KU Chabad offers kosher meal plan

HBHA school rabbi focuses on nature and spirituality in Judaism

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for each of us and not just be… copying the ways of what our parents did.”

Next semester, Rabbi Philmus will teach the core elective class “Introduction to Earth-based Judaism.” He plans on going with the class to locations such as Mitzvah Garden KC to have experiential education beyond studying the Jewish texts.

Rabbi Philmus’s own Jewish path started as he grew up in New Jersey. His father was the president of the local Conservative synagogue, and though the family wasn’t “super observant,” they were deeply involved.

While studying at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Rabbi Philmus began to dig deeper into his Jewish roots and his connection with the Earth. He earned a bachelor’s degree in natural resources/conservation, but he gained even more knowledge from his initial awakenings to the spiritual world through nature. In addition to ecology, he studied indigenous cultures such as the Native Americans and Aborigines of Australia. Through these studies, he discovered self-isolated meditations, later realizing that Judaism’s form of it is called hitbodedut.

“I didn’t know that it was called [hitbodedut] at that time, but I was spending a lot of time in nature by myself, observing in wonder of the wisdom of Hashem and creation, and connecting with the spiritual power of the elements of nature and different plants and animals,” Rabbi Philmus said. “I started to really feel like there was something mysterious and greater than myself.”

Rabbi Philmus became a wildlife ecologist while further developing a drive to learn more about Judaism.

“In time, I started to feel like I wanted to have a cultural container that was my own, to not be talking always about other people’s traditions,” he said. “I realized that in order for me to actually dig deeper into the roots of our tradition and to teach, I need to learn more. I knew I loved teaching Torah. I knew that I loved working with people of all ages.”

Already considering rabbinical school, an additional impetus for Rabbi Philmus to choose to go was the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York City. Rabbi Philmus’s father and brotherin-law both had offices in the World Trade Center’s twin towers. Thankfully, his father was not in his office that day, and his brother-in-law escaped the building before it collapsed.

“The whole experience of seeing how religion could be twisted to do something so horrible and destructive made me think, ‘It’s not enough just that I’m an environmental educator.’ I need to really learn more so that I can be out front and be a leader in my own community to show that religion can be a force, it’s meant to be a force, and it will be a force for healing in the world, even though people often see it as the cause of the problems in the world,” Rabbi Philmus said.

Rabbi Philmus attended and was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, and subsequently worked at synagogues in San Francisco, California; Newtown, Pennsylvania; and East Greenwich, Rhode Island.

As senior rabbi in East Greenwich, Rabbi Philmus lived at the synagogue’s parsonage and developed a small nature center in which to teach. He and his family tended to multiple goats, chickens and ducks during their eight years there.

“I eventually felt that working in a small synagogue was just limiting for me,” Rabbi Philmus said about his decision to turn to teaching. “I was only seeing the kids once a week — if I was lucky — and in very short, little bursts of time. And so the thought of working in a day school where I could really have daily interaction with the students and also go deeper with them because they’re learning more Torah and Hebrew and history was a really exciting opportunity for me.”

HBHA’s current head of school, Adam Tilove, knew Rabbi Philmus; Tilove had been head of a Jewish school in Rhode Island, not too far from Rabbi Philmus in East Greenwich, and the two had worked together before. When learning about Rabbi Philmus’s desire to work at a day school, Tilove recommended he apply to HBHA. (Tilove was not on the board in charge of determining who would be hired for the school rabbi position.)

HBHA, its students, staff and families have impressed Rabbi Philmus. The variety of Jews doesn’t affect the greater value of Ahavat Yisrael (love of fellow Jews), he said. He uses the metaphor that the Jewish people are one body with many different organs to serve many different functions.

“They have to work together in order for the body to be healthy as a whole,” he said. “HBHA is like a little miniature Israel.”

Rabbi Philmus lives in Overland Park with his wife, Valerie, and their three children: Sophie (15), Aeden (12) and Mae (3). He describes the city as a great place to raise a family and having a strong Jewish community.

“I love that this community here is not just fragmented,” he said. “Yes, each group has their own thing, but they very much see themselves as part of a greater community. They work together in many ways that I don’t see happening in other parts of the country. That’s really special.”

ABOVE LEFT: Rabbi Aaron Philmus leading a service as a crowd of heritage turkeys watch on. (Screenshot from @thechickenrabbi on Instagram) ABOVE RIGHT: Rabbi Aaron Philmus with a baby deer that wandered into his backyard at his homestead in Rhode Island. In the background is one of his goats. (@thechickenrabbi on Instagram)

New meal plan from KU Chabad helps students keep kosher

KU Chabad is now offering Jewish students at the University of Kansas a kosher meal plan. Students who subscribe to the plan receive twice weekly kosher dinners to-go. The meals are heavily subsidized by donors, and scholarships are also available for those who qualify.

“College life means independence. For many students, it is their first time away from home and the chaperonage of their parents,” said Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel, co-director of KU Chabad. “With that independence comes a heavy dose of responsibility. Their schedule, homework load, and eating arrangements are wholly in their hands.”

Jewish college students who come from kosher homes are now responsible to provide their own food. Keeping kosher in Lawrence, especially on the KU campus, is difficult, and some students felt they could no longer uphold the standards they grew up with.

“A few students confided their kosher troubles to me,” says Rabbi Tiechtel. “It was heartbreaking. I knew we would have to do something to address this major need.”

“Kosher food is such an integral component of Jewish life,” said Nechama Dina Tiechtel, co-director of KU Chabad. “Kosher food warms the soul. It’s a privilege to provide such an important need for our Jewish students.”

“It’s definitely a challenge keeping kosher in college, but Chabad’s kosher meal plan is amazing and helps make that possible for me,” said Adina Thompson, a freshman from Skokie, Illinois. “And the food is really good — I look forward to my meals every week.”

“It’s so nice to be able to know that I have a hot kosher meal ready for me after classes and not having to find, prepare and then clean all the dishes and food I need to make a kosher meal in college,” said freshman Daniel Israeli, a freshman from Overland Park, Kansas.

Nechama Tiechtel said that the “goal at Chabad is to ensure that the needs of the students are being met. As the demand for kosher food grew, it became evident that hot nutritious kosher meals are not an extra, but a real necessity. We look forward to this program ex- KU student Adina panding to mul- Thompson enjoying tiple meals a day a kosher meal from in the future.” KU Chabad the new KU Chabad kosher meal plan. now serves dozens of meals every week and are eager to help more KU Jewish students in search of kosher food. Anyone interested in learning more about the new kosher meal plan at KU can visit JewishKU.com/KosherMeals.

ADL, BBYO youth group initiative to help youth tackle antisemitism

JNS

The Anti-Defamation League and BBYO (formerly known as the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization) have formed a partnership to provide students in the United States and internationally with the skills they need to respond to Jew-hatred.

“Surveys have shown that Jewish students increasingly are experiencing antisemitism at home, in their communities and online at frightening levels,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO. “We need to prepare Jewish students to be able to understand the drivers of modern antisemitism and the ways by which they can respond safely and effectively when hate manifests in their lives.”

As part of their collaboration, the ADL will train teenage members of BBYO on how to understand and respond to antisemitism. The two organizations will also open a joint incidentreporting site for teens to report acts of antisemitism and bias.

Additionally, experts from both groups will create a resource for parents and educators to use when initiating discussions on antisemitism and hate, while being mindful of the mental-health challenges facing teens today.

Matthew Grossman, CEO of BBYO, said, “As Jewish teens around the world face increased antisemitic harassment and hate speech in their schools, communities and on social media platforms, having the tools to understand and respond to antisemitism is vital.

“BBYO has a long history of supporting young people in the fight against hate in all forms, and as antisemitism grows and its sources evolve, this partnership with ADL is an ideal way for us to continue supporting our teens as they navigate the tides of intolerance,” he continued.

BBYO, a pluralistic youth group, has some 70,000 members and 725 chapters in 60 countries.

Biden calls Netanyahu for the first time since election win

JNS

Six days after Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party won a parliamentary election, U.S. President Joe Biden called him on Monday, Netanyahu announced on Twitter.

Netanyahu stated that Biden congratulated him on his election victory and said the alliance between the two countries is stronger than ever. Furthermore, Netanyahu told Biden that peace agreements with additional nations are possible while dealing with the Iranian threat.

Netanyahu’s spokesman said the conversation lasted eight minutes, and that Biden said, “We are brothers; we will make history together….My com-

Then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with then-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, March 9, 2016. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

mitment to Israel is unquestionable.” The call from Biden came after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak congratulated Netanyahu. French President Emmanuel Macron congratulated Netanyahu on Sunday. Netanyahu has also been congratulated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, among others.

Thank you to all members of our community who've served.

HAPPY Day!VETERANS

As sales of antisemitic film promoted by Kyrie Irving skyrocket, Amazon comes under pressure to remove it

By Asaf Elia-Shalev

JTA

As the antisemitic book and film that NBA star Kyrie Irving promoted on social media continues to occupy best-seller lists on Amazon, the e-commerce giant has come under pressure from Jewish groups to remove the titles from its website.

The company is now considering adding a disclaimer to the film, according to The New York Times.

The Anti-Defamation League sent a letter Friday to Amazon on behalf of itself and Irving’s team, the Brooklyn Nets, calling on the company to either remove the “virulently antisemitic book and related-video” or to label them with a note about their offensive content.

“The book and the film are designed to inflame hatred and, now that it was popularized by Mr. Irving, will lead directly to the harm of Jews,” the letter reads, according to The Washington Post. “These views aren’t different viewpoints on history, they are outright antisemitic hate. They amplify longstanding antisemitic tropes about Jewish power, greed and claims that Jews control the media.”

On Monday, another major Jewish group, the American Jewish Committee, asked Amazon to address the issue by removing the book and film.

“Effectively combating antisemitism requires corporate leaders to recognize what antisemitism is and take firm action to confront it,” AJC CEO Ted Deutch said in a statement. “Amid the controversy surrounding Kyrie Irving’s sharing of a film filled with antisemitic tropes and Holocaust denial, it is critical that Amazon act quickly to remove this blatantly hateful material.”

A little over a week ago, Irving posted a link to the Amazon page for “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” a documentary based on a book by the same name. The film has since become a bestseller, topping all documentaries on Amazon Video. On IMDb, the Amazon-owned popular movie database, the film now has 370 reviews. A snapshot of the title’s page from February shows it had only eight reviews at the time.

Meanwhile, the related book was the 78th best seller overall on Amazon and 2nd in the Christian Education category as of Monday.

“Hebrews to Negroes” focuses on the idea that the true descendants of the ancient Israelites are modern-day African Americans and that today’s Jews fraudulently claim that ancestry. It also contains a series of other antisemitic claims, such as that Jews controlled the American slave trade.

Irving rejected the criticism he attracted after posting a link to the film and remained defiant following his suspension from the Nets for declining to say he had no antisemitic views. Eventually, however, he apologized for publicizing the film, saying he is “aware of the negative impact of my post towards the Jewish community and I take responsibility.”

The Nets want Irving to take a series of steps before allowing him to return to the team, including meeting with

The Amazon logo displayed on a smartphone. (Illustration by Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Jewish leaders and the ADL.

As long as the film stays on Amazon, the company continues to collect half the purchase price, distributing the other half to the filmmaker. Some people are calling on the company to donate its proceeds from the book and film to groups that fight the spread of hate.

“It’s irresponsible to make money from such a toxic book,” Alvin H. Rosenfeld, director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and a professor at Indiana University, told The Washington Post.

Amazon’s guidelines for filmmakers distributing films on the company’s platform say that “all titles undergo manual and automated reviews,” which are meant to catch copyright violations or sexually explicit content as well as “derogatory comments, hate speech, or threats specifically targeting any group or individuals.”

The company’s policy for booksellers says Amazon can remove “offensive” content. It also says that it will allow a broad range of views to be aired.

“As a bookseller, we believe that providing access to the written word is important, including content that may be considered objectionable,” the policy says.

Israeli researchers improve chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer patients Jewish Agency chairman presents plan to strengthen ties with world Jewry

JNS

Israeli researchers have developed a treatment that may enhance the efficacy of chemotherapy in breast cancer patients, Tel Aviv University reported.

Researchers found that they can reduce the risk of lung metastasis following chemo from 52% to 6%. (Metastasis is the process whereby cancer cells spread to other parts of the body.) They achieved this by adding an anti-inflammatory agent to the chemotherapy.

“While effectively killing cancer cells, chemotherapy also has some undesirable and even harmful side effects, including damage to healthy tissues,” said Prof. Neta Erez of the Department of Pathology at Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine, who led the study.

“The most dangerous of these is probably internal inflammations that might paradoxically help remaining cancer cells to form metastases in distant organs. The goal of our study was to discover how this happens and try to find an effective solution.”

The researchers, employing an animal model, discovered a previously unknown mechanism whereby the chemotherapy generates an inflammatory response, which sets off a chain of events that actually helps grow metastatic tumors.

“In this way, the chemotherapy, administered as a means for combating cancer, achieves the opposite result,” Erez said.

The researchers then developed a way to combat this: chemotherapy with an inflammation inhibitor.

Researchers from her group included Lea Monteran, Dr. Nour Ershaid, Yael Zait and Ye’ela Scharff, in collaboration with Prof. Iris Barshack of the Sheba Medical Center and Dr. Amir Sonnenblick of the Tel Aviv Sourasky (Ichilov) Medical Center.

The paper was published in Nature Communications. The study was funded by ERC, the Israel Cancer Association, and the Emerson Cancer Research Fund. JNS

Israel Defense Forces Maj. Gen. (res.) Doron Almog, chairman of the executive of The Jewish Agency for Israel, on Sunday presented his new plan to build stronger connections between Israelis and world Jewry.

Addressing hundreds of Diaspora Jewish leaders from around the world in a meeting in Israel with the organization’s Board of Governors, Almog said his plan will deepen connections between Israel and world Jewry through “joint activities.”

These include building ties between Israeli and Jewish students studying in Israel, connecting young Jews throughout the world with Israel’s high-tech sector and linking Israeli families living abroad with Jewish families in their areas.

“The flagship program that we will promote together focuses on strengthening connections between us; to deepen Israel’s relationship with every Jew, every Jewish family and every Jewish community around the world. We must not lose any of them,” Almog said in a statement put out by the Jewish Agency.

Almog said that young Israeli emissaries will be given an expanded role amid rising anti-Semitism and the anti-Israel efforts of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

He noted that thousands of Israelis living abroad could take part in the plan, from former IDF officers to academics.

Almog also said that The Jewish Agency will work with the Israeli government to recognize Diaspora Jewish communities in official Israeli state ceremonies.

The plan will also help those who’ve already immigrated to Israel through cooperation with cities, government ministries, and businesses.

Volunteer programs to “adopt” new immigrant families and help immigrants learn Hebrew were also mentioned.

John Mellencamp condemns antisemitism as his Jewish lawyer is inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

By Philissa Cramer

JTA

As Kanye West extended his antisemitic spree by tweeting about Jewish agents in Hollywood, the rocker John Mellencamp took the stage at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and said this about his longtime lawyer: “Allen is Jewish.”

The line began an impassioned speech about the importance of nonJews standing up for Jewish people at a time of antisemitism and anxiety for many of them, especially as white supremacists have taken up West’s comments as a rallying cry.

Mellencamp was speaking on behalf of Allen Grubman, a prominent music industry attorney who was being inducted because of his efforts to strike agreements that let artists retain creative rights over their work. Onstage Saturday night at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, Mellencamp embraced his longtime friend and called him a “true mensch.”

“Allen is Jewish, and I bring that up for one reason: I’m a gentile, and my life has been enriched by countless Jewish people,” said Mellencamp, whose songs “Jack & Diane,” “Little Pink Houses” and “Hurts So Good” were hits in the 1980s.

“I cannot tell you how [expletive] important it is to speak out if you’re an artist against antisemitism,” Mellencamp went on. “I don’t give a [expletive], I don’t care [about people’s identity]. Here’s the trick: Silence is complicity. I’m standing here tonight loudly and proudly with Allen, his family and all of my Jewish friends and all of the Jewish people of the world.”

Grubman is among a cohort of Jewish attorneys and executives who sit at the top tiers of the entertainment industry. He has represented Madonna, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel, who sued him in 1992 for not disclosing that he was working for both Joel and his record label. (Joel dropped the lawsuit after the label paid him $3 million.) Newsweek called Grubman “perhaps the music industry’s wealthiest and most powerful attorney” in 2001, and a 1998 Los Angeles Times profile said he had “octopus-like grip on the upper echelon of the pop music world.”

Born and raised in Brooklyn and now in his 80s, Grubman said last week that he was proud of what he had accomplished in the music industry, peppering in the Yiddish that he has used throughout his career. (“Life is 80% mazel and 20% brains,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1998, using the Yiddish word for luck.)

“I tried to move the leverage from the labels to the artists,” he told Variety. “And I feel I was pretty successful doing so, which took chutzpah.”

It was not the first time that Mellencamp had publicly taken a stand to support Jews: Early in his career, he used the stage name John Cougar at the encouragement of his manager. “His whole explanation to me was that Mellencamp was first of all a German name, and he was Jewish,” the singer told GQ earlier this year. “And I kinda understood that point.”

Attorney Allen Grubman, left, and rocker John Mellencamp speak onstage during the 37th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Los Angeles, Nov. 5, 2022. (Amy Sussman/WireImage)

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