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JFS presents author David Burns, MD for professional workshop

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Cedar Village welcomes their newest staff member

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Boehner: Only Netanyahu can talk about radical terrorism threat

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Politics, Putin cast shadow over Auschwitz liberation anniversary

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A Legal Look: Life insurance as part of an estate plan

Cincinnati community leader Rachel Boymel passes away at 92 Rachel Boymel was born in 1923 in Ozierany, Poland to Yankle and Pessia Fruma Czerkiewcz. Her town became a ghetto when the Germans took it over in the summer of 1941.

She escaped from the ghetto with much of her family and tried to find shelter in Mizoc. After being driven out of Mizoc, Rachel and her remaining brothers hid out behind the house of a Czech man until the end of the war in 1945. She met her husband, Sam, in a displaced persons camp after World War II and they were married in Chelm, Poland in 1945; it was a marriage that lasted 70 years.

Rachel and Sam arrived in the United States on May 4, 1949.

In 1957, Sam opened Boymel’s Kosher Meat Market and Rachel balanced being a business woman as well as a mother. When she and Sam bought the Garden Manor Nursing Home in 1967 Rachel was the one who made the long commute to Middletown, leaving home each morning at 4:30am. The nursing home, which had been bankrupt, flourished in ways unimaginable under the care of Rachel and Sam. What started as a five room house has

grown into a full continuing care community. In 2011 Garden Manor received a national quality award from the American Health Care Association (AHCA).

Rachel’s life was about perseverance against the odds, hard work, tradition, a strong faith in her Judaism, and helping the less Rachel Boymel fortunate (in particular children) and Holocaust education. Rabbi Irvin Wise recounted how Rachel always made gefilte fish before the holidays. The gefilte fish was about much more than food; it was about continuing a tradition that the Nazis had wanted to stamp out.

Her and Sam’s charitable giving are well known in the local Cincinnati community, nationally, and in Israel where they have supported many causes.

But above all, it was family that was the cornerstone of her life.

All who have spoken of Rachel highlight the importance of her family to her. The residents at the nursing home that she woke up before the crack of dawn to make breakfast for were like family. The countless children her charitable contributions helped were like family. The institutions focused on the Holocaust that she and Sam sustained were as a memory to family and others that the world must never forget. Of course there was her own family. Her grandson, Jonathan, speaking for all of her grandchildren recounted one story after another on how Rachel cared and helped her family. Jonathan said “You and Grandpa created a childhood for all of 12 of us that make us feel

blessed beyond description. How lucky are you….Grandma and Grandpa, the bond you have with your 12 grandchildren is like nothing else in the world. And 13 great [grand] children, too! “ Rachel passed away on January 27, 2015 at the age of 92. She is survived by her husband, Sam; a sister in law, Edith Czerkiewcz; her children Steve (Carol) Boymel, Patsy (Barry) Kohn, and Faye (Harold) Sosna; her grandchildren Chase and Jonathan Kohn and Lauren Kohn Schuman; Jonas, Evan, and Alex Boymel, Robbie, Jeffrey, Zachary, Jordan, and Brandon Sosna and Jennifer Sosna Lazaroff and 13 great grandchildren.

She was predeceased by her parents, by her brothers Meyer and Zalman who perished in World War II, her brother Yosel who died fighting for the State of Israel in 1948, and her brother Simon.

Funeral services were held at Weil Funeral home with Rabbi Irvin Wise officiating. Memorial contributions to Yad Vashem, 500 Fifth Ave., 42nd FL, New York, NY 10110 or Adath Israel Synagogue would be appreciated.

Tuesdays with Morrie author Mitch Albom keynote speaker at Refresh Your Soul conference February 28 Mitch Albom, author of Tuesdays with Morrie, will be the keynote speaker at ‘Refresh Your Soul’ conference on Saturday, February 28, 2015. The event will be held at Landmark Church and will run from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; check in begins at 7:30 a.m. with a continental breakfast being served.

Refresh Your Soul is an annual, inspirational and educational conference offered for all caregivers, including health care professionals such as nurses, social workers, counselors, chaplains, nursing home administrators, etc. It is open to the general public as well.

Contact hours for some specialties can be earned by attending this event.

This event is sponsored by Episcopal Retirement Homes

(ERH) which has dedicated itself to improving the lives of older adults since 1951 through innovative, quality living environments and inhome and community-based services delivered by experienced and compassionate professionals.

Who helped you through a difficult or challenging time? Maybe it was a grandparent, a teacher, or a colleague - someone who helped you see the world as a more profound place and gave you advice to help you make your way through it.

For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his former college professor. Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together during Morrie’s battle with ALS and Mitch’s struggle to find meaning and purpose in his life.

Another speaker is Dr. William Hablitzel, MD, who will discuss

healing and how to bring it into your life. Healing is not necessarily going to see the doctor; many people mistakenly think healing means curing. When we walk out of the doctor’s office wanting more, the “more” is what healing is. Dr. Hablitzel will inspire attendees with his secrets for healing and how all people, not just medical professionals, can bring healing into their lives and work.

The final speaker is Brooke Billingsley, who discovered living life with intention when she was surprised with a cancer diagnosis in 2011. She has personally learned the importance of hope in the midst of healing and states, “We see our healing through the hopeful words and actions of our caregivers.”

About the speakers Mitch Albom is an international-

ly renowned and bestselling author, journalist, screenwriter, playwright, radio and television broadcaster and musician.

William E. Hablitzel, MD, an internist in southern Ohio and award-winning author, is an associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. His work as a country doctor in rural health care was honored by resolutions passed by the Ohio State Senate and the Ohio House of Representatives.

Brooke Billingsley, national speaker, author, co-owner and CEO of Perception Strategies, Inc., the nation’s largest healthcare mystery shopping company, inspires, affirms and motivates individuals on the positive healing impact they can have with others.

LOCAL • 3

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015

Hillel Careers Shabbat draws over 90 On Friday, January 23, Cincinnati Hillel hosted its second Careers Shabbat. Thirty young adult guests from the Jewish community joined over 60 students at their weekly Shabbat services and dinner.

This special evening was designed to give Hillel students the opportunity to speak with young people already working in their fields.

Hillel teamed up with Jeff Blumental, Director of the Federation’s Young Adult Division, and Sammy Kanter, the Maurice and Esther Becker Networking and Mentoring Coordinator at the Federation, to invite people from a broad range of careers, including IT, politics, academia, medicine, HR, marketing, journalism, real estate, engineering, social work, entrepreneurism, law, finance and non-profit work.

Matt Steinberg from The Mayerson Foundation was there to tell students about the social opportunities available for Jewish young adults in Cincinnati.

Heather Stone, a UC student and Hillel’s Jewish Life Chair, led the weekly kaballat Shabbat service.

Services were followed by a Shabbat dinner and a dessert reception, all prepared by Hillel students.

Ilana Matheson is a sophomore from Bethesda, Maryland majoring in Industrial Design at DAAP. She reported that “Careers Shabbat was a great way for us as students to be

Preparing for shabbat.

introduced to young professionals in all fields. I was able to meet many people, one of whom…is helping me obtain a volunteer position I’ve been working toward.”

Matt Beasley, a senior from Cincinnati majoring in Communications, said “It was an incredible experience. I enjoyed talking with the young professionals and...I left with more confidence and made some new connections that will benefit me down the road.”

Rachel Schneir, a sophomore from Akron majoring in Marketing and International Business added, “It was great to learn how young adults stay connected to Judaism after college, and to have the chance to meet young professionals who could open opportunities for a future career.”

Several Hillel students have follow-up appointments with contacts they met at Careers Shabbat.

Director of Student Life, Paula Harlan, noted that “This annual Hillel Careers Shabbat has become a favorite event and an important way that Hillel supports our students.

JVS Career Services will be partnering with us to prepare students to be successful in their job interviews and in the work place.”

“In addition, several of the young adult guests expressed interest in our new Careers Cincinnati initiative.” Careers Cincinnati is a paid summer internship program in Cincinnati funded by The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati and done in collaboration with Hillel at Miami University.

Cedar Village welcomes their newest staff member

By Beth Kotzin Assistant Editor Cedar Village’s newest staff member is quite the looker. He’s got soft blond hair, big brown eyes, and a winning personality. He also has a penchant for parading around the rehab unit with a toy in his mouth.

Toby, an English Cream Golden Retriever, is Cedar Village’s new facility dog, taking over for Gates, who passed away a short time ago.

According to owner and Cedar Village’s Director of Rehabilitation Debi Tyler, Toby has “big paws to fill.”

At 14 weeks old, Toby has already been on the job for a month and the reaction has been phenomenal. “He makes the residents laugh,” said Tyler, “and distracts them from not feeling well.” Tyler gets enormous satisfaction seeing these reactions that Toby elicits. In fact, one resident even wrote a poem about him.

Tyler got Toby from a breeder, and when making her selection she was looking for a puppy who made eye contact, was content to be held and relatively calm. Toby fit the bill.

It’s important for a facility dog to be able to get used to crowds, wheelchairs and other equipment, as well as constantly changing stimuli.

Toby with owner and Director of Rehabilitation Debi Tyler.

Tyler is training Toby herself, and thus far he’s been taking to it well, learning how to walk on his leash (although he does like to hold his leash in his mouth and walk himself) and not jump up on people. She’s teaching him a special command, “go say hi”, which means it’s safe to approach and not to jump. He’s also learned to not go into the deli; he waits patiently at the edge if Tyler

needs to go in to the dining area.

A facility dog is not like a therapy dog. Therapy dogs are trained to help those with vision or hearing issues, or to help detect medical problems. A facility dog is there to provide an extra level of interaction and support for the residents. Just by holding or petting Toby, the Cedar Village residents can find a little peace and comfort in an increasingly challenging life. Sometimes Toby can evoke a memory of pets past, and sometimes his presence can bring a resident out of their shell a little and bring a smile to their face.

Almost every resident Toby walked by reached out to pet him, and he willingly went to them, gave a sniff or a lick and then plopped down contentedly at their feet. If they couldn’t reach him, Tyler would pick him up for a close-up cuddle.

Toby is also helpful in the rehab department. Residents can be encouraged to walk to Toby, or bend and reach for him, which can help them with therapy and take them a little further on the road to recovery.

What’s the day in a life of a facility dog? Toby comes to work every day with Tyler. When he arrives, he goes straight to the outpatient therapy reception office and heads for the TOBY on page 22

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4 • LOCAL

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Wise Temple seniors host Spring programs Over the years, the Wise Seniors group and its programs have been very popular. New faces are always welcome. All programs are at 1:30 PM at Wise Center. There is no charge for these programs and they are open to members and non-members of Wise Temple. For additional information call the Wise Temple office.

Miami University graduate Ashley Barrett, ’14, named new 2015 Masa-Hillel fellow

Ashley Barrett

being Jewish is shown through her countless summers at URJ OlinSan-Ruby Union Institute in

Wisconsin. She also served the Jewish community of Oxford, Ohio during her studies as one of the two religious school teachers as well as serving the Jewish student body with countless semesters on boards and various committees.

Besides engaging Shabbat programming, one of her other devotions in school was the first ever ‘MU Pink Week’ an entire week devoted to Sharsheret and the culminating event being Pink Shabbat on campus.

The fellowship is a six-month professional development seminar designed to prepare current Masa participants for Hillel work.

Through this partnership, a

Fellowship experience is provided for current participants who were at the Israel Leadership Summit in December. The goal of this Fellowship is to build a talent pipeline and populate Hillel’s professional cohort with talented individuals and budding leaders who are actively exploring Israel and reinforcing their Jewish and Israel connections.

Hillel at Miami University is the central address of the Jewish community on Miami University’s Oxford campus. It serves over 1,000 Jewish students, faculty and staff.

Led by Kanter and Ari Mann, Special Needs and Volunteer Coordinator at the Mayerson JCC, participants explored Cincinnati’s connections to Israel, and will have opportunities to maintain their newly built community when they return.

“When I moved back to Cincinnati a year and a half ago, I struggled to find a place in the Jewish community,” said participant Julia Stern. “But coming home from 10 days in Israel, I know that I will be coming home to a Jewish community I can call mine.”

On this Cincinnati-centric trip

VOL. 161 • NO. 29 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015 16 SHEVAT 5775 SHABBAT BEGINS FRIDAY 5:44 PM SHABBAT ENDS SATURDAY 6:45 PM THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE CO., PUBLISHERS 18 WEST NINTH STREET, SUITE 2 CINCINNATI, OHIO 45202-2037 Phone: (513) 621-3145 Fax: (513) 621-3744 publisher@americanisraelite.com editor@americanisraelite.com production@americanisraelite.com RABBI ISAAC M. WISE Founder, Editor, Publisher, 1854-1900 LEO WISE Editor & Publisher, 1900-1928 RABBI JONAH B. WISE Editor & Publisher, 1928-1930 HENRY C. SEGAL Editor & Publisher, 1930-1985 PHYLLIS R. SINGER Editor & General Manager, 1985-1999 MILLARD H. MACK Publisher Emeritus

participants enjoyed some unique benefits that they would not have had on a typical Birthright experience. Ten Israelis from Netanya, Cincinnati’s Israeli partner city, traveled with the group for most of the trip. The Cincinnatians ate dinner at the Israelis’ homes, went with them on a bike tour of Netanya, and celebrated with a dance party in the central square of Netanya. They also visited Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem.

“The fact that a community of young people with Cincinnati connections traveled together made this experience even richer,” Guttman concluded. “Our Trustees were particularly excited about the opportunity to partner with Taglit-Birthright Israel, which has an excellent track record of delivering world-class Israel experiences for this important age cohort.”

Jewish Federation CEO Shep Englander agreed. “Central to Cincinnati 2020 is attracting and retaining young adults who can be our future community volunteers and leaders. This requires enriching young adults’ Jewish pride and connectedness.” He continued, “There is no experience that builds Jewish pride and connectedness better than BIRTHRIGHT on page 22

BETH KOTZIN SAUNI LERNER Assistant Editors YOSEFF FRANCUS Copy Editor JANET STEINBERG Travel Editor ROBERT WILHELMY Dining Editor MARIANNA BETTMAN NATE BLOOM MICHAEL GANSON IRIS PASTOR ZELL SCHULMAN PHYLLIS R. SINGER Contributing Columnists JENNIFER CARROLL Production Manager BARBARA ROTHSTEIN GREG SPITZ Advertising Sales JULIE BROOK Administrative Assistant e Oldest Eng Th

ewish N h-J ew lis

“Watching the participants have their own individual discoveries, or taglit, on the trip is why Birthright is such a powerful program,” said trip leader Sammy Kanter, who is the Becker Networking and Mentoring Coordinator at the Jewish Federation. “Birthright’s model of experiential education connects to Jewish young adults in a profound way that many Jewish organizations nationally aspire to model.”

While Birthright experiences are usually composed of participants from all over the country, a large majority on this trip live in or are originally from Greater Cincinnati.

“LET THERE BE LIGHT” THE OLDEST ENGLISH-JEWISH WEEKLY IN AMERICA - EST. JULY 15, 1854

NETANEL (TED) DEUTSCH Editor & Publisher

Young adults return from life-changing trip to Israel A group of Jewish young adults from Cincinnati recently returned from a once-in-a-lifetime experience, traveling to Israel on a community Birthright trip. This trip, which was customized for Cincinnatians, was a collaboration among The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati, the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, the Mayerson JCC, and Taglit-Birthright Israel.

“The Jewish Foundation provided funding for Cincinnati’s Birthright Israel trip because we believed it would have long-term benefits for our Jewish community,” said Foundation President Beth Guttman. “We know from years of investing in these experiences that when young people spend time in Israel, they return with stronger Jewish identities as well as a deeper motivation to engage in Jewish life.”

Taglit-Birthright Israel funds free 10-day trips to Israel for diaspora Jews ages 18-26. The organization aims to “change the course of Jewish history and ensure the continuity of the Jewish people by strengthening Jewish identity, Jewish communities, and solidarity with Israel via an educational trip to Israel for Jewish young adults around the world.” To date, TaglitBirthright Israel has brought over 400,000 Jews worldwide to Israel.

The American Israelite

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The second cohort of MasaHillel Fellows was just been named and Hillel at Miami University is pleased to announce that one of its recent alumni, Ashley Barrett ’14 of Wooster, Ohio has been named one of the 15 fellows for 2015.

Ashley is currently an Israel Teaching Fellow in Ramla, where she serves an underprivileged elementary school in the community working with advanced and remedial students in English classes.

Originally from small town Ohio, Ashley recently graduated from Miami University with a degree in History and Jewish Studies.

Ashley’s lifelong passion for

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as Wise Seniors group presents the movie, Making Trouble, a film which tells the story of six of the greatest female comic performers of the last century – Molly Picon, Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker, Joan Rivers, Gilda Radner, and Wendy Wasserstein. Rich in entertainment history, the film uses interviews with experts, scholars, and entertainers as well as archival material and rare film and television clips.

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ing opera, folk, and art songs.

An educational and cultural program will follow on Thursday, April 16: Dr. Fouad Ezra: A Journey from Iran. At this program, organized by Wise Temple Seniors Mort and Robbie Mallin, Dr. Fouad Ezra, an Iranian Jew and an American nuclear engineer at Procter and Gamble will discuss his fascinating journey.

On May 14, spend the afternoon laughing with your friends

r in Am ape er sp i

The Wise Temple Seniors group will be hosting a variety of entertaining and educational programs in March, April and May. On Monday, March 16 Wise Temple Seniors Carolmae Katz and Kathy Teitelman have prepared a music program featuring Simon Barrad, cantorial soloist at Wise Temple. Simon will share his gifted voice with the Wise Seniors and his performance will be a smorgasbord of music includ-

THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE (USPS 019-320) is published weekly for $44 per year and $1.00 per single copy in Cincinnati and $49 per year and $2.00 per single copy elsewhere in U.S. by The American Israelite Co. 18 West Ninth Street, Suite 2, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-2037. Periodicals postage paid at Cincinnati, OH. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE, 18 West Ninth Street, Suite 2, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-2037.

The views and opinions expressed by the columnists of The American Israelite do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the newspaper.

LOCAL • 5

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015

Hadassah Coffee Talk series to host ‘Women’s Heart Health’ on Feb. 9 As part of their monthly series "Coffee Talk", Cincinnati Chapter of Hadassah will host “Women’s Heart Health” on Monday, February 9th at 7:30pm at the home of Karen Silverman in Montgomery. Cincinnati broadcaster Norma Rashid will join a panel of women who have survived heart events/disease, including Jenni Grammer, a representative from the American Heart Association, and Debi Schweitzer, founder of the Christ Hospital Health Network support group for women. Attendees will learn that heart disease can affect people of any age and find out what each of us can do to be healthy.

In honor of February Heart Health Month, please wear red. Tobe Snow is Hadassah Coffee Talk chair.

Norma Rashid has worked nearly 30 years as a broadcast news journalist. Much of her career was spent as co-anchor of WLWT-TV in Cincinnati where she anchored the number one rated newscast with Mayor-turned talk-show host Jerry Springer.

Norma has worked with numerous local charities and volunteers her time as a public speaker for countless area charities and community organizations. She also serves as a Board Member many different organizations in Cincinnati.

Norma is currently a professor of Broadcast Journalism at the University of Cincinnati.

Jenni Grammer, director of development at the American Heart Association, was born with a hole in her heart and experienced a transient ischemic attack

(TIA), a mini-stroke when she was only 27.

Another panelist, Debi Schweitzer, had two heart attacks three weeks apart in October of 2012. Debi was in perfect health with no history of heart disease and had great cholesterol levels.

After many test and scans, she was sent to the Cleveland Clinic and was diagnosed with SCAD (spontaneous coronary arterial dissection), a tear between the layers of the arteries that causes a blockage to the heart. She is currently in a Mayo Clinic study for SCAD to find out why this happens mainly to healthy women.

Finding that there were no support groups in Cincinnati, Debi founded a women’s heart disease support group that meets at Christ Hospital. She has won the

Norma Rashid

Macy’s Go Red Makeover, was interviewed on two news channels and has had an article about her in a local magazine. She is currently

the chair for the Passion Committee for American Heart Association. In October of last year she went to Mayo Clinic for a four-day training for Women and Heart Disease. Once a year, she travels to Chicago for the SCAD Research Walk to help raise awareness and funding for this disease.

Coffee Talk is a monthly casual get-together to discuss topics of interest. Meetings are held the second Monday of the month, alternating between evening and morning times. Refreshments will be served. Coffee Talk is open to the public, and there is no charge to attend, but RSVPs are requested.

Jewish Family Service presents author David Burns, MD for professional workshop on anxiety disorders “Scared Stiff—Fast, DrugFree Treatment for Anxiety Disorders,” a two-day professional development workshop with David D. Burns, MD, will be presented by Jewish Family Service 8 am-4:15 pm Wednesday, March 18 and Thursday, March 19 at Cooper Creek Event Center in Blue Ash, OH. Professionals can earn up to 13 CEUs as they learn how to integrate a multitude of anxiety treatments so their clients achieve high-speed recovery and lasting change.

This is Jewish Family Service’s 11th annual Miriam O. Smith Educational Series symposium, which is co-chaired by Susan Shorr and Marcie Bachrach.

David D. Burns, M.D. is the author of a best-selling book that is most frequently recommended

by American and Canadian mental health professionals for patients suffering from depression. Dr. Burns is an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He has served as Visiting Scholar at Harvard Medical School and Acting Chief of Psychiatry at the Presbyterian / University of Pennsylvania Medical Center.

“Anxiety is arguably the single most common mental health problem patients and therapists are facing today. Sadly, most people (therapists and clients alike) look to pills for a solution. However, the latest research indicates that this is an incomplete solution at best, and that the most effective treatments are drug-free,” says Dr.

Educators, Psychologists, Case Managers, Nurses, Chemical Dependency Counselors, Rehabilitation Counselors, Life Coaches, Clergy, Psychiatrists, and Occupational Therapists are encouraged to attend.

Miriam O. Smith Educational Series workshops provide an opportunity for professional development as well as offer the community a chance to learn from

David Burns, MD

Burns. Participants of this innovative workshop will enhance their ability to track therapeutic progress, learn ultra-high speed techniques for treating Panic Disorder, integrate four powerful treatment models, develop a creative, individualized treatment plan for each patient, and more.

The first day of the workshop is designed to stand alone, with the optional second day offering further information on the subject.

Each day provides 6.5 CEUs per professional discipline.

Professional certificates will be available for Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists, Counselors, Psychologists, Teachers, Chemical Dependency counselors, Occupational Therapists, and Rehabilitation Counselors. A Certificate of Completion is also available.

Social Workers, Counselors, Marriage and Family Therapists,

nationally recognized mental health experts. Jewish Family Service established the series to honor the memory of Miriam O. Smith, a long time social worker at Jewish Family Service who provided extensive individual and family therapy, headed the adoption program, and also served as interim director of the agency.

To attend for either the first day only or both days, register by

March 9. There is a discount when registering for 2 or more professionals from one agency.

After March 9, there will be a late fee added on to each registration.

The registration fee includes box lunch and 6.5 CEUs per day. You can register online, and please contact JFS with any questions.

6 • NATIONAL

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Boehner: Only Netanyahu can talk about radical terrorism threat

By Yoni Hersch, Shlomo Cesana and Gideon Allon (JNS) – Despite the criticism he has received, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner does not regret the decision he made to invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress in early March.

In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday, Boehner said he notified the White House of his decision only on the morning that he extended the invitation to Netanyahu.

“There’s nobody in the world who can talk about the threat of radical terrorism, nobody can talk about the threat that the Iranians pose, not just to the Middle East and to Israel,

our longest ally, but to the entire world, but Bibi Netanyahu,” Boehner said in the interview.

Boehner then criticized U.S. President Barack Obama for failing to take the threat of terrorism and the Iranian nuclear threat seriously.

“The president is trying to act like it’s not there,” he said. “But it is there.

And it’s going to be a threat to our homeland if we don’t address it in a bigger way.”

Asked about passing additional sanctions on Iran to stop its nuclear program, Boehner said that he thinks “the House believes that more sanctions, if they don’t come to an agreement, are in order,” and that he disagrees with Obama, who has said that additional sanctions during negotiations would ensure the failure of

diplomatic efforts.

Republican Senator John McCain on Sunday defended Boehner’s decision to invite Netanyahu to speak before Congress. McCain said that he feels the relationship between the Israeli and the U.S. governments has deteriorated, and suggested that the Iran issue has likely contributed to the worsening ties.

“I do believe that it’s important that Prime Minister Netanyahu speak to the American people,” McCain said. “We need congressional ratification of any agreement that is made [with Iran].”

Netanyahu addressed the Iran issue on Monday during a visit to Israel Aerospace Industries’ Systems, BOEHNER on page 19

Courtesy of Avshalom Shoshani

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Israel Aerospace Industries center in Lod on January 26, 2015 with Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon (right), where he called a global agreement with Iran “dangerous for Israel.”

At Tu b’Shvat, bidding to save a beloved tree LOS ANGELES (JTA) — If Tu b’Shvat is such a happy New Year for Trees, why am I sucking lemons?

The holiday, usually a time for planting — except this year in Israel, where many are observing the shmitta year by not planting — for me may be a time of cutting down.

Our lemon tree, planted over a decade ago in the backyard, is sick.

Usually full of green leaves and yellow fruit at this time of year, the 7foot tree now suffers from curled

leaves and brownish lemons.

With a prolonged drought in the West, fruit trees are having a hard time. According to the University of California’s Master Gardener program, “Drought stress will reduce fruit size and stunt growth,” and cause leaves to “wilt, curl and sunburn.” But looking at my poor tree one afternoon, I suspected that the tree, watered by a nearby sprinkler, was suffering from something else.

Thinking that a New Year’s gift for the tree would be a cure, I called an expert: Devorah Brous, an

arborist certified by the International Society of Arboriculture and the founding executive director of a Los Angeles-based organization called Netiya, a Jewish nonprofit that promotes urban agriculture through a network of interfaith partners.

I had sent Brous several photos of leaves, fruit and branches, and when I called looking for a treatment, she was ready with a diagnosis.

“Is it time to start thinking firewood?” I asked, thinking that I had waited too long to seek help.

“Could be,” she replied, halfjokingly, but also responding that the answer depended on “how dedicated and committed” I was to the tree.

How committed?

Around the Rodman home, lemons are regularly turned into lemonade, and I am not squeezing a metaphor here. Through good times and bad, the tree had faithfully supplied our family with enough lemons to have pitchers of the cool, refreshing drink with dinner, and

National Briefs

country, without collaboration among the Leaders of Congress, and without collaboration with the White House, is not appropriate,” she said. “It is not appropriate.”

4 to advance a bill authored by Sens. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) to the full Senate, although a number of the lawmakers who approved noted that the measure would not be considered by the body until March 24 at the earliest.

Menendez has said that Democrats will delay voting on the bill until then to give time for the talks between the major world powers, including the United States, and Iran on swapping sanctions relief for guarantees that Iran is not advancing toward a nuclear weapon.

March 24 is the deadline for a framework of an agreement; June 30 is the deadline for the final deal.

The Obama administration opposes new sanctions now, saying that their passage would unravel the talks.

The bill adds new sanctions that would trigger if the talks fail or Iran reneges.

state representative, said in a Facebook posting that she would be out of the office on Thursday, Muslim Capitol Day, organized by the local Council on AmericanIslamic Relations chapter.

“I did leave an Israeli flag on the reception desk in my office with instructions to staff to ask representatives from the Muslim community to renounce Islamic terrorist groups and publicly announce allegiance to America and our laws,” she said. “We will see how long they stay in my office.”

By Edmon J. Rodman

Pelosi says she told Netanyahu speech could hurt Iran talks WASHINGTON (JTA) – Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, said she told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his speech to a joint session of Congress could hurt ongoing negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the March 3 address, which will focus on Iran’s nuclear ambitions, could lower the chances for the United States and world powers to reach an accord with Iran to limit the program.

She also criticized the speech’s timing, coming two weeks before Israeli elections on March 17, and said the speech should have been coordinated in advance with President Barack Obama and congressional leadership.

“That it should be extended two weeks before an election in a

Hebrew charter school to open in Minneapolis-St. Paul (JTA) — A new Hebrew charter school is scheduled to open in suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul in September.

According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Agamim Classical Academy in Hopkins, Minn., will be the first U.S. public school to offer a focus on both the Hebrew language and classical instruction, a pedagogical approach “that emphasizes grammar, rhetoric and logic.”

Hebrew charter schools are tuition free and open to all.

There are currently 12 Hebrew charter schools in five states.

Agamim will open with kindergarten through third-grade classes, eventually continuing through eighth grade. .

Iran sanctions bill advances WASHINGTON (JTA) – A key Senate committee advanced new Iran sanctions.

The Senate Banking Committee on Thursday voted 18-

Greet Muslim visitors with Israeli flag, Texas lawmaker tells staff WASHINGTON (JTA) – A Texas lawmaker instructed staff to greet Muslim visitors with an Israeli flag.

Molly White, a Republican

TREE on page 21

Jewish fraternity house at UC Davis vandalized with swastikas on Shabbat (JNS) – Two large swastikas were found spray-painted on the Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) Jewish fraternity house at University of California (UC), Davis during Shabbat.

“Jewish people still can’t feel safe on their own campuses and in their own houses,” Nathaniel Bernhard, vice president of the UC Davis AEPi chapter, told the Sacramento Bee. “Anti-Semitism still exists today. It’s not a fairy tale.”

Bernhard said the swastikas were spray-painted on the building sometime between 3-9 a.m. on

Courtesy of Edmon J. Rodman

Lemon tree not very pretty: What’s eating columnist Edmon J. Rodman’s family tree?

Saturday.

Barry Broad, board president of the Jewish Federation of the Sacramento Region, called the swastikas “especially heinous” given the recent commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27.

“Unfortunately, the lessons that history has taught us about the culture of hate have not been heeded by everyone,” Broad said in a statement.

75 senators say they won’t support Palestinian aid until U.S. reviews ICC bid (JNS) – Seventy-five of 100 U.S. senators signed a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry stating that they will not support foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority until the Obama administration completes a review of the Palestinians’ decision to unilaterally join the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The senators said the move by Abbas undermines the spirit of previous agreements between Is-rael and the Palestinians and harms prospects for peace. They also highlighted their concerns regarding Abbas’s efforts to use the ICC as a venue to threaten Israel.

NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL • 7

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015

Autism self-advocate Ari Ne’eman recognized for work on inclusion of people with disabilities

By Julie Wiener NEW YORK (JTA) — When Ari Ne’eman was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at age 12, his life changed.

Administrators at the Conservative Jewish day school that Ne’eman had attended for years said they were not comfortable serving an autistic student, so he ended up transferring to a “segregated special-ed school.”

Later, instead of attending the local neighborhood high school that was a five-minute walk from his house in East Brunswick, N.J., he traveled an hour and a half to a special-ed school that had “drastically lower academic standards” and a vocational prep program that seemed more focused on saving money than on providing meaningful career help.

“That to my mind informed my sense that if people with disabilities, including autistic people, were going to have opportunities in society, we needed to become politically active,” he told JTA. So become politically active he did, co-founding the Autism Self-Advocacy Network, or ASAN, in 2006, soon after graduating high school. By 22 he’d been nominated by President Barack

Courtesy of Ruderman Family Foundation

Ari Ne'eman: “Like many Jews with disabilities, I haven't always felt welcome or included in the Jewish community.”

Obama to the National Council on Disability, a federal agency that advises Congress and the president on disability policy.

Ne’eman, now 27, just received the second annual Morton E. Ruderman Award in Inclusion, a $100,000 Ruderman Family Foundation prize that recognizes “an individual who has made an extraordinary contribution to the inclusion of people with disabilities in the Jewish world and the greater public.”

“The award is recognizing his accomplishments, what he’s been able to do in terms of furthering inclusion, but it’s also recognizing

his potential to have an impact throughout his career,” Jay Ruderman, the foundation’s president, told JTA. “Society often looks at people with disabilities as people who are inferior who need to be either cured or help, and help often means segregation: separate schools, work forces or housing,” he added. “Ari is perhaps one of the leading voices in our country telling the disabilities and general communities that people with disabilities have rights they deserve to receive.”

Ne’eman said the fact that the award is from a Jewish foundation “makes it particularly meaningful to me.”

“Like many Jews with disabilities, I haven’t always felt welcome or included in the Jewish community,” he said. “I look forward to the day when I feel as welcome as a disabled person in the Jewish community as I feel as a Jew in the disability rights movement.”

While the majority of his activism has been on inclusion in general, not specifically within Jewish institutions, Ne’eman said there are several issues in the Jewish community of concern to him. He would like to see fewer

Jewish institutions use the religious exemption from the Americans with Disabilities Act to avoid complying with the law’s provisions, and have Jewish social service providers focus on inclusion rather than maintaining or supporting separate facilities and programs for those with disabilities.

Ne’eman, who is engaged to a rabbinical student at the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary, said Jewish life — he attends several congregations in Washington — has always been important to him.

Asked if his fiancee is also autistic and/or involved in disability rights, Ne’eman said he prefers not to share information about her in the media.

“We each have our own work, and neither of us wants to be seen as just the partner of the other,” he explained.

Ne’eman also declined to discuss details of how he will spend the $100,000 award, saying it is for a disability rights-related project still in its early stages.

As the president of the Washington-based ASAN, run by and for autistic people, Ne’eman has spoken out on an array of disability issues and enjoyed some

key policy victories. A major legislative focus right now is changing a loophole in the federal minimum wage law that allows employers to pay disabled workers less than the minimum wage.

His group also provides advocacy and leadership training for autistic people throughout the United States.

“A very big part of the reason ASAN was founded was the sense that many more-established advocacy organizations did not adequately represent our interests,” he explained. “We felt we should have been at the center of the discussion.”

Ne’eman, whose disability is not detectable in a phone interview, said, “Many of us learn various skills to ‘pass’ in day-to-day life, but it can be exhausting, time consuming and take a lot of energy. A very big part of our work is to attempt to build social acceptance so passing is less necessary.”

“In many ways it’s similar to the dynamic in the Jewish community — the tension between efforts to fit in and a desire for community and acceptance on our own terms.”

After king’s death, status quo expected for Saudi relations with Iran and Israel

By Alina Dain Sharon (JNS) – The death of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah on Thursday (U.S. time) shouldn’t change how the Gulf nation treats its relations with Iran and Israel, experts say. Saudi Arabia remains determined in its opposition to the Iranian nuclear program, and while that gives them at least one shared interest with Israel, a Saudi ambassador’s anti-Israel remarks at the United Nations on the same day as Abdullah’s death served as a reminder that the Saudi-Israeli relationship isn’t exactly friendly.

Abdullah, who died at age 90, was succeeded as king by his half-brother, Deputy Prime Minister Salman bin Abdul Aziz. While Iran continues to negotiate towards a deal on its nuclear program with the P5+1 powers, the Saudis “are very alarmed by Iran’s strong position in Iraq and Yemen, as well as Lebanon and Damascus,” said Bruce Riedel, director of The Intelligence Project and senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution think tank.

“They see Iran as a major

promoter of disorder in the area and a threat to their interests,” Riedel told JNS. Strategic considerations aside, the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Iran is also adversarial on an ideological level because Saudi Arabia is the de facto leader of the Sunni Muslim world, while Iran is at the forefront of the Shi’ite Muslim world. In addition to this inherent religious conflict, the Iranians see themselves, rather than the Saudis, as the natural inheritors of the mantle of the Prophet Muhammad and by consequence, the leaders of the Mideast region.

“A lot of the political [and] military rivalry that you see [between these countries] is driven by underlying ideological tension,” Ilan Berman, vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council, told JNS. The Saudis are opposed to Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon because what they “want most of all is to be the center of gravity,” Berman explained.

“They think a nuclear Iran would naturally be the dominant player in the region, and they’re going to stop that any way they

Courtesy of Department of State

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (left) meets with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Jan. 5, 2014.

can,” he said.

The emerging conflict in Yemen may also keep the SaudiIranian relationship hostile in the post-Abdullah era. Yemenite President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his cabinet resigned on Thursday after Houthi rebel gunmen held the president hostage in his own residence, trying to extract concessions from the government on control of the country. Additionally, the Houthis—who are Shi’a

Muslims—took over the capital city of Sanaa.

Iran has sent arms shipments to the Houthis, while the Saudi and Yemen governments are allies. Iran’s involvement may have been seen as minor meddling at first, but as the Houthis drove in and seized Sanaa, the Iranians “wanted to become more and more involved, sending [their own] advisors, and also sending Hezbollah advisors from Lebanon,” said David

Ottaway, a Middle East expert from the Wilson Center think tank. “(Iranian involvement in Yemen] has been increasing steadily over the last few months, and this of course is infuriating the Saudis. … The Saudis see the Iranians (as) kind of sneaking around… and the Saudis care a great dea) about what’s happening in Yemen because they have a long border with it, and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (a terror group the Saudis oppose) is based in southern Yemen. So this is the major concern, whether [it be for] the old king or the new king or the king to come,” Ottaway told JNS. Saudi Arabia’s response to the crisis in Yemen, Ottaway said, will depend on its outcome.

“If the south pushes ahead with secession, the Saudis might be very tempted to support that because they see the Iranianbacked Houthis as an even worse problem than the presence of al-Qaeda in southern Yemen,” he said.

Though he isn’t certain, Berman expects the Saudis’ SAUDI on page 22

8 • INTERNATIONAL

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Politics, Putin cast shadow over Auschwitz liberation anniversary

By Cnaan Liphshiz

Sean Gallup

Mordechai Ronen, who was a prisoner at the Auschwitz concentration camp when he was an 11-year-old child and lost his mother, father and sisters there, breaks into tears as he walks through the camp, which is now a museum, Jan. 26, 2015 in Oswiecim, Poland.

PRAGUE (JTA) — When they announced the ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Polish officials insisted that at this year’s event, “the eyes of the world will be focused” on about 300 Holocaust survivors whose presence Tuesday at the former Nazi death camp near Krakow may be the last gathering of its sort.

The generation of Holocaust survivors, after all, is dying out.

Yet critics are charging that politics and tensions between Russia and its neighbors are nonetheless eclipsing the focus on the survivors and even muddling the historical record.

Many believe that behind the main event, at Auschwitz, was an organized effort to discourage Russian

President Vladimir Putin from attending — a reprisal of sorts for Russia’s annexation last year of Ukrainian territory.

Putin in his earlier stint as president attended the 60th anniversary ceremony in 2005. This time, a tentative invitation was extended to the Russian Embassy but not to Putin directly.

An attempt to keep out Putin was “a serious failure in commemoration because it was Russian troops who liberated the camp,” said Efraim Zuroff, the Israel director for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the human rights organization. “This attempt to erase the Russian people’s contribution to defeating Nazism is casting a shadow on this commemoration and creating a vacuum in which untruths flourish.”

One such distortion: On Jan. 21, Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna told a local radio station that Ukrainians, not Russians, liberated Auschwitz, citing the fact that the Red Army unit that reached Auschwitz was called the First Ukrainian Front. And on Jan. 8, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk stated that the Soviets “invaded Ukraine and Germany,” when, in fact, it was the Germans who invaded the Soviet Union. His spokesman later explained that Yatsenyuk had in mind the carvingup of Poland in 1939 by Germany and the Soviet Union.

These historical inversions “show the level of hatred that exists for Russia for the moment,” said POLITICS on page 21

Survivors return to Auschwitz determined to share their stories

By Toby Axelrod KRAKOW, Poland (JTA) — What kept you alive? Did your nonJewish friends reject you? Could you ever forgive?

Those were some of the questions posed by Jewish young adults to Holocaust survivor Marcel Tuchman on Monday at the Galicia Jewish Museum here.

“What kept me alive was having my father with me,” said Tuchman, 93, a physician from New York who was born in Poland and survived several concentration camps, includ-

International Briefs Alberto Nisman laid to rest where AMIA victims are buried BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) – Alberto Nisman was buried in the same section of the main Jewish cemetery in Buenos Aires as the victims in the 1994 AMIA bombing that he was investigating before he was found shot dead.

On Thursday morning, a police escort led the funeral procession to the Tablada Jewish Cemetery. Along the procession route, people waved Argentine flags and held signs that said “Justice,” “Thank you, Nisman” and “We all are Nisman” in Spanish.

Some chanted Argentina’s national anthem.

Nisman’s grave was located in the “Martyrs Section,” where the victims of the AMIA Jewish center attack are buried. Eighty-five people were killed in the Buenos Aires bombing; some are calling Nisman the 86th victim.

The mourners included Nisman’s two daughters, Iara and Kala; Nisman’s mother, Sara Garfunkel; and his ex-wife, Sandra Arroyo

ing Auschwitz. “And another thing was the hope I had that one day I will be able to tell the story to the likes of you, so you can tell it to the next generation.”

His meeting with young Jews was one of many such encounters taking place in and around Krakow on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet army’s liberation of Auschwitz, where an estimated 1.1 million people were murdered — many of them gassed.

On Tuesday, in a tent set up around the gaping entrance to the Auschwitz-adjacent Birkenau con-

centration camp, survivors and their companions were joined by dignitaries from more than 40 countries for ceremonies that may well mark the final time that so many Auschwitz survivors are together here again.

Halina Birenbaum, who survived Auschwitz as a child, described to the crowd of 3,000 her impressions of the Nazi camp 45 miles east of Krakow, calling it “a bottomless pit of hell that I could not get out of.”

“All around us was electric barbed wire. Rows of barracks,

stinking mud ... a disgusting mass of people all in lousy wet rags, with numbers and shaven heads,” she said. “Those gray faces with legs like sticks, wearing those muddy clogs. Nothing reminded you of anything human.”

Roman Kent, president of the International Auschwitz Committee, which was founded by a group of Auschwitz survivors, said his experience in the camp was “more than enough to keep me awake at night until the end of time.”

He added: “How can I ever forget the smell of burning flesh that

permeated the air” or “the cries of children torn from their mother’s arms.”

While survivors cannot forget, others simply must remember.

Otherwise, Kent said, “the conscience of mankind would be buried alongside the victims.”

Tuesday’s memorial was sponsored by the World Jewish Congress, the USC Shoah Foundation and Discovery Communications, whose subsidiary, Discovery Education, is working with the Shoah Foundation

Salgado.

Nisman, 51, the special prosecutor in the AMIA bombing, was found in his Buenos Aires home on Jan. 18, hours before he was to present evidence to Argentine lawmakers that President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner covered up Iran’s role in the attack.

as an act of atonement for the Inquisition period. Applicants need to demonstrate a cultural link to Portugal and an ancestral one approved by the Jewish Community of Lisbon or that of Porto, according to the president of the Lisbon community, Jose Oulman Carp.

“I would not say that it is a historical reparation because I believe that in this regard there is no possibility of repairing what has been done,” Justice Minister Paula Teixeira da Cruz was quoted as saying by Protuguese RPT News at the conclusion of Thursday’s Cabinet meeting.

“I would say that it is the granting of a right.”

Michael Rothwell, a delegate of the Committee of the Jewish Community of Porto, said his organization regards the measure as “an act of justice.” He described it as “another important step toward reconciliation with the past.” His committee is one of the vetting organizations.

But for James Harlow, a Sephardic Jew from California who owns a Silicon Valley start-up, the issue is also financial.

“Portugal is a great starting point to expand my business in the European Union,” he told JTA. On average, approved applicants can expect to receive a Portuguese

nationality within a few months, the Porto community said.

“Today’s development indicates that Hezbollah is more and more expanding its regional schemes against the Lebanese state,” Geagea said, Lebanon’s Daily Star reported.

“Hezbollah has no right to implicate the Lebanese people in a battle with Israel,” he added. “There is a government and a parliament which can decide on that.”

Two Israeli soldiers were killed and seven were wounded in a Hezbollah terrorist attack near Mount Dov, along the border with Lebanon.

Geagea is a senior figure in the “March 14 Alliance,” a group mostly composed of Sunni Mus-lims, Christians, and liberals who are opposed to the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah axis. His political party, the Lebanese Forces, currently holds eights seats in the Lebanese parliament.

Portugal adopts return law for Jewish descendants (JTA) – Portugal’s government adopted legislation that offers citizenship to some descendants of Sephardic Jews.

The letter of the legislation passed Thursday by the Council of Ministers is expected to be made public next month, according to the Jewish Community of Porto.

The legislation was passed in 2013 by the parliament, making Portugal the second country in the world after Israel to pass a law of return for Jews. Spain is poised to pass a similar law.

Portugal’s Jews were forced out of the country along with their Spanish correligionists in the 14th and 15th centuries because of the churchled persecution known as the Inquisition.

In both Iberian countries, the authors of the legislation described it

Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah to Israel: 'Don't try us again' (JNS) – Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel not to “try us again” and said his group is ready to fight Israel in any time and any place.

“The resistance no longer recognizes the rules of engagement and it has the right to respond to the enemy at any time or place,” Nasrallah declared in a speech commemorating the so-called “Resistance’s Martyrs in Quneitra,” in reference to the six Hezbollah terrorists and an Iranian killed in a reported Israeli airstrike in Syria on Jan. 18. A subsequent Hezbollah attack on northern Israel killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded seven others.

“We have the right to confront the enemy at any time, place, or manner,” Nasrallah said through Lebanese Christian leader slams Hezbollah for attack on Israel (JNS) – Samir Geagea, a prominent Lebanese Christian leader and senior figure in the country’s antiHezbollah political alliance, denounced Hezbollah’s attack on Israel on Jan. 28.

SURVIVORS on page 22

Jihadist terror attacks in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula kill at least 30 (JNS) – Jihadists affiliated with the Islamic State terror group launched four separate attacks in the northern Sinai Peninsula on Thursday, involving mortars and car bombs that targeted military and police sites. Medical and security officials said that at least 30 people were killed, including several civilians.

ISRAEL • 9

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015

With female spiritual advisor, Efrat spotlights women’s empowerment in Israel

By Maayan Jaffe (JNS) – In Torah times there was Devorah, prophetess and judge. In Talmudic times there was Bruriah, “the wife of Rabbi Meir,” considered a sage and scholar in her own right. Today, the Israeli community of Efrat has a new manhiga ruchanit— spiritual advisor—in Jennie Rosenfeld. She is the first woman in the history of Israel to fill such a role.

“I am standing on the brink of something very exciting, and there is a sense of hopefulness that this will lead to good for the Jewish community and help bring people closer,” Rosenfeld, 34, said in a phone interview from Jerusalem, where she lives with her husband and three children.

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, the chief rabbi of Efrat, handpicked Rosenfeld for this new role.

While her appointment was announced earlier this month, Rosenfeld will formally begin her position on Feb. 2 with an inaugural lecture.

Efrat’s decision to name a female spiritual leader has been met with controversy in Israel, whose government does not recognize women rabbis.

Nevertheless, Riskin said he feels the move “will become a much wider phenomenon.”

“Women need role models,” Riskin told JNS. “There are questions women are not comfortable asking men, but comfortable asking women. … We are living in very special times in which religious education extends to women on a very high level—including Torah Shebichtav (written law) and Torah Sheba’al Peh (oral law). It is very important for women to be involved in discussions of Jewish law and to be seen as religious leaders in their own right.”

Rosenfeld, a native of Riverdale, N.Y., has a doctorate in English and is in her fourth year of a five-year heter hora’ah (permission to rule on Jewish law) ordination program at the Susi Bradfield Women’s Institute for Halachic Leadership at the Midreshet Lindenbaum seminary in Jerusalem. She is also enrolled in a separate 10-year track to become a female dayan, or religious judge. Only four others are enrolled in the same program.

Rosenfeld told JNS that she

Courtesy of Meir Kruter

Jennie Rosenfeld, who on Feb. 2 assumes the role of spiritual advisor in Efrat, Israel.

was connected to Jewish spirituality and learning from a young age, but that she could not have envisioned where that would take here. When she made aliyah six years ago with her husband, she enrolled in Midreshet Lindenbaum “to come back to learning, but I was open to kind of seeing where that process would go.” She did not apply for the new position in Efrat, but was handpicked by Riskin, who she called a “pioneer.”

It is unclear what Rosenfeld’s role will look like in one month or one year from now, she said, because “models of female halachic (Jewish legal) leadership don’t really exist in Israel.” Rosenfeld said the position is privately funded, but that she and Riskin envision that ultimately the Israeli government will create a state-sponsored post of a similar nature for women. For now, however, she is comfortable just being another address for the more than 9,000 residents of Efrat.

While distinct in some ways, Rosenfeld’s new appointment is couched in a growing trend in Israel of religious women pushing hard against their proverbial “glass ceiling.” For example, Israel’s first-ever haredi women’s party, B’Zhutan, made a bold debut last month in response to “feeling excluded” by the male-dominated haredi political parties.

Ruth Colian, 33, who is heading the party, told attendees

at a January media conference in Tel Aviv, “We must give haredi women an address in our legislature. We have a lot to give and I believe we can do it.”

The feminist group Women of the Wall has made headlines for its push to have the Israeli government provide a place at the Western Wall where women can feel comfortable wearing tallit and tefillin as well as reading from the Torah. On the secular side, organizations such as WePower have sprouted up in the last decade, focusing on the advancement of women’s leadership in Israel both in government and the private sector.

“The way forward is complex,” WePower leader Ifat Zamir said in a past interview.

“This is a social, public, and legal journey, and ultimately a personal one for every female manager attempting to break through the glass ceiling.”

Rabbi Dana Saroken, who has been serving as associate and then senior rabbi at the Conservative Beth El Congregation in Pikesville, Md., since 1998, told JNS that she finds that congregants seek counsel equally from her and from the synagogue’s male senior rabbi. She said that situation is not really “based on issues,” but that there “are times [congregants] want to come to me and times they want to go to him. … Having two rabbis with different personalities, beliefs, and genders is a really positive thing for the people.”

Saroken said that even in a place such as Baltimore—where 30 percent of the Jewish community considers itself Orthodox, according to the 2010 Greater Baltimore Jewish Community Study— there is an openness to female religious leaders. In the last decade, she said more local women have been studying Torah and becoming engaged in Jewish life.

“The challenge is the readiness of particular communities to say, ‘We recognize having women in this position can and usually does enhance the experience of the congregants and of the community,’” said Saroken.

In Efrat, it was the male spiritual leader who led by example on women’s empowerment.

“Rabbi Riskin took the first step on this issue,” Rosenfeld said. “Others will follow suit.”

The Israeli micronation you never knew existed

By Leah Falk (Jewniverse via JTA) -Looking for some relative peace and quiet in the Middle East?

Look no farther than Akhzivland, a micronation on Israel’s northern coast, near Nahariya. Officially a mere 10,000 square meters, this tiny independent state is presided over by Eli Avivi, an Iranian expat who settled there in 1952. (After the destruction of the Palestinian village Az-Zeeb in the war of ’48, he found the land uninhabited.)

If being president for life of a country the size of a football field isn’t weird enough for you, Avivi also may hold the record for

strangest charge: In 1970, when the Israeli government tried to bulldoze his home, he declared Akhzivland’s independence, “just as Israel did before me,” he says.

He claims that he was taken to court on the charge of “creating a country without permission” – until it was revealed that no such charge exists.

Against all odds, in 1972 Avivi won his case against the Israeli government and was granted a 99-year lease. Despite the ruling, it’s not clear that a visit to Akhzivland constitutes a true border crossing – but Avivi has his own passport stamp ready, just in case.

Courtesy of United Hatzalah

The scene of Wednesday's Palestinian terrorist stabbing attack on a bus in Tel Aviv

Israeli bus driver who fought off terrorist regains consciousness

By Israel Hayom (JNS) – Thanks to the efforts of a bus driver who fought off a Palestinian terrorist, the stabbing attack that injured 12 people aboard Dan Bus No. 40 in Tel Aviv on Wednesday did not end in a single death.

Israeli police officials praised the actions of Herzl Biton, the 55-yearold bus driver who was the first person to get stabbed by terrorist Hamza Muhammed Hassan Matrouk.

Despite being seriously wounded, Biton managed to use pepper spray on the assailant and fight him off while simultaneously opening the bus doors to allow passengers to flee.

Biton, who slipped into a coma as a result of his injuries, regained consciousness on Thursday and his condition dramatically improved. His family urged the people of Israel to pray for his health, while many of his relatives spent the night at the hospital around his bed.

“He motions to us with his fingers,” said Eli Biton, the driver’s brother. “It is obvious that he is in

pain. But he was God’s messenger, in the right place at the right time.

Several days before the attack, he told his son that he was worried about possible attacks. He had a feeling that he would be next.”.

Immediately after he was stabbed, Biton managed to call his supervisor, Kazis Matzliach, and said, “A terrorist has gotten on my bus. Save me. … He hurt me bad all over my body. He stabbed my passengers. I am next to Beit Maariv. …

I am dripping blood. … I am going to die. If anything happens to me, watch over my children.”

“He started yelling, and I was in pain because I didn’t know how to help him,” said Matzliach. “I told him to save himself and not to worry, that I would get help. At the same time I tried to keep him on the line to make sure he was okay, but the call was disconnected and I rushed to the scene.”

“He behaved the way you would expect. He fought off the terrorist to protect his passengers,” Matzliach added.

DRIVER on page 19

10 • ISRAEL

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Israeli left resurgent as campaign rhetoric escalates ahead of March elections

By Ben Sales TEL AVIV (JTA) – Stav Shaffir was angry. The 29-year-old firebrand is known for her outbursts, which have gotten her kicked out of multiple Knesset hearings in the past year. But when she rose in the Knesset on Jan. 21 to answer Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett’s charge that she is post-Zionist, her shrill rebuttal went viral.

“True Zionism, friends, is to distribute the budget equally among all citizens,” Shaffir said in an impassioned speech that has been viewed online more than 300,000 times.

“True Zionism is to be concerned for the weak. True Zionism is solidarity – not only in war, but in the day to day, to watch out for one another. This is Israeliness. This is Zionism.”

Israel is no stranger to heated political rhetoric, but already the campaign in advance of the March 17 elections is shaping up to be a particularly fierce one, with the leading parties taking aim not merely at their rivals’ policies but at their very commitment to the ideals of the Jewish state.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing the first serious challenge to his leadership since 2009, has attacked the Labor Party – the faction of Israel’s founders – as anti-Zionist. Labor has shot back, branding its recently forged alliance with the Hatnuah faction the Zionist Camp and presenting itself as a bulwark against the right.

The two rivals even have the same campaign slogan. Likud banners read “It’s us or them.” Zionist

Israel Briefs Israeli speed skater wins European championship (JTA) – Vladislav Bykanov won Israel’s first-ever gold medal at the European Short Track Speed Skating championship.

Bykanov, originally from Ukraine, took the 3,000-meter race on Sunday in the Netherlands, beating Russia’s Viktor Ahn, the world champion, by some 500 meters and 15 seconds.

Bykanov, 26, failed to qualify for the 1,500-meter semifinals at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics by less than a second. He had carried the flag for Israel’s delegation during the opening ceremonies.

Yazidi militia makes public request for Israeli help (JTA) – An official in a militia organized by Iraq’s Yazidi minority has issued a public call for Israeli assistance.

Lt. Col. Lukman Ibrahim, speak-

Camp ads proclaim “It’s us or him.”

“The Labor Party chose an extreme leftist and anti-Zionist list,” read a message posted on Netanyahu’s official Facebook page following the Jan. 14 Labor primary.

“There’s no meeting point between the nationalist and responsible Likud outlook, and the irresponsible leftist list.”

In the last round of legislative balloting, in 2013, Netanyahu won reelection by a wide margin, taking 31 seats – 12 more than his nearest rival. This time around, Labor, which had just eight Knesset members as recently as two years ago, has seen a resurgence, with polls showing its joint slate with Hatnuah tied with Likud at 24 seats apiece.

Labor began the election season in December with a bombshell, merging with the centrist Hatnuah led by former Foreign Minister Tzipi

Livni. Livni and Labor Chairman Isaac Herzog, presenting themselves as the anti-Netanyahu ticket, have hit the prime minister especially hard on foreign affairs, pledging to mend fences with the United States and Europe.

After Netanyahu pushed his way to the front of a Jan. 11 Paris rally that the French premier didn’t even want him to attend, Zionist Camp activists mocked him with a video game in which the object is to navigate the prime minister’s character past other heads of state to the front of the procession.

When U.S. House Speaker John Boehner invited Netanyahu last week to address a joint session of Congress in an apparent breach of diplomatic protocol, Zionist Camp leaders accused him of playing with the U.S.Israel relationship for political gain.

“The fact that Netanyahu walks

the streets of Paris with the leaders of the world doesn’t mean those leaders are with him,” Herzog said Jan. 15 in a speech in Haifa. “The essential alliance with the U.S. has great influence in the world. It’s on us to tighten it, strengthen it. The Americans demand mutuality, trust and partnership. Red lines have been crossed crudely.”

Netanyahu has gone tit for tat in the debate, portraying himself as standing up for Israel’s interests against enemies like Iran and frenemies like the French government and the Obama administration, with whom he has had strained relations.

His address to Congress is scheduled for March 3, giving the prime minister a prominent podium to represent Israel internationally just two weeks before Election Day. But even if Netanyahu’s popularity is floundering – just 42 percent of Israelis think he’s suited to be prime minister, according to a recent poll – there is safety for him in numbers.

The party that stands to gain the most in the election is the pro-settler Jewish Home, which has run this year’s most energetic campaign and risen to third in the polls. More conservative even than Likud, Jewish Home is almost certain to join a Likud-led coalition.

“It’s clear I’ll support the leader of the right,” Bennett said in a Jan. 24 interview with Israeli Channel 10.

“The question is whether it again will be as if [the coalition] will be right wing but will really be led by the left.”

Founded as a modern Orthodox faction, Jewish Home has broadened its appeal by downplaying its opposi-

ing to Al-Monitor, said the militia needs weapons and aid, and would like Israeli assistance so it can fight Islamic State, or ISIS. He said the Yazidis support Israel and fight similar enemies.

Israel has yet to respond to the Yazidi request.

The militia, with 12,000 members, was organized in August to defend against ISIS, which has persecuted and killed the minority since capturing Yazidi cities last year. Most of the fighters are untrained.

“We appeal to the Israeli government and its leader to step in and help this nation, which loves the Jewish people,” Ibrahim was quoted as saying by Al-Monitor. “We would be most grateful for the establishment of military ties — for instance, the training of fighters and the formation of joint teams. We are well aware of the circumstances the Israelis are in, and of the suffering they have endured at the hands of the Arabs ever since the establishment of their state. We, too, are suffering on account of them.”

A Yazidi doctor who lives in Germany said that Yazidis and Jews can also find common ground in both being victims of genocide.

“What happened to us is the

biggest genocide since the Holocaust of the Jews in Europe,” said Dr. Mirza Dinnay, a pediatrician, told AlMonitor. “In the Holocaust, the goal was to annihilate an entire people, the Jews. IS has a similar plan — to exterminate an entire people, the Yazidis.”

Moshe Yaalon told Israel Radio on Thursday, using the U.N. force’s acronym, according to the Times of Israel. “The IDF is ready, deployed for any development. Our long arm knows how to reach wherever is necessary. Anyone who tries to attack us is signing their own death warrant.”

In indirect message, Hezbollah asks Israel to avoid escalation TEL AVIV (JTA) – Hezbollah has sent a message to Israel requesting that the sides avoid an escalation of tensions on the Israel-Lebanon border.

The message, sent overnight via the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, came after Hezbollah killed two Israeli soldiers and injured seven in a strike Wednesday on an Israeli army border patrol.

According to the Times of Israel, the message said that the attack was meant only as a response to a strike on Hezbollah operatives in Syria last week. Israel allegedly executed the strike, though Israeli officials have not confirmed those reports.

“UNIFIL sent us a message that as far as (Hezbollah) is concerned the incident is over,” Defense Minister

Israeli soldiers receive 25-percent pay raise (JNS) – On Sunday, Israeli soldiers received a long-anticipated raise of 25 percent in their pay slips.

Combat soldiers now receive $271 per month, combat support soldiers receive $199, and Homefront Command soldiers receive $137.

“The decision to raise the soldiers’ salaries was very expensive, since there is a considerable number of conscript soldiers. Nevertheless, (Israel Defense Forces) Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz decided to invest in the soldiers,” said a senior officer in the IDF Personnel Directorate, Israel Hayom reported.

According to an analysis of IDF soldiers’ credit card usage, the average soldier spends about $279 per month, and the pay raise still falls short of that amount.

Courtesy of Noam Revkin Fenton

Stav Shaffir makes a point at a meeting of the Knesset Finance Committee in Jerusalem, Sept. 3, 2014

tion to social reforms like same-sex marriage and naming several highprofile secular hawks to its list. The party has also latched on to Likud’s effort to challenge Herzog and Livni’s Zionist credentials, running with the slogan “We don’t apologize.”

Like Likud and the Zionist Camp, Jewish Home portrays itself as a broad party for Israelis of all stripes.

But Israel’s political map remains as fragmented as ever. Likud and Labor are each slated to win about 24 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, while polls predict Jewish Home will take 16.

Contending for the remaining spots are a handful of centrist parties eager to distinguish themselves from each other while still staying open to joining whichever party comes out on top.

Pop-up centrist parties are a trend in Israeli elections. In 2006, the newly founded Kadima was the Knesset’s largest party. In 2013, it was Yesh Atid. Now Kadima has disappeared entirely and Yesh Atid is middling in the polls.

In their place is Kulanu, a new centrist party founded by former Likud minister Moshe Kachlon that pledges to reform Israel’s economy.

Kulanu, Hebrew for “all of us,” has focused its messaging on breaking Israel’s bureaucratic state monopolies, but it has also bolstered its diplomatic and security credentials by placing Yoav Galant, the former commander of Israel’s Southern Command, and former ambassador to the United States Michael Oren on its list.

IDF lone soldier who survived cancer promoted to 2nd lieutenant (JNS) – Rotem Chiprut, a cancer survivor and an Israel Defense Forces lone soldier (a member of the army without parents in Israel), last week was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant.

Chiprut, 20, arrived in Israel in August 2012 and enlisted in the IDF, becoming an infantry squad leader.

But last year, in the middle of a training course, Chiprut discovered she had cancerous cells in her thyroid gland and had to set everything aside to go into treatment.

Rotem defeated cancer, but the next obstacle came from the IDF itself.

“After three months (in treatment)the army agreed to bring me back as a volunteer in a rear-echelon position,” she said. “But I didn’t relent. It was a difficult time. I’m a strong person, but I had moments where I broke down and cried, but I was determined to succeed. I went to numerous committees and demanded to be placed back in combat duty until they finally agreed, and now I’ve completed my officer’s course.”

KIDS & SUMMER CAMPS • 11

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015

2015 Summer Camp Directory Camp GUCI 9349 Moore Rd. Zionsville, IN 46077 Phone: 317-873-3361 GUCI has been incredibly successful through the years because our program centers on building a strong and vibrant inclusive community. GUCI is not simply a camp where Jewish kids go to experience an array of activities.

By focusing on relationship and team building, GUCI becomes an experience where campers and staff develop their self-confidence, self-reliance and self-esteem. The infusion of culture within the program adds an element of connection to our past. Scores of GUCI alumni credit camp as a place that significantly impacted their feelings about being Jewish in a positive way, and encouraged them to remain connected long after camp.

At GUCI we go to great lengths to train all of our staff on the essentials required to ensure the safety, health and security of all campers. During orientation, our staff is trained by professionals on how to recognize child health, developmental and behavioral issues, and how to respond depending on circumstance. We also have resident doctors, camper inclusion specialists, and nurses ready to assist whenever needed.

As always, our foremost concern is the physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual welfare of our campers, and we will always strive to provide a warm, welcoming, happy and safe camp environment.

GUCI’s program is filled with engaging activities, opportunities to try new things and exposure to reform Jewish culture and ritual.

We are also offering two new programs: first, we have created the “Taste of GUCI,” which allows first-time campers entering 3rd through 6th grade to enroll for two weeks. These campers will have the option to extend their summer for the full four weeks of the session. Secondly, we are working to add a second activities period during the day that will allow campers additional opportunity to try new things.

We have an excellent full-time staff working hard to plan for your child’s summer.

Camp Livingston 8485 Ridge Rd. Cincinnati, OH 45236 513-793-5554 Nestled deep in the rolling, wooded hills of beautiful Southeastern Indiana, Camp Livingston has offered an unmatched summer experience for Jewish children and teens for more than 90 years. Camp Livingston has always provided a safe and nurturing environment where campers gain self esteem

and confidence, and form lasting friendships with their cabin and unit friends, all within a fun and exciting atmosphere. Within this unique environment, campers come to know and love themselves, their community, and their place in the greater world.

The camp sits on 680 acres of beautifully wooded land in Bennington, Indiana and includes a lake with paddle boards, canoes, kayaks , and water slides; a lowand high-ropes course and climbing wall; a swimming pool; endless hiking trails; a baseball diamond, tennis courts, a volleyball court, basketball courts, archery and athletic fields; a state-of-the art theater; an arts and crafts center; and a professionally staffed wellness center.

Our campers range in age from 7 to 17 and come from com-

munities throughout the United States and Israel, forming a vibrant, unique and exciting Jewish community. They are cared for by mature staff members who realize the importance of a meaningful, safe and fun summer experience.

Camp Wise 13164 Taylor WellsRd. Chardon, OH 44024 216-593-6250 Camp Wise provides a friendly, supportive, and cooperative atmosphere that fosters individual growth at each camper’s own pace. Campers are encouraged to learn new skills and master old ones, to make decisions, to take responsibility, to be expressive, to live with others, and to have fun.

Complemented by our Jewish environment, campers develop a

deeper understanding of and appreciation for Jewish heritage and traditions while also developing a true sense of community.

Camp Wise is committed to making sure that every camper leaves with a greater sense of self-esteem and self-confidence; and with memories that will last for a lifetime.

Since its first summer of operation in 1907, Camp Wise has grown from a basic fresh-air camp into a modern, organized residential camping facility. Initially a program for underprivileged immigrant families, over the years Camp Wise has developed to be a leader of the field of Jewish camping, and has secured a special place in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of children and teens. Created by a dedicated and passionate group of leaders and

volunteers with foresight and vision, Camp Wise was originally situated near Euclid, Ohio, at Stein-on-the-Lake, Interurban Stop 133. With a growing number of campers and a need for better facilities, Camp Wise moved to its present site in Burton, Ohio in 1966.

Great Parks of Hamilton County Day Camps Various locations Sign up your adventurer, ages 2-17, for a half or full-day summer camp experience. Camps include: Habitat Explorers; Awesome Animals; Barnyard Friends; Growing Up a Farm Kid; Archery; Kayaking; Fishing; and Horseback Riding, just to name a few. Early bird pricing ends March 31.

12 • KIDS & SUMMER CAMPS

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Overnight Jewish camp develops future leaders

By Aaron Slovin and Dan Risner, Camp Livingston Directors Guest columnists If you have ever been to overnight camp, you are not surprised to hear why it’s so important to a child’s development.

You remember the profound effect it had on your life, and the skills you learned which you are still using today.

But if you didn’t ever go to camp, you may not know or understand why parents all over the country are so committed to sending their kids away for weeks each summer. Below are just a few of the many reasons why camp, and specifically overnight Jewish camp, is an essential part of your child’s development.

First of all, camp breeds confidence. It helps your child develop better self esteem due to the many successes they will have during their time at camp.

Your child will succeed socially,

artistically, athletically, and even educationally (but in a different way than school). This confidence allows the development of life-long skills. The mixture of activities within the arts, athletics and outdoor adventures gives children the chance to try many new things and learn which their favorites are.

Camp enables children to be physically active. Children

spend too much time indoors these days, most often sitting down. Camp provides a wonderful opportunity to move - running, swimming, hiking, playing sports, and climbing. Camp is action-packed and campers are constantly on the move. Camp also allows children a muchneeded break from technology.

When kids take a break from social media and everything else

they access on screens, they rediscover their creative powers and engage the real world— real people, real activities, and real emotions.

Each day at camp also brings an opportunity to try new things.

Camp exposes children to a plethora of different engaging programs on a daily basis, a mixture that would be difficult to find in one place outside of the camp environment. Through these new activities also comes the ability to build independence. Camp provides a safe place for your child to make decisions and they will flourish with a sense of freedom in an encouraging and fun environment.

Children of all ages learn social skills at camp. It is the perfect environment to learn how to share, take care of responsibilities, communicate effectively and live within a diverse community. Camp also is where your child will likely meet their best friends. Free from the

social expectations at school, camp encourages kids to relax and make friends easily. The camp experience creates close bonds by singing, laughing, talking, playing, and doing almost everything together.

All of this is great, but it doesn’t even begin to tap into the immense supplemental power of Overnight Jewish Camp.

According to “Camp Works”, a study by The Foundation for Jewish Camp that looked into the long-term impact of Jewish Camp, camp is a true blessing for the future of the Jewish people. As adults, campers are 45% more likely to attend synagogue at least once a month, 37% more likely to light Shabbat candles regularly, 55% more likely to feel very emotionally attached to Israel and 30% more likely to donate to Jewish causes/organizations. Sending our community’s children to Jewish Camp is an investment in our peoples’ future.

Say hello to overnight Jewish camping

By Karyn Zimerman Guest columnist Overnight Jewish camp registrations are happening now, and Jewish Cincinnati is trying

to make the experience as accessible as possible to new campers. Parents whose children have never experienced overnight Jewish camp have access to grants funded by The

Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati and administered by the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati. In addition, many synagogues and camps provide additional grants, need-based scholarship funding

and payment plan options.

A first-year grant of up to $1,800 and a second-year grant of up to $1,000 are available to all Cincinnati Jewish youth attending an approved nonprofit overnight Jewish camp (get the complete list online).

With over 100 camps nationally, there’s an overnight Jewish camp that’s perfect for your children. Camps offer programs for children, pre-teens, and teenagers, with specific programming geared toward the interests and experiences of every age. Newly established Jewish specialty camps enable children to hone a specific skill or interest within the context of Jewish values, including teamwork, fair play, and ruach (spirit). Whether your children are interested in perfecting a jump shot, sharpening acting skills, improving a tennis stroke, directing a film, or learning how to farm organically, there is a specialty camp that fits their needs.

"Overnight Jewish camping is the single most important tool for Jewish identity building in our congregation,” said Rabbi Sandford Kopnick of The Valley Temple.

When choosing an overnight Jewish camp, investigate as much as you can in advance of enrolling your child by visiting the camp’s website to learn about features, programs, facilities, and daily schedules. While

websites provide plenty of useful information, the best way to get a sense of the environment is to visit while the camp is in session. Look for drive-up appeal—not whether it is rustic or modern but how well it is maintained, cleanliness, how the staff greets visitors, and if they know the campers by name when walking through the grounds. If you have missed the summer tours, try to gauge camp culture through conversations with the camp director, veteran families, or your child's friends who have attended the camp.

Narrow down your options to about four or five camps, taking into account size, activity offerings, atmosphere, security, cost, and location. Look for a camp that best accommodates both your and your child's interests.

It may be helpful to involve your child in the search to ensure that his or her needs and expectations are met.

Camp is a transformative experience in the life of a child.

It’s a safe, supportive, nurturing environment, where kids are encouraged to try new things.

Jewish camp fosters Jewish values, culture, and traditions into adulthood. Research consistently shows that children who have a Jewish camp experience are more likely to become adults who value their Jewish heritage, support Jewish causes, and take on leadership roles.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015

Book Review: Off To Camp by: Myra Pravda and Jeanne Weiland Sail boats and happy children leaping into sparkling water. Kids playing volleyball, singing and telling stories around the campfire.

These are the pictures we all have seen of summer camp.

But before we can make these pictures come to life and be the experience your child truly has, it is important that you and your child make some importand decisions together.

Overnight camp remains a rite of passage. It can help children develop social skills, and confidence. Allows them to seperate in a healthy way from parents, and cultivate independence But it can also be a very stress inducing situation for both child and parents.

Myra Pravda & Jeanne Weiland have written a children’s book that introduces boys and girls to overnight camp, with a DVD for parents.

Although the book was written for children, parents are encouraged to read the book as well so that the issues introduced in the

book can be discussed with your child.

Off To Camp is a very enjoyable story that informs and entertains.

In the nine chapters children will get a very complete picture of, not only what they can expect at camp, but also how to choose a camp, what to bring with them, what not to bring with them, and what their days will be like.

At the end of each chapter there is a series of questions that are designed to get the child involved, and help them and their parents feel comfortable with the sleep away experience they are about to have at summer camp.

The book covers: Choosing a camp Getting ready to leave for camp Saying good-bye Exploring camp The first days Making new friends Camp Activities Communicating with parents and much much more.

KIDS & SUMMER CAMPS • 13

14 • DINING OUT

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Asian Paradise a fusion food experience like no other

By Bob Wilhelmy While Chinese food is a specific category of cuisine, a larger, broader category would be Asian cuisine, which adds at least Thai and Vietnamese styles to the mix.

While there are differences in those Asian offerings, the similarities seem more encompassing to me. Both the taste profiles and appearance of the entrée foods is closely aligned if not all but identical. Many if not most of the ingredients are the same and cooked in the same way.

Given the constancy of Pacific Rim cuisine, there is a remarkably good and different style of Asian foods to be had here in Greater Cincinnati—at Asian Paradise.

Proprietor Ben Wang and I have hit it off, which helps give better insight to the foods he offers and the ways in which his menu differs from typical Asian fare.

Wang says his kitchen concentrates on Asian fusion. Fusion cuisine is a mix and match of the best of Chinese, Thai and Japanese food styles, so it’s cross-cultural.

Wang says the difference is deeper: a combination of the food, the service and the elegant ambiance of the place. In addition to all that, he says the cooking process and ingredient approach at Asian Paradise are different as well from most “Chinese” or ethnically “Asian” restaurants in this area.

Personally, we have tried just about every appropriate entrée and sushi item on the menu over the past 2-plus years. All are wonderfully good, and most are unlike the entrée selections found in the typical Asian-inspired restaurant.

Part of the flavor/taste/texture difference is in the preparation, Wang tells me.

So what prep steps are different? “We use wok and grill, which is the way food is prepared (in Asian countries, but not in most U.S. eateries offering that cuisine). Not just wok. No MSG. No heavy sauce on the food—so flavors of food comes through,” he said. “Vegetables are fresh and not canned or frozen—that makes a big difference.”

I know from small “tells” at other Chinese or Asia-oriented restaurants that Wang is onto something. For instance, talking about the Asian satay skewers of chicken, a restaurant owner told me she normally cooks the skewers over a grill (the traditional way), but if she gets busy, she deep-fries them. Bingo! But the point is that there is a difference in ingredients and preparation throughout the restaurant industry, and when I find somebody who insists on quality in both categories, such as Ben Wang at Asian Paradise, it’s worth crowing

The mango sushi roll.

The exterior of the restaurant at the corner of Fields-Ertel and Montgomery Roads.

The salmon roll.

about.

The wok and grill process amounts to grilling the meat or seafood for some entrée items, and stir-frying the vegetables that go with the protein. Then the dish is combined with the appropriate sauce, but just lightly dressed and not smothered or suspended in the sauce. That part about the sauce is important, because the true flavors of the ingredients come through,

so the protein and veggies have to stand on their own.

The wok and grill process is an added step, but one worth taking, I think. One can both see and taste the difference made by the dual cooking approach. And Wang says that’s how Asians cook.

One of my favorite dishes is the spicy Mongolian beef entrée (pictured).

Ingredients? For starters, the beef is flank steak and

hand-cut. In many Asian eateries, inferior cuts of beef find their way into such dishes. Also, the beef shows the char of the grill, with none of that pale gray-brown steamed look of wok-cooked beef.

The beef literally creates highlights in the mix. The wokcooked veggies include red, orange and green bell peppers, scallions and onions. And the brown sauce dresses but does not

swamp the dish. Mongolian beef is a wonderful entrée that clearly supports what Wang had said about the wok and grill approach.

Prior to the entrée dishes, we enjoyed a mongo roll and the salmon roll with avocado and cucumber (pictured) from the sushi bar. Again, Wang provided insight. “Most sushi rolls, they have thick band of rice and less in the center. Not sushi here,” he claimed. He’s right. The rice portion was thinner and the tuna and salmon and avocado in the center was proportionately larger. The mongo roll is topped with juicy, sweet slices of mango fruit. Dip that in soy with wasabi mixed in, and it’s a knockout of flavor.

Delicious!

I recommend a trip to Asian Paradise, and when you go there, be ready to change your thinking on foods from that part of the world.

You’ll taste the difference.

Asian Paradise 9521 Fields Ertel Road Loveland 239-8881

DINING OUT • 15

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015

RESTAURANT DIRECTORY Ambar India Restaurant

Izzy’s

Slatt’s Pub

350 Ludlow Ave

800 Elm St • 721-4241

4858 Cooper Rd

Cincinnati

612 Main St • 241-6246

Blue Ash

281-7000

1198 Smiley Ave • 825-3888

791-2223 • 791-1381 (fax)

The Best Japanese Cuisine, Asian Food & Dining Experience In Town 9521 FIELDS ERTEL ROAD, LOVELAND

(513) 239-8881 asianparadiserestaurant.com

7625 Beechmont Ave • 231-5550 Andy’s Mediterranean Grille

4766 Red Bank Expy • 376-6008

Sorrentos

At Gilbert & Nassau

5098B Glencrossing Way • 347-9699

8494 Reading Rd

2 blocks North of Eden Park

8179 Princeton-Glendale • 942-7800

Reading

281-9791

7905 Mall Road • 859-525-2333

821-6666

1965 Highland Pk. • 859-331-4999 Asian Paradise

Stone Creek Dining Co.

9521 Fields Ertel Rd

Johnny Chan 2

9386 Montgomery Rd

Loveland

11296 Montgomery Rd

Montgomery • 489-1444

239-8881

The Shops at Harper’s Point

6200 Muhlhauser Rd

489-2388 • 489-3616 (fx)

West Chester • 942-2100

Kanak India Restaurant

Sukhothai Thai Cuisine

10040B Montgomery Rd

8102 Market Place Ln

Montgomery

Montgomery

793-6800

794-0057

Marx Hot Bagels

Tandoor

9701 Kenwood Rd

8702 Market Place Ln

Blue Ash

Montgomery

891-5542

793-7484

Cincinnati

Mecklenburg Gardens

Tony’s

321-6300

302 E. University Ave

12110 Montgomery Rd

Clifton

Montgomery

221-5353

677-1993

Cincinnati

Oasis Russian Fusion

Walt’s Hitching Post

745-9386

8698 Fields Ertel Rd

300 Madison Pike

Cincinnati

Fort Wright, KY

247-9755

(859) 360-2222

Cincinnati

Parkers Blue Ash Tavern

Wertheim’s Restaurant

791-0921

4200 Cooper Rd

514 W. 6th St.

Blue Ash

Covington, KY

891-8300

(859) 261-1233

Baba India Restaurant 3120 Madison Rd Cincinnati 321-1600 Bistro Grace 4034 Hamilton Ave. Cincinnati 541-9600 Breadsmith 3500 Michigan Ave.

Cafe Mediterranean

"Top 100 Chinese Restaurants in America"

FAMOUS CORNED BEEF Uncompromised Quality at Popular Prices

(513) 369-0245 Izzys.com

Chinese Restaurant News - 2004 Cincy Magazine Best of the North 2014

1/2

CINCINNATI ENQUIRER:

Banquets . Sushi Bar . Full Bar . Daily Specials • Lunch Buffet The Shops at Harpers Point . 11296 Montgomery Road

(513) 489-2388

9525 Kenwood Rd

Delhi Palace 7133 Montgomery Rd.

Holtman’s Donuts 1399 Ohio 28 • 575-1077 Loveland

Pomodori’s

1332C-2 Vine St. • 381-0903

121West McMillan • 861-0080

Over-the-Rhine

7880 Remington Rd

214 W. Main • 724-3865

Montgomery • 794-0080

Williamsburg Rascals NY Deli

Dine-In & Carryout Live Entertainment Nightly Banquet/Rehearsal Hall holds up to 100 people (no rental fee)

9525 Kenwood Rd. Blue Ash 429-4567

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Famous for Our Ribs, Seafood, Steaks, Chops, Chicken and more!

3300 Madison Pike Fort Wright, KY (859) 360-2222 waltshitchingpost.com

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LUNCH & DINNER SPECIALS COME ENJOY A WIDE VARIETY OF GERMAN & AMERICAN SPECIALTIES.

514 W 6TH ST, COVINGTON, KY

(859) 261-1233

16 • OPINION

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Holocaust consciousness must not blind us to Palestinian suffering

By Arlene Stein NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (JTA) – While nascent talk of the Holocaust was in the air when I was growing up in New York City, we did not learn about it in school, even in lessons about World War II or the waves of immigration to America’s shores. There were no public memorials or museums to the murdered millions, and the genocide of European Jewry was subsumed under talk of “the war.”

My father was a somber man who arrived here from Poland after the war and, like many survivors, kept to himself, trying his best to block out the past. Growing up, my connection to my father’s lost world consisted of names mentioned in hushed tones and photographs retrieved from hidden boxes.

But as I grew older, I watched with great interest, more than a little curiosity, and a good deal of relief as it became more acceptable to talk about “our” tragedy. By the 1980s, lessons about the genocide of European Jewry became de rigueur in high schools through the nation.

In the following decade, people could flock to a hulking museum in our nation’s capital that told the story for all who cared to listen.

The Holocaust became a universal moral touchstone that called upon us to defend our common humanity against the capacity for evil. But today, on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, the lesson we Jews seem to draw from our history is that those outside the tribe cannot be trusted.

In the wake of the recent terrorist attack on a kosher food store in Paris, and as anti-Semitism rises in France and elsewhere, these fears seem understandable. I know these kinds of fears well. Even in the relative comfort of his postwar existence, my father had a recurring nightmare that he was being chased

by German shepherds.

But when such fears lead to catastrophic thinking, they harden our hearts to the suffering of others and contribute, paradoxically, to a sense of Holocaust fatigue among many Jewish Americans – particularly younger ones.

“I’m sick of the Holocaust as a shorthand for ‘we suffered more than you, so we should get the piece of cake with the rosette on it,’ “ a 20something columnist wrote in the Forward. Peter Beinart in “The Crisis of Zionism” argues that the growing emphasis on the Holocaust in American life beginning in the 1960s and ‘70s marked the end of Jewish universalism.

“Liberalism was out,” Beinart

wrote. “Tribalism was in.”

Beinart and others are partly right: Holocaust trauma is too readily exploited. But historically, Holocaust commemoration efforts have been more than simply exercises in tribalism. They often emerged from an urge to acknowledge and alleviate human suffering writ large.

Raphael Lemkin, the PolishJewish legal scholar and Holocaust survivor who coined the term “genocide” and fought to have the concept recognized by the United Nations, exemplified this impulse.

So did the mobilization of the Holocaust second generation. As I argue in my book “Reluctant Witnesses,” we descendants of survivors, empowered by the progressive movements of the 1960s and ‘70s, coaxed our parents to share their stories. The Holocaust consciousness we helped build was part of a larger search for self-expression and human rights.

Today, many Holocaust commemoration activities reflect this universal spirit as well, including the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s efforts to promote awareness of genocide in Sudan and elsewhere. Jewish-American donors provided the bulk of the funds for a memorial to the more than 2 million Cambodians murdered during the brutal reign of the Khmer Rouge, an acknowledgement of a shared tragic history.

These and other efforts to remember the suffering of others should be applauded, but they must be more than window dressing.

They should also spur our own collective soul-searching. Committing funds for projects in places where Jews have few political or emotional investments, such as Cambodia or Sudan, is relatively easy. Subjecting our own deeply felt loyalties to Israel to scrutiny is a much more difficult, but no less important, task.

The truth is that at times our privileges may in fact be implicated in the suffering of others in the Palestinian territories, where life is brutal and frequently too short. A sense of hopelessness prevails among both Israelis and Palestinians, fueling acts of desperation and violence in the Middle East and beyond.

A chorus of leaders on both sides is promoting a politics of fear, declaring I cannot be my brother’s keeper when my brother is out to murder me. But on this Holocaust Remembrance Day, let us honor the memory of the parents and grandparents, uncles and aunts, and all of the unknown others we have lost by resisting such talk and redoubling our efforts to seek peace.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Do you have something to say? E-mail your letter to publisher@americanisraelite.com

Dear Editor: Over the last six-plus years a few (the usual suspects) “letters to the Editor” contributors have been very critical of President Obama and his administration's treatment of Israel. We would ask those critics to name all of the world leaders who have been more supportive and generous to the State of Israel than President Obama. Dare we suggest the leadership of Israel might bear some responsibility for their own less-than-productive political policies?

Nancy & Jerry Schwartz Amberley Village Dear Editor, We are told that the U.S. had no role in the initial development of Iron Dome. Ok, but what is left out is that developing a military system and paying for its implementation are both required before the system is functional.There would have been no Iron Domes shooting down missiles if it wasn't for the United States and President Obama. But don't take my word for it. Let's review an article published in Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper on May 13, 2010: “The budgetary difficulty that has been delaying Israel's armament with the anti-missile defense system Iron Dome has apparently been resolved. The Pentagon has issued a message to Israel's Defense Ministry that U.S. President Barack Obama has approved the transfer of special assistance totaling $205 million (just under NIS 800 million) for the purchase of more than ten Iron Dome batteries.

The Iron Dome missile defense system aced a test run in January, an event that convinced senior defense officials that the defense system was on its way to becoming operational and that it will be able to effectively protect against shortrange missiles, such as Katyushas and Qassams, which often hit Israeli towns.

The project's first phase, which included development, test runs and the manufacture of two batteries, required a budget of NIS 800 million. The Israel Air Force has also trained a special new unit to operate the defense system.

However, the plan was not allotted an adequate budget. The Israel Defense Forces ducked away from funding the project with its budget, explaining that offensive readiness was a higher priority, and the Defense Ministry has been looking for other budgetary avenues. Among other things, Israel has struck a deal with an unnamed

eastern Asian country (Singapore, according to a recent report in a French magazine) to participate in the funding of future phases in the project.

Israel has recently raised the possibility that the U.S. assist in the funding of the project by transferring a sum of money beyond the U.S.'s annual defense assistance.

The request was reviewed closely during Defense Minister Ehud Barak's last visit to Washington earlier this month, and during talks between Barak and Obama and other senior American defense officials.

On Wednesday, Barak was notified that Israel's request had been granted. Director General of the Defense Ministry, Udi Shani, is currently in Washington to finalize the details. A senior Israeli defense official told Haaretz on Thursday that the U.S. assistance was "a breakthrough, which will significantly facilitate moving forward with the project. The question of funding has been, up until now, the main obstacle."”

If the Israelis state that the implementation of Iron Dome would not have occurred without U.S. funding, why is it so hard for a letter writer in Ohio to acknowledge the same thing?

Andrew Steinberg Amberley Village Dear Editor, Domestic Violence is a thing.

A very real and very scary thing.

There is a common misperception within the Jewish community that among us there’s no poverty, no mental illness, and no domestic violence. Sadly, the recent murder-suicide of Rebecca Eldemire, a young Jewish co-ed at Miami University, proves otherwise. Our colleagues at the Jewish Family Service agency in Clearwater, Florida have encountered events that fly in the face of this myth as well. Rochelle Tatrai-Ray, the CEO of that agency, was murdered by her ex-partner in December, who also turned the gun on himself, leaving their two daughters without parents. And just two weeks ago, our staff at the Barbash Family Vital Support Center provided an educational program that highlighted the story of their recent intervention work that helped a Jewish client leave her abuser.

Domestic Violence is a thing.

A very real and very scary thing.

Domestic violence and abuse is a pattern of behavior used to establish power and control over another person – male or female - through

fear and intimidation, often including the threat or use of violence regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, income, or other factors. It is important to remember that no victim is to blame.

So what do we do about it as a community?

Awareness and acknowledgement is the first step.

Let’s concede that domestic violence exists in our community and that it can happen to any of us. And then we can teach our youth the warning signs of an unhealthy relationship and share resources so that they know the right steps to take to avoid becoming victims. We can refer to the Jewish Family Service resource illuminating the “red lights” and “green lights” of healthy relationships to prevent domestic violence. We can raise them to be assertive and confident, to trust their “guts”, and not to feel shame in reaching out for help.

Statistics prove that women are particularly vulnerable: Women ages 20 to 24 are at greatest risk of becoming victims of domestic violence. More than 4 million women experience physical assault and rape by their partners. 1 in 3 female homicide victims are murdered by their current or former partner every year. 1 in 4 women will experience domestic violence during her lifetime.

As a society we need to raise our boys to become men who approach their relationships with respect and appropriate boundaries.

Jackson Katz’s MVP model, Mentors in Violence Prevention, teaches male student-athletes to be leaders in speaking out against violence. Innovative and best-practice approaches such as this should be mandatory training in high schools and college campuses world-wide.

We can discuss gender violence openly with them, remind our sons that “no means no”, and encourage them to speak out when they witness violence around them.

Domestic Violence is a thing.

A very real and very scary thing.

Let’s acknowledge its power in our community, and then power back against it by standing up, speaking out, and teaching our youth to do the same.

Jewish Family Service extends its deepest condolences to the parents and brother of Becca Eldemire, and by extension to all of the survivors of tragic and senseless death perpetrated by gender violence.

Beth Schwartz, MSW, LSW Jewish Family Service Executive Director

JEWISH LIFE • 17

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015

brought whole burnt offerings and peace offerings – and a celebratory meal for the leadership (Moses, Aaron, Nadav, Avihu and the Seventy Elders), at which they ate and drank in the presence of the Divine. (Ex. 24:11). Biblically, sacrifices of whole burnt offerings and peace offerings are generally identified with Festival celebrations (for example, Num. 10:10).

As we have seen, there is also the sprinkling of blood upon the nation, which is reminiscent of the Covenant between the Pieces with Abraham, when a great dread which fell upon our first Patriarch in the context of the animal’s blood, and the prophecy of Jewish servitude and persecution along the way to redemption. (Gen. 15:9-14). The circumcision ceremony, by which every male baby enters into the Covenant of Abraham, must also include the loss of some blood from the male sexual organ of propagation, and every single birth, male and female, is accompanied with the significant loss of blood.

Every worthwhile idea or ideal requires commitment (mesirut nefesh), even commitment unto death. It was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who said that anyone who has not found an ideal for which he would sacrifice his life is not living a worthwhile life! As the prophet Ezekiel taught, “And I see that you are rooted in your blood, and I say to you “by your blood shall you live, by your blood shall you live” (Ezek. 16:6).

The great paradox of the biblical story of the binding of Isaac was God’s telling Abraham that only if he was willing to risk his future through his son Isaac would he be worthy of having a future with covenantal seed. God Himself (as it were) is invested in Israel’s commitment, even commitment unto death, to the Covenant, because unless Israel succeeds in teaching the world ethical monotheism, our global village will have no future! That is why in picturing God’s participation in the celebratory meal at Sinai, what I believe the Bible is trying to express metaphorically is that God has chosen us as His partners, to be His witnesses to the world, to help Him save humanity from self-destruction.

The Talmud records (B.T. Tamid 32a) that “Alexander of Macedon asked the Elders of Tzfat: ‘What ought a person do if he wishes to die?’ They responded, ‘Let him attempt to keep on living,’because he will surely die sooner or later; nobody has yet left this world alive! ‘And what ought a person do if he wishes to remain alive?’ They responded, ‘Let him slay himself’ for the sake of an eternal value, of a lofty ideal, and he will continue to live as long as the value or ideal remains alive in the world.

To be a committed Jews means that although you may be engaged in a dangerous occupation, there is no more privileged way to live your life.

Yes, it is a great joy to be Jewish. And even if you experience a temporal “oy,” that is certainly worth the eternal “joy” of participating in God’s vineyard dedicated to perfecting the world.

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Shabbat Shalom Rabbi Shlomo Riskin Chancellor Ohr Torah Stone Chief Rabbi – Efrat Israel

AI

The American Israelite

T EST Y OUR T ORAH KNOWLEDGE THIS WEEK’S PORTION: YISRO (SHMOT 18—20) 4. Why did Yisro want Moshe to set up a judiciary system? a.) Moshe should not rely on his own understanding b.) It was the fairest way to resolve disputes c.) Moshe would wear out doing everything himself

1. What was Yisro's job? a.) Leader of Midian b.) Chief priest of Midian c.) Rancher 2. Where did Yisro meet Moshe? a.) Mount Sinai b.) Yam Suf c.) Refidim 3. How did the Elders honor Yisro? a.) Went on a trip to Midian b.) Ate a meal with him c.) By Marah

4. C 18:18 5. B 18:21 Moshe would pick them with his divine inspiration. Rashi

EFRAT, Israel – “And now, if you will surely hearken to my voice and observe My Covenant, then you shall be for Me a chosen treasure (segulah) from amongst all the nations, because all of the earth is Mine And you shall be for Me a Kingdom of Priest-teachers and a holy nation… (Ex. 19:5,6)” The Covenant between God and Abraham was the National Covenant, a Divine agreement that Abraham’s seed will be eternal, that his descendants will inherit the land of Israel, and that this nation – despite periods of dreadful persecution and affliction – will eventually bring the glorious star-light of God to a universe darkened by ignorance, transgression and warfare. (Gen 15). Hence the future family of Abraham is likened to the stars of the heavens.

In our Biblical portion of Yitro, we have the Religious Covenant between God and the Israelites, a Divine agreement that if this newlyformed emerging nation will observe the moral and ritual commandments, they will become God’s treasured people, a holy nation of priest-teachers to all of humanity. Hence the prophetic fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, chosen because he was commanding his household after him to act with compassionate righteousness and moral justice, that through his seed all the families of the earth would be blessed. (Gen. 18:1819; 12:3).

From this perspective, the Covenant at Sinai may be seen as the Bar-Bat Mitzvah of the Jewish Nation at the very dawn of their history. Indeed, it is a commitment –consecration ceremony, which can be ratified only after the Israelites publicly accept the challenge – or the gift – which God is placing before them, “And (the Israelites) said, ‘all that the Lord has spoken we shall perform and internalize’ – and then Moses took the blood (of the earlier sacrifices) and sprinkled it upon the nation , and he said, ‘behold, the blood of the Covenant, which the Lord has cut with you on all these words.’” (Ex. 24:7-9) As should be expected, this ratification comes after the lengthy portion of Mishpatim, replete with a sampling of the moral and ritual commandments which have always been seen by our Sages as part and parcel of the Revelation at Sinai.

This ratification of the Covenant includes the youth of Israel who

Every worthwhile idea or ideal requires commitment (mesirut nefesh), even commitment unto death. It was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who said that anyone who has not found an ideal for which he would sacrifice his life is not living a worthwhile life!

5. Who picked the new members of the judiciary? a.) Hashem b.) Moshe c.) The Sanhedrin

the the desert to learn Torah. Rashi 3. B 18:12 The meal was before Hashem to show that eating a meal with a Torah scholar is considered as if it was in the presence of Hashem

by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

SHABBAT SHALOM: PARSHAT YITRO EXODUS 18:1 - 20:23

Written by Rabbi Dov Aaron Wise

ANSWERS 1. B 18:1 Yisro gave up his honored positions and beliefs to join the Children of Israel. R Bchai 2. A 18:5 Yisro left his comfortable home to go

Sedra of the Week

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JEWZ

IN THE

By Nate Bloom Contributing Columnist At the Movies: Opening Friday, Feb. 6 The sci-fi flick, “Jupiter Ascending” was written and directed by “the Wachowskis”, who were formerly known as the Wachowski Brothers and are most famous for their “Matrix films”. No, the “Wachs” are not Jewish and they are no longer known as “brothers” because one of the duo, Larry, is transitioning to the female gender and is now known as “Lana.” The complex “Jupiter” plot posits that an alien aristocratic group has “genetically seeded” living creatures all over the universe. Channing Tatum plays an alien warrior who comes to Earth to protect Jupiter Jones, a house cleaner who is unaware that she is “seeded” genetic alien royalty and that she is the “royal heir to the Earth.”

MILA KUNIS, 31, plays Jupiter--and if life imitated her film role—Kunis would be the most powerful Jewish queen since ESTHER. New on TV The NBC series, “Allegiance,” which premieres on Feb. 5 at 10PM, is based on an Israeli series. The “Allegiance” premise is similar to “The Americans”, an FX show which premiered in 2013. “The Americans”, which is set during the Cold War 1980s, is about two KGB agents who pose as a married American couple. They have two teen children (who don’t know about them). “Allegiance” is set in the present-day. The back story is that years ago, while the Cold War was still hot, Russianborn Katya (Hope Davis) is tasked by the KGB to recruit American businessman Mark O’Connor (SCOTT COHEN, 53) as a spy. They fall in love and are allowed to move to America, provided they become a “sleeper cell” and obey any future orders from Moscow. They have two adult children---their daughter, Natalie (MARGARET LEVIEVA, 34), knows her parents are spies. Their son, Alex, is a newlyhired CIA analyst who doesn’t know the truth about his parents.

The O’Connors live a happy life for decades and think Moscow has forgot about them until they are contacted and presented with a horrible choice.

Their lives and the lives of their children are at risk if they do not help with an impending Russianplanned terrorist attack within America—and they are told to turn their son into a Russian agent. Meanwhile, the CIA has assigned Alex to investigate intel-

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

NEWZ

ligence clues about the same terrorist plot. Advance reviews are good, despite the similarity to “The Americans.”

Most veteran TV watchers know Cohen’s face, if not his name. He’s been good in everything he’s appeared in (“Law and Order”, “Gilmore Girls,” “Kissing Jessica Stein”)—but he’s never had a breakthrough role. Likewise, I have been following the pretty and talented Levieva since she was cast in the short-lived Fox show, “Vanished,” in 2005. Born in Russia, she and her mother moved to Brooklyn in 1991. Her bigger movie roles include “Lisa P” in “Adventureland” (2009), which co-starred JESSE EISENBERG, 31. As with Cohen— here’s hoping this series does big things for her.

Handler in Israel Comedian CHELSEA HANDLER, 39 , toured Israel late last month and met with SHIMON PERES, 91, the former president of Israel. Their discussion covered a wide-range of topics and was filmed as part of an upcoming personal documentary in which Handler explores her Jewish roots and examines Israel from many angles, including culture and history. Handler, the daughter of a Jewish father and a Mormon mother, was raised as a Reform Jew and identifies as Jewish. I expect this documentary will appear on Netflix. Handler plans, starting in 2016, to do a different type of talk show for Netflix. Meanwhile, she’s doing occasional comedy specials and documentaries for Netflix.

Sports Short The Unites States Men’s National Soccer team is composed of professional players who compete, every four years, for the World Cup and, during “off-years”, like 2015, play some “friendly” matches with other national teams. On Jan. 28, the U.S. lost, 3-2, to Chile. The U.S. starting line-up included two Jewish players: DeANDRE YEDLIN, 21, who currently plays for a UK pro team, and STEVE BIRNBAUM, 24, who plays for the D.C. United MLS club. The Chile game was Birnbaum’s first match for the U.S. National team. He played in the 2011 Maccabi Games in Israel. Tip: get the soccer league kids before the TV on Sunday, Feb. 8, at 10AM (ET)—ESPN 2 is showing the team’s match against Panama. Point out the Jewish guys on the field and kvell.

FROM THE PAGES 150 Y EARS A GO Married, Mr. P.F. Lapham to Miss Mary J. Johnson, both of this city, on Wednesday evening, February 22 by the Rev. W.H. Harrison, D.D. at the home of the bride’s mother.

We hearby congratulate our young friend, and hope the step he has taken may ever be a source of joy and happiness to him. Mr. Lapham has been for some time foreman of the “Israelite” office, always attending to his business and constantly laboring to enhance the interest of his employers. May his future be as bright as the midday sun and as peaceful as the slumber of an innocent babe. Having a few days ago enlisted in the National Army, he carries with him to the field of battle the prayers of his wife and the best wishes of his friends. May he soon return to enjoy the laurels of a hero.

The Social Union will give their first annual Masquerade on Friday evening, March 10. 1865, at Mozart Hall. A prize will be given for the best costume in character; also, one for the best waltzer in mask. – March 3, 1865

125 Y EARS A GO Miss Tillie Loewenstein and Mr. Sol Einstein will be married at the home of the bride’s parents, on West Court Street, next Tuesday evening. It will be a strictly family affair.

Master Irwin Herman, son of Mr. and Mrs. A. Herman, and grandson of Mr. and Mrs. B. Schroder, of 350 Richmond Street, will be bar mitzvah on next Saturday, February 15th. His relatives will be pleased to see their friends.

Miss Sadie Bowman gave a candy pull last week to a number of her friends. Those present were: The Misses Leona Aderer, Hannah Abel, Ray Gans, Belle Elsbach and Gussie Shelt, and Messrs. H. Aderer, J. Cohn, M. Baer, M. Frauenthal, E. Pretzfelder and E. Elsbach.

Jonas Oettinger died on Friday, February 7th, in the sixty-seventh year of his age, at his home, 506 West Seventh Street, and was buried in the Walnut Hills Cemetery on Sunday.

Mr. Oettinger was a well-known and respected citizen, and had been a resident of Cincinnati for many years. – February 13, 1890

100 Y EARS A GO Miss Naomi Rasinsky, Raymond E. Werner, Elmer Conway, David Rosenberg, A. Keyser and Joseph Bearman were given positions on the Cincinnati Law School debating team after a

try-out Monday night. The team will represent the law school in a debate with the Kentucky State University team.

Mrs. Hannah Dreyfoos, seventy-five years old, pioneer and the widow of Bernard Dreyfoos, former businessman, died at the home of her son, Dr. Max Dreyfoos of the Madrid building, Avondale. Her son was at St. Augustine, Fla. with his family, about to board ship for Cuba, when the news of his mother’s illness reached him. Mrs. Dreyfood had been a resident of Cincinnati for the past sixty years.

Surviving are her two sons, Dr. Max and Samuel Dreyfoos. The funeral was Sunday in the chapel of the Walnut Hills Jewish Cemetery.

Mrs. Therese Hollstein, beloved and known by all the community as “Grandma Hollstein” celebrated her eighty-third birthday Tues. at the residence of her daughter, Mr. Ben. E. Rice in the Crescent apartments, Avondale. Surrounding her were her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. This remarkable Mother of Israel is possessed of all her faculties and passed a happy day in greeting her many friends and relatives. – February 4, 1915

75 Y EARS A GO Mr. and Mrs. Herman Bloom announced the engagement of their daughter, Betty Ruth, to Mr. Julian Vigran, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Vigran of Richmand, Ind. Mr. Leonard Lipschutz has been installed as president of the Young Men’s Republican Club, along with Mr. Walton H. Bachrach as secretary of the Republican Club of Hamilton County. Mr. Morris Lehrer is a director of the former group.

Julius Rosenberg, 80, of 1780 Taft Road, passed away Wednesday, Feb. 7th, after a short illness. He was a pioneer resident in Cincinnati.

Mr. Rosenberg is survived by two daughters, Emmy and Hazel Rosenberg and four sons, Joseph, Milton, Clarence and Irving Rosenberg.

Services were held from the Weil Funeral Home. Interment was in Lick Run Cemetery. – February 15, 1940

50 Y EARS A GO Cincinnatians who graduated from Ohio University in Athens Jan. 30 include: Miss Majorie Kanter, 241 Sturgis Avenue, with honor, bachelor of fine arts; Frank Messer, 1031 Redway, B.S. in civil engineering; and Miss Tillie Richter, 665 E. Mitchell, B.S. in Education.

Winners of the 1965 Southern Ohio-Northern Kentucky

Scholastic Art Awards presented Jan. 30 include: Junior Group: Don Goldman and Michael Young, Shroder Junior High; Debbi Halpern, Amy Katzman, Walnut Hills High; Julie Valin, Woodward High; Debby Kay, Karen Clayton, Nancy Jo Friedman, Sally Lurie, Stephen Pleatman, Walnut Hills High; Pam Weiner, Shelley Sien, Shroder Jr. High.

Senior Group: Scott Brower, Walnut Hills; Anne Westheimer, College Preparatory; Andy Kay, Walnut Hills; Max Samuelson, Sandra Schafer, Woodward High; Teri Hirschberg, Walnut Hills; Stephanie Adler, Steve Cohen, Woodward High. – February 11, 1965

25 Y EARS A GO Steven and Julie Shifman announce the birth of a son, Alexander Frederick, Feb. 3. Alex has two brothers, Joshua and Jacob.

Maternal grandparents are Phil and Lois Cohen. Paternal grandparents are Morrey and Renae Shifman of Springfield, Ohio.

Gisela S. Reder, 66, died Feb. 5.

Mrs. Reder was the office manager of Adath Israel Congregation’s religious school. She was a member of Wise Temple.

She is survived by a daughter, Evelyn Eckber of Cincinnati; a sister, Frieda Weibel of Atlanta; and two grandchildren, Caryn and Terri Eckber. Mrs. Reder was the wife of the late Philip Reder.

Services were held Feb. 7 at Weil Funeral Home, Rabbi Lewis Kamrass officiating. Interment was in United Jewish Cemetery, Walnut Hills. – February 15, 1990

10 Y EARS A GO Ruth Stock, nee Zwiren, 102, passed away Jan. 31, 2005 (21 Tevet, 5765). Mrs. Stock was born in Brooklyn, NY as the youngest child of her parents, the late Jonas and Lisie (Goldinberg) Zueiren, being ten years younger than her oldest sister, Pauline.

Mrs. Stock was the wife of the late Morris Abraham Stock. They were married on Dec. 25, 1923, and had been married for 56 years at the time of Mr. Stock’s passing. She is survived by her daughter, Judith Shapiro; a son, Larry Stock of Pacific Grove, Calif.; a son-in-law, Dr. Herbert Shapiro; and a daughter-in-law, Barbara Stock of Saratoga, Calif. She leaves her grandchildren: Dr. Mark Shapiro of San Antonio, Texas; Nina Shapiro of Seattle, Wash.; and David, Victoria and Stacy Stock Griffiths of Saratoga, Calif., as well as three great-grandchildren, Sophia, Tessa, and Max. – February 24, 2005

COMMUNITY DIRECTORY / CLASSIFIEDS • 19

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015

COMMUNITY DIRECTORY COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS ORGANIZATIONS Access (513) 373-0300 • jypaccess.org Big Brothers/Big Sisters Assoc.

(513) 469-1188 • bigbrobigsis.org Camp Ashreinu (513) 702-1513 Camp at the J (513) 722-7258 • mayersonjcc.org Camp Chabad (513) 731-5111 • campchabad.org Camp Livingston (513) 793-5554 •camplivingston.com Cedar Village (513) 754-3100 • cedarvillage.org Chevra Kadisha (513) 396-6426 Cincinnati Community Kollel (513) 631-1118 • kollel.shul.net Cincinnati Community Mikveh (513) 351-0609 •cincinnatimikveh.org Eruv Hotline (513) 351-3788 Fusion Family (513) 703-3343 • fusionnati.org Halom House (513) 791-2912 • halomhouse.com Hillel Jewish Student Center (Miami) (513) 523-5190 • muhillel.org Hillel Jewish Student Center (UC) (513) 221-6728 • hillelcincinnati.org Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati 513-961-0178 • jcemcin.org Jewish Community Center (513) 761-7500 • mayersonjcc.org Jewish Community Relations Council (513) 985-1501 Jewish Family Service (513) 469-1188 • jfscinti.org Jewish Federation of Cincinnati (513) 985-1500 • jewishcincinnati.org Jewish Foundation (513) 214-1200 Jewish Information Network (513) 985-1514 JVS Career Services (513) 936-WORK (9675) • www.jvscinti.org Plum Street Temple Historic Preservation Fund (513) 793-2556 Shalom Family (513) 703-3343 • myshalomfamily.org

DRIVER from page 9 The terrorist attack ended relatively quickly, mainly due to the response of the members of the Nachshon Unit (the security branch of the Israel Prison Service), who happened to be in a vehicle behind the bus. Benny Boterashvili, the commander of the unit, said Wednesday, “We were on a routine mission, transporting suspects to the courthouse.

Under the Maariv bridge, I saw a bus shaking from side to side. Within half a minute, I saw the bus stop at a green light and immediately knew that something was wrong.

Seconds later I saw people rushing out so I understood that it was a terrorist attack. I told my team to grab their weapons, get out of the car and pursue the terrorist.”

Boterashvili and three other security officers pursued the terrorist while two other

The Center for Holocaust & Humanity Education (513) 487-3055 • holocaustandhumanity.org Vaad Hoier (513) 731-4671 Workum Fund (513) 899-1836 • workum.org YPs at the JCC (513) 761-7500 • mayersonjcc.org CONGREGATIONS CONGREGATIONS Adath Israel Congregation (513) 793-1800 • adath-israel.org Beit Chaverim (513) 984-3393 • btzbc.com Beth Israel Congregation (513) 868-2049 • bethisraelcongregation.net B’nai Tikvah Chavurah (513) 284-5845 • rabbibruce.com Congregation Beth Adam (513) 985-0400 • bethadam.org Congregation B’nai Tzedek (513) 984-3393 • btzbc.com Congregation Ohav Shalom (513) 489-3399 • ohavshalom.org Congregation Sha’arei Torah (513) 620-8080 • shaareitorahcincy.org Congregation Shevet Achim (513) 426-8613 • shevetachimohio.com Congregation Zichron Eliezer (513) 631-4900 • czecincinnati.org Golf Manor Synagogue (513) 531-6654 • golfmanorsynagogue.org Isaac M. Wise Temple (513) 793-2556 • wisetemple.org Kehilas B’nai Israel (513) 761-0769 Northern Hills Synagogue (513) 931-6038 • nhs-cba.org Rockdale Temple (513) 891-9900 • rockdaletemple.org Temple Sholom (513) 791-1330 • templesholom.net The Valley Temple (513) 761-3555 • valleytemple.com

EDUCA EDUCATION Chai Tots Early Childhood Center (513) 234.0600 • chaitots.com

remained behind to look after the victims. “We flanked the terrorist from the right and the left,” he said. “The fighters fired in the air to warn him and when he didn’t stop they shot him in the legs. We subdued him and bound him and then the police came.”

Tel Aviv District Police Commander Bentzi Sau praised the prison service officers, saying that thanks to their rapid action, a far greater tragedy was averted.

The Israel Police raised its alert level in the wake of the Tel Aviv attack. Police Commissioner Insp. Gen. Yohanan Danino emphasized that the police would continue to operate on high alert in order to ensure the safety of the citizens of Israel.

Danino and Sau both visited the scene of the attack to assess the situation. Following the visit, Danino raised the alert level and instructed offi-

Chabad Blue Ash (513) 793-5200 • chabadba.com Cincinnati Hebrew Day School (513) 351-7777 • chds.shul.net HUC-JIR (513) 221-1875 • huc.edu JCC Early Childhood School (513) 793-2122 • mayersonjcc.org Kehilla - School for Creative Jewish Education (513) 489-3399 • kehilla-cincy.com Mercaz High School (513) 792-5082 x104 • mercazhs.org Kulanu (Reform Jewish High School) (513) 262-8849 • kulanucincy.org Regional Institute Torah & Secular Studies (513) 631-0083 Rockwern Academy (513) 984-3770 • rockwernacademy.org Sarah’s Place (513) 531-3151 • sarahsplacecincy.com Yeshivas Lubavitch High School of Cincinnati (513) 631-2452 • ylcincinnati.com ORGANIZATIONS ORGANIZATIONS American Jewish Committee (513) 621-4020 • ajc.org American Friends of Magen David Adom (513) 521-1197 • afmda.org B’nai B’rith (513) 984-1999 BBYO (513) 722-7244 • mayersonjcc.org Hadassah (513) 821-6157 • cincinnati.hadassah.org Jewish Discovery Center (513) 234-0777 • jdiscovery.com Jewish National Fund (513) 794-1300 • jnf.org Jewish War Veterans (937) 886-9566 • jwv.org NA’AMAT (513) 984-3805 • naamat.org National Council of Jewish Women (513) 891-9583 • ncjw.org ORT America (216) 464-3022 • ortamerica.org State of Israel Bonds (513) 793-4440 • israelbonds.com

cers to maintain operational preparedness in all Israeli districts. He also praised the heroism of the officers involved in neutralizing the attack.

The terrorist, Matrouk, admitted to the Shin Bet security agency that his motivation for the attack was revenge for Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza last summer as well as the recent tension over the Temple Mount. Matrouk, a 23-year-old resident of the Palestinian city of Tulkarem, also attributed his attack to Islamic programming that taught him about the “path to heaven” through “martyrdom.”

Matrouk entered Israel illegally on the morning of the attack

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“The agreement now being forged between the major powers and Iran is unacceptable to Israel,” Netanyahu said.

“This agreement is dangerous to Israel, to the region and to the world. ... I, as prime minister, stand up and say this unequivocally: We will do everything in order to prevent the arming of Iran with nuclear weapons capabilities,” he added.

A senior Israel official with knowledge of the Iran negotiations said Monday, “I don’t believe that an agreement will come at any price.”

He added that a deal is unlikely to be reached before March, and that a great deal rests on “difficult decisions that Iran must make ... though there has not yet been any real change among the Iranians with regard to concessions that could lead

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(513) 531-9600 to an agreement.”

“The combination of diplomatic and economic pressures increases the chances of a good outcome from the negotiations. Putting pressure on Iran won’t guarantee a deal, but a lack of pressure will ensure that there is no deal,” the official said.

Meanwhile, Israeli Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran is expected to rule in the coming days on whether Israeli media outlets will be permitted to air Netanyahu’s address to the U.S. Congress, which will take place two weeks before the March 17 Knesset elections.

Joubran requested that Netanyahu personally respond by Feb. 1 to the left-wing Meretz party leader Zehava Gal-On’s petition that the speech before Congress not be televised on the ground that it would constitute electioneering, and he further named Israeli Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein as a respondent in the petition

HAVE PHOTOS FROM AN EVENT? Whether they are from a Bar Mitzvah, Annual Meeting, School Field Trip or Your Congregation’s Annual Picnic, spread the joy and share them with our readers in the Cincinnati Jewish Life section!

MAIL: MAIL Send CD to The American Israelite, 18 W 9th St Ste 2, Cincinnati, OH 45202 or E-MAIL: E-MAIL production@americanisraelite.com THIS IS 100% FREE. For more information, please contact Jennifer at (513) 621-3145.

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20 • A LEGAL LOOK / BOOK REVIEW

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Life insurance as a part of an estate plan A LEGAL LOOK

by Michael Ganson In even a relatively modest estate, life insurance should be considered as a potentially important aspect of estate planning since it can substantially increase the value of your estate.

In addition, where the death of a person is premature leaving a family with young children who are in need of support, life insurance may be the principal means for the family’s financial survival.

Life insurance in larger estates are often useful by providing liquidity necessary to pay estate taxes and expenses without the necessity of selling off assets a family would prefer to retain. Additionally, life insur-

ance does not have to go through a time-consuming administrative process before its proceeds become available to beneficiaries. Indeed, sometimes life insurance can be the only immediate source of funds for a surviving family.

One object of any estate planning is to minimize the estate tax effect, if any, that life insurance can potentially have.

The primary tax issue that arises is whether the insurance proceeds are included in the estate for estate tax purposes. In fact, including the proceeds can sometimes generate additional estate tax liability and even reduce the amount of the proceeds available to beneficiaries upon the insured’s death.

The rule is that gross estate will include the value of life insurance proceeds if A) the proceeds are payable to the decedent’s estate, or B) the proceeds are payable to other beneficiaries, but the decedent possessed at death any of the “incidents of ownership” with respect to the policy.

“Incidents of ownership” is not limited to the legal ownership of the policy. The phrase

includes the power to change beneficiaries, to surrender or cancel the policy, to assign the policy or pledge it for a loan, or to even obtain a loan from the insurer against the surrender value of the policy. It even includes indirect ways a decedent can be found by the government to possess “incidents of ownership;” such as, where the decedent is the owner of a corporation that possesses one of the “incident of ownership” described above.

Indeed, life insurance proceeds may even be included in the estate under certain circumstances where a transfer of the policy by the decedent as the initial owner was made to another person or entity within three years of the decedent’s death.

Thus, even “incidents of ownership” prior to transfer of the policy may be included under this three year window.

A common method for handling the life insurance aspects of an estate plan is the use of a life insurance trust. Usually, the person initiates life insurance coverage by acquiring a policy.

After acquiring the policy, all “incidents of ownership” would

be transferred to a previously created irrevocable trust which would be the named beneficiary on policy. As long as the person survives at least one day more than the three years after the transfer of the policy to the trust, the proceeds would not be included in the decedent’s estate. Unfortunately, if the policy is transferred within three years of death, the proceeds may very well be included in the estate.

Of course, if the trust itself acquired the policy, the insured life would never be the owner of the policy and the three-year window would not apply.

Unfortunately, in this situation, the insured could neither direct nor require the trust to acquire the life insurance policy without risking the possibility of being regarded by the government as the original owner of the policy under the three-year window rule. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that the trustee be completely independent of the insured.

An irrevocable life insurance trust can also serve as a means of coordinating the collection, investment, and distribution of

the proceeds of several policies.

In addition, an irrevocable life insurance trust can hold other assets transferred to it during the life of the decedent.

Furthermore, the trust can also receive assets designated in decedent’s will after death.

In conclusion, it is very important to consider the inclusion of life insurance is a part of your estate plan. It should be carefully integrated with the other aspects of an estate plan.

The guidance of a qualified professional should be retained to assist you in incorporating life insurance as a part of your estate plan.

The information contained in this article is intended to provide only general legal information and is not intended to be relied upon for specific legal issues or any particular legal matters. For specific legal issues or any particular legal matters, the reader is advised to consult with and secure the legal advice of an attorney of their choice.

Book Review: Journey of Ashes: A Boyhood in the Holocaust A Child Survivor Recalls the Liberation of Auschwitz

By Anna Ray-Jones Roman Ferber

and

January 21, 2015, Monroe Township, NJ. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Soviet army’s liberation of Auschwitz, an event that freed over 7,000 remaining prisoners. Among them was Roman Ferber, who, at 12-years old, was one of the youngest Jews on Schindler’s list, and a rare juvenile inmate of the death camp along with his 8-year old cousin, Wilús Schnitzer.

By his twelfth birthday, Roman, (now a resident of Monroe Township, NJ), had been a prisoner in the Krakow Ghetto, and the camps of Plaszow, Gross Rosen, Brinnlitz, and Auschwitz. Thanks to his brother, Manek Ferber’s friendship with Oskar Schindler, Roman found himself on the famous list with his father and his young cousin, Wilús.

However, it didn’t save the two boys from being exiled to Auschwitz where child inmates didn’t last long.

January 27, 1945, the day of the Auschwitz liberation is forever etched in his memory.

“The Nazis had already sent my father and the men in his barrack on a forced march to Germany,” says Roman, (now a man in his eighties), “but Wilús and I slipped away and hid in an electrical station until the last soldiers had left. The actual day of freedom was unreal. I remember a Voroshilov tank lumbered toward the camp’s main gates. Tethered to its rear was a handsome young captain

towed along on skis. He was followed by a huge contingent of Russian infantry from the 60th Army. More tanks arrived, and to my cousin’s delight, warriors on horseback!”

“The prisoners give a mighty cheer and threw open the gates.

Shouts rose up in a babble of Polish, Yiddish, and other tongues mixed with the musical rumble of Russian. The sturdy soldiers mingled enthusiastically with the prisoners, embracing us and shaking our hands. “It’s over, Comrade, you are

free…free!” they chorused.

Their warmth and kindness caused many of the inmates to break down and weep--it had been so long since any one had regarded us as human beings.”

“Women battalions also came striding through the gates. I recall my cousin being hoisted onto the shoulder of a pretty lady lieutenant and more female militia were kissing and hugging all the kids. “Malchic, Malchic, Little guy, little guy,” they called out to us.

“All is well, we are here!”

Roman’s first reaction was one of sheer exhilaration. He recounts seeing Wilús whooping and calling out to him from the perch of his Russian beauty, the color returning to the boy’s cheeks. The first wave of liberators was followed by heavily laden supply trucks, ambulances and mobile medical units. A swarm of Russian nurses and doctors mingled with the internal medics, asking a host of questions regarding the health of the inmates.

“Russian soldiers arrived by the hundreds,” comments Roman. “The platoon’s General was a thin bespectacled Marxist, all brisk efficiency. He entered the camp riding an excellent chestnut horse, directing many things to be done at once. There

were cameras and news reporters shooting photographs and filming. One cameraman wanted to film prisoners pouring joyously through the open gates and when we didn’t look delighted enough, he had us repeat the same actions several times until he too was overcome with happiness. “ Roman’s experience of the Auschwitz liberation is a defining moment in his biography.

“The sudden realization that we were totally free from threats and brutality filled us with delight, bewilderment and anxiety. We could hardly believe it but after all the years of the occupation and imprisonment, we were finally going home. I hoped, against all odds, that my young cousin and I would find some family still alive waiting to welcome us. “ The end result was bittersweet. Wilús Schnitzer was already an orphan, his parents having been murdered by Amon Goeth in Plaszow. Roman’s father, Leon Ferber, was executed on the death march to Flossenburg, and it would be another year before Roman was finally reunited with his mother and sister, also survivors and former inmates of BergenBelsen.

JEWISH LIFE • 21

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015

Rise in Anti-Semitism begs question: Never again?

This Year in Jerusalem

by Phyllis Singer Jews have been victims of antiSemitism for thousands of years.

Through the ages, the manifestations of this hatred have changed — from pogroms to more subtle expressions to outward attacks on Jews and Jewish establishments.

Beginning in the 11th century, with the Crusaders on their way to Jerusalem massacring Jewish communities in Europe and killing thousands, anti-Semitism continued for TREE from page 6 year-round the tree provided enough lemons for dressings, marinades and guacamole.

But it wasn’t just about the lemons.

“We planted the tree just before our twins’bar mitzvahs,” I responded.

(They are now in their mid-20s.) After a winter windstorm had partially split off a major limb, I had successfully bolted it back together.

“What you have there is citrus leaf curl. Severe,” Brous said, adding that it was fixable.

She said the curl was caused by a leaf miner, a larva of an insect that lives inside the leaf and eats it — thus explaining the white trails I had seen POLITICS from page 8 Peter Feldmajer, a vice president of the Hungarian Jewish umbrella group Mazsihisz.

In addition to the event in Auschwitz, the camp’s liberation was scheduled to be commemorated in Prague on Jan. 26 and at the United Nations General Assembly on Jan. 28.

But Putin’s presence would have been an especially sensitive matter in Poland, where anger over Russian aggression in Ukraine is mixed with bitter memories of Russian domination during and predating the Soviet era and fears of its return.

Polish officials denied that Putin was deliberately disinvited or discouraged from attending, noting that no other head of state had been officially invited, owing to the policy of focusing on survivors.

Many, however, doubted this argument, as the list of attending dignitaries at the Auschwitz event grew.

Among others it included French

hundreds of years to the Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion from Spain, the massacres and pogroms in Ukraine and Russia, the mass extermination of Europe’s Jews during the Holocaust, to the Soviet anti-Jewish policies to the anti-Jewish, anti-Israel feelings and actions of Muslim extremists today.

From the time of the Crusades, Jews were seen as a malevolent force. They were accused of poisoning wells, spreading the plague, causing the Black Death and using the blood of Christian children to bake matzah for Passover. Anti-Semitism often took the form of violent attacks against individual Jews or Jewish communities, less violent discrimination or expressions of hatred against individual Jews or stereotyped and prejudiced views about Jews. These ideas maintained that Jews secretly worked together to gain control of the world, and that Jews already controlled world finance, business, media, entertainment, and Communism.

Following World War II and the realization of the horrendous crimes against Jews — and humanity — that emerged, traditional antiSemitism took a back seat to a more “civilized” manifestation of the centuries-old prejudice: quotas for Jews entering colleges and universities, discrimination against Jews in the workplace, exclusion of Jews from “restricted” neighborhoods and fancy country clubs and resorts.

I recently watched an almost 70year-old movie, “Gentleman’s Agreement,” starring Gregory Peck as a magazine journalist who poses as a Jew to write a series of articles on anti-Semitism. Peck encounters prejudice in the workplace, discrimination in Waspy suburbs in Connecticut and refusal to be accommodated at a restricted resort.

Although the movie is dated, it raises questions and issues that can still haunt the Jewish community, even in Cincinnati. The older generation among us (of which I am one) can remember quotas, discrimination

and restricted neighborhoods and resorts – even among neighborhoods that are populated by large numbers of Jews today and vacation haunts that are popular among the Jewish community in the 21st century.

(When my parents were married in 1935, they went to a popular resort in Arkansas, where they were greeted by a sign “No Jews or dogs allowed!”)

Today, Jews in America no longer face quotas in colleges and universities, and, hopefully, there are no restricted neighborhoods or resorts. But Europe is a different story. Anti-Semitism has reared its ugly head again — especially in France, where we just witnessed anti-Jewish terrorism at a kosher supermarket in Paris, and saw earlier an attack on a Jewish family in France, anti-Jewish graffiti at synagogues, an attack on the Jewish museum in Brussels, Belgium, and the murder of three children and a father at a Jewish school in Toulouse.

According to the Anti-

Defamation League, “many nations in Europe and in the former Soviet empire are struggling, mostly due to unsettled or chaotic economic and social conditions, with movements opposing ‘foreigners’ — including recent immigrants and traditional enemies. These movements champion racial or national supremacy, and call for the type of charismatic, authoritarian leader that historically persecuted Jews and other minorities.

“But while parts of Europe remain caught up in racial unrest, the Middle East is home to the harshest anti-Semitism in the world today.

Nazi-like language is regularly expressed by the media and governments in the countries that oppose Israel and the West. And as dozens and dozens of terrorist incidents have demonstrated, there are many in Middle Eastern countries willing to act on these beliefs.”

And that should be worrisome to all of us — not just those of us in Israel.

on the leaves.

Brous said one of the 20 fruit trees in her backyard had suffered from the same disease and had responded well to what she called “integrated pest management.” However, she warned, because of the severity of infestation, I may have “no other choice but to use insecticide” to return the tree to health.

But Brous, who had lived in Israel for 15 years and founded an environmental and justice NGO there called Bustan — Hebrew for “orchard” — ticked off a bunch of things I could do first. The list included cutting back the tree back 30 percent; removing all the leaves that showed any signs of the leaf miner, as well as the fruit; and on the remaining leaves, spraying a “compost tea,” a spray made from

compost that had been finely sifted.

To put more nutrients into the soil, Brous recommended that I spread a combination of worm casings and “really beautiful organic compost” onto the bed, as well as ensure that the tree is watered deeply. To get rid of the insect pests, I might also need to invest in something called pheromone traps, which use chemicals as a lure to control the infestation. She also suggested trying non-stinging parasitic wasps.

“They lay their eggs inside the leaf miner larvae,” she said, as I imagined unleashing my very own plague to free my tree.

Beyond compost, pruning and sprays, but perhaps just as integrated into her recommendations, Brous

believes that the shmitta year — a Torah-mandated break every seven years in the agricultural cycle — presents us with an opportunity to “slow down” and spend more time outdoors with what is already growing around us.

“If you were outdoors, regularly watering your tree by hand rather than letting your sprinklers do it automatically, your tree would be talking to you” saying, “‘My leaves are curling, there’s a problem, and I need help,’” she said.

Brous, whose Netiya organization helps synagogues and churches install gardens on their properties, said the shmitta year ultimately may not be a time for acquisition.

“It’s about being more reflective,”

she said. “Maybe it’s not about going out and planting new trees.

“Alot of mistakes happen because we connect Tu b’Shvat with planting, rightfully so,” Brous said, referring to trees that she has seen planted in the wrong climates and in areas too small.

“This year gives us a chance not to just run out and plant, but to steward what we have already planted.”

Tu b’Shvat, which this year falls at sundown Feb. 3, would be a time for me to become a better steward. The worm casings, organic compost, watering and wasps could eventually bring back something that though known to be sour, really made my life quite sweet.

President Francois Hollande and his German and Ukrainian counterparts, Joachim Guack and Petro Poroshenko, as well as the Dutch and Belgian premiers, Mark Rutte and Charles Michel, respectively.

Putin, however, had been invited to attend an event near Prague coorganized by the European Jewish Congress that brought hundreds of Jewish community leaders and dignitaries to commemorations of the Auschwitz liberation and to the nearby Terezin Memorial for the Theresiendstadt concentration camp.

EJC’s Russian-born president, the industrialist Moshe Kantor, set up the event near Prague with the Czech government to provide a commemoration ceremony where Putin would feel welcome, according to Peter Brod, a board member of the Jewish Community of Prague’s foundation.

“The feeling was that the Russian contribution to the liberation should be honored and commemorated in some way, and this led to the event,” said Brod, a former BBC journalist.

But Arie Zuckerman, a senior EJC official, said the event near Prague — which featured debates about anti-Semitism today and legislation to curb it — were never meant to serve as an alternative to the Auschwitz event, “which, unlike our event, is only about commemoration.”

Marek Halter, a well-known French Jewish author who survived the Holocaust in his native Warsaw before escaping to Russia, said he and his generation “have a responsibility to protect [the] historical record for as long as we can.” The record, he said, “is in danger of being lost in the politics of the new cold war we are entering between the United States and Russia.”

Putin’s attendance at Auschwitz, he added during an interview with JTA, “should have been facilitated to defend against this sort of obfuscation.”

Serge Klarsfeld, a Romania-born Jewish Nazi hunter who survived the Holocaust in hiding in France and

whose father died at Auschwitz, said he “could understand the Polish state of mind regarding Putin,” but that he should have been invited.

“It’s not, as some Poles claim, that the Russians liberated Auschwitz because it was en route to Berlin,” he said. “They came to free Auschwitz, and the survivors will never forget the Red Army’s arrival there.”

Still, Halter said he could think of no place more appropriate than Prague and Terezin to commemorate the Holocaust.

“Prague was the only old Jewish city that the Nazis left intact because they wanted to turn it into a Jewish Jurassic Park, a museum to an extinct people,” he told JTA. “Convening hundreds of Jewish community leaders and dignitaries is a powerful response.”

But how the message is carried is changing as the last generation of Holocaust survivors passes on, Frans Timmermans, a vice president of the European Commission, told JTA at

the Prague’s Municipal House, where Czech President Milos Zeman welcomed leaders of European Jewry and politicians with a brief address.

“We are at a critical point in European history because living memory is becoming history,” Timmermans said. “Soon there will be no more people with numbers on their arms to tell the story, and the tendency to beautify a terrible record is tempting.”

In Auschwitz, one of the survivors who is still telling his story is Ernst Verduin, 87, who lived in hiding in the Netherlands before he was deported to the death camp with his family. Verduin arrived at Auschwitz suffering from a severe lung infection and was sent immediately to the gas chambers.

“As we said goodbye, my sister wished me a quick death,” recalled Verduin, who survived because he left the gas chamber group and snuck to the group of men sent to work.

22 • OBITUARIES

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what I appreciate most was the desire to show the wide range of ways in which Israelis identify as Jewish in today’s modern society,” said Whitman. “We saw everything from spiritual and Orthodox in Tsfat, to secular and Reform in Tel Aviv. We also had 10 Israelis traveling with us, each with his or her own personal beliefs and customs, which contributed to that conversation a

great deal."

The trip participants left Israel excited for the next step, and Kanter and Mann have a plan in place to engage them moving forward, and help them build a stronger community of Jewish young adults in Cincinnati.

“As someone who does not live in Cincinnati, the incredible community that was fostered on this trip has made me envious of

the community that already exists in Cincinnati and the new ideas and values this group will bring back,” said Sami Pavlofsky, who was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, and currently lives in Washington, D.C. “I hope to bring these values to my home community. I am looking forward to what will come from the legacy created by this Cincinnati community Birthright group.”

to develop digital teaching materials about Auschwitz. The event also featured the screening of a short documentary, “Auschwitz,” co-directed by the famed filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who started the Shoah Foundation.

In a moment of disequilibrium, survivors watched the film about their former place of imprisonment, sitting in front of the very gate through which cattle cars once passed, delivering so many Jews to their deaths. Just outside the tent, a light snow was falling on the remaining barracks of Birkenau, surrounded by barbed wire.

Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, addressed the crowd.

“Auschwitz never goes away,” he said. “This awful place stands as a reminder that propaganda leads to anti-Semitism ... that antiSemitism will grow if nobody speaks out.”

Anti-Semitism, he said, “leads to places like Auschwitz.”

He added: “After the recent events in Paris and throughout

Europe and around the world, I cannot ignore what is happening today. Jews are targeted in Europe once again because they are Jews.”

The ceremony was the culmination of several days of events and meetings attended in total by some 300 Holocaust survivors.

Few of them were actually liberated at Auschwitz. But all passed through its gates.

Today they are in their 80s and 90s, and fit enough to have traveled from Israel, America, Argentina and elsewhere.

A group of survivors who was to visit the Auschwitz exhibit on Monday never got beyond the infamous gate, marked “Arbeit Macht Frei” — so crowded was this threshold with eager journalists who had come from around the world. And yet the hubbub didn’t seem to faze them a bit. In fact, most of the visitors seemed determined to tell their stories to all who inquired.

“I know that we’re getting old and have to make sure that the memory doesn’t die with us,” said Irene Weiss, 84, of Fairfax, Va., who traveled with her daughter

Lesley. Her key message to today’s youth: “(Don’t) be deceived by demagogues.”

On Monday at a ceremony for visiting survivors, Spielberg, whose Oscar-winning movie “Schindler’s List” was filmed partly in Krakow, told the survivors, “I found my own voice and my own Jewish identity thanks to you.”

Spielberg, whose USC Shoah Foundation has interviewed more than 50,000 Holocaust survivors since it was founded 21 years ago, said he was first confronted with the Holocaust as a child reading the numbers on his grandfather’s arm.

Edgar Wildfeuer, 90, came here this week from Argentina with his daughter, Doris Wildfeuer, wanting to show her both the camp he survived and city where he grew up: Krakow, with its parks and market squares, its church spires and streetcars.

They planned to visit the street where he had lived and the synagogue where he had his bar mitzvah.

Wildfeuer, who was deported to Auschwitz in 1944, lost 32 rela-

tives.

“I was the only one left,” he said.

Still, his daughter said, “He wanted to show me not only that place but the place where he grew up and was happy.”

Tuchman, too, recalled a happy childhood in Poland. But when the question of forgiveness came up before the youthful crowd on Monday evening, he paused.

“Forgiveness is a very complicated thing,” said Tuchman, who came with his son Jeffrey. After the war, he testified on behalf of a German engineer who had overseen slave laborers, including Tuchman himself, in Auschwitz.

But Tuchman also dealt out his own justice. In postwar Germany, he and a fellow survivor spied a man who had tortured them.

“He was a sadist: He pounded on our stomachs when we were sick with diarrhea,” Tuchman recalled. “We recognized him on the street and grabbed him, and beat the hell out of him.”

King Abdullah had developed a reputation around the world as a reformer king who sought to balance his desire to modernize his nation with its conservative Islamist traditions.

After Abdullah’s death, former President George H.W. Bush called him a “wise and reliable ally,” and U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) praised how the late king “pushed for the modernization of the [Saudi] education system, curbed the authority of the religious police, and extended women the right to vote and run in municipal elections.”

But Abdullah’s tenure was not without controversy.

Despite officially opposing radical Islamist terror groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, Saudi Arabia has continued to “export a brand of Islam that’s very fundamentalist, [and] very intolerant even of Shi’a and other Islamic groups,” Ottaway told JNS. Women still do not have basic rights such as the right to drive a vehicle in Saudi Arabia, and recently revealed cell

phone video footage showed the country’s practice of publicly decapitating people as punishment for crimes.

Nevertheless, some Israeli leaders praised Abdullah after his passing. Former Israeli president Shimon Peres called his death “a real loss for peace in the Middle East,” while current President Reuven Rivlin said Abdullah “worked to honor the sensitivity and sanctity of Jerusalem and sought to promote his vision for a prosperous region.”

In 2002, Abdullah proposed the Arab Peace Initiative—an attempt normalize relations between Israel and the Arab world. The plan called for Israel’s complete withdrawal from the disputed territories and a “just settlement” of the Palestinian refugee issue based on U.N. Resolution 194. But Abdullah’s plan was overshadowed at the time by the terrorism of the second Palestinian intifada (uprising), and many Israeli leaders remain skeptical of the plan.

Israeli praise for Abdullah

came despite the fact that on Thursday, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.N. had blamed Israeli “occupation” for the global rise in anti-Semitism at the first-ever informal U.N. conference addressing antiSemitism.

“Colonization and occupation fuels anti-Semitism… occupation is an act of antiSemitism. It threatens human rights and human kind,” said Saudi Amb. Abdallah alMouallimi, who spoke on behalf of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Countries.

Though they are both allies of the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia have never had formal diplomatic relations. But in recent years, there have been rumors that the Saudis and Israelis have covertly cooperated on plans to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Additionally, when he issued a statement on Saudi television decrying the “collective massacre” in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge last summer, King Abdullah did not

mention Israel by name. The Brookings Institution’s Riedel, however, cautioned against reading too much into the omission of Israel from those remarks.

“Saudi Arabia doesn’t believe it shares common interests with Israel. Some Israelis may believe there are common interests, [but] the Saudis see that as a fantasy,” Riedel told JNS. Ultimately, Ottaway believes that the Saudis’ leadership change will have minimal effects “on any issue” because the country’s direction has never been dictated by a “person policy.” Riedel agrees.

“I expect continuity not to change [under] King Salman,” said Riedel. “He has been at the heart of Saudi decision-making for 50 years and is unlikely to make any dramatic departures.

That will also hold true for Crown Prince Muqrin (who has been named Salman’s successor).”

D EATH N OTICES

BIRTHRIGHT from page 4

ELDEMIRE, Rebecca Casey, age 21, died February 1, 2015; 12 Shevat, 5775.

Birthright Israel, and this trip went a step further by bringing together young adults who plan to remain part of our community and giving them ‘people to people’ experiences. We see this as a model to learn from and replicate.”

The trip had a profound impact on many, including Cincinnati participant Jake Whitman. “I think

ZAPPIN, Ada, age 94, died February 2, 2015; 13 Shevat, 5775.

TOBY from page 3 box of doggy toys, where he picks his selection for the day. He then proudly marches through the rehab unit with the toy in his mouth, as if to show off his prize. Toby then greets the rest of the rehab staff, attends a staff meeting or two (Tyler pointed out Toby is not a big fan of long meetings...he seems to lose interest fairly quickly) and then makes his rounds in the gym, visiting the residents during therapy and helping out whenever he can. Tyler does take him up to the different floors to say hi, and he brings a smile to so many of the residents that call Cedar Village home. When not “working”, he enjoys leisure time in Tyler’s office, where there are more toys, treats, and a comfy place to rest. Toby also knows when it’s time to go home - Tyler drops him her keys and he picks them up and prances to the door to hit the road.

The value of Toby at Cedar Village is immeasurable, from the joy he brings to residents and staff alike to the therapeutic benefits he provides. No one could resist that adorable face and waggy tail. When asked for comment, Toby didn’t have much to say; instead he rolled on his back, held his froggy toy in his paws and commenced chewing. But clearly he loves his “job” and everyone loves having him there.

Toby is the perfect successor to Gates’ crown.

SAUDI from page 7 stance on Iran to remain similar under the new king.

“The new king is going to have to put his domestic house in order, swap out some advisors,” Berman said. “He may have very deep-seated views on things that are not quite the same as [those of] his predecessor, but I think that in the main the Saudis are going to be as strong negatively with regard to Iranian nuclearization as they were before… and maybe more active [on the issue]. But we don’t know that yet.”

The Iranians, meanwhile, “are going to test whether Saudi Arabia is weak and can be exploited, and whether or not Saudi Arabia is weak and therefore is more likely to compromise with Iran than it was before,” said Berman.

“It’s not clear that [the Iranians] are going to get the answer that they are looking for, but they are certainly going to try,” he said.

On other fronts, since taking over the Saudi throne in 2005,

SURVIVORS from page 8

We are shocked and sorrowful and are sending our condolences on the death of your dear wife Rachel Boymel of blessed memory.

Mrs. Boymel, of blessed memory, was an integral part of the city of Nahariya since the 1980s.

We will forever remember her as a generous woman who was gentle, assisting and supporting without any favoritism to all people in need.

May the soul of Rachel be forever a blessing and that you and your family will know no more sorrow and be blessed with health and longevity.