Jewish Action Summer 2022

Summer 5782/2022

Vol. 82, No. 4

THE

SINGLE

PARENT FAMILY

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INSIDE Table of Contents Jewish Action Summer 2022/5782 Vol. 82, No. 4

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FROM OUR ARCHIVES What Every Oleh Should Know

By Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff TRIBUTE Remembering “Mendy” Ganchrow: A Klal Mensch

COVER STORY

28 34

The Single-Parent Family

By Aviva Engel Supporting the Solo Parent What every community can do to help

By Aviva Engel

JEWISH HISTORY

44

What Did the Beit Hamikdash Look Like?

By Yosef Lindell

EDUCATION

52 66

02 04

12

FEATURES

20 24

DEPARTMENTS

The Great Teacher Shortage

By Rachel Schwartzberg In Search of Solutions: Teach Coalition’s Answer to the Teacher Shortage

By JA Staff

69 70 74 79 88

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.

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Don’t Squander the Benefits of Orthodox Fragmentation

By Mark (Moishe) Bane

44

FROM THE DESK OF RABBI MOSHE HAUER Making the Torah Great, Glorious and Accessible IN FOCUS Is Moving Out of Town the Answer?

By Rabbi Simon Taylor JUST BETWEEN US A Mother of Autism

By Chaya Rochel Leyton THE CHEF’S TABLE Top 25 Ideas: Summer Cooking

By Naomi Ross

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LEGAL-EASE What’s the Truth about . . .

David Hamelech Being Unable to Build the Beit Hamikdash?

By Rabbi Dr. Ari Z. Zivotofsky INSIDE THE OU

By Sara Goldberg INSIDE PHILANTHROPY Going Crypto: The Future of Philanthropy Arrives at the OU

By Merri Ukraincik

88

BOOKS

92

96 99

Cover: Aliza Ungar

LETTERS

102 104

The Magerman Koren Tanakh Translations by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, zt”l, and Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb Reviewed by Rabbi Francis Nataf Lamentations: Faith in a Turbulent World

By Dr. Yael Ziegler Reviewed by Rav Yitzchak Etshalom Judaism Straight Up: Why Real Religion Endures

By Moshe Koppel Reviewed by Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein

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Reviews in Brief

By Rabbi Gil Student LASTING IMPRESSIONS Of Hospitability and Wine

By David Olivestone

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Summer 5782/2022 JEWISH ACTION

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LETTERS THE MAGAZINE OF THE ORTHODOX UNION jewishaction.com

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JEWISH ACTION Summer 5782/2022

CINCINNATI’S GROWTH In “The View from Pew: Where Do We Go from Here?” (winter 2021), Rabbi Avraham Edelstein perceptively writes that “the teshuvah movement has been remarkably successful in . . . building Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Cincinnati and many other thriving Torah communities that started out virtually from scratch.”

Cincinnati (where I lived for six years), unlike Houston, Dallas and Atlanta, can in no way be seen as having been built as a result of the teshuvah movement. The proportion of first- and second-generation ba’alei teshuvah in Cincinnati has always been, and remains, far lower than in the other cities mentioned. The growth of a Torah community in this city can be ascribed to great, dedicated rabbanim and, in the last quarter-century, to the success of its community kollel, which attracted young frum families to an improved job market— something Cincinnati certainly has in common with the other three cities mentioned in the piece.

Aaron Daniel Southfield, Michigan CORRECTING WITH DIGNITY I found Mr. David Olivestone’s “Inside the Mind of the Gabbai” (winter 2021) to be a beautiful and balanced account of the life of a gabbai. As for correcting ba’alei keriah, I recall an incident that took place at my former shul in Golders Green, England. The tochachah was being leined in shul and a word was pronounced incorrectly. Immediately, our eldest ba’al korei, sitting alongside the bimah, called out the correction—but in a whisper.

Stanley Cohen Jerusalem, Israel THE PAUCITY OF JEWISH STARS I read with interest Dr. Rafael Medoff’s moving account of the effort to provide a Star of David marker to American Jewish men who died in combat during World War II and are buried abroad with a cross on their graves (“Finally, a Star of David for Jewish Heroes” [fall 2021]).

The author theorizes about why so few Jewish Stars of David can be seen in American cemeteries abroad, but does not cover one of the reasons why this likely occurred.

In 1947, the US government repatriated the bodies of those fallen soldiers whose families requested their return. As Rick Atkinson writes in The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945: In 1947, the next of kin of 270,000 identifiable American dead buried overseas would submit Quartermaster General Form 345 to choose whether they wanted their soldier brought back to the United States or left interred with comrades abroad. More than 60 percent of the dead worldwide would return home . . . an unprecedented repatriation that only an affluent, victorious nation could afford (Epilogue, p. 638).

I would think that many of the bereaved American Jewish families opted for this repatriation option, explaining, in part, the paucity of Stars of David in American military cemeteries abroad.

One such repatriated American Jewish soldier who lost his life fighting the Nazis is buried near our family plot in Cedar Park Cemetery in Paramus, New Jersey. The inscription on his footstone reads,

“Poh nikbar Chaim ben Henech (in Hebrew); Herbert Freibaum, died in action, France—August 7, 1944. Age 19 years. Not forgotten.”

Robert Trinz Teaneck, New Jersey GIVING FULL CREDIT I read with great interest Toby Klein Greenwald’s review of Kalman Samuels’ Dreams Never Dreamed (fall 2021), the gripping and thrilling memoir of Kalman and Malki Samuels, founders of Shalva, the Israel Association for the Care and Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities. I cannot recommend the book more.

There was, however, one factual inaccuracy I would like to mention out of a sense of kibbud av va’eim. Greenwald mistakenly writes that Shalva started in the Samuels’ Har Nof apartment. While most admirably, and somewhat incredulously, a few years later the Samuels in fact did evict themselves from their apartment to double Shalva’s space, the book states that Shalva started in the apartment next door to theirs (p. 157). What is not mentioned is which neighbor’s apartment it was—namely, that of my parents, Rabbi Hillel and Elaine Goldberg.

Renting a brand-new apartment to an organization for kids was a revolutionary concept thirty years ago. Although desirous of helping kids with disabilities, my parents were understandably hesitant due to the inevitable extra wear and tear. Even a number of years later, as Rabbi Kalman notes in the book (p. 189), Shalva could not find any additional apartments into which to expand due to people’s unwillingness to rent out space for children with disabilities.

My parents did not know the Samuels at the time since they were living overseas. In response to their hesitancy, Rabbi Kalman enlisted the help of the Bostoner Rebbe, zt”l, and his son; Rabbi Kalman and my father were both close to the Rebbe’s son. The Rebbe reassured my parents of the Samuels’ yashrus, that they would uphold their commitment to leave the apartment the way it was found, and encouraged them to go ahead with it. My parents agreed, and Shalva was born. And what a zechus it was!

Chaim Goldberg Jerusalem, Israel TOBY KLEIN GREENWALD RESPONDS Dear Mr. Goldberg, Thank you for writing. In my original draft, I wrote this: “In June, 1990, Shalva opened its doors to six children as an afternoon program in an apartment next to [the Samuels] in the Har Nof neighborhood. It expanded and expanded, and this book is the story of all the love, heartbreak, roadblocks, perseverance and miracles that led to the magnificent center it occupies in Jerusalem today.”

I’m sorry that in the editing process a change was made, but thank you for giving appropriate credit to your parents, whose chesed certainly contributed significantly to the dawn of Shalva, and for sharing with us the behind-the-scenes story of the involvement of the Bostoner Rebbe.

Summer 5782/2022 JEWISH ACTION

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

DON’T SQUANDER the BENEFITS of ORTHODOX FRAGMENTATION

By Mark (Moishe) Bane

O

rthodox Judaism is an expansive amalgamation of multiple cultures and traditions, even divergent halachic observances. It is a tapestry formed of communities originating from different countries and continents, each with unique practices and attitudes.

Segmentation within the Jewish people is as old as the nascent Jewish nation that was divided into twelve distinct tribes founded by Yaakov Avinu’s sons.

Thereafter and throughout the ages 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.

4

JEWISH ACTION Summer 5782/2022

these initial distinctions have been perpetuated, accompanied by the unceasing and deliberate introduction of additional divisions within Jewry, either reflecting intra-Jewish power struggles or varying philosophical attitudes and religious practices.

Many breakaway groups within Jewry have unfortunately sought to “innovate” by rejecting the Oral Torah or rabbinic authority. History has proven that these movements largely tend to vanish over time, with the Jewish identity of their adherents eventually and tragically vanishing as well. Other subgroups, however, have emerged, which introduced new approaches or attitudes into Jewish life while remaining fully committed to halachah and traditional principles of faith.

One prototypical divide was that of the schools of Hillel and Shammai during Talmudic times. Despite the very practical day-to-day communal barriers imposed by their divergent approaches to halachah, they each acknowledged the other’s validity and rightful place within Orthodoxy. Today, divides continue to frame the halachic community, some produced by geographic background, whether Ashkenazim, Sephardim, heimish or American, and others reflecting divergent philosophical or cultural approaches, ranging from

shtreimlech to black hats to kippot serugot. This segmentation is further accentuated by the innumerable overlapping subgroups within each category.

Some members of our community are troubled by the diversity within Orthodoxy. They are simply uncomfortable with anyone different from themselves, whether in appearance, culture or lifestyle. Such individuals are offended by those who adhere to different religious leaders, speak with unfamiliar jargon or dialect or maintain contrary political views. Often in a tone of self-righteousness masked as piety, they express exasperation regarding differing religious practices, even while begrudgingly, if not clandestinely, conceding their validity.

Others are unequivocally certain that alternate minhagim (traditions) and shittos (perspectives) are corruptions of Yiddishkeit. Consequently, they feel compelled to mercilessly attack and denigrate all approaches to Torah life that are not their own. They are confident that, regardless of the stature of the Torah leaders guiding others, only their own approach to Orthodoxy is genuine and countenanced by G-d.

Finally, some concerned people are not troubled by the fragmentation but by the social disunity they believe it generates.

By contrast, many Orthodox Jews celebrate halachically sanctioned differences

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among various groups. Not only are they fascinated by the alternative social dynamics but they view the myriad traditions emanating from different regions, attitudes and cultures as proud scars incurred during a vicious yet victorious war; evidence of the eternal survival of Torah observance through two thousand years of Jewish exile and dispersion.

The value of having a multitude of traditions within Torah Judaism was impressed upon me as a yeshivah student in Baltimore in the 1970s. After the fall of the Shah in Iran, the menahel of Ner Israel Rabbinical College, Rabbi Herman Neuberger, zt”l, was instrumental in initially relocating several thousand young Persian Jews to the United States, with many others to follow. A significant segment of that cohort joined the Ner Israel student body.

In addition to the various minhagim they were encouraged to assiduously retain, the rosh yeshivah, Rav Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman, zt”l, insisted that these young students conduct their own separate minyan on Shabbos and yom tov to ensure the preservation of their distinct nusach of tefillah (prayer).

I suspect that the Rosh Yeshivah’s insistence was intended to also impress upon the non-Iranian students the cherished value of every divergent set of minhagim.

However one feels about Orthodox segmentation, it must be acknowledged as an enduring characteristic of our community. It is thus worthwhile to consider and take advantage of the many opportunities that this diversity generates.

Unity Rather than Uniformity We are repeatedly taught that communal unity is indispensable to our religious growth. In fact, Jewish unity is so crucial that even receiving the Torah at Har Sinai depended on the Jewish people standing in unity as a “single person with a single heart.” Rather than compromising unity, Orthodox fragmentation is actually integral to it.

Communal unity is perhaps most expressly emphasized on Purim when the core mitzvos of the holiday include not only reading the megillah but also distributing alms to the poor, delivering gifts of food to neighbors and acquaintances, and celebrating a festive meal 6

JEWISH ACTION Summer 5782/2022

with friends and family, all to increase unity and camaraderie.

My rebbi, Rav Yaakov Weinberg, zt”l, highlighted an apparent inconsistency within the observance of Purim. While the mitzvos of Purim are intended to emphasize and cultivate Jewish unity, Purim is the sole holiday celebrated on different calendar dates, depending upon where one lives. If there was ever a set of mitzvos appropriate to being observed homogeneously, should it not be mitzvos intended to generate unity?

Rav Weinberg resolved the paradox by explaining that there is a fundamental distinction between unity and uniformity. Uniformity requires everyone to look and act identically. Unity, by contrast, is achieved only when people with distinct roles and behaviors understand that they are acting in unison.

Unity means sharing identical values and pursuing the same goal, albeit in the manner appropriate to each person, individually. Only in the absence of uniformity does this genuine unity exist.

On Purim, all agree that those living in a walled city celebrate the holiday on one date, while those who live elsewhere celebrate on a different date. The mutual appreciation of everyone’s different obligations is the essence of unity and is thus particularly appropriate to Purim.

Rather than stymie Jewish unity, segmentation is intrinsic to it.

Segmentation Delineates the Parameters of Orthodoxy In teaching that Torah has seventy faces (Bamidbar Rabbah 13:15-16), the rabbis convey that Torah Judaism may be expressed in numerous fashions.

Occasionally this dictum is referenced to justify values or supposedly religious practices that are actually anathema to Torah and to our community’s standards. Such deviant approaches to Judaism are summarily rejected by Orthodox leadership.

Had Orthodoxy been monolithic, critics might assert that its rejection of nonconformism is simply small-minded and intolerant. It could have been alleged that Orthodox leaders dismiss all ideas or practices that are not identical to their own for no reason other than chauvinism or to retain power

and influence. By embracing appropriate segmentation, the Torah community evidences its acceptance, or at least tolerance, of alternative approaches to Torah observance, so long as they prove to be wholly devoted to the traditional principles of faith and to the mesorah’s halachic framework.

Admittedly, in reaction to the damage to Judaism caused by past deviant movements, Orthodox leadership is extremely wary of innovation. Consequently, the process of assessing the faithfulness of new approaches may take time, sometimes measured in generations. But the eventual acceptance of certain new segments within Orthodoxy, while denying others as inappropriate, frames the outer parameters of acceptable Orthodoxy and repudiates any suggestion that alternatives within Orthodoxy are perforce rejected.

Fragmentation Actually Deepens our Orthodox Identity The degree to which our core identity is that of an Orthodox Jew has a direct correlation to our commitment to Torah and mitzvos. Nurturing and deepening our Orthodox identity is thus one of the community’s most significant religious functions.

The Orthodox community indeed provides numerous opportunities for enhancing one’s religious identity.

For example, as children our identity is nurtured by attending community schools, camps and youth clubs, and as adults by attending shul regularly and by volunteering for and socializing in Orthodox institutions.

Interestingly and perhaps counterintuitively, community fragmentation actually further intensifies our Orthodox identity. By birth or by choice, whether loosely or intensely, we each naturally affiliate with a “brand” of Orthodoxy, to the exclusion of others.

It is much easier to create and solidify a deep sense of personal identity through our affiliation with a smaller homogeneous community segment than we could as simply by being a member of the larger Jewish community. But once our identity as an Orthodox Jew is crystallized through our integration into our own familiar and comfortable Continued on page 10

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kehillah, we can begin to expand our identity to encompass broader spheres of Judaism.

Factionalism Provides Orthodox Alternatives for the Rebel, Skeptic and Contrarian Most of us are immersed in and eventually adopt the lifestyle and mindset of the community faction in which we were raised, or in which we currently live. The faction’s environment and ethic shape our interests, attitudes and values; it may even influence many of our personality traits. Our families expect us to remain loyal to our native faction, and educators are similarly certain that their faction’s culture and mindset are optimal for all their students.

A certain percentage of people are rebels, skeptics or contrarians, perhaps innately, perhaps in response to trauma or tragedy, or perhaps simply by virtue of hanging out with others of that ilk. These individuals are too deeply affected by the particular environment or subgroup in which they were raised or currently live, but for them the result is not adoption but rather the rejection of the faction’s culture and mindset. This is true for those of any age, but particularly for individuals in their teens and twenties.

In addition, we each have a unique personality; distinct emotional and psychological needs and tendencies; our own particular intellectual orientation; and a personal blend of talents and weaknesses. Similarly, each Orthodox segment and sub-segment has a unique culture and arena of emphasis.

On occasion, there is an irreconcilable clash between one’s personal makeup and the culture and emphasis of the Orthodox segment in which one was raised. When an observant Jew feels compelled to flee the lifestyle of his or her native religious environment, where do they go? If Orthodoxy were monolithic, there would be no alternative but to resettle beyond the borders of Torah Judaism. Sadly, that often occurs.

Orthodox diversity, however, provides an alternative. Incompatible cultural norms and attitudes can be substituted with those of an alternate subgroup that one finds more inviting and accommo10

JEWISH ACTION Summer 5782/2022

dating, whether to the right or left on Orthodoxy’s religious spectrum. In fact, perhaps Hashem has destined multiple modes of Torah Judaism specifically for this reason.

A wise man once advised me that it is quite natural, if not healthy, for children to seek individuality by pursuing a life path distinct at least in some regard from their parents and upbringing. Sometimes the shift is subtle, other times dramatic. The objective of a parent should not be to stifle rebellion but rather to channel its direction.

Unfortunately, parents frequently insist that each child continue in the family’s path, even when an alternative Orthodox approach is clearly more appropriate. True, for the most part, remaining within the family’s subgroup has enormous benefits and should be presumed to be in the child’s best interests. But it is a primary duty of parents, as well as of religious educators, to consider when that presumption is misplaced, and to recognize the risks of failing to do so.

It is, however, often difficult for parents to be objective when reacting to a child leaning toward an alternative path within Orthodoxy. Parents fear that the child’s choices will disrupt the internal social dynamic of the family, or perhaps damage the shidduch prospects of the other, unmarried children. Less consciously, parents may feel that a child’s choice to follow a different path is a rejection of the parents’ own choices and a renunciation of the child’s upbringing and education. It is indeed difficult to cope with these feelings, but no one has ever suggested that parenting is easy.

By embracing the fragmentation of Orthodoxy, we can more readily direct our children, if necessary, to the faction most likely to allow for their fullest religious experience (and mental health). And while most of us are entirely comfortable within our current affiliation, we may also discover spiritual opportunities in other factions that can elevate us further.

Choices Breed Passion It is often reported that various ba’alei teshuvah are at a loss in understand-

ing why their children fail to mirror their own verve and excitement in being observant. In actuality, this bewilderment similarly confronts many parents raised Orthodox. Why are so many of our youth—throughout the religious and cultural spectrum of Orthodoxy— seriously committed to observance but with only minimal fervor and passion?

Perhaps tepid spirituality is the price paid by children raised within a religious environment so comfortable and natural that studying Torah and being observant is less a struggle than the path of least resistance. Perhaps religious passion is produced by wrestling with life decisions and personally making the choices that frame one’s religious journey.

But are parents actually expected to encourage such struggles? Are we not mandated to raise our children to be observant, and to inculcate them with Torah in a religious environment? In fact, to do otherwise is to be guilty of child religious endangerment. How then can we raise children within a solid Torah environment while simultaneously providing them with the opportunity to make their own religious choices?

Perhaps this very opportunity is provided by American Orthodoxy’s panoply of approaches to Torah Judaism.

Parents raising their children to respect and appreciate the spiritual opportunities offered by Orthodox factions other than their own are providing them with the opportunity to make significant choices in framing their own religious journey. In choosing their own path as they emerge into adulthood, they will be more invested in their religious engagement and will likely be more passionate about their Yiddishkeit.

And the good news is that if we empower them to consider the broad spectrum of Torah lifestyle approaches, most of our children will choose to adopt the Orthodoxy of their childhood, but with the passion that emerges from making one’s own religious choices.

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FROM THE DESK OF RABBI MOSHE HAUER

LEHAGDIL TORAH ULEHA’ADIRAH:

MAKING the TORAH GREAT, GLORIOUS AND ACCESSIBLE

A

ll Daf, All Parsha, All Mishnah, Torat Imecha Nach Yomi, Semichas Chaver.

Each of these OU programs, created in pursuit of our core mission of strengthening Jewish commitment, engages thousands of people in daily Torah study. We invest significant human and financial resources into this effort as part of an informal collaborative initiative across the Jewish world to elevate Jewish engagement through the most effective tool of such engagement, talmud Torah (Torah study).

The focus of these efforts has been the creation of greater access to Torah study, a strategy clearly favored by the Talmud in one of its most well-known narratives.1 Rabbi Moshe Hauer is executive vice president of the Orthodox Union.

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JEWISH ACTION Summer 5782/2022

On that day (that they removed Rabban Gamliel from his position and appointed Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya in his place), they dismissed the guard at the door to the beit midrash and permission was granted to all students to enter. Previously, Rabban Gamliel had dictated that any student whose feelings and actions were inconsistent could not enter the study hall, but on that day hundreds of benches were added to the study hall to accommodate the numerous new students . . . and there was no halachah whose ruling was pending that they did not resolve.

Creating greater access to Torah study was a critical step in making the Torah greater and more glorious.2 While some wanted to keep such study as the preserve of the most righteous and scholarly, Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya prevailed, and all saw soon enough that the popularization of talmud Torah served to raise the level of scholarship as well.3 We are currently experiencing an historic expansion in the accessibility of Torah study, alongside huge strides being made in Torah scholarship. In the nineteenth century, Rabbi Yisrael Salanter worked on many fronts to reverse the tide of assimilation. His lasting legacy was the Musar movement, but he also attempted unsuccessfully to create both Hebrew and German translations of the Talmud. Rav Yisrael recognized that while the Talmud was originally written in the Aramaic vernacular to facilitate its widespread study, that language now constitut-

ed a barrier that could be overcome by usable and accessible translations.

Contemporary efforts to translate the Talmud, including the Schottenstein and Steinsaltz editions, have produced stunning results, exponentially growing the ranks of those studying Gemara regularly. Far beyond the Talmud student, the publication of accessible works in other realms of Torah study are engaging a wide variety of people with a range of interests. Together with this remarkable popularization of Torah study has come an outstanding growth in serious Torah scholarship.

Today, Torah study is not just a mitzvah, it is a growing movement, and the OU is privileged to be a partner of all those propelling that movement. The work, however, is just beginning, and we must be thoughtful as we consider the road ahead. Our definition of success is to reach the point where Torah study is a critical component of the life of every Jewish person, home and institution.

Talmud Torah k’negged kulam.4 The people of the book have always placed paramount value on Torah study, both because talmud me’vi li’yedei maaseh,5 study leads to action in the practical sense,6 and because Torah study and the ideals and conviction it generates are critical to holistic Jewish engagement.7 That success must also be defined qualitatively, to the extent that the Torah we study refines the Divine image within us and our connection to G-d. The Torah study opportunities we offer must therefore be oriented to

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elevate the Torah student and scholar from a storehouse of knowledge and good deeds to a refined Torah personality with a real awareness of G-d. We must share Torah with the explicit and clear goals of building tangible emunah (faith) and making ourselves both better and greater so that we become those who G-d and ourselves can be proud of, Yisrael asher b’cha etpa’eir.

Building Pathways8 Critical to this effort is the deployment of cutting-edge technology to expand access to Torah study. This has been and will continue to be a gamechanger as it has extended our reach to the Holocaust survivor who can no longer attend his regular shiur in person, the physician whose schedule has prevented him from consistent Torah study for decades, the commuter who now comes into Shabbat having studied the parashah, and the Daf Yomi shiur-goer who uses technology to facilitate multiple reviews and deep dives into the daf. Given the nature of technology, we must work constantly to stay ahead of the curve on this front.

A second valuable strategy has been the creation of communities of Torah study. Study of the weekly parashah was the original national plan for engagement and accomplishment in Torah study, and it has proven enduring and effective.

From classrooms to Shabbat tables, from pulpits to parashah sheets, the weekly parashah is the common object of study of Jews everywhere. We stick to it and it holds us together. Rabbi Meir Shapiro built on this concept with the Daf Yomi, with similar results. We must not underestimate the strength and endurance we derive from being part of a group. The Women’s Initiative’s Torat Imecha Nach Yomi project in particular has been a huge success on this front, creating an international learning community for women. All Mishnah Jr. created a prototype for exciting extracurricular learning clubs for young teens. These kinds of frameworks and energy must be generated around other Yomi and weekly programs and projects that will attract and include other populations.

Finally, we must work to expand and strengthen the opportunities for 14

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in-person Torah study. A virtual community is valuable, and it is wonderful to be able to access Torah classes on your smartphone, but Judaism and Torah thrive in person, in community, with rabbis, rebbetzins and friends. That is where the action is and that is how Jewish connection grows. The Semichas Chaver program is a model for this kind of success as it has provided more than a hundred communal rabbanim with a curriculum and framework to attract, retain and engage participants in a wonderful Torah learning experience. You will not find Semichas Chaver on the internet; you have to show up and be a part of it. Klal Yisrael will benefit greatly from the identification and creation of more such programs.

Beyond building additional access points, we must identify and scale the tools that will broaden engagement, bringing Torah to those not currently engaged in its study. The Talmud9 guides individuals to find and study the portion of Torah that interests them, makom she’libo chafetz, and we pray to G-d each day to find sweetness in His Torah.10 It was this desire to find a particular path to engagement that led the Rambam to state his special affinity for teaching about emunah11 and the Chatam Sofer to say the same of his teaching Jewish history.12 There is no universal formula for engagement, but people like Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, zt”l, and Rabbi Moshe Weinberger, shlit”a, have found very different formulae for teaching Torah in ways that have attracted thousands who were previously less engaged. We must find ways to expand the impact of outstanding teachers and identify other promising models for Torah study that will connect students off the beaten track.

A Closing Thought: Zeman Matan Torateinu In February 1936, Poland followed the example of its Nazi neighbors and enacted a ban on shechitah (ritual slaughter). Rabbi Yerucham Levovitz, spiritual leader of Poland’s Mirrer Yeshivah, portrayed the moment in stark terms.13 As Jews, we celebrate Shavuot as the festival that com-

memorates when Torah was given to the Jewish people. But there are also times when Torah is taken back from us. When the Temple was destroyed, entire sections of Torah addressing the sacrificial order and laws of purity fell into disuse. When we were exiled from Eretz Yisrael, other aspects of observance became irrelevant. These are all instances when G-d in a sense took parts of the Torah back. Thus, suggested Rav Yerucham, when we become subject to a decree limiting the Torah-mandated practice of shechitah, we are experiencing netilat Torah, the loss of Torah.

Our Sages used the same framing in a different context, viewing the death of any student of Torah as a reclamation of the Torah by G-d. While family and friends mourn the loss of a person who was a part of their life, a cherished relationship, the community must grieve over G-d’s repossession of a soul enlightened by Torah. In the view of the Talmud,14 up to 600,000 people ought to attend the funeral, for just as there were 600,000 people present when the Torah was given, the same should be true when it is returned. And when that person was a Torah teacher there is no limit to the crowd that should assemble to pay tribute.

For a significant period of recent history, the Jewish experience could readily have been characterized as an extended netilat Torah, as the Torah-observant community was hemorrhaging. We continue to suffer the ramifications of that bleed to this day, as masses of Jews raised without a meaningful Torah education continue to drift away from any form of positive Jewish identity.

But there is another story to be told, and it is one of a contemporary matan Torah. We have been blessed to witness a profound renaissance of Jewish learning, both popular and scholarly.

Communities of knowledgeable and committed Jews are growing dramatically. The mitzvot hateluyot ba’Aretz, the many obligations particular to the Land of Israel, are once again being studied and observed. Thousands are studying every corner of the Talmud, Bavli and Yerushalmi, and literally dozens of new

works of Torah thought and commentary are published weekly. Men, women and children are being swept up by a wave of Torah made available to them by every imaginable medium.

The Torah is being returned to us by G-d, and we must cherish and celebrate every stride being made by and for the Torah and every individual connected and strengthened in their study of Torah, as a measure of that return.

Hashem evidently desires for our sake to make the Torah great and glorious, lehagdil Torah uleha’adirah. We must seize the moment.

Notes 1. Berachot 28a.

2. Teaching and elevating the value of any worthy pursuit is critical, but the tipping point is achieved by practical facilitation of that pursuit. This approach to achieving change was illustrated perfectly in a recent New York Times essay by Tish Harrison Warren using the example

of recycling: “There was a time when making the choice to recycle was nigh unto impossible. In the early ‘80s . . . only those . . . who were very committed to the environmental movement went through the effort to separate trash, load it up and take it to a recycling plant. Over the past few decades, we as a culture decided protecting the planet is a social good and a moral obligation—perhaps even a sacred duty—so we spent money, effort and energy to put systems into place that make recycling an easier choice. Now, with curbside recycling, I simply leave my empty yogurt containers and aluminum cans on the curb on Wednesday. Far more Americans recycle now than did when I was born, but a personal commitment to recycling didn’t magically sweep the nation one day. In order for more people to choose to recycle, they needed both cultural encouragement that doing so is a valuable and moral act, and systems that helped ease the burden it imposed.

The individual choice to recycle was made easier by what our society valued and committed itself to.”

3. See the brilliant essay of Meshech Chochmah, Devarim 31:9.

4. Peiah 1:1; see Rambam’s commentary there.

5. Kiddushin 40b.

6. See Avot 2:5, “the ignorant cannot be observant” (lo am ha’aretz chassid).

7. Sefer Hamitzvot, Positive Mitzvah no. 3.

8. We cannot discuss making Torah more accessible without addressing the vexing problem of the affordability of day school education. Torah apps and classes for adults are important and immensely valuable, but day school education is critical. High entrance fees are almost as limiting as a closed door. Do we know how many Jewish children are not accessing the day school system and a Torah education because of its high cost?

9. Avodah Zarah 19a.

10. Birchot HaTorah—v’haarev na Hashem Elokeinu et divrei Toratcha b’finu. . . .

11. Rambam’s Commentary to the Mishnah, Berachot 9:6.

12. Quoted by his student Rabbi Yaakov Halevi Hirsch, Mar Dror, Introduction to vol. 2.

13. Da’at Chochmah U’Musar II, chaps. 69, 70.

14. Ketubot 17a.

Summer 5782/2022 JEWISH ACTION

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IN FOCUS

IS MOVING OUT OF TOWN THE ANSWER?

By Rabbi Simon Taylor

A

recent headline from the Wall Street Journal summed up what has perhaps been on the minds of many Orthodox Jews of late: “From coast to coast Americans migrated toward less dense, more affordable areas as they sought more space and, in some cases, became untethered by the ability to work from anywhere.”

Pandemic or not, the financial stress of living an Orthodox lifestyle has led many to seriously contemplate moving to regions that are more affordable.

Just how much cheaper is it to live out of town than in the New York Metropolitan area? Compared to an average US city, New Yorkers can expect to pay 28 percent more for transportation, 37 Rabbi Simon Taylor is the national director of the OU’s Community Projects & Partnerships.

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percent more for housing and 28 percent more for clothing.* When you add this to the costs of tuition, camp and yamim tovim, these differences can really feel magnified. Due to the financial reality on the ground that many frum couples are facing, surviving on a single income has become less and less feasible and dual-income households are increasingly becoming the norm.

But having both parents work outside the home can lead to a host of problems that emerge when parents are less involved in the household. Statistically speaking, households in which parents are less involved have increased instances of substance abuse and mental health struggles. Additionally, such households experience a myriad of other problems that can occur when children don’t get the guidance and attention they need to thrive to their fullest potential. (This is not to imply that both parents working outside the home causes substance abuse and mental health challenges in their children.)

Aside from the very real financial relief that people often experience when moving to an out-of-town community, there is also a greater feeling of “mattering.” Every person wants to feel that he is uniquely contributing to the fabric of his community, that his presence makes a difference in the lives of others. When a person lives “in town,” it’s easy to get lost in the crowd; because there are so many frum people living in close proximity, it’s hard to feel that you are truly irreplaceable in the grand scheme of * https://www.mylifeelsewhere.com/cost-ofliving/new-york-c3934/cincinnati-c3885.

things. Living in an out-of-town community, however, often instills a sense of achrayus, a feeling of individual responsibility that emerges when there is more opportunity to play a significant role in the community.

These musings about what might be on the minds of Orthodox Jews aren’t merely speculative. In my role in overseeing the OU’s Jewish Community Home Relocation Fair, I have seen the enrollment of Orthodox Jews looking to relocate more than double from the last fair, which was held just two years ago. Double! More and more frum Jews are seriously contemplating what might have been inconceivable merely five or ten years ago. The most popular session at the fair was, once again, Nefesh B’Nefesh’s presentation on aliyah. Although moving to Israel is most certainly the ideal, it isn’t realistic for everyone.

With all that being said, is the solution simply for Orthodox Jews to pick up and move out of town?

I think a more nuanced view is required. While it is certainly difficult to face the financial challenges that stem from living in town, there are many elements that make living in town truly unique. Living in the Five Towns on Long Island, I often feel like I’m in a frum Disneyland! The Torah personalities, shiurim and minyanim available at all times of the day and night, kosher restaurants and groceries, schools, mikvaos and Hatzalah garages are extraordinary. And the list goes on and on. Not to mention the tremendous infrastructure available for my children, from thriving yeshivos to frum sports leagues. I vividly remember attending my son’s first baseball game in a frum league. I’m sure many people don’t think twice about a frum baseball league, but for someone from out of town it’s a remarkable phenomenon. In short, for all the challenges that might come with living in town, there are as many, if not more, benefits.

Simply put, life is never a one-sizefits-all proposition. For some people, it is absolutely the right decision to move out of town. For others, it is absolutely the

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Pandemic or not, the financial stress of living an Orthodox lifestyle has led many to seriously contemplate moving to regions that are more affordable. right choice to live in town. Regardless of what one chooses to do given his or her unique circumstances, the most important thing is to be as proactive and mindful as possible about prioritizing family, finances and frumkeit.

Cognizant of the challenges Orthodox couples are facing in this regard, we at the OU’s Community Projects & Partnerships have created two new initiatives to help families achieve these goals, no matter where they decide to live.

The first initiative, called the Empowered Parenting Initiative, is a national research-based program that was featured in the spring 2022 issue of Jewish Action. Acknowledging the financial reality of many households, in which both parents must work outside the home, we strove to develop a program that could help families thrive by empowering communal leaders to band together and focus on what should be the epicenter of our world—our children. The curricula and programmatics of this initiative all zero in on one fundamental idea: the better the relationship between parents and their children, the better off their children will be in nearly all areas of life.

The second initiative is called Living Smarter Jewish (LSJ), an all-in-one resource serving the unique financial needs of the Orthodox community. Founded by several individuals with decades of combined experience, LSJ will provide financial coaching, promote financial literacy among newlyweds, and launch educational programs such as podcasts, newsletters and school curricula, among many other services.

While this isn’t the forum to elaborate on these initiatives, both are being launched to help strengthen our families, our finances, and ultimately our frumkeit. While many might argue about the pros and cons of living in town versus out of town, the debate is just a red herring. Orthodox families and communities can thrive anywhere. The actual issue at hand is the viability of raising our families amidst the very real challenges of both parenting and finances in the modern world.

Irrespective of whether you choose to utilize OU resources such as the initiatives listed above, the most important choice must come on an individual level: which community offers my family the best opportunity to flourish? What is important to me? If it’s my children, my community and my Yiddishkeit—then all my actions should be optimized around these goals. So whatever town you choose to settle in, make sure to really go to town on building the proper foundations for your family, finances and frumkeit.

Come Grow With Us! White Oak is in the southwest region of Pennsylvania, roughly 15 miles from downtown Pittsburgh.

Like many suburbs across the country, Jewish numbers have dwindled over the years. The White Oak community has put forth a large effort to help reinvigorate and reenergize the community. Will you answer our call?

White Oak has quite a few benefits many larger cities do not.

Housing prices are well below the national average. For example, a 3-bedroom 2-bathroom brick house can be found for under $175,000! Additionally, many homes come with very nice size yards with more than enough room for swing sets, playing ball or anything else growing families require.

Another benefit of White Oak is its proximity to many family essentials. There are nationally recognized hospital systems comprising of top-notch pediatrics units, women’s hospitals, and everything else one can need. All of this is in close proximity to our Shul, Gemilas Chesed Synagogue.

We have several parks locally with large play areas for children, basketball courts, baseball fields and pavilions for picnics. Additionally, we are within a short drive of Kennywood and Idlewild theme parks, The Carnegie Science center, The Pittsburgh Zoo, Carnegie Library System and multiple museums. If you were just looking for a quick outing, we also have bowling alleys, mini golf courses and a myriad of other activities close by.

White Oak has its own men’s and women’s Mikvah, a communal Eruv, free bussing to either of the Jewish Schools and many jobs available within a short drive in almost all fields, both professional and vocational.

Now the best for last! Each family who decides to become one of our community members will receive a check for $30,000 to assist with your house down payment. Additionally, learning for one hour a day in the shul, whether before or after Maariv depending on sunset times, will net an additional $15000 a year ($1250 month) per family. With these incentives, we are looking for a minimum 5-year commitment.

In total, we are offering over $100,000 per family over a 5-year span.

With the cost of living in White Oak, your housing costs will nearly be completely covered for you!! You will also be gaining valuable personal equity in your home, versus renting one.

Come join us and become a valuable member of the community, an asset, rather than in some other community where you are just a number!!

For more information or if you have any questions, email Aharon Guttman at Aguttman@comcast.net.

The S.S. Jerusalem Zim passenger ship in Haifa port, October 1955.

Photo: Hans Pinn/Israel Government Press Office

FROM OUR ARCHIVES

This article is excerpted from the January-February 1970 issue of Jewish Life, the predecessor to Jewish Action. In the essay Rabbi Aaron Rothkoff (today known as Rabbi Rakeffet-Rothkoff), who had just made aliyah, advises new olim.

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. . . This article is not being written for those who still need to be won over to Aliyah but rather for those who are already convinced that the destiny of the Jewish people is being forged in Israel reborn. It is planned for those who believe that it is their sacred responsibility to fulfill the charge of the pre-eminent Mitzvah of Yishuv Eretz Yisroel at this crucial moment in the eternal

saga of our nation. It is designed to share the experiences and reactions of a family that has recently made the transition so that others may benefit from their encounters and decisions.

Sitting in your suburban home or cooperative apartment, surrounded by all that is currently so familiar, you are probably apprehensively wondering, “How do we begin?”

However, before you begin to implement the practical steps of Aliyah, it is more important to

What Every Oleh Should Know Aliyah advice written in 1970 from Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff

develop the proper state of mind that is essential to successful Aliyah.

Granted that you have made a most important decision and are undertaking a momentous step, nevertheless, relax and trust in G-d.

There is a host of minutiae to be arranged, and there will certainly be some mishaps and disappointments.

This is a move of six thousand miles and not everything you plan will go according to schedule. However, if you realize this from the outset and

make your arrangements in this vein, the disappointments will be minimal.

Remember that you are fulfilling a cardinal Mitzvah, and even if your lift of household possessions arrives late and is unloaded at the wrong port, grin and bear it. If you can transmit this attitude to your family, then you will be winners from the outset. . . . The most basic decision which Olim must make concerns their future means of livelihood in the Holy Land. The Committee of Manpower

Opportunities in Israel, which functions in cooperation with the Jewish Agency, will attempt to secure employment for future Olim before they have finalized their Aliyah plans.

Their aid is essential for academicians and professionals, since these classes of workers will be able to strike a better bargain and gain additional benefits from their potential employers while still negotiating from outside Israel. Arriving with employment also spares one from the Summer 5782/2022 JEWISH ACTION

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Left: Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff in IDF basic training in 1976. Courtesy of Rabbi Rakeffet-Rothkoff Right: Rabbi Rakeffet-Rothkoff today.

Since the Six-Day War and the liberation of the Kothel, real estate prices have been rising daily in the Holy City. intrinsic frustrations and tensions that are invariably interwoven with job-seeking. These feelings will also be intensified when one is in surroundings which are still new and partially strange. Nevertheless, many Olim, mostly businessmen and some professionals, arrive without employment. After leisurely attending Ulpanim and mastering the rudiments of Modern Hebrew, they gradually seek out an appropriate field of endeavor. Willy-nilly it all works out, and the Israel relief rolls are not being swelled by the current “Anglo-Saxon” immigration. . . . To sail or to fly is the next question which must be resolved. The advantages of going by air are speed and slightly lower cost. However, when going on Aliyah, journey by ship is to be preferred. The twelve-day voyage will be a welcome respite and vacation from the strains of Aliyah preparations. Modern ships are literally floating hotels and you will enjoy the multitude of activities.

Spiritually you will value the opportunity to reflect and experience the anticipation of returning Home after two thousand years of exile.

Ship travel will also aid in solving the moving problem, since each person is allowed a substantial amount of free space in the boat’s hold due to special arrangements made by the 22

JEWISH ACTION Summer 5782/2022

Jewish Agency. When a large family travels by boat, this space can be utilized to accommodate a fair-sized lift. Even more helpful is the fact that you are allowed to take a substantial amount of baggage into your cabin. . . . Depending upon your arrangements with the Jewish Agency, you will probably be transported to an absorption center, ulpan, or hostel. Conditions vary from place to place, and it would be prudent to correspond with an acquaintance who has preceded you at the designated location and can inform you exactly as to the facilities that await you. It is wise to arrive with some easy-to-serve foods such as dry cereal and cans of tuna, soups, and vegetables to utilize in your initial days in Israel.

Arrangements for permanent housing obviously depend upon the location of your employment. Generally, you will be able to arrange this after your arrival, once you learn the areas and survey the available apartments.

However, future Jerusalem residents are faced with grim and difficult housing problems. Since the Six-Day War and the liberation of the Kothel, real estate prices have been rising daily in the Holy City.

Rentals are prohibitive on an Israeli salary since there is an abundance of professionals spending their sabbaticals in Jerusalem who willingly

pay exorbitant rents. The government’s housing facilities for Olim are severely limited in Jerusalem, and the purchase price of apartments on the private market is almost twice as expensive as elsewhere. As of December 1, 1969, the government is making special 50,000 I.L. [Israeli pound]-30 Year mortgages available for Olim in Jerusalem to aid them in purchasing apartments. . . . A more difficult challenge facing the newcomer is in the spiritual and ethical realm. It seems sinful to observe how naturally and quickly we adjust to the miracles of Israel reborn.

We walk through the public thorough-fares on the Sabbath, enwrapped in our Tallith, as if this has been our life-long practice. We often give lifts to soldiers carrying machine-guns, and we continue to drive as if we have long been accustomed to having guns adorn our cars. We daily mingle with the masses of Jews gathered together from the four corners of the earth, and we act as if we have always been rubbing shoulders with Jews from Iraq, Yemen, Morocco, and India. If only we could develop the ability of the masters of Mussar to experience the thrill and exultation of the daily renewal of life in the land of redemption and fulfillment. Nevertheless, even the least sensitive among us will still be periodically awakened by the wonders happening in Israel.

TRIBUTE

Remembering “Mendy” Ganchrow: A Klal Mensch Dr. Mandell Ganchrow served as president of the OU from 1994 to 2000.

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M

ost people recall Dr. Mandell “Mendy” Ganchrow, z”l, who passed away in February of 2022, as the ultimate “doer.” As president of the OU from 1994 to 2000 and a long-standing officer of the OU, Dr. Ganchrow boasted an extensive list of achievements.

Under his energetic leadership, the OU saw dramatic growth, especially in its Israel-related educational and political activity. He established the OU’s Institute for Public Affairs (IPA), the political advocacy arm of the OU (today the OU Advocacy Center), which subsequently opened an office in Washington. He helped launch NCSY in Israel as well as the Seymour J. Abrams Jerusalem World Center.

Mendy was “a ball of fire and a phenomenal fundraiser whose sole agenda was the Jewish people,” says Dr. David Luchins, an OU officer since 1974.

“He was a smart problem solver with the warmest of smiles, who possessed a uniquely effective, motivational leadership style,” adds Steve Savitsky, who grew up with Mendy in Crown Heights and succeeded him as OU president.

“He had the kind of vitality that always moved the organization forward.”

A medical doctor who served as a MASH surgeon during the Vietnam War, Dr. Ganchrow never compromised his religious principles and strove to keep Shabbat and eat only kosher during wartime. “My father took it upon himself to fill in as the Jewish chaplain, leading Shabbat and High Holiday davening with his fellow soldiers,” recalled his daughter, Malkie Ratzker, in an article in the New Jersey Jewish Link.

A prodigious writer, Dr. Ganchrow described his experiences in his autobiography, Journey Through the Minefields; he wrote several books on Jewish topics as well, including three anthologies of divrei Torah for different occasions: Coming of Age (New York, 2012) for a bar/bat mitzvah; Entering the Covenant (New York, 2001) for a brit/pidyon

President George H.W. Bush meeting with OU leadership at the White House, circa 1990. From left: former OU President Sheldon Rudoff; former President Bush; then OU President Dr. Mendy Ganchrow; Rhoda Miller, currently a member of the OU Board of Governors; and Howard Tzvi Friedman, Honorary Chairman of the OU Board of Directors.

haben; and Sason VeSimcha (New York, 1996) for sheva berachot.

Fearing he would die at the same young age as his father, Dr. Ganchrow decided to retire at the age of fifty-seven after running a successful medical practice for decades. Sheila, his devoted wife of nearly sixty years, proudly shares that he retired early so he could “dedicate himself fully to Klal Yisrael. He had the ideas and leadership qualities to do it. When he left medicine to fulfill his dream, the OU became his life.”

Passionate about Israel and working for the klal, Dr. Ganchrow was politically active even before his tenure at the OU. He firmly believed in the power of effective advocacy. With the Jewish people and the State of Israel as his bottom line, he worked tirelessly with political leaders on both sides of the aisle. A resident of Monsey, New York, he founded the Hudson Valley Political Action Committee (HUVPAC), a local grassroots initiative that was an outgrowth of his pro-Israel advocacy experience with AIPAC; HUVPAC would provide the model for NORPAC, in which he played a critical role as well. Over the 26

JEWISH ACTION Summer 5782/2022

years, HUVPAC became one of the larg- bring bright, politically-minded college est pro-Israel PACs in the country. Dr. students into the political process by Ganchrow’s daughter remembers him having them intern for AIPAC in the raising “millions of dollars for pro-Issummer. When the program proved to rael candidates” and that “congressmen be successful, the IPA began providing and senators would be in and out” of college students with the opportunity their Monsey home. to serve as interns in the offices of conWhen Dr. Ganchrow joined the OU gressmen and senators. Dr. Ganchrow in the 1980s, Jewish political advocacy chaired the IPA before taking the orgawas largely the arena of secular Jewish nizational helm. organizations, which had only a small “Some were skeptical of ideas like number of Orthodox activists. While establishing relationships with political their interests overlapped, the Orthocandidates,” recalls former OU President dox community at large had its own Harvey Blitz, “but Mendy was passionate specific priorities, such as support for and forged ahead. In retrospect, everyday schools and workplace accommoone felt it was obvious that we needed to dations for Sabbath observance. “Mendy do it. Mendy had, of course, been right.” understood that it was important for Eventually, the OU established a the president, senators and members of Washington office due to “Mendy’s foreCongress to see that the Jewish comsight and perseverance,” says current OU munity is not monolithic,” says Nathan President Moishe Bane. “Today, thanks Diament, director of the OU Advocacy to Mendy, the OU Washington office is Center, who was hired by Dr. Ganchrow. an incredible voice for the advancement Dr. Ganchrow pushed hard from the of Orthodox interests in Washington.” get-go, insisting that the OU establish “Mendy held on to his vision, even its own voice in Washington. The orga- though it took a lot of convincing for othnization responded by founding the ers to see it was needed,” notes Luchins.

Institute for Public Affairs (IPA). One “Today, no one questions it. Our DC office of the IPA’s accomplishments was to is critical to the work we do.” Dr. Gan-

chrow’s personal skills and his “charismatic bedside manner” fueled his success as a visionary in the arena of Orthodox political advocacy—undoubtedly his greatest Jewish communal legacy.

Dr. Ganchrow’s initiatives continue to impact policy decisions made on the Hill today, adds Diament. He cites as an example FEMA’s refusal to provide federal aid for the repair of a local Jewish day school in the aftermath of a 2001 earthquake in the Pacific Northwest. The OU fought the decision, overturning FEMA policy regarding religious institutions, while garnering broad bipartisan support. The ripple effect bore fruit most recently when FEMA awarded an extensive security grant to day schools and shuls.

“That trajectory began under Mendy’s leadership,” says Diament. “He had a vision of an assertive American Orthodoxy, and he leveraged it to impact the OU and the community at large. You need that kind of confidence to walk into the White House or a senator’s office with a list of asks.”

That confidence enabled him to meet with politicians who were not known to be especially friendly toward Israel, and to try to convince them to change their minds.

One such politician was Senator Steve Symms of Idaho, who consistently voted against the interests of the Jewish State. At an initial meeting with Dr. Ganchrow, the senator implied that the American Jewish community was guilty of dual loyalty. Proving his patriotism, Dr. Ganchrow countered that he had not only served in Vietnam but he had the medals to prove it. The senator shifted his tone completely. Ultimately, he became a good friend of Dr. Ganchrow, and his position on Israel softened.

Dr. Ganchrow traveled throughout the US, meeting community members and leaders, assessing the organization’s impact and keeping his finger on the pulse of communal needs. Underlying all of his efforts was his love for his people and the Jewish State. Savitsky recalls how during the intifada in 2000, “Mendy was devastated” that American Jews were not traveling to Israel, and as a result, he arranged and led several missions to Israel. “This wasn’t an economic decision to help the country because it had lost tourism. It was a Jewish decision. He felt strongly that we needed to show solidarity.”

Still, nothing was more important to Dr. Ganchrow than his family—his wife Sheila, the couple’s three children and their spouses, his grandchildren and his great-grandchildren. The grandchildren beam with pride, says Sheila, when they are asked, “Are you related to the Dr. Ganchrow who was president of the OU?” But the Ganchrow grandchildren know that their grandfather’s success lay in the fact that he never took no for an answer. This physician-turned-statesman had passion, vision and, above all, the ability to get things done.

“Mendy was a doer in every respect, and he was eager to help people,” says Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO of OU Kosher. “He was a good friend, a caring doctor, a klal mensch. He was always smiling. Always optimistic. And he brought all of that to the OU.”

GAUCHER DISEASE IS THE #1 MOST COMMON JEWISH GENETIC DISEASE (and you probably were never tested for it) Although common, Gaucher disease type 1 isn’t life threatening and is not included in all Jewish genetic testing panels. Symptoms of Gaucher disease include enlarged liver and/or spleen, easy bruising, nose bleeds, and bone pain. Once diagnosed, Gaucher disease can be treated with medication.

If you suspect your loved one has Gaucher disease, speak to your doctor and request a simple diagnostic beta-glucosidase leukocyte (BGL) blood test.

For more information,visit gaucherdisease.org/mysymptoms Summer 5782/2022 JEWISH ACTION

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THE

SINGLE

PARENT FAMILY 28

JEWISH ACTION Summer 5782/2022

A rapidly growing and underserved population in our community

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COVER STORY

By Aviva Engel

T

he saying “TGIF” resonates strongly with Orthodox Jews, who anticipate Shabbos and its accompanying joys and comforts: the tantalizing smell of baked goods and freshly cooked food, the warm glow of the candles, the melodious davening in shul, the return home to a majestically set table, the priceless family time and the precious opportunities to socialize. For divorcees, however, and particularly for divorcees with children, Shabbos often represents a painful reminder of the lives they have lost. For this segment of the population, Shabbos highlights the dissolution of their marriages and families and the new responsibilities and mitzvos they must now assume that were previously performed by their spouses.

“I think the loneliness is tremendous,” says Shira Fass,* a volunteer at Sister to Sister, a North American support network for Jewish divorced women that largely focuses on assisting single mothers raising kids under eighteen, as well as young divorced women without children. “Even with all of their friends and support, there’s a loneliness that’s hard to fill without a spouse. The nights are long and hard. Our lives in general are family centered, and Shabbos and yom tov in particular are family-centered times.”

Isolation is just one of the social challenges that affect frum divorcees. While many divorced men suffer severe hardships—often including losing custody of their children—community advocates maintain that the challenges facing * Not the interviewee’s real name. Many of those interviewed for this article preferred to use a pseudonym.

Aviva Engel is an award-winning freelance journalist and a director of communications in Montreal, Canada.

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Even with all of their friends and support, there’s a loneliness that’s hard to fill without a spouse . . .

Our lives in general are family centered, and Shabbos and yom tov in particular are family-centered times. single frum mothers are incomparable.

Consequently, in the New York tristate area, for example, a number of communal programs exist to support divorced women, while divorced men have largely been left to fend for themselves.

“There are many more divorced single women than men,” says Rabbi Ariel Miller,* the rav of a small New Jersey shul. “Divorced men remarry much sooner. That is my anecdotal observation. In most cases, wonderful divorced women are not able to remarry easily because they have the responsibility of their children; even if fathers are meeting their financial obligations, the women by default are raising the kids day to day. I’m not minimizing the challenges many divorced men face. I speak to them, and I’d like to think I’m attuned to their challenges as well. However, it’s very different when it comes to single mothers. It’s worlds apart.”

Rabbi Miller, who assists couples with mediation once they have decided to divorce, fortuitously became involved in supporting divorced mothers. At the start of the pandemic, his congregation established a grassroots fund to help members who were struggling financially. Among those who sought financial and food assistance were divorced women—women from the local community who were not shul members. “It became clear during Covid that these women were hit with a one-two punch,” he says. “Many lost their jobs. Divorced women who other-

wise might have been able to go to their parents for yom tov could not go due to the pandemic, so they were making Pesach themselves. It was an expensive proposition to have to suddenly provision themselves and their families.”

In order to benefit from the support, people seeking help completed a questionnaire that asked, among other information, for the name of their rav. “I was getting many calls from women saying they don’t have a rav,” says Rabbi Miller. “I told them to put my name down. That led those of us providing Covid relief to realize that this underserved population is almost invisible and has real needs. What makes it so difficult is that the women are anonymous. Take a divorced woman with three kids below the age of seven—she can’t get to shul. The rabbis typically have a relationship with the men, who are in shul; the women, not necessarily.”

Rabbi Aharon Licht* administers a charitable fund that primarily addresses the financial needs of families in an established New York neighborhood. Two decades ago, he became aware of the growing population of divorced mothers and their serious challenges—something he was unaware of until he spoke with school principals, rabbis and pediatricians and discovered “there were many, many more than I thought.” He estimates that there are easily between 4,000 and 5,000 Orthodox divorced women today in the US Northeast. “I Continued on page 32

“People are happy to have a divorced woman for a Shabbos meal and they’re happy to take a kid to shul, but they have to be asked.”

“Tamar”

As told to Aviva Engel

My husband and I divorced after ten years of marriage.

We have two sons. I was single for two years and am now remarried. Baruch Hashem, I now have another son and a daughter!

Growing up, I had only one classmate whose parents were divorced; it was an anomaly. Eighteen years ago when I got divorced, it was still nowhere near as common as it is today, and it was a completely different era. Social media wasn’t what it is today and divorced women couldn’t network with one another online the way they do now. There were only a handful in my neighborhood, and we would get together at someone’s house and support each other.

I remember a difficult incident. One Yom Kippur, I didn’t have anyone to leave my boys with. They were very young, so I brought them to shul with bags of snacks. They were sitting and eating very quietly, and a man turned around from the men’s section and gave me a look that said, “Your kids don’t belong here.” After that, I didn’t return to shul for months.

Fortunately, that experience was an outlier. I live in a beautiful community that overwhelmingly supports divorced women.

My sons and I were invited to many meals, and I always knew we could go to my neighbor, who would host us at a moment’s notice. My neighbor was, and still is, my lifeline and my closest friend. Whatever her husband did for their family, he did for me.

When he sold their chametz, he sold mine, and when he donated the machatzis hashekel (half-shekel charitable donation customarily given during the month of Adar), he gave for me as well.

One of the organizations that helped me tremendously during my divorce was Sister to Sister. Today I am a volunteer for the organization and support others. I often give divorced women the following advice: find a community and a rav for yourself. A lot of women complain that no one calls them. I assure them that there are people who care about them, but we all lead busy lives and between work and family the hosts simply forget to extend an invitation. People are happy to have a divorced woman for a Shabbos meal and they’re happy to take a kid to shul, but they have to be asked. Sometimes you have to take the initiative. I know it’s hard to be the one asking, but you have to put yourself out a bit. Otherwise, others don’t know you’re struggling.

Conversely, when I was divorced, there was a woman in town who used to call me like clockwork every three months on a Tuesday morning to invite me for Shabbos.

I always felt like I was her project. There are people out there who are thinking about you, but sometimes it’s done in a way that may not feel warm and fuzzy.

Ultimately, though, I knew she meant well and I would accept the invitation.

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Continued from page 30

Children: The Victims of Divorce

By Aviva Engel

T

he dissolution of a marriage and family naturally has a profound impact on a couple’s children, who often suffer serious collateral challenges.

“Many children are really struggling and have significant issues as a result of all the pain and difficulty they’re dealing with,” says Shira Fass, who assists children of divorce in her role as a volunteer for Sister to Sister, which currently supports about 2,500 children under age eighteen in navigating the repercussions of divorce. At a conference for Orthodox mental health professionals, community activist Rabbi Aharon Licht presented some of his observations about specific challenges faced by children of divorce:

• Children are often angry at their parents for getting divorced and making them “poor,” as well as different; boys living with their mothers may hurt more.

• Some children feel responsible for the breakup.

• Children often live between two residences, sometimes with differing levels of Jewish observance.

• Children may be victims of parental alienation by one parent toward the other.

• Many children in divorced homes feel neglected, which, in Rabbi Licht’s view, can be worse than abuse.

• A single mom may be unable to afford necessary therapy for her children, and bikkur cholim organizations are commonly maxed out with funding requests for counseling.

• Bar and bat mitzvahs and weddings are especially painful and difficult, financially and operationally.

• Children of divorce miss the positive role modeling of a healthy couple relationship and mother-father interaction, which is integral to raising their own healthy children.

• Children whose parents remarry may have a hard time adjusting.

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live in a community with probably close to 10,000 people, and we have around 300 divorced women in my neighborhood,” he says. “Every twenty-four-year-old girl in our neighborhood seems to have two or three friends who are divorced.” The result, he says, is that there is a new, rapidly growing family model in our communities that is under great financial and emotional strain. This population is putting pressure on our community institutions, including schools as well as programs such as Tomchei Shabbos, and is producing a new generation growing up without the benefit of a two-parent home.

At a recent conference for Orthodox mental health professionals, Rabbi Licht presented a workshop on the frum single parent, in which he noted that the financial challenges in many divorced homes run deep. While pointing out that his observations do not apply to every divorced family, many single moms, he says, find the financial struggles to be a constant.

Single moms are short a spouse’s income and often lack the career education, skill set and time to make up for it. Childcare expenses may also limit earning ability, and child support allocations from ex-spouses are often insufficient. All of these factors compound the difficulties of paying for tuition, extracurricular activities and the costs associated with yamim tovim. In addition, without the maintenance typically performed by a husband, notes Rabbi Licht, the home can fall into disrepair. Women may feel guilty or ashamed of constantly having to turn to relatives for money, and family members who may be a source of financial support may be unable or unwilling to continue their help beyond a certain point.

Discussing the allocation of community resources, Rabbi Licht notes that “it’s always a delicate balance trying to triage the people who genuinely need it.”

“While my estimate is very, very unscientific, in about 75 percent of the cases there’s a real financial need. Some of the emails we get in response to our assistance are truly heartbreaking.”

Equally as heartbreaking are the emotional and social challenges of divorced mothers—issues they might be able to address in therapy if only they were able to afford it. Constant negotiations with their ex-husbands can be emotionally overwhelming, says Rabbi Licht, and the challenge of remarrying is formidable. Besides being unable to go to shul, single moms of young children may be unable to go out [to social events], making it all the more difficult to foster and maintain social connections.

In cases of absent fathers, single moms may also experience guilt and sadness about the lack of a male role model for their kids. “The children are the biggest challenge,” says Fass. “Specifically the boys— mothers need someone to take their sons to shul and to be a liaison with the yeshivos.”

Rabbi Licht adds that divorced mothers may also feel they are perceived negatively for not doing more to make their marriages work. “There is often a bias against them,” he asserts. “People might say, ‘Who told them to get divorced? Why did she marry him in the first place? Why isn’t the ex supporting her? Why doesn’t her family support her? Why doesn’t she get a job herself?’”

But those who pass judgment, says Rabbi Licht, have never been tested. “There’s a colloquial saying that ‘a liberal is a conservative who hasn’t been mugged yet.’ A person who doesn’t have sensitivity to those who are divorced is simply someone who hasn’t been through the parashah. It’s very easy to sit back [and pass judgment] if you haven’t experienced it.”

“Michael”

As told to Aviva Engel

I was eleven and my sister was seven when our parents divorced. We’re in our thirties now. Although I’m an adult and married with my own children, I often still recall the pain I experienced as a young boy who came from a “broken home.”

Growing up, I was one of only two kids in my grade of about fifty students whose parents were divorced. I was always very self-conscious about it, even though my peers never treated me any differently. At the end of the school day and before Shabbos and yom tov, I was always cognizant and envious of the fact that my classmates were returning to their same bedrooms, beds and homes, where both parents lived, whereas my sister and I rotated houses every few days. It was very challenging for me. If I ever woke up in the middle of the night, it would be disorienting because I didn’t always sleep in the same location.

I remember the stress around school events like performances when everyone had to wear specific items of clothing and I discovered that a needed item, such as Shabbos shoes, was at the other parent’s house. It was always a scramble and chore to pick it up. I’m not sure why it never occurred to my parents to simply buy doubles and equip both homes with everything my sister and I needed; it would have saved us a lot of unnecessary hassle and shlepping back and forth.

As kids, my sister and I missed a number of school and community activities because we were at the other parent’s home—programs like Avos Ubanim and mother-daughter challah bakes. My best childhood friend would always invite me to join him and his father at Avos Ubanim, but I rarely accepted because when I did, I felt sad to be learning with someone other than my dad. I have a wonderful uncle who would take me to shul when I was with my mother, and I always felt comfortable sitting beside him. One memory that stands out is that for many years, he would accompany me during Hoshanos, and I was both happy and relieved to have him by my side; I had someone to walk with while the men circled the bimah. I don’t think I would have had the confidence to participate alone. To this day I’m forever grateful that he stepped in to fill the void during the times when my father wasn’t present.

I remember the day my parents told us they were getting divorced. I had returned from playing football at my cousin’s house. I was incredibly sad but not surprised, as they had never been mutually affectionate and were often impatient and dismissive of one another in our presence. They both assured us that the breakup was not our fault and underscored that we would always be their top priority and that they would always love us—something they not only reiterated countless times over many years but demonstrated through their actions, including when they united to escort me down the aisle to my chuppah. It meant so much to me.

“My sister and I rotated houses every few days. It was very challenging.”

My parents were, and still are, the most wonderful people. I know they did their very best under the circumstances to support my sister and me and to make sure we were always content and thriving. While I always knew I was deeply loved as a child and never wanted for anything material, a piece of me always wished that my family could have been kept whole, even though I knew my parents were never going to get back together.

Today, my wife and I are thrilled and feel so incredibly blessed to be able to provide our children with the security and consistency that I lacked as a kid—a home that we hope serves as a model to them of true shalom bayis.

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Supporting the Solo Parent What Every Community Can Do to Help

By Aviva Engel

If

the topic of divorce makes many people uneasy, one can only imagine the discomfort experienced by those who live it. While community advocates interviewed for this cover story were unable to pinpoint the exact number of Orthodox divorcees in their neighborhoods, one thing is certain: they are far more prevalent in our communities than we realize. The silver lining is that North American frum divorcees have a number of top-notch resources and support organizations at their disposal, offering everything from tzedakah and networking to assistance for yamim tovim and even shoulders to lean on.

When Ruben Bernshtein of Edison, New Jersey, got divorced two years ago, his family and rebbeim were very supportive. Yet Bernshtein longed to connect with a fellow divorced male in the same boat. “I just wanted to meet another divorced guy, and I couldn’t find one,” he recalls. “There was no

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WhatsApp group to join, or anyone to call. It’s a bit extreme, but I compare it to a soldier who has a hard time relaying his wartime experiences; you wouldn’t understand it unless you went through it. Similarly, I just needed somebody to share this experience with who would understand me on a deeper level.”

The dearth of support groups for Orthodox divorced men inspired Bernshtein to create Ish Chayil, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping men of all ages, with or without children, and at all stages of divorce, be they newly separated or on their own for decades.

“One of the reasons I chose the name Ish Chayil is because of the stigma that a divorced man is a nebbech,” explains Bernshtein. “I think many men start believing they lack value. I really want to change that image. Men need to realize that yes, they went through a challenge, but they are still soldiers and they are strong. And they will get through this to the next stage of life.”

Having seen the toll that divorce has taken on some of his peers, Bernshtein is sensitive to those who struggle with

issues of faith. “I approached a potential donor who, baruch Hashem, has a great marriage. I shared the concept of Ish Chayil, and he felt it was similar to bikkur cholim. He didn’t understand. ‘Bikkur cholim?!’ I exclaimed.

‘This is pikuach nefesh! Some of these men just want to give up on life. Their finances are totally gone, they’re knee deep in debt, they can’t see their kids and they’ve become socially awkward because people are turning away from them. Their lives are upside down!

You’re telling me this is bikkur cholim?

These people are losing their emunah in Hashem. They are getting lost.’”

Ish Chayil held its first Shabbaton this past November at a hotel in Edison, New Jersey, where more than fifty men gained invaluable resources, new friends and renewed optimism. The event, which featured an impressive line-up of speakers, including Rabbi Benzion Klatzko, Rabbi Yitzchak Feldheim and Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein, hosted a Motzaei Shabbos singles event. Having received incredible feedback from participants, Bernshtein is already planning the next Shabbaton.

Continued on page 36

“Shlomo”

As told to Steve Lipman When my ex and I separated after seven years of marriage, I gave the get right away. Giving it so soon enabled my ex-wife to drag her feet and take inordinate amounts of time to respond to any divorce-related issues. Nevertheless, I do not regret giving the get when I did.

We’re still working on our legal divorce. My wife has primary custody, a 70-30 arrangement—I have the kids on alternating weekends; I don’t know many men who have primary custody of their children.

Upon separating from my wife, I moved out of town to attend school to become a healthcare professional. It wasn’t feasible for my wife and kids to make the move. It was a very difficult decision for me, and I was viewed by family and friends alike as though I had walked out on my family. Unfortunately, at this point in my life I can’t afford to move to the community where my kids live; I would have to make three or four times my current salary.

We have been successful in making custody arrangements based on each of our needs, schedules and family obligations, even without an agreement or divorce in place. I often drive in for a day to take the kids to doctor appointments and to care for them when they are ill so my ex-wife doesn’t always need to take a sick day. I’m not required to do this when they are in her custody. But because single mothers are underappreciated, I have tried to be as agreeable as I can in our negotiations and in our relationship. I want the kids to have the best experience.

The parent who does not have primary custody gets the short end of the stick—I don’t get invited anywhere for Shabbos. It’s a challenge to be part of the frum community when the kids aren’t with you. I don’t have my own home, which makes it difficult to have guests and friends over. In addition, many friends fell out of touch, I suspect because they don’t know whose side to take, or because they have chosen to take sides. People don’t know what to say, think or feel, or how to communicate with you about the divorce.

A lot of assumptions are made about the “dad,” particularly in the Orthodox community. I don’t get much sympathy. People think: “You don’t have the kids, you don’t have to do bedtime.” I would love to do bedtime. It’s not fun knowing you’re missing out on your kids’ formative years. I would gladly give up all this free time for a 50-50 custody arrangement. It’s hard to continue being a great dad while carrying the stigma that “you left.”

In the Orthodox community, there is also a perception that it’s easier for the man to move on than for the woman, which is partially true. I have more time to get an education, to date, to focus on other aspects of life.

But the kids aren’t with me full time. I miss out on the day-to-day routine.

Granted, I don’t get woken up by a kid, but I miss out on the snuggles.

Having the kids on Shabbos makes it very hard to go to shul; I’m with the kids myself, and they are young. On the other hand, it gives me a unique chance to be mechanech them, to educate them—by davening and making Kiddush at home, spending time with them the whole day and being involved in their learning. We will do this until they are able to sit next to me in shul without running around, making noise and needing my attention.

When they are with me at home, I try to give them constant attention.

A lot of assumptions are made about the “dad,” particularly in the Orthodox community.

Steve Lipman is a frequent contributor to Jewish Action.

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Continued from page 34

South of Edison, Lakewood is the home base of Sister to Sister, a North American support network for frum divorced women. Founded in 2005 by Anne (Chani) Neuberger, who currently serves as deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology in the Biden administration, Sister to Sister serves over 1,600 women in the US and Canada with extensive resources and advocacy. Members may join an active social forum, search reams of online referrals for assistance, and participate in events and teleconferences. Services include legal and career guidance, mentorship for divorced women and their children, Shabbos and holiday hospitality and inspirational phone calls, to name but a few.

“We make women feel special by sending them gifts for the yamim tovim and for their birthdays,” says Shira Fass,* a Sister to Sister volunteer. “We also send birthday and Chanukah gifts to their kids.”

Sister to Sister hosts an annual Shabbaton at a hotel, attended by some 500 women. While participants pay a nominal fee, the catered weekend is largely subsidized by a charitable fund that assists divorced mothers. “The main purpose of the Shabbaton is to give overloaded single mothers a break, a chance to recharge,” says Rabbi Aharon Licht,* the fund’s administrator. “We want the custodial mothers to be able to go back and raise their children patiently. The program offers stellar guest speakers, and the women relax and are served beautiful meals; we even give them gifts. We really go out of our way to make it a glorious weekend for them.”

The Shabbaton is also a retreat for divorced women with adult children. Of the 500 attendees, between forty and fifty women fit into this category. Organizers recognize that for these women the Shabbaton serves a different but equally important purpose: it facilitates their socialization with peers living with similar challenges.

“But what’s really key to the participants,” says Rabbi Licht, “is that about twenty professionals also come on the Shabbaton: principals, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, several doctors, dating coaches, and shadchanim; at the most recent Shabbaton, we invited an expert on parental alienation. They sit at cocktail tables, and the women are entitled to a fifteen-minute appointment with any one of them.”

While Sister to Sister is broader in scope, there are other communal initiatives aimed at assisting single mothers on the local level. Rabbi Ariel Miller* is the rav of a small New Jersey shul in a community that has launched a grassroots organization to help this population. He estimates that of the roughly 2,000 Orthodox families in his community, divorced women represent close to five percent of the Continued on page 40

* Not the interviewee’s real name. Many of those interviewed for this article preferred to use a pseudonym.

How can we be of support communally and individually?

Communities should: • Ensure that children of divorce have what other children have, such as afikoman and Chanukah presents and extracurricular activities.

• Provide them with “big brothers” and “big sisters.” “Big brothers” could review Gemara and other homework with boys from divorced homes and accompany them to shul.

• Help such families secure affordable therapy if needed.

Individuals should: • Encourage their own children to befriend children of divorce. Host them for Shabbos and include them in your family’s yom tov or chol hamoed plans, and even vacation plans, if possible.

• Offer babysitting, childcare services and tutoring.

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“Rivka”

“Rivka”

As told to Tova Cohen As told to Tova Cohen

Offer to help with tangible suggestions.

“Do you need me to drive your son to minyan?”

“Do you need someone to learn with your son?”

Tova Cohen is a senior writer at UJA-Federation of New York and a freelance writer in fundraising communications for a number of nonprofit organizations. Her creative bylines have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post and Tablet Magazine. She lives with her family in Englewood, New Jersey.

Finances tend to be tight when you are divorced. As a full-time healthcare professional, I work hard so my two kids (ages thirteen and eight) can have what they need; I don’t want to tell them I can’t buy them something because I don’t have the money. I don’t mind working hard, but I’m tired all the time.

I’m blessed to have a huge support system—I have a lot of family who live nearby and a great circle of close friends. I’m not sure how I would have survived the divorce process without them. You really see who your true friends are when you’re going through a divorce; I lost one friend because she questioned and gossiped about my choices.

People should never assume they know the reason for someone’s divorce.

You never walked in that person’s shoes, and what you see and perceive does not paint an accurate picture of what goes on behind closed doors. People should be less judgmental and focus on their own homes—everyone has their own problems that deserve attention.

Programs like My Extended Family (an organization that provides support to children from divorced families) are amazing, but there is more that individuals can do to help. If you find out that your child’s classmate’s parents are getting divorced, invite that kid over for playdates, and then also invite his mother or father for a Shabbos meal. Offer to help with tangible suggestions. “Do you need me to drive your son to minyan?” “Do you need someone to learn with your son?” “Do you need anything from the grocery store?” Just keep offering—even if the single mom doesn’t need the help, she needs to know that people in the community care about her.

If I could speak directly to other single parents, I would tell them to care for their mental health so they can be the best parents possible in the face of ongoing stress. See a therapist regularly. A therapist gives you necessary coping mechanisms and strategies to deal with the toxicity and trauma you experience in a divorce. And most people who are divorced have experienced some kind of trauma, whether or not there was actual abuse. Incidentally, in many cases of divorce it is about abuse—more often than you would think. It’s just not discussed in the Jewish community, but it needs to be, just as there needs to be better education in high schools, yeshivos and seminaries so young people, especially young women, know what a healthy marriage looks like.

I did not have an amicable divorce. While I’m happy for those people who had “good” divorces, I don’t think it’s the reality for most people. The biggest challenge I face is co-parenting with my ex (we share 50/50 joint custody).

For instance, my son is applying to high school now. It would be great to co-parent with my ex and decide together what’s best for our son and what his future might look like. But we get bogged down by fighting about other things. It feels like we’re working against each other when we should be working together. And this is an ongoing, constant challenge that’s very difficult to work through since it affects every facet of our children’s lives: camp registration, dentist appointments, you name it.

One of my parents passed away three years ago. It was a huge turning point in my life. Combined with the fact that I have been caring for Covid patients since the start of the pandemic, my perspective really changed. I realized that maintaining a positive outlook is crucial. Life is short and I need to try and be happy. This is not the life I imagined for myself, and I sometimes feel guilty that this is the life my kids are living, going back and forth between two very different households; I didn’t imagine this for them either.

But everyone has something they’re dealing with. I count my blessings and always try to see the positive. Baruch Hashem, I have a job and the ability to provide for my kids. I have a supportive family. Not everyone has these things. I don’t take anything in life for granted.

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“Ruben”

I’ve been divorced for two years now, and there are definitely challenges. One challenge is lighting the Shabbos candles on Friday night; it’s something my ex-wife used to do, and now I do it. Obviously it’s a mitzvah for me too, but it often brings back memories.

Ashkenazi men wear a tallis once they’re married. If you’re at shul in your own community, people likely know you’re divorced (even though you are wearing a tallis). But when you leave your community or travel, for example, people naturally approach you and ask, “Where’s your wife?” You’re kind of caught in this situation of not knowing how to respond. It can be uncomfortable.

I live in the same community as my ex-wife. I realized that a lot of invitations stopped coming once I got divorced. Baruch Hashem, there are still a couple of families with whom I’m really close and they always reach out to me. But I definitely think guys tend to have a harder time getting invites once people choose sides.

When I got married, a number of young couples moved into town and we all lived in the same apartment complex. We would always get together on Shabbos and host one another for meals. The guys would hang out together, and the women would chat.

We had a lot in common. I don’t have that anymore. Perhaps people just don’t want to associate with someone who is divorced.

It’s very easy to point to a divorced individual and say, “I know why he got divorced—because of this middah,” or because he “acted a certain way.” It’s easy to sum everything up and conclude, “Oh, now it makes sense.” But the reality is that regardless of our marital situations, we all have weaknesses and areas that need improvement. The difference between married and non-married people is that as a divorced person you’re more exposed. And this is how the stigma develops. As a community, we need to fight the stigma surrounding divorce and become more accepting and more understanding. Rather than turn away from a person who is going through a difficulty, realize that that is when he or she needs the community’s support most.

As told to Aviva Engel

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As a community, we need to fight the stigma surrounding divorce and become more accepting and more understanding.

Ruben Bernshtein of Edison, New Jersey, is the founder of Ish Chayil, an organization dedicated to helping frum divorced men.

The Page-Turners You Have Come to Expect

by FAYGE GOLDSTEIN & CHAYA S. NEWMAN An engaging collection of relatable stories about Hashem’s kindnesses and breathtaking hashgachah pratis.

by L. PATZ Good (clean) fun for the whole family, this book will hold your attention from cover to cover.

by RABBI YERED M. VIDERS

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Continued from page 36

households. The organization supports the mothers in a variety of ways. During Hurricane Ida in 2021, for example, when basements were flooded and carpets needed to be removed, volunteers went to homes of single moms to assist with the cleanup. A similar group was set up to help them dig out their cars and shovel their properties in the event of a snowstorm.

Rabbi Miller’s organization also assists mothers in navigating their children’s education. “If a woman is the custodial parent, choices about a mesivta [a boys high school] are really difficult to make,” he explains. “We found an incredible eighth grade rebbi, a master mechanech who is familiar with the system and knows all the different styles of mesivtas. He agreed to speak with any divorced or widowed mother of eighth grade boys and to talk to their children, to help them make an informed decision.”

But it’s the support his community provides for divorced mothers for the yamim tovim that Rabbi Miller sees as especially vital. “Kimcha d’Pischa [the custom of giving tzedakah before Pesach to enable the needy to buy holiday provisions] is an important mitzvah,” says Rabbi Miller. “It’s the responsibility of all of us to ensure that everybody has what they need to make Pesach. For the two years of Pesach during Covid, in addition to kimcha d’Pischa where the community ensured that divorced women would have everything they needed, from fish and meat to wine and matzah, we gave gift certificates as well.

We discovered that these women often don’t have money to buy themselves or their kids a new outfit. We relayed the message, ‘This is for you. Please spend it on something for yourself for simchas yom tov.’” The extraordinary feedback the project received inspired the team to offer similar funding ahead of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkos to about twenty women who had been identified by community networks as being most in need.

Two years ago, the shul also launched a new program to provide arba minim. “We thought to ourselves—in which areas of the yamim tovim do women feel discomfort, and how can we make it easier?” recalls Rabbi Miller.

“Buying a lulav and esrog is essentially a man’s domain.

Sales are held in shuls, in kollelim, in the rosh kollel’s basement—it’s a bit uncomfortable for women to access, plus many don’t know what they are looking for in terms of an appropriate price point.” The shul partnered with one of the local lulav and esrog retailers, who sold the sets at “an extraordinarily reduced price,” which they then offered to the single mothers in town free of charge. “We also arranged hours for kids where we showed them how to choose an esrog—here’s what makes it mehudar, here’s what makes it pasul,” says Rabbi Miller. “It was an incredible way to give dignity to these women. Baruch Hashem, this year we distributed about fifty sets.”

The gesture, says Rabbi Miller, was a simple one. It came at a relatively low cost but yielded tremendous “return on investment,” he notes. “A set costs between forty and sixty dollars. To distribute fifty sets costs about $2,500. For that $2,500, there are fifty women who feel, ‘I have daled minim.

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Somebody cares.’ It’s something that in most cases, they likely wouldn’t have gotten. If there’s a bar mitzvah boy in the family, we’ll give a second set. For fifty dollars, let him go to shul and feel like everyone else.”

Rabbi Miller encourages other communities to follow suit, even if they offer assistance in a different capacity.

“It doesn’t have to be as ambitious as our program,” he maintains. “It could simply be offering women’s hours to purchase a lulav and esrog so they feel comfortable going into the store. In every Jewish community, people’s desire to give charity is astonishing. . . . We need to make it easy for divorced women to access existing resources, and we also need to look out throughout the year—but especially around the Jewish holidays—for particular stresses that we could help alleviate.”

This past Sukkos, Rabbi Miller’s organization took its support two steps further by helping women build their sukkahs as well as offering hospitality for meals. On Chanukah, the women were given pre-filled menorahs and $200 gift certificates to enhance the holiday with their children.

The objectives of his team’s assistance are threefold, says Rabbi Miller: “Number one is to provide practical help to make the lives of these women and children easier.

Number two is to offer a sense of chizuk—you’re not alone; people think and care about you. Number three is to build awareness in the community.

“These women are often anonymous and invisible and do not get the attention they need and deserve. Hopefully we are raising the Jewish community’s consciousness so that people, including communal leadership, will be sensitized and will look around and say, ‘We need to take care of this.’ Ideally, neighbors will think—is the divorced woman taken care of for the Seder [or for a regular Shabbos meal]? Each and every community can and should be doing something to help these women. My personal hope is that this awareness can spread throughout the world.”

Fass of Sister to Sister agrees that communal support is imperative. “If everybody just tuned in to what a single mom’s day looks like and what her children’s day looks like, they would want to reach out and make a difference,” she says. “Take a kid to shul, learn with a young boy at Avos Ubanim, invite a family for a seudah, or take a family on a trip. The tagline we love to use at Sister to Sister is: ‘A woman who feels connected to her community will raise children connected to the community.’

“These women are valiant. Many of them are literally fighting for their children’s Yiddishkeit, fighting for their survival. If we could just underscore for them, ‘You’re not alone—we’re in this together,’ it’ll make a big difference in the next generation of Klal Yisrael.”

Resources: • Ish Chayil, Reuben Bernshtein: 732-801-9898 • My Extended Family, a project of Mayan Yisroel of Flatbush, offering services to children of divorce: myef.org.

• Sister to Sister: sistertosisternetwork.org. * To reach the rabbis mentioned in this article, contact the Jewish Action office at ja@ou.org.

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WHAT DID THE

BEIT HAMIKDASH LOOK LIKE? 44

JEWISH ACTION Summer 5782/2022

Dr. Michael Avi-Yonah’s model of Herod’s Temple.

Photo: Copyright Israel Museum, Jerusalem/Holyland Tourism 1992, LTD

Summer 5782/2022 JEWISH ACTION

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JEWISH HISTORY

By Yosef Lindell

E

veryone knows what the Beit Hamikdash looked like. Its picture is everywhere, plastered to flyers announcing Tishah B’Av programming and vividly brought to life in artwork imagining the final return to Zion.

But rarely do we stop to ask how we know what the Beit Hamikdash looked like. The building was destroyed by the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago.

All that’s left today are portions of the Temple Mount’s outer retaining wall, most famously the Kotel. There were no photographs of course. So how can we know how the Mikdash looked, or for that matter, what it will look like when it’s rebuilt?

Nearly every representation of the Mikdash one sees today is based on the scale model of Herod’s Temple and the surrounding city created by historian and architect Dr. Michael Avi-Yonah for the Holyland Hotel in Jerusalem. Businessman Hans Kroch, who commissioned the model a few years before the Six-Day War in 1967—a time when Jews could not visit the Western Wall—is reported to have said, “If Jews cannot get to the holy places, the holy places will come to them.” Avi-Yonah’s model, completed in 1966, rapidly became an iconic representation, and in 2006, with the demolition of the Holyland Hotel, was moved to the Israel Museum, where it sits outside the Shrine of the Book housing the Dead Sea Scrolls and the rescued remains of the Aleppo Codex.

It has become a nearly canonical image of the Mikdash that has influenced all subsequent models and popular drawings. Its features are readily recognizable, for example, in the model of the Beit Hamikdash by Michael Osanis

There have been countless artistic representations of the Beit Hamikdash in the nearly 2,000 years since its destruction. that has graced the roof of Yeshivat Aish HaTorah next to the Kotel since 2009. The most astonishing and detailed contemporary model based on Avi-Yonah’s, however, might be the one a farmer and preacher named Alec Garrard worked on in his barn in Norfolk, England, for thirty years until he died in 2010.

Why did Avi-Yonah’s model come to dominate? Simply put, it came at the right time and was better researched and more faithful to the available sources than any previous model. Let’s explore those sources, as through them we can get an idea what the Mikdash might have looked like.

The first Beit Hamikdash is described in a couple of chapters in Sefer Melachim (1 Kings 6-7). But while the portrayal of Shlomo Hamelech’s construction includes evocative elements such as the yam shel shlomo— the metal basin atop twelve oxen—the description is not detailed enough for one to build a model like Avi-Yonah’s.

And the Tanach contains virtually no description of Bayit Sheini built by Zerubavel and the returning Babylonian exiles. All we know is that it was not as impressive as the first. “Many of the priests and Levites and the chiefs of the clans, the old men who had seen the first house, wept loudly at the sight of the founding of this house,” Sefer Ezra (3:12) tells us. “For so much did that first temple which Solomon built exceed this [second] temple,” laments the Roman

Yosef Lindell is a lawyer, writer, and lecturer living in Silver Spring, Maryland, with a masters in Jewish history from Yeshiva University. He is an editor of the Lehrhaus, and his articles have appeared there as well as in publications such as the Atlantic, the Forward, JTA, and Moment Magazine.

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Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (c.

37-c. 100) (Antiquities 15:11:1).

But in 20 bce, King Herod (otherwise not the most celebrated Jewish leader), began a massive renovation project on the Second Temple that lasted at least until his death in 4 bce.

The results were stunning. Chazal declare, “One who never saw [Herod’s] Temple when it stood, never saw a magnificent structure” (Sukkah 51b).

Sadly, this structure lasted barely a lifetime; it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 ce. Nonetheless, it’s the most extensively documented iteration of the Mikdash, so it’s no surprise that it’s the one that people have chosen to model and depict.

An entire Mishnaic tractate, Masechet Middot, details the ins and outs of Herod’s Temple. Consider this quotation (Middot 2:5): The courtyard of the women was a hundred and thirty-five cubits long by a hundred and thirty-five wide. It had four chambers in its four corners, each of which was forty cubits. They were not roofed . . . Fifteen steps led up from it to the courtyard of Israel, corresponding to the fifteen [songs of] ascents mentioned in the Book of Psalms, and upon which the Levites used to sing. They were not rectangular but circular like the half of a threshing floor.

These details and many more inform Avi-Yonah’s model. Another good example is the Mishnah’s description of the Mikdash’s Ulam, foyer or portico, being wider on each side than the Heichal—the structure housing the menorah, shulchan and other vessels.

The mishnah (Middot 4:7) memorably describes the Ulam as reminiscent

of a crouching lion, narrow behind and broad in front, and that’s how it appears in Avi-Yonah’s version.

Josephus is a critically important source too, having actually served as a kohen in Herod’s Temple before its destruction. He describes the structure in his Jewish War and in his Antiquities of the Jews. If you’re wondering, for example, about the spikes all around the top of the Heichal in Avi-Yonah’s model, they’re straight out of Josephus, who writes, “On its top it had spikes; with sharp points; to prevent any pollution of it by birds sitting upon it” (The Jewish War 5:5:6).

Yet, some important specifics are still missing. How was the roof of the Heichal shaped? From the Mishnah alone, one could plausibly depict the

Mikdash with a sloped or gabled roof— like a typical house or even Greek temple. Some do depict it this way; I found a 1967 commentary to Masechet Middot with such pictures. But Avi-Yonah portrays the Heichal with a flat roof supported by four columns based on an ancient and nearly contemporaneous source. When Bar Kochba revolted against the Romans from 132 to 137 ce, less than seventy years after the Temple’s destruction, he and his supporters minted coins with symbols of their rebellion. One such coin features the façade of a flatroofed four-columned Mikdash on its front, and the words “to the freedom of Jerusalem” on the back. A similar illustration of the Mikdash can be found among the wall murals of the

Dura-Europos synagogue in Syria dated to the third century ce.

There have been countless artistic representations of the Beit Hamikdash in the nearly 2,000 years since its destruction. But they often look more like buildings from the artist’s time than an edifice that might plausibly have been constructed in ancient Jerusalem. In the nineteenth century, German architect Conrad Schick envisioned Herod’s Temple as a European castle, while the Scottish-born James Fergusson’s drawing has an Eastern flair, perhaps inspired by British colonial conquests. (His depiction of the Mishkan looks like a British army tent.)

Thus, another advantage of Avi-Yonah’s model is that he tried to make the Mikdash look like other buildings of

Nineteenth-century illustrated conception by James Fergusson of what the Beit Hamikdash looked like. Artistic representations of the Mikdash often resemble buildings from the artist’s time.

Courtesy of the Internet Archive

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its time period. His model considered the design of other temples of its time, such as the Temple of Bel (or Baal) in Palmyra, Syria. It also looks akin to Me’arat Hamachpelah, the only Herodian structure still fully intact today.

For all of its merits, the Holyland model remains an artist’s reconstruction. We cannot know exactly what the Mikdash looked like, and one could have reasonably made different choices than Avi-Yonah. Both the Mishnah and Josephus, for example, speak of a golden grapevine encircling the pillars that framed the doorway to the Heichal.

The Mishnah says that whoever offered a grapevine to G-d used to hang it there (Middot 3:8). And according to Josephus, the entire front of the Ulam was “covered all over with plates of gold, of great weight: and at the first rising of the sun reflected back a very fiery splendor” (The Jewish War 5:5:6). Avi-Yonah did not include these features, possibly because no other Roman building is described as lavishly. Other architects, however, have disagreed. Contemporary architect and archaeologist Leen Rittmeyer’s model, held by Yeshiva University’s Museum in Manhattan, features both the golden frontispiece and the gold grapevine.

Still, it is Avi-Yonah’s Holyland model that has caught on, not Rittmeyer’s or any other. In addition to creating an excellent representation of the Mikdash, Avi-Yonah was in the right place at the right time. Completed on the verge of the Six-Day War and the retaking of the Temple Mount, the model came to symbolize Jewish pride. The model’s ubiquity means that I’ve often seen it anachronistically used to represent Zerubavel’s Bayit Sheini, and on occasion, I’ve even seen it standing in for the first Beit Hamikdash. These are mistakes, but understandable ones: Avi-Yonah’s tourde-force of a model has become a tangible way to represent the entire concept of having a Beit Hamikdash, not just one particular version.

Interestingly, and as I noted at the outset, many also use Avi-Yonah’s model to portray the yet unbuilt Third Temple of the Messianic age. Some artists have drawn Avi-Yonah’s model descending from the heavens onto the Temple 50

JEWISH ACTION Summer 5782/2022

Coin from the period of the Bar Kochba Revolt (approx. 132 ce) featuring an image of the Beit Hamikdash.

Photo: Eddie Gerald/Alamy Stock Photo

Mount. Indeed, Aish HaTorah’s roof model based on Avi-Yonah’s and just steps from the Kotel seems to beckon as follows: move me a few hundred feet, make me bigger, and we are ready for Mashiach. But this is somewhat curious: why do we assume that the rebuilt Temple will look just like Herod’s?

At first glance, using Herod’s Temple as a stand-in for the Third Beit Hamikdash seems to be just as mistaken as having it represent the First. Any representation of Bayit Shelishi ought to be based instead on the nine chapters at the end of Sefer Yechezkel that describe the Messianic edifice and the surrounding city in what appears to be great detail, complete with measurements.

Surely, what Hashem showed Yechezkel looked quite different than Herod’s Temple. But on closer examination, it is not just modern artists who imagine the Third Temple looking like Herod’s; Chazal already conflate the two.

Throughout Masechet Middot, the Mishnah proves certain things about the appearance of Bayit Sheini by citing verses from Yechezkel. For example, I noted above that according to the Mishnah, there were four roofless courtyards in the Ezrat Nashim, one at each corner. The Mishnah quotes a verse in Yechezkel to support its assertion (Yechezkel 46:21-22). In some respects, at least, Chazal believed that the future Mikdash will be modeled on the prior one.

In truth, Yechezkel’s vision of Bayit Shelishi is quite difficult to understand. God takes Yechezkel on a whirlwind, disorganized tour of the Mikdash, whisking the prophet from one location to another without much explanation. As the Rambam notes, “The Temple which will be built in the future that is mentioned in Ezekiel is not described clearly or completely” (Mishneh Torah, Beit Habechirah 1:4). Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller (1578-1654), in the introduction to his commentary Tosafot Yom Tov to Masechet Middot, suggests that although the tractate ostensibly discusses the Second Temple, not the Third, its teachings are more than just a historical curiosity. Rather, the tractate merits inclusion in the Mishnah because we need its guidance for the future. “By recounting the Second Temple,” he writes, “we will be able to interpret and understand the structure of the building in Yechezkel. If this accounting were not written down, we would never be able to find our way regarding the future Beit Hamikdash.” In the view of the Tosafot Yom Tov, Herod’s construction is the key to unlocking the contours of the final Beit Hamikdash. Perhaps, then, it is not so farfetched to assume as the artists often do: when the Beit Hamikdash is rebuilt, it may look familiar.

May it come to pass speedily in our days.

For further reading: • Simon Goldhill, The Temple of Jerusalem (Cambridge, Mass, 2005), 124-42.

• Maya Balakirsky Katz, “Avi-Yonah’s Model of Second Temple Jerusalem and the Development of Israeli Visual Culture,” in The Temple of Jerusalem: From Moses to the Messiah, Steven Fine, ed. (Leiden, 2011), 349-64.

• Peter J. Schertz and Steven Fine, “A Temple’s Golden Anniversary,” Biblical Archaeology Review, 42:1 (Jan./Feb. 2016), 50-61.

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Rachel Schwartzberg is a writer and editor who lives with her family in Memphis, Tennessee.

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Courtesy of Yeshiva University

A

EDUCATION

The Great Teacher Shortage

By Rachel Schwartzberg

lthough it’s been three years since she worked as a teacher, Zissy Friedman is often stopped enthusiastically by former students when she’s out and about in Lakewood, New Jersey. As an elementary school general studies teacher for twelve years, Friedman loved teaching children and bringing out the best in them. She felt trusted and supported by the schools she worked in and appreciated the professionalism of her fellow teachers. “It’s sad that I left teaching,” she says, “but it didn’t work for me as a frum mother.” Because general studies teachers work in the afternoons, Friedman found it was a constant struggle to figure out child care for her children; if one of her children was sick, it felt like a calamity. “By definition, teaching comes with very specific hours in the classroom and no flexibility. Unfortunately, [being a general studies teacher] is just not a family-friendly profession,” she says. Teaching also required her to invest significant amounts of time outside school hours. “A lot of time goes into a well-run classroom. As my kids got older, I didn’t have that time.”

Friedman tried to stick it out, but “the scheduling and the finances weren’t working anymore.” She now devotes her time to her freelance writing business—which she had initially begun in order to supplement her teaching salary. “My school lost five great teachers the year I left,” she recalls. At least three quit because their second job ultimately “made more sense. None of us was happy to leave teaching, but we felt the choice had become obvious.”

Friedman’s decision is indicative of an alarming trend in recent years. The Wall Street Journal reported that the rate of people quitting jobs in private educational services rose more than in any other industry in 2021, according to federal data. On the professional networking site LinkedIn, the number of teachers who began a new Summer 5782/2022 JEWISH ACTION

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career increased by 62 percent last year.

Within the Orthodox Jewish community, the challenge of teachers leaving the profession is compounded by a notable lack of people entering the field.

This reality is affecting all types of Orthodox Jewish schools across North America, and the shortage of teachers is reaching crisis proportions.

Teachers to Remember In the pages ahead, contributors recall teachers who left a lasting impact on their lives.

Winning the Battle

By Lillie Mermelstein Epner Never Enough While the overall lack of teachAs a child of twenty months, I was stricken with polio; the vaccine ers has become a serious challenge arrived in New York City six weeks after I had contracted the virus. more recently, the problem of finding Doctors said I would never walk. Despite that pronouncement, I was limudei kodesh teachers in Modern ultimately able to begin walking with braces and crutches. In an era Orthodox and community day schools when there were no accommodations for the physically disabled in is not new, according to Rabbi Zvi many institutions, including Jewish day schools, that should have meant the end of any notion of my attending a Jewish school.

Grumet, who holds an EdD from By the time I was getting ready for first grade, I no longer required Yeshiva University’s Azrieli Graducrutches, but I still needed heavy metal braces. I could walk steps, ate School of Jewish Education and albeit slowly. My parents started the battle to get me admitted into Administration and is director of a Jewish school. The English principal and the first-grade English education at The Lookstein Center teacher were adamantly opposed to my attending the school, while at Bar-Ilan University. However, he the Hebrew principal and first-grade Hebrew teacher believed that explains that “in the past two years the for an observant Jewish child a Jewish school was the only option. problem has become more acute” as After months of fighting, Mrs. Ruth Kalish, a”h, who was to be my two trends have intersected: a shrinkfirst-grade teacher, won the battle when she proclaimed that in the ing pipeline of new teachers and an event of a fire she would carry me down the stairs. Thus began my exodus of seasoned teachers as a result yeshivah education, ultimately leading me to two master’s degrees of the pandemic. and a career in education as a speech-language pathologist.

“Every time a teacher retires the And it’s all because of a teacher named Mrs. Ruth Kalish. entire leadership team cringes,” says Adriane Mittan, executive director of the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach Lillie Mermelstein Epner lives in Brooklyn, New York. on Long Island. “It doesn’t even matter what the particular position is.” The shortage seems to affect teachers on all into administrative roles in schools. ating at full capacity. “We were never levels, “from assistant teacher to direcThis trajectory, she adds, is largely a producing enough teachers,” she says. tors of departments,” she says. function of higher salaries in leader“We could accommodate three times the At Azrieli, Dean Dr. Rona Novick ship positions. number of graduate students we have sees a “deluge of requests for educaThe issue of low salaries is a now. They would be welcome, and they tors.” Schools seem to be desperate commonly acknowledged reality that would find jobs.” for good candidates. “Outside of the deters young people from going into Dr. Novick notes that each year, a New York area, the desperation is even education.

While the challenge isn’t percentage of Azrieli graduates make greater,” she says. new, higher costs of living in frum aliyah.

“These teachers are lost to With about forty graduates—both areas—and often, higher standards North American education,” she says. men and women—in a typical year, of living—make a career in Jewish Rabbi Grumet adds that this phenomAzrieli is the largest graduate-level enon has caused significant attrition in education seem unrealistic to many program preparing Judaic studies educators to teach in Jewish day schools. the field over the past thirty years. “The young people. Historically, there was an assumption in the Jewish commuAzrieli offers a master’s degree in Jewish same passion and idealism that motivated them to become teachers inspires nity that rebbeim and morot saw education with in-person programs on education as a “calling” and were them to move to Israel,” he explains, its Manhattan campus, or fully online admitting that he himself followed that therefore prepared to make do with for those who are working full time less. “Mesirut nefesh for chinuch is not path when he made aliyah in 2001. or are outside of New York. While Dr. there anymore,” says Rabbi MordeAnother consistent phenomenon, Novick has not seen a decrease in applichai Shifman, head of school at Emek says Dr. Novick, is that many good cants or graduates over her six years as Hebrew Academy in Los Angeles. teachers leave the classroom to move dean, the program certainly isn’t oper54

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“Honestly, I don’t know that people in chinuch are struggling more now than they did twenty years ago. But young people are more focused on achieving financial independence—and that is guiding their decisions.”

While teaching may never become a high-income profession, the subject of raising teachers’ pay has begun to move to the forefront of communal discussions—it was a primary focus of Torah Umesorah’s convention in the fall of 2021—causing new pressures for schools. “They are balancing the thorny issue of high tuition with the desire to pay respectable salaries to teachers,” says Dr. Novick. “It’s a very real challenge.” She believes, however, that the matter has implications that go far beyond dollars and cents.

“Compensation is the primary way of showing what we value, and teachers have the most important jobs in the world. As a community, we must find creative solutions.”

While teachers’ wages have remained low, their job has only become more challenging. “Teaching is unquestionably harder now than when I started in the field thirty-six years ago,” says Deena Rabinovich, a chair of the Judaic Studies Department at Stern College and a professor at Stern College and Azrieli. “Differentiated learning means preparing more lessons for every class. It’s normal to have children in mainstream classrooms with all types of challenges, and the teacher has to juggle it all. On top of that, many schools require teachers to post homework online. All of that is extra work that falls to the teacher to manage.”

“Classrooms today are more demanding,” says an expert in Jewish education who prefers to remain anonymous. “More students have significant social-emotional needs, and these issues are taking center stage in the classroom. The emotional labor of teaching cannot be measured. Word has gotten out: This is hard work.”

Restoring a Sense of Mission One pivotal, if overlooked, factor in the discussion is the lack of idealism.

“To be a Jewish educator and to be successful, it must be a calling for the

Community leaders are hopeful the teacher shortage problem can be solved in some way— whether through raising salaries, attracting more young people to the field or preventing burnout through professional training and giving teachers the respect they deserve.

Courtesy of Yeshiva University

IN

light of the shortage of teachers in Orthodox schools, one initiative underway to recruit more young people into the field of education is MafTeach. Sponsored by Yeshiva University, the one-year fellowship program for undergraduates who are not necessarily in education programs apprenticed young people and gave them a taste of teaching, according to Professor Deena Rabinovich, who oversaw the program. Each student was adopted by a school outside of New York and traveled to teach and spend time in the community. “Many of the participants gained a real appreciation of what it means to teach,” says Rabinovich. The fellowship was paused due to the pandemic, but plans are underway to resume this coming fall.

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My Rebbi

By Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, as told to Leah Lightman Rabbi Shmuel Dovid Warshavchik, a”h, was my rebbi when I was a post-high school bachur in the Rabbi Jacob Joseph Yeshiva (RJJ) on New York’s Lower East Side. The product of pre-World War II Lithuanian yeshivos, he had learned in Baranovich under Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman and in Kaminetz under Rabbi Boruch Ber Leibowitz. After securing a visa from the famous Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, he spent the war years in Shanghai, his days filled with Jewish learning and teaching. Arriving in New York after the war, he met with Rabbi Dr. Hillel Weiss, who recruited him to join the RJJ faculty.

Rabbi Warshavchik introduced me and my classmates to the “power of hasbarah.” His shiur wasn’t simply about explaining the Gemara. He possessed a clarity in learning, the ability to give over knowledge with lucidity and precision—which he instilled in us. He was adamant that if you cannot explain a gemara to others, then you don’t understand it. When you understand it and give it over, you can take pride in what you’ve done.

Hasbarah came to life on Friday mornings when Rabbi Warshavchik’s shiur would become a chaburah-inrotation. We each had to prepare the gemara in advance in order to present the material to our classmates. Rabbi Warshavchik critiqued us, and he did not hold back an iota of criticism, but it was all done with warmth and love. These Friday mornings fashioned my foundation for developing and conveying clarity in all areas of life.

My rebbi’s influence extended beyond the shiur. He emphasized the importance of how we presented and comported ourselves; he spoke about the need to conduct ourselves with class and refinement. He insisted that we refer to one another by our formal names—I had always been “Heshy,” but in his shiur I was “Tzvi Hersh.” And he maintained that we must speak with proper diction, grammar and syntax.

Rabbi Warshavchik taught us about shtaht, which connotes prestige or class in the Lithuanian Yeshivish milieu from which he came. It comes from within the person and is about self-respect and dignity. He exemplified shtaht himself.

I heeded Rabbi Warshavchik’s advice to attend college (part time) to prepare for a career, and I turned to him for guidance in shidduchim and subsequently in other areas of life. I maintained a lifelong connection with my rebbi until his passing in 1988.

Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb is executive vice president, emeritus of the OU. Leah Lightman is a longtime contributor to Jewish Action.

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individual,” says Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, executive vice president, emeritus of the OU and a trained psychologist. “One must have a mission. It must be his or her life passion. You can’t be motivated by money to be in this field. Unfortunately, many in today’s generation are focused on materialism and acquiring wealth. I’m not sure what can be done to redirect young people to think about pursuing careers in Jewish education. No matter how much we try to fill the financial gap, there will always be a gap. The sense of mission is key.”

Rabbi Weinreb further explains that educators will often consider teaching on the high school or beit midrash level but not the younger grades. “The mitzvah of talmud Torah,” he says, “doesn’t necessarily mean teaching at the highest level. From a pure Torah standpoint, there is nothing more valuable than teaching tinokos shel beis rabban. I see young Chassidic men and women who teach first, second or third graders and they are supercharged with enthusiasm. These educators recognize the value of what they are doing. Their community gives them this sense of mission and purpose,” he says. “We have to do a better job of imbuing our young people with that same sense of mission and purpose.”

Growing the Pipeline Dr. Novick is continuously involved in efforts to recruit passionate college students to become teachers. “We are always working to get the word out, encouraging undergraduates to consider a career in Jewish education,” she says.

Yeshiva University has numerous efforts and innovative programs to attract and inspire young people to become teachers. For example, the Legacy Heritage Jewish Educators Project, which Rabinovich directs, allows Stern students to fast-track their professional training to become Jewish studies teachers. “The goal of this program is to make professional training as streamlined and cost effective as possible,” says Rabinovich. Thanks to philanthropic support, the program also offers significant scholarships— in exchange for a commitment to teach at a Jewish school in North America for two years after graduation.

Despite efforts like these to grow the pipeline of qualified Jewish educators, in some parts of the country it feels like too little, too late. “In LA, it’s been a difficult problem in the past but nothing like what we’re seeing now,” says Rabbi Shifman. “I know there were schools functioning halfway through the school year with some positions unfilled. We were able to fill all of our positions this year, but it’s a real concern for next year as the school, baruch Hashem, continues to grow.”

Jewish schools, he notes, face a challenge attracting general studies teachers, who compare the salary and benefits to what the public school system offers. With limudei kodesh teachers, he says, there is an entirely different issue.

“The challenge is paying our morot what they deserve,” he says, noting that his school has raised salaries quite significantly over the past ten years. “There used to be an assumption that a morah was earning a supplementary income for her family. That is no longer the case. Salaries need to be equitable, and we are working on fixing that.”

Courtesy of Bnos Yisroel

No Better Place to Be

By Rachel Schwartzberg

Compensation is the primary way of showing what we value, and teachers have the most important jobs in the world.

As a community, we must find creative solutions.

“We truly believe there’s no better job for a Jewish woman than being a teacher,” says Ahuvah Heyman, school director at Bnos Yisroel in Baltimore, a girls school with over 500 students in preschool through twelfth grade. This approach is more than just a matter of staffing classrooms; it’s a worldview. And Heyman is passionate about it. “Working in a school allows a parent to structure her life around her family. A teacher works in a wholesome environment and has a job that identifies with the centrality of children in our lives.”

As far as the issue of teachers’ historically low pay, thanks to generous donors, Heyman’s school will be raising teachers’ salaries [see page 61]. “Once we raise our teachers’ salaries over the next few years, they’ll be earning the hourly equivalent of a full-time job that pays $100,000 for year-round employment,” she explains. “However, most of our teachers work part time, which is their preference, and for fewer than ten months of the year.”

The additional family-friendly perks of teaching in a Jewish school are often overlooked, she believes.

“Teachers have thirty-seven paid vacation days [such as when school is closed for yamim tovim], and they get personal days on top of that. We have on-site day care at our school and tuition remission as well. These benefits highlight how wonderful it is to work in a school environment—and we should be talking about them more.”

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No Gap Is Too Far

By Toby Klein Greenwald

Rebbetzin Chassia Sorotzkin was a bit of an anomaly in the Yavne High School for Girls landscape. She and her husband Rav Eliezer, zt”l, had been in Israel on a Sabbatical some years earlier, at which time she studied under the legendary Tanach teacher Professor Nechama Leibowitz. I knew she revered her. It was only later, when I had the zechut to study under Nechama while spending the year at Machon Gold in Israel, that I fully comprehended how unusual it was for a teacher from Yavne to have been her devout student.

Rebbetzin Chassia was clever and lively and had a great sense of humor and irony. And nobody could dance at a wedding like she did.

I was a fervent member of Bnei Akiva in my high school years, and intense ideological arguments occasionally broke out in our class between those of us in Bnei Akiva and our friends who were in Bnos, the Agudah girls’ youth group. All of our Jewish studies teachers apparently identified with Agudah. (At the time, Yavne was the only Jewish girls high school in Cleveland, and in retrospect I am grateful that we all studied together.) In the middle of tenth grade, I had a bit of an identity crisis and considered switching my allegiance from Bnei Akiva to Bnos.

I asked Rebbetzin Chassia during a break if I could consult with her. We went into an empty classroom, and when the consultation took longer than the break and students came to call her, she told them she was busy and gave them classwork to do so she could continue talking to me. The bottom line was that she strongly advised me to stay in Bnei Akiva. I was low-hanging fruit for Bnos, but she believed Bnei Akiva was right for me, and, in general, she spoke highly of the movement.

She and Rav Eliezer made aliyah to Israel several years after I did, and we stayed in touch. She also stayed in touch with Nechama Leibowitz. When Nechama was sitting shivah for her husband, Rebbetzin Chassia asked me to join her in the shivah call. We missed it by one day, and when we visited, Nechama was sitting alone on her back porch in her rocking chair. She thanked us profusely for coming, because all week her house had been full of hundreds of people, she said, and now she was alone. It was a life lesson for me—that mourners also need support, perhaps even more so, in the days following the shivah.

I watched the conversation between these two learned women. On the face of it, they came from two very different hashkafic backgrounds, but the basis of their friendship was limud Torah. Each one was a talmidah chachamah. They knew how to communicate with each other, and I observed the mutual respect and affection they had for one another. For me, that was another great lesson in life.

Time went on, and I became involved in Gesher, an organization that aims to bridge the gaps in Israeli society between people with diverse religious views. And in my theater troupes, I always make a point to include actors who span the religious and hashkafic gamut.

Rebbetzin Chassia Sorotzkin—and Professor Nechama Leibowitz— taught me that when one’s heart is in Torah, no gap is too far to be bridged.

Toby Klein Greenwald is an educator, an award-winning theater director and the recipient of numerous AJPA awards for “Excellence in Jewish Journalism.” She has authored or co-authored seven Biblical musicals.

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Rabbi Shifman describes a scenario he sees frequently. Young women come back from seminary and take a teaching job at an entry-level salary. “In most cases, the morah is living at her parents’ home, often taking college classes at night,” he says. “She is gaining professional experience while living comfortably.” By contrast, most new rebbeim only begin looking for teaching positions after spending some number of years learning in kollel; at that point, they have a family to support. “Because there are no posthigh school yeshivot in Los Angeles, our candidates are not local,” explains Rabbi Shifman. “Taking a job here means moving one’s family to the West Coast. Despite having little to no training or experience, they’re simply not going to do that if they don’t have a job lined up with a living wage. So in general, rebbeim get a better deal.”

As part of creating the most attractive salary package possible for new teachers, Rabbi Shifman says he aims to hire mechanchim who will send their children to Emek. “Not only is this, in my opinion, a hashkafically sound approach but it allows us to offer a tuition break, which is a big benefit.” Most Jewish day schools offer their staff significant discounts if they send their children to the school, ranging from a 20 to 90 percent reduction in tuition—depending on how many hours the teacher works and other factors. For some schools, the arrangement works really well. At Barkai Yeshivah in Brooklyn, for example, Executive Director David Chalom says parents comprise about half of his staff. “We give our staff members a staff discount; it’s working for their lifestyle and it’s working for the school economically.”

Rabbi Shifman is also keenly aware of the need to address the issue of housing costs when trying to recruit teachers.

“Sky-high housing prices is the biggest problem facing the community in LA,” he notes. “We are fortunate to have ba’alei batim who are willing to help with acquiring properties.” The caveat, he adds, is that the model of offering an attractive compensation package “really works best if we can find a couple who are both high-quality educators.”

At the end of the day, Rabbi Shifman believes that for Jewish education to be available to our children, communities are going to have to come up with solutions together. “Schools cannot afford to buy houses to attract teachers,” he says. “In every frum community, attracting and retaining teachers cannot be viewed as the issue of the school alone to solve. Everyone stands to benefit when mechanchim live within the community because the spiritual level of the community is raised. There needs to be more of a grassroots push to make it work.”

Raising Funds to Raise Pay While Modern Orthodox and out-oftown schools struggle to find Jewish studies teachers, the challenge facing Chareidi schools in the tri-state area is quite different. “In these schools, it’s not a limudei kodesh issue at all,” says an expert in Jewish education. “We are seeing a much greater challenge in general studies.” As a rule, she explains, schools have kodesh classes in the mornings, and those hours tend to be better for working mothers.

“We’ve definitely seen some creative ideas to solve the problem,” she adds.

For example, some schools have begun offering on-site child care for staff.

One school is offering the option of an afternoon preschool so children can attend school while their mothers teach general studies.

Even in out-of-town schools—which have historically been more comfortable hiring non-Jewish teachers for general studies—finding teachers has gotten harder. “On a recent visit to Cleveland,” says the expert, “a principal told me that when he used to post a job, he would get ten to fifteen candidates. Now he’s getting one or two responses at most.”

In 2021, Torah Umesorah kicked off a highly publicized campaign to raise awareness regarding the teacher shortage and the importance of this issue for our children’s future. The campaign highlighted the importance of having qualified teachers. And the organization threw out the challenge: “What are we as a community doing about it?”

The response was overwhelming, with donors contributing more than $25 60

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Morah Lipstick

By R. Rosenfeld

Years ago, when clearing out my parents’ home after their passing, I came across my old report cards. I had graduated with good grades, so I was surprised by what I found. My marks in my early years were worse than I remembered, and then suddenly one year all my grades improved.

When I noted the year, it turned out to be the year I had my special Morah.

Her name was either Morah Lifshitz or Lipschitz; I can no longer recall which. I was young and actually believed for a while that her name was Morah “Lipstick,” until someone disappointed me with the truth. But that is how I remember her, as my Morah Lipstick.

The previous year, I had a teacher who never called on me to be the chazzanit. But Morah Lipstick did. Morah Lipstick called on everybody.

She didn’t have a teacher’s pet; she was fair to everyone. She looked at me, she smiled at me, she called on me and she praised my answers.

She made me feel smart. But she did that for all of us, and we knew it.

When we decorated our Pesach notebooks, she offered to customize our pages for us. We could ask her for any decoration on any page; she added exquisite hand lettering and flowers as per our wishes. I remember finally feeling special in school and wanting to make her proud of me. It’s no surprise that my grades shot up.

She was the Jewish version of Farrah Fawcett, who was popular at the time. She had the same kind blue eyes, layered flips in her blonde hair and wide white smile. She was, however, more modest. She wore blouses with long puffy sleeves and the floppy long bow at the neck that was in vogue at the time. We wore white blouses for our uniform, and my mother bought me a blouse with two long strips at the neck that I could tie into a bow like Morah Lipstick. I was ecstatic. I wanted to look like her and be like her.

Every Friday, for our last class of the day, she would shut the lights and read a chapter of Marcus Lehmann’s The Family Aguilar. It was about the Spanish Inquisition and the Marranos. It was the first time I had heard about the Inquisition, and I remember being gripped by the story, watching Morah Lipstick intently as she read the words with her soft cadence. Her eyes and lipstick shone in the darkened room as she made the story come alive for us, taking what could have been a boring history lesson and setting the stage for us to envision the events and empathize with the characters.

Decades later, when I held that report card in my hand, I realized that although I hadn’t kept most of my notebooks, I still had the Pesach notebook that Morah Lipstick had decorated. Why had I kept that one?

That notebook with her custom drawings is my only memento of the teacher who made me feel I mattered. She validated me. She was beautiful, and she made her students feel beautiful too. It was those little things, like a smile or word of acknowledgment, that had a long-lasting impact. In the years that followed, I had some good teachers and some who were not so good, but I never got a bad grade again—because of Morah Lipstick.

R. Rosenfeld lives in Brooklyn.

The Legacy Heritage Jewish Educators Project allows Stern students to fast-track their professional training to become Jewish studies teachers. Courtesy of

Yeshiva University

A Natural Teacher

While I enjoyed—yes, enjoyed—Mrs. Marcy Stern’s limudei kodesh classes

By Carol Fried at Bais Yaakov of Queens High School during the ‘70s, as a teacher myself I now understand exactly why.

Mrs. Stern was a natural. Her ”classroom management” style was her sheer love of learning, and her broad knowledge no matter the subject was astounding. She did not lecture us but took us along on her journey of learning, regardless of how many times she herself had been through the material. In every subject, from Tanach to Jewish history to Ivris, her enthusiasm made the material real and relevant. In the era before student tracking, I don’t remember there being any behavior challenges in Mrs. Stern’s classes. Every student was engaged in her classes to some degree—you just couldn’t help yourself!

Carol Fried lives in Miami, Florida.

million in just a few months to create a “superfund” for morot—across all subjects. A major focus of the fund is to increase teachers’ pay across the board.

The goal of this initiative is to address the pervasive disparity between the salaries of morot and rebbeim.

Bnos Yisroel of Baltimore, a pre-Kthrough-twelfth-grade girls school, is one example of a school whose leadership had been looking for ways to increase their teachers’ wages. Thanks to a local initiative—inspired by Torah Umesorah’s national campaign—they now have a plan in place to make it happen. “The generous funding will match a portion of what we pay to raise our teachers’ salaries,” explains School Director Ahuvah Heyman. “At the end of four years, all of our full-time teachers will be making significantly more per year.” This program is part of a greater effort at Bnos Yisroel to convey to its approximately eighty teachers, “We value you, we need you and we want you here,” she says. Additionally, this year the school has begun offering a 403(b) retirement plan for the first time and has increased tuition remission for teachers who work more hours.

Heyman is upfront about the significant extra costs associated with increasing salaries and benefits for staff. “After the four-year commitment ends [from our funders], this will come with an annual $1 million price tag, which the school will have to fundraise,” she says. “People have asked us how we can manage that. Our answer is, ‘How can we not?’

“It’s definitely not simple,” Heyman admits. “It’s a big expense for schools.

But we need to pay a respectable salary that shows how much we value our teachers. The future of Klal Yisrael starts right here.”

In It for the Long Run While salary increases may go a long way toward encouraging teachers to stay in the field, most experts say that creating a culture of professional growth in schools is key to keeping teachers from feeling burnt out and ultimately leaving. “You’re only a teacher if someone is learning, and that requires expertise,” says Rabinovich. “When we put teachers in a classroom before adequately trainContinued on page 65 Summer 5782/2022 JEWISH ACTION

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“You Can Do It”

By Toby Klein Greenwald

In the mid ‘60s, when the world seemed to be going a little mad and lots of teenagers were spinning out of control, four friends and I made the decision to move from Yeshivath Adath B’nai Israel, at that time the best afternoon Talmud Torah in Cleveland, to Yavne High School for Girls, which had been founded

by Telshe Yeshiva (and had become part of the Hebrew Academy). Our principal was Rebbetzin Rochel Sorotzkin, a”h, daughter of Rabbi Avrohom Yitzchok Bloch, the Telzer Rav and rosh yeshivah, and the wife of Rav Boruch Sorotzkin, zt”l, later co-rosh yeshivah of Telshe, who had survived the Shoah by escaping through Shanghai.

All the Jewish studies were in Hebrew, but the Hebrew of those of us who had switched schools was not on a par with the other students. We struggled daily with the demanding academic program, receiving special help from the Yavne seminary students and from our fellow classmates, who welcomed us with love and joy.

In spite of the heavy pressure to bridge our gap in knowledge and language, Rebbetzin Sorotzkin (“Morah Rochel”) had the wisdom to encourage us to continue to develop our other talents. When I was only in tenth grade, she gave me the task of directing a school play—“Of Wrought Gold Was Her Garment”—that would be produced and performed by the entire student body before women in the community. It was about Chana, Deborah and Rachel, the wife of Rabbi Akiva—and I also

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wrote that third segment. (I still have the crumbling photo that appeared in the Cleveland Jewish News with a caption stating that the other two parts were written

by Rassia Sorotzkin, a”h, Morah Rochel’s daughter, and by Abigail and Jacqueline Engelberg.)

I had to direct students who were one or two years older than I. I can’t imagine what possessed Morah Rochel to give that role to a tenthgrader, a newcomer to the school. I can’t imagine where her faith in me, and others, came from. How did she know we would rise to the challenge?

In spite of the heavy pressure to bridge our gap in knowledge and language, “Morah Rochel” had the wisdom to encourage us to continue to develop our other talents.

We worked on the production for months. It was a defining event in my life, as an educator, a mother and—today—as a theater director and playwright in Israel whose proudest theater achievement is that of the women’s Biblical shows in the Raise Your Spirits Theatre in Gush Etzion.

In addition to her teaching expertise, “Morah” was an example of how to keep a sense of humor

while running a tight ship, and how a Torah-observant woman could dress modestly but always be meticulous in her appearance.

There are educators who are great orators, who see themselves as the stars on center stage. And there are educators whose raison d’etre is to propel their students forward, to tell them, “You can do it.” From 2006 to 2008, I worked on a theatrical study project culminating in a production with a group in Ulpana Neve Dekalim—the girls high school that was originally in Gush Katif. Most of the actresses were in tenth grade. When the principal asked me if they could handle the project in the aftermath of the traumatic uprooting and destruction of their homes in 2005, I said confidently, “Sure they can.”

The day Morah Rochel was being brought to her final rest in 2006, my Raise Your Spirits troupe was recording a CD of our show “Ruth & Naomi in the Fields of Bethlehem.” I allowed myself some quiet moments of reflection and a few tears as I sat on the chair in the recording studio hearing our cast sing my lyrics to the concluding verse of “The Processional,” after Ruth and Naomi have emerged with the child born to Ruth and Boaz, from whom King David would descend.

The future is now The nation will know We’ve achieved a new dimension— Hear them sing Your praise A covenant For eternity In a circle of redemption Till the end of days.

I think Morah would have been proud.

A Morah’s Kindness

One of the greatest teachers I ever had was at a well-known elementary school in the New York area. Her name was Susan Lampert (Lieberman).

She basically saved me from a very difficult class where I was teased and tormented for being different. I didn’t come from the same socioeconomic background as the extremely privileged children from the local area. My clothing was different, and I didn’t get to fly to Puerto Rico or the Bahamas during every school break. Morah Lieberman was a kind person; she saw everything that went on and never turned a blind eye. She also encouraged my love for learning because she taught everything with passion; her love for Torah, mitzvot and the Hebrew language was apparent. She was my teacher for three consecutive years, and to this day, I will never forget her kindness and support during the three toughest years of my childhood.

—Anonymous

A Forty-Year Career

Mr. Irving (Yitzchok) Eisner was the Hebrew principal of AssociBy Janine Muller Sherr ated Hebrew Schools of Toronto, which was, when I was growing up in the 1980s, one of the largest Jewish day schools in North America. But for me and my classmates, he was Mr. Eisner, our fifth-grade Hebrew teacher.

He was a dynamic teacher, deeply passionate about communicating his love of Judaism, Chumash, Navi, Ivrit and the State of Israel to his students. I remember being mesmerized by him as he paced in front of our class, expounding on an idea or relating an inspiring story.

Drama and music were important in Mr. Eisner’s class. We recited Tefillat Chanah from Sefer Shmuel by heart. We also acted in two plays he had written about Sefer Shmuel and Purim. He taught us popular Israeli songs and we kept a special notebook for recording wise sayings of the Sages. Amazingly, I can still recall some of them.

Mr. Eisner had high expectations, and he enjoyed challenging us.

He was a strong proponent of teaching “Ivrit b’Ivrit”; we spoke mostly Hebrew in his class, and all of our classwork, tests and compositions were written in Hebrew too.

He was a Holocaust survivor from Czechoslovakia whose family was killed in Auschwitz. “Never Again” wasn’t a mere slogan for him; Holocaust remembrance was the focal point of his life. Soon after I left his class, Mr. Eisner published his Holocaust memoirs, Dachau Prisoner 89012.

In the book’s introduction, he describes the “deal” he made with G-d in the camps that if he survived the horror, he would dedicate his life to teaching children for “without the children there is no future for Your Chosen People.” True to his word, Mr. Eisner went on to teach hundreds of children over the course of his illustrious forty-year career in Jewish education.

Janine Muller Sherr is a freelance writer and former English and Judaic studies teacher. She lives in New York City with her family.

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He Never Doubted

ized he was on the short side. I never thought to ask where he had come from, although he was obviously from Lithuanian rather than

By Yaffa Ganz Chassidic stock. He played no part in my normal, after-school everyMost people can remember one day life, yet he filled my world with special teacher who cared, who knowledge and love of Torah. really taught, the one who made a Today, many years later, I still find difference. I remember one too. it difficult to believe how much we It was in a different era when day learned at our old, scratched-up schools weren’t what they are now. desks, squinting at a glary blackOnly children of highly dedicated board (the school couldn’t afford the Jewish parents (on the one hand), newer, green boards) and listening or highly problematic children who to a heavily accented, highly unconweren’t welcome in public schools ventional English. But learn we (on the other), graced the portals did—Chumash, Navi, halachah, Ivris of the fledgling day schools in the and Yiddish (grammar, spelling and United States. Teachers were often “kesivah yafah“ because it was importYiddish-speaking refugees from ant to write legibly), tefillah, history Europe; boilers broke down with and all sorts of vital things that increasing frequency in the middle refuse to be classified. of the winter; salaries went unpaid.

Rashi was a force to be reckoned These pioneer day schools were with; we could never begin a Rashi a no-frill affair: no swimming, no until we had first figured out “what gym, no laboratories or libraries, Rashi was asking.” Davening was no home economics or school trips. serious business; no mumbling Nothing except classroom learnallowed. I left Rabbi Bloch’s class ing, seven and a half hours per day knowing most of Shacharis by heart. plus a half-hour break for lunch. In I could even write it all out, no mean this no-nonsense atmosphere, the feat for a ten-year-old American quality of your learning experience was absolutely and solely dependent girl! And even today, his two “davening signs” are clearly engraved on upon one factor: your teacher. my mind: “Shivisi Hashem l’negdi For two years of my young life, samid” (“I have set G-d before me at I was blessed with a wonderful all times”) and “Da lifnei Mi atah omed” teacher. Every morning, a stout, (“Know before Whom you stand”). smiling man with a wispy white He sang, too, in the days before beard energetically pumped me Mordechai Ben David and Avraham and the rest of my restless classFried and Shlomo Carlebach. I can mates with the glory of G-d’s Torah, see him now, holding his high black the knowledge of His heritage, the silk yarmulke with one hand, singuniqueness of His people. His name ing and pointing to the words on the was Rabbi Eliyahu Bloch, and he blackboard with his wooden pointer. showered us, the new generation When I came home chanting the of “Amerikaners,” with love and trop (cantillation) one day, my father devotion. He prepared our lessons questioned the wisdom of teachas carefully as though we were ing “boys’ knowledge to girls” (since students in a Yoreh Deah shiur and our small class consisted of both, spiced them all with common sense the girls learned whatever the boys and lots of pedagogical creativity. It learned!), but Rabbi Bloch knew that made no difference that we were no knowledge is ever wasted. That only fifth-graders; he taught us with knowledge has given me great pleaa fiery passion. sure through years of listening to He couldn’t have been old, Kerias HaTorah. although to my young eyes he And, I must add, in those pre-femalways seemed elderly. I thought he inist days, Rabbi Bloch never for a was tall, but in later years I real64

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moment transmitted the feeling that girls’ learning was inferior [to boys’ learning]. There was never a question that Jewish girls were absolutely, unquestionably vital to the welfare of the nation and that they must be Jewishly educated.

I remember his burning, unending, overwhelming love for Eretz Yisrael.

He himself had never actually seen the Land—not with his eyes, but no matter. He had seen it through the eyes of the Torah, and like the Torah, he made it glow, live, beckon.

I remember the day he told us that Jews were fighting for their lives in Israel’s War of Independence in l948 and things were not going well. He explained how the Jews of Shushan were saved by the prayers of the children. Now, he said, the rabbanim had declared a day of prayer and it was our turn and our duty to stand up and pray with all our heart and all our might for our brothers in Eretz Yisrael. Surely Hashem would listen to us—young children born of a long and bitter exile—and would bring victory to the Jews.

I have said Avinu Malkeinu many times since that fifth-grade class, but I doubt if any Avinu Malkeinu has matched the fervor and kavanah of that teary prayer. I like to think that in G-d’s great scheme of things, the davening in our class helped.

Rabbi Bloch would be proud and happy—and amazed beyond words—to see his former students today. They include an impressive number of wonderful people, both in America and in Israel. Many of us are still good friends.

On second thought, perhaps he wouldn’t be amazed at all. There was never any doubt in his mind that the tree of Torah would take root—even in America. And that his students would be the branches, and the flowers, and the leaves.

Yaffa Ganz is a popular author living in Israel. This essay is based on an article that originally appeared in her book All Things Considered: From a Woman’s Point of View (New York, 1990).

Continued from page 61

With about forty graduates—both men and women—in a typical year, Azrieli is the largest graduate-level program preparing Judaic studies educators to teach in Jewish day schools. Courtesy of Yeshiva University

A Higher Calling

Ora Rubin often heard a similar refrain when people heard she

By Rachel Schwartzberg wanted to be a teacher: Young men who plan to learn in kollel might not even consider dating a teacher.

They are interested in marrying a woman with a more lucrative and “easy” career path.

“Fortunately, that wasn’t my experience,” says Rubin. Now married with two small children, Rubin is in her second year as a Pre-1A (kindergarten) morah at a girls school in Queens, New York. “My family was very supportive of my chosen career,” she says. “Many of my relatives are in education, so it didn’t come as a shock to them that I chose this field—even though it’s not a common path anymore.”

Rubin was inspired to become a teacher by her own personal experience.

“My father is in Jewish education,” she explains. “That was our life when I was growing up—not just my father’s but my whole family’s. I saw that chinuch was very meaningful to my parents, and it became meaningful to me as well. There is no greater privilege than teaching Torah.”

Rubin admits that she takes her work home with her every day, putting in a lot of time beyond school hours, time she wishes she got paid for.

“At night, I’m speaking to parents and I’m doing lesson planning,” she says. Nevertheless, she loves her job. “I work in a school that challenges teachers to make learning exciting for the students,” she explains. “Every day in the classroom looks different. Working with preschoolers, I feel I’m laying the foundation for their life skills, which is a very special way to spend my days.”

ing them, it’s like staffing a clinic with doctors before they’ve gone to medical school”; they aren’t set up for success and are unlikely to stick with it. Unfortunately, many schools inadvertently create a catch-22 for teachers, she says. Teachers aren’t necessarily rewarded or incentivized for getting the training they need to teach well, and schools often don’t prioritize the budget or time required to offer their staff such opportunities.

As a veteran teacher, Rabbi Grumet is personally familiar with the feeling of burnout. “I had my own crisis many years ago,” he says. “I was teaching the same thing year after year, and I felt I wasn’t growing professionally. Teachers are often highly passionate and motivated. Schools need to consider how they can nurture those traits and create a culture of growth and development.”

If communities want to retain effective teachers, a final piece to consider is the expectations placed on teachers, which are “often unreasonable,” he notes.

“Teachers are expected to be ‘on’ all the time.” Administrators, board members and parents want teachers to show up at every event outside of school hours. And parents expect their children’s teachers to be consummate professionals, but feel free to corner them at a kiddush or in the grocery store to discuss their concerns about their child.

Rabinovich suggests that schools offer training for parents on how best to partner with teachers—just as teachers are taught how to partner effectively with parents. “Unfortunately, parents often don’t respect boundaries when it comes to their child’s teacher,” she says.

“We all know stories of parents calling the principal because they emailed the teacher half an hour ago and haven’t heard back yet,” she says. “What they don’t realize is that they don’t actually want their child’s teacher to be checking emails or responding to text messages during class.” She believes that communal boundary setting can help prevent teachers from feeling overburdened and disrespected.

To Dr. Novick, the question of how to show proper respect for teachers is both communal and also very personal.

“I know of a community where the shul Continued on page 68 Summer 5782/2022 JEWISH ACTION

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IN SEARCH OF SOLUTIONS:

Teach Coalition’s Answer to the Teacher Shortage

By JA Staff For Heichal HaTorah, a boys high school based in Teaneck, New Jersey, the New Jersey STEM program is a “win-win” situation.

“It’s beneficial for our yeshivah and for our parents,” says Teri Normand, COO of Heichal HaTorah.

The groundbreaking program funds STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) teachers in New Jersey private schools, enabling Jewish day schools and yeshivot to hire skilled and experienced teachers without impacting their bottom line. “It’s been an excellent source of new qualified teachers and a great way to use our funds in other areas,” says Normand. Through STEM NJ, the NJ Department of Education pays public school teachers to teach in nonpublic schools after the public school day ends. This past year, Heichal HaTorah hired four public school teachers to teach subjects such as computer science, algebra and calculus. The yeshivah hopes to have a total of seven teachers in the program next year. Heichal HaTorah is “thrilled to be part of the program,” as it has saved the yeshivah thousands of dollars in teacher salaries.

“It’s important for our parents to know that we are looking for ways to defray costs,” Normand says.

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“The STEM program has ensured that we can continue to attract top educators without passing along the additional expense to our parents.”

thirteen schools, eleven of which are Jewish day schools, according to Adam Katz, associate director of government programs for OU’s Teach Coalition. Founded in 2013, Teach Coalition is a multistate grassroots movement devoted to advocating for nonpublic school funding and resources. Teach NJ, Teach Coalition’s New Jersey branch, championed and advocated for the funding of STEM NJ in Trenton, successfully helping to usher in a funding source for the entire nonpublic school community.

Participation in the program grew over 300 percent in its second year (2021-22 school year) and is expected to more than double in the upcoming school year. Through Teach NJ, twenty-three schools, including nineteen Jewish schools, recently applied for forty-three

teachers to teach in their classrooms for the 2022-23 school year.

In Far Rockaway, New York, Torah Academy for Girls (TAG) is one of dozens of Jewish day schools and yeshivot benefiting from a similar state-funded program. STEM New York is a first-in-the-nation program that reimburses nonpublic schools for the salaries of qualified STEM teachers of grades 3 to 12. “This is the fifth year we are in the program,” says Dr. Shmuel Reisbaum, executive director of TAG. This past year, TAG recruited new STEM teachers for vacant positions and used the STEM funding it received to increase the salary of these open positions so high-caliber teachers could be recruited for these roles. “We hired a number of new general studies principals this year, and we told them all the same thing: ‘be sure to

Students walking the halls of New York State Capitol building in Albany on the 2019 Teach NYS Mission to Albany. Since 2017, Teach NYS, along with thousands of parents and students, has worked closely with bipartisan policymakers in Albany each year to advocate for more funding of the program to ensure that all students have access to highly qualified STEM teachers. Photo: Tom Semeraro

hire STEM teachers with the relevant graduate degrees or NYS teaching certification that will qualify them to be reimbursable.’ We hope this program will continue to grow and include other subject areas such as ELA and history,” says Dr. Reisbaum.

“STEM NY is a very sensible program,” says Rabbi Ephraim Blumenkrantz, executive director of Bnos Bais Yaakov in Far Rockaway.

“STEM is the future—and it brings our students to the next level.” As a result of STEM NY, Rabbi Blumenkrantz has been encouraging his STEM teachers to obtain the necessary degrees in order to qualify for the program.

For many schools, the STEM programs are playing a critical role in addressing the teacher shortage—specifically with regard to math and science teachers, where

the challenge is most pressing. Ronit Tarshish, currently a regional field director for Teach Coalition, is well aware of the difficulty many Jewish day schools have in finding and retaining teachers. A former general studies teacher at Bais Yaakov of Boro Park and general studies director of the Cheder Chabad in Philadelphia, Tarshish is a member of numerous WhatsApp groups for principals and school administrators, where she sees the endless posts concerning the teacher shortage. “STEM programs in New York and New Jersey help address this crisis and make a big difference for schools,” says Tarshish, who is also a certified school psychologist.

“The only way to get quality math and science teachers in the door is to offer significantly more money,” says Adrianne Mittan, executive director at

the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach (HALB) on Long Island. “As a result of the STEM reimbursement, we feel confident that we can offer a competitive salary and benefit package to a new science/math teacher without increasing tuition or taking away much-needed funding from families who require financial assistance. If we were to rely on our budget alone, we would not have the ability to pay the salaries necessary to attract the top talent that is required.”

David Chalom, executive director of the Barkai Yeshivah in Brooklyn, agrees. “The funding we got [from STEM NY] was literally manna from heaven.”

In the second year of STEM NY reimbursements, which totaled $15 million, over $4 million went to Jewish schools. Some fifty-four Teach NYS member schools got funding in year two, with an average of nearly $60,000 each. “In this most recent, third round of funding alone, Jewish schools received over $10.5 million in reimbursements, which was for the 2019-20 school year,” says Katz.

Since 2017, Teach NY, along with thousands of parents and students, has worked closely with bipartisan policymakers in Albany each year to advocate for more funding of the program to ensure that all students have access to highly qualified STEM teachers. So far, a total of $50 million has been reimbursed to nonpublic schools, with another $70 million committed over the next two years. Over this five-year period, a total of $120 million has been set aside for nonpublic schools throughout the state.

“The STEM program has ensured that we can continue to attract top educators without passing along the additional expense to our parents,” says Mittan.

The program also gives day schools the opportunity “to offer more electives and expand what we offer,” says Normand.

“To have the state partner with us this way is tremendous. Our goal is to have all of our STEM teachers through this program. We hope that eventually it will cover the salaries of all of our general studies teachers.”

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Continued from page 65

Giving Me a Chance

“Do you read Harry Potter?” the rabbi asked me earnestly.

By Avigial Gersht “Um … no,” I replied. I was surprised.

Isn’t this supposed to be a Bais Yaakov school? Why are you asking me questions about fantasy fiction and which bands I listen to? I wondered.

This wasn’t what I envisioned for my Tiferes High School interview.

Why are you speaking my language? is what I was really thinking.

And that was the beginning of an eventful four-year high-school career.

Of many ups and downs, highs and lows, fear and rebellion. Questioning my faith, struggling with my identity and fighting to find my place in the world. The solid ground that was my foundation and safety during those tumultuous years was one consistent factor—Rabbi Yitzchak Feigenbaum, a rabbi who accepted me where I was, yet still held a vision for who I could be. He believed in me. He saw me. He wouldn’t give up on me.

I thought teenagers were supposed to be young and dumb with a vendetta against authority. And I thought authorities were outdated, not in touch with the generation and always had an agenda. Why was “The Rabbi” breaking down these deeply planted stereotypes? I was subconsciously fighting his belief in me, testing the waters, pushing the limits, waiting for him to break. Spoiler alert: he didn’t.

My friend’s parents went out of town one weekend, so we unanimously decided to have an open-house party. Word spread, and we were ratted out. Monday morning, my two friends and I were called into the rabbi’s office. Hearts beating rapidly, hands sweating, trying to conjure up innocence on our faces, we were invited to tell him our narrative. The rabbi conveniently had a sign behind his desk that read, “If you tell the truth, you never have to remember what you said.” He always wanted to hear the truth, even when it was ugly.

The consequences were that Penina* was given a warning, then was dismissed from his office. Nechama* got a phone call to her parents.

And I got suspended! How was that fair? The party hadn’t even been in my house! At the time I was furious, because it simply wasn’t fair. As an adult, I am amazed at his foresight, his ability to treat each of us uniquely and his genuine desire for our growth. If Penina’s Chassidic parents would have found out what she did, they would have broken her emotionally, crushing her essence, making personal progress impossible and only inviting bitterness. Nechama already had so much going on that anything more would have been too much. In my situation, this was exactly the push I needed to straighten out.

With all his patience, understanding, compassion and genuine confidence in us, he still held us to a high standard. Detention, suspension and uniform regulations are always part of school, but it was how and why they were implemented—with the intention of having the student’s best interests in mind. It was never about punishing or being “frum”; it was about self-evolution and authenticity. The Rabbi did not engage in today’s ever-pervasive model of “anything you can do, I can do frummer,” and “the school with the most rules wins!” He saw who we could be, even and especially when we couldn’t see it in ourselves.

As I reflect back on the innumerable times I sat swiveling in the office chair, one sign behind the rabbi’s desk stands out in particular: “The greatest gift you can give someone is a chance.” Rabbi Feigenbaum gave me a chance. He gave all of his students the greatest gift. *Names were changed.

Avigial Gersht lives in Jerusalem.

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rav stands when a teacher walks into the room,” she says. “Is that the level of respect most of us are conveying? We have to do our own cheshbonot concerning how we talk about and treat educators, especially in front of our children. It would go a long way if we recognized the superhuman efforts of teachers, even if we have concerns.”

She notes that in the beginning of the pandemic, “there was a groundswell of support for Jewish teachers. It was so heartening. I thought maybe this window into the world of chinuch would change the conversation! But the following year, all unfettered criticism was back.”

Help Wanted Community leaders are hopeful the teacher shortage problem can be solved in some way—whether through raising salaries, attracting more young people to the field or preventing burnout (through professional training and giving teachers the respect they deserve). But in the meantime, the challenges to the entire Jewish educational system are continuing to grow. “Schools need to staff every classroom, so they put someone in the room,” says Dr. Novick. “But then children and parents encounter teachers who are less than qualified and our schools’ professionalism and children’s education are undermined.”

“With some creativity, there has to be another way,” other than filling classrooms with whomever the school can find, says Rabbi Grumet. “Maybe this is the perfect opportunity to rethink classrooms. Maybe it’s time to stop thinking about teaching and start thinking about learning.” Put simply, Rabbi Grumet believes if we pay more attention to how the students are learning instead of how teachers are teaching, that can lend itself to rethinking classrooms.

In the meantime, Zissy Friedman doesn’t see the situation for teachers changing any time soon. “A family friend is back from seminary and she’s working as a teacher,” she says. “She’s a wonderful teacher; she’s great at it. And yet she’s looking into getting a degree in accounting.”

But Friedman is hopeful that at some point in the future, teaching will make sense for her again. “I’d go back in a second if I could,” she concludes.

JUST BETWEEN US Readers are invited to use this forum to express personal views and address issues of concern to fellow Jews. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the policy or opinion of the Orthodox Union.

A Mother of Autism

By Chaya Rochel Leyton Last night as I lay down, to put my boys to bed, some powerful words popped into my head.

I wrote them down so I wouldn’t forget.

I couldn’t stop writing, my hands would not let.

So much to say but hard to explain, the simultaneous extreme love and pain.

If you have a child with autism, you know what I mean.

So here starts my poem about a hard routine . . .

The daily struggle of putting on socks, and a plain bagel, no cream cheese, no lox.

Covering his ears, he panics a bit, rocking and humming, in the corner we sit.

Foods separate, nothing can touch, no hugs or kisses, “Too tight, too much!”

He hides in the tent; it’s safer in there; the noise of others is too much to bear.

“Not eating anymore!”

“It’s mushy!, It’s wet.”

Food thrown on the floor, the broom, I’ll go get.

Fixated, he’ll stim; “Repeat” will start.

I can’t comfort him, and that breaks my heart.

“Not comfy!” he’ll yell, as he rips off his clothes; “What’s that disgusting smell right in my nose?”

Now tender, his skin is thin.

One small trigger, the meltdowns begin.

Shoes thrown at the wall, the fit wasn’t right, to the floor he’ll fall and scream with all his might.

Daddy picks him up, he hates unwanted touch, about to erupt, it’s all just too much.

Now we’ll be late, the stress starts to build, to rush he will hate, he just wants to yield.

No way, no how; stereotypy begins.

The sounds of a cow, he kicks Daddy in the shin.

Overwhelmed by each task and commands to comply, he tries hard to mask but he just wants to cry.

“Moooo,” he won’t look at me; his eyes look up to the side.

He can’t focus, he can’t see . . . he cannot abide.

Finally, we make it to the family event, I’m one foot from him but he doesn’t see where I went.

Tears pour down, his sweet little face.

Now, with a frown, he no longer needs space.

Scared and alone, he looks around; immediate hysteria although I am found.

He needs a “mama hug,” I am there right away!

To the floor I drop, and on me he’ll lay.

Pulling on my dress, clinging to my legs, feeling stress, my son begs:

Some days, long cuddles; other days a quick hug but always on his favorite soft rug.

“Stay with me, Mommy, don’t go.”

I hold him tightly and love him so.

“I am his voice and he is my heart,” it’s been this way right from the start.

More party guests come; it gets busy and loud.

He starts to feel glum, it’s too large a crowd.

A mother of autism; I have been picked, to grow and raise this most beautiful gift.

Chaya Rochel Leyton is the proud mother of two boys. Her passions are promoting autism acceptance, infertility awareness and empowerment for Jewish women.

Originally from Los Angeles, she currently lives in Henderson, Nevada, with her family.

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THE CHEF’S TABLE

TOP 25 IDEAS:

SUMMER COOKING

By Naomi Ross

S

ummer’s leisurely pace and vibe is a time of “non-cooking.” We look for quick-cooking items that don’t create a hot kitchen, dishes that are more assembly than a recipe. There is a knack for eating well (while cooking little!) at those on-the-go picnic dinners in the summer: know what travels well. Know what can be served cold or at room temperature. Know which tasty seasonal combos belong together so you can whip up something delicious fast—after all, summer won’t be here forever!

Beyond these basic guidelines, let your imagination run away with the possibilities.

Here are my twenty-five ideas to get your creative summer juices flowing:

Salads

1. Toss ripe sliced peaches (and optional chunks of tomato) with chopped mint or basil, balsamic vinaigrette, and feta or goat cheese.

2. Thinly slice cucumbers and sprinkle liberally with kosher salt for a quick pickled cucumber salad. Let sit for 15 to 30 minutes, then rinse and pat dry.

Toss with scallions, chopped dill and parsley; dress with a splash of white vinegar, oil, a little sprinkling of sugar, and pepper to taste.

3. Julienne (or coarsely grate) jicama and a Granny Smith apple (you can add in some shredded radicchio, too). Dress with a mustardy-cider vinaigrette. Sprinkle with toasted chopped walnuts.

4. For a Moroccan-style side dish, steam sliced carrots, then toss with lemon juice, olive oil, cumin, chopped cilantro, salt and pepper.

5. A great use for leftover grilled/ steamed corn on the cob: working over a large bowl, shave off the kernels, then add halved cherry tomatoes and chopped fresh basil. Toss with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Sandwiches & Toasts

6. My favorite “house” sandwich: whole grain bread, a smear of mayo (or pesto—yum!), sliced muenster cheese, thinly sliced tomato and thinly sliced avocado.

7. Fill wraps with thin slices of roasted or grilled red peppers, zucchini,

Naomi Ross is a cooking instructor and food writer based in Woodmere, New York. She teaches classes throughout the country and writes articles connecting good cooking and Jewish inspiration. She is excited to be writing her first cookbook, which will be released soon.

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portobello mushrooms, etc. Add baby spinach leaves and thin strips of mozzarella cheese (fresh mozzarella is really good, too).

8. Build up your tuna sandwich: use a club or Kaiser roll with thinly sliced hard-boiled egg, thinly sliced tomato, cucumber and plenty of fresh bean sprouts. (It’s even better with a little garlic aioli!)

9. Use up leftover cooked salmon in a fresh salmon salad: add fresh lemon juice, capers, chopped celery, mayo, salt and pepper and mix until all incorporated. Serve with mixed greens on a toasted baguette or roll.

10. Make a sweet bruschetta: top slices of toasted baguette with a layer of goat cheese (or drained ricotta), sliced fresh figs, a drizzle of honey and some toasted chopped pecans or hazelnuts for crunch.

Legumes & Grains

11. Sushi Salad: Steam 2¼ cups rinsed sushi rice. Combine: 4 tablespoons rice vinegar, 3 tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon salt and mix into hot steamed sushi rice, tossing until absorbed and rice is glossy. Add in shredded carrots, snow peas, sliced scallions, shredded kani, diced mango, and torn pieces of nori (dried seaweed). Great at room temperature!

12. Warm Orzo Salad: Combine cooked orzo with diced roasted/ grilled veggies. Toss with salt and pepper, olive oil and a splash of acid (balsamic vinegar or lemon juice).

Top with some chopped herbs like parsley or basil, too. Add leftover cubed grilled chicken for a full meal.

13. Summer Quinoa: Cook quinoa and fluff with a fork; add chopped mango, diced cucumber and scallions. Dress with plenty of fresh lime juice, olive oil, cumin, coriander, salt and pepper.

(I like cayenne pepper, too!)

14. White Bean Salad: Toss white beans (rinsed and drained), very thinly shaved red onion, arugula, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Sprinkle with chopped dill or parsley—it’s even better with some shaved Parmesan!

15. Toss cooked, warm wheat berries with chopped grapes, hazelnuts,

Quesadillas

Photos: Baila Gluck

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lemon juice (or white wine vinegar), olive oil, salt and pepper. Add thinly sliced red cabbage and toss again.

Meat & Poultry

16. Even at room temperature, everyone loves kebabs! Mix it up by skewering them with alternating peppers, onions, cherry tomatoes or fruits as well.

17. Grilled chicken is great by itself with honey mustard or ketchup, but make it a complete meal by adding it into a salad, sandwich or wrap.

18. Cube smoked turkey breast; add to a romaine salad with grape tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, olives, sliced hard-boiled egg, etc. Go creamy with the dressing.

19. Prepare classic deli sandwiches/ hoagies (don’t forget the pickles).

20. Sear steak and let it rest a few minutes. Slice thinly; roll in soft flour tortilla with grilled/roasted sweet onions and peppers (can also be done as a steak sandwich on club roll).

Fruit & Desserts

21. Biscotti or mandel bread travels well and stays fresh for a week.

22. Toss berries, melon and stone fruits with a drizzle of honey, flaked coconut, a dash of cinnamon, and a sprinkling of chopped fresh mint.

23. Grill your dessert: grilled pineapple, peaches, and even firm plums are delicious.

24. Summer is berry season: macerate your strawberries or cherries in a little balsamic vinegar and sugar for 30 minutes until berries look slightly wilted and have released their juices.

Serve over ice cream.

25. Chocolate-dipped strawberries, bananas or pretzels. Keep in a cooler if traveling!

Quesadillas

Yields 4 servings Quesadillas are a fun spin on your average grilled cheese and a great way of adding some extra vegetables into the meal. Serve with guacamole, salsa and sour cream on the side. Below are two variations for quesadillas, but feel free to just make plain cheese quesadillas if you have picky eaters at home.

2-4 teaspoons vegetable oil 72

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8 (8-inch) flour tortillas 8 ounces Monterey Jack or sharp Cheddar cheese, coarsely grated (about 2 cups) For corn and mushroom quesadillas: 1 small can corn, drained 6 ounces mushrooms, sliced 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced (optional) For black bean and red pepper quesadillas: 1-2 tablespoons olive oil ½ onion, diced ½ red bell pepper, seeded and diced ¼ teaspoon kosher salt ½ teaspoon ground cumin ½ cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro Prepare filling of choice. For corn and mushroom filling, combine all ingredients together. For black bean and red pepper filling, heat oil in a small frying pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and red pepper; season with salt and cumin. Sauté until peppers are tender, about 5-6 minutes. Add beans and cilantro and continue to cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Heat 1-2 teaspoons of oil in a 10-inch heavy skillet until hot but not smoking, Place a tortilla in the bottom of the pan.

Spread a layer of cheese over the tortilla; sprinkle about ¼ cup filling evenly over cheese. Cover with another tortilla.

Cook until underside is golden brown, about 2 minutes. Using a wide spatula, carefully flip and cook until the other side is golden, 1 to 2 minutes more.

Transfer to a plate. Repeat with remaining tortillas, adding more oil as needed.

Cut into wedges (like pizza) and serve with guacamole (recipe below), salsa and sour cream on the side.

Guacamole 2 medium ripe avocadoes 2 tablespoons fresh lemon/lime juice 1-2 cloves garlic, minced 1 large plum tomato, diced ½ teaspoon kosher salt ½ teaspoon cumin Freshly ground black pepper, to taste Cut the avocadoes in half, remove pits and spoon avocado out of its skin into a large shallow bowl. Add lemon and/or lime juice and mash to desired consis-

tency with a fork (or potato masher).

Stir in remaining ingredients. Season to taste; cover tightly and chill.

White Bean & Arugula Salad Fresh herbs and lemon make this the perfect light summer meal with some good, crusty bread on the side. I love adding cooked salmon to this proteinrich salad if I have any on hand. If cooking the white beans, make a large batch early in the week and then it’s just assembly 1-2-3! ½ pound dried small white beans, such as cannellini or Great Northern (or a 15-ounce can cooked beans) 1 clove garlic 1 bay leaf ½ teaspoon grated lemon zest 2 tablespoons lemon juice (juice of 1 lemon) ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil ½ red onion, thinly shaved or minced 10-12 cherry tomatoes, quartered 5 mild radishes, thinly sliced 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley 3 cups baby arugula salt and pepper to taste If using dried beans, rinse and pick over.

Cover with cold water and soak for 8 hours, or overnight. Drain beans and place in a pot with garlic clove, bay leaf and enough water to cover by at least 1 inch. Bring to a boil over medium heat; reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the beans are tender, about 45 minutes to an hour. Drain them well and transfer to a large bowl (discarding the bay leaf and garlic clove).

If using canned beans, rinse and drain them and transfer to a large bowl.

In a small bowl, combine the lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Whisk to combine.

Set aside.

Add one third of the vinaigrette to the beans and toss; let stand for 15 minutes.

Add red onion, tomatoes, radishes, herbs and arugula. Pour the remaining dressing over the salad and toss lightly to coat. Season to taste with more salt, pepper or lemon juice, if needed. Serve immediately.

White Bean & Arugula Salad

Salmon Variation: Add 6 ounces flaked grilled/roasted salmon to the salad; toss to combine.

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LEGAL-EASE

WHAT’S THE TRUTH ABOUT. . .

DAVID HAMELECH BEING UNABLE to BUILD the BEIT HAMIKDASH?

By Rabbi Dr. Ari Z. Zivotofsky

MISCONCEPTION: King David was not permitted to build the Beit Hamikdash because he had “blood on his hands” from all the wars he fought.

FACT: David mentioned this reason to his son Shlomo, who eventually built the Beit Hamikdash, but that was not the reason G-d conveyed to David through Natan the Prophet when David expressed interest in building the Temple.

Background: King David’s reign was turbulent, filled with war, insurrection and intrigue. Yet at some point after he had his palace built (Shmuel II 5:11) and had transferred the Holy Ark (Aron Kodesh) to Yerushalayim, he perceived that there was a modicum of peace and he desired to build a house for the Aron, i.e., the Beit Hamikdash.

He expressed this intention to Natan the Prophet, whose immediate reaction was approval.

And it was when the King [David] dwelt in his house, and the L-rd had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies. And the king said to Natan the Prophet: “See now, I live in a house of

cedar, but the Ark of G-d dwells within curtains.”1 And Natan said to the king: “All that is in your heart, go do, for the L-rd is with you” (Shmuel II 7:1-3 [cf.

Divrei Hayamim I 17:1-2]).

That very night,2 G-d appeared to Natan and informed him that he had erred3 and that it was a no-go. The prophet informed King David that G-d had scrapped his plan—G-d would establish a dynasty for David, but it would be his son who would build the Beit Hamikdash. Why not King David? G-d’s message to Natan was quite lengthy (Shmuel II 7:4-17; Divrei Hayamim I 17:3-15), and yet the impediment to David’s building it is not at all

Rabbi Dr. Ari Z. Zivotofsky is a professor of neuroscience at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

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clear.4 What is clear is that there is no hint or allusion to King David being barred from building the Temple due to his having shed blood. The direct communication from G-d “omitted” that popular explanation.

The straightforward reason Shlomo and not David was to build the Mikdash seems to be linked to the initial Biblical command/promise regarding a Divine house, which would only be built following the conquest, when G-d would give rest in the Land. In Devarim (12:9-11) Moshe tells the Jews: Since you have not yet reached the resting place [menuchah] and the heritage [nachalah] that Hashem, your G-d, gives you. When you cross the Jordan River and live in the land which Hashem, your G-d, gives you, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, and you will dwell securely;5 then it will be that the site that Hashem, your L-rd, will choose to cause His name to dwell there, it is there that you should bring all that I command you: your burnt-offerings, and your eaten sacrifices, your tithes, and bikkurim, and all your choice vows which you will vow to Hashem.

In King David’s initial proposal, he noted that he had vanquished the enemies and G-d had given him rest from them. He thought that was a sufficient condition to build the Mikdash.6 But the verse in Devarim also includes “dwelling in safety.” Rashi explains (Shmuel II 7:10) that G-d, in his message via Natan, was telling David that true tranquility would only come during his son’s reign and thus that would be the proper time to build the Mikdash. And so it was. Melachim I 5:5 states that in King Shlomo’s time “Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan to Be’ersheva, all the days of Shlomo.” Later in that chapter (verse 17), Shlomo explains to Hiram, king of Zur: “You know that David my father could not build a house for the name of the L-rd, his G-d, because of the wars which surrounded him, until the L-rd put them under the soles of my feet [or, his feet].”7 According to Shlomo, the reason David could not build the Temple was not because he was a man of war but because of the wars themselves, i.e., the lack of true peace. Peace and political stability8 are a prerequisite for building the Temple.

The postponement in building the Mikdash, according to the books of Shmuel and Melachim, relates to the national situation, to the historical timing, and not to a flaw with King David. Building the Temple requires national rest, menuchah. In Divrei Hayamim I 28:2, David calls the Temple that he planned to build a “beit menuchah—house of rest—for the Aron.” And in foretelling Shlomo’s birth, Divrei Hayamim I 22:9 calls him “ish menuchah” and states that his name will be Shlomo (peaceful) and that peace (shalom) and quiet will be in Israel in his time.

Still and all, the popular notion of why David could not build the Mikdash is not without basis—it appears twice in Divrei Hayamim, the final Biblical book, both times not as part of a prophecy but in King David’s own explanation for why he did not build the Temple. In Divrei Hayamim I 22, King David charges his son Shlomo to build the Temple and explains why he himself did not build it: “But the word

of the L-rd came to me, saying: ‘You have shed much blood9 and made great wars; you shall not build a house to My name, because you have shed much blood upon the earth in My sight’” (Divrei Hayamim I 22:8). David then continues (verse 9) with an explanation that coincides with the explanation from the Book of Shmuel. He tells Shlomo that G-d had promised him: “Behold, a son will be born to you, he will be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about; for his name shall be Shlomo, and I will give peace and quietness to Israel in his days.”

Several chapters later it is recorded that David gathered the nation together and explained that Shlomo will build the Temple and he again says (Divrei Hayamim I 28:3): “But G-d said to me: ‘You will not build a house for My name, because you are a man of war, and you have shed blood.’”

How could King David assert that G-d had told him a reason that is not recorded in the earlier prophecy? Possibly, there was an additional earlier, unrecorded prophecy that is here revealed to the reader of Tanach for the first time; or King David is providing his interpretation of what Natan’s prophecy meant; or he is revealing his inner feelings about what G-d “really meant” by the rejection.

Despite this not being the reason given to Natan in Sefer Melachim, several Rishonim refer to it. Rambam (Introduction to Avot, “Shemoneh Perakim,” ch. 7, pp. 197-8 in Mossad Harav Kook 1989 ed.) explains that Divrei Hayamim I 22:8 means that David had a cruel streak in his personality and therefore G-d did not permit him to build the Mikdash even if that trait was only manifest in the justifiable killing of heretics. Ramban (Bamidbar 16:21) explains that since King David’s personality highlighted the attribute of strict justice, he was not the appropriate person to build a “house of mercy.”

According to a radically different interpretation in the late midrashim,10 Natan explained to David that in G-d’s eye all of the bloodshed he was involved with was “like the killing of deer and gazelles” or like slaughtering

sacrifices, i.e. the killing of the wicked was a merit for David. G-d then explained to King David that he could not build the Temple because he was so righteous that if he were to build the Temple, G-d would be unable to destroy it11 and knowing the Jews would sin in the future, G-d, so to speak, wanted to keep that option open.12 Whether or not that was the reason David was disqualified, the taking of a life is an anathema to the Beit Hamikdash. The Mishnah (Middot 3:4; cf.

Mechilta and Rashi to Shemot 20:22) explains the Biblical law (Shemot 20:22 and Devarim 27:5-6; Rambam, Hilchot Beit Habechirah 1:15) that iron may not be used in the preparation of the stones of the altar “because iron was created to shorten man’s days and the altar was created to prolong man’s days, and it is not right therefore that that which shortens should be lifted against that which prolongs.”

Killing may also disqualify a person from certain Temple-related rituals.

The Gemara (Berachot 32b), seemingly based on a verse (Yeshayahu 1:15), rules that a kohen who killed is prohibited from duchening in shul (Rambam, Hilchot Tefillah/Nesiat Kapayim 15:3; Shulchan Aruch, OC 128:35). Tosafot (Yevamot 7a, s.v. she’ne’emar) explains that this is actually either a chumrah or unique to duchening, but actual Temple service performed by a kohen convicted of murder is not disqualified. In addition, a majority of posekim treat it as obvious that a kohen who killed in the course of a legitimate war, such as an IDF soldier, may or must continue duchening (Tzitz Eliezer 14:60; Iggerot Moshe, YD 2:158; Yechaveh Da’at 2:14).13 It is interesting to note that the Levi’im were selected to replace the firstborns to serve G-d specifically on account of having killed those responsible for the Eigel (Shemot 32:27-29; Devarim 33:9; Rashi, Shemot 32:29), and Pinchas was elevated to kohen status as a rewward for killing Zimri (Bamidbar 25:13; Rashi, ibid.; Zevachim 101b).

Despite being barred from doing the actual construction, King David put his heart, soul and financial resources into making preparations for the building of the Temple.

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The first issue was the location of the future Temple.14 The Sifrei (Devarim 12:5 [62]) says that the Divine intention was for man to search for the location and the conclusion would then be certified by a navi (to whom G-d would reveal it in response to the human initiative [Malbim, Devarim 12:5]). The Talmud (Zevachim 54b) portrays David and Shmuel as analyzing sources to find the location, David then discovering the site (Divrei Hayamim I 22:1), Natan confirming it (Shmuel II 24:18) and Shlomo building it there (Divrei Hayamim II 3:1).

King David subdivided the priestly and Levitical families into working groups (Divrei Hayamim I 23-26; Divrei Hayamim II 8:14). King David also announced to the nation (Divrei Hayamim I 29:2-3): “I have prepared with all my might for the house of my G-d, gold for the golden objects, and silver for the silver objects. . . . I have a personal treasure of gold and silver that I have given to the house of G-d. . . .”

Yet, when all the work was completed, all of David’s materials were still extant and were deposited in the Temple’s treasury, seemingly unused (Melachim I 7:51; Divrei Hayamim II 5:1). Rashi (Divrei Hayamim II 5:1) says that only the copper (based on Divrei Hayamim I 18:8), which is not fitting for a Divine treasury, was used, but none of the precious metals was used.15 The Talmud (Sukkah 53a, Makkot 11a) also portrays David as digging the foundations or subterranean channels of the Temple.

David transmitted to Shlomo the architectural plans for the Temple structure and utensils, all of which are described in Divrei Hayamim I 28:1119 as being written down as G-d had transmitted it to him—“hakol bichtav miYad Hashem alai hiskil, all this [do I give you] in writing, as the L-rd has made me wise by His hand upon me” (verse 19)—and are thus immutable (see Zevachim 33a; Rambam, introduction to Mishnah about Middot). King David’s intention and preparations for the Temple building were such that what is usually referred to as Solomon’s Temple is sometimes attributed to his father. For example, some Rishonim 76

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(e.g., Rashi’s contemporary, Rabbi Joseph Kara, known as Mahari Kara) identify the “sukkat David” of Amos 9:11 and in the Harachaman of Sukkot bentching as the Beit Hamikdash.

Given the enormous significance of building a House for G-d—the building of the Mishkan plays a prominent place in the Torah—it seems strange that it was not until King David that there was even an attempt at building a permanent Mikdash and that ultimately the Mikdash was not inaugurated until 440 years (!) after the Jews entered the Land (Melachim I 6:1).

Indeed, Ramban (Bamidbar 16:21) says the Jews sinned by not initiating the building sooner and it angered G-d (Shmuel II 24:1; see Shmuel II 7:1-2) and that is why He revealed its intended location via a plague. Ramban believes that if the Jews had shown a desire for the Mikdash, it would have been built even in the days of the Shoftim, Shaul or David.

The Midrash (Midrash Shmuel 31:4 [cited by Radak to Shmuel II 24:25]; Midrash Tehillim-Shocher Tov, 17) attributes the mass casualties of the plague in David’s time to the fact that the people themselves did not demand a Mikdash. And then it learns a kal vachomer that if they, who had never had a Mikdash, were held accountable, we, who have historically had a Mikdash, should certainly demand it and that is why the Sages instituted a thrice-daily prayer requesting that G-d return His presence to Zion.

Building the Mikdash is a commandment and a privilege that we as a people have not fulfilled for many centuries. Its construction requires that there be peace from without and harmony within. We can “demand” it by creating the necessary conditions of peace and tranquility. May they be met and may it be speedily rebuilt.

Notes 1. Based on this verse, Pesikta Rabbati (6 [23b in 1880 ed.]) is critical of David. It contrasts him with Shlomo who built the Mikdash before, and with greater zeal than his own palace, while David turned his attention to the Mikdash only after completing his personal house.

2. Rashi (Shmuel II 7:4) cites a midrash [see Yalkut Shimoni, Shmuel II 7, remez 143,

p. 311 in 1999 ed.] that offers two reasons why G-d had to rush to stop David that very night.

3. It is interesting that Natan initially responded on his own without waiting for a Divine message. This may reveal something of the monarch-prophet dynamics—the king solicited the prophet’s personal judgment in addition to the prophet serving as a conduit for Divine revelations.

It is curious that G-d permitted Natan to err and then “corrected” him, rather than immediately revealing the Divine will to him. See Chatam Sofer (Nedarim 89b, s.v. v’insiv) for a possible explanation.

4. The Meshech Chochmah (Bamidbar 25:5) reads into Shmuel II 7:8 that G-d was concerned that people would (mis)interpret David’s building of the Beit Hamikdash as a means to consolidate his rule and enhance his name rather than it being for G-d’s glory; this is similar, he says, to why the Levi’im could defend G-d’s honor after the cheit ha’eigel but once they were invested as functionaries they could not do the same after the sin of ba’al pe’or lest it be viewed as self-serving.

Devarim Rabbah 5:10 suggests an entirely different reason why the Mikdash could not be built by David: not because of him, but because the generation was full of gossipers and talebearers and the Shechinah cannot coexist with lashon hara.

5. The rabbis (Sifrei, Re’eh:18 [67:10] [to Devarim12:10]; Sanhedrin 20b; Devarim Rabbah 5:10; Rambam, Hilchot Melachim 1:1-2) understood that the nation of Israel had three communal mitzvot to accomplish upon entering the Land of Israel, and they were to be completed in the following order: anoint a king, annihilate Amalek, and, with peace in the Land, build the Mikdash. It is from this verse that it is derived that the destruction of Amalek precedes the building of the Mikdash. Chazal assumed that the conditions had been met in David’s time.

6. Rashi in both Devarim (12:10-11) and Shmuel II (7:1-2) considers the situation that David describes as a fulfillment of the Biblical condition.

7. Radak (Melachim I 5:17) thinks that Shlomo was covering up the real reason in order to protect his father’s honor.

8. A dynasty, which seems to be a precondition for building the Mikdash, is a minimum of two kings. The promise of a dynasty also appears to be a reward for David’s desire to build the Mikdash. The word used for dynasty in Shmuel II 7 is bayit, house, the same word King David used for the Mikdash. “Bayit,” meaning either mikdash (palace) or dynasty appears fifteen times in that chapter. Note that in Psalm 132 G-d also promises a Davidic dynasty after David promises to build a mikdash.

9. King David does not explain what bloodshed is referred to.

According to the simple reading, it refers to the many legitimate wars. Radak (Divrei Hayamim I 22:8) raises the possibility that it may refer to the blood of Uriah the Hitti (but cf.

Kiddushin 43a) or of the kohanim of Nov. He then suggests (similar to Metzudat David) that it may refer to collateral casualties during wars against the enemies. Radak notes that David was not punished for the civilian deaths as he did not do anything wrong, but nonetheless it is not compatible with building the Mikdash. (On the application of this to the question of civilian casualties in modern warfare, see Minchat Asher, Devarim 32:6.)

Rabbi Shlomo Goren (Meishiv Milchamah 1 (1983), pp. 2325) suggests a creative explanation based on Sifre Debei Rav, Eikev: 51. He says it was the deaths of the (12,000) Jewish soldiers killed in the “private,” non-halachic war that David initiated to capture Aram Naharayim and Aram Tzova before capturing the seat of the Mikdash in Yerushalayim. This loss of life was considered an affront to the Mikdash.

10. Yalkut Shimoni, Shmuel II 7, remez 145, pp. 312-3 in 1999 ed.; Pesikta Rabbati 2, 7a-b in 1880 ed.; Midrash Tehillim-Shocher Tov, 62:4 on verse 62:13.

11. Indeed, the gates (either of the city [Rashi] or of the Temple [Maharsha]), which were made by David, never fell into enemy hands (Sotah 9a).

12. Seforno (Shemot 38:21) suggests that the reason the Mishkan built by Moshe and Betzalel never fell into enemy hands, as happened to both Temples, was because the Mishkan was built by Jewish labor, while the Temples used foreign workers.

13. Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik seems to be a lone dissenting voice on this issue (Rabbi Hershel Schachter, Nefesh HaRav (1994), p. 132). He would quote Divrei Hayamim I 22:8 about King David as support for his position.

14. It is not because of a story about brotherly love that the site was selected (see “What’s the Truth about . . . the Legend of Two Brothers and the Temple Mount?” Jewish Action, 74:1 (fall 2013), jewishaction.com/religion/jewish-law/whats-the-truthabout-the-legend-of-two-brothers-and-the-temple-mount/).

15. Pesikta Rabbati (end of 6 [25b-26a in 1880 ed.], quoted by Rashi to Divrei Hayamim II 5:1) gives two reasons, one in praise and one a sharp criticism, as to why David’s materials were ultimately not used by Shlomo. Either David prayed that the materials not be used because he foresaw the destruction of the Temple and was afraid the idolaters would take materials from the Temple as spoils in war and claim the Temple’s destruction was their god’s revenge; or G-d was upset because during a devastating three-year famine, David hoarded the cache of precious metals for a future Mikdash rather than use it to save lives. (Me’am Loaz [Shemot 25:1-2] says this is the “bloodshed” by David and the reason he was not permitted to build the Beit Hamikdash. In either case, his material was not needed and not used.

Ralbag (Melachim I 7:51) suggests that Shlomo did not commence construction until the fourth year of his reign so that he could assemble the raw materials on his own during a period of peace. Just as G-d did not desire David, the man of war, to build the Temple, He did not want Shlomo to use the materials that David had collected from the spoils of war.

OU Kosher is all about

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ASK OU Virtual Can’t make it out to our office, or we can’t make it to you? Try our virtual option.

CONTACT: Rabbi Eli Eleff at 212.613.0602 or koshereducation@ou.org

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OU Press

Remembering a Giant in Torah Rabbi Norman Lamm zt”l

Festivals of Faith: Reflections on the Jewish Holidays

Photo courtesy of Yeshiva University.

A collection of sermons on the Jewish holidays, presented with Rabbi Lamm’s signature eloquence. Each address is an individual gem and together they constitute a treasure trove of profound insights and inspiring teachings.

Torah Beloved: Reflections on the Love of Torah and the Celebration of the Holiday of Matan Torah

THE GIBBER FAMILY EDITION In this anthology of essays relating to the festival of Shavuot, the giving of the Torah and the love of Torah, Rabbi Lamm articulates the preeminent place that Torah study should occupy in our lives, with passion and felicity.

Foundation of Faith: A Tapestry of Insights & Illuminations on Pirkei Avot

THE GIBBER FAMILY EDITION A commentary on Pirkei Avot, based on Rabbi Lamm’s writings, edited by Rabbi Mark Dratch. Love of Torah, veneration of tradition, positive engagement with the modern world and contemporary culture, and the importance of a life built on overarching Jewish values are just a few of the themes that animate this volume.

BOOKS OF JEWISH THOUGHT THAT EDUCATE, INSPIRE, ENRICH AND ENLIGHTEN Available at oupress.org

INSIDEthe PROGRAMS OF THE ORTHODOX UNION

The Trust of the Team

By Rabbi Dr. Josh Joseph You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.

—Anton Chekhov Trust—the foundation of friendships, marriages, chavrutot and every other type of relationship. Despite the central role it plays in our social life, trust does not always come easily.

With the arbitrariness and vicissitudes of the Covid pandemic, and the uncertainties of war, trust is all the more elusive. But as difficult as it can be to trust, Chekhov, who was born in what is now Ukraine, knew what he was talking about: without trust, one cannot survive.

Trust plays an even more central role in the life of a Jew. We turn to Hashem with our trust, our bitachon.

Rabbi Shmuel Huminer in Mitzvat HaBitachon writes that it is actually a commandment to know in our hearts that all is in the hands of Hashem Who can change nature at a moment’s notice and even upset the natural order to save us. It is not only an obligation but a unique opportunity to turn to Hashem, to hope for redemption and to trust Him in any and all circumstances.

Allow me to share with you three seemingly unrelated developments at the Orthodox Union.

1. Before I joined the OU, a team of enthusiastic and conscientious lead-

ers across the organization began to work together on professional development. The need for an investment in our employees, as well as a desire to grow our belief in each other, coalesced further through our organization-wide survey (in which our professionals continue to participate this summer). Quarterbacked by our HR team and in partnership with lay leadership and outside advisors, we have begun to invest in our most cherished resource: our employees.

While there is much more to do, we have taken significant steps toward making the OU a paradigm of experiential employee growth and opportunity and establishing a pipeline of leadership for our Jewish future.

2. After decades at 11 Broadway, the OU moved its main headquarters to 40 Rector Street. This move came together through collaboration between cross-departmental teams with diverse skill sets and perspectives, and involved frequent check-ins with lay leadership.

Conversations and opinions flowed from cacophonous brainstorming sessions into an organized plan.

Together, we developed a strategy, which we frequently adjusted in a flexible and moving pandemic environment. Throughout, our key professional project team drivers cooperated and supported each other and with all of us, lifting us as one resilient and accomplished team to the desired result: our beautiful new headquarters home!

3. The OU’s meaningful campaign for those impacted by the war in Ukraine involved colleagues from

OU

Rabbi Dr. Josh Joseph is OU Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer.

across the OU: lay and professional, executive and programmatic, kashrut and klal, all of whom have been striving to ameliorate the lives of those affected by war. In addition, thousands upon thousands of our sisters and brothers donated to our campaign to assist and support the tens of thousands of Jews affected.

These incredible developments came together because of one key ingredient—trust.

In 1965, psychologist Bruce Tuckman formulated the stages of group development, which he captured as: forming, storming, norming and performing (as well as mourning or adjourning at the culmination of a project). In the first stage, we engage with the others in the group and must be careful to own our particular biases while remaining open, even welcoming, to new people and new ideas. In the second stage, the team moves to conversations and the sharing of differing opinions, and thus, potentially, to a “storm.” The team can then move to building supportive and cooperative relationships, thereby lifting each other. And finally, they build a resilient team, able to communicate, coordinate and collaborate. Coursing Continued on page 80 Summer 5782/2022 JEWISH ACTION

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High schoolers from Hebrew Academy in Miami, Florida entering the Hate Ends Now cattle car exhibit in January. Courtesy of Lisa Dreyer

HAPPENINGS Traveling Exhibit Revolutionizes Holocaust Education

AROUND THE OU

By Sara Goldberg

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (at podium) and legislators speak with the press in February after viewing the Hate Ends Now cattle car exhibit.

“You can talk about six million people who were killed — we all know that's terrible. You can read it on a sheet of paper. But what does that actually mean?” said Governor DeSantis at the press conference following the experience. “When you see the tragedy, when you see videos and some of the artifacts . . . everyone that walks out of there is just speechless. It really gets you deep inside in ways that simply reading numbers off of a page won't do.”

Photo: Menachem Kashananin/Craft Motion Films

Hate Ends Now is a partnership between Southern NCSY and ShadowLight, a nonprofit focused on Holocaust education and social justice. ShadowLight founder Jordana Lebowitz had originally pitched the exhibit to Southern NCSY as a ninety-day, short-term project. But since its launch in December 2021, Hate Ends Now has become a permanent part of Southern NCSY’s programming, with tours in Florida, the Carolinas and Georgia.

The exhibit has been brought to stadiums, museums, Jewish campuses and high schools, as well as to universities and neighborhoods.

At a joint Southern NCSY and Teach Florida event in February, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and sixty other legislators gathered in Tallahassee, Florida for a special viewing of Southern NCSY’s Hate Ends Now traveling exhibition, “The Cattle Car: Stepping In and Out of Darkness.” Set inside a restored Holocaust-era cattle car, this immersive exhibit showcases the development and aftermath of the Holocaust through a remarkable collection of imagery and footage dating from 1933 to 1945, including recordings of Holocaust survivors detailing their haunting, life-changing experiences. The exhibit concludes with present-day footage and images of discrimination and intolerance, tying in the rise of antisemitism being experienced today.

“Since its inception, the impact of Hate Ends Now has been extraordinary,” said Southern NCSY’s Chief Development Officer Solly Hess, who oversees the program.

“Participants leave saying, ‘I had no idea,’ ‘How could this have happened?’ and ‘We must take a stand to ensure this never happens again.’”

To learn more about Hate Ends Now and to view the tour schedule, visit hateendsnow.org.

Continued from page 79

through these different stages is an openness to one another, which transforms into respect, and ultimately, into a bond and connection, otherwise known as trust.

What allowed us to accomplish the move to Rector Street, despite delays in the supply chain, and what allowed 80

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us to reorient our entire operation to direct resources toward the plight of Ukrainian Jewry? Our developed and continually developing sense of trust and connection with one another.

When we work together in teams with authenticity and shared goals, we invest in each other and raise the organization and the Jewish world to even grander heights.

The Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, is quoted as saying: “Trust is like the air we breathe. When it’s present, nobody really notices; when it’s absent, everybody notices.” Let’s appreciate the critical role trust plays in our social and religious life, and let’s continue to deepen it in our relationships. We can all use some more oxygen of trust, today more than ever.

US Ambassador Visits the Zula This past February, US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides made a special visit to OU Israel’s The Pearl and Harold Jacobs Zula Outreach Center. A drop-in facility located near Zion Square in the center of Jerusalem, “the Zula” is intended to be a warm home for disadvantaged youth, mainly from religious families.

Ambassador Nides was greeted by OU Israel Executive Director Rabbi Avi Berman, who described the growth of the Zula over the past twenty-two years into a high-quality institution staffed by a professional team. Also joining the visit were OU Board of Directors Vice Chair Mr. Yehuda Neuberger, OU Israel Center Board of Directors Member Mr. Stuart Hershkowitz, and OU Advocacy Executive Director Nathan Diament, who facilitated Ambassador Nides’ visit.

“This is one cool place—it’s about kids, about youth, about support,” said Mr. Nides. “Thank you for doing what you’re doing.”

“This is not another guest; this is the ambassador of the United States who came to meet us. Wow! What an honor,” said one Zula participant.

“The ambassador was impressed by the deep connection between American Jewry and Israel and the work that is being carried out here thanks to the assistance of American Jews,” said Rabbi Berman. “We thank the ambassador for making the time for this special visit despite his busy schedule.”

US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides drums on a darbuka during his visit to “the Zula” in February. Courtesy of OU Israel

Community Fair Draws Thousands Worldwide

The fair's virtual conference center featured an animated interactive lobby filled with avatars reflecting the broad spectrum of Orthodox Jews who generally attend. Signs linked to an expo hall showcasing over sixty Orthodox Jewish communities—seventeen of which were new this year—as well as to an auditorium for seminars spotlighting different communities throughout the day.

The fair spanned ten hours, and visitors could log in and out as they pleased.

In February, for the first time in its fourteen-year history, the OU’s biannual Jewish Community Home Relocation Fair was held virtually, attracting an unprecedented 2,500 attendees, and exhibitors from thirty-five US states and eighteen countries—the largest fair to date.

“Past on-site fairs were held in New York City and attracted people from the New York Metropolitan area,” said Rebbetzin Judi Steinig, Senior Director of the OU’s Community Projects & Partnerships, who coordinates the event. “Going virtual made the fair accessible to so many who want to relocate.”

“A benefit was just to be able to reach more people that day,” said Rabbi Yonah Gross of Congregation Beth Hamedrosh, who was part of a team that’s been exhibiting the community of Penn Wynne, Philadelphia, at the fair for a number of years. “I had conversations with someone from Israel who wouldn’t have been able to attend the fair in person but had interest in our community.”

For more information about the communities that exhibited at the fair, or to order the 2022 Orthodox Jewish Community Guide, visit ou.org/fair.

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Students Lobby for Nonpublic School Funding In March, Teach NYS and Teach NJ held virtual missions to Albany and Trenton respectively to lobby state legislators to support equitable funding for nonpublic schools for STEM education and school security. Over 1,900 students and community and lay leaders collectively attended the two missions, bringing legislators together with students from a wide range of schools.

OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Moshe Hauer gave opening remarks at both missions. Teach NYS’s speakers included Governor Kathy Hochul, Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris and Senate Education Chair Shelley Mayer. Teach NJ’s speakers included Deputy Speaker Assemblyman Gary Schaer, Senate Education Chair Vin Gopal and Michigan Supreme Court Justice Richard Bernstein.

Following the presentations, students and lay leaders divided into small groups for individual advocacy sessions with their local legislators. Both Teach NYS and Teach NJ provided their participants with guidebooks that summarized each region’s goals and talking points, and three “Asks” to present in the small group sessions.

A project of the OU, Teach Coalition is a multi-state, grassroots movement devoted to advocating for nonpublic school funding and resources. This is the second year the annual missions have been held virtually.

Above: Students from SKA-Hebrew Academy in Long Beach prepare to meet legislators on the Teach NYS Virtual Mission to Albany in March. Courtesy of Teach NYS

Stepping Up Security Funding OU Advocacy applauded Congress’s passage of the omnibus appropriations package in March, which included several policy measures OU Advocacy worked on intensively with key Congressional allies. First was a much-needed increase for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) from $180 million to $250 million for fiscal year 2022 to help protect America’s synagogues and other houses of worship, as well as day schools and other nonprofits. This increase was of particular importance in the wake of the hostage-taking at a Colleyville, Texas synagogue in January—one of several major attacks in recent years against America’s Jewish community.

The appropriations bill also included a $1 billion provision to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system to intercept rocket attacks by terrorist groups; and $13.6 billion in emergency aid to Ukraine and refugees escaping the Russian military's assault.

“It is our duty and obligation as Jews to do all we can to ensure that we safeguard our community in America and around the world in this time of great need,” said OU President Mark (Moishe) Bane. “The provisions in this federal legislation will go a long way toward protecting our communities in the United States and in Israel and will provide relief to those suffering in Ukraine.”

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OU Advocacy Executive Director Nathan Diament (at podium) with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (second from left)) at a press conference in January calling for the NSGP funding to be increased. The push to increase the NSGP funding level also included a series of in-person meetings with key lawmakers as well as public advocacy, including op-eds published in the Hill, the Forward and other publications.

PROMOTIONS ACHIEVMENTS

AND

Welcome to... . . . Rabbi Moshe Brandsdorfer, Executive Director of Torah Initiatives. In his new role, Rabbi Brandsdorfer will join Rabbi Jack Abramowitz, Rabbi Elyada Goldwicht and Rabbi Moshe Schwed to strengthen the many existing Torah Initiatives programs, as well as to broaden its horizons to provide engaging and meaningful Torah content to Jews across the world. Rabbi Brandsdorfer most recently worked at the Jewish Community Council of the Rockaway Peninsula, where he served as Executive Director for five years. Rabbi Brandsdorfer was a talmid of Sh’or Yoshuv in Lawrence, New York for four years; received his bachelor’s from Brooklyn College; and completed management and business courses at Boston University, Columbia University’s School of Business and Notre Dame. . . . Roslyn ("Roz") Beberman, Major Gifts Officer for Institutional Advancement, East Coast. Roz will be engaging current and prospective donors to secure

resources for the OU. Her focus will include support for all OU departments; the Benefactor Circle; and OU Membership. Roz previously worked at Rutgers University, her alma mater, where she spent fourteen years in fundraising and development. She is excited to meet with all interested champions of the OU, with a focus on Northern New Jersey and Westchester counties.

. . . Rabbi Mikey Albala, Chief Development Officer, New York NCSY. Rabbi

Albala will be overseeing all of New York NCSY’s fundraising efforts and working to increase NCSY’s impact and imprint in the communities it services. Having begun his nonprofit career at NCSY sixteen years ago, Rabbi Albala returns to NCSY as an experienced fundraiser, having most recently served as Director of Institutional Advancement for Chai Lifeline. He has also served as Director of Strategic Growth at Rofeh Cholim Cancer Society (RCCS).

Congratulations to... . . . Jenna Beltser, Director of the OU Impact Accelerator, on being named

to the Detroit Jewish News “36 Under 36,” an annual list of young Jewish professionals in the Metro Detroit area who are making an impact on the Jewish world. As the founding director of the department, Jenna designed the curriculum and the program’s cohort system, which provides six nonprofit startups annually with leadership training and mentorship. This honor also recognizes the significant impression that the Impact Accelerator has had on Jewish communal life since its founding three years ago.

. . . Dena Cooperman, on her promotion to Executive Director of the Jewish Union Foundation (JUF) in New York. JUF is a division of Yachad that operates state-run services. In this role, Dena will oversee all aspects of JUF programmatically and administratively. She has worked with Yachad and JUF for the past thirteen years in multiple roles, most recently as program supervisor of all programmatic areas of JUF, including its adult day programming and vocational services.

. . . Raquel ("Rocky") Selevan, on her promotion to Director of Yachad New Jersey and

Executive Director of JUF in New Jersey. In this role, Raquel will oversee the adult day services program in New Jersey, and is excited to work with the team to enhance the program curriculum, further program growth and help create more jobs for Yachad's vocational program participants.

Prior to joining the OU, Rocky worked at Manhattan Day School, the NYU Child Study Center and as Assistant Director of Camp Shoshanim.

Summer 5782/2022 JEWISH ACTION

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NEW FROM OU PRESS The following is excerpted from:

Foundation of Faith: A Tapestry of Insights and Illuminations on Pirkei Avot BASED ON THE THOUGHT AND WRITINGS OF RABBI NORMAN LAMM Edited by Rabbi Mark Dratch OU Press

Gemilut Hasadim Hesed means love. The word gemilut comes from the word gamal which normally means maturity, weaning, coming to fruition—as in the verse vayigmol shekeidim or vayigamel Yitzhak. Hesed alone is pretty, but such love that is inconsequential remains childish.

However, when it is expressed in deeds, in behavior, in conduct, in acts of kindness and gentleness, of help and compassion, of charity and pity and sharing—then it is gamal, it is mature, and we have gemilut Hasadim.

All of us are possessed of the quality of Hesed or love.

But each of us is charged with gamal, with growing up and up and up and up—so that our Hesed matures as gemilut Hasadim.

Hesed When we say in our Shemoneh Esreh that we praise G-d Who is Elokei Avraham, Elokei Yitzhak, ve’Elokei Ya’akov—the G-d of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob—we are offering, according to the Kotzker Rebbe, a symbolic affirmation of the Mishnah which tells us that the world rests on the three great principles of the study of Torah, of service, and of the doing of good deeds. These represent, in reverse order, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Yet, and this is the climax of the blessing according to the interpretation of the Kotzker, the greatest of all these qualities, the most preeminent of these three sublime Jewish principles, the one which alone can lead us out of exile into geulah and is therefore the most redemptive of all, is gemilut Hasadim, the doing of good deeds, the act of Hesed, symbolized by Abraham.

Thus, when the Rabbis (Talmud, Pesahim 117b, interpreting the verse, “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing“) quote G-d as saying to Abraham bekha hotmin, that only he, Abraham, would be present in the seal of the blessing, they meant that good deeds of kindness are superior to study and to 84

JEWISH ACTION Summer 5782/2022

prayer (service) as Jewish qualities. Hence, when we bless G-d Who is “magen Avraham, the Shield of Abraham,” we affirm in the form of prayer that Hesed is greater than study or prayer.

To assert that gemilut Hasadim is accorded greater value in the Jewish tradition than either Torah or avodah is to violate the spirit of the Mishnah which tells us clearly that the world rests on three principles, a statement which implies the equality of all three values.

A world, like a tripod table, is unstable and wobbly if one leg is longer than the other two. I would therefore venture the following modification of the Kotzker’s interpretation of the Talmudic passage. All three values are equal in essence, in content. However—and this is the whole point of the Agadah—each of these three must be expressed and effectuated in a manner of Hesed. It is possible to practice Torah and avodah and gemilut Hasadim in a manner that is crude and undistinguished and ungracious; and it is possible to endow the same three acts with the seal of Hesed, with love and with warmth.

When, therefore, we mention only the name of Abraham in the seal of the blessing, as magen Avraham, what we are saying is that all three qualities, represented by the three patriarchs, must find their final form or expression, their Hatimah or seal, in the manner symbolized by Abraham: Hesed.

Ahavat Yisrael The late saintly Kapishnitzer Rebbe, zt”l, put it beautifully when he said that if you love a fellow Jew because he is learned, that is an act of the love of scholars. If you love him because he supports the Torah, you have fulfilled the requirement of the love of Torah. If your love issues from admiration of his or her charitableness, that is a case of the love of tzedakah. But if you love a Jew who is neither scholarly nor a supporter of Torah nor a person of charity—that is ahavat Yisrael!

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 Elaine Grossman, OU Benefactor Circle Coordinator, 212-613-8350 or grossmane@ou.org.

AMBASSADOR $1,000,000 + DAN AND EWA ABRAHAM DRS. FELIX AND MIRIAM GLAUBACH BECKY AND AVI KATZ 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 DAHAN FAMILY PHILANTHROPIES ROBERT AND MICHELLE DIENER MITCHELL AND ANNETTE EICHEN 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

DAILYGIVING.ORG THE GUSTAVE AND CAROL JACOBS CENTER FOR KASHRUT EDUCATION MORDECAI Z”L AND MONIQUE KATZ THE KOHELET FOUNDATION THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER LOS ANGELES THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO MICHAEL AND ANDREA LEVEN DAVID AND DEBRA MAGERMAN MAYBERG FOUNDATION RAPHAEL AND RIVKA NISSEL RALLA KLEPAK FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION IN THE PERFORMING ARTS ERIC AND GALE A”H ROTHNER RUDERMAN FAMILY FOUNDATION MARK AND BARBARA SILBER MORIS AND LILLIAN TABACINIC UJA-FEDERATION OF NEW YORK JOYCE AND JEREMY WERTHEIMER

FOUNDER $50,000 - $99,999 AARON AND MARIE BLACKMAN FOUNDATION ALLEN AND DEANNA ALEVY HOWARD AND CHAYA BALTER

LEWIS AND LAURI BARBANEL DANIEL AND RAZIE BENEDICT JUDI AND JASON BERMAN HILLEL AND CHARLOTTE BRACHFELD THE CAYRE FAMILY CRAIN-MALING FOUNDATION: WWW.CRAINMALING.ORG CROSS RIVER BANK NEIL AND SHERRY COHEN GRANT AND JENNIFER DINNER GERSHON AND AVIVA DISTENFELD ROBERT EISENBERG EISENREICH FAMILY FOUNDATION FOUNDATION FOR JEWISH DAY SCHOOLS, GREATER PHILADELPHIA GEORGE AND MARTHA RICH FOUNDATION AMIR AND STACEY GOLDMAN DR. EPHRAIM AND RITA GREENFIELD KLEIN, JAFFA, AND HALPERN FAMILIES RICHARD HIRSCH DR. ALLAN AND SANDY JACOB 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

MOSAIC UNITED DRS. JAY AND SUSAN PEPOSE JONATHAN AND ANNE RAND SAMIS FOUNDATION NATHAN AND LOUISE SCHWARTZ TZEDAKA FUND RABBI ZECHARIA AND CHANA SENTER THE SHAMAH FAMILY GARY AND MALKA TORGOW DAVID AND GILA WEINSTEIN THE WEISS FAMILY, CLEVELAND, OHIO MEREDITH AND KENNY YAGER JOSH AND ALLISON ZEGEN

BUILDER $25,000 - $49,999 RAANAN AND NICOLE AGUS LIOR AND DRORA ARUSSY SUE AND BILL AUERBACH DAVID AND NATALIE BATALION SABY AND ROSI BEHAR SHAEL AND JOAN BELLOWS HARRY H. BEREN Z”L BRIAN AND DAFNA BERMAN THE CHARLES CRANE FAMILY FOUNDATION VIVIAN AND DANIEL CHILL DRS. BENJAMIN AND ESTHER CHOUAKE COMBINED JEWISH PHILANTHROPIES THE CONDUIT FOUNDATION SHIMON AND CHAYA ECKSTEIN JEFFREY AND SHIRA EISENBERG JACOB FADER JUDITH AND ALLEN I. FAGIN GREATER MIAMI JEWISH FEDERATION FALIC FAMILY FOUNDATION GERALD AND MIRIAM FRIEDKIN HOWARD TZVI AND CHAYA FRIEDMAN RAYMOND AND ELIZABETH GINDI ARTHUR AND JUDITH GOLDBERG JOSH GOLDBERG JERRY AND ANNE GONTOWNIK RABBI DANIEL AND JUDITH GOODMAN EVE GORDON-RAMEK HARVEY GREENSTEIN ROBYN AND SHUKIE GROSSMAN MOSHE AND TIRA GUBIN ESTATE OF ALLEN HABELSON JAMES AND AMY A”H HABER JACK HADDAD DR. ELLIOT Z”L AND LILLIAN HAHN MARC AND RUKI HALPERT ROBERT AND DEBRA HARTMAN J. SAMUEL HARWIT AND MANYA HARWIT-AVIV CHARITABLE TRUST THE HELEN AND IRVING SPATZ FOUNDATION STEVEN HELLER ED AND ROBYN HOFFMAN/ HOFFMAN CATERING ALISSA AND SHIMMIE HORN MICHAEL AND BATYA JACOB PAUL AND CHAVI JACOBS JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER ATLANTA JEWISH FEDERATION OF S. PALM BEACH COUNTY NATALIE AND DAVIDI JONAS

MICHAEL AND JUDY KAISER BENYAMIN AND ESTI KAMINETZKY MICHAEL AND ELISSA KATZ KARMELA A”H AND JERRY KLASNER LAIZER AND JESSICA KORNWASSER ALBERT LABOZ ESTATE OF PHILLIP LEONIAN DANIEL AND ELANA LOWY M.B. GLASSMAN FOUNDATION LYNN AND JOEL MAEL IRIS AND SHALOM MAIDENBAUM AZI AND RACHEL MANDEL DR. RALPH AND JUDITH MARCUS MRS. FEGI MAUER MARTIN AND ELIZABETH NACHIMSON YEHUDA AND ANNE NEUBERGER HENRY AND MINDY ORLINSKY THE OVED FAMILY RALPH S. GINDI FAMILY FOUNDATION ALEXANDER AND RACHEL RINDNER MALKI AND J. PHILIP ROSEN HENRY AND VIVIAN ROSENBERG JAMES AND LOREN ROSENZWEIG ROBBIE AND HELENE ROTHENBERG GENIE AND STEVE SAVITSKY ROBERT AND TAMAR SCHARF MENACHEM AND RENA SCHNAIDMAN SHANA GLASSMAN FOUNDATION MEYER AND BAILA SILVERBERG BARRY AND JOY SKLAR DAVID AND AMY STRACHMAN MICHAEL AND ARIANNE WEINBERGER THE WEININGER FOUNDATION INC. ESTHER AND JERRY WILLIAMS MR. JERRY AND MRS. SARA WOLASKY DAVID AND BECKY ZWILLINGER

VISIONARY $18,000 - $24,999 DANIEL AND LIORA ADLER ISAAC ASH EZRA ASHKENAZI ISAAC ASHKENAZI MAX AND ELANA BERLIN DENNIS AND DEBRA BERMAN ANDREA BIER MARCUS Z”L AND DORIS BLUMKIN JULIE AND PAUL CANDAU CONTRA COSTA JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER PETER AND LORI DEUTSCH LINDA AND MICHAEL ELMAN EMT ACTION FUND ARI AND ALISON GROSS MARC AND RUKI HALPERT DAVID AND CHAYA TOVA HARTMAN LANCE AND RIVKIE HIRT JOAN AND PETER HOFFMAN IRA WALDBAUM FAMILY FOUNDATION CHAIM AND SURI KAHN RABBI MARK AND LINDA KARASICK JACK ALBERT KASSIN KIDDESIGNS, INC. DANA AND JEFFREY KORBMAN MARC AND RENA KWESTEL JEFF AND MARCI LEFKOVITS CHAIM AND BARA LOEWENTHAL DR. LOUIS AND CHANIE MALCMACHER EZRA AND LAUREN MERKIN STEPHEN AND EVE MILSTEIN IRA AND DR. RIVA COLLINS MITZNER

CAL AND JANINE NATHAN ISABELLE AND DAVID NOVAK MARC PENN ALLEN AND MIRIAM PFEIFFER IAN AND CAROL RATNER THE REFUGE - A HEALING PLACE YECHIEL AND NOMI ROTBLAT STEPHEN AND JESSICA SAMUEL GEORGE AND IRINA SCHAEFFER LISA AND JONATHAN SCHECHTER JEREMY AND DAHLIA SIMONS BARUCH AND SUSIE SINGER EDDIE SITT MORRIS AND RACHEL TABUSH TRAVEL INSURANCE ISRAEL LIZZY AND JOSH TRUMP UNITED LEGWEAR RABBI STEVEN AND YAEL WEIL JEFFREY AND SHARONA WEINBERG GEORGE AND JONI WHITE

PARTNER $10,000 - $17,999 ALISA ABECASSIS ISABELLE COHEN-ADLER STEVEN AND RENEE ADELSBERG RABBI SHLOMO AND MIRIAM APPEL ART HARRIS FOUNDATION JACK AND REGINE ASHKENAZIE AARON AND TAMMY ATTIAS RACHEL AND AVRUMI BAK BALANOFF FOUNDATION IRA AND SHERI BALSAM YALE AND ANN BARON DR. MOSHE AND BRYNDIE BENARROCH MRS. ROCHEL LEAH BERNSTEIN MR. AND MRS. ISAAC BERMAN RABBI JULIUS AND DOROTHY BERMAN SION AND LORRAINE BETESH YEHUDA AND FAIGE BIENSTOCK HARVEY AND JUDY BLITZ MR. LUDWIG BRAVMANN DAVID AND CHEDVA BREAU KEVIN BRENNAN KEITH AND LAUREN BRESLAUER & FAMILY JOSHUA AND AMY BUCHSBAYEW VANESSA AND RAYMOND CHALME ARI AND ERIKA COHEN CAROL AND JEFF COHEN TZIPPY AND DANIEL COHEN HAIM AND BARBARA DABAH FRED AND SUZAN EHRMAN ELKON FAMILY FOUNDATION DAVID AND DEVORA ELKOUBY DRS. GILAT AND YOSSI ENGLANOFF BARI AND DANIEL ERBER DR. RINA AND NAHUM FELMAN RABBI JOSEPH AND SARAH FELSEN FIRST HORIZON BANK NATALIO AND ANNE FRIDMAN EZRA AND RACHELI FRIEDBERG PAUL AND DIANE GALLANT ILANA AND JEFF GDANSKI ANDRES AND KARINA GELRUD ARNOLD AND ESTHER GERSON ISAAC GINDI MARY JO ROBINSON AND GORDON GLASER

MURRAY AND BATSHEVA GOLDBERG JOSEPH AND LAURA GOLDMAN AARON AND MICHAL GORIN PHILIP AND AVIVA GREENLAND RABBI MICAH AND RIVKIE GREENLAND DR. ALAN AND MIRIAM GREENSPAN ABE AND RONIT GUTNICKI ELAN AND MONICA GUTTMAN DR. BARRY AND SHIRA HAHN SALOMON HARARI HARRY AND JANE FISCHEL FOUNDATION RABBI MOSHE AND MINDI HAUER THE HERBERT SMILOWITZ FOUNDATION JAMES AND CAROL HERSCOT HOWARD HOFFMAN AND SONS FOUNDATION ISAAC H. TAYLOR ENDOWMENT FUND RABBI MOSHE AND DEVORA ISENBERG THE JACOBY FAMILY JEWISH FEDERATION IN THE HEART OF NEW JERSEY JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER HOUSTON DR. JULIE AND RABBI DR. JOSH JOSEPH RUTHY AND AARON JUNGREIS DR. BERNARD AND MELANIE KAMINETSKY MORRIS AND SONDRA KAPLAN DANIEL J. AND CAROLINE R. KATZ RABBI ETHAN AND DEBORAH KATZ SAMUEL AND VICKI KATZ AARON AND TOBI KELLER ALICE AND JACOB KLEIN AVI AND RAVITAL KORN MARTIN AND SARAH KORNBLUM LAWRENCE AND EVELYN KRAUT SCOTT AND AVIVA KRIEGER JONAH AND FRAN KUPIETZKY KIM AND JONATHAN KUSHNER DANIEL AND AMANDA NUSSBAUM LAIFER JONATHAN AND SHARI LAUER RICHARD AND LEORA LINHART VIVIAN AND DAVID LUCHINS JEREMY AND TAMAR LUSTMAN JEFFREY AND ADRIA MANDEL ELLIOTT AND CHAVI MANDELBAUM DAVID AND MICHELLE MARGULES SHARI AND YAAKOV MARKOVITZ MASA ISRAEL JOURNEY MICHAEL AND ALIZA MERMELSTEIN 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 AND JOYCE MOSKOWITZ JACK A”H AND GITTA NAGEL AVI AND DEBRA NAIDER GABRIEL AND BETH NECHAMKIN TZVI AND ALEXANDRA ODZER AARON AND AHUVA ORLOFSKY IN MEMORY OF RABBI RAPHAEL PELCOVITZ Z”L, FROM THE PELCOVITZ FAMILY

DAVID AND ELANA POLLACK ISRAEL AND NECHAMA POLAK MOSHE AND YAFFA POPACK DANIEL AND LEYLA POSNER DRS. NATHAN AND RACHEL RABINOVITCH DR. AZRIEL AND ILANA RAUZMAN BARRY AND HARRIET RAY LAWRENCE REIN DRS. CRAIG AND JACKIE REISS KAREN AND SHAWN ROSENTHAL MARC AND ALISSA ROSSMAN HENRY AND GOLDA REENA ROTHMAN RALPH RUBENSTEIN KENNETH AND MINDY SAIBEL ETHEL AND STAN SCHER JAY AND JEANIE SCHOTTENSTEIN TIBERIO AND ELLYSE SCHWARTZ DAVID SHABSELS MICHAEL SHABSELS JOSEPH SHAMIE LOUIS SHAMIE TAMAR AND AARON SHEFFEY SHULCHAN RIVKA FUND STEPHANIE AND DAVID SOKOL DR. AND MRS. ETHAN SPIEGLER THE STAENBERG FAMILY FOUNDATION AVI AND DEENA STEIN MARVIN AND DEBRA STERNBERG MARILYN RABHAN SWEDARSKY AND DR. ROBERT SWEDARSKY TALK N SAVE DR. AND MRS. SHIMMY TENNENBAUM DR. CHARLES AND SHARON TRAURING EPHRAIM AND AVIVA VILENSKI STEPHEN AND MIRIAM WALLACH THE JOSEPH LEROY AND ANN C. WARNER FUND ADAM AND JODI WEINSTEIN TOVA AND HOWARD WEISER ARI AND CAROLINE WEISMAN JESSICA AND LENNY WEISS ADAM AND AVA WEISSTUCH MOSHE AND DR. ILANA WERTENTEIL ALAN AND DENISE WILDES SUSANNE AND MICHAEL WIMPFHEIMER SHIMON AND HENNIE WOLF MORRIS AND ARIELLE WOLFSON DRS. YECHIEL AND SURI ZAGELBAUM ALAN AND LORI ZEKELMAN MARK AND JESSICA ZITTER YAIR AND DINA ZUCKERMAN

PATRON $5,000 - $9,999 JONATHAN AND LEAH ADLER ADM/ROI DR. LISA AIKEN MICHAEL AINGORN ARIEL TOURS, INC. MICHAEL AND SUSAN BAUM DR. AND MRS. YITZHAK AND ELLEN BERGER BENJAMIN AND ELIZABETH BERMAN JOEL AND DINA BESS CAROL LASEK AND HOWARD BIENENFELD 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 AND NANCY BRENT MICHAEL AND ALLISON BROMBERG YISHAI AND BLUMA BRONER THE BROOKLINE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION

CCS FUNDRAISING DANIEL AND DEVORAH CHEFITZ ADAM AND ILANA CHILL SARI AND JASON CIMENT JEREMY AND HILDA COHEN GOBBIE AND SHAYNA COHN CONTRA COSTA JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER PACE AND AILEEN COOPER RABBI ABRAHAM AND ROSALYN COOPER ETHAN AND AMY COREY RICK AND MARCY CORNFELD 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 GARY AND KAREN EISENBERG JEFFREY AND JENNIFER EISENSTEIN RINA AND RABBI DOV EMERSON BINAH AND DANNY ENGLANDER DRS. ROBERT AND KAY FAGUET GLORIA FELDMAN RABBI DAVE AND CHANI FELSENTHAL PAT AND ERROL FINE MARTIN AND LEORA FINEBERG ARYEH AND DORIT FISCHER RON AND LISA ROSENBAUM FISHER JOSEPH AND RACHEL FOX DR. BEN AND CARA FREEDMAN JEREMY AND DANA FRENKEL SURA AND BERT FRIED ALAN FRIEDMAN ALLEN AND RACHEL FRIEDMAN MARK AND CHERYL FRIEDMAN DR. STAN AND MARLA FROHLINGER JOEY GABBAY ANDREW AND YVETTE GARDNER JASON AND JOCELYNE GARDNER LAWRENCE AND JUDITH GARSHOFSKY SHAI AND TOVA GERSON RISA AND ZEV GEWURZ RYAN AND NICOLE GALIA GILBERT LENNY AND ESTELLE GLASS MR. AND MRS. ERNIE GOLDBERGER EVAN AND REBECCA GOLDENBERG MR. AND MRS. DAN GOLDISH RABBI BEN AND AVIVA GONSHER DR. SUSAN GRAYSEN AND FAMILY JONATHAN GREEN FREDA GREENBAUM DR. EDWIN AND CECILE GROMIS DR. STEVEN AND LISA GRONOWITZ ARYEH AND GOLDIE GROSS ARIEL AND ALETA GRUNBERG DR. ELI AND SORA GRUNSTEIN DR. DANIEL AND TSIPORA GURELL MICHAEL HADDAD JOSH AND MARJORIE HARRIS HC STAFFING AND PAYROLL SOLUTIONS SETH AND ELISHEVA HELLER CHAIM AND ARIELLA HERMAN CHANI AND DANIEL HERRMANN DOV AND LAURA HERTZ THE HIDARY FAMILY DR. GARY AND CHERYL HOBERMAN YISROEL AND SHIRA HOCHBERG CATHY AND DAVID HOFFMAN NORMA HOLZER SHLOMO AND DORIE HORWITZ DR. SHALOM AND LORI HUBERFELD DR. DAVID AND BARBARA HURWITZ YAACOV AND RAYME ISAACS MOTTY AND HADASSA JACOBOWITZ STANLEY AND PHYLLIS JASPAN JEWISH COMMUNITY FEDERATION OF RICHMOND DAVID AND MICHAL KAHAN LEORA KAMINER STUART KARON AND DR. JODI WENGER

AARON AND JILL KATZ AHRON AND RIVKY KATZ BENJAMIN KELLOGG DOV AND AMY KESSELMAN DAVID AND ROBERTA KIMMEL STEVEN KIMMELMAN ROBIN AND BRAD KLATT MICHAEL AND JULIE KLEIN MR. ROBERT KORDA JOSEPH AND HANA KORNWASSER HARRY KOTLER DARREN AND MARNI KOTTLE JOSH KRAFT JOSHUA AND BRYNA LANDES ARMAND AND ESTHER LASKY PINCHUS AND DEBORAH SCHICK LAUFER IN MEMORY OF JUDY LEFKOVITS ANDY AND ISA LEFKOWITZ JOSHUA AND ERICA LEGUM MARSHALL AND DOREEN LERNER SHULLY LICHTMAN HYLTON AND LEAH LIGHTMAN MORDECHAI AND PENINA LIPTON MAURY AND ELINOR LITWACK DAVID AND JUDITH LOBEL JOSEF LOEFFLER DR. LAWRENCE AND SHIRLEY LOEWENTHAL EVAN AND EVI MAKOVSKY NOAH AND ARINN MAKOVSKY DAVID MANDEL DR. DAVID AND STACI MARGULIS TZACHI AND ELISHEVA MEISEL BENAY AND IRA MEISELS SHMUEL MELAMED RONEET MERKIN ADAM AND FRANCINE MERMELSTEIN LEONARD AND BEVERLY MEZEI JENNIFER AND DROR MICHAELSON YALE AND GAIL MILLER STEVE AND MALKA MIRETZKY DR. DANIEL AND STEPHANIE MISHKIN NOAH AND SUZANNE MISHKIN MARSHALL AND JEAN MIZRAHI HARRY AND ROBIN MORTKOWITZ ELLIOT AND AVA MOSKOWITZ DR. MICHAEL AND ELIZABETH MUSCHEL SHARONA AND IRWIN NACHIMSON MICHAEL AND MICHELLE NACHMANI DANIEL AND ANNE NAGEL RABBI YAAKOV AND SARA NAGEL JONATHAN AND MINDY NEISS ELI AND TALIA NEUBERG ZACHARY NEUGUT STEVEN AND MARTINE NEWMAN ANNA BAUM AND BARRY NOVACK TERRY AND GAIL NOVETSKY SCOTT AND RONIT ORLANSKI AVI AND ALISSA OSSIP DREW AND CAREENA PARKER PROF. MARTIN PATT PEOPLE’S UNITED INSURANCE AGENCY ALIZA AND MICHAEL PILEVSKY DENA AND SETH PILEVSKY MORDECHAI AND ALIZA POLSTEIN LARRY AND ANDREA PORTAL MR. AND MRS. DAVID PORUSH YITZIE AND NANCY PRETTER GAIL PROPP RICHARD AND ORA RABINOVICH NORMAN AND LINDY RADOW DR. STEVEN AND BELINDA RAIKIN GEORGIA RAVITZ REGALS FOUNDATION YARON AND LISA REICH JASON AND SHANI REITBERGER DR. WESTON AND DENISE RICHTER GAIL AND BINYAMIN RIEDER RALPH AND LEAH RIEDER DR. JAY AND MARJORIE ROBINOW IRA AND DEBRA ROSENBERG YITZHOK AND TAMAR ROSENTHAL JOSHUA AND ALYSE ROZENBERG

RABBI DANIEL AND ELISHEVA RUBENSTEIN IDELLE RUDMAN ZVI AND SHARONNE RUDMAN LARRY AND SHELLY RUSSAK MILTON AND SHIRLEY SABIN MARVIN AND ROZ SAMUELS SAPPHIRE WEALTH ADVISORY GROUP DAVID AND ROSLYN SAVITSKY TAMMI AND BENNETT SCHACHTER TOBY MACY SCHAFFER ROBERT AND ANDREA SCHECHTER DR. MARCEL AND TAMAR SCHEINMAN DR. JOSEF SCHENKER RONNIE AND SANDRA SCHIFF TERRI AND NEIL SCHLOSS JERRY AND BARBARA SCHRECK MALI AND STEVE SCHWARTZ SHLOMO AND GITTY SCHWARTZ SCOTT AND JAMIE SELIGSOHN ALEXANDER SELIGSON ANDREW AND STEPHANI SEROTTA ARI AND SHOSHANA SHABAT RALPH AND SARAH SHAMAH RUTH SHANKER BENJAMIN AND MOR SHAPIRO JAYNE SHAPIRO MICHAEL AND TALI SHAPIRO SHEFA BRACHA FUND YAAKOV AND SARI SHEINFELD HELEN AND GERALD SILVER DR. MORRIS AND SHARON SILVER DANIEL AND NOMI SILVERMAN TZVI SIMPSON MICHAEL SMITH KERRI AND JEFFREY SNOW FAMILY FOUNDATION BARRY AND JODIE SOBEL JAIME AND MARILYN SOHACHESKI JONATHAN AND DODI SPIELMAN RUTH BRANDT SPITZER GARY AND NAOMI STEIN STEINIG FAMILY: ESTATE OF MELVIN AND MIRELE STEINIG A”H MR. AND MRS. ABRAHAM J. STERN RACHELLE AND ZEV STERN DR. DAVID AND DOROTHY STOLL AARON AND ARIELLA STRASSMAN ABRAHAM SULTAN MICHAEL SWIECA SAM AND NANCY SUTTON MATT TEICHMAN JONATHAN AND RACHEL TIGER TAL TOURS SAM AND TZIPI TRAMIEL SHLOMO AND RONNI TROODLER DANIEL AND ZAHAVAH URETSKY KIRILL AND MARY VOROBEYCHIK DANIEL AND SARA WALZMAN JOSHUA AND LESLIE WANDERER IN MEMORY OF DOVID BEN REB YOSEF WEINBERG A”H BARBARA AND HOWARD WEINER ESTHER AND BARUCH WEINSTEIN LENNIE AND JESSICA WEISS AMNON AND RONIT WENGER RABBI ARYEH AND YAEL WIELGUS CHAIM AND MIRIAM WIELGUS HOWARD AND BATIA WIESENFELD DAVID WITTENBERG JORGE AND TAMMARA WOLDENBERG DAVID AND NATALIE WOLF RABBI SHABSAI AND DEBBIE WOLFE FRAN AND DAVID WOOLF ARIEL AND BETH ZELL EREZ ZEVULUNOV

List as of 03/31/22 We apologize for any omissions.

If you wish to be acknowledged, please contact Elaine Salvit Grossman at salvite@ou.org

OU-JLIC Downtown students packing food as part of an Abraham’s House project. Courtesy of Rabbi Joe Wolfson

Inside

PHILANTHROPY GOING CRYPTO: THE FUTURE OF PHILANTHROPY ARRIVES AT THE OU

By Merri Ukraincik

C

rypto charity is booming in the US. Statistics prove the point. The Giving Block (TGB), an online crypto philanthropy platform, received nearly $70 million in donations for its affiliated nonprofits in 2021, 1,588 percent more than in 2020. Cryptocurrency gifts donated through Fidelity Charitable, which houses donor-advised funds, exceeded $330 million in 2021, more than twelve times the amount contributed in 2020.

In a major move for the organization, the OU crossed into this new frontier in February 2022, when it began accepting crypto contributions through a partnership with the online platform Crypto for Charity. OU President Moishe Bane enthuses about the development. “This is a great opportunity for our constituents to donate to our vital programs in a new way.”

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The organization has already received its first two crypto gifts—from David Isakov to support Abraham’s House, a vital learning and chesed program of OU-JLIC Downtown; and from Meir Wexler for Southern NCSY. Both donors hope that these gifts, beyond their programmatic impact, will alter the OU’s fundraising landscape by setting the stage for crypto giving going forward.

A Cryptocurrency Primer Cryptocurrency, also called crypto, is a digital currency that takes its name from its use of encryption to authenticate and secure online transactions. Crypto units, or coins, are generated through a computer process called mining, then stored in crypto wallets.

Crypto is unique in that it relies on blockchain technology, a decentralized online-only database of crypto trans-

Inside PHILANTHROPY

actions. Coins are transferred directly from wallet to wallet, without a third party to wire the funds or verify the process. Nor is the system regulated in the traditional way investing and banking are.

While Bitcoin, the first crypto unit, was initially mined in 2009, crypto remains a relatively young currency. Steadily, though, more individuals are becoming conversant with its technology as it gains popularity and is accepted as a form of payment in a growing number of commercial settings. It has proven lucrative overall for investors despite market fluctuation, especially in an era when fiat currencies are often volatile.

And it is, by all descriptions, a financial sensation.

As natives in the digital world, Millennials are more likely than older generations to buy crypto. Plus, the ability to track their investments in real time and to see exactly where on a blockchain they are stored is a huge incentive given their cautious approach to big government and big data.

Notable, too, is that owners of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are more inclined to be charitable, according to an October 2021 Fidelity Charitable study. Nearly half of them donated $1,000 or more to nonprofits in 2020, compared to 33 percent of the total investor community.

Crypto Opens a Window for NCSY “I took a course at Princeton on how blockchain— colloquially known as DLT [distributed ledger technology]—fundamentally works and went down a rabbit hole,” recalls Meir “Wex” Wexler, who was astounded by its world-changing potential. “Blockchain technology is as monumental as the arrival of the Internet and the printing press.”

When NCSY National Director for Development Tiffany Yankovich, who has known Wex for twenty-five years, approached him about making the groundbreaking, initial crypto gift to NCSY, the idea resonated immediately. But he told her he would consider it only after teaching her about the technology. He sees this education as critical to NCSY’s success in tapping digital natives—Millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha— through this new wave of philanthropy.

“Given his background in crypto and his many years in NCSY in both the Southern and Midwest regions, I knew this was the perfect opportunity for him,” Yankovich notes. She took him up on his offer.

Wex is Chief Investment Officer of Descrypto, Inc., a publicly traded holding company that acquires blockchain startups, and the co-founder and CEO of Union of Transparency, a sort of Better Business Bureau that shields investors from scams in the blockchain space. He also serves as an advisor to several blockchain startups, including Computis, a crypto-tax software company.

CRYPTOCURRENCY 101 Cryptocurrency or Crypto Digital currency that gets its name from the encryption used to verify and secure online transactions without the oversight of a regulatory third party.

Blockchain An online-only database that stores a decentralized, secure record of crypto transactions.

Coin Unit of cryptocurrency. Bitcoin was first on the scene and is best known. Ether, Ethereum’s unit, is another popular cryptocurrency.

Private Key Similar to a password, it creates an easily verifiable digital signature that proves crypto ownership and provides access to cryptocurrencies.

Crypto Wallet Crypto wallets store and protect an investor’s private keys, while enabling the sending and receiving of crypto payment.

Merri Ukraincik has written for the Lehrhaus, Tablet, the New York Jewish Week, Hevria, the Wisdom Daily, and other publications, including Jewish Action. She is the author of I Live. Send Help, a history of the Joint Distribution Committee.

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Yankovich says that Wexler showed her “the vital importance of making NCSY (and by extension, the OU at large) hospitable to crypto donation. Doing so conveys that we are not stuck in our ways, and that is key to engaging younger audiences who want to give differently from their parents and grandparents.”

Meir and Becca Wexler’s gift to Southern NCSY is in honor of Becca’s decade of dedicated service as the region’s relationship specialist and in loving memory of her mother Linda Cohn, who passed away on Hoshana Rabbah this year.

Wexler is grateful for the chance to be a lodestar “for new pipeline funding to NCSY by modeling how to reach the thirty-five and under set, beyond the usual base of donors over fifty.”

“It’s an honor to give back,” he adds. “I hope my fellow NCSY alumni will join me.”

Crypto Challenge Accepted Like many of his peers, David Isakov allocates a portion of his investment portfolio to crypto. A corporate attorney for hedge and private equity funds, he watches the market, taking into consideration fluctuations and tax impact, to determine the right time to make a charitable contribution. So he was poised to say yes when Rabbi

Joe Wolfson asked him about fulfilling a commitment to OU-JLIC Downtown’s new initiative, Abraham’s House, in cryptocurrency.

An NYU alum, Isakov met Rabbi Wolfson when he returned to the area for a Chanukah event. He was later inspired to join a Killing Covid with Kindness effort, launched by the rabbi and his wife Corinne Shmuel, who co-coordinate the OU-JLIC Downtown community.

During the pandemic, this group of 200 volunteers assisted local residents who had no other lifeline, making visits and phone calls to isolated seniors, delivering groceries and distributing more than 180,000 free meals, running Zoom reading groups for middle school kids struggling with remote learning, and securing hundreds of vaccine appointments for those unable to navigate the digital booking system.

“Our contributions, both physical and financial, filled a void in the neighborhood at the height of Covid,” Isakov reflects. “And we as volunteers found important connection in the experience. It was life-changing. It was also an enormous kiddush Hashem.”

Abraham’s House evolved out of the Killing Covid initiative. Isakov was excited to help get it off the ground because its mission of building community around chesed resonated. Each semester-long cohort of university students and young professionals will study the Torah

Southern NCSYers in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, at the Winter Regional 2022 Shabbaton this past February. The Winter Regional is one of Southern NCSY’s donor-supported programs that can be a beneficiary of cryptocurrency donations. Photo: Etan Vann 90

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Inside PHILANTHROPY

“

Crypto is hip, and it brings a sense of relevance and cachet to the organization.

It sends a message that the OU’s work is cutting edge because the organization is at the forefront of this development.

— DAVID ISAKOV

value of assisting others, while also engaging in the hands-on work of helping those in need.

“David is a longtime supporter of our programs,” says Rabbi Wolfson. “But it was especially meaningful for him, and for us, that his was OU-JLIC’s first crypto gift—and the first ever to the OU—after the organization opened the door to this kind of giving.”

“Crypto currency is fast becoming an everyday reality for folks in their late thirties and younger,” says Rabbi Wolfson. “No one will consider a Bitcoin donation revolutionary fifteen years from now. But we are working with a population where trends emerge, and we are happy to be setting the pace.”

Isakov concurs, stressing that there is “absolutely no downside” to making the OU a welcoming venue for crypto donations.

He believes that “crypto is hip, and it brings a sense of relevance and cachet to the organization. It sends a message that the OU’s work is cutting edge because the organization is at the forefront of this development.”

The Future, Not a Fad There is a great deal of excitement around cryptocurrency as a high market asset. At the same time, the general population is becoming more familiar with its technology as it edges into our everyday lives. According to a recent White House statement, surveys indicate that approximately 40 million adult Americans (about 16 percent) have used, traded or invested in crypto. Yet in many ways, crypto remains very new terrain.

In early 2022, President Biden signed an executive order laying out a first national policy for digital assets that includes crypto oversight. Regulations and tax laws related to crypto and crypto giving are still evolving. A significant learning curve also remains for those unfamiliar with the inner workings of crypto but who are are eager to wade into its waters.

Nevertheless, crypto is the future, not a fad. It possesses enormous potential for investors and has the power to transform the philanthropic landscape.

An outstanding example of its metamorphic potential is the more than $50 million in crypto sent to Ukraine (as of this writing) to support its resistance against the Russian invasion. In late February, the Ukrainian government tweeted that it was accepting crypto donations and provided its official wallet address. Major blockchain businesses, industry leaders and thousands of individuals across the globe responded, generously opening their own crypto wallets. And nonprofit organizations providing humanitarian aid in Ukraine have raised millions of additional crypto, proving the extraordinary impact this new currency can have on the public good.

As Tiffany Yankovich observes, “Many people avoid engaging with crypto because they find the technology daunting. But there are so many resources out there to guide us and help us understand it. We at the OU have only to gain from it.”

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letters) just sat coldly in their place. But if the experience of Hebrew cannot be fully replicated, it certainly makes sense to use the full power of contemporary English to present the Bible’s core teachings, as they have been understood by Jews throughout the centuries.

It is with this awareness that we should read the anonymous preface: “We have prioritized the experience of the English, with the aim that how good the translation, something those holding this volume will . . . lose always gets lost. And the price of that themselves in the drama of the narrasomething goes up in proportion to the importance and complexity of the work. tive, the elegance of the poetry, the holiness of the laws and the relevance It is no wonder then that the rabbis saw of the wisdom” (p. xx). Both in tone and their own translation of the Torah into content, these eloquent words serve as Greek as nothing short of a tragedy.1 a good summary of this work. Though Yet it is equally obvious that most Jews today would have little or no access one can question certain phraseology or word choices (for example, maintaining to the Torah text if it were not available the King James translation of beheiin translation. That makes the attempt mah as “cattle” [Genesis 1:24], when to better capture the original for this that reflects the word’s usage in Middle audience a noble one. And noble would English, in which it included all domesbe a good description of the efforts put ticated animals, but not in contempoforth by Koren to write a new translarary English, in which it certainly does tion of the Jewish Bible in The Koren not), the writing is superb.

Tanakh Maalot—Magerman Edition.

The translation is written with a The main thing readers will want to broad contemporary audience in know is how good the translation is. The answer, however, will depend on who the mind and makes the Torah’s prose sound not too different from a reader is and what he or she is looking contemporary novel. This reflects a for. To cut to the chase, and so that my move from reverence to relevance, and criticism below not be misunderstood, from a sense of distance to familiarity. my answer is: given the stated goals and This move is most strongly symbolthe main audience for which it was writized by replacing the use of “thee” and ten, it is an excellent translation. “thou” in the old Koren edition to “you” In evaluating the translation (and in the new one. Likewise, by the editoactually any literary work), knowing rial decision to replace the scholarly its primary audience is critical. Very soon after I began my review, I realized Hebrew spellings to more colloquial ones, such that Ya’aqov now becomes that I was not part of that audience.

Yaakov. The introduction tells us that Someone who understands the origthis was done to create intimacy with inal language of a work will usually the text—something which makes a not want to read it in translation, all the more so when it is the word of G-d. great deal of sense if we want more people to read Tanach with greater The publishers, however, understood frequency. In all of these moves, and that there are many Jews and non-Jews in the artistic license sometimes taken who do not understand Hebrew and with the text, the editors show a keen nevertheless want to experience the understanding of the general audience Jewish Bible in a traditional way. that seeks greater accessibility to the Of course, that is an oxymoron. I world’s most influential book. am reminded of the beautiful metaYet by prioritizing readability, this phor for Hebrew in the classic animated translation perforce downgrades film Lights, in which the Hebrew letters another important aspect of the Jewish danced, moved and glowed, whereas experience of Tanach, one which may the Greek letters (it could have just as take precedence for Jews fully immersed easily been Latin, meaning English,

BOOKS

The Koren Tanakh Maalot— Magerman Edition

Translations by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, zt”l, and Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2021 2096 pages

Reviewed by Rabbi Francis Nataf

F

rom the Rambam’s commentary on the Mishnah and the Kuzari (both written in Arabic) all the way down to Asterix and Tintin (French), almost every one of us reads translations. Yet very few people actually give much thought to the difficult issues translation involves.

The two goals of all good translations are readability and faithfulness.

Accordingly, the biggest question faced by a translator is the relative weight to assign to these two goals when they are at odds. One thing is certain—no matter Rabbi Francis Nataf is a Jerusalem-based educator, translator and writer. He is associate editor of the Jewish Bible Quarterly, the author of the Redeeming Relevance series on the Torah and translator of many Torah classics for Sefaria.

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C R E AT E

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.

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in the Jewish tradition (even those with weak Hebrew or no Hebrew at all). And that is traditional talmud Torah—the practice of looking at every word, sometimes even every letter, of our foundational texts to derive meaning. Granted, this type of study is highly dependent on the Hebrew, but the closer the translation is to the original, the more such The creative license taken with the study can be simulated—or at least original text sometimes goes in the appreciated—in English. opposite direction as well, trying too Talmud Torah is predicated on the hard to follow rabbinic readings— notion that the original is somewhat which can paradoxically backfire: indeterminate, meaning that it allows One of the most interesting discusfor various possible meanings. The sions about the relationship between more the ambiguity of the original the Written Torah and its traditional is carried over into the translation, explanation centers upon the phrase, the more faithful it is to the creative “ayin tachat ayin” (Leviticus 24:20). The enterprise we know as talmud Torah. simple meaning (peshat) would seem Hence—while certainly true—the to be that someone who blinds another oft-mentioned assertion at the beginperson should be blinded as well. Yet the ning of the Koren Tanakh that “every rabbis insist that this is not the primary translation is an interpretation,” intention of the words here. Rather the should not be seen as a credo that Torah is instructing us to give moneexcuses reducing the richness of Biblitary compensation that would reflect the value of the blinded eye. cal texts to only one possible reading.

This dichotomy makes the phrase An example of the price paid for difficult to translate. Nevertheless, the sake of readability can be found most translations opt to retain what in Hagar’s encounter with an angel or seems to be the literal meaning, “an angels when she first runs away from eye for an eye.” Here, however, it is Sarai (Genesis 16:7-12). A famous translated as “the cost of . . . an eye for midrash (Bereishit Rabbah 45:7) takes an eye.” In this and other cases like it, note of the triple verbatim repetition a footnote appropriately indicates that of, “And an angel of the L-rd said to this is based on the rabbinic underher” (verses 9, 10 and 11)—after already standing of the text, and that “this introducing the angel in verse 7—and phrase is not explicit in the Hebrew.” concludes that there were actually four Yet by presenting it as the translaangels. Of course, it is not the only way tion, the editors boldly imply that the to read this repetition, but it is one that rabbinic understanding is the actual works well with the Hebrew text. Yet meaning of the words. because such repetition also reads clumAlthough this would seem to show sily, the Koren translation changes the great loyalty to the tradition, I believe it phrasing the second and third time, actually works in the opposite directhereby undermining the midrashic tion. For by trying to prove that the reading. It undermines it further still by using the wording, “the angel . . . added.” intended meaning of ayin tachat ayin is not the literal meaning, the rabbis It is obvious that a translation (Bava Kamma 83b-84a) reveal that they cannot be expected to retain the understood that the simple meaning Hebrew nuances upon which every of the phrase is not “the cost of an eye.” midrashic interpretation is based.

That simple meaning is then part of the Nevertheless, given that Rashi adopts Written Torah and its sanctity, which this reading and many will study this must be studied in tandem with the text with his commentary, the easily Oral Torah and its interpretive tradition. avoidable (yet possibly mortal) injury Though some may brush off the above caused to the midrashic reading here as minor points, these types of deviais a translation choice with which I tions occur with disturbing frequency. cannot agree.

Most Jews today would have little or no access to the Torah text if it were not available in translation.

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But that is only if one is using the text for talmud Torah. And, as previously mentioned, I do not believe that was the primary goal of the publishers.

Given my critique, it should perhaps be emphasized that the editors’ commitment “to the way that the Tanakh . . . has been received and understood in the Jewish tradition,” was not taken lightly.

Hence traditional readings generally have pride of place. And even when they are displaced, it is done reverently and without injury to core understandings.

A good example of the latter is found in Psalms 82:1 where elohim—based on Rashi and Radak, and ultimately on the Talmud (Berachot 6a, et cetera)— is no longer translated as judges, as in the old Koren translation (and as in other traditional translations). Here—more in accordance with academic Biblical scholarship, but significantly also in accordance with Ibn Ezra—elohim is translated as divine beings.

The Koren Tanakh Maalot—Magerman Edition has a place on every Jewish bookshelf. It certainly deserves to be the primary resource for those who simply want to read the Jewish Bible in English.

But even for those of us seriously engaged in talmud Torah—the erudition and readability of the new Koren Tanakh may still make it the default translation (though I would strongly recommend using it with discretion and making needed changes when including it on source sheets). This is even without taking note of its beautiful physical presentation and its many helpful charts and maps.

The publication of the new Koren Tanakh translation is good news for many reasons. But precisely because it does the job it sets out to accomplish, it reminds us of the importance of studying Tanach in the original.

Note 1. Soferim 1:7, Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 480:2.

Lamentations: Faith in a Turbulent World

By Dr. Yael Ziegler Maggid Books Jerusalem, 2021 539 pages

too tired and hungry to be able to properly focus on the text as is warranted. As such, most people’s conversance with Eichah is occasional and passing and their familiarity is with famous passages such as shifchi kamayim libeich, al eileh ani bochiah and, most famously, Hashiveinu Hashem eilecha venashuvah chadeish yameinu k’kedem. Eichah is not generally taught in schools, even those that offer a course in Megillot (which often focuses on Esther and Ruth). For many (even avid) Tanach students, Eichah has remained a rolled-up megillah, to be dusted off and taken out once a year with the fervent hope that this will be the last year it will be read in that evocative chant.

Reviewed by Rav Yitzchak Etshalom

T

he avid Tanach student who wishes to peruse and plumb Megillat Eichah—the Book of Lamentations—is presented with a relatively uncommon set of challenges.

Eichah is a book of poetry. But having a handle on the nuances of Biblical poetry does not guarantee immediate recognition of—and appreciation for—the exquisite and intricate language and style of this collection of kinot. The unusual meter, frequent and sometimes unannounced shifts from speaker to speaker, and the rich lexicon, it may be argued, place the book as second only to Job (Iyov) in its inscrutability. Compounding the challenge for both student and teacher are two interconnected considerations.

The proximate topic of Eichah is a series of traumatic waves of loss, made up of siege, famine, conquest and exile.

All of these are distant from our consciousness and current reality, thank G-d. Eichah shares this organic distance from contemporary readers with many other books of Tanach. The added feature that raises the challenge is the fact that the public reading of Eichah takes place on Tishah B’Av. People don’t generally relish preparing for this sad Rav Yitzchak Etshalom is rosh beit midrash at Shalhevet High School and chair of the Bible Department at YULA High School for Boys in Los Angeles.

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For many (even avid) Tanach students, Eichah has remained a rolled-up megillah, to be dusted off and taken out once a year with the fervent hope that this will be the last year it will be read. period, and, in contrast to the rabbinic admonition to begin studying the laws of a holiday in advance, we often leave such study for the last minute or relegate it to intricate halachic discussions about the nature of laundry in our day, the potential permission for swimming instruction and the like. When that day finally arrives and we are faced with a limited available curriculum, of which Eichah is a prominent standout, we are

Dr. Yael Ziegler, a master teacher and popular speaker, has, with this weighty tome, changed that. Already having achieved critical acclaim with her Maggid Studies in Tanakh commentary on Ruth (2015), Ziegler has taken this challenging text and made it more accessible while at the same time heightening the difficulties, both textual as well as experiential, presented to us in Megillat Eichah.

The author of commentary on any book of Tanach is confronted by a dyad of scope and focus—there is a seemingly infinite range of disciplines awaiting the student, and the writer must choose a point of focus.

The treasures vary, from the cartography and military strategy of Yehoshua to the philosophy of theodicy of Iyov and the apocalyptic imagery of Daniel. Each book has its unique niche in exegetical history, and Eichah is no exception. A writer could present Eichah from the vantage point of archaeology or statecraft; the religious broodings of the kinot; or the midrashic literature, using this First Commonwealth elegy to inspire and inform the destruction of the Second Commonwealth, centuries later. Ziegler tries to do most of this, but wisely maintains a focal point, one which easily resonates with her readership. While giving a nod to the Midrash (in a final brief chapter) and providing the necessary historical background, she maintains a clear focus on the literary presentation and the pursuant emotional impact on the elegiast’s audience.

After a brief introduction to the megillah, Ziegler presents the text of each chapter, verse by verse, with a user-friendly translation, followed by insightful literary observations and numerous comments from both modern as well as traditional exegetes. She utilizes literary theory and structure to breathe life into the text and to extrapolate additional, even hidden, meanings of the verses, then fine-tunes the vitality of the text, making its emotional voice ever sweeter and sadder.

Each perek (Biblical chapter) of Eichah is treated in its own book chapter, followed by one or two brief excurses on points highlighted in the commentary. To give a brief taste of Ziegler’s work, I’ll share one comment from each of the perakim of the megillah; for clarity, I will refer to the chapters of the megillah as perakim (singular perek) as distinct from “chapters,” referring to the chapters of the book.

In the chapter detailing the first perek, Ziegler addresses the ambiguous phrasing of verse 10: “. . . and she saw nations enter her Temple, about which You commanded [members] of your congregation may not enter.” She notes the exegetical difficulty in identifying who was commanded not to enter the Temple. She first surveys the standard interpretations (that it references foreigners who were excluded from marrying into the Jewish nation, e.g.

Ammonites and Moabites), but points out that there is nothing in the text to recommend that the referents are foreigners. Ziegler then offers her own innovative and insightful interpretation, indicated by her translation above: While the rabbinic interpretation focuses on the identity of the nations who entered the Sanctuary, the translation that I propose above focuses on the very act of entering the Sanctuary. The holiness of the Temple disqualifies even members of G-d’s holy congregation from entering (p. 116).

The second perek, which she titles “Destruction and Anger” (the author dubs each of the five perakim with a unique and dramatic title—the first is “A Desolate City”), includes a line filled with pathos: “. . . and He made the

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rampart and the wall mourn, together “The L-rd’s face scattered them, He did not continue to look at them; the faces they were miserable” (2:8). She ampliof priests, they did not lift up, and to fies the metaphoric personification of the elders, they did not show favor.”

Jerusalem and notes the imposition After noting that “G-d’s face” may of mourning on the walls, indicating mean “Divine attention,” which is their failure to function properly and often followed by severe punishdefend the city. She then notes how this passage references Psalm 122, a ment (G-d therefore spares the people psalm that praises the city: This verse’s final sentence alludes to another loss that accompanies Jerusalem’s destruction. The word “together” (yachdav) ironically recalls Jerusalem’s unifying power: “Built-up Jerusalem: a city that knits people together (yachdav)” (Psalms 122:3) (p. 196).

The author’s keen intertextual eye catches and notes for us how the elegiast pulls a popular praise for the city and turns it inside out to heighten the sense of loss and dispersion brought on by the destruction.

The autobiographical third perek after the sin of the Golden Calf by (“The Suffering of the Individual”) folnot making His presence manifest lows the abecedarian acrostic model of among them), Ziegler then notes the the first two. Yet it veers from the sin“intriguing references to the elusive gle, long (and imbalanced) verse form priestly blessing [which] crop up in of the first two chapters and instead our verse. In a linguistic reversal of the presents three single-stich verses for each letter. Ziegler quickly observes the final sentence of the priestly blessing (“The L-rd shall lift up His face”), the form but then turns our attention to verse declares that no one ‘lifts up’ the the broader structure of the perek. priests’ faces. Instead of G-d conferIn parsing the three ayin verses, she ring favor upon His nation, the verse observes that the first and third begin maintains that no one shows favor to with “einai—my eyes,” the eyes of the the elders” (p. 396). suffering author; the middle verse It is this sensitive ear to linguistic focuses on G-d’s sight. As she puts it: associations, connections and reversals “In a bid to enlist G-d to look at him, that helps the author bring the spirit the gever (the anonymous author of and sense of historical interconnectedthis elegy, presumed to be Yirmiyahu) ness throughout Eichah to life. encircles G-d with his tears.” Not only The final perek of Eichah is itself are we impressed by the observation, something of a mystery. It maintains the we are subsequently moved by the emotional charm of the sufferer’s strat- 22-verse model, but abandons the acrostic (or so it seems); in addition, the verses, egy. Ziegler goes on to liken this move which are significantly shorter than the to that of Choni (Ta’anit 3:7) who drew previous chapter, also reflect a later realhis famous circle and “forced” G-d’s ity, a generation or two after the destruchand, as it were, to respond favorably tion. The author aptly titles the chapter to his prayer for rain (p. 316).

“A Communal Petition and Lament” and The fourth perek, which is titled “A Chapter of Numb Pain” and which con- notes that after all of the terror and anger at the siege, the defilement of the city and tinues where the second perek left off, is terser than the first two, and its descrip- the loss of its splendor, the final chapter, with the perspective of distance, identitions of the ravages of the siege of Jerufies the truest and deepest cause of the salem are far more explicit and horrific pain: “For this our hearts were miserathan those of the previous perakim. ble, over these our eyes darkened. Over Verse 16 has several linguistic twists:

the destruction of Mount Zion, foxes prowl on it” (5:17-18). It is, above all, the destruction of the Temple Mount and the Mikdash that was at the root of the pain and that ultimately became the focal point of our perennial mourning. Ziegler leaves us with the same hope implicit in this refocusing:

It is this sensitive ear to linguistic associations . . . that helps the author bring the spirit and sense of historical interconnectedness throughout Eichah to life.

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These events, though grievous, do not come without warning. The covenant of Leviticus 26 explicitly lays out punishments should the people violate G-d’s statutes . . . The destruction of Jerusalem and her Temple occurs for a reason, as part of an ongoing relationship with G-d. Had the community kept to its commitments, the calamity could have been avoided. This perspective allows for a solution— after ascertaining the behavior that led to the catastrophe, the nation can repair its conduct and begin the process of reconstruction (p. 457).

This is but a brief glimpse at a wonderful book that should refocus our appreciation for Megillat Eichah, challenge us to study it in depth in advance of Tishah B’Av and enable us to experience more fully the emotional impact that the original elegiast, Yirmiyahu, intended to convey through these five powerful perakim.

Judaism Straight Up: Why Real Religion Endures ter in a Princeton dining hall with a non-Orthodox graduate student called “Heidi” who challenged the parochialism of Koppel’s Orthodox lifestyle. At that moment, Koppel was a recent PhD in mathematics. Heidi persisted with a succession of critiques of what she saw as his Jewish tribalism, one that she maintained was unthinkable after the Holocaust.

Koppel sets out to prove her

By Moshe Koppel assumptions about where society needs Maggid Books to go not only wrong, but necessarily Jerusalem, 2020 doomed to failure.

“I will argue . . . that 218 pages Heidi’s critique is rooted in her failure to fully grasp the nature and scope of Reviewed by Rabbi morality, tradition, and belief necesYitzchok Adlerstein sary for any society to flourish.” Hence, the subtitle of the book. Along the way, ere is a book that will give he will just happen—for purposes of you two for the price of one. illustration only, of course (no, I don’t Dr. Moshe Koppel’s Judaism Straight Up: Why Real Religion Endures really believe that either!)—to mount a vigorous and enthusiastic defense sets out almost from the get-go in two of Orthodox Judaism as a convenient different directions. By the time you’ve example of why traditional societies turned the last page, he brings it all cohere and persist. Hence, the two together. Along the way, you’ll find a books—both fascinating—in one. delicious mélange of acid wit, social Koppel’s approach to marketing commentary and serious academic Torah is refreshingly novel. We’ve seen research. Most importantly, you’ll feel a variety of approaches to Torah advoproud of traditional Judaism in a way cacy in recent decades. They’ve all tried you never considered before. It is also to show the uniqueness of traditional fun to read.

Judaism. They have variously offered The two directions are given by the the best shot at happiness (Aish HaTobook’s title and subtitle: Why Real rah’s 48 Ways); “proofs” of its validity Religion Endures. Inexplicably, they (the Bible Codes; the Discovery Semireverse the supposed intent of the nar); restored confidence in it by deflectauthor, which grew out of an encouning challenges to its beliefs (the works of authors like Rabbi Leib Kelemen, Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein Shmuli Phillips and the Ani Maamin is a contributing editor of Foundation); and built cases for its Jewish Action. wisdom (Miriam Kosman) and attrac-

H

tiveness (Rabbi Mordechai Becher).

All of these might be termed insideout. They start with something within Torah Judaism and project it outward.

Koppel goes the reverse route. He begins with some research and modeling of stable societies. He shows which can survive and which cannot. He then moves inward, arguing that traditional Judaism—despite, and perhaps because of, the accusations most often flung at it—is redolent with the “best practices” that predict continuity.

Koppel is a name commodity in the field of computer science, particularly in the development by his team of methods of computational analysis that can reliably discern authorship of texts. (His group’s application of those tools to Biblical texts was covered by press around the globe. When asked whether his team—most of whom were Torah observant—were not reluctant to ask questions about the authorship of Scripture, he replied that no amount of research could ever shake his belief in the Divinity of Torah.) He is also the founder of Keshet, Israel’s leading conservative-libertarian think tank. He had an outsize role (over the course of many years) in producing Israel’s Basic Law, declaring itself the nation-state of the Jewish people. His approach to defending Torah—and universalizing that defense—is understandably academic.

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ples from hundreds of respondents that together to a large extent by the disdain with which it regards the norms that it he believed are common to all human societies: fairness, loyalty and restraint. rejects . . . Her world is short on tightknit communities that generate social Haidt demonstrated that “traditional” capital, commitment to having chilcommunities tend to value all three dren, and willingness to make sacriequally, while “progressive” ones fices to defend against threats to its attach much importance to fairness, security. One might therefore imagine and very little to loyalty and restraint.

Koppel then argues that “social norms” . . . that the main threat to this world is that it would slowly peter out. But in allow cooperation within tradifact, it might be eaten by its own chiltional communities by signaling to dren.” This is how he introduces us to its members that they can expect to Heidi’s daughter, Amber. While Heidi find those values in other members.

Communities devoted to fairness alone, was fiercely devoted to fairness and a live-and-let-live attitude toward others, he says, cannot be stable. Moreover, Amber looks for strict enforcement of they don’t achieve even the single goal a list of her own moral preferences that of fairness. form a kind of primitive religion withThey don’t—and they can’t. Halaout God. (“If keeping kosher is a way of chic Judaism, however, achieves all life, keeping Amber’s diet is a crusade.”) three. The rest of the book proceeds to Heidi, who had no room for Orthobuild a case for both of these concludoxy because she found it parochial and sions. Its central conceit is the differnon-egalitarian, found her own version ence between Heidi’s world, and that of Judaism in tikkun olam. Amber, on of Shimen, a close friend of Koppel’s the other hand, has no use for Judaism grandfather, a Holocaust survivor who at all, other than occasionally beginning davened with the other alter Gerrers some letter condemning Israel with the in the Gerrer shtiebel in Manhattan. words, “As a Jew.” Koppel admits that this group’s judgThe caricatures are not simply exerments turned into his own instinctive reactions. Their Yiddishkeit was unique cises in self-congratulation. They will be useful to many in coming to terms in its lack of affectation, their utter with a phenomenon that has only devotion to it, and the ease with which recently attracted much attention: they lived it in a manner as natural as the emergence of the “un-Jew” as yet breathing itself. another force harmful to Jewish interKoppel probes the whys and whereests. We are used to a variety of guises fores of his two main characters. His of Jews who turned on other Jews, treatment of them lies somewhere consciously or otherwise. We had our between psychological snapshots and apostate Jews who pursued their corecaricatures. With his characterisligionists with a vengeance—people tic irreverent wit and incisiveness, he like Pablo Christiani (who debated follows each into the next generations.

Ramban in the Disputation at BarceThese other characters are mostly lona), Nicholas Donin (of the Dispufictional, but his portraits of them are tation of Paris that resulted in the so believable and so familiar, that we burning of all copies of the Talmud in know them well. In creating them, he France), Johannes Pfefferkorn (who led shows the trajectories taken by both Orthodoxy (the splitting into opposing a campaign against the Talmud that threatened all of Catholic Europe) and camps, one favoring increased isolaJacob Brafman (whose words about tionism, the other a measured accoman international Jewish conspiracy modation, with both American and provided the basis for The Protocols of Israeli varieties of these approaches) the Elders of Zion). Throughout history, and secular Judaism. we’ve seen the emergence of groups Koppel’s treatment can be brutal— splintering off from the mainstream, especially to the Heidi line. “Heidi’s like the Sadducees, the Karaites, more crowd is not held together by kinship modern heterodox movements, Jewish or ethnicity, by a shared history, or by Bundists, Communists and the Noam a rich system of social norms. It is held 100

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Chomsky and Tony Judt types. All of them viewed themselves as authentic expressions of Judaism as they saw it.

When some of them labored against traditional Jews, they largely did so, in their minds, to advance the cause of Judaism, and in the name of Judaism.

Not so the un-Jews, the growing number of Ambers. They aren’t reacting against any form of Judaism. They are completely indifferent to it. They have no knowledge of it, have no memories of involved grandparents and they retain no traditional practices. Their values are not ones they have latched on to from the basket of ideas that are part of the Jewish experience. Rather, they are entirely taken from the current ideological surround. Koppel’s treatment of Amber will help you understand the nature of the Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow types so harmful to Jewish interests. You will comprehend why they will keep growing, until they exhaust themselves and disappear from Jewish life and Jewish memory.

Perfection belongs only to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, so it is no surprise that an enthusiastic review will contain one demurral. Koppel contrasts Shimen’s understanding of halachic demands with a newer practice of mining texts for answers. This is very much in keeping with Professor Chaim Soloveitchik’s now-classic essay, “Rupture and Reconstruction,” that described the passing of a long age of determining halachah through a mimetic tradition—following the practices that one encountered in one’s home and community. Koppel is certainly correct in observing that formal halachic adjudication seldom strays far from common practice, and that common practice can only emerge within boundaries shaped by settled law.

How he describes the balance between them is a bit unsettling, I believe. It assigns too much power to the force of popular intuition, and not enough to the well-oiled machinery employed for centuries by decisors when faced with a plethora of positions.

The Gemara and the Codes are full of rules about decision making; these rules jump out at the student of many, many centuries of responsa litera-

ture. They packed a punch—and served the halachic process quite well—before anyone ever uttered the words “mimetic tradition.”

It is, I think, a bit glib to say, as Koppel does, that “most codes would say to do what people do.” That often happens—but not because halachah follows lock-step with the will of the street. The Gemara is replete with examples of the rabbis enforcing what they believed to be the halachah against the common practice. Often, they would even go beyond the law, making stringencies normative where they detected too much leniency with particular laws. It is true that they did consider it a mitzvah to labor to defend popular practice by finding acceptable reasoning to support it. When they couldn’t, they put their collective foot down. The inner logic of halachah had the final say.

Likewise, it is not quite accurate to say that the Shimens of the world, when faced with questions for which there are not yet established practices, “tentatively act according to their intuitions while carefully watching what others do.” The long line of Shimens in history did not act on their intuitions alone, but used them to intelligently frame questions to their local rav—who responded with a well-reasoned answer based on halachic literature and protocols. Those answers, often very different in different locales, were ruled upon by writers of Codes like Mishneh Torah, the Tur, and the Shulchan Aruch. When the Shulchan Aruch rules according to one way of dealing with a situation “by noting that the practice is in accord with a particular one,” it is not abdicating the protocols of halachic decision-making in favor of the Voice of the People.

Rather, it is simply observing that where two equally defensible positions exist, each with a strong foundation in the earlier literature, the halachic scale will tilt in the direction of the common practice. Behind that practice, there must be strong halachic evidence in the literature or the outcome would be different.

In the final pages of the book, Koppel revisits his conversation decades before with Heidi. He admits that he was taken aback, not understanding “where she was coming from.” Had he been more experienced and less sheltered, he might have answered the following: No society can function for long without leveraging the lessons of a specific developed tradition. No society will do good for others without a moral system that first inculcates kindness to kin and clan. No society will produce decent human beings without arbitrary-seeming rules that restrain base animal instincts. No society will have the will to bear children, to invest love and energy in them, and to teach them good from bad, without believing that it has some mission on this earth that gives life meaning and purpose. I don’t doubt that your advocacy of universal love comes from a genuine longing to make the world a better place, but I’m equally convinced that high-sounding enlightened platitudes won’t get you any closer to that goal. You’ll only cut yourself off from your own people.

Words worthwhile remembering and using.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! To send a letter to Jewish Action, e-mail ja@ou.org. Letters may be edited for clarity.

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Reviews in Brief

By Rabbi Gil Student EMUNEI AM SEGULAH

By Eliyahu Yitzchak (Allan) Jacob and Moshe Kravetz Machon Meforshei Hashas, 2021 198 pages Arguably, the revelation at Mount Sinai is the most important passage in the Bible.

However, despite its central role, the narrative is confusing. Is Moshe ascending the mountain or is he already there? And when did he go down? The Gemara (Shabbat 86a) tries to piece together the story for each of the seven days between the Israelites’ arrival at Mount Sinai and the forging of the covenant (Exodus 19–24) but leaves much unexplained. One modern scholar characterizes the narrative as reflecting the confusion and overwhelmed state of the people at that monumental time.

To add to the difficulties of this passage, Rashi believes that the order presented in the text is not entirely chronological, with chapter 24 occurring before chapter 20. In contrast, Ramban believes that the text generally flows chronologically. Seforno takes a middle approach, explaining chapters 19 through 24 as chronological, but then placing the sin of the Golden Calf (chapters 32–35) immediately afterRabbi Gil Student writes frequently on Jewish issues and runs Torahmusings.com. He serves as the book editor for Jewish Action and is a member of the Jewish Action Editorial Committee.

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ward, before the command to build the Tabernacle (chapters 25–31).

To bring clarity to this important topic, which has received surprisingly little treatment, Dr. Allan Jacob and Rabbi Moshe Kravetz teamed together to present the detailed story of the giving of the Torah. The first half of Emunei Am Segulah takes the reader day by day, step by step, from Rosh Chodesh Sivan through the seventh day of that month, and then period by period until the tenth of Tishrei, which would become Yom Kippur.

On Rosh Chodesh, the Israelites reached Sinai (Exodus 19:1-2). On the sixth day of Sivan, they received the Torah. On 17 Tammuz, Moshe descended from the mountain and broke the first Tablets. On 10 Tishrei, Moshe descended with the second Tablets. In between these famous dates, much of the story occurs. The authors present a chronology of events, clarifying the text based on several commentaries, particularly Seforno.

Most readers are familiar with the text and the stories but have trouble putting them all together into a comprehensive picture. By transforming these classic stories from familiar verses to actual events that happened to real people in history, this book will grant you clarity, enabling you to envision how things proceeded. Additionally, the authors present Seforno’s timeline of the giving of the commandments, consisting of nineteen stages from Adam through the Book of Deuteronomy.

The second half of the book studies topics related to the giving of the Torah, based on Seforno’s comments throughout his commentary and in other texts.

Seforno lived in Italy during the period of the Jews’ expulsion from Spain and the subsequent decades of intellectual and Messianic ferment. His thought shows kabbalistic influence without using kabbalistic terms and sources. Using only traditional and non-academic sources and methods, the authors present lengthy treatments of Seforno’s views on topics such as Jewish chosenness and the uniqueness of Moshe’s prophecy.

Emunei Am Segulah is a muchneeded book, addressing a crucial but little-understood Torah subject. The book’s Israeli Hebrew might be too difficult for many Americans, but readers will be rewarded for their hard work with a clear picture of the seven days of the giving of the Torah and the subsequent four months of the giving of the Tablets.

OFF THE COUCH: A PSYCHIATRIST’S CANDID STORIES OF HOPE AND HEALING

By Jacob L. Freedman Menucha Publishers, 2020 349 pages

There is a growing recognition in general society, as well as in the Orthodox Jewish community, that being treated for mental health issues is beneficial; the social stigma is slowly dissolving. Dr. Jacob L. Freedman’s Off the Couch will help convince you that therapy is appropriate for a wide variety of people.

An American-born psychiatrist practicing in Jerusalem, Dr. Freedman has an infectiously positive attitude toward life. In his collection of short clinical stories, Dr. Freedman tells us about the hidden heroes, people who find great spiritual forces deep within themselves to overcome enormous challenges in daily life. He shows us how he facilitates their progress through therapy, and allows us to celebrate in their victories.

Off the Couch contains dozens of vivid stories about patients with problems big and small. Sometimes therapy and medication can greatly help a patient. Sometimes there is no cure. To Dr. Freedman, every case is different; every individual is unique; and every Jew is holy.

When a rosh kollel sends a kollel student with obsessive-compulsive

These laws . . . are steeped in the deep logic of Jewish values. disorder to Dr. Freedman, the psychiatrist must convince the patient he has a problem rather than just a praiseworthy affinity for stringency. Only then can the patient begin the treatment—which has a high probability for success. When a woman insists her narcissistic husband see a psychiatrist, Dr. Freedman helps the patient realize that his attitude is destroying all the relationships in his life. A yeshivah student who stays awake for days studying Zohar is convinced he needs to ascend the Temple Mount and take a vow of asceticism, and has multiple risk factors, including a family history of bipolar disorder, is sent to the hospital immediately. Thereafter, the student is instructed to continue taking his medications, and he returns home to his parents so he can, over time, progress in his Torah studies and religious growth. These are some of the many people we meet in this charming book.

You can tell much about a person by whom he admires. Dr. Freedman devotes many pages to praising rabbis, teachers and local activists who notice people suffering and take responsibility for getting them help. There is the prominent speaker who is verbally assaulted by a woman who turns out to be suffering from postpartum depression, and invests time and energy to ensure the young mother receives the treatment she needs. There is the man whose home is a central location for drifting boys, who, while flying off to Europe to help another boy in great need, asks Dr. Freedman to consult one of these young men. Dr. Freedman does us a favor by letting us know that such wonderful people exist, giving us the opportunity to try to be at least a little bit like them. We can all do more to care for the unseen suffering people in our communities.

Everyone needs support in different areas of their lives. Needing the help of a mental health professional should be

no more embarrassing than requiring the help of a podiatrist. Supplemented by inspiring stories of religious faith and virtue, Off the Couch offers us a glimpse into the multitude of ways a psychiatrist can help a patient.

BEDTIME READING FOR BRISKERS

By Ephraim Meth Self-published, 2021 259 pages

A surprisingly large portion of the Torah discusses the details of the sacrificial order.

For many people today, these conversations seem foreign, if not archaic or at least obscure. Those who review the weekly Torah portion might tune out whenever sacrifices are mentioned, but those who study Mishnah and Talmud are obliged to learn all about the different sacrifices, services and utensils of the Temple. Once you gain familiarity with the subject, you begin to discern the wisdom in the various details and in the debates about sin, forgiveness, purity and holiness.

The saintly Chafetz Chaim campaigned for in-depth study of these subjects. Over a century later, countless yeshivot and kollelim focus on these areas of the Talmud, thousands of Daf Yomi participants spend years on these texts, and libraries of books have been published on these subjects.

Perhaps most famously, the Brisk yeshivot in Israel study the Talmudic tractates related to sacrifices.

Rabbi Ephraim Meth takes the detailed laws of sacrifices and

addresses them from the perspective of Jewish thought. What lessons are embedded in these rules? What rationales can we find for these seemingly arbitrary laws? In the course of his exploration, Rabbi Meth finds that these laws are anything but arbitrary; in fact, they are steeped in the deep logic of Jewish values, which we ignore at our own loss.

What is the common denominator between the various asham (guilt) sacrifices? Rabbi Moshe Isserles suggests they all atone for sins of greed and theft. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch argues that they atone for abuses of authority and control. Rabbi Meth explores these explanations and offers his own—that it is a complex sacrifice intended to atone for complex situations. When human interactions become complicated and the status of an action is not entirely clear, the situation calls for an asham to identify and atone for the complexity.

Why are we forbidden from using consecrated items for our own benefit (me’ilah)? Rabbi Meth questions whether a consecrated item may not be used for personal benefit because it does not belong to you, or whether it is the reverse—it does not belong to you since you cannot benefit from it. He quotes a debate between two commentators with textual proofs in each direction. G-d owns everything, so if you cannot use something because it is not yours, then me’ilah should apply to everything. Rabbi Meth suggests a compromise position: It is true that G-d owns everything in the world and therefore the concept of me’ilah should apply to everything. However, G-d forgoes His ownership rights in cases that do not involve an abuse of sanctity (e.g., accidentally damaging sanctified objects does not constitute abuse while stealing them does).

If you have a basic familiarity with the subject of sacrifices, you will benefit from the halachic and hashkafic topics covered by Bedtime Reading for Briskers, albeit it is not an introductory work. It is most valuable as a guide on how to view sacrificial offerings and how to approach other obscure Torah topics that you encounter in your studies.

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LASTING IMPRESSIONS

OF HOSPITABILITY and WINE

By David Olivestone

W

e Jews are very hospitable people.

Entertaining friends and relatives in our homes for a Shabbat or yom tov meal is a wonderful tradition that is very widely and happily observed. From Avraham and Sarah’s wide-open tent, to the kol dichfin yeitei v’yeichol (“let anyone who is hungry come and eat with us”) of the Pesach Seder, the mitzvah of hachnasat orchim is one we truly enjoy. Throughout the ages, and still today, travelers who come to a shul on a Shabbat will be asked if they have a place for their Shabbat meals and will be welcomed into someone’s home.

Some families like to host grand dinners with fine linens, gleaming crystal, multiple courses of delectable dishes, and an abundance of guests. For others, a cholent and the company of a couple of friends is more than enough to turn the Shabbat or yom tov table into a sumptuous royal banquet.

As much as we love entertaining, most of us like being invited to someone else’s home even more, and that usually involves bringing a gift for our hosts. Late-night TV personality Johnny Carson once talked about one of the traditional edible gifts that many American families give each other when invited to a holiday party, namely the fruit cake.

No one has ever actually eaten the fruit cake, he claimed.

Rather, he insisted, “there is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other.”

That’s also true about a bottle of kosher wine.

Chances are, if you are out in the streets of any Jewish neighborhood on a Friday night following Kabbalat Shabbat, or on Shabbat day around noontime, you will see many families on their way to the homes of friends to whom they have been invited. And (assuming, of course, that there’s an eruv) most likely you will see a decorative bag containing a gift dangling from the hand of one of them.

But here’s what transpires in my home, and I imagine in many others, sometime during the week: David Olivestone, a member of the Jewish Action Editorial Committee, lives in Jerusalem. He is a frequent contributor to Jewish Action.

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JEWISH ACTION Summer 5782/2022

“We’re invited to [you fill in the blank] for Friday night dinner,” I am informed. And then, inevitably, “We have to bring something.”

“What do you have in mind?” I innocently ask.

Now, you and I both know where this conversation is headed—to its one and only possible and inescapable conclusion. But first, we need to go through the preliminaries.

“If you’re passing that nice nuts-and-candy store when you’re out, why don’t you pick up something there?”

“Well, I’m not; I was actually right near there yesterday.

Why didn’t you tell me yesterday?”

“Because they hadn’t invited us yet yesterday.”

“Ah, right. Maybe I should get some fruit?”

“No. You know I only like the fruit from that store that you don’t like going to. You could get some flowers.”

“But I’d have to drop them off before Shabbat, and I really won’t have time.”

“Do we have any of those boxes of British chocolaty mints?

Lots of people give those.”

“They’re so strong we practically had to revive the last people we took them to. Maybe you should bake something to take along for dessert . . . .”

“And here I was thinking that I wouldn’t have to bake this week since we’re invited out.”

“OK, then I’m all out of ideas.”

And so, all other possibilities having been exhausted, we arrive at the preordained denouement.

“Well, as usual, we’ll have to take a bottle of wine.

Do we have anything decent?”

With a sigh, I open the door to the cabinet, but as I pull out the only bottle that suggests we might actually understand what good wine looks like (never mind tastes like), I suddenly hesitate.

“I think they may have given us this bottle the last time they came to us.”

“So what?” comes the reply. “They won’t remember.”

And so it goes. I am quite convinced that this very bottle of wine has been circulating among our friends for the past several years. Maybe it was even a yerushah from someone’s parents or their friends. It plays an unspoken but vital role in all of our lives.

It can never be consumed, because if that happened, our entire social structure would be in danger of collapse.

So that is why I have tried to launch the “If You Don’t Bring Anything To Us We Won’t Bring Anything To You” Society.

Sadly, recruiting has not been very successful, as we are all so innately generous and giving by nature that we cannot hold ourselves back from wanting to show our appreciation to our hosts in a tangible way.

Therefore, I hereby give notice that the If You Don’t Bring Anything To Us We Won’t Bring Anything To You Society has been disbanded, and everyone should feel free once again to pass the bottle around.

And just in case you were wondering, I’m very partial to a good Cabernet Sauvignon.

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