29 Av-5 Elul 5782, August 26-September 1, 2022 Open Your Community

THE
TEACHERS
WE CAN’T
FORGET
For our Education Issue, we asked
people across the community to
share memories of teachers who
marked their lives.

Compiled by Tabby Refael

Why Teachers Can’t Be Activists How Curiosity Can Change Our Discourse
by Monica Osborne by Jeremy J. Fingerman

by David Suissa by Judy Gruen

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Direct: 310.888.3333 www.myranourmand.com @myranourmandestates
 In politics, most pursue power. He pursued peace.
Shimon Peres’s influence and integrity were instrumental in the founding and preservation of Israel.

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5 TOC-11-19-21

22 28 38 41

INSIDE THE JOURNAL

22 » APPLES OF THEIR EYES As the new school year begins, 27 » TABLE FOR FIVE: RE’EH Marcus Freed, Yehudit Garmaise,
we asked community leaders, educators and writers to contribute stories Dr. Sheila Tuller Keiter and Rabbis Brett Kopin and David Mevorach
of teachers who shaped their lives. Compiled by Tabby Rafael. Seidenberg share their insights on this week’s Torah portion.

9 » COLUMNISTS Tabby Refael on the teddy bears of redemption; 28 » THE JOY OF SABICH A recent trip to Israel reminded the
Dan Schnur on the Middle East’s false moderates; Jeremy J. Fingerman on Sephardic Spice Girls, Sharon Gomperts and Rachel Emquies Sheff, of the
the power of curiosity; Mark Schiff on the memories of an old friend; and
glories of the Sabich board, a spread of bread, various dips, olives and
Monica Osborne on why teachers shouldn’t be activists.
roasted vegetables. (Just don’t call it crudites.)
14 » WHEN BANKS DO THE ROBBING When a check for 35 » JEWISH GENETIC DISEASES Ashkenazi Jews are more
more than $2,500 was stolen from the mail and cashed, it took Journal
columnist Judy Gruen and her family over nine months to get their bank likely to contract various cancers and gastrointestinal conditions. But
to rectify the situation. But she refused to let the situation get her down. Isaac Levy, who has gastrointestinal problems, discovered that Jewish
organizations are ill-equipped to offer help and support.
15 » STAR SPANGLED ALIYAH A year ago, Nicole Raviv was 38 » BASKETBALL AND THE ABRAHAM ACCORDS
singing the National Anthem before a Stanley Cup playoff game. Today
she’s living in Israel where she says her musical spirit “can really thrive.” Earlier this summer, coach Bruce Pearl took his Auburn University
New Media Director and columnist Blake Flayton reports. basketball squad to Israel to both see the country and play a few games

16 » HEROIC GRATITUDE Gratitude will make you happier and is against Israeli teams. He tells Brian Fishbach that he hopes to see Israeli
and Palestinian teams meet on the hardwood in what he calls “The
one of Judaism’s moral foundations, Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz writes. But Abraham Accords Cup” tournament.
to feel gratitude when the world seems broken — what he calls “heroic
gratitude” — allows you to aspire to repair a broken world.
41 » HONEY AND ME Meira Drazin’s “Honey and Me” is a middle-
20 » HERZL’S ZIONIST WRITINGS Theodor Herzl grew up school book that tells the story of Milla, an Orthodox young woman, and
her friend, Honey. Our critic, Karen E. H. Skinazi, found the story charming
in an assimilated, well-off Hungarian family, but Gil Troy says he was a
and “one of the best guides to observant Jewish life” she’s read.
man of his time who still has lessons to teach modern Judaism. Second
in a series.
46 » RABBIS OF L.A.: THE PASTORAL TEACHER
21 » BIBI BY THE BOOK Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Rabbi Aaron Finkelstein, the middle school rabbi at Milken Community
School, connects with his students in both good times and bad. He tells
Netanyahu has written “Bibi: My Story,” to be published this fall. Israel
Political Editor Shmuel Rosner considers the reasons why books written Community Editor Kylie Ora Lobell about the issues his students deal with
by active politicians are bound to disappoint. and his father’s cinnamon challah.

8 » Columnists 28 » Food 42 » What's Happening

» SHABBAT CANDLE LIGHTING
Fri August 26 7:09 p.m. 19 » Nation/World 34 » Community 45 » Jonathan Fong Style
Shabbat ends Saturday August 27, 8:04 p.m.
27 » Table for Five 38 » Arts 46 » Rabbis of LA

August 26-September 1, 2022 JewishJournal.com Jewish Journal | 5

 ‫ב"ה‬

SUN SEP 4 5PM

TOLIFE.COM
7 COL-Suissa- Creative
Volume 38, Number 51
August 26-September 1, 2022
jewishjournal.com
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief David Suissa
Editor-at-Large Monica Osborne
Israel Political Editor Shmuel Rosner
U.S. Political Editor Dan Schnur
Book Editor Jonathan Kirsch
Community Editor Kylie Ora Lobell
Community Writers Ari L. Noonan, Harvey Farr,
Tabby Refael
Entertainment Writer Brian Fishbach
Staff Writer Aaron Bandler
Regular Columnists Blake Flayton, Judy Gruen, Tabby
Refael, Thane Rosenbaum, Dan Schnur, Mark Schiff,
Daniel Stone, Eva Robbins, Geralyn Broder Murray
New Media Director/Columnist Blake Flayton
Contributing Editor Tom Tugend
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Berenbaum, Marcus J Freed, Steven Mirkin, Judea
Pearl, Robin Podolsky, Pamela Paresky, Matthew
Schultz, Lori Shapiro, Ryan Torok, Gil Troy, Michelle K.
Wolf, David Wolpe, Jill Zimmerman
Sephardic Spice Girls Sharon Gomperts and Rachel
Emquies Sheff
Community and Food Writer Debra Eckerling
Table for Five Salvador Litvak
Poem Page Rick Lupert
Copy Editor Steven Mirkin
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August 26-September 1, 2022
The Power of a School Teacher
» by David Suissa
WHEN IT COMES TO THE VEXING
subject of education in the Jewish world, by
far the most dominant issue is affordability,
and for good reason. Indeed, the fact that
so many people can’t afford the high cost
of a Jewish day school education is so true,
so talked about and so important, that other
aspects of education can easily get lost in
the noise.
Such as, for instance, the value of a
school teacher.
Many of us have fond memories of a
teacher who made a lasting impact on us,
whether in grade school, high school or
even kindergarten. It could be a memorable
line we can’t forget, or a teacher’s attitude or
personality that resonated with our young
minds. It could be a teacher who soothed
our insecurities and gave us confidence.
Teachers can influence us in myriad ways.
So, for our Education Issue this week,
we decided to ask people across the com-
munity to share memories of teachers who
moved them. We hope you’ll be moved as
well by the stories, and that it’ll spark some
of your own memories that you can share
with those around you.
Just to give you a little taste:
Sharon Nazarian remembers Mr. Kinny,
her cherubic, white-bearded seventh grade
English teacher she had in 1979, soon after
her family escaped the Iranian revolution.
Despite her broken English, Mr. Kinny gave
Sharon the confidence to participate in a
school contest she’ll never forget.
Beverly Hills Mayor Lili Bosse will never
forget Mr. Solomon, who introduced her to
her lifelong best friend when she moved
from New York at age nine in the middle of
the school year.
Rabbi Tarlan Rabizadeh can’t forget Gilla
Nissan, a substitute teacher in first grade of
With the pandemic in the rearview mirror (we
hope), teachers will have a renewed chance to
shine. If anything, the radical disruption of the
past two years has accentuated the radical
value and importance of the school teacher.
Jewish Studies, who, out of the blue, turned
off the lights one day to make a point about
Shabbat. That one experience planted the
seed in the rabbi for understanding holi-
ness, and what it means to sanctify time.
There are many more such stories and
memories, compiled by our award-win-
ning weekly columnist Tabby Refael. The
point of all the stories is to remind us of
the unique and lasting power of those who
teach.
The last two years, of course, have been
radically disruptive for all school systems
with the unprecedented lockdowns and
restrictions due to the pandemic. Adminis-
trators, teachers, students and parents have
had to constantly adapt and adjust. Some
restrictions went too far; others were too
confusing. Even the best teachers found it
hard to overcome the constant disruption.
The education and mental health of too
many students suffered as a result.
Now, with the pandemic in the rear-
view mirror (we hope), teachers will have a
renewed chance to shine. If anything, the
radical disruption of the past two years has
accentuated the radical value and impor-
tance of the school teacher.
EDITOR’S NOTE
This cover story of memories, then, is as
much for teachers and educators as it is for
anyone else. It’s a reminder of the value of
educators in the lives of students.
Initiatives like the Milken Educator
Awards, from The Milken Family Founda-
tion, understand this value. They’ve been
honoring top educators around the coun-
try for 35 years. Locally, they team up every
year with Builders of Jewish Education to
This cover story
of memories,
then, is as much
for teachers and
educators as it is
for anyone else. It’s
a reminder of the
value of educators
in the lives of
students.
honor local teachers from across denomi-
nations. By honoring teachers, they in-
directly honor the ultimate beneficiary of
great teaching — the student.
“Touching the life of a child is the sin-
gle snowflake that can start the avalanche,”
educator Melissa Boyd writes. “There is no
limit, no bound to the distance or time [a
teacher’s] influence can travel. When my
days as a teacher are through, I know that
the good I have done will live on in my stu-
dents and everyone they touch along their
own journeys. To me, that’s power.”
It’s true that affordability remains the
issue in Jewish education. I should know,
because my parents couldn’t afford to send
me to a Jewish day school in Montreal. So,
there I was in grade six at a public school
that was part of the Protestant School Board
of Greater Montreal. My teacher was a non-
Jew who smoked, wore lots of make-up
and ate bacon lettuce tomato sandwiches
for lunch.
Her name was Ms. Cleland. She made
me fall in love with English and with writ-
ing. She was the most beloved teacher I
ever had, the one I will never forget. ■
JewishJournal.com Jewish Journal | 7
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9 COL_Refael Overperfection
I COULDN’T HELP MYSELF. ON MY
first day of school in America, I snuck into
my first grade classroom during recess at
Horace Mann School in Beverly Hills and,
little by little, began pulling off a giant stick-
er of a teddy bear from the wall. But when
I noticed there was nothing beneath the
sticker (and that I was pulling off a sizable
amount of paint), I stopped and quickly
tried to repair the damage. When the stick-
er wouldn’t adhere back to the wall, I pan-
icked, pulled a wad of gum from my mouth
and used it as temporary glue. Then, the
bell rang and dozens of eager first graders
walked back into class.
Why had I suddenly turned into an el-
ementary school vandal in the very country
that had saved me by granting my fam-
ily and I protected refugee asylum? It was
simple: That morning, when I entered my
adorable new classroom, I was astonished
to find giant stickers of teddy bears, rather
than ominous portraits of national leaders,
on the walls.
Once in America, I
still had a hard time
believing that a
classroom was a safe
place, especially given
that I had suffered
physical abuse
from teachers and
administrators back in
Tehran.
Back in post-revolutionary Iran, I was
accustomed to huge, terrifying pictures
of the country’s Islamist leader, Ayatol-
lah Ruhollah Khomeini, in my classroom.
You know, the same antisemitic, violence-
preaching mastermind of the 1979 Iranian
Revolution who, in the late eighties, in-
famously issued the assassination fatwa
against author Salman Rushdie, complete
with a $3 million reward.
Once in America, I still had a hard time
believing that a classroom was a safe place,
especially given that I had suffered physi-
cal abuse from teachers and administrators
back in Tehran. That probably explains why
I didn’t trust that teddy bear wall decor in
Mrs. Sadlier’s first grade classroom in Bev-
erly Hills.
Something was wrong. That bear must
have been covering a portrait of someone
sinister. Was it “President Boosh,” as my
mother called him in her Persian accent?
August 26-September 1, 2022
CherriesJD/Getty Images
The Teddy Bears of
Redemption
» by Tabby Refael
I probably should mention that it was Sep-
tember 1989 and we had only arrived in
America three months prior.
That first day of school, I must have been
the most distrusting, cynical first-grader
Mrs. Sadlier had ever met; I even rejected a
charming bag of something I later learned
was called “gummy bears” that she gently
offered because I worried the woman was
trying to poison me.
And one day, when I accidentally lost
my way in the large elementary school cor-
ridor after needing to use the restroom and
re-entered her class after 20 minutes, I was
prepared for Mrs. Sadlier to lower the boom.
That meant that I expected her to order
me to put out my hand, palm-side-up, so
that she could mercilessly slam a wooden
ruler against it, as I had often experienced
back in Iran. But as I inched my way into
the classroom, Mrs. Sadlier simply walked
up to me, spoke something in English that
I couldn’t possibly comprehend, and pro-
ceeded to offer me yet another small bag of
gummy bears.
What kind of a teacher was this, who
rewarded tardiness with gelatinous can-
dy? And more importantly, what kind of a
country was this “Amreeca,” as my father
called it?
As the days and weeks progressed, I de-
veloped a small obsession with Mrs. Sadlier
based wholly on wondrous disbelief that a
teacher could be kind to me. Plus, I adored
her big, gray hairdo, uniquely enthusiastic
voice and best of all, her inimitable per-
fume, which she wore every day. I never
did discover the name of that perfume, but
I know I’ll never forget its scent.
Still, there were days when I cursed be-
ing in Mrs. Sadlier’s class because I just
couldn’t keep up with the American-born
kids and their fluent English, Guess jeans
and fabulous, neon-colored Lisa Stanley-
designed homework folders. One particu-
larly awful morning, I tried my luck at Per-
sian-to-English telepathy when I sensed
that Mrs. Sadlier was going to call on me to
answer a question in English that I didn’t
understand; I actually attempted to send
her a telepathic message that begged her
to call on someone else, because I was so
overwhelmed at the sight of four letters she
had written on the chalkboard: “A-S-I-A.”
Naturally, given my luck, she called on
me.
I was mortified at the sight of a word
with so many vowels. Ironically, it was the
name of the continent I had recently es-
caped.
But then something amazing happened:
Mrs. Sadlier asked me to draw what I later
understood to be an animal from that con-
tinent. She pointed to a picture of a large,
majestic tiger in a book. Then she pointed
to me, smiled and said, “You.”
That was my first moment of redemp-
tion in an American classroom. And if this
leaves you cynically shaking your head,
that’s truly a sad testament to the wokeism
and inappropriate politicization of class-
rooms across this wonderful country today.
The truth is that when I first entered this
country, I felt so small and meek, because I
understood reality: To be a penniless child
refugee who didn’t even speak English in
Beverly Hills, no less, was a nearly insur-
mountable challenge. In fact, it was an all-
out liability. But there was Mrs. Sadlier, who
knelt down beside me and saw within me
a tiger, when all I saw within myself was a
mouse.
I’ve been blessed with many life-chang-
ing educators in America, but in hindsight,
my first grade teacher may have been the
most important educator of my life. Let’s
face it: I was so traumatized and distrusting
when I began school in this country that
the first teacher to whom I was assigned
could have really broken me. Or, in the case
of Mrs. Sadlier, truly redeemed me.
My eternal gratitude to my own teach-
ers over the years motivated me to jump
at the chance to compile this week’s cover
story, which asks community leaders to
share memories of a particular teacher that
shaped their lives. But my loving obses-
sion — yes, I was slightly obsessed — with
so many of my teachers in America has also
inspired me to devote a series of columns
to these wonderful educators. This column
is a love letter to Mrs. Sadlier and my first
grade classroom; future columns will be
devoted to other individual teachers and
grade levels.
Thanks to Mrs. Sadlier (and a healthy,
daily dose of ESL, also known as “English as
Second Language” classes during schoolt-
5 TOC-1
COLUMNIST
ime), I grew more fluent in English as each
day passed. And then, one December after-
noon, as I sat in ESL and watched a fellow
Iranian first grader enjoy the taste of his
snow-white Elmer’s glue paste, I had an
epiphany. When ESL ended, I snagged the
bottle of paste and re-entered Mrs. Sadlier’s
class.
The meek mouse that had marred my
self-perception was gone. I may not quite
have morphed into a tiger yet, but I under-
stood my own potential. And I trusted and
loved Mrs. Sadlier enough to rectify my
original sin.
When Mrs. Sadlier dismissed the stu-
dents for the day and left the class herself,
I stealthily re-entered the classroom before
the custodian locked it and walked straight
up to the giant teddy bear sticker I had tried
I’ve been blessed with
many life-changing
educators in America,
but in hindsight, my
first grade teacher
may have been the
most important
educator of my life.
to peel back months earlier. I pulled off
my wad of gum, opened the bottle of El-
mer’s paste and applied it to the back of the
sticker with my fingers. I then adhered that
smiling teddy bear back to the wall, com-
forted by the realization that no one was
out to get me.
The next morning, I greeted Mrs. Sad-
lier in English and, after reading all of the
vowels on the chalkboard correctly, happily
accepted a bag of colorful gummy bears. ■
Tabby Refael is an award-winning weekly
columnist and an LA-based writer, speaker
and civic action activist. Follow her on Twitter
@TabbyRefael
JewishJournal.com Jewish Journal | 9

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10 | Jewish Journal JewishJournal.com
When Jew Hatred is
Relative » by Dan Schnur
THERE’S AN OLD JOKE ABOUT TWO
guys on a camping trip who see a bear
heading in their direction. The first guy
starts to panic, but the second guy calmly
begins to lace up his sneakers.
First guy: “Are you crazy? You can’t out-
run that bear.”
Second guy: “No, but I can outrun you.”
The point is that everything is relative.
In a week during which Palestinian Au-
thority President Mahmoud Abbas once again
attempted to minimize the horrors of the Ho-
locaust, we were reminded that even the so-
called “moderates” in the Palestinian leader-
ship are not that moderate. It’s all relative.
His shameless insults reminded us that
the path to peace is far more complicated
than either the Abraham Accord advocates
or J-Streeters would have us believe.
When Gaza erupted in violence earlier
this month, we saw that despite all the prob-
lems with Hamas, they are still not as radical
as Islamic Jihad. Over years of fitful peace
negotiations in the region, we have accepted
that Abbas is more pragmatic than Hamas’
leaders. And last week, during Abbas’ news
conference with German Chancellor Olaf
Scholz, we re-learned an old lesson that in
the Middle East, the most reasonable leaders
aren’t very reasonable at all.
Abbas, who took over for the less moder-
ate Yasser Arafat in 2005 and has cancelled
presidential elections for the past thirteen
years in order to remain in office, has been
attempting to diminish the import and im-
pact of the Holocaust for his entire adult life.
He wrote his doctoral thesis on the prem-
ise of a partnership between Zionists and
Nazis and arguing that the number of Jews
who perished in the Holocaust was vastly
overblown. Over the years, he has repeat-
edly made the case that “only” a few hun-
dred thousand Jews were killed and that the
six million figure was concocted for public
relations purposes. Just four years ago, Ab-
bas claimed that Jews in Europe were mas-
sacred for centuries because of their "social
role related to usury and banks."
Such is the state of moderation in the
Middle East.
Scholz did not exactly cover himself with
glory, remaining silent through the remain-
der of the news conference after Abbas’
slurs and then shaking his hand afterward
before eventually criticizing Abbas several
hours later. He has been condemned in Ger-
many and abroad for not speaking out more
quickly. The fact that German law actually
forbids Holocaust denial heightens Scholz’s
embarrassment even further.
Yet the German leader’s reaction under-
scores the tenuous nature of Israel’s rela-
COLUMNIST
tionships with many European countries,
and reinforces the importance of strength-
ening ties with its Arab neighbors. It also re-
minds us of the scope of the challenge that
those of us who want to achieve peace in the
Middle East still face. Israel’s improved rela-
tionships in the region certainly provides
greater security for its people. But while
praise for these efforts is entirely justified,
Abbas’ hate-filled remarks are a testament to
the obstacles to peace that still lie ahead.
In the three-dimensional chess game
that is Middle Eastern geopolitics, other
events occurred last week that could have
a greater impact on Israel’s future than Ab-
bas’ insults. While the most “reasonable” of
Palestinian leaders was blaspheming the
memories of six million dead Jews, Iranian
negotiators were withdrawing a key de-
mand from the negotiations over that coun-
try’s nuclear capabilities. Iran’s decision to
drop the requirement that their Revolution-
ary Guard Corps be removed from the State
Department's terrorist organization blacklist
makes a final deal slightly more likely and
accentuates the mutual animosity toward
Iran that binds Israel to a growing number
of Arab states.
If Abbas is a
moderate, permanent
friendships in
this dangerous
neighborhood are still
a long way off.
Henry Kissinger famously said that there
are no permanent friends or enemies, only
interests. So the juxtaposition of the negoti-
ations with Iran and Abbas’ ugly revisionism
provides a cautionary note that the stronger
relationships between Israel and some of its
neighbors does not reflect an eradication of
age-old antisemitism in the region but rath-
er the current and perhaps temporary con-
fluence of goals against a common threat. If
Abbas is a moderate, permanent friendships
in this dangerous neighborhood are still a
long way off. ■
Dan Schnur is a Professor at the Univer-
sity of California – Berkeley, USC and Pepper-
dine. Join Dan for his weekly webinar “Politics
in the Time of Coronavirus” (www/lawac.org)
on Tuesdays at 5 PM.
August 26-September 1, 2022

Curiosity Can Change Our
Communal Discourse
» by Jeremy J. Fingerman
THROUGHOUT THESE PAST MONTHS
as I have been reciting the Kaddish in memory
of my dear mother, I have been reflecting on
her life and the values she instilled in me and
my siblings. One of her defining attributes
– cited by many, and especially needed in
today’s day and age – is sakranut, curiosity.
Growing up, and continuing through-
out adulthood, whenever we would discuss
something, Mama would always present the
other side of an argument, decision, idea,
etc. Some might call that “playing the devil’s
advocate,” but really it was far from anything
devilish; my mother challenged us to expand
our horizons and to always consider and value
other perspectives, experiences, or thoughts.
This practice, unfortunately, appears to be
lacking in much of our society today.
She would have really enjoyed a sym-
posium I was recently privileged to attend,
which focused on ”viewpoint diversity” in
our community today. Convened by the
Maimonides Fund, colleagues from across
the Jewish communal landscape learned
from each other and from respected thought
leaders as we considered the increasing po-
larization of civic – and communal – debate.
Rabbi David Wolpe, senior advisor at Mai-
Haidt observed how
social media has
destroyed our ability
to see the other
side and to open our
minds to opposing
points.
monides Fund and Max Webb Senior Rabbi
at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, anchored the
discussion in core Jewish values, including
machloket l’shem shamayim – argument
for the sake of Heaven. As a people, we have
spent thousands of years discussing and de-
bating everything, and, most importantly,
learning how to listen and respect each oth-
er’s opposing viewpoints. The Talmud itself
embodies this as each page is filled with dif-
ferent and almost always conflicting opin-
ions and interpretations of each line, phrase,
and word.
Jonathan Haidt, Professor of Ethical Lead-
ership at New York University’s Stern School
of Business and noted co-author of “The
August 26-September 1, 2022
COLUMNIST
Coddling of the American Mind: How Good
Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a
Generation for Failure,” commented on the
changing culture on college campuses and
its effect on mental health. He observed how
social media has destroyed our ability to see
the other side and to open our minds to op-
posing points of view.
I participated in several small-group dis-
cussions exploring the growing challenge in
Jewish communal organizations, where we
strive to balance multiple stakeholders with
multiple perspectives in increasingly divided
communities. How can we discuss Israel in a
constructive way with diverse points of view?
How do we best respond to antisemitism in
the context of protected speech, especially on
college campuses today?
As a society, we seem to have become so
mistrustful and polarized we miss the gray
and nuance. We have forgotten how to have
constructive conversations. We seem unable
or unwilling to respect individuals when we
might disagree with their positions.
Unfortunately, this lack of civility has also
been part of our Jewish history. A few weeks
ago on Tisha B’Av, we mourned among many
tragedies, the destruction of Jerusalem due
to sinat chinam (baseless hatred) between our
brothers and sisters, who abandoned a basic
tenet of Judaism: respecting diversity in civil
discourse.
I feel fortunate to see some signs of hope
in my daily work. At Jewish camps across
North America, the observance of Tisha B’Av
helps convey critical lessons in character de-
velopment, where chanichim (campers) and
madrichim (counselors) create intentional
communities away from home each summer.
By fostering an environment of belonging, di-
versity, learning, and curiosity, Jewish camps
help to model our collective Jewish future.
We will soon enter the final month of the
Jewish year – Elul. We begin our prepara-
tions for Rosh Hashannah and a fresh start
with renewed positivity and possibility. We
all need relief from the negativity, polariza-
tion, and exhaustion of our current civic de-
bate. Perhaps we can commit to changing its
tone and tenor and enter a period of renewal,
comfort, and growth.
Each morning during Elul, we will sound
the Shofar as a spiritual wake-up call, chal-
lenging us to look inside ourselves, to con-
sider how we can change, learn, and grow.
How? Let us bring the joy and spirit from
Jewish camps – and the spirit of curiosity
that is my mother’s legacy. ■
Jeremy J. Fingerman is the CEO of the founda-
tion for Jewish Camp.
JewishJournal.com Jewish Journal | 11
 COLUMNIST

Jewish Contributions to Humanity

#5 in a series

From the Thanks For the Memories

» by Mark Schiff

Big Bang to “Mother: I know my son loves me be-

cause for one hour every week, he talks to

Carl Sagan
his psychiatrist about me.”

ONE OF MY OLDEST AND DEAREST

friends is a guy named Bernie. We’ve been
pals for over 50 years. I don’t see him much
because he lives in New York, and I live
in Los Angeles. So, instead, we talk on the
The Big Bang, which is the leading cosmological explanation for how the universe came phone. Not just occasionally, but six days a
into existence, seems to provide at least as many new questions as answers. Thankfully for us week. Sometimes we talk for 20 seconds and
laypeople, two Jewish scientists, Carl Sagan and Arno Penzias, did their very best to help other times, we have long conversations.
us understand the scientific explanation of the biggest question of them all: Why are we here? Bernie knew my parents and I knew his.
We both lost our folks. My folks loved him
and his folks loved me. My father has been
ARNO PENZIAS (1933-) b . Munich, Germany. Lives in Menlo Park, California. Mark Schiff with Bernie Ferrera
gone for over 30 years and my mother for
The Big Bang’s pioneer.
over 20. I’m an only child, and except for a somewhere besides where I live today.
As happened with many of the scientists dis-
few friends and a handful of cousins, I have When anybody tells me a story about one
cussed in these columns, the unique circum-
nobody who knows my past. So Bernie and or both of my parents, it’s almost always
stances Penzias found himself in were the precise
his family are an important link to my past. very special.
ones he needed to make major contributions to
So, when Bernie called recently and said I am at the point in my life where it’s
humanity. After moving to the United States with his
that, while he was exercising, he thought not unusual to go months or even a year
family in 1940, Penzias later joined the U.S. Army,
without my parents’ names ever coming
which helped him get a position with Columbia’s
up in meaningful conversation. Sure, the
radiation laboratory, which at the time happened to
synagogue reminds me that their yahrzeits
be focused heavily on microwave physics—Pen-
In my bathroom
(anniversary of death) are coming up. I say
zias spent much of his time at Columbia and Bell
yizkor for their souls a few times a year. But
Labs researching radio waves. He eventually came
drawer, I still have
I never really sit down and talk about them.
across radio noise (cosmic microwave background
That’s why it's extra special when Bernie
radiation) that was leftover radiation from the Big
my father’s shaving
or anyone tells me about the good times.
Bang. His discovery helped scientists and astrono-
I believe these memories are important to
mers deepen their understanding of the Big Bang
kit. When I see it
share. I’m not talking about dwelling on the
and the origins of our universe. In 1978, Penzias
past, but rather just occasionally sharing it.
won a Nobel Prize for his discovery along with his
sitting there, he
I spent too many years dredging up
colleague Robert Wilson. The two pioneers continued their search for scientific truth, discover-
painful recollections. Maybe when you’re
ing unknown molecules throughout the universe. Penzias’s explanation of the molecule deute-
comes sailing back
20, life is not short. But it certainly is now.
rium further strengthened the Big Bang theory, because deuterium is the only known molecule
So, with what I have left, I choose to look at
whose origin can only be explained by the processes of the Big Bang.
to me.
mostly the bright spots.
In my bathroom drawer, I still have my
CARL SAGAN (1934-1996) b. Brooklyn, New York. An insatiable curiosity.
father’s shaving kit. When I see it sitting
Astronomer; cosmologist; astrophysicist; author—the list seems endless. He “led a fever-
about my parents, I was very touched. He there, he comes sailing back to me. Occa-
ish existence, with multiple careers tumbling over one another” as one admiring writer said.
got my attention. He said, “I remember your sionally I plug in his 40-year-old electric
Sagan accomplished much, but nothing reached as wide
father had a great sense of humor. He was razor and, amazingly, it still works. It gives
an audience as “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage”, a 13-part
a regular guy. I remembered your mother me a sense of his aliveness. I can still re-
PBS series broadcast in 1980 that was revolutionary at the
always wanting to check the parimutuel member watching him shave, wondering
time, using special effects, science, and a charismatic host
racetrack numbers to see if she won mon- when I’d be able to shave, too. The photos
(Sagan) to take the viewer on a journey of our existence,
ey. (My parents always needed money.) I have of my mom remind me of the good
from the Big Bang to the origins of life to humanity’s fu-
And even though I was in my late 20s, I re- times. They bring pleasant thoughts.
ture. Sagan was fascinated with the possibility of alien life,
member your mother asking me to call her Sadly, way too many people depart this
creating the first messages (images and sounds) sent into
to let her know I got home safely.” life with a bitter taste in their mouths. I eas-
space—the Pioneer plaque and Voyager Golden Record
Growing up, Bernie and his parents ily could have been one of those people.
could theoretically be understood by extraterrestrial life. A
made me feel a part of their family by in- I’ve worked hard to avoid that. I’m a lucky
lifelong consultant for NASA, Sagan consulted the astro-
viting me to Christmas dinners, showing man. I have a wife, kids, daughters-in-law,
nauts on the Apollo before their voyage to the Moon, and
me how they made homemade wine, and grandkids, in-laws, and lots of friends to
he also assisted with many robotic spacecraft missions.
laughing at my terrible jokes when I was just share the new stories with. My childhood is
His analysis of Venus as a dry and hot planet (as opposed
starting as a comedian. I notice that when I long over and many of my memories have
to the previously accepted balmy climate that many had
remind Bernie of the good times I had with long ago faded away. But my life for many
accepted) changed the popularly accepted view of the
his folks, there seems to be something both years now has been one of creating new
planet. Furthermore, his insights into the moons of Saturn and Jupiter led to the discovery
sad and comforting about it. When one has and in many ways, happier longer lasting
that the reddish haze on Titan (Saturn’s moon) were organic molecules, a major discovery that
lost one’s parents, it creates a special bond stories. ■
suggested the possibility of life outside Earth.
with others that share the same fate.
Bernie’s call was a big deal. It made me Mark Schiff is a comedian, actor and
Original Research by Walter L. Field Sponsored by Irwin S. Field Written by Jared Sichel feel good. It reminded me that I have a writer, and host of the 'You Don't Know Schiff'
history. It reminded me that I came from podcast.

12 | Jewish Journal JewishJournal.com August 26-September 1, 2022


Why Teachers Can’t Be
Activists » by Monica Osborne
WE ALL HAVE TEACHERS WHO MADE
indelible impressions on us. As I consider
the teachers who shaped my own life, I
realize these were the educators—from
school, college and graduate school—that
made it possible for me to be fully human:
to think and ask questions, to always remain
curious, and to continually ask whether
there is another interpretation.
They gave me a gift. They gave me per-
mission to think for myself, even if that
meant disagreeing with them. They taught
me how to think, not what to think, and
gave me the skills to cultivate a vibrant ca-
pacity for pursuing inquiry rather than ide-
ology.
I remember that one of my favorite
teachers would often shift his opinion
based on a point made by a student. These
were magical moments: the student teach-
Type the phrase
“teaching and
activism” into your
search engine and
you’ll see just how
much of an industry
it’s become.
ing the teacher. And later when I became
a literature professor, I always told my stu-
dents on the first day: Don’t be afraid to dis-
agree with me or with your peers; we learn
only through dialogue, and you might even
change my mind about something.
Were all my teachers like this? No. But
the ones I remember and respect, the ones
who I credit with so much of who I am now
and what kind of teacher and person I be-
came, are the ones I’ve described here, and
in retrospect I realize they were from across
political and ideological spectrums. It didn’t
matter whether they were liberal or conser-
vative, Democrat or Republican; I learned
from all of them because they didn’t im-
pose anything on me. They encouraged
me to look for truth, to consider various ap-
proaches, and to be fearless when express-
ing my views.
Over the past few years it seems that
what I considered ideals for a teacher are
now seen as dangerous. It’s dangerous to
August 26-September 1, 2022
COLUMNIST
let children, adolescents and young adults
think for themselves or ask too many ques-
tions. It’s dangerous to allow them to form
their own opinions that may deviate from
the politics of their teacher or institution.
They should vote the same, feel the same
about every issue from how to fight racism
to how to define a woman to the limits of
abortion, and they should become activists
in all segments of their lives. They should
chant and adopt mantras that prove their
allegiance to the political activism they are
being taught.
Some schools (especially in Los Angeles)
have actually reconfigured their curricula to
be activism- rather than academics-based
(never mind that in many of these—often
private—schools children consistently per-
form academically under the national aver-
age). These schools offer training sessions
for teachers to instruct them in how to
bring political activism into the classroom.
Type the phrase “teaching and activism”
into your search engine and you’ll see just
how much of an industry it’s become.
In some cases, the rationale sounds no-
ble. Proponents of activism in the classroom
say they want to teach students a sense of
responsibility and to engage with issues of
social justice. But these are the precise val-
ues that get lost when teachers bring politi-
cal activism into the classroom. Instead of
developing a true sense of ethical respon-
sibility, which, in the words of philosopher
Emmanuel Levinas means truly “seeing”
the face of the other human regardless of
who he is or what he thinks, we are ushered
into the space of the political. For Levinas,
this political space can never be ethical. It
can never be a place where ethical respon-
sibility flourishes. Political activism in the
classroom extinguishes the fires of both
free expression and compassion. It is self-
ish, seeking to fulfill its own agenda rather
than empower original thinkers. It undoes
and unravels all of the critical values that
teaching is meant to convey.
Indoctrination is not education. An ac-
tivist in the classroom is not a teacher. Stu-
dents look to teachers to help them navi-
gate the world and to think critically. But
when partisan political opinions infiltrate
the space of learning, the power of critical
thought and free expression has been di-
minished and the educational space ceases
to exist at all. ■
Monica Osborne is a former professor of
literature, critical theory, and Jewish studies.
She is Editor-at-Large at The Jewish Journal
and is author of “The Midrashic Impulse.”
Twitter @DrMonicaOsborne
Rebbe’s Teachings
Re’eih:
Seeing God
T
he fourth section of the Book of Deuteronomy continues Moses’ second
farewell address to the Jewish people. Moses begins by urging the people to
see (Re’eih, in Hebrew) that God has given them the choice between a life of
blessings or one of curses; the choice is theirs.
What first gives us pause about parashat Re’eih is its name, which means, “See….”
As we saw in the preceding two parashiot, Moses asked God to allow him to enter and
see the Land of Israel together with the Jewish people, so that the people can perceive
Divinity as he did—with the same direct clarity associated with sight—but God
refused his request. The generation of the conquest (and thus, all subsequent genera-
tions until the final Redemption) would only be able to perceive Divinity indirectly—
in the manner of hearing. How is it, then, that Moses begins the next portion of his
address to the people saying, “See”?
As has been explained in parashat Va’etchanan, the reason God did not grant
Moses’ request, but instead kept the people at the level of hearing, was on account of
the inherent advantages of hearing over sight. When a person has to establish and
preserve Divine consciousness by struggling against the “din” of the material world,
his perception becomes infinitely more profound than it could have been had it been
solely based on a direct but external revelation. Inasmuch as the purpose of creation
is to infuse Divinity into all strata of reality, it is clear that this goal can only be ac-
complished if our Divine consciousness assumes command over all of our mental
and emotional faculties. This, of course, can only happen if we refine these faculties,
re-orienting them away from the materialistic perspective they initially possess.
It has been further explained that Moses’ request was actually granted on a subtle,
subliminal level. We all possess the unshakable conviction of “seeing” Divinity deep
within our psyches; based on the extent of the imprint that this vision makes on our
perception of reality, we can overcome the clamor of materialism that threatens to
confuse us.
But in addition to this, the result of successfully “hearing” Divinity—of meditating
and contemplating the reality of God deeply enough to affect and refine our cognitive
and emotional faculties—is that the subliminal “sight” that God implanted within us
on account of Moses’ prayer surfaces to our consciousness. Our clouded perception of
truth is purified by our arduous efforts at clarification, such that our minds and hearts
become transparent to our inner point of Divine enlightenment. We “see” Divinity
with the same clarity of perception as did the generation of the desert, who experi-
enced direct, Divine revelation. But our advantage is that this “sight” is superimposed
on and anchored in the solid, inner conviction born of having methodically refined
our conscious faculties on our own. Therefore, after instructing us to “hear,” Moses
tells us to “see.”
Parashat Re’eh comprises a large variety of subject matter. In it, Moses begins his
review of the legal matter of the Torah’s preceding three books, covering the laws of
sacrifices, idolatry, kashrut, charity, the sabbatical year, slavery, and the festivals. Thus,
the focus in this parashah shifts from the basic tenets of Judaism, as discussed in the
first parashiot of Deuteronomy, to the specific duties of the Jew. This focus will remain
throughout the next three parashiot, as well.
In this light, the brief introduction at the beginning of the parashah—headed by
Moses’ sweeping declaration that yes, we can achieve sight-consciousness of Divinity
after all—is the transitional nexus bridging the first three parashiot of Deuteronomy
and the following four, setting the tone for the legal material that follows. We have
been promised that we can ultimately receive the Divine gift of direct perception and
relationship with God. We are then told to respond with renewed, ongoing efforts to
refine and elevate the world, until it, too, becomes fit to behold Divinity directly, “and
the glory of God will be revealed and all flesh will see it together” (Isaiah 40:5). u
From the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson. The
Rebbe’s inspirational teachings on the Torah portion can be found in the Kehot Chu-
mash, produced by Chabad House Publications.
Sp ons o re d by Cha ba d o f Ca lif o rnia , in lov ing m e m o ry o f Ra bbi Tze m a c h
Yeh osh u a Cunin, E m is s a ry o f the Re bbe a nd Dire c to r o f Cha ba d o f Ce ntury City.
JewishJournal.com Jewish Journal | 13
14-15 my turn

malerapaso/Getty Images MY TURN

LAST NOVEMBER MY HUSBAND,

Jeff, mailed a payment to one of his ven-
dors. We soon learned that the check had
been pinched in the mail and cashed at
a local bank. Jeff sent another payment
through Zelle, and we no longer send any
checks in the mail.
To our surprise, our bank, “Bank A,”
didn’t refund the stolen money—more
than $2,600.00. In contrast, they had been
very good about covering any losses from
a compromised credit card. They now
claimed they could do nothing until the
bank that had cashed the check did their
own investigation, which might take up to
ninety days. This seemed outrageous, but
we had our lives to live. We waited.
The months ticked by. Fall turned to
winter; winter turned to spring; spring
burst into summer. Jeff’s repeated inquiries
with Bank A over the phone and in person
yielded a big fat nothing. Instead, they con-
tinued to point the finger at “Bank B,” which
was clearly flummoxed by the intricacies of
this deeply complex “investigation.” Prom-
ises by Bank A to escalate the matter were
so much dust in the wind. By the way, these

The Check’s Not in the

two banks are among the largest in the
country, each with trillions in assets. I was
reminded of the famous government argu-

Mail—a Bank Failure Saga

ment to bail out large corporations during
the 2009 recession, because some compa-
nies were just “too big to fail.” Now I began
to wonder, perhaps some companies were
just too big to succeed.
After nine months, I gave myself per-
mission to become angry. I have never
reacted well to situations where I am ig-
nored, stonewalled, dismissed, patronized,
or otherwise given the bum’s rush. In cases
like this over the years, I’d raise my voice
and speak very harshly, enjoying my abil-
ity to rake someone over the coals but also
knowing that anger is a really bad middah
(character trait) and that I needed to tone it
down. Now, older and I hope wiser, I chose
not to let the bank saga rob me of my me-
nuchat hanefesh—my emotional tranquil-
ity. It’s just too valuable. In a way, I felt this
situation was a test.
Still, we had banked with Bank A for
» by Judy Gruen
to sit down in an outer cubicle, clearly not
wanting to be locked up with an unknown
and possibly dangerous customer in her
private office. Through nearly gritted teeth I
said, “I’m not leaving until I know you have
done something to help me with this case.
The bank’s behavior has been appalling.”
My anger was real, but I watched my tone.
It wasn’t easy.
After hearing me out, she reached “Mary”
from the corporate office. Mary assured me
that this was now marked an URGENT situ-
ation, and with satisfaction, I jotted down
do nothing without hearing from Bank B.
This was so insulting that I hung up on
her. Yes, that was rude and I shouldn’t have
done it. Following that, Bank A sent us a
letter saying that if Bank B didn’t conclude
their investigation within another ninety
days, they would close our case and we
would not recover our money. Say what? So
much for the URGENT tag on the file folder.
I left three messages with Mary. She never
called back.
I decided to explore possible legal rem-
edies. This was no longer about the money;
it was about my refusal to let this King Kong
of a financial institution treat us so shab-
bily. Fortunately, in my research I learned
Bank A bolted awake from their customer
service coma, suddenly dancing as fast as if
someone were aiming a six-shooter at their
Ferragamo loafers. We received a new letter
from them, sourly announcing the return
of our stolen funds. They offered no apol-
ogy for their lack of responsiveness or our
inconvenience.
At long last. At the point of a govern-
ment gun.
We’ve all faced situations like this, where
we as individuals are stopped by an Iron
Curtain of a soulless bureaucracy (large or
small), one that refuses to listen to us, re-
fuses to use common sense or to right a
wrong. We feel demeaned when we are

Now, older and I hope wiser, I chose not to about the Comptroller of the Currency, a
government agency that oversees the na-
treated as if we don’t exist or don’t count.
And when we have been loyal customers

let the bank saga rob me of my menuchat tion’s banks, where I could file formal com-
plaints. I loved the threatening-sounding
for many years, this treatment only adds
insult to injury.
hanefesh—my emotional tranquility. It’s just name of the agency, went online, and got I believe in fighting the good fight, in

too valuable. In a way, I felt this situation was

busy writing my carefully documented forcing people to be accountable, and I
complaints against each bank. A friend of encourage others to take reasonable mea-

a test.
more than twenty years, and it was time to
push harder after nearly a year of polite but
pointless inquiries. Just short of a “make my
day” mindset, I strode into a local branch,
metaphorical guns blazing. I demanded to
speak to the manager, who came out from
her office, looking alarmed. She invited me
my newly issued case number, as well as
Mary’s phone number and extension. Mary
invited me to call if I needed any further
help and promised I’d hear from someone
within a week.
I did. Another lackey from corporate
called singing the same chorus: they could
mine who is a local business attorney help-
fully showed me that on page eighteen
of their own checking account customer
agreement, Bank A was violating their im-
plied promise to protect clients in a cir-
cumstance like this. This was duly noted in
my complaint. A few days after filing, my
complaint against Bank B was rejected, as
we were not their customers (and never,
ever will be). But—voila! Within a few days,
sures toward that end. But as I’ve learned
from long experience, while I cannot con-
trol any institution’s inept or crooked be-
havior, I can control how much I’ll allow it
to leach from my menuchat hanefesh. That
belongs to me and will always be preciously
guarded. ■
Judy Gruen’s most recent book is The Skeptic
and the Rabbi: Falling in Love with Faith.

14 | Jewish Journal JewishJournal.com August 26-September 1, 2022

14-15 my turn
Photo from nicoleraviv.com
The Canadian,
All-American
Girl Who
Moved to Israel
» by Blake Flayton
ON JUNE 5TH, 2021, NICOLE RAVIV
stood before an audience of hundreds at
the New York Islanders Stanley Cup play-
offs. As she had done many times before,
she began to sing the national anthem, only
to discover her microphone was blown out
due to technical difficulties. A true profes-
sional, she kept singing, and soon enough,
the fans joined in with her. Raviv’s perfor-
mance — the booming sound of thousands
singing the Star-Spangled Banner —quickly
went viral on sports-centered social media.
Later, the performance was covered by The
New York Post, The Daily Wire, Fox News,
12 News and Newsday.
“In that moment,” says Raviv, “It didn’t
matter if you were a Republican or a Dem-
ocrat. We were all here watching hockey.
At the time, we were debating whether to
sing the national anthem before sports
games. But this was a moment of unity that
changed the energy in the room. Of course,
we were going to sing it.” The Islanders
went on to win that game, and perhaps it
was sports superstition that compelled the
team management to ask Raviv to do the
same thing at future games, to in some way
get the audience belting “Oh say can you
see…” along with her. Raviv began pointing
her microphone toward the stands each
time she sang. The audience kept joining
in, and the Islanders kept winning.
The mainstream media spread Raviv's
name far and wide, and the Jewish journal-
ism world quickly seized on the opportu-
nity to highlight a display of heartwarming
patriotism from a girl with an Israeli name
who proudly wore a Hamsa necklace dur-
ing her performances. The Jerusalem Post
and Jewish Insider broke the news that
August 26-September 1, 2022
America’s new sweetheart was in fact in the
process of moving to Israel.
Raviv spent her childhood in Montreal,
the daughter of Israeli parents who had im-
migrated before she was born, her mother
the child of Holocaust survivors. “My par-
ents met on stage — my dad sings and my
mom acts, so performing is in my blood-
line.” Raviv went on to study musical the-
ater in college, and after years of attempt-
Raviv believes that to improve her craft and
to better connect with audiences, she must
be in a place, in a region, in a culture, in a
language that “makes her soul happy.”
ing to “make it” as a vocal performer in
New York City, she was brought on in 2019
as the national anthem singer for the New
York Islanders. She dabbled in singing for
the NBA, NFL, and soccer as well. “It was
ironic that here I am, Canadian and Israeli,
and I get my start in this world singing the
American national anthem, but I guess that
works,” she quips.
Raviv eventually decided to make ali-
yah because of her strong family connec-
tion to Israel. “I always knew, in the back
of my head, that I would end up in Israel, I
just didn’t know when,” she admits. As her
career grew in New York, she was brought
further and further into the Jewish com-
munity, making appearances at Israeli con-
sulate events and high-profile events with-
in the Jewish corporate world. This only
strengthened her ever-present desire to re-
turn to the homeland. “In my late-twenties,
my husband and I realized that if we didn’t
do it now, it would be very unlikely that we
would ever do it,” Raviv explains. “I felt like
I had conquered New York, and Israel was
the next level, a place where my musical
spirit can truly thrive.”
Raviv believes that to improve her craft
and to better connect with audiences, she
must be in a place, in a region, in a cul-
ture, in a language that “makes her soul
happy.” Throughout her time in New York,
she was always attempting to add Middle
Eastern influences into her music, which
usually fell short due to lack of competent
musicians and understanding of the style.
In Israel, however, her creative expres-
sion can run wild. “I find that by singing in
Hebrew, I’m able to emotionally connect
more to my craft, something in me opens
up when I sing in the language of people.”
Raviv will be performing in a new play at
Habima Theatre in just a few weeks called
“Ida,” which tells the story of Ida Nodel, a
MY TURN
Soviet Zionist activist and refusenik, and
is also in the process of crafting a new He-
brew musical about the life story of King
David, which is set to run in Israel before
it hits Broadway most likely next year. Just
a few months into her new residency, she
has even learned to sing in Arabic, a chal-
lenge she calls thrilling due to the beauty
and mysticism of the Islamic world’s music.
Clearly, there were plenty of pull factors
to Israel, but there were also push factors as
well. Raviv noted how the environment in
the United States is pressuring more Jews
to move to Israel regardless of whether
their soul is attached to the land or not.
Her performance at the 2021 Stan-
ley Cup playoffs came on the heels of the
previous May, when Israel erupted into a
war with Hamas. “People at the time were
taking their mezuzahs off their doors. My
husband worked in the Diamond District
where fireworks were thrown at Jews. I
would go perform, and there were people,
fellow Jews, working with me who told me
not to wear my jewelry on camera . . . my
Magen David or Hamsa. I told them no. If
I have this platform, I am going to be loud
and proud.” Jewish sports fans flooded
Raviv with support for representing the
tribe with confidence. The positive feed-
back only strengthened her resolve to live
among Jews in a Jewish nation for the rest
of her life.
Raviv and I later discussed why Jew-
ish people in the arts continually shy away
from standing, publicly, in solidarity with
the Jewish people. This is in stark contrast
to artists in the Black and LGBT commu-
nities, who tend to be unabashed in their
support for causes and issues that concern
their communities. During, for example, a
war in Israel or during a wave of antisemi-
tism in the United States, a majority of Jew-
ish artists fall silent. “In the arts, there are
certain social pressures to distance your-
self from your Judaism just because of the
environment you’re in and the opinions of
your fellow artists,” she explains. “The arts
can pressure you to put on a face or a fake
persona to sustain a career.”
There is something special about Raviv’s
story — of descending from victims of the
Holocaust and making the move to Israel
to succeed in the arts but having the piv-
otal moment of fame being an expression
of American unity. It is often discussed that
our society is too polarized, that it is on the
cusp of tearing itself to shreds over con-
flicts of identity, which always pose a dan-
ger to Jews. That Raviv can bring an entire
stadium together to honor national cama-
raderie while proudly wearing Judaism
on her sleeve is a salute to the continued
prosperity of both peoples: Americans and
Jews. When America is strong, the Jews are
strong. ■
Blake Flayton is New Media Director and col-
umnist for the Jewish Journal.
JewishJournal.com Jewish Journal | 15
14-15 my turn
kieferpix/Getty Images
GRATITUDE IS GOOD, AND GOOD FOR
you. Researchers have found that recogniz-
ing life’s blessings can transform a person’s
attitude. Martin Seligman, one of the pioneer-
ing researchers in the field of positive psy-
chology, has found that practicing gratitude
on a regular basis decreases the incidence of
depression, and makes people happier; and
there are many psychologists who practice
“gratitude interventions” to improve the men-
tal health of their patients. Gratitude is good
for you.
Gratitude is also good, and one of Juda-
ism's moral foundations. The Torah tells us
there is an obligation to recite Birkat Hama-
zon, grace after meals, and that "When you
have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord
your God." After each meal, we thank God for
the food we have eaten.
The Talmud and the Midrash take this
obligation to recite Birkat Hamazon a step
further, and add other blessings of gratitude.
Another blessing is added before eating food
as well; we thank God when we are hungry
and needy, and we thank God again when we
are comfortable and full. Hizkunni says that
the redundant Hebrew word "et" in this verse
teaches us that when eating at another’s table,
the guest should offer a blessing for the host
during Birkat Hamazon; the full text of the
"guest's blessing" is found in the Talmud. The
obligation to offer gratitude has many appli-
cations.
There are those who argue that faith itself
is based on gratitude. Rabbeinu Bachya cites
a Midrash that says "anyone who fails to ap-
preciate the gifts they receive from a friend,
will in the end fail to appreciate the gifts given
to him by God." Authentic thankfulness leads
us to appreciate everyone and everything
around us. By reflecting on the goodness in
this world we come to an appreciation of God.
Gratitude is the gateway to godliness.
We teach lessons of gratitude at a very
young age, and remind children to always
say “thank you.” But because of this, we're left
with an immature understanding of what
gratitude is, and think of it as a mere phrase,
a quick string of words meant to be charming
and sweet. This immature form of gratitude
can become an exercise in public relations,
16 | Jewish Journal JewishJournal.com
Heroic Gratitude
» by Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz
more about the person saying “thank you”
than the person being thanked. True grati-
tude is a lot more than an automatic response.
The word gratitude has two meanings:
appreciation and thankfulness. Tony Manela,
who has written extensively about the phi-
losophy of gratitude, has labeled them “grati-
tude that” and “gratitude to.” “Gratitude that”
is simply appreciating good fortune; one can
be grateful that it's a sunny day, or that they
caught the subway just in time. “Gratitude to”
is a specific sense of indebtedness, the need
to thank someone who has done good for
you. When someone provides you with an
umbrella on a rainy day, or gives you direc-
tions on the subway, you owe “gratitude to”
the person who helped you.
“Gratitude that” is important psychologi-
cally; people who are able to learn how to ap-
preciate the world around them will be hap-
pier and more balanced. “Gratitude to” is the
By the sheer force of determination, this type
of gratitude magnifies whatever good can be
found, and expresses an aspiration to repair a
broken world. This is heroic gratitude.
focus of philosophers and theologians, who
discuss how to define the moral obligation of
thanking another for a gift received.
In Rabbinic Hebrew, gratitude is called
"hakarat hatov," “recognizing that which is
good.” This phrase underlines that “gratitude
to” is actually a two-part process; it is both
having a sense of appreciation of the good in
our lives, as well as recognizing the benefac-
tor and thanking them. “Gratitude to” almost
always includes “gratitude that”; every time
we thank someone, it is because we both
appreciate the gift we have received and the
kindness of the benefactor. (And in Judaism,
“gratitude that” and “gratitude to” are never
completely separate; the world is God’s hand-
iwork, and that is why we thank God for every
blessing we experience.)
But both appreciation and thankfulness
can be very challenging.
True thankfulness is emotionally de-
manding. People take pride in being self-
sufficient, and prefer being givers to being
takers. “Gratitude to” is humbling. Included in
every thank you is an admission that the re-
cipient couldn't do it themselves, that they are
lacking, and need the help of others.
Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner notes that the same
word in Hebrew, “hodaah,” is used both for the
expression of thanks and conceding to an-
other person in an argument. Rabbi Hutner
writes that, "The explanation for this shared
terminology is that within the human heart
there is an aspiration to be independent and
not to need the help of others. When a person
expresses his gratitude to his friend and offers
him thanks, at that time he is also offering an
admission that he couldn't do it himself, and
that he needed the help of others."
Gratitude is a confession that you can't do
it on your own. That is uncomfortable. We
generally put the self-made man on a ped-
estal and aspire to be one ourselves. But once
we take gratitude seriously, we realize the role
parents, teachers, friends and even random
chance have had in our achievements. How
difficult is the admission that we are indebted
to others for almost everything in our lives!
Ultimately, the lesson of Rabbi Hutner is that
the more we consider what we ought to be
grateful for, the more we realize how much
of our accomplishments belong to others.
“Gratitude to” forces us to confront our egos.
“Gratitude that” can be even more chal-
lenging, and at times it is absurd. There are
instances when life is too bitter to appreci-
ate anything. Rabbi Yehuda Amital, who lost
MY TURN
his family in the Holocaust, sharply criticized
those who asserted that faith is based on grat-
itude; he found it shocking that people could
make this argument after the Holocaust.
Rabbi Amital says "the question is this: after
the terrible destruction that occurred during
Holocaust, can one still say that our service of
God is built on gratitude for what God does?
Is it possible that a Jew who lost his wife and
children can serve God on the basis of grati-
tude? Is a Jew, whose job was to take the burnt
bodies out of the ovens in Auschwitz, able to
serve God out of gratitude? This is absolutely
impossible."
In this lecture, Rabbi Amital is focused on
the structure of belief, and he finds gratitude
to be a fickle foundation for faith, one that
very much depends on a person’s circum-
stances. Coincidentally, Rabbi Amital also of-
fers a challenge to our understanding of grat-
itude. What meaning does gratitude have in
a world of misery? How can you be thankful
for blessings when life has become a curse?
Appreciation makes no sense in the midst of
an overwhelming tragedy; it is absurd to offer
praise for the goodness of life, when life is not
at all good.
It is in situations of tragedy that gratitude
moves from being an ordinary moral obliga-
tion to a heroic act of personal transforma-
tion. Usually, we see gratitude as a reflection of
the world, a reaction to the goodness that we
have experienced. But when there is little to
offer thanks for, gratitude is not a reaction to
a beautiful world; it is a vision of future good-
ness. By the sheer force of determination, this
type of gratitude magnifies whatever good
can be found, and expresses an aspiration to
repair a broken world. This is heroic gratitude.
Rabbi Yisroel Gustman was a brilliant To-
rah scholar who lost his six-year-old son dur-
ing the Holocaust; he managed to survive by
hiding in the woods. He eventually moved
to Israel, and started the Netzach Yisrael Ye-
shiva in Rechavia. Outside the Yeshiva was
a small garden. Every day, Rabbi Gustman
would go out to water the plants and tend to
the garden. When new students would ask in
astonishment why the dean of the Yeshiva
was doing the gardening, someone would
explain to them that Rabbi Gustman insisted
on caring for the garden himself because he
felt he owed a debt of gratitude to the plants
and trees for giving him a place to hide from
the Nazis, and offering him sustenance dur-
ing the war.
Instead of being a painful reminder of the
worst moments in his life, Rabbi Gustman saw
the plants and trees in his garden as a sym-
bol of hope. It takes a great deal of optimism
to see the good in a forest filled with lurking
evil. Offering thanks for the small glimpses
of goodness that appear during the worst of
times is actually an expression of faith in the
possibilities of life. And by thanking the plants
and trees, Rabbi Gustman was cultivating a
better world for the future.
This is precisely what heroic gratitude is. ■
Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz is the Senior Rabbi of
Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in New York.
August 26-September 1, 2022
14-15 my turn
Ken Burns
Amy Sussman/Getty Images
Ken Burns
Distorts
FDR’s Policy
on Jewish
Refugees
» by Dr. Rafael Medoff
IF YOU’RE GOING TO MAKE A
documentary film about America’s re-
sponse to the Holocaust, shouldn’t you
at least know how many Jewish refugees
were admitted to the United States during
those years? Surprisingly, filmmaker Ken
Burns appears to be unaware of that basic
information — or is for some reason seek-
ing to misrepresent the facts.
Burns has announced that his forth-
coming film will challenge the “myth” that
President Franklin D. Roosevelt abandoned
Europe’s Jews. That remarkable assertion
flies in the face of the historical record that
numerous scholars have thoroughly docu-
mented. Nonetheless, in recent interviews,
Burns has claimed that during the Roo-
sevelt years, the United States “accepted
more refugees than any other sovereign
nation.” That’s simply false.
In recent interviews, Burns has claimed that
during the Roosevelt years, the United States
“accepted more refugees than any other
sovereign nation.” That’s simply false.
Start with 1933, the year Adolf Hitler
and the Nazis rose to power in Germany.
America’s immigration laws would have
permitted the entry of 25,957 German im-
migrants. But the Roosevelt administration
suppressed immigration far below what
the law allowed. That year, only 1,324 Ger-
man nationals were admitted to the United
August 26-September 1, 2022
States. Smaller numbers came from other
European countries — 961 Poles, 864 Hun-
garians, 236 Rumanians (and not all of
them were Jewish refugees.)
By contrast, the British government in
1933 admitted over 33,000 European Jews
to British-ruled Palestine, plus thousands
more to the United Kingdom itself, and
small numbers to other British controlled-
territories.
In the years to follow, the contrast be-
tween the Roosevelt administration and the
British government was even more stark.
In 1934, the U.S. accepted 3,515 German
citizens — less than 14% of that year’s quota
— while the British admitted about 50,000
Jewish refugees to the U.K. and British ter-
ritories (mostly Palestine).
Later in the 1930s, the British began re-
ducing Jewish immigration to Palestine in
response to Arab terrorism — but they still
took in more European Jewish refugees
than the United States did.
And it wasn’t just the British. Consider
1938, when the Roosevelt administration
admitted 17,872 German and Austrian refu-
gees. Both the British and the Japanese rul-
ers of Shanghai each took in a similar num-
ber that year. France, too, accepted more
Jews than the U.S. that year.
During the years 1939-1941, the overall
picture changed, but the United States still
did not accept “more refugees than any
other sovereign nation,” as Ken Burns erro-
neously claims.
From 1939 to 1941, the Soviets took in an
estimated 300,000 Jews fleeing from Nazi-
occupied Poland, according to the website
of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
That was far more than the number of Jew-
ish refugees the Roosevelt administration
admitted during those years.
In 1942, the numbers admitted by the
American and British governments were
similar. In 1943, however, there was a sig-
nificant gap between the two. That year,
the United States admitted just 1,286 Ger-
man immigrants. The British, by contrast,
admitted 8,507 Jewish refugees to Palestine
in 1943, as well as small numbers to other
British territories. Those trends continued
in 1944 and 1945.
Obviously these immigration numbers
do not change the cruel reality of England’s
White Paper policy, which blocked most
Jewish immigration to Palestine; nor do
they change the facts about the Soviet re-
gime’s mistreatment of the Jews in its terri-
tory. But the numbers show that Ken Burns
is seriously mistaken when he contends
that the Roosevelt administration’s record
on refugees was better than that of any
other country.
None of these immigration statistics
are a secret. They all appear in publicly-
available Immigration and Naturalization
Service charts, which historians have been
quoting for decades. If Burns has not seen
the charts — or has not read any of the
MY TURN
many history books that cite them — that’s
cause for concern. If he knows the true fig-
ures but is choosing to distort them for par-
tisan purposes, that’s even more troubling.
Sheer numbers aside, there is the prob-
lem of the moral relativism inherent in
the argument that Burns is making. The
The Roosevelt
administration’s
response to the
Holocaust should
not be minimized or
excused just because
other countries also
did much less than
they could have.
Roosevelt administration’s response to the
Holocaust should not be minimized or ex-
cused just because other countries also did
much less than they could have.
Moreover, is it really impressive if the
president of a country claiming to repre-
sent high ideals of humanitarianism was
slightly more generous in admitting refu-
gees than, say, the military juntas ruling in
South America? Is that the moral standard
by which we as Americans judge our coun-
try and our leaders?
In fact, the rulers of the tiny South
American country of Bolivia — which is
only 424,000 square miles — took in more
than 20,000 Jewish refugees during the
Nazi years. What does that say about the
United States, which is nearly 3.8-million
square miles?
Translating Burns’s point into more
contemporary terms, is it really a badge
of pride that America’s meager response
to the Darfur genocide was slightly better
than the response of, say, Peru or Lithu-
ania? We have a right to expect better from
our country.
We also have a right to expect better
from our filmmakers. While a full assess-
ment of Burns’s film must await its release,
the inaccurate statements that he has been
making about the historical record are
cause for concern. ■
Dr. Medoff is founding director of The Da-
vid S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Stud-
ies and author of more than 20 books about
Jewish history and the Holocaust. His latest
is America and the Holocaust: A Documentary
History, published by the Jewish Publication
Society & University of Nebraska Press.
JewishJournal.com Jewish Journal | 17
14-15 my turn
The College
Education Crisis
Today is a Crisis of
Wisdom
» by Dennis Prager
THE AVERAGE 12-YEAR-OLD STUDENT
at a yeshiva has more wisdom than almost
any student at Harvard or most other uni-
versities. (A yeshiva is an Orthodox Jewish
school with an emphasis on religious stud-
ies. About half the school day is devoted to
religious studies — taught from the original
Hebrew sources.)
This is probably true for many 12-year-
olds in traditional Christian schools as well.
College students do have more knowl-
edge than almost any 12-year-old in reli-
gious school. But they have much less wis-
dom.
I know this because I was a yeshiva stu-
dent from the age of 5 until 19. To appre-
College students do have more knowledge
than almost any 12-year-old in religious
school. But they have much less wisdom.
ciate how much wisdom I was taught is to
appreciate the root of our society’s present
crisis: Secular life doesn’t teach wisdom
(nor, it should be noted, do many schools
that call themselves “Christian” or “Jewish”).
Generations of Americans have not been
taught wisdom; instead, they have been
told that it is sufficient to rely on their feel-
ings to understand life and to determine
right from wrong.
Here are just three examples of basic
insights into life that most 12-year-old ye-
shiva students know and that few secular
students — or, for that matter, secular pro-
fessors — know.
No. 1: I knew well before the age of 12
18 | Jewish Journal JewishJournal.com
that people are not basically good. Any
young person who studies the Bible — and
believes in it — knows that God says, “The
will of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”
(Genesis 8:21).
Aside from the issue of God’s existence,
this is probably the most important issue
in life. It might be said that wisdom begins
with this realization about human nature. It
is hard to imagine any person who believes
human nature is good attaining wisdom.
To be clear, the message of the Bible
is not that human nature is basically bad.
What matters is that we acknowledge the
reality, noted in the Bible and affirmed by
all of human history, that human nature is
not inherently good.
No. 2: Precisely because human nature
isn’t good, the preoccupation of my reli-
gious education was how to work on myself
to make me a better person. Every yeshiva
student in the world memorizes the Talmu-
dic aphorism, “Who is the strong man? The
one who conquers his urge(s).”
One of the great differences between
a religious and secular education can be
summarized thus: I was taught that the
greatest problem in my life is me. In the
secular world, students are taught that the
greatest problems in their lives are others.
That is the genesis of the current American
tragedy.
Vast numbers of young people blame
others and/or America for their problems
and their overall unhappiness. Few are
taught to struggle with their own nature.
Blacks are told to struggle with whites,
with America, and with systemic racism.
Women are not taught to first work on
themselves but to blame men and fight mi-
sogyny, patriarchy and America for their
unhappiness.
No. 3: People are to be judged by the
standards and behavior of the generation
in which they lived.
Ask any yeshiva student — even one in
elementary school — to explain the verse in
Genesis, “And Noah was a righteous man
in his generations.” (6:9) He or she will tell
you what I first learned in fourth grade: that
the ancient rabbis debated what the words
“in his generations” were meant to teach.
Some rabbis argued that they were inserted
to teach that Noah was a particularly righ-
teous man only in comparison to the (awful)
generations in which he lived. Other rabbis
argued that these words were there to make
the point that if Noah was a righteous man
in the awful generations in which he lived,
he must have been a particularly righteous
man, since it is very difficult to be good
when those around you are bad.
Whichever interpretation one agreed
with, it was clear that people are to be
judged according to the time in which they
lived, not by the present time. In the pres-
ent Age of No Wisdom, the best educated
— usually the same people who most lack
wisdom — dismiss the unique moral ac-
complishment of America’s Founders be-
cause most of them owned slaves. Fools
— the term for people who lack wisdom —
judge the Founders by our time, not by the
Founders’ time when slavery was universal.
MY TURN
parema/Getty Images
Wisdom can sometimes be a product of
aging but given how many old fools there
are and how many young people have
some degree of wisdom, it should be clear
that wisdom, like math, a foreign language,
and any other discipline must be taught.
Only then is one likely to become wiser
with age. Otherwise, a young person with-
In the secular world,
students are taught
that the greatest
problems in their lives
are others. That is the
genesis of the current
American tragedy.
out wisdom is most likely to become an old
person without wisdom.
When America was more religious, wis-
dom was taught to young people. This is
another reason to fear a thoroughly secu-
larized America — it is producing a nation
of fools. The proof is our universities. The
most secularized institutions in America
are also the most foolish institution in
America. ■
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio
talk-show host and founder of PragerU. His lat-
est book, The Rational Passover Haggadah, was
published by Regnery on March 1. He may be con-
tacted at dennisprager.com.
August 26-September 1, 2022
19 NW_Briefs

NAT ION / WORLD B RIE F S

Judge denies Ben & Jerry’s lawsuit dent Abbas and his pay-to-slay-Jews poli- day that he expected the book, along with social media,” Westfall wrote. He said that
to stop selling in the West Bank cies underwritten by the largess of nations the Bible and other books that were re- only the illustrated version of the diary
A federal judge rejected an effort from and NGOs.” moved following parental challenges, “will had been removed from schools pending
Ben & Jerry’s lawsuit against their parent - Aaron Bandler be on shelves very soon.” the implementation of a new policy for
company Unilever’s decision to resume In a statement, Westfall also said that reviewing challenged books. “None of the
selling ice cream in the West Bank. Amid outcry, Texas superintendent more than 50 copies of the original version books under re-evaluation were banned,”
The Times of Israel and Reuters reported says Anne Frank adaptation will be of the diary remain in circulation in the he added.
that Ben & Jerry’s filed the lawsuit on July 5 back on shelves ‘very soon’ Keller Independent School District outside The statement did not provide a time-
after Unilever vetoed the ice cream giant’s The superintendent of the Texas school Fort Worth. frame for when the new policy would be
July 2021 decision to stop selling ice cream district that this week ordered the removal “Keller ISD is not banning the Bible or implemented, or any additional details on
to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, ar- of “Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adap- the Diary of Anne Frank, as has been sug- the original parental challenge to the book.
guing that Unilever was contractually pre- tation” from its school’s shelves said Thurs- gested in some headlines and shared on - Philissa Cramer, JTA
vented from interfering in Ben & Jerry’s
social justice activism. After the two sides
failed to reach a settlement, Judge Andrew
L. Carter Jr. sided with Unilever, ruling that
Ben & Jerry’s arguments failed to demon-
strate that Ben & Jerry’s would suffer “ir-
reparable harm” from it.
Ben & Jerry’s had argued that customers
could be under the false impression that
the company supports the Israeli settle-
ments if Unilever’s veto wasn’t overturned;
Carter dismissed this line of reasoning as
being “speculative.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center tweeted
that Ben & Jerry’s “should stick to making
great ice cream and not using its profits as
an ATM for anti-peace and extremists who
hate #Israel. If they don’t, our community
and many other Americans will buy else-
where.”
- Aaron Bandler

German police to investigate

Abbas for saying Israel committed
“50 Holocausts” against the
Palestinians
German police announced on August
19 that they are investigating Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for
saying earlier in the week that Israel has
committed “50 Holocausts” against the Pal-
estinians.
Abbas uttered his “50 Holocausts” re-
mark during a joint press conference with
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Ber-
lin on August 16. The Jerusalem Post re-
ported that Abbas was asked by a reporter
if he would apologize for the 1972 Munich
Olympic massacre, when Palestinians ter-
rorists killed 11 Israeli Olympic athletes. “If
you want to go over the past, go ahead,”
Abbas replied. “I have 50 slaughters that Is-
rael committed ... 50 massacres, 50 slaugh-
ters ... 50 holocausts.”
ABC News reported that Berlin police
have started a preliminary investigation
into Abbas’ comments, as Holocaust de-
nial is barred under German law. However,
the ABC News report noted that Germany’s
Foreign Ministry has indicated that be-

Times Are Tough. Get Noticed.

cause Abbas was visiting Germany in his
capacity as PA president, he will receive
immunity.
Associate Dean and Director of Global Advertise in the Jewish Journal. Email Marty Finkelstein
Social Action Agenda at the Simon Wie- at martinf@jewishjournal.com, or call 213.368.1661, x242.
senthal Center Rabbi Abraham Cooper said
in a statement to the Journal, “Diplomatic
immunity isn’t the problem but diplomatic
impunity that UN, EU, Germany, and many
other nations bestow on the corrupt Presi-

August 26-September 1, 2022 JewishJournal.com Jewish Journal | 19

14-15 my turn
The Jewish and
Intellectual Origins
of this Famously
Non-Jewish Jew
» by Gil Troy
Editor’s note: Excerpted from the new
three-volume set, “Theodor Herzl: Zionist
Writings,” the inaugural publication of The
Library of the Jewish People edited by Gil
Troy, to be published this August marking
the 125th anniversary of the First Zionist
Congress. This is second in a series.
THEODOR HERZL WAS BORN ON
May 2, 1860, in Pest, Hungary, across the Riv-
er Danube from Buda. The second child and
only son of a successful businessman, Jakob,
he was raised to fit in to the elegant, sophisti-
cated society his family and a fraction of his
people had fought so hard to enter. But it is
too easy to caricature his upbringing as fully
emancipated and assimilated. His paternal
grandfather, Simon Loeb Herzl, came from
Semlin, today’s Zemun, now incorporated
into Belgrade. There, Simon befriended Rabbi
Judah ben Solomon Chai Alkalai. This promi-
nent Sephardic leader was an early Zionist,
scarred by the crude antisemitism of the Da-
mascus Blood Libel of 1840, inspired by the
old-new Greek War of Independence in the
1820s – and energized by the spiritual and
agricultural possibilities of returning the Jews
to their natural habitat, their homeland in the
Land of Israel. It is plausible that the grandfa-
ther conveyed some of those ideas, some of
that excitement, to his grandson.
Still, the move from Semlin to Budapest,
from poverty to wealth, from intense Jewish
living in the ghetto to emancipated Europe-
an ways in the city, placed the Herzl family at
the intersection of many of his era’s defining
currents.
The 1800s were years of change – and of
isms. Creative ideas erupted amid the disrup-
tions of industrialization, urbanization, and
capitalism. Three defining ideologies were
rationalism, liberalism, and nationalism –
with each one shaping the next. The Age of
Reason, the Enlightenment — science itself
— rose thanks to rationalism. Life was no lon-
ger organized around believing in God and
serving your king, but following logic, facts,
objective truth. The logic of reason flowed nat-
urally to liberalism, an expansive political ide-
ology rooted in recognizing every individual’s
inherent rights. Finally, as polities became less
God-and-king-centered, nationalism filled in
the God-sized hole in many people’s hearts.
Individuals bonded based on their common
heritage, language, ethnicity, or regional pride
– and needs.
Ideas are not static. In an ideological age
rippling with such dramatic changes, the dif-
ferent isms kept colliding and fusing, like at-
20 | Jewish Journal JewishJournal.com
oms becoming molecular compounds. Some
combinations proved more stable – and con-
structive – than others.
Liberalism combined with nationalism
created Americanism, the democratic model
wherein individual rights flourished in a col-
lective context yielding the liberal-democratic
nation-state. An offshoot of liberalism empha-
sizing equality more than rights fused with ra-
tionalism and created Marxism, although Karl
Marx admitted his theories could only be en-
acted with irrational terror. Marxism with that
violent streak, drained of liberalism, became
communism, while a hyper-nationalism,
rooted in blood-and-soil loyalty, and the kind
of Marxist rationalism and totalitarianism also
drained of any liberalism, created Nazism.
A similar impressionistic summary of the
Jewish experience would track how the nine-
teenth century’s ideological clashes shaped
the major movements and institutions still de-
fining Judaism, from the Reform movement
to Zionism, from the modern synagogue to
the State of Israel. Judaism and rationalism
set off the explosion of scholarship – the Wis-
senschaft – while Judaism mixed with liber-
alism triggered the Reform and Conservative
movements’ theological inventiveness. In
response, ultra-Orthodoxy emerged, hostile
to change – essentially subtracting liberalism
from Judaism. Modern Orthodoxy synthe-
sized, accepting some liberalism in Judaism
and eventually Jewish nationalism without
too much rationalism. And, thanks to Herzl
and others, the compound of Judaism and
liberalism and nationalism yielded Zionism.
It is too easy to
caricature [Herzl’s]
upbringing as fully
emancipated and
assimilated.
The actual historical process was much
messier. It began with the great double-edged
sword of European Emancipation. First in the
West, then in the East, some Europeans wel-
comed Jews with equal rights and extraordi-
nary opportunities, liberating many to move to
the cities – and for a few to succeed on legend-
ary scales. Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786),
the Herzl of the Haskala – Enlightenment –
was a Jew who as a philosopher dazzled Berlin.
But, unlike Herzl, Mendelssohn was so fluent
in Judaism and Hebrew that in 1783 he started
translating much of the Bible into High Ger-
man, adding commentary sporadically too.
Mendelssohn epitomized the Haskala ideal
of being a full, functioning, literate Jew in the
house and a full, functioning, popular man on
the street. And, unlike Herzl, Mendelssohn was
ugly, infamously so, a walking ghetto stereo-
type with his crooked back and hooked nose.
Mendelssohn was accepted. Jews, howev-
er, realized that Europe’s embrace often came
at a cost: Jews had to be willing to give up
their Jewishness, to fit in so much that many
lost their way. Mendelssohn had six children
who survived into adulthood – only two re-
mained Jewish. Most disturbing, the Jewish
rush into modern European society triggered
a backlash, an updated, racist Jew-hatred that
became increasingly potent as nationalist
demagogues blamed the era’s problems on
Europe’s traditional scapegoat, the Jews.
Rather than being welcomed smoothly
into European life, most Jews felt mugged
by modernity. The complex realities never
matched the euphoric hopes of the maskilim,
the Enlightened Reformers, that their people
would “awake” from their ghetto-imposed
long “slumber,” as the Russian-Jewish maskil
Y. L. Gordon would write in Hebrew in 1866.
Developing Mendelssohn’s vision as the
pioneering Jewish modernizer, Gordon cel-
ebrated the essential bargain Jews like The-
odor and his parents accepted. The deal was:
“Be a man when you wander outside and a
Jew when at home.” In Herzl’s household –
like so many other bourgeois Jewish homes
MY TURN
Keystone/Getty Images
Rather than being
welcomed smoothly
into European
life, most Jews
felt mugged by
modernity.
– the success in looking normal on the streets
came at a high Jewish cost, even at home.
For Herzl and his family, Middle European
Jews caught in the middle, every educational
choice became a marker. Were you looking
backward to your traditional past or forward
to your enlightened future? Initially, Herzl’s
parents, Jakob and Jeannette née Diamant,
tried doing both. When their son was eight
days old, they initiated their son Theodor into
the great identity juggle by giving him a He-
brew name – Binyamin Ze’ev.
Ultimately, then, Binyamin Ze’ev Herzl
was far more rooted in Judaism – and the
Jewish struggle of the nineteenth century,
than most legends acknowledge. ■
Professor Gil Troy is the author of The Zion-
ist Ideas and the editor of the three-volume set,
“Theodor Herzl: Zionist Writings,” the inaugural
publication of The Library of the Jewish People,
to be published this August marking the 125th
anniversary of the First Zionist Congress.
August 26-September 1, 2022
21 COL_Rosner- 8 years.indd
The Netanyahu
Autobiography: Early
Review
» by Shmuel Rosner
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU IS ABOUT
to publish a book. "Bibi: My Story". It will
be a good book. I will surely read it (and to
make it clear: I have not yet read it).
And how do I know it will be good? Be-
cause its author is a thinker and a writer.
Netanyahu has already written books. They
were good and interesting. Maybe even im-
portant.
It will also be a bad book. At least, it will
not be the best book Netanyahu could write.
And how do I know that? I know that
politicians rarely write good books. And
even fewer of them do so when they are
still in office or running for office. That is,
when the book is not a concluding chap-
ter of a career, but rather another stepping
stone. Unless Netanyahu decided to retire
and didn't tell us (and some might sus-
pect that deciding to write a book could
mean such subconscious decision), his
forthcoming book is an intermediate stop
on a political path that is still ongoing. In
that case - his considerations as a political
leader will outweigh his considerations as
a book writer. And that’s a recipe for a bad
book.
Politicians, senior officials and leaders
often write books. Most of them don't have
many readers. Most of them are an unnec-
essary burden. They only serve to prove
that doing things and narrating things are
not the same. Politics is a profession with
high return for subterfuge and small re-
ward for soul-searching. Writing good
books is a mirror image of politics: a small
return on subterfuge and a high return om
soul-searching. Even for the most talented
of leaders such acrobatics is not easy. Read
Winston Churchill's World War II memoirs.
The writing is masterful, but the level of ac-
curacy in describing the historical narrative
is debatable. When writing these volumes
Churchill still had scores to settle and po-
litical ambitions to consider. If even for him
— the most talented leader, the most origi-
nal thinker, the most proficient writer — it
was not easy to write a book as wonderful
as he could write, what can we expect from
lesser leaders?
It is much more difficult for them. You
want an example? Here's one: Hillary Clin-
ton's autobiography is boring and bland
and tedious throughout. It is also very long,
because brevity is also a trait that is difficult
for politicians to master. Look at the book
written by former Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert. Had he accepted the good
advice of his editors, he would have short-
August 26-September 1, 2022
5 TOC-1
RO S N E R ’ S D OM A IN
Fr om Is r a e l
Something I wrote in Hebrew
When the spiritual leader of the Haredi-Sephardi Shas party died earlier this
week, I wrote about the difference between Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox Jews and
Sephardic ultra-Orthodox Jews:
The most striking difference is in the family circle. Those who have relatives
with whom they are in contact and who have different attitudes, different types
of lifestyles - will learn to respect what is different. Thus, it is of great importance
ened it by half, and perhaps have a half-de- that the Sephardic ultra-Orthodox know secularists closely - in their family cir-
cent book. But he did not. cle - much more than the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox. About half of the Sephardic
Back to Clinton: she wrote the book haredis have secular relatives - with whom they are in contact. The situation of
when it was still clear that she intended to try ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazis, Lithuanians and Hasids is distinctly different. Only
and become president of the United States. one-in-five has secular relatives with whom he keeps in touch. Either there is no
This required her to do several things: 1. Not secular family, or if there is one, and there is no contact.
to say things that would offend her voters.
2. To glorify her past whether she deserves
glory, or rather deserves condemnation.
Clearly, Clinton has an interest in writing
books (she recently published a thriller)
It will be
and may have wanted to write a good book.
But even if she wanted to — she couldn't.
interesting —
Not because of lack of talent. She could not
write a decent book because she was still a
politician. It is very difficult to write a good
autobiography when the professional fu- and frustrating.
ture of the politician is still ahead of him.
And it is very difficult to write an autobi- Netanyahu is still
ography that is honest and introspective,
too busy to write
the really good
when your whole life is training in hiding,
covering up, pretending.
book he can write.
Exceptions? There are of course a few
exceptions. Barack Obama wrote a fasci-
nating book about his life. That was before
he became president, and before he had the
time to ruin his talent by being a politician.
Of course, it was a calculated book, de-
signed to help him become president, and
A week's numbers
therefore not always accurate, and some-
times vague. But Obama wrote about his
life as a young man. And wrote about them Sephardi Haredis are different (see the text above).
in a way that fit the narrative he wanted to
market to Americans. Most other autobio-
graphical outliers are the books by leaders
who wrote when their career was behind
them. Harry Truman's book about his pres-
idency is a fascinating book. The book by
General and President Ulysses S. Grant —
the hero of the American Civil War — is a
masterful book. Perhaps the best ever writ-
ten by an American president. Grant wrote
near the end of his life. His family benefited
from the royalties.
There are readers who have no choice
but to read the autobiographies of leaders.
It is impossible for an Israeli historian, or
political journalist, not to read David Ben-
Gurion's writings. But we have to admit:
historians who wrote about Ben-Gurion,
after reading his diaries and books, sum-
A reader’s response
marized his life in a more interesting way. Send me questions – I like answering questions (rosnersdomain@gmail.com).
This is the category to which Netan- Here’s one from Elly Zohar: “Do you think the Heredi parties could decide to go with
yahu's book will probably also belong. Read Gantz and not Netanyahu this time?” Answer: Not really. Longer answer: Haredis
and wonder about accuracy. Read and re- have constituency, and it is the most rightwing constituency of all parties.
gret what is missing. Read and get disap-
pointed. It will be interesting - and frustrat-
ing. Netanyahu is still too busy to write the Shmuel Rosner is senior political editor. For more analysis of Israeli and international
really good book he can write. ■ politics, visit Rosner’s Domain at jewishjournal.com/rosnersdomain.
JewishJournal.com Jewish Journal | 21
Tom Baker / EyeEm/Getty Images

APPLES OF OUR EYES:

Stories of the Unforgettable
Teachers Who Illuminated Our Minds
and Marked Our Lives
» Compiled by Tabby Refael

In honor of the back-

to-school season,
the Jewish Journal
asked various
community leaders,
educators, writers
and thinkers one
compelling question:
Is there a teacher
who shaped your
life?

22 | Jewish Journal JewishJournal.com August 26-September 1, 2022


I
n his 1994 book, “Will We Have Jewish Grandchil-
dren?: Jewish Continuity and How to Achieve It,”
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, z”l, described an ex-
traordinary predicament he once faced: The leg-
endary author and theologian was invited to have
lunch with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Si-
multaneously, he was also invited to partake in the London
opening ceremony of a new Jewish school, to be held the
same day and time as the lunch.
Incredibly, Sacks declined the Prime Minister’s invita-
tion and opted to attend the opening of the school. His
reasoning? “Governments sustain society, but education
sustains the world,” he wrote.
Rabbi Dr. David Lieber, remembered by many as presi-
dent of the University of Judaism and as editor of the Etz
Hayim Torah commentary, was a memorable teacher with
impact far beyond the classroom. While a student at UCLA’s
Law School in the 1970s, I enrolled in two of Dr. Lieber’s Bi-
ble courses at UCLA. Dr. Lieber, the institution builder and
scholar, took an interest in people, including his students,
whatever the setting.
Several years later, when I weighed alternative career
paths, it was Dr. Lieber, from among my teachers, whose
counsel I sought. His advice, after listening intently, was to
pursue that path that I considered most compelling. He of-
fered practical guidance with respect to “next steps.”
When I think of Dr. Lieber, the words of the prophet
Zechariah, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit,”
spring to mind. Dr. Lieber’s leadership was not by bombast
but by a gently manifested focus on engaging people, in-
dividually and collectively, in meaningful Jewish learning
experiences. The name Lieber, “beloved” in Yiddish, was
descriptive of the man.
The Torah of Dr. David Lieber, as spoken and by exam-
ple, is instructive decades later. For this appreciative stu-
dent, its embodiment remains an aspiration.
—Dr. Gil Graff, Executive Director, Builders of Jewish
Education (BJE) Los Angeles
“When I think of Dr. Lieber,
the words of the prophet
Zechariah, ‘Not by might,
nor by power, but by My
spirit,’ spring to mind.”
—Dr. Gil Graff
Our cherubic, white-bearded seventh-grade Eng-
lish teacher announced to the class that there would be
a school-wide Thanksgiving speech contest. It was 1979,
and my family had just escaped the Iranian revolution and
landed in Beverly Hills. Still dizzy from being uprooted
from everything I knew, somehow, I had the idea that I too
could write an essay about being thankful. Mr. Kinny was
the one who gave me the confidence, perhaps chutzpah, to
tell our family story of intolerance, forced expulsion, immi-
August 26-September 1, 2022
C OV E R
To those familiar with Judaism’s seeming obsession with
learning and its reverence for teachers, it comes as no sur-
prise that Sacks, whose writings and lectures composed a life-
long love letter to God and Judaism, regretfully bowed out of
lunch with one of the world’s most powerful leaders. “Teach-
ers open our eyes to the world,” he wrote in his 2004 book,
“From Optimism to Hope,” adding, “They give us curiosity and
confidence. They teach us to ask questions. They connect us
to our past and future. They’re the guardians of our social her-
itage. We have lots of heroes today—sportsmen, supermodels,
media personalities. They come, they have their fifteen min-
utes of fame, and they go. But the influence of good teachers
stays with us. They are the people who really shape our life.”
gration and open-armed welcome by our adopted nation.
I won that contest and delivered my speech in front of the
El Rodeo school audience. It was Mr. Kinny, possibly pull-
ing strings to make sure I came out on top, who was able to
overlook the language deficiencies in my story, my com-
plete lack of awareness about the historical significance of
Thanksgiving, and my broken spoken English, to encour-
age the new girl from Iran who had the audacity to com-
pete for a speech contest months after her arrival in a new
land — the very definition of an exemplary teacher.
—Sharon Nazarian, President, Younes & Soraya Naz-
arian Family Foundation
I have a story of a teacher that changed my life: Mr. Sol-
omon. He was the English teacher at Hillel Hebrew Acad-
emy Jewish Day School. I was a mere nine-year-old who
had just moved from Queens, New York to Beverly Hills. My
parents were Holocaust survivors and wanted me to con-
tinue my Jewish day school education.
I was the “new kid” who arrived mid-year. It was Janu-
ary 1971 and I was brought into a new school and a new
classroom in the middle of the year. I remember interrupt-
ing Mr. Solomon’s class as the principal (Rabbi Gottesman)
brought me in to introduce the new student. Immediately,
Mr. Solomon welcomed me and hand-picked one of his
favorite students, Shirley Davidov, and literally put us to-
gether and said, in front of the whole class, “You two will be
friends.” Sure enough, that day changed the course of my
life. I was the only child of Holocaust survivors who imme-
diately had an instant friend, whose large wonderful family
embraced me, making sure I always felt loved and nour-
ished. Shirley was my maid of honor at my wedding and I
too was in hers. Mr. Solomon, through his act of kindness
by looking out for “the new girl,” set my path to feeling held,
safe and part of an extended beautiful family.
—Lili Bosse, Mayor, City of Beverly Hills
I met Dr. Shlomo Bardin as a camper at Camp Alonim in
1960. For the next sixteen years until his death in 1976, I sat
“at his feet” learning what it meant to be a Jewish educator.
I learned that creating meaning was far more important
than measuring. I learned that teachers must first “touch
the souls of their students,” and only then would and could
the children learn. I learned that the aroma of challah bak-
ing on Friday afternoon, singing around the Shabbat table,
and a serious understanding of Torah were the keys to
teaching my own children, as well as the children of our
community. Most importantly, however, I learned that Ju-
daism contained a particularistic and universal vision for
humanity, and by watching Dr. Bardin, I learned how to
articulate that vision. Not only has Shlomo Bardin left an
indelible imprint on my life and career, but also through his
vision for Jewish high school education, I helped develop
In honor of the back-to-school season, the Jewish Jour-
nal asked various community leaders, educators, writers
and thinkers one compelling question: Is there a teacher
who shaped your life?
Their responses, which included memories of teach-
ers in the U.S., Canada, pre-revolutionary Iran, and Israel,
spanned from the 1960s to the twenty-first century. They
touched our hearts and reminded us of the precious gift of
a teacher who sincerely sees us for our individual poten-
tial. Truly, the educators mentioned below are a testament
to the ancient words of Alexander the Great, who wisely
observed, “I am indebted to my father for living, but to my
teacher for living well.” ■
three Jewish high schools in Los Angeles. Indeed, every
graduate of Yeshiva University of Los Angeles High School,
of Milken Community High School, and of de Toledo High
School, can claim Shlomo Bardin as their teacher.
—Dr. Bruce Powell, President, Jewish School Manage-
ment; author (with Ron Wolfson) of “Raising A+ Human
Beings: Crafting a Jewish School Culture of Academic
Excellence and AP Kindness.”
“Mr. Kinny was the
one who gave me
the confidence, perhaps
chutzpah, to tell our family
story of intolerance, forced
expulsion, immigration, and
open-armed welcome by
our adopted nation.”
—Dr. Sharon Nazarian
The year was 1969; I was a freshman at UCLA. My favor-
ite class was intermediate Hebrew. The professor’s name was
Yigal Yannai, and he was intent upon us learning conversa-
tional rather than biblical Hebrew. To accomplish that goal,
our textbook was “La’Matchil,” an Israeli newspaper written in
simplified Hebrew. My most poignant memory is when my
friend, Tobi (whom I met that year and with whom I remain
the dearest of friends) and I were teamed up to pick an article
to report on for our final grade; rather than an article, we se-
lected a Moussaka recipe contained in the paper and invited
our teacher and classmates to our apartment to “experience”
our final project. Professor Yannai agreed to this plan, which
no doubt is what makes him my most memorable teacher
ever! Luckily, Tobi’s Hebrew was better than mine; together
we shopped for the then-strange Middle Eastern ingredi-
ents, converted the grams and milliliters to ounces and cups,
and eventually had a Moussaka casserole in the oven ready
to serve as our teacher and fellow students arrived. No one
got sick that night, which meant that I guess we learned what
Professor Yannai hoped we’d learn … and then some!
—Janice Kamenir-Reznik, Co-founder, Jewish World
Watch and Jews United for Democracy and Justice
JewishJournal.com Jewish Journal | 23

Her name is Becky Rivka Mark and her subject matter
was the great world you could find in books while skipping
class. Becky was the librarian at Chorev, the Jerusalem-
based school I went to when my family moved to Israel
for a spell in the 1990s. To an isolated, alienated young girl
in a country I didn't understand, whose new context was
wreaking havoc on what I thought was my personality,
Becky was an absolute lifeline. She was kind and gener-
ous. She recommended books that I continue to re-read to
this day, books that showed me that the world was so much
bigger than the daled amos mine (“four handbreadts" — a
Talmudic term for a small space). She never judged me for
bunking off of class and let me hide in the stacks and read
and read instead of sitting through another 45 minutes of
words I didn't understand. Charles Dickens, Dodie Smith,
Shakespeare, Walter Scott — she'd recommend and I'd read
and then we'd discuss. She never had qualms about hat-
ing a famous book you were "supposed" to like, and that
irreverence impressed me deeply. I think about Becky all
the time.
—Batya Ungar-Sargon, Deputy Opinion Editor, Newsweek
“She never judged me for
bunking off of class and let
me hide in the stacks and
read and read instead of
sitting through another 45
minutes of words I didn't
understand.”
—Batya Ungar-Sargon
One day in first grade, on a Friday, we had a substitute
teacher for Jewish Studies at Stephen S. Wise Elementary
school in the 1990s. She was tall and Israeli. I remember
that without giving any warning, the first thing she did was
to turn off all of the classroom lights. Then she proceeded
to speak about Shabbat; and she kept repeating the word
“Shabbat,” in her Hebrew accent, several times. Then, with-
out much introduction, she took us on a journey to her
childhood and proceeded to tell us of the sounds and smells
of basil and other spices that were used in preparation for
cooking meals for Shabbat. After her vivid explanation, she
had someone pass out what seemed to be giant pieces of
white construction paper and told us to write out a poem
about what Shabbat meant to each of us. Her name was Gil-
la Nissan and I ended up connecting with her later in my
twenties. It turns out that she was the parent of a friend of
mine who also went to Stephen S. Wise with me; but we only
found out when we went to Boston University together. Gilla
taught me—and still teaches me — about Kabbalah, the mys-
tical meaning of each of the Hebrew letters of the alphabet
and how to meditate. But it was in that one experience in
first grade that Gilla taught me the meaning of holiness, of
what it means to sanctify time — the meaning of Shabbat.
—Rabbi Tarlan Rabizadeh, Vice President for Jewish En-
gagement at AJU and Director of the Maas Center for Jewish
Journeys; Director of the Miller Intro to Judaism program
24 | Jewish Journal JewishJournal.com
krisanapong detraphiphat/Getty Images
It was Steve Hilsabeck who made my senior year at New
Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois especially memo-
rable and important. His class on pop culture taught me
that there are many ways to understand American history.
You can do it through the study of dates and presidents and
wars, but you can also do it through what might wrongly
seem like disposable ephemera. I’ve taken the lessons he
taught in that class and turned them into a lifetime of di-
version and study. He was a great charismatic teacher who
never treated you like a kid but always like a person.
—Rich Cohen, New York Times bestselling author,
“The Adventures of Herbie Cohen: World's Greatest Ne-
gotiator”
From first grade growing up in Brookline, Massachu-
setts, Miss McQuaid taught with her feet as she moved
around the class and made each of us feel special, and
each of us couldn't wait to get to school every morning. I
remember my Professor, Dr. Samuel Sandmel, at Hebrew
Union College in Cincinnati, an International Scholar in
the New Testament. His book, “We Jews and Jesus: Explor-
ing Theological Differences for Mutual Understanding,”
changed my thinking about the world and I set my life's
path to reach out around the world, being involved in the
interfaith movement. This led me to my lifelong relation-
ship with Rev. Jesse Jackson, as my teacher and mentor.
—Rabbi Steven Jacobs, Ret. civil rights and human
rights activist
We had moved to Montreal a couple years earlier from
Morocco. I had fallen in love with English. I was determined
to master the language. In grade six, I hit the jackpot with
Mrs. Cleland, my all-time favorite teacher. She smoked and
wore lots of make-up, and would spend extra time with
“But it was in that one
experience in first grade that
Gilla taught me the meaning
of holiness, of what it means
to sanctify time — the
meaning of Shabbat.”
—Rabbi Tarlan Rabizadeh
me after class to teach me how to roll my R’s, among other
things. OK, guilty as charged: I was the teacher's pet. On
Monday mornings, I would often ask her about a word I
heard at a sermon that Shabbat. It was an Ashkenazi shul
across from where we lived (either Adath Israel or Young
Israel — I can’t remember). One Monday, after telling her
that the sermon that week was especially good, I asked her
what the rabbi meant when he said “multivate.” Immedi-
ately and without flinching, she replied, “Oh no, no David.
It’s not ‘multivate’, it’s ‘motivate’”! I will never forget my be-
loved Mrs. Cleland.
—David Suissa, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Tribe
Media/Jewish Journal
“The most important factor
of his teaching was that
I could not wait to attend
his class because of his
empathic and understanding
character.” —Bijan Khalili
I can recall when I was in tenth grade at high school in
pre-revolutionary Iran and I had a teacher who positively
influenced my life: His name was Koorosh (“Cyrus” in Per-
sian. Iranian Jews respect the memory of Cyrus the Great,
so some of their organizations bear his name). And there
was also Mr. Mehrdad Mobassery, my chemistry teacher,
who now resides in the Los Angeles area. Mr. Mobassery
was very young compared to all of my other teachers (he
was only 10 years older than me). Since he was young, he
brought new ideas and fresh spirit to the class. One of his
prominent qualities and skills was his art of communica-
tion and how to get the students’ attention to listen to him.
The class was about 50 minutes, but I would not miss a
word of what he spoke. It was a mutual collaboration be-
tween him and the students; he communicated well and
we listened well in return. The most important factor of his
teaching was that I could not wait to attend his class be-
cause of his empathic and understanding character.
—Bijan Khalili, President and founder, Ketab Corp.
Publishers
August 26-September 1, 2022
 When I met, Rabbi Steve Robbins in 1971 at the Hillel
Foundation at the University of Cincinnati campus, the
world of Jewish learning finally opened-up. Having sat in
Cheder, an ultra-traditional “Conservadox” religious school
in the fifties, I was treated with disdain and disregard. As a
female, it wasn’t important to really learn, to reinforce my
curiosity, to sing or become a Bat Mitzvah. Then I experi-
enced a young man bring Judaism to life for young adults,
both male and female, to open-up Torah and inspire us
to “feel” our ancestors’ pain and joy, to watch the text be
mined on multiple levels, most powerfully its mystical se-
crets, and experience a teacher’s excitement and energy
in sharing text, the content and its inner soul. His teach-
ing transformed my relationship with Jewish learning and
became the greatest influence on my own approach as a
teacher. Fortunately, he also became my husband and a
great mentor in my journey to become a rabbi and cantor.
His innovative and pluralistic vision inspired me to see be-
yond boundaries and tap into my own source of creativity
and deep love of Judaism.
—Eva Robbins, rabbi, cantor and artist; author, "Spiri-
tual Surgery: Journey of Healing Mind, Body, and Spirit"
“…his pearls of wisdom have
stuck with me, especially
his advice to ‘eat the
cheesecake first.’” —Riley Jackson
A teacher who shaped my life is Edward Edsall, my tenth
grade AP European History teacher at Calabasas High
School. Our class started in the fall of 2020, during the pan-
demic. Despite the fact that we were on Zoom, Mr. Edsall’s
passion for the subject—and teaching in general—was evi-
dent from day one. He always made class interesting and
enjoyable, no matter how difficult the material might have
been. Further, he always made himself available to each
student, and as we got closer to the AP exam, he went
above and beyond by holding morning Zoom sessions
for his more than 180 students. He even Zoomed from his
car one morning when a family member was taken to the
hospital. Mr. Edsall taught me to think deeply and to push
myself. He gave me a unique way of analyzing issues and
taught me writing methods that I find invaluable. Not only
that, but his pearls of wisdom have stuck with me, especial-
ly his advice to “eat the cheesecake first.” Mr. Edsall is one
of a kind, and his dedication and enthusiasm will always
inspire me to put 120% into everything I do.
—Riley Jackson, high school senior in Los Angeles;
published author and contributor at the Jewish Journal;
founder of Driving with Daisy; Junior Board President
at Cancer Support Community Los Angeles and the City
of Hope
As I grew up, it was nontraditional teachers who had the
greatest impact on my life. When I was 15 years old, I had
a painting job with George Ritter, an architect, who taught
me more than how to paint with meticulous preparation;
he taught me to carefully sand and seal, until the final coat
went on like glass, refining my skills with each paint job.
From him I learned the discipline of art with an eye for per-
fection. In high school, I also had a job with Paul Escobar, a
August 26-September 1, 2022
janitor, who hired me as his assistant to help him clean the
local newspaper and social security offices, where I learned
hard work and respect. They believed in me when others
did not. They were my first mentors, and they taught me
the kind of person I wanted to be. As a father, the great-
est joy is seeing mentors like this take an interest in my
son. Sam Adler, a classical composer, was my son, David’s,
composing teacher at Julliard. He went above and beyond,
taking an interest in David’s success. We had never been to
Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, or the Lincoln Center
before, but it brought tears to my eyes seeing him show up
to support David each time.
—Bob Hertzberg, California State Senate Majority
Leader Emeritus; candidate, Los Angeles County Board
of Supervisors
Allen Greenberger, of blessed memory, a history profes-
sor, found a way to create a class lecture that was irreverent,
welcoming, funny, and educationally challenging. The col-
lege I attended did not have a significant number of Jew-
ish students or a Jewish Studies division. Professor Green-
berger tried to fill this void. He did as much as he could to
bring Jewish Studies and culture through creative classes
like the History of Yiddish Theater, or Jews in Sports and
Memory and History, a course blending history and psy-
chology of the Holocaust. He taught me the value of our
history as a Jewish culture through lectures and through
action, and how to find ways to share Jewish culture within
a system that didn't prioritize it. He taught me that one can
be cynical yet remain hopeful that people and the world
could be better. I thank him and all the great teachers for
their wisdom, patience and care.
—Adeena Bleich, Civic and Jewish Community Solutionist
jayk7/Getty Images
The teacher I want to acknowledge is Tova Eisenthal.
She was my seventh through ninth grade teacher in Israel,
some time in the nineties. She taught at an Alliance school
in Tel Aviv. She was the first person to install in me the no-
tion that I know how to write. She was a literature, Hebrew
and writing teacher. Everyone in the class would have to
write an essay; we would have a test and she would walk
into class and say, “The topic that you have to write about
is XYZ; Noa, you can write about whatever you want.” So
she just gave me free hand to do whatever I wanted and
instilled in me the notion that I can express myself in writ-
ing, which obviously came in very handy, and still comes
in very handy. I’m extremely grateful to her forever.
—Noa Tishby, actor, writer, producer and activist; au-
thor, “Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood
Country on Earth”
“She was the first person to
install in me the notion that I
know how to write.”—Noa Tishby
In 1979, I was a freshman at Rambam (the pre-YULA/
Shalhevet Modern Orthodox HS in LA). I was placed in the
Beit Midrash track for Talmud, and was introduced to seri-
ous Talmud study by Rabbi Chaim Shulman, a Talmudist
who also had a Ph.D. in Math and Physics. I never had such
a brilliant teacher who was also such a kind person. He saw
that I loved learning Talmud, so he invited me to study with
him on Shabbat afternoons in the Kollel in the Beverly-
Fairfax area. Every week he exposed me to new books and
the creative world of Talmudic commentaries, and when
I open those books today, I can still remember detailed
conversations from those Shabbat afternoons. One week I
asked to excuse myself early, as I had a Rambam basket-
ball game that Saturday night. I explained that I wanted to
be home to change right after Shabbat and then hustle to
the game. He understood, but I was concerned that I disap-
pointed him. Then during the game, while standing at the
free throw line, I saw Rabbi Shulman standing in the crowd.
His presence surprised me and inspired me to play harder.
As the final buzzer sounded, he approached me and said
“Yashar Koach,” the traditional phrase he used when prais-
ing a Talmudic insight. Rabbi Shulman taught me lots of
Talmud, but that night, he taught me what it means to be a
rabbi and teacher.
—Rabbi Daniel Bouskila, Sephardic Educational Cen-
ter, Westwood Village Synagogue
“I never had such a brilliant
teacher who was also such a
kind person.”—Rabbi Daniel Bouskila
JewishJournal.com Jewish Journal | 25
 The Birds I May Not Eat
A poem for Parsha Re’eh

» by Rick Lupert

You may eat every clean bird.

Deuteronomy 14:11

As a vegetarian, most of this text

does not apply to me, or, as the Rabbis say
my thoroughness is to be commended.

As a reader of Torah, and occasional I may not eat a raven, and I wouldn’t dare!
conversationalist with Rabbis, it’s important to note I wouldn’t want to anger their community.
they may not have actually said that. I don’t know who would dream of eating an ostrich.

I may eat every clean bird, but The looks they give you in every situation –
regardless of whether they’ve bathed The guilt would be irreconcilable.
I choose not to. The stork too…they do so much work

I may not eat an Eagle. propagating our species, it wouldn’t feel right
America, America, America! to have them for dinner. Then there are the birds
I may not eat a bat. I’d never heard of, but the bird watching community

And I won’t. They’re the cutest would be horrified if I even considered it –

of the flying mammals. Just turn them The hoopoe and the atalef – how about the ossifrage?
right side up and their little furry faces Who are these birds?!

rival any puppy, or at least hamster. I may not eat the magpie or the cormorant –
I may not eat a pelican, and why would I? I’m glad to see the owl on the list.
The taste of a long neck has never been my thing. They know so much more than I ever will.

Malte Mueller/Getty Images

Rick Lupert, a poet, songleader and graphic designer, is the

author of 26 books including “God Wrestler: A Poem for
Every Torah Portion.”

26 | Jewish Journal JewishJournal.com August 26-September 1, 2022

 TA B L E F OR FIV E
WE E K LY PARS HA: ONE V E RS E , FIVE VOIC ES
Edited by Salvador Litvak, Accidental Talmudist

Dr. Sheila Tuller Keiter Rabbi Brett Kopin

Judaic Studies Faculty, Shalhevet High School
So, it seems debt forgiveness was also a hot topic thousands of years ago. This forgiveness
of debts seems a matter of social justice. It offers the poor a chance to recover from the cycle of
ongoing debt. Alas, it didn’t quite work out that way.
Historically, the practical effect was not debt relief but the inability to
secure loans. Lenders, knowing that the seventh year was approaching,
would stop lending money, with devastating financial consequences for
those who needed access to capital. Hillel’s “prozbul” resolved this problem
by creating a legal mechanism for lenders to collect debts beyond the
shmitah year. So much for the redistribution of wealth.
It could be that the goal of this particular law is not so much
redistribution of wealth as a redistribution of perspectives. The seventh
year is marked by another significant law – the cessation of agricultural
cultivation. Certainly, the poor can avail themselves of the remaining food
from fallow fields. However, by prohibiting land use, the shmitah year also requires landowners
to acknowledge the true Owner of their land. Similarly, forgiveness of debts reminds us that our
wealth is not truly ours either. As the verse says, it is a time of release “for Hashem.”
The laws of shmitah as conceived in the Torah may not seem so relevant today. Few of us
are moneylenders and fewer farmers. However, the message could not be more important. All
we have truly belongs to our Creator. Thank God for what we have.
Co-author of "Creating Sacred Communities"
How can Torah command us to forgive a loan, especially when we expect its return?
Equally, how can Torah let some off the hook so easily with the passing of time? There
are years when we owe, and years when we are owed. It is easy to understand this when
it comes to money or property, but less obvious when the loan is personal: we also give
our love, affection, energy and devotion to others, ideally in joy.
Yet often we find ourselves in relationships where many of those
essential ingredients are not reciprocated. We become caught in
webs of giving, or worse, webs of taking, forgetting the personal
costs incurred.
Just as there is a shmitah of monetary loans, so too can there
be a shmitah of relationships. The act of considering those with
whom we surround ourselves, and whether those people are
worthy of our love and energy, is as important as any sacred task.
When it comes to relationships, many of us do not know when
it is time to forgive and move on, or when to finally settle a score with a friend and
advocate for the love and respect we know we deserve. Let this verse remind us that we
give much more than our money, but our love, our time, and our devotion. It is up to
us to decide whether or not we want to take the shmitah of relationships seriously and
build lives of mutual love, respect and balance.

Marcus Freed
Writer, actor & Jewish educator, marcusj- Yehudit Garmaise
freed.com, @marcusjfreed
One of Shakespeare’s most-quoted lines
RE’EH News reporter and Parsha teacher
We usually feel resentful when we are
is “All the world’s a stage”, which begins the owed money for even short amounts of
“seven ages of man” At the end of seven years you will time, yet, after a long seven years of waiting
speech. Unlike the tra- for repayment, Hashem tells us to nullify all
make a release. And this is the
ditional three-act Hol- debts.
lywood movie, Shake- manner of the release; to release Just as Hashem constantly forgives
speare describes the the hand of every creditor from our debts and transgressions, He teaches
seven “acts” of our lives, what he lent his friend; he shall not us to do the same
where we begin as an for others. From this
“infant … puking in the
exact from his friend or his brother, commandment, we
nurse’s arms’, and end because time of the release for the learn to let go of our
with “second childish- Lord has arrived. angry grudges and
ness and mere oblivion; Sans teeth, sans eyes, unfulfilled expectations.
sans taste, sans everything.” Good times. While Moshe

The commandment around shmitah,
releasing loans at the end of seven years,
can be radically reread.
From a Jewish perspective, the number
seven represents life. There are seven
weekdays, seven wedding celebrations
(sheva brachot), seven days prior to a
circumcision (brit milah), seven Kabbalistic
energies within the body (sefirot), and seven
days of mourning that represent the end of
one life and the beginning of life in the next
world (shiva).
The first word of our verse, "Mikeitz" (“at
the end of”), is also the name of the Torah
portion which contains Pharaoh's dreams of
seven fat cows, seven thin cows, seven sick
ears of corn, and seven healthy ones. Each
symbol predicted the life of Egypt in the
coming years.
“At the end of seven years you will make
a release … it is called a release to God”
symbolizes how we return our soul to God
when we die.
All the world may be a stage, but we are
not just actors; we are writers who get to
choose what we say and when we say it.
How do you want to script your life, before
the curtain falls?
- Deut. 15:1-2
exhorts am Yisroel,
who are about to
enter Eretz Yisroel,
to listen to Hashem’s
commandments, the Lubavitcher Rebbe
Rabbi David Mevorach Seidenberg renders the parsha’s first words, “Re’eh
Creator of neohasid.org, author of "Kabbalah and Ecology" anochi,” as Moshe’s instruction that the
Why did cancellation of debts happen at the end of the shmitah year, rather than the Nation of Yisroel should also merit to see G-d
beginning? in the Holy Land.
The shmitah year encompassed observances lasting a year-and-a-half. Some agricultural How does a Jew see an invisible G-d?
practices, like plowing an orchard, are already forbidden the summer before shmitah starts, By observing the laws of kashrus, giving
while the final act of shmitah called Hak’hel, when the people would gather in Jerusalem to tzedakah, forgiving loans every seven years,
hear Torah read aloud, happened during the Sukkot following shmitah. and 610 more mitzvos, Yidden can develop
Since we are in a shmitah year right now, Hak’hel would be this an intuition as to what is the right and holy
fall. Only one thing happens at the exact end of the shmitah year: way to behave in this world.
the release of debts, triggered by the advent of the following Rosh Only by allowing our Jewish souls to
Hashanah, which happens even today. cleave to Hashem, and by nullifying our will
If we imagine what shmitah felt like in the land of Israel, it’s easy to to His laws, can we – just even the tiniest bit
understand why. During shmitah, people lived in close community, – begin to glimpse the generosity, love, and
sharing food freely, opening fences to wild animals, living closer to the kindness within Hashem’s hidden ways.
earth. Only by learning and living Torah can
During shmitah, anyone, rich or poor, could enter any field to take Yidden reach such rarefied levels of kedushah
what they needed – enough for their families, but not enough to hoard or sell. Over the that they will merit to see G-dliness.
course of the shmitah year, people could taste what a classless society might be like. So by A Jew must not only strive to follow
the time shmitah ended, it would be abundantly clear how life’s sweetness comes not from Hashem’s commandments, says the
hoarding money, but from living in equality. Lubavitcher Rebbe, “but to see and behold
The end of the year was the moment for cancelling debts, because that was when this G-d Himself. Anything less than that, Jews
release would feel like liberation not just for the debtors, but for everyone. should find wholly unsatisfactory.”

August 26-September 1, 2022 JewishJournal.com Jewish Journal | 27

 26-27 FOOD_Sheff-Thanksgiving 26-27 FOO

Modern Moods Meet

o
Middle Eastern Food — A
Sabich Board to Remember
» by Sharon Gomperts and Rachel Emquies Sheff

WHEN MY GRANDMOTHER FOUND
herself in Israel in the early 1950s, she
needed to work smart to feed her young
children. In Iraq, she had been the indulged
and adored daughter of a very wealthy
family. She wore chic European fashions
and stunning jewels. Daily life included an
extended family of uncles and aunts and
cousins for lively company. There was lots
of household help for the cooking and bak-
ing and cleaning.
Upon arrival in Israel, my grandparents,
my 7-year-old mother and her four young-
er brothers lived in an abandoned British
Army barracks in a ma’abarah, an Israeli
immigrant absorption camp, where they
subsisted on rations.
As soon as my grandfather established
himself as the headmaster of a school and
they had a home, my grandmother got to
work. The Israeli government allotted one
egg a week per person, so she bought lay-
ing hens. Only powdered milk was avail-
able, so she got a goat, ensuring that her
children could drink fresh milk. And she
planted a garden. Her garden yielded such
an abundance of butternut squash that
she asked my grandfather if she could sell
them. He discouraged her, worried that it
would reflect poorly on his dignity as the
headmaster of the local school.
I imagine that is when she began frying
thin pieces of butternut squash and serving
it as part of her Iraqi breakfast on Shabbat
mornings.
I remember those breakfasts from my
childhood in snapshots. The bethi mel shab-
bath, the browned eggs cooked overnight.
The fried eggplant. Her amazing turmeric
and curry salty and sweet turshi (pickled cau-
liflower, green beans, carrots and red peppers).
Chuth’ra, the Arabic word for raw greens (basil,
tarragon and Italian parsley) and jewel-like red
radishes, served alongside the meal as a pal-

28 | Jewish Journal JewishJournal.com August 26-September 1, 2022

26-27 FOOD_Sheff-Thanksgiving
Photo by Alexandra Gomperts
ate cleanser. Briny olives. Creamy hummus.
Nutty tehina. Roasted zucchini. Fluffy, chewy
Iraqi laffa (imagine a twist between focaccia
and lavish bread). And always, always her deli-
ciously sweet, caramelized fried butternut.
—Sharon
On our recent visit to Tel Aviv, Neil and
I were fortunate enough to stay at the Se-
tai Hotel, with its magnificent views of the
Mediterranean Sea.
August 26-September 1, 2022
26-27 FOO
SEPHARDIC SPICE GIRLS
This sabich board couldn’t be easier to throw
together. Get some fresh pita, dips (hummus,
tehina, matbucha), olives and pickles, fresh
herbs like basil, crunchy radishes. Boil some
eggs over low heat for a few hours. Roast
some veggies. Arrange everything on a board.
My daughter
As part of the breakfast buffet, there was
a sabich bar with all the traditional fixings.
sheet and grease with a slight amount of
avocado oil. Rebekah ... was
Behind the counter, an old woman was slic-
ing the brown eggs and slathering amba (a
Arrange butternut on the baking sheet
and roast for 15 to 20 minutes until golden obsessed with the
spicy Iraqi pickled mango sauce) and hum-
mus onto the laffa so the diners could make
brown and fork tender. ■
sabich at Sabich
their own sabich sandwiches.
My daughter Rebekah did an intern-
Sharon Gomperts and Rachel Emquies
Sheff have been friends since high school. The
Frishman (on the
ship with children in Israel this summer.
She was obsessed with the sabich at Sabich
Sephardic Spice Girls project has grown from
their collaboration on events for the Sephardic
corner of Dizengoff
Frishman (on the corner of Dizengoff and Educational Center in Jerusalem. Follow them
on Instagram @sephardicspicegirls and on
and Frishman in Tel
Aviv).
Frishman in Tel Aviv).
—Rachel Facebook at Sephardic Spice SEC Food. Web-
site sephardicspicegirls.com/full-recipes
This sabich board couldn’t be easier to
throw together. Get some fresh pita, dips
(hummus, tehina, matbucha), olives and Sabich Frishman
pickles, fresh herbs like basil, crunchy rad-
ishes. Boil some eggs over low heat for a
few hours. Roast some veggies. Arrange
everything on a board. Serve with Israeli
salad and amba for an amazing, healthy,
delicious vegetarian lunch.
B’te’avon!
- Rachel and Sharon
ROASTED EGGPLANT RECIPE
2 medium eggplants, sliced into 1/4-inch
thick round pieces
Kosher salt
Avocado oil
Place eggplant in a colander and sprin-
kle kosher salt over eggplant.
Allow to drain for at least an hour or
overnight, if possible.
Preheat oven to 425°F.
Arrange parchment paper on a baking
sheet and grease with a little oil.
Pat eggplant with paper towel and lay on
the baking sheet. Drizzle lightly with oil.
Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.
Flip eggplant and bake for 5-10 minutes.
Store in refrigerator in a tightly sealed
container up to five days.
ROASTED BUTTERNUT SQUASH
RECIPE
1 medium butternut squash, cut into 1/8
inch slices
Avocado oil
Kosher salt
Preheat oven to 425°F.
Arrange parchment paper on a baking
JewishJournal.com Jewish Journal | 29
COMMUNITY
One Pot Pasta
iStock
Healthy and Kosher Recipes for
Back-to-School Season
» by Debra Eckerling
THIS TIME OF YEAR IS FILLED WITH
possibility and activity.
One way to make the hectic fall easier is
with yummy and easy comfort foods, and
some family togetherness to boot.
“This time of year brings so many dif-
ferent emotions,” Danny Corsun, founder
of the Culinary Judaics Academy online
learning platform, told the Journal. “The
sadness of saying goodbye to the summer
is mixed with the excitement of the new
school year. The [fall] also brings with it the
many Jewish holidays on the horizon, and
the family and friends we get to joyfully
(and solemnly) celebrate and eat great food
with.”
Whatever the season, Corsun’s recipe
for one-pot pasta is a great and super easy
weekday meal that does not make a huge
mess.
CJA’S ONE POT PASTA
12 ounces pasta (your choice -
linguine works great)
1 can (15 ounces) diced tomatoes,
with juice
3 cups quartered cherry tomatoes
1 large sweet onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
3 large sprigs basil, chopped
30 | Jewish Journal JewishJournal.com
4 1/2 cups vegetable broth
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese
(plus a bit for garnish)
In a large stock pot, over medium-high
heat, add in olive oil and then saute onions,
cherry tomatoes, basil, oregano, red pepper
“The sadness of
saying goodbye
to the summer
is mixed with the
excitement of the
new school year.”
- Danny Corsun
flakes, salt and pepper for 3 to 4 minutes. Add
in garlic and saute for an additional minute.
Then add the can of diced tomatoes and veg-
etable broth and bring to a boil. Once the stock
is boiling, add pasta, stirring until submerged.
Cover pot and reduce to medium-low
heat; it should be a simmer. Keep the pot cov-
ered and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring
every two minutes or so. Cook until the liquid
has reduced by 3/4 and created its own sauce.
Season as necessary with additional salt
and pepper, stirring pasta several times to
distribute the liquid in the bottom of the
pot. Add parmesan cheese and stir to thick-
en remaining liquid. Serve garnished with
roughly chopped basil, additional parme-
san cheese and some crusty garlic bread.
“Great flavors come together in just one
pot for a delicious meal that young and old
alike will love,” Corsun said. “Enjoy!”
“W
hen my kids were growing up, I
would always put out plates of cut-
up vegetables, such as cucumbers, carrots,
celery and peppers with hummus dip, while
they were waiting for dinner,” Sarah Zulauf,
founder of Sarah’s Organic Gourmet, told
the Journal. “Having the table set when the
kids walk in is a big part of the calm. This
is an anti-hangry kid tactic that works like
a charm.”
Zulauf, whose products are produced
and packaged out of Bibi’s Bakery & Cafe,
specializes in clean and pure, organic, ko-
sher, vegan and gluten-free ingredients.
Her recipe for gluten and dairy-free lasagna
can be made ahead of time and reheated
just 15 minutes before dinner.
Veggie Wrap
Kitch'N Giggles
“YOU WOULD NEVER KNOW”
GLUTEN FREE & DAIRY FREE
LASAGNA
For the Tofu Ricotta
1 package silken tofu
1 package firm tofu
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon parsley flakes
2 teaspoon dried basil
2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup dairy-free milk of your choice
For the Lasagna
1 recipe tofu ricotta
1 to 2 pounds fresh spinach
8-ounces no-boil gluten-free lasagna
noodles
7 cups pasta sauce (your favorite)
2 bags dairy-free shredded cheese
1/2 cup dairy-free Parmesan
Preheat oven to 350°F.
For the ricotta, combine all ingredients
in a food processor and process until fairly
smooth. Place into a large bowl, and set
aside.
To make the spinach, steam it for a min-
ute or two until slightly wilted. Drain well.
August 26-September 1, 2022

Then either mix the spinach into the ricotta
or add when assembling the lasagna.
To assemble the lasagna, spread 1 cup
of pasta sauce over the bottom of a baking
dish. (I use a glass dish and put parchment
paper down first for easy clean up. Parch-
ment paper is also great to use in tins.)
Cover the sauce with a layer of noodles.
Make sure the sauce is touching every inch
of the no-boil noodles. Next, spread the
ricotta; be sure to cover the noodles. Add
half a bag of dairy-free cheese. Then, add
the spinach, if you did not already combine
it into your ricotta.
Repeat the process until you have 3 to 4
layers. The last 2 layers should be the non-
dairy shredded cheese and then the Parme-
san. Cover with parchment paper and then
foil. Bake for 60 minutes. Remove foil and
parchment paper for the last 15 minutes of
baking.
Remove from the oven and let cool for
30 minutes before cutting. This recipe may
be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated.
Reheat for 15 minutes before meal time.
“This recipe can also be used with dairy
and gluten lasagna noodles if preferred,”
Zulauf said.
C ulinary and nutrition educator Yael
Friedman believes the best way to get
your kids eating their lunches is by having
them involved in making them.
August 26-September 1, 2022
FOOD
“Having the table set when the kids walk
in is a big part of the calm. This is an
anti-hangry kid tactic that works like a
charm.”
- Sarah Zulauf
“I love recipes that are simple, healthy and
easy enough for a kid to assemble,” Friedman,
founder of Kitch'N Giggles meal kits, told the
Journal. “This veggie wrap is one way you can
increase the vegetables in your lunch box.”
VEGGIE WRAP
1 whole wheat wrap
2 teaspoons hummus
1/2 Persian cucumber
1/4 cup baby spinach
2 Tablespoons shredded carrots
Place the tortilla on a plate and spread
the hummus over the entire thing.
Slice (or have your kid slice) the cucum-
ber into 6-8 rounds
Place the spinach and cucumbers in the
center of the tortilla and cover with shred-
ded carrot and a pinch of salt.
Starting from the side closest to you, roll
the tortilla into a cylinder.
“Fall always means back to hectic morn-
ings and busy evenings,” Friedman said.
“But it's also a time to refresh our daily rou- Gluten and Dairy Free Lasagna
tines, so there's a feeling of optimism and Sarah Zulauf
excitement.” ■
The best way to get your kids eating their lunches is by
having them involved in making them.
JewishJournal.com Jewish Journal | 31
Entrepreneurship
& Innovation
THAT MOVE
HISTORY
FORWARD
Over the next five years we set an unprecedented
goal of raising $613 million—the largest
campaign for Jewish education in history—for
scholarships, facilities and faculty that will further
expand YU as the Flagship Jewish University
for generations to come.

Now is the time to honor your past and invest

in your future.
 James Kaddis COMMUNITY

JAMES KADDIS’S LOVE FOR AND

loyalty to Israel and the Jewish people
stretches back to the 1970s.
His Egyptian-born Christian parents ar-
rived in Los Angeles not long before James,
the second of their four children, was born.
The elder Kaddises were committed to
teaching their offspring about loyalty to
God and, crucially, His favored people, the
Jews. This was a family tradition. Mr. Kad-
dis’s grandfather was a Presbyterian minis-
ter in Egypt for 65 years and Mrs. Kaddis’s
dad was a Baptist minister for 35 years in
their native land.
The family emigated to Southern Cali-
fornia in the late 1960s. And no one was
surprised when the outgoing James grew
up to graduate from Downey High School
and became Pastor James Kaddis.
His now widely recognized advocacy for
Israel and the Jewish people is not merely
because he is the leader of the Calvary Cha-
pel in Signal Hill.
Pastor Kaddis spends his days in his Sig-
nal Hill studio reaching out to a nationwide
audience, making videos on multiple plat-
forms – and delivering radio sermons – for
his millions of followers, who count on his
advocacy for Israel.
“We were raised with a love for what I
always refer to as God’s ancestrally chosen

Christian Pastor an Enthusiastic

people, the Jews,” the pastor told the Jour-
nal. “My dad was committed to teaching us
the Bible and advocacy for Israel,” a single
concept as far as he was concerned. “We

Advocate for Israel

never had to have a conversation that said
‘advocate for Israel.’ We knew that is what
you do. We were taught ‘we love Israel.’”
To cement his pro-Israel education,
Kaddis related a story told by his Arabic-
speaking grandmother he visited every
week growing up.
“She talked about when the family lived
in Upper Egypt, not far from Sudan,” he said.
“She told me that during wartime when
they were growing up she did not allow my
father or any of my aunts and uncles to lis-
ten to Egyptian radio,” said the pastor. “She
said it wasn't real news. The only radio they
were allowed to listen to was Israeli radio.
My grandmother said the Jews were telling
the truth and the Egyptians were lying.”
Kaddis said his ancestors were very sup-
in the eye and challenges, “Have you lis-
tened to the news, even looked at a small
portion of recent Israeli history? You will
quickly realize God is doing what he said
he would do in the Bible. We are watching a
manifestation of Ezekiel 37 coming to pass.
It tells us God would plant his people back
in the land, never to be plucked out again.
“We were raised
» by Ari L. Noonan
trionics when he seeks to persuade audi-
ences of his pro-Israel convictions, espe-
cially when he alludes to Israel’s rivals.
“If you go to Israel today — and I have
been there eight times, taking church
groups — you will know right away,” he
said, “the greatest benefits coming to the
Palestinians are those who are productive
members and citizens of Israel.
“Instead, Hamas, Hezbollah and other
groups choose to fight Israel, to cause prob-
lems. You have to understand their ideals are
not to make peace. It is in their charter to say
vocal the last two-and-a-half-to-three
years, because all of this craziness started
happening from the virus,” he said. “It gave
people some weird kind of justification to
start acting with a totalitarian mechanism
that has been very anti-Israel [and]anti-
God.”
However, he converted the situation
into a positive. “I became a lot more vocal
when that started,” he said. “By God’s grace,
He gave us a tremendous platform. On
YouTube alone, we average about 2 million
views a month. We produce roughly 100

with a love for what

portive of Israel. “They understood what the they must destroy every Jewish life to obtain videos a month, a large portion of which
Bible said about Israel. They weren’t betting what they call their ideal. It doesn’t work.” are videos supportive of Israel.”

I always refer to as
against God.” Not surprisingly, in Egypt, Kaddis’s After a long run on radio at KKLA-FM, Kad-
Describing his family’s history, he said parents ‘met substantial resistance from dis’s “Countdown to Eternity” program recent-

God’s ancestrally
they were “pure-blooded Egyptians who go Islamists” about their belief in Jesus. His ly moved to pray.com, called the No. 1 app for
back to the days of the Pharaohs.” grandfather, the Presbyterian minister, was daily Christian prayer and Bible audio where

chosen people, the

How did his ancestors become so ardent- not as outspoken about Israel in 20th cen- he reaches “something like 300 stations.”
ly supportive of the Jewish people in a land tury Egypt as Kaddis is in contemporary Kaddis and his wife Nicole are the par-

Jews.” - James Kaddis

where that was not a popular viewpoint?
When speaking of Israel, Kaddis refuses
to use the term West Bank. “I say Judea and
Samaria for a reason — to educate people.”
To any Christians or others who resist his
aggressive advocacy for Jews and Israel, the
pastor pushes right back. He looks skeptics
While contrary opinions occasionally arise
online, he said the number is insignificant.
Kaddis speaks plainly and without his-
America. “He wasn’t living in a situation
where it was conducive for him to speak
out,” said Kaddis. “People were aware of my
grandfather’s positions, but they could not
speak as vocally as I do.”
In October, he marks his 30th anniver-
sary in the ministry. “I have been a lot more
ents of two adopted daughters who are
sisters, ages four and one-and-a-half. The
proud father had the closing words. “Nicole
is a speech pathologist,” he said. “But when
we got the children, she walked away from
that. We did not adopt children to have
them be babysat.” ■

34 | Jewish Journal JewishJournal.com August 26-September 1, 2022

COMMUNITY
ACROSS THE WORLD, ESPECIALLY
here in the United States, Jews have access
to an incredible network of Jewish organi-
zations, but where is the support for those
suffering from Jewish genetic diseases?
Growing up, I was a privileged ben-
eficiary of an incredible Jewish summer
camp (Ramah Ojai), Jewish education at
Brandeis Marin, and expansive Jewish so-
cial networks. The dedication of Jewish
educators, counselors and leaders provided
the necessary space and tools to develop
my love of Judaism and Jewish curiosity.
They provided the foundation for my cur-
rent relationship with my Jewish identity,
history and homeland.
And thanks to the awe-inspiring work
of Hillel and Chabad, at UCLA I have found
spaces that feel like my Jewish home. These
institutions are core pillars of the Jewish
community on campus, and their tireless
work contributes incalculably to the expe-
rience of Jewish students across campus.
Yet despite the hard work of incredible
Jewish organizations, there is still a gap
that we have an opportunity to fill when it
comes to supporting all segments of the
Jewish population. A significant number
of people in our community suffer from
Jewish genetic diseases, and many feel that
they have been left largely unsupported.
Many in-need and at-risk Jews are lacking
systems of Jewish emotional, financial and
social support. Jewish organizations are in
a unique position to provide these systems
to support Jewish youth (and adults) with
Jewish genetic disorders.
It is medically documented that Ashkenazi
Jews are up to 10 times more likely to carry
and contract melanoma, pancreatic, ovar-
ian, prostate, breast and colon cancer. Con-
sequently, cancer diagnoses have become a
painful reality of American Jewish life.
Aside from cancer, Ashkenazim also
suffer from much higher than average rates
of disabling gastrointestinal (GI) condi-
tions. In fact, Crohn’s was named after the
work of two Jewish doctors and their study
of 14 Jewish patients. So while Judaism and
food go hand in hand, so do dietary restric-
tions and highly variable, life-affecting GI
illnesses.
With data showing that Ashkenazi Jews
Supporting those suffering from
diseases, especially those that affect Jews
specifically, is not an option but a religious
obligation.
suffer from a range of conditions at much
higher rates, how can Jewish communities
become better at providing support? Pos-
sible solutions might include establishing
local Jewish support groups for those living
with cancer, young adults with terminally
ill parents, and those suffering from highly
embarrassing and destructive GI condi-
tions. While some such organizations do
exist, many suffering and often young Jews
still feel isolated, marginalized and alone.
August 26-September 1, 2022
How Jewish Organizations Can
Help with Jewish Genetic Diseases
When I was around 16 years old, away
from home at summer camp, I was sud-
denly unable to defecate for over two
weeks. I was in severe pain, discomfort,
and had no idea what was wrong. Unfor-
tunately, I was not taken seriously, and my
suffering was left largely unaddressed. In
the ensuing months, I visited doctors and
was tested ceaselessly. I felt humiliated,
alone and in constant pain. Constipation
is not perceived as a disabling illness, yet
it impacted every aspect of my life. Despite
visiting some of the most acclaimed — and,
as it happened, Jewish — physicians, my
experience was called into question.
Despite the increased prevalence of GI
conditions among the Ashkenazi Jewish
community, I feel uncomfortable speak-
ing about my disease. Jewish events often
inquire about eating restrictions; however,
they do not usually directly address or rec-
ognize the issues Ashkenazim face. While
it’s true, for example, that eating a bit of
challah on Shabbat fulfills a mitzvah, it’s
also true that some Jews have GI issues
that make doing so a physical liability. We
can also learn to be more sensitive with our
words. Asking questions like, “Are you sure
you don’t want any?” or “Why do you eat so
much?” may leave community members
feeling judged and alone.
It’s important to note that the need for
more support systems extends to outside
the Jewish community. Outside of the Jew-
ish community, my experiences have been
even worse. After a year of living in UCLA
on-campus dorms, I realized I needed a
home where I felt more comfortable ex-
pressing my Jewish identity. Living off-
campus, I applied for continued access to
the UCLA dining hall. Yet, despite two letters
from renowned physicians explaining how
dining hall access is critical for my ongoing
health (my condition requires difficult to at-
tain food variety), I have been denied per-
mission to buy a UCLA meal plan twice.
But my predicament is a direct product of
my Jewishness: my GI condition resulting
from my Jewish ancestry, and my desire to
live off-campus in order to better express my
Jewish identity. Where do I turn? While my
case is unique, the struggle of Jews suffering
from GI conditions is not. In my moment of
need, I often feel alone, and I long for ways
to feel supported by my community.
Jewish genetic diseases affect and dam-
age not only the afflicted, but their fami-
lies as well. An absence of support for the
consequences of these illnesses impacts
not only physical but also mental and spiri-
tual health. A young Jewish adult at UCLA
with two cancer-stricken parents reported,
"When I was 18 years old, and my parents
were diagnosed with cancer, I hoped for,
but did not expect, support from my peers
... but I was deeply saddened by how far my
Jewish community fell short."
Despite how pervasive cancer has be-
come in the Ashkenazi community, some
young adults feel unsupported by their
community. While Jewish wisdom can
provide solace in a time of need, it can also
be misapplied in some cases, which can re-
sult in belittling one’s lived experience. We
often make statements like, "God burdens
us with suffering we can handle," "God pro-
tects the righteous and curses the evil," and
"All things happen for a reason." But when
used out of context or insensitively, they
can exclude and damage many who are
suffering from unseen anguish. Such in-
sights often ring hollow in the face of chal-
lenges such as a parent receiving a terminal
cancer diagnosis, for example.
With both parents no longer able to
work, the young adult at UCLA does not
know where to turn. "My entire life, I have
always heard about the incredible support
of Jewish organizations and non-profits,
COMMUNITY
» by Isaac Levy
but in my time of need, who is here to sup-
port me? I feel unseen by my community."
This student, myself and many others
continue to suffer the consequences of
Jewish genetic diseases. Young adults suf-
fering from Jewish genetic diseases have
no easily accessible support system within
the Jewish community. The Jewish com-
munity must make greater efforts to pro-
vide such people with critical support.
At a time when Jewish institutions are
looking to find ways to meaningfully con-
nect with and support Jewish youth and
adults, helping them in their moment of
need whether due to their own genetic ill-
ness or those of their parents would be a
profound blessing. Examples of such assis-
tance include: providing education about
these illnesses; support groups for Jewish
teens experiencing these illnesses or with
sick parents; help in seeking accommoda-
tion from work or universities to navigate
these illnesses with dignity; and financial,
spiritual or emotional support.
As educator Arie Hasit beautifully states,
"This is indeed the essence of Judaism:
Our purpose is to make God's presence
felt through the creation of community."
And as Rabbi Jacobs notes, "In order to be
a suitable place to live, a community must
provide for all of its members' spiritual and
physical needs."
Supporting those suffering from diseas-
es, especially those that affect Jews specifi-
cally, is not an option but a religious obli-
gation. For the Jewish community to thrive
it must remain a home for all community
members seeking its refuge, championing
the voices of those who have gone unheard
and ensuring that those suffering are never
left alone. Only through embracing, shel-
tering, protecting and providing for suf-
fering community members can a Jewish
community flourish. ■
Isaac Levy is a student of the UCLA honors
and Scholars programs, an entrepreneur driven
by curiosity, a love of learning and the ambitious
desire to disrupt and positively change our world.
Email him at: ilevy24@g.ucla.edu
JewishJournal.com Jewish Journal | 35

A Bisl Torah
from Rabbi Nicole Guzik
Write Your Fortune
I n San Francisco, we received a great tip to visit the Golden Gate Fortune
Cookie Factory. Tucked within a decorated alley, we almost missed this
hidden gem. A narrow door revealed fortune cookie wonders: all different
flavors of cookies and best of all, the chance to write your own fortune
and watch it get folded into a cookie.
Coincidentally, my husband and I wrote fortunes…for each other.
Something felt wrong about writing a fortune for ourselves. He read what
I wrote for him and vice versa. However, the kids had no problem writing
fortunes for themselves.
As we read our notes, I wondered why my husband and I felt silly writ-
ing our own. As we begin the High Holy Day season, shouldn’t we all be
articulating and formulating the fortunes we hope to experience? Verbal-
izing and integrating the changes we pray to see and impact we yearn to
make? Why not put into the universe the ways we seek to grow? The ways
we regret acting and wish to transform?
Rabba Sara Hurwitz writes about Rambam’s blueprint for teshuvah, re-
pentance. Determining to do things differently and not repeating egregious
behaviors is the key to change. She summarizes, “This moment is turning
point when a person decides to rewrite the script that guides their lives.
Awareness. Confession. Regret. And Resolve to change and do better.”
A fortune cookie is usually reading someone’s prediction for the person
that randomly chooses that treat. But Jews don’t believe in that kind of
divination. Instead, we believe in the ability to partner with God in chang-
ing this world and changing ourselves.
In other words, we can write our own fortunes. It’s this act of heshbon
hanefesh, accounting of our souls that might just put the world back on
track.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Nicole Guzik is a rabbi at Sinai Temple.
36 | Jewish Journal JewishJournal.com
Jewish Students Excluded
from Sexual Assault
Group, Complaint Says
» by Aaron Bandler
A COMPLAINT WAS FILED TO THE
Department of Education’s Office of Civil
Rights (OCR) after two Jewish students ac-
cused a State University of New York (SUNY)
New Paltz sexual assault survivors group of ex-
cluding them.
The complaint, filed by the Louis D.
Brandeis Center for Human Rights and Jewish
On Campus on behalf of the two Jewish stu-
dents and obtained by the Journal, alleges that
the New Paltz Accountability (NPA) group “ex-
cluded” and “publicly vilified” the two students,
Cassandra Blotner and Ofek Preis. Blotner and
Preis were then “subjected to further sustained
harassment, including threats and intimida-
tion of social media,” the complaint stated.
“Although the University knew about and
publicly acknowledged the exclusion and ha-
rassment, it failed to intervene, either to disci-
pline NPA or the organization’s leaders or to
ensure opportunities for all victims of sexual
assault on campus. It also failed to address the
Complainants’ safety concerns arising from
the harassment; as a result, both students were
unable to attend classes and Ms. Blotner was
afraid to spend time on campus.”
The complaint then details the sequence
of events leading up to the compliant: Blotner
and another student founded the NPA group
in May 2021; she and Preis were both active
in the group. But in December 2021, Blotner
wrote in an Instagram post: “Jews are an ethnic
group who come from Israel. This is proven by
genealogical, historical and archeological evi-
dence. Israel is not a ‘colonial’ state and Israelis
aren’t ‘settlers.’ You cannot colonize the land
your ancestors are from.” The NPA leadership
chided Blotner for her post in a series of private
WhatsApp messages for “condoning imperial-
ism and settler-colonialism” and insisted that
they meet with her to discuss it. Blotner re-
buffed their efforts for a meeting because she
felt like they were attempting to hold the only
Jewish member of the group “accountable for
the actions of a foreign government.” However,
she did later suggest that the NPA meet with
her and the JSU to discuss Zionism, but the
NPA refused, stating they didn’t believe that
adherents of Zionism were compatible with
the group’s mission to fight oppression.
In January Preis, a Jewish Israeli, posted on
Instagram the same message as Blotner as a
form of solidarity; the NPA then ceased inform-
ing Preis about their activities and revoked her
access to the group’s documents. Preis issued a
public resignation from the NPA, to which the
NPA told her that Zionists were not allowed in
the group. The NPA subsequently issued a doc-
ument stating that they don’t support Zionism
or the Israeli government because they don’t
“support imperialism, settler-colonialism, nor
white supremacy” and “supporting a settler-
COMMUNITY
colonial state goes against what we stand for
and thus we cannot organize with members
who do so. Those members have left the or-
ganization due to our political differences. We
stand in solidarity with Palestine and all other
oppressed groups!”
The Oracle, a student newspaper at SUNY
New Paltz, reported on these events in Febru-
ary, prompting the NPA to issue yet another
social media post doubling down on their anti-
Zionist stance and then published their private
messages with Blotner and Preis. The com-
plaint blames the NPA’s public stances against
Zionism for inciting harassment against Blot-
ner, which included receiving messages on
the anonymous messaging app Yik Yak calling
her a “dumb b----” and that she “needs to go.”
Blotner reported the harassment to the univer-
sity and said she didn’t feel safe on campus, but
was told that there was nothing they could do
and that she should simply stay home if she felt
unsafe. And so she did, causing her grades to
suffer. Similarly, Preis stopped going to class
because she didn’t feel safe on campus and her
grades suffered to the point where her second
major had to be turned into a minor so she
could graduate.
SUNY New Paltz President Donald Chris-
tian has publicly stated that the university can’t
take action against the NPA because they’re not
recognized as a student group on campus; the
complaint argues Christian’s statement is false
The complaint
blames the NPA’s
public stances
against Zionism for
inciting harassment
against Blotner.
because the university “has treated NPA as a de
facto recognized student group on campus,
providing survivors of sexual assault and their
allies with educational programs and activities
on campus through NPA.”
In a statement to the Journal, the university
said, “SUNY New Paltz has provided access to
resources and support for those impacted by
the events of this past year and we continue
our active engagement to support our Jew-
ish students and employees around the rise
of antisemitism, to address antisemitism and
bias concerns when they arise, and to continue
dialogue and educational efforts. As a public
institution, we value the First Amendment and
uphold the free exchange of ideas.” ■
August 26-September 1, 2022

L.A. Jewish Film Fest Screening, JNF-USA Golf
Tournament, New ChaiVillage Director
» by Ryan Torok
From left: L.A. Jewish Film Festival Director Hilary Helstein; American Jewish
University’s Michael Berenbaum; filmmaker Bianca Stigter; and author Glenn
Kurtz. Photo by Noah Baliff, courtesy of LAJFF
The Los Angeles Jewish Film Fest held a screening of
“Three Minutes - A Lengthening,” a film about a Jewish
community in Poland before the Holocaust, on Aug. 16.
The community event at the Laemmle Royal drew more
than 150 attendees.
“Everyone was moved by the film,” L.A. Jewish Film
Festival Executive Director Hilary Helstein said. “We had so
many partners it was great.”
Attendees included Noah Waxman from the Dutch
From left: JNF-USA LA Board Member Joe Rosen,
Michael Rosenmayer, Tyson Parsons and Ben
Posen. Courtesy of Jewish National Fund-USA
Supporters of Israel came together this month for
the Jewish National Fund-USA’s (JNF-USA) David Frank
Memorial Golf Classic, presented by Advanced Nutrients.
The sold-out tournament – formerly known as the LA
Golf Classic —was held Aug. 1 at the Riviera Country Club in
Pacific Palisades and organized in memory of the late David
Frank, an active and engaged member of JNF-USA and the
Los Angeles Jewish community.
The event featured guest speaker, Lt. Col. (Res.) Tiran
Attia, founder of JNF-USA’s Special in Uniform program.
Attia shared how philanthropic dollars are enabling young
Israelis with cognitive disabilities to serve in the Israel
Defense Forces.
Supporters of the innovative Special in Uniform
program include Los Angeles cannabis entrepreneur
August 26-September 1, 2022
MOV E RS & S H A K E RS
Consulate General in New York, and partners included
American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League,
Chai Center, Holocaust Museum LA and Shabbat Tent.
A post-screening Q-and-A featured filmmaker Bianca
Stigter and author Glenn Kurtz, who wrote the book, “Three
Minutes in Poland,” which inspired the film.
Stigter, the filmmaker, is from the Netherlands and
is married to her producer, Steve McQueen, the Oscar-
winning Director of “12 Years a Slave.”
From left: Lt. Col. (Res.) Tiran Attia from JNF-
USA’s Special in Uniform and Gil Cohen from
Advanced Nutrients. Courtesy of Jewish National Fund-USA
and philanthropist Michael Straumietis, founder of the
tournament’s title sponsor. Straumietis –who goes by
“BigMike” – fell in love with the program while in Israel and
has become a major donor for the program.
“I’ve always been driven to help others achieve what
may seem at first like an impossible feat, and I am a huge
advocate of inclusion,” Straumietis said. “Jewish National
Fund-USA’s mission is extremely close to my heart, and
it is so meaningful to have Advanced Nutrients sponsor
this incredible annual golf classic for the second year in
a row.”
Proceeds from the event benefited JNF-USA’s One Billion
Dollar Roadmap for the Next Decade, which has raised more
than $941 million in support of development in Israel’s
Negev and Galilee regions.
Jeanette Macht was named executive
director of ChaiVillageLA.
“We are delighted to welcome Jeanette to
serve in this position,” ChaiVillageLA Board
President Georgia Mercer said. “She brings
with her an extraordinary diversity of skills and
experience, including a deep commitment to
older adults, all of which are so closely aligned
with the Village’s mission and goals.”
Macht’s credentials include master’s degrees
in both social work and Jewish communal
service, as well as a law degree. Most recently,
she worked as a care manager and aging life
care specialist for Senior Support Solutions
in Lexington, MA during which she provided
compassionate care management services
to older adults. In addition, Macht was very
involved in her temple, Shir Tikvah, where
she served on the board in various capacities
including two years as temple president.
“I am honored to have been chosen for this
position with ChaiVillageLA,” Macht said. “I
look forward to partnering with its dedicated
members as we build upon the excellent
programming and services while we continue
to grow the country’s first synagogue-based
Village.”
A bold partnership of two Reform
synagogues — Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills
and Temple Isaiah—ChaiVillageLA is the first
synagogue-based “Village” in the country. Its
goal is to challenge members to rethink their
paradigms of aging and empower them to use
their accumulated experience, talents, wisdom
and optimism to build a community of respect,
support, caring and joy.
Jeanette Macht. Courtesy of ChaiVillageLA
JewishJournal.com Jewish Journal | 37
COMMUNITY
Auburn Coach Wants to Start
“Abraham Accords Cup” Basketball
Tourney in Israel, Arab States
» by Brian Fishbach
Auburn playing Israel Photo courtesy Auburn Athletics
THE AUBURN UNIVERSITY MEN’S
Basketball team just completed a visit to Israel,
becoming the first major American college
basketball program to do so.
The trip had been a long-term goal for
the team’s head coach, Bruce Pearl. In 2009,
Pearl was the coach of the United States men’s
basketball team in Israel at the Maccabi Games.
The team won gold, and that would also be
Coach Pearl’s first of several subsequent visits
to Israel.
“I'm a Jewish American basketball coach
and I'm a proud Zionist,” Pearl, 62, told The
Journal. “Israel loves basketball and Israeli
basketball's really good. They pay well, have
a great, great following and obviously it's a
country that has a great relationship with the
United States. They love us and therefore they
love the athletes that go [to Israel].”
Most of the Auburn Tigers players on
the July 31-August 11 trip were first-time
international travelers. They traveled from
their campus in eastern Alabama to play in
three basketball games during their eleven-
day visit, with games against the Israel Under
20 National Team, the Israel All-Star Select
Team and The Israel National Team.
ESPN reporter Roxy Bernstein, who
traveled with Auburn to Israel and did the
play-by-play for their games on TV, coined
the trip as “Birthright for College Basketball.”
On their first night, Pearl led the team in
the Kiddush and Hamotzi while overlooking
Jerusalem. Over the next several days, they
would have a sobering experience at Yad
Vashem, put prayers in The Kotel, float in the
Dead Sea and many players would be baptized
in the Jordan River.
Junior point guard Wendell Green Jr., who
celebrated his 20th birthday during the trip
38 | Jewish Journal JewishJournal.com
described being Baptized in the Jordan River
as the best experience of his life.
“Baptized in the Jordan River, truly a
blessing! Thank you God,” Green wrote on
Twitter.
The team would travel into the Palestinian
Territories for their tour of Bethlehem. There,
they were led by tour guide Kamal Mukarker
who shared a special kinship with the Auburn
men’s basketball team. Mukarker is not only
a revered tour guide, but he is also the coach
of the Arab Orthodox Club Beit Jala basketball
team in the Palestinian Basketball Premeire
League. And from 2007-2009, Mukarker
played on the Palestinian National Basketball
team. He is a Greek Orthodox Christian who
can give tours in English, Arabic, German and
some Hebrew.
Pearl said he and Mukarker laughed about
the fact that in many ways, Arabs and
Jews are more alike than Alabamians and
Californians.
Mukarker would spend an entire morning
giving the team a tour of Bethlehem,
including a visit to the Church of the Nativity,
the birthplace of Jesus. There, the team sang
“Silent Night.” Afterward, Mukarker would host
the entire 48-person Auburn entourage for
lunch at his home.
“I love my job because I feel I'm doing
something for the peace between Israel and
Palestinians,” Mukarker told The Journal. “Part
“I think sport
has a very
interesting
way of bringing
people
together, and
it’s a cool
opportunity to
marry sport
with history
and faith.”
- Jacqui Pearl
of what I like to do is to let people look behind
the curtains. This is what I always tell them.
Come enter the Palestinian home, see how we
sit, how we live, how we eat — all in the idea
of humanizing the Palestinians in the eyes of
Americans so that more and more people will
feel safe to come here.”
Pearl said he and Mukarker laughed
about the fact that in many ways, Arabs
and Jews are more alike than Alabamians
and Californians. “It didn't matter that this
Jewish-American basketball coach wanted
to come to Bethlehem and shake hands with
a Palestinian-Christian basketball coach and
go, ‘brother, there is way more that bonds us
than separates us and divides us.’”
Although the trip to Bethlehem was only
half of one day in their tour through Israel, it is
emblematic of what Pearl’s long-term goal of
his team’s trip to the Holy Land could become:
The Abraham Accords Cup.
“I'm going to work on trying to get other
college basketball teams to do this in the
future,” Pearl said. “This tournament’s going
to live and go to U.A.E. or Morocco or Bahrain
and play in that country for a couple games.
And then go to Israel and have that trip be
normal, like no big deal.”
ARTS
Current NCAA rules allow for teams to do
an international trip together every four years.
In 2016, the UCLA Men’s Basketball team
traveled to Australia. In 2019, the USC Men’s
Basketball team traveled to Spain and France.
With the normalization of relations
between Israel and some Arab states, Pearl’s
vision of an Abraham Accords Cup could
become a reality in due time.
Stateside, Auburn’s biggest rival in athletics
is their in-state nemesis, the University of
Alabama. But Auburn’s visit to Israel caught
the attention and praise of an Alabama
alumnus who works in Israel advocacy.
"Coach Pearl and Auburn University
deserve a lot of credit for taking the basketball
team to Israel,” said Boris Zilberman, Director
of Public Policy and Strategy at the Christians
United For Israel Action Fund. “Such an
opportunity not only allows for growth on
the court but, more importantly, off it. Seeing
Israel firsthand and experiencing its rich
history and diverse cultures is not something
that can be replicated in a classroom. As an
Alabama alumnus, I can only hope other
universities in the Southeastern Conference
take note and follow in the Tigers' footsteps.”
Still, with strained relations between Israel
and the Palestinian Authority, Israel’s and
Palestine’s respective national basketball
teams are unable to play each other in games.
Ari Ingel, director of Creative Community
for Peace, spoke about how Israel’s and the
Palestinian Authority’s national teams can’t
even play each other despite being neighbors.
“It’s such a shame and absurd, because
one thing that brings everybody together in
Israel is sports and entertainment,” Ingel told
The Journal. He cited the diverse makeup of
the Israeli National Football (soccer) Team,
comprising of Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish,
Muslim and Christian players. “Nothing
represents the epitome of coexistence than
sports there. So it's a shame that due to anti-
normalization efforts, the Israeli and the
Palestinian teams can't play each other.”
In the grand scheme of Middle East politics,
Pearl bringing his college basketball team
to Israel may seem small compared to the
Abraham Accords. But if other college athletic
programs follow in Auburn’s footsteps, Pearl
hopes more progress can be made.
Although he continually described the
journey as “a sports trip,” Pearl’s daughter
Jacqui, who traveled to Israel with the team,
knows her father’s enthusiasm is rooted for
his hopes for Israel’s future. Jacqui spoke
about how her father is on the board of an
organization called the U.S. Israel Education
Association which sponsors educational tours
to Israel for Members of Congress.
“I think sport has a very interesting way
of bringing people together, and it’s a cool
opportunity to marry sport with history and
faith,” Jacqui, 36, said. “There’s nowhere better
in the world you can get that than in Israel.”
Coach Bruce Pearl and the Auburn Men’s
Basketball Team will be in Los Angeles to
play the USC Trojans at the Galen Center on
December 18, 2022. ■
August 26-September 1, 2022
COMMUNITY
Prayers for great comedy were
answered by the dynamic duo of
Elon Gold and Modi Rosenfeld at
The Chosen Comedy Festival.
Photo by Perry Bindelglass
Chosen Comedy Festival in Coney
Island Lives up to Hype
CONEY ISLAND IS HISTORICALLY
known for the hot dog eating contest on
July 4, but soon it may also be known for
hosting the world’s premier Jewish com-
edy festival. To be sure, the 4,000 at the sold
out Coney Island Amphitheater on Aug. 16
needed a laugh. For many, it was the first
time attending a large event since the pan-
demic began. And let’s not forget inflation
and high gas prices and Russia’s invasion
of Ukraine and terrorism in Israel and anti-
Semitic incidents all over the place. Some
Jews in the audience think the current
president doesn’t remember what he’s sup-
posed to say, while others wish they could
forget what the former president used to
say.
But comedian Elon Gold didn’t forget.
In a perfect Donald Trump impersonation,
he noted how The Donald said conflicting
things about Russian leader Vladimir Pu-
tin, like “He’s a nasty guy, he’s a horrible
guy and we’re very close.” Gold added that
President Joe Biden is like the substitute
teacher of presidents. Gold launched into a
masterful impression of Jackie Mason if he
had to deal with not touching his face dur-
ing COVID, and then gave us what Rodney
Dangerfield would sound like if he was an
Orthodox Jew.
“I tell ya my mother, she never liked
me, when I was a baby, I tried to nurse, she
pushed me away and said, ‘hey you’re still
fleishig,’” Gold said in an uncanny Danger-
field voice, noting the three-or-six-hour
prohibition of milk after meat.
Gold had perhaps the best joke of the
night, saying how it was silly for Jew-haters
to chant “Jews will not replace us.”
“We don’t want to replace you,” Gold
said. “We just want to put braces on you …
we just want to manage your portfolio …
we don’t want to replace you, we want to
place you in a 30-year fixed low interest
mortgage … we want to fit you for glasses,
heal you, teach you, inspire you, make you
laugh, represent you in a divorce, and she
replaces you.”
I’ve seen Gold and Modi Rosenfeld
August 26-September 1, 2022
» by Alan Zeitlin
(known simply by his first name) perform
together at Stand Up NY numerous times,
and while they were electric, this time the
voltage felt on another level. Their chem-
istry shows. Gold got a big reaction from
the crowd when he said that more Jews left
New York for Florida than did from Egypt
“because the only thing worse than Phar-
oah was (former New York Mayor Bill) de
Blasio.”
Modi showed power and ferocity. When
he saw a reporter in the crowd wearing a
Covid mask, he quipped: “You’re in a room
of Orthodox Jews. Half of this room’s vac-
cinated. The other half identifies as being
vaccinated.”
He pointed out a double standard when
it comes to insulting groups.
“You say something bad against some-
body who is Asian or Latino or Black or Gay
or Trans, you’re done,” he said. “You gotta
change your Twitter, get a lawyer, get a
new job. If somebody says something bad
against somebody who is Jewish, the worst
“This is something very exciting. We’re
gonna make it a tour and do LA next and
then Miami, Tel Aviv and Montreal.“ - Elon Gold
that could happen is they make them visit a
Holocaust Museum, which is the stupidest
idea in the world. You’re taking somebody
who hates Jews into a Holocaust Museum.
They come out of there. 'Wow! Did you see
that? That was amazing!'”
Jeff Ross, known as “Roastmaster Gen-
eral,” was the headliner of the night. He told
Modi he looked like John Travolta’s rabbi
and told his sidekick, Dave Attell, he looked
like an owl come to life as a human. Attell
told Ross he looked like Putin if instead of
joining the KGB, he joined the KFC. But
Ross turned the roasting on himself, say-
ing he knows he looks like a version of Vin
Diesel who is neither fast nor furious. Ross
paid homage to the late Gilbert Gottfried,
recounting how the wild comedian played
Hitler in a “Historical Roasts” on Netflix.
“He was the best Hitler ever,” Ross said.
“My hero, Mel Brooks, said that comedy is
revenge through ridicule. What better way
to ridicule the Nazis than have their leader
portrayed by the loudest, most obnoxious
Jew in history.”
Los Angeles resident Jessica Kirson got
a standing ovation for her cutting act, when
she imitated southern women, as well as
millennial and older women, saying one
said to her after a show: “You’re so pretty
up close, but on stage, you look like an ani-
mal.” She added that those in the audience
not laughing were miserable people who
should have gone bowling.
Alex Edelman, who hustled from his hit
one-man show “Just For Us” to make it to
the festival, said his father is a genius who
created an artificial heart and nearly won
the Nobel Prize for medicine, but if one
would ask his mother, she’s “married to the
dumbest piece of crap who ever lived.”
T.J. Miller oddly wore a yarmulke folded
in half on his head, but his reasoning be-
came clear when he explained that he’s
a “maybe Jew” as his mother was adopt-
ed and he may or may not be Jewish. He
showed off his physical comedic skills by
juggling three matzah balls and eating a
few of them.
Leah Forster, who had many fans in
the crowd who know her from her “Tichel
Tuesday” online posts, said that she recent-
ly survived a fire on Fire Island-and speci-
fied that she wasn’t joking.
ARTS
Forster, who was raised Ultra-Orthodox,
implied that her mother would not have
wanted her to be doing comedy and talking
about being a lesbian.
“If my mother was still alive, this would
have killed her,” Forster said. “She’s probably
looking down ... correction, my bad, she’s
probably looking up.”
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who biked to
the event from Manhattan, told the Journal
that “being Jewish isn’t only about suffer-
ing and depressing issues. We shouldn’t
only be doing events about how to com-
bat antisemitism. We should celebrate our
Jewishness. We should laugh. We should
choose joy. It’s so important.”
Queens resident Merav Kho said she
loved “how [the festival] talked about in-
clusivity and Jewish pride and we don’t get
to see that so often and we need it in these
times.”
The event also included the award-win-
ning kosher brisket of the Wandering Que,
founded by Ari White. A man who stopped
near me appeared to choke as he laughed
at one of Modi’s jokes as he had a mouthful
of brisket. As I do not know the Heimlich
maneuver, it is fortunate he recovered.
On the music side, Laivy Miller, son of
Matisyahu, performed one of his original
songs early in the night.
"I felt a great vibe from the crowd and I
went with it," Miller said.
Nissim Black brought the energy and
had a rousing duet with Gad Elbaz on
"Hashem Melech."
And even the security guards were bob-
bing their heads when Kosha Dillz, whose
real name is Rami Matan Even-Esh, per-
formed "Schmoozin" and "Span-Hebrish."
He also served as a DJ along with Mikey
Darwish. Dillz, who appeared on the recent
season of "Nick Cannon Presents: Wild 'N
Out" on VH1, was clearly pumped.
“The energy tonight was incredible,” he
said. “You could see in the eyes of the au-
dience that this is so powerful, and I can’t
wait to bring this to L.A.”
The producer of the Chosen Comedy
Festival, co-owner of Stand Up NY, Dani
Zoldan, confirmed that the plan is to bring
the show to L.A., given its initial success.
“I’m very happy,” Zoldan said. “We sold
out, 4,000 people, my mother was here,
and next time we will be doing this in L.A.
You can see how much people enjoyed it.
To have Elon and Modi and then Dave (At-
tell) and Jeff Ross onstage at the same time,
it’s unbelievable to see such great comedic
minds and it was unforgettable.”
As he was headed to the afterparty, Gold
couldn’t hide his excitement at the prospect
of bringing the festival to L.A., his home,
and possibly other cities.
“We rocked the house,” Gold said. “This
is something very exciting. We’re gonna
make it a tour and do LA next and then Mi-
ami, Tel Aviv and Montreal. With me and
Modi performing together, it’s a hard thing
to pull off, especially with those egos on
stage. It was symbiotic.” ■
JewishJournal.com Jewish Journal | 39
COMMUNITY
The Milky Way Restaurant
Kosher Restaurant Hosts
Intimate Book Talks
» by Brian Fishbach
THERE’S A BOOK TALK SERIES IN THE
Pico-Robertson neighborhood that has
been the antidote to the virtual Zoom book
talks which book lovers have been getting
used to the past two years.
The Milky Way Restaurant’s summer book
series has been a hit for both the bestselling
authors and the book-lovers in attendance.
Even with a steep price of admission
($125, which includes a prix fixe dinner and
a signed book), the series has sold out the
50 seats for its June and July events.
“It's very intimate, first of all, and you can
see everybody—you're literally almost at
their table, which is not the same as being
on a stage or being out under a spotlight.”
- Mitch Albom
“It's a little bit like an after-dinner talk,”
author Mitch Albom told the Journal after
his July book talk at The Milky Way. “Plus, I
always felt that post-dinner conversations
are my favorite form of communication.”
The Milky Way hosted Albom’s reading
and book talk on his seventh novel, “The
Stranger in the Lifeboat.” After a reading
and discussion with Rabbi Erez Sherman of
Sinai Temple, Albom answered questions
on his new book and career.
40 | Jewish Journal JewishJournal.com
The Michigan-based writer has sold
over 30 million books, most prominently
“Tuesdays with Morrie” in 1997. Small set-
tings for book talks such as The Milky Way
are a welcome respite for bestselling au-
thors like Albom who are used to speaking
to thousands of fans in large theaters.
“It's very intimate, first of all, and you
can see everybody — you're literally almost
at their table, which is not the same as be-
ing on a stage or being out under a spot-
light,” Albom said. “So you can see people's
reactions, you see the look in their faces or
when they're laughing or whatever.”
And the feeling was mutual. The audience
could see Albom, a sports journalist by trade,
get choked up as he recalled the inspirational
story of sprinter Derek Redmond from the
1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona.
“I love to talk after we eat, so this for me
was perfect,” Albom said. “You just eat, and
then just talk. I did most of the talking un-
fortunately, but I’m very comfortable with it.”
The restaurant was founded in 1977 by
Bernie and Leah (Spielberg) Adler. That was
the same year Leah’s son Steven directed
Nancy Spielberg with Noa Tishby
the film “Close Encounters of The Third
Kind.”
Leah was a fixture at the restaurant, al-
ways there to form bonds with the patrons.
The walls are still adorned with photos of
her family — it’s more of a family living
room motif mixed with a proud celebra-
tion of her family’s success in the film busi-
ARTS
ness. When Leah passed away in 2017 at
the age of 97, The Milky Way shut down for
two years. The family reopened the restau-
rant in 2019 with a renovated dining room,
a new kitchen and a menu that reflects
Adler’s vibrant spirit.
Flash forward to June of 2022 when the
restaurant’s summer book talk series kicked
off with Noa Tishby — author, actress and
Israel’s Special Envoy for Combating An-
tisemitism and the Delegitimization of Is-
rael. Tishby was promoting her 2021 book,
“Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misun-
derstood Country on Earth.” The event was
hosted by Leah’s daughter, filmmaker Nan-
cy Spielberg.
As the book talk began, Tishby remarked
how much the restaurant channels the
Spielberg matriarch’s spirit. “It feels like
we’re sitting in [Leah’s] living room."
The intimate reading, discussion and
question and answer session was enjoyed
by both the bestselling author and her fans.
During the dinner portion of the evening,
Tishby met a young fan named Bonnie
who told her that she wanted to do her fam-
ily birthday dinner at the book talk.
Tishby was clearly moved by this and
gave a birthday shout out to Bonnie while
thanking the crowd for coming.
Bonnie said back to Tishby from her
table, “I brought my own book!” The
young reader’s voice carried throughout
the quaint restaurant with minimal effort,
which was met with an eruption of laughter
and applause.
The next book talk at The Milky Way is
on Thursday, August 25th at 6:30pm, fea-
turing actor Josh Peck promoting his new
book, “Happy People are Annoying.” Tick-
ets can be purchased on Resy: https://bit.
ly/3cehkk3 ■
August 26-September 1, 2022
 BOOK REVIEW

Friendship, Judaism
and All the Feelings: A
Welcome Addition to the
Middle School Canon
» by Karen E. H. Skinazi
ON MY FIRST DAY OF MY FINAL YEAR
of middle school, I arrived late. I attended
my best friend’s grandmother’s funeral that
morning and so showed up to school as first
period ended. It was just as well — first pe-
riod was English, and I was a lousy English
student. I had gotten a C the previous year,
bored to death by endless grammar lessons.
But the eighth-grade English teacher, Mr.
Waldman, surprised me. He followed me
out of the classroom when the bell rang and
chatted with me as I figured out where my
new locker was and started to fill it. He rec-
ognized my last name and told me my older
sister had been one of his best students,
and he had no doubt I would be the same.
I blushed. I was nothing like my sister. She
was very studious; I was … not. I tried to ex-
plain that to Mr. Waldman, but he laughed
off my protests. His enthusiasm was infec-
tious. Maybe English wouldn’t be so bad that
year? I was taken by the way he spoke to me
— a teacher treating me like an equal.
That year, we did as little grammar as
was required in English (“‘Dog bit boy.’
Subject? Predicate? ‘Boy bit dog.’ Nouns?
Verb? Perfect — let’s move on!”). Instead, we
performed Shakespeare plays, read poetry
aloud, were encouraged in our own cre-
ative writing. He played us Gordon Light-
foot’s “Black Day in July,” teaching us about
social justice movements and giving us a
firsthand account of the race riots in De-
troit in 1967 as we analyzed the lyrics. I fell
in love with English — went on to do a Ph.D.
don’t usually read middle-school books, but
I’m so grateful I read this one. “Honey and
Me,” winner of the Association of Jewish Li-
braries’ Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award, is
a wonder: It puts its finger precisely on the
pulse of adolescence, capturing the power,
and also heartbreak, of close female friend-
ships, difficult mother-daughter relation-
ships and teachers who change our lives
forever, like Mr. Waldman changed mine.
Add to that, “Honey and Me” — published
by Scholastic — offers one of the best guides
to observant Jewish life I’ve ever seen in a
mainstream publication (the closest equiva-
lent I can think of is Faye Kellerman’s Deck-
er and Lazarus series, which mixes crime
fighting with explanations of Jewish rituals).
Drazin is deft in her teaching. When por-
traying Shabbat dinner, for instance, she has
the father “hold[ing] up one finger in a fake
serious way” before he “reminds” the people
at the table “that between the blessing over
our hands and the Hamotzi blessing over
the challah, we do not talk until we have tak- Honey, as sources of validation, affection Each section of the novel is framed by
en a bite of the bread.” Milla compares her- and rivalry. Honey has confidence for days a Jewish concept or observance: Shabbat,
self to characters she reads in novels or sees (or so it seems); Milla is uncertain about ev- Days of Awe, Mitzvah, Passover, and Feast
on television and notes the differences — erything. Honey has a big family that takes of Weeks. But what is particularly clever is
namely, that being a Modern Orthodox Jew joy in its participation in Orthodox Jewish the way that Drazin links Jewish concepts
determines “what I eat, to what I wear, to life; Milla feels her own family is too small, to the feelings of adolescence. Succot, for
where I go to school” — but also how similar less joyful, not observant enough. But Drazin example, is deemed a holiday of “insecuri-
all kids are on the inside “where it matters.” makes sure readers know that Milla’s point of ty”; not only did the Children of Israel live in
The novel follows a year in the life of Milla: view is limited by her own sense of insecu- huts, exposed to the elements, but also “we
the year of her bat mitzvah. Milla lives in an rity. In fact, Honey’s family might be big, but had no idea if we would get to the Promised
unnamed city, presumably in the northeast big comes with its own problems. Moreover, Land — what it looked like, if we would be
(it snows in the winter, and Jewish families they have less money than the other families successful there, or if it even existed.” So too
goes the mind of a ’tween: What will adult-
hood be like? Will I be successful there? Will
I ever get there?

It puts its finger precisely on the pulse of

Overall, I loved this book. I laughed
aloud and shed copious tears and felt — all

adolescence, capturing the power, and also

these years removed from youth — like my
tweenage self was seen. So, I not only rec-

heartbreak, of close female friendships,

ommend it to kids, but also their parents.
Incidentally, the author and I, though

difficult mother-daughter relationships and

different ages, attended the same middle
school, so we shared the same inspirational

teachers who change our lives forever.

Meira Drazin
in it, in fact. But my formative relationship
with Mr. Waldman was short-lived, and it
ended as it began: with a funeral.
It was impossible for me not to think of
Mr. Waldman as I read about the character
of an inspirational and incredibly down-
to-earth teacher in Meira Drazin’s beauti-
ful middle-school book, “Honey and Me.” I
escape to Miami Beach over winter break).
She is in a state of constant turmoil during
this time of transition from childhood to
adulthood — like pretty much every other
girl of 11. She still plays with dolls but knows
this stage of life is ending. She looks to adults
as potential role models (or their antitheses)
and her friends, including her best friend
in their upper-middle-class community and
are required to make more compromises.
They struggle with the challenges of an au-
tistic son. Their house is falling apart and no
one has the time or energy to fix it. Milla sees
but doesn’t see how uber-confident Honey
(“I’m not worried” is her signature line) might
have obstacles to overcome, too.
teacher — but I know that world-round,
there are teachers just like him, turning
indifferent students around and making
them shine. ■
Karen E. H. Skinazi, Ph.D, is Associate
Professor of Literature and Culture and the
director of Liberal Arts at the University of
Bristol (UK) and the author of Women of
Valor: Orthodox Jewish Troll Fighters, Crime
Writers, and Rock Stars in Contemporary Lit-
erature and Culture.

August 26-September 1, 2022 JewishJournal.com Jewish Journal | 41


FRIDAY, AUGUST 26
SIMCHA SHABBAT UNDER STARS
For the convenience of young families in the West Valley,
Shomrei Torah Synagogue’s “Simcha Shabbat Under the Stars”
starts with an early Tot Shabbat.. Services are held in-person
and online and honor all in attendance with August birthdays
or anniversaries. 5:30 p.m. Tot Shabbat, 6 p.m. BYO dairy dinner,
6:45 p.m. Shabbat services. Shomrei Torah Synagogue, 7353
Valley Circle Blvd., West Hills. Free. (818) 854-7650. stsonline.org
END-OF-SUMMER BLOWOUT
Kol Tikvah invites all to its annual end-of-summer com-
munity blowout, which includes a watermelon-eating con-
test. How much melon can you consume? After early Shab-
bat services, the scene shifts outdoors for dinner and games
– with tacos, churros, margaritas and the watermelons. 5:30
p.m. indoor services. 6:30 p.m. outdoor dinner, games. Kol
Tikvah, 20400 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills. Free. (818) 348-
0670. RSVP required at koltikvah.org/events.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 26
BEACH SHABBAT
Open Temple holds its monthly service, “Shabbat, Take Me Higher.” For a unique Venice vibe, complete with dance,
sand, sky, sunset and the Open Temple Band, join the congregation for this can’t-miss kabbalat Shabbat on the beach.
6:45 p.m. $18. Exact location provided to those who register at opentemple.org/shabbat/.
42 | Jewish Journal JewishJournal.com
CAMP-STYLE SHABBAT
Enjoy Kabbalat Shabbat services with camp ruach when
Temple Beth Am welcomes its young campers back home at
the end of summer. Rounding out the welcome, Temple Beth
Am holds a community barbecue dinner. BYO kosher wine
and beer. 6 p.m. $30 per adult, $25 ages 13-18, $18 ages 6-12,
$12 ages 3-5, $5 ages 2-and-under. Temple Beth Am, 1039 S.
La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles. (310) 652-7353. Register at tbala.
org/communityshabbat.
WELCOME BACK SHABBAT
Spend Friday evening in Beverly Hills when Temple Eman-
uel of Beverly Hills (TEBH) honors outstanding leaders. At
TEBH’s Welcome Back “Billy Joel” Shabbat Gala, Lorraine and
Jerry Factor and Family accepts the Legacy Award, and ECC
Director Stacy Kesner receives the Community Service Award.
6-10 p.m. Beverly Hills Civic Center Boat Court, 464 N. Rexford
Drive, Beverly Hills. Single tickets, $360 (310) 288-3737. To pur-
chase tickets, visit tebh.org/shabbatgala.
WH AT’ S HAP P
» by Ryan Torok and Ari L. Noonan
VALLEY BOOK SALE
Just as the new school year begins, a book sale organized
by Friends of the Woodland Hills Library provides a free book
for every child accompanied by a parent. Additionally, a large
selection of children’s and adult fiction in hardback, trade and
mass market paperbacks are available for 50 cents to $1. Non-
fiction works available from $1-$2. Also available are DVDs,
LPs, CDs and new picture frames. All proceeds benefit the
Woodland Hills Branch Library. A perfect outing for the people
of the book! Friday 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m.
Woodland Hills Branch Library, 22200 Ventura Blvd., Wood-
land Hills. (818) 226-0017. For more information, contact Mary
Shaffer at mary@schafferwalls.com.
SYNAGOGUE OPEN HOUSE
Are you interested in learning about a Reform temple in
Santa Monica with an egalitarian philosophy? Kehillat Ma’arav
awaits with an open house event that will appeal to many
Jews. The afternoon, billed as a Garden of Eatin', includes a
challah bake, Shabbat services and dinner and preparations
for the High Holy Days. Events held through Aug. 28. Various
times. Kehillat Ma’arav, 1715 21st St., Santa Monica. For more
information, visit km-synagogue.org/events/garden.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 27
SHABBAT HOLINESS HIKE
It is time to take a hike with Congregation Kol Ami. For two
hours on this Shabbat morning, Kol Ami Rabbi Ross Levy leads
his fellow hikers along the Elysian Park West Loop Trail. All
levels of potential and veteran hikers are welcome. 9:30 a.m.
Hike site: 1025 Elysian Park Drive, Los Angeles. Free. (323) 606-
0996. Register at kol-ami.org/event/shabbat-holiness-hike7.
html.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 28
LEARN YOGA WITH A TWIST
Jewish Renewal community Makom Ohr Shalom has a
suggestion: come out of your Zoom square and learn yoga
with a Jewish twist from Rabbi Judi Ahavah DelBourgo of
Makom Ohr Shalom and yoga instructor/fitness trainer Anita
Pressman. Please bring your own towel, yoga mat, blanket and
water. 9-10:30 a.m. $18 suggested donation. Meet at Beeman
Park, corner of Milbank and Beeman, Studio City. https://ma-
kom.org/calendar.htm
August 26-September 1, 2022
 HA P P ENI NG
an

TASTE OF JUDAISM
Congregation Kol Ami says you don’t have to be Jewish —
or even live in California to enroll in its three-session online
class. Just bring your curiosity. It is a broad introduction to
modern Jewish spirituality that can lead to an 18-class ses-
sion beginning Oct. 23. The remaining classes in this series
are Sept. 11, Sept. 18. Taught by Kol Ami clergy, the online class
is held from 10:15 a.m.-Noon. Free. For more information, visit
kol-ami.org/tasteofjudaism.

BCC BOOKS AND BAGELS

TUESDAY, AUGUST 30
SCHOOL SAFETY, GUN VIOLENCE
What are the short- and long-term effects of the recent waves of gun violence on school communities? UCLA Pro-
fessor Ron Avi Astor, an expert on the topic, talks in depth about Uvalde, Parkland and other tragic cases with American
Jewish University President Jeffrey Herbst. They evaluate what lessons can be learned from the Israeli approach. The
virtual program is held from noon-12:45 p.m. Free. Register at https://maven.aju.edu/events-classes/program/school-
safety-and-gun-violence-a-jewish-perspective

MONDAY, AUGUST 29
IKAR BOOK CLUB
How do you get into the proper frame of mind for the High
Holy Days, now less than a month away? The IKAR commu-
nity suggests joining the virtual book club of Sababa. This
month, the group reads, “This Is Real and You Are Completely
Unprepared,” by Rabbi Alan Lew. 7:30-8:30 p.m. Free. https://
ikar.org/calendar/

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1
Join fellow book lovers when Beth Chayim Chadashim’s JUDEA BOWL CONCERT SERIES
monthly group meets on Zoom to discuss Jewish fiction and “Hazzan: The Art of Jewish Music” is the headline for the
non-fiction, sometimes with LGBTQ+ content. This month’s latest in Temple Judea’s Judea Bowl Concert Series. Six can-
book is “Light Fell” by Evan Fallenberg, an Israeli novel about tors are in the spotlight: Chayim Frenkel, Joseph Gole, Don
a gay man who reunites with his five adult sons 20 years after Gurney, cantorial soloist Elizabeth Kerstein, Nathan Lam,
leaving his Orthodox community. Noon. Free. For the Zoom Rabbi Cantor Alison Wissot and accompanist Bob Remstein.
link, visit bcc-la.org/calendar/. 7-8:30 p.m. $18 member. $25 general. Temple Judea, 5429
Lindley Ave., Tarzana. (818) 758-3800 Register at https://portal.
HIKE TO THE HEAVENS-ISH templejudea.com/event/judea-bowl-3---cantorial-arts.html
On the day of Temple Aliyah’s Welcome Back bash, there is
another attraction to celebrate the new month of Elul: As sun-
set approaches, join Sababa young adults for a hike through
Griffith Park, along a low-to-medium difficulty trail at a re-
laxed pace. Shomrei Torah members in their 20s and 30s also
are invited to join friends from Aliyah. Billed as a “Hike to the
Heavens-ish,” bring water, a nosh if you wish and a smart
phone. 6-9 p.m. Meet at Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round park-
ing lot #2, the steps at the north end of the lot. Free. (818) 427-
0780. templealiyah.org/event/hike-to-the-heavens-ish.html

August 26-September 1, 2022 JewishJournal.com Jewish Journal | 43

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44 | Jewish Journal JewishJournal.com August 26-September 1, 2022

 JONATHAN FONG STYLE

Make a
Pencil Vase
for a Back to
School Floral WHEN I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL, I was a straight A student. My only B

Arrangement
all four years was in Driver’s Education. (And that was a miracle, seeing how
I got into a car accident the first day of driver’s training.) Well, here’s a floral
arrangement that deserves an A+ for creativity. The vase is made of pen-
cils around a cylindrical container, wrapped up with a tape measure. Fill it
with any flowers you’d like, and you’ve got a whimsical arrangement that will
cheer up the classroom or make a perfect teacher appreciation gift.
» by Jonathan Fong

What you’ll need:

No. 2 pencils
Small glass/vase
Double-sided tape
Rubber band Start with a small glass or vase no more Place a rubber band around the center of Hide the rubber band by cutting a piece of
Plastic tape measure than 3 inches in diameter and 5 inches tall. the glass, and insert the pencils between the plastic tape measure and wrapping it around
Fresh or artificial flowers You can also use a clean, empty can, like a rubber band and the glass. Position all the the pencil vase. Secure it with double-sided
soup can. It’s important that the sides of the pencils so they are going in the same direc- tape. The tape measure makes a whimsi-
container are straight up and down without tion, and have the printing on them face out. cal ribbon for the vase while adding extra
any flares. Otherwise, the pencils will not line Press the pencils against the glass so that reinforcement around the pencils. You can
up straight around it. Wrap double-sided tape they stick to the double-sided tape. The com- buy a plastic tape measure in the sewing
all around the sides of the glass so it is sticky bination of the rubber band and tape keep the department of your local crafts store. Since
to the touch. pencils securely in place. (You can also use a the pencils are yellow, select a tape measure
Jonathan Fong is the author of “Flowers That glue gun if you prefer.) Go all the way around that is a different color. Now that your vase is
Wow” and “Parties That Wow,” and host of “Style the vase until you have covered it with pen- finished, fill it with flowers. If you would like
With a Smile” on YouTube. You can see more of his cils. It took about 30 pencils to make the vase this arrangement to last forever, use artificial
do-it-yourself projects at jonathanfongstyle.com. in this example. flowers instead of fresh ones.

August 26-September 1, 2022 JewishJournal.com Jewish Journal | 45

46 Rabbis
Rabbi Aaron Finkelstein:
The Educator With a Pastoral Focus
ONE DAY, A SHEPHERD WAS TENDING
his flock, and he became thirsty. As he was
drinking, he saw something simple that
would change his life forever.
There were small drops of water hitting
a large rock, and a deep indentation in the
stone where the water fell.
“What mighty power there is in a drop of
water,” the illiterate shepherd, who was then
40 years old, thought.
He turned to his daughter and asked, “Do
you think there is hope for me? Suppose I
began to study the Torah, little by little, drop
by drop. Do you think my stony heart would
soften up?”
“O yes! Akiba,” she replied. “If you perse-
vere, if you keep it up as these drops of wa-
ter.”
The Akiba in the story is the famous Rab-
bi Akiva, who went on to become one of the
leading Jewish sages and a great leader.
Rabbi Aaron Finkelstein, who teaches
the Beit Midrash classes and serves as the
middle school rabbi at Milken Community
School, loves telling Rabbi Akiva’s inspiring
story to his students.
“It’s a powerful statement about the im-
pact of education and the humility we all
need to have,” he said. “It’s a story about a
growth mindset. Anyone can learn, whether
they are a child or an adult. It’s never too late.
The tradition is here for you and accessible
to you.”
Finkelstein, a Berkeley native, grew up
going to Congregation Beth Israel, a heimish
Modern Orthodox shul in his neighborhood.
“We used to call our block the Short Street
Shtetl, since a few families who went to our
shul lived on Short Street,” he said. “As kids,
we really felt like the shul was ours. It was
this relatively small community then, and
all the teenage boys helped with the Torah
reading and davening.”
The rabbi also attended Camp Ramah in
Ojai and went on to major in political science
and Jewish, Islamic and Near Eastern Studies
at Washington University in St. Louis. Real-
izing he wanted to pursue a path where he
could serve the Jewish community and learn
Torah, he enrolled in Yeshivat Chovevei To-
rah, where he received ordination as well as
pastoral training to counsel Jews in need.
“I loved the learning at Chovevei,” he
said. “I wanted to dive deep into halacha and
gemara and do serious learning, and I also
wanted to go through the rigorous pastoral
training as well.”
46 | Jewish Journal JewishJournal.com
RA B B I S OF L .A.
» by Kylie Ora Lobell
At Milken, Finkelstein puts his pastoral
skills to good use, whether he’s talking with
students, colleagues or parents.
“People aren’t walking pages of text,” he
said. “They have real lives and challenges
and problems, and you have to be able to
genuinely connect with them and under-
stand what they’re going through.”
Finkelstein takes his role very seriously,
attending to his community outside of the
walls of the classroom. He will go on shiva
calls, help with bar and bat mitzvahs and be
there for other important life cycle events.
Two years ago, he officiated a funeral for a “Teenage
colleague whose husband died of COVID.
“It was sacred and meaningful work, and anxiety
the school was incredibly supportive of it,”
he said. “We are with families during what- has been
ever they're going through, the good times
and bad times, and it's part of my responsi- exacerbated by
bility here to be present for them.”
In terms of issues he sees students con- the pandemic.
tending with, Finkelstein believes that so-
cial media has had a huge impact on their When we are
lives.
“At the core of my work, I try to help my with them in
students connect with the meaning and
depth of Judaism, and relate it to their own person, I want
lives as well. This might mean teaching the
Mishna’s four categories of damage to ex- that to be a
plore self-driving cars and Halakha, or help-
ing students think through who they want restorative and
to be online and how their Jewish and fam-
ily values affect that,” he said. joyful time.“
The rabbi also realized that a lot of stu-
dents are stressed out because of the past
two years.
“Teenage anxiety has been exacerbated Fast Takes with Aaron Finkelstein
by the pandemic,” he said. “When we are
with them in person, I want that to be a re- Jewish Journal: What is your favorite Jewish food?
storative and joyful time where they can take Aaron Finkelstein: My dad’s homemade cinnamon challah. He’s a professional
a deep breath and connect one on one with chef.
their classmates and tradition. Jewish learn-
ing, especially face-to-face, isn’t a cure-all, JJ: I read that you’re an avid cook, too. What’s your strongest dish?
but it can help.” AF: The Mediterranean mezze platter combo. Techina, eggplant and hummus. I
Like Rabbi Akiva, Finkelstein cherishes have fun with it.
learning, and in all his work, he hopes that
education is meaningful to his students. JJ: What was your favorite subject in school?
“Working at a school is an incredible AF: Definitely history. I love European and American history, reading about
opportunity to really be a part of not just politics and thinking about why things happen the way they do.
the kids’ lives, but also their families’ lives
for many years,” he said. “"Schools are like JJ: What superpower would you want to have?
a second home for a lot of kids. It’s where AF: Time travel. I want to talk to my great grandfather as an adult. My
they spend most of their time, and you great-grandfather, Rabbi Chaim Davidovich was a dayan (rabbinic judge),
can have a tremendous impact in terms of a community rabbi in Denver, an incredible scholar and was very forward
helping to share a love of Torah and Jewish thinking. I’d love to talk with him and learn together.
tradition.” ■
August 26-September 1, 2022
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