January 1, 2015 Edition of The Reporter

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VOLUME XIII, NUMBER 1

JANUARY 1, 2015

Will U.S. Jewish groups pivot left if Herzog wins?

By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA) – Come early next year, there might be yet another world capital that opposes Israeli settlement expansion and sees Benjamin Netanyahu as principally responsible for Israel’s isolation: Jerusalem. Isaac Herzog, the Labor Party leader, is faring well in the polls since Netanyahu called for new elections early in December and the Knesset dissolved itself. The prospect of a left-leaning government means that U.S. mainstream Jewish groups, which since Netanyahu’s election in 2009 have pushed back against claims that his policies have been detrimental, will have to reassess messaging.

It wouldn’t be the first time. A liberal U.S. Jewish community had to contend in 1977 with the election of Menachem Begin, then a Land of Israel maximalist whose prestate career was as a Jewish paramilitary leader who ordered the 1946 bombing of the King David Hotel.

Fifteen years later, a pro-Israel community made hawkish through years of Likud-led governments suddenly contended with Yitzhak Rabin and his accelerated moves toward peace with the Palestinians.

This time around, Jewish community leaders say, it won’t be so difficult: ProIsrael groups have long-established and friendly ties with Herzog and his political partner, Tzipi Livni, and in any case, American Jews are likelier to favor the policies of the political left.

“On the whole, the Jewish community respects the sovereignty of the Israeli public to decide who rules them,” said Abraham Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League’s national director. “What becomes difficult is you form relationships with one government and another one is in. We may lose some proximity, some access.”

Differences between the Netanyahu and Obama governments have sowed discomfiture for American Jews, particularly in the areas of Iran policy and settlement expansion. Frequently the differences have devolved into personal heated exchanges of insults.

Herzog has blamed Netanyahu for fomenting the tensions. “You are the man who personally must take credit for the destruction of Israel’s relations with the United States,” Herzog said in

an October 27 Knesset speech that anticipated the dissolution of Netanyahu’s government.

“You’ve repeatedly insulted President Obama and his administration.”

For the most part, organizations like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee have sided with Israel in the disputes, advancing Netanyahu’s stance that nuclear talks with Iran could lead to a bad deal and arguing that Palestinian recalcitrance is by far a more decisive factor in scuttling peace talks than is settlement policy in the West Bank.

Jack Moline, a leading Conservative movement rabbi known for his closeness to the Obama administration, said AIPAC would easily pivot toward a left-leaning Israeli government should it be elected in March’s polling. “The question for anyone who supports Israel is do you support the right of the government to make its policy or do you only support a government that agrees with the policy you endorse?” said Moline, who until November directed the National Jewish Democratic Council. “I have no doubt that an organization like AIPAC that presents itself as representing accurately the policies of the Israeli government will make the shift, and elegantly. Organizations whose agendas for American politics mirrors the current administration in Israel will find themselves in a more difficult circumstance.”

True enough, said Morton Klein, who heads exactly such an organization, the Zionist Organization of America – but that’s not exactly new. “We criticized Rabin and Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert when they made their offers,” Klein recalled, referring isters. “We are deeply concerned if Herzog and Livni win.”

One likelihood should Herzog win, Klein said, is that it will be harder to advance positions in Congress that oppose territorial concessions to the Palestinians.

“We fought against the Gaza withdrawal like crazy on the Hill,” he said, referring to Israel’s 2005 pullout from the Gaza Strip. “And they said, ‘Look, this is Ariel Sharon supporting it, how can I go against it?’”

Aaron David Miller, the vice president at the Wilson Center and for years a U.S. Middle East peace negotiator under various presidents, said a new government

ANALYSIS

Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog spoke in the Knesset in Jerusalem at a memorial ceremony for Yitzhak Rabin on November 5. Herzog is faring well in the polls since new elections were called in December. (Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) in Israel would likely not bring with it far-reaching change in part because so many other factors are fueling turmoil in the region, and in part because Netanyahu reflected an Israeli consensus on Iran.

“Is an Israeli government not headed by Netanyahu more likely to acquiesce in a deal with Iran?” he asked. “Is an Israeli government headed by anyone but Netanyahu likely to create a breakthrough with the Palestinians?”

One group with strong and established ties with both Herzog and Livni is J Street, a liberal U.S. Jewish Middle East policy group. Alan Elsner, its vice president for communications, predicted that U.S. Jewish groups would pivot toward the left-leaning governments in part because American Jewish grass-roots favor accommodation. “A lot of American Jews would welcome the prospect of a government that is sincere in seeking peace and that doesn’t put peace second to land and settlements,” he said. “Most Jewish organizations would go along; what choice do they have?”

Peter Joseph, who heads the Israel Policy Forum, a group that advocates for a two-state solution, said the tendency among the U.S. Jewish voters to back two states means that the greater challenge posed by the coming election was the rise of right-wing parties, which unlike Netanyahu reject Palestinian statehood in any form.

SHDS annual winter soup sale now under way The Scranton Hebrew Day School is again holding its annual winter soup sale, featuring a selection of more than 15 soups, such as lentil, chicken, onion and butternut squash. All of the soups are homemade and available for special

order, so quantities are limited. Soups will be available in two sizes and will cost $4 for a 16 ounce container or $8 for a 32 ounce container.

For more information or to receive an order form, call the day school at 570-

346-1576, ext. 2. The final order date is Thursday, January 8, and soup will be available for pick-up at the school on Tuesday, January 20.

All of the proceeds will benefit the school’s scholarship fund.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE In the Diaspora

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Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett, Joseph said, “is playing on people’s fears in a way that most American Jews have a problem sympathizing with. My children and many members of the next generation are not going to sympathize and relate to a state of Israel that exhibits these kind of values.”

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Argentine immigrants fuel a Israel Sci-Tech Schools give Terror plots foiled in Italy; PLUS Jewish revival in Spain; French students hands-on scientific and Germany pays millions to neo-Nazi Jews see a future in Montreal. engineering training. victims; and more.

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THE REPORTER ■ january 1, 2015

a matter of opinion To end Palestinian incitement, first define it

By Stephen Flatow (JTA) – A former Clinton administration envoy has let the cat out of the bag on the issue of Palestinian incitement, putting him squarely at odds with Secretary of State John Kerry.

Shibley Telhami was one of the Clinton administration’s representatives to the Trilateral U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian Anti-Incitement Committee.

Never heard of it? That’s because after meeting a few times in 1999-2000, the committee stopped functioning. Now we know why.

In a Washington Post op-ed on December 6, Telhami revealed that the committee hit an impasse because the Israeli and Palestinian representatives “could not agree how to define incitement.” The Israelis “would present, for instance, a statement by a Muslim religious figure against Israel, and Palestinians would respond by citing settlement construction or episodes of Palestinian humiliation.”

Not quite. The problem is not an occasional statement “by a Muslim religious figure.” Everyone understands that the Palestinian Authority cannot be held responsible for every opinion expressed by some individual Palestinian. The problem is that those Muslim religious figures are sometimes paid officials of the Palestinian Authority and their statements are sometimes broadcast by authority-funded news media. The Palestinian Authority must be held accountable for statements made by its own officials or disseminated by its media outlets.

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The Palestinian position is, of course, absurd. “Settlement construction” and “humiliation” are not incitement. Just because the Palestinians don’t like Jews building homes in Jerusalem (“settlement construction”) or Palestinians being checked for weapons at security checkpoints (“humiliation”) doesn’t make it incitement.

The American representatives to the committee, as rational people, should have been able to distinguish between the reasonable Israeli position and the unreasonable Palestinian one. It is not “taking sides” for U.S. envoys to acknowledge obvious facts. If a delegate to a scientific committee said the earth was round and another delegate said the earth was flat, the U.S. representative should not have a problem acknowledging that the earth is round.

Telhami and his colleagues obviously did have such a problem. They never defined incitement and as a result the committee served no purpose.

The main point of Telhami’s op-ed was to minimize the significance of incitement. This gets him and the Palestinian leadership off the hook: Telhami for his miserable performance on the

Trilateral Committee, and the Palestinian leaders for their vicious incitement against Jews and Israel. ‘Incitement can make matters worse, but it is rarely a primary cause of violence and often is its outcome,” Telhami asserted.

Kerry disagrees. “To have this kind of act, which is a pure result of incitement, of calls for ‘days of rage,’ of just irresponsibility, is unacceptable,” Kerry said in November following the terrorist attack that killed five Israelis in a Jerusalem synagogue.

Kerry appeared to be referring to the fact that on October 30, the Fatah movement – chaired by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas – called on the Palestinian public to stage “days of rage” against Israelis. Abbas himself vowed to prevent the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem from being “contaminated”

by Jews. Official Palestinian websites featured political cartoons showing Palestinians running over Jews with their cars. One cartoon showed an Israeli soldier about to rape a Muslim woman who was labeled “Al Aqsa.”

Obviously, Kerry was right. Palestinian leaders and media called for violence, and violence followed. Telhami can’t see

it because he doesn’t want to.

The Trilateral Committee on Incitement needs to be revived, but this time with a clear definition of what constitutes “incitement.” It wouldn’t be difficult to do. Many precedents in international law enable us to accurately define incitement.

At the Nuremberg Trials, Julius Streicher, publisher of the antisemitic newspaper Der Sturmer, was convicted of incitement to mass murder. In 2003, a Rwandan newspaper editor and two radio broadcasters were convicted by the International Criminal Court of incitement to genocide because they used dehumanizing language and encouraged violence.

So I thank Shibley Telhami for being unintentionally upfront about the reasons for the failure of the antiincitement committee. Now that we know what went wrong and why, we can fix it, guided by Kerry’s powerful words about the incitement that led to the Jerusalem massacre.

Stephen Flatow is a lawyer in New Jersey. He is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was killed in a terrorist attack in 1995 while studying in Israel.

Time to rethink Holocaust Remembrance Day?

By Ben Cohen JNS.org Do we need Holocaust Remembrance Day? Since some of you may be incredulous that I even asked that question, let me first explain why I am doing so.

A scandal has erupted recently in Ireland regarding whether or not Israel can be mentioned at the forthcoming official Holocaust commemoration on Sunday, January 25. (The official international remembrance day follows two days later.) It was Yanky Fachler, the avuncular Irish-Jewish broadcaster who has been master of ceremonies of the event for several years now, who alerted the outside world to this development when he released a letter from Peter Cassells, the chairman of Holocaust Educational Trust Ireland (or HETI), informing him that he could not say the words “Israel” or “Jewish state” in any of his remarks.

After a subsequent tussle with HETI, Fachler was informed that his services as MC would no longer be needed. At the same time, Jewish leaders around the world, along with leading Irish personalities like Alan Shatter, a Jew who until recently served as minister of justice, condemned the decision on uttering the word “Israel” in no uncertain terms. Ironically, at this year’s ceremony in Dublin, Shatter underlined the centrality of Israel to our understanding of the legacy of the Holocaust when he said, “Holocaust denial is the favorite sport of some, in particular in Europe, and in the Middle East. It is the first cousin of those who still see Jews, for no reason other than they are Jewish, as legitimate targets for hate speech and random violence and of extremists who would, if they could, bring about a second Holocaust by the extermination of the six million Jews who today are citizens of the state of Israel.”

In other words, to prevent another Holocaust, Jews need to be able to defend themselves from outside persecutors – and to do that properly, they need a state.

For what it’s worth, HETI has since clarified that there “is no ban on mentioning Israel at the Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration in Ireland. Israel will be referred to and the Israeli ambassador has attended and participated in the ceremony since its inception in 2003 and will do so again in January 2015.” But there was no apology for the initial decision, and more importantly, no explanation as to how it was reached. When I recently spoke to Yanky Fachler, he told me that while it was unlikely that HETI would reinstate him as the commemoration day’s MC, he wouldn’t want the role anyway, given the lack of answers from the organization over why it deemed the mentioning of Israel to be, as the Germans might say, verboten.

I don’t know whether HETI will ever provide us with an unvarnished account as to how it arrived at, and then apparently revised, its ban on the mentioning of Israel. I’ve tried to get answers from Cassells, but his office has remained silent.

What I do know is that the controversy in Ireland neatly captures the tension between those who want to emphasize the universal lessons of the Holocaust and those who place the accent on what the extermination of six million of our people means for future generations of Jews.

That tension shouldn’t really be there. There is no reason why we cannot first mourn those Jews who died solely because they were Jews and salute those who resisted the Nazi menace even as they suffered from hunger and cold, while at the same time pointing to the Jewish experience during World War II as a moral lesson against both future genocides and those that have occurred since the Nazi defeat in 1945 (in Rwanda, Bosnia, the Kurdish region of Iraq and too many other locations).

It seems that HETI, as Fachler pointed out to me, cares more about dead Jews than living ones. That’s certainly one potential explanation as to why HETI believes it’s manifestly

alright to grieve for those who died, but deny the right of their descendants to express pride in the central achievement of post-Holocaust Jewry: the creation of the state of Israel.

Look at where this leads us. Increasingly, Holocaust education is becoming general tolerance education. From warning against the evils of genocide in general – a legitimate and important thing to do – we now wield the Holocaust as a tool to combat ills from the bullying of overweight kids to anti-immigrant rhetoric. And that means we lose our perspective. You don’t need to invoke the Holocaust to explain why harassing someone over their appearance or their origins is wrong.

Equally, this same emphasis on one human family is diluting the particular lessons of the Holocaust for Jews, as well as providing an opportunity for anti-Zionists – of whom there are many in Ireland, as is the case elsewhere in Europe – to scorn and demean the idea that Jewish sovereignty is the best answer to the persecution of our people.

So if commemorating the Holocaust in the public sphere requires Jews to play down their affiliation with Israel, and to elide the intimate connection between what the Holocaust represents and the significance of a Jewish state in our own time, then I’d say we are better off without Holocaust Remembrance Day. That doesn’t mean Jews should forget about the Nazi extermination – nor will they, as the enduring power of Yom Hashoah in Israel attests. But surely it’s better to just commemorate it amongst ourselves, and stress to the outside world that self-determination is our antidote to centuries of antisemitism, than to be forced into ugly compromises about when we can or can’t mention Israel.

Ben Cohen is the Shillman Analyst for JNS.org. His writings on Jewish affairs and Middle Eastern politics have been published in Commentary, the New York Post, Haaretz, Jewish Ideas Daily and many other publications.

january 1, 2015 ■

THE REPORTER

3

community news SHDS students entertain the community during Chanukah Scranton Hebrew Day School students participated in various programs during the recent Chanukah holiday.

Aside from in-school activities, such as the annual Chanukah assembly, the eighth grade girls’ Chinese auc-

tion and the PTA-sponsored lunch for students and staff, second grade students entertained the residents of the Jewish Home and Webster Towers on December 18.

Concluding the celebration on the last night of Chanu-

kah, December 23, the second and third grades entertained at the Jewish Community Center Chanukah Carnival.

Their performance at the community events was said to be “greatly enjoyed” by those in attendance.

Israeli-developed TalkITT gives new voice to people with speech impairments

By Maayan Jaffe JNS.org A little boy with autism says “I love you” – and you understand it. Your grandfather is able to say “congratulations” when you graduate – despite the recent stroke he suffered that impaired his speech. That future is almost the present thanks to new Israeli-developed technology that can extract spoken words from the sounds of people with speech disabilities.

Danny Weissberg in 2012 co-founded VoiceITT, maker of the TalkITT software, shortly after his grandmother had a stroke. He describes her as “the center of our family” and says it was “painful” to know she wanted to talk, but was being prevented from communicating.

Weissberg, who has degrees in civil engineering and computer science and has been working in the hi-tech industry for more than 15 years, began consulting with speech therapists and other related experts. Quickly, he realized the need for TalkITT – given that as many as 1.5 percent of the world’s population has a speech disability or impairment – and decided that with enough innovation, a solution could be created.

“The solutions that exist today, none of them actually use personal or normal speech,” Weissberg, who serves as CEO of Ramat Gan-based VoiceITT in Israel’s Tel Aviv District, tells JNS.org. “They all bypass speech. Some even monitor head and eye movements. But none of them allow people to communicate in the most natural way: their voice.”

The TalkITT software works by creating a dictionary of sounds and associating them with meaning or words. The user makes a sound and associates it with a word on the software. The app recalls the translation for future conversations. Weissberg equates the process to how a mother of a child with a speech disability will learn to understand her child, associate his or her sounds with meaning and know what he or she wants when no one else can do so.

“Like the mother that makes that association, so, too, will the software. Once the software learns, then he is now not limited to talking only with his mother. He can speak to friends at school, because the software can translate what he says for anyone,” says Weissberg.

Due to its functionality, the software would work for people who speak any language – English, Hebrew or even the speech pattern of an autistic child who has invented his own language (as long as it is consistent).

The software app can currently run on tablets and smartphones.

Matthew Arnheiter – vice president of innovations, research and development for Netsmart, the country’s longest-standing healthcare information technology company – says mobile healthcare technologies like TalkITT have burst onto the scene since the iPhone came out in 2007. Before then, many new technologies were catered to niche markets, were expensive, or were purpose-built technologies that were difficult to purchase and equally as challenging to implement.

“The phone makes it so we can do things easily and distribute them to the population rather quickly,” says Arnheiter, noting that today is “a better time than yesterday” for struggling with a disability.

Arnheiter says that with the increased focus on understanding the brain, the drive to reduce the stigma of some of these challenges, and the dedication to creating new

The Israeli-developed TalkITT software helps a boy with a speech impairment communicate “I love you.”

(Photo courtesy of VoiceITT) solutions to meet the needs of people with disabilities, “we’ll figure out better ways of bridging the gap.”

Since launching, TalkITT has won many prestigious awards, helping it gain exposure and the funding needed to keep the project going. Most recently, the company, which has offices in Boston, won the Philips Innovation Fellows Competition. TalkITT is currently in the alpha testing phase, partnering with hospitals and other medical associations to get access to voice recordings of people with speech disabilities and to test them through the system.

Next, the technology will enter the beta testing phase, when it will give the software back to these hospitals and associations and make it available for clinical trials.

“We applaud innovative technologies that open the door for individuals with disabilities to become more of a part of the broader community,” says Renee Dain – co-founder of the Baltimore Jewish Abilities Alliance, which promotes the communal inclusion of people with disabilities – upon learning of VoiceITT. “Ultimately, these will change people’s lives.”

Once Weissberg perfects TalkITT in its current version, he hopes to perfect the solution for other, similar users. For example, he envisions that the next version of the software will be able to learn new words automatically – the user would have speech patterns that TalkITT picks up on, after which point the software would suggest words (“did you mean X or Y?”) and remember those words for future conversations.

Weissberg also believes that people diagnosed with

degenerative speech disabilities, such as those associated with Parkinson’s disease or Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), could begin using the software upon diagnosis.

This way, as speech deteriorates, TalkITT would be part of the solution at an early stage. “The software could learn and then speak in the speaker’s unique, real voice,” Weissberg says.

For now, Weissberg is traveling with his team around the U.S. to build new partnerships and increase funding.

The company recently made a presentation in Maryland at the Israel-Adventist mHealth Innovation Forum, and Weissberg says he or his colleagues are willing to attend similar events to share their work.

Weissberg adds that he has many people working or volunteering for him who understand the need for TalkITT due to a personal connection to the issue the technology is addressing. “It is a great feeling to be a part of something that can really change the lives of so many,” he says.

Maayan Jaffe is an Overland Park, KS-based freelance writer. Reach her at maayanjaffe@icloud.com or follow her on Twitter, @MaayanJaffe.

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THE REPORTER ■ january 1, 2015

New Jewish homes in the Diaspora

Argentine immigrants fueling Jewish revival in Spain

By Josh Tapper TORONTO (JTA) – When Dan Charbit and his wife, Gaelle Hazan, moved to Montreal from Paris two summers ago, it was meant to be a temporary fix – a year-long attempt for Charbit to reboot his stalled career as a special-effects artist in Quebec’s thriving film and television industry. They agreed to fly home if the experiment failed.

Fourteen months after arriving in Canada, the couple has no desire to return to France. The 43-year-old Charbit, who won an Emmy earlier this year for work on the fourth season of the HBO show “Game of Thrones,” started a new job in October as a supervisor at Mokko, a Montrealbased special-effects studio serving the film and television industries. Hazan, 39, has found employment as a construction project manager.

Charbit and Hazan are part of a new wave of French Jews who have resettled in French-speaking Quebec, fleeing France’s dismal unemployment rate, which hit 10.5 percent in September, as well as the shock of antisemitism that has reverberated throughout the country in recent months and crested over the summer during waves of anti-Israel demonstrations.

France’s Jewish Community Protection Service reported 527 antisemitic incidents in the first half of 2014, compared with 276 in the same period last year. In recent months – and especially in the wake of the most recent Gaza war – there have been incidents of Jews being harassed, even physically assaulted, in the streets, and synagogues and Jewish-owned stores and restaurants being torched. And notably, in 2012, four people, including three children, were killed during a shooting rampage at a Jewish school in Toulouse.

While Israel remains the destination of choice – 5,063 French Jews made aliyah between January 1 and September 30, according to the Jewish Agency for Israel, the most from any European country – Quebec, and its largest city of Montreal in particular, is quietly becoming a popular alternative for emigres.

“I hear and I know of young couples

Julie and Nathanael Weill with their sons, Eytan and Lior, in 2013. moving to Quebec,” said Serge Cwajgenbaum, the Lyon, France-born secretary general of the European Jewish Congress.

“The reason is not necessarily related to the rise of antisemitism, but it’s more to find a proper future, in terms of good work, good salaries and a cheaper way of life.”

There are some 90,000 Jews in the Montreal metropolitan area.

Jews are not the only French citizens resettling in Canada. Overall French immigration to Quebec has skyrocketed since 2011, when Canada last conducted its National Household Survey. The French consulate in Montreal told the Canadian Press in early November that 55,000 French citizens had notified it of their residence in the city, a 45 percent increase from 2005. Since immigrants are not required to register upon arrival, the consulate estimated the actual number of French citizens in Montreal could be as high as 110,000.

Although up-to-date data on French Jewish immigration does not exist, Monique Lapointe, director of Agence Ometz, Montreal’s primary Jewish social services and resettlement organization, told JTA she has noticed a significant increase in newcomers, especially over the past year.

Inquiries, Lapointe said, have poured in through Ometz’s e-mail system and Facebook page, including from French Jews currently living in Israel. “I wouldn’t say it’s a huge number of [immigrants],” Lapointe said. “But it’s a trend. We’ll be anticipating more.”

See “Spain” on page 11

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In Montreal, Jews from France see a future for themselves

By Cnaan Liphshiz ROTA, Spain (JTA) – While setting up a synagogue at the American naval base where she works, Ahuvah (Amanda) Gipson made something of a bitter-sweet discovery. Rifling through a storage area at the sprawling American-Spanish military complex Naval Station Rota in 2012, Gipson, a former naval outreach professional who now teaches off base, found three dusty Torah scrolls and a dismantled 4foot Chanukah menorah. The objects were all that remained from a community that American Jews serving at Rota established many years ago, but which fell apart after they shipped out.

Setting up a durable congregation on a military base is difficult because of frequent turnover, but nearly three years later, Gipson’s 15-member Bet Januka community – a name referencing the found menorah – is still going strong, largely because many congregants now are local Jews. “We’re small, but we’re here to stay,” Gipson said. “It’s kind of like the bigger story, but on slightly smaller scale.”

The bigger story is the rapid growth of Jewish life in Spain, once home to one of the world’s largest and most accomplished Jewish communities, but which has had only a modest Jewish presence since the expulsion in the 15th and 16th centuries. Nowhere is the growth felt more strongly than in Madrid, home to Spain’s largest Jewish community of some 12,000 members, where six of the capital’s seven synagogues have opened in the last decade. Bet Januka is one of six Reform communities founded across the

country since 2007. “[It’s] a phenomenal regeneration not only in interest in Judaism, but also in the level of encouragement from the government,” said Leslie Bergman, president of the European Union for Progressive Judaism.

Locals say the process is being driven by a number of factors, including a supportive government and the arrival of thousands of Argentine Jews who were driven to Spain by the financial crisis of the 2000s and earlier by the Dirty War, the reign of political terror in the 1970s. Prior to their arrival, the Jewish community was constituted overwhelmingly by a small group of Orthodox Jews of Moroccan descent.

“The small community of Moroccan Jews that lives here and runs the Orthodox synagogue is pretty low-profile,” said David Pozo Perez, president of the Reform congregation Beit Rambam in Seville, who was born in Spain and is married to an Argentine. “They aren’t very big on the cultural activities that Argentinian Jews are used to from home. And so the Argentinians’ desire to re-create such an environment gave a big push to setting up social frameworks, activities and also Reform synagogues.”

But Spain’s so-called Jewish revival is also being fueled by processes outside the Jewish community. Following Portugal’s lead, Spain this year introduced legislation that may make many Jews of Sephardic descent eligible for citizenship, a measure officials described as a form of atonement for the expulsion of Jews during the Inquisition. Along with a host See “Montreal” on page 6

Ahuvah (Amanda) Gipson, left, and other members of the Bet Januka congregation located at Naval Station Rota in southern Spain on July 30. (Photo by Cnaan Liphshiz)

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THE REPORTER

Seeds of “start-up nation” cultivated by Israel Sci-Tech Schools

By Jacob Kamaras JNS.org Forget the dioramas. How about working on an Israeli Air Force drone?

That’s exactly the kind of beyond-their-years access enjoyed by students at the Israel Aerospace Industries industrial vocational high school run by Israel Sci-Tech Schools, the largest education network in the Jewish state.

More than 300 students (250 on the high school level and 68 at a two-year vocational academy) get hands-on training in the disciplines of aviation mechanics, electricity and energy control, and unmanned air vehicles (drones), before moving on to the Air Force for their state-mandated military service and then most likely back to the aviation industry – often specifically at IAI, the company whose campus they used to call “high school.”

“I wish I had this kind of plan when I was 13,” said Gabi Daniels, a mentor for IAI high school students working on drones and head of mechanical proportion systems in the company’s production division.

The IAI high school was one of the destinations on a December 1-3 mission to Israel by board members of Friends of Israel Sci-Tech Schools, the U.S.-based group of supporters of the Israeli education network, which operates 206 institutions serving more than 100,000 students.

Israel is now commonly known by the nickname “start-up nation” for its population’s knack for innovation and entrepreneurship, and the size and character of the Sci-Tech network seems to have contributed no small part to its country’s reputation. Do the math: 10 percent of all Israeli high school students attend a SciTech school, and more than 60 percent of students across the network study in science and technology tracks. In these schools, it’s evident that the seeds of future Israeli high-tech start-ups are being cultivated.

“I believe it’s not just Israeli kids [who are innovative], but the atmosphere in which they are educated... They are not afraid to fail,” said Eli Eisenberg, senior deputy director-general and chief administrator of research and development and training for the Sci-Tech network.

Eisenberg would know, having also worked in the

Students of the industrial vocational high school based at Israel Aerospace Industries stood next to a drone they are working on while their mentor, Gabi Daniels, addressed a visiting delegation from Friends of Israel Sci-Tech Schools, the U.S.-based group of supporters of the Israeli educational network to which the IAI high school belongs. (Photo by Jacob Kamaras) British and South African education systems, for Margaret Thatcher and Nelson Mandela, respectively. In contrast with Israelis’ willingness to fail, he said that students in the United Kingdom and South Africa “didn’t talk unless they were sure about it.”

“In order to establish a start-up, you have to be willing to fail nine times out of 10,” Eisenberg said.

Eisenberg believes knowledge “is not enough,” but rather “skills are much more important.” With that principle in mind, school curricula are developed at the Sci-Tech network’s R&D hub, the Mushinsky Center, from which curricula are both implemented across Israel and exported to hundreds of schools worldwide. Sci-Tech network students learn real-world skills through practical subjects like financial education, time management and teamwork.

Joel Rothschild, director of the Mushinsky Center, recalled how the Russian government approached the center about having more innovation infused in Russia’s

school curricula. The Mushinsky Center proceeded to develop the “Kids’ Lab” program for grades 3-4 in Russia and “Young Engineer” for grades eight-nine. Echoing Eisenberg, Rothschild said that when Sci-Tech trained Russian teachers, it spoke to them about how to “enjoy failing” and learn from it.

Curricula exported from the Mushinsky Center go well beyond basic math and science. Dr. Nira Shimon-Ayal works at the center on Nanopinion, a nanotechnology curriculum developed for European Union countries. “It’s important for kids to know that these different sciences are touching a boundary that is fluid,” said Shimon-Ayal, citing the convergence of technology, science, society and community. For instance, nanotechnology can explain food spoilage and the need for smart food packaging, she said. The nanotechnology curriculum, in turn, gives students a real-life scenario before going into how the science works. “We really try to get them into science through a problem,” Shimon-Ayal said.

The Sci-Tech network also builds curricula based on the demand for professionals in various Israeli industries, and it currently has 18 industrial vocational schools like the one based at IAI. Irit Klipper-Avni, the aerospace company’s vice president of human resources, called the schooling model a “win-win-win” situation for the students, the company and the country.

Among the IAI-based Sci-Tech high school’s 3,500 graduates to date, 1,100 have returned to work at IAI and 1,000 others proceeded to work elsewhere in the aviation industry. “These students are going to be the future generation of our company,” said Yehuda Horev, the high school’s principal.

Kobi Nefkse, a 17-year-old student at the high school who works one day a week on the Gulfstream G280 private jet, said being inside IAI “gives us access to so many things other schools don’t have. By the time I’m not even 20, I can have my degree in engineering,” he said.

But the road to a career wasn’t always so smooth for Nefkse. He recalled that at his previous school in Modi’in, he “wasn’t in an environment that was good for me.”

See “Schools” on page 6

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THE REPORTER ■ january 1, 2015

“Homely” ancient rock adds evidence of King David’s existence

By Menachem Wecker NEW YORK (JTA) – Dimly lit, the stone slab, or stele, doesn’t look particularly noteworthy, especially when compared to the more lavish sphinxes, jewelry and cauldrons one encounters en route to the room where it is installed.

Indeed, in a Twitter post this fall, art journalist Lee Rosenbaum described the nearly 13-by-16 inch c. 830 B.C.E. rock, which resembles an aardvark or elephant, as “homely.”

What’s significant about this stone – on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of its “Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age” exhibit running through January 4 – is its inscription, which is the earliest extra-biblical reference to the House of David.

“There is no doubt that the inscription is one of the most important artifacts ever found in relation to the Bible,” Eran Arie, curator of Israelite and Persian periods at the Israel Museum, wrote in the exhibit catalog.

As is to be expected with a rock nearly three millennia old, the slab is missing considerable portions, and

Montreal

of public initiatives to celebrate Spain’s rich Jewish heritage, the law has helped foster the growth of local Jewish communities.

“It isn’t affecting the growth of communities directly, [but] it certainly helps generate a climate that is more positive to Judaism and conducive to strengthening communities,” said David Hatchwell, president of the Jewish Community of Madrid. “When rural municipalities with hardly any Jews celebrate Sukkot and Chanukah in festivals, it encourages Jews to also celebrate their tradition more proudly than before.”

In addition to encouraging Jews to celebrate their faith, the initiatives to highlight Spain’s Sephardic heritage is drawing out the anusim, the descendants of Jews forced to convert to Christianity during the Inquisition. While only some of them formally convert, many more attend and even organize Jewish-themed events in the Spanish

The David inscription is featured in “Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age,” on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York through Jan. 4. (Photo by Meidad Suchowolski) Continued from page 4 and Portuguese countryside.

The rural festivals have also made it easier for small Jewish communities like Rota’s to access municipal resources that facilitate community-building. Rota’s municipality, for example, allows Bet Januka to make use of a community center in the city’s center, which is more convenient than dealing with security procedures at the base.

All the processes reshaping Jewish life in Spain were on display during a recent Havdalah ceremony at the center. “This scene probably wouldn’t have been possible 15 years ago,” said Jose Manuel Fernandez, a retired police officer who converted to Judaism with his wife after learning he was descended from anusim.

“The Argentinians were not here yet,” he said, “and I’m not sure the municipality would’ve necessarily let us be here.”

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.

We would be grateful if you would care enough to take the time to make a donation for our efforts in bringing The Reporter to your door.

As the primary Jewish newspaper of our region, we have tried to produce a quality publication for you that offers our readership something on everythingfrom opinions and columns on controversial issues that affect our people and our times, to publicity for the events of our affiliated agencies and organizations to life cycle events, teen columns, personality profiles, letters to the editor, the Jewish community calendar and other

As always, your comments, opinions and suggestions are always welcome.

With best wishes, Mark Silverberg, Executive Director Jewish Federation of NE Pennsylvania 601 Jefferson Avenue Scranton, PA 18510

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Name (s) (as you wish to appear on our list of “FRIENDS”) _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Address:________________________________________________________________________________________ Phone:_________________________________________________________________________________________ __Check here if you prefer your name not to be published Please write and send tax deductible checks to Jewish Federation, 601 Jefferson Avenue, Scranton, PA 18510

Arie’s translation of the remaining 13 lines of text is full of ellipses and bracketed additions. What is clear is that the Aram-Damascene king Hazael brags of having killed 70 kings, including of Israel and of the “House of David.” (The round number, scholars agree, is probably exaggerated, although Hazael did have a reputation for being ruthless and successful.)

The breaks in the stone neither obstruct nor obscure the “bytdvd,” or House of David, inscription, which remains “absolutely intact and clear,” said Ira Spar, professor of history and ancient studies at Ramapo College in New Jersey and a research Assyriologist at the Metropolitan Museum.

Epigraphers and biblical historians agree almost unanimously that the letters “bytdvd” refer to the House of King David, according to Spar. “While it is clear that David was king of Israel, the archaeological evidence for the extent of his kingdom remains unclear,” he said.

Despite its “extraordinary inscription,” the rock, a seventh century B.C.E. “Annals of Sennacherib” that tells of a siege of Jerusalem mentioned in the Bible, and a 10th-century B.C.E. “Taanach Cult Stand” that may feature a depiction of the Jewish God, have been “curiously” ignored in reviews of the Met’s exhibit, notes the Biblical Archaeology Society website.

Steven Fine, a professor of Jewish history and director of the Center for Israel Studies at Yeshiva University, agrees that the lack of attention is curious. “It’s astonishing how little the Jewish press has noticed it,” he said.

Although the inscription has received scant attention, Fine says he has observed widespread public interest in biblical-era artifacts. When he led tours as curator of the University of Southern California’s archaeological collections in the 1980s, Fine reported hearing many “oohs” and “aahs” when he showed an oil lamp from the First Temple period. “Why? Because they heard about King David,” he See “Rock” on page 15

Schools

Continued from page 5 Yet he found his stride with the practical and hands-on education at IAI. “I’m a person what works with my hands... As long as you’re doing something you like to do, you can’t really complain about it,” he said.

Daniels, the mentor for IAI students working on drones, explained how the Israeli Air Force benefits from the industrial vocational high school model. “[The students] become much more ready for the army. If the army or Air Force wants to recruit ready-made technicians, this is the way to do it,” he said. In fact, about half of the practical engineers serving in the Israel Defense Forces are graduates of the Sci-Tech schools. Seven thousand of the network’s students take parts in cadet programs, in which they spend two years training to become IDF technicians and engineers.

IAI isn’t the only company that teams up with the Sci-Tech schools – there are 80 such partnerships throughout the network. Sci-Tech’s gala dinner on December 2 in Tel Aviv spotlighted collaborations with Teva Pharmaceuticals, Elbit Systems, SanDisk and Biosense Webster. While the industrial partnerships with Sci-Tech are abundant, they aren’t always quick to emerge. For example, at the network’s Ze’ev Boim High School in Kiryat Gat, a city that is home to an Intel plant, there is not yet a formal collaboration between the company and the school. But patience is key in these relationships, said Dr. Shai Lewinsohn, director of resource development and external affairs for the Sci-Tech network.

“It’s a long process,” Lewinsohn said. “CEOs have their own interests and are business-oriented. In order to build this bridge, you have to work with them. We [as a schools network] invest in it because we believe in it. We believe there is an interest on both sides to do this.”

Notice to our Pocono Readers 911 Emergency Management Services has been updating mailing addresses in Monroe County and Lehman Townships in Pike County. Please don't forget to notify the Federation so you will continue to receive The Reporter.

Thanks, Mark Silverberg, Executive Director Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania

NEWS IN bRIEF From JNS.org

Medal of Valor awarded to Israeli Druze policeman killed in synagogue attack

(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) – Zidan Saif, an Israeli Druze policeman who was killed while fighting Palestinian terrorists in the November synagogue attack in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood, was posthumously awarded a Medal of Valor on Dec. 16 at an Israel Police ceremony. At the event, the police presented seven Medals of Courage, 15 Medals of Valor and 20 Police Commissioner Citations to the counterterrorism unit, police officers, commanders, a volunteer and one civilian. Chief Warrant Officer Pascal Avrahami, who died following a terrorist attack in southern Israel, was also awarded a Medal of Valor. The civilian who received a Medal of Valor was Hadas Mizrahi, the wife of late Chief Superintendent Baruch Mizrahi, who was killed when Palestinian terrorists fired at his family car on Passover eve. Hadas was recognized for her inspirational conduct in the wake of the attack.

The Scranton Hebrew Day School Annual

o up Sale S r e t n i W is happening now!

It’s time once again for the Scranton Hebrew Day School’s Annual Winter Soup Sale and this year it’s bigger and better!

With a selection of over 15 soups, there should be something to please every palate.

From lentil to chicken to onion to butternut squash, the list goes on and on.

All soups p are homemade and special order so quantities are limited.

Soups will wil be available in two sizes with prices ranging from for a 16 oz. container to $8.00 for the 32 oz. size. $4.00 fo For more information or to receive an order form, please call the Day School – 570-346-1576 x2.

Final order date is January 8 and soups will be available for pick-up at the school on Tuesday, January 20.

All proceeds benefit the school’s scholarship fund.

THE REPORTER

7

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at Bnei Torah Kehillat Yaakov. Eyewitnesses told the Times of Israel that Saif was shot while protecting another police officer. He is married and the father of a 5-month-old daughter.

The haredi Orthodox community in Jerusalem and elsewhere organized buses to bring people to the funeral. The funeral came hours after worshippers again entered the Bnei Torah Kehilat Yaakov synagogue for morning services, passing a security guard at the entrance to the building. Economy Minister Naftali Bennett of the Jewish Home party and Dov Lipman of the Yesh Atid party joined the worshippers. A congregant who was injured in the attack also returned for services. Four of those injured in the attack remain hospitalized. Of them, two are in serious condition, one in moderate condition and one in the orthopedic ward. Four worshippers, all rabbis, were killed in the attack, which took place during services. Three of the dead are dual American and Israeli citizens; one was also a British citizen. Israeli police killed the two assailants, Palestinian cousins Uday and Ghassan Abu Jamal of eastern Jerusalem.

Assad was killed on November 5, and more than a dozen people were injured, by a car that drove into a crowd of people waiting at a bus stop and then crashed into a light rail station, both on the border between western and eastern Jerusalem.

The afternoon incident – the second attack of its kind in two weeks – was called a terror attack. Assad, 38, from the Druze village of Beit Jaan, leaves behind his wife, who is pregnant, and a 3-year-old son. The driver, identified as Ibrahim Akkari, a Hamas activist from eastern Jerusalem, left his car carrying a metal bar and began attacking police, who shot and killed him.

“It is a difficult day for Jerusalem,” the city’s mayor, Nir Barkat, said at the scene.

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By JTA staff Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Druze community leaders on November 26 and expressed condolences on the recent deaths of two Druze police officers. Netanyahu offered his condolences on the deaths of Police Master Sergeant Zidan Saif, who was killed in the terror attack on a Jerusalem synagogue on November 18, and of Border Police Chief Inspector Jidan Assad, killed on November 5 when a Palestinian terrorist drove his car into a crowd of people at a light rail station in Jerusalem.

“You are our very flesh. You are an organic part of Israeli society. Your heroic policemen and soldiers have fallen in order to defend the state and all its citizens, but we will defend your rights and your security,” Netanyahu told the Druze leaders.

“There is a deep emotional commitment here that found expression in the crowds who came to the funeral. This emotionally underscored what Israeli citizens feel and what I feel,” he said.

Thousands, including busloads of haredi Orthodox Jews, attended the November 19 funeral of the Druze police officer killed in the terror attack on a synagogue in Jerusalem. The funeral for Saif, 30, of the Druze village of Kfar Yanouch in the Galilee, came hours after morning prayer services were held in the Har Nof synagogue where Palestinian terrorists killed five worshippers on November 18. The funeral took place in the presence of political leaders and religious leaders representing a variety of faiths. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin spoke at the funeral. “What do we tell a 5-month-old girl who will never know her father, that will grow up an orphan?

We will tell her that her father was a hero,” Rivlin said.

Saif died the night of November 18 from a gunshot wound to the head suffered in a shootout with the two Palestinian assailants in that morning’s attack

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THE REPORTER ■ january 1, 2015

WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO?

Your gift to the Federation’s UJA Campaign provides funds to meet the ongoing humanitarian and social service needs of our local and global Jewish community.

The part of your gift that remains in our community funds the many agencies that comprise the Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania and include….

ANNUAL UJA CAMPAIGN SUPPORTS • Scranton Jewish Community Center • Jewish Family Service of Northeastern Pennsylvania • Scranton Hebrew Day School • Yeshiva Beth Moshe • Bnos Yisroel of Scranton • Bais Yaakov of Scranton • Scranton Ritualarium (Mikva) • Jewish Resource Center (JRC) of the Poconos (Stroudsburg) • Jewish Discovery Center/Chabad • Temple Hesed Religious School (Scranton) • Temple Israel Religious School (Scranton) • Congregation B’nai Harim Religious School(Pocono Pines) • Jewish Fellowship of Hemlock Farms Religious School (Lords Valley) • Temple Israel of the Poconos Hebrew School (Stroudsburg)

…and our many and varied programs, projects and services including…

• Holocaust Education Resource Center/ History Teacher Enrichment Seminars • Holocaust Symposia (annually - for hundreds of middle and high school student in NEPA) • Coordination of humanitarian & disaster relief efforts (like Hurricane Sandy) • NEPA Federation Missions to Israel • Israel Emergency Campaigns (in the event of war) • Participation in NY’s annual Celebrate Israel Parade • NEPA Federation Missions to Harrisburg (in coordination with the Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition) • Northeast Pennsylvania J…ewish Film Festivals (2007/2009) • NEPA Jewish Film Lending Library • NEPA Jewish Federation Business and Trade Alliance (BTA) (www.jewishnepabta.org) • partnering with the Scranton JCC, Jewish Family Services, Temple Israel and Temple Hesed in determining the financial feasibility of constructing a new Jewish Community Campus • grants to JFS for Russian Jewish resettlement and underwriting the travel expenses of Jewish Family Service (JFS) personnel to and from the Pocono Jewish communities • sponsorship of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Artists Street Fair (Stroudsburg) • sponsorship (with the Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg) of the Matisyahu “Festival of Light” Concert on Dec. 11th, 2012 • financial support for NEPA Jewish Federation participation in the NY-based OU Job and Relocation Fair designed to attract Jewish families and business persons to our region • participation in Breast Cancer Awareness Programs • analysis of Jewish demographics in Pike, Wayne, Monroe and Lackawanna counties • capital expense assistance for agencies requiring major capital repairs (including the Scranton Mikva and Jewish Fellowship of Hemlock Farms Hebrew School) • CRC activities (lobbying local, regional, state and national elected representatives on matters affecting Jewish interests in NEPA, Israel and the world) • Security-related issues (relating to anti-Semitic threats and vandalism) The Jewish Federation has earned a reputation as a trusted, effective charity that makes a real difference in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Your support sustains a caring, compassionate community that unites in good times or bad to take care of each other and to celebrate Jewish life together.

A contribution to our annual UJA Campaign is the one gift that does it all.

Because we work together as a community.

Your involvement Yields: Many Happy Returns

january 1, 2015 ■

THE REPORTER

HERE’S HOW YOUR FEDERATION BRINGS YOU MANY HAPPY RETURNS

WHO...who we are…

The Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania is comprised of many very devoted volunteers whose efforts are supported by the contributions of more than 800 generous financial donors. These engaged community members are facilitated by an executive director, an assistant director, a secretary and a business manager.

YOU can join us by attending an event or bringing us an idea.

WHAT…what we do…

Federation is a regional Jewish philanthropic organization created to fulfill the social service needs of Jewish community members of all ages in Lackawanna, Monroe, Pike and Wayne Counties. It oversees local community relations issues and through its membership in the Jewish Federations of North America, it shares a portion of its funds to sustain, improve and enrich the lives of Jewish people in Israel and throughout the world.

MISSION: Enrich Jewish life in Northeast Pennsylvania, Israel and around the world through service, programming, advocacy and fundraising through its annual United Jewish Appeal.

WHERE…where to find us…

The Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania is located in the Jewish Community Center of Scranton, 601 Jefferson Avenue, Scranton, PA 18510. Find us online at www.jewishnepa.org or call 570-961-2300.

WHEN…when we started…

The Federation formed in the aftermath of World War II when a group of Scranton’s Jews decided to help rescue Jews striving to escape the perils of Hitler’s ravaged Europe. Dozens of thankful refugees came to Northeast Pennsylvania to find jobs and a place to live.

As other communities in Northeast Pennsylvania joined forces and shared financial resources, Federation grew into an extended family of caring volunteers. In 2000, the Scranton-Lackawanna Jewish Federation expanded into the Jewish communities of Monroe, Pike and Wayne counties and became the Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania. We are now one family united is a common cause – the perpetuation of Jewish life in Northeastern Pennsylvania, Israel and in many countries around the world where Jews are vulnerable and in need.

WHY…why we’re needed…

The Jewish Federation represents not only our communities in Northeast Pennsylvania, but is a branch of national and international Jewish organizations. We communicate and translate the need and purpose from these umbrella organizations to our community and back. Our membership in the Jewish Federations of North America fulfills our responsibility for offering a dedicated and responsible connection to Klal Yisroel…our Jewish brethren worldwide.

An insightful member of our community said, “If there wasn’t already a Jewish Federation, we would have started one!”

HOW…how you can help…

The Federation provides opportunities to volunteer and participate in many arenas. Give of your valuable time for a one-time or ongoing volunteer experience. Have your voice heard by considering being active on one of our many Federation committees (from disaster relief like Hurricane Sandy to emergencies involving the survival of the State of Israel; from community relations to UJA, and the raising and allocating of funds to over 15 local and regional educational, social service, recreational and cultural organizations and agencies that constitute the organized Jewish interests of NEPA Jewry.

Your Campaign contributions allow Federation to respond to the many service and programming needs in our community, the U.S., Israel and worldwide. We build community, and each person who gives of their time as a volunteer or donates money, fuels the organization.

Your involvement yields...

Many Happy Returns 601 Jefferson Ave., Scranton, PA 18510 • (570)961-2300 • www.jewishnepa.org

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THE REPORTER ■ january 1, 2015

d’var torah

Is there life after death?

By RABBI MOSHE SAKS, TEMPLE ISRAEL OF SCRANTON Vayichi, Genesis 47:28-50:26 Woody Allen once said, “It’s not death I’m afraid of, I just don’t want to be there when it happens!” None of us do, but like everything else in life, it happens.

Jacob knows death is coming. He prepares for it not with fear or anxiety, but as one who has come to terms with his life and his impending death. He makes certain he will not be buried in Egypt, but in the family burial place in Hebron. He then gathers his children to express his thoughts on their future. And, with that, Jacob’s life comes to an end. Or does it?

Is there life after death? This question has been the source of theological, sociological and populist conjecture since the beginning of time. Is birth the beginning and death the end?

Or, as mere mortals, are we only capable of comprehending birth and death as the bookends of life? Could death be one door closing while another door opens?

The Jewish mystics of the 13th century taught of the reincarnation of the soul in the effort to perfect the world. Each soul is given a certain task to perform in its earthly body. Since each person has freewill, the soul of humankind (the impulse for good) must contend with that within humankind that would lead astray (the impulse for evil). The soul is the infinite presence of God within each finite human being. When death comes, if the soul has not completed its mission, it returns again and again until the task has been performed. Then, the soul is reunited with the heavenly source. When all souls have completed their mission, the world will have achieved perfection.

In his final moments of life, Jacob implores his sons to take stock of themselves, realize their shortcomings and work for a better world.

Ultimately, Judaism is not about what happens after we die, but what we do while we are alive. That’s why we are so preoccupied with life, and hardly focus on what happens after death, as other religions do. Our entire system of mitzvot gives us the formula, the guide to live ethically and responsibly on this planet. In fact, we are specifically told that the performance of mitzvot is not to be done in any consideration of reward, either in this life or the next.

Let’s take this message to heart, in order to build a better world in which to live.

Ruth Gruber photos

The exhibit “Ruth Gruber / Photojournalist” will be on display at the Laurie M. Tisch Gallery at the JCC Manhattan until February 25. The exhibit looks at the life of Ruth Gruber, who has been called “a 20th century pioneer and trail-blazing photojournalist.” Gruber’s exclusive photographs documented the voyage of the Exodus 1947 – a ship carrying 4,500 Jewish refugees that attempted to break the British blockade on immigration to Palestine – that were sent internationally via wire services to thousands of newspapers and magazines. Following the establishment of the state of Israel, Gruber photographed the waves of immigrants who poured into the new country, while continuing her commitment to documenting the condition of Jewish communities throughout the world.

For more information, visit www.jccmanhattan.org or call 646-505-5700.

P A C E

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 * charitable lead trust * gift of IRA or pension plan assets * grant from your foundation * reserved life estate in your residence * bequest

Using appreciated property, such as securities or real estate, affords you the opportunity to eliminate the income tax on the 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.

january 1, 2015 ■

Spain

Continued from page 4

Lapointe described the average immigrant as single, between the ages of 25 and 35, “very well educated and looking for a new kind of life.” The wider Montreal Jewish community, Lapointe said, is now in the early stages of crafting a coordinated approach to handle the inflow. Thus far, it has been difficult to track newcomers, she added, partly because French Jews keep looser ties to Jewish community organizations than do their North American counterparts. “In France, people don’t talk about Jewishness,” Lapointe said. “They’re not used to community organizations. Some will never come to see us. They don’t have this reflex.”

Montreal’s cheaper rents and relatively low cost of living are as much a draw for French Jews as the familiar language and secular Francophone culture. In a focus group of French nationals conducted last year, Ometz identified four reasons Jews were moving out of France.

The new immigrants pointed to a higher quality of life in North America, a greater openness toward immigrants and shrinking job opportunities for a younger generation of French citizens back home. Families with children also reported a fear of antisemitism, and anxieties about their ability to practice Judaism safely amid a rise in antisemitic rhetoric and attacks.

For Julie Weill, a 31-year-old mother of three, the decision to leave her home in Strasbourg five years ago was prompted by the increasing sense of unease she and her husband, Nathanael, felt as Jews in France. While the modern Orthodox couple was never victimized by antisemitism, they heard stories from friends and family, and it was considered dangerous, Weill said, to walk around downtown Strasbourg wearing a yarmulke.

When it came time for Nathanael to choose a postdoctoral fellowship in bioinformatics, the Weills declined compelling offers from European schools and instead chose McGill University, in Montreal. They found the prospect of raising a religious family in Europe too unsettling. “We wanted a place with a strong Jewish community, with Jewish schools, a place you can practice freely, where you feel safe,” said Weill, whose synagogue in Montreal is run by another French immigrant from Strasbourg.

Quebec has struggled with its own, albeit minor, resurgence of high-profile antisemitism. During a provincial election campaign last spring, Louise Mailloux, a candidate from the separatist Parti Quebecois, publicly dredged up the longstanding “kosher tax” canard, claiming that kosher-certified products are sold at higher prices on supermarket shelves, with Jewish interest groups collecting the surplus. And in August, Gilles Proulx, a Montreal columnist and television host, told a local radio station that Jewish communities worldwide “provoke the hatred” of their host countries.

Cwajgenbaum also noted that Quebec’s Muslim population – roughly 221,000 of the 3.8 million residents in the Montreal metropolitan area – as a cause for concern; France’s Muslims, of which there are roughly six million, compared with 500,000 Jews, are routinely fingered as culprits in the upsurge of antisemitism.

Cwajgenbaum said the integration of immigrants from the Arab world has been more successful in Quebec than in France, but speculated that the province may one day face similar problems from its swelling Muslim minority.

When a delegation of Quebec Jews visited Paris nearly a decade ago, searching for prospective immigrants, Cwajgenbaum told them with metaphorical flourish, “To transfer a sick man from one hospital to another one will not cure the sickness.”

The data, however, suggests that Quebec antisemitism is on the wane. Last year, the province saw its number of reported antisemitic incidents fall to 250, a nearly 26 percent drop from 2012, according to B’nai Brith Canada, which tracks antisemitic activity across the country.

Weill still finds it difficult to let her two boys, who attend a Sephardic Jewish day school, wear yarmulkes in public, an old habit from the family’s life in Strasbourg. But the concern, she acknowledged, is largely “irrational.”

Charbit and Hazan, both non-observant, have also felt a difference in how Quebec society treats its Jewish community. “In France, you don’t put your mezuzah outside,” Charbit said. “Jewish life in Montreal is safer.”

THE REPORTER

11

Science Snippits

How water flowed on Mars and more

By THE WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE How water could have flowed on Mars A new model suggests volcanic activity in Mars’ distant past spewed enough greenhouse gases to melt ice and warm the atmosphere.

Why does the cold, barren surface of Mars contain geological features that appear to have been formed by flowing water: river valleys, lake basins and deltas? A new model, published online in Nature Geoscience, suggests that sulfur spewed into the Martian atmosphere by ancient volcanoes could have periodically warmed the surface enough for the ice to melt and water to flow.

Indeed, the signs of flowing water have been a puzzle, as the latest generation of climate models portrays Mars as an eternally ice-cold planet with all of its water frozen solid, especially early in its history, when the sun was weaker than it is today. Today, most of that water is locked in polar caps. Dr. Itay Halevy, of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Dr. James Head III, of Brown University, thought the answer might lie in the now dormant volcanoes on the planet’s surface, which could have played a larger role than previously thought in shaping its climate.

On Earth, volcanic emissions – sulfur compounds and See “Science” on page 14

PROJECT JOY

Dec. 21, 2014

Dear Friends, Your generosity this year was amazing! Although the volatile economy has affected everyone, your hearts and pocketbooks were opened wide. Thank you so much for keeping Project Joy a priority.

Many local organizations received toys beautifully wrapped by our volunteers. Jewish Family Services received multiple toys for over sixty children. Totally, over one hundred and twenty five children and some homeless parents were remembered.

The children and their parents in the pediatric departments of Moses Taylor and Geisinger Hospitals were especially touched when we personally visited them and presented their children with holiday gifts and get well wishes.

Multiple families were adopted from Lackawanna Children and Youth, St. Joseph Center, and the Catherine McAuley Center. These children received new toys, clothing outfits and pajamas, books and stuffed animals which were requested from their own specific and personalized wish list. These gifts could have been their only visit from Santa.

Children’s Advocacy was thrilled with the gifts for older children, such as games and crafts. Older children are sometimes over looked. Teenagers deserved gifts too!

My heartfelt thanks to the following contributors:

Elliot & Renee Schoenberg Weis Markets Stuart and Janet Moskovitz Marilyn Preven Gail and Mike Greenstein Sam’s Club Carol & Jeff Leventhal Barb and Fred Levy June Penyak Michael Roth Nancy Friedman David & Gail Dickstein Rich & Cari Leventhal Mahler Chrissy Mark Eileen and David Feibus Vera Platt Guitelle Rothstein Ellie Volpe Donald & Joyce Douglass Robert & Elaine Ufberg Villa Capri Cruisers Car Club Tim & Debbie Shane Faye & Rick Bishop Jerry & Lynne Fragin Norm & Arlene Gevanthor Parents of Early Childhood Harlene Arenberg Rosalie Engelmyer Lindsay Leventhal Jim and Jacquie Verano Jack & Carol Nogi Richard & Carole Fine Howard and Rochelle Spizer James & Patricia Alperin Beverly Klein Stuart & Janet Moskovitz Louise McNabb Naomi and Paul Alamar Doug Fink Ilise and David Rubinow Barb and Lou Nivert Jerald and Kerrie Gilbert Joe and Ruth Hollander Cal & Doris Leventhal Robin & Jeffrey Jacobson Steve & Ellen Seitchik Oppenheim Foundation Michael Mardo & Iris Liebman Adele Baldinger Ed & Phyllis Brandes Amos Lodge Larry and Judie Golden Nancy Friedman Ann & Ed Monsky Seth & Sheryl Gross Margi & Louis Shapiro Saul and Sharon Levy Despite snowy conditions, these dedicated people were there to get the gifts wrapped and delivered.

The following volunteer wrappers and delivery personnel spent hours making these gifts look especially festive for each child. A special thank you to these wonderful people: Susan McKay Nancy Friedman Lindsay Leventhal Ann Monsky Sharon Levy Michele Wilk Jeff Leventhal

Vince Kalinoski & Tim Frank –our special delivery team Jerry Fragin Faye Bishop Phyliss Weinberg Barb Nivert Jacqui Verano Gail Dickstein JCC Office Staff and Maintenance Staff Ellen Seitchik Naomi Alamar

With deep appreciation,

Carol Leventhal

Carol Leventhal, Project Joy Chairperson

ÊVisit the Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania on the web at www.jewishnepa.org or on Facebook

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THE REPORTER ■ january 1, 2015

Create a Legacy for our Jewish Future in NEPA TYPES OF GIFTS

Your charitable gifts to the Federation can result in immediate and/or future benefits for you and your family.

PERPETUAL ANNUAL CAMPAIGN ENDOWMENTS (P.A.C.E.) There are considerable tax advantages in establishing a P.A.C.E. gift to the Federation outright or as part of your estate planning.

In doing so, you can perpetuate your annual UJA Campaign gift in your name, the name of your family, in memory of a loved one or in celebration of a significant event in your life or the life of another. On average, the annual income normally calculates out to 5% of the amount of your P.A.C.E. endowment. The corpus of your Fund would not be affected, and only the income would be used for the annual UJA gift – in perpetuity.

That is, a P.A.C.E. endowment of $100,000 would normally produce an annual gift of $5,000 to future UJA Campaigns.

IMMEDIATE GIFTS OF CASH Cash contributions are deductible as itemized deductions in the year you make the donation(s), up to 50% of your adjusted gross. Excess charitable deductions can be carried forward for up to five years.

GIFTS OF SECURITIES The best stocks to donate are obviously those with increased value. However, depreciated securities are not necessarily unworthy of charitable contributions. In order to preserve the best tax advantages, with regard to appreciated and depreciated securities, please contact the Federation.

MATCHING GIFTS If you work for a company that participates in a Matching Gift Program (see details in this issue of The Reporter), then the company will match your gift to the Jewish Federation. Please check with your Human Resources Department for information.

GIFTS OF MUTUAL FUNDS Contributing mutual fund shares can provide the same tax advantages as appreciated stocks. Due to the great complexities involved with the transfer of mutual fund shares, please begin the transfer process well before December 31st.

GIFTS OF REAL ESTATE A charitable contribution of property is most attractive when there is no mortgage balance and the property is increasing in value.

Based upon the fair market value, you may claim an income tax deduction, avoid all capital gains taxes, and remove that property from your taxable estate. You may transfer real estate to the Jewish Federation at any point, but please consult your tax professional or financial advisor prior to a real estate transaction.

DEFERRED/PLANNED GIFTS Deferred gifts are often called “planned gifts” because they are integrally connected to your financial and/or estate plans. They may range in size from very small bequests to multi-million dollar trusts.

They are deferred gifts because, even though they are given today, the Jewish Federation will not realize their benefit until some time in the future. Please contact the Federation for more information regarding various planned giving options.

GENERAL ENDOWMENT FUNDS The Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania expresses its gratitude to those who have made a commitment to our Endowment Fund. These very special contributions represent a commitment to maintain a high quality of Jewish life in our region for the decades that lie ahead.

CONTACT For further information, please contact Mark Silverberg, Executive Director, Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania, 601 Jefferson Avenue, Scranton, PA at 570-961-2300 (ext. 1)

NEWS IN bRIEF From JTA

Belgian minister issues clarification backing kosher slaughter

A Belgian minister has assured the Jewish community that kosher slaughter will continue to be allowed, months after threatening a ban that would have called the practice into question. Ben Weyts, Belgium’s minister for animal welfare, sent a letter on Dec. 24 to Rabbi Menachem Margolin, the director general of the European Jewish Association, apologizing for a “misunderstanding” over remarks Weyts made in September, according to a report by the European Jewish Press. Weyts had stated in September that there could be a ban on slaughter without pre-stunning of the animals, which would be at odds with both Muslim and Jewish religious law, both of which require the animal to be conscious at the time of slaughter. In his letter, Weyts reportedly assured Margolin that “prior stunning of animals is not required in case of slaughter prescribed by religious rites. From now on this regulation will be enforced in all its aspects.” The original dispute arose when Weyts warned that the killing of sheep by Muslims at temporary slaughterhouses for the holiday of Eid al-Fitr would be banned and that the practice put all religious slaughter at risk.

Italian police break up right-wing terror plots

Italian Jewish leaders praised authorities for breaking up a right-wing extremist network that appeared to have been planning terror attacks around the country. Renzo Gattegna, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities called the recent operation “a demonstration of the solidity of our institutions in confronting those who intend to threaten the constitutional order of our country and the democratic values on which it is based.” The action, he said, “made it possible to stop a movement that wanted to make its banner racist and antisemitic hatred and to undermine the stability of our country.” Coordinated by judicial authorities in the central Italian city of L’Aquila, forces of the paramilitary Special Operations Police arrested 14 people in several regions of the country. They were accused of planning “violent actions against institutional objectives.” According to police reports quoted in the Italian media, targets included tax offices, magistrates and police, with the aim of “destabilizing public order.” The ROS commander told a news conference that suspects used social media, in particular Facebook, to spread subversive propaganda, incite “racial hatred” and recruit supporters. Riccardo Pacifici, the president of the Rome Jewish Community, said the arrests demonstrated “the high level to which our institutions guard against any attempt of the rebirth of groups that are inspired by anti-democratic ideologies and that incite discrimination and violence for racial, ethnic, national or religious motives.”

Israel to almost completely stop gas mask production

Israel will halt almost all of its gas mask production due to a decline in the threat of a gas or chemical attack. The decision, according to Haaretz, comes a year after the Defense Ministry decided to reduce production and stop distributing gas masks to Israel’s civilian population. Now, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon has also decided to halt gas mask production for the Israel Defense Forces. First responders will still receive gas masks. Israel restarted mass distribution of gas masks last year in response to the threat of a chemical weapons attack from Syria. But Syria’s agreement later in the year to dispose of its chemical weapons stock sharply reduced that threat. Syria completed the disposal process in June.

When Israel stopped distributing masks to civilians, 60 percent of Israelis were estimated to have gas masks.

january 1, 2015 â–

THE REPORTER

Quick Reference Guide to

Planned Giving

Use this planned giving quick reference guide to help determine the best strategy for achieving your philanthropic and financial goals.

For more information or to discuss these planned giving options, please contact Mark Silverberg, Executive Director, Jewish Federation of NEPA, 570-961-2300 (x1) or mark.silverberg@jewishnepa.org.

If Your Goal is to:

Then You Can:

Your Benefits May Include:

Make a quick & easy gift Simply write a check now

An income tax deduction and immediate charitable impact

Avoid tax on capital gains Contribute long-term appreciated stock or other securities

Defer a gift until after your lifetime Put a bequest in your will (gifts of cash, specific property, or a

share or the residue of your estate

A charitable deduction plus no capital gains tax

Receive guaranteed fixed Create a charitable gift annuity income that is partially tax-free

Current & future savings on income taxes, plus fixed, stable payments

Avoid capital gains tax on the sale of a home or other real estate

Donate the real estate or sell it to a charity at a bargain price

An income tax reduction plus reduction or elimination of capital gains tax

Avoid the two-fold taxation on IRA or other employee benefit plans

Name a charity as the beneficiary of the remainder of the retirement assets after your lifetime

Tax relief to your family on inherited assets

Give your personal residence or farm, but retain life use

Create a charitable gift of future interest, called a retained life estate

Tax advantages plus use of the property

Make a large gift with little cost to you

Contribute a life insurance policy you no longer need nor purchase a new one & designate a charity as the owner

Current & possible future income tax deductions

Receive secure, fixed income for life while avoiding market risks

Purchase a charitable gift annuity or create a charitable remainder annuity trust

Tax advantages & possible increased rate of return

Exemption from federal estate tax on donations

Give income from an asset for a period of years Create a charitable lead trust but retain the asset for yourself or your heirs

Federal estate tax savings on asset & income tax deductions for deductions for donated income

Create a hedge against inflation Create a charitable remainder unitrust over the long term

Variable payments for life plus tax advantages

Make a revocable gift during your lifetime Name a charity as the beneficiary of assets in a living trust Full control of the trust terms during your lifetime

ĂŠVisit the Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania on the web at www.jewishnepa.org or on Facebook

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14

THE REPORTER ■ january 1, 2015

Science

January 2015 • Non-Feature Films • *NEW* American Masters: Mel Brooks: Make A Noise - After more than 60 years in show business, Mel Brooks has earned more major awards than any other living entertainer. A comedy force of nature, Brooks is very private and has never authorized a biography, making his participation in this film a genuine first. Showcasing the Brooklyn native’s brilliant, skewed originality, American Masters: Mel Brooks: Make A Noise features never-before-heard stories and new interviews with Brooks, Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Cloris Leachman, Carl Reiner, Joan Rivers, Tracey Ullman and others. This career-spanning documentary of the man behind Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, The Producers, Spaceballs and of course the 2000 Year Old Man journeys through Brooks’ professional and personal ups and downs, providing a rare look at a living legend, beloved by millions. *NEW* Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy - Engaging, humorous, and provocative... examining the unique role of Jewish composers and lyricists in the creation of the modern American musical. The film showcases the work of legends such as Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, George and Ira Gershwin, Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim. Interviews with songwriters and luminaries including Sheldon Harnick, Stephen Schwartz, Harold Prince, Arthur Laurents, Charles Strouse, and Mel Brooks provide insight, alongside standout performances and archival footage.

Everything is a Present: The Wonder and Grace of Alice Sommer Hertz - This is the uplifting true story of the gifted pianist Alice Sommer Hertz who survived the Theresienstat concentration camp by playing classical piano concerts for Nazi dignitaries. Alice Sommer Hertz lived to the age of 106. Her story is an inspiration.

Follow Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story - Yoni Netanyahu was a complex, passionate individual thrust into defending his country in a time of war and violence. The older brother of Benjamin Natanyahu, the current Israel Prime Minister, Yoni led the miraculous raid on Entebbe in 1976. Although almost all of the Entebbe hostages were saved, Yoni was the lone military fatality. Featuring three Israeli Prime Ministers and recently released audio from the Entebbe raid itself.

Hava Nagila (The Movie) - A documentary romp through the history, mystery and meaning of the great Jewish standard.

Featuring interviews with Harry Belafonte, Leonard Nimoy and more, the film follows the ubiquitous party song on its fascinating journey from the shtetls of Eastern Europe to the kibbutzim of Palestine to the cul-de-sacs of America.

Inside Hana’s Suitcase - The delivery of a battered suitcase to Fumiko Ishioka at the Tokyo Holocaust Museum begins the true-life mystery that became the subject of Karen Levine’s best-selling book Hana’s Suitcase. The film follows Fumiko’s search to discover the details of Hana’s life, which leads to the discovery of her brother George in Toronto.

Israel: The Royal Tour - Travel editor Peter Greenberg (CBS News) takes us on magnificent tour of the Jewish homeland, Israel. The tour guide is none other than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The viewer gets a chance to visit the land of Israel from his own home!

Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story (narrated by Dustin Hoffman) - This documentary portrays the contributions of Jewish major leaguers and the special meaning that baseball has had in the lives of American Jews. More than a film about sports, this is a story of immigration, assimilation, bigotry, heroism, the passing on of traditions, the shattering of stereotypes and, most of all, the greatest American pastime.

Nicky’s Family - An enthralling documentary that artfully tells the story of how Sir Nicholas Winton, now 104, a British stockbroker, gave up a 1938 skiing holiday to answer a friend’s request for help in Prague and didn’t stop helping until the war’s beginning stopped him. He had saved the lives of 669 children in his own personal Kindertransport.

Shanghai Ghetto - One of the most amazing and captivating survival tales of WWII, this documentary recalls the strange-but-true story of thousands of European Jews who were shut out of country after country while trying to escape Nazi persecution. Left without options or entrance visa, a beacon of hope materialized for them on the other side of the world, and in the unlikeliest of places, Japanese-controlled Shanghai.

The Case for Israel - Democracy’s Outpost - This documentary presents a vigorous case for Israel- for its basic right to exist, to protect its citizens from terrorism, and to defend its borders from hostile enemies.

The Jewish Cardinal - This is the amazing true story of Jean-Marie Lustiger, the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, who maintained his cultural identity as a Jew even after converting to Catholicism at a young age, & later joining the priesthood.

The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg - As baseball’s first Jewish star, Hammerin’ Hank Greenberg’s career contains all the makings of a true American success story.

Unmasked: Judaophobia - The Threat to Civilization – This documentary exposes the current political assault against the State of Israel fundamentally as a war against the Jewish people and their right to self-determination. *NEW* When Jews Were Funny is insightful and often hilarious, surveying the history of Jewish comedy from the early days of Borsht Belt to the present.

• Feature Films • Fill the Void - This is the story of an eighteen-year-old, Shira, who is the youngest daughter of her family. Her dreams are about to come true as she is set to be married. Unexpectedly, her sister dies while giving birth to her first child.

The drama of the story reaches its peak when the girls’ mother proposes a match between Shira and the young widower. Shira will have to choose between her heart’s wish and her family duty.

Footnote - The winner of the Cannes Film Festival (Best Screenplay) is the tale of a great rivalry between a father and son, two eccentric professors, who have both dedicated their lives to work in Talmudic Studies. Each has a need for recognition in his chosen field and the day comes when father and son must look deeply inside themselves for the truth- advancement of his own career or of the others.

Hidden in Silence - Przemysl, Poland, WWII. Germany emerges victorious over the Russians and the city comes under Nazi control. The Jews are sent to the ghettos. While some stand silent, Catholic teenager, Stefania Podgorska, chose the role of a savior and sneaks 13 Jews into her attic.

Noodle (compatible only on PAL – DVD players - Hebrew with English subtitles) This film was a beloved entry in the Jewish Federation of NEPA’s Jewish Film Festival. It tells the heartwarming story of an Israeli stewardess, Miri, whose personal life as a war widow leaves her without much joy. Everything changes for Miri when her Oriental housemaid disappears one day leaving her with her young Oriental child!

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - Based on the best- selling novel, this movie is unforgettable. Set during WWII, the movie introduces us to Bruno, an innocent eight-year-old, ignores his mother and sets of on an adventure in the woods. Soon he meets a young boy and a surprising friendship develops.

The Concert - Andrei Filipov was prodigy- at 20 he was the celebrated conductior for Russia’s renowned Bolshoi Orchestra. Thirty years later, still at the Bolshoi, he works as a janitor. Ousted during the communist era when he refused to fire the Jewish members of the orchestra, a broken Andrei now cleans the auditorium where he once performed in front of thousands.

The Debt - In 1966, three Mossad agents were assigned to track down a feared Nazi war criminal hiding in East Berlin, a mission accomplished at great risk and personal cost- or was it?

The Other Son - As he is preparing to join the Israeli army for his national service, Joseph discovers he is not his parents’ biological son and that he was inadvertently switched at birth with Yacine, the son of a Palestinian family from the West Bank. This revelation turns the lives of these two families upside-down, forcing them to reassess their respective identities, their values and beliefs. *Just added to the Jewish Federation’s Film Lending Library!

Continued from page 11

ash – tend to cool the climate. But in the presumably dusty early atmosphere of Mars, the net effects might have been different. To understand their impact, Halevy and Head first calculated the size of ancient volcanic eruptions, based on the volcanic rock formations observed on the planetary surface today. Their estimations show that the eruptions were violent – hundreds of times the force of the average eruption on Earth – and may have lasted up to a decade. This means that the amounts of gases spewed from the mouths of these volcanoes, from what we know of Earth’s eruptions, must have been enormous.

The team’s simulations showed large amounts of the greenhouse gas sulfur dioxide mixing into the atmosphere.

But warming caused by the sulfur dioxide was thought to be outweighed by cooling due to the creation of sun-blocking sulfuric acid particles, which form as sulfur dioxide reacts in the atmosphere. Halevy and Head showed that, in an atmosphere already as dusty as that of Mars, the sulfuric acid mostly forms thin coatings around particles of mineral dust and volcanic ash, subduing the added cooling. The net effect, according to the model the scientists created, was modest warming – just enough to allow water to flow at low latitudes on either side of the planet’s equator.

Liquid water may have flowed in these regions for tens to hundreds of years during and immediately after volcanic eruptions. The model suggests that during these brief, but intense, wet periods, the surface of the planet could have been carved by flowing rivers and streams.

Pumping zinc Why would a cell go to the trouble of destroying perfectly good, newly minted proteins? New research from the Weizmann Institute and research centers in Germany, recently published in Molecular Cell, suggests that this unusual cellular mechanism may, among other things, be faulty in Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Maya Schuldiner and research student Dr. Shai Fuchs, of the Weizmann Institute’s Department of Molecular Genetics, working in collaboration with Drs. Marius Lemberg and Donem Avci, of Heidelberg University, studied presenilin, a human protein mutated in a familial form of early-onset Alzheimer’s.

To investigate the mechanism of this protein, the researchers looked to the ancestor of presenilin, a yeast protein they identified as Ypf1 (for yeast presenilin fold1), which has been well-conserved throughout evolution.

When they removed Ypf1 from the yeast cells, the result was excess quantities of a protein whose role is to pump zinc – an essential metal – into the cell. The puzzling thing was that, although there are two proteins for pumping zinc into the cell, only one was affected. The one increased is a “turbo,” or high affinity, pump; the second, unaffected protein is more of a “workaday,” low affinity pump. Like presenilin, Ypf1 is a protease – a protein that degrades other proteins – so the researchers concluded that its function is to rid the cell of the “turbo” zinc transporters.

In fact, they realized they were looking at a sort of twopump system, which had first been described several years ago by the Weizmann Institute’s Prof. Naama Barkai. The low-affinity nutrient pumps may not be as efficient at bringing nutrients into the cell, but they are very sensitive to changes in those nutrients; when levels drop, they enable the activation of a backup plan. High-affinity transporters can go into action to stockpile the nutrient in preparation for coming starvation, but these pumps can’t enable the backup plan.

In this scenario, healthy cells should work most of the time on the workaday pumps, only allowing the turbo pumps to reach their outer surfaces in times of need.

The researchers asked how excess turbo pumping on the cell’s surface would affect its ability to prepare for scarcity. Indeed, Ypf1-deficient cells were very slow to sense the nutrient’s lack, so they performed poorly during zinc starvation and took longer to recover. And more than zinc pumps are affected: the research showed that in the absence of Ypf1, high-affinity transporters for many other nutrients are deregulated.

“Continually producing high-affinity transporters and then degrading them is a sort of double-safe mechanism that cells evolved to ensure that levels of vital nutrients like zinc remain as stable as possible within the cell,” says Fuchs. “Though we still don’t know exactly how the mechanism in humans is tied to Alzheimer’s, there is some interesting evidence that zinc transport in particular, and metal transport in general, could play a pivotal role in disease onset and progression.”

“We are excited that this new clue may open up fresh directions for thinking about the causes ofAlzheimer’s disease, as these are still not well understood,” says Schuldiner.

The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is considered one of the world’s top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions. The Institute’s 3,800-strong scientific community engages in research addressing problems in medicine and health, energy, technology, agriculture, and the environment. Young scientists from around the world pursue advanced degrees at the Weizmann Institute’s Feinberg Graduate School.

january 1, 2015 ■

THE REPORTER

15

NEWS IN bRIEF Germany pays millions to neo-Nazi victims

USY drops ban against interdating

United Synagogue Youth voted to relax its rules barring teenage board members from dating non-Jews. The amendment was adopted on Dec. 22 in Atlanta at the annual international convention of the Conservative movement’s youth group. The USY board also elected not to adopt a controversial proposal to eliminate the organization’s requirement that teen board members be Sabbath observant. The change on dating policy reflects where most young Conservative Jews are when it comes to dating outside the faith. Some four in 10 Conservative Jews who have married since 2000 have married non-Jews, according to the 2013 Pew Research Center survey of U.S. Jewry, and data suggest that most Conservative Jews date non-Jewish partners. While dropping the prohibition against dating non-Jews, board members should “model healthy Jewish dating choices,” according to the newly adopted amendment. “These include recognizing the importance of dating within the Jewish community and treating each person with the recognition that they were created betzelem Elohim (in the image of God).” Rabbi Steven Wernick, CEO of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, said the policy change does not reflect a change in USY’s values. “It continues to recognize what we know to be true: encouraging Jews to marry other Jews is the most successful path toward creating committed Jewish homes,” Wernick said in a statement. “At the same time, we can’t put our heads in the sand about the fact that we live in an incredibly free society, where even committed Jews will marry outside the faith. If they do, we must welcome them wholeheartedly and encourage them to embrace Judaism.” The USY vote comes weeks after Wesley Gardenswartz, the rabbi at one of the nation’s largest Conservative synagogues, Temple Emanuel in Newton, MA, floated a proposal to his congregation that would allow him to officiate at interfaith weddings in cases where the couple committed to raising Jewish children. He later dropped the proposal. The Conservative movement officially frowns on intermarriage, forbidding its rabbis from officiating or even attending interfaith weddings. In practice, however, synagogues generally are welcoming of interfaith couples, with some even granting membership to non-Jews, and some Conservative rabbis have attended interfaith weddings.

French town must remove plaque honoring Palestinian terrorist

A Paris suburb must remove a plaque honoring a convicted Palestinian terrorist, a French judge ruled. Municipal authorities in Bezons were ordered to take down the plaque for Ihrima Majdi Al Rimawi, who was convicted in the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi in Jerusalem. The judge told the Communist Party-dominated Bezons Council on Dec. 19 that it had one month to remove the plaque dedicated to Rimawi, who has been associated with several terrorist attacks and is serving a life sentence plus 80 years in an Israeli jail. In response to a complaint filed by Sammy Ghozlan of the National Bureau for Vigilance against Anti-Semitism, the judge also invalidated the Bezons Council’s February 2013 decision to grant Rimawi honorary citizenship. Rimawi’s murder of Zeevi in October 2001 was carried out in the name of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the group that claimed responsibility for the November terror attack at a synagogue in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem. At the Bezons ceremony to honor Rimawi in February 2013, Dominique Lesparre, the town’s Communist mayor, said that Israel is waging a “genocide” against the Palestinians. Rimawi’s wife is Fathia Barghouti, a former mayor of Bani Zeid, a village in the West Bank where Rimawi lived until he was imprisoned in 2002. Barghouti attended the plaque ceremony last year.

British shoppers donate food made in Israel to shelters

More than 1,000 people in Great Britain donated food and other goods made in Israel to homeless shelters. IsrAction Day, which was held on Dec. 21, called on shoppers to purchase food and goods made in Israel to counter boycott initiatives, and then to donate them. The initiative was organized by Sussex Friends of Israel in Brighton and North West Friends of Israel in Manchester, the London-based Jewish Chronicle reported. Organizers told the newspaper that the food would feed hundreds via three homeless shelters and a soup kitchen. Non-Jews also participated in the effort, according to the JJewish Chronicle. “People who were childish enough to suggest all we would be donating were hummus and (the Israeli snack food) Bamba can eat their words,” Raphi Bloom, co-chair of North West Friends of Israel, told the Jewish Chronicle. “We were inundated with the most sensible long-lasting products that are going to support and feed large numbers of people.”

Bullet fired through Paris synagogue window

A bullet fired from an air gun crashed through a window of a Paris synagogue’s office. The rabbi and his assistant were in the David Ben Ichay Synagogue in Belleville, in the northeastern section of the French capital, when the bullet was fired on Dec. 22. French police reportedly are searching for two suspects who were outside the synagogue about 10 minutes before the attack, the JSSNews website reported.

Surveillance cameras did not provide much information on the incident, according to the website. It was unclear whether the shots originated from the street or a nearby building. The Bureau for National Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA, condemned what it called the “antisemitic assault on a place of worship in Paris.”

The watchdog group has made a public call for “everything to be done to identify and question the anti-Jewish criminals.” Earlier in the day, a motorist had rammed his vehicle into a crowd in western France shouting “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for “God is greatest.” On Dec. 21, in a similar attack, a driver in eastern France had shouted “This is in the name of the children of Palestine” while slamming into a Christmas market crowd. BNVCA said the attacks “are rooted in a misguided Palestinianism and visceral anti-Zionism. The BNVCA recommends that all those responsible for synagogues, Jewish schools and other institutions increase their vigilance and caution. “

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The German government has paid some $2.6 million to victims of neo-Nazi violence since 2007. The compensation, issued to hundreds of victims, includes more than $1.2 million to victims of the National Socialist Underground cell discovered in 2011. The payments were first reported on Dec. 21 by the German news weekly Focus, according to the French news agency AFP. According to Focus, Germany paid compensation for victims including 10 people, most of them Turkish, killed by the National Socialist Underground between 2000 and 2007, as well as victims of the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008 and a 2011 attack on a Moscow airport. German leaders had vowed to compensate the families of the victims of the National Socialist Underground when the group was uncovered in 2011. Of the monies paid out, some $528,000 reportedly was recouped from those who committed the violent acts.

Anti-Israeli posters appear in Argentine tourist town

Anti-Israel posters appeared in an Argentine tourist town popular with Israeli backpackers. Posters appeared on Sec. 22 saying “Boycott Against Israeli Military Tourism” in the city of Bariloche, a major tourist spot located in the foothills of the Andes. They were signed by the Palestine Solidarity Committee in Argentine Patagonia. Israelis make up about 10 percent of the lucrative tourist trade there and most of the stores have signs in Hebrew to attract Israeli visitors. Locals also said they found peso bills defaced with scrawls reading “Jews out of Patagonia.” Following a protest by the local Jewish community, the National Institute Against Discrimination, or INADI, opened an investigation. Its regional delegate, Julio Accavallo, demanded sanctions against the proponents of the campaign and called for the posters to be removed. The Argentine Jewish political umbrella organization DAIA criticized the anti-Israeli campaign and expressed satisfaction with INADI’s investigation. “Our center has expressed its solidarity with the Bariloche Jewish community and offered its support and cooperation against the BDS hatemongers,” Sergio Widder, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s director for Latin America, told JTA. BDS stands for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. Bariloche was a refugee city for Nazis after World War II. The late Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke served as the director of the German School of Bariloche for many years.

IsraAID providing relief to Philippines typhoon victims

An emergency response team from the Israeli NGO IsraAID is in the Philippines providing relief in the wake of a deadly typhoon. IsraAID and its local partner agency IsraAID Philippines, with the support of the American Jewish Committee, have been working in the Can-Avid municipality, located less than 15 miles from the city of Dolores in the country’s Eastern Samar province, where Typhoon Ruby struck nearly two weeks ago.

The typhoon, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Hagupit, left at least 21 people dead and displaced more than 1.6 million Filipinos. IsraAID is working in coordination with the United Nations and the local Ministry of Health in offering medical treatment to the 97 percent of residents affected by the typhoon. Over 400 injured people have been treated, according to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The team also has delivered food and non-food items to more than 400 families, including rice, noodles, water, mosquito repellent and hygiene kits. IsraAID also conducted psychological exams on and provided social support for more than 150 children in the villages of Barangay Rawis and Camantang, and trained local professionals to help deal with trauma-affected communities.

Rock

said. “People care about this stuff. They don’t care about the Middle Ages that much. They care about biblical history – and it’s part of the grappling with secularization that makes this so important to some people.”

Even without this latest piece of evidence, Rabbi David Wolpe, author of the 2014 book “David: The Divided Heart,” said in an interview that there was near-unanimous consensus among scholars that David existed. But Wolpe, of the Conservative Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, added that “the size and scope of his kingdom were probably far less than was once thought.”

In the catalog for the “Assyria to Iberia” exhibit, the Israel Museum’s Arie wrote that the inscription’s matter-of-fact invocation of David’s name just some 150 years after his reign amounts to a “clear indication that the ‘House of David’ was known throughout the region and that the king’s reputation was not a literary invention of a much later period.” This, he adds, “clearly validates

Continued from page 6 the biblical description of a figure named David becoming the founder of the dynasty of Judahite kings in Jerusalem.”

Fine also thinks that most scholars accept a historical David, but he notes that some – those who align themselves with what is known as the Copenhagen School of biblical interpretation – don’t agree that David is a historical shoo-in. “These things go in a range,” he said.

Although archaeologists tend broadly to be uncomfortable with text, Fine says, some might say that if there is a King David, he is “just a name” about whom we don’t know anything, while others would view David through the “eyes of Jewish history” and law.

Fine says public interest in biblical-era artifacts is good for the field, even if it is sometimes oversimplified on popular television programs. “There wouldn’t be a field if it wasn’t for all this interest,” he said. “All of us started as little kids with that kind of stuff.”

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THE REPORTER ■ january 1, 2015