries about the
apparent censorship (see Seforim Blog),
ArtScroll claims that what it removed was
inauthentic. It offers some unconvincing technical reasons for this conclusion,
but the thrust of the argument is ideological: If Ibn Ezra considered the interpretation heresy, how could Rashbam have
authored it?
As Shapiro shows, no serious scholar
questions the authenticity of the deleted
passages. In fact, several great Jewish
thinkers the Lubavitcher rebbe among
them grappled with this

Rashbam without dismissing
it as a forgery.
(On the subject of heresy,
note that Ibn Ezra himself
was roundly condemned for
his non-Talmudic interpretations and accused of providing fodder for heretics;
he was Spinozas favorite
exegete.)
ArtScrolls erasure of
Rashbams words can only
be described as ideologically motivated
censorship.
For all its great accomplishments,
it turns out that ArtScroll has a history of blatant censorship and subtle
misrepresentation.
Several years ago, Artscroll published
a translation of Ha-Moadim Ba-Halakhah, Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevins popular work on the festivals. At one point
in the book, the author made an offhand
remark expressing gratitude for the State
of Israel. ArtScroll excised this line from
the translation, and when challenged,
publicized a bizarre statement claiming
that Rabbi Zevin eventually changed his
opinion about the state. (The evidence
A view from the pew

American/Israeli relations need a definite warming trend
nn and I are spending the

month of February in Jerusalem, where the weather is
sunny and warm and the politics are hot and cloudy.
Unlike my last trip to Israel in December, with the board of the Jewish Council
for Public Affairs, where I met with political, religious, and nonprofit leaders, we
are here this month with no agenda of
meetings and are spending our time with
friends. Some are sabras and others are
Americans who have made aliyah. My
personal lens into the political campaign
now being waged admittedly is limited.
However, from both my personal discussions and my reading of the Israeli
press it is clear to me, as I am sure it is to
those of you who are following the election campaign from the United States,
that Israelis are united in their desire to
seek leaders who can guide them toward
peace with prosperity and security, while
deeply divided over which if any of the
political parties can lead them in that
direction.
Israelis also are concerned about the
growing gap between the rich and poor.
As in America, the benefits of 21st century prosperity have been limited. An
An ever-growing
percentage of
Israeli Jews live
at or below the
poverty level and
a growing
segment of the
Israeli middle
class feels itself
priced out of the
housing market.
ever-growing percentage of Israeli Jews
live at or below the poverty level and a
growing segment of the Israeli middle
class feels itself priced out of the housing market.
One difference between my discussions in December and today is that many
of my friends, as well as many Israelis in
general, according to the news reports on
roots, as well as its Ameriboth television and in print,

can fundraising offices, are
are very concerned about
in Teaneck. The One Famthe political fallout from
ily Fund center is a place
Prime Minister Netanyahus
where victims of terror and
planned speech to Congress
their family members come
next month. Israelis are
for a vast spectrum of activikeenly aware that the United
ties and services. While
States is the only friend they
the Israeli medical system
can count upon to support
Rabbi Neal
does the best job possible
them in both the internaBorovitz
tional political arena and
in repairing and healing the
with the military materials
bodies of terror victims, it is
that this miraculous but still
One Family Fund and other
small nation state cannot produce itself.
groups that share its mission that is quietly doing the harder and more longTherefore, I hear from friends that their
term work of healing the spirits and the
vote in the March 17 election will be influenced not only by whom they believe can
souls of terror victims and their families.
best deal with the Palestinian question
From the individual and group therapy
and the threats of ISIS and Iran, but also
programs to the social programs it facilitates, One Family Fund is using the dolwho can maintain and strengthen the
lars it raises in America effectively and
America-Israel alliance.
efficiently in renewing the lives of those
I could easily end this column here,
who have been torn by terror.
with a cry of Oy gevalt! To do so, however, would be telling only half the story.
Israel is an imperfect nation-state and
Despite all the problems, Israel remains
a vibrant democracy. There, the old clich of two Jews, three opinions rings
a loving family, despite its often loud and
true. I hope that the next government,
angry quarrels.
which like all governments since 1948 will
I experienced a moving example of this
be formed through a coalition of parties
love when I visited the Jerusalem program center of One Family Fund, whose
that will form after the election, will play
Letters
Where are the men?
shows otherwise.)
In its translation and commentary on Song of Songs,
ArtScroll misrepresents Rashi.
Rashi reads the Song allegorically, in traditional fashion. But in the introduction
to his commentary, Rashi
argues explicitly for a twotiered approach to the book
that first addresses the plainsense, contextual peshat an
approach he implements in
his commentary. Drawing support for their unusual translation said to be allegorical,
based on Rashis commentary ArtScroll quotes nearly
all of Rashis introduction, but
omits the most critical section, about the peshat underlying the Songs allegory. From
reading ArtScrolls rendition
of the Song, you would never
know about the peshat layer in
Rashis commentary.
By taking such editorial liberties, ArtScroll undermines
its own credibility and underestimates its readership. I am
confident that most of its readers prefer to judge primary

texts for themselves, before
they end up on the cutting
room floor.
There is much more at stake
here than the integrity of Rashbams commentary. Weighing the truth against its own
perception of piety, ArtScroll
chose the latter. It now asks its
readers to do the same. But no
religious person should ever
be put in that position. The
dichotomy between religion
and reality is a false one, and
the idea that one must choose
between truth and piety violates both.
None of this minimizes
ArtScrolls major contributions to the Jewish community.
But it can do better. ArtScrolls
readers deserve better. We can
handle the truth.
better together and last longer

than the last coalition. While
this remains an unknown,
what we do know is that the
next Knesset will represent
the breadth of Israeli opinion, including Israeli Arab
citizens. What is also clear to
me from my street-level view
of Israel this month is that
Israelis are willing to wrestle
with the social, political, and
economic challenges they are
facing. They see this election
as an opportunity to do that.
Sitting in Paris in the midst
of an anti-Semitic uprising
120 years ago, Theodor Herzl
wrote The Jewish State,
outlining his vision for what
became the Zionist movement. Herzl envisioned a Jewish state that would protect
the equal rights of its nonJewish inhabitants and would
be a source of pride and protection to Jews who chose to
continue to live in the Diaspora. His dream has not yet
been achieved, but in partnership with our Israeli brothers
and sisters we still have the
responsibility and the opportunity to work toward its
fulfillment.
The weather in Northern
New Jersey, like the relationship between the governments of Israel and America,
has been unusually cold this
month. While we cannot do
much about the weather,
through our support of programs like One Family Fund,
we can help lift clouds of tears
from terror victims. As our
Israeli brothers and sisters
go to the polls next month, to
engage in the only democratic
election in the Middle East,
we can commit ourselves
to join hands with them in
encouraging the government
they will elect and our American government to cool their
rhetoric, and to maintain the
warmth of cooperation that
has characterized the AmericanIsrael alliance for the past
66 years.
David Zinberg lives in Teaneck

with his wife and three boys and
works in financial services. His
blog is Realia Judaica.
Rabbi Neal Borovitz is rabbi

emeritus of Temple Avodat
Shalom in River Edge and past
chair of the Jewish Community
Relations Council of the Jewish
Federation of Northern New
Jersey.
I wish to state my disagreement with your feature article

on feminism and the Jewish community (Who stood
at Sinai? February 6). Contrary to articles premise,
there have been some negative effects in the Jewish
community.
First of all, partly because of feminist deprecation of
child rearing, we have shrinking numbers in the Jewish
community. More and more Jews are choosing not to
have children; if you exclude the modern and charedi
Orthodox communities, the numbers are even worse.
In discussing the triumph of feminism within most of
the Jewish community, this is a problem that should be
discussed.
Secondly, in the world of egalitarian services, there
has been an exodus of men. More and more of these
Shabbat services are becoming more and more female.
As the joke goes, women go to synagogue and men go
to play golf or tennis. If the only emphasis is on kos shel
Miryam, womens services, or breaking the glass ceiling
for women, why should they come?
It seems to me by failing to address any of these problems, the feminist has become as doctrinaire and fundamentalist as charedi Judaism. Indeed, my question
to the author is whether feminism trumps everything,
including a concern for the Jewish future.
Alan Mark Levin, Fair Lawn
Speaking truth to power
With all the hubbub over the politics of Prime Minister

Netanyahus upcoming speech in front of a joint session
of Congress, its time for some simple truths (Beyond
sanctions and kerfuffles, February 6).
First, Iran is ruled by an evil regime bent on spreading its oppressive Islamic ideology throughout the world
by any means, including bloodthirsty violence. Second,
a nuclear-armed Iran poses a danger to the entire civilized world and an existential threat to Israel. Third, the
Iranian regime desperately wants nuclear weapons and
will do whatever it takes to acquire them.
Everyone with me so far?
Fourth, Prime Minister Netanyahu is right about how
to deal with Iran and President Obama is wrong. Okay,
so heres where I may have lost some of you.
According to many leading analysts, including the
editorial staff of the Washington Post, the negotiations
that the Obama administration is conducting with Iran
will, at best, result in an Iran only a few months away
from restarting nuclear weapons production. Iran will
continue spinning centrifuges. Iran will continue hiding
nuclear production facilities deep underground. Iran
and its proxies, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis of
Yemen, will continue spreading their influence throughout the Middle East through terrorism, undeterred by
an acquiescent American president. The deal that the
president is so concerned about unraveling is a raw deal
for America and for Americas Mideast allies, Israel and
the moderate Sunni Arab regimes.
Yes, perhaps Prime Minister Netanyahu and Speaker
Boehner violated protocol by not consulting with the
White House before arranging the prime ministers
speech before a joint session of Congress. (Though
some reports indicate that Boehner had informed the
White House before receiving Netanyahus reply.) Perhaps President Obamas dignity is diminished by a political ploy arranged by the Republican leadership.
Perhaps. But politics and protocol aside, the simple
truth is that the president of the United States is leading
America and the world down a dangerous path. Someone needs to speak the truth to power before its too late.
Rabbi Benjamin Shull
Temple Emanuel of the Pascack Valley, Woodcliff Lake
Reaching the young Muslims
Lee Lasher makes many excellent points in his February 6 op-ed (To end with terrorism, start with
moral clarity), but he contradicts himself when
he begins by complaining about President Obamas
refusal to use the term Islamic terrorism and concludes by saying Death, violence, domination, subjugation, intolerance these are not Islam. They are
not religion but rather the exact opposite.
In fact, Mr. Lashers concluding statement is
exactly correct. It is the key to eradicating this
scourge. It is precisely what Egypts Al-Sisi, Jordans King Abdullah II and President Obama are
saying.
What these leaders recognize is that victory cannot be achieved as long as these groups continue to
find a fertile recruiting ground among young Muslims. The strategy, as Mr. Lasher suggests, is to work
with Muslim leaders to drive a wedge between the
true religion of Islam and the violent groups who
perform atrocities and falsely claim they are acting
in the name of Islam. The goal ultimately is to make
it clear to vulnerable young Muslims that they have
a choice. They can remain a Muslim, or they can be
a violent extremist but they cant be both.
Refusing to use the words Islamic and even
jihadist, replacing them with terms like extremists and terrorists, does not demonstrate a lack of
moral clarity. It is a crucial part of the only strategy
for winning this war.
David Teitelbaum, Fair Lawn
Greene was first
Rabbi Steven Sirbu recently wrote, The program

that inspired the format for Rabbi Wallace Greenes
evening of learning was in fact Sweet Tastes of
Torah (Letters, January 30.)
Actually, the opposite is true. For many years,
there was a communal day of learning run out of
the YJCC of Washington Township. Each year, a wellknown scholar would come in to lecture on a theme
chosen by the NJBR (Rabbis Neal Borovitz and Jonathan Woll were prime movers in that effort), followed by break-out sessions taught by local rabbis.
In the weeks that followed, participating synagogues
would run their own programs, based on that years
theme. Unfortunately, the program was being
discontinued.
Rabbi Greene worked for federation then, directing all things educational. I met with him to get his
thoughts on how we could establish an adult Jewish education center of some kind in the federation
catchment area. He smiled, and said he was already
working on something a Saturday night of Jewish
learning, to be held at the old Frisch school building, which was located right off Route 4 West at Forest Avenue in Paramus. it was an immensely successful evening. Unfortunately, despite Rabbi Greenes
best efforts and the evenings extraordinary success,
the program was not continued the following year.
I proposed the program that became Sweet Tastes
of Torah in my last year as president of the NJBR,
based on the format Rabbi Greene used for the
federations night of Jewish learning. My successor, Rabbi Randall Mark, brought it into being, and
put Rabbi David Bockman in charge an excellent
choice, because he has done an amazing job over
the last seven years.
The NJBR should be commended for its dedication
to Sweet Tastes of Torah. Rabbi Greene deserves to
be lauded for starting the ball rolling.
Rabbi Shammai Engelmayer, Teaneck
Cover Story
Vaccinate your kid!

Local Jewish leaders talk about their policies
JOANNE PALMER
abbi Nachman of Bratslav

was a great grandson of the
Baal Shem Tov; he was a chasidic master whose mysticism,
extremism, creativity, asceticism, willfulness, and wild emotional swings from
despair to ecstasy and then always back to
despair make him an almost Byronic figure had Byron, his contemporary, been
a Jew from eastern Europe.
Nachman was thought to be so irreplaceable to his chasidim that they never
did replace him; his spiritual descendants
go to his grave in Uman, an otherwise

obscure Russian town, around Rosh
Hashanah every year, wearing their NaNach-Nachman-Me-Uman kippot as they
brawl noisily around the town.
So why, you might wonder, is Nachman
at the start of a story about vaccines?
Because, according to Joseph Prouser,
rabbi of Temple Emanuel of North Jersey
in Franklin Lakes, Nachman was firmly in
favor of vaccines.
Rabbi Prouser wrote a teshuva, Compulsory Immunization in Jewish Day
Schools, for the Conservative movements
Committee on Jewish Law and Standards.
Published in 2005, it finds that Unless

medically contraindicated for specific
children, in extraordinary and compelling cases, parents have an unambiguous
religious obligation to have their children
immunized against infectious disease
But back to Nachman.
This quote, from Kuntres Hanhagot
Yesharot, paraphrases Nachmans position, referring to him as Our Rabbi, of
blessed memory: We must be exceedingly careful about the health of children,
especially while they are still small. One
should in no way be lax in this matter...
Our Rabbi, of blessed memory, said that
one must vaccinate every baby against

smallpox before the age of three months,
for if he does not do so, he is like one who
sheds blood. And even if one lives far from
the city, one must travel there even if the
season is very cold, etc.
Nachman lived from 1772 to 1811; by that
time, vaccinations against smallpox, possibly the greatest scourge among the many
ghastly diseases that terrorized Europe,
were not particularly new. Nor was the
phenomenon of Jews urging the use of
science to protect themselves against the
threat.
Even before the Englishman Dr. Edward
Cover Story
Jenner introduced the vaccine that protected against smallpox, there was a similar technique, called variolation, which
also involved infecting people with what
was hoped to be a far milder strain of the
disease, giving immunity to those who
survived it. (Not everyone did; the fatality rate, an estimated one in 1,000, was far
higher than anything wed find acceptable
today.)
Rabbi Abraham Nanzig wrote a brief
but impassioned treatise, Aleh Terufah,
Rabbi Prouser tells us. A transplanted
Frenchman living in England, Rabbi Nanzig had lost two children to smallpox by
1785, when he was asked whether it was
permissible for a Jew to use this treatment which, it appears, involves exposure
to a minor risk in order to obviate a great
risk yet to come. Yes, he said. It is right
to draw from both the knowledge of the
sage and the expertise of the physician.
Pilgrims at Uman celebrate at Nachmans grave.
If there is a foreseeable
danger to health or
life, you have an
affirmative obligation
to put preventative
measures in place to
obviate that danger.
RABBI JOSEPH PROUSER
As for the risk One who undergoes this

treatment while still healthy, God will not
consider it a sin. Rather, it is an act of eager
religious devotion, and reflects the commandment to be particularly careful of
your wellbeing (Deuteronomy 4:15).
In fact, Rabbi Prouser added in his teshuva, Rabbi Nanzig reached back one link
on the chain of authentication to cite a colleague, Rabbi Shalom Buzagli, who was
from Fez, Morocco.
A child who had survived smallpox and
was recovering would be given a handful
of raisins, Rabbi Buzagli said. After the
child had clutched them long enough to
warm them, the gooey mass would be
retrieved from that child and given to
another, someone who had not yet had
smallpox. That child ate the raisins. The

hope was that the virus would be etiolated enough at that point to provide
immunity without disease. (The results
were not reported.)
I based that paper around the law of
the parapet, Rabbi Prouser said. Thats
the requirement, from Deuteronomy 22:8,
that a person building a roof had to build a
railing around it to protect against the possibility of someone falling from it. If there
is a foreseeable danger to health or life,
you have an affirmative obligation to put
preventative measures in place to obviate
that danger, he said.
Immunizations, with their proven
track record and safety, are a pharmaceutical parapet. The explicit commandment
studys co-authors removed their names

from it, once they learned that Dr. Wakefield had financial conflicts of interest. In
2010 the Lancet retracted the study if
you google it today, you will find the word
RETRACTED stamped all over it in big
upper-case red letters.
The lack of connection is strongly
endorsed by American groups, including
the American Academy of Pediatrics and
the Centers for Disease Control.
But the damage was done. Parents eager
to find a reason for their childrens autism,
which usually and coincidentally manifests itself clearly at around the same time
the vaccine is given, found comfort and
hope in that study.
Many of the roots of todays vaccine
wars can be found in that study.
I was very sorry that I had written
my paper shortly before the absolute
proof that the link was fraudulent came
out, Rabbi Prouser said. I felt that my
argument was airtight without it but it
would have been even stronger with that
information.
It really is criminally negligent of parents to allow their children to be unvaccinated, he concluded. In addition to the
danger it poses to other children, the danger is most directly to their own children.
Shmuel Goldin, rabbi of Congregation
Ahavath Torah in Englewood, is the immediate past president of the Rabbinical
Council of America, representing Orthodox rabbis.
The RCA and the Orthodox Union
released a joint statement on the issue,
urging parents to vaccinate their children,
based on both science and halacha. The
vaccination of children who can medically be vaccinated is absolutely the only
responsible course of action, it reads.
YAAKOV NAUMI/FLASH90
in the Torah to prevent injuries or death

resulting from foreseeable dangers is
directly applicable to infectious disease
and vaccines today.
Rabbi Prouser addressed the once commonly held theory that vaccines caused
autism. When he wrote his teshuva, good
science already said that it was bad science, but the link was later shown to be
completely fraudulent, he said
The link that Rabbi Prouser mentioned
the connection between autism and
the vaccination for measles, mumps,
and rubella was made by a British
physician, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who
claimed to have performed a 12-subject
study proving it. The results of that 1998
study, which were published in the Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal,
never could be duplicated, despite many
scientists efforts. In 2004, most of the
SEE VACCINATE PAGE 26
We are all affected

by each others health,
so it becomes not
only a parental but a
communal obligation.
RABBI SHMUEL GOLDIN
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To: All Parents of children entering

Nursery, Pre-K, Kindergarten, new stude
While all local day schools cannts, or
6th-grade students,
vassed by the Jewish Standard
adhere to state guidelines on
According to New Jersey State Law,
Chapter 14, all children entering dayc
are centers
vaccination, some school health
or schools are required to have docu
mentation of the following immuniz
ation
s:
professionals are particularly
AGE
S
2-5
YEA
RS
(PRE-KINDERGARTEN)
passionate about the need for
DPT 4 doses
families to comply. (For the
POLIO 3 doses
state guidelines, see sidebar.)
NMR 1 dose after 12 months of age
All kids needs to be immuHIB Age appropriate (at least one dose
after 12 months of age)
nized, said Toby Eizig, the
VARIVAX requirement for all child
ren entering preschool
nurse at Englewoods Moriah
FOR PRESCHOOL
School. There should be no
ANNUAL FLU SHOT BY DECEMB
ER 31 OF EACH YEAR FOR CHILDR
picking or choosing one
EN
6 MONTHS TO 59 MONTHS.
from column a and one from
column b. Ive sent letters
PNEUMOCOCCAL CONJUGATE
VACCINE FOR CHILDREN
2 TO 59 MONTHS OF AGE.
home saying students dont
have a certain vaccine and
AT KINDERGARTEN ENTRY
unless they have it as of a cerDPT 4 to 5 doses (one given after the
4th birthday)
tain date, they may not attend
POLIO 3 or 4 doses (one after the 4th
birthday)
school.
MMR 2 doses (the first given after age
12 months)
Believing that these vacHEPATITIS B 3 doses (one month betw
een the first and second dose, third dose
5-6
months later)
cines are used with the best
interests of children in mind
STUDENTS ENTERING 6TH GRA
[that] there are illnesses that
DE
can be eradicated [and that]
Students born on or after January 1,
1997, and enrolled in Grade 6 or trans
some of these illnesses can
ferring
into a New Jersey school from another
state or country are to receive one dose
of
have devastating effects, Ms.
meningococcal vaccine.
Eizig said she does not underStudents born on or after January 1,
stand why parents would opt
1997, and enrolled in Grade 6 or trans
ferring into
a New Jersey school from another state
not to have their children
or country are to receive one booster
dose of
the Tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis
(Tdap) vaccine.
vaccinated.
Kids with medical exemp1) Please comply by having all imm
unizations required in place for the begi
nning of
tions need ironclad reasons
the school year.
for opting out of vaccina2) All documentation provided must
tions, she said, citing, for
be a copy of an official immunization
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carrol/BB
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Jersey
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students and parents.
ter inDay
of Bergen
replicated
a similarSchool
version,
without approval from North
Jersey
Media Group.nurse Debbie MenCounty,
deloff also stressed the imporRuth Roth, the director of admisGenerally, she asks parents to have
tance of vaccinations, pointing out
sions at Ben Porat Yosef in Parathe children vaccinated before they
that those who are not vaccinated
mus, said that New Jersey vaccome, since once they arrive, they
put others at risk who cant get
cination requirements are sent
will have to sort out the issue of
immunizations for medical reato students in Israel who plan to
medical insurance, and that may
sons. Among those are infants too
attend the school. (There are about
delay the process.
young to be vaccinated, pregnant
10 such students a year, she said.)
The grace period for getting the
women, and people going through
We tell them they have to get
shots is short, she said. She noted
chemotherapy.
the vaccinations, Ms. Roth added.
also that representatives of the
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towns health department have come to the school to

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Ms. Roth noted that doctors also have become more
stringent on the issue of vaccinations, and that some
doctors will not accept as patients the children of parents who refuse vaccinations for them.
Robert Smolen, general studies coordinator and
middle school director of the Gerrard Berman Day
School in Oakland, confirmed that his school follows
state guidelines on vaccinations. He said that he follows up with parents until all vaccines can be documented or exemptions noted. We do allow religious
exemptions and we have had them here.
Rabbi Daniel Price, head of school at the Rosenbaum
Yeshiva of North Jersey, said that his school follows
state guidelines as well but that grace periods may
depend on the needs of individual families. There are
state-mandated grace periods, but most schools indicated that theres some flexibility and they handle it on
a case-by-case basis as long as its not excessive.
Obviously, there are extenuating circumstances,
such as a parent switching jobs and therefore switching insurance companies, Rabbi Price said.
Yavneh Academys head of school, Rabbi Jonathan
Knapp, indicated that while following state guidelines,
several months ago, the school started the process
of evaluating its policy regarding immunizations and
will continue to assess and potentially modify it going
forward.
At the Frisch School in Paramus, nurse Leah Shteyngart confirmed the schools compliance with New Jersey state regulations but added that, of course, the
school honors religious exemptions. [See following
section on religious exemptions].
She noted also that an auditor comes in each year to
check the schools records.
Were on top of it, she said, adding that students
will be called if their medical records are not up to
date.
At the Torah Academy of Bergen County, health

care professional Linda Moed Cohen said that while
the school honors religious exemptions, we have had
very few who have opted out of vaccines. Indeed, she
said, she recalled only two such families in 11 years.
Those who do claim exemptions, she said, need a letter from a lawyer that they have opted out.
She understands, she said, that some people may
be a little scared, for all sorts of reasons. For example, they dont believe in injecting foreign bodies
into their children, possibly bringing unknown complications. She did, however, note that the connection between the MMR vaccine and autism has been
debunked.
Ms. Cohen said since health conditions change, she
requires medical forms at the beginning of each year.
Its so important, she said. With students engaging in activities such as sports, we need the latest and
best [medical information] in hand.
Other things change as well, she said, adding that
most students coming from Israel used to wait until
they came here to get chicken pox vaccinations. Now,
more children are getting them in Israel.
She also suggested that since the effect of a vaccine is just so long before it wears off, students may
ultimately need boosters for a number of things. She
cited, for example, the current increase in cases of
whooping cough, a disease for which most children
have been immunized.
Religious exemptions
Significantly, while the issue of religious exemptions
came up in discussions with several of the schools, the
issue is not one reserved for religious schools alone.
While all 50 states require certain vaccinations for
children entering public schools [there are no federal laws mandating vaccination], only Mississippi
and West Virginia do not offer religious exemptions.
In New Jersey, these exemptions can be claimed in all
schools public, private, and parochial.
To obtain a religious exemption, A written statement should be submitted by the student, or the students parent or guardian if the student is a minor,
explaining how the administration of the vaccine conflicts with the bona fide religious tenets or practices of
the student, or the parent or guardian, as appropriate;
except that a general philosophical or moral objection
to the vaccination shall not be sufficient for an exemption on religious grounds.
According to data from the New Jersey Department
of Health, the number of schoolchildren who have
been able to opt out of vaccinations for religious reasons has increased dramatically over the past several
years.
In general, the New Jersey Catholic Conference takes
a similar approach to Jewish schools in dealing with
vaccinations, strongly encouraging all parents to vaccinate their children for the health and safety of not
only those children, but also all members of the school
community with whom they may come in contact.
However, their recommendation is made despite
the unfortunate origin of the cell lines used in the
manufacture of these vaccines. Cells derived from
an aborted fetus, for example, may be questionable.
This factor has not been cited as an issue in the Jewish
community.
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If you own or use a Simplex or

Unican mechanical pushbutton lock
in the U.S., you may have a claim in a
proposed U.S. class action settlement.
A settlement has been proposed in a class action lawsuit about Simplex
mechanical pushbutton locks. The Plaintiffs assert class action claims that
Simplex locks were improperly designed and marketed. The Defendants
have denied all claims and continue to deny Plaintiffs allegations and
maintain that Defendants have not engaged in any wrongful acts. This
settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing or an indication that any
law was violated. Defendants have nevertheless concluded that it is in
their best interests that this lawsuit be resolved subject to and on the
terms and conditions set forth herein. The settlement will provide benefits
to those who purchased or use a Simplex mechanical pushbutton lock.
If you qualify, you may file a claim form to receive a benefit through
the settlement, you can exclude yourself from the settlement, or you can
object to the settlement. For more information on the lawsuit and the
settlement, go to www.simplexlockcase.com or call 1-855-857-9591.
Who is Included?
The settlement includes any owner or user in the United States of any
model Simplex mechanical pushbutton lock listed below:
7000 series;
1000 series;
7100 series;
L1000 series;
8000 series;
2000 series;
File Guard Locks
3000 series;
6200 series;
What does the Settlement mean for me?
Purchasers or users of Simplex mechanical pushbutton lock models
listed above whose claims are approved are eligible to receive one or
more of the following, depending upon a variety of different criteria:
a free do-it-yourself (DIY) Upgrade Kit that addresses the design
elements at issue in the lawsuit, a reduced-cost or free do-it-yourself
(DIY) Shield that addresses the design elements at issue in the lawsuit,
or free professional installation of the Upgrade Kit.
How do you get the benefits of the settlement?
A detailed notice and claim form contains everything you need. Just call
or visit the website to get one. Claim Forms must be submitted online or
postmarked in the mail by March 24, 2015.
Your Rights May Be Affected.
If you dont want to be legally bound by the settlement, you must exclude
yourself by March 16, 2015, or you wont be able to sue, or continue to
sue, the makers of Simplex locks about the legal claims in this case.
If you exclude yourself, you cannot get a free do-it-yourself Upgrade
Kit, a reduced-cost or free do-it-yourself Shield, or free professional
installation of the Upgrade Kit (subject to qualifying). If you stay in the
class, you may object to the settlement by March 16, 2015. The detailed
notice on the website describes how to exclude yourself or object. The
court will hold a hearing on May 14, 2015 to consider whether to approve
the settlement, including attorneys fees, costs and all other expenses
totaling no more than $1,481,381.20. You can appear at the hearing, but
you dont have to. You can hire your own lawyer, at your own expense,
to appear or speak for you at the hearing. For more details, call toll free
1-855-857-9591 or go to www.simplexlockcase.com.
QUESTIONS? CALL 1-855-857-9591 TOLL FREE,
OR VISIT WWW.SIMPLEXLOCKCASE.COM
THIS NOTICE AND SETTLEMENT IS FOR OWNERS OR
USERS IN THE UNITED STATES ONLY
PARA UNA NOTIFICACIN EN ESPAOL, LLAMAR O VISITAR
NUESTRO WEBSITE
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Cover Story
The needs of the

community override
the desire of the
individual in this case.
RABBI DANIEL FREELANDER
Parents realize that we

are protecting not only
that particularly camper
but everyone. The entire
community.
RABBI PAUL RESNICK
Vaccinate
FROM PAGE 23
Rabbi Goldin strongly supports that position. We rely

on medical expertise when it comes to matters of health,
he said. Given that the overwhelming majority of medical
positions on vaccination hold that they should be administered and accepted for the benefit of the children involved,
its our responsibility to do so.
As parents and as members of the community, we are
all affected by each others health, so it becomes not only a
parental but a communal obligation.
Rabbi Daniel Freelander of Ridgewood is the president

of the World Union for Progressive Judaism and the former
senior vice president at the Union for Reform Judaism.
He said that as he looks over his colleagues responses to
the issue of vaccination, most see it as an issue of pikuach
nefesh the overwhelming importance of protecting life.
Its about protecting the lives of your own child and the
others in the community.
The question comes up when parents with unvaccinated children want to send them to the Reform movements camps or schools, he said. After some discussion,
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the decision was that while we accept the right of an

individual not to have his or her child vaccinated, we
think it is unfair to put another child at risk because of
someone elses child.
The needs of the community override the desire of
the individual in this case.
It is often hard to discuss the issue, Rabbi Freelander said, because it is often not a rational conversation, but an emotional one.
Rabbi Paul Resnick of Teaneck is the director of one
of the Conservative movements Ramah camps. His
camp, Ramah in the Berkshires, draws campers from
northern New Jersey and the rest of metropolitan New
York.
For at least 10 years, and in response to the decision of its medical committee, Ramah Berkshires has
demanded that all campers and staffers be vaccinated.
Things to know
about measles:
The disease: Also known as morbilli and
rubeola, measles is an airborne disease spread
through coughs, sneezes, saliva, or nasal
secretions of people already infected to those
not immunized. Nine out of 10 people who are
not immune will catch it. Human beings are the
viruss only hosts; no other species can get it.
Symptoms: Develop 10 to 12 days after
exposure to infected person and last seven
to 10 days. Four-day fevers often run higher
than 104 F, accompanied by cough, runny
nose, or red eyes. Characteristic red measles
rash covers most of the body; it starts at the
back of the ears, head, and neck. Lasts up to
eight days, changes color to brown before
disappearing.
Complications: Range from mild (diarrhea)
to serious (pneumonia). Rare cases include
panencephalitis, which usually is fatal, and
encephalitis. The risks are higher for patients
with malnutrition, HIV, AIDs, or leukemia
Treatment: Rest and supportive care in vast
majority of cases. Antibiotics are introduced
for complications. Otherwise, ibuprofen or
paracetamol reduce fever and pain. Aspirin is
not recommended for children under 16.
Prevention: Measles vaccine highly effective.
Children should be immunized at 12 months as
part of MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) series.
The booster dose is usually given at ages 4 or
5. Adverse vaccination reactions are rare; fever
or pain at injection site are most common.
History: Virus isolated in 1954 in United
States. To date, 21 measles strains have
been identified. Maurice Hilleman of Merck
developed the first successful vaccine in
1963. No specific drug treatment for measles
approved yet.
Cover Story
The crisis
now, though,
has driven
home the
point that
it is in peoples best
interests to be
vaccinated.
PAUL REICHENBACH
vaccinated, so they are not eligible. They are very surprised. They say, What kind of Jewish camp are you that
you do not support peoples personal values?
The crisis now, though, has driven home the point that
it is in peoples best interests to be vaccinated.
Not surprisingly, he said, historically, there were more
unvaccinated kids who wanted to participate in our west
coast camps than in other places. Still, he said, it happens
elsewhere as well. We had a case last year with a kid from
Mississippi. We have had kids from Florida, Connecticut
there are parents from all over the country who do not
want to vaccinate their kids and still want to send them
to camp.
The recent measles outbreak does not make him feel
vindicated, but now the community finally is beginning
to realize how extraordinarily important it is.

We are dealing with the health of thousands of kids and
adults every summer. Health and safety are our number
one concern. We take it very seriously.
Jeremy Fingerman of Englewood is the CEO of the Foundation for Jewish Camp. We are a granting foundation,
so we dont operate camps and we cant dictate what they
do, Mr. Fingerman began.
But, with that caveat, we strongly recommend a vaccination policy.
We think that it is in keeping with Jewish values of
maintaining health and with the clear public health need
to protect the community.
We think that it is a very Jewish value, and we recommend it.
Its rarely a problem, but every few years there is a

family who reads our literature, realizes the children
have to be vaccinated, and then they speak to our
medical chair, Rabbi Resnick said. Usually the result
of that conversation is that the children get vaccinations most likely the parents already have started to
realize that vaccination was inevitable, he said. But
its very rare maybe once every four or five years.
The decision is not only to protect campers, he said,
but staff members, possibly pregnant staff members
to protect the entire community.
Parents realize that we are protecting not only
that particularly camper but everyone. The entire
community.
Paul Reichenbach of Ridgewood is the director of
URJ camps. We came to the determination that it was
absolutely in the interest of communal health and consistent with Jewish values that we would require every
kid who comes to our camp and Israel programs to be
vaccinated, he said.
We went through an entire process. We had conversations with our camp directors, with the medical
advisers for each of our camps, and we also looked
through the material Ramah had developed, a year or
so ahead of us, he said. We developed and created a
vaccination policy that speaks specifically to the critical importance to the health and welfare of our communities of having vaccinated kids.
Since we have gone to this policy, in the last seven
or eight years maybe there have been three or four or
five cases of legitimate medical refusals.
Not vaccinating your children can have unanticipated results, he said. They couldnt have realized
that it would eventually lead them to not being allowed
in a Jewish camp. They thought that they would always
be given a religious or philosophical pass.
Sadly, we even have some parents who went to
our camps who we have to tell that their kids are not
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Jewish Federation
Opinion
Schabas resignation
means its high time
to address U.N. bias
against Israel
few months ago I asked William Schabas,

the Canadian academic who resigned this
week as head of the United Nations Human
Rights Councils probe into last summers
war in Gaza because of a conflict of interest involving
his work for the Palestine Liberation Organization,
whether I could interview him for a magazine piece
I was writing. He replied promptly and courteously,
explaining that he couldnt be interviewed because
his commission hadnt yet appointed a media relations officer.
I remember being rather staggered by that admission the Human Rights Council already had
announced that Schabas, a frequent and intemperate
critic of Israel, was to head an investigation into the
most bitterly contested aspect of a war that electrified the world, wrought devastation upon Gaza, and
spawned anti-Semitic violence across Europe. And
yet that same commission
still didnt have a staff member appointed to liaise with
the press.
Convenient, I thought, if
they didnt want people to
know what they were up to.
(Well, either that, or SchaBen Cohen
bas didnt want to give me
his real reason for declining
the interview.) In any case,
this week the commission became considerably less
opaque so much so that Schabas was forced to resign
after it was discovered that in 2012, the PLO had paid
him $1,300 to write a legal opinion for them.
In his resignation letter, Schabas said that he wasnt
asked to provide any details on any of my past statements and other activities concerning Palestine and
Israel when he interviewed for the post. That wasnt
quite the truth, but he was hoping wed believe him
so that he could present himself as having resigned
reluctantly, in order to avoid a frenzied conservative
media storm around the relatively harmless fact that
hed done a few hours of work for the PLO.
But the blogger Elder of Ziyon helpfully dug out the
application form that Schabas submitted to the U.N. In
the section on professional ethics, Schabas answered
no to three separate questions asking whether there
was anything like a conflict of interest that might
compromise his independence and judgment. But we
know now that he worked for the PLO and tried to hide
that fact. And we knew that when he was appointed,
he saw Benjamin Netanyahu not as the prime minister
of Israel, but as a war criminal who should be put on
trial at the International Criminal Court.
Now Schabas is gone, but the work of his commission continues. It is now guided by the New York jurist
Mary McGowan Davis, who is said to be more balanced than her predecessor not that thats hugely
difficult. Carrying on, though, is in nobodys interest.
Schabass personal struggle with transparency has
left his commission with little credibility on top of
the fact that in the eyes of much of the democratic
world, the body that created it, the U.N. Human Rights
SEE SCHABAS PAGE 30
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Jewish World
Schabas
FROM PAGE28
Council, is tainted by a softness toward major human rights

violators that is the natural partner of its obsession with
Israel. As the Jerusalem Post pointed out in an editorial,
even if Israeli leaders were to be dragged before the ICC,
the fact that some of the prosecuting evidence was gathered
by a morally compromised commission would be a valuable card in their favor. And the commissions original mandate, described by the legal scholar Anne Bayefsky as toxic
for any self-respecting international lawyer but Schabas,
remains in place.
There is another, more fundamental reason why the end
of Schabas should be the end of his commission the U.N.

has no moral authority to put Israel on trial. In my last column, I wrote about how Ron Prosor, the Israeli ambassador to the U.N., told a U.N. General Assembly conference
on anti-Semitism that the very same phenomenon stalked
the halls of the world body. What I didnt explain is how
that works.
Were often told that the U.N. created Israel in 1948.
(Actually, it didnt. The Zionist Yishuv built it, and the U.N.
recognized reality by granting the nascent Jewish state an
international legal personality.) Less appreciated is the fact
that from the mid-1960s onwards, the U.N. has violated its
own charter continually by allowing Israel to be abused in a
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manner no other state has had to endure.

The U.N. was the body that gave us a Zionism is
racism resolution and then grumpily rescinded that
determination in a one-line resolution more than a
decade later, after the damage had been done. The
U.N. gave us the Durban anti-racism conference of
2001, which treated us to the spectacle of anti-Semitism being promoted in the name of universal tolerance. The U.N. gave us the Goldstone commission,
that kangaroo court for the 2009 Gaza war, led by a
vain, conceited judge who later disavowed his own
findings. Every year, the U.N. spends millions of dollars on conferences and other jamborees organized by
its Division for Palestinian Rights. The very fact that
there is a Division for Palestinian Rights and not one
for the rights of the Kurds or the Tibetans tells you
With all this

baggage, how
could anyone
possibly assume
that Israel would
receive a fair
hearing from a
U.N. investigation?
everything you need to know about the U.N.s history
of discrimination against Israel.
With all this baggage, how could anyone possibly
assume that Israel would receive a fair hearing from
a U.N. investigation? As the Goldstone Report proved,
the real focus wasnt on whether Israel had committed
war crimes, but how and to what degree it had done so
there was, therefore, no presumption of innocence,
the sine qua non of a fair trial.
For that reason, I want to go further than echoing
the calls that others have made for the Schabas commission to close immediately. I want an undertaking
that ensures there will be no further U.N. probes or
investigations of Israel or its policies for as long as discriminatory mechanisms, like the Division for Palestinian Rights, remain in existence. Schabass resignation is an opportunity for Israeli and Jewish leaders to
start working on precisely that.

JNS.ORG
Ben Cohens writing on Jewish affairs and Middle

Eastern politics has been published in Commentary, the
New York Post, Haaretz, Jewish Ideas Daily, and many
other publications.
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Richard Goldstone, whose controversial report

on Gaza preceded the controversy surrounding
William Schabas, attends a September 2009
U.N. Human Rights Council meeting.

U.N. PHOTO/JEAN-MARC FERR
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Lavish Lunches
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Wed, Mar 11, starting at $180 per person
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Sun, Feb 15, 9-1 pm, Registration at 8:30 am,
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family fun Day
Screening of Finding Nemo, an all-time favorite for

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Mon, Feb 16, 10:30 am-12:30 pm,
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Suggested entrance donation: $1 per person or
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Jewish World
Michael Oren lends foreign policy

bona fides to new Israeli party Kulanu
BEN SALES
TEL AVIV Michael Oren, New York-born
and Columbia- and Princeton-educated,
begins an interview in Hebrew.
Though he quickly switches to English,
Oren interrupts himself every so often to
translate a word into Hebrew for his assistant. Its a bilingual bridge he has spanned in
one capacity or another for decades, first as
a historian of Israel, then as an Israel Defense
Forces spokesman, and most recently as Israels ambassador to the United States.
Now Oren is aiming to strengthen American-Israeli relations in another forum.
Ranked fourth on the slate of the new centrist political party Kulanu, Oren may be the
Knessets lone American-born lawmaker after
the March 17 election.
Ive been honored to do many types of
service for the Jewish people, Oren said. I
think that becoming a decision-maker on
issues that will determine the future of Israel
would be my most substantial.
Kulanu (Hebrew for all of us), a party
founded last year on a pledge to reform
Israels economy, would seem a strange
choice for Oren, whose expertise is in diplomacy and foreign relations. Running on the
Kulanu slate saved Oren the competitive primary battle he would have faced by joining a
larger party, like Labor or Likud. As Kulanus
sole foreign policy expert, Oren believes he
will have far greater influence on the peace
process should Kulanu join the governing
coalition.
Would it be better running as the exclusive authority over diplomatic positions in a
party like Kulanu that will be part of any coalition, or being number 20-something in one of
the two large parties? he asked. The party
itself gives its imprimatur to my position.
That position has changed since Oren
joined the party. Last year, writing for CNN,
Oren advocated unilateral Israeli withdrawal
from Palestinian population centers in the
West Bank if ongoing peace talks failed
which they did.
Now Oren says that Israel should not
withdraw. Instead he advocates freezing
settlement growth outside the major settlement blocs to keep a two-state solution viable while focusing on improving conditions
in the West Bank.
To the degree that we will build in Judea
and Samaria, we will build in a way that
accords with a final-status solution, he said,
using the biblical name for the West Bank.
Even though theres no Palestinian partner
right now, we will always be at the table.
Kulanus messaging so far has made
the peace process a low priority, focusing
instead on lowering Israels cost of living.
Mitchell Barak, an Israeli public opinion
expert, said Kulanu recruited Oren so the
party would look well-rounded, but that the
Michael Oren, a former diplomat and noted historian, may be the only American-born member of the next Israeli parliament.

GIDEON MARKOWICZ/FLASH90
Even though
theres no
Palestinian partner
right now, we
will always be
at the table.
partys economic focus may leave him a backbencher if he is elected.
I think he may find some difficulty in
adjusting to the Knesset, Barak said. What
legislation is Michael Oren going to initiate in
Knesset? Theres a lot of people focused on
that issue. Whats he going to do there?
Oren comes to Israeli politics after a career
split between defending Israel and writing
its history. Born Michael Bornstein in 1955,
Oren was raised in West Orange and moved
to Israel in 1979, where he served as a paratrooper in the IDF. He returned to the United
States to study at Princeton, where he earned
a doctorate in Near Eastern Studies. He later
served as an IDF spokesman.
Along the way he became a prominent historian of the Middle East, writing two bestselling books on the 1967 Six-Day War and the
history of American policy in the region.
In 2009, Oren was appointed ambassador to Washington, and quickly found himself at the nexus of tensions between Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President
Obama. The two leaders had a rocky relationship from the start, sparring over the peace
process, settlement growth and confronting
Irans nuclear program.
Speaking to JTA, Oren declined to go into
detail about the period, but he acknowledged that he and Netanyahu occasionally
would clash. Netanyahu, Oren said, would
take principled stances on issues that Oren
felt could endanger bipartisan support for
Israel.
That tendency is again on display in the
flap over Netanyahus planned speech to
Congress next month, which has angered
Democrats who see it as a Republican effort
to use Netanyahu to undermine Obamas
negotiations with Iran. Oren said that the
speech has heralded a low point in the
U.S.-Israel relationship and has hurt what
Oren called Israels diplomatic Iron Dome,
a reference to Israels American-funded missile defense system.
The prime minister has a supreme duty
to protect this country against existential
threats like the Iranian threat, Oren said.
But the pursuit of that goal has to be counterbalanced with the other supreme interest
of maintaining our supreme alliance in the
world.
Oren has been campaigning in Englishspeaking circles and holding parlor meetings at the homes of activists. Although
immigrant absorption isnt his primary
issue, he says the countrys 300,000 Anglos
are a constituency that deserves more
attention.
That role had been filled by Dov Lipman, an American-born legislator who has
pushed for reforms to ease the integration
of immigrants and who polls predict will
not win a second term. The elections other
American-born hopeful is Baruch Marzel,
who was born in the United States and
moved to Israel as a young child. Marzel is
running on the far-right Yachad list, but the
party may not win enough votes to gain him
a seat.
If Lipman loses, the mantle of immigrant
champion may fall to Oren. As a military veteran, Oren says that improving conditions
for Americans who move to Israel and join
the IDF is especially important to him. He
also hopes that becoming an effective legislator will help roll back the stigma that
adheres to thick-accented Americans who
come to Israel.
We used to be a multi-accented country,
Oren said. Nobody notices that [former
Israeli President] Shimon Peres has a Polish accent. We need to make the American
accent an Israeli accent. We arent there yet.
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Be a part of the solution help us get to yes
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wo years ago, the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey launched its Create a Jewish Legacy Program.
With support from the Berrie Foundation and the Jewish Federations of
North America, it trained leaders of
local Jewish institutions and schools in
the techniques of fundraising and details
of financial planning required to build
endowments pools of money whose
earned income can support the institutions far into the future.
One of the most basic tools in raising
an endowment is soliciting legacy gifts
convincing people to leave bequests in
their wills to benefit the organizations.
After all, when youre dead, you cant
take it with you but your values can
continue to play out.
So far, the federation and the affiliated
agencies and schools that participated in
the Jewish Legacy training program have
received commitments from 125 donors,
totaling more than $8 million for their
endowments in the past two years.
Now, in the third year of the program,
the federation is working to sell its supporters on the idea of leaving a bequest.
The key message: You dont have to
be wealthy to leave a lasting Jewish legacy, in the words of Laurie Siegel, who
heads the legacy project.
We want the greater community to
understand that were not just pitching
this to the upper one percent, she said.
Were pitching it to the entire Jewish
community.
You can write a bequest into your will
either for a fixed amount or for a percentage of your estate. Or you can designate all or a portion of an insurance
policy or a retirement fund to a charity.
Leaving money to the federation is not
a new idea. Whats new is the focus on
getting people to commit up front and
to let the federation know in advance.
One day we opened up the mail and
there was a check for $1,000, with a letter from an attorney that so and so died
and left $1,000, Mrs. Siegel said.
Then there was the time that a
woman who was a very modest donor
for 25 years left us half a million dollars.
We would have loved to have know
that she was going to do that, because
we would have liked to have known her,
Ms. Siegel said.
Leaving a legacy is about perpetuating
your values beyond your lifetime.
For those who sign up to give at least

$5,000 to the federations endowment
fund, whether now or in their will, the
federation offers a chance to record a message for posterity. We would sit with your
family and write a story that we would
then put in our Book of Life, a leatherbound book in the federations lobby.
Imagine you could speak to future
generations. What would you say? The
Book of Life allows you the opportunity
to share your story and hopes for the
future with your children, your grandchildren, and beyond, she said.
Were trying to get you to think about
the future, to say I want to leave things
for my family, and I also believe its
important for me, as a member of the
Jewish community, to leave something
for the future of the Jewish community,
Ms. Siegel continued.
We want you, the donor, to be comfortable with the gift, she said. Lets
say youre an annual donor to our institution. If you are comfortable leaving a
replacement for that annual gift in perpetuity, we would suggest taking your
gift and multiplying it by twenty. You
can set up a perpetual annual campaign
endowment. People do that all the time.
If youre a $1,000 donor, you can leave
a $20,000 gift that would perpetuate
that gift after youre done. Its not current funds. Youre not opening up your
checkbook today. Instead, youre leaving
a Jewish legacy and showing and teaching your children and grandchildren
what your Jewish values are.
This year, Ms. Siegel and her colleagues hope to reach out to all the federations long-term donors to discuss
leaving a legacy gift. The federation has
1,900 active donors who have been giving for 25 years or more.
The paperwork for leaving a bequest
to the federation is easy.
They can do this on their own. They
can write something in their will when
theyre going to see their attorney. They
change the beneficiary status on their
insurance or IRA just by talking to their
wealth manager. Some of this doesnt cost
anything. You just say that you want to
leave X percentage to the Jewish Federation, or to your childrens school, she said.
From the other direction, the federation will also begin raising the issue of
charitable giving with attorneys and
financial advisers, so when you go to
talk to your adviser, your adviser asks if
you are interested in making a charitable
gift to the Jewish community.
Ten surefire ways

to build your
wealth this year
LAURA SHIN
hether youve set your sights on

launching a business, taking a trip
to Patagonia, or buying a house, you
cant achieve your goal without having enough cash. Even if your dream is to spend more
time with family, what will free up that time is having
the financial security to not need to spend those precious hours working.
If youve set your financial resolutions, use one of
these 10 quick, easy ways to build your wealth so you
can achieve them this year.
1. Seal the leaks.

Review your monthly and annual recurring expenses:
gym membership, phone, cable, Internet, Netflix and
Spotify subscription, Amazon Prime, bank fees, credit
card annual fee, car insurance, homeowners/renters
insurance, etc. Which of these do you no longer use
much? If youve got an $8/month Netflix streaming
subscription but have only actually watched movies
on it five times in the last year, then youve just paid
$96 to watch five movies about $19 per film. Cut the
subscription.
Take a look at your phone usage: Are you paying
for 5,000 texts a month but using only 500? Drop to a
lower plan. Get some new quotes for your insurance to
see if you can get the same coverage for a lower price.
If you realize youre paying $120 a year just to have a
checking account, get yourself a free one.
Scrutinize every monthly expense this way against
usage and value and cut or lower any that youre not
using or that arent providing you with your moneys worth.
2. Get a budget you can stick to.

If you find it hard to stay on track with your budget, keep it simple. Start with your take-home pay,
which should already be reduced by the amount of
your retirement contributions to your 401(k) or other
employer-sponsored account (more on that below).
Subtract housing, transportation, utilities, and groceries (force yourself to stick to a figure you know you
can hit every month). Ideally, they should total no
more than 50 percent of your monthly take-home.
Then take at least 20 percent of that amount to allocate for debt, savings, and IRA retirement contributions. This is your financial goals money.
With the remaining amount (which should be no
more than 30 percent of your monthly paycheck),
divide that by 4.33 to get your weekly allowance. This
amount is what you have to spend on everything else:
clothing, dining out, entertainment, classes, household supplies, toiletries, books, etc. Take it out in cash
weekly, spend it down until its gone and then get creative until the next week. Or, if youd like to use credit
or debit to track your expenses, create a spreadsheet
that states your weekly allowance and subtracts your
expenses as you enter them. Such a spreadsheet will
allow you to plan ahead: When you schedule an event,
mark down the projected cost so that you know, when
you enter the week, you have that much less to work
with. I used just this kind of spreadsheet to pay down
debt and build enough savings to quit my full-time job,
and I continue to use it to stay within my budget.
3. Make a plan to get out of debt.

Whether youve got grad school debt or a $10,000 balance
on your credit cards, dont feel overwhelmed. As long as
you stick to a budget that keeps you from going further
in the red and follow a plan to pay down your debt, all
it will take is time until youve paid it off. To get started
now, make a list of all your debts by interest rate, ordered
highest to lowest, plus their minimum monthly payments.
From now on, take your financial goals money and apportion it toward the debt, paying minimums on all your debt
except the highest interest-rate one, which gets the rest of

the money. After you pay that debt off, move your secondhighest interest-rate debt into the top spot and repeat.
4. Earn more money.

To get out of debt faster, make more money any way you
can. Come up with a plan for requesting a raise. If youre
a freelancer, increase rates with your clients.
SEE SUREFIRE PAGE 36
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Jewish Federation
Also, pick up a side job and shovel the

extra income toward your debt: Pick up
freelance work, start generating passive
income, declutter and sell your discards
such as electronics or designer items,
do odd jobs on Craigslist, TaskRabbit or
Fiverr, look into mystery shopping, babysit, tutor, and do whatever else you can
to earn an extra buck. Then and this is

the crucial last step take what you earn
and ship it off to your creditors.
5. Automate your savings.

If you dont have debt, take that financial goals chunk of your take-home pay,
and put it toward savings and retirement.
(Depending on your debt vs. savings vs.
retirement savings and timeline, you may
You dont need

to be wealthy to
leave a lasting
Jewish legacy.
For as little as $5,000 you
can impact the future of
our Jewish community.
Ask us how.
ROBIN ROCHLIN | RobinR@jfnnj.org | 201.820.3970
TRANSFORM LIVES. INCLUDING YOURS.


also want to work toward two or all three goals simultaneously.) After subtracting the amount to contribute
to retirement (more below), decide how much you can
allot to your savings goals. The calculation will be based
partly on how much those items cost, your timeline,
and however much you can spare of the 20 percent,
whether its the full amount or just a portion of it.
6. Remind yourself what youre

saving for.
Sometimes, delayed gratification is a drag. To stave off
spontaneous purchases not aligned with your goals,
put visual reminders of what youre saving for in
places where youll see them: a photo of Patagonia on
your desk, a shot of your dream house on your fridge,
the logo of your new venture inside your wallet. Whatever youre dreaming of, get an irresistible image of
it, and put it in places you frequently see so you dont
forget the reason for all these budget rules.
10. Schedule regular check-ins to get

your free credit report.
To protect against the horror of identity theft, check your
credit score often. The three major credit bureaus are each
required to offer consumers one free credit report a year,
all of which can be obtained at AnnualCreditReport.com.
To keep tabs on your identity as often as possible without
having to pay, pull one from each of the credit agencies
every four months - i.e. TransUnion in January, Experian in
May, and Equifax in September. (You can also get free credit
scores on Credit Karma.)
Its not sexy, but building wealth often comes down to
fairly mundane habits like the ones listed above. If you can
follow through on all the above tips for the rest of the year,
come December, youll be looking at a higher net worth figure, appreciating your progress toward your goals or savoring the joy of achieving them.
Laura Shin contributes to Forbes.com and SmartPlanet,
among other publications. Her most recent e-book is The
Millennial Game Plan: Career And Money Secrets To Succeed
In Todays World.

FORBES.COM / FEATUREWELL
7. If you can, max out your

contributions.
Your company may offer you free money in the form
of a matching 401(k) contribution. Its usually some
kind of match, such as, 3 percent of your salary for
every 6 percent you contribute to your 401(k), or, if
youre lucky, its 1:1 matching. Whatever the deal is,
make sure to get that money. If its a 1:1 match for 5
percent of your salary, then youll sock away 10 percent of your salary but only have to shell out 5 percent.
This will take money out of your paycheck, resulting
in the take-home pay figure weve been using above.
If you fall within the income limits for a Roth IRA (see
Roth IRA phase-outs), allocate some portion of your
financial goals money to max out your Roth contribution for the year - $5,500 for 2015, which works out to
$105.77 a week or $458.33 a month. For those 50 and
older, contributions can total $6,500 a year, or $125
a week or $541.67 a month. If you have room in your
budget for further contributions to your 401(k), then
max that out, and if you still have additional funds, put
it in a taxable account.
If you earn too much for a Roth IRA, then prioritize
maxing out the 401(k) first before maxing out your traditional IRA, and put any remaining funds for retirement in a taxable account.
8. Set up a regular transfer and

purchase of investments.
To automate your savings, set up weekly, biweekly
or monthly transfers into your IRA (and, if you have
one, taxable account), and then also be sure to set up
a regular purchase of the investments youve chosen
for your account so your transfers dont sit in cash but
get invested right away. As for how to invest, follow
three main rules: keep your costs low, diversify with
investments like index funds, exchange-traded funds
or target-date funds, and be as tax-efficient as possible.
9. Set up a foolproof system for

paying your bills.
As youre building your wealth and working toward
your goals, youll want to maintain good credit so that
you can use your savings to accomplish a big goal,
like buying a house. Since an important part of your
credit score is your history of on-time vs. late payments, make sure you dont miss any due dates. Set
up automatic bill pay in your checking account, or use
a service like Mint Bills (formerly Check) to remind you
of upcoming bills, and also put the due dates for your
recurring bills in your calendar so you have multiple
reminders to get your payment in on time.

Investors Bank supports
Federations Bonim Builders
First Commerce
to open new branch
Neil B. Conlan, Nutley branch

manager of Investors Bank, presents a check for $2,450 to Stacey
Orden, project coordinator of Jewish Federation of Northern New
Jerseys Bonim Builders. The grant
will be used to renovate a home
in Teaneck whose low-income
residents are both ill and which is
in dire need of major repairs. This
is the second grant that Investors
Bank has given to Federation. The
first grant was used to perform
critical repairs for a low-income
family in Englewood. Jodi Heimer,
center, the federations managing
director of development, watches.
First Commerce Bank has announced the upcoming opening of a new branch office in Montvale. The
banks seventh branch will be located at 101 Chestnut
Ridge Road.
First Commerce Bank has already made an impact
in the Montvale and Monsey markets, said C. Herbert
Schneider, the banks president and CEO. The new
office will allow us to expand our current relationships
and bring the highest levels of personal service to this
dynamic area.
The new office is a natural extension of the banks
Closter, Teaneck, and Englewood locations. We hope
Mother Nature cooperates during construction, said
Abraham S. Opatut, the banks chairman. Even
inclement weather should not delay our anticipated
arrival beyond the end of March.
First Commerce Banks headquarters and main
office are located in Lakewood. The bank also has
two offices Freehold and Allentown. An additional
new branch in Robbinsville has been approved by the
FDIC.
Opened in January 2006 under the name of Northern State Bank, First Commerce Bank is an FDIC
insured community bank serving Ocean, Monmouth,
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todays competitive market. For more information,
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Hedge fund study finds

looks arent everything
VIVA SARAH PRESS
First impressions are important but a
new study of the business sector has
found a good first impression does not
necessarily lead to investment success.
According to a study by Dr. Roy Zuckerman of Tel Aviv Universitys Faculty
of Management, hedge-fund managers
who appear trustworthy in photographs attract more clients than their
more undependable looking counterparts. But their clients also saw lower
returns on their investments.
The study found

that the managers
characterized as
less trustworthy
by the survey in
fact performed
much better than
their upright
colleagues.
The study found that the managers
characterized as less trustworthy by
the survey in fact performed much better than their upright colleagues.
When hedge funds begin to perform
poorly, people are less likely to pull
out their investments if their managers
appear trustworthy, said Dr. Zuckerman.
But this just should not be the case. All
evidence points to the fact that appearance should not matter in hedge fund
decisions by investors. Unfortunately, in
this study we found that it does.
The research used dozens of publicly available photographs of hedgefund managers found on Google. The
pictures were rated for personal characteristics, such as age and attractiveness, by a group of 25-30 subjects in an
online survey platform. As part of the
survey, respondents were also asked to
rate the trustworthiness of the managers on a scale of 1 to 10 based only on
their photographs.
Using this measure of trustworthiness, we attempted to answer two
questions: whether perceived manager
trustworthiness had an effect on investors behavior, and whether this effect
was rational, i.e., was supported by
results, said Dr. Zuckerman.
According to Dr. Zuckerman, investors should avoid the simple mistake of
buying into the physical appearance of
hedge-fund managers.
There is no evidence to suggest that
perceived trustworthiness predicts
actual managerial skill. On the contrary, we found that the trustworthy
managers tended to make less money
for investors and more money for
themselves by leveraging the way they
looked and how they presented themselves. Untrustworthy execs were
found to charge lower fees and generate more income for investors and less
for themselves, he said.
The research was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Ankur Pareek of Rutgers
University and published in Social Science
ISRAEL21C.ORG
Research Network.
Israels cannabis tech companies

seek investors at gathering
VIVA SARAH PRESS
Israeli startups targeting the global cannabis medical market wooed investors at
last weeks first Canna Tech Israel event.
Cannabis tech companies including
EdenShield, Syqe Medical, BreedIT,
Flux, Cannabics Pharmaceuticals, and
LaraPharm showed off their innovative breeding techniques and inventive
medical marijuana devices.
The market opportunities and potential is wide. Some are predicting cannabis in the U.S. to be the next gold rush.
This event is meant as a springboard
to understand just how wide and deep
Israeli innovation can be applied to an

exciting new world of opportunities in
the U.S. and its changing legislation,
Karin Kloosterman, CEO of Flux and
organizer of the Canna Tech event said.
Dr. Alan Shackelford was the guest
speaker at the February 5 event in Tel
Aviv. Dr. Shackelford, known for his
work with Charlotte Ligi, a child suffering from life-threatening seizures
who was saved after she started taking medicinal cannabis is a luminary
in the medical cannabis world. He
recently moved from the U.S. to Israel
to lead One World Cannabis.

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Traditions are passed on from

generation to generation
Apples and honey during Rosh Hashanah
Looking for the afikommen during the Passover seder
Lighting the Chanukiah with Bubbe and Zayde
Jewish tradition teaches that one of our foremost
responsibilities is to make the world a better place for
those that come after us. By bestowing an everlasting
gift for generations to come, you can create an eternal
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Your legacy gift can be structured to fit your lifestyle, goals,
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Gallery
6
n 1 Valley Chabads Friendship Circle launched
its winter season sports league for children and
teens with special needs with more than 50 participants and volunteers. FC@VALLEYCHABAD.ORG
n 2 Students at the Glen Rock Jewish Center Nursery School played outside in the snow. COURTESY GRJC
n 3 Teens and children with special needs
have a great time together at the Friendship Circle of Bergen Countys Sunday
Circle programs. WWW.BCFRIENDSHIP.COM
n 4 As part of a curriculum unit on tikkun olam (repairing the world), 4-year-olds in the Bergen County YJCCs David Rukin Early Childhood Center Nursery School are learning to recycle and reuse. Bins
have been placed around the YJCC so that everyone can help them with the project. COURTESY YJCC
n 5 Preschoolers at Lubavitch on the Palisades were treated to a bird show in honor of Shabbat Shira. COURTESY LOTP
7
n 6 Seventh-graders at Temple Emanuel of the
Pascack Valley religious school met Brenda Bielski
Weisman, the oldest daughter of Aron, the youngest Bielski brother. The four Bielski brothers were
Jewish resistance fighters who protected and
cared for thousands of Jewish men, women, and
children during the Holocaust. The movie Defiance is based on their life story. COURTESY TEPV
n 7 The Academies at the Gerrard Berman Day
School hosted The Hero in You day, a program
dedicated to leadership and learning. Third-graders
dressed up as ancient heroes and discussed the
many qualities that make up heroism. ELISA BERGER
n 8 As part of the ABC Music & Me program at
Gan Yaldenu in Teaneck, children in the Chicks
class explored the unit Outside My Window. Here
they enjoy make-believe ice skating. COURTESY GY
Dvar Torah
Truth about lies: Churchill and the ancient rabbis agree
fter the grand revelation of the

Torah at Mount Sinai, this week
the Torah portion consists of a
long series of laws and rules.
Some are much more mundane than the
inspirational statements in the Ten Commandments. One simply reads, Midvar
sheker tirchak Keep far from a false matter (Exodus 23:7).
Isnt it obvious that we need to be distant from lies?
A comment on truth and falsehood
from a midrash in Yalkut Shimoni Bereshit
3 says the following: The letters of the
word truth [emet in Hebrew] rest on
two legs [the letters of that word aleph,
mem and tav when printed in Hebrew
each touch the line beneath them in two
places], while the letters of the word
falsehood [sheker in Hebrew] have only
Who am I?
FROM PAGE 19
made them according to divine will. This

Italian formulation does not reflect the
resignation to a secondary status implicit
in the blessing said by women according
to the classic liturgy. The Farissol wording
boldly challenges the men by adding and
not a man. And because it is in a siddur
intended exclusively for use by a woman,
the blessing said by men Who has not
made me a woman is nowhere to be
found.
Keeping this in mind, there are a few other
observations to make about this text. Before
printing was invented, liturgical texts had
been evolving. This blessing traditionally
appears in the context of a series of about 15
praises of God, most of which are discussed
in the Talmud (bBerakhot 60b). Most were
included not as part of a synagogue-based
prayer service but as an accompaniment to
getting up in the morning. Starting with a
line praising God for having given the rooster
the wisdom to distinguish between day and
night, they go along with the acts of opening
our eyes, getting dressed, standing up, and,
finally, removing slumber from our eyes and
commanding us to study Torah. Although the
wording of many of these statements is biblically based, few of them refer overtly to Jews.
As humans we all hope to awaken each morning, open our eyes, get dressed, and stand up,
ready to greet the day. There is a lot about
our return from sleep that we tend to take for
granted; these brief texts make us stop and
think about these positive things, even in the
most basic areas of our lives.
Praising God for not having created him a
woman also goes back at least as far as the
Talmud (bMenahot 43b), where it is recorded
follow each other in the

one leg [as the letters for that
Hebrew alphabet]. The
Hebrew word are shin, kof,
midrash concludes with
and resh, which when printed
something we all know to
in Hebrew each touches the
be accurate: Truth is hard
line underneath them only
to attain [since its letters
once.] Truthful actions stand
are distant] but falsehood
firm [on two legs], actions
is readily at hand [ just as
based on falsehoods do not
its letters are next to each
[they wobble and fall on their
Rabbi Ronald
other]. Or as Winston
single leg].
Roth
The midrash does not stop
Churchill said, A lie gets
Fair Lawn
at this point; it knows there
halfway around the world
Jewish Center/
are far too many lies in our
before the truth has a
Congregation Bnai
world and truth does not
chance to get its pants on.
Israel,
Fair Lawn,
always triumph. It continThe rabbis were aware
Conservative
ues: The letters of emet are
that while ultimately truth
far apart [they are the first,
stands firm, lies are easily proclaimed and all
middle and last letters of the
too often believed. Therefore the Torah
Hebrew alphabet], whereas the letters
reminds us not just to avoid them but to
of sheker are bunched together [they
keep far from them. That is often hard

to do. Think of all the statements made
during a political campaign. Whichever
candidate you back, you know that many
of the words in the ads shown on television supporting him are exaggerated if
not questionable. We assume that political speech is not always credible. We
also know that many people get away
with falsehoods and that is, pardon the
expression, the gospel truth.
I would like to believe that the world
reflects a saying I recall from my childhood that Cheaters never prosper. The
rabbis of ancient times knew how tempting it is to cheat and to lie, and how easy it
is to get away with it. I hope that each of us
will be truthful and not be tempted to lie.
We should only live in a world where those
who are honest do prosper.
text attributed to Diogenes Laertius, who

probably lived in the third-century C.E. He
expresses his gratitude to fortune for having
been born a person and not an animal, a man
and not a woman, a Greek and not a barbarian. Self-definition in opposition to something
else apparently was not limited to Jews.
Virtually all the Genizah fragments that
include these identity formulae use the
same double formulation: Who has made
non-Jewish woman.
Further, although these texts clearly have
been adapted for a woman, they retain the
standard praise of God for having commanded us to study Torah, something that
women often were barred from doing. That
may have been an artifact, carried over
from the usual text or retained because it
was in the plural, but the possibility exists
that it is quietly making the case for the
connection between women and Torah
study. There is, of course, no indication of
whether this formulation was composed by
a man or a woman, or under what circumstances. We do not know how widespread
its use may have been or where or when it
originated. What is clear is that Farissol was
comfortable with it.
In 1946, the Conservative Rabbinical
Assembly and United Synagogue of America
Sabbath and Festival Prayer Book rephrased
all three in the positive, praising God for having made us Jews, free, and in Gods image,
without a distinction between women and
men. It allows us to declare who we are as a
group and as individuals without denigrating
others.
While I cherish the power of the Ferrara
formulation for women, I think that the world
would be a better place if we could clearly
define ourselves positively, without feeling
compelled to stipulate who we are not.
as one of three blessings that must be recited

every day, praising God for having made him
an Israelite, not a woman, and not an ignoramus. As Yoel H. Kahn points out in his careful
survey of the development of these brachot
over time, they were in a state of flux even in
the talmudic period. Further, the version in
the printed Talmud we use today was probably influenced by the need to censor derogatory remarks about those under whose rule
While I cherish the power of the

Ferrara formulation for women, I think
that the world would be a better place
if we could clearly define ourselves
positively, without feeling compelled
to stipulate who we are not.
Jews lived. Thus, whereas the standard formulation today casts all three in the negative, the talmudic text presents the first in the
positive, Who has made me an Israelite,
that is, a Jew. That was certainly less likely to
engender a negative reaction than rejoicing
in not being a non-Jew, which was probably
the original text and has been reinstituted in
traditional siddurim today. What non-Jews,
women, and even slaves who have taken
the place of the ignoramus cited in Menahot
have in common is that they are not obligated to fulfill as many commandments as are
free Jewish men. Fulfilling commandments is
a privilege limited to those of high status.
Ironically, the threefold identification
in the Jewish tradition parallels a Greek
me X and not Y. This was apparently the

Palestinian Jewish practice. The Babylonian
practice, reported in the Babylonian Talmud, used a simple negative. Since Italian
Jewish liturgies were linked to the practice
of the Jews of Palestine, it is not surprising to
find the double formulation in the blessing
to be recited by the woman. What makes it
stand out is that it is not used for all three
of these blessings, but only for praising God
for having created her a woman and not a
man. This doubling formula emphasizes
the in-your-face quality of the Ferrara text
regarding gender hierarchy. The other two
blessings are formulated only in the negative, praising God for not having made her
a maidservant and a woman slave or a
Dr. Anne Lapidus Lerner is an emerita

member of the Jewish Theological Seminary
faculty and was the first woman to serve as
vice chancellor there. She is also a research
associate at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute
at Brandeis University. She and her husband,
Rabbi Stephen C. Lerner, are longtime
Teaneck residents.
Jewish World
Crossword
MANAGEABLE PUZZLE: THE GREAT DIRECTOR BY STUART OCKMAN

EDITED BY DAVID BENKOF
Inside V15s ground game

to unseat Netanyahu
BEN SALES
TEL AVIV When he goes door to door
here, handing out campaign materials, Shai Gal doesnt tell people to vote
for Labor, Meretz, or other liberal parties vying for support in Israels March 17
election.
He just asks one question: Do you want
to replace Bibi?
So far, he says, hes heard a lot of yeses.
Bibi has an interest for us to be scared
about security, Gal told a group of voters
in Tel Aviv on Monday night. He wants us
to give up and not vote because thats how
it is. What upsets Bibi personally is that
were creating a mindset of victory.
Gal, 30, is a field organizer for V15, an
organization established in December
with one goal: to replace Israels right-wing
government with a center-left coalition.
Rather than trying to convince right-wing
voters to move left, V15 has researched
where most center-left voters live and
launched an intensive ground operation
to get them to the polls.
To win the next election, we need to
analyze the last election and figure out
where to do fieldwork, V15s executive
director, Nimrod Dweck, 33, said. Where
should we act? Where does the center-left
have a power base?
Since its founding two months ago,
V15 the name stands for Victory 2015
has recruited nearly 10,000 volunteers
throughout Israel. Going door to door and
meeting people in the street, the volunteers ask voters to sign a pledge to vote
and then to vote for a centrist or left-wing
party.
V15 formed after a Facebook exchange
in early December led its founders to set
up a meeting in Tel Aviv. The group since
has partnered with OneVoice, a nonprofit
aiming to encourage grassroots support
for a two-state solution. V15 also has hired
270 Strategies, an American political consulting group headed by Jeremy Bird,
who worked on both of President Barack
Obamas presidential campaigns.
Birds and OneVoices involvement have
led Netanyahus Likud Party to accuse V15
of using foreign funding to manipulate
Israels election. That criticism was echoed
by American Republican lawmakers Ted
Cruz and Lee Zeldin, who wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry in January warning
that U.S. taxpayer dollars were being used
to influence Israeli elections and asking for
an investigation. OneVoice received grants
from the State Department in 2014, before
its affiliation with V15.
Earlier this month, Likud petitioned
Israels Central Elections Committee to
ban V15, claiming that it amounted to
illegal campaigning for the Zionist Camp,
a combined list of the liberal Labor and
Hatnuah parties. The committee has yet

to issue a response.
We chose to submit the petition so as
to prevent the hard blow to Israeli democracy through the cynical and blunt use of
foreign funding from extreme left-wing
groups, which wish to influence Israeli
public opinion in blunt violation of the
Party Funding Law, said a Likud Facebook post on February 2.
Dweck said that while the organization
has received donations from abroad, V15s
activities are legal because the law prohibits outside groups only from campaigning
for a specific party, which V15 doesnt do.
He said V15 has no connection to, and does
not coordinate activities with, any political
party.
On Monday evening, speaking to potential volunteers at V15s field headquarters here, Gal said the Democratic party
of Israel runs from the political center
through the far left.
A range of people want to replace Bibi
for a lot of reasons, said Sarit Larry, 43,
head of V15s Tel Aviv staff. Because the
health system is collapsing or they want to
buy an apartment. Enough is enough. Bibi
is doing my work for me.
Dweck had hoped that polling would
reveal left-wing strongholds in the countrys poor and peripheral regions. But
V15s statistical analysis shows that most
center-left voters live along Israels largely
secular and affluent Mediterranean coast,
specifically in the Tel Aviv and Haifa metropolitan areas.
Its very frustrating for someone that
believes in socialist values because the
center-left identifies with the poor, and
it turns out that the power base is middle
class and up, he said.
On Monday, Larry gathered some 30
potential volunteers at V15s Tel Aviv headquarters for an information session. One
wall of the room was emblazoned with
graffiti reading Victory 2015. Another
wall showed a map of Tel Aviv divided into
precincts. Outside hung a poster with the
words On March 17, were just switching
covering Netanyahus face.
The meeting opened with attendees saying why they wanted a new government.
Their answers reflected the broad tent
that V15 is trying to pitch. Some wanted
a renewed peace process. One woman
hoped for maybe, maybe, maybe an
apartment. Others had lost faith in Netanyahu as a leader.
I want a change in the state in many
ways generally, said Avner Avidan, 37,
who returned to Tel Aviv after six years in
Australia. I want the right-wing parties
and the extreme right to leave the government. I want to see the most left-wing government possible come in.

JTA WIRE SERVICE
Across
Down
1. With 71-Across, 1968 Neil Simon play directed by 62-Across

6. Thirteen, for men
11. 1964 Murray Schisgal play directed by
62-Across
14. Wife of Abram
15. Access Hot, e.g.
16. Dances ___ Gathering (Jerome Robbins
ballet)
17. 1967 movie with songs by a Jewish folksinging duo directed by 62-Across
19. Few, at the Rothschild villa on the Cte
dAzur
20. Disparage, as anti-Semites do
21. Ol Man River composer
22. A ___ Brief (Old Yiddish advice column)
25. 2005 musical with the song You Wont
Succeed on Broadway (If You Dont Have
Any Jews) directed by 62-Across
27. A king of Judah
28. Sababa
30. Rebecca and Rachel, e.g.
31. Clown created by Alan Livingston
33. You Dont ___ with the Zohan (2008
comedy starring Adam Sandler)
36. Nation with an embassy in Ramat Gan
40. Best Actress for Whos Afraid of Virginia
Woolf? (Directed by 62-Across)
43. Plastic wrap brand Orthodox Jews tear
before Shabbat
44. Its between the Torah and the Ktuvim
45. Verdi opera that debuted across the Suez
Canal
46. Part of a Provision-ISR DVR?
48. Lee or Bedford (pt. of the chasidic
Williamsburg Walking Tour)
50. Actor Efron of Neighbors
51. 1983 movie co-written by Nora Ephron and
directed by 62-Across
56. Like the Dome of the Rock
58. Mai ___ (Drinks featured at Mikes Place in
Jerusalem on Mondays)
59. Baked goods business founded in 1949 by
Charles Lubin
61. E.R. staffers at ALYN Hospital, e.g.
62. He was born Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky in
Berlin (1931-2014)
66. Ax-like tool used in constructing the Old
City
67. And my hand found the wealth of the
peoples like ___ (Isaiah 10:14)
68. Adjusts, with the aid of a 66-Across, perhaps
69. 2001 TV movie directed by 62-Across with
a character named Dr. Posner
70. Like acacia wood
71. See 1-Across
1. Clock setting for the Russian Jews who

immigrated to West Hollywood
2. Hebrew infinitive prefix before asot (to do)
and chalom (to dream)
3. All the Things You ___ (song popularized
by Artie Shaw)
4. Tim and Nina ___, co-founders of a popular
restaurant guide
5. Like some IDF rescues
6. Ye ___ Testament?
7. Numerically, how the seder is structured,
with in
8. Condition after being dunked in the Sea of
Galilee, perhaps
9. Cheer at the Maccabiah Games
10. Benz follower, at a Bazan refinery
11. Place for a Flag of Israel pin
12. Pre-bris location
13. Boast, like the little horn in Daniels vision
18. Characteristic of Abba Eban
21. Kind of question
22. ___ in Arms (Rodgers and Hart musical)
23. Sicily, to Modigliani
24. Talmudic treatise
26. Krav ___ (self-defense system)
29. Like a Zealot
32. Locale of the Moshe Safdie-designed
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
34. Part of an Italian ma shlomcha
35. :
37. Joyful girl?
38. Bid silently to a Matsart auctioneer
39. ___ to the finish, like the Tiberias Marathon
41. ___ Leaf (1971 movie directed by Elaine
May)
42. Gardens located 10 minutes from the
Danish Jewish Museum
47. Technion ratio
49. Builds, like the Moshe Aviv Tower
51. Both ___ and fodder are plentiful with us
(Genesis 25:25)
52. Redundant, egotistical track on Bob
Dylans Infidels?
53. Franz ___ Chamber Orchestra (Group that
recorded with Isaac Stern)
54. Like some Israeli furniture
55. Inbal Dror creation
57. Indian Prime Minister who expressed support for Jewish behavior in Palestine
60. Chip at a Steve Wynn hotel
62. American humor magazine founded by
Harvey Kurtzman
63. Ken, en franais
64. Call at the Negev Israel Open
65. Haifa-to-Jerusalem dir.
The solution to last weeks puzzle is

on page 49.
Arts & Culture
Gett: The Trial of

Viviane Amsalem
ERIC A. GOLDMAN
ureaucracy often has been a

great subject for cinema.
Many of its foibles are universal; over the years, we have
been treated to films from all parts of the
world that tackled issues of citizen rights
vs. the travails of dealing with government. Not surprisingly, Israeli filmmakers
have used cinema to try to bring some of
these issues out in the open, hoping that
public discussion might pave the way for
change. Two of the great 60s classics of
Israeli cinema, Sallah and The Blaumilch Canal, written by satirist Ephraim
Kishon, showed how ordinary Israeli citizens met with obstacle after obstacle as
they tried to find their way in their society. Now, with Gett: The Trial of Viviane
Amsalem, co-directors and co-screenwriters Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz have
delved into the all-too-problematic issue
of divorce in Israel; they very much hope
the film will spark greater public debate
and change.
When the State of Israel was created,
the administration of such civil matters as
marriage, divorce, and conversion were
turned over to the chief rabbinate. In this
new Jewish state, it seemed to make perfect sense that they be handled by the rabbinate and that fitted in with the complexity of David Ben Gurions political
needs at the time. Increasingly, this rabbinic power has caused discord with many
Israelis and conflict with Reform, Conservative, and even modern Orthodox groups
both within and outside Israel. Who is a
Jew? Can a couple choose a rabbi to perform their marriage? Can a conversion
undertaken by a rabbi be declared null
and void in Israel? These are but a few of
the questions that are part of the ongoing
and passionate debate.
When someone seeks a divorce in the
United States, he or she goes through a
civil process. Until a divorce is finalized, no
state will allow either partner to remarry.
In Jewish law, a marriage can be dissolved
only when husband gives a get, a bill of
divorce, to the wife. (Although the word is
spelled gett in the films title, it is more
commonly spelled get.) According to
Jewish law, a Jewish woman needs a get in
order to remarry.
This can cause problems, particularly
if the husband does not agree to provide
Ronit Elkabetz in Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem.
a get, or if he goes missing and is unable

to do so. The rabbis have struggled with
this matter for centuries, and a variety of
solutions have been put forward. But what
happens if the husband simply refuses to
give the get?
It can get complicated. Some Jewish
communities around the world have created committees to pressure husbands.
There have been far too many cases where
a man expects a financial payoff before
he will set his wife free. Some Jews outside Israel simply pay no heed to Jewish
law. Many Israelis fly off to another country, particularly Cyprus, and divorce and
remarry there.
But what about a Jewish woman in Israel
whose husband simply refuses to cooperate? What are her options? She can go to
court a rabbinic court, a beit din.
Ronit Elkabetz, one of Israels finest
actresses, whose film roles include Pnina
in Shchur, Yudit in Late Marriage,
and Dina in The Bands Visit, has been
appearing in films since 1990. In just
about each one of them, the viewers eye
is drawn immediately to her unique persona and charisma. In her newest film,
as Viviane Amsalem, a woman of Moroccan background, who comes to court to
dissolve a marriage in which she is totally
unfulfilled, Elkabetz is absolutely magnificent. As times quiet and disenchanted by
COURTESY MUSIC BOX FILMS
the process, at other times angry and frustrated, Elkabetz shows us a range of emotion that draws us into her character and
her sense of total disillusionment.
All Viviane wants is a divorce. She has
not been unfaithful. She has tried to be a
good wife. But she is not appreciated, not
respected, and very unhappy. Her husband, Elisha, played powerfully by French
Armenian actor Simon Abkarian, says he
loves her, and refuses to accede to her
request. The story is a simple one she
wants a divorce and he does not. What this
film does is bring us inside the small room
that serves as a beit din, to be witness to
the process.
In addition to their other activities, during the last decade the multitalented Ronit
and her brother Shlomi Elkabetz have
been creating a three-part narrative film
study of one Mizrahi Israeli family. They
have focused on the wants and desires of
the wife, a mother of three. In the first film
that they co-directed and co-wrote, To
Take a Wife, released in 2004, the Elkabetz siblings provide a study of three days
in the life of a woman who is under strict
family pressure to conform as an obedient
wife, yet wants more from life. Their second film, Seven Days, made four years
later, uses the death of a family member
and the subsequent shiva as an opportunity to study the broad dysfunctional
family. In conversation with Ronit and

Shlomi, it was made clear to me that when
they began making their trilogy, their goal
was to represent a side of Israeli society
that has never been properly represented.
Part of our work was to represent the
life of Arab Jews from an internal point of
view. We tell the story about ourselves!
they said. However, in Gett: The Trial of
Viviane Amsalem, Shlomi emphasized
that in addition to providing a look into
his community, this film was made for
every woman in Israel who has had to
go through the process of divorce. In
their third film together, a film that was
Israels submission to this years Academy Awards, the duo delve into the
legal attempt to end a broken relationship, amid all the pressures of family and
obstruction by the husband.
Court movie dramas can be powerful and they can be dull. In this film, just
about all the action takes place in a small
courtroom, which maybe can fit 15 people.
Some of the activity, or lack of it, also is set
in the anteroom, where Viviane waits with
her attorney, where she returns over the
course of many months, to have her case
heard, reheard, and resolved.
But make no mistake the drama is in
the acting. When the camera zooms in
on Vivianes face, it tells us much. When
the plaintiff comes into the courtroom
and is met by the judges, who stress that
their job is to find ways to keep families
together, just look at her reaction! And the
three men sitting above her are they sufficiently sensitive to this womans needs?
Is there also racial bias on the part of the
Ashkenazi chief judge, played brilliantly by
Eli Gorenstein?
If you want superb drama, stellar acting, and a story drawn from real life that
sometimes feels like theater of the absurd,
I highly recommend this film. The acting of Elkabetz and Abkarian, supported
by the talents of actors like Sasson Gabai
and Menashe Noy, with a cameo by Zeev
Revach, make this a movie not to be
missed. The film opens today at Lincoln
Plaza Cinema in New York.
Eric Goldman is adjunct professor at
Yeshiva University and was a Schusterman
Fellow in Israel Studies this summer. Next
week, he will be giving the Stern Family
Lecture on Israel and Israeli Cinema at
Gratz College in Philadelphia.
Calendar
Paramus/Congregation
Beth Tikvah offers family
bingo with make-yourown sundaes, 7 p.m.
Prizes and refreshments.
East 304 Midland Ave.
(201) 262-7691 or www.
jccparamus.org.
Sunday
FEBRUARY 22
Preschool program in
Woodcliff Lake: Temple
Emanuel of the Pascack
Valley holds MazelTots
for 3-year-olds and their
parents/grandparents,
10 a.m. 87 Overlook Drive.
(201) 391-0801, ext. 12.
Authors in Hoboken:
Shir Appeal, Tufts Universitys Jewish a cappella group, will

perform at the Glen Rock Jewish Center on Saturday, February
28. The group will sing during the service at 9 a.m., and the
kiddush lunch that follows. 682 Harristown Road. (201) 6526624 or office@grjc.org.
FEB.
28
Friday
FEBRUARY 13
followed by a Kiddush
lunch. 176 West Side
Ave. (201) 435-5725 or
bnaijacobjc.org.
cheese and desserts

served. Sponsorships
available. 240 Broad Ave.
(201) 568-1315, or www.
ahavathtorah.org.
Friday
FEBRUARY 20
Shabbat for seniors:
Rabbi Chanoch
Waxman
Shabbat in Teaneck:
Rabbi Chanoch Waxman
of Yeshivat Har Etzion in
Israel is the scholar-inresidence at Congregation
Rinat Yisrael, discussing
The Altar and the
Meaning of Naase
Venishma tonight before
Maariv and Dancing
Before the Kallah: Of
Brides, Rabbis and Bayit,
during the oneg. On
Shabbat morning, at the
9 a.m. minyan, his talk will
be The Many Stories of
Sinai. He will conclude on
Shabbat afternoon after
Mincha at 4:55 p.m. with
Make Your Ears Like a
Funnel: Conflict, Truth and
the Forty-Nine Faces of
Torah. 389 W. Englewood
Ave. (201) 837-2795.
Saturday
FEBRUARY 14
Shabbat in Jersey
City: Congregation
Bnai Jacob offers
services and Tu bShvat
festivities for all, 9:15 a.m.,
Rabbi Stephen Fuchs

COURTESY FLJC/CBI
Shabbat in Fair Lawn:

Rabbi Stephen Fuchs,
author of Whats in
it For Me? Finding
Ourselves in Biblical
Narratives, is the
scholar-in-residence at
the Fair Lawn Jewish
Center/Congregation
Bnai Israel. Fuchs, the
former president of
the World Union for
Progressive Judaism,
will speak during
services that begin at
9:30 a.m., and after
Kiddush lunch. He will
also speak on Sunday at
10 a.m. 10-10 Norma Ave.
(201) 796-5040.
Wine tasting
in Englewood:
Congregation Ahavath
Torah hosts its annual
wine tasting, 9 p.m.
Wine Country supplies
the wine; jazz by the
West Hills Project.
Learn about wine and
food pairings, sample
more than 200 wines,
buy wine at a discount;
The Bergen County

YJCC in Washington
Township continues
Kabbalat Shabbat, a
monthly program, with
lunch and a talk by
Cantor Eric Wasser of
the Fair Lawn Jewish
Center/Congregation
Bnai Israel, noon-2 p.m.
Partially subsidized by
a grant from the Jewish
Federation of Northern
New Jersey. 605 Pascack
Road. (201) 666-6610.
is preceded by Maariv,
the discussion is Jewish
Calcutta Through Music
and Memory. On Shabbat
morning during services
that begin at 9 a.m.,
Musleah will lead the Torah
service, chant Torah and
haftarah in the BaghdadiIndian nusah and tropes,
and give a dvar Torah,
The Power of Prayer to
Recreate Community.
Shabbat afternoon,
after a dairy Kiddush
lunch, she will lead Chai
& Chat. 354 Maitland
Ave. Meal reservations,
(201) 833-2620 or office@
cbsteaneck.org.
Shabbat in Teaneck:
Temple Emeth offers a
musical service led by
Rabbi Steven Sirbu and
Cantor Ellen Tilem, 8 p.m.
1666 Windsor Road.
(201) 833-1322 or www.
emeth.org.
The United Synagogue

of Hoboken offers What
Do Kids Eat? What
Should Kids Eat? the
Philip & Claire Meistrich
Speaker program and
brunch. USH members
Rachel Meltzer, author of
The Smart Girls Guide
to Going Vegetarian,
and Dina Rose, author
of Its Not About the
Broccoli: Three Habits
to Teach Your Kids for
a Lifetime of Healthy
Eating, are the speakers,
10:30 a.m. 115 Park Ave.
(201) 659-4000 or www.
hobokensynagogue.org.
Movie in Paramus:
The JCC of Paramus/
Congregation Beth
Tikvah screens The
Good Earth, 3 p.m.
304 E. Midland Ave.

(201) 262-7691 or www.
jccparamus.org.
Challah baking: The

Chabad Center of Passaic
County offers challah
baking, for women and
girls 8 and older from
Passaic County, at the
Chabad Center of Passaic
County in Wayne, 7 p.m.
$18. 194 Ratzer Road.
(973) 694-6274 or
jewishwayne.com.
Singles
Sunday
FEBRUARY 15
Senior singles meet in
West Nyack: Singles
65+ meets for a social
bagels and lox brunch
at the JCC Rockland,
11 a.m. 450 West Nyack
Road. $8. Gene Arkin,
(845) 356-5525.
Brunch/mingle: North
Jersey Jewish Singles 4560s at the Clifton Jewish
Center offers a bagels
and conversation brunch,
noon. Card games,
schmoozing, discussions.
$15. 18 Delaware St.
Karen, (973) 772-3131 or
join North Jersey Jewish
Singles 45-60s, at www.
meetup.com.
Announce your events

We welcome announcements of upcoming events. Announcements are free. Accompanying photos must be high
resolution, jpg files. Send announcements 2 to 3 weeks in
advance. Not every release will be published. Include a daytime telephone number and send to:
Jewish Media Group
NJ
pr@jewishmediagroup.com 201-837-8818
Saturday
FEBRUARY 21
Shabbat in Emerson:
Rahel Musleah
Shabbat in Teaneck:
Congregation Beth
Sholom in Teaneck
welcomes musician/awardwinning journalist Rahel
Musleah as scholar-inresidence for a weekend of
music, prayer, discussion,
and food inspired by
centuries old BaghdadiIndian community. Tonight,
after an Indian-inspired
dinner at 6:30 p.m., which
Congregation Bnai
Israel offers A Shabbat
ExperienceMeditation
Shabbat, a morning
service led by Rabbi
Debra Orenstein, 10 a.m.
Learn about and enjoy
Jewish meditation
techniques. 53 Palisade
Ave. (201) 265-2272 or
www.bisrael.com.
Bingo/ice cream:
The Parent Teacher
Association of the Jewish
Community Center of
Almost Queen performing

at Englewood concert
Tickets are on sale at the Bergen Performing Arts Center
in Englewood for a concert by Almost Queen on Saturday,
March 14 at 8 p.m. The group renders an authentic Queen
experience. Call the box office at (201) 227 1030, www.
ticketmaster.com, or www.bergenpac.org.
Calendar
Purim cards
help feed
Israels hungry
Exhibit features local artist
Leket Israel, Israels national food bank and largest food rescue network, is selling printed Purim
cards. Every $1 donated provides 10 pounds of
fresh food for one needy person for a week. It
costs $36 for 18 cards and envelopes, $70 for 36,
$90 for 54, and $170 for 108. Unlimited Purim
ecards, picture cards, and video cards are available online for $18. To order, call Elena at (201) 3310070, ext. 2, or go to purim.leket.org.
YU program will address

BRCA screening/egg freezing
On Sunday, February 15, Yeshiva Universitys Student Medical Ethics Society, its
Center for the Jewish Future, the Abraham Arbesfeld Kollel Yom Rishon and
the Millie Arbesfeld Midreshet Yom Rishon will partner for a two-part program,
Taking Control: Ethical and Halachic
Implications of BRCA Screening and
Elective Egg Freezing. The program
will be at the Schottenstein Center on
Yeshiva Universitys Wilf Campus at 560
West 185th St., in Manhattan, beginning
at 9:30 a.m.
The first half of the program, Testing for Cancer Risk in the Jewish Community: Medical and Halachic Perspectives, will feature a discussion led by
Dr. Edward Reichman, professor of
emergency medicine and professor of
education and bioethics at YUs Albert

Einstein College of Medicine, and Dr.
Nicole Schreiber-Agus, director of the
Program for Jewish Genetic Health. The
second part of the program, Oocyte
Cryopreservation: Freezing Eggs, New
Technologies to Help Single Women and
Cancer Patients, will examine whether
Orthodox Jewish women who may not
be able to have children later in life
whether because of illness, future cancer treatments, or marriages close to or
beyond menopause should take advantage of a new medical technique called
oocyte cryopreservation, which enables
women to freeze their eggs and maintain the potential for conception in the
future. Register online at yu.convio.net/
medicalethics.
Tear by Linda Friedman Schmidt of

Franklin Lakes is one of the works in
Accessorize: The Person and The Place,
the New Jersey Arts Annual, on display
until April 19 at the Morris Museum in
Morristown.
Ms. Schmidt was born in the DP camp
in Eschwege, Germany. The sadness of the
Holocaust permeates her artwork. Discarded clothing, her medium, conjures
up thoughts of discarded humanity, and
her process of cutting or tearing it, relates
to mourning, the Jewish funeral custom
called kriah.
Fo r i n f o r m a t i o n , e m a i l w w w.
m o r r i s m u s e u m . o r g , o r w w w.
lindafriedmanschmidt.com, or call (973)
971-3700.
Tear by Linda Friedman Schmidt

displayed at the Morris Museum.
JAMES KRIE
Sharsherets NYC night

Meet, mingle, and network with other young professionals at Sharsherets NYC
Young Professionals Networking Night at Slate in the Flatiron District on Saturday,
February 21, at 8 p.m. There will be an open bar, food, billiards, and ping-pong. For
information, go to www.sharsheret.org/ypcslate.
MAGNIFICENT! AMAZING!
You must take your family.

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, WABC
JEC alumni mixer and reception

The new JEC Alumni Network is hosting
an after-work evening of reconnecting
and socializing, with food, cocktails, and
a chocolate madness dessert reception, on February 18 at 6 p.m. at Congregation Ohav Shalom in Manhattan. All
JEC alumni and their spouses (21+) are

invited.
There is no cover charge. The shul
is at 270 West 84th St. For information
call (908) 355-4850, ext. 6248, or email
alumni@thejec.org.
POWERFUL & INSIGHTFUL!
These stories are heartbreaking & beautiful.

The New York Times
Jewish studies at temple in Teaneck

The Mini University of Jewish Studies at
Temple Emeth will begin its winter session this week.
Cantor Ellen Tilem will teach Shalom in Your Home: Connecting with Our
Spouses and Children through Jewish
Values, and Irwin Yellowitz will teach
The Jewish Labor Movement. Ongoing programs include Lunch and Learn
with Rabbi Steven Sirbu on Wednesdays
at noon, centering on Judaisms Great

Debates: Timeless Controversies from
Abraham to Herzl. Torah study with
Rabbi Sirbu is on Saturdays at 9 a.m.,
with coffee, bagels, and spreads. Speak,
Laugh, and Enjoy Yiddish continues on
Mondays at 10:45 a.m.
The synagogue is at 1666 Windsor
Road. For information, call (201) 8331322 or go to www.emeth.org.
HAIL TO
A MENSCH!
Wiesenthal succeeds
with skill and unexpected
humor in bringing its
heroic figure to life!
New York Post
Museum exhibit closing this weekend

In order to install its new spring exhibitions, the Museum of Jewish Heritage A
Living Memorial to the Holocaust will close
Against the Odds: American Jews & The
Rescue of Europes Refugees, 1933-1941
on February 15. Called wrenching and
elegant by the Wall Street Journal, the

exhibit is designed by C&G Partners and
has been nominated for several design
awards, including the International Design
Excellence Award, SEGD, New York Design
Award, and the Core77 award.
Performances Thru February 22

ACORN THEATRE at THEATRE ROW 410 West 42nd Street
Telecharge.com or 212-239-6200 WIESENTHALTHEPLAY.COM

Local
French Jews
FROM PAGE 7
While Sandras decision was animated directly by the horror she experienced, other anti-Semitic events
already had created a wave of anxiety in the French Jewish community.
Helene Yaiche-Wolf is a volunteer
with Keren Hayesod (the United Israel
Appeal outside the United States). Her
grandparents were killed in Auschwitz.
She knew their story, of course, but
she was brought up in France feeling
safe and secure. Then last July, thousands of people demonstrated in Paris
against Israels incursion into Gaza,
which had been launched to stop
Hamass rocket attacks. She could not
believe what happened at the rally.
The crowd
began to chant
Death to the
Jews. More
than 70 years
had passed since
those words
last echoed in
the streets of
Europe.
The crowd began to chant Death
to the Jews. More than 70 years had
passed since those words last echoed
in the streets of Europe. She was so
afraid that she could barely function, and she had to seek help from a
psychologist.
At the Paris memorial to the
200,000 French Jews who were
deported by the Nazis, our delegation met with half a dozen college
students. Solal Galamidi, tall and
lean, a senior at the University of
Paris, said that until a year ago he had
never questioned that he would live
in France for the rest of his life. Now
I dont know whether France will be
a safe place for Jews, he said. His fellow students nodded in agreement.
Ariel Goldman, personable and
warm, is president of the Jewish Welfare Fund and past president of the
Organized French Jewish Community, also known as CRIF. Although
he is not afraid, he does worry about
the potential triple threat to the Jewish community from Islamist terrorists, but also from the extreme left
and the extreme right. He believes
the government now understands
the threat more clearly. As evidence,
he notes that since the Hyper Cacher
attack his 13-year-olds Jewish school
is guarded not only by six police officers but also by a cohort of soldiers.
In fact, all 720 Jewish institutions in
France schools, synagogues, community centers are now guarded
by the military. He wonders what
will happen when the soldiers are
removed.
Perhaps the most analytical among
those we met was Judge Marguerite
Zauberman, a representative of the
Bank of France to the World Bank
and a board member of several Jewish organizations. French Jews tend to
hold either of two views, she said. The
first is that history might well repeat
itself. Adherents of this view recall the
1930s as a time when the pessimists
went to New York and the optimists
went to Auschwitz.
A second group stresses that conditions are different now than they were
in the 1930s. In the earlier period,
many intellectuals were anti-Semites.
That is not the case today. Also, in the
1930s the French government was
infiltrated with anti-Semites. Again,
that is not true today. And unlike in
pre-war France, the legal framework
against anti-Semitism and racism
in place today is robust. Finally, the
existence of Israel eliminates the historical fear that Jews might have no
place to go.
In the immediate future mass emigration numbering in the tens of
thousands seems improbable. If
the laws against discrimination were
weakened or the government failed
to prosecute anti-Semitic activity,
the Jewish community would shrink
more quickly. Continued violent
actions would further fuel the process. But for now, the watchword for
many is vigilance.
Even the most hopeful among the
people we spoke with revealed some
anxiety. But even among those most
anxious there often remained a measure of hope.
Dr. Leonard A. Cole of Ridgewood is
co-chair of the Jewish Agencys Task
Force on anti-Semitism and a former
president of the Jewish Federation of
Northern New Jersey
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Community-organizing rabbi will helm

influential Brooklyn congregation
URIEL HEILMAN
One of the top agenda items these days for
Rachel Timoner, associate rabbi at the Leo
Baeck Temple in Los Angeles, is trying to get
a train built along the I-405 freeway, which
stretches from the North San Fernando Valley to the citys international airport.
Its the community project her Reform
congregation has chosen to prioritize as a
vehicle, Timoner says, for creating 140,000
jobs and removing 80,000 cars from the
road each day.
When Timoner takes up her new post this
summer as senior rabbi at Congregation
Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, she may find herself far from concerns about L.A. traffic, but
close to that same spirit of community organizing and social action.
Beth Elohim has earned a national reputation in recent years for social action and for
the successes that its departing rabbi, Andy
Bachman, has had at bringing disaffected Jewish young professionals into synagogue life.
After Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Beth Elohim launched a massive feeding program for
down-and-out New Yorkers. After the massacre of 26 children and teachers at a school
in Newtown, Conn., there was Bachman protesting outside a firm with investments in military-style assault weapons. When the Park
Slope Food Coop threatened to boycott Israeli
goods, Bachman led the progressive charge
against the boycott.
All the while, Bachman managed to make
Beth Elohim a hub for young Jews. The synagogue hosts brand-name speaker programs
and a vibrant traditional-style egalitarian minyan called Altshul. Membership doubled to
almost 1,000 member units over Bachmans
nearly nine years at the helm.
So when Bachman announced last summer
that he would be leaving his pulpit to focus
on work helping New Yorks poor, many in his
stunned congregation wondered who could
take his place.
On January 28, the search committee
announced that Timoner was its unanimous
choice for senior rabbi. The decision has been
approved by the board but must be voted on
by the congregation, likely on March 2.
We really see ourselves as a model for a
synagogue thats broader than just our congregation, Beth Elohims president, Jonathan
Fried, said. Rabbi Timoner has both a strong
track record in her current congregation of
really engaging people, and she has a previous background before she went to rabbinical
school of working with community organizations and other nonprofits.
If she is approved, Beth Elohim would
become the third large congregation in Brooklyns stroller-friendly Park Slope to be led by
a lesbian. The other two are the unaffiliated
Kolot Chayeinu, which long has been led by
Rabbi Ellen Lippman, and the Park Slope Jewish Center, a Conservative congregation under
Rabbi Carie Carters stewardship.
Rabbi Rachel Timoner, associate rabbi

of the Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles, is being tapped to take over the
pulpit at Congregation Beth Elohim in
Brooklyn.
LEO BAECK TEMPLE
A Florida native, Timoner, 44, spent

nearly 14 years in the nonprofit sector before
enrolling in rabbinical school. After graduating from Yale, she helped rebuild a community center for low-income women in San
Francisco, launched or led four programs
for LGBT youth, researched the impact of
welfare reform on poor people in California, and spent six years as an organizational
development consultant working with such
clients as the Pro-Choice Resource Center,
the Coalition on Homelessness and a group
for abused women.
Timoner is married to Felicia Park-Rogers,
the former executive director of Beth Chayim
Chadashim, an LGBT congregation in Los
Angeles. The couple has two sons.
By all accounts, Timoners decision to go
into the rabbinate was an extension of her
earlier work. (Timoner declined to be interviewed for this story, citing the congregations
pending vote on her hire.)
Repairing injustice has been central to
Rachels rabbinate, said Rabbi Stephanie
Kolin, co-director of the Union for Reform
Judaisms Just Congregations initiative, which
helps congregations mobilize for social action.
As opposed to talking about issues from
the bimah, Rachel has surrounded herself
with congregants to allow them to do their
work in the public square through a Jewish
lens, said Kolin, who also will be moving
from Los Angeles to New York this summer
to take a job as associate rabbi at Manhattans
Central Synagogue.
Timoner, who wrote a 2011 book, Breath of
Life: God as Spirit in Judaism, also has been
an outstanding spiritual leader, according
to Kenneth Chasen, the senior rabbi at Leo
Baeck Temple. She has a contagious spirit,
and it brings depth and meaning to every corner of the world, Chasen said.
David Myers, the chairman of UCLAs history department and a professor of Jewish
history, said Timoner is a worthy successor
to Bachman. She is poised to assume a position of leadership, not just in one synagogue
but on the American Jewish stage more genJTA WIRE SERVICE
erally, he said.
Obituaries
Abraham Auerbach
Abraham J. Auerbach, 95,

of Tamarac, Fla., formerly
of Teaneck, died on
February 7.
Born in Union City, he
worked as a CPA in Secaucus. He was an active member and past president of
the Secaucus Rotary and the
North Hudson Freemasons.
Predeceased by his wife,
Shirley, he is survived
by his children, Sandy
(Lynn), Jerry (Elaine), and
Glenda Spitzer (Tony); six
grandchildren, and seven
great-grandchildren.
Donations can be sent
to Parkinsons Unity Walk
(Walker Tony Spitzer) or
Alzheimers Association of
Massachusetts.
Arrangements were by
Robert Schoems Menorah
Chapel, Paramus.
Ruth Bernstein
Ruth Esther Bernstein of

Pompton Plains, formerly of
Bayonne and Monroe Township, died on February 7.
She was a member and
past president of the Bayonne chapter of ORT.
Predeceased by her husband, David, she is survived
by daughters Gayle W.B.
Musnikow ( Jeffrey), and
Debra S. Hodes (Arnold); a
sister, Beatrice Spector (Sanford); three grandchildren,
and a great-grandchild.
Louis Suburban Chapel,
Fair Lawn.
Walter Eisin
Walter Eisin of Fort Lee died

on February 3.
Born in New York City,
he was a U.S. Army veteran
and worked in sales in the
watchband industry.
He is survived by his
mother, Margaret Eizikovitz,
his wife, Susan, ne Kramer,
daughters, Jill Perry (Mike),
Melissa Perry (Stephen),
and Sloane Eisin; a sister,
Eleanor Frommer (Paul),
and four grandchildren.
Contributions can be
made to the American Cancer Society. Arrangements
were by Gutterman and
Musicant Jewish Funeral
Directors, Hackensack.
Faina Lebedeva
Faina Lebedeva, 95, of Fair

Lawn died on February. 9.
Fair Lawn.
Roberta Lichtman
Roberta Lichtman, 71, of

Fair Lawn died on February 6.
Born in Brooklyn, she
was a bookkeeper.
She is survived by her
husband, Ron, a daughter,
Janice, and friends and
family.
Donations can be made
to Lupus Foundation of
America, Springfield.
Fair Lawn.
Ninel Lyubovitsky
Ninel Lyubovitsky, 95, of

Fair Lawn died on February 6.
Fair Lawn.
Maryla Potocki
Maryla Potocki, ne Lieberman, 98, of Tarrytown, N.Y.,

died on February 7.
Born in Poland, she was
a retired seamstress in the
New York City Garment
Center and a member of
Workmens Circle of Hudson County.
Predeceased by her
husband, Louis, in 2005,
she is survived by a
daughter, Dina Potocki of
Tarrytown, and a brother,
Israel Lieberman of
Florida.
Eden Memorial Chapels,
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Obituaries are prepared with information

provided by funeral homes. Correcting errors is
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www.rabbichirnomas.com
Car Service
A PLUS
Limo & Car Service
Cemetery Plots For Sale

2 PLOTS
Beth El Cemetery, Paramus,
beautiful location by sidewalk,
fair price
Ask for Eilene
702-433-6486
702-524-5813
702-732-8463
Crypts For Sale
The most reliable and efficient service

at all times for your transporation needs.
Our professional and courteous team works together for you.
2 Crypts in Sanctuary of Abraham

and Sarah at Cedar Park in Paramus, NJ. Steeply discounted!
Call JT; 917-346-7046.
Serving the Tri-State Area, New York and Bergen County
Help Wanted
EWR $39 LGA $42 JFK $59

Tolls, parking, wlt, stops & tps are not included Extra $7 Airport Pickup
Prices subject to change without prior notice. Price varies by locations.
Fuel surcharge may add up to 10% Additional charge may be applied to credit card payment
201-641-5500 888-990-TAXI (8294)
Visit us online at: www.apluslimo1.com E-mail: apluslimo@earthlink.net
SECRETARY-FT
Office work, knowledge in Quickbooks & computers. Great communication skills, near Monsey,
no transportation. E-mail to
officework7117@gmail.com
Antiques
Sterling Associates Auctions

SEEKING CONSIGNMENT AND OUT RIGHT PURCHASES
Sculpture Paintings Porcelain Silver
Jewelry Furniture Etc.
TOP CASH PRICES PAID

201-768-1140 www.antiquenj.com
sterlingauction@optonline.net
70 Herbert Avenue, Closter, N.J. 07642
Situations Wanted
Antiques
Top Dollar For Any Kind of Jewelry &

Chinese Porcelain & Ivory
ANS A
Over 25 years courteous service to tri-state area
We come to you Free Appraisals
Call Us!
Shommer
Shabbas
201-861-7770 201-951-6224
www.ansantiques.com
48 Jewish Standard FEBRUARY 13, 2015
Situations Wanted
DAUGHTER
FOR A DAY, LLC
A CARING experienced European

woman available now to care for
elderly/sick. Live-in/Out, 2-7 days.
English speaking. References.
Drivers lics. Call Lena 908-4944540
LICENSED & INSURED
FOR YOUR
PROTECTION
Handpicked
Certified Home
Health Aides
Creative
companionship
interactive,
intelligent
conversation &
social outings
Downsize
Coordinator
Assist w/shopping,
errands, Drs, etc.
Organize/process
paperwork,
bal. checkbook,
bookkeeping
Resolve medical
insurance claims
NICHOL AS
ANTIQUES
Estates Bought & Sold
Fine Furniture
Antiques
T
U
Accessories
Cash Paid
experienced
BABYSITTER
for Teaneck area.
CARING, reliable lady with 20

years experience/excellent references/drives, looking for position to
care for the elderly, nights 9pm7am only, at $10/hr. Call 201-7413042
experienced Companion,
Nanny, Housekeeper, with excellent references seeking position.
Call 973-356-4365
Antiques Wanted
WE BUY
Oil Paintings
Silver
Bronzes
Porcelain
Oriental Rugs
Furniture
Marble Sculpture
Jewelry
Tiffany Items
Chandeliers
Chinese Art
Bric-A-Brac
Tyler Antiques
Established by Bubbe in 1940!
tylerantiquesny@aol.com
201-894-4770
Shomer Shabbos
BERGEN HOME CARE &

NURSING, INC.
For all
your Home Care
and Nursing Needs
We have the best
RNs and HHAs
Free Consultation
Competitive rates
CHHA Classes
201-342-3402
Cleaning & Hauling
Please call Jenna
JIMMY
THE JUNK MAN
Low Cost
Commercial
Residental
Rubbish Removal
201-660-2085
Cleaning Service
Affordable Rates!
POLISH CLEANING WOMAN
201-661-4940
Homes, Apartments,
Offices
14 years experience,
excellent references.
Handyman
Your Neighbor with Tools

Home Improvements & Handyman
Izabela
973-572-7031
201-214-1777
Established 2001
Home Health Services
CARETAKER available to care for

your loved ones. Over 17 years experience. Top of the line references. Very competent.
201-4068309
RITA FINE
www.daughterforaday.com
201-920-8875
We pay cash for

Antique Furniture
Used Furniture
Oil Paintings
Bronzes Silver
Porcelain China
Modern Art
Situations Wanted
Free Consultation
Certified HHA seeking live-in

position - experienced, good references. Call 732-910-9449
Shomer Shabbat Free Estimates

Over 15 Years Experience
housecleaning: Experienced,
excellent references, own transportation. For a great job call Vanda
201-926-7055; 201-591-0226; 201688-9314
Adam 201-675-0816 Jacob

Lic. & Ins. NJ Lic. #13VH05023300
www.yourneighborwithtoolshandyman.com
Help Wanted
DIRECTOR of
SINAI Maor HIGH SCHOOL
Livingston, NJ
The successful candidate will have a Masters Degree

in special education and 10 years of experience.
The program director will work closely with and report directly to the Associate Dean. He will be responsible for addressing students educational, physical,
emotional, and spiritual needs. He will be expected to
foster and maintain positive, cooperative and mutually
supportive relationships with students, parents, staff,
and host school personnel. Responsibilities include
the development of individual educational plans as
well as curriculum development; creation and oversight of extra curricular activities; hiring, evaluation
and termination of staff; professional development;
ensuring a safe environment that encourages students to take responsibility for their behavior, and creating a collegial relationship between both school and
partner school personnel. Qualified minorities and/or
women are encouraged to apply, EEO. Please email
resumes to yrothwachs@sinaischools.org
Roofing
ROOFING SIDING
Free
Estimates
HACKENSACK
ROO
FING
OOFING
CO.
201-487-5050
INC.
GUTTERS LEADERS
Roof
Repairs
83 FIRST STREET
HACKENSACK, NJ 07601
Real Estate & Business

gutters
HoMe iMproveMents
4 A CASH
GUTTER CLEANING &

ANIMAL CONTROL LLC
Squirrels Raccoons
Skunks Bats
Birds Opossums
Animal Damage Repair
Clean-Outs Attic-Garage, etc.
973-357-2222 Junior
www.cashgutterandanimal.com
NJ 13VH08302700
Get results!
Advertise on
this page.
201-837-8818
FORT LEE - THE COLONY

Now is the time to buy!
BESTof the BEST
BH
Home Repair Service
Carpentry
Painting
Decks
Kitchens
Electrical
Locks/Doors
Paving/Masonry
Basements
Drains/Pumps
Bathrooms
Maintenence
Plumbing
Hardwood Floors
Tiles/Grout
General Repairs
NO JOB IS TOO SMALL

24 Hour x 5 1/2 Emergency Services
Shomer Shabbat
Free Estimates
1-201-530-1873
pluMBing
VERA AND NECHAMA REALT Y

A DIVISION OF V AND N GROUP LLC
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 15TH

TEANECK OPEN HOUSES
1532 Jefferson St
1435 Hudson Rd
1275 Princeton Rd
1:00-3:00pm
12:30-2:30pm
2:00-4:00pm
Complete Kitchen &

Bath Remodeling
EMERGENCY SERVICE
Fully Licensed, Bonded and Insured
NO JOB IS TOO SMALL!
201-358-1700 Lic. #12285
2BR 2.5 Baths renovated from $349,000

Sponsor rental 2 BR 2.5 Baths. Renovated.
1341 Hudson Rd, Teaneck

369 Warwick Ave, Teaneck
56 Harriet Ave, Bergenfield
Boilers Hot Water Heaters Leaks
1BR 1.5 Baths renovated from $110,900

Sponsor rentals 1 BR 1.5 Baths from $1,800
JUST SOLD
APL Plumbing & Heating LLC
Solution to last weeks puzzle. This weeks puzzle is

on page 42.
$649,000
$587,000
$549,000
$3,500
Allan Dorfman
Broker/Associate
201-461-6764 Eve
201-970-4118 Cell
201-585-8080 x144 Office
Realtorallan@yahoo.com
NEW LISTING
289 Ogden Ave, Teaneck - $629,000
OUR NEW WEBSITE

JUST WENT LIVE!
www.vera-nechama.com
TEANECK
OPEN HOUSE SUN., FEB. 15, 2015
201-692-3700
THE FLORIDA LIFESTYLE

Now Selling Valencia Cove
Advantage Plus
601 S. Federal Hwy
Let Us Finance Your

House Purchase
FORMER NJ
Boca Raton, FL 33432
RESIDENTS
Elly & Ed Lepselter
SERVING BOCA RATON,
DELRAY AND BOYNTON BEACH
(561) 826-8394
AND SURROUNDING AREAS
SPECIALIZING IN: Broken Sound, Polo, Boca West, Boca Pointe,
St. Andrews, Admirals Cove, Jonathans Landing, Valencia Reserve,
Valencia Isles, Valencia Pointe, Valencia Palms, Valencia Shores,
Valencia Falls and everywhere else you want to be!
Direct lender
2 to 3 day approval
Closings within 30 days
Northern NJ Appraisers
FHA loans w/55% debt ratio
Credit scores as low as 580
TM
CLOSTER
Larry DeNike
President
MLO #58058
ladclassic@aol.com
Daniel M. Shlufman
Managing Director
MLO #6706
dshlufman@classicllc.com
GORGEOUS
$1,250,000
Spectacular 5 bedroom, 4.5 bath colonial on .5 acre overlooking reservoir,

beautiful setting at end of cul-de-sac, 2 story entry, family room w/fireplace,
gourmet kitchen opens to deck, luxurious master suite,
finished lower level w/lots storage, fenced yard, 3 car garage.
ALPINE/CLOSTER
TENAFLY
RIVER VALE ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS TENAFLY
894-1234
768-6868
CRESSKILL
Orna Jackson, Sales Associate 201-376-1389

666-0777
568-1818
894-1234 871-0800
Classic Mortgage, LLC

Serving NY, NJ & CT
25 E. Spring Valley Ave., Ste 100, Maywood, NJ
201-368-3140
www.classicmortgagellc.com
MLS
#31149
Like us on
Facebook.
facebook.com/
jewishstandard
677 Kent Ave.
$409,000
1-3 PM
Perfect For Entertaining! 16'X30' Great Room w/Fplc &

Deck off Mod Kit. Liv Rm/Din Rm Combo w/Fplc. 30' Dream
Master Suite/Jacuzzi Bath & Shower. 2 more BRs + 1.5
more Baths. Fin Bsmt. C/A/C & 4 Zone Heat. Gar.
TEANECK
BY APPOINTMENT
Country Club Area. 3 Brm Colonial. H/W Floors. Entry Foyer,

Liv Rm/Fplc, Form Din Rm, Eat In Kit, Screened Porch. Walk
Up Attic. Fin Bsmt. 1 Car Gar. $327,000.
Lovely 3 Brm Tudor Colonial. Deep 147' Property. Lg Liv
Rm/Fplc, Din Rm, Fam Rm/.5 Bath, Kit/Skylit Bkfst Area. Fin
Bsmt. Gar. $389,000.
Slate Roof Col. EF, LR/Fplc, FDR, Den. Granite Island Kit/
Brkfst Area. 4th Brm/Office + SS Bath. 3 Lovely 2 nd Flr
Brms + 2 more Baths. Game Rm Bsmt. 2 Zone C/A/C.
$440s.
ALL CLOSE TO NY BUS / HOUSES OF WORSHIP /

HIGHWAYS / SHOPPING / SCHOOLS & NY BUS
For Our Full Inventory & Directions
Visit our Website
www.RussoRealEstate.com
2014
READERS
CHOICE
FIRST PLACE
REAL ESTATE AGENCY
(201) 837-8800
Jewish standard FeBrUarY 13, 2015 49
Real Estate & Business
SELLING YOUR HOME?
Call Susan Laskin Today

To Make Your Next Move A Successful One!
BergenCountyRealEstateSource.com
Y
DA
N
SU M
N P
PE 1-4
TE
JU
81 Franklin, Englewood
R T
DE AC
N
R
U T
N
CO
36 Carnot, Woodcliff Lake

LD
SO
100 E. Palisade Englewood
a.m. to 3 p.m. There is also an afternoon

kindergarten program on Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday from moon to 3.
When a child enters kindergarten,
its one of the biggest school transitions
a child will make, explained Sara Losch,
Barnerts director of lifelong learning.
Parents are faced with dilemmas about
readiness, schedules, and curriculum.
We offer solutions, and we explain why
parents should consider a private Jewish kindergarten that not only prepares
the children for first grade but develops
positive feelings about their identity as
individuals and as part of a Jewish community. Since our class size is small, each
child is given an individualized map for
their academic, social, and emotional
journey.
To RSVP for the open house or to
schedule your own visit, contact the
preschool office at schooloffice@
barnerttemple.org or (201) 848-1027.
Book signing features Tuvia Tenenbom

Best-selling author Tuvia Tenenbom
will sign copies of his book Catch the
Jew! at Judaica House on Cedar Lane in
Teaneck at noon on Sunday, February 15.
Catch the Jew! recounts Mr. Tenenboms adventures as he wanders around
Israel and the Palestinian Authority
Like us on Facebook
ST
Barnert Temple Preschool and Family Center invites Jewish and interfaith
parents who have a child entering kindergarten in the fall of 2015 to tour its
school and watch its kindergarten class
in action. On Monday, February 23, parents can sit in the class and afterward
visit with the teacher and assistant
director from 9:15 to 10:30 a.m. Theyll
learn about programming, curriculum
and the benefits of a small class size.
Parents will have a chance to ask about
readiness, and the impact that one-onone attention can make to a childs success. At 7 p.m. there will be an evening
session to meet with the kindergarten
teacher and other senior staff. Parents
can tour the school, get a feel for what
a typical kindergarten day is like, and
have their questions answered. RSVPs
are necessary.
Barnert offers a full-day kindergarten, Monday through Friday, from 9
Cell: 201-615-5353
2015 Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. Coldwell Banker is a registered trademark licensed to Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC.
An Equal Opportunity Company. Equal Housing Opportunity. Owned and Operated by NRT LLC.
S
LI
Barnert Preschool invites

parents of kindergartners
109 E. Palisade, Englewood
Ayelet Hurvitz
Exceptional Service, Exceptional Results
for seven months in search of untold

truths, boldly going where no Jew has
gone before, at times risking his life as
he assumes the identities of Tobi the German and even Abu Ali. Mr. Tenenbom is
a journalist, dramatist, and the founder
of the Jewish Theater of New York.
LE
SA
FO
356 Broad Ave, Englewood

LD
SO
275 Engle, Englewood

LD
SO
Recipient of the NJAR Circle of Excellence Sales Award 2012-2014

Direct: 201-294-1844
Alpine/Closter Office: 201-767-0550 x 235
ahurvitz12@yahoo.com
www.ayelethurvitz.com
50 Jewish standard FeBrUarY 13, 2015
100 E. Palisade, Englewood
The Art of Real Estate

NJ:
NY:
Jeffrey Schleider
Broker/Owner
Miron Properties NY
GREENPOINT
201.266.8555
T: 212.888.6250
T:
201.906.6024
M: 917.576.0776
Ruth Miron-Schleider
Broker/Owner
Miron Properties NJ
M:
CENTRAL HARLEM
CLINTON HILL
CHELSEA
6,085 sq. ft. 3-story bldg. Prime area.
The Douglass. 2 BR/2 BTH w/courtyard.
2 BR/2 BTH brownstone-style condo.
The Greenwich House. A Chelsea gem.
MIDTOWN EAST
GREENWICH VILLAGE
UPPER WEST SIDE
MIDTOWN WEST
Great unit. Breathtaking courtyard. $340,000
The Hamilton. Doorman co-op bldg.
Grand 3,000 sq. ft. corner unit. $22,000/mo
2 BR/2 BTH w/balcony & W/D. $1,450,000
TENAFLY
TENAFLY
TENAFLY
TENAFLY
J
SO UST
LD
!
DO
ST ORM
UD A
IO N
!
LE
AS
J
SO UST
LD
!
J
SO UST
LD
!
SO
J
SO UST
LD
!
AP TH
TH E
RO
P
T
50 HE
5
CO UN
NT DE
RA R
CT
!
LD
ED
J
SO UST
LD
!
SO
LD
Unique Contemporary. 1 picturesque acre.
Enchanting Tuscany Villa in Bergen County!
Storybook Colonial. Lush property w/gazebo.
Remarkable sprawling ranch on .97 acre.
ENGLEWOOD
ENGLEWOOD
ENGLEWOOD
ENGLEWOOD
O
SU HO PEN
ND US
AY E
24
P
AR RIM
EA E
!
SO
LD
J
SO UST
LD
!
Spacious 4 BR E. H. Colonial. $769,000
Great 5 BR/4.5 BTH Colonial. $1,325,000
Amazing 7 BR/6.5 BTH Center Hall Colonial.
Custom designed 1.7 acre retreat w/pool.
FORT LEE
FORT LEE
FORT LEE
FORT LEE
SO
LD
Fabulous southeast views of NYC skyline.
LIS JUS
TE T
D!
Northbridge Park. Large 1 BR unit. $132K
J
SO UST
LD
!
Sought after 2 BR/2 BTH unit. 1,088 sq. ft.
GO TH
OD E
LIF
E
Phenomenal 3 BR corner unit. $418K
Contact us today for your complimentary consultation!
www.MironProperties.com
Each Miron Properties office is independently owned and operated.
Jewish Standard FEBRUARY 13, 2015 51
STORE HOURS
646 Cedar Lane Teaneck, NJ 07666
SUN - TUE: 7AM - 9PM

WED: 7AM - 10PM
THURS: 7AM - 11PM
FRI: 7AM - 2 HOURS
BEFORE SUNDOWN
Tel: 201-855-8500 Fax: 201-801-0225
Sign Up For Your

Loyalty
Card
In Store
Sale Effective
2/15/15 - 2/20/15
Seedless
Grapes
pints
MEAT DEPARTMENT
Whole
Chickens
GROCERY
Original Only
99
2 LB
2/$
50 GR
Assorted
Breakstone Doubles
or Chobani Flips
89
3.9 OZ
Assorted
Les Petites
Cheese Slices
2/$
6 OZ
Assorted
Tropicana
Orange Juice
$ 99
59 OZ

201-855-8500 Fax: 201-801-0225
www.thecedarmarket.com
info@thecedarmarket.com
Yellow Split Pea

w/Yellow Peppers
$ 99
$ 99
Qt.
Savory Dips
Cauliower Soufe
Onion Kugel
$ 99
$ 99
8 oz.
8OZ
Paskesz
Noshkes
Skittles
Fruit
4/$
3/$
Whole Milk
Haolam
Shredded
Mozzarella
2/$
8 OZ
Assorted
Coffee-Mate
Creamer
2/$
Assorted
Stonyfield
Organic Milk
$ 99
64 OZ
64 OZ
Original Only
Save On!
Galil
Tea
Assortment
99
Assorted
2/$
6 OZ
Assorted
Richfield Gardens
Soup
$ 99
32 OZ
Blast Off
Gum
2/$
5/$
.63 OZ
Save On!
2/$
12 PK
Save On!
Birds Eye
Sweet Corn
99
10 OZ
1195
$
`
40 OZ
Vanilla or Marble
Achva
Halva
Snack
5/$
25 GR
Wild
Chocolate
Vitalicious
Vita Top
$ 99
8 OZ
Save On!
Cavendish Sweet
Potato Fries
2/$
19 OZ
1899
LB.
BUY 2 GET 1
FREE!
7 OZ ONLY
Ossies
Nova Lox
1799
EA.
Check Out Our New Line of Cooked Fish
HOMEMADE DAIRY
$ 99
15 Inch
Cedar
Pizza Pie
EA.
399
Save On!
Blooms Ossies
$
Mini Dill Sauce
Pretzels
BAKERY
DILL SAUCE
1$
5/$
1 OZ
699
18 oz
Save On!
Mendelsohns
Pizza Bagels
2/$
6 CT
Brownie
Chiffon
Cake
$ 99
16 oz
PROVISIONS
Hod Lavan
Turkey
Bacon
4 499
2/$
EA.
Checkerboard
Cake
16 OZ
Eggo Mini or
Chocolate Chip
Pancakes
2/$
Egg
Salad
$ 99
2 LB
ea.
FISH
Golds Ossies
Sweet & Sour Herrings
Duck Sauce Preservative Free....12 oz
2/$
ea.
Rainbow
Roll
Save On!
$ 99
Macabee
Macabites
525
Salmon
DynaSea
Imitation
Crab
Of Tov
Chicken Nuggets
Lb
Flakes or Sticks Only
Assorted
2/$
La Yogurt
Yogurt
Assorted
Flavors
Adro Prune or
Apricot
Butter
Turkey Hill
Teas & Lemonades
64 OZ
4 OZ
Save On!
31 OZ
2/$
6 OZ
FROZEN
Assorted
Almondina
Cookies
99
2/$
26.45 OZ
ea.
Spicy
Kani Roll
Lb
$ 99
Lb
2/$
51 OZ
Save On!
495
Breaded
Chicken Cutlets
Apple & Eve

100% Apple
Juice
Mothers
Pomi Graham Cracker
Tomatoes
Pie Crust
Save On!
1.35 OZ
13
Crispy
Onion Roll
Ready To Bake
Save On!
$ 99
Chopped or
Strained
$ 49
Bertolli
Extra Virgin
Olive Oil
FISH
SUSHI
`
$ 99
Ready To Cook
Extra Light
16 oz.
DELI, SOUPS, SALADS, KUGELS, DIPS, APPETIZERS & MUCH MORE
Boneless
Pot Roast
16 oz.
Kugels & Souffles
Sweet Pepper Dip

Shallot Dip
Spicy Mayo Dip
Lb
Lb
Gourmet Salad
Asian Angel Hair

Wild Rice
White Quinoa
Roasted Red Pepper
Marinated
Chicken Wings
5.3 OZ
2/$
Assorted
32 OZ
2/$
Save On!
Purim
1.05 OZ.
DAIRY
YOUR CHOICE
14 OZ
Assorted
Goodmans
Rice
w/Vermicelli
2/$
Happy
Save On!
Galil Instant
& Cafenato
Coffee
Ground
Lamb
Real Foods
Corn
Thins
11 OZ
Osem
Mini
Mandel
bags
Fresh
2/$
Save On!
2/$
10
2/$
$ 99
Cocoa or
Fruity
Pebbles
18 OZ
Save On!
Navel
Oranges
Lb
Lb
Post Cereal
Hunts
BBQ
Sauce
Carolina
Brown
Rice
Organic
MARKET
$ 99
$ 99
Lb
DELI SAVINGS
Homemade Soups
Loyalty
Program
Dark Meat
Ground Turkey
Shoulder
Lamb Chops
$ 99
10 OZ
Round & Blade Bone
Butchers Cut
London Broil
2/$
ea.
$ 99
Lb
American Black Angus Beef
Chocolate
Chips
25
Chicken
Stir Fry
$ 29
California Gourmet
Semi Sweet
3/$
Pink Meat
Grapefruits
4/$
Cut in 1/4s or 1/8s
Organic
Kale
at:
Visit Our Website om
et.c
www.thecedarmark

201-855-8500 Fax: 201-801-0225
www.thecedarmarket.com
info@thecedarmarket.com
MARKET
TERMS & CONDITIONS: This card is the property of Cedar Market, Inc. and is intended for exclusive
use of the recipient and their household members. Card is not transferable. We reserve the right to
change or rescind the terms and conditions of the Cedar Market loyalty program at any time, and
without notice. By using this card, the cardholder signifies his/her agreement to the terms &
conditions for use. Not to be combined with any other Discount/Store Coupon/Offer. *Loyalty Card
must be presented at time of purchase along
with ID for verification. Purchase cannot be
reversed once sale is completed.
Cedar Markets Meat Dept. Prides Itself On Quality, Freshness And Affordability. We Carry The Finest Cuts Of Meat And
The Freshest Poultry... Our Dedicated Butchers Will Custom Cut Anything For You... Just Ask!
Fresh
American Black Angus Beef
White Meat
Fresh
ea.
Regular
Fresh
4/$
lb.
lb.
Hot House
Cucumbers
Blackberries
$ 29
25
Fresh
Fresh Picked
ORGANIC ORGANIC ORGANIC
89
lb.
Green or Red
Large
Lemons
Apples
lb.
Juicy
Granny Smith
89
$ 29
Two
in a
Pack
Farm Fresh
Bunch
Spinach
Tomatoes
on the Vine
Loyalty
Program
ORGANIC ORGANIC ORGANIC
Fresh
Fresh
Your
Choice!
CEDAR MARKET
CEDAR MARKET
PRODUCE
Fine Foods
Great Savings
8 OZ
Reg. & Red. Fat
Abeles
Franks
$ 99
12 OZ.
We reserve the right to limit sales to 1 per family. Prices effective this store only. Not responsible for typographical errors. Some pictures are for design purposes only and do not necessarily represent items on sale. While Supply Lasts. No rain checks.

North Jersey Jewish Standard, February 13, 2015

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A VISIT TO FRANCE page 7

DECODING ESTHERS SECRETS page 10

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

Brian and JoAnn of Red Bank, NJ

2 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 13, 2015

German-Jewish soap maker, launched

They say you learn

called Mr. Cohens parents and

Candlelighting: Friday, February 13, 5:10 p.m.

For convenient home delivery,

JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 13, 2015 3

Niggunim [are] Chassidic melodies that sound

Brett, Felix, Oscar

parody of Beverly Hills,

tion. SNL and NBC have

JON LOVITZ, CHRIS

Slap may resound

California-based Nate Bloom can be reached at

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Now thru March 2nd

JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 13, 2015 5

or the past five years, 20-yearold Adam Berzin of Ramsey

There are programs for children with

to separate from their parents. We may

Adam comes home from camp with

French Jews face

n the wake of the terror attacks at the

shoppers hostage, killing four, which French

Tranquil gardens and ponds on 16 acres of property.

Sandra Charabi, 29, is a survivor of

remained for five hours, when finally the

SEE FRENCH JEWS PAGE 46

Dr. Leonard A. Cole of Ridgewood at the memorial to victims of the Charlie

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State of the Jewish nation

Are the winter blues

feedback about Body and Soul from Jews

Do you find yourself not wanting to get out of bed?

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Discussion with Boris Fishman, author of A Replacement Life

KAPLEN JCC ON THE PALISADES