January 29, 2015 edition of The Reporter

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VOLUME XIII, NUMBER 3

January 29, 2015

Israel launches campaign to discredit International Criminal Court inquiry

By Shlomo Cesana Israel Hayom/JNS.org The Israeli government has launched a public diplomacy campaign to discredit the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court’s recent decision to start an inquiry into what the Palestinians call Israeli “war crimes” in the disputed territories.

According to ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, the inquiry – which was initiated after a request by the Palestinian Authority – is not a formal investigation, but rather “a process of examining the information available in order to reach a fully informed determination on whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation pursuant to the criteria established by the [ICC’s] Rome Statute.”

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas recently signed the Rome Statute in order to join the ICC after failing to get a U.N. Security Council resolution passed that called for Israel’s withdrawal from the disputed territories by 2017.

Israel’s campaign against the ICC inquiry will focus on the fact that the because the charges were filed by the P.A., which is not a state, the court has no authority to act. In addition, the campaign will point out the court’s bias against Israel – a country on the frontline of the war against global terrorism that makes sure to abide by international law by way of

“We will demand of our friends in an independent legal system.

The Israeli government decided to Canada, in Australia and in Germany launch the public diplomacy campaign simply to stop funding it,” Lieberman at an emergency meeting in response to told Israel Radio.

“This body (the ICC) represents no one. the ICC decision that was convened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The It is a political body,” he added.

A loss of funding would exacerbate the meeting, which took place at Netanyahu’s office, was attended by Israeli security, ICC’s already serious financing problems.

Reuters recently reported that the unexlegal and diplomatic officials.

The ICC’s decision to launch the in- pected arrival of an indicted defector from quiry into Israeli actions is “the height Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army of hypocrisy and the opposite of justice,” in Uganda would put prosecutors under Netanyahu said on January 18 at the start severe financial strain.

The overwhelming bulk of the court’s of his weekly cabinet meeting, two days funding comes from the advanced econoafter the court announced the inquiry.

“During my years of public service, mies of Europe and North Asia. Japan both as U.N. ambassador and as prime is the largest contributor, giving $23.7 minister, I encountered these kinds of million in 2014, followed by Germany, events, but this decision by the [ICC] which gave $15.7 million. France, Britprosecutor is in a league of its own,” ain and Italy are also major contributors Netanyahu said. “It gives international to the ICC’s budget, which will rise 7 percent to $164 million in 2015. Canada legitimacy to international terrorism.”

The prime minister said Israel would contributed $6.5 million. Japanese Prime fight the ICC’s decision with every means Minister Shinzo Abe and Canadian Forit has available, including the enlistment eign Minister John Baird visited Israel of its allies. Along those lines, Israel is the week of January 19, and the Israeli lobbying member states of the ICC to cut government planned to raise the ICC funding issue with both nations. “Israel funding for the tribunal, Israeli Foreign $$750,065.

Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on is adamant that it will have the right to January 18. Israel, which like the United defend itself against all those who wish to States does not belong to the ICC, hopes propagate terror and other attacks against to dent funding for the court that is drawn its citizens, against its territory,” Netanfrom its 122 member states in accordance yahu said at the start of a meeting with with the size of member states’ economies, Abe. “We will not have our hands tied by anyone, including the ICC. We will said Lieberman.

Spotlight

Interactive food project seeks to create “Jewish UNESCO and Jewish TripAdvisor”

By Jeffrey F. Barken JNS.org Standing between a display table full of touchscreen tablets and a colorful spread of Israeli cuisine favorites, World Jewish Heritage Organization founder Jack Gottlieb delivers a toast. “Israelis like projects,” he says. “We wanted to create a Jewish UNESCO and Jewish TripAdvisor in a combined application.”

Gottlieb’s references to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the popular travel website combine to describe a new interactive mobile app being launched by WJH, which is also rolling out an eBook on Jewish and new Israeli cuisine titled “Israel’s Top 100 Ethnic Restaurants.”

On January 14 in New York City, WJH hosted a “Celebration of Jewish Ethnic Flavors,” a cocktail hour and dinner event to launch the eBook at Balaboosta, a highly acclaimed Lower East Side restaurant. The organization sees a rapid global decline in what it calls a “Jewish voice.” That trend

L-r: Israeli food critic Gil Hovav and World Jewish Heritage Organization founder Jack Gottlieb during the January 14 launch of WJH’s eBook, “Israel’s Top 100 Ethnic Restaurants,” at New York City’s Balaboosta restaurant. (Photo by Shahar Azran) is marked by the disappearance or repurposing of cherished cultural sites such as synagogues in countries where the Jewish population has decreased or faced rapid

assimilation, resulting in a loss of shared history for the nation and the Jews calling it home. WJH, therefore, is “attempting to promote tourism to a variety of sites and cultural events around the world that are of great importance to Jewish heritage continuity,” Gottlieb tells JNS.org.

The goal is to encourage tourists to venture off the beaten path. “Given the growing interest in food in Israel and around the world, and the fact that it can appeal to anyone, we decided to start [this initiative],” Gottlieb says of the app and the eBook, which will work together to inform travelers about hidden treasures they might otherwise miss. The app provides up-to-date information based on viewer location and is capable of generating tours that highlight dining, museums and other culturally relevant sightseeing attractions. Discover something unique that’s not listed in the app’s database? As with Wikipedia, users can upload articles to the app’s server, establishing an interactive See “Food” on page 4

INSIDE THIS ISSUE Green energy and Israel

News in brief...

do what is necessary to defend ourselves wherever we need to do so.”

Despite Israel’s lobbying efforts, even countries that are traditionally close to the Jewish state are unlikely to renege on their treaty commitments to fund the ICC, said Kevin Jon Heller, a professor of law at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. “Germany is probably the least likely country in the world to go against the ICC no matter how supportive of Israel it has traditionally been,” Heller said. “It was one of the very leading states in the creation of the ICC.” ICC prosecutors said on January 16 that they would examine “in full independence and impartiality” crimes that may have occurred in the disputed Palestinian territories since June 13, 2014. This allows the court to delve into alleged war crimes during Operation Protective Edge, which took place in July and August, but not into Hamas terrorists’ June 12 kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens in Gush Etzion. Hamas on January 17 welcomed the ICC inquiry and said it was prepared to provide material for complaints against Israel.

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Alternative, renewable green energy is highlighted The Yemen coup endangers Jews living there; Saudi at an Israeli conference, which took on more urgency Arabia blames Israel for antisemitism; Jewish PLUS following an oil spill in Israel.

Federations raising funds for French Jews; and more. Opinion........................................................2 Story on page 3 Stories on page 5 and 11 D’var Torah................................................8

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THE REPORTER ■ january 29, 2015

a matter of opinion What al-Sisi didn’t say at Al-Azhar University Reprinted with permission of Arutz Sheva – Israel National News Once the Islamic Empire led the world in intellectual and cultural change, as well as economic and military power. Then it closed its doors.

In an extraordinary speech – translated on Raymond Ibrahim’s blog and virtually unnoticed by the world media – delivered on New Ye a r ’ s Day by E g y p t ’s President Abdel Fattah alSisi to the religious imams of Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, al-Sisi called for an Islamic religious renaissance, the effect of which would be to modify the “corpus of texts and ideas that we have (made sacred) over the years” to the point that “we have antagonized the entire world.”

He exhorted the imams, “You cannot feel it if you remain trapped within this mindset.

You need to step outside of yourselves to be able to observe it and reflect on it from a more enlightened perspective... Is it possible that 1.6 billion people [Muslims] should want to kill the rest of the world’s inhabitants – that is seven billion – so that they themselves may live? Impossible! I say and repeat again that we are in need of a religious revolution. You, imams, are responsible before Allah. The entire world... is waiting for your next move... because this umma (the Islamic world) is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost – and it

is being lost by our own hands.”

As he was speaking, other related events were transpiring in ISIS-controlled Syria and Iraq that dovetailed with al-Sisi’s remarks. In Raqqa (northern Syria) and Mosul (Iraq), ISIS has ordered schools closed while the curriculum is being made to conform with what the radical Islamic organization considers “sacred religious educational rules.” These “rules” effec-

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Mark silverberG tively ban the study of philosophy, sports, physics, chemistry, fine arts, music, civics, social studies, history and psychology as ISIS maintains that these are “infidel” subjects that “do not fit in with the laws of God” (as noted by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring group).

At Al-Azhar, al-Sisi spoke of the hideous violence around the world perpetrated in the name of Allah by radical Islamist organizations like ISIS, Boko Haram, Al-Qaida, al-Shabab, the Taliban and others, but he might have also directed his words to a comparison with another Islamic era a millennium ago that promoted the very same intellectual ideas that ISIS has banned – ideas and achievements that many noted scholars and historians (Muslim and otherwise) attribute to the “Golden Age of Islam” [approximately 750-950 C.E.].

The decline of the Islamic world The religious zealotry that propels today’s radical Islamists can only be explained within the context of history. The odyssey that has carried the Arab Muslim

world from the heights of its ancient glory to its modern day abyss is a story that spans 1,400 years and innumerable humiliations, most of which can be traced to its own failings.

There was a time when Europeans, seeking enlightenment and learning, studied at the feet of Islamic scholars. It is a time long-past, but not forgotten by Muslims like al-Sisi who yearn for an Islamic religious (and intellectual) renaissance.

Since its Golden Age during the Moorish Empire a millennium ago, Islamic history has been in a steady tailspin that has led to a culture of victimhood and death fueled by religious hatred, sectarian violence, centuries of isolation from Western enlightenment and an overwhelming, almost mystical desire to restore past glories.

Today, the Arab world is constituted by a series of 21 failed states bereft, for the most part, of progressive leaders and unable to produce one single manufactured product that can compete on world markets. Far from being an enlightened civilization, it has become a cultural backwater replete with massive poverty, repressive governments, vast illiteracy, medieval laws, rising Islamist anger and a Gross Domestic Product less than that of (coincidentally) Spain.

It has not always been that way.

The Golden Age of Islam Islam arose in the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century. Like Christianity, it officially condemned forced conversions, but unlike Christianity, Islam instructed its followers to ensure that the world was under the political control of the Faithful. Hence, Islam’s political domination could be, and was, spread by the sword.

Islamic cavalries burst out of Arabia and quickly took control of the Middle East, Byzantium and Persia. The Middle Eastern armies of the Christian Byzantine Empire were defeated and annihilated in 636, and

Jerusalem fell in 638.

By the early eighth century, Arab Islamic forces had conquered North Africa, reached the Straits of Gibraltar and crossed into Visigothic Spain. By 712, they had reached the center of the Iberian Peninsula, and, by the 730s, they were raiding deep into the heart of France until defeated by the Frankish leader Charles Martel at the Battle of Poitiers in 732. (1) Gradually retreating south throughout a period of centuries, they eventually consolidated their power in southern Spain.

There, throughout the next 800 years, the Arabs managed to develop a majestic civilization on the Iberian peninsula – a civilization that came to be known as Andalusia. For Muslims, Al Andalus (Andalusia) remains not only a symbol of vanished greatness, but a kind of alternative vision of Islam – a vision sought by Islamics today, but unattainable in the modern era unless Islam itself is totally reformed. (2) In “The Age of Faith,” historian Will Durant wrote, “For five centuries, from 700-1200, Islam led the world in power, in refinement of manners, in standards of living; in humane legislation and religious tolerance; in literature, scholarship, science, medicine and philosophy.”

The Arabs of Andalusia in southern Spain – known as “Moors,” meaning “dark” – a negative term referring to the Berbers who came from Morocco – treated Christians and Jews with tolerance, enabling them to live, work and learn together in relative peace and harmony.

While Europe was struggling through the throes of feudalism, the Moorish aristocracy was promoting private land ownership and encouraging banking.

However, although there was little or no Muslim proselytizing, societal restrictions on infidels were imposed. (3) See “Al-Azhar University” on page 6

Plans to “eradicate” Egyptian town prompt NY Times yawn

By Gilead Ini Reprinted courtesy of CAMERA An Arab town near Israel’s southern border is being completely destroyed by the government, which has cited security concerns to justify the extreme measure. Surely this is a time for hard hitting journalism. Prepare for the pointed, critical, extended pieces of the type The New York Times brings you whenever Israel...

Oh wait – it isn’t Israel that’s razing Rafah? It’s Egypt? Well then, relax.

Return that carefully sharpened pencil to the journalistic toolbox. Pull out the dull crayon.

The New York Times reported recently that in Egypt “a senior official acknowledged that the military was eradicating the town in order to complete a security zone” along the Gaza Strip. It is without a doubt a story that would have been reported differently were it Israel “eradicating” a town.

In this piece about Egypt, not a single townsperson was directly quoted, even though, as the newspaper was generous enough to note, “many residents of Rafah complained bitterly about their treatment by the authorities.” This impersonal paraphrase, and another equally bland summary explaining that residents felt evacuations came without warning or compensation, was as much as the newspaper saw fit to print from those on the receiving end of the Egyptian measures. Those two sentences focused on Rafah residents, moreover, were buried

at the end of the article. So much for the voice of the weak.

The newspaper’s choice of words to describe the Egyptian operation likewise contrasted sharply with the way it tends to treat Israel. Thousands of innocent people are being removed from their homes, and it is described merely as a “sweeping response to repeated militant attacks”; at worst, these are “drastic counter-terrorism measures”; the decision “highlighted the Egyptian government’s increasingly firm view of the Gaza Strip as hostile territory.” Sweeping? Drastic? Firm? Not exactly the most cutting descriptions. The words might even be taken to suggest determined resolution on the part of the Egyptian government.

A piece last month on the Egyptian measures was hardly sharper, relying on descriptions that cast the Egyptian government in the role of an anguished victim.

The article’s title, “Egypt Will Expand Its Security Zone Near Gaza Strip,” didn’t exactly capture the planned destruction of an entire town. The story as told by the Times was about “growing anxiety in the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi after a series of attacks that have killed dozens of soldiers, police officers and sailors”; of officials who are “worried that the insurgency could grow even more lethal”; of militant videos that had the effect of “unnerving officials”; Egyptian leaders are simply “scrambling for answers” to their clear challenges. Note, these are the reporters’ words, presented as fact, and not claims attributed to Egyp-

tians in whose interest it is to justify the operation. (The reporters at least stuck a quote from a Rafah resident at the end of this article.)

Compare those pieces to last month’s New York Times article about the destruction by Israel of not a town, but a single home. That piece was longer than the two about Egypt combined. Unlike the Egypt articles, it already in the first sentence described Israel’s policy as “controversial.” The second sentence described it as “harsh.” The fourth paragraph addressed Palestinian concerns that Israel security forces might act in an “overzealous” manner. (Dislocating an Egyptian town is, apparently, not overzealous.) Palestinians were directly quoted criticizing the measure; so were Israelis. The authors cited condemnation by self-described human rights groups. Such groups also slammed Egypt’s measures too, but the two TIMES reports made no mention of those critiques. Israel’s rationale for its demolition was buried near the end of the article. Egypt’s justifications were clearly laid out at the top of those pieces.

So it is with The New York Times. The newspaper has a separate standard for Israel, and that means those relying on the publication to understand the Middle East and the wider world aren’t getting a clear, coherent, consistent or contextual picture. It is, to most readers, like a car’s side-view mirror in which some objects are closer than they appear, other objects are further than they appear, and the driver is unaware of which is which.

january 29, 2015 ■

THE REPORTER

3

community news Mark Silverberg welcomed at Scranton Hebrew Day School Syracuse Hebrew Day School recently hosted Mark Silverberg, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania, on January 14.

Silverberg visited some classrooms and was shown the newly updated computer lab, the library and some other newly renovated areas of the building. “The pride

that we have in showing these areas to guests is due to the dedication of our parents who have and continue to volunteer their time, and to make sure that our children only have the best,” said a school representative.

Silverberg was presented with an over-sized card expressing the school’s gratitude for all that he and the

Federation do on its behalf. The card was signed by all of the students and staff of the school.

SHDS soup sale called a “super success” The Scranton Hebrew Day School’s recently held Winter Soup Sale is said to have “far exceeded all expectations.” A school spokesman said that more than 85 quarts of soup were sold, with all of the proceeds benefitting the school’s Scholarship Fund.

Organizers of the sale extended their gratitude to all of the soup makers, including Aviva Brotsky,

Etty Edelson, Deborah Fink, Dassy Ganz, Mindy Grossman, Tzipporah Guttman, Raizel Hernandez, Chaya Jakubowicz, Rochel Kaplan, Henny Pritzker, Rachaeli Rich, Zehava Ringel, Leah Rosenberg and Chana Valencia. They also thanked Elisheva Lorber for bringing the fund-raising idea to the school’s attention.

Oil spill heightens sense of urgency at Israeli conference on green energy

By June Glazer JNS.org The worst oil spill in Israel’s history was the unplanned backdrop for a recent international conference on green energy held in Eilat, the country’s southernmost city. A busy port and popular resort city located at the northern tip of the Red Sea, Eilat is at the epicenter of the Jewish state’s renewable energy industry.

The Eilat-Eilot Green Energy sixth International Conference and Exhibition, held December 7-9, was the culmination of six events that comprised Israel Energy Week and offered participants from around the globe a concentrated encounter with the emerging world of alternative energy in Israel. The conference focused on challenges facing the renewable energy industry today, including storage and supply of electricity, development of methods to manage electricity flow and financing to advance projects.

It also focused on the key role renewable energy

plays in the southern Arava, a stretch of Negev Desert from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba in which Eilat and the Hevel Eilot Regional Council are located.

This arid, sun-drenched area is Israel’s main locale for sustainable development and functions as an international showcase for Israeli innovation in the field of green energy.

“Renewable energy, with an emphasis on solar, is a major focus of our municipal activity and plays a key role in the region as a whole,” Meir Yitzhak Halevi, the mayor of Eilat, told conference attendees. “The city of Eilat and the Hevel Eilot Regional Council, which together account for 13 percent of Israel’s land area, but less than one percent of the country’s population, See “Green” on page 9

Mark Silverberg (right), executive director of the Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania, met with Yitzchak Elchonon Rich (left), director of administration, of the Scranton Hebrew Day School, an agency of the Federation.

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THE REPORTER ■ january 29, 2015

Food

medium that facilitates dialogue regarding Jewish heritage sites.

“This [new resource] is so special,” Gil Hovav – a noted Israeli food critic, chef and TV personality who wrote a forward to the “Israel’s Top 100 Ethnic Restaurants” eBook, tells JNS.org. “I’ve been in the restaurant business for 27 years. Israeli food is booming and in Tel Aviv you can find everything. But this is about the real people, where the soul is, where the Jewish grandma serves you kubbeh soup and says, ‘This time it really works!’”

Despite his admitted affection for “posh restaurants” and his interest in the worldly fusion of flavors influencing modern Israeli cooking, Hovav notes the respect that old-style cuisine still receives in Israel.

When asked how he conducts his research to uncover hidden Israeli restaurants, Hovav replies, “The best source is cab drivers.” He recalls simply asking drivers “Where is the best place in Petach Tikvah?” or other Israeli towns, and promptly being led to the back-alley restaurant where “somebody’s elderly aunt is serving.” Hovav explains that for lunch, Israelis typically go to cheaper places where they can find the most authentic food. Hungry tourists, he advises, should either look for the taxis parked out front or trust the WJH travel app. The new eBook – authored by Gottlieb and curated by Omri Negri, with the help of bloggers and “foodies” from around Israel – also steers travelers through Israel’s open markets in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, home to the colorful fresh produce that

The January 14 event at New York City’s Balaboosta restaurant that launched the World Jewish Heritage Organization’s eBook, “Israel’s Top 100 Ethnic Restaurants.” (Photo by Shahar Azran) characterizes the Israeli diet.

“The changing point [in the history of Israeli cuisine] was during the 1980s, when our kitchen became much richer,” Hovav says. “Up until then, food was not a main issue of conversation. Neither was it fashionable. It was almost impolite to enjoy food.”

During the early days of the Jewish state, a scarcity of ingredients hampered culinary creativity, and Israel’s humble settlers were simply thankful for whatever they had to eat. But now, the doors are wide open for experimentation and anything is possible.

“In two words: everything goes!” says Hovav, describing the range of culinary fu-

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sion taking place in Israel. “You [will] see a combination ofArab, Russian and Moroccan [cuisine] all on the same plate.”

Despite access to the world’s smorgasbord, Israelis aren’t likely to forget their past. Hovav is conscious of a popular throwback trend guiding contemporary cooking in Israel. “I think everybody [is] trying to become more ‘Israeli,’” he says, explaining that Israelis are “going back to old ingredients that were used in harder times… trying to recreate something local, fresh and modern.”

For example, Hovav describes a salad made of the mallow plant (“hubeza” in Hebrew). “This is what my family survived on during [the siege of Jerusalem during the 1948 War of Independence],” he recalls.

Additionally, Hovav recently encountered fish shwarma, a dish the poor citizens ofAcre ate when there wasn’t enough money for meat. “It’s one of the best fish dishes in the world, as far as I’m concerned,” Hovav says. “Surely now it’s done with better

Continued from page 1 ingredients, better fish and spices, and it’s getting a new twist in modern times.”

Fittingly, new twists define the menu at New York City’s Balaboosta, scene of the WJH eBook launch. “We’re making cauliflower fried like bamba,” says Einat Admony, the restaurant’s owner and chef, referencing the popular peanut butterflavored Israeli snack. “There’s couscous served with short rib in a Persian lime and herb sauce, crème brulee made with halva and fried baklava, [the latter consisting of] pistachio ice cream wrapped in nuts [and] wrapped again] in phyllo dough and fried.”

While WJH refers to a “long-lost voice of Jewish heritage” in its mission statement, the eBook project and mobile app reveal a culture in which time-honored customs are beginning to fuse with new accents, defining a rapidly evolving palate. “We’ve developed an interactive platform that is truly capable of bringing Jewish heritage into the 21st century,” Gottlieb says.

Summer Yiddish program

The Yiddish Book Center will offer the Steiner Summer Yiddish Program, a seven-week intensive course in Yiddish language and culture for college students, from June 7-July 24. Students need to apply by February 10. Students will have the opportunity to learn Yiddish and about the history and culture of Central and Eastern European Jews.

For more information, contact Steiner Summer Yiddish Program Manager Amy Leos-Urbel at aleos-urbel@bikher.org or at 413-256-4900, ext. 131.

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THE REPORTER

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NEWS IN bRIEF From JNS.org

At U.N. antisemitism conference, Saudi Arabia blames Israel for rise in antisemitism

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Yemenite coup endangers country’s remaining Jews

Houthi rebel gunmen are holding Yemenite President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi hostage in his own residence while waiting on possible concessions by the government on sharing control of the country’s rule. Meanwhile, a takeover of the capital city of Sanaa by the Shi’ite Muslim rebels could bring problems for the tiny Yemenite Jewish community. “It is clear they are in danger” due to “religious hate” and “extreme Islam,” University of Haifa Professor Emeritus Yosef Tobi told The Jerusalem Post. While there were once more than 50,000 Jews in Yemen, less than 100 remain in the capital city, and a similarly small community exists in the northern town of Raida. Most Yemenite Jews have made aliyah to Israel. Currently, the remaining Sanaa Jewish community already lives in a guarded district protected by the current government. Jews had fled to Saana from the town of Saada due to threats from Houthis in 2007. In 2008, Yemenite Jewish man Moshe Ya’ish al-Nahari was killed for refusing to convert to Islam. Another Jew in the country, Aharon Zindani, was stabbed in 2012 after being accused of practicing witchcraft. Last year, supporters of Houthi rebels protested in the streets of Saana chanting, “Death to America! Death to the Jews! Victory to Islam.”

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At the first-ever informal United Nations conference addressing antisemitism, surprise attendee Saudi Arabia blamed Israeli “occupation” for the global rise in antisemitism.

“Colonization and occupation fuels antisemitism – occupation is an act of antisemitism.

It threatens human rights and human kind,” said Saudi Arabian ambassador Abdallah alMouallimi, who spoke on behalf of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Countries.

Al-Mouallimi also condemned all words and acts that lead to “to hatred, antisemitism, Islamophobia.” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon struck a different tone, arguing that “grievances about Israeli actions must never be used as an excuse to attack Jews.” Amid the Gaza war last summer, antisemitic attacks in Europe and elsewhere in the world rose to their highest levels in decades, with protesters in several countries going as far as calling for Jews to be attacked and even gassed. More recently, four Jewish shoppers were killed in an attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris. “Violent antisemitism is casting a shadow over Europe,” Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Ron Prosor said, calling out other U.N. member countries for their antisemitic remarks. “This summer, disguised as humanitarian concern, delegates have used this podium to commit antisemitism, accusing Israel of behaving like Nazis,” Prosor added. “It doesn’t matter how much you’re angered or frustrated by our conflict. There is no excuse for statements like that.” Germany’s representative at the conference, Michael Roth, echoed this concern, saying that “antisemitism is gaining ground in a loud and aggressive manner” and that it poses a threat to European society.

U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power, noting that nearly two-thirds of religion-driven hate crimes in the U.S. target Jews, said the world must take action against “this monstrous global problem. ...When the human rights of Jews are repressed, the rights of other religious and ethnic groups are often not far behind,” Power said.

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6

THE REPORTER ■ january 29, 2015

Al-Azhar University

Nevertheless, as Bernard Lewis has noted, for centuries the world view and self-view of Arab Muslims seemed entirely justified. The Moorish Empire of Andalusia represented the greatest military and economic power in the world, trading in a wide range of commodities through a far-flung network of commerce and communications in Asia, Europe and Africa, importing slaves, gold and other commodities from Africa, as well as wool from Europe, and exchanging a variety of foodstuffs, materials and manufactured goods with the civilized nations of Asia. The Moors improved trade and agriculture, patronized the arts, made valuable contributions to science and established Cordoba as the most sophisticated city in Europe.

Inheriting and translating the scholarly works of the Greeks, Romans and Persians, they added new and important innovations from outside, such as the use and manufacture of paper from China and the decimal system imported from India. (4) Within the span of 200 years, the Moors had turned Andalusia into a bastion of culture, commerce and beauty. Irrigation systems imported from Syria and Arabia turned the dry plains of the peninsula into an agricultural cornucopia. To native olives and wheat, the Moors added fruits and herbs from throughout the known world – pomegranates, oranges, lemons, artichokes, cumin, coriander, bananas, almonds, henna, saffron, sugar-cane, cotton, rice, figs, grapes, peaches, apricots and rice as standard crops.

While Europe descended into feudalism, Andalusian homes featured marble balconies for summer and hotair ducts under their mosaic floors for the winter. They were adorned with gardens with artificial fountains and orchards. Paper, a material still unknown to the West, was everywhere. There were bookshops throughout Andalusia and more than 70 libraries. (5) The great library of Cordova held an estimated 600,000 manuscripts.

By the end of the first millennium, Cordoba had become the intellectual well from which Europeans came to drink.

Students and scholars alike traveled from France and England to sit at the feet of Muslim, Christian and Jewish scholars to learn philosophy, science and medicine. It was in Moorish Spain that Muslim mathematicians utilized decimals instead of fractions on a large scale, and Hindu numerals were, for the first time, incorporated in the

Continued from page 2

inherited body of mathematical learning. Today, they are known as “Arabic numerals.” Even the concept of “zero” (sifr) came from the Arabic translations of Andalusia. (6) To this rich inheritance, Andalusian Islamic scholars and scientists added an immensely important contribution through their own observations, experiments and ideas.

In most of the arts and sciences of civilization, medieval Europe was a pupil and, in a sense, a dependent of the Islamic world, relying on Arabic translations for previously unknown Greek works. While medieval Europe floated on a sea of superstition, illiteracy and barbarism, Andalusians were busying themselves probing the limits of the arts, the cosmos and the sciences rather than dwelling on victimization (as the Arab world does today).

Islamic texts broke new ground in the fields of medicine, astrology, astronomy, pharmacology, psychology, physiology, zoology, biology, botany, mineralogy, optics, literature, architecture, sociology, philosophy, metallurgy, animal husbandry, physics, mathematics (notably algebra, geometry and trigonometry), music, meteorology, geography, mechanics, hydrostatics, navigation and history.

What really caused the intellectual bombshell to explode were the Arabic commentaries on the Greek translations of Aristotle. These analyses and theorems shocked the West by giving religion and philosophy equal status to rational, scientific thought in explaining the nature of the universe. (7) Most historians of the period agree that these debates and the use of scientific logic sparked what came to be known as the European Renaissance.

Unlike those in the Arab world today who seek to establish a global Islamic caliphate based upon a narrow regressive, radical interpretation of the Quran and the Hadith (its commentaries) like ISIS, Boko Haram, al-Shabab, Al-Qaida and other radical Islamist organizations, the Moors of Spain encouraged free thought, experimentation, discussion and evaluation. The literature of Andalusia represented a combination of Arabic, Christian and Jewish styles that fused throughout time under the Caliphate of Cordoba.

Islamic Spain produced scientists and scholars who enhanced the quality of the astrolabe, not just to determine prayer times, but to serve as an astronomical guide to those who navigated the world’s oceans, making it possible to establish both longitude and latitude.

Andalusian scientists advanced the work of the Greeks

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in the development of the magnetic compass and ascertained the earth’s circumference. They produced books on astronomical tables that were used by European scientists for the next four centuries.

The works of Jewish philosopher and theologian Maimonides, Muslim polymath Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Muslim physician Abulcasis and Jewish scholar and physician Hasdai ibn Shaprut are direct products of the cultural exchange manifested through literature. Andalusian Arabs coined the term “algebra” (Kitab Al-jabr Wa I-muqabala, written by Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi in 825 C.E.) and the basic trigonometric functions of sine, cosine and tangent. And it was the Andalusian philosophers Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Ibn Sina (Avicenna) from whom great Christian scholars like St. Thomas Aquinas, who served as vicar provincial in Andalusia, drew the philosophies and concepts that eventually laid the foundations for the European Renaissance.

The Moors also made great advances in the field of modern surgery. They put the study of medicine on a scientific footing by eliminating superstition, introduced medical codes of conduct, and required the introduction of examinations and the taking of the Hippocratic Oath.

In the ninth century, an Andalusian physician was the first to diagnose smallpox and measles and relate them to the concept of “contagious” diseases – which, until that time, had been thought to originate only from within the body itself; and it was an Andalusian physician who pioneered the use of sutures made of animal gut to bind wounds.

Andalusian scientists constructed the first “globe” of the known world; broke new ground in the field of modern chemistry – or alchemy, a derivative of the Arabic word al kimiya – including the development of dosage standards (prescriptions) for patients and the process of chemical preparations for medicines. They developed the tables outlining the “angles of refraction” leading to an explanation of, among other things, twilight – established laboratories for long-term experimentation and pioneered new methods of observation and measurement.

Andalusian Arabic scholars also left an intellectual imprint in the heavens as one can readily see when reading the names of the stars on a modern-day celestial globe. And because of this flood of knowledge flowing from Andalusian scholars, the first universities began to appear. College and university degrees were developed along with corresponding textbooks. Arabic music spread throughout Europe, giving us the keyboard, the flute and the concept of harmony. (8) The translations of the works of the Moors continued even as the Moorish Empire broke apart into feuding factions. In the end, like the other empires of history, Andalusia fell in 1492 to the Catholic princes of Castille and the counts of Barcelona in the Reconquista.

The Great Arab Decline With the end of the Golden Age of Islam, the great Arab decline began. Rather than acknowledging the learning revolution brought forth by the European Renaissance, Islamic leaders scoffed at it in the certain belief that there was nothing to be learned from these infidel upstarts.

Throughout the intervening centuries, Islam became narcissistic and withdrew within itself. In 1485, the printing press, a symbol of the Enlightenment, was banned from the Ottoman Empire by a decree from Ottoman sultan Beyazid II on the grounds that it would be sacrilegious to use the Arabic language in mechanical equipment. Arnaud de Borchgrave has written that when Napoleon arrived in Egypt, in 1798, Cairo did not have a single printing press. By then the European intelligentsia had long since embarked upon self-improvement through books and learning for almost two centuries while the Ottoman Empire languished.

The Muslims who were expelled from Andalusia took refuge mainly in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, but the legacy persisted. Some families, it is said, still have the keys to their no longer existent ancient houses in Cordoba and Seville. Today, in mosques from Mecca to Tehran, imams continue to invoke the memory of Andalusia in Friday prayers, reminding their flocks of past glories and the humiliation Muslims have endured at the hands of the infidels. But it is a convenient scapegoat for their own shortcomings.

Nevertheless, the end of the Andalusian Empire has never been forgotten by Arabia. For Al-Qaida and ISIS, its restoration is seen as the fulfillment of the will of Allah and as “divine retribution” to the descendants of those who conquered and destroyed Al Andalus. (9) To the radical Islamists, President Obama is simply another infidel in a long line of infidels – from the Byzantine emperors of Constantinople, to the Holy Roman Emperors, to Queen Victoria and to other European imperialists – who represent mere impediments to the divinely ordained expansion of Islam. “Interference” with the will of Allah, they believe, cannot stop the restoration of their new caliphate.

See “University” on page 7

january 29, 2015 ■

University

THE REPORTER

Continued from page 6

But those who support radical Islam fail to appreciate how Andalusian society achieved its greatness.

In their zeal to exact revenge and to punish infidels for past transgressions (real or imagined), these radical Islamists have placed their faith in an interpretation of Islam that renders tolerance, independent thought, debate and all creative, scientific experimentation heresy unless carried out solely for the purpose of waging jihad (holy war) against the perceived enemies of Islam.

Bernard Lewis, professor emeritus of Princeton University and the leading Western scholar on Islamic history, argued with some merit that the success of Muhammad in establishing not merely the Muslim religion, but also a state dominated by that faith – Islam has yet to separate church from state – created a society that was and remains in its essence totalitarian, “bound by rules and strictures that make it too static to adapt and compete with a West [that] does not demand control over the political and economic spheres.” (10) As a result, the radical Islamists of today are caught in a self-imposed religious prison to which al-Sisi referred in his speech at Al-Azhar. The kind of society that produced Andalusia – one that encouraged scholarship through the study of science, learning, independent thought, debate and discussion – represents the very antithesis of the kind of society these radical Islamists seek to impose on the world by force and submission.

As Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared in his New Year’s Day speech to Egypt’s imam scholars, without an Islamic religious and intellectual renaissance, efforts to restore and enhance the dignity of the Islamic world are doomed to failure.

Endnotes 1. Paul Crawford, “Crusades: Political and Military Background,” ORB Online Encyclopedia, 1997.

2. Lawrence Wright, “The Terror Web – Were the Madrid bombings part of a new, far-reaching jihad being plotted on the Internet?” The New Yorker, August 2, 2004.

3. Moorish Spain practiced d’himmitude, which saw Islamic rulers require tens of millions of non-Muslim peoples to be treated as second-class citizens as they are required to be treated by the Quran. Jews and Christians were tolerated under Islam provided that they paid a poll or head tax (jizya) and accepted Islamic superiority. They

had no right whatsoever to an independent existence and could live under Islamic rule so long as they kept to the rules that Islam had promulgated for them. Great injustices often flowed from this status, although Jews were allowed to practice their religion more freely than they could in Christian Europe. The works of Bat Ye’or, the world’s foremost authority on d’himmitude, are the seminal writings on this subject.

4. Bernard Lewis, “What Went Wrong: Western Impact and Middle East Response” (Oxford University Press, 2002).

5. James Burke, “The Day the Universe Changed” (Boston: Little Brown & Company, 1985) p. 37-38; See also: Dean Derhak, “Muslim Spain and European Culture.”

6. Bernard Lewis, “What Went Wrong,” op. cit.

7. James Burke, “The Day the Universe Changed,” op. cit. 1985 p. 42.

8. Dr. K. Ajram, “Setting the Record Straight: The Miracle of Islamic Science,” Appendix B, 1992; Paul J. Balles, “Arabs (Muslims): Illusion and Reality”; see also: Islamic Civilization E-Book, http://cyberistan. org/ebook1.htm.

9. Reuel Marc Gerecht, “Holy War in Europe,” American Enterprise Institute, April 7, 2004; Ron Fraser, “The Spanish Connection,” http://theTrumpet.com, May 2004; DEBKA counter-intelligence sources (from December 2002) note that three months before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Al-Qaida began issuing a stream of fatwas designating

its main operating theatres in Europe. All are designed to redress what they perceive as historical injustices, including the loss of Andalusia. Turkey topped the “hit” list followed by Spain. Italy and its capital Rome were next.

Muslim fundamentalists view Rome as a “world center of heresy because of the Vatican and the pope.” Finally, there was Vienna because “the advancing Muslim armies were defeated there in 1683 before they could engulf the heart of Europe.” Turkey saw two terrorist outbreaks in Istanbul on November 3, 2003, that claimed 63 lives and injured more than 600. Islamic fundamentalists assert that these acts were committed to “recover the honor and glory of the Ottoman caliphates that were trampled by Christian forces in 1917 in the last days of World War I.” Spain followed on March 11, 2004, with more than 200 dead and 1,500 injured when Al-Qaida struck at Madrid’s commuter rail system. In their minds, they are one step closer to restoring their Andalusian Empire. To the world, the goal of restoring Andalusia is fantasy. To the followers of Al-Qaida and ISIS, it is inevitable. Their religious edicts dictate the “liberation” (by terrorism) of all lands once under Muslim rule, and the plan of conquest spans the oceans to America as well.

10. Bernard Lewis, “The Crisis in Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror” (NY: Random House, 2003); Dennis Mullin, “Call it by any other name, it still adds up to a crusade,” The Washington Post, January 5, 2003; Review

by La Shawn Barber, http://Townhall.com, 2005.

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THE REPORTER ■ january 29, 2015

d’var torah

Divine-human interaction

by RABBI STEVEN NATHAN, JEWISH FELLOWSHIP OF HEMLOCK FARMS Beshalach, Exodus 13:17-17:16 This week’s parasha contains the splitting and crossing of the Sea of Reeds. At first glance, this is a story of God redeeming the people through the performance of a miracle. In the narrative, the role of the people is clearly secondary to that of God. Nevertheless, there is some human involvement in the miracle. When Moses prays to God for deliverance at the shore of the sea, God responds, “Why do you cry out to Me? Tell the Israelites to go forward. And you, lift up your rod and hold out your arm over the sea and split it, so that the Israelites may march into the sea on dry ground.”

We also read in a midrash (rabbinic legend) that the rabbis tell us God splits the sea because one man, Nachshon ben Aminadav, walks into the sea first, rather than waiting around for God. Nachshon acts. He takes matters into his own hands. God sees this and tells Moses that it’s time for him to lead the people through the sea. Therefore, even though this is the story of a Divine miracle, without human action, the miracle might not have taken place. The mystical tradition of Kabbalah teaches that our actions can affect the Divine realms.

Or one might say that a miracle happens when human beings connect with the Divine that is within and around us. However one chooses to frame it, I believe that the splitting of the sea reminds us that miracles require a degree of Divine-human interaction. In fact, it would seem that the Divine cannot enter our life if we do not act first, nor is there a reason for God to enter our life if we do not first make it known that we have some desire for this to occur. This is reminiscent of Chasidic rebbe Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev’s dictum that “God dwells where we let God in.”

The image of the splitting and crossing of the sea is

a powerful one that contains a multitude of truths and meanings within it. Each of us faces seas that we must cross in our lives. We each face obstacles that seem insurmountable. Yet, when we stand before our own Sea of Reeds, our own challenges, we know that we must either cross the sea or perish.

In order to do so we must take the first step. We must walk or leap into the sea as did Nachshon. We must raise our arms and stretch forth our staff, like Moses, showing the strength within us, in order to split the sea. Either action shows not only our desire for a miracle, but the trust that God will deliver one. The Hebrew phrase for the splitting or tearing of the sea is k’riyah. This same word also describes the act of tearing a garment when a loved one dies. Here it symbolizes a tear in the fabric of our lives that can never be completely mended.

The splitting of the sea is a tearing in the fabric of nature. It is a radical action that reminds us that what we assume to be permanent and unchanging can indeed change. One could call this a paradigm shift, but “shift” is not radical enough, for the splitting of the sea symbolized a total obliteration of the old paradigm and the creation of a new one. But even after the tearing is “repaired,” anyone who witnessed it knows that its effects remain.

On the surface, the sea may look the same, but beneath it is not. If we look closely and pay attention, we can actually see the almost imperceptible traces of the place where the waters were torn apart and the natural order was turned upside down before our very eyes. So when we look at our sea before us, it reminds us of what happened, just as when the Israelites looked at the now calm sea, they knew that the Egyptian soldiers lay dead just beneath its surface.

As we look at our own “seas” after they have been torn apart, we are reminded of the parts of our lives that See “Divine” on page 10

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january 29, 2015 ■

Green have recognized the potential offered by the sunlight and open space that exist here in such abundance and are concentrating on renewable energy as a catalyst for regional growth.”

According to Udi Gat, head of the Hevel Eilot Regional Council, the area has already reached nearly 60 percent daytime energy independence and in eight months will generate nearly 100 percent of the energy consumed each day in the southern Arava. By 2020, the municipality and regional council anticipate that the area will be completely energy-independent and free of fossil fuel and carbon emissions.

“We want to generate more electricity, even beyond the needs of Eilat and the regional council. We want to help the country produce electricity from an inexpensive source – the sun – and to be Israel’s electricity storehouse or ‘bank,’” Gat said.

The importance of achieving energy independence was conveyed to the conference in a dramatic way when, four days prior to the start of the gathering, an oil pipeline ruptured during maintenance work at a construction site about 12 miles north of Eilat. Five million liters of crude oil spilled out and fouled an estimated 250 acres of scenic desert, including a nature reserve.

Delicate coral reefs beyond the nearby shoreline were also threatened.

The work area is the site of a future international airport to serve the southern Arava. Nearly one week after the spill, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured the area and, according to news reports, said that the situation appeared to be “under control.”

“Everyone’s big concern is a loss of control by large floods that can take the oil south to Eilat and the Eilat Gulf,” Netanyahu said. “Actions were taken here to prevent that and up until now they have succeeded.”

While fears of an environmental catastrophe seem to have abated for now, many observers believe the accident underscored the potentially destructive nature of oil dependency and the need to shift to sustainable sources. Yet not everyone at the conference seemed convinced that a total shift is feasible.

“The spill was a disaster,” said Russell F. Robinson, CEO of the Jewish National Fund, who was a speaker at the conference. “Still, I don’t think we’re

THE REPORTER

9

Continued from page 3

Ilan Ben-David – CEO of Chakratec, a producer of electricity storage batteries and an exhibitor at the recent Eilat-Eilot Green Energy sixth International Conference and Exhibition – was interviewed outside the new Regional Collaboration Center for Research and Development and Renewable Energy near Eilat.

(Photo courtesy of Jewish National Fund) ever going to see crude oil and fossil fuel completely replaced by renewable energy. We can’t convert large cities overnight. Instead, we need to strike a balance. Renewable energy can make a difference in smaller areas, like neighborhoods and communities.

On the other hand, we need to come up with better safeguards to protect against these kinds of accidents in the future.”

Over the past several years, JNF has invested $1 million in developing renewable energy in Israel as part of its “Blueprint Negev” plan, which calls for bringing 500,000 new residents to the Negev. To that end, the organization, which underwrote part of the Eilat-Eilot conference, supports various projects to enhance the quality of life in the southern Arava, including those related to renewable energy.

One of these projects is the new Regional Collaboration Center for Research and Development and Renewable Energy, an office hub and testing lab specifically designed for start-up companies. It is located at Kibbutz Yotvata outside of Eilat and is expected to be ready for occupancy in about a month.

“The area is perfect for us,” said conference exhibitor Or Yogev, who was among the guests at a ribbon-cutting ceremony to inaugurate the regional collaboration center. Yogev – the founder and CEO of Augwind, a three-year-old start-up that fuses wind and solar energy – plans to relocate his company there from its current base in central Israel. “This facility will help young entrepreneurs like me to implement our dreams,” he said. “The environment will encourage collaboration that will help incubate all of our projects.”

Ilan Ben-David – CEO of Chakratec, a producer of electricity storage batteries and another conference exhibitor – said he intends to maintain his company headquarters near Tel Aviv, but plans to make the regional collaboration center his testing lab. “When we first started out, there were only three companies investing in energy,” he said. “Energy is a very difficult field in which to raise money. Now, because of this Center and the focus of the municipality on clean energy, we plan to have a long-term relationship with the region.”

Ben-David added, “This facility will help Israel develop technologies that will not only benefit Israelis but can be exported, especially to China, India and Africa, where the interest in green energy is great. There is a huge future for us in these markets.”

“Renewable energy is about how to get people to move to different places,” JNF’s Robinson said. “If we want them to move to the Negev, we need to develop technologies that will lower the cost of energy, especially as it relates to water recycling. If we can produce enough energy cheaply, we can settle people anywhere in the desert.”

But how imminent is that reality? “I think if you look at the Eilat and Eilot region and see what they have accomplished, you’ll realize that it can be done,” said Robinson. “Since the first of these Eilat-Eilot conferences was held, solar sources have come to supply 60 percent of the Eilat region’s daytime energy consumption. That means that every day they turn on a grid that provides them with enough electricity to meet all of their daytime needs. Just a few years ago, who would have guessed that could happen?”

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

10

THE REPORTER ■ january 29, 2015

“Scattered Light” exhibit

February 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!

The National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia will present the exhibit “Liat Segal: Scattered Light” beginning on January 29. The exhibit will be the U.S. debut of Israeli artist Liat Segal. “Scattered Light” weaves together key phrases from George Washington’s 1790 letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, RI, affirming his commitment to religious liberty with the reflections of museum visitors collected from its “It’s Your Story” recording booths. Both Washington’s words and the contemporary commentary speak to the significance of religious freedom and to the continuing role people play in its preservation.

“Scattered Light” pairs the old with the new through the use of a wand embedded with LED lights that move over a photosensitive surface, “printing” Washington’s words along with those of museum visitors. The texts fade away over time, allowing new content to appear, creating an ever-evolving dialogue between history and the present.

For more information visit www.nmajh.org/SpecialExhibitions or contact the museum at 215-923-3811.

Divine

Continued from page 8 needed to die in order to bring about our redemption. We must mourn the loss of these forces, ideas, habits and desires, just as a midrash teaches that God mourned the death of the Egyptians. For these, too, were a part of us, even if they did keep us from growing.

The crossing of the sea is a difficult process. Change often is. There will indeed be many dead left on the floor of the sea after it closes. Sometimes the process takes longer than we had hoped. Yet, with faith, we can remain confident that the redemption will occur and that the crossing will be successful.

Each moment provides an opportunity for the sea to be torn apart. At times it takes great human effort; at other times it simply seems to happen on its own. In either case, we need to watch and pay attention so that we do not miss the splitting. For just as quickly as the sea splits, it can close up again, and if we did not pay attention enough to see it split we will never know that it did. We often live much of our lives as consecutive moments of oblivion trying to avoid these moments of change – and pain. Perhaps we believe that if we do not pay attention the sea will never split and all will always be as it was. Perhaps we are simply so caught up in the minutia of our lives that our oblivion unintentionally takes over because of our lack of attention to what is really happening. No matter the reason, ignoring the changes that occur does not prevent them from occurring. Lives change; the world changes; seas get torn apart every moment. Noticing this can cause uncertainty or pain, but ignoring this reality is what will eventually cause true suffering.

This scenario does not only work for us as individuals, but as a community or even a nation as well. As we face one of the most difficult economic times in recent history, as well as difficult societal battles that are being fought, we are each provided the opportunity to choose how to act in each moment.

May we each face our seas, individually and communally, with faith, even in the midst of fear. May we pay attention to the changes happening in each moment and continue to praise creation even as it constantly changes and shifts around and beneath us. Together with God, may we create a world filled with love and compassion for all humanity as we collaborate to create miracles and make the world better for all.

january 29, 2015 ■

THE REPORTER

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NEWS IN bRIEF From JTA

Argentina releases Nisman’s evidence on secret Iran-AMIA deal

Argentine judicial officials made public the 300-page criminal complaint that details evidence linking Argentina’s senior political echelon to a deal to hide Iran’s role in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires. The complaint prepared by Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman was to be presented the week of Jan. 22 to Argentina’s congress, but Nisman was found dead in his home early on Jan. 19 with a gunshot wound to his head. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner initially called his death a suicide, but backtracked on Jan. 22 following large protests and the widespread perception that Nisman was murdered. In an open letter published on Jan. 22 on her Facebook page and blog, Kirchner wrote that Nisman’s death was an “operation against the government.” Nisman was murdered, she wrote, because he had accused her and Foreign Minister Hector Timerman of covering up Iran’s role in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires that killed 85.

Nisman’s criminal complaint, which is based on intelligence intercepts, accuses Kirchner of “deciding, negotiating and arranging the impunity of the Iranian fugitives in the AMIA case.” The president and Timerman, “took the criminal decision of inventing Iran’s innocence to satisfy commercial, political and geopolitical interests of theArgentine republic,” the complaint says. The deal would have exonerated Iranian officials in their role in the bombing, which killed 85 people, in exchange for Iranian oil and weapons sales, according to the complaint. The secret deal, the complaint says, was negotiated two years before Iran and Argentina signed a public memorandum of understanding in 2013 to establish a joint investigation of the AMIA bombing – an agreement that critics derided as a farce and which later was derailed

by Argentine courts. In the decade Nisman spent pursuing the AMIA case, he uncovered evidence showing that Iran sponsored the bombing and had Hezbollah, its proxy militia in Lebanon, carry it out. Interpol, the international police agency, eventually issued arrest warrants for several Iranian officials in the case. The arrests have never been carried out.

Under the terms of the secret deal, the Interpol arrest warrants would have been canceled and culpability for the bombing would have been redirected toward “invented defendants,” the complaint says. But despite the efforts of Argentine officials, according to the complaint, Interpol refused to play ball and the arrest warrants stand. Nisman sought to question Kirchner and others, including Timerman, who is a member of Argentina’s Jewish community, on charges of obstruction of justice. He also planned to ask for up to $23 million worth of their assets to be frozen. He alleged that Kirchner established a secret channel of communications with the Iranians to carry out her illegal plan to scuttle justice in the AMIA investigation. The channel allegedly included Argentina’s intelligence secretary and negotiations with one of the main defendants in the AMIA case, a former Iranian cultural attache inArgentina named Mohsen Rabbani. Kirchner denies the allegations against her. With Nisman’s death, it’s not clear what will happen with the criminal complaint or where the AMIA case itself stands.

Federations raise funds for French Jews, plan Paris trip

The Jewish Federations of North America announced a trip to Paris in February to support victims of the recent terror attacks there. The trip, announced in a letter sent on Jan. 21 by Jewish Federations board Chairman Michael Siegal, will take place in early February. Attendees plan to visit the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket, the site of a hostage standoff on Jan. 9 in which four Jewish patrons were killed. The delegation will meet the families of victims killed in the attacks, as well as with the editor of Charlie Hebdo, the satirical magazine that saw 12 people killed in a terrorist attack. The delegation will also meet officials from the French government and Jewish community. In

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

addition, Federations are raising money for a French Terror and Security Fund that will provide financial assistance to the families of the victims of the Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher terror attacks. The fund will also contribute resources for increased aliyah to Israel and for heightened security at Jewish communal institutions in Paris. World Jewry organizations will provide 20 percent of the Terror and Security Fund, with the French government, philanthropists and French Jewish communal institutions slated to provide the other 80 percent.

Turkey to hold International Holocaust Remembrance Day event

Turkey will commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day even as its president compared Israel’s leaders to Adolf Hitler. Parliament speaker Cemil Cicek will attend the Jan. 27 ceremony at Bilkent University in Ankara, according to the Times of Israel, citing a Turkish Jewish newspaper. He will be joined by representatives from the United Nations, the university and the Turkish Jewish community. The first Turkish state ceremony to mark the Holocaust took place in 2011. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticized Israel harshly in recent years, even comparing its leadership to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The Turkish government has denied claims that it is antisemitic. Ties between Turkey and Israel collapsed following the Mavi Marmara incident in 2010, when Israeli Navy commandos boarded a ship trying to break the maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip. Nine Turkish citizens were killed in the ensuing clash between the commandos and passengers.

Advocacy group: Municipal conversion courts still awaiting Chief Rabbinate OK

Municipal rabbis who submitted requests to Israel’s Chief Rabbinate to form conversion courts have not received an answer, a religious advocacy group told JTA. The rabbis filed their requests in early December, a month after the Cabinet passed a government regulation

to reform the conversion process, according to Rabbi Seth Farber, director of ITIM. “As of today, none of the rabbis who submitted requests to create courts have received answers,” said Farber, who petitioned the Conversion Authority on Jan. 21 to begin implementing the Cabinet decision. “The Cabinet decision was clear: Municipal rabbis can perform conversions. Unfortunately, the Religious Ministry is refusing to uphold the law.” The Chief Rabbinate told Israel’s Channel 2 news on Jan. 21 that it would appoint a legal committee to look into the validity of the Cabinet’s decision. Under the measure, as many as 30 courts made up of municipal rabbis would be allowed for the purpose of conversion. Currently, there are 33 rabbis and four conversion courts that can perform conversions throughout Israel. Israel’s chief rabbis have said they would not recognize conversions performed by municipal chief rabbis. Among the rabbis who requested to form courts was Rabbi Shlomo Riskin of Efrat and former Shas party lawmaker Haim Amsalem, according to Farber.

Italian neo-Nazis convicted for racist, antisemitic activities

Two leaders of Militia were among six members of the Italian neo-Nazi group convicted for racist and antisemitic activities. A Rome court convicted the men on Jan. 20. They were sentenced to prison terms of eight to 18 months. Among those charged were Maurizio Boccacci and Stefano Schiavulli, who were directly responsible for many hate incidents against Jewish targets. They also attempted to reconstitute the Fascist Party. Militia recently had publicly marked the anniversary of the death of Erich Priebke, an SS captain convicted of war crimes for participating in the massacre at the Ardeatine caves in Rome on March 24,1944. Priebke died in October 2013.

During a hearing last March, Schiavulli also threatened Rome Jewish community leader Riccardo Pacifici. Last August, Militia called for a boycott of Jewish-owned stores through a poster campaign.

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

A charitable deduction plus no capital gains tax

Contribute long-term appreciated stock or other securities

Defer a gift until after your lifetime Put a bequest in your will Exemption from federal estate tax on

(gifts of cash, specific property, or donations

a share or the residue of your estate 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 or 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

Give income from an asset for a Create a charitable lead trust period of years 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 Name a charity as the beneficiary Full control of the trust terms during lifetime of assets in a living trust your lifetime

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THE REPORTER ■ january 29, 2015