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VOLUME IX, NUMBER 4
FEBRUARY 25, 2016
New citizenship law has Jews worldwide flocking to tiny Portugal city BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ PORTO, Portugal (JTA) – Five years ago, this city’s tiny Jewish community was so strapped for cash it couldn’t afford to fix the deep cracks in its synagogue’s moldy ceiling. The Jewish Community of Porto was also too poor to hire a full-time rabbi because of its small size (50 members) and the paucity of donors in a country gripped by a financial crisis. But in January, the community, situated 200 miles north of Lisbon, showcased its stunning turn-around. Hosting the biggest event in its history, it drew hundreds of guests from all over the world to the city’s newly opened kosher hotel and newly renovated synagogue. The community also has a new Jewish museum and mikvah ritual bath, and there are plans to build a kosher shop, Jewish kindergarten and school. The money, community members say, came from a massive influx of Jewish tourists that coincided with the implementation of Portugal’s 2013 law of return for Sephardic Jews and their descendants. The law named the Porto community, founded by a handful of converts to Judaism, one of two institutions responsible for vetting
a similar law aimed at descendants of Sephardic Jews.) Each application must be checked by one of the two Jewish communities against their records and lists of lineages. Some of the hundreds of applicants to Porto have added handsome donations on top of the required fee. So far, only three of the hundreds of citizenship applications have been approved, a wrinkle that Leon Amiras, an Israeli attorney handling citizenship requests and chairman of the Association of Olim from Latin America, Spain and Portugal, attributed to bureaucratic complications connected to last November’s elections in Portugal. Amiras said he expects hundreds Congregants introduced a new Torah scroll to their synagogue in Porto, Portugal, of applications to be approved this year. Meanwhile, Porto is becoming a more on January 29. (Photo by Cnaan Liphshiz) attractive prospective home for Jews with citizenship applications, providing the from a tiny group struggling to exist to a European Union passports, who can move Jews in this little-known city of 230,000 well-to-do congregation with local and here without obtaining citizenship. Yoel Zewith tens of thousands of dollars in income international standing. I never thought I kri, a French Jewish student in his 20s who temporarily moved here last year from Marand turning Porto into a destination for would live to see this.” Applying for membership in Lisbon seille, where five Jews have been assaulted Jews from around the world. “This law not only gave us new funds, and Porto’s official Jewish community in three stabbing attacks since October, said but put us on the world map,” said Em- costs $300-$560 and is a required step he’s considering staying on after his studies manuel Fonseca, a 53-year-old Orthodox for a Jew to become a Portuguese citizen “to help build the community.” See “Portugal” on page 7 convert to Judaism. “In no time, we went under the 2013 law. (Spain recently passed
Spotlight on Jewish Disabilities Awareness Month
Green therapy: an oasis in Israel’s Negev Desert for people with disabilities Stav Herling-Gosher, an Aleh BY MEGAN E. TURNER Negev spokeswoman, says the JNS.org participants are “very dependent The latest blooming in Israel’s on their surroundings and get asNegev Desert is particularly relsistance through the help of others,” evant in February, which is Jewish yet through green therapy, they are Disability Awareness and Inclusion “able to see that other living things Month. At Aleh Negev-Nahalat are dependent on them.” By showing Eran – a rehabilitation village in concern for their creations, such as southern Israel that serves people by checking on whether the plants with severe disabilities – residents have been sufficiently watered or benefit from green therapy, which had enough sunlight, Aleh Negev uses gardening and nature to help residents can see and feel the results give the special needs community of their labor when their plants grow a higher quality of life. and thrive – much like themselves. Green therapy participants are Aleh Negev works in partnership brought to a greenhouse on the with Israel-based Derech HaYadiim, Aleh Negev campus, where they Green therapy at the Aleh Negev-Nahalat Eran are greeted with flowers, shrubs and rehabilitation village in southern Israel. (Photo an organization that provides green therapy. “Many of the patients comherbs that they work to plant and courtesy Jewish National Fund) ing in are low-functioning, and we care for. It is also a therapeutic haven work with them at the most basic level. where all of the senses are stimulated. of those who participate. “Residents can smell the flowers, taste the “These are people who are usually un- They may not know what they are doing, plants and feel the earth and leaves between settled and we notice that they are calmer, but we provide this humane warmth and their fingers,” says Osher Cohen, coordinator more relaxed and more engaged,” Cohen inclusion that greatly helps,” says Ishay of culture and recreation at Aleh Negev. says, noting that for some of them, this type Zamiri, one of the group leaders for Derech The greenhouse only uses non-toxic of therapy has brought their participation HaYadiim’s green therapy. “We receive them as they are and make plants and those without seeds or pits, in level from non-existent to very active. no special requests,” he says, as he gently order to keep the environment safe for all “If we don’t give them a way to engage, the participants. Since the village started patients’ behavior and overall well being strokes a participant’s hand with a soft leaf using this form of therapy, staffers have drastically regress,” he says, adding that from one of the nearby plants. See “Therapy” on page 10 noted a dramatic change in the behavior green therapy addresses this need.
INSIDE THIS ISSUE Scientific finds
Jewish food scene
News in brief...
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A breakthrough cancer study An Israeli chef brings Mideast Lithuanians commemorate Nazi PLUS has Israeli roots; Einstein’s cuisine to Vietnam; Israelis make collaborators; Britain plans to outgravitational waves; and more. their culinary mark in Vienna. law Israeli boycotts; and more. Opinion........................................................2 Stories on page 5 Stories on pages 6-7 Stories on page 11 D’var Torah................................................8
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THE REPORTER ■ FEBRUARY 25, 2016
A MATTER OF OPINION How to get serious with U.N. bias BY BEN COHEN JNS.org Samantha Power, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, recently sounded an unusually strong – and therefore welcome – warning about the continuing bias against Israel in the corridors of the world body. On a visit to Israel, Power spoke publicly about the experience of ZAKA, an Israeli humanitarian aid organization, in its efforts to gain accreditation at the U.N. After describing Zaka’s venerable record of assistance not just in Israel, but in New York City after the 9/11 atrocities and in Haiti after the devastating earthquake there in 2010, the ambassador pointed out that when, in 2013, the agency applied for accreditation to the U.N.’s NGO committee, it was flatly denied. It took another five attempts before the same committee until the accreditation was granted, thanks to pressure from Power herself along with Israeli diplomats. In the same speech, Power reflected that “bias has extended well beyond Israel as a country [to] Israel as an idea.” In particular, she noted the insidious role of the U.N.’s Human Rights Council. Power said, “The only country in the world with a standing agenda item at the Human Rights Council is not North Korea, a totalitarian state that is currently holding an estimated 100,000 people in gulags; not Syria, which has gassed its people – lots of them. It is Israel.” It should be remembered that the Human Rights Council was created in 2006 to replace the old Commission on Human Rights. At the time, the outgoing U.N.
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OPINIONS The views expressed in editorials and opinion pieces are those of each author and not necessarily the views of the Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania. LETTERS The Reporter welcomes letters on subjects of interest to the Jewish community. All letters must be signed and include a phone number. The editor may withhold the name upon request. ADS The Reporter does not necessarily endorse any advertised products and services. In addition, the paper is not responsible for the kashruth of any advertiser’s product or establishment. DEADLINE Regular deadline is two weeks prior to the publication date. FEDERATION WEBSITE: www.jewishnepa.org HOW TO SUBMIT ARTICLES: Mail: 601 Jefferson Ave., Scranton, PA 18510 E-mail: jfnepareporter@jewishnepa.org Fax: (570) 346-6147 Phone: (570) 961-2300 HOW TO REACH THE ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE: Phone: (800) 779-7896, ext. 244 E-mail: bonnie@thereportergroup.org SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION: Phone: (570) 961-2300
secretary general, Kofi Annan, expressed hope that the new Council would break with the past, by preventing serial human rights abusers from gaining membership as easily as they had with the previous Commission, and by shifting away from the excessive focus on Israel. So Power’s remarks confirm that this goal has yet to be attained. She’s right, too, about the bias in the U.N. against Israel “as an idea.” The roots of the rot go very deep. Fifty years ago, when the West Bank was still occupied by Jordan, the Soviet Union began a campaign that was to culminate in the 1975 U.N. General Assembly resolution equating Zionism with racism. The Israeli scholars Joel Fishman and Yohanan Manor have unearthed how, in the October 1965 proceedings of one of its sub-committees, the Soviets responded to a joint U.S.-Brazil resolution condemning antisemitism with an amendment urging the inclusion of “Zionism” as well. So let there be no doubt: Before there was an “Israeli occupation,” there was a demonization campaign against the Jewish nature of the state under way. By the time the General Assembly passed Resolution 3379 in 1975, the key slander it contained – the bracketing of the national liberation movement of the Jewish people with South African apartheid – was already a familiar one in the halls of the U.N. It fed on the same poisonous atmosphere, marked by terrorism and the constant threat of a Middle East war, that birthed such horrors as the Red Army Fraction, a group of well-heeled German students who hijacked planes and murdered Jews and others in the name of the Palestinian cause. And it remained on the books for 16 years before it was rescinded in a curt, single-line resolution
on the eve of the historic 1991 Middle East peace conference. The problem is that the U.N. continues to behave as if it regards Zionism as a form of racism. And the reason for that is simple. Structurally, nothing has changed at the U.N. since the coming, and then going, of Resolution 3379. The systemic bias identified by Power remains because the same bodies that have targeted Israel in the past continue to do so now. It’s not just the Human Rights Council. On the same day that it passed the Zionismis-racism resolution, the General Assembly created the memorably named “Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People,” along with an entire “Division of Palestinian Rights” for research, information and propaganda requirements. For more than 40 years now, the U.N. has annually spent several million dollars of member-state money on NGO conferences on the Palestinian territories, “fact-finding” junkets composed of minor officials who decide that Israel is guilty before they even reach the airport, and endless resolutions and reports that cement the false image of Israel as a rogue state. The Palestinian People Committee’s report to the General Assembly for its 2015 activities tells you all you need to know about how anti-Israel bias works its way through the U.N. system. Inter alia, we learn that one “Noam Chomsky, professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,” delivered a lecture as part of the “International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.” We are told about the economic costs of the “occupation,” but the rife corruption in the Palestinian Authority that has eaten billions of dollars in aid money isn’t mentioned. At another point, we are informed that calculating the “occupation’s cost” is “complex
and multidimensional, requiring expertise in economics, law, history and politics.” Preferably acquired at the Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, I’ll wager. These and similar ignominies are documented on a regular basis by U.N. Watch, which also reports diligently on those human rights crises ignored by the U.N. But what hasn’t yet happened is an international discussion about the future of the Palestinian People Committee and its associated bodies. Hence my suggestion. Since the U.N. doesn’t like abolishing existing committees, why not replace the Palestinian People Committee with another body dedicated to all stateless nations and minorities? That would include the Palestinians, but also the Kurds, the Sahrawis and the Tibetans. It would underline international awareness of vulnerable minorities like the Yazidis in the Middle East. And it could avoid political controversies by focusing on education and human rights. True, this new committee would carry its own set of problems, whatever final form it takes: nothing is ever easy at the U.N. But democratic member states need to understand that as long as the bodies dedicated to anti-Israel propaganda remain active within the U.N. structure, very little is going to change. Are we going to have this same conversation for the next 50 years? Ben Cohen, senior editor of TheTower. org and The Tower Magazine, writes a weekly column for JNS.org on Jewish affairs and Middle Eastern politics. His writings have been published in Commentary, the New York Post, Haaretz, The Wall Street Journal and many other publications. He is the author of “Some of My Best Friends: A Journey Through Twenty-First Century Antisemitism” (Edition Critic, 2014).
British hypocrisy on Arab terror BY STEPHEN M. FLATOW JNS.org The British government says Israel is being too harsh in giving prison sentences of 15 years each to five Palestinians who murdered a Jewish toddler. Yet when the British had to deal with Palestinian terrorists, they themselves were a lot harsher. The current controversy has to do with five PalestinianArab teenagers from the village of Hares who ambushed an Israeli automobile near Ariel in March 2013. Of course, Palestinians ambush Israeli traffic all the time. They throw rocks, they hurl firebombs and they shoot rifles at Israeli motorists who are guilty of what we might call “driving while Jewish.” Very few of these attacks are reported in the American news media. Except on the occasion when they are particularly “successful.” As in the March 2013 attack, when the ambushers caused the Biton family’s car to crash. Their 4-year-old daughter, Adele, was paralyzed and suffered additional injuries. After two years of countless surgeries and suffering, she died as a result of complications from the injuries. The Palestinian killers should have been tried for murder. But the Israeli prosecutors in this case offered them a plea bargain of 15 years. The killers accepted what has to be one of the most lenient punishments on record for murdering a child. Yet that wasn’t lenient enough for the British government. Last November, a British diplomat in Israel took the extraordinary step of personally confronting the Israeli prosecutor to “raise our concerns” about the punishment that the killers might receive. After the murderers recently received the agreed-upon 15-year terms, the British government again expressed its “concern” about what it called “Israel’s child detention policy.” The British don’t seem too
concerned about the Palestinians’ childmurder policy. For some reason, their interest is limited to the welfare of the killers, whom they dub “children” because they happen to have been 16 and 17 at the time of the attack. British Minister for the Middle East Tobias Ellwood is vowing to “continue to monitor developments in the case of the Hares boys and raise the issue with the Israeli authorities.” Why in the world would the British government take such a special interest in Palestinian baby-killers? According to the British embassy in Tel Aviv, the issue is “of interest and concern to the British public.” I find that difficult to believe. I doubt the average Englishman has even heard of the Hares killers or Adele Biton. It’s not just that the British government is displaying outrageous indifference to Jewish suffering and immoral sympathy for Arab killers. It’s also the hypocrisy of it all. Because when it was the British who were being targeted by Palestinian Arabs, they weren’t very sensitive about Arab feelings. Just read Prof. Monty N. Penkower’s masterful new book, “Palestine in Turmoil: The Struggle for Sovereignty, 1933-1939,” and you’ll see what I mean. There he describes the response of the British when a Palestinian Arab from Jenin (in what is now called the West Bank) assassinated a British assistant district commissioner in 1938. The main suspect in the assassination was taken into custody, and then shot dead “when he tried to escape.” Sure he did. According to the book, “The British military authorities decided that ‘a large portion’ of Jenin should be ‘blown up’ as well. A heavily armed convoy carrying
4,200 kilograms of gelignite carried out the demolition.” The severe British response in Jenin was not some one-time occurrence. In numerous Palestinian Arab villages where there was rioting or terrorism in the 1930s, the British used Arab-driven “minesweeping taxis” – what we would call human shields – “to reduce British land mine casualties.” The British also routinely “dynamited the houses of Arab villages” from which there had been attacks on British soldiers or police, the book says. Was all this dynamiting and minesweeping the work of rogue forces? Hardly. It was advocated and defended by senior British government officials. For example, Lord Dufferin, undersecretary of state for the colonies, said nobody had a right to complain about the minesweeping taxis because “British lives are being lost and I don’t think that we, from the security of Whitehall, can protest squeamishly about measures taken by the men in the frontline.” Prof. Penkower also quotes a particularly striking remark by Sir John Shuckburgh, undersecretary in the Colonial Office. He said the British were confronted with “not a chivalrous opponent playing the game according to the rules, but with gangsters and murderers.” “Gangsters and murderers.” That’s exactly whom Israel is facing right now. That’s exactly who killed little Adele Biton. So before any British officials today start lecturing Israel, maybe they ought to take a look in the mirror. Stephen M. Flatow, an attorney in New Jersey, is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995.
FEBRUARY 25, 2016 ■
THE REPORTER
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COMMUNITY NEWS OU Advocacy Center meeting with U.S. Senator Pat Toomey Reprinted with permission of the OU Advocacy Center The OU Advocacy Center hosted a private meeting on February 12 with U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) to discuss a variety of issues considered to be important to the American Jewish community. These included Israel, the rise in global terrorism and antisemitism, Iran and education affordability in non-public schools.
Toomey emphasized the importance of maintaining a strong strategic alliance with Israel and working to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. OU Advocacy Center Executive Director Nathan Diament, in his remarks, spoke about the OUA’s efforts to strengthen federal initiatives, such as the Urban Area Security Initiative Nonprofit Homeland Security Grant Program, which
provides funding to enhance security for at-risk religious and nonprofit facilities. The Orthodox Union is the nation’s largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization. the OU Advocacy Center is the non-partisan public policy arm of the OU and leads its advocacy efforts in Washington, DC and state capitals.
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Above, l-r: Nathan Diament, executive director of the OU Advocacy Center; Elliot Holtz, co-chairman of the Pennsylvania OU Advocacy Center; U.S. Senator Pat Toomey; Amir Goldman, co-chairman of the Pennsylvania OU Advocacy Center; and Aaron Troodler, Pennsylvania director for the OU Advocacy Center.
Tefillin class for Bais Yaakov
Bais Yaakov students were present when Rabbi Dovid Krautwirth, sofer of Scranton, checked a pair of tefillin. While taking apart the tefillin, he explained step-by-step to the students how they are made and what they were made of, as well as the halachot (laws) involved.
ISSUE
U.S. Senator Pat Toomey addressedaprivatemeeting of the OU Advocacy Center to discuss various issues considered important to the American Jewish community.
OU Advocacy Center E x e c u t i v e D i re c t o r Nathan Diament addressed the crowd at a private meeting with U.S. Senator Pat Toomey.
Camp Lavi Jewish Summer/Sports Camp located in Lakewood, Pennsylvania, is looking for 2 live-in RN or LPN's for the Infirmary. Meals & accommodation provided, from June 28 - August 17, 2016. Contact Tarey Sheldon at 570-727-7446 if interested to discuss salary, also will barter if applicant has children interested in attending Camp for the summer.
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Grandparents of the Year – Jeffrey and Dassy Ganz Yovel Jubilee Alumni Awardees – Shlomo Fink / Jay Kauffman/ Sandy Shapiro The establishment of the Rabbi Yitzchok Gass and Rabbi Philip Polaqtoff Memorial Scholarship Fund • More details will follow •
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THE REPORTER ■ FEBRUARY 25, 2016
THE PENNSYLVANIA JEWISH COALITION Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition state government update continue to negotiate the curBY JOE FISCH rent budget – addressing the Pennsylvania Jewish $7 billion shortfall – they now Coalition mission statement: have to start considering the The Pennsylvania Jewish new budget proposal. Coalition, working individually Wolf’s proposal is for a $33.2 and collectively with others, billion budget, a $2.72 billion represents Pennsylvania’s increase from the current budJewish communities before get version being debated. To state government and with gather the needed revenue for Joe Fisch other Pennsylvanians. Jewish values guide the PJC’s focus on issues his expenses, Wolf is asking the legislature of importance to these communities, to consider the following: including public social policies and An increase in the Personal Income funding and regulation of the delivery of Tax from 3.07 to 3.40, and inclusion of a PIT on lottery winners. human service. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf Expansion of the sales tax in Pennsylhas presented his budget proposal for vania to include basic cable, movie tickets Pennsylvania’s upcoming fiscal year and downloads. which is from July 1, 2016-June 30, An increase in gaming taxes on slots 2017. As Wolf and House/Senate leaders and table games.
An increase in cigarette taxes and expansion to include smokeless tobacco, cigars and e-cigarettes. An increase in the bank share tax. Taxes on fire, property and casualty insurance. A 6.5 percent tax on oil and gas drilling, severance taxes. The House and Senate Republican leaders have expressed their concerns regarding the proposed budget increase, tax increases and new taxes, especially at a time when the current budget has still not been resolved due to arguments about budget increases, tax increases and new taxes. The Pennsylvania Senate Republicans have indicated that they will not look at any budget increase, nor a tax increase – including new taxes – unless pension
reform is included. Pennsylvania Senate currently has 30 Republicans, 19 Democrats and one vacancy. The Pennsylvania House of Representatives Republicans have indicated concerns regarding a tax increase – of any kind, including new taxes – at this time. The Pennsylvania House of Representatives has 118 Republicans, 82 Democrats and three vacancies. During the next several weeks, the House of Representatives and Senate Appropriation Committees will hold budget hearings with the numerous departments and agencies of the administration to discuss their line items in the budget proposal as well as their current activities. Joe Fisch is chairman of the Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition.
BOOK REVIEW
Dark deeds and crimes, Jewish style BY RABBI RACHEL ESSERMAN Tales of noir are so fashionable at the moment that one publisher is in the midst of producing more than 70 volumes of noir focusing on cities across the globe. (To see The Reporter review of one volume, “Tel Aviv Noir,” visit www.thereportergroup. org/Article.aspx?aID=3736.) Many short story collections are a mixed bag of the good, bad and mediocre. Fortunately, that’s not true of a recent collection, “Jewish Noir: Contemporary Tales of Crime
and Other Dark Deeds,” edited by Kenneth Wishnia (PM Press). The stories featured are consistently good, with some so good they transcend the noir genre. In his introduction, Wishnia notes that “the recent surge in ‘noir’ anthologies has nothing to do with nostalgia. We live in an age that parallels many of the conditions that gave rise to the first generation of noir writers: economic insecurity, incompetence and corruption at all levels of government, disillusionment with the
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American dream, while those responsible for it all make their millions and get away with murder.” He notes the elements that form the basis of noir – including rootlessness, fatalism, betrayal, mortality, secrets and undefeated evil – affect our society today. Yet, the stories are never glum: while they all have a dark feel, many contain humorous and moving moments, and the range of plots is impressive. All the stories have Jewish themes, although Wishnia notes that it’s difficult to define exactly why some are Jewish. One feature he sees as connecting them is rootlessness – being “a person who is at home nowhere,” a theme he sees as defining Judaism since God told Abraham to make his home in Ur. Wishnia believes essential Jewish stories – even biblical ones – qualify as noir since “in Judaism, you can follow the right path and still get screwed.” He uses Moses as an example, noting that although Moses led the Israelites to the Promised Land, he was forbidden to enter Canaan – even this hero couldn’t fulfill his greatest desire. All the stories were so well done it’s difficult to single out particular ones, but
some affected me more than others. These included: “Quack and Dwight” by Travis Richardson – The narrator, a psychologist, agrees to help an old friend who works as a prosecutor, even though it might place him in danger. However, preparing the 8-year-old witness to testify turns into a life-changing event for the narrator and his wife. “Blood Diamonds” by Melissa Yi – Focusing on three different characters, this tale offers an unsettling view of medicine and medical research. “The Flowers of Shanghai” by S. J. Rozan – This powerful and brutal story features a heart-rending view of Shanghai during World War II. “One of Them” by Alan Orloff – When the narrator tries to right a wrong, his attempt not only creates additional problems, but finally makes him able to understand his parents’ stance: the Jewish community should never rely on outsiders for solutions. “Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die” by Charles Ardai – Even though the See “Deeds” on page 10
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FEBRUARY 25, 2016 ■
THE REPORTER
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SCIENCE NEWS IN BRIEF From JNS.org
Archaeological evidence of 7,000-year-old human village found in Jerusalem
Einstein’s gravitational waves observed for the first time
Scientists revealed on Feb. 11 that for the first time, they have been able to directly detect the existence of gravitational waves, which were identified by Jewish scientist Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity a century ago. The discovery was announced by David Reitze, executive director of the U.S.-based Laser Interferometer GravitationalWave Observatory, during a press conference in Washington, DC. Reitze said that the gravitational waves were detected on Sept. 14, 2015, by both of the twin LIGO detectors in Livingston, LA, and Hanford, WA. Einstein’s theory stipulated that gravitational waves are produced from the merger of two black holes, a collision that has previously never been observed. “Gravitational waves, sort of at a fundamental level, are very similar” to a pond, explained Reitze. “In this case, the rock is some big massive object, some accelerating object, and the surface of the pond is the space. It’s basically a space. So when a big object moves and accelerates, you have two objects, orbiting around one another, it’s creating these ripples that travel outward, and that’s what a gravitational wave is. It’s like ripples on a pond, but the ripples in this case are in space themselves,” he said.
Israeli artist to create first sculpture in outer space
An Israeli artist plans to create a “laughing” piece that will be beamed up to outer space this year, becoming the first-ever sculpture in space, The Jerusalem Post reported. Eyal Gever is a concept artist working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on a project called #Laugh, which will take a digital representation of human laughter and send it space, where it will be formed into a “sculpture” by the Made in Space company on a 3D printer designed to work in zero-gravity conditions. The #Laugh project is intended to help create an environment where astronauts can work easier in space, for instance, giving them the ability to upload images and print them in 3D. “One of the areas that we are excited a lot about is art and how we can design new types of art that maybe we can’t even bring back to Earth, because we’re building a sculpture that wouldn’t even survive in gravity,” said Made in Space’s chief technology officer, Jason Dunn, in a video promoting #Laugh. Gever spoke on Feb. 10 at Tel Aviv’s International Mediterranean Tourism Market conference about wanting to create a sculpture of something that does not exist in space. “I realized, you know, maybe I shouldn’t even think about using a person or a certain language that has a political connotation or culture or time or race, and then a friend of mine said, ‘Why don’t you do a human laughter?’” he said. As part of the NASA project, people will be able to record and submit their laughter online, and then vote on which digital representation of laughter should be used in the sculpture.
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A cancer study hailed the week of Feb. 18 as potentially showing revolutionary results for the treatment of leukemia is based on research undertaken by Prof. Zelig Eshhar of Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science. An article in the Science Translational Medicine journal outlines how researchers from the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center and the Perelman School of Medicine found that 27 out of 29 advanced leukemia patients either went into remission or saw their illness go away completely after their Tcells were modified genetically, a success rate of nearly 94 percent. In the study, carried out at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, the cells were equipped with synthetic molecules the were able to destroy the tumor cells, particularly in cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. These results are not surprising for Eshhar, who pioneered the idea with a 1989 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, in which he replaced the T-cell’s natural receptor with one of his choice, showing that T-cells can be engineered to attach to any entity. Eshhar won the Jewish state’s Israel Prize for his research in 2015. “I’m not surprised to hear about the results,” Eshhar said, the Times of Israel reported. “In our lab, we cured many rats and mice of cancer. I have been saying for years that we could do this in people, as well. I felt a great sense of satisfaction upon hearing the news,” he added. “The next task of my lab and others working on this is to expand it and try to attack other forms of cancer.” Eshhar cautioned, however, that more work is needed before the treatment could actually be seen as a cancer cure. “Obviously much more work is needed,” he said. “One issue with this kind of therapy is that you have to develop specific T-cells for each kind of cancer. But studies like those are a great impetus to move forward with research. I believe the day will come when we will see many more cancers treated in this manner.”
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b Including a selection of Glatt Kosher Fresh and Frozen Beef, Chicken & Turkey. Meat b
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Breakthrough cancer study has Israeli roots
Featuring the largest kosher selection of fresh meat, poultry, dairy, frozen, grocery & baked goods!
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Israeli archaeologists have discovered evidence of a 7,000-year-old human settlement in northern Jerusalem in a dig conducted in the Shaft neighborhood. The dig was organized and funded by the Moriah Jerusalem Development Corporation. Remnants discovered from what archaeologists have said is the Chalcolithic period include buildings, pottery, flint tools and a basalt bowl. That period in early human history is known for being the first time that humans used copper tools. “Remains from the Chalcolithic period have been found in the Negev, the coastal plain, the Galilee, and the Golan, but they have been almost completely absent in the Judean Hills and in Jerusalem,” explained Israel Antiquities Authority Prehistory Branch Chairman Dr. Omri Barzilai. “We also recovered a few bones of sheep, goat and possibly cattle,” said IAA Excavations Director Ronit Lupo. “These will be analyzed further in the Israel Antiquities Authority laboratories, permitting us to recreate the dietary habits of the people who lived here 7,000 years ago and enhancing our understanding of the settlement’s economy.” Lupo added, “Besides for the pottery, the fascinating finds attest to the livelihood of the local population in prehistoric times – small sickle blades for harvesting cereal crops, chisels and polished axes for building, borers, awls, and even a bead made of carnelian (a gemstone), indicating that jewelry was either made or imported.”
Gold’s Cocktail Sauce
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THE REPORTER ■ FEBRUARY 25, 2016
Hummus in Hanoi: Israeli chef brings Middle Eastern cuisine to Vietnam BY MIKE IVES HANOI, Vietnam (JTA) – Shahar Lubin earned his culinary chops in Israel and, later the United States, cooking his way through more than 20 restaurants, starting at the age of 16. Still, it was a leap when he moved to Vietnam and opened a restaurant of his own. “I said, ‘I’ve been doing it for other people for so long, I might as well do it for myself,’” said Lubin, who operates Daluva, the first and only “Middle Eastern gastropub” in Hanoi, a city of seven million with a street-food culture. Lubin, 37, grew up in the Israeli village of Hararit in the Galilee and spent Israeli chef Shahar Lubin, summers working as a owner of Daluva, a “Middle shepherd. He said he began Eastern gastropub,” in cooking as a social activity Hanoi, Vietnam. (Photo by with boys in neighboring villages. In 2000, after servEmily S. Adams) ing in the Israeli Army and living in Jerusalem, Lubin moved to Philadelphia, his father’s hometown, and began working his way up the restaurant food chain, from line cook to senior chef. Working in a wide variety of kitchens, Lubin said he prepared everything from pub food to “contemporary Israeli” cuisine. At one point, he worked in the same restaurant under three different incarnations. “I was like a cat, I came with the building,” he said with a laugh. But the long hours exacerbated a chronic back injury and Lubin grew desperate for a long break. Southeast Asia seemed like a logical place to get “recharged,” he said, partly because he liked what he knew of the region’s food. So Lubin traveled there in 2009 for what he thought would be a one-year sabbatical.
Lubin said he spent most of a year exploring Southeast Asian cities, including Bangkok, Thailand and Yangon, Myanmar. “I’ve seen enough nature in my life, and I’ve seen enough dead ruins of dead civilizations,” he said flatly. “I like life.” In Hanoi, Lubin met the owners of a Vietnamese restaurant group who were planning to open a Mexican restaurant. They offered to bring him on as a consultant. The job didn’t materialize, but Lubin stayed in Hanoi anyway, working as a restaurant consultant, English teacher and freelance writer. In 2012, when a restaurant was folding in Hanoi’s upscale West Lake district, he took it over. Daluva’s previous owner had created a menu of Asian and Western fare that Lubin describes as “nondescript.” So Lubin renovated the restaurant and relaunched it in 2013. The menu now has Israeli favorites like hummus, falafel and shakshuka alongside American burgers and rib-eye steaks. But other items, such as the Tunisian salmon stew or “fancy pants pizza” – topped with pears, blue cheese and cured duck pancetta – make it difficult to neatly categorize the restaurant’s offerings. That’s intentional, Lubin said – he deliberately cooks in a range of styles and he used to bristle when Philadelphia journalists labeled him an “ethnic” cook. “I try to divorce food from its origin and think, ‘What is the taste?’ not ‘Where is it from?’” he said on a recent weekday morning as he sat in Daluva’s unassuming, exposed-brick dining room. Lubin said the vast majority of Daluva’s ingredients are sourced locally and he likes to use them in unorthodox ways. His tagines use Vietnamese salted limes instead of lemons, for example; his taramosalata has Vietnamese fish sauce instead of salted fish roe. Israel’s ambassador to Vietnam is among those impressed. “I find him to be a very creative chef,” Meirav Eilon Shahar said in a telephone interview. Another Daluva fan, Peter Nacken, a German travel
Friends of The Reporter Dear Friend of The Reporter, Each year at this time the Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania calls upon members of our community to assist in defraying the expense of issuing our regional Jewish newspaper, The Reporter. The newspaper is delivered twice of month (except for December and July which are single issue months) to each and every identifiable Jewish home in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
columns that cover everything from food to entertainment. The Federation assumes the financial responsibility for funding the enterprise at a cost of $26,400 per year and asks only that we undertake a small letter writing mail campaign to our recipients in the hope of raising $10,000 from our readership to alleviate a share of that responsibility.
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See “Hanoi” on page 10
At Daluva, bun cha – a traditional Vietnamese dish of grilled pork and noodles – is made with falafel. (Photo courtesy of Daluva)
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and food writer who lives near the restaurant, said it was nice to have a “creative food spirit” around the corner. “With these kinds of platters, you don’t realize you’re eating vegetarian,” Nacken said on a recent evening at Daluva, surrounded by empty white plates. He and his family were sharing a meze platter that included a tabbouleh made with diced banana flower. The dishes at Daluva are not elaborately presented. Lubin said his instinct is not to show off his culinary prowess in obvious ways, and to instead focus on creating a casual dining atmosphere. “I guess it’s a Philadelphia attitude,” he said. “In Philadelphia, we don’t like things that are too frou-frou.” But Daluva’s food is full of subtle complexity. A “pulled” eggplant sandwich, for example, is Lubin’s intrepid variation of the pulledpork classic. In a cooking process Daluva’s “pulled” eggplant sandwich that requires 12 (Photo by Trung Del) to 14 hours of labor, he said, the star ingredient is smoked, roasted, peeled, dry rubbed and dehydrated – all before it meets a homemade barbecue sauce. The result is a smoky, tangy creation that would please ranchers and vegans alike. And every few months, Lubin creates a specials menu based around whatever strikes his fancy. Previous menus have celebrated – and, to a degree, reinvented – cuisines from Greece, New Orleans, Japan and beyond. In January, he created what may be the world’s first Vietnamese-Israeli fusion menu for a Culinary Friendship Week sponsored by the Israeli Embassy. A highlight of the menu was Lubin’s quirky reinterpretation of bun cha, a Hanoi street-food medley of grilled pork, vermicelli noodles and fresh herbs. Lubin nixed the pork and replaced it with falafel. “It seems improbable to give bun cha an Israeli flavor,” Shahar said, “but he did it.” The restaurant is tucked among the West Lake villas and serviced apartments of wealthy Vietnamese and expatriates. But a more traditional Vietnamese neighborhood
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New JCC Scheduling Calendar and Community Calendar The JCC of Scranton has a new and improved online calendar. This replaces the old very large paper calendar that was located at the JCC. Now everyone can go online and see what’s happening at the JCC and the community. No more stopping in or calling the JCC - you can see events and openings if needed right from your computer. The link to this site is: jcc.cleverfish.com/schedule/web/index.php Type in the username: everybody and the password: everybody You will not be able to schedule events but you can see availability and what is already scheduled. To schedule an event, contact Mindy VanFleet at the JCC at mindy@scrantonjcc.org or 570-346-6595, ext 111
FEBRUARY 25, 2016 ■
THE REPORTER
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Home of Freud and… pita? Israelis make culinary mark in Vienna BY ORIT ARFA JNS.org Several Viennese Jews have made a lasting impact on the world. Sigmund Freud’s investigations changed the face of modern psychology. Composer Arnold Schoenberg’s innovations in atonal music changed the face of music. These days, even more Jews – in particular, Israeli Jews – are changing the face of Vienna’s culinary scene with innovations in… the art of the pita. Freudians may find a psychoanalytic motive for the local appeal of the Israeli eateries popping up in the Austrian capital. Walk into Miznon in the First District, about 20 minutes from Freud’s former home (today the
Portugal
The crowd at The Hungry Guy in Vienna. (Courtesy of The Hungry Guy via Facebook) Continued from page 1
“I no longer feel comfortable in France,” Zekri said. “I would never wear a kippah on the street. Here people sometimes tell me they are happy to see the Jews return.” Porto hasn’t seen a single antisemitic incident over the last decade, according to the mayor, Rui Moreira, who spoke in January at an event at the synagogue and obliquely referenced the rising antisemitic violence elsewhere in Europe. “This synagogue was built when others across Europe were being burned,” he said. “Today it again offers shelter from the bad winds blowing around us.” Alexandre Sznajder, a Jewish businessman from Rio de Janeiro with a Polish passport who was in town for the kosher hotel and synagogue celebration, is thinking about moving to Porto with his wife and son. “The economic situation in Brazil is deteriorating and personal security is terrible,” said Sznajder, an importer who said he was kidnapped for ransom two years ago. “If I can keep doing business from here, where it’s safe, Porto could be the place for us.” Some applicants for Portuguese citizenship from nonEU countries want a Portuguese passport as an insurance policy, in the event things in their home countries go south. Hila Loya, a visitor from Cape Town, applied last year for that reason. In South Africa, she said, “the anti-Israel, anti-Jewish atmosphere is worsening, and there’s a feeling things may turn for the worse in the near future.” In January, approximately 250 Jews from 14 countries convened here for a weekend retreat designed to introduce them to Porto and its Jews. Among those present were the president of Lisbon’s Jewish community, Turkish Chief Rabbi Ishak Haleva and 80 other Turkish Jews. Most of the applicants to Porto’s community so far have been Turkish Jews, including many of those who came for the weekend retreat. Haleva, considered one of Sephardic Jewry’s most respected religious figures, said he came not to apply for citizenship – “I’m a Turkish Jew, period” – but to visit “this place where our roots are.” Many of Turkey’s Jews are descended from Sephardic Jews who fled northern Portugal after 1536, when Portugal joined Spain in applying the Inquisition’s expulsion orders against Jews, according to Haleva. And many of those who fled from Portugal to Turkey originally came from Spain, where the Inquisition began in 1492. Tens of thousands of Jews stayed in Portugal and con-
Turkish Chief Rabbi Ishak Haleva, right, talked to congregants outside Kadoorie-Mekor Haim synagogue in Porto, Portugal, on January 29. (Photo by Cnaan Liphshiz) verted to Christianity. While many continued to practice Judaism in secret as anusim – Hebrew for “forced ones” – the Jewish presence ultimately vanished from this once heavily Jewish area. The Jewish revival was sparked in 1923, when a Portuguese army captain, Arthur Carlos Barros Basto, reached out to the descendants of the anusim, leading to the construction of Porto’s synagogue. Built in 1939, the community’s Kadoorie-Mekor Haim synagogue is among the largest and most beautiful in the Iberian Peninsula, but it saw long periods of neglect until last year’s extensive renovations were completed. That helped put a new shine on the synagogue’s best features: Moroccan-style interior arches, heavy redwood interior and collection of more than 20,000 hand-painted azulejos, Portugal’s iconic ceramic tiles. When Porto’s mayor dropped in at the January retreat, it was his second time at the city’s shul – a sign of the Jewish community’s increased significance in Porto, according to the local rabbi, Daniel Litvak. Addressing 300 guests from the synagogue’s podium while wearing a kippah, Moreira, who himself is descended from anAshkenazi Jew who settled in Porto in the 19th century, said Portugal’s new law of return was to “correct a historical wrong” – the 16th-century expulsion of Portugal’s Jews. But, he added, “the law has future implications: We want you to come live here, with us, and share that future.”
Sigmund Freud Museum), and the boisterous place seems to answer to an unconscious desire of stiff Austrians for looseness, informality and sensuality – qualities that have been the mark of the cuisine of Israeli celebrity chef Eyal Shani, Miznon’s creator. Miznon is a far cry from traditional cafés serving wiener schnitzel and apple strudel on old porcelain plates by waiters in suits. “Gidi!” and “Georg!” and “Michael!” are some of the names that fly over the counter from the friendly pita masters. No porcelain here. Food is served on brown paper bags; menus on brown plastic wraps. It’s this culinary cacophony – this atonality of gourmet kebabs, steaks and chicken stuffed in a pita – that have made the Viennese branch of the Israeli joint a darling of the Austrian media since it opened in October 2015. “Miznon, the concept, is exactly what we need here,” said Georg Demmer, founder of CoSpace, a local co-working space and café, and a Miznon regular who first tasted its food during his travels to Tel Aviv. “Street food in general is developing very fast in Vienna, so places where you do not necessarily have to sit down but can have a fast health snack really fits this Pita and dips at Vienna’s development.” He calls Miznon’s Miznon, a restaurant created chicken spachtel “ge- by Israeli celebrity chef Eyal nius.” Spachtel stands for Shani.(Photo by Orit Arfa) spatula – since the ground chicken is hammered flat, with spices, onions and eggs, into a kind of a pancake. A new kid on the block, literally a few blocks down from Miznon and up the street from a shwarma place called Sababa (but don’t be fooled by what is commonly perceived as Hebrew slang – Sababa is Arab-owned), is The Hungry Guy. The eatery officially opened on January 28, hoping to build the niche of transformative uses of pita. See “Vienna” on page 8
Save the Date
Tuesday evening, March 8 7pm at the Scranton JCC Dr. Sandra Alfonsi will be speaking on “Bias in our Textbooks” Details will follow.
Save the Date! e ate I a P ade Sunday, June 5, 2016 This year’s theme: Sight and Sounds of Israel ÊCheck out the Federation’s new, updated website at www.jewishnepa.org or find it on Facebook
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THE REPORTER ■ FEBRUARY 25, 2016
D’VAR TORAH Emphasize the positive and eliminate the negative BY RABBI MOSHE SAKS, TEMPLE ISRAEL OF SCRANTON Ki Tisa, Exodus 30:11-34:35 In the Torah portion of Ki Tisa, we read the famous statement of God’s Attributes: “The Lord God is gracious and compassionate, patient, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, assuring love for a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin...” On all major festivals, these “Thirteen Attributes” are recited. It emphasizes the quality of mercy, going beyond the verse in the “Ten Commandments” in expressing the forgiving nature of God. However, if you look at this closely, the end of the verse (the words after “sin...,” which are warnings of Divine Punishment upon subsequent generations for wrongdoing) is not included. By doing so, the sages wanted to emphasize the forgiving nature of God, eliminating any mention whatsoever of His judgment and punishment. This emended version of the verse was also incorporated into the High Holy Day liturgy. Everyone knows the saying, “If you can’t say something positive, don’t say anything.” Even the act
Vienna
“Our idea is to cook quality food and to sell it in a pita, so it’s a mix between East and West,” said coowner and founder Eyal Guy, for whom the eatery is named. Born in Tel Aviv and married to an Austrian, Guy is not only a chef but also a psychotherapist, for he sees both food and therapy as “human relation” fields. The eatery merges Israeli informality and European refinement through freshly baked, seep-free pitas (so the local businessmen don’t ruffle their cufflinks) stuffed with creative twists on latkes, fish and chips, and chili con carne, among other dishes. The contents of each pita are as colorful as Klimt paintings. The Hungry Guy was built in what used to be a Jewish-owned garment business, located around the corner from the city’s main synagogue, The Stadttemple, and a few blocks away from the Vienna Jewish Museum, although none of these establishments cater specifically to members of the tribe. Decimated by the Holocaust, Austria’s Jewish community is now estimated at 9,500, with most residing in Vienna. The Orthodox community is based across the Danube canal where a few traditional, and less imaginative, kosher bakeries and eateries operate near the Taborstrasse. The first clan, however, to really make a Tel Aviv mark on the Vienna scene is the Molho family, headed by the matriarch, Haya, who built a Tel Aviv-style bistro with her four sons when her husband retired as a worldtraveling mime who had based himself in Vienna. Neni
of repentance and asking forgiveness is made easier without the shadow of punishment looming overhead. So, too, in life, positive reinforcement is very often more effective than threat. Why, then, is the negative all too often used, which harbors fear, and eventually, hatred? It is a lot easier to make someone afraid than to spend the time to educate people about their concerns. We certainly see this today in the speeches of many politicians. Rather than offering a view for a positive affirmation of society, we are warned about the dangers of “the others” those who might seem different and strange to us. The message of Judaism is clear: “You were once strangers in the land of Egypt.” We must always try to emphasize the positive, affirming nature of our Jewish tradition; we can empathize with the “other.” Let’s take our example from the rabbis, in the way with which they edited the famous verse in this week’s Torah portion. Let us be like God, “gracious and compassionate, patient, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, assuring love for a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin...”
Continued from page 7
A pita is stuffed at The Hungry Guy in Vienna. (Courtesy of The Hungry Guy via Facebook) (the acronym of her sons’ first names) opened seven years ago in the 100-year-old Naschmarkt, the closest Vienna gets to a shuk. Packed at any given hour, the trendy, two-story local institution serves Israeli comfort foods with a gourmet twist. “It starts with the service,” said Neni’s Nuriel Molho, the eldest son, who’s in charge of press and marketing for the restaurant. “We love Israeli service. Israelis are super friendly, they know the kitchen, they know what they’re selling. It was classic in Austria to be older, wear a uniform and be more robotic.” Not long after Neni opened, the government of Israel approached it to create a Viennese homage to Tel Aviv, part of an effort to celebrate Tel Aviv’s 100-year anniversary across Europe. Tel Aviv Beach, a Viennese interpretation of the Tel Aviv promenade, replete with the Keter-brand plastic chairs, has been called a huge hit, transforming a neglected and sketchy stretch of the Danube canal into a crowded hotspot. Tel Aviv Beach is now an institution, more evidence of the deep, unconscious love that some Austrians (at least the average citizen) may harbor for Israel, in spite – or to spite – Vienna’s dark Jewish history. The Molhos are happy to bring out the love. “Every time there is a political thing or something happens in Israel, and they ask us for political statements, we don’t offer political statements at all,” Nuriel said. “It’s about the vibe, the beauty of Tel Aviv. We want to share our home, in a positive light. We send a lot of people to Tel Aviv and they come back saying we never thought it was so modern, so cool.”
FEBRUARY 25, 2016 â–
THE REPORTER
HAVE YOU MADE YOUR 2016 PLEDGE TO THE... The mission of the Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania is: To rescue the imperiled, to care for the vulnerable, to support Israel and to revitalize and perpetuate the Jewish communities of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
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Perpetual Annual Campaign Endowment Your gift to the Annual Campaign DOES A WORLD OF GOOD.
Endowing your gift allows you to be there for the Jewish community of NEPA forever. A Perpetual Annual Campaign Endowment (PACE) is a permanent fund that endows your Jewish community Annual Campaign gift as a lasting legacy. A PACE fund will continue to make an annual gift in perpetuity on your behalf. To determine the amount you need to endow your entire campaign gift, multiply your current annual gift by 20. You can fund your PACE by adding the JEWISH FEDERATION OF NORTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA to your will, or by making the Federation a beneficiary of your IRA. All contributions to establish a PACE are tax deductible.
Let your name be remembered as a blessing. Endowments can be created through a variety of vehicles, some of which do not necessitate funding during your lifetime yet still provide your estate with considerable tax benefits. They also enable you to perpetuate your commitment to the Annual Campaign in a way that best achieves your own personal financial and estate planning goals.
Examples Of Ways To Fund Your Pace Gift Are: * outright contribution of cash, appreciated securities or other long-term capital gain property such as real estate * charitable remainder trust * gift of life insurance Using appreciated property, such as securities or real estate, * charitable lead trust affords you the opportunity to eliminate the income tax on the * gift of IRA or pension plan assets * grant from your foundation * reserved life estate in your residence * bequest
long-term capital gain, will in some instances generate a full income tax charitable deduction and will remove those assets from your estate for estate tax purposes.
For more information contact Mark Silverberg at Mark.Silverberg@jewishnepa.org or call 570-961-2300, ext. 1.
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THE REPORTER ■ FEBRUARY 25, 2016
Exhibit on Mark Podwal
The Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU in Miami Beach will hold the exhibit “Mark Podwal: All This Has Come Upon Us...” until March 13. It features the works of artist, author and illustrator Mark Podwal, who is best known for his drawings on The New York Times’ op-ed pages. It looks at Podwal’s depictions of historical threats of antisemitism, which are combined with verses from the Book of Psalms. For more information, visit www.jewishmuseum.com/ or contact the museum at 305-672-5044.
Hanoi
Continued from page 6
– complete with swarms of honking motorbikes and street vendors wearing traditional conical hats – is just a few blocks away. Lubin said he may someday move his restaurant to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s other major city, which is generally seen as more cosmopolitan and may be more receptive to his Middle Eastern gastropub concept. “I’m happy with our product,” Lubin said. But for anyone serving non-Vietnamese cuisine in Hanoi, he added, “it’s hard, apparently, to be successful here, consistently, unless you’re an Italian or Japanese restaurant.” Nguyen Phuong Mai, 27, a Vietnamese food blogger in Hanoi who goes by the nickname Tho, said some of her friends regarded Daluva’s food as “strange” because it is so unfamiliar to their palates. But Mai has traveled in Israel, she said, and she recognizes a good chef when she sees one. On her blog, Tho Loves Food, she has praised Daluva in glowing terms. Some of Mai’s posts include extended musings on the nuances of Lubin’s ingredients, or similarities and differences between Vietnamese and Middle Eastern cooking. But a recent heading summed up her views in just a few words. “Daluva – True gem in Hanoi – Must try,” she wrote.
Deeds
Continued from page 4 opening contains a mistake (the book of Jonah is read on Yom Kippur afternoon, but not from a Torah scroll), this satisfying work shows just how far people will go to save a life. “The Drop” by Alan Gordon – This tale takes several unusual turns when Avi visits a club in search of a new drug supplier. Its ending was unexpectedly moving. “Twisted Shikse” by Jedidiah Ayers – The narrator finds himself involved with a dangerous young woman, the result of which changes the course of his life. The conclusion of this tale was immensely satisfying. Two stories of Jewish students being bullied – “Sucker’s Game” by Michelle Lang and “Jewish Easter” by David Liss – The main characters in each use very different means to solve their problems. However, both offer surprises and gratifying endings. The authors of these tales include a rabbi, literary novelists and several award-winning mystery writers. Lovers of the noir genre will definitely want to read this collection. In fact, these stories may also serve as a satisfying surprise for those who rarely delve into the dark –and sometimes eerie – world of noir.
Therapy
Continued from page 1
Sela Marom, owner and head guide of Derech HaYadiim, adds, “This type of treatment gives a lot of unconditional love – it doesn’t matter who you are, the plants are still going to grow.” The green therapy – and the greenhouse in which it takes place – is made possible by donations from Jewish National Fund, which is a partner of Aleh Negev, helping the rehabilitation village with various projects, day trips and the overall needs of the organization. “Cooperation is key,” Osher Cohen says, “and we can see that the locals aren’t looking at us strangely, like they used to when we went out for special trips. The general community is accepting of the residents of Aleh Negev, and they’re viewed as a part of the community. I feel that JNF’s cooperation and help with [the residents’] integration into the larger Israeli society has greatly helped with this acceptance.” Editor’s note: The 2016 JNS.org Inclusion Special Section, published during Jewish Disabilities Awareness Month, is made possible by the support of Jewish National Fund.
FEBRUARY 25, 2016 ■
THE REPORTER
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NEWS IN BRIEF From JTA
Holland to ban export, oversee kosher and halal meat
The Dutch government said it plans to limit ritual slaughter through new measures, including a ban on the export of kosher and halal meat. On Feb. 17, Agriculture Minister Martijn van Dam announced the plan in a letter to the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament. In addition to the ban on exporting kosher and halal meat, the new measures will make the production of such meat subject to the discretion of officials from the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority. Last year, the authority urged the government to ban ritual slaughter outright, claiming it was inhumane. The authority “will oversee compliance with legal requirements connected to animal welfare,” the letter read. In slaughter without prior stunning – a requirement in both kosher and halal slaughter – the authority “will permanently oversee the actual practice of the slaughter.” Slaughterhouses will bear the costs of any activity connected to the authority, the letter read. The Netherlands does not export significant amounts of kosher meat. Nearly four years ago, the Dutch government reached an agreement with Jewish and Muslim leaders setting certain standards for ritual slaughter, including a 40second limit on the time between stunning of the animals before their necks are cut. The agreement, known locally as the covenant on slaughter, also said officials will carry out research-based consultations with faith community leaders on how to balance animal welfare with religious freedoms. The covenant was signed following the Dutch senate’s scrapping in 2012 of a law passed by parliament the previous year banning all slaughter without stunning. Religious laws in Islam and Judaism require animals be conscious when their necks are cut. While the covenant addressed some details, since its signing “the setting of general regulations has not taken place,” van Dam wrote, because of lacking documentation – which has since been performed, including by the food authority.
Students barge in on Brooklyn College faculty meeting, demand “Zionists off campus”
Approximately 10 Brooklyn College students who interrupted a faculty meeting called for “Zionists off campus” among its list of demands. A faculty member at the Feb. 16 meeting told JTA that along with the demand on Zionists, the students called one faculty member a “Zionist pig.” The educator who spoke to JTA wished to remain anonymous. Other demands ranged from calls for better pay for adjunct teachers to ending “racist” class offerings. Some of the faculty members at the meeting applauded during the students’ vocal protests, but it was not clear as to which demands the teachers were reacting to. The faculty member also told JTA that when computer science professor and faculty council head Yedidyah Langsam told the students they were “out of order,” they called him a “Zionist pig.” In a news release issued on Feb. 16, Brooklyn state Assemblyman Dov Hikind said he received complaints after the meeting from “dozens” of faculty members. “It’s just an absolute disgrace that something like this would happen in our own community,” Hikind said. Hikind also called on CUNY Chancellor James Milliken to “implement a plan of action to prevent this kind of intimidation and disruption from reoccurring anywhere within CUNY.”
European Jewish leader praises British plan to outlaw Israel boycotts
The British government’s plan to outlaw attempts to boycott Israel shows it is committed to fighting them in word and deed, the leader of the European Jewish Congress said. EJC President Moshe Kantor praised the planned measures on Feb. 17 in a statement that coincided with the visit to Israel of Matthew Hancock, a British Cabinet minister in charge of interdepartmental coordination in government. Hancock announced the new proposed regulations in a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Kantor wrote. “The bill will allow the government to prosecute universities, local government, councils, and student unions that back the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement,” he added. Calling the move “a very important act,” Kantor said, “The British government has long said it opposes boycotts of Israel in word and now we see they will also oppose them in deed.” Word of the plan to pass laws or regulations against boycotts of Israel got out earlier in February. If passed, the measures will make Britain the second European country with laws against boycotting Israel. France passed such laws in 2003 and they have served as the basis for multiple convictions of BDS activists who were sentenced for incitement to discrimination or hate due to their actions on Israel. On Feb. 16, the City Council of Paris passed two declarative motions expressing the city’s rejection of attempts to boycott Israel.
Lithuanian nationalists march in memory of Nazi collaborators
Approximately 250 Lithuanians attended a march commemorating nationalists who are accused of complicity in the murder of Jews during the Holocaust. The march on Feb. 16 in Kaunas, a city 65 miles east of Vilnius, was organized on Lithuania’s independence day by the Union of Nationalist Youth of Lithuania under the banner “We Know Our Nation’s Heroes.” The so-called heroes celebrated at the march were all involved in the Holocaust or in fighting alongside Nazi Germany, according to Efraim Zuroff, the head of the Israel branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who monitored the march in Kaunas along with a team of observers affiliated with defendinghistory.com – a website that reports on extremism in Lithuania. Organizers named at the beginning of the march Jonas Noreika, who is believed to have helped murder Jews, and Juozas Ambrazevicius-Brazaitis, the leader of a local pro-Nazi government. The others recognized were Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas, Povilas Plechavicius, Kazys Skirpa and Antanas Baltusis-Zvejas. The Feb. 16 event was the first time that Holocaust perpetrators and collaborators constituted the main theme of the Kaunas annual march, which in previous years was focused on current news events, Zuroff said. He added it was a reaction to the publication in January of a book about Lithuanian complicity in the Holocaust that he co-authored with novelist Ruta Vanagaite. Following the book’s publication, the director of the state-run Genocide and Resistance Research Center pledged to publish this year the names of 1,000 suspected Holocaust perpetrators. Her organization has had the names since at least 2012. The head of the Jewish Community of Lithuania, Faina Kukliansky, was initially quoted by the local media as saying the names should be reviewed by prosecutors before they are published, but has since published a statement demanding the names be published at the earliest date.
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THE REPORTER â– FEBRUARY 25, 2016
Israel Mission 2016 We leave the US on Sunday, September 4, and return on Friday morning, September 16. The land cost is $3,875 and the air cost will be $1,100. This trip is designed for people who have been to Israel before and are looking for those special places that we just don't have time to get to with first-time visitors.
Some of the special sites we'll be visiting are the new Yitzhak Rabin Museum, telling the story of Israel from 1948 to the present. We'll visit the Stella Maris Monastery, located above the hill going to Elijah's cave. We'll visit the largest apple packing plant in the Middle East, on the Golan Heights. We'll ascend Mt. Hermon. We'll go to Mitzpe Ramon, the site of the Ramon crater, which is about 24 miles long, 4 miles wide and about 1/4 mile deep. It's one of only two craters like it in the world. We'll also stay at an amazing new resort, built right on the edge of the crater. We'll enjoy the spa and the entire experience there. In Jerusalem, we'll visit the Knesset, take a tour of the facility, and have lunch with a Knesset member. We’ll tour the recently built Supreme Court building, the Friends of Zion Museum, and Oscar Schindler's gravesite. We'll also visit the world-famous Alyn Children's Hospital, and many more sites throughout the country. This is a very special tour that we have arranged, and one that may not be repeated due to the difficulty of making all these arrangements. Space is limited. We are already taking reservations, and will have more information available as we go further. You can call Mark Silverberg (ext 1) or Dassy Ganz (ext 2) for further information, at 570-961-2300. This is a trip you won't want to miss!