Jewish Action Fall 2021

Fall 5782/2021

Vol. 82, No. 1

Rethinking the

Economics of Frum Life

INSIDE

Fall 2021/5782 | Vol. 82, No. 1

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FEATURES

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32 43 44

59 67

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THE JEWISH WORLD Finally, a Star of David for Jewish Heroes

By Dr. Rafael Medoff ISRAEL Covid Aliyah

By Steve Lipman COVER STORY: Rethinking the Economics of Frum Life Money Talk Leading career and business experts discuss how to grow your business or career and improve your financial situation Money Mindset: Can We Change the Way We Think About Money? A Q&A with Rabbi Naftali Horowitz Combating Financial Illiteracy—One Student at a Time Why students need to understand budgeting, saving, investing and avoiding debt Money Matters Helping families get out of debt, change the way they relate to money, and achieve financial freedom If You Will It, It Is Not A Dream You can live comfortably in Israel, with planning and an open mind

By Aviva Engel

DEPARTMENTS

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FROM THE DESK OF RABBI MOSHE HAUER Dreaming Big

LETTERS PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Wealth Disparity within the Orthodox Middle Class

By Mark (Moishe) Bane

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IN FOCUS Shul: The Heart of the Community

By Rabbi Adir Posy KOSHERKOPY Demystifying OU-D FOOD Memorable Loaves for the High Holidays

By Carol Ungar

82 85

THE CHEF’S TABLE Holiday Elegance on a Budget

By Naomi Ross

89 97 97 106 108 110

112 79

LEGAL-EASE What’s the Truth About . . . Naming the First Son from Yibbum?

By Rabbi Dr. Ari Z. Zivotofsky INSIDE THE OU Compiled and edited

by Sara Goldberg INSIDE PHILANTHROPY Compiled by Marcia P. Neeley BOOKS Write Your Way Home: The Jewish Guide to Therapeutic Writing

By Yocheved Rottenberg, Inspiration by Chaya Hinda Allen Reviewed by Alexandra Fleksher Dreams Never Dreamed

By Kalman Samuels Reviewed by Toby Klein Greenwald The Holocaust’s Jewish Calendars: Keeping Time Sacred, Making Time Holy

By Alan Rosen Reviewed by Dr. Shay Pilnik LASTING IMPRESSIONS Working in Detox

By Alison Gorin Cover: Aliza Ungar

Jewish Action is published by the Orthodox Union • 11 Broadway, New York, NY 10004 212.563.4000. Printed Quarterly—Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, plus Special Passover issue. ISSN No. 0447-7049. Subscription: $16.00 per year; Canadian, $20.00; Overseas, $60.00. Periodical's postage paid at New York, NY, and additional offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Jewish Action, 11 Broadway, New York, NY 10004.

Jewish Action seeks to provide a forum for a diversity of legitimate opinions within the spectrum of Orthodox Judaism.

Therefore, opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the policy or opinion of the Orthodox Union.

Fall 5782/2021 JEWISH ACTION

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LETTERS THE MAGAZINE OF THE ORTHODOX UNION jewishaction.com

THE MAGAZINEEditor OF THE ORTHODOX UNION in Chief Nechama Carmel jewishaction.com carmeln@ou.org

Editor in Chief Associate Editor

Nechama Carmel Sara Goldberg carmeln@ou.org

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ORTHODOX UNION

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Mark (Moishe) Bane

ORTHODOX UNION Chairman of the Board President

Howard Tzvi Friedman Mark (Moishe) Bane Chairman of of thethe Board Vice Chairman Board

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Arnold Gerson

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Rabbi Steven Weil

Chief Human Resources Officer Executive Vice President, Emeritus Rabbi Lenny Bessler

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IS SCIENCE REALLY FLAWED? I was interested to read Nechama Carmel’s recent column, “Musar from Microsoft” (summer 2021). Indeed, as observant Jews interacting with the secular world around us, we often find messages from one realm that impact and influence our interaction with the other. I must, however, take issue with one statement. Ms. Carmel states, “If Covid-19 has taught our post-Enlightenment, highly secularized world one thing, it is this: science is a poor substitute for religion—it is fallible and flawed, just like the human beings who study it.”

I will not argue that science can be a substitute for religion; it absolutely cannot be. In the words of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, zt”l, “Science is about explanation. Religion is about meaning. Science analyses, religion integrates. Science breaks things down to their component parts. Religion binds people together in relationships of trust” (The Great Partnership: Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning [New York, 2012]). However, just because science is not a substitute for religion, it does not follow that the scientific method, as a method, is flawed. After decades of de-prioritization of scientific exploration and education in the United States, Covid-19 suddenly thrust scientific endeavor back to the forefront of our attention. Unfortunately, these decades of de-prioritization have left us with a public that, by and large, does not understand the scientific process. Imagine the amei ha’aretz had they been listening to our Sages debating the Torah She’beal Peh as the Gemara was being codified. Would they not have considered the Torah and halachic process flawed?

Science is a cyclic process of hypothesizing, testing and re-hypothesizing with continual refinement of our understanding of our world so that we can better make use of the world around us. The rapid and public development of our evolving understanding of the Covid pandemic has led those unfamiliar with the process to believe the scientific process is flawed. It is not. The scientific process has worked exactly as designed and as it should.

Joshua Katz, PhD Merion Station, Pennsylvania IN SUPPORT OF SECESSION In Mr. Israel Mizrahi’s review of Rabbi Berel Wein’s book In My Opinion, in what appears to be a quote from the book, there is a significant error.

A reference is made to Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch’s support for secession from the Reform-controlled community. Then, the following is stated: “However, great rabbis disagreed with his approach, foremost among them Rabbi Yitzchak Dov HaLevi Bamberger and Rabbi Azriel Hildesheimer. In Eastern Europe, the Netziv warned against following Rabbi Hirsch’s lead in the Lithuanian communities that were beginning to be dominated by secularists.

He wrote strongly against separating from the general community.”

Rabbi Bamberger did indeed issue a ruling in March of 1877 that secession in Frankfurt would no longer be mandatory, which reversed his decade-old position in support of secession. However, he also stipulated conditions that would have to be met to allow for non-secession, and he held that secession would be mandatory if these conditions were not met (as they were not by the non-secessionists in Frankfurt, for example).

Unlike Rabbi Bamberger, Rabbi Hildesheimer was a consistent and vocal supporter of Rabbi Hirsch’s pro-secession stance. Rabbi Hildesheimer’s own kehillah in Berlin was a secessionist kehillah, and he wrote to Rabbi Hirsch to congratulate him on his halachic analysis of the requirement for secession (Rabbiner Esriel Hildesheimer Briefe, pp. 119-120).

Jewish Action Wins Five Rockower Awards This past June, at the American Jewish Press Association (AJPA) Conference, Jewish Action won five Simon Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism for work that appeared in 2020.

“As the winner of five Rockower awards this year, Jewish Action does not disappoint,” said Dr. Rosalyn Sherman, chair of Jewish Action. “Year after year, its superb editorial and writing staff keeps the public informed and aware of the latest issues affecting Jewish life. Combining a level of both sophistication and accessibility, Jewish Action remains among the premier magazines serving the Jewish community today.”

The magazine secured first place both in the Excellence in Feature Writing category as well as in the Excellence in Writing About Health Care category for Rachel Schwartzberg’s “Nicotine is Back. Now What?,” which provides an in-depth look at vaping among Orthodox teens.

Longtime Jewish Action writer Barbara Bensoussan won second place in Excellence in Writing About Food and Wine with her article “Converso Cuisine: Chanukah Recipes Dating Back to the Days of the Inquisition” about a woman who discovers her secret Jewish roots.

The magazine also won first place in Excellence in Education Reporting for Ahuva Reich’s “The Age of Anxiety” about rising anxiety among school-aged children, and what Jewish day schools are doing to promote good mental health.

Additionally, Jewish Action won second place in Excellence in Education Reporting for “Being Mindful on Campus,”

by Ahuva Reich, which explores how mindfulness is helping young people on campus cope with anxiety.

“It’s gratifying to me that independent, expert journalists recognize what I’ve known for more than fifteen years—that our highly talented editorial staff raises the bar each and every year,” said Jerry Schreck, co-chair of Jewish Action. “Despite the challenges of putting out a magazine during a pandemic, Jewish Action managed to produce high-quality, award-winning content. Congratulations to our editors, our writers and to the members of the Editorial Board on this occasion.”

The prestigious Simon Rockower Awards, referred to as the “Jewish Pulitzers,” are sponsored by the AJPA, which holds a journalism competition for leading Jewish magazines and newspapers across the country. The entries are judged by a panel of judges with expertise in journalism, writing/reporting, editing, graphic design and cartooning in both Jewish and non-Jewish media.

To subscribe to Jewish Action, visit jewishaction.com/subscribe.

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JEWISH ACTION Fall 5782/2021

The claim that the Netziv came out in opposition to Rabbi Hirsch’s stance is factually incorrect. The Netziv did author an essay, later published in Shu”t Meshiv Davar, no. 44, opposing a separatist position he saw espoused in the journal Machzikei HaDat. However, the circumstances of the Netziv and those of Rabbi Hirsch were very different, as Rabbi Hirsch faced ideological Reformers who denied the Divine character of the entire Torah, whereas the Netziv referred to three different camps of Jews, the most anti-traditional of which challenged the authority of parts of the Talmud.

There was no Reform movement in Eastern Europe—as there was in Germany—and thus the Netziv did not render a verdict on how to deal with it.

A number of prominent gedolim familiar with those parts of Europe that had entrenched Reform communities did render a verdict similar to Rabbi Hirsch’s. Maharam Schick (Shu”t Orach Chaim, no. 306) wrote to Rabbi Bamberger imploring him to retract his position that secession was not mandatory, arguing that communal separation from ideological heretics was certainly mandatory. Likewise, Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman quotes his teacher, the Chofetz Chaim ,as stating that Rabbi Hirsch was correct to have seceded from the Reformers (Kovetz Ma’amarim, vol. 1, p. 205, from a letter originally printed in 1928, during the Chofetz Chaim’s lifetime). Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (Achiezer: Kovetz Iggerot 1, pp. 243-244) respectfully presents the arguments of both supporters and opponents of secession, avoiding taking a position in this matter, but still commending Rabbi Hirsch for separating from the Reformers, which according to Rabbi Grodzinski was necessary for the preservation of the Orthodox community.

Moshe Y. Miller, PhD Touro College, New York This magazine contains divrei Torah, and should therefore be disposed of respectfully by either double-wrapping prior to disposal, or placing in a recycling bin.

LIFE AFTER COVID The cover story of your winter 2020 issue featured a fascinating exploration of Jewish life following Covid [“Reimagining Life after Covid].” I would like to offer some perspective and proposed action to take as we re-enter society.

Interestingly, two great organized intellectual Jewish projects in history were initiated almost immediately after the pandemic of a century ago—the influenza pandemic of 1918. Although the Daf Yomi was implemented upon the recommendation of Rabbi Meir Shapiro in 1923, the concept was first proposed

by Rabbi Moshe Menachem Mendel Spivak in 1920.

Similarly, the Encyclopedia Talmudit was re-proposed by Rabbi Meir Berlin in 1942 and published by Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin et al. in 1947, but it was first proposed by Chief Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook in 1921.

Seemingly, now is the time to channel the suppressed energy and creativity of the pandemic period in order to benefit the Jewish community in ways that will enhance Jewish life around the globe.

Below are ideas for the readers of this magazine to contemplate: • Set up a global system to encourage the giving of ma’aser (tithes).

• To combat anti-Semitism, a clearinghouse is needed to prevent and respond to disinformation about Judaism and Israel (organizations that were founded for this purpose have failed at this mission and have even become counterproductive).

• On a social level, lonely empty nesters can open their homes to young single people and/or divorced or displaced people of any age and work out mutually beneficial living accommodations to benefit both categories of people.

• On a financial level, there is a need to build on Albert Kahn’s crusade for term insurance subsidies for teachers and even synagogue members, the absence of which was so catastrophic during the pandemic.

These initiatives must be systemic in order to build and enhance Jewish life.

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

WEALTH DISPARITY within the ORTHODOX MIDDLE CLASS

By Mark (Moishe) Bane

I

n an apocryphal exchange, American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald commented to his colleague Ernest Hemingway, “You know, the rich are different from you and me.” To which Hemingway replied, “Yes. They’ve got more money.” Hemingway’s observation seems to be increasingly true; the rich are no longer all that different.

While the economic gap between the population’s wealthiest and poorest is expanding, it feels like the social gap is narrowing. Despite an explosion in the disparity in people’s balance sheets, cultural tastes and activities are increasingly similar, and clothing and dialect provide little indication of one’s financial status.

American Orthodox Jewry is experiencing these same trends.

Perhaps that is why the primary Mark (Moishe) Bane is president of the OU and a senior partner and chairman of the Business Restructuring Department at the international law firm Ropes & Gray LLP.

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JEWISH ACTION Fall 5782/2021

socioeconomic tension within American Orthodoxy appears not to be caused by the enormous gap between the community’s richest and poorest, but rather by the widening economic gap within the Orthodox middle class itself.

In earlier decades of American Orthodoxy, there was always a 1 percent-or-less sliver of the community that was perceived as “the rich,” while the 99 percent remainder consisted of just regular folks. Aside from being in an economic league of their own, the rich also comprised a distinct social circle. Their high-end lifestyle and luxurious acquisitions may have been a topic of gossip, but those in the 1 percent were viewed by others as distant and apart, thereby imposing negligible peer pressure and more likely to be a source of fantasy than jealousy.

Among the rest of the community, economic differences certainly existed, but those gaps were modest and the lifestyle variances not very dramatic.

Today there is still a 1 percent-or-less sliver of uber-wealthy observant families, and 35 percent of Orthodox households in New York City are poor, some truly impoverished (UJA-Federation of New York, Jewish Community Study of New York, 2011).

But a new kind of significant financial disparity has emerged, this time among the remaining two-thirds of the community. Many middle-class families, though not extraordinarily wealthy, live in comfortable affluence, while others, though not impoverished, perpetually struggle to make ends meet.

These groups are socially intertwined

in a burgeoning “middle class,” yet they live very different experiences. The clash between their social proximity and their economic disparity produces a form of stress and peer pressure that can be overwhelming. These challenges and tensions introduce socioeconomic policy questions that our communal institutions should consider. Throughout this essay I have posed several such questions, but many more beg to be asked.

The challenges and tensions should also prompt us to examine the attitude of Orthodox Jews regarding the demands for economic equality or equity dominating America’s current social and political conversation.

How Do We View Economic Disparity?

As America struggles with the ethical and practical challenges imposed by its massive wealth gap, many of us in the Orthodox community also struggle with these issues. It may be easier for us to identify our own views regarding economic disparity by considering four representative approaches. Have our religious authorities conveyed which, if any, of these four views reflects Torah values? Is there a uniform view? Is there an alternative view that we should be adopting?

Objectivism: A particularly harsh view is that individuals are charged exclusively with advancing their own personal interests. Rather than being a virtue, assisting those less fortunate is seen as a reflection of weakness.

Ayn Rand, an American immigrant from Soviet Russia, popularized this philosophical theory, calling it “objectivism.” Described as ethical egoism or the morality of self-interest, objectivism attracted quite a following during the Cold War era, and Rand’s works still remain influential.

Objectivism’s followers are not at all troubled by a wide economic gap. I often wonder whether the ethics of Biblical Sodom were Rand’s inspiration.

Decades ago, the great Torah leader Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, zt”l, who held a PhD in English literature, cautioned that certain books are so insidious as to be forbidden to be

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read. I recall Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged as the example he proffered.

Benevolence: More familiar to Orthodox Jews is the view that all who are not impoverished are mandated to help those who are. One’s goal, however, is to raise the floor for those suffering deprivation, but with no aspiration that all people be equally enriched. It is indeed legitimate, if not admirable, to amass wealth so long as it is accumulated in an honest, ethical and non-exploitative manner and used to ensure that the basic needs of others are met.

Despite its simplicity, this view is fraught with questions, the threshold one being what constitutes “basic needs”?

• Are basic needs adequately satisfied by preventing starvation and homelessness?

• What level of health care or childhood education, if any, constitutes a basic need?

• Do basic needs include achieving a level of comfort and security?

Equality: Like many others, some Orthodox Jews maintain that in addition to being assured of one’s basic needs, every individual has a right to economic equality, no differently than civil liberties and equal justice.

Equality, however, means that everyone is afforded the identical chance to succeed financially, not that the wealth disparity is necessarily eliminated. The goal is equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome.

Though seemingly simple and straightforward, equality of opportunity actually raises many questions. For example: • At what stage in a person’s economic journey must equality of opportunity be ensured? Is it sufficient that every school or job applicant receives identical consideration based on his or her skills and qualifications at the time? Or is true equality achieved only when years earlier every applicant had been given equal opportunity to develop these necessary skills and qualifications?

• Is equality of opportunity 14

JEWISH ACTION Fall 5782/2021

achievable without curbing the privileges created by the “protektzia” that provides heightened access to school admissions, jobs and investment opportunities exclusively to those with particular backgrounds and relationships?

Equity: Though the words “equality” and “equity” are often interchangeable, it is not the case with regard to socioeconomic aspirations. As described earlier, advocates for economic equality seek to ensure identical opportunities for success.

Advocates for equity, by contrast, seek to ensure identical results.

Some assert that historical mistreatment and exploitation have been so damaging that authentic parity of opportunity has been permanently quashed. In the iniquitous absence of bona fide equality of opportunity, justice and fairness demand that wealth be shared identically by all.

Others simply reject the premise of personal property. They maintain that equity is mandated because all property belongs to the collective community, or to the state, and thus everyone should receive an equal measure. When fully implemented, this socioeconomic system is called communism.

• If principles of economic equity are inappropriate when applied to personal property, should they nevertheless apply regarding interests in and control of communal institutions? Is it just and appropriate that wealthy benefactors receive disproportionate rights and influence with regard to communal decision-making and oversight?

Our Progressive Educational System Arguably, economic disparity has a lesser impact on adults in the Orthodox community because of their childhood experience in our educational system.

Most non-Jewish and non-Orthodox Jewish American youngsters are educated in schools attended by children of families of substantially similar economic status; a secular private school almost exclusively serves families of means, and public schools

are ordinarily attended by children living within the same school district (school districts most often encompass economically similar households).

While such economic segregation creates less peer pressure and jealousy among students, it increases the likelihood that children will emerge as adults in the same economic strata as their childhood friends.

Orthodox children, by contrast, typically attend yeshivot and day schools that simultaneously serve families of all income levels. Admittedly, children of particularly wealthy or influential families are often admitted even when classes are otherwise full, but it is common for 50 percent or more of a day school’s student body to be receiving tuition assistance, often in very significant amounts. While this economic integration introduces pressure on parents whose children may be jealous of their classmates, it also presents significant benefits.

In addition to a degree of educational parity (supposedly assured by economic integration), such integration expands the spectrum of our children’s lifelong aspirations. When children begin to consider alternative life paths, their range of viable and comfortable choices are typically informed by the routes taken by their parents and relatives, as well as by the parents of their friends and classmates. When raised near an army base, a child is more likely to pursue a military career, and when raised among artists a child will more likely pursue a career in the arts. Similarly, children are more inclined to pursue advanced Torah studies or attend graduate school when many parents of their classmates have done so. Our economically integrated school system thus broadens the range of our children’s choices, introducing paths that a wealth gap might otherwise preclude.

Though we may celebrate the benefits of our schools’ economic integration, questions such as the following need to be explored: • Among schools in varying segments of American Orthodoxy, how widely is economic integration actually being implemented?

“To save one life is to save the world entire.” — The Talmud

This High Holiday season, as we seek spiritual and physical renewal for ourselves and our loved ones, let us also remember those in Israel who nurture and renew life every day. Whether it’s treating civilians wounded in terror and rocket attacks or vaccinating them against Covid-19, no organization in Israel saves more lives than Magen David Adom.

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•

•

•

Similarly, are all post-high school Torah studies equally accessible regardless of financial wherewithal?

Even if economic integration is employed by schools, are other sorts of segregation being imposed, such as on the basis of parents’ religious observance, cultural or educational background, or shul or rabbinic affiliations? Are such practices dictated by—or in violation of—Torah values?

Would a Jewish day school be able to provide a superior education if it accepted only students paying full tuition?

Do all children attending the same school really receive the identical education when only certain parents can afford tutoring and other extracurricular activities?

Our Elitist PhilanthropyFocused Social Structure Orthodox Jewish life depends heavily on its not-for-profit institutions, such as shuls, schools, adult Torah study programs and outreach and social services providers. Consequently, in addition to the peer pressure resulting from our financially disparate middle class, a great deal of tension and social stress is caused by the dominant role that charity plays in our community.

Our institutions’ desperate need for charitable dollars not only elevates the prominence and influence of wealthy benefactors but has also turned fundraising dinners, parlor meetings and concerts into some of our community’s prime social events.

The cost of attending most of these functions, as well as community conventions and retreats, is simply prohibitive for most families. Wealth disparity thus not only diminishes the stature and influence of those less affluent, but also precludes them from events at which those in the “in crowd” develop invaluable relationships and connections.

The widening income gap is also distastefully highlighted by the myriad occasions in which institutions, including local shuls and schools, publicize the names of donors and the amount of their gifts.

While this is a time-worn practice, 16

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in earlier decades the community included only a small cadre of wealthy members who were thereby shamed into becoming substantial donors. All others, by contrast, were within a general spectrum of more modest financial capability and thus did not feel pressure to mirror the generosity of those most wealthy.

Today, however, in addition to the listing of astronomically high donation categories, there are typically many well-populated lesser categories of donations that are similarly out of reach for a good portion of the community.

• Do the incremental dollars raised through the public announcement of pledge amounts and other publicity tactics justify the highlighting of the community’s wealth gap and the resulting impact on individuals and their families?

• Is there a distinction in this regard between local institutions such as shuls and schools, in which all community members are donors, and other types of causes that tend to be supported only by certain individuals? Is there a distinction between an open appeal in shul in the middle of davening and pledge announcements taking place in other contexts?

Finally, our communal infrastructure’s reliance on philanthropy results in the dominance of the wealthy in lay communal leadership and decision making; in addition to enjoying stature, benefactors command dominating influence. The community’s disparity in wealth thus evolves into a disparity in communal control, whereby the wealthy influence, if not dictate, policies that affect everyone, including those struggling to make ends meet but who have little voice.

• Do institutions’ decisions to construct new buildings, or to initiate new programs or organizations sufficiently consider the burden imposed on the less affluent, who are also expected to contribute?

• Do communal organizations adequately consider the interests of the poor when adopting positions regarding government

advocacy? For example, how do they weigh between advocating for the best interests of tenants or landlords, government program beneficiaries or taxpayers?

Communal Intimacy Narrows the Wealth Gap’s Sting In a small community such as ours, some may be deeply disturbed by the influence and prestige enjoyed by the affluent, but at the same time, the affluence provides invaluable benefits to the community as a whole, including those members who are most disturbed. Because of the massive size of charities like the Red Cross, Feed America or the Metropolitan Opera, their beneficiaries are generally unable to connect their personal benefits to particular donations. But each of us can easily identify the benefits we derive from major donors to our shul’s new building campaign, local day school scholarship fund, and our community’s Tomchei Shabbos.

Moreover, we recognize that the wealth being accumulated by our neighbors does not diminish our own earning opportunities. Consequently, we are capable of acknowledging that the peer pressure we might experience due to our neighbors’ wealth is significantly outweighed by the very real and substantive benefits that we, individually and as a community, enjoy by the rich becoming ever richer.

On the other hand, the affluent must recognize that their responsibilities extend beyond philanthropy.

The stature they enjoy allows them to model modesty and religious piety, and their financial prowess affords them the opportunity to make lifestyle choices reflecting sensitivity to the emotional pressures on others. While their generosity certainly earns them gratitude and recognition, they should be mindful of an essential lesson I learned while visiting Rabbi Yonaton Hirschhorn when he was serving as an OU-JLIC Torah educator at the University of Maryland. He explained that while “others give their own money as charity, we Orthodox Jews give God’s money as tzedakah.” 

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FROM THE DESK of RABBI MOSHE HAUER

DREAMING BIG

Do we think big enough?

Much of religious life is about the nitty gritty. A classic Midrashic source1 sees as the core value of Torah—its guiding principle—the daily offerings brought every morning and night, the consistent adherence to the routines of Divine service. It is thus typical and appropriate to use the development of these kinds of good religious habits as a core strategy for spiritual growth.

And on Yom Kippur, the holy of holies of our calendar, we spend the day carefully going over a list—indeed a litany—of specific failings regarding which we confess and pledge to do better. Both consistency and conscientiousness are critical facets of the life of any committed God-fearing Jew. But those painstaking elements of religious life are not riveting. They Rabbi Moshe Hauer is executive vice president of the Orthodox Union.

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are critical and indispensable, but they alone do not motivate and do not capture hearts or minds or drive us forward. Rather, consistency and conscientiousness are the tools and steps that we employ as we aim for a powerful and compelling big-picture vision for the world and for ourselves.

We begin by identifying what is known in the world of management as a BHAG—a “Big Hairy Audacious Goal”—a clear and compelling long-term goal that galvanizes and focuses our attention and elevates our ambitions such that we can ultimately achieve greatness.2 Toward that end, the dominant theme of the prayers of Rosh Hashanah—the day that launches and frames the period and process of teshuvah—is not the painstaking detail work of Yom Kippur, but the drawing of the broad strokes of our aspiration for a world that is radically different than our own, a world infused and defined by the recognition of God and the pursuit of His truth and values.

But it is insufficient for us to harbor dreams for the world beyond us. We must have an equally compelling and outsized vision for ourselves. Here again, Rosh Hashanah provides us with that big picture as it is the anniversary of the creation of man, of the moment when God said, “Let us make man in Our image, in the image of God.” Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner3 and others view the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah as commemorating

and reenacting that moment that occurred on this day at the beginning of time when God breathed life into us, endowing us with our essence, our Divine soul. That Divine breath defines our vast horizon, calling upon us to live lives that follow the Divine model, that mimic His ways and demonstrate every positive quality of character.4 These big and bold visions need to be brought out into the open and should frame our activities in the realm of education and communal life. We can discuss how we can weather and overcome the myriad challenges— material and spiritual—that confront us, focusing on the goal of creating effective defenses against the crisis de jour, and thus produce practical and applicable remedies and solutions.

But if we shine a light on the mission beyond survival, on our role and destiny as those who will bring truth, purity, justice and goodness to the world, then we capture imaginations.

We may seek to encourage the conquest of yet another Torah text or the adoption of an additional mitzvah and thereby generate diligence and obedience. But if we frame the pursuit of Torah study as the way to forge and refine our perspectives and feelings and align them with God’s truths, and if we see in the observance of each mitzvah an essential step to our individual self-realization as a great person embodying the Divine image, we will produce not obedience but passionate engagement.

S H A lO m TA S k FO r C e

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JEWISH ACTION Fall 5782/2021

The captivating and engaging quality of a broader framing, of a big and audacious goal, is one reason we need to think big. But there is another, and that is the avoidance of resignation.

Have we inappropriately resigned ourselves to certain “realities”? For example, have we accepted what should be an unacceptable level of attrition from our ranks, whether from emotionally unhealthy kids-at-risk or from those pursuing academic and professional success at the expense of their religious engagement?

Addressing these issues was once a preoccupation of our community, but that discussion has apparently quieted down, and not because the issues have gone away but perhaps because we have become accustomed to them and have essentially written off the losses as acceptable.

The same is certainly true for our curtailed ambitions regarding the masses of our fellow Jews who are moving from a tenuous Jewish identification to none at all.

Beyond these issues, quiet resignation finds its way into our own lives in countless ways, whether the issue at hand is the acceptance of the seemingly intractable financial challenges of Orthodox Jewish life, the predictable recurrence of anti-Semitism, endemic intracommunal division and strife, or the presence of domestic or substance abuse of different forms. We can and often do become resigned to “reality” and stop dreaming and striving for better.

Our Sages5 teach us a concept of tefillat shav—futile prayers—that we are discouraged from offering. But this concept only limits us from attempting to alter already existing realities such as the gender of a developing fetus or the address to which a fire engine is rushing.

They are far more sanguine about the presumed future, urging us not to despair from prayer even as the sharp sword lies across our neck.6 Continued hope in the face of apparently insurmountable challenges is fundamental to the Jewish mindset, and for good reason! We are the witnesses to the post-Holocaust revival of our people and the fulfillment of the hope of millennia, our national return to Eretz Yisrael. Having experienced that, we as Klal Yisrael never have the right to give up.

So dream we must. It is incumbent upon us to broaden and elevate the terms we use in articulating our spiritual, educational and communal ambitions.

If we are to be captivated and motivated by the bigger and broader goals and hopes that define our individual and national potential, we must envision them. And if we are to avoid accepting mediocrity and unnecessary losses, we must never give up and never stop dreaming, praying, planning or strategizing for improvement and change in any of our areas of challenge.

Though the core of this work will be accomplished through serious and thoughtful engagement in changing the conversation around these issues, there is a less intense and strenuous path to making a difference, to thinking bigger both in terms of framing our broader vision and of restoring hope, and that is the vehicle of song.

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JEWISH ACTION Fall 5782/2021

Jewish music is put to words of prayer and hope. When we sing “Ani Ma’amin” together, we express our faith in the eventual healing of our world with the coming of the Mashiach; “Ashreinu Ma Tov Chelkeinu” conveys our feeling of privilege for having been given the gift of Torah; “Acheinu” reveals our concern for others in distress; “Im Eshkacheich” declares our unshakable commitment to Yerushalayim. We bring these big and audacious ideals to life as our deepest dreams and hopes. And when we do it together as a community, gathered in shul for prayer or in a kumzitz for pure inspiration, we draw strength not only from the words of hope and of faith but from each other, from the strength of community that is itself a powerful source of both mission and hope. Communal singing is not simply an exercise in ecstatic escapism; it is a meaningful opportunity to identify with the beautiful images drawn by the ideals that we sing about together.

The Talmud7 teaches that our prayers can only be heard in a beit knesset, where people gather to join in melodious song—“b’makom rinah sham tehei tefillah.”

Perhaps this is because prayer is the ultimate expression of hope.8 When we pray, we share with God our deepest dreams and aspirations, and our prayer is as effective as the hope we invest in it.9 Thus, it is in that place where we raise our voices together in song, building hope and formulating dreams, that our prayers truly take hold.

We have been through a lot during this past year. So much of our lives has been focused on survival and crisis management. On top of that, we missed the valuable tool that lifts us beyond a narrow mindset, as we could not be together to sing together. Davening may have been shorter but the horizons of our spiritual world were made smaller.

Now it is time to restore the dreams. It is a time to think bigger, to captivate and to engage. It is time to restore both the song and the prayer.  Notes 1. Quoted in the introduction of Ein Yaakov in the name of Shimon ben Pazi and referenced further by Maharal in Netivot Olam, Netiv Ahavat Rei’a, but of unknown origin.

2. From Jim Collins’ Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (New York, 1994).

3. Pachad Yitzchak, Rosh Hashanah 25:4.

4. This reflects the alternative view to Shimon ben Pazi in the Midrash cited above, i.e., the view of Ben Azzai cited in Bereishit Rabbah 24:7 and elsewhere, that the core principle of the Torah is the recognition of the presence of the Divine image within man.

5. Mishnah Berachot 9:3.

6. Berachot 10a.

7. Berachot 6a; see Rashi there.

8. See Maharal, Be’er Hagolah 4:2.

9. See, for instance, Bereishit Rabbah 98:14, “Hakol b’kivuy.”

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IN FOCUS

SHUL: THE HEART of the COMMUNITY

By Rabbi Adir Posy

In

recent years, synagogues around North America, especially in the non-Orthodox movements, have been struggling to find ways to keep their congregants engaged and their infrastructure financially viable. They have been facing significant attrition and there is increasing reluctance on the part of community members to financially support these institutions through dues and donations. In a 2010 article entitled “The Cost of Being Jewish” that appeared in Newsweek, journalist Lisa Miller wrote: “American Jews have all kinds of choices about where to spend time and money—Jews no longer need a Jewish pool to swim in—and the Rabbi Adir Posy is the national director of the OU’s Karasick Department of Synagogue Initiatives.

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buildings have become a burden.” This phenomenon, she claimed, has led to dues becoming “outdated as a business model and onerous to families.” She followed up with a 2013 Washington Post article aptly titled, “Young Jews Rebelling against Paying Dues,” in which she argued that synagogues need to do a better job showing the value proposition they offer to their members. The pandemic has greatly exacerbated this concern to the extent that a recent e-Jewish Philanthropy article posed the question, “What’s the price point at which quitting the temple becomes unnecessary?”

These articles point to an underlying trend of thought—shul is increasingly viewed as a place where one is a consumer and we must therefore reimagine the business model to ensure that the customer is getting a positive return on his or her investment.

From our vantage point at the OU, we have been concerned about the way attrition would impact shuls, especially during the pandemic. To be sure, in the Orthodox community, daily tefillah is and has remained a mainstay, continuing unabated throughout the pandemic. However, we worried that trends such as the proliferation of backyard minyanim and the lack of family social programming would draw members away from their established shul. This would have an especially negative impact on shuls with campuses

that include ancillary venues such as schools and simchah halls with the attendant budgetary responsibilities that come with maintaining a shul campus.

Frankly, we were expecting a rash of shul closures around North America, especially once it became clear that in-person tefillah and programming would need to cease for an extended period. And, in fact, while these trends did not leave Orthodox shuls unscathed, as many are still concerned about their long-term viability, by and large, we have been pleasantly surprised—we did not see the anticipated rash of shuls being shuttered. The vast majority of shuls in our network and beyond weathered the pandemic and are cautiously optimistic about their recovery after Covid. In fact, we recently launched a $100,000 Challenge Grant to support congregations that are developing innovative programs to bring members back to shul and we received submissions from over 300 shuls.

Thirty-five shuls with forward-thinking programs to bring members back to shul were awarded grants.

So what is the secret sauce that has kept Orthodox shuls from the brink of collapse even with circumstances seemingly conspiring against them? While there are many contributing factors, three elements stand out when analyzing the landscape of our network of shuls.

1. Siyata d’Shmaya (Heavenly Assistance). While these have been trying times, as believing Jews, we are buoyed by our unshakable belief that Hashem runs the world and is looking out for the anchor of our communities—the shul. The pasuk in Yechezkel (11:16) states, “Va’ehi lachem l’mikdash me’at—I have become for them a smaller sanctuary.” The Gemara in Megillah (29) interprets the words “mikdash me’at” as a reference to the shuls and batei midrash around the world. Hashem promised that the shul will always endure as the seat of His presence in our communities. Thus, the first and foremost reason for the resilience of our shuls is the continued support of Avinu She’baShamayim.

2. Shuls have stepped up during the pandemic. Even as shul buildings were shuttered, the shul communities have been more active than ever.

Whether it has been food deliveries, Zoom shiurim, chesed campaigns,

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rabbis traveling on trucks with microphones to wish members a “gut Shabbos,” or innumerable other initiatives, shuls have gone above and beyond to ensure that they meet the needs of their members. While no institution is perfect, most shuls in our network leapt into action during the pandemic with plans to ensure that congregants would not lose connection with each other or with the shul.

3. A paradigm shift. The point mentioned earlier about people becoming more reluctant to pay dues is rooted in an attitude that views shul as a place where one goes in order to receive. At its core, this is a consumerist mentality. Much like a gym membership, this approach regards shul affiliation as a question of where I get the most bang for my buck.

Fundamentally, being part of a shul is not a sustainable endeavor if it is purely about what one receives. Through the contribution of time, financial

resources, leadership skills or any other form of pitching in, shul becomes a way to express our inherent giving nature. Our communities are strong because there is a sense that belonging to a community means that you have an opportunity to give to others. Yes, shul is a place to daven, and yes, our needs are met through shul, but it is when members of a community focus on giving—as opposed to taking—that shuls are at their best. This pandemic has shown us that many members of Orthodox shuls are of the mindset that their connection to shul is an outlet for their sense of responsibility to others, and that approach has stood them in good stead through the Covid crisis.

The future vibrancy of our shuls depends on further strengthening this mindset. To the extent that we see our shuls as a place for us to make the community better, as opposed to a vendor that fulfills our communal and spiritual needs, our shuls will continue to thrive. 

THE JEWISH WORLD

FINALLY, A STAR of DAVID for JEWISH HEROES

By Dr. Rafael Medoff

S

am Cordova’s family was among the pillars of the Orthodox Sefardi community in interwar Seattle. They were founders and presidents of the Sephardic Bikur Holim Congregation, a still-functioning synagogue there. The Cordovas kept a kosher home, spoke Ladino and hosted so many guests at their Passover sedarim that they had to set up plywood on sawhorses to extend their dining room table into the living room.

Yet when Corporal Cordova was killed in the Japanese assault on the Philippine island of Corregidor, in December 1941—one of the first American casualties in the South Pacific in World War II—the US army marked his grave with a cross. Why?

On June 20, 2018, Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter (fourth from the right), Steve Lamar (fifth from the right), and dozens of friends and family members of the Garadetskys gathered at the American military cemetery in Normandy, France, for the solemn ceremony at which the cross marker was replaced by a Star of David.

Dr. Rafael Medoff is founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies and author of more than twenty books about American Jewish history and the Holocaust. His latest book is The Rabbi of Buchenwald: The Life and Times of Herschel Schacter (New York, 2021).

Fall 5782/2021 JEWISH ACTION

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Something Was Missing It was a chilly spring afternoon in the French coastal town of Colleville-sur-Mer. Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter gazed upon the hundreds of rows of grave markers that fill the American military cemetery at Normandy, contemplating the ultimate sacrifice those young soldiers made seventy years earlier to defeat the Nazis and preserve world freedom. Then a nettlesome thought intruded upon the serenity of that afternoon in May 2014. Something was wrong with what Rabbi Schacter was seeing. Something was missing.

Somebody was missing. The Jews.

More than 500,000 American Jews served in the US armed forces in World War II, and about 11,000 of them lost their lives. Most of the fatalities occurred on the European front. Yet as Rabbi Schacter looked out at the vast Normandy expanse where 9,388 American soldiers are buried, virtually all the graves he could see were marked by crosses. “There was a marker with a Jewish star here and there—but they were very few, and very far between,” Rabbi Schacter recalled. It just didn’t seem right.

That hunch would launch the Teaneck, New Jersey rabbi on a years-long mission that not only would bring him back to Normandy again and again, but would take him and a small team of close colleagues to Allied military cemeteries around the world in their quest for historical justice.

What Went Wrong Rabbi Schacter turned first to his friend Shalom Lamm, a businessman with a master’s degree in American military history. As they began to explore the mystery, it quickly became apparent that the Jewish GIs were not missing, after all—they were misidentified.

Aided by Lamm’s relative by marriage Steve Lamar, an amateur genealogist, and Yeshiva College student volunteer Yaakov Ellenbogen, Rabbi Schacter and Lamm determined that there are hundreds of Jewish soldiers buried under crosses in multiple American military cemeteries around the world.

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Private Benjamin (Boruch) Garadetsky was killed in a German bombing of his position in France in August 1944. He was one of hundreds of Jewish soldiers buried under crosses in multiple American military cemeteries around the world.

Rectifying those errors is the goal of their campaign to right a decades-old wrong and ensure that the Jewish GIs who gave their lives for their country can rest in peace at last under the Star of David markers that they would have wanted.

There are several reasons a Jewish soldier might be interred under a cross.

The first had to do with the process by which soldiers were temporarily buried near battlefields. Many of the GIs who were killed during the storming of the Normandy beach on D-Day in June 1944 or in the weeks to follow had to be hastily buried on the spot, then later reburied when military cemeteries were established in the region. The army made every effort to determine the identity of the deceased, but when soldiers had to be reburied multiple times, clerical errors sometimes ensued, especially if the GIs’ dog tags— which indicated religious affiliation— became separated from their bodies during battle and were lost.

A second explanation concerned the dog tags. They not only state the GI’s name, rank and serial number, but also bear the designation “P” for Protestant, “C” for Catholic or “H” for Hebrew, in order to ensure that the religious needs of a seriously wounded soldier are met, and that a deceased soldier’s burial rites are conducted in accordance with his faith.

During World War II, some Jewish

GIs requested a C or a P—or “N,” for no religious preference—for fear of persecution if they were taken prisoner by the Germans; others altered the H to resemble a P—or totally effaced the religious designation on the dog tag—shortly before going into battle.

They had good reason to be afraid; the Nazis did not respect conventional rules regarding treatment of captured enemy soldiers. Some American GIs were sent to the Buchenwald and Mauthausen concentration camps, instead of normal POW facilities.

Several hundred US Jewish GIs who were among the American POWs brought to the Stalag IX-B prisoner camp in 1945 were separated from their comrades and sent to the Berga slave labor camp, a subcamp of Buchenwald; thirty-five of them were worked to death, and another thirty-six died on a death march from Berga before the arrival of the victorious Allied armies.

There is also evidence that some American Jewish soldiers may have requested a C or a P, or no designation, for fear of suffering discrimination at the hands of fellow soldiers if their Jewish identity became known. In her book GI Jews, Professor Deborah Dash Moore found that anti-Semitic incidents occurred frequently in the military in the World War II era, sometimes erupting into fistfights.

The team’s research found no evidence that the military authorities ever deliberately chose a cross to mark a grave of a soldier whom they knew to be Jewish. In every instance that mislabeled graves have been uncovered, human error, not malice, was the cause. Because their loved ones were buried in faraway Europe or the South Pacific, many surviving relatives never visited their graves and thus never knew about the crosses; or, if they knew, they did not realize the mistake could be corrected.

Chesed Shel Emet “Once we understood why the crosses had been erected, we knew we needed to do something about it,” Lamm recalls. “Every grave marker we could correct would

be an act of justice and a teaching opportunity. And, of course, a chesed shel emet”—an act of generosity for which there is no expectation of any material reward, in this case because the beneficiary is no longer alive.

One important source of information for the team is to be found in the records of the Jewish Welfare Board, housed at the American Jewish Historical Society in New York City. Many parents of Jewish GIs in World War II filled out a JWB form providing basic family and biographical information so the Board could assist the GI in various ways during his service—for example, via the Jewish chaplains (such as Rabbi Schacter’s father, the late Rabbi Herschel Schacter) whom the JWB helped train.

Cross-checking the JWB’s records with US military records of wartime casualties has yielded crucial information.

After confirming through an extensive documentary trail that a soldier who was Jewish is buried under a cross, the team moves into the phase of contacting surviving relatives. Legal next of kin are the only ones who have the authority to formally request that a grave marker be changed. The request is made to the government agency charged with caring for all foreign US military cemeteries, the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC).

“A country must be judged by how it cares for those who gave their lives for it,” says ABMC leader Major General (ret.) William Matz, with whom Rabbi Schacter, Lamm and their colleagues work closely in addressing these issues.

Contacting the families is a sensitive matter. “For some families, just talking about the person they lost is re-opening a painful old wound,” Rabbi Schacter notes. “For many, it’s shocking and upsetting to hear that their loved one is buried under a cross. And some families are suspicious of our motives. It takes time for them to understand what we’re doing, and why.”

Their First Success The team’s first success was the case of Pvt. Benjamin (Boruch) Garadetsky, who was killed in a German bombing of his position in France in August 1944.

There was no doubt Garadetsky was Jewish; Lamm and his wife, Tina, had visited the Long Island graves of the GI’s parents and saw the Hebrew inscriptions on their headstones. Moreover, Garadetsky, who was born in Russia, had written “Hebrew” under “race” on his 1941 application for American citizenship.

When the team tracked down Garadetsky’s nephew, a doctor in St. Louis, it turned out that the family was aware of the cross and had written to government officials about it many years earlier but had not pursued it. With help from Lamm and Lamar, an official request was submitted through the American Battle Monuments Commission and quickly approved.

On June 20, 2018, Lamar, Rabbi Schacter and dozens of friends and family members of the Garadetskys gathered at the Normandy cemetery for the solemn ceremony at which the cross was replaced by a Star of David. Tehillim were recited, family members shared reminiscences and

Every grave marker we could correct would be an act of justice and a teaching opportunity.

And, of course, a chesed shel emet.

Fall 5782/2021 JEWISH ACTION

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Rabbi Schacter conducted a memorial ceremony that he created for the occasion; since there is no existing religious service for this uniquely modern occasion, the rabbi improvised. He concluded with the poignant declaration, “Benjamin, on behalf of the citizens of the United States of America, we thank you for making the ultimate sacrifice, and Benjamin, on behalf of the Jewish people, we welcome you home.”

To honor the namesake of their first successful mission, the team gave their campaign a permanent name: Operation Benjamin. They also secured tax-exempt status and began fundraising (the families of the GIs are not charged for any of the expenses involved).

Seven more such ceremonies took place in the year to follow: two brothers, both crew members on bombers, who were buried in France and Belgium; and five GIs who were buried in the Philippines after being killed in the South Pacific or Japanese POW camps.

By early 2020, three more marker replacements had been approved by the ABMC, and ceremonies were being planned in Belgium and France when the coronavirus pandemic struck. International travel ground to a halt, forcing Operation Benjamin to reschedule those for the summer of 2021. Two more marker replacements have been approved, one in Manila, and the other in Rhone, France.

For the past year, the group has focused on researching more candidates, contacting their families, and helping them navigate the application process, while waiting for the day that they can fully resume their chesed shel emet. *****

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Harry Cordova was the one who answered the door on that fateful day in December 1941 when the army messenger brought the telegram announcing his brother Sam’s death in action. Their mother was a Turkish Jewish immigrant who knew little English; Harry read the telegram aloud. “We simply tried to get through that painful period as best as we could,” Harry, now ninety-nine, explained in his appeal to the army commission. “We did not concern ourselves with his grave marker at the time.”

Thanks to the efforts of Operation Benjamin, that time finally came. Following the submission of the family’s request, backed up by the team’s research, approval by the commission was swift. Cognizant of Harry’s age, Operation Benjamin, in partnership with the ABMC, proceeded with the headstone replacement ceremony on December 29 in Manila, exactly seventy-nine years to the day that Sam was killed.

Harry spoke at the ceremony from Florida via video.

Sam Cordova made the ultimate sacrifice— as a soldier on the battlefield, as a patriotic American, and as a Jew fighting the Axis—and at last he was remembered as an American and as a Jew, as he no doubt would have wanted. 

New olim arriving in Israel during April 2021. In the back row are Nefesh B’Nefesh Co-Founder and Executive Director Rabbi Yehoshua Faas (fifth from the left) and Israeli Minister of Aliyah and Integration Penina Tamano-Shata (seventh from the left). Photo: Shahar Azran

Steve Lipman is a frequent contributor to Jewish Action.

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ISRAEL

Covid Aliyah Covid-19 has spurred an unprecedented interest in aliyah. Why?

By Steve Lipman

R

abbi Naftoli Eisemann, former administrator of a kashrut organization in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, says he first considered making aliyah sixteen years ago. But he didn’t make the move to Israel right away. Esther Williams, who grew up in “a very Zionist home” in Brooklyn, New York, began to think about aliyah more than three decades ago. She, too, did not settle in Israel immediately.

And Uriel Eckmann, a native of Chicago who worked for a data security organization in northern New Jersey, first thought of aliyah a decade ago, while taking part in his high school’s visit to New York City. He was impressed by the intensely Jewish character of the neighborhoods he saw for the first time, and decided he wanted to experience that feeling on a daily basis. He felt “the only place I could do that is Israel.” Eckmann as well did not make aliyah immediately. For family and career reasons, all three delayed their plans to settle in Israel.

Then came the pandemic. And all moved to Israel.

The Eisemann, Williams and Eckmann families are part of a counterintuitive trend that has taken place in the last year and a half in which an unforeseen number of Jews from the United States and Canada realized their dreams of making their home in the Jewish homeland, either because of or despite the Covid-19 pandemic that left many people isolated and countless offices and workplaces Continued on page 36 Fall 5782/2021 JEWISH ACTION

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Making Aliyah in the Midst of a Pandemic Rachel and Jason Rosenblatt

By the Rosenblatts, as told to Aviva Engel

W

e talked about aliyah since we got married; it was always our plan. Not long before our move from Montreal to Jerusalem in October 2020, we had built a house. Jason told the kids, “The house has to be in perfect order because we’re selling it!” From day one, we knew we would sell it in the short term and make aliyah. Our approach was—either we can wait and retire in Israel, or we can live in Israel. We chose to live there.

The pandemic didn’t discourage us from making aliyah; we’re freelancers. We’re both musicians.

I [Rachel] play trombone; my background is classical. Jason sings, plays keyboard and harmonica and composes music, mostly jazz and blues. We specialize in Eastern Aviva Engel is an award-winning freelance journalist and a director of communications in Montreal, Canada.

European Jewish and Chassidic music as well as Carlebach.

We were going to have to rebuild our client base due to the pandemic, regardless. We figured we might as well restart in Israel rather than delay our plans indefinitely.

Our kids, Hallel, Bezalel, Priel and Annaelle, were just at that threshold—twelve, ten, eight and six years old—where it made sense.

Only seventeen out of the 100 people on our flight to Israel were making aliyah. When we arrived, we were warmly welcomed by Jason’s brothers, who have lived here for over ten years. Because of Covid, we did not experience the typical Nefesh B’Nefesh ceremony, but it was still very emotional, and we have our own special memory of our arrival.

Our children have adjusted very well overall, and they’ve made really nice friends at their school in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood in Jerusalem. They’re also reconnecting with their cousins, whom they knew remotely over the years. We’ve made a lot of friends too, and career-wise

we couldn’t be happier! We got a gig through the Jerusalem Municipality the first week we were here, and it was a nice introduction to Israel. We had also stayed in touch with a lot of Israeli musicians over Facebook, and as soon as we arrived, they hired us and connected us with others. In Canada, we had almost exclusively played together; here there are a lot more opportunities for us as musicians to pursue our specialties independently.

In Israel, you have to develop a bit of a thicker skin and learn to take things in stride. People’s mannerisms are different. There’s no guessing what someone thinks; native Israelis are more direct than what we’re accustomed to. But because it’s a social culture, if someone really needs assistance, Israelis are more than eager to offer it.

Since we arrived, we’ve asked ourselves a few times, “Why didn’t we do this earlier? Why didn’t we do this before we had kids?” When you hear “Chag Same’ach” on the rock radio station and people talking about Purim in the media—it’s crazy! Why would anyone live anywhere else?

The Rosenblatts moved to Jerusalem from Montreal in October 2020.

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The Heilmans made aliyah during the pandemic and currently live in Modiin. Seen here at the Titora National Park in Modiin, Israel.

Yoni and Gabrielle Heilman By the Heilmans, as told to Aviva Engel

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e made aliyah from Silver Spring, Maryland, with our three children, Reut, eleven; Yaniv, seven, and Eden, four, on July 9, 2020—the day before our fifteenth wedding anniversary.

Our aliyah story is a long and complicated one: my family [Yoni] went back and forth between New York and Israel for most of my childhood. When I met Gabrielle, she shared my dream of living in Israel.

We officially made aliyah in 2009 when we were expecting Reut. After three years, we returned to the US as I had a scholarship to go to business school. We hoped that life would bring us back to Israel, and we planned for it. Our arrival last summer was the coming to fruition of all of that. Today we live in the Kaiser neighborhood of Modiin.

We finalized our return plans in the early winter of 2020, pre-coronavirus.

Things were already in motion when the pandemic hit. Although aliyah flights were on hold for a time, we were able to travel to Israel since we had Israeli citizenship from our previous move. Because Nefesh

B’Nefesh had already helped us in the past, we were on our own this time in terms of booking flights and making arrangements.

Initially it seemed like we had made a brilliant decision to make aliyah during Covid since Israel had tackled the first wave really well. When the second wave hit, we didn’t know whether there would be flights or how safe it would be to fly if we could. We also wondered whether we’d be able to find an apartment. I had planned to go to Israel to find a place in the spring, but that was no longer possible.

There was a lot of uncertainty, and many people said, “You’re nuts to go!”

We briefly considered postponing our plans but staying was also risky because our lease was up and somebody else was moving in; regardless, we had to move.

We reasoned that we had planned our aliyah for a while and nobody knew what tomorrow was going to bring with this whole Covid mess. So we forged ahead.

Aside from the typical moving challenges, the months leading up to our big move were nothing like we had anticipated. You imagine

you’ll see everybody, spend time together and have goodbye meals or picnics, but because of Covid, there were four months before we left when we couldn’t see anybody.

We held drive-by goodbyes for our kids, which were very emotional.

There were a lot of people we would have liked to hug goodbye, and we just didn’t have the chance.

We have family in Israel, including my parents who made aliyah after us in August. They had an apartment in Israel where we quarantined upon our arrival, and we also found a long-term rental in Modiin, which was a huge blessing.

Prior to our departure, we gathered whatever information we could, both from our community in Silver Spring and from people in Israel whom we had made connections with, knowing that up until we boarded the plane, there was no guarantee that things were going to move ahead. On July 9, we walked into the huge international terminal at JFK Airport and it was like a ghost town! There were two flights—one was ours, the other was heading to Paris. In Silver Spring, we were extremely cautious about Fall 5782/2021 JEWISH ACTION

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Covid, so the fact that we were getting on a plane and going anywhere was hard to digest. But we took extraordinary safety measures for the flight.

Our arrival to the community was also atypical because of the pandemic. When you get to a new place, you want to explore and meet people.

You want to go to shul and eat out. But in the beginning, we couldn’t do any of those things.

When I finally went to shul for the first time in fourteen months, people asked if I was new. I said, “Yes, but I’ve been living here for seven months.”

Integration during Covid moves at a snail’s pace. Currently I’m working from home. I run TAMID Group, a nonprofit focused primarily on making sure that the next generation is connected to Israel. We operate mostly on US college campuses, using students’ career interests as a vehicle to connect them to Israeli entrepreneurs, companies and this place we call “home.” Gabrielle is an advanced-degree fertility nurse but has to go through a relicensing process in order to be able to work here.

Our kids were in and out of school. Thankfully, their Hebrew is pretty decent as we often spoke Hebrew to them at home. That being said, for our son to start Kitah Aleph in a foreign language, in a new school, largely over Zoom, was definitely challenging, as it was for our daughter in fifth grade. You hear about “Zoom fatigue,” but it was exacerbated by the language gap. Their teachers have been really wonderful and worked with us to do what they could, but what the kids were really missing was recess and the chance to integrate with peers and make friends. For a while, parks were also off limits.

Culturally, things are obviously different here, as we expected. No one has reusable masks because in Israel there was never a shortage of surgical masks, but we appeared to be wearing fancy masks when it was all we could get in America! And social distancing never caught on here. That was very hard for us; where we had come from, people were being very, very careful.

And then we got here, and we thought, is this the same pandemic?! Waiting in a crowded line at the mall at Misrad Hapnim was a weird experience.

There were marks on the floor where people were supposed to stand, but in typical Israeli fashion, nobody was paying attention! On the flipside, it’s quite poignant to stand on your porch at the end of Neilah and hear the shofar sounding from all of the outdoor minyanim around the city.

I hesitate to paint things in absolute terms, but it does feel like we gambled on the right country. Life is rapidly returning to normal here. And at the end of the day, when we look outside, we are where we want to be.

Some 5,000 North American olim are expected in 2021, a 42 percent increase over the average annual.

Continued from page 33 closed. “It’s too early to tell” the long-range effect of the pandemic on aliyah,” says Rabbi Dr. Avidan Milevsky, associate professor of psychology and a researcher at Ariel University in Israel who has investigated the subject of aliyah. But it looks like the pandemic will prove to be a boon for aliyah, which he and other experts did not foresee. “Based on previous sociological research on aliyah trends, I didn’t expect it [the pandemic] to make any major change” in aliyah figures, says Rabbi Dr. Milevsky, who is also a psychotherapist. “It’s definitely a surprise.”

While overall aliyah figures in fact decreased by nearly 40 percent in 2020, largely attributable to the worldwide pandemic, some 5,000 North American olim are expected in 2021, a 42 percent increase over the annual average. “There was so much uncertainty that I would not have anticipated this,” says Marc Rosenberg, vice president of Diaspora Partnerships at Nefesh B’Nefesh, the nonprofit agency that works in partnership with Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, the Jewish Agency, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael and the Jewish National Fund-USA. Rosenberg adds that college students’ participation in gap-year study programs in Israel also increased during the pandemic. As of this writing in early August, some 2,000 North American olim on forty Nefesh B’Nefesh group flights are expected to arrive in Israel by the end of the summer.

Moreover, more than 18,000 aliyah applications have been opened by Nefesh B’Nefesh, indicating historically high levels of interest in aliyah. However, Rosenberg says, it may take until sometime in 2022 to determine if that interest translates into actual immigration to Israel.

Among North American arrivals in 2020, the majority were young couples and young families, including 794 children. However, there were also 1,032 unmarried adults; 332 retirees; 390 lone soldiers; and 32 women registered to do national service. The immigrants themselves, who included educators, physicians, nurses, social workers and lawyers, ranged in age from 3 to 97, with an average age of 30.

Yaakov Greenspan, author of Just Get on That Plane, a recently published paperback and e-book about the importance of making aliyah, says he was “not at all Continued on page 42

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Online Tool Helps Families Plan for Aliyah Success

By Aviva Engel

The aliyah process is all-consuming.

Between paperwork, information sessions, financial planning, Rabbi Dr. Avidan divesting, Milevsky packing and arranging housing and schooling in Israel, families may overlook the psychological implications of relocating to a new country with an entirely different culture, language and way of life.

Thanks to a new online resource launched by Ariel University’s Center for Research on Aliyah (CRA), North American families can now gauge their chances of aliyah success via a fifteen-minute questionnaire. The Aliyah Risk Calculator (aliyahresearch.com/ calculator/) scientifically measures a family’s likelihood to prosper in Israel based on its strengths and resources as well as its risks, which are gleaned from their answers on everything from family dynamics and communication style to marital satisfaction, reasons for making aliyah and even children’s temperaments and potential special needs.

“When making aliyah, you want to see how you are on all of these fronts,” says Rabbi Dr. Avidan Milevsky, associate professor of psychology and a researcher at Ariel University in Israel, who invented the calculator with his wife Ilana, a psychologist. “Studies show that if you’re making aliyah due to ‘push’ factors—if you feel you’re being pushed out of where you are, if you have issues with 38

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your marriage and you want to start fresh or are experiencing anti-Semitism—you are less likely to have a successful aliyah. We’re doing a study now to figure out why that is. On the other hand, if you’re coming to Israel because of being pulled—our life is fine in America, we have a nice family, a good marriage, jobs, the kids are happy, but we’re pulled by religious factors or Zionism—studies show you’re more likely to succeed long term.

“The calculator questions help you establish why you’re moving.

If you’re just running away from a problem, the problem comes with you in the suitcase, whereas a family with strengths could deal with life adversity and grow from it. It’s ultimately about higher resources and less risk.”

Upon completing the survey, participants receive a score and are assigned one of three colors associated with their level of risk—green, yellow or red. Based on the outcomes, respondents receive tailor-made suggestions for consideration, even if they score a green.

“Everybody and his grandmother has got some anecdote. ‘Do this, don’t make aliyah like this,’ and, ‘Go here, don’t go there,’” notes Rabbi Dr. Milevsky. And he should know.

Following a remarkable Sabbatical year in Israel in 2012, he and his wife made aliyah from Baltimore/ Washington to Ramat Beit Shemesh in 2016 with their children Liora, Tamar, Uzi, Mati and Moriah— but not before they were warned that uprooting their then-teenage daughters was a “recipe for disaster” and “borderline criminal.”

“Everyone had forecasts about our kids,” he recalls. “My wife and I are both psychologists and we didn’t want to hear horror stories or vignettes; we wanted to know what the research says. There was very little research on religious North American immigration to Israel from the psychological family dynamic angle, so we focused on that. We conducted a qualitative study in which we interviewed twenty families about their experiences to get a larger picture beyond anecdotes, and then we did a study with Nefesh B’Nefesh of 140 families to really see what contributes to successful aliyah. We also explored research on immigrant experiences to get a feel for what goes into successful immigration. And we asked ourselves, ‘Do we have what it takes?’” Five years following their aliyah, the Milevskys are thriving, affirming that indeed they did.

Yet although they scored a green on the calculator, Rabbi Dr. Milevsky stresses that his family still worked hard before and after moving to Israel to reinforce resources that were weak. Having left all of their immediate family behind, for example, the Milevskys cultivated deep bonds with Israeli relatives with whom they are now extremely close.

For those who fear that landing in the red zone may deter them from pursuing aliyah, Rabbi Dr. Milevsky is encouraging. “If you score a red, we’re not telling you, ‘Don’t come,’” he clarifies. “We’re saying, ‘Take this into account first.

You may want to pause and clean house, so to speak, and you may be ready in a year from now.’

“Aliyah could be the most beautiful move a family makes, and it’s going to enhance your life in immeasurable ways. But there’s stress involved with any move. The goal of this endeavor is to open people’s eyes and to let them know—these are the factors involved, and this is what you should be working on. It can be a wonderful opportunity for people to really fulfill their dreams.”

At the age of ninety and in the midst of the pandemic, in August 2020, Nelly Grussgott made aliyah from Brooklyn.

All Because of Covid

By JA staff

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or ninety-year-old Nelly Grussgott, Covid was a godsend.

It is indeed only because of the pandemic that the Berlin-born nonagenarian, who is a great-grandmother many times over, finds herself living in Mitzpe Netofa, a scenic religious yishuv near Tiberias.

Back in February 2020, Grussgott, a Holocaust survivor who was living in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, decided she could no longer remain in a large house by herself. Together with her four children, two of whom live in the States, she made the decision to move into an independent living facility nearby. The facility told her she could move in on March 1. “That’s too soon,” Grussgott said. They decided on March 15.

But it was not meant to be.

“Between March 1 and March 15, the whole world turned upside down,” says Grussgott’s daughter Dina, who lives in Mitzpe Netofa. Shortly before her mom was scheduled to move to the assisted living center, Dina began feeling frantic.

Even though it was early on in the pandemic, she realized the severity of the situation. “Mom,” she said over the phone, “you can’t move there.

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It’s too dangerous.” Grussgott was unsure. How could she back out of the commitment she had made? She called the facility and was promptly told that new policies were now in place: no family visitors were being allowed in. That sealed her decision.

Grussgott decided not to move.

Then Dina had an idea. She knew that the owner of a house near her, an epidemiologist, had just gone to the States. She called him and was promptly offered the opportunity to rent the house. “Mom, there’s a house three doors away from me in the yishuv that’s available! Come to Israel,” she pleaded. The fact that the house was available for rent was remarkable in and of itself. “This

“Mom, there’s a house three doors away from me in the yishuv that’s available! Come to Israel,” she pleaded. is a very desirable community,” explains Dina. “There’s a waiting list just to get a caravan. Hashem was pushing my mother here.”

Incidentally, just that week, a news article appeared about an overwhelmed Brooklyn funeral home in Grussgott’s neighborhood where dozens of bodies were found decomposing. Dina insisted that her mother would be much safer in Israel. Since Grussgott had her daughter Dina as well as a son and grandchildren and great-grandchildren living in Israel, she finally consented. “A house so close to my daughter! It was an offer I couldn’t refuse,” she says.

But that was only the beginning.

Now the paperwork had to get done—which proved to be a significant challenge. The Misrad Hapnim, Israel’s Ministry of Interior, required Grussgott’s birth

certificate from Berlin, among other unobtainable documents. Dina spent four months “doing nothing else” but trying to figure out how to satisfy all the regulations. The situation looked bleak when they suddenly experienced remarkable siyata d’Shmaya. In desperation, Dina decided to look around for a connection at the Ministry of Interior. To her disbelief, she discovered that her son, who was in the IDF at the time, was working closely with the Misrad Hapnim and had close contacts there. With her new connections, the requirement for the various documents was simply waived. “Just choose the flight,” she was told.

On August 20, 2020, Nelly Grussgott arrived in Israel on one of the few planes still flying there.

“I was told that because of Covid, no one would be at the airport to greet me,” says Grussgott in her easygoing, cheerful manner. “I said, ‘That’s okay, I’ll take a taxi.’

But when I got off the plane, I saw some people from a distance [across the otherwise empty airport].” To her shock, she recognized them.

“They were my grandchildren and great-grandchildren!” With her family members hugging her through a plastic shower curtain to ensure corona precautious were in place and her grandson, who is a musician, playing music, they formed a joyous welcoming committee at Ben-Gurion Airport.

A touching video of the scene went viral, with Israeli politician Dov Lipman posting it on Twitter and media personality Sivan Rahav-Meir publicizing it as well. “My mother became a celebrity,” says Dina.

At the age of ninety, Nelly Grussgott made Israel her home.

Her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are in and out of her house all day long. “Making aliyah has exceeded my expectations.

I love being in Israel,” she says.

“And it’s all because of Covid.”

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Continued from page 36 surprised” by the jump in aliyah last year. “The pandemic has shown the Jewish Diaspora the obvious: the writing is on the wall regarding their continued existence in the Diaspora,” he asserts. “Israel’s outstanding response to the pandemic has encouraged many who were on the fence to make the bold move. It is always a good time to come to Israel, of course. But this is a particular juncture at which the community here could use fortification.”

This phenomenon pertains especially to the Orthodox community, which represents a disproportionate amount of the North American Jews who make aliyah. According to Nefesh B’Nefesh, about 65 percent of the families who make aliyah identify themselves as Orthodox; the percentage is reversed for younger singles who make aliyah, but families, because of their larger numbers, which typically include several children, represent the majority of olim from North America.

Why the increased interest in aliyah?

Potential olim, working remotely and separated for extended periods from family members, saw that life conducted online was feasible. Distance did not matter as long as a computer or smartphone was at hand. “That was the biggest factor,” says Rosenberg.

Also, say experts, the inability to visit Israel for long stretches of time caused many to rethink their priorities and their relationship with the Jewish state.

“We finally had the ability to leave; the pandemic simplified it,” says Eckmann, who moved to Jerusalem’s Nachlaot neighborhood with his wife.

“If not now, when?” he asked himself.

On the other hand, “the pandemic posed a logistical challenge” for people seeking to make aliyah, Rosenberg adds. “It was more difficult to get documents” from closed offices, or to attend pre-aliyah seminars or interview sessions during what is typically a nine-month process.

Instead, “everything was virtual.”

Another difference was that there were no mass aliyah flights; instead, people making the move did it in small groups when the borders to Israel were open, and they were often the sole 42

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The inability to visit Israel for long stretches of time caused many to rethink their priorities and their relationship with the Jewish state. olim on their flights. Nefesh B’Nefesh made no special public relations pitch to attract people during the pandemic, he says—Israel sold itself.

(One organization that did earmark Orthodox immigrants was “Bring Them Home” [itstimetoleave.com].)

If the changing circumstances of the pandemic did not make clear the viability of aliyah, “we’re missing the message,” states Rabbi Scott Berman, who was head of school at a Modern Orthodox high school in Detroit and now lives in Modi’in and works as a consultant. He was quarantined for his first two weeks in Israel. “I could be isolated in the United States. I could be isolated in Israel,” he said.

Other reasons for the increase in aliyah included the feeling that the level of anti-Semitism in the US was

going up, and a desire to receive Israeli citizenship, which made people eligible for the “rescue flights” from abroad that were available only to Israeli citizens. (During the pandemic, when international flights were canceled in many countries, Israel sent a number of rescue flights to bring home hundreds of Israelis who were stranded in several countries.)

Williams, previously a frequent traveler, says Israeli citizenship was her motivation for going through with her decision to finally make aliyah; during the pandemic she was eligible to continue visiting her children who still live in the States. ”I’m not your typical olah [immigrant],” she concedes. “I live at the airport.” But, she added, when she returns to Israel these days, “I’m going home to my own country.” 

COVER STORY

Rethinking the

Economics of Frum Life

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hat can we do to help those struggling with the high infrastructural cost of Orthodox life?

While we cannot easily resolve the high cost of tuition or housing in our communities, how can we help individuals better navigate the world of personal finance?

These are the questions that the OU’s Department of Community Projects and Partnerships, which works to confront ongoing communal issues, is seeking to address. While these challenges do not lend themselves to simplistic resolutions, the OU is working to develop a comprehensive, holistic approach that tackles the root issues of personal finance on both the earning as well as on the expenditure side.

In these pages, we attempt to address both facets. Focusing on helping people grow their income, we convened a top-notch roundtable discussion this past May with some of the leading communal experts in career building and entrepreneurship, who shared their thoughts, wisdom and advice.

We hope you find this wide-ranging, thought-provoking discussion motivating and enlightening.

In an effort to equip individuals to address their financial challenges head on, we spoke with the well-known speaker Rabbi Naftali Horowitz, author of You Revealed: A Torah Path to a Life of Success and a managing director at JP Morgan who has spent hundreds of hours guiding people toward financial freedom. In the Q & A in this issue, he stresses ideas such as budgeting, living within your means and re-examining the role of materialism. This special section also includes helpful tips about developing and honing financial skills such as saving and avoiding debt. In this season of introspection, rethinking the way we view money is a wonderful first step toward addressing our community’s affordability crisis.

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COVER STORY

Money Talk Leading career and business experts discuss how to grow your business or career and improve your financial situation.

Photos: Josh Weinberg

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his past May, Jewish Action invited a number of prominent frum experts on business and career building to reflect on the landscape of opportunities that are available for maximizing one’s earning potential. Participants included Chaya Fishman, Rabbi Zisha Novoseller, Robert Safren and Ned Schoenfeld. Providing a Torah perspective on the topic, OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Moshe Hauer participated in the discussion as well. Moderated by Zevy Wolman, the discussion took place at the OU headquarters in Manhattan and spanned a variety of topics including what it takes to become successful, the new world of remote business, work-life balance, the value of mentorship, and so much more.

The following are excerpts from the wide-ranging discussion.

Moderator: We’re going to talk today about practical ways in which people can try to better their financial situation.

However, there is an important preamble to this conversation.

As Torah Jews, we need to balance hishtadlus, our efforts to make a living, with a healthy appreciation of the belief that our livelihood comes from God. We understand that we are required to expend reasonable effort within the constructs of the world in which we live.

But how do we find the right balance?

Rabbi Moshe Hauer: This is a fundamental question that doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all answer.

We know that ultimately the deliverables come from God, but human effort is part of the contract we have in Creation. Being a people of faith does not allow us to abdicate responsibility for doing our part.

It’s true with parnassah, and it is similarly true, to choose another common example, regarding the

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pursuit of good health or medicinal efforts. The Orthodox community is probably one of the most advanced in being resourceful and creative in terms of getting good medical care. We have our own emergency medical services, and we have referral services for the best doctors. We’re very serious about making efforts in that realm, and making a livelihood is not fundamentally different.

Of course, every effort we make should be one that we feel God would be pleased with. First and foremost, this means that it’s a halachically and ethically appropriate endeavor. So if there are gray areas about whether or not a certain effort is appropriate, that’s when we should hesitate.

We also need to ensure that the pursuit of making a living does not take over our lives; we want these efforts to take up only a certain corner of our lives.

At the end of Maseches Kiddushin where the Mishnah discusses how

one should choose a trade, two qualifications for a profession are described: it should be both “kalah u’nekiyah (light or easy, and clean).

Nekiyah refers to what I mentioned earlier—one’s efforts should be clean, that is, without ethical challenges.

We must be convinced that this is something God would want us to do. Kalah refers to the fact that the profession doesn’t take over your life, that you’re still able to be an eved Hashem. In today’s day and age, can we realistically adhere to the Rambam’s schedule of eight hours of sleep, eight hours of taking care of all your material needs and eight hours of Torah study? That’s what we would call somebody who’s not working for a living! Nevertheless, there is a balance that we need to strike.

Moderator: Thank you very much for these insights. I want to provide background to this discussion.

Unquestionably, the cost of Jewish life is one of the most significant challenges facing the American Jewish Orthodox community. Obviously, there are multiple contributing factors to the high cost of living as an Orthodox Jew, including tuition, real estate costs based on living in Orthodox communities, simchas, kosher food, societal pressures, post-high school tuitions, support for married children, et cetera.

While there are some mitigating factors that can be addressed on an individual level, I think most would agree that for a family of four-plus children, a joint income of well in excess of $150,000 (pre-tax dollars) and in many cases significantly higher, is typically required. To put that in context, that would mean that the average individual in our community needs to be earning, for families, in the top 4 to 8 percent of all income earners in America, and for individuals, as much as three times the median income in America. So what we’d like to try to address with our distinguished panel is how young people just starting out, as well as older people looking to transition into a different career or start a business, can better understand the landscape

of opportunities that are available for them to maximize their earning potential within a Torah lifestyle.

There are two different ways people make a living—through careers and through entrepreneurship. Traditionally, Orthodox Jews have pursued careers such as accounting, law and medicine.

However, in recent years, there are new fields that seem to work well with a frum lifestyle. What are solid career choices that are not necessarily new, as well as some up-and-coming fields, that people might not be aware of?

Ned Schoenfeld: Today, there are a lot of opportunities related to technology. Almost every discipline in business has a sub-segment that’s technology focused. In the field of advertising, for example, there’s social media advertising, which is very tech-oriented. There’s also figuring out how to serve up ads, how to get your company noticed and how to improve your search rankings. I see a lot of Orthodox-run businesses cropping up that provide these kinds of services. The insurance markets as well as financial services are also becoming more and more oriented towards tech. You can pick a field you’re interested in and take a look at the technology angles.

A business degree is very worthwhile. And with the aging population in America, anything related to health care and nursing homes is valuable. There is also a new sub-specialty in nursing home technology where staff use apps to search for and obtain various equipment or to hire a therapist quickly when a patient needs one. There’s lots of growth in that market. I also see many people getting into real estate, which is broad— there’s property management, real estate accounting and real estate sourcing (identifying properties).

Many people get degrees in business but then go on to enroll in an insurance program, a real estate license program or something along those lines. Those businesses have an advantage in that they are like a traditional job, but at the same time kind of entrepreneurial

Chaya Fishman is the founder of The Jewish Woman Entrepreneur (The JWE), a national nonprofit that helps Jewish women launch and grow businesses. To date, The JWE has assisted over 2,800 women. Professionally, Chaya is general counsel for MajorKey Technologies.

Rabbi Moshe Hauer is the executive vice president of the OU.

Robert Safren serves as executive director of The Jewish Entrepreneur, a free mentoring organization with over 350 mentors across North America. Prior to this position, Robert, an electrical engineer who lives in New Jersey, ran business and manufacturing operations in the semi-conductor industry for twenty-five years.

Ned Schoenfeld is a founding partner of Cove Hill Consulting, and has strong technology, operational and financial expertise across multiple industries.

Ned has assisted his clients in achieving business results in strategic planning, large-scale project delivery, business start-ups and organizational transformation. Ned, who lives on Long Island in New York, is a founding board member of Parnassah Exchange Inc, a nonprofit organization assisting those in search of jobs and careers.

Rabbi Zisha Novoseller of Lakewood, New Jersey, is executive director of EPI Networking, a non-profit recruitment and career services organization and matching-fund incubator for startups. Since its inception, EPI has funded approximately 700 businesses and placed 4,900 people.

Isaac “Zevy” Wolman (Moderator) lives in Baltimore with his wife and children. He is the CEO of Make It Real and co-founder of Living Smarter Jewish and The Jewish Entrepreneur.

Zevy is an OU director-at-large, is on the OU’s Board of Directors and serves as the co-chair of the OU Community Projects and Partnerships Department.

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structure, who’s the couple’s support network? Have they created a solid infrastructure for themselves that they can fall back on when help is needed?

At the roundtable discussion held at the OU headquarters in Manhattan this past May, some of the experts participated via Zoom. Seen here, Chaya Fishman and Rabbi Zisha Novoseller.

as you can make your own hours.

Moderator: In recent years, we’ve seen an increase in women taking on important lead roles as either primary or supplementary breadwinners for their families. We definitely see more dual-income families in the general population and in the frum world as well.

Chaya, you have helped hundreds of women in our community who have started businesses—some very successfully. For women who want to start a business, what are the distinguishing factors that differentiate those who are making it and finding ways to thrive versus those who are struggling? Obviously, these principles will apply to everyone.

Chaya: Clearly, there is a lot of siyata d’Shmaya (Divine assistance) involved. Nevertheless, there are core elements that you see over and over again when it comes to successful female entrepreneurs. Successful women tend to be extraordinarily gritty; they don’t give up very easily.

They’re careful about the numbers, down to the pennies. And if they are not “numbers people,” they’ve hired the right people and are closely in touch with them; they don’t just assume somebody else is tracking.

In particular, in the Covid environment, the successful women were the ones who were 46

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able to quickly recalibrate, pivot and regain their footing. When Covid hit, I noticed two categories of entrepreneurs. There were the women who ran storefront businesses that were not online yet. They had to quickly jump into e-commerce and bring their businesses online.

Then you had all these women who were already online. They suddenly had to come up with innovative ideas in order to effectively compete in a now-flooded market.

So here are some of the core qualities: innovation, grit, frugality and self-awareness. What do I mean by self-awareness? A woman who is aware of her skills and her strengths as well as where she may be lacking.

She is honest enough to hire the right people to fill in for her weaknesses.

I want to add another point: If you want to hit certain revenue numbers with your business, it’s very hard to do that when you’re solely focused on the frum community. The women who tend to be more successful have taken their businesses and their services outside of the frum community.

Finally, one of the biggest determining factors of whether a woman’s going to be successful or not depends on what’s going on at home. If she’s married, what’s the relationship between the spouses like? Who’s doing what? What does her support system look like? Even outside of the marriage

Moderator: Excellent observations.

Robert and Rabbi Novoseller, it would seem that a lot of what Chaya said is relevant not only to women but also to any entrepreneur. In your roles, what do you see as the determining factors of successful entrepreneurship?

Robert: One aspect that applies to any entrepreneur is passion. You really have to be motivated and passionate about what you do—in other words, you have to believe in your product or service. This is very important because you can hate your job, but you can’t hate your business! You have to be motivated and driven.

A family unit working together in harmony is another really strong foundation for success. A woman we mentored started a children’s clothing business. The husband and wife worked together on building the business. The wife was the driver— she set up the manufacturing—but the couple did a tremendous amount of research together. Couples who work together as a team can be very successful. Not only does this couple have a successful business now, but the wife went from being a mentee to being one our of our best mentors. So it’s a real success story in which family harmony worked very positively.

There are other professional skills one needs to have to be successful: Does the individual follow up? Does she document? Is he respectful? Is she persistent in a professional sense?

Is he assertive but not aggressive?

Rabbi Novoseller: What do entrepreneurs need to be successful? Here’s a list to consider: good social skills; soft skills; mentschlichkeit; patience; self-control; open-mindedness; flexibility; the ability to hear another person’s opinion; being happy, upbeat and resilient; having respect and confidence; keeping calm; and having the capacity to work very hard.

We know that people are hired for skills and fired for attitude.

Approximately 50 percent of employees who are let go across the United States are let go because of attitude, even when they have the ability to do their job well. All of these interpersonal skills have to be learned when one is young, and that is the formula for success in life and business.

Moderator: I want to focus on a point touched upon earlier, which is that although it’s relatively easy in our community to develop a product or service and sell it to others in the frum world, the reality is that the more defined and narrow your market is, the less chance you have of being extremely successful.

Rabbi Novoseller: There are those who are in service or retail businesses that are directly geared to the Jewish community, such as a sefarim store or a bagel shop in a mall in a heavily Jewish area. Those entrepreneurs have already targeted a specific audience, and that’s how they’re proceeding. But we are constantly pushing entrepreneurs to look outside of the frum world. The big catalyst was Covid. Business owners went online, and once they were online, they realized they were suddenly before millions of customers.

Many of those who adapted their websites to address a broader clientele are seeing much success.

One of the reasons some people didn’t do this previously is because there’s often a fear factor for someone who was born and raised in the observant world to venture out of it; they are unsure of what that will bring. The answer is simple—it will likely bring more money. So we’ve pushed people in that direction.

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Robert: I agree. The services and products many businesses offer are universal. If you limit your demographic, you limit your business.

Moderator: We are living in a post-Covid world where business tends to be more remote. Ned, can you address this from a career perspective as well?

How long-lasting do you think this trend will be?

Ned: Whether or not people will end up going back to work in offices is one aspect.

At least in America, a lot of business is done remotely. A very large percentage of the American economy is service based, and service businesses lend themselves to doing business remotely. Ten or fifteen years ago, someone said to me, “If you’re a New York consultant, you should fly to Iowa because Iowa doesn’t have any really good consultants.” Today that’s easy. I can just put up a web page and say, “Hi, you’re in Iowa and I’m in New York; let me help you.”

That’s true with many businesses today. Of course, there are some businesses where you need that face-to-face interaction. But so many stores are selling their products online, accountants are doing much of their work remotely, even some parts of medicine are now remote; in fact, doctors in India are reading x-rays for patients here in the US. So if you, as a frum

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; New Initiative Targets Personal Finance Issues in the Jewish Community Zevy Wolman is partnering with the OU to help provide Jewish community members with the tools they need to face their financial challenges head on.

By JA Staff

Z

evy Wolman, a Baltimore businessman who has founded multiple communal organizations, is partnering with a number of leading financial experts, as well as with the Orthodox Union, to help people navigate the world of personal finance.

“The infrastructural cost of living Jewish in America is very high,” says Wolman. “Just waking up in the morning and paying tuition for five kids, compounded by the societal spending pressures that so many of our families face, makes things very difficult. The need to earn exceptionally high incomes simply to stay afloat has led this issue to constantly top the list of challenges that Orthodox Jewish families identify.”

The initiative, created in conjunction with the OU and called Living Smarter Jewish (livingsmarterJewish.org), will utilize a three-pronged approach to help those facing personal finance challenges. Given that these issues affect so many in the Orthodox world, Living Smarter Jewish will endeavor to develop messaging to reach Jews across the Orthodox spectrum.

The initiative’s first component, centered around empowerment and positive messaging, emphasizes the beauty and Torah value of living within your means. Living Smarter Jewish recognizes that doing so is “no small feat when the notion that spending leads to happiness has crept from the secular world into Orthodox Jewish communities of all stripes.”

The second leg of Living Smarter Jewish focuses on education— equipping people with the tools they need to meet their financial challenges head-on through

Living Smarter Jewish is looking for coaches who are willing to volunteer to help families with their finances. Can be in person or remote. We will provide training. A commitment of just a few hours a month can help change lives. For more information, email info@livingsmarterjewish.org.

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videos, webinars and podcasts.

This summer, in conjunction with Yaakov Langer from the well-known Meaningful People Podcast and Eli Langer, a former producer for CNBC’s social media team, a podcast called Kosher Money was launched featuring influential guests from across the spectrum of the financial and communal world.

Living Smarter Jewish also plans to partner with other individuals and organizations to help develop and promote curricula for children of all ages in order to teach good spending habits and other important financial lessons.

“The goal is responsible personal finance with a 360 degree take on various important issues that pertain to the Orthodox Jewish community,” notes Wolman. “We intend to speak openly and explicitly about tuition, costs of real estate and other hot-button topics and present the realities, including actual family budgets, in order to help mitigate these challenges moving forward.”

The final element of Living Smarter Jewish is personal one-on-one assistance to help families with their budgets and debt challenges; to this end, a nationwide network of coaches is being assembled. While ideally people would be paired up with counselors who could provide in-person help, remote counseling will also be available when needed.

“It was one of the things people and organizations learned during Covid,” explains Wolman. “Whereas previously organizations were limited to a geographic location, now they can help people across the country and even across the world by working remotely.”

The fact that those in the Jewish community rarely discuss finances openly has kept the topic shrouded in the dark for many. Living Smarter Jewish is posed to generate meaningful conversations, benefiting those who are having financial difficulties.

“The rabbis have a well-known saying, ‘Ein chavush matir atzmo

This summer, Yaakov Langer from the Meaningful People Podcast, and his brother Eli, launched Kosher Money, a podcast about personal finance. Seen here, Eli (left) and Yaakov recording the first episode.

mibeis ha’asurim, an imprisoned person cannot free himself from captivity.’ Very often, it takes a fresh third-party perspective to help families clarify the issues that they face and help generate the positive changes that can make all the difference,” says Wolman.

Joining Wolman at the helm of Living Smarter Jewish are several highly respected individuals including Naftali (Mark) Horowitz, managing director and wealth partner at JP Morgan Wealth; Gedalia Litke, an attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher who lectures on personal finance; Josh Hurewitz, former director of Mesila of Baltimore; Yehuda Neuberger, a member of the OU leadership team; Rabbi Simon Taylor, national director of the OU Department of Community Projects and Partnerships; and Rabbi Moshe

Hauer, executive vice president of the OU. The group is confident that in time, and “with Hashem’s help, the program will make a difference and people will finally feel empowered and comfortable reaching out for financial help.”

Living Smarter Jewish is a member organization of Tribeworks, an international collaboration of fifteen organizations dedicated to assisting individuals grow their incomes. Wolman hopes this will be “a meaningful synergy to assist clients looking to increase their incomes.”

“There is so much we are trying to accomplish and we know the problems won’t all be solved in one day, but we hope that by starting the conversation we are already getting halfway to where we would like to be,” he says.

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Continued from page 47 business or career person, see these opportunities and you want to expand beyond the Jewish world, it’s easy nowadays—you can still live a two-minute walk from shul yet service the whole nation.

Robert: I think there needs to be a balance. Many years ago, pre-Zoom, pre-Skype—prehistoric!—I had to interface for my business with overseas manufacturing in Singapore and Malaysia. I would have meetings with them on a weekly basis, and it took a long time to get commitments on product delivery and quality.

I decided I would go there. I flew to Singapore and met with them face-to-face, and in just two three-hour meetings, I accomplished six months’ worth of commitments, which I couldn’t do on the phone.

There are certain areas where doing work remotely or online is effective, but at the end of the day, when you want to get commitments, you need to meet in person.

Ned: But how many times do you really need that face-to-face? You’ll do that maybe once, and after that, you can have a productive long-distance relationship. Once you’ve built a personal relationship, clients are very happy not to have to pay airfare or carfare for you to travel across the country. Getting that answer from you by talking to you online suffices.

Moderator: As somebody who used to travel to work frequently, I’ve certainly appreciated the last year and a half.

I’d like to come back to the work-life balance issue, which is obviously an issue for both men and women. But let’s focus on women for now. Are women who are running their businesses out of their homes possibly creating more problems than were solved by not having to travel to an office?

Chaya: Whether you’re an entrepreneur or a professional, the question is—when does the day start and when does it end if you’re in the same place the entire time?

There are definitely significant benefits for a mother to be able to be present for her kids when they get 50

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Nowadays, most women need to work. And it’s absolutely impossible to do it all. A lot of women have learned that the hard way.

- Chaya Fishman

home from school or get household responsibilities taken care of between business calls. It can also obviously be super distracting. But everyone can work out the practicalities—if you’re disciplined, you’ll get your work done when you’re supposed to, and you’ll figure out how to balance it with your family.

It all boils down to two things. The first aspect, which I mentioned earlier, is partnership and support. How is the couple sharing the burden now that traditional family roles have shifted?

In the past, the husband went off to work and the woman was at home and primarily the caregiver of the children. Nowadays, most women need to work. And it’s absolutely impossible to do it all. A lot of women have learned that the hard way.

The women whose businesses are thriving are those who have mutual respect at home and have worked out a healthy partnership. That doesn’t mean it’s an equal split down the middle where the husband does the carpools and the wife does the cooking or the laundry. It means they’ve figured out what needs to happen to keep the ball moving, to keep the family at

peak performance, and they’ve split the responsibilities in such a way that both spouses feel supported.

Your question—working at home versus working at an office—brings me to my second point, which is boundaries. Having a separate office space definitely sets a hard line. But you could be working at an office and still have your clients calling you at 11 pm when you get home. Being shomer Shabbos is the best exercise in what a real boundary looks like because when Shabbos hits, nothing else matters.

It’s really the only time when there’s a hard stop; nobody can contact me no matter what. And that kind of hard stop doesn’t generally happen, especially when you’re an entrepreneur.

And so the women who are setting realistic but firm boundaries are successful. What do I mean by realistic boundaries? On paper it’s great to say to clients, “I will not be responding to emails after 7:00 pm,” but that’s not realistic when you’re running a business.

For many women entrepreneurs, a more realistic boundary is—I’m offline from 5:00 to 7:00 pm while I have dinnertime and bedtime with my children, and then I come back online. So it’s having boundaries— and having realistic boundaries— that really contributes to success.

Moderator: Rabbi Hauer, is there anything you want to add to that in terms of family dynamics and boundaries?

Rabbi Hauer: Chaya’s description is completely on target. Finding individual boundaries and making sure there’s a team effort within a family where everybody understands and supports one another is crucial.

But these are challenging times.

Work-life balance is critical. We are working to be able to pay for our children’s education and give them the things we want to give them, but we must always be cognizant of the things they want more than the things we want to give them. They want us.

They just want time with their parents.

We have to make sure that time with

our children is Kodesh Hakedoshim, sacred. And we need to make sure we don’t run ourselves ragged to the point where Shabbos is the time to disappear because you have to recover for the next week of “killing myself for my children.” We have to be there. This is a mitzvah sheb’gufo (a mitzvah that must be performed by an individual himself). It can’t be delegated.

Chaya: I know this is a bit of a tangent, but it relates to the discussion of how women working has impacted the traditional frum home.

One of the things few people like to talk about is the power struggles between spouses and the way respect and success need to be reconfigured when there is a change in the dynamics. I’ve seen this with many of the women in our network, some of whom are making significantly more money than their husbands.

One of my most powerful learning experiences took place at the JWE’s first business conference. Saki Dodelson, founder and former CEO of Achieve3000, a digital platform that helps kids read, was the keynote speaker. Some years ago, she sold the company for many millions of dollars.

At that point, her husband had been learning in kollel for more than twenty years and she had built this wildly successful business. She explained the division in their home: Her husband was bringing all the spiritual energy into the home. He was going to knock it out of the park with his Torah learning, and she was going to knock it out of the park in business. They both had incredible respect for each other.

This is such an important message.

When both spouses are working, many young couples grapple with how to support each other in a way that doesn’t turn into a battle of “my job’s more important” or “you’re not helping enough with the kids.”

Success and respect in marriage shouldn’t depend on who the primary breadwinner is and who makes more money.

The most important thing is not the starting salary; it’s to get yourself on a career path that will pay off over time.

- Ned Schoenfeld

Moderator: Let’s shift the conversation a bit. What prevents people from maximizing their Continued on page 53 Fall 5782/2021 JEWISH ACTION

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Parnassah Exchange: A New Clearinghouse for the Unemployed

By Steve Lipman

A

resident of a suburb of New York City and a longtime worker in the non-profit world, Naftali (not his real name) was about to lose his comfortable salary earlier this year when his job was eliminated during his firm’s downsizing, a victim of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Naftali took immediate “pro-active” action, networking in his circle of friends and applying for several jobs.

“I started looking around,” he says.

Then Parnassah Exchange stepped in.

The initiative (parnassahexchange. org) is a new clearinghouse and connecting point for several organizations under Orthodox auspices in the Greater New York area that assist men and women who are unemployed and underemployed.

Since being formed a year ago as an outgrowth of an informal-but-smaller group of men in Long Island’s Five Towns area, the organization has helped an estimated several hundred people find new jobs, or better ones.

The more than a hundred volunteers in Parnassah Exchange do their work largely through Zoom and phone interviews, prepping candidates for job interviews, helping them polish their resumes, and using their network of contacts throughout the business world to find work for the unemployed.

The volunteers represent a wide variety of backgrounds in finance, banking and other fields.

One of the volunteers, who also arranged a subsequent, socially distanced in-person interview with Naftali, suggested that his work experience would make him “a perfect fit” for the health care Steve Lipman is a frequent contributor to Jewish Action.

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industry; Naftali took the volunteer’s advice, and soon interviewed for two jobs in health care; a month after he learned that his old job was being phased out, he began his new one. At a higher salary than his previous job had paid.

“I ended up doing better” in his new field, says Naftali, thirty, who is Modern Orthodox and active in his local synagogue. “I had bitachon that things would work out.”

Saul Greenberger, a Brooklyn resident who helped Naftali get his new job, calls Naftali “a beautiful success story” of Parnassah Exchange. “There was something about his personality” during the initial Zoom meeting, and Naftali’s reasonable salary expectations, which would make him a good match in health care,

“It’s a major game-changer,” restoring millions of dollars of potentially lost salaries to members of the Orthodox community. says Greenberger, who is a partner in a long-term care pharmacy.

Zev Mandel, one of the co-founders of the independent, “very organic” Parnassah Exchange that began on What’sApp, says the organization has handled some 500 resumes of job-seekers during the pandemic, and has found jobs whose salaries are both modest and six-figures. Parnassah Exchange’s goal is to expand its national reach.

Elie Waldman, another co-founder of Parnassah Exchange and of its smaller predecessor, the Parnassah Initiative, says “we realized we needed to formalize things” to increase the latter’s scope.

The founders of Parnassah Exchange “needed help to scale their project” to meet the increased demands of the pandemic, says

Rabbi Simon Taylor, national director of the OU’s Department of Community Projects and Partnerships, which has provided Parnassah Exchange with marketing, technical and moral support.

“It’s a major game changer,” restoring millions of dollars of potentially lost salaries to members of the Orthodox community, providing a financial lifeline to families and preventing loss of untold dues and donations to synagogues and other Jewish institutions, Rabbi Taylor says.

Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald, director of the National Jewish Outreach Program, calls such employment-oriented organizations “extremely necessary. They have done an outstanding job.”

Greenberger says he has “touched” the lives of at least 100 to 150 people who have contacted him in the last decade looking for a job—or a better one. “It’s so simple to pick up a phone and line up a job.

I see the power of reaching out to someone—it’s a big responsibility.”

The number of people contacting him has risen in the last year, Greenberger says. “Every week I meet two, three people.”

What would the situation be without the work of Parnassah Exchange?

“Many individuals would still be without work, and need to be supported by the community,” Rabbi Taylor says.

Naftali has recommended Parnassah Exchange to many of his friends and hopes to soon join the organization’s ranks of volunteers—a.k.a. “ambassadors.”

He and his family could have gotten by on their savings for a while if Parnassah Exchange had not helped him, he says; he would not have been broke now. But, he adds, “I would be a lot more stressed out.”

Continued from page 51 potential? Is it fear? Is it unwillingness to work hard?

What do you think is responsible for holding people back from actualizing their earning potential?

Rabbi Novoseller: It’s hard to start a company with just $100,000 unless the potential business owner has a foot in the door, some entry into the field—maybe her mother has a dress store in the Five Towns and she wants to open a similar business in Teaneck. That’s what gives people the ability to get into a game that otherwise would need huge connections and much more money.

Chaya: When it comes to entrepreneurs, money is a big factor that holds people back. Some entrepreneurs have parents or other family members who are willing to give them their first round of seed capital; then there are the people who don’t have that. When you look at someone who’s wildly successful—not to minimize their success— oftentimes it comes back to that initial seed money.

I’m not sure if fear is a big factor. Most of the women in our [JWE] network have a lot of chutzpah, so fear is not necessarily what’s holding them back. Life circumstances and family situations can be overwhelming, and there are high expectations to keep everything together.

So I think that’s what holds a lot of women back, although money is probably the biggest factor.

There’s an entirely different aspect too. Sometimes women are not taken seriously. It’s very hard to get in front of a number of venture capitalists, even just getting your foot in the door. When you finally do, it can be very demoralizing to be asked a work-life balance question. No man walking in would be asked the same question. So that can be really tough.

Moderator: Supposedly there are 25 million entrepreneurs in America, about 5 percent of the population—of course it depends how you define an entrepreneur. In the Orthodox community and the Jewish community at large, however, I would assume that the percentage is a good deal higher. Entrepreneurship plays a very important role in our community.

But to be successful, a certain entrepreneurial makeup is needed, and not everybody has that makeup.

At the end of the day, 20 percent of businesses fail in the first year, by the fifth year, 50 percent fail and by the tenth year, 80 percent fail (figures are from the Small Business Administration). As a community, we’re not immune to the laws of statistics.

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Chaya: Sometimes the biggest act of kindness, as painful as it is, is telling somebody, “Maybe you’re not cut out to be an entrepreneur.” Opening a business is a default option for many people because they may not have had access to higher education or it seems to be an easier path. But not everybody can be an entrepreneur.

Rabbi Novoseller: We turn away 50 percent of the people who come to EPI for startup loans. It’s not because we don’t want to give them the money; it’s because we know it’s not going to work and I’d be doing Fall 5782/2021 JEWISH ACTION

53

a terrible avlah (injustice) to them.

They’re going to be $50,000 in debt and not have a viable business with which to pay it back. So we do a lot of screening—hours and hours on each person, on each business idea, and on how well the person is funded.

So there are a lot of components that we require. About one out of three people we turn away ends up coming back to us six or twelve months later, saying, “Okay, you were right. I put together what I was lacking,” or “I changed the product I was selling, and now I’m back in the game.”

Robert: We also do a lot of vetting of the folks that come in as well.

We don’t set them up with a mentor unless we feel comfortable that there’s a real business idea and that they’re really motivated to do this.

With regard to mentoring, we view success in two ways. One way is seeing whether the business has grown; the mentoring has had an impact on the company’s growth.

Fantastic. That’s our goal. But equal to that is the possibility that they learned through their mentor that they shouldn’t be in business. They should be looking for a position, get some experience, do an internship or do other things because they’re not ready to run a business right now or a particular business isn’t the right business for them. We consider that a success as well because we’ve saved these individuals time and money.

Ned: The internship and apprenticeship idea is a very important one, particularly for people who have never done anything entrepreneurial before and certainly for people who have never worked before. Everything looks easy from a distance. “I’m sure I can start my own Tesla company tomorrow and build my own cars. How hard could it be? You draw a car on paper and then people start building it, right?”

People have said things like that to me because they believe it’s that simple. But if you want to open your own restaurant, why don’t you first work in a restaurant? That’s the best way to get a taste of something. See 54

JEWISH ACTION Fall 5782/2021

We turn away 50 percent of the people who come to EPI for startup loans. It’s not because we don’t want to give them the money.

It’s because we know it’s not going to work.

- Rabbi Zisha Novoseller what goes into it. See how the owner shops for food, trying to get good quality and good prices. See the way he needs to calculate that every dish served is economical. Otherwise, customers might like your food but you’ll be out of business in a week.

Moderator: I own a business, and I’ve gotten calls from people who say, “I need a job.” I say, “Great. What are you looking to earn?” “Well, I need $120,000 as a starting salary in middle management.” I say, “I don’t know what middle management is.

Maybe you could explain it to me.”

I’m not being facetious. There are a lot of people who are hesitant to take a starting salary of $50,000 or $70,000 because they argue, “I can’t afford to spend two years earning $50,000.

That’s not going to pay my bills.”

But it sounds like you’re suggesting that there is a significant value to taking a lower salary and getting your feet wet—assuming it’s on the right path.

Ned: One hundred percent. You need persistence to succeed at

work; just like you need persistence to excel in Torah learning or in any other academic pursuit.

Learn whatever skills you need to learn. Ask yourself: How do the top performers excel in this area? How do they get promoted? How do they find the best jobs? Ask yourself these questions and seek out the answers.

Oftentimes people don’t succeed at work because they don’t make the requisite effort. People call me up and say, “I’m looking for a job that pays $150,000.” As if there are so many jobs like that hanging around just waiting for you. So I usually respond like this: “If you help me, I’ll help you. I’m looking for a job where I can be a rosh yeshivah of a large yeshivah. I don’t necessarily have all the knowledge now, but over time I’ll pick up the stuff I need to know.” And they say, “That’s ridiculous.” And I respond: “Yes, yes, correct. That’s ridiculous.”

The most important thing is not the starting salary; it’s to get yourself on a career path that will pay off over time. It’s going to be tough, and you have to work hard. The people who fail are often those who pick a single job or career route, and if they can’t do that one thing, they get stuck.

But that’s not a realistic approach.

Recently, I tried helping a certain individual. He was solely focused on one career path—he was a mental health professional, and he only wanted to work in a school setting. He held a few jobs in different schools, but they never seemed to work out. He needed to shift focus, but he refused to work in any other setting. That’s comparable to a young person who says, “I only want to go to Harvard.”

But if you don’t get into Harvard, does that mean you can’t get an education?

If you didn’t get into Harvard, go to Brooklyn College and get an education!

Getting back to my previous point— it’s well worth the economics to say, “I’ll take a lower-paying job at first and learn the ropes.” Accept that lower salary for a couple of years.

That’s usually what it takes until people figure out whether it’s the right career for them. At that point, they either start earning more where they

are, or they make a move and start earning more in a different company.

I was just looking into the insurance market for an individual I was helping.

In the US, to start off as an insurance broker, you study for about two months and take the exam. At your first job, your salary will be about $30,000, but with commissions you’ll probably earn $40,000. By year three, the average insurance broker is earning approximately $80,000 a year, and by year five, he’s earning over $100,000.

Rabbi Novoseller: If they can stay in the game.

Ned: Sure, if you stay in the game.

Persistence is so important. Once you decide this is your career, you have to persist at it. If you’re not sure if it’s the right thing for you, seek advice. There are plenty of people to consult with.

That’s where networking comes in.

People who make those decisions are ultimately successful. Let’s stick with the insurance example. I know a couple who has combined earnings of over $500,000 a year just by talking to customers on the phone and selling them insurance.

They are each working at it now for about eight years, but it has really paid off for them to be persistent.

Rabbi Novoseller: There is great wisdom in getting into the game. The salary almost doesn’t matter. I know a lot of people who refuse to take a job unless it meets with their salary requirements. The position they’re now in is called unemployment. They’ve been looking for six months, a year or two years, and they still don’t have a job. So I believe that if you’re getting into an entry-level position, it has nothing to do with the salary or the job; it has to do with education. The experience and education you get from the job will catapult you to success.

You need to do a reality check about who you are and what you bring to the table. Then look at the options and see where the best experience or potential is. Network with people, get advice, listen to the advice and you will move on in life. But don’t expect to jump so quickly. If you are offered a salary of $50,000 and you need dramatically

[Children] just want time with their parents. We have to make sure time with our children is Kodesh Hakedoshim, sacred.

- Rabbi Moshe Hauer

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You really have to be motivated and passionate about what you do . . .

- Robert Safren more, don’t worry about it. Take the job. Become outstanding in the position, and you will blast to the top.

Moderator: But how do you survive during those difficult years when you are making $50,000 and you need to make triple that to support your family of six?

Rabbi Novoseller: The idea is not to wait for the ideal job, because oftentimes you are waiting in vain.

Take a job that pays less but gives you valuable experience. To support your family, either take on a second job, rely on your spouse’s salary or get help from your family until you’re on your feet.

You are doing this to build yourself up.

Moderator: In the Orthodox community, we are so unbelievably blessed to have a multiplicity of individuals and organizations that are dedicated to helping community members become financially independent, from funding to mentorship and guidance.

It’s an overwhelming privilege to be part of this community.

One of the things I found with The Jewish Entrepreneur, which I’m involved in as well, is that people who are successful are incredibly willing to make the time to give back. Can we talk about the benefit of mentorship and guidance when it comes to people advancing their careers or businesses?

Chaya: A mentor can be anybody—a seasoned business owner who’s ten steps ahead of you, or someone who’s in the trenches with you and facing similar issues. Regardless of whether 56

JEWISH ACTION Fall 5782/2021

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Self-awareness means being able to recognize a basic fact: I have so much to learn from everybody around me—from the people next to me, from the people behind me, from the people ahead of me.

- Chaya Fishman the person is in your industry or outside of your industry, being able to bounce ideas off someone else and learn from other people’s mistakes is invaluable. There are a million reasons why mentorship is an incredible tool in helping entrepreneurs and professionals move forward.

The work Robert does with his mentors is amazing; I also try to encourage women to find mentors on their own. People are, for the most part, very happy to share their wisdom. If there is somebody in your field who is where you want to be, send her a message on LinkedIn and ask: “Can we meet for coffee?”

I mentioned the importance of self-awareness earlier. Self-awareness also means being able to recognize a basic fact: I have so much to learn from everybody around me—from the people next to me, from the people behind me, from the people ahead of me. I encourage entrepreneurs to find a network, to be creative and to not be shy about reaching out to people.

I’ve seen across the board, in every industry, that people really want to help. They want to give back. Especially when they’ve gone through the process of setting up a business themselves and have paid the price of making plenty of mistakes on their own, they are happy to help prevent somebody else from falling into those same traps.

Moderator: Robert, can you talk about the practical, tangible benefits of mentorship?

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Robert: The numbers show very clearly that people who receive mentoring perform almost 10 times better in terms of revenue performance over a period of time. We see that in our own data. We started tracking revenue in the last couple of years, and among the people we mentored, we saw a 30 percent increase in overall revenue in the first year alone. Some business owners were at the high end and some at the low end, and some dropped out completely, but it’s a statistical number that’s well beyond the numbers you’re going to see for people who don’t get mentoring.

And I agree—a mentor doesn’t need to be ten steps ahead. He or she could be a peer. What a mentor has is some expertise or experience that you don’t have. We tend to think in a certain pattern. You need somebody to tell you: “Hey, try this instead of that. Here’s something I’ve done that’s worked. Here’s something I’ve done that hasn’t worked, so maybe you want to look in a different direction.”

That’s what a mentor does. Frankly, the ones who benefit the most from mentoring are the people who listen, those who can follow through, those who are not trapped in their own thoughts and can look at new ideas.

Ned: It’s useful to have someone help you identify what you’re lacking so you can find somebody to mentor you in that specific area. Identifying what it is that you don’t know is the first step to success. You can easily reach out to any expert in that area

on LinkedIn and politely ask if you can connect to ask a few questions.

Moderator: My final question is somewhat tangential, but I’d like to end off with this. How can we incorporate Torah values into our careers and into our business lives? Oftentimes we mistakenly view ourselves as having a double life: a work life and a religious life, and the two are not easily integrated. So people might say: “Well, I learn in the morning, then I go to work, then I come home, and I try to have a learning seder at night.”

How do we achieve an integration of our professional and religious lives?

Rabbi Hauer: One of the painful challenges people sometimes have in Jewish life is this great bifurcation between church and state, between taking care of their business life on the one hand and their religious life on the other.

There is an oft-quoted letter from Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner, the former rosh yeshivah of Chaim Berlin, in which he consoles a student who was troubled about joining the work world and leaving the walls of the yeshivah. He writes: “Someone who rents a room in one house to live a residential life and another room in a hotel to live a transient life is certainly someone who lives a double life. But someone who has a home with more than one room has a broad life, not a double life.”

An individual who goes into his professional life and is mindful about using his training, skills and connections not only as a tool for bringing home much-needed money, but also as a way to help others, is achieving this integration. A perfect example of this is the mentorships we just discussed—people using their professional lives, their experience and their expertise, to give and to help others. Certainly, let’s bring a greater sense of giving and altruism into every part of life, and then the distance between our faith, our Yahadut, and the rest of life will become smaller and smaller.  FOLLOW US ON

@Jewish_Action

Money Mindset: Can We Change the Way We Think About Money?

Living within your means and other tips for achieving financial freedom and peace of mind

Jewish Action recently spoke with Rabbi Naftali Horowitz. A managing director at JP Morgan Wealth Management, one of the nation’s largest investment banks, Rabbi Horowitz has learned a lot about the nature of success. He has traveled the world on a volunteer basis, raising public awareness about the importance of financial stability and independence, and guiding thousands of people toward a life of fiscal responsibility. He recently authored a book entitled You Revealed: A Torah Path to a Life of Success.

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Jewish Action: We often hear the term “living within your means.”

How would you define that?

Rabbi Naftali Horowitz: That’s a great question. There are essentially three kinds of spenders. There’s the individual who lives above his means, which means that he is borrowing from the future to live in the present.

He takes on debt—credit card debt or an equity line of credit, or whatever it may be. He earns X and he spends X plus. He may be doing so because he does not earn enough money. In other words, he’s just getting by; he’s not spending frivolously, but he just can’t afford to live on what he has. While he’s living above his means out of necessity, ultimately there’s a price to pay for that.

Then there’s the person who is living at his means. He earns X and spends X—he doesn’t spend X plus at all.

putting away money for weddings, perhaps they are saving money so they can help their children one day, and so on. These people have a smart life philosophy: just because I earn it doesn’t mean I have to spend it.

JA: How much of a role does peer pressure play in people not living within their means?

RNH: Most of us look around and see what other people are doing.

We take cues from our neighbors, our relatives and the people in our shul. It’s not necessarily because we need to live up to the Joneses. It may be that we just use the Joneses to calibrate what a normal standard of living is, and we make choices within that range. That’s level one.

Level two is often peer pressure that is self-imposed. We want to fit

These people have a smart life philosophy: just because I earn it doesn’t mean I have to spend it.

Now that’s technically living at one’s means, but it’s really not, because at some point in the future, his earning capacity may go down, if not go away completely. If he doesn’t save during the years of abundance, there may be nothing to eat during the lean periods.

So, in effect, living at your means should be defined as having some rainy-day funds set aside. It means that you think about retirement. If you earn X, you spend X minus, and the difference you put away for the future.

Finally, there are those people who consistently live below their means.

They don’t inflate their spending, even as they continue to earn more and grow their incomes. These individuals have decided that they don’t need to spend more than or even all that they earn. They have the peace of mind of having more money in the bank, and even some investments. They’re 60

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in. We want to be respected, and we want to be viewed in a certain way. Maybe we feel that if we don’t fit in, we won’t be able to marry off our kids or nobody will want to do business with us. In fact, sometimes spending has little to do with actual need and is only due to one’s attempt to project a certain self-image.

Peer pressure is sometimes the reason why people do not live within their means. Think about it—if we lived on a deserted island, what would cause our spending horizons to expand?

Ultimately, peer pressure is all about self-esteem. A person who has healthy self-esteem isn’t living for others and isn’t trying to impress anybody. He lives with diligence, prudence and responsibility and doesn’t get pulled into the insanity of the world around him. If you feel your life is meaningful and purposeful, you are not compelled

to drive a 2021 car that you’ll be paying off for years to come. The more we build our inner selves and the more we connect to the real purpose and meaning of life, the less hold the materialism of the world has on us.

That’s Musar 101.

JA: But there is also the element of people just needing more. If a couple has a large family, for example, they may need more than a three or four-bedroom house just to be comfortable. They’re not trying to live up to “the Schwartzes.”

RNH: Indeed a couple that has a large family needs more, but how much more? Perhaps not always as much as they think. If you ever went into an older house that’s never been renovated, you will find that the closets are tiny, literally our broom closets today. Even in wealthy people’s homes, all the closets were small.

Today, the size of the closets in people’s homes, not to mention the number of closets, is just unbelievable.

What’s changed? Well, my mother probably had three dresses. Today, women have much, much more than that. Men have ten or twelve suits.

My father had a Shabbos suit and a weekday suit. So comfort is also a function of what we’ve become accustomed to and what’s available to make us more comfortable.

Everything has expanded and everything is more accessible.

But the individual seeking greater comfort should learn to understand the concept of tradeoffs. Take, for example, a young person who just started working and wants to lease a brand-new luxury vehicle. It’s going to cost $450 a month. While a brand-new model will seemingly make his life more comfortable and pleasurable, when you sit down with him and show him what else can be done with $450 a month and he begins to understand the tradeoff, he might make a different choice. You can also remind him how painful it’ll be each month to write that $450 check, when some months he’ll just be scraping by. Right now, the shiny new car is quite alluring.

But we don’t always think about and

internalize what it means to take on a three-year mortgage to pay it off. Sure we all need a car, but the difference between the cost of ownership of a new car lease versus buying used can spell the difference between funding an IRA or not.

Living within your means is a discipline. It’s an understanding that life delivers a series of tradeoffs. Those tradeoffs are true for every aspect of life. For example, we can’t maintain too many relationships because the use of time itself always involves a tradeoff. Then there is money. For most people, money is not infinite; there’s a tradeoff. So I might want to vacation in Italy, but my sense of discipline tells me that getting that trip means I don’t get something else. When you think about it in terms of tradeoffs, you realize that the comfort you’ll be obtaining through the vacation might ultimately cause you greater discomfort in another area, not to mention the credit card bill that you can’t pay.

While each situation is different, it’s important to get all the facts on the table when making a financial decision. We should consider the counterarguments— in other words, why would somebody not do this?

But there is also a hashkafic aspect to this discussion: stated another way, we weren’t put on this world to be ultra-comfortable. Many of us are intolerant of discomfort in all areas, which is a byproduct of contemporary life. You’re hungry, you eat; you’re tired, you go to sleep; you’re hot, you change the setting of your air conditioner. There’s something we can do about almost every discomfort we experience, which isn’t really good for us as people. Because endurance comes from having to endure. We are capable of much more, and we can push ourselves more. “Adam l’amal yulad [mankind was born to toil].” We are not here solely for the sake of enjoying the comforts of life.

Rabbi Simchah Zissel Ziv, the Alter of Kelm, who was one of the early leaders of the Musar Movement, said that he realized one day that he was not in control of his life; his whims, urges and desires were directing him. He decided that in order to take back control of his life, he would do four or five things each day that were directly counter to his desires. If he wanted to eat a certain food, for example, he specifically ate the item he didn’t want. Engaging in this kind of self-discipline is very powerful. It helps a person realize the mastery he could have over what he wants and thinks he needs beyond what he ever imagined.

This concept can be applied to many areas in our lives. While it may be more comfortable to have a renovated home, if we forgo it and do some basic repairs instead of a complete renovation, we can acquire discipline and stamina. Perhaps we could take the money we saved and put it into an IRA instead, so that when we retire one day, we can age with less stress and worry.

JA: Indeed, our grandparents and great-grandparents struggled physically much more than we struggle nowadays. They didn’t have dishwashers, and

Endurance comes from having to endure. We are capable of much more . . .

“Adam l’amal yulad [man kind was born to toil].”

We are not here solely for the sake of enjoying the comforts of life.

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they didn’t have microwaves. You mentioned that we weren’t put on this world to be ultra-comfortable.

Is a physically challenging life more conducive to spirituality?

RNH: Our grandparents’ generation spent most of the day physically exerting themselves. When you physically exert yourself, you do not promote your material self; you actually diminish it. (That’s the reason we fast on Yom Kippur.)

While I am not advocating that we go back to drawing water from a well, it behooves us to recognize that we may be pampering our physical selves by lack of exertion, by comfort, by having remote controls for everything. The ba’alei musar teach that it is as if the body and the soul are on a seesaw. When you over-indulge the physical self, that in turn weakens the spiritual self; when you raise one, the other will go down.

Our ancestors got up in the morning, they davened, they learned, and they worked very hard physically—and, overall, they had tremendous emunah peshutah, simple faith. They also had mesirus nefesh for Yiddishkeit, which is more difficult for us to have today. The self-sacrifice that we are called upon to exhibit is more along the lines of, “Maybe I’ll walk out of this restaurant because it doesn’t have the greatest hashgachah [kosher certification].”

When was the last time any of us were truly moser nefesh to keep Shabbos?

JA: Let’s shift focus. As we all know, the cost of frum life is so high, it almost feels like a losing battle.

We often can’t cut the basics, such as housing costs or tuition, so how would you advise families? What would you say are the first areas where frum families who are looking to cut expenses should start?

RNH: Eating out is ridiculously expensive. Similarly, buying prepared foods, nosh and pastries can really add up. If someone chooses to “buy Shabbos,” it’s going to cost three times what Shabbos generally costs.

I also see young couples spending excessively on expensive clothes for 62

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For those people who can afford to live in great luxury, the question is—should they? They have an achrayus to the community, and they may unwittingly be bringing up the standard of living for those people who cannot afford it. their children—clothes that will be worn for but one season. Additionally, people who are scraping and clawing to pay their mortgages need to think seriously if they really need to spend a week in Orlando. Is it really a vacation if your stomach turns when the credit card bill arrives?

JA: Obviously, frum families generally need to make significantly more money than the average American family just to stay afloat. But some claim that a culture of luxury and overspending has crept into parts of the Orthodox world. If that is indeed the case, are we ourselves on some level responsible for the financial crisis that the frum community is experiencing?

RNH: Certainly, it costs more to live a Jewish life. We have yamim tovim, simchas, tuition, et cetera.

Eliminating the tuition expense would save some families $40,000 to $50,000 a year or more. On top of all that, parents need to pay for summer camp—which is not a luxury [as kids should not be without structure].

Unfortunately, among some, the culture of consumption has gotten completely out of control. Without question, the money to cure our financial difficulties resides within the Jewish community. In a utopian Jewish world, the money that’s being directed toward excess materialism would be directed to make things affordable for others. Yeshivos would be better funded and wouldn’t have to struggle to meet payroll.

Endowments and foundations would

be set up so that those who cannot afford the full cost of yeshivah tuition would be able receive a scholarship without having to be embarrassed.

Areivus, the responsibility of one to another, is a very deep-rooted aspect of being a Torah Jew. So while I don’t think the affordability crisis in our community is man-made, I think the solution can be man-made.

JA: Can you illustrate how the solution can be man-made?

RNH: Take Satmar, for example, or Belz. The school system in these communities is the responsibility of the Chassidus. Whether or not one has children in the school at the time, if you identify with the movement and the community, you support the school. That’s how these schools can keep tuition to an affordable level for everybody. But unfortunately, this model doesn’t exist outside of the Chassidic world, at least for now.

JA: How should we teach children, who are especially susceptible to peer pressure, not to aspire toward the materialism that is so prevalent in the world around us?

RNH: That is a complicated question.

If a child attends a school in a community that is relatively well off, and every family’s car in the child’s carpool is a 2020 car while his parents car is a 2009, it could pose a problem.

There is a further challenge: When we were growing up, our parents told us what to do. Today, some kids push around their parents. My children

have learned never to say, “Everyone in my class has [a certain device or toy].” Do you know why? Because I say, “Really? Moshe Schwartz has it? Okay, let me get his father on the phone.” Before I even grab the phone, my son says, “No, no, he doesn’t really have it!” “What about Shloimy?” I’ll ask. I sometimes call the rebbe and ask, “Does everyone in the class really have new Reebok sneakers?” and the answer is always “Of course not.”

It’s an unhealthy situation for parents to bend over backwards to conform to the society around them, let alone the society around their child. Children have to be inculcated with the idea that we don’t necessarily do what society does. It starts with us, as parents, setting the right example for our children. The constant spending on the latest new gadget or fad is indicative of a deeper problem: Are we being mechanech (educating) our children? Are we teaching our children the ideas mentioned earlier—the true purpose of why we are here, what matters and what doesn’t?

I speak in numerous Jewish communities around the country. I was in Cincinnati a few weeks ago and it was a wonderful experience. Oftentimes, I see that the “out-of-town” communities struggle much less with the whole topic of materialism. In fact, the standard of living outside of major frum areas tends to be much lower, and there is less of an emphasis on keeping up with the Schwartzes.

JA: In your recently published book, You Revealed: A Torah Path to a Life of Success, you write about cultivating a penimiyus, an inner life, as the beginning of a solution toward overcoming the drive for materialism and other external forms of success.

How does one begin to develop this penimiyus?

RNH: In my wealth management practice, we constantly discuss the need to adhere to a mission statement. I tell my staff: “Remember why we are in business and what we’re here to do for our clients.

If it doesn’t fit our mission statement, or worse, if it detracts from it, we have no right to do it.” This applies to our lives as well. We should live with a cheshbon.

We need to understand the meaning and purpose of life, and then we can begin to develop the discipline to live by it. We should always ask ourselves: why am I doing this? Does it speak to my primary purpose?

If the answer is no, then we shouldn’t be doing it.

These questions apply to relationships, they apply to how we spend our time, and they apply to how we spend our money. If you ultimately come to the realization that impressing people is not part of your mission statement—and that shouldn’t be a hard conclusion to reach—then the obvious next step is to train yourself not to try to impress people. Moreover, if you learn Chovos Halevavos or Mesilas Yesharim, or other musar sefarim, and you realize the limitations of living a life trying to impress people, you’ll become allergic to it.

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JA: That was going to be my follow-up question. Do we need to study musar more?

RNH: Absolutely. People do not learn enough musar. I speak in front of all kinds of audiences— sometimes between 300 and 400 [Jewishly] learned people. If I ask them, “How many of you regularly learn a musar sefer?,” only a handful of people raise their hands. If you’re out in the world today and you don’t have a companion such as Mesilas Yesharim or Chovos Halevavos with you, you’re vulnerable. The study of musar is what builds the inner self.

JA: Frum Jews tend to live in tight-knit communities where rich and poor can be next-door neighbors. Is that a plus or a minus?

RNH: It offers great positives yet poses challenges as well. It’s what makes the Jewish community different than all other communities. Wealth

allows yeshivos, shuls and many forms of chesed organizations to be built and flourish and we all benefit from that. Nevertheless, living in a community with a wide range of income levels is challenging for many. In other communities, people segregate around income levels.

When I was growing up, we would travel to Newport, Rhode Island, in the summertime to see the mansions.

But those were mansions, and I lived in a house. Those mansions had nothing to do with me. The problem is when your next-door neighbor lives in a mansion and his kid goes to the same school as your kid, and his wife and yours do carpool together.

That’s when it becomes challenging.

It is important to note that the wealthy individual bears a responsibility to others. For those people who can afford to live in great luxury, the question is— should they? They have an achrayus to the larger community, and they

may unwittingly be bringing up the standard of living for those people who cannot afford it. This is the beautiful aspect that I have witnessed in many out-of-town communities.

Because such communities tend to be smaller in general, each person appreciates that his or her actions impact the community as whole.

Therefore, the wealthier members tend to be more cognizant of their responsibility to the larger community.

JA: It seems that it’s mostly tuition and simchas that really drain people and cause a lot of financial stress.

Since the pandemic has resulted in a significant downsizing the cost of simchas, do you think that might have an effect on simchas going forward?

RNH: Unfortunately, I don’t see simchas becoming any less extravagant due to the pandemic.

At least not the simchas I’ve seen.

On a personal level, when it comes to simchas, I am very fortunate—I

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was almost caught up in that trap myself. I speak about it publicly.

When my oldest daughter was getting engaged to Rabbi Ephraim Wachsman’s son, Rabbi Wachsman, who is a very prominent rav, told me that he is a big proponent of takanos (rabbinic guidelines to keep wedding expenses in check). “If our children are going to get married,” he said, “I have to tell you that these are my rules for making a wedding: a one-man band; silk or no flowers; no sheva berachos in a hotel; and no need for both a l’chaim and a vort.” My wife and I were a bit taken aback at first, and admittedly, we had a difficult time agreeing. Ultimately, we agreed. And guess what? It was the most amazing wedding! When materialism is downplayed, spirituality is heightened.

It was an unbelievably beautiful wedding with all its simplicity.

When my second child got married, we went about the wedding plans in the same way. By the time we

got to my third child, the tables were turned. I faced my soon-to-be mechutanim and said, “This is the way we make weddings.”

As someone who works in the world of finance, I’m wired to think in terms of investing and return on capital. In my mind, an extravagant wedding is the biggest waste of money. The next morning, the guests don’t remember what they ate. Two days later, they barely remember the wedding. People go into debt for what amounts to four to five hours.

Instead of setting the couple up with some money toward their future, tens of thousands of dollars are spent to pay for one night. It’s ludicrous.

JA: You mention in your book that you work with fabulously wealthy clients and colleagues.

Do you see wealth being harmful spiritually or otherwise?

RNH: Let’s just start with the basic understanding that the more money

a person has, the greater the potential for his ego to become inflated. The spiritual test of wealth is first and foremost a test of arrogance—you have more than others, therefore you see yourself as better. Not all rich people have this disease, but it is a prevalent byproduct of wealth. With each step up in level of wealth, the ego increases commensurately. Which naturally is not good for marriage. It’s not good for relationships altogether. And it’s not even good for oneself. What ultimately brings people down is their ego.

I write this in my book, and it’s true—I have heard this phrase from so many clients: “We were so much happier when we had less.” When one of my clients got divorced, he said to me, “Had I not made all that money, we would be happily married right now.”

Money is also an enabler. It strips away certain societal restraints and allows you to do things you would’ve been embarrassed to do when you weren’t wealthy and were

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Shiurim 5781-5782

just trying to fit in. So firstly, it enables you to buy whatever you want and engage in every insanity you choose. And secondly, you don’t have to worry about the consequences; everybody’s going to want to be your friend anyway. I’m literally just scratching the surface.

Last night, I spoke to a large group in the New York Jewish community, and I told them: “If you saw the other side of extreme wealth the way I do, you might stop davening so hard by Barech Aleinu [blessing in Shemoneh Esrei for prosperity].”

I must stress that wealth, when utilized as Hashem intended, can promote an extremely fulfilling and meaningful life. I have many clients who spend their days helping others through their money, time, efforts and the advice they dispense. They reside on the boards of great institutions and their success in business translates to success in life. Of course, people who are not wealthy can accomplish many of those same things.

JA: What do the musar sefarim say about materialism?

Mrs. Michal Horowitz

Ms. Zissy Turner

Mrs. Rivka Alter

Check out past and future Rosh Chodesh shiurim at OU.OR G/WO MEN/ VIDEO

Rebbetzin Rifki Freundlick

ff Start o th n y o ur m o s wi th u O U W O M E N ’ S I N I T I AT I V E ROSH CHODESH SPEAKERS Elul: Sunday, August 8 Mrs. Michal Horowitz Cheshvan: Wednesday, October 6 Mrs. Rivka Alter Kislev: Thursday, November 4 Ms. Zissy Turner Tevet: Motzai Shabbos, December 4 Reb. Rifki Freundlich

R E G I S T E R & WAT C H AT W W W.O U.O RG/ WO M E N/RC

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RNH: They say that it presents a great test. Materialism is insidious. It eats away at our neshamah. At the same time, however, we need to recognize that materialism is one of the challenges of life. Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world in this manner. The Chiddushei Harim writes that the reason Hashem created gravity is to remind us that the world will continuously pull us down—unless we are pushing upward.

The Chovos Halevavos says that materialism is a necessity; it’s something we have to engage in. That is exactly the test of this world. Hashem says, I want you to swim in the material world, but I don’t want you to drown in it; as long as you keep your head above water, you’ll be okay.

The only way to keep our heads above water is to raise our spiritual level and to continuously nourish our souls.

Some people, however, get lost along the way and begin to feel an inner emptiness. The emptier you are inside, the more you feel a need to seek externalities to fill yourself up. But signing up for cheap, faux replacements isn’t going to work, and so you’re just going to keep doing it.

It’s like a drug. You can become a consumption addict.

JA: Rabbi Horowitz, do you have a final message for our readers?

RNH: My final message is very simple. If people tasted how delicious it is to live within their means, if they ever experienced the peace of mind of knowing they could cover all their expenses because they have disconnected from the insanity and the societal pressure around them, they would forgo every single momentary pleasure for this long-term tranquility and yishuv hada’as.

I say this to people because it’s true and because I experience it and I’ve helped so many people, at all wealth levels, experience it. We just have to appreciate how wonderful it is to live in a fiscally responsible way. It’s far more pleasurable than anything you can buy with your credit card. 

Combating Financial Illiteracy— One Student at a Time

By JA staff

Why students need to understand budgeting, saving, investing and avoiding debt

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Educator Rivka Resnik created a comprehensive curriculum— replete with colorful worksheets—to teach kids and teens all about financial literacy. Courtesy of Rivka Resnik

How to Take Control of Your Finances

By Rivka Resnik

1.

2.

Differentiate between your needs and wants.

Inevitably, throughout your life, you will have unexpected expenses. Start saving now.

Avoid comparing your financial situation to others.

Prepare for larger known future expenses such as insurance premiums and retirement.

3.

4.

5.

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Spend less then you earn.

JEWISH ACTION Fall 5782/2021

H

ow important is financial literacy? To people like Rivka Resnik, the answer is simple: very. “Someone who is financially literate is going to make better financial decisions,” says Resnik. “If you don’t understand that using a credit card is borrowing money from a company, then it’s hard for you to realize that every time you swipe your card, you are really just taking on more debt.”

A resident of Monsey, New York, Resnik, who credits her parents with instilling in her solid values with regard to handling finances, is on a crusade to change the money habits she feels are responsible for getting many into serious financial trouble. And while it seems like an exceedingly ambitious goal, she has made significant inroads—primarily in the classroom. Since 1992 (on and off), Resnik has taught hundreds of frum students on the elementary and high school level all about financial responsibility. In addition, she created a comprehensive curriculum—replete with colorful worksheets—to teach young people how to be money-smart.

Noting that when her solidly middle-class parents would take her and her two siblings out for pizza they would never pay for drinks (why pay $2.75 for a bottle of water when we can get one for a dollar?), Resnik sees way too much unnecessary spending around her. “Why are people buying layette sets for $200? Why does an outfit for a seven-year-old need to cost $100?” She also bemoans the message thoughtless spending conveys to children. “If kids see their parents spend $100,000 on a wedding and then approach the tuition committee for a break, that’s a contradiction in values.”

The way to put an end to frivolous spending, says Resnik, is obvious: education. Back in the nineties, when she lived in Chicago, she teamed up with the late Saul Binder, the then-CEO of Success National Bank, and launched a “Bank at School” educational program at Joan Dachs Bais Yaakov, a local elementary school. The program, which included monthly visits from a bank representative who would deposit money that the girls had brought in, covered topics such as saving money, opening bank accounts and other practical aspects of banking.

Resnik, who currently teaches at Bais Rochel and Pe’er Bais Yaakov, both in Monsey, developed the curriculum over time. Through her popular money management course, which includes topics such as budgeting, saving, eliminating debt and investing, she hopes to change cultural attitudes toward spending and saving, one student at a time. “In the course, students are exposed to three simple principles: Spend less than you earn. Make your money work for you (lessons about banks and credit unions, simple and compound interest, CDs, et cetera). And be prepared for the unexpected (emergency funds, i.e., ‘saving for a rainy day’).”

Resnik has a very specific idea of what an emergency fund should be used for. “People need to realize that an emergency fund is not for when you’re making a bar mitzvah. You had years to prepare for that. An emergency fund is for when you chip your front tooth and need to pay the dentist,” she explains. Giving students such knowledge

Giving students such knowledge lays a solid foundation for them to build ‘strong money habits, which will hopefully help them avoid many mistakes that can lead to lifelong monetary struggles.’ lays a solid foundation for them to build “strong money habits, which will hopefully help them avoid many mistakes that can lead to lifelong monetary struggles.”

Indeed, courses on financial skills geared for teens have become increasingly popular in recent years. According to a New York Times article, high school students in more than twenty US states are now required to take a financial literacy course in order to graduate.

Moreover, according to the same article, a growing number of studies support the notion that such

courses are effective when taught by well-trained teachers (Shannon Doyne, “Should All Schools Teach Financial Literacy?,” April 20, 2021).

Resnik is eager to share her own financial struggles. When her husband finished medical school decades ago, the couple found themselves $110,000 in debt. But even with her husband on a resident’s modest salary, they managed to pay off the debt in two-and-a-half years.

“We didn’t buy anything,” she says.

“We put every single dollar toward paying back our loan so we wouldn’t have a noose around our necks.”

National, non-profit initiative

After getting way more teaching offers than she could possibly take on, Resnik recently decided to expand her reach. She is currently working with the OU to disseminate her curriculum among Jewish schools throughout the country to ensure that her principles of financial responsibility are reaching kids and teens across the Orthodox spectrum. “The idea,” she says, “is to become a more fiscally responsible frum kehillah.”  For schools interested in obtaining the curriculum, email info@ livingsmarterJewish.org.

Highly subsidized

At-home saliva test

Ensure a bright and healthy future Fall 5782/2021 JEWISH ACTION

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Money Matters A growing number of individuals and organizations are promoting financial literacy to help families get out of debt, change the way they relate to money and attain financial peace.

By JA staff

E

very time Rabbi Avraham Shmidman, rav of the Lower Merion Synagogue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is asked to officiate at a wedding, he tells the couple to seek professional advice.

From a financial planner.

“Research, if not common sense, demonstrates that all too often, financial stress has an extremely negative impact on shalom bayit,” says Rabbi Shmidman, who entered the rabbinate twenty-five years ago.

Before Rabbi Shmidman became a rabbi, his father, who also served as a pulpit rabbi for years, explained to him that a mesader kiddushin’s (officiating rabbi) function is not merely to recite the berachot under the chuppah. “He must work with the couple prior to marriage to assure the long-term success of their marriage.”

Social worker Nirit Goren advises a client about the financial and other services provided by Lema’an Achai, an Israel-based organization that seeks to address the root causes of financial distress.

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Taking the role of officiating rabbi seriously, Rabbi Shmidman has made it a priority to ensure that each couple he marries has a foundation in financial literacy. “When both parties in a marriage have full knowledge of all the credits and debits in their joint possession, where their assets are kept, how they can be accessed, and a shared vision for how their money will be spent, greater trust and better communication are engendered. This in turn leads to a healthier marriage.”

Rabbi Shmidman is not alone in his efforts to promote financial literacy within the frum community. Indeed, a growing number of individuals and organizations are dedicated to promoting financial education, thereby helping families get out of debt, change the way they relate to money and attain peace of mind.

Gedalia Litke, a well-known speaker on the topic of family finances and household money management in the frum community, speaks to audiences of all ages. But, he says, he most enjoys speaking to young married couples—including kollel couples—because “that’s when young people start to reflect more on their relationship to money.” It is also, he says, best to “bring these messages to couples when they are just starting out, before financial troubles start.”

His goal is to empower families to achieve and maintain economic self-sufficiency. Over the course of many years working with Mesila, the trailblazing organization based in Israel that is dedicated to promoting financial stability in the frum world, Litke has seen hundreds of frum families who are overwhelmed with financial stress, having accumulated unmanageable amounts of debt.

Litke’s passion is all about avoiding this by encouraging people to be proactive with their finances and keep their eyes wide open.

One of the main thrusts of his talks is that finances are something most people tend to sweep under the rug until it becomes impossible to disregard. “Ignoring financial challenges will not make them go away. They will fester and grow.

Research demonstrates that all too often, financial stress has an extremely negative impact on shalom bayit . . . when both parties . . . have a shared vision for how their money will be spent . . . this leads to a healthier marriage.

Paying close attention to financial challenges in real time is good for the body and the soul,” he says.

While popular personalities such as Dave Ramsey provide excellent family financial advice, often their recommendations don’t resonate with frum families who have different values and a considerably higher cost of living.

In contrast, Litke aims to promote a version of financial advice that is consistent with Torah values and accounts for the higher costs of living.

Sprinkling his talks with ma’amari Chazal and anecdotes, he stresses that “living within one’s means is a core Torah value.” He also emphasizes how empowering it can be when families make a decision not to “keep up with the Jacobsons.”

Organizations such as Reb Shayala’s Kitchen, which is devoted to helping those struggling financially, are also focused on teaching financial skills.

In addition to its other services, Reb Shayala’s Kitchen, based in Monsey, New York, offers financial coaches for “a thorough education of how to manage income and expenses long term,” as per its website.

In Israel, the Beit-Shemesh-based Lema’an Achai organization takes a similar approach, seeking to “break the

cycle of poverty through education.”

“Eighty percent of the children of poor people end up poor themselves,” says Avrohom Leventhal, director of the program. “They grow up in a culture of poverty. We try to reverse that. It’s hard to make changes when you’re in your forties or fifties, but we can help the next generation not continue the cycle.” In addition to providing one-on-one financial counseling for clients experiencing financial stress, Lema’an Achai sponsors community-wide lectures on financial responsibility, where coaches discuss ideas such as the difference between a want and a need. “It’s very important for people to differentiate between the two,” says Leventhal.

Seeking to address the root causes of financial distress, Lema’an Achai will often help clients manage their

Gedalia Litke is a well-known speaker on the topic of household money management.

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debt as well as sponsor further training or education to enable them to obtain higher-paying jobs. Helping olim as well as Israeli families, Lema’an Achai is focused on education and prevention. “We want to solve the problem by making sure it is not perpetuated,” Leventhal states.

Motti Wiesner, a financial advisor and therapist at Lema’am Achai, provides what the organization calls “financial therapy.” Instead of solely looking at cutting expenses, he seeks to provide struggling individuals and couples with emotional support. “It’s not just about creating a budget or deciding which supermarket is cheaper; it is about helping them make the right choices, and putting choice back in their hands.”

Fiscal education is also a primary component of Living Smarter Jewish, a new initiative sponsored by the OU that is geared to helping those facing personal financial challenges (see the sidebar on page

Living with financial awareness and attention to expenses improves our lives in every way. And . . . it results in what we all want—simchas hachaim.”

48). The initiative will feature videos, webinars and podcasts aimed at promoting good financial habits.

Ultimately, Wiesner and others like him hope to bring people to a place of financial peace, where they are not coping with mountains of debt and are content to live within their means.

“My point is the same wherever I speak,” Litke says.

“Living with financial awareness and attention to expenses improves our lives in every way. It enhances our avodas Hashem and our relationships with our loved ones.”

And, he adds, it results in what we all want— “simchas hachaim.” 

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If You Will It, It Is Not A Dream: You can live comfortably in Israel, with the right planning and an open mind

By Aviva Engel

T

here’s a famous joke that purportedly reveals the secret to achieving financial success in Israel as an oleh: How do you become a millionaire in Israel?

Bring $2 million.

Kidding aside, Israeli financial consultant Rifka Lebowitz believes the joke is no longer relevant. The author of Smart Israeli Banking made aliyah from Scotland at age twelve, and is highly-qualified to opine—Lebowitz is the founder of the mega-popular Facebook group Living Financially Smarter in Israel (LFSII), which she created with the goal of helping fellow citizens be as financially successful as possible.

With over 32,000 members, LFSII’s reach has far surpassed the “hundred or so” followers Lebowitz expected to garner upon its launch in 2009.

“Israel is not what it was,” she says. “You drive around, people have nicer cars, the malls are full and people are doing financially better.”

Lebowitz doesn’t dispute that making aliyah is very

challenging; but moving to any country is difficult, she notes.

“Immigration is hard. You need to learn how the culture works and how to get jobs. I’m not saying aliyah’s not hard, but if you are willing to adjust your expectations according to what Israel can offer and understand what it takes to make it here, you can.”

As for whether living in Israel is more or less expensive for frum people—specifically retirees and young families—than living in North America, Lebowitz prefers not to make a blanket statement.

“It’s not necessarily more or less expensive,” she says. “It’s different.

Israeli salaries and expectations are different. What we earn translates differently than it does outside Israel.”

Baruch Labinsky is an investment manager and independent financial planner who made aliyah from Toronto in 1993. The founder of Labinsky Financial, he helps people create financial plans to maximize their financial success and is the author of A Financial Guide to Aliyah and Life in Israel.

Labinsky highlights two areas that could potentially be cheaper for olim: healthcare (more so for Americans than Canadians, who already have socialized medicine) and education.

“Tuition is hefty for North American private schools, so generally there will be significant savings here if you go into the public system,” he says. “But many olim choose private schools, which are considered to be a little bit better. Or maybe hashkafically you want your kids to attend a certain school for religious reasons. So the education system can get expensive depending on how many kids you have and what all of their needs are.”

Families must also consider “absorption expenses” related to children’s integration, he notes, like tutors to help them catch up with language skills and Israeli culture. Extra-curriculars or chugim are highly popular in Aviva Engel is an award-winning freelance journalist and a director of communications in Montreal, Canada.

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Thinking of aliyah? Here are some tips from Israeli financial experts Rifka Lebowitz and Baruch Labinsky:

By Aviva Engel • Adjust your expectations and be open-minded. Don’t count on replicating your North American standard of living, career or salary. Consider alternatives and recognize that Israel is a different culture and a different financial world.

• Information is power. “I encourage people to do research,” says financial expert Baruch Labinsky. “Speak with people who have made the transition, and professionals, if necessary, to work out a plan in order to determine whether aliyah will work or not. There are so many olim who are willing to give information. People also take pilot trips to get a sense of what kind of community they want and the kind of expenses they might incur. And, of course, there is a lot of information about finances and aliyah online.”Nefesh B’Nefesh (www.nbn.org.il) offers free financial webinars that are recorded and available for viewing on its YouTube channel following live sessions. The NBN website also contains sample budgets and reams of financial information for olim at various life stages, including Israel Money Diaries, where olim of varying ages, backgrounds and income brackets document their daily spending in a diary over seven days.

• Create a personalized budget.

While helpful, “sample budgets don’t reflect individual circumstances,” says Labinsky.

“To personalize it, ask yourselves, where are we going to be living?

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our circumstance? Include travel, entertainment and food. Make sure that your budget is balanced and that you have enough leeway to account for emergencies and to handle the unexpected. We’ve all learned in the last year and a half that things don’t always go as planned. We need reserves and the ability to turn to Plans B and C. Israelis are good at doing that.” To create a realistic budget, “you need to know yourself,” notes financial consultant Rifka Lebowitz. “If you’re a person who loves going shopping, or spends a ton on miscellaneous, you need to put that in your Israeli budget.

Your personality isn’t going to change just because you change countries. It’s not a copy paste of your life prior to aliyah; your habits come with you, but the expenses and how they break down (what proportion each one is) can be very different in Israel.”

• Try to pay off all your debts before moving.

• If you’re of working age, come with as much ability to get a job as possible. This may mean retraining in North America or considering a career pivot.

• Reevaluate your budget annually once you move. “Finances are dynamic, especially for young families,” says Lebowitz. “For a baby you could be spending 2,000 shekels a month on private gan, depending on where you’re live, and then once he or she reaches age three, it’s free. People adjust their budgets once a year in Israel; this has nothing to do with making aliyah. Your budget in your first six months or year of aliyah is not going to look the same as the following year. You’re buying stuff; you’re fixing up your house.

The next year might look totally different; you might have a job in place, you might need a car by then. And I think people need to be somewhat on top of it, more so than in their country of origin, because it’s a new culture.”

Israel as the school day is typically short. These too come at a cost.

When it comes to purchasing a home in Israel, both Lebowitz and Labinsky agree that getting into the housing market is tremendously challenging for both retirees and young families.

“In addition to the shekel price of apartments going up, the values of the dollar and most foreign currencies have gone down over the same period of time,” says Labinsky. “It’s like a double whammy. If you had X amount and it was worth four shekels to the dollar, and now it’s only worth three, and the price of real estate has doubled or tripled over this period, it makes it a lot harder for people who are coming from countries where real estate is cheaper than in Israel.”

Then there’s the mortgage.

“If you don’t have income, Israeli banks are not going to give you a mortgage,” says Lebowitz. “They want mortgages to be finished by retirement. Mortgage is a huge deal because you need a considerable amount in a down payment. Then you need your salaries to be able to cover the mortgage and the equation just works differently. It’s much harder in Israel, unfortunately, to buy property.”

Housing is often prohibitive in cities like Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, which are part of central Israel. They suggest that olim be flexible and consider living in other regions, like the North or South.

“You can get really cheap housing in places all over the country,” says Labinsky. “You just have to be willing to go a little bit out of your comfort zone.”

Labinsky believes most retiree olim receive pensions and have been contributing to retirement savings plans, which will offer a certain amount of revenue.

“Just like you would be living in North America on that income, you can also live on that income and get by here,” he said. “You just have to create a plan of how it’s going to work.”

While salaries in Israel are lower than in North America, employment opportunities abound, including in the high-tech and business industries and international commerce. According

Financial consultant Rifka Lebowitz discussing how olim make it financially in Israel on Israeli TV’s Channel 20 News in July of 2020.

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most d orld’s e The w & recogniz n d truste certificatio r Koshe

OU KOSHER APP More than just a guide to OU certified products. OU Kosher includes, newly certified products, product alerts, Kosher for Passover products, and the OU Kosher question and general information hotline.

ENJOY EASY AND DIRECT ACCESS ON YOUR IPHONE & ANDROID DEVICES ALL-YEAR-ROUND.

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JEWISH ACTION Fall 5782/2021

to Lebowitz, two-income families are the Israeli norm, while Labinsky noted that most people have more than one job. Both experts emphasize that creativity, adaptability and a willingness to pivot careers will greatly contribute to olim’s employment success.

Thanks to telecommuting, “people can move to Israel and not even give up their jobs,” says Labinsky.

“Olim can plan their finances and transition in a way that is a lot more financially secure. They don’t have to give up everything and start here from zero.”

Lebowitz maintains that food and pharmaceutical items are not much more costly in Israel. New cars, on the other hand, are twice the price because they’re taxed very heavily. Olim may therefore opt for one car versus two, while keeping in mind that smaller cars have smaller premiums. Or they may choose to live near public transportation and skip driving altogether. Labinsky cautions that the cost of school buses used by many families may also add up.

North Americans accustomed to spending a lot on entertainment may be relieved to know that “culturally Israelis tend to spend less on these things,” says Lebowitz, citing barbecues and tiyulim as popular pastimes. You can also get an inexpensive membership for all of the national parks, Labinsky adds.

“There are things to do,” he assures. “It’s a small country, but there’s a variety in terms of the type of entertainment. It really depends on people’s budgets.”

Another expense that is markedly different from Chutz La’Aretz is the cost of shul membership, which varies depending on the community.

“There are shuls where you just give a donation when you get an aliyah,” says Lebowitz. “In the more Anglo areas, you will pay more for shuls, but the prices are definitely way lower than what I’ve seen in North America.”

Perhaps more important than dollars and cents—or shekalim and agorot—are olim’s attitudes about their new lifestyles.

When you make aliyah, “you don’t want to replicate your life,” says Labinsky. “You want a new life. You want to take advantage of everything we have in Israel. And there are a lot of tremendous advantages. I really don’t know anyone who I speak with here who is unhappy or has regrets. The majority of those who want to make it here financially can make it. I really believe that there is a tremendous amount of financial success here and berachah.” 

KOSHERKOPY

Demystifying

Q. What does “DE” mean?

A. The label OU-DE (Dairy Equipment) signifies that although the product itself does not contain any dairy ingredients, it was produced on equipment that also produces dairy products with no kashering taking place between runs (which would remove the dairy status of the equipment). Halachah refers to such a product as “nesinas ta’am bar nesinas ta’am” (or nat bar nat), which means that it only has a secondary dairy flavor and therefore has a more lenient status.

This differs from an item that is cooked directly with a dairy product, which absorbs the full dairy flavor and may therefore not be eaten without waiting the requisite amount of time (e.g., six hours) after one has consumed meat.

Sephardim, who follow the ruling of the Shulchan Aruch (YD 95:1), consider DE items to be pareve. Ashkenazim, in accordance with the ruling of the Rema (YD 95:2), do not eat such items together with meat. However, it is permissible to eat DE products immediately after consuming meat without waiting.

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Q. I bought a package of cookies labeled OU-D. I don’t see any milk or butter listed in the ingredients.

Can I assume it is really only DE? A. When reviewing a label to see if a product contains any dairy ingredients, one should be aware that many products contain a seemingly innocuous ingredient called “natural flavors,” which may indeed include dairy ingredients. Natural flavors are defined in the United States under regulation 21 CFR 101.22. The key definitions in this regulation are: “The term natural flavor or natural flavoring means . . . any product of . . . plant material, . . . dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring.” Although flavors usually constitute a tiny amount relative to the total ingredients,

doughnuts in the same fryer used for dairy doughnuts. It is common for the oil to be filtered and then reused to boil the next batch. In such a case, the non-dairy doughnuts are considered tavshil shel gevinah (food cooked with dairy) because they were boiled in the same oil used for dairy. The custom is that one who ate meat must wait before eating a tavshil shel gevinah just as one waits before eating actual dairy.

Q. I noticed that some products, such as non-dairy creamer, are described as “non-dairy” but are labeled OU-D. Isn’t that a contradiction?

A. Although the name implies that the creamer does not contain dairy ingredients, the truth is that names can be deceiving. Very often, “non-dairy” creamers contain the dairy ingredient casein, usually in

Manufacturers are allowed to label products ‘non-dairy’ even if they contain dairy ingredients. they contribute substantially to the taste of the food because they are highly concentrated. Thus, while a ratio of 60:1 generally suffices to nullify a non-kosher, or in this case dairy, ingredient, flavors cannot be nullified since they are noticeable.

However, there are cases where a product labeled OU-D is really only DE. To find out if a product contains a dairy ingredient or is just made on dairy equipment, please contact the OU’s Consumer Hotline at 212-613-8241 or email kosherq@ou.org.

Q. I have a similar question about a box of doughnuts labeled OU-D. All the ingredients are clearly pareve. Is there a need to contact the OU to verify that it is only DE? A. Yes, it is best to check with the OU as it is very possible that such doughnuts contain actual dairy ingredients. Factories that produce doughnuts often boil non-dairy 78

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the form of sodium caseinate. Casein is a milk protein; it is the principal ingredient in cheese. Casein, however, lacks the lactose allergen. As such, it is not viewed as being dairy from a legal perspective, but from a halachic perspective it very much is.

Manufacturers are allowed to label products “non-dairy” even if they contain dairy ingredients. This is the result of regulations passed by the FDA years ago. The FDA forbade the use of the word “dairy” as a descriptive term when the dairy content of an item is below a certain level. For example, some varieties of “non-dairy” margarine contain butter or other dairy ingredients that one might not be familiar with, but in small enough quantities that the manufacturer can label it as “non-dairy.”

One cannot rely on reading the description or ingredients on a label to determine if a product labeled OU-D is pareve. If you suspect that a product does not contain

any actual dairy ingredients and was only labeled OU-D because it was made on dairy equipment, you can confirm this by contacting the OU’s Consumer Hotline.

Q. What is the status of Oreotm sandwich cookies? Do they contain actual dairy ingredients?

A. This is one of the most popular questions we get. In fact, you can have certain types of Oreotm cookies after your cholent as they are made on dairy equipment but are not actually dairy. The OU can provide you with a list of Oreotm cookies that are DE but not dairy.

However, bear in mind that the manufacturer may choose to reformulate these products and add dairy ingredients any time in the future. Since these products already bear OU-D symbols, formulation changes would not be reflected in the OU-D logo. As such, we recommend that consumers check regularly with our office to confirm the status of these products.

Q. I bought a box of OU-certified pareve crackers. However, the ingredient label states that the crackers are manufactured in a factory that processes dairy. Is there a mistake? Are these really pareve?

A. Yes, the crackers are pareve.

Companies place warnings on packaging so that those who are extremely sensitive to allergens can be made aware that the item may contain airborne dairy particles.

From a halachic point of view, this does not make the item dairy. Even if there was cross-contamination with dairy, the amount is too miniscule to affect the taste, and therefore it is batel (nullified).  Special thanks to Rabbi Eli Eleff, managing director of OU Kosher Community Relations, for helping to prepare this article for publication. The information is adapted from OU Kosher’s Halacha Yomis, a daily email containing brief halachic tidbits.

To sign up to receive Halacha Yomis, visit oukosher.org/halacha-yomis/.

FOOD

MEMORABLE LOAVES for the HIGH HOLIDAYS

By Carol Ungar How did our shtetl foremothers make their Rosh Hashanah meals memorable?

Not with Instagram-worthy floral centerpieces, chargers, runners or tablescapes.

Lacking these twenty-first-century “essentials,” they turned to something else— challahs sculpted into shapes echoing the themes of the New Year.

This tradition, perhaps the ultimate spiritualization of the physical, reached its greatest flowering in Ukraine, the homeland of the Chassidic movement, where women, inspired by the Torah, created memorable loaves.

“Feigel Challah” or “Bird Challah” originated in eighteenth-century Ukraine. Photos: Karine Gracia

Carol Ungar is an award-winning writer whose essays have appeared in Tablet, the Jerusalem Post, Ami Magazine, Jewish Action and other publications. She teaches memoir writing and is the author of several children’s books.

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Torah Challah

Round Challot Round challot are the quintessential Rosh Hashanah and yom tov challot baked in Jewish homes and bakeries everywhere. Why round loaves? Far easier to shape than braids, these loaves symbolize long life as well as Hashem’s Oneness and Unity.

Back in ancient Egypt, the non-Jews fashioned their loaves into the shape of their deities. According to Rabbi Abraham Isaac Sperling, a nineteenth-century Polish scholar (author of the Ta’amei Haminhagim U’mekorei Hadinim, the authoritative work on Jewish customs), our tradition of round breads, both challot and matzot, developed as an alternative.

He cites the Mahari Asad, who points out that “ugot matzot,” the Torah’s name for the unleavened bread baked on the way out of Egypt, shares a Hebrew root with the word igul, which means circle.1 Round challot also allude to a verse in Yeshayah,2 which declares that Hashem “sits above the circle of the earth.”

Since the central theme of Rosh Hashanah is Hashem’s kingship, it’s traditional to fashion round challot to resemble crowns. And since Hashem loves us and desires only good for us, we make these challot sweet.

Some home bakers fashion the crowns in the shape of a pomegranate, which contains 613 seeds, a reminder of the taryag mitzvot.

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Pomegranate-Crown Challah Use the Single Challah Recipe listed on page 81. Form the dough into a ball, setting aside two golf-ball-sized pieces. Divide these pieces into six balls, and place them in the pan around the larger ball.

Let the challah rest for up to a half hour. Brush with egg yolk, sprinkle with poppy and/ or sesame seeds and bake.

Bird Challah Known in Yiddish as “Feigel Challah,” this challah originated in eighteenth-century Ukraine, where it was served on Rosh Hashanah and also during the pre– Yom Kippur seudah hamafseket.

The late food historian Gil Marks sources this in a verse from Yeshayah3 that states, “like the flying birds, so may Hashem protect us.”

The Sefer Matamim,4 a contemporary collection of minhagim, many of them Chassidic, sees the bird as a depiction of the winged cherubs that flanked the aron (holy ark) as symbols of Divine mercy. He points out that the gematria of the Hebrew word “malchut” is 496, and the gematria of the singular cruv is 228. Add the two cherubs together and you get 456. Add to that a mem sofit, which is 40. So both malchut and cruv doubled with a mem add up to 496. The idea is that the cherubs, symbolizing mercy, connect to the concept of Hashem’s kingship.5

To form the bird, roll the dough into a thick log. Cut off one third of the dough.

Form the larger piece into a ball; this will serve as the base, or the body, of the bird.

Cut the smaller pieces of dough into four similar-sized pieces. Roll each piece into a ball. Using two balls, form the wings of the bird by pressing into the body on opposite sides.

The third ball will serve as the bird’s neck. Flatten the ball slightly.

Press it on top of the bird, slightly forward from the wings. With the final piece, form another ball and press it on top of the neck. Insert an almond for the beak and two raisins for the eyes. After shaping the challahs, let them sit out for another 20 minutes or so to rise again, so they will come out light and fluffy. Brush with egg yolk, sprinkle with poppy and/or sesame seeds and bake.

Ladder Challah The Midrash Tanchuma states that Hashem erects ladders in Heaven and everyone has a rung; people are either going up or going down the ladder, representing their spiritual growth. The Unetaneh Tokef prayer, in fact, describes this process of ascent and descent.

The gematria of the Hebrew word “sulam,” which means ladder, is equivalent to the gematria for “v’Sinai,” reminding us of the Torah, which is our ladder linking heaven and earth.

These loaves can be fashioned to resemble a ladder, or a ladder shape can be embedded inside a round challah.

Hand Challah

To create a ladder, use the Single Challah Recipe. Divide dough into three equal pieces. Roll two pieces into 12-inch logs. On a parchment-lined baking sheet, lay these two pieces parallel to one another leaving a two-inch gap in between. Roll the remaining dough into a 20-inch log, and cut it into five four-inch pieces—these are your rungs.

Allow dough to rest 15 minutes to a half hour. Brush with egg yolk, sprinkle with seeds and bake.

Some women bake two challot, one in the form of a bird and another in the form of a ladder.

Hand Challah According to Marks, the tradition of placing the form of a hand on top of a round challah has roots in eighteenth-century Ukraine. The hand references the V’chol Ma’aminim prayer with its request to Hashem to open the Heavenly doors to those who knock with repentance. The hand also symbolizes our hands outstretched to Heaven begging for a good and blessed year.

Make a round challah (a boule or classic ball-shaped loaf rather than a spiral), leaving off a golf-ball-sized piece of dough. Roll it out and fashion it into the shape of a hand. Stick it on the challah.

Shofar Challah This challah resembles the ram’s horn blown through the Yemei Ratzon to remind us to repent. This is a fun shape that kids especially enjoy.

Use the Single Challah Recipe to create the dough. Roll dough into a 12-inch log.

Using a metal cornet baking form (available online from specialty baking shops), wrap the dough around the cornet, curving to form the crescent shape of the shofar.

Scales of Justice Challah On Rosh Hashanah, the Heavenly Court is in session and our actions are weighed on a scale.

Creating a challah in the shape of a scale is slightly more complex, but it’s sure to be a conversation starter.

Divide dough into three equal pieces. Roll one piece into a 12-inch

Ladder Challah

log, and place it on the center of a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Divide the second piece into three equal parts. Roll each into a 15-inch log, and braid them together. Stretch the braid over the central column.

Divide the third piece into three equal parts. Form one piece into an oblong shape—this will be the scale’s base. Use the two remaining pieces as the scale’s bowl.

Single Challah Recipe ½ tablespoon instant yeast 3 tablespoons sugar or honey 1¼ cups tepid water (or more as needed) 4 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 large egg yolks (reserve one for the glaze) 3½ cups white or whole wheat flour 1½ teaspoons salt 2 teaspoons poppy or sesame seeds, or a combination In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine yeast, sugar, water, oil and one egg yolk. Stir or beat in the flour,

adding it one cup at a time. Knead on a floured board until the dough is smooth and supple (this is too small a quantity from which to take challah, even without a berachah). Pour one tablespoon of oil over the dough.

Cover it with a cloth, and leave it to rise in a warm place. When the dough is double in bulk, punch it down and shape. Allow to rest for 15 minutes to a half hour.

Glaze with egg yolk, sprinkle with seeds and bake at 375° F for 35 minutes or until golden brown. Freezes well.  Notes 1. The Mahari Asad is quoted in section 183, Likutim, Ta’amei Haminhagim U’mekorei Hadinim, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Sperling (Lvov, 1890).

2. Yeshayah 40:22.

3. Yeshayah 35:5.

4. Sefer Matamim, Mekorot Tovim al Minhagei Yisrael MiKedoshim, collected by Rabbi Shmuel Blotnik (Ashdod, 5769), p. 85.

5. Ibid.

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THE CHEF’S TABLE

Holiday Elegance on a Budget

By Naomi Ross

T

here is no time like the holidays for pulling out all the stops.

That said, with fancier food and additional guests, serving beautiful meals can be expensive. What budget-friendly menu choices are available that don’t sacrifice taste or quality?

Poultry is less costly than red meat and stretches beautifully when stuffed (see recipe to follow). Fish may be a traditional first course appetizer, but a fancy plated salad is often a more welcome and economical choice— with more food coming, guests are happy to have a lighter starter and something healthy to balance what can be an overly heavy meal.

They say people eat with their eyes first. Choose bright, fresh and bold flavors and colors to enhance and contrast; an attractively plated presentation costs no more than your creativity and attention, but will do wonders to elevate your holiday table and experience.

Roasted Turkey Roulade with Smoky Apple-Chestnut Stuffing Yields 14-16 servings Roasting a turkey breast with its skin helps it to retain its moisture during cooking. A roulade is French term that means “rolled up”; this dish not only boasts an elegant presentation with spirals of turkey filled with a flavorful stuffing, but it also stretches the turkey meat when serving a full table and works well to feed a large crowd on a budget (recipe can be halved).

Be sure to use a meat thermometer to ensure proper doneness without drying out the turkey.

Turkey Roulade 2 (2-pound) turkey breast roasts (with skin), butterflied ¼ cup olive oil 4 ounces thinly sliced pastrami or beef fry 2 cups chopped onion (1 large onion) 1 garlic clove, minced 2 cups peeled, chopped Fuji apples (1 very large or 2 small) 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste Freshly ground black pepper 1 (5.2 ounce) package whole peeled and roasted chestnuts, chopped 3 tablespoons apple liquor (or white wine)

Naomi Ross is a cooking instructor and food writer, and the culinary director at Apron Masters Kitchen in Woodmere, New York. She teaches classes throughout the tri-state area and writes articles connecting good cooking and Jewish inspiration.

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4 slices day-old bread (crusts removed), cubed (about 2½ cups) 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage leaves 1 cup apple cider Special equipment: 12 pieces (10”-12”) kitchen twine, roasting rack and pan Cider-Sage Gravy 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 large shallot, minced 2 tablespoons flour 1 cup low-sodium chicken or turkey stock 1 ⁄3 cup apple cider 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard 1-2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar Freshly ground black pepper 1½ teaspoons chopped fresh sage leaves Lay turkey breast out on a flat surface or cutting board; pound to even ¼” thickness. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 450°F. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add pastrami or beef fry to the pan and fry until crisp and shriveled, about 5-6 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, drain and transfer to a plate; chop when cool.

Add onion and garlic to the pan; sauté for about 3-4 minutes. Add apples and season with 1 teaspoon salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Continue to sauté until apples begin to soften, about 3-4 minutes.

Add chestnuts and sauté another 2 minutes. Add apple liquor and stir to blend until liquid is mostly absorbed, about 1 minute. Turn heat off. Add bread, chopped sage and reserved chopped pastrami/beef fry. Toss together until bread is moistened.

Set aside stuffing to cool slightly.

Spread half of bread mixture over one turkey breast. Fold turkey tender (smaller flap) in over stuffing, then carefully roll breast up, tucking ends in if necessary so that skin is on top (seam should be on bottom). Secure with toothpicks. Using pre-cut pieces of kitchen twine carefully slide each piece under the rolled roast, tying each string to secure the roast at 2-inch intervals. Carefully place tied roast on a rack in a medium roasting pan. Rub a little olive oil all over skin. Repeat with remaining stuffing and breast.

Roasted Turkey Roulade with Smoky AppleChestnut Stuffing Photo: Baila Gluck

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Place in the oven to brown for 15-20 minutes. Reduce heat to 375°F. Add cider to the bottom of roasting pan; cover with foil. Cook for about 45 minutes-1 hour or until inserted meat thermometer reaches 158°F internally.

Remove from oven; allow turkey to rest for 15-20 minutes; internal temperature will continue rise by 5-8 degrees.

While the turkey rests, prepare the gravy. Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.

Add shallot and sauté for about 2-3 minutes, until translucent. Sprinkle flour over shallots and quickly stir to blend, cooking for another minute. Add stock, cider, mustard and vinegar. Whisk to blend. Bring to a boil and then lower to medium heat, simmering gravy until mixture becomes thickened (should be able to coat the back of a spoon), about 15-20 minutes. Season to taste with black pepper and add salt if necessary. Remove from heat. Stir in sage.

Transfer rested turkey to a cutting board and using a sharp carving knife, remove twine and carefully slice roulade crosswise. Arrange slices on a platter and serve with gravy.

Cook’s Notes: • This sweet and smoky stuffing can also be used with individual pounded thin chicken breasts.

• Stuffing can be made two days ahead.

• You can ask your butcher to butterfly the turkey roast.

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Caramelized Squash & Pomegranate Salad with Creamy Apple Vinaigrette Yields 6 servings

Beautiful color contrasts and fall flavors make this the perfect salad to incorporate the holiday simanim at your yom tov table.

Squash Salad 2 baby acorn squash, scrubbed, halved, seeded and sliced into ¼” semi-circles (or 1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced) 3 tablespoons olive oil Kosher salt Freshly ground black pepper 1-2 tablespoons honey 1 package mixed baby greens Seeds from ½ pomegranate or 1 package pomegranate arils ¼ cup finely chopped red onion ½ cup pecans, toasted and chopped Creamy Apple Vinaigrette 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar 1½ tablespoons honey 2 teaspoons apple liqueur 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard ¼ teaspoon dried thyme 1 ⁄3 cup mayonnaise (heaping) Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste Preheat oven to 500°F. Adjust rack to highest setting (about 3-4 inches from the heating element).

Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and spread squash evenly on sheet. Drizzle oil over squash and season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss to coat and spread out in an even single layer. Drizzle a small amount of honey over squash to taste. Roast for about 15 minutes—squash should be tender (easily pierced with a fork) and slightly caramelized.

Remove from oven and cool slightly.

To prepare the dressing, combine all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the “s” blade. Process until well blended. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To assemble: Toss greens in a large mixing bowl with a few tablespoons of the dressing until coated.

Divide greens amongst salad plates. Arrange a few pieces of the warm squash in the center of the greens. Top with a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds and red onion. Drizzle a little bit of dressing over the top. Garnish with toasted chopped pecans.

Variation: Use 3-4 pears instead of squash. Core, dice and roast on 450°F according to above directions. 

LEGAL-EASE

WHAT’S THE TRUTH ABOUT...

NAMING THE FIRST SON from YIBBUM?

By Rabbi Dr. Ari Z. Zivotofsky

Misconception: The first son of a levirate1 marriage (yibbum) must be named after the deceased husband/brother.

Fact: There is no such requirement, although whether it is allowed, discouraged or encouraged is subject to debate. This misconception may have arisen due to a comment made by Rashi in Bereishit.

Background: Yibbum is the Biblical commandment that if a married man dies childless, his brother should marry the widow, and their first-born son will, according to the pasuk, “yakum al shem achiv hamet—succeed in the name of his dead brother” (Devarim 25:6). The literal translation of this Hebrew phrase is often understood as: “[he] will perpetuate the name of the dead brother.”

The objective of this mitzvah is stated explicitly at the end of the pasuk: “v’lo yimacheh shemo mi’Yisrael—his [the deceased brother’s] name will not be erased from Israel” (ibid.). This might lead one to interpret the earlier part of the pasuk as instructing that the son should be named for the deceased. This is such an obvious understanding that Rabbi Ari Z. Zivotofsky is a professor of neuroscience at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

the Gemara (Yevamot 24a) quotes a Baraita2 that queries: if the deceased was named Yosef, should the son be named Yosef, and if the deceased was named Yochanan, should the son be called Yochanan? The Baraita rejects this possibility by invoking a gezeirah shavah (an interpretive methodology in which a known rule is applied to a new case based upon a similar word or phrase in both cases) from Bereishit 48:6. When Yaakov used the phrase “al shem achei’hem yi’kar’u—they will be called after the name of their brothers” regarding any future sons born to Yosef, the term shem (name) referred to inheritance; thus in the context of yibbum, the term shem in Devarim 25:6 indicates that the one performing yibbum3 receives his brother’s inheritance, not that the son is named after the deceased.

The gemara continues with Rava commenting that while in general the simple reading of a Biblical text (peshat) is never ignored, this instance is the sole exception. Although the peshat is that the son is named after his deceased uncle,4 the gezeirah shavah entirely removes the verse from its plain meaning.5 Rashi and Ramban to Devarim 25:6 explain the phrase as the Gemara does, as does Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (d. 1888; Devarim 25:6), who does so at great length.

Even absent a requirement to name after the deceased, Rashi (Rut 3:9, 4:10) poignantly explains how the transfer of the inheritance serves to perpetuate the memory of the deceased.

He says that every time the widow or the yavam (brother who performed yibbum) enters the deceased’s field or engages in commerce with his possessions, people will be reminded of the deceased and will mention his name in connection with the estate.

In the pseudo-yibbum in which Boaz married Rut, the widow of Machlon, their son was not named after the deceased. Rut 4:10 says “l’hakim shem hamet—to uphold the name of the deceased,” a phrase reminiscent of that in Devarim 25:6, and concludes with “that the name of the dead be not cut off from amongst his brothers,” again similar to yibbum of Devarim.

The verse in Rut, unlike in Devarim, includes “al nachalato—upon his inheritance” between those phrases, similar to how Chazal understand the law regarding yibbum. The son was then named Oved (Rut 4:17), not Machlon.6 In explaining a different Biblical example of yibbum, Rashi can be seen as contradicting the universally agreed-upon halachah that there is no obligation to name the child after the deceased brother. In Bereishit 38:8, Yehudah’s son Er dies childless, and Yehudah instructs his next son, Onan, to do yibbum with Er’s widow, Tamar (“v’yabeim otah”) and bear a child, and thereby, “v’hakem zera l’achicha—you shall establish offspring for your brother.” Rashi explains this to mean that the son will be called by the name of the deceased. Some commentators, such as Gur Aryeh and Siftei Chachamim (quoting Nachalat Yaakov), see no problem with this comment of Rashi and understand Rashi to be saying that the child would be considered as if Er had fathered him.7 Others, such as the Ramban and Rabbi Eliyahu Mizrachi (the fifteenth-century commentator on Rashi, known as Re’em), think that Rashi was actually saying that the son would be named after Er. Regarding that claim, Ramban states: “This is not true.” The Re’em, quoted approvingly Fall 5782/2021 JEWISH ACTION

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by Divrei David (Taz), defends Rashi and says that Rashi did not err. Rather, pre-Matan Torah yibbum differed from the Torah’s rules in two ways: the child was named after the deceased,8 and yibbum could be done by other relatives and not only the brother.9 The Shulchan Aruch rules like the Gemara that the yavam gains his deceased brother’s inheritance (EH 163:1) and that there is no need to name the son after the deceased (EH 166:5). “No need” might imply that it is permissible, although possibly not encouraged. The Sefer HaTashbetz (Rabbi Shimon ben Zemah Duran, d.

1444; 4:25), in an approving postscript to a responsa about whether to compel yibbum in a particular case, says that the couple eventually did yibbum (and lived happily ever after) and their first child was a son whom they named after the deceased. Similarly, Rabbi Rachamim Nissim Yitzchak Palagi (d.

1907), commenting on the Shulchan Aruch (Yafeh Lalev, 6:EH:166, p. 86a) and basing himself on the Zohar, says the pasuk should also be taken literally and the first son should be named after the first husband, “and that is what is done.” Rabbi David Zechut (d.

1865; Zecher David, ma’amar aleph, ch. 84 [p. 602-5 (modern edition) = 233b-4b (1837 edition)] also says that one may name the child after the deceased, but he suggests that they should also add another name so that it is not exactly the same name, and he testifies that he arranged such a naming for his granddaughter’s son. Rabbi Mordechai Forhand (d. 1945; Shu”t Be’er Mordechai, EH 41:8 [p. 412]) infers from Rashi that the Gemara was merely saying that one is not obligated to name the child after the deceased, but if they want to, they may. On the other hand, Rabbi Yitzchak Schmelkes (d. 1906; Shu”t Beit Yitzchak, YD 2:163:3) says that the reason Chazal did not suggest also fulfilling the peshat of the verse and naming the child after his mother’s deceased first husband was because he died childless and thus has a “bad mazal”; it is therefore not only “not required” to name after him, but not propitious and thus inadvisable. Rav Ovadia Yosef (Yabia Omer 5:YD:21) 86

JEWISH ACTION Fall 5782/2021

suggests that sources like the Zohar that insist on not naming after the deceased may be a reaction to the Tzedukim, who erroneously always followed the literal meaning of the text.

The simple reading of the pasuk in Devarim seems to treat yibbum as a means of preserving the name and memory of the deceased. The halachah, as understood from the Gemara, introduced the idea of inheritance, lending yibbum a financial aspect. A third approach to yibbum adds a mystical, kabbalistic element.

The Ramban (Bereishit 38:8), after criticizing Rashi’s understanding of the pasuk, reveals that yibbum contains a great “secret” [kabbalistic aspect] of the Torah. Referring to gilgul, transmigration of souls,10 Ramban says that this aspect of yibbum was already known before the giving of the Torah11 and is efficacious even with other relatives, and that is why Yehudah and others practiced yibbum. Proponents of this approach, including Abarbanel (Devarim 25:5), who expounds on this idea at length, explain that yibbum is a method for the soul of the departed to return to this world in the child born from the union of the widow and the brother of the deceased (Rabbeinu Bachya, Devarim 25:6, 9).

Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz (author of Lecha Dodi, d. 1576; commentary to Rut, Shoresh Yishai 79b [Jerusalem, 1979]) explains the mechanism of how yibbum accomplishes this goal.

In this view, the phrase “yakum al shem achiv hamet” refers to the actual return of the brother’s soul. Maharam Schiff (to Gittin 43b) quotes from the Zohar that the soul of the departed returns in the son, and uses this to explain a particular halachah.

If the widow and the brother of the deceased choose not to marry, they instead perform the chalitzah ceremony which involves several oral declarations, the widow removing a special shoe from the brother’s foot,12 and spitting on the floor. Until either yibbum or chalitzah is performed, the widow may not marry.

Chalitzah thus seems to be purely utilitarian as a means of permitting the widow to remarry, and indeed that is how many authorities understand

it. The Chatam Sofer (Shu”t 2:85; cited in Pitchei Teshuvah, EH 165:7), while conceding that there is no independent mitzvah to do chalitzah, suggests that it is a form of chesed to the deceased, similar to the recitation of Kaddish.

And while the widow is not obligated to do this chesed, he says that when he had such a case and explained it that way to the widow, she acquiesced to do it.

Others, such as the Rashash (Sanhedrin 19b) and Netziv (Ha’amek She’eilah, Ki Tetzei, 154), think it is an independent mitzvah, which, as a by-product, also frees the widow to marry.13 According to the gilgul approach to yibbum, doing chalitzah instead of yibbum delays the return to earth of the soul of the deceased, and Rabbeinu Bachya (Devarim 25:9) thus sees in the removal of the shoes in the chalitzah ceremony an echo of the mourning ritual.

It is clear that Biblically, yibbum is preferred over chalitzah, but already in the Talmudic period there is a debate (Yevamot 39b) about which course of action is the preferred one, and in Ashkenaz the custom developed to do chalitzah rather than yibbum. The Rema (EH 163:2, 165:4) records that some communities even legislated a financial incentive for the brother to perform chalitzah. Nonetheless, if need be, yibbum is done by Ashkenazim.

Rabbi Hershel Schachter relates (Nefesh Harav, 1994, p. 265) that it once happened that a yavam was not able to do chalitzah because of an amputated leg and Rav Joseph Ber Soloveitchik instructed him to perform yibbum on the condition that they then divorce, and that is what they did. Among Sephardic communities, yibbum was more common, and this became a point of serious tension within the Chief Rabbinate in the early years of the State of Israel. In 1950, the Chief Rabbinate passed the “Jerusalem Ban” outlawing yibbum in Israel (Shu”t Heichal Yitzchak 1:EH:5, p. 51). The following year, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, as chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, challenged the ban, asserting that for Sephardim it should remain an option (Yabia Omer 6:EH:14; 8:EH:26).14 The mitzvah of yibbum usually arises following a tragedy, the death of a childless married man. The Torah

hereby provides a method to ensure that the widow is provided for and protected, and a means to perpetuate the memory, if not the name, of the deceased.15 The Tur (Perush HaTur Ha’Aruch, Devarim 25:6) suggests that the pasuk is not just a commandment, but also a promise from God that there will indeed be a continuation to the name of the deceased and that, despite the tragedy, there is a promise of a future.  Notes 1. The English name for yibbum, levirate marriage, is derived from the Latin word levir which means “husband’s brother.”

2. Cf. Sifrei to Devarim 25:6. The Malbim offers several reasons why the Midrash’s conclusion is actually the only logical one.

3. Tosafot (Yevamot 24a, s.v. oh) assert that a literal reading of the text indicates it is the yavam (brother who performed yibbum), and not the son, who inherits.

Prisha (EH 166:9) and Aruch Hashulchan (EH 163:1) explain how the entire verse is read based on the Gemara’s derashah and they similarly assert that the verse refers to the brother as inheriting.

Rashbam and Ramban (Hasagot to Sefer Hamitzvot, shoresh 2; cf. Shadal) understand the literal reading of the pasuk as referring to the son inheriting.

4. The Septuagint omits the word “achiv— his brother” from the translation of the verse. Furthermore, in the Brenton English translation of the Septuagint it says that the child is named after the deceased. However, that is not clear in the original Greek.

Ibn Ezra (Devarim 25:6) says, “yikarei b’shem achiv—[the child] will be called in the name of his brother,” but he is likely not contradicting the Gemara.

Rather, he was saying that the child will be attributed to the deceased (i.e.

“Look, there’s the yibbum child of this deceased man.”) This is based on Ibn Ezra’s own comment to Bereishit 38:9 regarding Onan’s awareness that the child “lo yikarei b’shmo—would not be called in his [Onan’s] name”; meaning, the child would not be “known as his [Onan’s] son,” rather as the son of the deceased father.

5. Once the gezeirah shavah overrides the simple reading, the mention of “firstborn” at the beginning of the verse is taken to refer to the oldest brother as the one who should preferably do yibbum (Yevamot 24a).

Ramban (Hasagot to Sefer Hamitzvot, shoresh 2) asserts that in general

when Chazal give derashot they still hew to a certain extent to the peshat; thus in this case, which Rava views as unique, it must be that the halachah is a total disconnect from peshat.

6. In an interesting comment, Rabbi Yosef Caspi (early fourteenth century; Kapot Kesef in Asarah Klei Kesef, p. 10 on Rut 4:17) notes that according to the verse, the name Oved was given by the neighbors, and thus he suggests that Boaz and Rut actually named the son Machlon “as commanded in the Torah.” He concedes that Ibn Ezra disagrees because in the subsequent genealogy (Rut 4:18-22), the name Oved is the name used for Boaz’s son.

Earlier in the story (Rut 1:11), Naomi references a pseudo-yibbum, as pointed out by the Midrash Rabbah and by Rashi, when she tells her widowed daughters-in-law that she has no more future sons to offer them.

7. That is similar to how Seforno (Devarim 25:6) understands the pasuk about the mitzvah of yibbum. He says that the child is attributed to the deceased in the heavenly ledger and it is as if the dead brother fulfilled the commandment to procreate.

8. Note that Yehudah (the father) later did “yibbum” with Tamar, but the resulting twins were not named after Er or Onan. It is intriguing that in the two Biblical pseudo-yibbum stories— Yehudah and Tamar and Boaz and Rut— both involve a prior refusal (Onan and Ploni Almoni), and that the Davidic line goes through the offspring of both of those unions as mentioned in King David’s genealogy (Rut 4:18-22).

9. The Bechor Shor (Bereishit 38:13) justifies Tamar’s actions vis-à-vis Yehudah by noting that pre-Matan Torah, yibbum was done by any relative, even the father of the deceased, and the Torah then limited it to paternal brothers. Nonetheless, he points out that it continued to be done by additional relatives who are allowed to marry the widow, as Boaz did with Rut. There are those who want to derive from Boaz’s action that “brothers” in the yibbum command in Devarim 25 is not literal and means close relatives (as it does in other places in the Torah), but Ibn Ezra (Devarim 25:5) forcefully rejects that interpretation and maintains that both peshat and tradition agree that Biblical yibbum is only with a paternal brother.

10. See Rabbi Yitzchak Blau, “Body and Soul: Tehiyyat ha-Metim and Gilgulim in Medieval and Modern Philosophy,”

The Torah U-Madda Journal 10 (2001): 1-19, in particular pp. 8-9.

11. It is interesting to note that forms of yibbum exist in many cultures, modern and ancient, including some ancient Near-Eastern societies. For example, the twelfth-century bce tablets excavated at Ashur containing the Middle Assyrian Laws mention variants of yibbum in sections 30, 33 and 43, and the Hittite Laws from around sixteenth-century-bce Turkey mention it in section 193 (see chapter 14 in Marten Stol, Women in the Ancient Near East [Germany, 2016], 296-299).

Interestingly, while yibbum-type customs are widespread, I have not come across any parallels to chalitzah.

12. Note that the shoe removal in Rut 4:7-8 was not related to chalitzah (despite Boaz’s later pseudo-yibbum with Rut) but rather, as explained in the Yerushalmi (Kiddushin 1:5) and Rashi, this was how acquisitions were performed in those times, and thus it was a transaction and not chalitzah. Rashi says it is similar to our kinyan chalipin/sudar (a “barter-type” halachic mechanism of transferring ownership). See Bava Metziah 47a, where this pasuk is used to derive the rules of kinyan chalipin. The fact that the Targum translates “na’al” in Rut 4:7-8 as “nartek yad—a glove” further makes it clear that this was a transaction and not chalitzah. The Revid Hazahav (Rabbi Dov Ber ben Yehuda Leib Tribish, Shemot 3:5) notes that in three places in the Torah there are instructions to remove a na’al from feet. If na’al meant only shoe, “from feet” would be superfluous. Hence, he says, the Targum is correct that na’al can be on the hand or foot, referring to either a glove or a shoe.

13. For a summary of the various opinions regarding if it is a mitzvah or a matir, see Encyclopedia Talmudit, vol. 15, pp. 617-618.

14. For a full discussion of this fascinating halachic and historical/sociological topic, see: E. Westreich, “Levirate Marriage in the State of Israel: Ethnic Encounter and the Challenge of a Jewish State,” Israel Law Review 37 (2003): 427-500.

15. A famous case of yibbum is that of Rav Yose ben Chalafta, a student of Rabbi Akiva. He married the widow of his brother, and together they had five children, all luminaries of Torah: Yishmael, Eleazar, Menachem, Chalafta and Eudemus (Yerushalmi, Yevamot 1:1; see Shabbat 118b).

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40% of Jewish adults under 30 describe themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.” *

Together, we can work to reverse this trend by connecting 30,000 teens to their Jewish roots each year.

ISRAEL ADVOCACY & EDUCATION

JEWISH STUDENT UNION

SUMMER IN ISRAEL

SHABBATON WEEKENDS

RELIEF MISSIONS

Support NCSY today and inspire the Jewish future. ncsy.org/donate *Pew Research Center 2020

INSIDEthe PROGRAMS OF THE ORTHODOX UNION

OU

Compiled and edited by Sara Goldberg

Culture Reset

By Rabbi Dr. Josh Joseph

How do we build the future of the Orthodox Union together? A year into my tenure at the OU, as we move past the pandemic and with the season of teshuvah upon us, it seems an opportune time for self-reflection and examination. As Rabbi Yehuda Amital, zt”l, put it in “The Teshuva of Shabbat” in When God is Near: On the High Holidays: . . . the command, “vahashevota el l’vavecha,” “you shall take it to heart,” refers to teshuva through self-examination. . . . National teshuva results from the teshuva of individuals.

There is no separate reality of the nation without the individuals, and therefore the teshuva of the individual is an integral part of the national teshuva.

The two processes are intertwined, and as Hazal teach, on Rosh HaShana we pass “like a flock of sheep”—each individual on his own, while at the same time “they are taken in in a single glance” (Rosh HaShana 18a); the totality is judged as a single entity.

Thus, our review of ourselves at the OU is unavoidably tied to our belonging to a larger whole. When we manage our personnel review process, for example, we speak both of individual areas of opportunity for growth, as well as investing in departmental and organizational needs and yearnings.

Indeed, much of the past year has been focused on learning about the dizzying array of projects, programs, supports and services that inhere

the conglomeration we call the OU. A smattering of recent activity includes: • Yachad is releasing a new resource and referral service called REACH with a soft launch that began in July and a full launch by September. This program, available to any individual with an intellectual, developmental or learning disability in the Jewish community, will have a dedicated hotline where a professional will get to know the individual's needs, spend time with their family members, and make specific referrals that best suit him or her.

• On May 24, Israel Free Spirit: Birthright Israel welcomed the first Birthright group of young adults to Israel since the start of the pandemic.

• NCSY welcomed over 2,000 teens on programs this summer, including nearly 1,600 in Israel.

• The All Daf app has surpassed 100,000 users!

• The OU Women’s Initiative launched the Max and Yetty Monderer, a”h, ALIT Summer Virtual Beit Midrash during the month of July. This annual summer program provides in-depth text-based learning on topics related to halachah, Tanach, tikkun hamiddot and Jewish history.

• Tachlis Media, a brand-new podcast platform of sophisticated and thought-provoking content launched in July.

• OU Advocacy initiated the “Unite and Advocate” Campaign in May and June in response to the rocket attacks in Israel and anti-Semitic assaults in the US. In the first

three weeks of the program, 100 community members nationwide joined group meetings with their local members of Congress.

One discovery we have spent some time considering is the essence of the OU’s culture within the workplace and beyond. As an organization that is dedicated to the promotion of Torah and mitzvot, we must ensure that our conduct as an organization and as personnel lives up to our values of integrity, loyalty, kindness, shared responsibility, modesty and humility, and sets standards that must characterize our individual and organizational behavior. As such, we have sought greater opportunities to marry our internal and external activities. For example, the Community Projects and Partnerships Department started a new initiative to strengthen parent-child relationships. Its initial volunteer project, offered to OU professionals and their families, was re-painting the OHEL Children’s Home and Family Services center in Lower Manhattan.

That programmatic experience Continued on page 93 Fall 5782/2021 JEWISH ACTION

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Responding to

Anti-Semitism In May, Israel faced an unrelenting bombardment of thousands of rockets fired from Gaza by Hamas, which killed Israeli residents, injured hundreds of others, and sent thousands running for cover in bomb shelters night and day. Simultaneously, the battle between Israel and Hamas triggered a shocking surge in violent attacks on American Jews by self-identified supporters of Palestinians and others. These assaults took place across the US, from New York and Los Angeles to South Florida, Boston, Skokie and elsewhere, beginning during the eleven-day bombardment and continuing afterward.

Israel Under Fire

Responding to rocket attacks and jihad after Yom Yerushalayim, OU Israel and its network of youth centers (many converted into neighborhood bomb shelters) worked tirelessly on the geographic, emotional and psychological fronts of the war to assist and support Israel’s children, their families and their local communities. During the conflict and its aftermath, OU Israel has assisted more than 2,300 youth and their families in twenty-eight locations throughout Israel. In addition, OU Israel’s “Communities in Israel” Campaign raised more than $66,000 to aid those impacted by the attacks. Stateside, an email campaign by OU Advocacy urged President Biden to continue supporting Israel’s right to self-defense. and the OU’s Daily Tehillim and Chizuk Call dedicated its tefillot to the welfare and safety of Israel and its people.

OU Supports Resolution Condemning Anti-Semitism The OU strongly supported The Resolution Condemning the Recent Rise in Anti-Semitism, introduced in May

by Senators Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK), Co-Chairs of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism. Co-sponsored by over thirty bipartisan legislators, the resolution recommits the Senate to combating anti-Semitism in all forms and urges President Biden to take specific actions to address anti-Semitism. OU Advocacy worked with the sponsors to have the Senate pass the resolution unanimously in June.

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JEWISH ACTION Fall 5782/2021

Unite and Advocate!

In response to these heinous attacks across the US and the need to bolster support for Israel, 100 community members nationwide joined group meetings with their local members of Congress in May and June as part of OU Advocacy’s “Unite and Advocate” Campaign to thank those representatives who stood with Israel; convey their disappointment and desire for immediate change to those who hadn't; press for the denunciation of anti-Jewish violence in the United States; and request concrete steps to bolster Jewish community security. Organized by OU Advocacy, the face-to-face meetings and outreach activities have been conducted coast to coast, with virtual and live attendance options.

“

The time for action is now, and this is the OU’s greatest priority. Lives are at stake both here and in Israel.” —OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Moshe Hauer

Protecting Our Community

Ensuring our schools, synagogues and other community institutions are safe from the threat of terrorist attacks is of paramount importance to the OU Advocacy Center, and the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) is a critical vehicle to support such security. In 2021, OU Advocacy and its partners succeeded in having Congress allocate a historic $180 million for NSGP grants. Now, for Fiscal Year 2022, we are advocating to double that to $360 million. As of press time, President Biden’s formal budget request and the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security has approved continuing the high level of $180 million for the program for 2022. But OU Advocacy is continuing our work with allies in the US Senate to achieve the $360 million funding level.

The OU Advocacy Center is also working with bipartisan allies in Congress to enact the Pray Safe Act; this would establish a new federal “clearinghouse” on safety and security to develop and share best practices for shuls, day schools and other faith-based organizations. The act was introduced by Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) in consultation with OU Advocacy and was approved by the Senate Homeland Security Committee as this issue went to press. OU Advocacy is working with the senators to move this important legislation to a Senate floor vote.

#ActAgainstAntisemitism In May, the OU joined with the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Federations of North America, the American Jewish Committee, Hadassah and other Jewish organizations to co-sponsor a national virtual rally against anti-Semitism, which over 23,000 attended.

The OU also joined myriad Jewish organizations for "NO FEAR," an in-person rally in Washington, DC in July, where some 2,000 participants stood in solidarity with the Jewish people. Speakers included Rabbi Shlomo Noginsky, the Chabad rabbi who was attacked in Boston the week prior; Elisha Wiesel, the son of Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel; and many others.

Photo: Getty Images

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HAPPENINGS

AROUND THE OU

Back to Israel!

Photo: Erez Uzir

After more than a year with no Birthright Israel trips for young adults, the OU’s Israel Free Spirit: Birthright Israel became the first Birthright trip provider to send a group to Israel since the onset of the pandemic. Made up of seventeen fully vaccinated young adults from diverse Jewish backgrounds, the group (pictured above) arrived in late May and traveled for eight days throughout Israel. Israel Free Spirit: Birthright Israel sent additional trips throughout July and August, and have trips planned for October. Additionally, 1,600 NCSY teens and 173 Yachad participants returned to Israel on summer programs this summer.

New Parsha App Launches

From the creators of All Daf comes All Parsha, a free app and website offering world-class speakers and a wide selection of resources and classes to connect you to the weekly parashah. Enjoy daily Chumash with Rashi highlights, dive into the meforshai haparashah, track your Shnayim Mikra progress and much more. Download today at allparsha.org/landing.

Challenge Grant Winners Announced!

The OU’s Back to Shul Challenge Grant awarded $100,000 in grants to thirty-five shuls in fifteen US states and one Canadian province to enhance and invigorate the return to shul as more people are vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus. The winners represent out-of-the-box thinking and opportunities that are more likely to rebuild and reaffirm the value of synagogue and community for their congregants. Visit ou.org/grant21 for the full list of winning shuls.

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NEW POSITIONS PROMOTIONS AND

Welcome to . . .

. . . Ari Steinberg, Director of Planned Giving/Major Gifts Officer, Department of

Institutional Advancement. In this role, Ari looks forward to helping secure future resources for all of the OU’s incredible programs and for the Jewish community. Prior to joining the OU, Ari held development positions at the Jewish Federation of Chicago, Arie Crown Hebrew Day School and Bar-Ilan University. He holds a bachelor’s in economics from Yeshiva University.

. . . OU-JLIC’s six new campus educators for the 2021-22 academic year. The Heshe and

Harriet Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus (OU-JLIC), a program of the OU in partnership with Hillel, helps Orthodox students navigate the college environment and balance their Jewish commitments. OU-JLIC educators strive to enhance the learning opportunities available to students, work with and strengthen student leadership, and bolster an infrastructure for Torah life to flourish. Welcome back to Rabbi Tzvi and Tali Wohlgelernter, previously educators at Rutgers University, who will be at Bar-Ilan University this academic year.

Yehudah and Hannah Auerbach University of Chicago

Rav Josh and Rikki Lehman University of Maryland

Rabbi Nimrod and Chana Soll University of Illinois

Ariel and Dorit Cohen Brandeis University

Rabbi Ben and Ellie Menora Binghamton University

Ben and Rachel Atwood Colleges and universities of Greater Atlanta

Continued from page 89

has been supplemented through more collaborative and culturally resonant experiences for all OU employees. From open town halls with Q&A sessions, to a department directors’ retreat on cultural opportunities for change, to a staff survey to determine further learnings, we aspire to reset and to catalyze teshuvah across the organization as we emerge from a life-changing and world-altering moment. As we have all experienced, sometimes we need a factory reset on one of our tech gadgets. This season of reset allows for self-reflection, self-examination, acknowledgment of challenges and areas of opportunity for growth, and finally a commitment to start again.

If teshuvah or resetting on an individual level is challenging, then

doing so at the national or corporate errors to learn from them is accepted level adds complexity to the point and encouraged. Employees learned of confrontation and a need for to be open to new information that engagement. In a 2010 study of oil challenged their assumptions, and to riggers entitled “Unmasking Manly acknowledge when they were wrong: “.

Men,” authors Ely and Meyerson noted . . the ones who excelled were missionin the Harvard Business Review that: driven guys who cared about their . . . the platforms we studied have fellow workers, were good listeners, deliberately jettisoned their hard-driving, and were willing to learn.” macho cultures in favor of an In the coming months we hope to environment in which men admit when continue to work on developing our they’ve made mistakes and explore how organizational culture in a positive, anxiety, stress, or lack of experience safe and secure Torah environment may have caused them; appreciate one that promotes and develops ambitious, another publicly; and routinely ask for creative, passionate professionals and offer help. These workers shifted with an elevated mission. How do we their focus from proving their masculinity build the future together? One step to larger, more compelling goals: forward is to reset our culture through maximizing the safety and well-being of collaboration, learning and applying our coworkers and doing their jobs effectively. values.

The shift they described required a Rabbi Dr. Josh Joseph is OU Executive new approach and demanded a new Vice President/Chief Operating Officer. attitude toward work where exposing Fall 5782/2021 JEWISH ACTION

93

WOMEN IN ACTION

Spotlight On: ALIT Virtual Beit Midrash Over the past year and a half, the number of online Torah learning programs sponsored by the OU Women’s Initiative (WI) has flourished. Through the launch of ALIT in July 2020, a virtual beit midrash summer program for women, the WI offered intellectually engaging and spiritually enriching live courses, generously sponsored in memory of Max and Yetty Monderer, a"h. Course topics included Tanach, halachah, Jewish history and tikkun hamiddot. Designed with a focus on interactive classes and connecting participants with educators and each other, ALIT provided two weeks of advanced and immersive Torah study for women of all ages, wherever they live. This summer’s nearly 200 participants hailed from the US, Canada, France, the UK and Israel.

Additionally, one of ALIT’s main goals was to share new teaching talent at the global level. “ALIT is one of the WI’s finest examples of commitment to providing wide-reaching Torah learning for Jewish women, and women’s commitment to delve into the intricacies of Torah thought and knowledge,” said Rebbetzin Dr. Adina Shmidman, Founder and Director of the WI. “We are very appreciative to Helen and Manny Adler for dedicating the program in memory of Helen’s parents, Max and Yetty Monderer, a"h, who were committed to continuing Torah education for both men and women.”

The roster of educators included beloved returning educators, as well as dynamic new additions:

Rabbanit Shani Taragin

Mrs. Michal Horowitz

Mrs. Rivka Maron

Educational Director, Matan Eshkolot; Torah Educator; Noted Lecturer

Adult Torah Educator; Noted Lecturer

PhD Candidate; Jewish History Teacher, Women's Institute of Torah Seminary and College, and Bais Yaakov of Baltimore

Mrs. Moriah Weiss

Professor Shoshana Schechter

Mrs. Sarah Lipman

Associate Dean of Torah Studies, Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women

Founder and CTO, Power 2B; Judaic Studies Teacher, Machon LA; Adult Educator

Tanach Instructor, Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women

I think my grandparents would have loved that the summer learning program is being named in their memory. I think they would have enjoyed seeing Jewish women from all across the world coming together; that would have meant a lot to them."

—Mirel Stavsky, Granddaughter of Max and Yetty Monderer, a"h

The ALIT program has so enriched my life. Not only have I had the zechus to learn with outstanding women, but I have been motivated to ensure that learning is now part of my daily routine. I can never express my hakaras hatov adequately.

—Elaine Jaye, ALIT participant, South Boynton Beach, Florida 94

JEWISH ACTION Fall 5782/2021

NEW FROM OU PRESS

Religion / Judaism / Halakha

Maggid Books offers new approaches to Jewish texts and themes from the world’s leading rabbis, scholars, and philosophers.

Maggid is an imprint of Koren Publishers Jerusalem.

By Rabbi Haim Jachter OU Press and Maggid Books

USD $24.95/CAD $30.95

BRIDGING TRADITIONS DEMYSTIFYING DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SEPHARDIC AND ASHKENAZIC JEWS

How interesting! A neighbor related to me that as a youngster living in Brooklyn, New York, whenever he and his Ashkenazic friends visited a Sephardic synagogue for tefilla, their reaction was, “How interesting!”

When his Sephardic friends would visit an Ashkenazic shul, the reaction was the same: “How interesting!”

It is my hope that readers from both Sephardic and Ashkenazic communities, as they delve into this work and begin to learn and grasp the basis for the practices of the various sections of our Jewish community, will react similarly and proclaim, “How interesting!”

The goal of Bridging Traditions is to broaden every Jew’s perception of “we” to include all Jews. Every Jew should take special pride in the practices of his particular shevet/subgroup. At the same time, however, every Jew should also feel a sense of oneness and unity with all Jews. . . . It is my hope that readers will come away with a tangible feeling that we are am ehad . – one nation serving Hashem, with variations. The core of the halachic practice of all the Orthodox Jewish communities is identical.

From the Introduction

www.maggidbooks.com

The following is an excerpt from the introduction of Bridging Traditions.

“H

www.korenpub.com

BRIDGING TRADITIONS

Bridging Traditions: Demystifying Differences Between Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews

Bridging Traditions is essential reading for Jews of all origins who are interested in understanding their own practices and appreciating those of their brethren, and in seeing the kaleidoscope of halachic observance as a multi-faceted expression of an inner divine unity.

sub-groupings of Sephardic Jews!

This will be your reaction as well, as Bridging Traditions presents rich discussions regarding a broad range of common contemporary areas of interest spanning each of the four sections of the Shulhan Aruch, with an eye to the practices of all of the Sephardic communities.

A book like Bridging Traditions was not necessary in the Jewish communities of yesteryear, when most Jews could live a lifetime without ever having met Jews of a different background. Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews had limited interaction until the modern age.

The Jew of pre-modern times could manage very well even if he was familiar only with the customs and practices of his specific community.

Nowadays, however, almost all observant families have (or will soon have) at least one couple in their family who are of mixed Sephardic and Ashkenazic heritage. Most Orthodox communities of significant size support both a Sephardic and Ashkenazic minyan, or even a full-fledged Sephardic bet kenesset.

Jews of this generation must therefore be acquainted with the halachic practices and approaches of all Jewish communities.

As a result, I have devoted much attention in Bridging Traditions to clarifications of how Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews should manage their halachic differences when they join together for various occasions. Bridging Traditions

JACHTER

RABBI HAIM JACHTER has earned an international reputation as a Get (Jewish Divorce) Administrator, consultant for community Eruvin and a prolific writer. His ten books include a series of four well-received volumes entitled Gray Matter on contemporary topics in Jewish law. A veteran teacher of Judaic studies at Torah Academy of Bergen County, Rabbi Jachter also serves as the spiritual leader of Congregation Shaarei Orah (the Sephardic Congregation of Teaneck) and Dayan on the Beit Din of Elizabeth. Rabbi Jachter has lectured on subjects of significance in the areas of Jewish law, thought, and studies at a wide variety of venues worldwide. Rabbi Jachter lives with his wife and five children in Teaneck, New Jersey.

As the rabbi of a Sephardic synagogue for over twenty years who is himself of Ashkenazic descent and trained in Ashkenazic yeshivot, Rabbi Haim Jachter has a unique vantage point from which to observe the differences in customs and halachot between Ashkenazim and Sephardim. In Bridging Traditions, Rabbi Jachter applies his wide-ranging expertise to explicating an encyclopedic array of divergences between Ashkenazic and Sephardic halachic practice, while also capturing the diversity within different Sephardic communities.

ow interesting!” A neighbor related to me that as a youngster living in Brooklyn, New York, whenever he and his Ashkenazic friends visited a Sephardic synagogue for tefilla, their reaction was, “How interesting!”

When his Sephardic friends would visit an Ashkenazic shul, the reaction was the same: “How interesting!”

It is my hope that readers from both Sephardic and Ashkenazic communities, as they delve into this work and begin to learn and grasp the basis for the practices of the various sections of our Jewish community, will react similarly and proclaim, “How interesting!”

Upon their first exposure to the wide and deep world of Sephardic posekim, many people comment about how deep Sephardic halacha is. How deep are the great debates between Rav Ovadia Yosef and Rav Shalom Messas! How deep are the halachic insights of Rav Ben Tzion Abba Sha’ul, Rav Mordechai Eliyahu, and Rav Hayim David HaLevy! How fascinating is the wide variety of customs of the different

PLEASE NOTE :

Rabbi Haim Jachter

provides halachic guidance for visiting synagogues, hosting guests on Shabbat and Pesah, roommates with varying practices, weddings, sheva berachot, b’rit mila, and much more. Both Sephardic and Ashkenazic readers will emerge from reading this book fortified with the knowledge of how to act appropriately in these situations.

The goal of Bridging Traditions is to broaden every Jew’s perception of “we” to include all Jews. Every Jew should take special pride in the practices of his particular shevet/ sub-group. At the same time, however, every Jew should also feel a sense of oneness and unity with all Jews. Readers of Bridging Traditions will emerge much more knowledgeable regarding the nuanced differences between the communities and will gain a solid “feel” and savvy regarding the broader perspectives and halachic approaches of the wide variety of Sephardic communities. It is my hope that readers will come away with a tangible feeling that we are am ehad—one nation serving Hashem, with variations. The core of the halachic practice of all the Orthodox Jewish communities is identical.

–

'

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New from OU PRESS

Beurei HaTefillah: A Guide to Jewish Prayer—Expanded and Updated Edition

By Rabbi Isaiah Wohlgemuth; edited by Asher Reichert and Rashie Reichert

Rabbi Isaiah Wohlgemuth (1915-2008), for decades a beloved teacher at the Maimonides School in Brookline, Massachusetts, was renowned for his Beurei HaTefillah course on Jewish prayer. With the publication of this volume, Rabbi Wohlgemuth’s wisdom and teachings can be shared by all.

Yiddish Discourses on the Return to Zion and Jewish Destiny

By Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik; edited by David E. Fishman

These Yiddish discourses delivered by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, the Rav, at conferences of the Mizrachi Organization of America far transcend the confines of political speeches to address profound questions of Jewish destiny and reveal a previously unknown stage of the Rav’s religious-Zionist thought.

Bridging Traditions: Demystifying Differences Between Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews

By Rabbi Haim Jachter

COMING SOON

In this book, Rabbi Jachter explains an encyclopedic array of divergences between Ashkenazi and Sephardi halachic practice. Essential reading for all Jews interested in understanding their own practices and those of their neighbors, and in seeing the full mosaic of halacha created through the diversity of its parts.

BOOKS OF JEWISH THOUGHT THAT EDUCATE, INSPIRE, ENRICH AND ENLIGHTEN

Available at oupress.org

Inside

PHILANTHROPY Portrait of Philanthropy

STACEY GOLDMAN

By Merri Ukraincik

A

s a Jewish educator who teaches in multiple venues, Stacey Goldman aims to inspire. Yet it was only after recording her first shiur for the OU Women’s Initiative (WI) that she decided to bring more of her own teaching online. This experience would ultimately transform how she shares Torah with a wide audience, and it would influence her philanthropy as well.

A Barnard graduate, Stacey met her husband Amir during their junior year abroad in Israel, where they were inspired to become observant. She was also deeply shaped by her advanced Torah studies at Nishmat—The Jeanie Schottenstein Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women in Jerusalem, which remains one of her philanthropic priorities.

Eventually, she and Amir settled in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, where they have raised their five sons, ages fourteen to twenty-four. Stacey teaches Tanach at Philadelphia’s Kohelet Yeshiva High School. She also serves as a yoetzet halachah for both the Greater Philadelphia area and the Las Vegas community, where her in-laws reside.

The couple’s philanthropy focuses on education. A tireless advocate for Pennsylvania’s Jewish day schools, Amir sits on the OU’s Teach Coalition National Advisory Committee, co-chairs Teach PA, Teach Coalition’s Pennsylvania branch, and has contributed to various programs at the OU. He and Stacey have helped grant education access to children in-need at both Jewish and non-Jewish schools in Greater Philadelphia. They also support the local Jewish Family and Children’s Services and the Jewish Federation, where Amir chairs the Endowment Committee, and were instrumental in building the Lower Merion mikvah. “They are exceptionally committed to supporting the growth and vitality of this community,” says Rebbetzin Dr. Adina Shmidman, director of the WI and wife of the Lower Merion Synagogue’s mora d’atra Rabbi Avraham Shmidman. “Stacey is eager to help,” she adds. “She is smart and wellliked and a wonderful teacher.”

Stacey embraced the chance to create a video for the WI’s Rosh Chodesh virtual learning series

Compiled by Marcia P. Neeley

when Rebbetzin Shmidman approached her. Because of the Covid outbreak, Stacey had to record it herself at home, a humbling experience that swayed her to invest generously in the WI’s initiatives a year later.

Meanwhile, Stacey began recording her popular oneminute parashah talks at Kohelet and sharing the videos on YUTorah and social media. “I put myself out there to inspire others,” she says. Only when a friend critiqued them—“great content, unprofessional presentation”— did Stacey realize she had to do something about it.

“I knew that my Torah videos would be more effective if I improved things like lighting and Zoom backgrounds,” she reflects. “Still, bringing in a coach was an expensive investment I wasn’t ready to make.”

With a growing number of Jewish women educators, scholars, and lay leaders pursuing speaking opportunities, the WI recognized the need to provide them with targeted professional development. It launched “The Art of Speaking” earlier this year, an advanced seminar covering everything from building a unique speaking style to mastering the virtual presentation.

“Nothing like it exists within the Orthodox world here in North America,” Rebbetzin Shmidman adds.

Stacey was among the seminar’s first cohort of sixty participants, an experience that sold that her on the necessity of professional coaching. “It revolutionized how I do what I do,” she enthuses, adding that a spike in followers quantified the impact of the changes she had made to her presentations.

Soon after, Stacey decided to fund the WI’s 2022 “Art of Speaking” cohort. “I am honored that this gift will enable so many klei kodesh women [those involved in teaching Torah] to improve themselves in this area as they continue spreading Torah in the world,” she says.

Rebbetzin Shmidman appreciates the opportunity Stacey is creating. “Her generosity will provide training to a wide group of speakers, each of whom reaches an audience of hundreds, if not thousands.

It’s a privilege to work with her on setting other women up for success.”

“As an Orthodox community, we have to invest in our female educators and speakers,” says Stacey. “By showing them how to present themselves in the best possible light, we showcase Torah in its best possible light.”

And that, of course, is priceless.

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“

YOU CAN ONLY SAFELY STEP OFF A LEDGE IF YOU TRUST THOSE WHO ARE SUPPORTING YOU. AS A NEW MEMBER OF THE OU TEAM, I’M GRATEFUL FOR OUR SUPPORTERS, BOTH PROFESSIONAL AND VOLUNTEER, AND WAS CONFIDENT IN THEIR BACKUP.

”

RABBI DR. JOSH JOSEPH, OU EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT/CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Photo: Abbie Salamone

OVER THE EDGE OU Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer Rabbi Dr. Josh Joseph rappelled down the Tower at Nassau Community College, a 146-foot high building, at New York NCSY’s Over the Edge rappelling event this past May, which raised $30,000 to support the region’s programming.

HOLE IN ONE Mike Lemay (left) of Reset IV, an IV therapy service, with Las Vegas NCSYer Idan Malka, who is measuring the distance of Lemay’s golf ball.

The ball landed just eighteen inches short of a hole-in-one at Las Vegas NCSY’s inaugural golf tournament, held last April. The brain-child of the Silver family of Las Vegas and presented in partnership with Reset IV CEO Daniel Rubenstein, the tournament raised $30,000 for the Las Vegas chapter, with forty-eight golfers competing.

The tournament also marked the official announcement of the region’s Scholarship Campaign, held in June, which raised $120,000 to send NCSYers in Las Vegas on NCSY Summer programs in Israel.

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JEWISH ACTION Fall 5782/2021

WE'RE BACK Travel with Israel Free Spirit, the OU's Birthright Israel trip organizer

GET STARTED AT ISRAELFREESPIRIT.COM/OU This trip is a gift from Birthright Israel.

AND THE WINNER IS...

Inside PHILANTHROPY

“

OVER THE PAST YEAR, OU-JLIC HAS BEEN CONSTANTLY DEVISING NEW, CREATIVE WAYS TO SUPPORT JEWISH STUDENTS ON CAMPUS WHILE ENSURING THEIR SAFETY. From left: OU-JLIC Brooklyn College alumnus Moishe Wolbrum; Shea and Esti Neuman, parents of alumni; and alumna Deeni Mayer perusing the prizes at OU-JLIC Brooklyn College’s Seventh Annual Year in a Day Auction. Sponsored in memory of Bella and Marty Wolf by their children, the evening, attended by 300 students, friends, family and alumni, raised $75,000 in support of Orthodox Jewish life on campus. Photo: Mod Schwalbe

”

YAEL, OU-JLIC STUDENT AT CORNELL

BACKYARD BASH Yachad member Jake Rosenthal (center) joined performers (from left) Benny Friedman, Mordechai Shapiro, Shulem Lemmer and Eli Schwebel on stage at Yachad’s Backyard VIP Concert, held this past May in Lawrence, New York. Hosted

by Ruthy and Aaron Jungreis at their home and sponsored by the Ralla Klepak Foundation for Education in the Performing Arts, the outdoor concert attracted 250 people, and was later watched virtually by 20,000 viewers. The event raised $275,000 to support and expand Yachad’s programming on Long Island and around the US.

We invite you to join us and make a difference.

Contact Arnold Gerson at agerson@ou.org or visit ou.org/giving.

Photo: Michael Drandoff 100

JEWISH ACTION Fall 5782/2021

Photo: Dmitriy Kalinin

READY, SET, DREAM! Over 200 athletes from across the tri-state area participated in The IVDU Dream Triathlon at the American Dream mall in New Jersey in May. An epic run-swim-cycle competition, the event raised awareness and over $100,000 in support of Yachad’s the Marilyn and Sheldon David IVDU Boys and Girls Upper Schools for Orthodox Jewish individuals with disabilities.

YASHER KOACH! YACHAD NEW ENGLAND’s Virtual Gala, held in May, raised over $80,000 in support of the region’s programming. The evening honored Keter Shem Tov Awardees Dr. Jamie and Loren Rosenzweig, Dor L’Dor Awardees Mike and Rissy Hirsh and Family, Women’s Leadership Awardee Jaimie Ballon and Rising Star Awardee Rena Weinberg. Forty high school seniors who participated in Yachad programs in 2020 and 2021 were honored as well.

OU-JLIC CORNELL students walked, ran and even unicycled a 5K around Cornell’s Collegetown campus last May, raising $12,812 for their campus’ activities.

OU-JLIC West’s energetic campaign in May raised over $80,000 from students and alumnae in general funds for OU-JLIC programming on campuses in the region, which include UCLA, Santa Monica College, Western University, CSUN, Pierce College and Valley College.

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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NCSY GALA

Inside PHILANTHROPY

Showcasing decades of NCSY’s impact, the annual NCSY Gala, held at the Marina Del Ray in the Bronx, New York this past June, raised over $670,000 in support of NCSY’s programs across North America, Chile, Argentina and Israel. The evening also included the announcement of an annual scholarship for NCSY’s Camp Maor in memory of Ari Kahn, z”l, at the Twenty-Fifth Annual Ben Zakkai Honor Society Scholarship Reception, held concurrently with the Gala. Photos: Josh Weinberg

From left: OU National Vice President and NCSY Youth Commission Co-Chairman Laizer Kornwasser; OU Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Rabbi Dr. Josh Joseph; NCSY National Development Director Tiffany Yankovich; Guest of Honor Becky and Avi Katz; NCSY International Director Rabbi Micah Greenland; OU President Moishe Bane; and OU Chairman of the Board and NCSY Youth Commission Chairman Mitchel Aeder.

From left: Mr. Kornwasser, Mr. Bane, Mr. Aeder, Rabbi Dr. Joseph, Rabbi Greenland, Stephen Wallach, Distinguished Service Awardee Miriam L. Wallach of the Nachum Segal Network (NSN), Staci Segal, and Distinguished Service Awardee Nachum Segal of NSN.

From left: Mr. Kornwasser, Mr. Aeder, Rabbi Dr. Joseph, Mr. Bane, Champion of the Jewish Future Awardee Mike Leven, Rabbi Greenland, and Southern NCSY Director of Special Projects Evan Levitt.

OU Benefactor Circle Coordinator and Ben Zakkai Liaison Elaine Grossman (left) and NCSY National Youth Commission Member and Ben Zakkai Reception Co-Chair Vivian Luchins (right) present the Dedicated Service Award to Isabelle Novak.

From left: Mrs. Luchins; Ben Zakkai Awardees Leah (Feuerstein) and Rabbi Daniel Feldman; Yeshiva University Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Zvi Sobolofsky; NCSY Managing Director Rabbi Moshe Benovitz; Rabbi Greenland; and BZ Reception Co-Chair Dr. David Luchins.

Over the years, we’ve seen the impact NCSY’s programs have had on our next generation of young people. NCSY is value-based, dedicated to Jewish learning, and strives to provide young people with the skills they need to be our next generation of communal leaders.

We’re proud to be a part of it.

—Avi and Becky Katz, Guests of Honor

Awardee Bernie [Marcus] and I believe it’s critical to support our young people and provide them with knowledge and inspiring experiences that will have a lasting impact for generations.

We invite you to join us and make a difference.

—Mike Leven, Champion of the Jewish Future Awardee Contact Arnold Gerson at agerson@ou.org or visit ou.org/giving.

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OU Benefactor Circle members form the cornerstone of the Orthodox Union. Their partnership and deep commitment to our mission allow us to accomplish so much on behalf of our community.

We applaud and thank all those who lead through their philanthropy and whose names appear here, as well as those choosing to remain anonymous. If you are not yet a member, we invite you to join us in making a difference.

To learn more, please call Arnold Gerson, Chief Institutional Advancement Officer, at 212-613-8313 or email agerson@ou.org

AMBASSADOR $1,000,000 + DAN AND EWA ABRAHAM DRS. FELIX AND MIRIAM GLAUBACH DR. SHMUEL AND EVELYN KATZ THE MARCUS FOUNDATION INC. IN MEMORY OF ANNE SAMSON A"H

GUARDIAN $100,000 - $999,999 EMANUEL AND HELEN ADLER IN MEMORY OF AHARON BEN YAAKOV SHALOM AND LEAH BAS YITZHAK MARK (MOISHE) AND JOANNE BANE ROBERT AND MICHELLE DIENER ARIELA AND BENITO ESQUENAZI IN HONOR OF THE MENDEL BALK YACHAD COMMUNITY CENTER MR. AND MRS. JACK FEINTUCH ELLIOT P. AND DEBORAH GIBBER ALAN AND BARBARA GINDI THE GUSTAVE AND CAROL JACOBS CENTER FOR KASHRUT EDUCATION

THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER LOS ANGELES BECKY AND AVI KATZ MORDECAI Z"L AND MONIQUE KATZ THE KOHELET FOUNDATION MICHAEL AND ANDREA LEVEN DAVID AND DEBRA MAGERMAN MAYBERG FOUNDATION THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO RAPHAEL AND RIVKA NISSEL RALLA KLEPAK FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION IN THE PERFORMING ARTS ERIC AND GALE ROTHNER RUDERMAN FAMILY FOUNDATION MORIS AND LILLIAN TABACINIC UJA-FEDERATION OF NEW YORK JOYCE AND JEREMY WERTHEIMER

FOUNDER $50,000 - $99,999 MR. RAANAN AND DR. NICOLE AGUS ALLEN AND DEANNA ALEVY HOWARD AND CHAYA BALTER DANIEL AND RAZIE BENEDICT JUDI AND JASON BERMAN

THE CAYRE FAMILY CRAIN-MALING FOUNDATION: WWW.CRAINMALING.ORG CROSS RIVER BANK GRANT AND JENNIFER DINNER GERSHON AND AVIVA DISTENFELD MITCHELL AND ANNETTE EICHEN FOUNDATION FOR JEWISH DAY SCHOOLS, GREATER PHILADELPHIA RABBI MANFRED Z"L AND LISELOTTE Z"L GANS CHESSED FUND DR. EPHRAIM AND RITA GREENFIELD KLEIN, JAFFA, AND HALPERN FAMILIES RICHARD HIRSCH JEWISH COMMUNITY FEDERATION AND ENDOWMENT FUND JEWISH FEDERATION OF NORTHERN NEW JERSEY JEWISH FUTURE PLEDGE DR. EZRA AND LAUREN KEST ETTA BRANDMAN KLARISTENFELD AND HARRY KLARISTENFELD ESTATE OF ETHELYN LIEBLICH CHUCK AND ALLEGRA MAMIYE EITAN AND DEBRA MILGRAM SAMIS FOUNDATION THE SHAMAH FAMILY GARY AND MALKA TORGOW THE WEISS FAMILY, CLEVELAND, OHIO JOSH AND ALLISON ZEGEN continued on next page

Thank You BUILDER

VISIONARY

$25,000 - $49,999

$18,000 - $24,999

LIOR AND DRORA ARUSSY SUE AND BILL AUERBACH LEWIS AND LAURI BARBANEL SABY AND ROSI BEHAR

AARON AND MARIE BLACKMAN FOUNDATION DENNIS AND DEBRA BERMAN MARCUS Z"L AND DORIS BLUMKIN HILLEL AND CHARLOTTE BRACHFELD THE CHARLES CRANE FAMILY FOUNDATION PETER AND LORI DEUTSCH LINDA AND MICHAEL ELMAN EMT ACTION FUND MARK AND CHERYL FRIEDMAN ROBYN AND SHUKIE GROSSMAN LANCE AND RIVKIE HIRT JOAN AND PETER HOFFMAN ED AND ROBYN HOFFMAN/HOFFMAN CATERING CHAIM AND SURI KAHN JACK ALBERT KASSIN DANA AND JEFFREY KORBMAN CHAIM AND BARA LOEWENTHAL LYNN AND JOEL MAEL DR. LOUIS AND CHANIE MALCMACHER EZRA AND LAUREN MERKIN STEPHEN AND EVE MILSTEIN IRA AND DR. RIVA COLLINS MITZNER CAL AND JANINE NATHAN YEHUDA AND ANNE NEUBERGER ISABELLE AND DAVID NOVAK MARC PENN ALLEN AND MIRIAM PFEIFFER THE REFUGE - A HEALING PLACE HENRY AND GOLDA REENA ROTHMAN STEPHEN AND JESSICA SAMUEL GEORGE AND IRINA SCHAEFFER TOBY MACY SCHAFFER JEREMY AND DAHLIA SIMONS BARUCH AND SUSIE SINGER MORRIS AND RACHEL TABUSH TRAVEL INSURANCE ISRAEL GEORGE AND JONI WHITE

SHAEL AND JOAN BELLOWS HARRY H. BEREN Z"L MAX AND ELANA BERLIN BRIAN AND DAFNA BERMAN VIVIAN AND DANIEL CHILL DR. BENJAMIN AND ESTHER CHOUAKE COMBINED JEWISH PHILANTHROPIES THE CONDUIT FOUNDATION SHIMON AND CHAYA ECKSTEIN JEFFREY AND SHIRA EISENBERG JUDITH AND ALLEN I. FAGIN FALIC FAMILY FOUNDATION GREATER MIAMI JEWISH FEDERATION HOWARD TZVI AND CHAYA FRIEDMAN GEORGE AND MARTHA RICH FOUNDATION EVE GORDON-RAMEK HARVEY GREENSTEIN ARI AND ALISON GROSS MOSHE AND TIRA GUBIN JAMES AND AMY A"H HABER DR. ELLIOT Z"L AND LILLIAN HAHN ROBERT AND DEBRA HARTMAN J. SAMUEL HARWIT AND MANYA HARWIT-AVIV CHARITABLE TRUST ALISSA AND SHIMMIE HORN DR. ALLAN AND SANDY JACOB PAUL AND CHAVI JACOBS JEWISH FEDERATION OF S. PALM BEACH COUNTY NATALIE AND DAVIDI JONAS MICHAEL AND JUDY KAISER BENYAMIN AND ESTI KAMINETZKY RABBI MARK AND LINDA KARASICK MICHAEL AND ELISSA KATZ KARMELA A"H AND JERRY KLASNER LAIZER AND JESSICA KORNWASSER ALBERT LABOZ JEFF AND MARCI LEFKOVITS M.B. GLASSMAN FOUNDATION IRIS AND SHALOM MAIDENBAUM AZI AND RACHEL MANDEL DR. RALPH AND JUDITH MARCUS MRS. FEGI MAUER MARTIN AND ELIZABETH NACHIMSON HENRY AND MINDY ORLINSKY RALPH S. GINDI FOUNDATION MALKI AND J. PHILIP ROSEN JAMES AND LOREN ROSENZWEIG ROBBIE AND HELENE ROTHENBERG GENIE AND STEVE SAVITSKY MENACHEM AND RENA SCHNAIDMAN NATHAN & LOUISE SCHWARTZ TZEDAKA FUND SHANA GLASSMAN FOUNDATION MEYER AND BAILA SILVERBERG BARRY AND JOY SKLAR DAVID AND AMY STRACHMAN MICHAEL AND ARIANNE WEINBERGER THE WEININGER FOUNDATION INC. DAVID AND GILA WEINSTEIN ESTHER AND JERRY WILLIAMS MR. JERRY AND MRS. SARA WOLASKY DAVID AND BECKY ZWILLINGER

PARTNER $10,000 - $17,999 ALISA ABECASSIS DANIEL AND LIORA ADLER RABBI SHLOMO AND MIRIAM APPEL ART HARRIS FOUNDATION AARON AND TAMMY ATTIAS RACHEL AND AVRUMI BAK IRA AND SHERI BALSAM YALE AND ANN BARON MR. AND MRS. ISAAC BERMAN YEHUDA AND FAIGE BIENSTOCK ANDREA BIER HARVEY AND JUDY BLITZ DAVID AND CHEDVA BREAU DR. MOSHE AND BRYNDIE BENARROCH VANESSA AND RAYMOND CHALME CAROL AND JEFF COHEN TZIPPY AND DANIEL COHEN MR. SHELDON J. DAVID A"H MICHAEL AND ALIZA DAVIS FRED AND SUZAN EHRMAN DRS. GILAT AND YOSSI ENGLANOFF FIRST HORIZON BANK NATALIO AND ANNE FRIDMAN EZRA AND RACHELI FRIEDBERG

www.ou.org/benefactor

ILANA AND JEFF GDANSKI ARNOLD AND ESTHER GERSON MARY JO ROBINSON AND GORDON GLASER MURRAY AND BATSHEVA GOLDBERG AMIR AND STACEY GOLDMAN JOSEPH AND LAURA GOLDMAN RABBI BEN AND AVIVA GONSHER PHILIP AND AVIVA GREENLAND RABBI MICAH AND RIVKIE GREENLAND DR. ALAN AND MIRIAM GREENSPAN ABE AND RONIT GUTNICKI ELAN AND MONICA GUTTMAN MR. AND MRS. DAVID HARTMAN RABBI MOSHE AND MINDI HAUER THE HERBERT SMILOWITZ FOUNDATION IRA WALDBAUM FAMILY FOUNDATION ISAAC H. TAYLOR ENDOWMENT FUND THE JACOBY FAMILY JEWISH FEDERATION IN THE HEART OF NEW JERSEY JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER HOUSTON DR. JULIE AND RABBI DR. JOSH JOSEPH DR. AND MRS. BERNARD KAMINETSKY MORRIS AND SONDRA KAPLAN RABBI JOSEPH KARASICK Z"L RABBI ETHAN AND DEBORAH KATZ SAMUEL AND VICKI KATZ ALICE AND JACOB KLEIN MARTIN AND SARAH KORNBLUM LAWRENCE AND EVELYN KRAUT SCOTT AND AVIVA KRIEGER JONAH AND FRAN KUPIETZKY KIM AND JONATHAN KUSHNER MARC AND RENA KWESTEL DANIEL AND AMANDA NUSSBAUM LAIFER JONATHAN AND SHARI LAUER ANDY AND ISA LEFKOWITZ MRS. SHIRLEY LEVY VIVIAN AND DAVID LUCHINS JEFFREY AND ADRIA MANDEL ELLIOTT AND CHAVI MANDELBAUM DAVID AND MICHELLE MARGULES MASA ISRAEL JOURNEY MR. AND MRS. SHALOM MENORA MR. AND MRS. ASHER DAVID AND MICHELLE MILSTEIN GILA AND ADAM MILSTEIN DANIEL AND JESSICA MINKOFF ETAN AND VALERIE MIRWIS AND FAMILY ALEXANDER AND YOCHEVED MITCHELL SAMUEL AND DEBBIE MOED JAY & JOYCE MOSKOWITZ JACK A"H AND GITTA NAGEL AVI AND DEBRA NAIDER AARON AND AHUVA ORLOFSKY AVI AND ALISSA OSSIP THE OVED FAMILY DREW AND CAREENA PARKER IN MEMORY OF RABBI RAPHAEL PELCOVITZ Z"L, FROM THE PELCOVITZ FAMILY DAVID AND ELANA POLLACK ISRAEL AND NECHAMA POLAK THE RABBI NATHANIAL AND SHIRLEY POLLACK MEMORIAL FOUNDATION MOSHE AND YAFFA POPACK DANIEL AND LEYLA POSNER PROSKAUER ROSE LLP RALPHS GROCERY COMPANY IAN AND CAROL RATNER DR. AZRIEL AND ILANA RAUZMAN BARRY AND HARRIET RAY

YARON AND LISA REICH LAWRENCE REIN DRS. CRAIG AND JACKIE REISS ALEXANDER AND RACHEL RINDNER HENRY AND VIVIAN ROSENBERG KAREN AND SHAWN ROSENTHAL YECHIEL AND NOMI ROTBLAT RALPH RUBENSTEIN KENNETH AND MINDY SAIBEL ETHEL AND STAN SCHER TIBERIO AND ELLYSE SCHWARTZ DAVID SHABSELS JOSEPH SHAMIE LOUIS SHAMIE STEPHANIE AND DAVID SOKOL DR. AND MRS. ETHAN SPIEGLER THE STAENBERG FAMILY FOUNDATION AVI AND DEENA STEIN RONALD AND BETH STERN MARVIN AND DEBRA STERNBERG TALK N SAVE DR. AND MRS. SHIMMY TENNENBAUM DR. CHARLES AND SHARON TRAURING STEPHEN AND MIRIAM WALLACH STANLEY AND ELLEN WASSERMAN THE WEIL FAMILY JESSICA AND LENNY WEISS TOVA AND HOWARD WEISER MOSHE AND DR. ILANA WERTENTEIL SUSANNE AND MICHAEL WIMPFHEIMER SHIMON AND HENNIE WOLF MEREDITH AND KENNY YAGER DRS. YECHIEL AND SURI ZAGELBAUM MR. AND MRS. ALAN ZEKELMAN YAIR AND DINA ZUCKERMAN

PATRON $5,000 - $9,999 ADM/ROI ARIEL TOURS, INC. ASHFORD HOSPITALITY JAIMIE AND GERSHON BALLON SAMUEL AND RACHEL BARATZ MICHAEL AND SUSAN BAUM MR. HARVEY BELL DR. AND MRS. YITZHAK AND ELLEN BERGER RABBI JULIUS AND DOROTHY BERMAN RABBI GLENN AND HENNI BLACK YEHUDA AND RONI BLINDER LOIS BLUMENFELD BEN AND TAMAR BLUMENTHAL ENID AND HAROLD H. BOXER ENDOWMENT LEE AND ALIZA BRAVERMAN DRS. DAVID & NANCY BRENT MICHAEL AND ALLISON BROMBERG CCS FUNDRAISING HIMAN BROWN CHARITABLE TRUST DANIEL AND DEVORAH CHEFITZ ADAM AND ILANA CHILL SARI AND JASON CIMENT JEREMY AND HILDA COHEN GOBBIE AND SHAYNA COHN PACE AND AILEEN COOPER RABBI ABRAHAM AND ROSALYN COOPER DAVID AND MARILYN CUTLER STEPHEN AND SUE DARRISON DAVID AND INEZ MYERS FOUNDATION ELI AND CHASI DAVIS STEVE AND CHAVI DORFMAN DR. CARYN BORGER AND MARK DUNEC LEA Z"L AND LEON Z"L EISENBERG ROBERT EISENBERG JEFFREY AND JENNIFER EISENSTEIN RINA AND RABBI DOV EMERSON BINAH AND DANNY ENGLANDER

DRS. ROBERT AND KAY FAGUET MRS. MARGARET FEDER GLORIA FELDMAN RABBI DAVE AND CHANI FELSENTHAL ERROL AND PAT FINE MARTIN AND LEORA FINEBERG ARYEH AND DORIT FISCHER RON AND LISA ROSENBAUM FISHER STEPHEN AND ROZ FLATOW JOSEPH AND RACHEL FOX JEREMY AND DANA FRENKEL SURA AND BERT FRIED ALLEN AND RACHEL FRIEDMAN DR. STAN AND MARLA FROHLINGER JOEY GABBAY ANDREW AND YVETTE GARDNER LAWRENCE AND JUDITH GARSHOFSKY LENNY AND ESTELLE GLASS MR. AND MRS. ERNIE GOLDBERGER MR. AND MRS. DAN GOLDISH JERRY AND ANNE GONTOWNIK GOLDIE AND I. DAVID GORDON AARON AND MICHAL GORIN DR. SUSAN GRAYSEN AND FAMILY FREDA GREENBAUM DR. EDWIN AND CECILE GROMIS ARIEL AND ALETA GRUNBERG DR. DANIEL AND TSIPORA GURELL CHAIM AND ARIELLA HERMAN DOV AND LAURA HERTZ THE HIDARY FAMILY DR. GARY AND CHERYL HOBERMAN YISROEL AND SHIRA HOCHBERG NORMA HOLZER DR. SHALOM AND LORI HUBERFELD DR. DAVID AND BARBARA HURWITZ YAACOV AND RAYME ISAACS RABBI MOSHE AND DEVORA ISENBERG JEWISH COMMUNITY FEDERATION OF RICHMOND DAVID AND MICHAL KAHAN LEORA KAMINER STUART KARON AND DR. JODI WENGER AHRON AND RIVKY KATZ IRA AND RONA KELLMAN DAVID AND ROBERTA KIMMEL AARON AND TOBY KINDERLEHRER MR. ROBERT KORDA AVI AND RAVITAL KORN JOSEPH AND HANA KORNWASSER DARREN AND MARNI KOTTLE DAVID AND FAYE LANDES JOSHUA AND BRYNA LANDES ARMAND AND ESTHER LASKY IN MEMORY OF JUDY LEFKOVITS JOSHUA AND ERICA LEGUM SHULLY LICHTMAN HYLTON AND LEAH LIGHTMAN MORDECHAI AND PENINA LIPTON DAVID AND JUDITH LOBEL JOSEF LOEFFLER DR. LAWRENCE AND SHIRLEY LOEWENTHAL DR. MARIAN STOLTZ-LOIKE AND DR. JOHN LOIKE EVAN AND EVI MAKOVSKY NOAH AND ARINN MAKOVSKY TZACHI AND ELISHEVA MEISEL BENAY AND IRA MEISELS SHMUEL MELAMED MERIDIAN CAPITAL JENNIFER AND DROR MICHAELSON YALE AND GAIL MILLER STEVE AND MALKA MIRETZKY NOAH AND SUZANNE MISHKIN HARRY AND ROBIN MORTKOWITZ JAY AND JOYCE MOSKOWITZ DR. MICHAEL AND ELIZABETH MUSCHEL SHARONA AND IRWIN NACHIMSON ANNA BAUM AND BARRY NOVACK TERRY AND GAIL NOVETSKY PROF. MARTIN PATT PEOPLE'S UNITED INSURANCE AGENCY ALIZA AND MICHAEL PILEVSKY

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List as of 6/30/21 We apologize for any omissions.

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healing effect as well, and she details the research in her introduction.

The exercises provided in the book are designed for therapeutic purposes.

Rottenberg emphasizes that one does not need to be a writer to gain from the book. One only needs to follow the directions and through the writing experiences, one will achieve growth in self-awareness and self-development.

According to the author, “Writing is a simple and superb way to get to know ourselves better. It helps us uncover the tremendous wisdom that we each have within ourselves.

It allows us to access our clarity and understanding, heal our past hurts, and discover our strength to succeed in the future.” (Rottenberg does point out that therapeutic writing should not and cannot replace trauma therapy.)

Write Your Way Home presents over sixty topics in alphabetical order, including concepts such as

BOOKS

Write Your Way Home: The Jewish Guide to Therapeutic Writing

By Yocheved Rottenberg, Inspiration by Chaya Hinda Allen Menucha Publishers New York, 2020 368 pages

Reviewed by Alexandra Fleksher

A

braham Lincoln is perhaps the most well-known master of the therapeutic journaling technique known as the “unsent letter.” Lincoln had hundreds of “hot letters,” as he called them, that were “never sent, never signed” in his desk drawer. When Lincoln felt an overcoming rush of anger directed at a person, he penned a pointed letter expressing his feelings. His emotions inevitably would cool down, and the experience would result in catharsis.

Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the Piaseczner Rebbe, was known to advise others to practice the same technique: write an angry unsent letter, leave it for a few days, and review it once the anger has subsided.

The unsent letter is one of a number of methods utilized in the field of therapeutic writing, and one among others incorporated in Write Your Way Alexandra Fleksher is an educator, an op-ed columnist for Mishpacha magazine, and co-host of the podcast Normal Frum Women.

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Just as talking about trauma, for example, has therapeutic effects, writing about it has proven to have a healing effect as well.

Home: A Torah Guide to Therapeutic Writing by Yocheved Rottenberg.

Write Your Way Home is less of a book and more of an interactive writing handbook filled with prompts and exercises designed to enable the reader and writer to heal, grow and change. The work requires a separate notebook to complete the writing exercises (“Watch your notebook become your best friend!”) and is designed to help integrate therapeutic writing into the reader’s daily life.

In the introduction, Rottenberg differentiates therapeutic writing from journaling. Therapeutic writing is structured and timed, with the focused purpose of personal understanding and growth. Just as talking about trauma, for example, has therapeutic effects, writing about it has proven to have a

acceptance, empathy, anger, negativity, vulnerability and optimism. Perusing through the range of topics laid out in the seven-page-long table of contents is in itself a fascinating read, particularly for those readers interested in self-help and middot development. Throughout the book, each topic is first explained according to Torah insights by Chaya Hinda Allen, a well-known Torah teacher, and includes supportive quotes from Jewish sources with five-minute writing prompts.

The crux of the work occurs next with two longer writing exercises, each ranging from fifteen to sixty minutes. Rottenberg provides tips in the introduction for how to gain maximum benefit from the exercises.

She advises writers not to overthink or proofread. (“Whatever comes out

Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the Piaseczner Rebbe, was known to advise others to practice the same technique: write an angry unsent letter, leave it for a few days, and review it once the anger had subsided. of your pen is perfect.”) Use a timer and keep writing until the timer rings. Follow all instructions step by step and in order. Date each entry as a record of your growth, and write by hand for the greatest effect.

The step-by-step writing instructions for each topic reflect how Rottenberg smoothly interweaves psychology and Torah hashkafah. This interplay is both impressive and satisfying, most notably when one personally experiences the positive impact of expressive writing via the exercises. The effect feels wholesome, real, balanced and Torah-true.

The collection of meticulously cited Torah quotes throughout the book, ranging from medieval Jewish philosophers to Chassidic masters to ba’alei mussar, source the concept of therapeutic writing in the grounding roots of our tradition. One special selection is from Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe in Alei Shur. It could serve as a sort of haskamah (approbation) for Rottenberg’s work: It is crucial that one who is building his spiritual world and is concerned that his challenges not take over his life, keep a journal. Many previous gedolim toiled over their journal entries. Writing in a notebook must be geared to practical growth. We should not only write about our past and our pains. If someone needs emotional encouragement, there is no greater encouragement than what he writes to himself. Anything important to his internal development should be written down. . . . This notebook should be with him at all times. It should not be random pages, but rather a specific small notebook that he can carry with him at all times (Alei Shur, vol. 1., p. 160).

The significance of Write Your Way Home’s publication date as 2020 is not lost on the reader.

The book—and the subsequent filled notebook of personal work—is a gift of comfort, calm and clarity during these tumultuous times. The exercises provide a unique opportunity to view one’s past, present and future through the lenses of self-awareness and growth. It’s a journey home—to our best selves. 

CREATE A LASTING LEGACY

TO MEET YOUR PHILANTHROPIC GOALS AND ASSURE THE CONTINUED VITALITY OF KLAL YISRAEL. A BEQUEST MADE THROUGH YOUR WILL OR TRUST IS ONE OF THE SIMPLEST AND MOST FLEXIBLE GIFTS TO SUPPORT THE ORTHODOX UNION AND ITS ESSENTIAL PROGRAMS.

OU PLANNED GIVING PLEASE CONTACT ARI STEINBERG TODAY AT 212-613-8258 OR ARISTEINBERG@OU.ORG

Fall 5782/2021 JEWISH ACTION

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Dreams Never Dreamed: A Mother’s Promise That Transformed Her Son’s Breakthrough into a Beacon of Hope

By Kalman Samuels Toby Press Jerusalem, 2020 314 pages

Reviewed by Toby Klein Greenwald 2016 was a milestone year for Kalman and Malki Samuels. That year marked the inauguration of a dream years in the making—the opening of the Shalva National Center, one of the largest centers of disability care and inclusion in the world. Built not far from the entrance to Jerusalem, the twelve-story world-class complex features an auditorium; a gymnasium; hydrotherapy and semi-Olympic pools; a virtual reality therapy suite; a research and study institute; a café, some of whose workers have developmental disabilities; and accommodations for 100 respite sleepovers per night.

How was it that Kalman and Malki Samuels came to create this extraordinary organization that promotes social inclusion, empowers

families and assists 2,000 children with disabilities each week? The answer lies in the subtitle of Samuels’ recently published memoir Dreams Never Dreamed: A Mother’s Promise That Transformed Her Son’s Breakthrough into a Beacon of Hope; it was a mother’s promise.

In 1977, the couple’s healthy, lively baby boy, Yossi, two weeks short of his first birthday, was examined by a doctor at a Jerusalem clinic before receiving his second DTP inoculation.

All his developmental milestones were fine, so the nurse gave him the shot.

But Malki knew the same day that something was wrong. “I took Yossi home and followed the instructions they’d given me at the clinic . . . I bathed him, gave him baby paracetamol, and let him sleep. The moment he woke, I knew my baby was gone. He looked up at me with shiny eyes as if to say: ‘What have you done to me?’”

Only later did the couple discover that “Israel’s health authorities had already known for almost five months that the vaccine batch they were using . . . was dangerously flawed.” The defective pertussis (whooping cough) component was from the Connaught Laboratories of Canada. The diphtheria and tetanus components were from the Israeli Rafah company, which had combined the three.

Thus began a saga of almost forty years of anguish, faith, research,

Toby Klein Greenwald, a regular contributor to Jewish Action, is a journalist, playwright, poet, teacher and the artistic director of a number of theater companies. She is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from Atara-The Association for Torah and the Arts, which is a member of the OU Impact Accelerator’s third cohort, for her “dedication and contributions in creative education, journalism, theatre and the performing arts worldwide.”

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perseverance, legal battles and, ultimately, the realization of dreams, not only for the injured Yossi, but for thousands of other disabled children.

Yossi was declared legally blind— though he loves to wear glasses because it helps him feel more competent—and legally deaf. He was also severely hyperactive.

The couple left their home in Israel for New York, following every medical lead in search of help for their son. While Yossi was attending The Lighthouse—the famous specialized school for the visually impaired— Malki made a pact with God. “I promise You this. If You ever decide to help my Yossi, I will dedicate my life to helping so many other mothers of children with disabilities that I know are crying with me for their children.”

Some challenges were especially painful, like when children teased Yossi, or when a prestigious Jerusalem rebbetzin, visiting New York, said to Malki, “It’s not fair to yourselves or your healthy children . . . You should consider moving this child out of the house so you can get on with your lives.” Malki answered: “You have no faith in God.” She invited the rebbetzin to wait twenty minutes, until Yossi came home from school. She saw a nicely dressed child, wearing glasses and hearing aids, carefully navigating the steps and hugging and kissing his mother. Upon seeing this, the rebbetzin cried and asked for forgiveness for her insensitive remarks.

A few years later, the couple learned that a lawsuit could only be filed in Israel, since that was where the vaccination had been administered.

They found an excellent Israeli lawyer and doctors who were willing

to testify, and the family returned home. Samuels describes the legal battles in excruciating detail. In October 1983, five years after the vaccination and after exhaustive paperwork and research, the couple filed suit against the Canadian Connaught Laboratories, the Israeli Rafa pharmaceutical company, the city of Jerusalem, and the State of Israel.

(The lawsuit ended in a settlement that even according to the judge was less than they deserved, but would save them more years of expensive and aggravating legal action.)

At the age of eight, Yossi experienced a “Helen Keller” moment, when Shoshana Weinstock, a warm and loving teacher who was deaf herself, taught him his first word—shulchan (table)—using finger spelling. “All of a sudden, he lit up and he got it,” Samuels is quoted as telling the Jerusalem Post. “She taught him the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Another speech therapist taught him how to speak Hebrew, and slowly he began to talk.” After that, Yossi was unstoppable. He learned to type on a Braille typewriter, to pray and to speak to those who were able to understand him.

In 1988, spurred on by their son’s breakthrough, the couple wrote their first proposal for an outreach program that would help other families with disabled children. In 1990 that proposal became Shalva, the Israel Association for the Care and Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities, which began as an after-school program for six children in the Samuels’ Har Nof apartment. The name “Shalva” is derived from Psalm 127 and means “serenity,” but like any new enterprise, the road to success was challenging. The book is filled with anecdotes of chance meetings on airplanes and conversations with friends and neighbors that enabled Samuels to reach donors who kept Shalva going and led to its development and expansion.

In addition to devoting her life and using her creativity to ensure the professional programs would be the best they could be, Malki, the

engine behind Shalva, was involved in every aspect of the design and construction of the Shalva National Center, right down to the tiles. She was determined to make it feel like a home, not an institution. The renowned Israeli artist David Gerstein, deeply moved by the Shalva story, appreciated Malki’s vision and created a magnificent twenty-foot-high mobile of metallic butterflies that hangs in the Shalva atrium.

Around 2005, a gifted young musician, Shai Ben-Shushan, offered his services to Shalva. He had been a member of the Duvdevan special forces unit in the IDF and suffered severe injuries from a grenade attack while pursuing terrorists. He told Samuels, “Like a baby, I had to learn

Samuels’ personal story of visiting Israel as a college student of the ‘60s, eventually becoming Orthodox, making aliyah and marrying his life partner. Samuels writes his family’s spell-binding story with an honesty and openness that pierces and opens our hearts as well. It is alternately inspiriting, infuriating, funny and enlightening. But for me, Malki’s voice and her photograph are missing.

(If you want to “meet” her, you can watch a mesmerizing Shalva-produced film on YouTube entitled “About Yossi—A Film About Yossi Samuels.”)

The Yossi of today is smart, learned, eloquent and brave, with a sharp sense of humor. He can type, read, and daven in Braille; he particularly enjoys high-level Torah literature and

At the age of eight, Yossi experienced a ‘Helen Keller’ moment, when a warm and loving teacher who was deaf herself taught him his first word—shulchan— using finger spelling. again to eat and to talk. My life was destroyed . . . I learned what it was like to be helpless and dependent on others . . . and I began to think about going back to music and sharing it with others who have similar challenges.”

By the end of a year, Shai had created the now world-renowned Shalva Band, signaling to all that being disabled does not mean one cannot reach for the stars and make dreams come true.

In 2020, Shalva graduated its first program of young men who entered the IDF as soldiers in the Home Front Command unit. Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs brings heads of state and diplomats to Shalva, just as they take them to Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Center and to Mount Herzl.

Dreams Never Dreamed is written chronologically, beginning with

magazines. He has traveled the world, met with celebrities and presidents (in Israel and America) and is a horseback rider and certified wine connoisseur. Samuels writes, “[Yossi’s] close friends number in the hundreds and acquaintances in the thousands.”

As his walking ability and balance worsened, Yossi was eventually confined to a wheelchair. “Our blind and deaf son said, ‘For the first time in my life, I feel handicapped,” writes Samuels. “Yossi had never referred to himself as blind or deaf, but rather as ‘low vision’ and ‘hard of hearing.’”

Samuels recalls in the book how his daughter Nechama told him that he was like Forrest Gump: “Mommy had her dream and told you, ‘Run, Kalman, run!’ You’ve never stopped; it has colored your life and all of ours.”

And the lives of thousands more.  Fall 5782/2021 JEWISH ACTION

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The Holocaust’s Jewish Calendars: Keeping Time Sacred, Making Time Holy

By Alan Rosen Indiana University Press Bloomington, 2019 266 pages

Reviewed by Dr. Shay Pilnik

W

hen we look back and survey the evolution of Holocaust studies as an independent academic discipline, one that engages countless scholars and students and is supported by dozens of academic centers and institutions in America and around the world, it is hard to imagine the field’s humble beginnings. Today, Holocaust studies is a multidisciplinary field attracting the attention of scholars from all over the world who explore the Shoah from infinite angles and perspectives. It is easy to forget how long it took for some of the Holocaust’s more neglected aspects to come under the spotlight and scrutiny of the field’s brightest minds.

In its humble beginnings, academic focus was placed on the German bureaucratic system, as in Raul Hilberg’s pioneering work in the field, The Destruction of the European Jews (which viewed the Jews as a uniform, silent mass), or strictly on the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto resistance organization (as practiced in the official memory propagated by the young State of Israel). Little room was available for the exposition of the Jewish daily struggles in the ghettos and camps.

It would also take decades for the Dr. Shay Pilnik is the director of the Emil A. and Jenny Fish Holocaust and Genocide Studies Center at Yeshiva University.

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term “resistance” to denote more than just the bearing of arms against the Nazis. When cultural and spiritual resistance finally did appear on the scene of Holocaust studies, it normally referred to activities pertaining to the secular sphere—archival works, theater, literary and musical productions, or scholarly works— leaving the Jewish traditional practice and forms of resistance by the wayside.

While not the first work to do justice to this sense of tradition’s neglect, Dr. Alan Rosen’s recent book The Holocaust’s Jewish Calendars is a masterpiece that helps us grasp one of the most fundamental traditional modes of spiritual resistance—the tracking of Jewish time in the ghettos, camps and in hiding. Furthermore, the book introduces us to the Holocaust’s unsung heroes—Jews interned in Auschwitz, Bergen Belsen, Westerbork, the Lodz Ghetto and Theresienstadt.

These figures, while trapped, starved to death and doomed, with no prospects for armed struggle or rescue, could

still uphold their dignity and live a fuller Jewish life by aligning their harsh routines with Jewish time’s profane and sacred dimensions.

Dr. Rosen’s book is an extremely detailed survey of close to three dozen known calendars produced during the Holocaust. He explores every calendar’s shape and production process in a detailed fashion, scrutinizing both content and structure. While offering this punctual analysis, the book is an extremely engaging, colorful and well-written work that both scholars and laypeople will find fascinating.

It makes a lasting contribution to the subject of Holocaust-era spiritual resistance that cannot be exaggerated.

Anyone wondering what the Holocaust’s Jewish calendars look like, expecting the standard booklet we are all used to, divided into twelve panels with the Jewish and Gregorian dates appearing side by side (this is how I remember the printed calendars of my childhood in Israel, hanging in my parent’s kitchen), will be surprised to realize the diversity of calendars culled

by Dr. Rosen. The range of Jewish time-tracking products surveyed in the book stretches from a knot in a dress, made in order to help a Jewish woman determine the occurrence of Shabbat, to extremely elaborate calendars indicating the proper observance time for Shabbat and the Torah parashah read that week, as well as the holidays and fast days, all based on calculations done in complete isolation from the outside world. Similarly, Dr. Rosen introduces us to a vast range of calendars, from ones produced when finding something to write with and to write on was extremely challenging, all the way to beautifully calligraphed and color-coded calendars, like the one created, for instance, by the Neustadt chasid Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Schneir for the years 5703 (1942-1943) and 5804 (1943-1944), while hiding in the house of his former Polish non-Jewish employee, together with his wife and four children. Through this panoramic exploration of the book’s subject matter, the Jewish calendars

of the Holocaust emerge as far from the one-size-fits-all image of a basic, uniform and standard booklet of great utility—but only in a given moment, before the passage of time consigns it to both irrelevance and oblivion.

This is, unfortunately, the way Holocaust calendars were perceived for decades. As Dr. Rosen points out, this common attitude to World War II-era calendars explains the little interest that they have hitherto evinced among both curators and scholars. It is Dr. Rosen’s mission to undo this sense of indifference to the Holocaust Jewish calendar and its common disregard in both public memory and scholarship.

The author fulfills this mission by providing us with plenty of examples, illustrating how a Jewish calendar is far more than a time tracking device.

One good example is the officially produced calendar of the Lodz Ghetto which, uniquely, indicated not only Shabbat, Jewish holidays and the Gregorian date, but also the birthday of the infamous authoritarian leader, the ghetto’s Jewish Council (Judenrat) head, Chaim Rumkowski. The calendar of the Lodz Ghetto, the most thorough of all Jewish calendars produced in ghettos and camps, provides us with a glimpse into the sense of common history and identity that the officials of the Lodz Ghetto wished to endow the Jewish population of the most hermetically sealed of Poland’s ghettos.

Another example of the wealth of knowledge that Dr. Rosen extracts from his careful analysis of every calendar is not only what they include, but also what they do not. Both in the Buchenwald calendar—created

by Rabbi Yaakov Avigdor—and the compact, typewritten calendar luach katan composted in the ghetto and transit camp Theresienstadt (Terezin), the otherwise meticulous detailing of every Shabbat, parashah and holiday gives way to the omission of summertime fast days, such as the Seventeenth of Tammuz or the Ninth of Av (they are either left blank or missing a “fast day” indication).

Dr. Rosen relies on his common sense rather than evidence, when accounting for each omission; in this

case, he surmises that the two fast days, commemorating the destruction of Jerusalem and both the First and Second Temple, were omitted not out of neglect, but out of concern that fasting in a concentration camp during the hottest days of the year is dangerous and therefore must be avoided.

Drawing this kind of conclusion from the study of Holocaust artifacts, while speculative, helps us grasp the deeper meaning of the calendar as a tool helping to mark (for those in possession of it) the boundaries of Jewish practice in the new, extraordinary circumstances of Nazi persecution.

Of course, not every Jewish inmate of a ghetto or camp needed the omission

Jewish calendars teaches us something fundamental about life in the ghetto and concentration camp for the ordinary inmate. It challenges the perception of the typical concentration camp inmate as a muselmann, the dazed, starved and fatigued creature that has already lost touch with human reality, an image that gained currency in popular culture through the works of survivor writers like Primo Levi and others. Dr. Rosen cogently illustrates in the book that while a small segment of the concentration camp population did reach that rock-bottom state of mental death preceding the physical one, most inmates were, in fact, in a position to care about Jewish

The Holocaust’s Jewish Calendars is a masterpiece that helps us grasp one of the most fundamental traditional modes of spiritual resistance— the tracking of Jewish time in the ghettos, camps and in hiding. of a fast day from a Jewish calendar in order to skip it. Equally obvious is the fact that the Nazi definition of Jews was racial and included both traditional and non-traditional Jews. The brunt of tracking Jewish time was not equally borne between both groups. While Dr. Rosen certainly turns his attention to tradition’s followers, perhaps the most compelling conclusion of his work is that Jewish time tracking during the Holocaust and the production of Jewish calendars is something that anyone attempting to better understand Jewish life under Nazi occupation should carefully consider. The book’s reach transcends the confines of Jewish Orthodoxy by introducing us to so many different calendar producers: rabbis, artists, ordinary people—a long list that even includes a Catholic priest.

Most importantly, the existence of

time tracking. Moreover, Dr. Rosen notes, sometimes the possession of a calendar and the awareness of an imminent holiday provided the inmates with a sense of the future, driving them to look up to a moment and thereby transcend the bleak camp reality. “To plot time’s sacred course gave the Jews a key to freedom, destiny and identity,” he observes.

Like the inclusion of a Jewish date next to the Gregorian one, The Holocaust’s Jewish Calendars brings together both the physical struggle to survive, and the no less important spiritual one. Dr. Rosen’s work is a tour de force that shows us how interconnected these two really are. And how the theme of spiritual resistance can be appreciated in full when its traditional dimension is, at long last, fully explored.  Fall 5782/2021 JEWISH ACTION

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LASTING IMPRESSIONS

WORKING in DETOX

By Alison Gorin

D

ressed in ceil-blue scrubs and flip-flops, fifteen men, all acutely detoxing from drugs or alcohol or both, were gathered in a common room filled with slouchy couches and TVs. “We are testing everyone for Covid today.” I spoke confidently but felt apprehensive as I awaited the tidal wave of responses.

“I’m not getting tested,” said a young man with a sharp edge in his voice.

It made sense; homeless addicts, who rarely show up for medical appointments, and often carry transmissible diseases, were now being informed that they were to be tested for Covid.

Other patients began muttering to themselves, describing in their own terms how the test is performed, how the nasal swab reaches “up into your brain.” Patients who might have initially agreed to being tested became doubtful. This was turning into a lost cause.

I tried again. “We had a positive case in the building and now we are strongly suggesting that everyone be tested so we can track the spread.” No one budged until the unit manager (whom I think of as our bouncer) finally spoke.

He jutted his finger to three men closest to him, and said, “I’m getting tested because I want to make sure you’re safe, you’re safe . . . and you’re safe.”

Amazingly, the patients began to absorb the message: We are all vulnerable, and we can all be safe together. It’s really about the group. The mutterings dissolved as one patient announced, “Yah, I’m getting tested because I want everyone to be safe.” The

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atmosphere in the room shifted; instead of hesitancy, there was unanimity.

Wanting to lock-in this sense of commitment, I raised my hand in the air and asked: “Who’s with me?” Each patient raised his hand and said, “I am.” I felt like a football coach rallying the team before the first kickoff.

I grew up in a home where I was not exposed to drugs or alcohol; I’ve never even drunk a beer. Call me a Puritan, but I’m actually an Orthodox Jew. When I went back to school for my master’s degree in nursing, I was on a straight path to working in cardiology.

Then I moved out of the tri-state area with my husband and kids and I began job hunting. As a newly graduated nurse practitioner, I applied for any position that did not specify “five-plus years of experience.” I stumbled across an opening in an inpatient detox facility that stated, “We are not necessarily looking for someone with experience, but for someone with a heart.” The recruiter explained: “Many of the patients are homeless and have previously been incarcerated. You might be exposed to tuberculosis, but they have never had a case.”

My husband was completing last-minute preparations for the upcoming Shabbat when I walked into the kitchen with a stunned expression on my face and announced: “I don’t think this is for me.” He turned to me and said, “Life isn’t about driving around in a Subaru; you’ve got to get out there and see the world.”

I started three weeks later.

Although I was a fresh graduate working in an unfamiliar field, I knew I had to appear competent. I learned

the medical detoxification protocols and familiarized myself with the street names for each illicit drug. Once I began speaking with patients, I realized that aside from their acute medical and psychiatric needs—which are sometimes severe—their tough, often aggressive exteriors masked a set of unique dreams, hopes and hurts.

I began asking questions outside the particulars of their drug habits. “Do you work? Do you like what you do? Do you have any children? What are their names?”

As I’ve pushed the boundaries of how I see my patients, my own ability to help them has expanded. I’ve come to know them as a father, a son, as the person he or she is. After assessing a recovering alcoholic, I said, “I am going to take care of you; don’t worry.” He replied, “Please don’t forget me, because a lot of people do.” I won’t forget him.

I stopped seeing him solely as an alcoholic, but rather as a patient who is beginning his journey in recovery.

Through shared experiences and mutual understanding, I believe I play a part in helping my patients shift their self-perception for the better. “The guys” have built a camaraderie with me and I, in return, see beyond the toothless, sunken faces that years of drugs and homelessness can create.

Working in a drug rehabilitation facility during a pandemic is stressful.

Period. But when the labels based on demographics, religion and race are stripped away and replaced with trust and understanding, it’s not only doable, it’s gratifying and potentially lifesaving.

If there’s one thing that Covid has taught me for certain, it’s that nothing is certain. Record-breaking daily deaths, evictions and food lines. The list of the unexpected is ongoing. I never believed I would be able to help rally a group of homeless and physically ill men into getting tested for Covid.

Who’s with me?

Alison Gorin is a nurse practitioner and the previous rebbetzin of Congregation Etz Chaim in Sharon, Massachusetts. She and her family recently moved to Silver Spring, Maryland.