Five Towns Jewish Home 02.27.25

Dear Readers,

Idon’t speak “Eskimo,” but it’s been said that the languages that Eskimos speak contain many words to depict snow. Because snow is such a central, integral part of the Eskimo culture, they have many different words – at least 50! –to describe the nuances of the frozen fluff falling from the sky and blanketing their homes.

Likewise, Scotland sees rain for most of the year. A “smirr” in Gaelic refers to a fine, drizzly rain; “feithir” is light, misty rain; “dreich” is a miserable, drizzly day. For us, it’s just rain. But for those who live in Scotland and see rain consistently during the day, they need the right word to perfectly describe the downpours they’re experiencing.

When you look at Gaza, perhaps the most telling indication of what’s important to those who reside there is the fact that Hamas is not the only terror group in the Strip. In fact, we talk about Hamas and point to Hamas when it comes to the October 7 massacre and the current war. But there are at least six other terror organizations that operate in Gaza in addition to Hamas: Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade; Communist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine; Palestinian Islamic Jihad; Palestinian Mujahideen Movement; Popular Resistance Committees; and Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Members of these terror groups were part of the massacre on October 7 and enthusiastically slaughtered and kidnapped Israelis and foreigners on that day. Some of them are still holding our brothers and sisters hostage in chains in deep, dark tunnels.

That’s what important to their society: the murder, torture, and intimidation of Jews around the world.

Lest you think that there are perhaps some residents of Gaza who don’t subscribe to the culture of terror, bear in mind that not one hostage has come home with a story of kindness from their captors or from citizens that they encountered. Not one hostage, some of them living in Gaza for more than 500 days, has shared that they caught a glimmer of humanity in those who held them. Not one hostage was shown compassion or sympathy from anyone – anyone – living in Gaza.

So perhaps we do ourselves a disservice from pointing fingers at Hamas as the perpetrators of terror. Indeed, they may be the face of the terror, but we can’t delude ourselves into thinking that the whole society – men, women, and even children –is not hellbent on the annihilation of the Jewish people and state. Look at the crowds who coalesce during the hostage exchanges or at the hordes of children who exult when they see signs depicting Netanyahu as a bloodthirsty vampire. Are they not complicit in the evil that is being perpetrated? If they support, cheer, honor, and respect the evil actions of those around them, then they are only waiting for an opportunity to commit that same evil. And that makes them a partner in that terror.

During these times, when we are surrounded by evil and malice, we are reminded of the story of Purim, a time when the Jews were sealed for a fate of total destruction. But our Father, Who has saved us from countless enemies, turned our sorrow into simcha, our terror into tears of joy. May He bring the geulah to us as swiftly as our ancestors saw it in the days of Mordechai and Esther, may it come soon.

Wishing you a good week,

Shoshana

Yitzy Halpern, PUBLISHER publisher@fivetownsjewishhome.com

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Showers/ Wind AM Showers/ Wind

Dear Editor,

Daniel Feldman (letters, 2/20/25), a Torah reader for decades, criticizes bar mitzvah boys who are not adequately prepared. In an illustration of this point, he states: “I was at a bar mitzvah where the gabbaim had to correct the boy so often that he cried and went off the bimah. Someone else had to continue the rest of the Torah reading.”

I believe it is completely incorrect to state that these gabbaim “had to correct the boy.” Quite the opposite is true. Embarrassing anyone in public is an extremely serious Torah prohibition, all the more so with a bar mitzvah boy, where the humiliation could scar him and his family for life.

Reading the Torah is a rabbinic requirement, whose fulfillment cannot possibly justify public humiliation, a severe Torah prohibition. It may be true that the boy should never have been so unprepared, but once the boy is on the bimah, there is nothing to be done except treat him with the utmost kindness and compassion, which includes overlooking many or even all of his errors or, at most, and where it can be done without rattling the boy, whispering corrections in his ear.

And it should be also noted that there are times when an adult reader is poorly prepared. In this situation, shouting out corrections, even if only the gabbaim are correcting him, can also be very embarrassing. Corrections should be very discreetly and gently made. In either case, whether the reader is a bar mitzvah boy or an adult, it would be the greatest irony if the Torah, which deems public embarrassment to be a very major transgression, were read accurately only as a result

of such embarrassment.

Tom Furst

Great Neck, NY

Dear Editor,

Baruch Hashem klal Yisroel does not lack for creativity when it comes to creating ways to make fellow Yidden smile.

The Shabbos after I got up for shiva for my mother, I received a bag of challos. The label on the bag read Boee Challah (in Hebrew), and I learned that this special gift of fresh loaves was not limited to that one week.

Chassia Boczko, a renowned child psychologist in our community, created this initiative to make the time of aveilus, whether it be a month or year, more comforting. She even customized my delivery to send spelt challos, our family’s dietary preference. The chessed includes all the bakers in the Five Towns and Far Rockaway who volunteer and drop off their wares every week.

I wanted to give a huge yasher koach for this amazing gift that gave me chizuk about our community’s (unsurprising) kindness and generosity.

Chaia Frishman

Dear Editor,

I was fascinated when I read the account of Rachel Widman, the frum woman who serves in the Coast Guard. First of all, a tremendous note of appreciation to Rachel, who is serving her country. She and her fellow coastguardsmen are protecting our shores, and we owe them a tremendous amount of gratitude.

Secondly, Rachel is serving as an ambassador of Jews to the people who serve with her in her unit. They see her as a repContinued on page 14

Continued from page 12 resentative of the Jewish nation, and she seems to be a worthy representative, exhibiting menschlechkeit to those around her.

Kudos to Rachel, who shows us that one can keep Torah and mitzvos even in unusual areas and circumstances! May Hashem bring her much success as she navigates these waters!

Ilana Rubinstein Brooklyn, NY

Dear Editor,

I really hope that the boy who wrote into the dating column this week wrote his question quite quickly. That’s because it seemed as if he really didn’t care that his almost-fiancée’s older sister was not married. It seemed like he only cared about his feelings and his girlfriend’s feelings and not at all about what it must feel like to be the “older” sister who hasn’t yet found her soulmate.

I am sure that the older sister is so happy for her younger sister to be dating someone and finally meeting someone who clicks with her. But being “older” and still in the parsha is very hard. And feelings are feelings. You can’t argue with

them or deny them. On the one hand, she’s happy for her sister. On the other hand, she’s struggling. It is such a painful place to be!

The ONLY way to figure this out is if the young couple acts like a mensch and is mindful of the older sister’s pain. In the Navi, Penina was punished because she caused Chana pain. Yes, she had good intentions, but causing someone pain is a very, very serious thing.

This boy and his girlfriend should not be flaunting their relationship. This girl should make sure to take the time to go out with her older sister, explaining to her and listening to her and her feelings. She can do it with understanding and compassion – and without pity. No one wants to be pitied. But listening to her and understanding her pain will mitigate the hurtful feelings

And then, when, in the right time, this “older sister” will find her own soulmate, she will understand how gentle and caring her younger sister really was.

I hope that, in the merit of showing this kindness, this family has many, many simchos this year!

Sincerely,

Yonina W.

Ayatollah Meets With Qatar Emir

Last Wednesday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, hosted Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Tehran for a discussion about the two nations’ relationship.

Before meeting Khamenei, the Emir of Qatar spoke with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

“One of the policies announced by the administration of Mr. Pezeshkian is the expansion of ties with neighbors,” said Khamenei.

Tehran aims to expand its ties with nearby countries in an effort to regain power in the region. Since the October 7 massacre, which led to the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, Iran has become significantly weaker. Rocket exchanges between Israel and Iran led to the weakening of Iran’s air defenses. The wars in Gaza and Lebanon have wiped out much of Hamas and Hezbollah, two of Iran’s proxies. Additionally, the fall of the now-exiled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ended Iran’s influence in Syria.

Last week, Iranian ally Falih alFayyadh, the head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units, also came to Tehran.

Khamenei and the Qatari emir reportedly discussed the Palestinians, with both vowing to continue supporting the “Palestinian cause.”

“The Emir also referred to the agreements reached between Iran and Qatar and said the two countries will soon establish a joint commission to increase the volume of bilateral trade,” according to a report by the Iran-run IRNA news outlet.

Currently, around $6 billion in Iranian funds are frozen because of sanctions imposed by the United States. In September 2023, the funds were released by South Korea to a bank in Qatar, where they continue to be kept. Tehran re-

portedly believes Qatar, a “friendly and brotherly country,” will defy the U.S. and return the assets.

Train Hits Elephants

A train in Sri Lanka smashed into a herd of elephants last Wednesday night, resulting in the deaths of at least six of the animals.

No passengers were injured, but wildlife veterinary officers are treating a female elephant and an injured calf in the city of Giritale, Sri Lanka’s state-owned Daily News reported.

The Meenagaya train hit the herd at the 140 km mark between the Minneriya and Galoya railway stations at around 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Sri Lankan elephants are the largest and the darkest of the Asian elephants. Their herd size ranges from 12-20 individuals. Typically, the oldest female leads the herd.

Elephants are a popular tourist attraction and hold symbolic, cultural and economic importance for Sri Lanka.

In October, at least two elephants were killed when a train carrying thousands of gallons of fuel hit a herd in northwest Sri Lanka in the town of Minneriya, about 200 km from the capital, Colombo. The train driver said that the herd of nearly 20 elephants suddenly tried to cross over the railway track.

“There was about 10 meters (32 feet) between us. So, we couldn’t do anything. We pressed the brakes to their maximum capacity, but there was nothing much we could do. At least four elephants were knocked down,” driver N.W. Jayalath explained.

Iran Executed 975 People

in 2024

In 2024, Iran executed at least 975 people, according to data published by Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Together Against the Death Penalty, two human rights groups based in Norway and

France, respectively. According to the rights groups, the number of executions was the highest last year since 2008, when IHR started recording the killings.

According to the groups, the number “reveals a horrifying escalation in the use of the death penalty by the Islamic Republic,” which uses capital punishment as a “central tool of political oppression.”

“These executions are part of the Islamic Republic’s war against its own people to maintain its grip on power,” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of IHR. “Five people were executed on average every single day in the last three months of the year as the threat of war between Iran and Israel escalated.”

Iran has prosecuted many citizens it says it suspects are working for Israel. Iran executes individuals for serious crimes, including murder and drug offenses. However, the government, in an

effort to crack down on opposition, also kills citizens charged with hard-to-define crimes, such as “corruption on earth” and “rebellion.”

In 2023, Iran executed 834 citizens. One year later, that number rose by 17% to 975, 31 of whom were female. Four of those executed were hanged publicly. Most executions in the Republic are conducted by hangings in prison yards, though some are in public.

Despite the high count, the actual number of executions in 2024 may be higher.

Since 2025 began, Iran has already executed 121 or more people, IHR said.

Germany’s General Election

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a center-right political party, won first place in Germany’s general election this past Sunday with 28.7% of the vote. As such, the party is expected to attempt to form a government with other parties. If successful in forming a majority coalition, the party’s leader, Friedrich Merz, would become Germany’s next chancellor, succeeding Olaf Scholz.

In second place in the elections came Alternative for Germany (AfD), a farright party with strong anti-immigration policies. AfD won 19.8%, the most it has ever secured in any election – and double that of its showing in the 2021 election.

Alice Weidel, the leader of AfD, said her party had secured a “glorious” success. However, AfD likely won’t be invited to join the government since the other political parties refuse to work with it.

The Social Democratic Party, led by current Chancellor Scholz, won 16%, a result Scholz called “bitter.” Scholz then criticized the United States for backing AfD. Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO who leads the U.S.’s Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE), endorsed the party. Vice President JD Vance also voiced his support for AfD after criticizing Europe for engaging in censorship and over-regulation at the Munich Security Conference.

Die Linke, a socialist party, won 8.5% of the vote. To be part of the government, you need only 5% of the vote.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Truth Social declared the election a “great day for Germany.”

“Looks like the conservative party in Germany has won the very big and highly anticipated election,” Trump posted.

“Much like the USA, the people of Germany got tired of the no common sense agenda, especially on energy and immigration, that has prevailed for so many years.”

CDU may partner with SPD and the Greens party but will not work with AfD, which some believe is an extremist party.

Unknown Illness Kills 53 in Congo

Fifty-three people died in the Democratic Republic of Congo after contracting an unknown illness. A significant amount of people died within 48 hours of reporting symptoms, according to the World Health Organization, which describes the outbreak as posing “a significant public health threat.”

At least 431 cases have been reported since January of individuals suffering

from fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle aches, headaches and fatigue. The illness — believed to have broken out in two separate villages in Équateur province has a fatality rate of 12.3 percent, the WHO said.

Investigators traced the outbreak’s origin to Boloko Village, where three children under the age of 5 died after reportedly eating a bat carcass, health officials said. In addition to the other symptoms reported with this disease, the three children suffered symptoms similar to those of a hemorrhagic fever before they died in January.

Following their deaths, four more children from the same village between the ages of 5 and 18 died. By January 27, there had been a total of 10 cases and seven deaths out of Boloko Village and two cases and one death out of the nearby Danda Village, the WHO said.

Less than two weeks later, a second outbreak of the mystery disease was reported to health officials in the village of Bomate. By mid-February, investigators had identified 419 cases of the virus there, with 45 deaths, the WHO said.

Samples were sent to labs, which ruled out diseases such as Ebola and Marburg.

In December, another unknown flulike disease killed dozens in the southwest region of the country. Investigators later determined that the disease was likely acute respiratory infections complicated by malaria that had been compounded by acute malnutrition.

Botswana and De Beers Sign Diamond Deal

The agreement is subject to an extension period of five more years.

Under the final deal, the share of Botswana’s state-owned Okavango Diamond Company (ODC) in the production of Debswana – its 50-50 joint venture with De Beers – will reach 40% at the end of the agreement, revised from a provisional 50%. ODC’s allocation could, however, rise to 50% during the proposed five-year extension period, according to a joint statement by Botswana’s government and De Beers.

This deal was in the making for a while. Negotiations began in 2018, and an agreement was announced in 2023 but was never formally signed. Botswana’s President Duma Boko, who swept to power last October, made signing the deal with De Beers a priority.

The deal is critical for the southern African country since its economy is largely dependent on the export of diamonds.

“We have us a good deal and we trust that it will carry us into the future. To the people of Botswana, this agreement is about you, about the jobs it will create,” Boko said at a signing ceremony in the capital Gaborone.

Under the agreement, Debswana’s mining licenses, which were due to expire in 2029, will be extended until 2054.

ri, were confirmed after Hamas returned their bodies in an unspeakably evil ceremony, during which the terror group paraded around the caskets of the young, innocent, red-headed children. Inside the coffins were propaganda material. On top was a map of Israel along with the words, “We will not give up a centimeter of Palestine.” Images of the victims were on the caskets, while the coffin intended for Shiri also had her “date of arrest,” October 7, 2023.

Although Hamas falsely claimed that an Israeli airstrike killed the children and their mother, forensic evidence and intelligence prove that the terror group “brutally murdered” the three in late November 2023.

In another display of sheer evil, Hamas returned a body that it falsely claimed belonged to Shiri Bibas. The terror group sent the remains of a different unidentified woman who was not a hostage – a “very serious violation” of the ceasefire, according to the Israel Defense Forces. The next day, after a worldwide uproar, Hamas returned Shiri’s remains. Israel confirmed the identities of Ariel, Kfir, and ultimately, Shiri.

Yarden Bibas, Shiri’s husband and the father of Kfir and Ariel, was also taken hostage on October 7 after Hamas invaded their home, Kibbutz Nir Oz. Hoping to save his family, he left the safe room to try to distract the terrorists. Yarden was released from captivity on February 1 after spending more than 500 days in terrorists’ hands.

So Much Heartbreak

The abduction of Ariel and Kfir Bibas, two young children who were four years old and nine months old at the time, on October 7 typified the horrors of the massacre, as their capture by Hamas, along with their parents, became a symbol of the immense suffering endured by Israeli families whose loved ones are in captivity.

Over 500 days later, the deaths of Ariel and Kfir, along with their mother Shi-

The tragic news of the deaths marked an unspeakably heartbreaking end to months of uncertainty, fear, and hope that the children and their mother would make it out of Gaza alive.

“On this day, we are all united,” declared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We are all united in unbearable grief. We all ache with pain that is mixed with rage.”

He added that “we are all furious at the monsters of Hamas” and that Israel must and will “settle the score with the vile murderers.”

“The heart of the entire nation is mourning today. Hamas abducted, Hamas murdered, Hamas will be destroyed. We will take revenge against our enemies, and secure our future,” said Defense Minister Israel Katz.

Also released on Thursday was the body of Oded Lifshiftz, an 83-year-old hostage who was murdered over a year ago. He was also abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Lifshitz’s wife Yocheved was also kidnapped on October 7 but was released around two weeks later.

“503 agonizing days of uncertainty

26 have come to an end,” Lifshitz’s family stated. “We hoped and prayed so much for the ending to be different. Now we can mourn the husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather who we have been missing since October 7.”

Oded had been involved with helping Palestinians before October 7, driving them from Gaza to hospitals in Israel. Yocheved said that she felt “betrayed” by those he helped after he was kidnapped and killed.

“Our abduction and your death have shaken me to the core,” Yocheved said at her husband’s funeral. “We fought all through the years for social justice, for peace. To my sorrow, we were hit by a terrible attack by those we helped on the other side. I stand here staggered to see the number of graves, and the terrible destruction of our community that was completely abandoned on October 7.”

According to the IDF, Palestinian Islamic Jihad killed Oded while he was in Gaza.

“Our family’s rehabilitation will start now and won’t end until the last hostage is returned,” his family added.

Open Miracles

On Thursday night, three empty buses exploded one after the other in parking lots in Bat Yam and Holon, two Tel Aviv suburbs. Two unexploded bombs were then located and dismantled on other nearby buses. The bombs reportedly contained 5 kilograms of explosives each.

The police believe that the explosions, which miraculously caused zero injuries and casualties, were orchestrated by terror groups in an effort to kill hundreds or thousands on Friday morning during peak traffic times. The terror attack likely failed because the terrorists set the wrong time for the explosions on the clock.

In response to the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israel Defense Forces to conduct a largescale operation in Judea and Samaria

to crack down on terrorism. Netanyahu also told the police and Shin Bet to “increase preventative activities” in cities. At the time, Miri Regev, the transportation minister, instructed the Transportation Authority to pause service for all buses, trains, and light rails in order to carry out a search.

Tel Aviv District Police Chief Haim Saragarof said the explosives, which were improvised and had timers, appear to have originated from Judea and Samaria. The number of individuals involved in the attack is unclear, though three individuals, including two Jewish Israelis suspected of transporting the explosives, have been arrested.

A “revenge threat” from Tulkarm, a city in Judea and Samaria, was reportedly written on the explosives.

One of the unexploded devices was discovered by a bus passenger, who alerted the bus driver about a suspicious bag’s presence. The bus driver immediately got all the passengers off the bus.

“Miraculously, the buses arrived at the parking lots a moment before the explosion,” stated the Bat Yam Municipality, adding that the buses were also miraculously empty.

“In light of the severe terror attack attempts [in the Tel Aviv area] by Palestinian terror organizations against the civilian population in Israel, I instructed the IDF to increase the intensity of the counterterrorism activity in the Tulkram refugee camp, and all the refugee camps in Judea and Samaria,” stated Defense Minister Israel Katz. “We will hunt down the terrorists to the bitter end and destroy the terror infrastructure in the camps used as front line posts of the Iranian evil axis,” Katz added. “Residents who give shelter to terror will pay a heavy price.”

The IDF is investigating the bombings, along with Israel Police and the Shin Bet.

Operation Iron Wall

On January 21, Israel launched Operation Iron Wall to crack down on Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria. The operation came shortly after the Jewish state reached the ongoing cease-

fire and hostage agreement with Hamas in Gaza.

Operation Iron Wall first hit the city of Jenin, a terror hub that Israel has repeatedly raided since the October 7 massacre. Since then, the operation has expanded to Tulkarem, Far’a, and Nur Shams.

According to UNRWA, a United Nations agency for Palestinians that was banned by Israel for employing Hamas terrorists, over 40,100 Palestinians have fled in the wake of Operation Iron Wall. Although some claim that the Israeli army ordered evacuations during terror raids, the IDF maintains that the evacuees left voluntarily.

Around a week ago, the Israel Defense Forces announced that it had eliminated over 60 terrorists and arrested over 210 others as part of the operation.

Since October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists stormed the southern border, brutally murdering 1,200 people and abducting 251 others, the IDF has detained around 6,000 Palestinian criminals in Judea and Samaria, over 2,350 of whom have ties with Hamas. During the same time period, the Israeli army has conducted more than 100 airstrikes in Judea and Samaria.

Since then, terrorists in Israel’s mainland and Judea and Samaria have killed 48 individuals. Another eight security forces were murdered while fighting terrorists in Judea and Samaria.

More than 500 Days of Torture

On Saturday, six hostages were released from Gaza, marking the conclusion of the ceasefire’s first phase. It is unclear whether Israel and Hamas will agree to a phase two of the truce, allowing more hostages to return home.

Four of the abductees who were freed were taken on October 7. The other two entered Gaza voluntarily a decade ago due to mental illness.

The four Israelis were named as Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, and Eliya Cohen, who survived 500 days of physical and psychological torture in Gaza.

28

Avera Mengistu, an Ethiopian Israeli, was released after 3,821 days in the Gaza Strip, which he entered in September 2014. Hisham al-Sayed, a Bedouin Israeli, was also freed. He entered the Strip in April 2015. Both are mentally ill and were 28 years old at the time of their subsequent abduction.

As per footage taken by the terror group, Hamas forced two current hostages, Eviatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal, to watch the propaganda ceremony before the four Israelis’ release.

For the entirety of his captivity, except for the first 50 days, Shem Tov was held captive all by himself in a tunnel. For the first 50 days, he was with his friend Itay Regev, who was released in November 2023. According to Shem Tov’s mother, he “didn’t see daylight at all.” Still, he’s the same person: “Omer the funny, Omer the optimist – just 16-17 kilos (35-37 pounds) less.”

Hamas forced Shem Tov to kiss a terrorist’s forehead during the ceremony before his release.

During his captivity, Shem Tov knew very little about what was happening in the outside world but heard about the “Bring Them Home” protests, which he said strengthened him. At first, Hamas held him in apartments before moving

him to tunnels. His hands were initially tied. Hamas forced him to dress like a Muslim woman when they transported him. At one point, the terrorists dropped him into a tunnel on a small bucket. The terror group cursed and spat at him.

For some time, Cohen was held alone. But for the majority of his captivity, he was with Or Levy and Eli Sharabi, who were both freed recently, and Alon Ohel, who remains in captivity. The four were chained by their feet and hands, and survived physical abuse. They stayed in pitch-black tunnels, which were sometimes illuminated by a torch. They were, for months at a time, banned from walking and standing. Starved by the terrorists, the hostages were forced to watch their captors eat meals.

Cohen’s leg was shot on October 7, but he never received medical attention. Only in the days leading up to his freedom was Cohen allowed to go outside. After his release, he found out that his fiancee, Ziv Abud, lived through the massacre, while his best friend tragically passed away.

While in captivity, Wenkert lost 66 pounds and received no medicine, despite suffering from colitis. He was completely isolated from the outside world. When he was released, he found out that Kim Demati, a dear friend, was killed on Oc-

tober 7.

Wenket and Shoham, who were held together in very humid tunnels for eight months, were starved by Hamas. But shortly before their release, the terrorists gave them food to make it seem like they weren’t in bad shape.

Mengistu and al-Sayed, the two hostages who were kidnapped around 10 years ago after entering the Strip voluntarily, both returned almost mentally unresponsive. Mengistu’s condition was “not good,” according to his family. Sayed, on the other hand, was “destroyed, emotionally and cognitively,” his family said, though he looked better than he did in a 2022 video from Hamas showing him sick and weak in bed, connected to an oxygen tank.

“His mental condition is very difficult; he isn’t responsive,” al-Sayed’s father told Kan radio. “He looks like he was in a torture camp for 10 years. We didn’t imagine that Hamas could be so cruel – they did something disgusting. He is emotionally and cognitively destroyed.”

Al-Sayed, before going into Gaza, was “diagnosed with schizophrenia and a personality disorder, among other conditions,” according to Human Rights Watch. Al-Sayed was the only hostage released Saturday who wasn’t forced to participate in a propaganda Hamas ceremony. Hamas said that it released al-Sayed quietly out of respect for Arabs, despite the fact that the terror group knowingly killed and abducted many Arabs on October 7.

Terrorist Dies After Release

Nael Obeid, a Hamas terrorist known for his role in the deadly 2003 Cafe Hillel bombing in Jerusalem, fell to his death near his home in East Jerusalem after being freed in a hostage-prisoner exchange a week ago.

Obeid was freed on February 15 as part of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. It is unclear why he fell, although he was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Obeid helped plan one of the most infamous suicide bombing attacks during

the Second Intifada, which killed seven people and wounded 57 others at Cafe Hillel on Emek Refaim Street. At the time, Obeid headed a Hamas cell in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya alongside his relative, Ahmad Obeid. The cell took orders from Hamas operatives in Ramallah, who found a suicide bomber for them to go through with the attack. Obeid and his relative spent a year looking for targets and procuring weapons before Ramez Abu Salim carried out the suicide bombing on September 9, 2003.

Dr. David Applebaum, who treated suicide bombing victims as head of Shaare Zedek Hospital’s emergency room, and his daughter Nava, who was to be married the next day, were both killed in the attack.

Obeid was arrested a year later and was given seven life sentences – plus an extra 30 years – for his role in the bombing.

Buenos Aires Honors Bibas Family

On Monday, thousands of people gathered in Buenos Aires to honor the memory of Shiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, Hy”d, along with other people who were killed in the October 7, 2023, massacre, and to call for the release of the remaining hostages being held in Gaza by terror groups.

Around 15,000 people attended the rally, waving Israeli flags and orange handkerchiefs as a homage to the red-headed Bibas children.

The Bibas family, which held mixed Argentine, Israeli and German citizenship, became a symbol of the struggle to return the hostages from the Strip. At 4 years old and 9 months old, respectively, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were the youngest captives taken hostage to Gaza. Their bodies, along with that of their mother Shiri, who was 32 at the time of her kidnapping, were returned to Israel last week in a heart-wrenching display of grief and sorrow.

Israel’s ambassador to Argentina, Eyal Sela, addressed the attendees, holding the Hamas terror group responsible

32 for the deaths of the Bibas children and mother, and calling out Hamas for the horrific manner in which it returned the victims’ bodies to Israel.

“The way Ariel and Kfir’s bodies were returned and what they have done with Shiri’s remains are among the most macabre actions of evil in the world. Nazism was the evil of the last century, and radical Islam is the evil of this century…. From here, together, we demand the freedom of all hostages — the living to be reunited with their families, the dead to be laid to rest,” Sela said.

Hamas paraded the caskets with the bodies in a propaganda-filled ceremony. It was later discovered that they had sent back the body of an unidentified Gazan woman instead of Shiri Bibas. Only after worldwide outcry did they finally return the body of Shiri. According to forensic reports, the Bibas family was killed by their captors with their bare hands – and not in an IDF airstrike.

Shiri’s husband Yarden, who was captured separately, was released alive just two weeks ago.

Ambassador Sela also thanked Argentine President Javier Milei and his government for “the solidarity they have shown and for the decree establishing two days of national mourning.”

Operation Walkie-Talkie

Mossad head David Barnea came out this week for the first time in speaking publicly about the agency’s pager operation in Lebanon in which Hezbollah terrorists were injured and killed when their devices detonated.

At the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) conference, Barnea called the exploding pager operation against Hezbollah “a clear example of the realization of our mission.” He pointed out that the Mossad’s emblem is inscribed with a verse from Mishlei, which states, “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.” In light of this verse, Barnea explained, “the Mossad is realizing its mission for the security of the state and its citizens. The pager operation was

creatively planned by Mossad employees, using ingenuity and cunning.”

The operation, Barnea noted, symbolized the “turning point” in the war in the north and “the starting point for the 10 days during which the tide turned against our enemies. A clear line can be drawn in the war in the north from the exploding pagers to the elimination of Nasrallah to the cease-fire agreement.”

According to Barnea, “Operation Pagers is a young operation, compared to Operation Walkie-Talkie, which was launched the next day. Operation Walkie-Talkie was developed about a decade ago, back during Tamir Pardo’s time (2011-2016), and continued during Yossi Cohen’s time (2016-2021).

“The idea for Operation Pagers first came up when we realized that Operation Walkie-Talkie was not effective in all combat situations. Therefore, we thought of another way to harm Hezbollah terrorists – by detonating a device that was always attached to their bodies.”

He explained, “The first infrastructure for the operation was established in late 2022, and the first shipment to Lebanon, containing only 500 pagers, arrived just weeks before the terrible massacre of October 7,” he said. “At that time, thousands of radios from the long-standing operation were mostly stored in Hezbollah warehouses. Launching the two operations at the beginning of the war would not have resulted in the powerful battlefield achievement that we achieved at the time of its launch.”

He noted that, by the time the operation was ultimately launched, “ten times more beepers were detonated than we had at the beginning of the war and twice as many radios.”

According to him, “the dilemma in launching the operation on September 17, 2024, was great, very great. In the discussion of approving the operation, two schools of thought were presented, both of which were correct at the time they were presented. The prime minister ultimately made the decision in complete opposition to the prevailing position in the discussion, and here we are receiving the award.”

He emphasized that “the day when thousands of beepers exploded in the hands of Hezbollah terrorists will be remembered as the turning point in the war. It is the day when the power of the ruse exceeded the power of kinetics. The amount of explosives in all the thousands of devices combined did not exceed the amount of explosives found in one standard mine. But the impact on morale was powerful.”

The blow dealt to Hezbollah “broke its spirit,” Barnea noted.

“Victory in war is not measured by the number of dead or the number of missiles destroyed, but by victory over the spirit, morale and motivation of the enemy.”

He praised the work of Mossad personnel. “The Mossad does not have tanks or armored personnel carriers, we do not have fighter jets or missiles – the men and women of the Mossad are the engine of its work and its successes,” he said. “They are the creative minds that make the impossible possible. They are the fighters, the special operations forces, the technology, intelligence and cyber personnel who create superiority on the battlefield. They are the ones who devise the strategy. Thanks to them, the Mossad faces many threats and challenges every day and is able to do so.”

Barnea also spoke about the plight of the hostages, sharing that, “above all, our commitment is to return home all the hostages, living and dead.” According to him, “it is the supreme moral imperative to return our brothers and sisters from the infernal tunnels.”

The pager operation was launched on September 17, 2024, amid fears that it would soon be discovered. On the first day of the operation, the pagers of Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon and Syria exploded. The next day, on September 18, their walkie-talkies exploded. The explosions of the pagers and walkie-talkies killed about 30 terrorists and injured around 3,000 others.

Mitch McConnell to Retire

On Thursday, Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell said he would not run for another Senate term. The retirement announcement coincided with his 83rd birthday. The experienced politician will leave the Senate in January 2027, at the end of his seventh term.

“Representing our commonwealth has been the honor of my lifetime. I will not

34 seek this honor an eighth time,” McConnell announced on the Senate floor. “My current term in the Senate will be my last.”

He, however, assured his coworkers that he still has ambitious goals for the final term he is now serving.

“So lest any of our colleagues still doubt my intentions for the remainder of my term, I have some unfinished business to attend to,” he said. “Regardless of the political storms that may wash over this chamber, during the time I have remaining, I assure our colleagues I will depart with great hope for the endurance of the Senate as an institution.”

McConnell was elected for his first term as senator in 1984. From 2007 to early 2025, he served as the Senate leader of the Republican Party, the longest anyone has ever served. His tenure as majority and minority leader spanned four administrations.

McConnell used to be a strong ally of President Donald Trump. McConnell in 2016 barred outgoing President Barack Obama from appointing a Supreme Court justice to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, thus allowing Trump to nominate Justice Neil Gorsuch. McConnell was responsible for the three Supreme Court appointments Trump made during his first term.

McConnell led the effort to pass

Trump’s 2017 tax cut law in the Senate. He also attempted to repeal Obama’s Affordable Care Act in 2017.

However, at the end of Trump’s first nonconsecutive term, a noticeable rift formed between McConnell and the MAGA movement. Though he voted to acquit Trump and would later endorse him in the 2024 presidential election, McConnell condemned the then-outgoing president for allegedly inspiring the January 6 Capitol riots.

During former President Joe Biden’s administration, McConnell voted for a number of bipartisan deals. He also has adopted foreign policy beliefs that conflict with Trump’s “America First” ideology. Recently, McConnell voted against three of Trump’s Cabinet nominees and criticized the president’s idea to levy sweeping tariffs.

Hochul Won’t Oust Adams

Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, announced last week that she would refrain from exercising her state constitutional authority to oust New York City Mayor Eric Adams from office.

In September, Adams was charged with five counts of corruption for allegedly receiving illegal campaign donations and luxury travel from Turkish nationals in exchange for his influence. Adams maintains his innocence and resists calls for his resignation. This November, he will be seeking a second term.

“My strong belief is that the will of the voters and the supremacy and sanctity of democratic elections preclude me from any action,” stated Hochul. “I cannot deny the people of this great city the power to make this decision for themselves.”

Adams recently came under fire for vowing to help President Donald Trump deport illegal immigrants. The Justice Department, under the authority of Trump, has ordered Adams’ charges to be dropped. In protest, several senior Justice Department prosecutors have stepped down. Some believe Adams’ co-

operation with the Trump administration is in exchange for the charges’ dismissal. New York governors have the authority to kick out indicted mayors, suspending them for 30 days. It’s been almost a century since that authority has been utilized. Additionally, the removal process was never conducted successfully in New York. Though she said she wouldn’t oust Adams, Hochul advocated for the hiring of a new state inspector general to supervise New York City and “make sure our leaders are operating only with the city’s best interest in mind, unimpeded by any legal agreements with the Trump Justice Department.”

Trump vs. Congestion Pricing

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has declared the Trump administration’s

36 order to stop New York City’s congestion pricing program an attack on the city. Hochul said that the program will continue for now as the state and federal governments fight it out in court.

Around two months after congestion pricing went into effect, charging drivers $9 for entering Manhattan below 60th Street, President Donald Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy rescinded the federal government’s approval of the controversial program.

According to Duffy, Hochul “never did a study to say, ‘I really care about congestion and I want to reduce congestion, so I’m going to look at how much money should I charge in a toll and how much will that reduce congestion?’ That analysis was never done.”

“You can’t take American taxpayers who paid for roads and block them out and say you can’t access this unless you pay additional money,” said Duffy.

The MTA, which has filed a complaint and refuses to end the program as of now, claims that congestion pricing, which is meant to raise funds for the agency, is successful in decreasing traffic.

Whether the Trump administration has the authority to end the program is unclear.

“It’s not really even a close case. Under the rules, the federal government cannot unilaterally terminate the program once it’s begun,” declared Janno Lieber, the CEO and chair of the MTA. “There are lots of ways that it can get terminated, but they always have to include the agency that’s running the program.”

According to James Sample, a constitutional law professor, “because the program is already in place, the status quo is on the side of congestion pricing, and the parties seeking to undo the status quo in court bears a high burden.”

As the MTA fights the federal govern-

ment’s attempts to end congestion pricing, the agency also requests a portion of the government’s $68 billion capital program to fund other programs.

Antonio Reynoso, the Brooklyn Borough President, slammed the Trump administration’s action as foolish and praised congestion pricing as an effective means of raising money for the MTA while reducing traffic in the city. Meanwhile, Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, and Long Island officials praised Trump’s campaign to end congestion pricing.

Although some New Yorkers have lauded congestion pricing, many others are frustrated with what they call an added “tax” on New Yorkers. Retail stores and restaurants in the area have seen that the new fees are hurting their businesses.

Kash Patel Heads FBI

the Senate narrowly voted to confirm Kash Patel as the director of the FBI.

Patel, a former Trump aide, federal prosecutor and assistant public defender, said he would work with the bureau’s employees to “rebuild an FBI the American people can be proud of.”

“The American people deserve an FBI that is transparent, accountable, and committed to justice,” Patel posted in a

message on social media after his confirmation. “The politicalization of our justice system has eroded public trust – but that ends today.”

Patel was approved 51-49, a remarkably tight margin for a position that historically has seen nominees win overwhelming bipartisan support. The three most recent FBI directors each garnered at least 92 votes.

Senators Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) were the only Republicans to vote against Patel. Since Trump’s inauguration, at least eight top officials at the bureau have been forced out, and people familiar with the bureau’s workforce say morale has plummeted amid fears of further staffing shake-ups.

Patel is loyal to President Trump, having spent Trump’s first term working as a congressional staffer, White House aide and Pentagon staffer. Since then, he has found lucrative work as a consultant and has been a dedicated defender of Trump on podcasts and television.

The FBI employs more than 30,000 people and has hundreds of offices nationwide. Patel has called for profound changes within the bureau. His 2023 book described the bureau as “a tool of surveillance and suppression of American citizens” and said its powers should be dramatically curtailed.

The previous director, Christopher Wray, stepped down before Trump came into the White House after serving seven years of a ten-year term.

Before voting to support Patel’s nomination, Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) said he looked “forward to working with Mr. Patel to restore the integrity of the FBI and get it focused on its critical mission.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who chairs the Judiciary Committee, called Patel a reformer who would bring needed change to the bureau.

“Over the past several years, political infection has diminished the FBI’s credibility and distracted the Bureau from its core law enforcement responsibilities,” Grassley said in a statement after the confirmation vote. “As FBI Director, Kash Patel promises to restore the FBI’s primary focus on law and order, as well as national security, and do right by the brave FBI agents who work day in and day out to keep Americans safe.”

Trump Meets with Macron

show of friendship Monday in their first meeting since last month’s inauguration, but for all the clubby hugs and handshakes, they could not disguise the growing rift between the United States and Europe over the Ukraine war.

Meeting on the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the two leaders seemed intent on avoiding an open rupture as they traded compliments during a convivial White House meeting. But they diverged significantly over the causes of the war, each side’s role in the conflict, and its possible resolution.

The session came as the United States and France split sharply at the United Nations over a resolution condemning Russia’s aggression. While Europe and most of the world sided with Ukraine, the Trump administration dissented along with Russia, North Korea and Belarus.

The deepening divide was on display in capitals on both sides of the Atlantic. While the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and European Union buildings in Brussels were illuminated with the blue-and-yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag in solidarity, the White House made no effort to demonstrate support.

“I think a lot of progress has been made,” Trump said of his efforts to negotiate peace with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “We’ve had some very good talks with Russia. We’ve had some very good talks with others, and we’re trying to get the war ended with Russia and Ukraine.”

But even as Macron called the president “dear Donald” and repeatedly used words such as “friendship” and “shared agenda,” he gently and politely struck a different note from Trump’s on the war.

“This peace must not mean a surrender of Ukraine,” Macron said during a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House. “It must not mean a ceasefire without guarantees. This peace must allow for Ukrainian sovereignty.”

Trump made no mention of guarantees or Ukrainian sovereignty, refused to call Putin a dictator and stated that the United States had spent three times as much on the war as Europe had.

Macron, by contrast, gave voice to the consensus view in Europe that Russia is to

Last week,

President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron put on a

38 blame for the war. “This is a responsibility of Russia because the aggressor is Russia,” Macron said. (© The New York Times)

Oldest Holocaust Survivor Dies

Rose Girone turned 113 on January 13 of this year. She was believed to be the oldest survivor of the Holocaust. On Monday, Rose passed away in New York due to old age.

Rose ran a knitting shop in Forest Hills, Queens. She said that knitting helped save her family during the Holocaust. She was outspoken about her experiences during the war and provided testimonies to the USC Shoah Foundation, the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County and others.

“Everything that’s out there is really who my mother was,” Reha Bennicasa, Rose’s daughter, said, referring to the press coverage her mother received in recent years. “She was a strong lady, resilient. She made the best of terrible situations. She was very level-headed, very commonsensical. There was nothing I couldn’t bring to her to help me solve — ever — from childhood on. She was just a terrific lady… and I don’t know, when G-d made her, they broke the mold.”

Rose was born in Janov, Poland, in 1912. Her family settled in Hamburg, Germany, where they ran a theatrical costume shop. She married her husband

Julius in 1938. Later that year, the couple moved to Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland). After Kristallnacht, Julius was arrested and was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Rose, eight months pregnant, fled the city to stay out of harm’s way.

In 1939, a cousin sent Rose a paper he said was a visa, written in Chinese. Shanghai was one of the last open ports in the world; Rose presented the visa to the Nazi authorities and was able to get her husband released from Buchenwald.

The couple fled to Shanghai, where conditions were difficult, although Rose used knitting to support her family.

In 1947, the family moved to the United States, reuniting with Rose’s mother, brother and grandmother, who had all survived the war.

Rose told the Herald on her 113th birthday, “The secret to a long, healthy life is simple: Live every day with a purpose, have amazing children, and eat lots of dark chocolate.”

“Razin” Caine as Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff

Over the weekend, President Donald Trump appointed Dan Caine as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The two met for the first time in Iraq in 2018. Caine, then the deputy commander of a special operations task force fighting

Islamic State, told the president that the militant group could be destroyed in just a week, Trump recalled during a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2019.

Trump has retold that story numerous times, referring to Caine as “Razin” Caine with much admiration.

“He’s a real general, not a television general,” Trump said in Miami on Wednesday, two days before his Trump plucked Caine from retirement to a nomination to be the most senior active-duty officer in the U.S. military.

If approved by the Senate, Caine will take over a military that is undergoing change in the first 30 days of the Trump administration and will inherit a Joint Staff dealing with Trump’s surprise firing of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown.

Caine, a retired F-16 pilot, will be promoted to four-star general and then have to undergo a potentially grueling Senate confirmation process to get a four-year term as the uniformed head of the nation’s military.

Caine, who flew more than 2,800 hours in the F-16, was one of the pilots tasked with protecting Washington on September 11, 2001, when al Qaeda hijackers slammed commercial jets into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in New York City.

Caine realized he might have to shoot down a hijacked plane if one crossed his path.

“I was very mindful that if we made a mistake or if we got it wrong or if we missed somebody and we did not shoot, the consequences of that could be catastrophic,” Caine, who has also flown the T-37 and T-38 aircraft, said in an article posted on the CIA website.

Caine held a number of posts in the capital from 2005. He was a special assistant to the secretary at the Department of Agriculture and then policy director for counterterrorism at the White House’s homeland security council. He was also a part-time member of the National Guard and “a serial entrepreneur and investor” from 2009 to 2016. Most recently, he was the associate director for military affairs at the Central Intelligence Agency, before his retirement late last year.

L.A. Fire Chief Fired

After days of public battling, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass abruptly removed the city’s fire chief Friday, increasing the turmoil that has surrounded City Hall in

the weeks since a wildfire devastated the city’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood and led to an increasingly acrimonious dispute between the two officials.

Bass said in a statement that she had removed Kristin Crowley, chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department, effective immediately. The announcement came after Bass said publicly for the first time that she made a mistake leaving the country and traveling to Ghana days before the fires broke out — but blamed Crowley for not alerting her about the impending threat of catastrophic fires.

Crowley had forcefully pushed back on the claim by the mayor. In the hours before Bass left on her trip, there had been numerous warnings from weather forecasters about dangerously high winds and dry weather conditions.

In announcing the shake-up, Bass criticized Crowley for sending home 1,000 firefighters the morning the Palisades fire broke out Jan. 7. It was the first of two major blazes that destroyed about 12,000 structures combined in Southern California last month. She also accused Crowley of refusing to pursue an examination of what the fire department might have done wrong leading up to the fires.

The removal of the fire chief comes as Bass has been rocked by criticism of her management of one of the worst catastrophes in the history of Los Angeles. The criticism began with her trip to Ghana, where she joined an official U.S. delegation celebrating the inauguration of that country’s president. She eventually aborted her trip and flew back home on a military transport as the fires spread.

In an interview this week with a local Fox News affiliate, Bass said she would not have traveled farther than San Diego if she had been properly warned about the dangers of the fires.

Bass said her office would lead a national search to find a new fire chief. For now, Ronnie Villanueva, who had recently retired after serving in the Los Angeles Fire Department for more than 40 years, will serve as the interim fire chief. (© The New York Times)

Elizabeth Holmes’ Conviction Upheld

Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos, is serving more than 11 years in prison for defrauding investors with false claims about her company’s blood-testing technology. This week, a U.S. appeals court upheld the fraud convictions, sentences and $452 million restitution order for Holmes and her second in command, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, who was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison.

The two had argued that the court committed several legal errors and violated their constitutional rights during their separate trials. The three-judge panel for the appeals court rejected their claims, finding that any errors were harmless or that their arguments failed to show any violation.

As part of their appeal, they also challenged the restitution, arguing that the figure should not have been based on the investors’ total investments.

Holmes, 41, was found guilty of four counts of investor fraud and conspiracy in January 2022 and was sentenced to 135 months in prison.

Holmes made national news when she dropped out of Standford University in 2003 and morphed into a business leader less than a decade later, even making the cover of Fortune magazine. But Holmes’ downfall came in 2015, when investigations from journalists and regulators highlighted the medical company’s faulty product, which claimed to provide accurate information from tests using just a few drops of blood.

Balwani, 59, was convicted of fraud and conspiracy in July 2022 and was sentenced to 155 months in prison.

Boat Tragedy in NYC

On Sunday, a boat in New York Harbor capsized while returning from a fishing trip. Three people were killed in the incident; two others were injured. On Monday, authorities said that they were suspending the search for Vernon Glasford, 52, who went missing in the ordeal.

“We extend our deepest sympathies to the family and loved ones of Vernon Glasford,” said Capt. Jonathan Andrechik, commander of the Coast Guard Sector New York. “The decision to suspend a search is always difficult. Though our active search has ended, our support and sympathy remain with all those impacted by this tragic incident.”

Crews spent around 30 hours looking for Glasford. He was on a fishing trip with friends and work colleagues when the boat began to sink.

The Coast Guard said the group departed on the fishing trip from Howard Beach early Sunday and apparently were returning home when their boat started to take on water and sink near Breezy Point.

Did you know?

Sheitel Shocker

A man from Colombia used an ingenious method to try to smuggle drugs from Cartagena, Colombia, to Amsterdam.

The 40-year-old hid 19 cocaine capsules under a toupee he was wearing. The drugs were valued at around $10,000.

The word “clown” is believed to come from the Icelandic word klunni, meaning a clumsy person.

42

But after authorities became suspicious, they removed his wig.

Footage released by local police shows an officer at the airport wearing hospital gloves cutting through the toupee with scissors, which covered the suspect’s shaved head. More than a dozen packets of cocaine were strapped to the toupee, protected by a plastic coating.

“Through profiling, they found an individual who intended to board a flight from Cartagena to Amsterdam,” Gelver Yecid Pena Araque, a police commander, said. “This individual was profiled by one of our experts…then, after a scan and body search, a wig was found, which contained more than 220 grams of cocaine that he intended to take to the Netherlands. With this, criminal profits took a hit.”

The man was arrested and taken into custody.

Colombia is a main cocaine trafficking producer.

Recently, Gustavo Petro, the country’s president, said that the drug was “no worse than whiskey” and said it was only illegal because it was produced in Latin America.

“Scientists have analyzed this…if you want peace, you have to dismantle the business (of drug trafficking),” he said on February 6. “It could easily be dismantled if they legalize cocaine in the world. It would be sold like wine.”

That would be really hair-ible.

Now and Forever

For more than eight decades, Manoel Angelim Dino and Maria de Sousa Dino have been living blissfully together. The couple first met in 1936. They married in 1940.

They have now been married for more than 84 years and 85 days, the longest marriage for a living couple.

Manoel is 105 years old; his youthful wife is 101.

Maria’s mother was unsure of the couple’s union at first, according to Jam Press. Manoel quickly won her favor after building a house for himself, Maria and their future family. By this time, World War II was breaking out in Europe. Back in Brazil, the couple grew tobacco to support their 13 children.

Today, the family has expanded to include 55 grandchildren, 54 greatgrandchildren and 12 great-greatgrandchildren.

Now, they spend their time together at home, although Manoel spends much of his time resting. Still, he get up in the evening to sit with Maria in their living room where they listen to prayers on the radio and television.

When asked about the secret to their long marriage, Maria simply said: “Love. And that’s something even the most advanced computer could never calculate.”

The previous record was held by an American couple, Herbert Fisher, born in 1905, and Zelmyra Fisher, born in 1907. They were together for 86 years and 290 days until Herbert passed away on February 27, 2011, according to Guinness.

The longest-ever recorded marriage belongs to David Jacob Hiller, born in 1789, and Sarah Davy Hiller, born in

Did you know?

1792. After tying the knot in Canada in 1809, their union lasted an incredible 88 years and 349 days until Sarah passed away in 1898, according to Guinness. Sounds like they tied the knot just right.

Oldest Living Mayor Dies

Vito Perillo didn’t let old age slow him down. He became mayor of Tinton Fall, New Jersey, in 2017. He was 93 years old at the time.

On Saturday, Mayor Perillo passed away at the age of 100 while serving his second term as mayor.

He was born in 1924 and served in the U.S. Navy alongside his brother during World War II. He worked as a civil engineer through his retirement.

When Perillo was campaigning eight years ago, he went door to door handing out flyers, walking so much that he wore down two pairs of shoes.

He beat out the incumbent mayor

International Clown Week was passed into U.S. law by President Richard Nixon on August 2, 1971.

Gerald Turning by just over 300 votes. Perillo was re-elected for a second term in 2021 at age 97 but told supporters that he wouldn’t be running for a third time when he turned 100 in September.

“They tell me I’m the oldest mayor in the country,” Perillo told NJ.com after he was re-elected. “I’m feeling pretty good, and I think everybody in the borough feels good, too. They were all happy for me this morning.”

“Deeply saddened by the passing of our nation’s oldest mayor, Vito Perillo, at the age of 100. As a World War II veteran and mayor of Tinton Falls, Vito leaves behind an incredible legacy of service. Our hearts go out to his loved ones and the entire Tinton Falls community,” Gov. Phil Murphy wrote in a social media post after hearing of Perillo’s death.

Sounds like he was young till the end.

Chief Snuggle Officer

Purina, the pet care company, is looking for the perfect four-legged friend that will represent “all things cute and cuddly.” The chief snuggle officer position comes with a salary of $25,000 for the

most lovable pet.

Key responsibilities of the chief snuggle officers include promoting good nutrition, growth, and lots of play. While the position does not require prior executive experience and only demands a “passion for snuggles and a knack for inspiring others,” qualifications for the ideal candidate include being cute on camera; ability to provide quality snuggles; and competency at calming down humans. Of course, tail wagging and purring skills are preferable, but they can just be their own cute selves.

When the company put out feelers for the chief snuggle officer (CSO) position, they received more than 4,000 entries. An independent judging panel then shortlisted the six finalists from all entries received. The final candidates were

chosen based on their cuteness factor, overall impression and the content of the entry’s written submission.

“Through the Chief Snuggle Officers contest, Purina Puppy and Kitten Chow will promote one kitten and one puppy to the brand’s ‘C-Suite’ where they will serve as special brand ambassadors representing all things cute and cuddly and earn a ‘salary’ of $25,000 each,” the company explained.

Now, there are six finalists – three dogs and three cats – for the coveted cute spot.

One puppy, Oliver, has a been a “blessing” for their family, owner Heidi said. “He loves to give kisses, loves to play tug of war, loves belly rubs, loves snuggling and REALLY loves the snow.”

Ruby, a French bulldog, lives in Pennsylvania and is nicknamed Cozy. “She also loves to be carried like a baby and can easily bring a smile and a sense of calmness to anyone around her,” Cozy’s owner said.

Vanessa Hayakawa said that Pudim, a Cavapoo, arrived during the holidays and weighed less than a pound – but had a “giant personality.” His name means “pudding” in Portuguese.

“From day one, Pudim proved that size does not define attitude,” Vanessa

said, adding her pet is “giant in charisma.”

Another finalist, Miyagi, is an exotic shorthair cat living in Irvine, California. He brought tremendous joy to the family after their other cat died.

Living in Flushing, New York, Ika, an American shorthair, was rescued by his owners from a parking lot as they were taking a walk after eating too much during their anniversary dinner.

“The moment we found him, we fell in love,” owner FuLei Lin said. “We had always wanted a cat but never felt like it was the right time. As cliché as it sounds, the cat distribution system decided we were the chosen ones.”

A Siamese cat, CJ, is just five months old. Her owners say she has the “spunkiest personality in the world.”

Want to help decide who is going to take home the chief snuggle officer position? The public can vote on their favorite four-legged buddy on Purina’s website until March 3.

Although the competition may be ruff, whoever wins is going to be purrfect.

Around the Community

Brake on Break at TAG

On Monday morning, many TAG talmidos were seen walking to the second floor lunchroom, VIP invites in hand. These girls completed the entire Brake on Break challenge (to be mindful of their technology use) over

winter break and were treated to an elevated “break”fast with Morah Berkovits.

As they entered the beautifully decorated room, each girl received a VIP bracelet and found her placecard and personalized seat. The girls enjoyed a delicious

breakfast of bagels and salad and heard divrei bracha from Rabbi Weitman. Each talmidah then created her own beaded key chain, her personal takeaway from this event. The breakfast culminated with waffles, ice cream, and toppings – a

delicious treat enjoyed by all! Congratulations to these girls for working so hard and to all of our TAG talmidos who participated in this project. We look forward to handing out the prizes that you selected.

Rambam Book Chat at Traditions

Last week, the Rambam Book Chat met at Traditions for some delicious food as they discussed Arthur Miller’s classic play, The Crucible.

The play is Miller’s take on the Salem witch craze that rocked the early American settlers. The Book Chatters discussed peer pressure, gender, class, leadership, and the literary concept of “The Last Good Man,” as they explored the themes of the work.

Judge Ronald Goldman provided some historical background to the play’s conception, noting that Miller wrote the play in response to the “witch craze” of his day, “McCarthyism.” The Crucible, a play of its time, also spoke to the current time as students discussed how it can now take on allegorical significance related to the recent tide of “Cancel Culture.”

The Book Chat is just one opportunity for students at Rambam to explore litera-

ture outside the classroom. The Rambam Meet The Author Book Club, for instance, had students meet with Dr. Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, and also sent students to hear tech innovator Bill Gates discuss his new book, Source Code. Students also partake in the Rambam 501 Book Challenge where they raise thousands of dollars of tzedakah through the power of reading. For those students looking to really challenge themselves, the school also offers the Rambam Tough Books Book Club where earlier in the year they explored Herman Melville’s Billy Budd Even the alumni are staying in the mix with the Rambam Alumni Short Story Zoom Club with Principal Hillel Goldman.

The recent Book Chat was lively and fun and anything but a crucible, and the students are already looking forward to their next meeting!

YCQ Hosts Annual Bracha Bee

Last week’s Bracha Bee at YCQ was a great success, with students from Grades 1-8 showcasing their impressive knowledge of hilchot brachot. In preparation, students reviewed in class and on their own, gaining a deeper appreciation for Hashem’s world. Junior High School students taught elementa-

Rebbe-Talmid Game at YOSS

This past Sunday, Yeshiva of South Shore held its annual Rebbe-Talmid game in the Abraham and Sara Silber Mechina Gymnasium. It was a beautiful day, and parents and students from the entire Yeshiva flocked to the gym in anticipation of the game. The game is a great opportunity for fun and laughter and also benefits the eighth grade yearbook.

There was a lot of hype leading into this Rebbe-Talmid game as Rabbi Ilan Schimmel, father of eighth grade students Dovid and Zev Schimmel, had been coaching and preparing the eighth grade students for the game. Between teaching

Shulamith Marks 100 Days of School

the boys press defenses and motion offenses, the team was poised for an upset victory. The game was played with fierce intensity. Despite trailing to the Rebbes early in the game, the eighth grade battled back and took the lead before Rabbi Oberlander, seventh grade Rebbe, tied the game with a remarkable 3 pointer to send the game to overtime! In overtime, the students prevailed over the Rebbes for the first time 19 years!

Special thanks to all the students who helped out running the registers, selling raffle tickets, food stands, scoreboard, announcers, and everyone who helped make this a tremendous success!

Sry classes and also led a food drive for those in need, with donation bins sorted by bracha. The competition highlighted students’ dedication and knowledge, with winning classes earning well-deserved prizes. YCQ is “blessed” to have such amazing students!

hulamith marked the 100th day of school with engaging and educational celebrations! Each class engaged in their own fun activities, such as working together to create a list of 100 things they’ve learned in Ivrit so far or learning about making 100 Brachot a day, amongst many more! It was a memorable way for students to reflect on their accomplishments this year. Here’s to many more days of learning and growth!

HAFTR’s Annual Dinner

This past Sunday, the HAFTR family gathered for the 46th Annual HAFTR Dinner, an evening dedicated to honoring outstanding individuals who embody the school’s core values of education, Judaism, and Zionism. The event was a true reflection of HAFTR’s Community of Commitment and Excellence, celebrating those who give of themselves to strengthen our yeshiva and the broader Jewish community.

The night began with inspiring words from HAFTR Board President Stephen Wallach and Executive Director Ari Solomon, setting the tone for an evening of gratitude and celebration. In a moving moment of unity, Rabbi Asher Klein led the community in reciting Tehillim and a Mi Sheberach for the hostages and soldiers, reinforcing our unwavering support for Am Yisrael.

HAFTR was proud to recognize Danna Kalter with the Hakarat HaTov Award, a tribute to her invaluable contributions as HAFTR PTA Co-President. Danna has dedicated herself to enriching the HAFTR experience for students, parents, and faculty alike. Her tireless work

behind the scenes has shaped countless school programs, events, and initiatives, fostering a warm and engaging environment that enhances student life. Through her leadership and dedication, she has strengthened the sense of unity and partnership between HAFTR families and the school, leaving a lasting impact on our community.

Dr. Joshua Wyner, HAFTR High School Principal, was honored as Educator of the Year for his unwavering dedication to his students and his visionary leadership. With a deep passion for education and a steadfast commitment to student success, Dr. Wyner has cultivated an environment of academic excellence, personal growth, and Jewish pride. He is not only a leader within the school walls but a mentor who continues to guide and connect with students long after they graduate. His ability to inspire, challenge, and nurture every student is what makes him such a beloved and respected figure within HAFTR.

As Guests of Honor, Mr. Heshie Reiss and Dr. Rebecca Sternberger-Reiss were celebrated for their deep dedication

to chesed and achdut. Through their involvement in Nevut, they have provided crucial support and care for lone soldiers, offering them a sense of family and unwavering encouragement. Their passion for giving back extends throughout the Jewish community, embodying the values of Zionism, leadership, and responsibility. In a touching and surprising moment, soldiers whose lives they have impacted presented them with a special award of appreciation, underscoring the far-reaching impact of their work.

To conclude the evening, attendees

were gifted with a mezuzah, a meaningful keepsake symbolizing the values of faith, protection, and continuity that guide the HAFTR community.

Reflecting on the night, guests expressed deep appreciation for the opportunity to honor individuals whose dedication and service strengthen the foundation of HAFTR. The 46th Annual HAFTR Dinner was a true celebration of community, commitment, and excellence, reinforcing the school’s mission to inspire generations of students with a love of Torah, learning, and Israel.

Fathers and daughters got together for a fun-filled morning at BY5T

P-1 enjoyed creating edible octopuses for the letter “O” at Shulamith ECC

Rambam 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament and Codenames Tournament Return

Led by the outstanding play of Yosef Bruckenstein, history was made on Wednesday when junior Mark Khaimov won his 3rd Rambam February Madness 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament in a row! Tzvi Turk, “The Final Piece of the Puzzle,” controlled the paint; Bruckenstein controlled the tempo; and Mark is already looking for an unprecedented four year run of dominance. The Runners-Up, fueled by a valiant effort from senior Nathan Pinkhasov, made for an exciting finish to an epic tournament!

While close to 100 students participated in the Annual 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament, the rest of the school competed in an intense Codenames Tourna-

ment. Teams of two were formed and after multiple rounds of play, juniors Jesse Davis and Ethan Farber emerged victorious. With a connection that can only be described as uncanny, they used a combination of grit, intuition, and nuance to upset the Runners-up, senior Bernie Weiner and sophomore Tzviki Gaerman.

Special thanks go to Coach Jeff Bieder and Reb Yitz Milworn for running the basketball tournament and for Bernie Weiner for hosting the Codenames Tournament. The Annual “Madness” day of ball and board games continues to be one of the highlights of the Rambam activities program!

Rambam has already run a num-

ber of tournaments this year including Flag Football, Homerun Derby and Gold Glove, 4-Corner Dodgeball, Soccer, Volleyball, Kahoot, Mindgames tournaments and more! Other major Rambam

Tournaments coming soon: Spikeball, Pickleball, Smash Bros., Rocket League, Chess, Settlers of Catan, Ultimate Frisbee, and much, much more!

Israel Chesed Center Packs its 10,000th Duffel Bag of Gear for Chayalim

On February 10, 2025, the Israel Chesed Center (ICC) celebrated a significant milestone — packing its 10,000th duffel bag filled with essential gear for IDF soldiers. Since October 8, 2023, the ICC has been steadfast in its mission to support IDF soldiers, displaced families, and other individuals in Israel affected by the ongoing war.

Marking this remarkable achievement, a special ceremony was held, attended by Mayor Sam Nahmias of Lawrence, Mayor Ben Weinstock of Cedarhurst, and Michael Fragin of the County Executive’s office. Their presence underscored the widespread community support and appreciation for the ICC’s tireless humanitarian efforts.

During the event, Moshe Bodner re-

flected on the significance of the milestone, drawing a parallel to the tradition of making a siyum upon completing a Masechet of Gemara, where one immediately begins studying the next. True to this sentiment, as soon as the 10,000th bag was packed, ICC volunteers promptly began assembling bag number 10,001, reinforcing their unwavering dedication to the cause.

The duffel bags were transported to Israel by Ike and Rina Bodner. Their commitment to this initiative is deeply personal, as it was inspired by the tragic loss of their close friend, David Newman, who was murdered at the Nova Festival. In his memory, the Israel Chesed Center was established, continuing his legacy through acts of kindness and solidarity.

Looking ahead, the ICC is organizing

the 2nd IDF Unity Shabbat, set to take place from March 6-9 across the Five Towns. This event aims to foster community connection and support for IDF soldiers. For more details on events and scheduling, please visit www.israelchesedcenter.com.

Nova survivor Ron Segev, packing and signing bag number 10,000

Jeff Eisenberg and Moshe Bodner with Ike Bodner picking up bags 10,000 and 10,0001 to bring to Israel

Michael Fragin and Mayor Nahmias of Lawrence with Pessi Steinberg of the Israel Chesed Center packing bag number 10,000

HALB Bat Mitzvah Breakfast

The sixth grade girls at HALB celebrated at their bat mitzvah breakfast on Sunday. Students put together beautiful presentations, en-

joyed a delicious breakfast, and ended the morning dancing with their mothers and morot. It was a very special morning for everyone!

MTA Wins Big at Math Competition

This past Sunday morning, the MTA Math Team, led by math teacher Ms. Newborn, traveled to Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, to compete in the Math Majors of America Tournament for Jewish High Schools (MMATHS). Schools from across the country—from Texas to Florida to New York—faced off in both team and individual competitions.

In the team round, the MTA Lions came out on top, taking 1st place

at MMATHS! Congratulations

on their impressive victory.

The tournament also featured an individual competition, where Math Team captain Akiva Fox (‘25) had an outstanding performance, earning 2nd place among all students! Yasher koach to all who competed!

HAFTR Hosts Natan Levy Through JDF Program

HAFTR students had an unforgettable opportunity to learn valuable self-defense skills through a special class sponsored by a Jewish Defense Fund grant. Led by Natan Levy, the only Jewish and Israeli UFC fighter and proud JDF Ambassador, the event provided students with essential self-defense techniques to enhance their safety and confidence. Held in the HAFTR High School gym, the class welcomed around 30 students—boys and girls—who participated with enthusiasm and focus. This exciting event highlighted HAFTR’s commitment to empowering students

with the skills and confidence they need, both inside and outside the classroom.

The Jewish Defense Fund (JDF) is a strategic funding and action-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to securing the future of the Jewish people. It accomplishes this through direct program implementation, targeted grantmaking, and long-term financial stewardship. JDF identifies and funds high-impact initiatives that strengthen Jewish security, self-defense, and resilience, combating antisemitism and the modern challenges that result from it.

to Levi Dayan (‘26), Akiva Fox (‘25), Daniel Farkas (‘25), Moshe Parver (‘27), Elie Schwartz (‘25), and Yuval Wortzel (‘25)

At the parlor meeting for Yeshivas Ner Moshe in Far Rockaway

Yeshiva Darchei Torah second graders learned the melacha of Tzoveya by tie-dyeing fabric in a rainbow of colors

County Executive Bruce Blakeman Launches Re-Election Campaign

in Massapequa

By Moshe Hill

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the highest-ranking Jewish Republican in America and the first Jewish Executive in the county’s history, kicked off his re-election campaign with a rousing speech in Massapequa on Tuesday. Flanked by an impressive roster of Republican luminaries—including members of the Nassau County Legislature, Town of Hempstead Council, former Congressman Pete King, and Nassau County GOP Chairman Joe Cairo—Blakeman delivered a powerful address that underscored his extraordinary achievements and unwavering commitment to the people of Nassau County. The room was electric with enthusiasm, a testament to the remarkable leadership that has defined his tenure since taking office in 2022.

Blakeman’s journey to this moment began in 2021, when he ran on a bold promise: a return to normalcy after years of upheaval. He has not only delivered on that pledge but has exceeded all expectations, transforming Nassau County into a beacon of safety, prosperity, and common-sense governance. His campaign kickoff speech was a celebration of those triumphs—and a thrilling preview of the greatness yet to come.

One of Blakeman’s signature achievements came early in his tenure, as he fought tirelessly to lift the burdens imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I

got the masks off the kids,” he declared proudly, recalling his courageous stand against overreaching mandates. But his vision extended beyond the classroom. Blakeman also “got the masks off criminals and antisemites,” leading the charge to pass the first mask ban in the United States – headed up in the County Legislature by former IDF soldier Mazi Pilip. This groundbreaking legislation, signed into law in August 2024, has been hailed as a model for protecting public safety, ensuring that those who hide behind masks to commit crimes or spread hate face swift justice.

His resolve to keep Nassau County safe is unwavering. On his third day in office, Blakeman issued an executive order ensuring that Nassau would never become a sanctuary county—a stance that has kept illegal immigration from undermining the community’s security. He thanked Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder and his detectives for their relentless work in apprehending “criminal illegals,” and he reaffirmed his commitment to law enforcement: “We will always stand with you and back the blue in Nassau County.”

Under Blakeman’s leadership, Nassau became the first county in America to partner with ICE and incoming Border Czar Tom Homan to deport dangerous criminals, setting a national standard for cooperation and accountability.

Blakeman’s dedication to fairness shines through in another landmark pol-

icy: his ban on biological males competing in women’s sports at county facilities. “It’s unsafe, it’s unfair, and how about the privacy of women in their locker rooms?” he asked, earning thunderous applause. This bold move, which has garnered support from across the nation—including from prominent figures like Caitlyn Jenner—reflects his deep respect for women and girls, ensuring they have a level playing field and a safe space to compete. It’s just one more example of Blakeman’s ability to tackle tough issues with clarity and conviction.

Blakeman’s economic stewardship has been nothing short of miraculous. He thanked Nassau’s union workers—“simply the best”—noting that, for the first time in years, all county unions have contracts. Yet, he’s achieved this harmony without burdening taxpayers. When he took office, he canceled a staggering $150 million tax increase planned by his predecessor, Laura Curran, and has kept taxes flat for three years running. “I pledge to not raise them next year,” he vowed, a promise that resonates with families and businesses alike.

Remarkably, Blakeman has paired this fiscal discipline with unprecedented investment in public safety. “We have received seven bond upgrades in the last three years, and I still hired 300 law enforcement officers,” he boasted. “We’re not defunding the police—we’re funding the police.” This strategic brilliance has paid off: Nassau County has been named

the safest county in America by U.S. News & World Report, a testament to Blakeman’s unwavering support for law enforcement and his laser focus on community well-being.

Under Blakeman’s visionary leadership, Nassau County has become a destination of choice. Niche magazine recently crowned it the most desirable place to live in New York State, a distinction fueled by his efforts to fund museums, concerts, and world-class events like the T20 Cricket World Cup. But perhaps his most electrifying coup was bringing former President Donald Trump to Nassau County for a rally at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in September 2024.

“Donald Trump told me that Nassau County’s rally was the loudest he’s ever been to,” Blakeman shared, beaming with pride. “He started going up in the polls after he came to Nassau County. He loves Nassau County, and we love him.” The event not only energized the community but also showcased Blakeman’s ability to put Nassau on the national stage.

As he closed his speech, Blakeman took a moment to thank his supporters and the brave men and women of the armed forces, a nod to his deep-rooted patriotism and family legacy of service. His optimism was infectious: “You ain’t seen nothing yet. The best is yet to come. We’re gonna build jobs, we’re gonna build our economy. Like the United States, G-d has blessed Nassau County from sea to shining sea.”

The Ripple Effect of Kindness: How Rabbi Grossman Transformed Lives and Inspired a Movement

By Eliav Ronan

Ever feel like the world’s a bit of a mess? It’s easy to get overwhelmed and think, “What can I possibly do?” But here’s the thing: history is packed with stories of ordinary people who did extraordinary things, simply by deciding to make a difference. Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman is one of those people – a real-life example of how one act of kindness can create a ripple effect that changes the world.

In 1967, Israel celebrated its victory in the Six-Day War. But amidst the jubilation, a young Rabbi Grossman saw a different battle being waged – a silent war on the streets, where a generation of Israeli youth was succumbing to crime, drugs, and despair. He saw children losing their fight for survival, and he knew he couldn’t stand idly by.

He heard whispers of Migdal HaEmek, a town riddled with poverty, crime, and abandoned youth. It was a place where hope had seemingly vanished, a place no rabbi dared to go. But at just 23 years old, Rabbi Grossman made a promise: he would dedicate one year to these forgotten children.

That single year became a lifetime. The pain, the struggles, the desperate longing for love and acceptance he wit-

nessed in these children resonated deep within him. He couldn’t walk away. He ventured into the darkness, into the nightclubs and the haunts of gang members, not to judge, but to understand. He listened. He embraced. He brought light where only shadows existed.

Through unwavering warmth, boundless love, and an unwavering belief in their potential, Rabbi Grossman achieved the impossible. He transformed criminals into scholars, orphans into leaders, and broken children into builders of the future. He defied the naysayers and proved that even in the most desolate corners, hope can flourish.

Rabbi Grossman’s work embodies the very essence of the Torah’s command to care for the vulnerable. It’s not merely a suggestion, but a divine imperative: “You shall not pervert the justice due to the stranger or the orphan.” (Deuteronomy 24:17) “He upholds the cause of the orphan and the widow, and He loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing.” (Deuteronomy 10:18)

These verses weren’t just words on a page for Rabbi Grossman; they were a call to action. He saw them as a mission, a responsibility he embraced with his entire being.

The impact of his dedication is immeasurable. Yossi, a hardened gang lead-

er, found redemption and is now a Torah scholar guiding others. David, once homeless and hopeless, now serves as an IDF officer, protecting the very country he felt had abandoned him. Tamar, an orphan left to navigate the world alone, now empowers other orphans as a social worker. These are just a few examples of the thousands of lives touched by one man’s unwavering commitment.

Rabbi Grossman’s story challenges us: If one person can achieve such profound change, what’s stopping us from changing even one life?

We often wait for grand gestures, for sweeping reforms initiated from the top down. But true change begins at the grassroots level, with individuals who choose to care. We don’t need to be Rabbi Grossman to make a difference. We don’t need to build institutions or rescue thousands. We simply need to take responsibility.

This means finding that struggling student and offering a word of encouragement. It means checking in on a lonely neighbor. It means volunteering our time, donating to causes we believe in, and uplifting those around us. It means choosing to believe in someone who has lost faith in themselves.

Because the truth is, there’s a Yossi, a David, or a Tamar in every community,

waiting for someone to see them, to believe in them, to remind them that they matter. They’re waiting for us.

Rabbi Grossman didn’t wait for the world to change; he changed the world. And the question we must ask ourselves is: Will we?

We don’t need to perform extraordinary feats. We just need to start with one. One act of kindness. One child in need of guidance. One family requiring support. One neighbor longing for connection.

When we step up, when we rise above our own concerns, we ignite a chain reaction of goodness that reverberates far beyond our own lives.

As Maimonides, the Rambam, so eloquently stated: “There is no greater or more glorious joy than bringing happiness to the poor, to orphans, widows, and strangers. One who brings them joy is likened to the Divine Presence itself.” (Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Megillah 2:17)

Rabbi Grossman’s legacy is not just about the thousands of lives he touched, but about the ripple effect he created, inspiring countless others to follow his example. Let us be part of that ripple. Let us be the change we wish to see in the world. The power is within each and every one of us. Go out and ignite your spark. Find your “one.” And together, let us illuminate the world, one life at a time.

CO Captain George Ng, Detective Lynn Blanchette and Officer Kelly of the NYPD 101 Precinct presented JCCRP with an award of gratitude for their community work

HANC Journeys Through the Arts

“Ani BaDerech, I am on my way” has been the theme this year at HANC Elementary School in West Hempstead. In keeping with this theme, the students have been creating artwork inspired by the works and techniques of renowned artists that they have studied. Under the guidance of HANC’s creative art teacher Mrs. Chana Grossman, the children ingeniously incorporated creative elements into their art, transforming the pieces into mesmerizing displays of color and texture.

On Wednesday evening, the entire school was invited to a Journey Through the Arts, exploring the vibrant collection of masterpieces that highlight the imagination, growth and talent of the students, from kindergarten through sixth grade. After receiving a guidebook with descriptions of the numerous displays and the artists that the works were based on, the guests entered the rooms to view the unique creations of the talented students. In the kindergarten display, the children created magical castles, inspired by Mary Blair, Wandering Walruses, which were crafted through the exploration of pastels, and symmetrical butterflies that were created by a printmaking process, and then folded to create a symmetrical design. The butterflies were displayed seemingly in flight just below the ceiling of the auditorium. The first grade students explored architecture through the work of Paul Williams. They then crafted Lego skylines, creating buildings by stamping different Lego shapes, using bold colors over their designs. They also created a collaborative beaded heart tapestry, stitching heart shapes with pipe cleaners and beads on burlap, displaying our communal love and support for our beloved family and friends in Israel.

In the second grade gallery, the students explored color mixing and expression in their “Mix It Up People” artwork. By blending primary colors, they discovered how to create secondary colors, bringing their characters to life with vibrant hues. They also explored bird migration, learning how birds travel together in flocks on incredible journeys. Inspired by Gustav Klimt’s intricate textile patterns, they created their own vibrant birds filled with rich textures and designs. This project combined science and art, allowing students to express movement, unity and creativity through patterns and color.

The next section displayed artwork from the third graders. These students created name color wheels after exploring color theory and producing color wheels using only the three primary colors – red, blue and yellow– to mix the full spectrum of colors. Adding typography to the project, they added contour and shaped bubble letters to form their names. Inspired by the Dr. Seuss book, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go,” the children also created magnificent, whimsical paper mache hot air balloons. Adding intricate designs to their painted balloons, their creations captured the excitement of adventure, creativity and endless possibilities as they “floated” above the gallery guests.

Fourth grade boys explored the mystery of outer space and created stunning string art that reflected the beauty and vastness of the universe. The fourth grade girls explored the concept of space in art by learning about foreground, middle ground and background to create depth in their landscapes. After painting their beautiful backgrounds of sky and ground, they constructed looms to weave trees into the scene.

The fifth grade students dove into the world of animation by creating their own stop motion videos. After crafting characters, props and backgrounds using various art materials, they brought their stories to life through a series of photos, piecing them together to create the illusion of movement. They also built and decorated an air traffic control tower based on the work of the artist Kusamo.

Sixth grade students partnered with Kindergarten children to bring their imaginative monster drawings to life. After the youngest children created colorful silly monster pictures, the older students transformed them into three-dimensional stuffed creatures, utilizing sewing skills and adding texture to their tactile sculptures. Hakarat hatov goes to Mrs. Grossman for enlightening the HANC students to fine art and for giving all of the children opportunities to develop art skills and express their own creativity in remarkable ways.

What

Village of Lawrence Plans To Say “Bye

Mayor Sam Nahmias, along with the Village of Lawrence Board of Trustees, is on a mission to make sure that greenhead flies do not ruin another summer day. Located near coastal marshes, the Village has faced this dangerous pest for decades. The mayor sought out expert entomologists to find more effective solutions while coordinating with the current pest control contractor to refine and adjust existing methods.

In consultation with the Northeast Massachusetts Mosquito Control & Wetlands Management District, the Village anticipates deploying 80 to 100 specially designed traps along the wetland limits. According to NMMC, “The Manitoba-style trap uses basic fly behavior rather than insecticides or chemical bait. Flies attracted to the placement, reflect-

Out Loud Brachos

ed heat, shape, and color will fly into the device and then typically try to fly directly up to escape confinement where they become trapped in a jar and die. Our current trap design works in a similar manner but is modified for coastal greenheads and for use in unpredictably harsh salt marsh conditions. Octenol, a bait that mimics human and animal breath, is added to the inside to lure more females into the trap, found to capture up to 3 times more females than non-baited traps.” The traps are placed in the flies’ typical flight path—the flies complete their lifecycle on or around the salt marsh. The Village would adjust quantity and locations of the traps after analyzing their effectiveness over the course of one season.

It is estimated this focused approach will eliminate 95% of the problem. This contrasts with previous trapping plans,

The Out Loud Brachos contest, now in its 20th years, is being run in ten communities in the United States – the Five Towns, Queens, Monsey, West Hempstead, Passaic, Chicago, Dallas, Cleveland, Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Bye Flies”

which used a trap of a different design with no bait and placed too few traps in marsh areas—where the problem is born—while placing some traps in popular area, where they are too little, too late.

The Village would also take further action, releasing the natural predator of greenflies, the hoverfly, to eat the greenfly’s larvae and further control population growth, a natural form of Insect Growth Regulators (IGR’s).

Finally, a barrier spray would be considered to lower the greenfly population.

The Village of Lawrence would create a commission, composed of local residents, to discuss the efficacies of these strategies and plan future remediation tactics.

Mayor Nahmias notes, “As a Lawrence resident, over the years, I have seen the harmful effects of this pest. As Mayor,

The Five Towns sponsors this year are Gourmet Glatt, Seasons Express, Kol Save, Chickies, Carlos & Gabby’s, and Pizza Pious.

Please reach out to outloudbrachos@ gmail.com with any questions.

I conducted lengthy research to find the appropriate solution and am following through to make everyone’s lives better. We can look forward to a joyful summer in the absence of these violent pests.”

an awesome week at The Special Children’s Center! Thank you to our volunteers from Central, SKA, Young Israel of Woodmere and TMM

Photos Courtesy Northeast Massachusetts Mosquito Control & Wetlands Management District

Mothers and daughters at BY5T enjoyed an evening of jewelry making, food and fun on Motzei Shabbos

Mercaz Academy Empowers Students to Advocate for Israel

Sixth graders participated in a workshop led by Mr. Jeff Lichtman, president of Mercaz Academy, to learn about an important part of the United States Constitution and how to help Israel through advocacy. Students reviewed the federal system of government and how it works, how citizens (including the Mercaz Academy community) benefit from departments including the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department, what the State Department does, and how the United States supports Israel.

The workshop focused on two ideas: power and advocacy. “Power means the ability to accomplish something,” said Mr. Lichtman. “Advocacy means that you as a citizen can share your concerns with those who have power.” He explained that United States citizens have the power to help Jews around the world, citing the example of Americans who successfully advocated for Soviet Jewry.

The sixth graders listened attentively as Mr. Lichtman spoke about the First Amendment, explaining that it encompasses more than freedom of speech; it also protects religious observance, freedom of peaceful assembly, and freedom of the press. By protecting the right of Americans to petition their government,

Did you know?

he pointed out, the First Amendment protects the right to raise issues with our representatives, including the right to advocate for our fellow Jews in Israel.

After this discussion, students wrote emails to President Trump, Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Congressman Tom Suozzi, thanking them for supporting Israel and asking for their continued support. Students personalized their emails, explaining why Israel is important to them and to their families. The sixth graders were enthusiastic about the workshop, with one student volunteering that “it’s good to know that even though we’re not grown up yet, we can still help the Jewish people.”

Rav Eliyahu Oppen, a sofer and the father of a talmid, taught the Yeshiva Darchei Torah kindergarten boys all about mezuzah in honor of them learning the Hebrew letter Mem

The Early Childhood Division of TAG featured TAG’s Talmidos Brioyos program during the month of Shevat. What fun it was reinforcing healthy habits like exercise, hydrating properly and eating healthy foods with special reminders! We hope these habits will continue on way past Shevat.

Mustache is for Mem in Morah Yehudis Soclof’s kindergarten at Yeshiva Darchei Torah

Rav Nachum Dinowitz’s second graders at Yeshiva Darchei Torah learned about the Beis Hamikdash

Young Artists at Work

Developing artistic talent and exploring various modes of creative expression are pillars of the educational program for the young students in HANC Early Childhood Center in West Hempstead. Introducing art to preschoolers is so important because it has a positive impact for their overall development. Art allows preschoolers to express themselves creatively and provides a multitude of opportunities to explore their imagination. Through their artistic creations, they can share emotions, ideas and stories, fostering effective communication skills. This is particularly valuable for very young children who may have difficulty expressing themselves verbally. Children can explore various mediums through which to share their thoughts and perspectives. In addition, art encourages cognitive development by promoting problem solving skills, critical thinking, and decision making. The child can learn to make choices regarding color, materials, and techniques which helps to further develop their cog-

nitive abilities.

The ECC was transformed into the “Bet-ropolitan Museum of Art,” displaying the magnificent artwork of all of the creative Nursery Bet children. The learning process began in the classrooms, where the yeladim learned about the lives of famous artists, how they became artists, and even viewed their artistic creations in interactive lessons on the smart board. The artists that were featured this year included Jackson Pollock, Yitzchok Moully, Keith Haring, David Najar, Morris Katz, Alma Thomas, Claude Monet, Yayoi Kusama , and Vincent Van Gogh. The children then created their own masterpieces in the style of their class’s chosen artist, using a myriad of materials that included paint pastels, wood and even beans. On the day of the event, over 300 people, including parents, siblings and grandparents, attended to view the beautiful galleries that were on display in the auditorium. As each guest arrived in the lobby, they were handed a colorful brochure that includ-

ed information about the artists’ backgrounds and illustrated how the children recreated the art in their classrooms.

In addition to browsing the various galleries, a splendid repast was served to reenact the ambiance of a real art gallery.

The guests were treated to art-themed desserts such as Van Gogh Sunflower Cupcakes, Jackson Pollock Splatter Rice Krispies Treats, and rainbow-colored Jello treats, which were served on plates

depicting a painter’s palate. Beverages were served in champagne flutes to add to the cultural atmosphere of this most special evening.

In reflecting on this magnificent event, Morah Trudy Rubinstein, Director of HANC’s Early Childhood Center, remarked, “This is such a fantastic way to introduce our youngest learners to the wonderful world of culture.”

Introducing: Tnuva Table, Where Tradition Meets Taste and Convenience

TnuvaUSA, the trusted name in kosher dairy products, is proud to introduce Tnuva Table, a new range that combines tradition with modern culinary innovation. This collection is designed to enhance everyday meals with quality, versatility, and a dash of global flavor.

Leading the lineup is Halomi, Halloumi-type feta, perfect for those who love to discover new channels for culinary creativity. This Mediterranean cheese retains its shape under heat, making it ideal for grilling, frying, or baking. Either cubed or sliced, breaded or plain, it complements a variety of dishes, providing delicate flavor and satisfying texture in every bite.

Feta Delight, Tnuva’s Danish-Style Feta, is a smooth, creamy feta that adapts to your culinary needs, whether you’re dressing a salad, spreading on bread, or enriching a baked dish. Available in three fat percentages: 5%, 16%, and 24%, the new products highlight Tnuva’s commitment to catering to diverse dietary preferences.

Extending our innovation to snacking, Tnuva is excited to unveil Labaneh To-Go — our tangy Labaneh with crispy crackers

in a convenient, portable package. Plain or with olive oil and zaatar, it is a satisfying, protein-rich snack that’s perfect for health-conscious individuals on the go, whether you’re commuting, traveling, or at work.

Also joining the Tnuva Table family are the Labaneh Spreadables — traditional cheese balls immersed in a blend of canola and olive oil. These gourmet Labaneh balls add a touch of elegance and flavor to any spread, perfect for entertaining or enhancing your favorite dishes with a luxurious twist.

Every Tnuva product is produced with the highest standards of quality and under the strict supervision of the Vaadat Mehadrin and the OU. Tnuva USA CEO and President Gilad Hachmon remarked, “We’re proud of our new Tnuva Table series and delighted with the contribution that Tnuva products make to good times spent with family and friends!”

Halomi and Vegetable Skewers

This recipe combines the salty, chewy texture of Halomi with the freshness of grilled vegetables, making it a colorful and tasty dish that’s perfect for grilling season or any festive occasion.

Yield: 4 servings

Prep Time: 15 minutes, not including grilling Ingredients

1 block Tnuva Halomi Cheese, cut into cubes

1 zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch slices

1 red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 yellow bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 red onion, cut into wedges

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon dried oregano Salt and pepper to taste Lemon wedges, for serving

Instructions

1. Preheat your grill to medium-high heat.

2. Thread the Tnuva Halomi cheese, zucchini, bell peppers, and red onion onto skewers, alternating the ingredients. 3. In a small bowl, mix the olive oil, oregano, salt, and pepper. Brush mixture over the skewers.

4. Grill the skewers for about 8-10 minutes, turning occasionally, until the vegetables are tender and the cheese has grill marks.

5. Serve the skewers hot, with fresh lemon wedges for squeezing over the top.

At the 143 Installation of the Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Department

At the 143 Installation of the Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Department, installing the new Chief of Department Meyer Adler, his deputy chiefs, and the officers of the department for 2025.

Photo credit: Kevin Madagen

HANC 71st Scholarship Dinner

The HANC 71st Scholarship Dinner was an incredible Tu B’Shevat celebration filled with warmth, pride, and a true sense of community.

Taking place at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation with Rabbi Judah Hulkower and his band punctuating the vibe throughout the evening, the night was a real success. With a strong emphasis on growth and our strong roots within the HANC Community, the program honored the past, celebrated the present, and looked ahead to a bright future—all while raising essential funds to support the school’s continued growth.

The evening began with Hatikvah and the National Anthem by HANC Parent,

Dr. Judah Gomberg. Next up, a touching tribute to beloved HANC Founder and Dean Emeritus, Rabbi Meyer Fendel, zt”l, whose vision and dedication laid the foundation for everything HANC represents today. In his memory, a siyum was completed, led by talented students and members of the HANC Community.

A special shoutout to 8th grader Jacob Schoenfeld, son of Family of the Year honorees, and 10th grader Isaac Silbiger, both of whom did a fantastic and impressive job.

HANC was privileged to recognize the Class of 1974, HANC’s first-ever graduating class of the HS, whose proud members in attendance received a spe -

cial certificate announcing that the first tree on the new Reinstein Family Campus will be dedicated in their honor—a lasting tribute to their place in HANC’s history.

The evening wouldn’t have been complete without celebrating the incredible honorees:

Moshe Orenbuch with Community Service Award, Nancy Greenberg as the Educator of Excellence, and Shana and Jon Schoenfeld as Family of the Year.

In a heartwarming surprise, Associate Principal Mrs. Marie Palaia was presented with a parting gift from the HANC community, recognizing her 33 years of dedicated service to her students

and the school.

From the excitement in the room to the overwhelming support, HANC pride was on full display. The HANC 71st Anniversary Scholarship Dinner reinforced the power of community to come together and make a difference.

Thank you to everyone who made this night so special for the HANC Family—your generosity and dedication continue to strengthen HANC and secure its future for generations to come. We can’t wait to see how we will continue to grow—together.

Scenes from JEPREN9, the ultimate networking event for key players in real estate and healthcare at Lavan this past Monday night, supporting JEP Long Island & Camp Nageela

Debate Wins at HALB

The HALB Debate team competed in a meet at BPY, where students from four schools engaged in discussions on key immigration issues facing America today. HALB students Ilan Botnick and Natan Aryeh earned third place team, while Natan also secured third place speaker. Congratulations to all the participants on a fantastic competition!

Rav Yehoshua Eichenstein, Rosh Yeshiva of Yad Aharon in Yerushalayim, visited Siach Yitzchok to speak for the junior high boys. The boys then danced the Rosh Yeshiva out to his car.

The HAFTR Experience

By Bianca Meltser

When considering the right high school for me, many factors went into my decision. One consideration was the location of the school, and since I live an hour away from HAFTR, some people encouraged me to attend a school closer to home. While the thought of having an extra hour of sleep every morning sounded great, ultimately, I decided to enroll in HAFTR High School. Looking back at that decision, I can honestly say that there is no high school experience that would have been a better choice for me, and I am so happy to have decided to enroll at HAFTR.

While HAFTR is a school, it is also a home. It is a place filled with the support of friends and teachers and where students learn essential values for life while developing a passion for learning. Those of us at HAFTR feel this inclusive and engaging environment every day, but it can be hard to relay this experience to prospective students without having them see it for themselves. So, to help the incoming class of 2029 get a glimpse of our routine, HAFTR opened its doors in its annual HAFTR Experience event. This program invites the incoming freshman class the opportunity to visit the school and spend a few hours getting to know the faculty, students, and layout of the building. This year, HAFTR hosted this event on Tuesday, February 11, where current eighth graders from vari-

ous schools visited for a day of engaging activities.

The day began when students were divided into several groups and assigned to designated upperclassmen, whose job was to bring them around the school to different activities. Each activity allowed students to walk in the shoes of a high schooler. Not only did they participate in fun activities including digital design, art, engineering and technology, science labs, e-sports, Maker Space, and Spanish, but they also sat in on interesting classes taught by our esteemed faculty, representing subjects in both General and Judaic Studies. The eighth graders were able to talk to current high schoolers about their experiences. Many of us spoke to the students about the warm environment and how everyone feels like a family here. The experience concluded with a fresh brick oven pizza lunch and Dippin’ Dots while also having the opportunity to play arcade basketball, ping pong, and several other games.

Being a student at HAFTR High School is an incredible, unmatched experience. This year’s HAFTR Experience allowed the incoming freshmen to feel the inclusive, unique, and warm environment HAFTR offers. Like me, I know that each student will have a fulfilling, satisfying, and growthful high school experience. The impact HAFTR will have on them, as it has for myself and my friends, will benefit them and help them thrive in the future.

Mazal tov to HALB’s second grade boys on finishing their first perek in their very own Chumash

Purim is in the air at Lev Chana

At Yeshiva Darchei Torah’s 3rd Grade Rashi & Mishnayos Celebration

JSL Week 6 Recap

Another action-packed week in the JSL, brought to you by FM Home Loans, delivered intense matchups, hard-fought overtime battles, and thrilling shootout victories. Here are the highlights from this week’s games:

K/P Hockey

Smash House cruised past Yeled LI 13-5, led by Yakov Backman who netted an impressive hat trick. NY Chaplain Group dominated Growtha 14-3, with Yehuda Cohen putting on a show, scoring five goals. SR Whee handled 5 Towns Central 6-3, behind Yaakov Rosenberg’s four-goal performance. Posh Home + Bath edged out 5 Towns Landscaping 5-4, as Shmuel Biegeleisen scored twice, including the go-ahead goal that sealed the win.

K/P Soccer

Future Care Consultants shut out Doma 4-0, as Benny Heit racked up five blocks and three key saves. Maidenbaum edged out Hewlett Auto Body 6-4, fueled by Meir Zlotowitz’s unreal four-goal display.

1st Grade Hockey

Simcha Day Camp rolled to a 15-7 win over a shorthanded Town Appliance team, with Yaakov Grossman, Yaakov Marx, and Aaron Waldman each scoring twice, while Yaakov Kret added eight goals of his own in the victory. Seasons Express escaped John’s Auto 9-8, as Yaakov Ruvel scored two goals and anchored the defense. Anju overpowered Eden Gardens 12-4, with Murray Rosenblatt playing great defense to shut down Eden Garden’s scoring chances.

2nd/3rd Grade Hockey

Built By Nate earned a 3-0 win over PIP Printing, with most improved player of the year candidate Avraham Weberman stepping up big to help secure the victory. Sushi Tokyo Ninjas defeated Maidenbaum 9-4, with Tzvi Langer scoring a highlight-reel goal. Ecom Beyond edged Smash House 6-5 in overtime, thanks to lockdown defense from Baruch Areman and Meir Weber, who limited scoring chances all game. Town Appliance topped Better Image Contracting 5-2, with Dovid Leviton leading the way offensively, while defenseman David Erez locked it down on the other end. Newman Dental held a 7-4 lead with four minutes remaining, but SR Whee rallied with three unanswered goals to force overtime. After a scoreless OT, Newman Dental responded in the shootout, as Shaya Muchnik scored the go-ahead goal and star goalie Yosef Gordon shut down all three of SR Whee’s attempts to secure their first win heading into next week’s play-in matchup.

4th/5th

Grade Hockey

Wieder Orthodontics took down Target Exterminating 6-2, with goalie Ahron Silverman turning away shot after shot. Seasons got past Marciano Pediatric Dentistry 6-3, with Shua Schwadel breaking up scoring chances throughout. Gerber Bedding kept their undefeated season alive with a hard-fought 4-3 win over Town Appliance, powered by Yehuda Weichselbaum, who scored two key goals to secure the victory. Smash House beat Russo’s Pharmacy 6-3. Izzy Schilowitz played a nice game, scoring a goal and

made some strong defensive plays.

6th-8th Grade Hockey

Wieder Orthodontics rolled past Bluebird Insurance 10-5, led by Tzvi Rosenberg, who impressed with sharp passing and an all-around standout performance. Clinging to a late 6-4 lead, Kosher Skinny Shot saw Gavriel Levine rally Growtha with two quick goals to force OT. In overtime, after a clutch diving save by goalie Yosef Treuhaft, Dovid Balter capitalized off the faceoff, burying the game-winner to seal the dramatic 7-6 victory. Sdei Chemed trailed Tikva Fire most of the game but mounted an incredible comeback, powered by three goals each from Benjy Somerstein and Yakov Levine even it up at 7. After a scoreless overtime, Yossi Sasson delivered the go-ahead and eventual game-winner in the shootout, securing Sdei Chemed their first win of the season. 925 Sterling won their fourth straight game, defeating Extreme Vent Cleaning 6-1, as goalie Dovi Einhorn made several incredible saves to lead his team to victory.

1st/2nd Grade Basketball

Newman Dental outlasted Eden Gardens 8-6, with Mordy Schwab scoring half of the team’s points and adding multiple steals. Smash House beat Premier Assist 30-8, led by Mordechai Sorotzkin’s eight points. Tiffany Dry Cleaners secured a 24-2 win over Tikva Fire, as Daniel Grabie and Yaakov Kret combined for 20 points.

3rd/4th Grade Basketball

Better Image Contracting held on to beat Posh Home + Bath 15-12, with Shua

Basch running the offense and hitting clutch free throws. Marciano Pediatric Dentistry defeated Wieder Orthodontics 25-10, as Dovid Bauman showcased elite ball handling, scoring, and rebounding. Russo’s Pharmacy edged John’s Auto 1312 in an unbelievable finish, with Eliyahu Seidman knocking down the game-winning shot.

5th-7th Grade Basketball

Sdei Chemed took down Sperling Productions 36-29. Shai Well dominated defensively in this game with five blocks, six steals, and eight points.

Game of the Week

Binyamin Weissman Photography took the court looking to extend their recent hot streak, but Emporio had other plans. In a nail-biter that came down to the wire, Moshe Berokhim stepped to the free-throw line with the game on the line and calmly sank two clutch go-ahead free throws, sealing the incredible 46-45 victory for Emporio.

Rav Yaakov Bender, Rosh HaYeshiva, and some third grade rabbeim

Rav Yaakov Bender with Holocaust survivor Edith Wohlberg and her great-grandchildren in the Yeshiva’s third grade

Rav Avrohom Bender, Menahel

Around the Community

A Beacon of Torah and Avodas Hashem in Yerushalayim

In the heart of Yerushalayim, a shul established just a couple of years ago has quickly become a vibrant hub of Torah learning and heartfelt prayer, operating around the clock. Under the esteemed guidance of HaRav Naftuli Aryeh Spiegel, shlita, this sacred space has fostered an atmosphere of continuous growth in ruchniyus, drawing individuals from all walks of life seeking spiritual elevation and connection.

HaRav Naftuli Aryeh Spiegel, shlita, is a son of HaRav Dovid Spiegel, shlita, the Ostrov-Kalishiner Rebbe of Cedarhurst. His father’s legacy of Torah, chesed, and unwavering dedication to Klal Yisrael has profoundly influenced his leadership, shaping the shul into a true makom kodesh. Together, father and son continue to expand this legacy, now bringing it to Eretz Yisrael.

The shul in Yerushalayim, along with a kollel that HaRav Naftuli Aryeh leads, was established in memory of his mother, Rebbetzin Devorah Esther Spiegel, a”h, who was nifteres a couple of short years ago. As a daughter of the Pittsburgher

Rebbe, the Emunas Avrohom, she hailed from the Nadvorna Chassidic dynasty, which has branches all over the world.

The kollel was named Zichron Yosef in honor of HaRav Yosef Neishluss, zt”l, of Lakewood, a brother-in-law of HaRav Naftuli Aryeh.

HaRav Naftuli Aryeh Spiegel, shlita, is also a son-in-law of the Tolna Rebbe of Yerushalayim. With his deep roots in

multiple esteemed Torah dynasties, he carries forth a rich mesorah of Torah, avodah, and chesed.

The origins of this spiritual initiative trace back to the Rebbe’s shul, fondly known as the “Shteeble,” which has served as a pillar of limud haTorah and avodas Hashem for over fifty years in Cedarhurst. With its deep-rooted traditions and commitment to kedushah, the Shteeble has inspired generations of Yidden to strengthen their connection to HaKadosh Baruch Hu through intense Torah study and heartfelt davening. Now, HaRav Naftuli Aryeh continues this sacred legacy together with his father, ensuring that the mesorah of previous generations is upheld and expanded in Eretz Yisrael.

The establishment of the shul was strongly encouraged by HaRav Yitzchok Tuvia Weiss, zt”l, the Gaavad of Yerushalayim. His vision and support helped pave the way for the shul’s creation, providing a space where Torah learning and avodas Hashem could flourish in the heart of Yerushalayim.

HaRav Naftuli Aryeh himself spent many years in Chernobyl and has maintained a very close relationship with the Chernobyler Rebbe in Bnei Brak. As a bochur, HaRav Naftuli Aryeh learned in Lakewood, just as his father did decades earlier under HaRav Aharon Kotler, zt”l.

With this bais medrash, he will be able to continue on the mesorah of his father

tuli Aryeh is a sought-after speaker, rosh kollel, and mentor to many. His shul is a place where all are welcome and feel the warmth that permeates its walls. It serves as a home away from home for many American bochurim and young couples who are looking for a place where they can feel at home.

Beyond its physical walls, the shul has become a beacon of inspiration for the broader community. Many talmidei chachamim and aspiring bnei Torah have found a home there, benefiting from the shiurim, chavrusas, and warm camaraderie that define the atmosphere. Whether during the early morning hours, late at night, or in the middle of a bustling day, one can always find a devoted group engaged in limud haTorah, immersed in the words of the Gemara, or whispering heartfelt tefillos.

Under the leadership of HaRav Naftuli Aryeh Spiegel, shlita, the shul has embraced the values of mesorah and innovation, upholding the timeless traditions of the Shteeble while addressing the unique needs of today’s Torah community.

As this remarkable shul flourishes, may it continue to grow and inspire for many years to come, spreading the light of Torah across the world and strengthening the connection between generations past, present, and future.

clown car at a circus can fit between 14-21 clowns.

and mother in Eretz Yisroel. HaRav Naf-

Around the Community

One for the Books

By Rabbi Yechiel Spero

A Simple Game of Chess

In the heart of Brooklyn, a teenage boy was growing distant. He had once been a promising talmid, but lately, his enthusiasm for learning had waned. The pull of the outside world, with all its distractions, had begun to take hold of him. Movies, music, and the culture surrounding him were slowly replacing the Torah and mitzvos that had once been central to his life. His father saw it happening but didn’t know how to stop it.

The father wasn’t a Klausenburger Chassid, but he had genuine respect for the Klausenburger Rebbe, Rav Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam. He had heard stories of the Rebbe’s wisdom, of how he had an uncanny ability to reach people, no matter where they were holding. Desperate, the father hoped that maybe, just maybe, the Rebbe could help.

The boy agreed to go with his father to see the Rebbe. He wasn’t thrilled about

it, but he respected his father enough not to refuse. As they entered the Rebbe’s office, the father wondered what the Rebbe could possibly say that would make a difference. As much as he respected the Rebbe, he wasn’t in the mood of a mussar schmuess in regard to his parenting.

The Rebbe greeted them warmly and immediately asked the boy, “So, tell me, what do you like to do in your free time?”

The father’s heart sank. He knew what was coming. The boy, a bit surprised by the question, and feeling no need to hide anything, shrugged and answered, “I like watching movies, Rebbe.”

The father’s face flushed with embarrassment. This wasn’t what he wanted the Rebbe to hear, but the Rebbe didn’t react the way the father expected. He didn’t look disappointed or even surprised. Instead, he nodded, as if he had heard something entirely normal.

“And what else do you enjoy?” the Rebbe asked, still calm, still interested.

The boy thought for a moment. “I like playing chess,” he finally responded.

The father was caught off guard. Chess? He had never heard his son mention chess before. But the Rebbe smiled, his eyes lighting up.

“Chess? I enjoy chess, as well. How about we make a deal? Let’s have a match, you and I. If I win, you agree to learn with me for forty-five minutes a week. But if you win, then I’ll watch one of your movies.”

The father could hardly believe what he was hearing. His son was sitting in front of one of the greatest gedolim of their time, and the Rebbe was proposing a chess match? And what if he lost? Movies?

The boy looked at the Rebbe, intrigued. He hadn’t anticipated this, not at all. A chess match with the Rebbe? And if he won, the Rebbe would watch a movie? The boy couldn’t help but smile at the thought.

“Okay,” he said. “Deal.”

The Rebbe immediately stood up, retrieved a chessboard, and set it down between them. The room fell quiet as the game began. The father watched in silence. What was going on? Was this really happening?

The boy played carefully, but the Rebbe played better. Each move was deliberate, calculated. The boy quickly realized he was up against a master. He tried his best, but the Rebbe outplayed him at every turn. Within a short time, the game was over. The Rebbe had won.

But the boy wasn’t upset. There was something about the way the Rebbe had spoken to him, the way he had treated him with respect, the way he played the game…that softened the sting of losing. There was no judgment, no condescension — just genuine interest and care.

“A deal’s a deal,” the Rebbe said, his smile warm and sincere. “Forty-five minutes of learning each week. What do you say?”

The boy nodded, and so it began. Each week, the boy came to learn with the Rebbe. At first, he went out of obligation, to fulfill his end of the deal. But as time

went on, something shifted. The Torah that had once seemed irrelevant, that had once seemed bitter, began to taste sweet. The boy found himself looking forward to those learning sessions, and little by little, his heart opened up.

Years later, the boy — now a grown man fully devoted to a life of Torah — would tell the story with a sense of awe.

“The Rebbe creamed me in that chess game,” he shared, laughing at the memory. “But that loss was the greatest gift I ever received. It changed my life. I started learning with him, and suddenly, the Torah that had been so distant became something I couldn’t get enough of.”

Looking back, he realized it wasn’t just the game or the deal that changed him. It was the Rebbe’s approach. The Rebbe didn’t look at him as a problem to be fixed. He saw him as a person, a neshamah worth investing in. He met the boy where he was, and through that connection, the Rebbe lifted him higher than the boy ever thought possible.

When you see someone struggling, when you see a child or teenager drifting away, remember the chess match. Remember that often, the way to save a neshama isn’t through force or mussar or criticism, but through understanding, through meeting them where they are, and through the simple, steady love that can turn everything around.

Reprinted from One for the Books by Rabbi Yechiel Spero with permission from the copyright holder, ArtScroll Mesorah Publications.

TJH Centerfold

10 Signs You’re Definitely a Comedian (Or Just Really Weird)

DYou treat every conversation like an open mic. “Hi, how are you?” — “Well, emotionally unstable, but thanks for asking!”

D

You bombed a joke once… and told it three more times to “get it right.” “No, no, wait, lemme try that again… this time it’ll land.”

D

You are really quick with current event puns. “That egg shortage has me feelin’ not so eggcellent!”

D

When the waiter comes over to your table, you try your bit about breadsticks. And your wife rolls her eyes and promises herself that she will never go out to eat with you again.

D

D

You make jokes at funerals…and somehow, they land. “He’s in a better place now— probably somewhere with better Wi-Fi.”

DWhen you come home from shul, you report to your wife how many laughs you got. (Newsflash: The dude just laughed so he doesn’t have to suffer through another six of your lame jokes.)

You start every serious conversation with, “Okay, but this is actually true…” because no one ever believes you when you say, “I once got kicked out of a zoo for impersonating a penguin.”

D

You’ve been told, “You’re so funny!” and immediately reply, “Yeah, my therapist says the same thing,” followed by awkward silence.

DYou’ve said, “But seriously…” right after the dumbest joke ever. “If we’re 60% water, does that make me a walking spill? But seriously…”

D

You laughed while reading this list…and thought, “I could’ve written it better.” Oh, yeah? Try it.

You’re probably the guy who will send in something for Purim and when we don’t print it because it is totally lame, you will threaten to sue us and never pick up TJH again and you will harass us with emails and phone calls and insist on speaking to management. Wow, now that I got that off of my chest… hmm, I guess funny people do really have anger issues somewhere deep inside.

Life as a Comedian

“Comedians don’t have holidays. Every dinner, every family event… that’s just another gig.”

- Jerry Seinfeld

“Comedians don’t get old; they just lose their timing.” - Joan Rivers

“A comedian’s job is to say what everyone’s thinking but is too afraid to say. And sometimes, we find out why they were afraid to say it.” - Louis C.K.

“Comedy is just a funny way of being serious.”

- George Carlin

“I do stand-up comedy, which means I work nights and get paid in chicken wings.” - Jim Gaffigan

“I told my therapist I wanted to be a comedian. He said, ‘Not with that face.’” - Rodney Dangerfield

“I love stand-up comedy because you can make people laugh and judge you at the same time. It’s like therapy, but with a two-drink minimum.” - Demetri Martin

“Being a comedian means saying the wrong thing at the wrong time…professionally.”

- Bill Burr

“Stand-up comedy is the only job where you work for years to make something seem like it just came off the top of your head.” - Louis C.K.

“Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.” - Mel Brooks

“A comedian’s job isn’t to make you laugh. It’s to make you laugh and then think, ‘Wait, was that offensive?’”

- Steve Martin

Can You Deliver thePunchline

You were born to be a comedian, but somehow, you spend ten hours a day crunching numbers in a non-descript building in Manhattan. Well, for once, live your dream—ditch work, throw away your pocket protector, kick back and see if you still have those humor chops.

Yup, we are running a contest. Submit your funny Purim essay to TJH. It can be a funny “news story,” observation about a trend in town, or anything else that will get people to LAUGH. Still know what that word means?

If we print your essay, we will give you a $50 gift certificate to any restaurant in the Five Towns. (See page 14 for full details and rules.) Now, to get you started… Why did the chicken cross the road? Chicken? What chicken?! And don’t get me started on the egg prices crisis.

Torah Thought

Parshas Terumah

By Rabbi Berel Wein

The parsha of Terumah follows those of Mishpatim and Yisro.

In Parshas Yisro, we experienced the moment of the revelation at Mount Sinai and the granting of the Torah to the Jewish people. In Parshas Mishpatim, the Torah began to fill in the details of Jewish law and life, especially as they relate to human and societal behavior and the standards of such behavior that

the Torah wishes us to uphold.

In this week’s parsha of Terumah, the Torah presents another challenge to human behavior: wealth, money, charity and the ability to give away what one may deem to be his or hers. The Torah demands from us the ability to donate to others, to give to great causes, to the public welfare and to be able to share with others our material possessions.

The rabbis of the Talmud stated that this is one of the major identity tests of life. Miserliness, a bad eye and an unwillingness to be able to contribute to others in need are held to be violations of Torah principles and morals. The Torah at Sinai instructed us not to steal, not to take from others what belongs to them without their explicit consent. Now the Torah raises the bar and asks us to be able to give away what we deem to be ours to others less fortunate than us or to national and religious causes that benefit us all.

All of this is implied in the request

golden nuggets of life and morality from the overwhelming amount of dross that fills the pages of our newspapers. There was an item in the newspaper about a baseball pitcher who gave up a guaranteed salary of twelve million dollars for 2011 and retired from the game because he felt in all honesty that he could no longer pitch effectively and did not wish to be paid for essentially doing nothing. This naturally goes against the grain of the vast majority of professional athletes whose greed and avarice is so well known. That is why it made news – it was a man bites dog story. But it indi-

We have to build our own Mishkan constantly in every generation.

for donations to help build the holy Mishkan/Tabernacle. The L-rd could have provided us with a ready-built, spanking-new Mishkan on His own. Instead, He challenged us then and in every continuing generation of Jewish life to build a Mishkan on our own and from our own resources. And that requires a proper view of our own wealth and what we do with it.

My beloved Talmud rebbe taught me over seventy years ago how to read the daily newspaper – how to filter out the

cated to me that the lesson of Parshas Terumah still lives in the human heart. To be able to walk away from money not honestly earned is a Torah value. And to share and give of our wealth to others and to the building of society, to Torah education and a national home for Jews, is also a supreme Torah value. We have to build our own Mishkan constantly in every generation. The Torah’s attitude towards the sharing of our wealth is the key to such a form of Mishkan building. Shabbat shalom.

From the Fire

Parshas Terumah Hashem’s Inner Chamber

By Rav Moshe Weinberger

Adapted for publication by

Binyomin Wolf

The Baal Haturim quotes the Zohar (Parshas Korach 178b) with respect to the pasuk at the beginning of this week’s parsha, which explains that the word “terumah” is a contraction of the words “Torah mem, Torah 40,” because “the Torah was given after forty days.” What is the connection between Terumah, which is the beginning of the process of building the Mishkan, and the giving of the Torah?

The Midrash (Tana D’bei Eliyhau 12) explains that when the Jewish people said (Shemos 24:7), “Naaseh v’nishmah, we will do and we will hear,” “Immediately, Hashem said to Moshe that he should tell the Jewish people that they should make Him a Mishkan ... (Shemos 25:8) ‘Make Me a sanctuary and I will dwell among them.’” This Midrash also demonstrates that Chazal saw a connection between the giving of the Torah and the building of the Mishkan, but we must still identify the nature of that connection.

The Midrash (Shemos Raba 33) explains the connection between the giving of the Torah and the building of the Mishkan with a parable:

There is a parable of a king who had one daughter. One of the kings came and married her. He asked to return to his country and take his wife with him. [The king] said to him, “I have given you my only daughter. I am unable to separate from her. I cannot tell you not to take her because she is your wife. Instead, do me this favor. Wherever you go, make a room for me so that I may stay with you since I am unable to leave my daughter.” Similarly, Hashem said to the Jewish people, “I have given you the Torah. I cannot separate from it. I cannot tell you not to take it. Instead, wherever you go, make me a house so that I

may dwell in it,” as it says, “Make me a sanctuary...”

We learn from this Midrash that the primary purpose of the Mishkan is to serve as a place which joins together Hashem, His “daughter” (the Torah), and his “son-in-law” (the Jewish people). Indeed, the Ramban in his introduction to the parsha explains that the purpose of the Mishkan is to carry on, in a concealed way, the revelation of Hashem on Har Sinai. This is why the centerpiece of the Mishkan, the Aron, contained the Luchos (Devarim 10:2), which mysteriously contained the whole Torah within them (Rashi on Shemos 24:12). Indeed, most of the mitzvos in the Torah were given to Moshe by Hashem from above the Aron, as the pasuk (Shmos 25:22) in this week’s parsha says, “And I will arrange meetings with you there, and I will speak with you from above the cover of the Aron from between the two cherubim...”

That is why the word “terumah” stands for the fact that the Torah was given after forty days and why the Jewish people’s statement that “we will do and we will

hear” prompted the command to build the Mishkan. The Mishkan is the place where Hashem, the Torah, and the Jewish people can be together as one.

Hashem said to His son-in-law, the Jewish people, that He would be with them and the Torah wherever they traveled. The problem is that we have not had a Beis Hamikdash or Mishkan for a very long time. Hashem said, “I cannot separate from it,” so where is that little house in which Hashem, the Torah, and the Jewish people can dwell together?

Yechezkel, the first Navi to prophesize in exile, said (Yechezkel 11:16), “And I shall be to them a small sanctuary.” The Gemara (Megilla 29a) explains that “these are the shuls and batei medrash (houses of Torah study) in Bavel.” We can infer from this Gemara that every moment we spend studying Torah in shul or a beis medrash is a means of experiencing the reality of sharing a dwelling place with the Creator.

Rav Pinchas Friedman, the Belzer Rosh Kollel in Yerushalayim, points out that this entire concept is difficult to understand. Ostensibly (Yeshayahu 6:3),

“Hashem’s glory fills the entire world” and (Tikunei Zohar 91b) “No place is devoid of Him.” Hashem remains with the Torah wherever we go. Why does He need one house set aside in order to dwell together with the Torah and the Jewish people?

Rav Friedman prefaces his answer to this question by asking why Chazal (see e.g., Sukah 28a) refer to all complex halachic discussions as “the discussions of Abaye and Rava.” Why are all such discussions referred to as the discussions between Abaye and Rava when there are many famous pairs of disputants in the Mishna and Gemara?

The Gemara (Brachos 48a) relates a formative story of Abaye and Rava which may constitute their first dispute. According to the Gemara, “Abaye and Rava were studying [as children] before Raba. Raba asked them, ‘To whom do we make brachos?’ They said to him, ‘To Hashem.’ [Raba asked them further,] ‘Where is Hashem?’ Rava pointed to the ceiling [of the beis medrash] and Abaye went outside and pointed to the heavens. Raba said to them, ‘You will both become great rebbeim.’” Based on Raba’s responses, the answers of Abaye and Rava seem to have great depth so we must understand what they each mean.

Rav Friedman quotes the Gemara (Chagiga 5b), based on the reading of Rabbeinu Chananel and the Zohar, that teaches that Hashem cries while the Jewish people are in exile, as the pasuk (Yirmiyahu 13:17) says, “And if you do not listen to it, my soul will weep in secret.” The Gemara continues on to challenge this and asks how the pasuk could say that Hashem is crying in exile when another pasuk (Divrei Hayamim 1:16:27) says, “There is might and joy in His place.” The Gemara resolves the apparent contradiction by explaining that “bvati go’i,” on the inside,

there is always joy. But “b’vati bro’i,” on the outside, externally, Hashem is crying.

The Seforim Hakedoshim explain that the outside refers to Yiras Shamayim, the fear of heaven, which means maintaining a basic level of religiosity and observance, as the pasuk (Tehillim 111:10) says, “Reishis chochma yiras Hashem, the beginning of wisdom is fear of heaven.” However, the inner place of Hashem, where (Shir Hashirim 1:4) “heviani ha’melech chadarav, the King brought me into His chamber,” is our study of the Torah. Then, as the pasuk in Shir Hashirim continues, “Nagila v’nismicha bach, I will rejoice and be glad in You.” In that inner chamber, “oz v’chedva b’mkomo, there is might and joy in His place.” And how do we know that the word “might” refers to Torah? As the Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni Tehillim 21) says, “Ein oz elah Torah, might refers only to Torah.”

Every Jew must have basic fear of heaven in order to enter into the most basic relationship with Hashem. At this state, one does not yet taste of the great joy of being in Hashem’s presence. If anything, he senses the “crying of G-d” as felt in the difficulties of exile. But then he must continue into Hashem’s inner chamber by studying Torah and davening in the

shuls and batei medrash where “there is might and joy in His place.” The Gemara (Shabbos 31a-b) explains that “any person who has Torah but does not have fear of heaven is similar to a treasurer who was given the keys to the inner chamber but not the outer chamber.” Without the keys

drash in which we study Torah today, we have the keys to Hashem’s inner chamber in which we experience the joy of Hashem’s presence, even in exile. That is what the Gemara (Brachos 8a) means, when it says that “from the day that the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, all Hashem has

We have the keys to Hashem’s inner chamber in which we experience the joy of Hashem’s presence, even in exile.

to the outer chamber, he cannot even approach the inner chamber to which he does have the keys.

Now we understand why Hashem wants a specific place in which to dwell with us. Because there will be times of tears, of concealment of Hashem’s presence, Hashem gave us constant access, no matter where we go in exile, to His inner chamber, to the “the shuls and batei medrash.” Whether it was the Aron from which Hashem spoke to Moshe, the Beis Hamikdash, or every shul and beis me -

in His world is the four amos of halacha.” Our study of Torah in the Beis Hamikdash is the place where Hashem’s presence and joy is felt most openly.

Rav Friedman then explains that we can now understand the dispute regarding Hashem’s “location” in response to Raba’s question. Rava pointed to the ceiling of the beis medrash as if to say that in exile, Hashem is most revealed in the beis medrash. Abaye, however, went outside and pointed to the heavens to hint at the fact that while Hashem’s inner chamber,

where He is most revealed, is, in fact, in the beis medrash, one cannot even approach the beis medrash without fear of heaven. This is related to the Mishna (Avos 3:11) which teaches that “the wisdom of anyone whose fear of sin precedes his wisdom will last.”

In connection with these teachings, we must strengthen our connection to and honor of our beis medrash as the place where we connect to Hashem and His Torah. We must increase our study of Torah here and strengthen our commitment to honoring this place by not weakening our commitment to avoid speaking during davening, by taking care of the building, and by supporting it financially.

May we merit to constantly enter Hashem’s inner chamber by studying Torah in our Mikdash Me’at, our miniature Beis Hamikdash here in exile, and may we merit to build the revealed and everlasting Beis Hamikdash in Yerushalayim, may it be soon in our days.

Rav Moshe Weinberger, shlita, is the founding Morah d’Asrah of Congreagation Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, NY, and serves as leader of the new mechina Emek HaMelech.

Delving into the Daf

When Do You Kill a Rodeif ?

By Rabbi Avrohom Sebrow

Deep in the Alaskan wilderness, Camp Tikvah hosts a remote Pesach retreat. Families gather to celebrate, their voices echoing with joyous songs and Torah discussions. But the serenity is shattered when guests begin fainting, gripped by fever and violent coughing.

Within hours, it becomes clear – a deadly airborne virus is spreading. Supplies are dwindling, and without immediate medical intervention, many will not survive.

A distress call is sent to Anchorage. The response is swift. Captain Ephraim Goldstein, an experienced pilot known for his courage, is dispatched in a military helicopter with a crate of antivirals. With a storm rolling in, every moment counts.

After Goldstein’s helicopter lifts off, a shocking discovery is made at the Anchorage base. The crate loaded onto the chopper does not contain antivirals – it holds an experimental drug that would be fatal to the weakened patients. A catastrophic mistake.

With the blizzard intensifying, radio communication with the helicopter is lost. Frantic attempts to warn Camp Tikvah and Goldstein fail. Time is slipping away.

Commander Walker, overseeing the operation, makes a grim decision. A military drone is launched to intercept the helicopter. But what should be done if they cannot establish communication in time?

Two high-ranking military officers, General Yair and General Ziv, step away from the commotion into a secluded briefing room. Their hushed conversation carries the weight of life and death.

* * *

Yair: We must discuss the unthinkable. What if we can’t reach Goldstein?

Ziv: I know what you’re implying. You’re considering using the drone to shoot down the helicopter.

Yair: If Goldstein administers that

drug, it will kill everyone at the retreat. We may have to sacrifice one life to save many.

Ziv: This is a well-known halacha. If someone is pursuing another to kill him, he is called a rodeif, a pursuer. The victim is permitted to stop the rodeif by any means necessary. In this case, Goldstein is, unintentionally, a rodeif. We are justified in stopping him.

Yair: But that halacha applies when the intended victim defends themselves. Here, we would be killing the rodeif. Do we, as outsiders, have the authority?

Ziv: The Rambam teaches that anyone who witnesses a rodeif must act. Goldstein’s actions –though unintentional – will lead to mass casualties. If we can stop him, we must.

Yair: But consider the Gemara in Sanhedrin. It describes a woman in childbirth. If the baby endangers her life, we cannot harm it once it is partially born. We do not pick one life over another. How can we justify choosing the lives of the camp’s guests over Goldstein’s?

Ziv: That case is different. There, we are choosing between two lives. Here, we are preventing many deaths by stopping just one. That is a significant distinction.

Yair: But look at the case of Sheva ben Bichri. He endangered an entire city, and the townspeople killed him to save themselves. Rashi explains that they were only justified because otherwise, the whole city – including Sheva – would have been destroyed. If not for the fact that Sheva himself would have been killed, they would not have been allowed to kill a lone individual to save many.

Ziv: Hmm. I remember that Rashi provides another reason why they were permitted to kill Sheva Ben Bichri.

Yair: That other explanation won’t support your position either. Rashi states that they killed Sheva Ben Bichri because he

was deserving of the death penalty for being a mored b’malchus, he rebelled against the king.

Ziv: The Rambam offers another perspective. He says that a rodeif is not just someone with murderous intent. Even an individual taking any action that puts lives in danger is a rodeif. Goldstein’s flight, though heroic, poses an undeniable threat. This is in contradistinction to the partially born baby. The baby is not taking any action on its own to endanger its mother. It is following a natural course of being born. Therefore, we cannot harm the baby to save the mother.

Yair: The Tiferes Yisroel disagrees. He clarifies that a person can only be subjected to sacrifice if their poor decisions have caused the danger. He provides an example of a medieval forger who endangers an entire city. This individual’s actions put everyone’s lives at risk, and the authorities may seek revenge against the whole city. Since the forger made a bad decision, it is permissible to hand him over to the authorities in order to save the lives of the people in the city. This remains true even if we know the authorities may irrationally execute the forger. In contrast, Goldstein made no mistakes. Thus, by this reasoning, we cannot classify him as a rodeif.

Ziv: True, but the Rambam’s position seems clear: action itself determines rodeif status. The Rambam is a Rishon, and we should follow his ruling. Goldstein is taking action. We should eliminate the threat.

Yair: Let us consult Rav Elyashiv before making this irreversible decision.

They dial the rabbi’s secure line, explaining the dire situation. His voice, calm

yet firm, delivers the verdict.

Rav Elyashiv: Even according to the Rambam, the pilot is not considered a rodeif. Captain Goldstein is acting in the opposite manner of a rodeif – he is risking his life to save others. He is doing exactly what you asked of him; in fact, he believes he is performing a mitzvah. You cannot label such a person a rodeif. Therefore, you cannot shoot down the helicopter; you must find an alternative solution. May Hashem send you guidance.

The drone, locked onto the helicopter, awaits orders. Yair, inspired by a final idea, turns to the drone operator.

Yair: Can we use the drone’s infrared laser to signal him?

Operator: In theory, yes. What do you want to say?

Yair: Flash STOP in Morse code against the fuselage. It’s our only chance. * * *

The infrared beam flickers against the helicopter’s side. Inside the cockpit, Goldstein notices the unusual flashes. He deciphers the message and realizes something is wrong. He veers away from Camp Tikvah, instead returning to base.

Minutes later, the emergency signal is restored. Anchorage confirms the mix-up. A second helicopter, carrying the correct anti-virals, is dispatched.

Everyone lives happily ever after.

Rabbi Avrohom Sebrow is a rebbe at Yeshiva Ateres Shimon in Far Rockaway. In addition, Rabbi Sebrow leads a daf yomi chaburah at Eitz Chayim of Dogwood Park in West Hempstead, NY. He can be contacted at ASebrow@ gmail.com.

It is surely not one of our run-of-themill minhagim.

Generally, our minhagim deal with simanim – signs that indicate good mazal rather than bad fortune. They deal with eating or not eating specific foods. For example, on Shavuos, we eat milchigs; on Chanukah, we eat latkes; on Rosh Hashana, we eat honey. We don’t eat nuts or chrein during Yomim Noraim. Our other minhagim deal with special tefillos at special places: kapparos with chicken or money, tashlich by the water.

But dressing up? Where and when did this come from?

The first mention of the notion of Jews dressing up in costume seems to be in the responsa of one of our poskim from Italy, Rav Yehudah Mintz (Responsa #17). Rav Mintz lived in the late 1400s and was niftar in Venice in 1508. The teshuvah says that there is no prohibition involved in dressing up on Purim even in dressing like a woman since the reason is for simcha and not for the purpose of immorality or to violate Torah law. The Ramah quotes the psak in Shulchan Aruch Orech Chaim (696:8).

Headlines Halacha

Purim Costumes A History

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman

Moritz Steinschneider (1816-1907), the great bibliographer whose impact and opinions are still felt today, brilliant, though he was, cannot fathom that the minhag developed independently. He attributes the development of the minhag to the direct influence of the Roman Carnival. Carnival is a festive season which occurs immediately before the Catholic season of Lent. The Roman Carnival involved a public celebration and/or parade that combined elements of a circus, the wearing of masks and public street partying. People would dress up in masquerade during these celebrations. Carnival is a festival traditionally held in Roman Catholic and, to a lesser extent, Eastern Orthodox societies. It originated in Italy and was held in February.

But our minhag did not come from Roman Carnival. It is not that we believe that cultural diffusion does not exist. We do. But its application must be tempered with rational precision and reason. We must always display a cautious intellectual approach. Scholars who know what Klal Yisroel is actually all about know that this particular type of cultural dif-

fusion is about as likely as eggnog consumption and X-mas caroling affecting the behavior of Yeshiva boys on a Purim. It simply would not have happened. End of story. The apperception of the Roman Carnival in Torah circles was beyond the pale of acceptable activity even to mimic. This cannot be the source – especially so close to the time of Rav Yehudah Mintz, who sanctioned its use.

No, we must look for other sources in order to find truth. Steinschneider’s theory is just too pat. We must also bear in mind that silence in the seforim and responsa literature does not necessarily indicate absence in normative Jewish practice. A minhag could exist and yet not be mentioned in the seforim or teshuvos until much later.

The Apter Rebbe, Rav Avrohom Yehoshua Heschel, was known as the Oheiv Yisroel. He writes (Oheiv Yisroel Shemos Section on Parshas Zachor) that one of the reasons why we dress up in masquerade on Purim is to show that the miracle of Purim came from something that actually would have initially caused us much grief. This,

says the Apter Rebbe, stresses that the greatest joy lies in the knowledge that the opposite result might very well have happened. A good theory, but one that, perhaps, may sound more likely to be a post-development rationalization than the original cause of the minhag.

Rav Yitzchok Weiss, zt”l, author of the Siach Yitzchok and student of the Sheivet Sofer, explains (Siman 380) that the origin of the custom to dress up in masks is to highlight the fact that Haman hid his hate for the Jewish people when approaching Achashveirosh for permission to destroy Klal Yisroel. Hashem responded, middah keneged middah, measure for measure, by sending Eliyahu disguised as Charvonah.

Eliyahu, too, was hiding his real intent – to defend the Jewish people. Here, the idea of hiding and a mask as a central theme of Purim seems likely. It may very well have been the idea that spurred on the minhag in Klal Yisroel to wear masks.

The Bnei Yissaschar (on Adar 9:1) cites a Maharam Chagiz who quotes the Gemara in Megillah (12a). The Gemara

explains that the Jewish people only did things “lifnim,” hidden. In turn, Hashem as well only did things “lifnim,” hidden.

The theme of hiding and its association with Purim, therefore, is found explicitly in the Gemara itself. Could it have developed just then? Perhaps, but it is hard to imagine that it developed back then and no mention of this custom was made from 500 CE until the late 1400s.

The mystery continues.

However, there is a Tosfos in tractate Rosh Hashana (3a) that might be very enlightening here. The Tosfos deal with a fascinating episode in Parshas Chukas in the book of Bamidbar (21:1). The Canaani in the Negev (the south) hear that Klal Yisroel has arrived and go out to do battle with them. Rashi identifies the incongruity. The Negev? Why, that is Amalek!

Rashi’s conclusion is that it was Amalekites who spoke in the Canaani dialect so that Klal Yisroel will pray to Hashem that the Canaanim be handed over to them and not the Amalekies!

Our Tosfos, however, add more. They write that the Amalekies changed not only their voices and dialect, they changed their clothing, too. They cite the person who wrote the piyut for Parshas Zachor – ksus v’lashon shineh , clothing

and language he (or they) did change!

So here is the theory, then.

It is France and Germany, not Italy. The Paytan for Parshas Zachor has written that they changed their clothing – referring to the Amalekies. Jews see it. Parshas Zachor is close to Purim, very close. Some regular people read the

the piyut for Parshas Zachor. The origin is a kosher minhag b’Yisroel from German-Jewry.

And now we go back to the Apter Rav, the Oheiv Yisroel. He writes that one of the reasons why we dress up in masquerade on Purim is to show that the miracle of Purim came from something that actu-

Hashem responded, middah keneged middah , measure for measure, by sending Eliyahu disguised as Charvonah.

piyut. They may think, perhaps, that it refers to Jews. The scholars among them realize that it refers to Amalekies, but Haman is from Amalek anyway.

On Purim, we are marbim b’simcha. It is in the piyut. They begin to dress up, like Haman. The minhag catches on. The talmidei chachomim of Germany accept it.

Soon the practice travels to Italy. Steinschneider cannot resist and attributes it to the Roman Carnival. But he errs. It is much likelier that it came from

ally would have initially caused us much grief. This, says the Apter Rebbe, stresses that the greatest joy lies in the knowledge that the opposite result might very well have happened. It is a minhag that brings us ever closer to the true dveikus b’Hashem and simcha that lies at the heart of what Purim is all about.

Let us, with this in mind, remember the words of the Nesivus Shalom regarding drinking on Purim. He writes that the word “wine” is absent in the formulation

of the Shulchan Aruch. “Chayav adam libsumei bePuraya ad delo yada.”

The reason is clear. We must become inebriated with the concept of Purim and not with wine. The concept of Purim is that Hashem is very close and that we can achieve remarkable dveikus b’Hashem at this time.

No matter how distant we are – even if we are “Arur Haman” in terms of our general distance from Hashem – we can become, at this particular time of Purim, as close as Boruch Mordechai.

The nation of Israel can achieve a remarkable degree of real genuine dveikus b’Hashem . We can do so like no other people can. When we dress up, therefore, let us appreciate the significance and the taamim brought down by the Apter Rav, the Bnei Yissaschar and the Siach Yitzchok. This Purim, let us discover the talent that lies within us in this area. If we can do this, we can achieve both a personal geulah as well as one for all of Klal Yisroel, amen.

This article should be viewed as a halachic discussion and not practical advice. The author can be reached at yairhoffman2@ gmail.com.

School of Thought

Crash Landing

By Barbara Deutsch

When one is witness to the pain of a devastated family, one is forced to appreciate loved ones, hold them tight, and to never take lightly what can disappear in seconds.

From New York, a trip to Toronto or Miami is not a big deal. During the winter months, road trips by air, sea or land can be an adventure. For this trip, we determined that though we wouldn’t mind seeing the sun, the ocean, and our summer snowbird friends in their winter homes, we would limit ourselves to Long Island and Toronto.

A one-hour plane ride between Toronto’s Pearson and New York’s JFK can take seven hours door to door.

Because of a historic February snowstorm in Canada, there were a plethora of opportunities to get bumped off any Monday morning flight to make room for stranded passengers. For $2,400, Bob and I could give up our two gotten-on-miles-early-morning seats to be placed on a flight at 3:00 pm. that same afternoon.

Background: we have never been compensated for a “bumped” flight despite multiple opportunities in the past. Most often, it was because I left it up to Bob and he is no fan of the process; this, of course, begs the question as to why I leave it to him to do.

Going to Toronto last Pesach, the airline’s offer peaked at $1,500 per person but we blinked and lost out on $3,000. This past Monday morning, when Delta made the offer, Bob, a resigned look on his face, went straight to the desk to find out when the next scheduled flight would be; we were only going for three days and we did not have time to waste waiting in airports.

We know better than to not to clear it with our Canadian daughter, Dr. Meredith. “Mom, I don’t trust airlines and weather; I know it’s a lot of money to give up, but the answer is, better to get on your flight.”

For future planned trips, we will not be visiting during the ice and snow of winter.

During this visit, there was a huge snowstorm in Montreal, the host of a Four Nations’ Faceoff, Finland, Canada, Sweden and the United States. Whoever heard of this expensive tournament?

Our daughter, son-in-law and kids are insane fans, and all four boys and their dad ice skate like experts. Mom, our daughter Dr. Meredith, is a bench trainer for players; we speculate that she would give up medicine to coach hockey.

Of course, they attended.

For the final playoff game of the Four Nations Faceoff, Canada vs. U.S.A. in Boston, in one of the four stadiums that can hold the crowds the worst seat in the 17,800-seat stadium went for $850.00. This cost for a game that only hockey fans – apparently there are many – care about. In the Levy family, there is no greater joy than being a bundled-up, freezing spectator or better yet, player, at a hockey game.

In a stunner, Canada beat the U.S. 3-2 in the final round. Does it get better than that?

Toronto visits usually mean attending a lot of hockey games; the younger two boys, 15 and 18, still play on after-school league teams. Elisha, boy number two and in university, coaches a Competitive Select Hockey Team for 7-year-olds; you read that right.

There is a tournament for teams and their families this Shabbos.

Coach Elisha is very in demand; he has a five-year-old client who he already trains on Sundays whose father keeps calling for additional ice time on Fridays. The dad is even willing to take him out of school.

Canadian boys and girls take hockey very seriously.

When Dr. Meredith (medical) and Dr. Jonathan (Ph.d) married and moved to Montreal and then Toronto, we prom-

ised to spend the first days of Sukkos in Canada every year. While we would sit outside in the sukkah, we would often hear a loud, spinning alarm tear through the peaceful meal. This blast of noise signaled that a goal had been made by one of the teams.

Everyone jumped from the table and cheered.

Die-hard Montreal Canadien fans, especially when they played against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Levys never knew till after yom tov who had scored the goal; it made them happy just to know that someone had scored.

Despite the slippery streets, the biting cold, and the plethora of hockey (not really so bad), we are thrilled to have close family and friends who embrace our presence in their homes and hearts.

It feels strange to be in America and away from Jerusalem as the Bibas family is brought home not to cheering crowds but to a somber, mourning nation. The grief over the release of their small bodies was compounded by the late breaking news that their mother Shiri was not with them. Rather, the body of an anonymous person, in many ways so cruel as well, was in the coffin marked as Shiri.

Though I am among those who fervently prayed for the Bibas family rescue, as more and more time passed and the chatufim began to slowly trickle out, I lost hope that they had survived their captivity.

Shiri, Ariel and Kfir – losing this family has brought us to our knees. Once October 7 rattled us out of our false hope that things could improve, I thought we had seen the worst. Again, I was wrong. Playing a cat and mouse game with Shiri Bibas’ sacred body is the ultimate cruelty.

This American sojourn has defined us as Israelis. The toll is high; leaving behind so many of our beloved family

and friends to live thousands of miles away is not for the weak of heart. As long as planes safely fly and distant family and friends come to visit, we take comfort in knowing that we will be together soon.

When one is witness to the pain of a devastated family, one is forced to appreciate loved ones, hold them tight, and to never take lightly what can disappear in seconds.

Ariel and Kfir will never get to cheer over a goal or play hockey or soccer; the fact that our kids can is not to be taken for granted.

We are ready to go home.

Baruch Dayan haemet , rest in peace, Kfir, Ariel and Shiri.

Baruch Dayan haemet , rest in peace, Oded Lifshitz.

Barbara Deutsch is the former associate principal at HANC, middle school principal at Kushner, and Dean of Students at Yeshiva of Flatbush. A not-retired educator, she is trying to figure out life in Israel through reflections on navigating the dream of aliyah as a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend.

Players in the penalty box

The Wandering Jew Prague 1979 Our First Taste of the Iron Curtain

By Hershel Lieber

It is nearly half a century since we made our initial trip behind the Iron Curtain. Though I had already been in Poland a year earlier with a group of chassidim visiting the kivrei tzaddikim and even spent a Shabbos in Krakow, the trip that Pesi and I undertook in May of

1979 was in a “league of its own.” Prague, as well as Budapest, were more of an afterthought tha n our intended destination. They served as a coverup to a trip that we would be taking to the Soviet Union, in particular to Leningrad and Moscow, during the height of the Cold War. Since we did not want to reveal our true destination to my in-laws, after what they went through in Siberia during the War, we added Czechoslovakia and Hungary to our itinerary. We spoke to them only about those countries without mentioning our true objective. Our subterfuge worked out well, and they remained calm throughout our journey.

When I started writing articles six years ago in 2018, I wrote about the dramatic events that we experienced in Moscow and Leningrad. I wrote another article about our exploits in Budapest. I never went back to record our encounters in Prague, where we had our first preview of what the Iron Curtain was all about.

After a nine-hour stopover in Copenhagen on April 30, where we took a bus tour of the city, we boarded a Sovi-

et-made Tupolev Tu-134 for our flight to Prague. The dimensions of the plane was about the size of a subway car. I remember the feeling we had as we sat down on the shabby seats, which were complemented with shoddy services, as compared to the 747 SAS flight that flew us into Denmark. Most of the plane’s travelers were poorly dressed, and their demeanor matched their attire. Of course, there was no kosher food aboard, and we were served hot tea with sugar cubes, Eastern European style.

After an hour-long flight, we landed in Praha (Prague) Airport. The terminal was a farce compared to its Western counterparts. We arrived into a dim building where the lights were turned on only after passengers entered the edifice. I suppose it was a method of conserving electricity. We went through passport control, retrieved our luggage, changed some American dollars into kroners, and passed through customs. We then took a taxi to the Park Hotel.

The building, which was a modern edifice built in 1967, was not centrally located, which meant constant travel to

and from the historical city center. The Western-style accommodations were luxurious considering that other hotels were either Soviet-style minimalistic

At the kever of the Maharal of Prague Pesi at Wenceslas Square, the site where, in 1968, the Soviet Union crushed a rebellion

Pesi at the seat of the Maharal of Prague

Altneushul

May Day Parade in Prague in 1979

structures or dilapidated buildings more than a century old. Our small room had Danish modern furniture with narrow beds placed head-to-head with a large window and a great view of the adjacent street. We were too tired to go out, so we ate our canned “Gottlieb” dinners, warmed up on a sterno-fueled chafer, and went to sleep.

The next day, Tuesday, was May Day, the International Workers holiday which is celebrated with great fanfare in Socialist and Communist countries. In the Soviet Union, as well as in the countries of Eastern Europe, the streets were bedecked with red flags and banners hailing the past and present government leaders who were also the heads of the Communist parties. Vladimir Lenin’s and Leonid Brezhnev’s portraits were prominently displayed alongside those of the Czech leader Gustav Husak. Pictures of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the originators of the Communist Manifesto, were given a place of honor. Hovering above us were hundreds of balloons, while the streets were packed with thousands of people, young and old, in a spirit of celebration. Music was broadcast from loudspeakers as thousands marched along the parade route. Schoolchildren in their Young Pioneer uniforms with red paper flowers joined hundreds of elderly medal-bedecked World War II veterans. There were representatives of all military branches as well as workers’ unions. There were local and foreign reporters from the papers and television. In middle of this festive atmosphere were we! I suppose we should have felt out of place, but somehow, we were pulled into the excitement of the occasion, and we enjoyed it. At one point, a reporter from Radio Prague asked me for an interview. I readily acceded and lauded the government’s efforts to conserve the Jewish Heritage of Prague which has been meticulously preserved. I felt that a compliment in this direction could be helpful in maintaining this momentum.

Later, we started walking in this amazingly beautiful city. Though many buildings were not restored, the unique architecture and elaborate designs were notably recognizable. Every building was worth commenting on. We headed to Josefov, the city’s section which was “Jewish Prague” for centuries. The Jewish history of Prague is identified with the great personalities that once resided there. The Maharal, the Kli Yakar, Reb Dovid Oppenheim, and Reb Dovid Gans, among others, are buried in the old cemetery and are visited by thousands of

Jews. The Noda B’Yehuda is in the new cemetery. There are six synagogues of which three have been turned into museums of Judaica, and one tells the story of the city’s Jewish history. One synagogue is dedicated as a remembrance to Jews murdered by the Nazis. The oldest shul, which is still in use, is the Altneushul, which was the seat of the city’s most prominent rabbinic figure, Rabbi Yehuda ben Bezalel Loew, the Maharal (15121609). We visited the beis olam and davened at the kevarim of these great rabbonim.

We returned to our hotel to eat a quick lunch and headed out again, this time, to the Old Town Square. We appreciated the colorful baroque buildings surrounding the Square with its astronomical clock. The nearby Charles Bridge with its statues was, in fact, somewhat upsetting to us. Among the dozens of statues was a crucifix with the words “Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, etc.” above a hanging statue. There is an un-

the panorama of the city below with its red-roofed houses and winding alleys. We passed the houses of tradesmen whose skills were identified by colorful carved signs depicting symbols of their trades or wares.

Next stop was the Jewish town, Josefov. Before starting our expedition, we went to the Community Hall at 18 Maiselova where we had a kosher lunch. The

I suppose we should have felt out of place, but somehow, we were pulled into the excitement of the occasion, and we enjoyed it.

usual story told about the origins of the statue and the Jew whose punishment led to the statue’s creation. We also went to Wenceslas Square where the failed Prague Spring uprising was crushed by Soviet tanks in 1968. Then we explored the National Museum and browsed in the nearby shops which were mainly for tourists. The most popular item was Bohemian crystal with folk art pottery, dolls, and tablecloths coming in as a close second. We headed back to eat our canned supper and sat in the hotel lobby a while before returning to our room.

Wednesday was our final day in Prague, and we really made the most of it. We took local trams through winding streets up to the world’s oldest castle complex, Prague Castle. The castle, which was the seat of power for the Bohemian kings and the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, hosted rulers of the Hapsburg dynasty as well. We walked through the courtyards, inspected manuscripts in the library, and viewed art masterpieces as well as the crown jewels. Walking downhill, we saw

with

traditional Czech-Jewish fare consisted of egg drop soup, flanken, sour cabbage and knedliky (kneidel). We downed the meal with a bottle of Pilsner beer. We continued to the beis olam where a well-informed guide showed us all the important monuments and the history of this cemetery. The guide took us to the Altneushul which has similar features as the Remu Shul in Krakow: the fencedoff seat of the Maharal, the wrought iron gated bimah, the step down amud of the chazzan, and the various quotes from the Torah or siddur on the walls. We went back to 18 Maiselova to see the collection of artwork from the children

incarcerated in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. This was followed by a visit to the Maiselova Synagogue, which displayed a collection of silver Judaica, and The Spanish Synagogue, which had a collection of Torah mantles and priceless Aron Kodesh coverings. These two museums consisted of the loot that the Nazis accumulated for their concept of creating a “Museum of an Extinct Race” depicting Jewish culture and religion after they would annihilate the entire Jewish population. Baruch Hashem, they were not successful!

That evening, we packed for our next destination, Budapest. The most eye-opening and inspiring destination would follow after Shabbos. Leningrad and Moscow were the major objective of our whole journey, yet Prague made an indelible impression that we still treasure to this very day.

Hershel Lieber has been involved in kiruv activities for over 30 years. As a founding member of the Vaad L’Hatzolas Nidchei Yisroel he has traveled with his wife, Pesi, to the Soviet Union during the harsh years of the Communist regimes to advance Yiddishkeit. He has spearheaded a yeshiva in the city of Kishinev that had 12 successful years with many students making Torah their way of life. In Poland, he lectured in the summers at the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation camp for nearly 30 years. He still travels to Warsaw every year – since 1979 – to be the chazzan for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur for the Jews there. Together with Pesi, he organized and led trips to Europe on behalf of Gateways and Aish Hatorah for college students finding their paths to Jewish identity. His passion for travel has taken them to many interesting places and afforded them unique experiences. Their open home gave them opportunities to meet and develop relationships with a variety of people. Hershel’s column will appear in The Jewish Home on a bi-weekly basis.

Eating dinner at the Jewish Community Center

The Jewish Community Building

Hebrew letters on the clock

Women on a Mission

A Gathering of Thousands of Shluchos from Around the World

By ShoSh A nA hA lpern

Rabbi Mendel Kotlarsky

Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely speaking

Elisheva Martinelli sharing her story

Rebbetzin Kotlarsky encouraging the attendees

his Friday, as the sun makes its descent into the horizon, a woman in Rwanda will be ushering in Shabbos as she waves her hands in front of her candles. Later that night, she and her husband and a few Jewish guests will be making kiddush, eating challah, and gathering sparks of holiness at their Shabbos table from deep within a country mired by strife and turmoil.

Although Rebbetzin Nechama Dina Bar Sela may be physically far from other Jews lighting Shabbos candles, she is far from alone in her mission.

As a shlucha of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, zt”l, Rebbetzin Bar Sela and her husband are one of thousands of shluchim who are spread out throughout the world connecting with other Jewish souls in places that are thirsty for sparks of holiness.

There are more than 6,150 Chabad shluchim families worldwide. Some of them live in vibrant Jewish communities, such as Rabbi Zalman and Chanie Wolowik and Rabbi Meir and Hadassah Geisinsky of Chabad of the Five Towns and Rabbi Mendel and Goldie Gordon of Chabad of Hewlett Neck Old Woodmere, who are involved with outreach work to hundreds of families who directly benefit from programs such as Chabad’s Hebrew school and C-Teen. Other shluchim families, like Nechama Dina’s, are the lone Jewish souls living in a city far from frum metropolises.

But this past weekend, thousands of heroic shluchos gathered together in New York for a weekend of inspiration, chizuk, and support at the annual Kinus Hashluchos. These women came from near and far – from New York and Israel, Argentina and Alaska, Singapore and Serbia, Ukraine and the UAE. Although they may not have spoken the same language, their message and mission are one and the same: to reach out to other Jews with warmth and love and to bring them closer to Yiddishkeit.

As Rebbetzin Wolowik explains, the Rebbe’s message was clear: Judaism is foremost about love of G-d, love of Torah, and love of every Jew.

“A Jew is obligated to excel in all three parts of these pillars,” Rebbetzin Wolowik shares. “You can’t say I love learning Torah, but I don’t love my fellow Jew. We are all connected. Just as I love my child, I love your child, too.”

That, she maintains, is the foundation of shlichus. The shluchim and shluchos of Chabad give their heart and soul to their fellow Jews. They are the ones whom we connect with when we’re hungry for a hot, kosher meal in a foreign land. They are the ones we reach out to when our visa is held up while on vacation in Japan. They are the ones people go to when their parents are ailing or their children are hurting. They are the ones set up for limud Torah in each location, helping travelers seamlessly stay connected with their learning. They stay up late at night and wake up early in the morning – thinking, always thinking, about how they can reach and connect with every Jew.

I was pr I v Ileged to join the Chabad heroines on Sunday night at the Banquet of the Kinus Hashluchos in Edison, NJ. One young shlucha, Chani*, her four-monthold baby on her hip, told me enthusiastically how she and her husband were opening a Chabad House in a suburb in England. Her eyes were wide with excitement as she explained that she hopes to open it before Purim (less than three weeks away!) so she can search for Jewish souls and invite them to a Purim seudah. If not, she said, they will be there for Pesach, opening their home to those who need a Pesach seder.

She recounted a story that occurred just two days before the Banquet. Chani’s parents are Chabad shluchim in another suburb in England. On Friday, her mother wasn’t home, but she had her older daughters prepare meals for two families in the neighborhood whom she knew would appreciate homecooked food. Chani’s father delivered the meals before Shabbos, but one family didn’t open their door. Concerned that the food would spoil, he delivered it to another family. Their daughter, in Goth makeup and clothing, took the food after the shaliach knocked on the door.

A few minutes before Shabbos, there was a knock on the door of the Chabad House. It was this girl, in her darkrimmed makeup and black clothing, and she was crying so hard she couldn’t speak. Chani’s father asked if she would be able to write down what she was feeling, and he handed her a paper and pen so they could communicate.

This girl was going through a mental health crisis and reached out to the one place she knew she would be heard. That gift of food was a reminder of the love that her neighborhood Chabad shluchim have for her. Chani’s father was able to get her to a hospital before Shabbos so she could start the healing process.

walk I ng I nto the Banquet on Sunday evening was awe-inspiring. Thousands of women converged on the conference center, each of them dressed beautifully for this annual fahrbregen that applauds and lauds their constant efforts. It wasn’t just shluchos who were invited to the event. Some shluchos brought guests from home to the event, eager to showcase the sisterhood that Chabad is so famous for. Others came on their own to be inspired by the thousands of shluchos joining together, an uplifting and holy display.

Rebbetzin Wolowik, along with Rebbetzin Sarah Alevsky of Cleveland, Ohio; Rebbetzin Chaya Posner of Rancho Mirage, California; and Rebbetzin Shevy Vigler of Manhattan, NY, were the organizers of Sunday night’s banquet. As so many of the other people involved in the program were from different parts of the world, their Zoom meetings were often arranged, interestingly enough, by time zone: 8 AM Australia (Monday); 6 AM South Korea* (Monday); 6 PM Brazil; 2 PM Arizona; 1 PM California; 4 PM New York; 11 PM Israel; 9 PM London/ Portugal. These women may be separated by land, language and even time, but their mission and message is unified and uniform.

Under the direction of the Banquet’s organizers, the conference center was transformed into an elegant auditorium, a sumptuous banquet befitting the wonderful women who dedicate their lives to Klal Yisroel. The energy in the hall was electric and upbeat, thousands of women each a queen in her own right, singing, clapping, and joining together as one, responding to a clarion call that they share with their Chabad sisters.

Being on shlichus requires tremendous mesiras nefesh. Many couples who go out on shlichus move far away from family and friends. That means that they miss out on family simchos and other milestones. Their children don’t always have other frum children to play with on a constant basis. Their homes are open to visitors all day, every day. As their children get older, they send them away from home for chinuch purposes, to learn in schools in more connected, frum communities. Many times, these women also run the community’s schools, after-school programs, and teen activity centers. All this, while making challah for myriad guests on Shabbos and hosting Pesach sedarim for hundreds of people – oh, and also juggling their own family and home responsibilities. Their lives are ones of selflessness.

At the Banquet, four women on shlichus were fea-

Rebbetzin Wolowik with other Five Towns representatives

Rebbetzin Wolowik with her mother, Rebbetzin Kotlarsky

The Banquet organizers with Ambassador Hotovely and Rebbetzin Kotlarsky

tured, each of them living on the “four corners of the Earth,” answering the Rebbe’s call of “u’faratzcha yama v’kedma tzafona v’negba, you shall spread out toward the west, east, north, and south.” Each of them made the commitment to connect with Jewish souls wherever they may be found. Their journeys take them far from established frum communities, setting up Chabad Houses in some of the most remote civilizations on Earth.

Rebbetzin Fraidy Klein recounted that when she and her husband were given the shlichus to Bariloche, Argentina, they thought they would be there for three months. After all, there aren’t any Jews living there, although Jewish visitors come to the city as they explore South America.

There was no internet when Fraidy and her husband first came; at the beginning, there was no meat. “We had to milk cows in order to have Cholov Yisrael milk,” she recounts. But after living there for a short while, the two of them realized that they would never leave.

Before their first Pesach seder, as they were making a list of guests who would be attending, Fraidy noticed that her guest list was becoming longer and longer. “One hundred, two hundred…seven hundred, eight hundred, one thousand.” She looked at her husband and joked, “Wow, let’s get out of here.”

Fraidy notes that, as shluchim, “You’re the father and mother for people at the end of the world…and you also have to take care of yourself.”

Being on shlichus requires tremendous mesiras nefesh, both emotionally and physically. Still, these heroic women wouldn’t give up their roles for anything in the world.

“I remember sitting in my room, crying, saying, ‘Hashem, no matter how many challenges You send to me, I am never leaving the shlichus. I am staying here until Moshiach comes.’”

She gets extra koach seeing her children being involved in the Chabad House. Her eleven-year-old daughter gives classes, and her 5-year-old son says divrei Torah on Shabbos.

For Rebbetzin Ida Kolpak, the shlucha in Birobidzhan, Russia, her chiyus comes from seeing so many Jews coming to shul, connecting to the warmth of Yiddishkeit. These Jews know Yiddish (it’s the official language there) and remember eating kosher, traditional foods, but they come to the Chabad House to connect with their Jewish roots.

“Seeing that they know that this is their home gives us koach to continue,” she says.

Living in Fairbanks, Alaska, where the sun only rises in the winter at 11 o’clock, has its own unique challenges, Rebbetzin Chani Wolf shares. She said she and her husband came to the frozen land when it was negative forty degrees outside. “You can barely breathe; you start to cough.”

At first, the young couple questioned if they would be able to live this type of life. Could they bring up their children there, with no Jewish education, no kosher food? But soon, they saw the vibrancy and the warmth that they were able to elicit from the frozen Jewish souls who live there. So many people in Fairbanks are lost, spiritually, emotionally, but Rebbetzin Chani and her husband are able to nurture those thirsty souls.

“You’re the father and mother for people at the end of the world…and you also have to take care of yourself.”

may arise when it comes to shlichus, but these women are buoyed by the sense of mission and their love of Klal Yisroel that carries them through every day, every month, every year.

In a v I deo message , Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky spoke to the women at the Banquet, recalling the first Kinus Hashluchos in 1991 and recounting how the Rebbe was “extremely pleased” with the Kinus and gave a sichah that year on Sunday to the shluchos and handed out two dollars to each of them.

At the Banquet on Sunday night, the audience felt the keen absence of Rabbi Moshe Yehuda Kotlarsky, z”l, who passed away this past year. For fifty-five years, Rabbi Kotlarsky was the guiding hand, the father figure, the shoulder to cry on for every man and woman on shlichus. He knew every child’s name, every simcha of each family on shlichus around the globe. He carried their burdens and exulted in their happiness. He shared their milestones and their challenges with them.

His impact is still felt in every Chabad House around the world.

Rebbetzin Wolowik, Rabbi Kotlarsky’s daughter, recalled on Sunday that, one year, a Chabad shaliach sent Rabbi Kotlarsky a photo of Chanukah lighting at the Chabad House. A few minutes after the photo was sent, Rabbi Kotlarsky was on the phone, calling the shaliach

“I noticed your wife isn’t in the photo,” Rabbi Kotlarsky inquired. “Is she OK?”

Rebbetzin Odeya White lives in Perth, Australia. The community there has a special innocence, she says. “They don’t even know the shape of the letter Aleph.” Still, they have a desire and a thirst to connect to G-d.

For Rebbetzin White, living away from family and sending her children away for school is hard. “It breaks my heart each time,” she shares.

But, she maintains, she has such admiration for the community in Perth.

“The small changes lead to big changes,” Rebbetzin White asserts. “It’s davka the one-on-one connection we have with them.” That is what brings people closer to Yiddishkeit.

These four women were highlighted on Sunday night, but truthfully, their stories mirror so many accounts of other shluchos around the world. There is so much mesiras nefesh and so many challenges that

The woman was not OK; she was in the hospital. But only Rabbi Kotlarsky would notice that she was missing from the photo and call the young shaliach to see how his wife was doing and how he could help.

Rabbi Kotlarsky would speak at every Kinus Hashluchim and Kinus Hashluchos, galvanizing and encouraging, praising and uplifting, reminding them of their sacred mission. This year, the thousands who gathered weren’t zocheh to hear from Rabbi Kotlarsky in person one more time.

Rabbi Kotlarsky’s son, Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, ybl”ch, is the executive director of the International Conference of Shluchim and Shluchos, helping to perpetuate the mission with which the Rebbe entrusted his father. Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky had been working alongside his father for the past 20 years, helping to expand and support the Chabad network worldwide. He spoke to the thousands of women gathered at the event on

Rebbetzin Wolowik with her mother, sisters, sisters-in-law and nieces at the Banquet

Singers at the Banquet

 Rebbetzin Kotlarsky with her sisters and nieces, who are shluchos in Sao Paulo, Cleveland, Kansas City, Johannesburg, Argentina, Jordan Valley, Solon, Akron, Kent University, Shanghai, Andorra, London, Pittsburgh, New Haven, Panama, Paris, Wisconsin, Bal Harbor, Milan, University of Florida, Manchester, Marietta, Mississauga, Chicago, Oceanside, Glenview, Virginia, Philadelphia, Cape Town, Kaui, Uruguay, Malta, and Cracow

Sunday, encouraging them and sharing with them the expansion of Chabad programs throughout the world.

Rebbetzin Rivka Kotlarsky, ybl”ch, who had been Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky’s eizer k’negdo for more than five decades, also addressed the women on Sunday night. She recounted how, after a year of marriage and kollel, Rabbi Hadakov, the Rebbe’s chief secretary, offered the Kotlarskys three options for shlichus : the State of Texas; Washington, D.C.; or to work in Mercaz, Chabad headquarters. Rabbi Kotlarsky answered that he would do whatever the Rebbe chooses.

The Rebbe told the young couple that his father-inlaw, the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, lived in Crown Heights and “from here, he spread Torah and chassidus to the whole world. You should stay here,” the Rebbe said, “and from here, you will spread Torah through the whole world.”

The Rebbe then turned to Rivka Kotlarsky and said to her, “And you should see to it that he does it with simcha, with joy.”

Rebbetzin Kotlarsky praised the shluchos from near and far. She spoke about the hospitality exhibited by the women who live in Crown Heights, and she commended the women who live around the globe, who, with mesiras nefesh , fulfill the Rebbe’s vision, often forgoing the conveniences of kosher food, Jewish schools, and closeness to family while never compromising on the standards of Torah and mitzvos. With a glass raised high, she joined with the thousands of women in the room in a l’chaim to those heroines who dedicate their lives to Klal Yisroel.

Amb. Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, was one of the featured speakers on Sunday. She began her speech by joking that this was the only time in her life that she was surrounded by so many other ambassadors.

Hotovely recalled her connections with Chabad Lubavitch, recounting her stint as Israel’s deputy foreign minister, which required her to visit countries around the world. Throughout her travels, Hotovely found a warm home and an open heart with Chabad. As she ended her speech, Hotovely spoke about the

hostages who are still being held in Gaza in Hamas’ cruel hands.

At one point during the Banquet, nine mothers of young men who are still being held captive ascended the stage to the haunting tune of “Ani Maamin.” Thousands of women crowded in front of the stage, conveying their sorrow and their supplications that these young men would be released from captivity soon.

Throughout the event, these heartbroken mothers felt the palpable love and connection from the women gathered in the room from around the world. May it be the will of G-d that these prayers offered from woman to woman, from mother to mother, bring about their children’s redemption.

grow I ng up I n Jixi, China, Elisheva Martinetti was not Jewish. But at one point, her mother found a book of Torah stories and began to study them. She felt that the Torah was the right way to live life, and she read these stories to young Elisheva, who began to have an interest in Judaism. But Elisheva’s mother did not have a teacher to guide her. In her innocence, she believed that she was Jewish because she studied the Torah, and she told Elisheva that Elisheva was Jewish, too.

At one point, they both realized that if Elisheva wanted to know more about Judaism, she would have to leave Jixi, China, and find authentic Judaism. Her mother sold her home to pay for Elisheva’s trip abroad, and they both decided to send Elisheva to Singapore.

Elisheva was 15 years old at the time. She understood that she may never see her mother again, and she was frightened. But her mother reassured her that Avraham Avinu, when he set out on his journey, did not miss his parents.

“Yes,” Elisheva countered, “but Avraham was 76 years old at the time, and I am only 15.”

“Don’t worry,” her mother said. “You will be like Nachshon. We have a special connection with our Creator.”

And so, Elisheva set out to Singapore, hoping to learn more about her faith.

When she got to Singapore, she was introduced to

Rabbi Abergel, the Chabad shaliach there, and told him that she was Jewish. After meeting with her, Rabbi Abergel wisely told her that in Judaism “we take things slow” and advised Elisheva to learn more about the faith.

Elisheva was an eager learner. She would visit the Chabad House every day, learning more and more.

“Every time I would learn something new, I would get so excited, because I would feel like I was getting one more step closer to Hashem,” she recalled.

Elisheva taught herself Hebrew, a monumental step, she remembers.

Eventually, Rabbi Abergel suggested that Elisheva go to the beis din in Sydney, Australia, and it was there that she became a full-fledged Jew and received a new name, Rus Elisheva. Her journey was complete.

But really, it was just beginning. At the Banquet, Elisheva spoke about her connection to different Chabad communities around the globe (Tzfas, Melbourne, London) and the day she got married. That was the first time she saw her mother since parting from her at the age of 15. After eleven years, her mother basked in the joy of seeing her daughter fulfilling her life dream.

Now, Elisheva and her husband are on shlichus in Italy, helping Jewish souls to reconnect with their heritage.

When Elisheva spoke to the crowd on Sunday night, her emotional journey affected the thousands of women gathered, who applauded and stood up for this brave woman. Her story highlights the power of each Chabad House, the effect that each shaliach and shlucha can have on so many individuals.

For the past F ew decades, the Kinus Hashluchos is not complete without a “roll call,” a resounding proclamation and ovation to the Chabad Houses around the world. As each country around the world is named, the number of Chabad Houses found in that country is announced. Some countries you may never have heard of (Andorra? Where’s that?), and then there are countries where scores of Chabad Houses are found.

But after the roll call, as the music and dancing begins, it’s apparent that wherever these shluchos are found, whether it’s in New York, Paris, or Rwanda, their mission and method are the same: to bring every Jew closer to Yiddishkeit with love, acceptance, warmth, and profound selflessness for the future of the Jewish nation.

Some of the mothers of hostages on stage

IRabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein Shabbos is Revolutionary

By Eliyahu RosEnBERg

t was Friday afternoon. Shabbos was just two hours away. And Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein, the chief rabbi of

In His Words…

South Africa, was getting anxious. His mind raced as he waited for his phone to ring. He grew increasingly wor -

some people connect to shabbos because they feel it gives them a way of having a moment without the distraction, chaos, and dislocation of constant connection to technology. o thers come from a space of spiritual connection. o thers come from a space of Jewish pride... shabbos is so multifaceted and powerful as an idea and concept. a nd it resonates with the depths of the Jewish soul. The Talmud states that g-d said that shabbos will be your partner, meaning it’s our soulmate.

you need to have respect for responsibility. Whether that position is chief rabbi, rabbi of a community, or the position of a parent, trepidation and awe of the responsibility is absolutely crucial for any successful leadership position... a nd it’s not just official positions. it’s leadership in business, it’s leadership in your family, in your shul, in your school, wherever it may be. We are all leaders with followers.

Taking responsibility and doing things for others is, in some ways, the best way to be inspired by yiddishkeit. shabbos brings geulah to the world... shabbos gives us freedom and lifts us up.

ried as he anticipated the crucial conversation he was to have with the president’s office. But he wasn’t particularly nervous about discussing the sensitive and urgent matter at hand. Rather, Rabbi Goldstein was worried that the president’s office would return his call on Shabbos – and that, subsequently, they would be insulted that he wouldn’t pick up.

Thus, as sunset approached, Rabbi Goldstein grabbed his phone and dialed the number of the South African president’s chief of staff.

“I just wanted to let you know, in about two hours, it’s going to sunset, and…” he began explaining.

As he listened to himself speak, however, his nervousness skyrocketed. Rabbi Goldstein thought he sounded ridiculous. How sensitive and urgent could an issue be if he can’t talk about it for 25 hours? His words, tangled in a web of awkwardness, stumbled out of his mouth as he tried his best to explain the concept of Shabbos.

“The Bible says we must keep the Sabbath. And our tradition is to not use our phones. And that means, from sunset today, my phone’s going to be off for 25 hours,” Rabbi Goldstein told the chief of staff. “And if you call me on behalf of the president, I will only be able to pick up the message on Saturday night, and I’ll get back to you then. But please, don’t take it as an offense to the president if I’m unable to answer.”

For a moment, there was silence. In those few seconds of suspense, Rabbi Goldstein wondered how the chief of staff would respond. Maybe she’d ex-

claim, “Are you kidding me?” Or “Are you insulting us?” Or perhaps a flat-out, “That’s ridiculous.” But then she broke the silence with a response that surprised Rabbi Goldstein.

“She said to me words that I’ll never forget,” Rabbi Goldstein recalls. “She said, ‘I’m jealous. I wish I could do the same.’”

Many of us take Shabbos for granted, failing to recognize how much of a blessing it is for our lives. But at that moment, as he heard an outsider expressing sincere admiration for the Jewish lifestyle, Rabbi Goldstein consciously understood that Shabbos is one of our greatest treasures. And through the Shabbos Project, which he started in 2013, Rabbi Goldstein hopes that Jews from all around the world come to that same realization.

* * *

Growing up in the small but thriving Jewish community of South Africa, Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein didn’t exactly have your run-of-the-mill childhood. Whereas most children follow the lead of grown-ups, young Rabbi Goldstein was, in a way, his own leader. He and his friends took it upon themselves to contribute and make a difference in their community.

“We, as kids, were very involved in the shul. We were encouraged to do leining and davening and to even say divrei Torah,” Rabbi Goldstein shares.

“The first dvar Torah I ever gave in a public forum, I believe, was even before my bar mitzvah – I can’t even remem-

ber – at a community Seudah Shlishis. Growing up in that kind of small community, there were lots of those opportunities, and it was such a beautiful way to grow up. I remember walking to shul in groups of our friends, and we all were contributing and making a difference… Taking responsibility and doing things for others is, in some ways, the best way to be inspired by Yiddishkeit.”

It was that drive – to do his part in making the world a better place – that would later lead Rabbi Goldstein to becoming a rabbi. After receiving semicha, he taught at Yeshiva Gedolah of Johannesburg, where he had previously learned. While teaching halacha and training students to become rabbanim, Rabbi Goldstein attended law school, as he was considering becoming a career lawyer.

“When I got a law degree, my wife and I had a discussion: Should I stay in the rabbinate or move into law? And I must say, to her z’chus, she said, ‘Listen, you’re enjoying it. Stay in the rabbinate. Stay another year or two. Let’s see how this goes.’ And because of that advice, I stayed on,” explains Rabbi Goldstein.

At the young age of 33, Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein became the Chief Rabbi of South Africa, a role he’s kept for some twenty years. And yet, to this day, he remains in awe of the position.

“The day that I feel completely comfortable in this without a sense of trepidation is the day that I shouldn’t be in it. You need to have respect for responsibility. Whether that position is chief rabbi, rabbi of a community, or the position of a parent, trepidation and awe of the responsibility is absolutely crucial for any successful leadership position,” declares Rabbi Goldstein. “And it’s not just official positions. It’s leadership in business, it’s

leadership in your family, in your shul, in your school, wherever it may be. We are all leaders with followers.”

His wife’s advice for him to continue working as a rabbi was, according to Rabbi Goldstein, the best advice he’d ever received in his life. But that wasn’t the only time Rabbi Goldstein’s wife gave him life-changing advice.

In 2013, Rabbi Goldstein announced that he would be launching the “Shabbos Project” in South Africa, an initiative that would encourage all local Jews – particularly those who weren’t frum – to keep just one Shabbos together with the community. After announcing the idea, Rabbi Goldstein was met with many naysayers, including fellow rabbanim who doubted that the initiative could work. But Rabbi Goldstein’s wife encouraged him to ignore the criticism. She told him, “Even if 10 people keep Shabbos, it would be worth all the effort. And even if they don’t, even if there aren’t even 10, it’s such a noble thing to fail at. So, let’s just go for it.”

Lo and behold, the Shabbos Project was an unbelievable success.

“It was overwhelming. It swept through the community, and people poured onto the streets for the challah bake and the havdalah concert. And people kept Shabbos. There were reports about golf clubs and hairdressing salons that went quiet because their Jewish customers canceled for that Shabbos,” Rabbi Goldstein recounts. “And when word started to spread globally, I started getting emails and requests from different communities around the world. They wanted to bring the Shabbos Project to their community.”

The movement quickly swept the globe. One year later, Rabbi Goldstein

announced a global Shabbos Project for all, encouraging every Jew in the world to keep one Shabbos a year in unison. Today, over a decade later, thousands of volunteers have brought the Shabbos Project to over 1,500 cities and 100 countries all around the world.

* * *

In Talmud Bavli, the Gemara says that if the entire Jewish nation would keep just two Shabbosim, we would be redeemed immediately. In Talmud Yerushalmi, the Gemara asserts that, as a matter of fact, the Jewish people would only need to observe one Shabbos in unison to bring about the redemption.

“The message is that Shabbos brings geulah to the world. And redemption, of course, refers to Moshiach, but it’s also saying in a very deep way that Shabbos gives us freedom and lifts us up. What is redemption? Redemption is when we feel that our lives are worthwhile, when there’s purpose, when there’s meaning, when we are transcendent, happy, purposeful, and connected to G-d, to our spouse, to our children, to our siblings, to our community, to one another, and to that deep sense of meaning and purpose in life,” Rabbi Goldstein shares. “There’s something about Shabbos that has such magic and power.

“There was a story a few years ago of a woman who walked into a challah bake in Scottsdale, Arizona, and she was so moved by it. She was actually married to a non-Jew, and her friend convinced her to come. And she went through such a process in that Shabbos Project and through that challah bake. And then, through keeping that Shabbos, she became frum and her husband

went on a geirus program.”

Rabbi Goldstein has heard stories of secular Jews from the former Soviet Union traveling on trains for a day to make it to a Shabbos Project Shabbaton to experience Shabbos for the first time in their lives—and then being in tears by Saturday night.

“Some people connect to Shabbos because they feel it gives them a way of having a moment without the distraction, chaos, and dislocation of constant connection to technology. Others come from a space of spiritual connection. Others come from a space of Jewish pride,” explains Rabbi Goldstein. “Shabbos is so multifaceted and powerful as an idea and concept. And it resonates with the depths of the Jewish soul. The Talmud states that G-d said that Shabbos will be your partner, meaning it’s our soulmate.”

In his book, “Shabbos: A Day to Create Yourself,” Rabbi Goldstein touches on another important aspect of Shabbos. Most people believe that for six days, we create, and on the seventh day, we stop creating. But in reality, from Sunday to Friday, we create the outside world. And on Shabbos, we create ourselves.

“The message of Shabbos is that there’s a whole other world of things we need to create that we can’t touch or feel. Yes, we have to create the physical world around us,” declares Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein. “But ultimately, our inner world, the world of our connection to Hashem, to our loved ones, ourselves, our sense of wisdom, character, perspectives, and happiness – all these things are intangible. You can’t feel and touch them, but they are precious. They are the purpose of life. And Shabbos is the day that we dedicate ourselves to that.”

This article is based on a podcast, “Inspiration For the Nation,” hosted by Yaakov Langer. To catch more of this conversation, you can watch it on LivingLchaim.com or YouTube.com/LivingLchaim or listen wherever you listen to podcasts (just search for “Inspiration For The Nation”) or call our free hotline: 605-477-2100.

Dating Dialogue What Would You Do If…

Moderated by Jennifer Mann, LCSW of The Navidaters

Dear Navidaters,

Thank you for your thought-provoking column!

My sisters and I are at odds with our parents over the (lack of) shidduch prospects of our second-to-oldest 25-year-old brother. He’s an awesome guy and an amazing catch, but he’s getting older and our parents won’t let him start to date until our oldest brother gets engaged. Our oldest brother is a nice guy but significantly a more difficult guy to set up, for reasons we can’t mention here.

How can we convince our parents to remove their hold on him from dating?

- The Berg Sisters*

The Panel

Dear Readers,

We want to offer YOU an opportunity to be part of the discussion! Please email us at MichelleMondShadchan@gmail.com, subject line “reader’s response,” if you would like to participate in the new “A Reader’s Response” columnist spot. We will send you a question and publish your answer in an upcoming Navidaters edition.

If you have a question you would like the Navidaters to answer, please reach out to this email as well.

Looking forward!

Michelle, the “Shadchan”

The Rebbetzin

Rebbetzin Lisa Babich

Thank you for your question. In some families, it is very hard for parents to allow the younger sibling to date while the older one is not married yet. It usually comes from an understandably emotional place of distress and pain. In this case, it sounds like your parents are really struggling with the scenario they find themselves in: an older, possibly more “difficult” brother who is still single. I would suggest that you find a Rabbi or mentor that your parents highly respect. They need to hear from someone who they view as wise and who can help guide them in a gentle and delicate manner. They may view you and your sister as not fully understanding the matter as they don’t view you as daas Torah . If you let a wise mentor speak to them, that may help and open their eyes.

Much hatzlacha.

The Shadchan

Michelle Mond

Thank you for writing in with such an important question. While I am usually not a fan of others mixing in when it comes to a sibling’s shidduchim, I feel that in this case you are correct. While there may have been a minhag

in some circles to wait for an older sibling in the past, things have drastically changed with the way shidduchim work today. It is best if your 25-yearold brother starts looking when he is ready. Figuring out a way to convince your parents that this is the way to go will be the difficult part. Assuming your brother wants to start dating, I would highly suggest that he speak to your parents about his feelings. This should not come from the sisters, rather from him personally, in order to make the biggest impact.

Your brother is an adult and has every right to make this very serious, life-changing decision for himself. If your brother’s voice falls on deaf ears, he should speak to his rebbi and your parents’ rav about it. You and your sisters can back him up on this topic and show your support.

Although your brother can do whatever he wants (i.e., start dating without getting the green light officially), it will be the most comfortable for everyone if your parents are on board. Someone who is truly aware of the complexities of the shidduch world will be able to explain to your parents the importance of not holding shidduchim up for a child. I hope your brother is able to get this message across!

It is important to note that all of this should be done in private and not in the presence of the older brother. It is incredibly hard for an older sibling when a younger one starts dating (as talked about in last week’s question). This issue has to be handled with privacy and tact to minimize any hurt and frustration this might cause your older brother.

The Zaidy

Dr. Jeffrey Galler

There is a lot of missing information here. Why have your parents imposed that policy? How does your younger brother feel about this restriction? How does your older brother feel about it?

And why are you and your sisters fighting this battle? Shouldn’t the 25-year-old brother be the proactive one here?

Nevertheless, as long as both of your brothers don’t care who marries first, here are some arguments you can use on your parents:

First , the outdated notion that “older sibling must get married first” is definitely not a halacha or regulation in our religion. It was, years ago, merely

Your brother is an adult and has every right to make this very serious, life-changing decision for himself.

a custom, in some sectors of Judaism. Recently, Rabbi Yitzchak Greenblatt paraphrased what Rabbi Moshe Feinstein had written years ago (Iggrot

Moshe, Even Ha’ezer II:1): “There is no prohibition at all for a younger child to marry before an older one. The idea that a man should have to delay marrying and having children simply because his older brother has not yet found a bride is, if you’ll pardon the pun, inconceivable.”

Second, this archaic “custom” applied to daughters, not sons, and, apparently, had a financial basis. Parents had to work hard and save sufficient funds to marry off a daughter. An older daughter would resent seeing those funds, ostensibly designated for her own marriage, being redirected to the younger sister. You can argue that such financial considerations are not applicable here.

Third, the earliest Biblical references to “older sister first” are the actions of Lot’s incestuous daughters (Bereishis: 19), and, generations later, the actions of the manipulative Lavan who tricked our patriarch, Jacob, into mar-

rying the older Leah before the younger Rachel (Bereishis: 29) .

You can point out the obvious. Neither Lot’s daughters nor Lavan can remotely be considered to be moral, noble characters whose actions are worthy of emulation. Note that Jacob was perfectly fine with marrying the younger sister, Rachel. Explain, “Shouldn’t our policy mirror that of Jacob and not that of the idol-worshipping Lavan?”

Fourth , in today’s society, out-ofsequence marriages are perfectly acceptable. Some perfectly fine people seem to marry at a relatively young age, while other perfectly fine people marry at a later age. The “shame” of marrying later is no longer such a realistic concern.

Perhaps your parents worry that the younger brother marrying first will underscore that there is “something wrong” with the older brother. You

Pulling It All Together

I hear how much you and your sisters care about your brother, and I completely get why this situation is frustrating. It sounds like your parents are holding onto a traditional approach –wanting the older sibling to go first – but the reality is, life doesn’t always work in perfect order. Your second-to-oldest brother is ready, and it makes sense that you’d want to advocate for him.

One option is to have a calm, respectful conversation with your parents. Not in a way that challenges them

outright, but more like: “We totally understand why you feel this way, and we re - spect that you want to do what’s best for everyone. At the same time, we’re worried about the impact this is having on our brother. He’s at the right stage to build a home and waiting indefinitely may not be fair to him. Maybe there’s a way to honor both brothers’ needs without holding one back?”

If they’re open to it, you could also

will need to do some homework here. Provide examples of families where younger siblings married before older ones without any negative implications. In any event , unless your 25-yearold brother has asked you to advocate on his behalf, it might be best to simply lay low for now.

A Reader’s Response

Mr. Barak Sonnenthal

You and your sisters are correct. Your younger brother should start dating already as there’s no telling when your older brother will get married. You’ve already stated your older brother is significantly more difficult to set up for unspecified reasons. There’s no telling when these reasons might resolve themselves, and the longer your brother waits, the smaller his dating pool will be. It’s unfair for him to miss out on that opportunity, and it’s also unfair for the girls who

The reality is, life doesn’t always work in perfect order.

are currently looking for their match to be deprived of a very eligible candidate.

As far as your parents go, you don’t mention if you ever brought this up to them before, and I would suggest to speak to your family. Try acknowledging and validating their concerns and their fears but explaining to them the reasons why you think your brother should be dating. If all else fails, your brother is 25 years old; he can start dating himself. He doesn’t need your parents’ permission. If getting engaged before his older brother will cause a significant rift between him and your parents, then this is an entirely different question. The question then becomes how to deal with overly controlling parents.

please

suggest speaking with a rav, mentor, or someone they trust to help navigate this. Sometimes hearing it from an outside voice makes all the difference.

Now, let’s be real – if they won’t budge, your brother is an adult. He gets to decide how much he wants to let this hold him back. If he’s ready and willing, he can absolutely start dating quietly, without making a big deal about it. It’s a tough balance between respecting your parents and also recognizing that he has the right to move forward in his own life. If he chooses to take that step,

it might actually help everyone – including your older brother – by shifting the energy and pressure in a positive way. At the end of the day, this is about what’s best for both of your brothers. You’re in a tricky spot, but your instincts to advocate for him are coming from a really good place. Wishing you all clarity, peace, and the best possible outcome!

Sincerely, Jennifer

School of Thought

By Etti Siegel

Q:Dear Etti, Purim is coming up, and frankly, I am already anxious about the experience. Last year, my toddler daughter cried when she saw people dressed up, and my 4-year-old son refused to wear the costume we chose together.

Also, I look at all the families with themed mishloach manos and kids all matchy-matchy, and I know I won’t have that.

But what can I do to make the experience a positive one?

- Wishing for a Perfect Purim

A:Dear Wishing, It’s completely understandable for a young child to feel scared about Purim, especially with people dressing up in costumes and masks that make familiar faces look different.

Purim can be an exciting but overwhelming holiday with its lively atmosphere, and some children need extra reassurance that everything is safe and meant to be fun.

The first step in helping them is to validate their feelings and let them know that it’s okay to feel this way.

Young children, in particular, have a harder time distinguishing between reality and fantasy, making costumes and masks feel like a real-life invasion. Instead of dismissing their fears, let them know that you understand why they feel scared and that they aren’t alone in feeling this way.

I remember taking my children to an Uncle Moishy concert, and when one of his “pals” came out, they began to scream. We spent the rest of the concert outside, close enough to enjoy the music but far enough to no longer be scared of the dressed-up character.

Gradual exposure is a helpful approach. (Which maybe I would have done if I would have realized Uncle Moishy brings these characters to his shows!)

Avoiding Purim excitement completely may seem like the easiest solution, but it can reinforce anxiety and make it even harder in the future.

Instead, start preparing your child for Purim early. Tell them that people find it fun to dress up and that costumes are just pretend.

Show them how dressing up works, perhaps by putting on a costume yourself and then taking it off to demonstrate that you are still the same person.

We have a costume box for kids to play dress-up with all year. If you have one, add some fun pieces. If you don’t have one, you might want to start collecting for one! An old black hat, an old wig, some funny hats, clown glasses,

children’s construction outfits, and other assorted costumes are fun and would go a long way in having your children be more comfortable with dress-up.

Reading books about Purim and using toys or dolls to act out Purim scenes can further help them understand the celebration in a fun, low-pressure manner.

If you visit a Purim party and there are masks or costumes that scare your child, take a moment to explain how the costume is made and let them see that it’s not real. If they are comfortable, they can even try touching a costume or mask to help demystify it.

It’s also important to tailor their Purim experience to their comfort level.

Sometimes a child will beg for a specific costume, only to refuse to wear it on the actual day. Instead of getting frustrated, it helps to have a backup plan, such as something simple from a dress-up bin, or allowing them to choose something last-minute that makes them feel comfortable.

While some families enjoy dressing up in elaborate costumes or decorating with themes, a child who is already anxious may find this overwhelming. If possible, keep the environment festive but not too intense, choosing bright, fun decorations rather than anything that might look too dramatic or scary.

Giving them some control over their experience can also make a huge difference. If they don’t want to wear a costume you chose, swallow your disappointment and let them choose their own way to celebrate. Maybe they’d prefer to wear a special shirt, something from the dressup box, or a favorite accessory instead.

Letting them hang up the decorations they make in school, help bake hamantaschen, or prepare mishloach manos for family and friends can give them a sense of participation without forcing them into uncomfortable situations.

She will be answering your education-based

It’s also important to tailor their Purim experience to their comfort level. If a big, loud Purim party is too overwhelming, consider attending a quieter gathering or celebrating at home with close family. Some children may feel more at ease watching the festivities from a distance before deciding to join in or not.

Parents can also model confidence by staying calm and showing enjoyment in the holiday. If a child sees that their parent isn’t afraid of the costumes and excitement, they will start to feel reassured.

Be ready to leave if your child seems truly scared.

If your child gets anxious, please do not take them to a public megillah reading! See if there is a smaller, family-friendly tailored-for-kids reading available (i.e.: not a real megillah reading), and have parents go to the many options for adults.

Ultimately, the goal is progress, not perfection. A child doesn’t need to fully embrace every aspect of Purim all at once. Some aspects of the holiday, like loud groggers, large crowds, or elaborate costumes, may be too much for them this year, and that’s okay. Each small step, whether it’s looking at pictures, trying on a costume for a few minutes, or even just being in the same room as dressed-up family members can help them build comfort over time.

Children who are nervous about Purim can eventually come to see it as a joyful and exciting holiday in their own way.

With patience, reassurance, and gentle encouragement, most children even find themselves looking forward to the fun, treats, and celebrations in years to come. Happy Purim!

- Etti

Parenting Pearls Parental Self-Care

By Sara Rayvych, MSEd

Naturally, parenting articles generally focus on the various aspects of taking care of children. Little ones need continuous care, and older ones still need our love and guidance. A parent’s job is unending and lasts even into adulthood. It’s obvious that as parents we are going to require information as to how we can optimally address these various needs.

While stressing the importance of ensuring children are fed and rested, it’s surprising how often we neglect the same in ourselves. We have this crucial role to fulfill, yet, too often, we don’t provide for our own needs in a way that will ensure we are up to this task.

We can only give from what we have. If we don’t have our own reserves, then we have nothing left for our children. We may deny our own needs and deplete ourselves until something explodes or collapses. Aside from the idea that “parents are people, too,” we owe it to ourselves and our children to think of our own needs.

We also need to demonstrate for our children the various behaviors we want to see them follow. We can lecture on proper nutrition, but it means nothing if we mostly eat nutritionally lacking food. We may tell them all about bedtime, but they see when we go to sleep late and can’t function the next day.

Food and Drink

Adults need to eat nutritious foods and stay hydrated. This sounds simple yet is frequently ignored.

Too often, adults either skip meals or eat junk. Without proper fuel, cars don’t run, and people are similar. Someone may push themselves to the limits, think they’re doing well, and then they crash. They snap at someone, maybe they say something they regret, but they inevitably won’t function properly.

Hydration isn’t only for sick patients. Everyone needs to drink enough water and hydrating beverages. This is especially true in the summer but applies year long. Despite its popularity, coffee isn’t a water substitute. Everyone has their own

tolerance and limitations. If something –caffeine, sugar or anything else – makes you jittery, then carefully watch your intake. A high-strung adult is not going to respond appropriately.

Sleep

Nobody functions without sleep. Maybe we doze off randomly, make poor decisions or yell, but lack of sleep will catch up eventually. This is another area where adults tend to push their limits and hope for the best.

Ideally, adults go to sleep at a normal hour so they can get sufficient rest before waking up the next morning. The reality is far from this. There is so much to do that we stay up late to “just finish one more thing.” Maybe we get into bed and then don’t fall asleep for a while. As hard as it is, we need to prioritize getting into bed and falling asleep.

Families with babies will not get sleep. It’s inevitable and built into the makeup of infants. The newest family members require around-the-clock care and love, leaving adults with minimal sleep and only in small increments. Parents should attempt to prioritize sleep whenever possible, getting into bed early and napping.

Physical Health

This is an area we truly appreciate how much Hashem controls, but we can still do our hishtadlus. Adults have a tendency to put off their own physical needs. We will ignore a cold until it gets worse, pain until it grounds us, and our own needs until something breaks. We’re busy, and with so much to do for our kids, it is inevitable that we’ll push aside our own needs.

Overall physical health will affect our ability to focus and be present for our children. Making sure we remain physically active and healthy gives us the strength to chase after kids and do the daily tasks that parenting requires. Taking care of ourselves is another step that ultimately gives us the ability to provide for our children.

that we often don’t realize when we are struggling in it. If we ignore our emotional health, then we have absolutely nothing to give our children.

Children have many physical needs and require full-time care. Young children, in particular, need to be kept safe from their own antics, and babies are helpless without their loving adults tending to them. With all these constant but necessary physical tasks, we can overlook the importance of meeting their emotional needs.

More than being fed, bathed and sent off to school, our children need our love. They need the feelings of security and stability that can only come from us. A youngster’s entire world originates with the adults in their life, and a child’s ability to recognize their own self-worth, potential and sense of internal peace begins with us. It would take many articles to begin to explain what an impact a parent has on their child’s emotional health.

It takes an emotionally healthy adult to best meet a child’s emotional needs. A parent that is themselves suffering will not have the availability to be emotionally present for their child. Even if we’re there physically, if we can’t show them love and support, then we aren’t meeting their needs sufficiently.

Spiritual Health

Our neshamos need care, too, and we can’t neglect them. We can easily fall into the pattern of doing things by rote, failing to connect to our Creator. All of us need a certain amount of time dedicated to remaining inspired and focused on our growth and purpose.

Aside from the poor example this sets for our children, it denies us a major part of who we are and our purpose in this world. Our connection and faith in Hashem should not remain at the maturity level of where we were before we had children. Especially with all the stress and pain we are going through as a nation, it’s only our continuous trust in Hashem that helps us get through each day and move on to the next. We can’t afford to be without this.

This is a very challenging area, and one

If we ignore our own emotional needs, then we are teaching our children to do the same. They will learn to think their feelings are not important and can be ignored when inconvenient. Instead, we want them to see that we value this area of our health and that they should prioritize theirs, as well.

Rather than cause readers to feel guilty, this article is meant to be a reminder and encouragement to prioritize ourselves in the appropriate ways so we’re functioning at our best potential levels. We need to be more than merely “functional”; we need to be present and available. Too often, we think it’s selfish to provide for our own needs, but it’s only through managing our own needs that we can be the parents our child deserves. Only through showing care and love to ourselves can we pass this on to the next generation.

Sara Rayvych, MSEd, has her master’s in general and special education. She has been homeschooling for over 10 years in Far Rockaway. She can be contacted at RayvychHomeschool@gmail.com.

It’s a dirty job. It comes in a range of colors and consistencies. It can put fear in the hearts of parents. Easily 25% of new parents’ questions revolve around this subject. Here I am to clarify what’s normal, what’s not, what matters, and what doesn’t about your baby’s poop.

Your baby’s first poops should be happy sights for you. When your baby is passing stool, it means the digestive track is working as G-d designed it to work. Almost anything is normal except NOT passing poop within the first twenty-four hours of life.

There are two new-parent lessons here. First, baby poop comes in many varieties, to be discussed shortly. Second, get answers before freaking out. This is easier said than done, especially when it comes to our babies’ poop habits.

Let’s start with the varieties.

Beginning with the first day of life and continuing for several days, the baby’s first several bowel movements will be filled with meconium. Meconium is a thick black or dark green substance that your baby ingested in utero. Yes, older siblings, you’re grossed out. But you ingested the same! So did your parents. So did I, for that matter. The meconium can be hard to wipe off your baby’s bottom. Once it has passed your baby’s system, the stools will become softer and lighter in color.

The stools of breastfed babies resemble light mustard with seedlike particles. The

Health & F tness

Diaper Dilemmas

By Hylton I. Lightman, MD, DCH (SA), FAAP

consistency of the stools may range from very soft to loose and runny. The stools of formula-fed babies are usually tan or yellow in color, although the color depends on the contents of your baby’s formula. They will be firmer than the stools of breastfed babies but no firmer than peanut butter.

Please tell your pediatrician if you see pale yellow, pale green, chalk, white or grey poop. A light-colored stool, especially in a jaundiced baby, might point toward a liver problem.

dicate that your baby is not getting enough fluid or he is losing too much fluid due to illness, fever or heat. If fever is present and your baby is less than two months old, call your pediatrician. If your baby is over two months old and the fever lasts for longer than a day, check his urine output and rectal temperature and then report your findings to your pediatrician. Make sure your baby continues to feed frequently.

If your baby is already eating solids and his stools are hard, he might be eat-

The miracle of the baby’s digestive and excretory systems makes one pause and contemplate how perfect Hashem’s world is.

How can you tell if your baby has diarrhea if an infant’s stools are normally soft and a little runny? Telling signs may be a sudden increase in frequency (to more than one bowel movement per feeding) and abnormally high liquid content in the stool. Diarrhea may be a sign of intestinal infection or may be caused by a change in the diet. A change is Mom’s diet may cause diarrhea in a nursing baby.

Whether your baby is breastfed or bottle-fed, stools that are hard or dry may in-

ing too many constipating foods such as cereal or cow’s milk before his system can handle them. Note: whole cow’s milk is not recommended for babies under 12 months of age.

What is considered “normal” for how often a baby poops?

First 24 hours of life: There should be at least one bowel movement as Mom’s high-sugar colostrum acts like a laxative to push out the meconium.

The first 12 weeks: Breastfed babies

can have anywhere between one to eight poops per day, the average being four. Depending on their digestive system, some breastfed babies can have bowel movements once in 7-10 days. Formula-fed babies average 2 poops daily but could have more.

Between 4-6 months or whenever your baby is ready for solids: Varies on the diet.

The bottom line (no pun intended): There’s a wide range of normal when it comes to your newborn’s number twos. Educate yourselves by asking your pediatrician questions.

The miracle of the baby’s digestive and excretory systems makes one pause and contemplate how perfect Hashem’s world is. We should appreciate our bodies. Thank you, Abayei, for composing Asher Yatzar. As always, daven.

To learn more about poop and its variations, email Ama@totalfamilycaremd. com for your copy of TFC’s specially designed Bristol Poop Chart.

Dr. Hylton I. Lightman is a pediatrician and Medical Director of Total Family Care of the 5 Towns and Rockaway PC. He can be reached at drlightman@totalfamilycaremd. com, on Instagram at Dr.Lightman_ or visit him on Facebook.

Health & F tness

The Key to Communication

By Michal Goldman, LCSW

My spouse and I have a lot of fun with each other and are able to have “light” conversations, but every time we try to have a real conversation about our relationship, it turns into a fight or one of us shuts down. It feels like we can’t talk about anything important without getting defensive, frustrated, or withdrawing completely. We both want to communicate better, but we don’t know how to break this cycle. How can we have meaningful conversations without them turning into battles or leaving us feeling even more disconnected?

The Therapist Responds

Communication is the heart of how we connect with others. It is so important for growing and maintaining relationships and is equally challenging. One of the main reasons couples come into therapy is because of struggles with communication, and communication is one of the major focuses of any type of marriage therapy. The good news is that communication is a learned skill, and learning and then consistently nurturing your communication skills will help you both grow more and more connected. The cornerstone to any productive conversation is for both participants to feel heard and understood. Therefore, the first step for you to do is to validate your wife. The definition that I like most for validation comes from Imago therapy, which is a form of couples therapy created by Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt. They define validation as any comment that gives over the message that the person speaking makes sense. That doesn’t mean you have to agree with them, it just means that if you were in their shoes, thinking from their perspective, you can understand why they would feel the way they do and come to the conclusions they come to. Your first goal in having the conversation should be to make sure you fully understand her perspective, to the point where it makes complete sense to you why she is reacting the way she is.

One of the main blocks to validation is defensiveness. Just by the fact that you wrote this letter, I imagine you are trying to do everything you can to improve the relationship and communication within the relationship. Hearing complaints when you are so focused on doing your best can be upsetting and

feelings, not what you wish she would be doing differently. You can ask her to do the same thing you did – not defend her perspective until she fully understands it from your end.

Oftentimes, in stressful situations, couples create negative cycles. During your conversation, it’s important to notice

The cornerstone to any productive conversation is for both participants to feel heard and understood.

often leads us to defend our perspective before fully understanding the nuances of our partner’s perspective. When you feel the urge to defend yourself, remind yourself that your first job is to fully understand her and you will be able to express yourself after.

Once you’ve done that, the next step is to share your perspective. Explain what is going on for you, check with her if she gets it, and try to keep the focus on your

what patterns come up for both of you. What are the specific actions that you do, how does that make your wife feel, and then how does she react as a result? This is another place to practice curiosity for each other. Ask your wife what she notices when you are trying to start an important conversation, how that impacts her, and then how she reacts to you.

Here is an illustration of what a negative cycle looks like. During a tough con-

versation, your wife may notice you are avoiding eye contact. That can make her feel alone, and she might react by slightly raising her voice. Then, to complete the dance, her moves may lead you to feel like you can’t get this right, no matter how hard you try. Feeling that way can lead you to be less present and therefore make even less eye contact. The case I mentioned may not be the cycle that both of you experience, but I want you to pinpoint your cycle together.

Recognizing the negative cycle is the first step towards creating safety and connection in hard conversations. When couples are caught in these patterns, it’s easy to lead to a sense of “me versus you.” Reframing it as “us against the cycle” allows you to stop this pattern and start to turn towards each other instead. One way to do that is by externalizing the cycle. Many couples find it helpful to name the cycle together as a way of externalizing it.

Once both of you have had conversations where you feel listened to and you’ve taken the steps to work through the emotional dynamics at play underneath, your minds will quiet down. This happens because it is very calming to feel deeply understood, especially by our partners. An added benefit is that being in that mind-state will open you up to creativity in problem solving. With this foundation, it will be much easier to start conversations, feel more productive, and most importantly, strengthen your connection!

Michal Goldman is a licensed clinical social worker in Queens specializing in helping individuals and couples navigate relationship challenges. She can be reached through her website at www.michalgoldmanlcsw.org, via email at michalgoldmanlcsw@gmail. com, or by phone at 917-590-0258. If you have questions that you would like answered here, you can submit them to the email provided. This content is for educational and informational purposes only and is not a replacement for therapy.

Health & F tness

Oil You Need to Know The Slick Truth About Cooking Oils

By Aliza Beer MS, RD, CDN

Cooking oils play a crucial role in our diet, not just for adding flavor and texture but also for their impact on health. Oil, in general, is known for being high in calories and typically has approximately 120 calories per tablespoon. This is something to keep in mind and keep on moderation.

Not all oils are created equally, as some offer essential nutrients and heart-healthy fats, while others can contribute to inflammation and disease when consumed in excess. Understanding the different types of oils and their best uses can help you make informed choices in the kitchen.

Healthy Oils and Their Benefits

Olive oil is widely recognized as one of the healthiest oils, particularly extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), which is rich in antioxidants like polyphenols. These antioxidants offer anti-inflammatory benefits and may help reduce the risk of heart disease. Olive oil is high in monounsaturated fats, which are known to support heart health by lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol levels and improving blood vessel function. It’s best used for salad dressings and drizzling over cooked dishes. Extra virgin olive oil is typ -

ically not used in cooking or baking since it has a lower smoke point. If one would prefer to use olive oil, refined olive oil or light olive oil can be a better choice due to its higher smoke point.

Avocado oil is another excellent hearthealthy option. It has a high content of healthy fats and vitamin E. Its high smoke point of about 520°F (271°C) makes it ideal for high-heat cooking methods like frying, roasting, baking, and grilling, where other oils may burn or lose their beneficial properties. It also adds flavor to dishes, making it suitable for both cooking and finishing touches on salads or veggies.

Coconut oil has gained significant popularity due to its unique composition of medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), which are quickly absorbed by the body and may support metabolism and brain. However, it is also high in saturated fat – about 90% -- which is why it should be consumed in moderation. Coconut oil is solid at room temperature but melts easily, making it great for baking, sautéing, and even as a butter substitute. Though it can contribute to raising HDL (good) cholesterol, the high saturated fat content means it may increase LDL (bad) cholesterol if consumed exces-

sively, so it’s important to balance its use within a healthy diet.

Flaxseed oil is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, making it beneficial for heart health and reducing inflammation. It’s also an excellent plant-based alternative for those seeking to boost omega-3 intake. However, flaxseed oil has a low smoke point of around 225°F (107°C), meaning it should never be used for cooking, as it will break down at high temperatures. Instead, it should be used in cold applications such as drizzling over salads or adding to cold dishes to preserve its nutritional value.

Walnut oil, like flaxseed oil, is another excellent source of omega-3s, which contributes to heart health and helps reduce inflammation. It also contains polyunsaturated fats, which can help lower cholesterol levels and improve blood vessel function. Walnut oil is very flavorful and can enhance the taste of salads and roasted vegetables. It is ideally used for cold applications and low-heat cooking and should be avoided for high-temperature frying due to its lower smoking point.

Sesame oil is available in two varieties: light sesame oil and toasted sesame oil. Light sesame oil, which has a high smoke

point of around 410°F (210°C), is perfect for stir-frying, sautéing, and deep frying. Toasted sesame oil, on the other hand, has a rich, intense flavor and is best used as a finishing oil or in dressings. Sesame oil contains a mix of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats and is also rich in antioxidants like sesamin, which may offer additional health benefits for heart health.

Less Healthy Oils to Limit

Vegetable oil is a broad term that typically refers to a blend of refined oils like soybean, corn, and canola oil. These oils are heavily processed which remove their beneficial nutrients and antioxidants. A major concern with vegetable oils is their high omega-6 fatty acid content. While omega-6s are essential for the body, an imbalance between omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids can promote chronic inflammation, which has been linked to conditions such as heart disease, obesity, and arthritis. Since vegetable oils are commonly used in fried and processed foods, their overconsumption can contribute to poor health outcomes. Additionally, some vegetable oils may contain trace amounts of trans fats due to the refining process,

which further increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. For these reasons, it is best to limit or avoid vegetable oil whenever possible, opting instead for healthier alternatives like olive or avocado oil.

Canola oil is often marketed as a heart-healthy choice due to its lower saturated fat content. However, most commercial canola oil undergoes heavy processing which degrades its nutritional quality while introducing trans fats. Another concern is that many canola oil products are derived from genetically modified (GMO) crops, which some consumers prefer to avoid due to potential environmental and health concerns. While canola oil does contain some omega-3 fatty acids, these benefits may be offset by its high omega-6 content.

If choosing canola oil, it is best to opt for cold-pressed, organic, or non-GMO versions, which retain more of their natural nutrients and antioxidants. However, for those looking to maximize health benefits, oils like extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, and walnut oil are preferable options.

Palm oil is widely used in processed foods and has a high saturated fat content, which can raise cholesterol levels if consumed in excess. Additionally, its production is associated with environmental

concerns, including deforestation.

Corn and soybean oils are commonly found in processed foods and fried foods. They contain high amounts of omega-6 fatty acids, which can promote inflammation if not balanced with omega-3s. These oils should be used sparingly.

The Best Oil for Cooking

The best oil depends on the cooking method. For high-heat cooking, oils with

Best Oils for Baking

It is important to choose the right oil when baking since it can impact texture, moisture, and flavor. Avocado oil is an excellent baking choice, as it has a high smoke point, making it great for baking cakes, muffins, and cookies. Avocado oil and coconut oil are often used as a substitute butter or margarine due to their thicker texture. However, when doing so, there are a few considerations to keep in

For those looking to maximize health benefits, oils like extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, and walnut oil are preferable options.

these healthy oils in place of margarine/ butter. Margarine is highly processed and often contains trans fats, which have been linked to increased cholesterol levels, heart disease, and inflammation. While many brands have reduced trans fats, margarine is still made with refined vegetable oils that are prone to oxidation, leading to harmful free radicals in the body. Butter, on the other hand, is high in saturated fat, which, when consumed in excess, can raise LDL (bad) cholesterol and contribute to heart disease. By opting for healthy oils, you can reduce unhealthy fat intake while maintaining the necessary ingredients in your food.

Incorporating the right oils into your diet can enhance both flavor and health benefits. Opting for natural, minimally processed oils while limiting refined and highly processed oils is a great step toward better overall health.

a high smoke point like avocado oil, refined coconut oil, and light olive oil are ideal. For medium-heat cooking, extra virgin olive oil, sesame oil, and canola oil (if unrefined) work well. For no-heat applications, oils like flaxseed, walnut, and extra virgin olive oil retain their nutritional benefits when used in salad dressings or drizzled over dishes.

mind. Firstly, margarine is a solid, while oil is liquid, which can affect the texture and moisture of baked goods. In terms of measurement, margarine can generally be used in a 1:1 ratio for oil. Additionally, margarine and oil differ slightly in taste, which may alter the taste of the final product. However, if possible, it is very beneficial to make that swap and incorporate

Aliza Beer is a registered dietitian with a master’s degree in nutrition. She has a private practice in Cedarhurst, NY. Patients’ success has been featured on the Dr. Oz show. Aliza can be reached at alizabeer@gmail. com, and you can follow her on Instagram at @alizabeer

In The K tchen

Modern Israeli Salad

By Naomi Nachman

Try my twist on Israeli salad. The fresh herbs really give an extra burst of flavor. You can also add in your favorite vegetables and swap out the feta for cubed chicken for a meat alternative.

Ingredients

◦ 3-4 tomatoes, small dice

◦ 2 Persian cucumbers, small dice

◦ ½ red onion, chopped

◦ 1 can chickpeas

◦ ½ yellow pepper, diced

◦ 1 avocado, diced

◦ ½ block crumbled feta (my favorite is Tnuva) or cubed chicken as a fleishig alternative

◦ ¼ cup assorted fresh herbs such as mint, parsley, cilantro

Dressing

◦ 1 whole lemon, juiced

◦ 2 Tablespoons olive oil,

◦ Kosher salt

◦ Ground black pepper

◦ ¼ teaspoon cumin

◦ ¼ teaspoon sumac

Preparation

1. In a medium soup pot, heat the oil and sauté the onion until translucent. Add deli meat and cook till slightly browned

2. Add the contents of the cello soup but not the spice packet. Add 5 cups of water and then bring to a boil. Then simmer on low for 2 hours.

3. Add desired amount of the spice packet according to your taste during last half hour of cooking.

Naomi Nachman, the owner of The Aussie Gourmet, caters weekly and Shabbat/ Yom Tov meals for families and individuals within The Five Towns and neighboring communities, with a specialty in Pesach catering. Naomi is a contributing editor to this paper and also produces and hosts her own weekly radio show on the Nachum Segal Network stream called “A Table for Two with Naomi Nachman.” Naomi gives cooking presentations for organizations and private groups throughout the New York/New Jersey Metropolitan area. In addition, Naomi has been a guest host on the QVC TV network and has been featured in cookbooks, magazines as well as other media covering topics related to cuisine preparation and personal chefs. To obtain additional recipes, join The Aussie Gourmet on Facebook or visit Naomi’s blog. Naomi can be reached through her website, www.theaussiegourmet.com or at (516) 295-9669.

Notable Quotes

“Say What?!”

The amount of explosives in all the thousands of devices combined did not exceed the amount of explosives found in one standard mine. But the impact on morale was powerful.

- Mossad head David Barnea speaking at a security conference about the exploding pagers operation targeting Hezbollah terrorists in September

In terms of Democrats, I’ve got a lot of friends who are Democrats, and they haven’t asked me for advice. But if they did, I’d tell them, look, you’ve just got to try harder not to [stink].

- Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA)

I mean, think about it. Over the past four years, the Democrats mismanaged Congress, they mismanaged COVID, they mismanaged the economy, they mismanaged inflation, they mismanaged the national debt, they mismanaged Afghanistan. - ibid.

They’re triggered by race; they cry if you use the wrong pronoun. And most of the time, Americans look at this and they go, these people are about ten times past normal. And that’s what’s killing the Democrats right now, in my opinion.

- ibid.

The heinous display of Hamas terrorists parading the coffins of murdered Israeli babies and lying about the remains of their mother to the cheers of a barbaric, animalistic pro-Hamas mob is an affront to all of humanity.

- Ambassador Designate to the United Nations Elise Stefanik at the CPAC Convention

It has never been more important to show our unequivocal support for our most precious ally, and it is clear that under President Trump’s leadership, America stands steadfast in support of Israel and the Jewish people.

- ibid.

People in Israel gotta understand something: The number one enemy to the people in Israel are American Jews that do not support Israel and do not support MAGA.… The biggest single threat to the Jewish people…are progressive Jewish billionaires…. We will always have the back of Israel, but I have to tell you, you have an enemy inside the wire.

– Conservative firebrand Steve Bannon at CPAC talking to an Israeli journalist

People say I’m a bought asset of Putin. I’m like, he can’t afford me.

- Elon Musk at the CPAC convention

If you look at the food that’s on your table, think about who picked it. If you look at your homes, think about who built them. If you look at your vulnerable elders and your kids, think about who’s taking care of them.

- Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) at the Congressional Progressive Caucus’ Tax the Greedy Billionaires Press Conference

Rep. Pramila Jayapal just sang praises for illegal immigration – gushing over cheap labor and glorifying indentured servitude.

- Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) tweeting in response

I’m not going to say that there’s a lot [of waste in federal spending]. I’m going to say that it exists. I don’t think that there’s a lot.

- Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX)

I am at the point where it has become really hard to have an intellectual debate with any of these people because the level of stupidity that they are displaying every single day is frankly, embarrassing, not just in Congress, but as Americans.

- Ilhan Omar, who is a Democrat member of Congress from Minnesota, talking about Republicans

And the fact that these people are allowed to say just the most ridiculous things tells you that the dumbing of the United States has arrived, because how else do we get a Trump presidency again.

- ibid.

What are you insanely curious about? Tell me a story about when you were really, really sure about something and found out you were completely wrong.

- Indeed CEO Chris Hyams telling MSN what he asks in interviews

I’m actually more interested if it’s not a work-related thing. If you can spend 45 minutes talking about baking sourdough, and the 57 different recipes that you’ve tried, the experimentation with temperature and hydration…. When people have that intense curiosity ... it’s just a question of, what else can you fall in love with.

- ibid.

My message to young men is don’t allow this broken culture to send you a message that you’re a bad person because you’re a man, because you like to tell a joke, because you like to have a beer with your friends, or because you’re competitive.

– Vice President J.D. Vance speaking at the CPAC Convention

Our culture wants to turn everybody, whether male or female, into androgynous idiots who think the same, talk the same, and act the same. We actually think G-d made male and female for a purpose, and we want you guys to thrive as young men, and [young women] as young women. And we’re going to help with our public policy to make it possible to do.

- ibid.

Is it too much to ask for them to verify why they are making an average salary of $106,000 per year. Do you think that the single mom who is working two jobs at a restaurant can’t justify where she was?

– Rep Ralph Norman (R-SC) on Fox News defending the DOGE email that asked all federal workers to respond with what they worked on over the past week

The arrogance of the worker who says, “That’s a heavy lift,” that’s what Americans are tired of. We are the ones that are paying the bills.

- ibid.

The New York taxpayer funded those streets! The governor said, “Even though you already paid for these streets, you can’t use those streets unless you pay an additional toll.”

- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy explaining why President Trump stopped congestion pricing in Manhattan

Think of it— a modestly successful comedian, President Zelensky, talked the United States of America into spending $350 billion to go into a war that basically couldn’t be won.… We had a deal based on rare earth and things, but they broke that deal.

– President Trump at a conference

I just ask everybody, if a group like that was operating on the other side of our border with Canada or Mexico, constantly launching attacks, if a group existed in Mexico that came across our border, kidnapped Americans, babies, and launched rockets, we would eliminate them, we would wipe them out, and no country in the world can coexist alongside a group whose intended purpose is the destruction of our state, and is willing to commit atrocities like this.

- Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Fox News

Political Crossfire What Happened to the Border Crisis?

Last year, Joe Biden tried to blame the border crisis on Republicans and their refusal to pass a bipartisan border bill. He needed the legislation to “give me, as President, the emergency authority to shut down the border until it can get back under control,” Biden declared. “If that bill were the law today, I’d shut down the border right now and fix it quickly.”

Well, Congress didn’t pass the bill. And yet in his first month in office, Donald Trump has somehow managed to shut down the border without it.

Since Trump’s inauguration, the southern border has suddenly become quiet. On Feb. 16, just 229 people were encountered by Border Patrol agents trying to illegally cross the southern border. “I’ve been doing this job since 1984 as a Border Patrol agent,” White House border czar Tom Homan declared on X. “I’ve NEVER seen numbers that low.” A week later, they got even lower. On Feb. 22, encounters fell to just 200, the lowest single day total in over 15 years, a Department of Homeland Security official tells me. Contrast that with the all-time high of 11,000 encounters on Dec. 18, 2023, under Biden. That’s a 98 percent drop.

Indeed, DHS officials tell me that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has encountered only about 15,700 migrants on the southwest border in the entire 30 days since Trump’s inauguration. This represents the lowest 30-day number of southwest border encounters since April 2017. Southwest border encounters are down 94 percent from their high point of 263,900 in December 2023 under Biden, 91 percent from their 166,900 monthly average during the four calendar years of the Biden administration, and down 80 percent from their average of 78,200 from 2000 to 2024. Trump has achieved all this without any new authorities from Congress. Indeed, the turnaround started even

By Marc A. Thiessen

before Trump took office. In December, just after Trump’s election, as word got out that a new sheriff would soon be in town, CBP encounters were 81 percent lower than a year prior. Just the promise of a crackdown and mass deportations was enough to deter people from coming to the border. And, since Trump’s inauguration, encounters have fallen an additional 67 percent.

How did he do it? By exercising the broad authority he already has under current law, upheld by the Supreme Court. Immediately on taking office, Trump declared a national border emergency, which allowed him to deploy 5,000 active-duty troops to help CPB secure the southern border. He issued an executive order ending Biden’s policy of “catch and release” at the border, ensuring detained illegal migrants won’t be released back into U.S. communities. He reinstated the “Remain in Mexico” policy he established during his first term, which Biden ended, requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their claims are adjudicated.

To keep the numbers on the decline,

he used the threat of tariffs to convince Mexico to deploy 10,000 members of its National Guard to the border. And on Wednesday, he turned off the magnet encouraging people to cross the border illegally, issuing an executive order terminating all taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal migrants. He designated eight gangs and drug cartels – including Tren de Aragua in Venezuela, MS-13 in El Salvador and six organizations based in Mexico – as foreign terrorist organizations. And he began his promised mass deportation of illegal migrants – focusing initially on those with criminal records – forcing countries such as Colombia to accept their citizens and sending other deportees to Guantánamo Bay. ICE arrests in the interior of the country are up 137 percent. According to DHS, from Jan. 21 to Feb. 18, a total of 42,048 illegal migrants were removed from the United States. Indeed, a DHS spokesman told me that today “more aliens are being expelled from this country than coming in.”

Trump’s actions have broad popular

support. A New York Times poll finds that 87 percent of Americans support deporting illegal migrants with criminal records; 63 percent support deporting every migrant who entered the country illegally during the past four years; and a 55 percent majority supports deporting all migrants who are here illegally – period.

Biden could have taken any or all of these steps. They required no legislation. He had all the authority he needed to secure the border. He chose not to do so. Instead, he unleashed the largest surge of illegal migrants in U.S. history. His border debacle was a crisis of choice.

And that choice had an unintended effect: It has dramatically reduced support for legal immigration. In May 2020, after four years of Trump’s successful leadership in securing the border, Gallup reports just 28 percent wanted to see immigration levels reduced. But in July 2024, after Biden unleashed a record-breaking flood of illegal migrants, 55 percent said that they wanted immigration levels reduced – a 27-point surge on Biden’s watch and the most in almost a quarter-century.

Trump is a strong supporter of legal immigration. During the 2024 campaign, he promised that, if elected, he would offer permanent residency to every foreign student who graduates from a U.S. university. But to do that, we first need to secure the border, remove those who cut the line ahead of legal migrants, and stop rewarding those who violate our immigration laws.

Doing so is not that hard. Apparently, all it took to control our southern border was presidential will and a new border czar. Unlike Biden, Trump is choosing to enforce the law – and that is the first step to restoring America’s place as a nation of legal immigrants.

Israel Today Israel Was Right to Stick With Trump at the UN

By Jonathan S. Tobin

It was a confrontation Israel would have rather avoided. But when push came to shove at the U.N. General Assembly this week, the Jewish state knew what it had to do. Faced with a choice between taking sides with Ukraine, the European Union and most of the international community or standing with the Trump administration, Jerusalem didn’t hesitate to back Washington. For doing so, it’s not only getting bashed by some familiar critics but former friends as well.

The dilemma was caused by an E.U. resolution reaffirming the world body’s condemnation of Russia for its illegal invasion of Ukraine’s borders on the third anniversary of the war that started on Feb. 2022 ,24. The measure also demanded that Moscow withdraw “immediately” from territory it seized from the former Soviet republic in 2014. The United States, which has begun an effort to negotiate an end to the brutal conflict that has already taken 1 million lives on both sides, opposed the resolution. Rather than being (like most of what happens at the United Nations) a meaningless gesture of virtue-signaling,

the Trump administration correctly viewed the resolution as an effort to derail its diplomatic initiative. It preferred a simple call for an end to the war—rejected by Ukraine and its supporters—while not outrightly blaming Russia.

So, what could Israel do when the General Assembly voted?

It supported the U.S. position on both resolutions. It voted against the E.U. proposal in one instance, and again following Washington’s lead, abstained on the other since European amendments had transformed the American resolution’s meaning to undermine President Donald Trump’s policy on the war.

Anger at Israel

As a result, Israel and Netanyahu came under fire for siding with Trump, Hungary and Russia, in addition to its unsavory list of allies like Iran and North Korea. For “Never Trump” die-hards like former Republican bigwig turned Democratic Party cheerleader William Kristol, Israel’s action was a “disgrace” in which they were accused of siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin against “democracy and decency.”

Kristol was once an ardent supporter of Israel and regarded former President Barack Obama’s efforts to appease Iran as an “emergency.” But his rage at Trump’s takeover of the GOP was so great that by 2020, he was openly supporting a return to those same dangerous anti-Israel policies if it meant defeating him.

While it’s hard to take people like Kristol seriously anymore, he wasn’t alone in excoriating Israel on this point.

Some Americans have embraced the cause of Ukraine as the most important issue in the world, dwarfing all other concerns, including the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent surge in antisemitism throughout the globe. For them, the choice on the war between Russia and Ukraine is a binary one between good and evil. For many, that extends to any discussion about Trump, Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Standing with Trump against Zelenskyy’s demands for a continuation of former President Joe Biden’s policy backing the war for “as long as it takes” is now treated as a de facto endorsement of Putin by many in the corporate liberal media.

Isolating Israel

For those who demonize Trump along with Putin, lumping Israel in with them isn’t a stretch. The American political left has turned on the Jewish state, falsely accusing it of being a “settler-colonial” and “apartheid” state that commits “genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The barbarous actions of Hamas and the Palestinians are termed justified “resistance,” rather than evidence of depravity and hate.

They already judge Israel by a distorted set of double standards they would never reapply to any other country or people. Even so, Netanyahu would have been happy to avoid being depicted as having discarded morality so as to retain a stance as Trump’s sidekick.

Despite Trump’s false claim that Ukraine started the war, there is no rational alternative to an effort to end a conflict that cannot be won by either side. A negotiated settlement that won’t give either Kyiv or Moscow all that they want is the only way to stop the killing and the enormous drain of American resources to continue a costly stalemate.

But there’s also no denying that back-

ing Trump on this issue only heightens the growing isolation of the Jewish state. That is particularly true in Europe, where—outside of friendly outlier nations like Hungary—hostility for Israel is a function of the growing strength of a bizarre red-green alliance of leftists and Muslim immigrants. The European Union is horrified by Trump’s effort to end the war as well as by the administration’s willingness to note that, for all of its talk about democracy, free speech is on the wane on the continent.

Being caught in the middle between Russia and Ukraine is nothing new for Israel.

Since the war started, it has come under pressure to take an active part in Ukraine’s defense. Jerusalem denounced the invasion of Ukraine, took in refugees from the war and also provided considerable aid to Kyiv. But it refused to give it any of its precious Iron Dome air-defense batteries or completely break off relations with Moscow.

Ukrainian Hypocrisy

At the time, Russia’s military presence in Syria, as well as the safety of those Jews who remained in the country after most had left in the last 35 years, provided a rationale for Jerusalem’s caution. Zelenskyy also undermined his own case when, in a virtual address to the Knesset, he falsely claimed that Ukrainians stood with the Jews during the Holocaust when, in fact, they were among the most ardent and brutal collaborators with the Nazis. Any other world leader making such an egregious claim would have been denounced as a Holocaust denier. But so great was the regard for Zelenskyy that it was largely ignored.

The same was true when it comes to how Ukraine votes in the United Nations. As Israel’s ambassador to Ukraine said in 2023, Kyiv votes against Israel more than %90 of the time and has come down on the side of antisemitic discrimination at the world body more often than not. How then can Ukraine’s fans condemn Israel’s voting?

The collapse of Russia’s Syrian ally, coupled with Israel’s victory over Hezbollah and Iran, means that Israel no longer has to worry as much about Moscow’s military might next door.

Though Trump’s victory in the 2024 elections returned a strong ally to the White House, the new administration’s flexing of its diplomatic muscles in the last month provides another reason for Israel to keep Ukraine at arm’s length.

Trump’s various statements about Hamas and the war in Gaza have brought moral clarity to the issue as well as com-

forted Israel. But as his Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff travels to the region seeking to keep the ceasefire/hostage release deal alive, in addition to beginning efforts to expand the 2020 Abraham Accords, Netanyahu knows full well that Trump is in charge in the region, not Israel. Washington’s positions are close to those

that, it should be obvious that a pragmatic approach to the world and the need to maintain a balance of power—as opposed to one that claims to be defending some great moral principle—is likely to do more to do less harm and avoid needless conflict. Regardless of whatever arguments Moscow may put forward, the Russians are

For “Never Trump” die-hards like former Republican bigwig turned Democratic Party cheerleader William Kristol, Israel’s action was a “disgrace” in which they were accused of siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin against “democracy and decency.”

only think Russia is evil but have drunk the Kool-Aid about Ukraine being the avatar of the struggle for democracy, rather than just another corrupt and largely undemocratic former Soviet republic.

In his first term, Trump was encouraged to listen to the “grown-ups” who came out of the foreign-policy establishment rather than his own instincts. He eventually learned that was a mistake and achieved a great deal, especially in the Middle East, by ignoring those establishment voices. He may still be too impulsive to have earned blind trust when it comes to charting a new course for the United States abroad. But putting down his peace initiative as merely appeasing Putin or recycling the long-since-debunked Russia collusion hoax conspiracy theories is not a credible or reasonable response to his positions.

of Israel’s, though not on every issue. That’s especially true when it comes to Iran, where the president seems to prefer sanctions and negotiations to a military strike on its nuclear program.

Indeed, given the stakes involved in gaining the release of the hostages and what may be an inevitable return to the war on Hamas so as to ensure it doesn’t retain power in Gaza, Jerusalem has as much need to stick close to Trump as it ever has. Claims that he would betray Israel at the drop of a hat fly in the face of his record as a steadfast ally of the Jewish state. Still, the idea that Israel should regard Ukraine’s interests as having a greater priority than its own life-and-death struggle is risible. In that light, voting with the United States to oppose meaningless U.N. resolutions meant to make it harder to negotiate peace in Ukraine seems like a small and entirely defensible price to pay for firming up the alliance with Washington. That’s true even if it means also voting with Russia and its despicable allies.

Trump May Be Right

Trump is often criticized for his transactional approach to foreign policy rather than one that is based on or pretends to be rooted in moral issues and human-rights concerns. But after the failure of Obama and Biden’s policies to deter Russia or Iran, the need for a more sober approach to these conflicts based on realpolitik concerns is warranted. It’s not just that Biden’s weakness encouraged aggression. Disasters in Afghanistan and Iraq should have cured Americans of any lingering belief in exporting democracy. After all

guilty of starting and pursuing an illegal and indefensible war against Ukraine. Yet a continuation of Biden’s support for the unattainable goal of Ukraine defeating Russia still sounds good to Western armchair strategists committed to obsolete Cold War strategies. It also appeals to those who not

Under the circumstances, allowing no “daylight” between the United States and Israel is not only a wise strategy for Jerusalem. It is one that puts it on the side of a far more effective policy to defend the interests of the West, as well as the Jewish state, than anything Trump’s critics might support.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate).

Political Crossfire In Greenland, Making Most of “Our Moment”

By Jeffrey Gettleman

NUUK, Greenland — Above the harbor, where little boats splattered with fish blood putter back to shore and men with ice-encrusted mustaches butcher seals, sits a two-story building where Palle Jeremiassen works. He is the mayor of Ilulissat, a small town in the Arctic Circle, and he’s got a busy day.

Howling winds just wiped out the path to the best ice-fishing spot, and the fishermen, some of whom still stomp around in pants made of polar-bear fur, are getting upset.

In another settlement farther north, the ice is too thin to cross. Greenlanders call this “young ice,” and it shouldn’t be this young this deep into winter. Unless Jeremiassen quickly organizes emergency shipments by helicopter, the villagers who usually cruise around on snowmobiles and dog sleds could run out of food.

Out here on the western coast of Greenland, ice defines life. The endless snowfields glitter with millions of ice crystals. A skyline of sapphire icebergs rises from the semi-frozen sea. But something even bigger is occupying the mayor’s mind at the moment, and that of many people here. It boils down to one word: Trump.

Denmark, which once colonized Greenland, still oversees many of its affairs. But now President Donald Trump says the United States will take over Greenland, and he has not ruled out using force to do so.

“What can we do when he comes?” the mayor asks. “We will not be Americans. We don’t want to be Europeans. We want to be Greenlandic.”

That’s the refrain that echoed across Greenland during a nearly two-week trip in which New York Times journalists traveled by plane, boat, jeep, snowmobile and dogsled, speaking to dozens of Greenlanders, from bartenders and fishermen to the political class. We asked them what they thought about Trump’s covetousness and his confidence that

Greenlanders “want to be with us.”

The consensus was clear: Greenlanders feel they have been under Danish control for too long, and they don’t want a new colonial master, especially a bigger and bossier one. A recent poll showed that 85% of the tiny population of 56,000 don’t want to be part of the United States. Still, many people expressed a desire to forge a closer relationship to Washington.

These competing tensions have thrust Greenland — a vast, enigmatic island that drew little attention for most of its existence — into an extraordinary geopolitical maelstrom it cannot control. The situation has deeply rattled Europe, which is now also alarmed by Trump’s warm embrace of Russia, and could carry consequences that go far beyond Greenland.

Denmark is anxious over a possible showdown. Europe’s leaders, alarmed at the president’s suggestion that he might take Greenland by force, have responded by lining up behind Denmark. France even offered to send in troops.

Superpowers like the United States, Russia and China are assessing the military and economic opportunities in the Arctic waterways around Greenland and jockeying for position.

At the same time, there’s a sudden

fever for the island’s untapped mineral resources. Major American investors, including Trump allies, are involved with companies prospecting nickel, iron and rare earth elements, even though much of it is trapped far under frozen ground or ice (in some parts of Greenland, the ice is 2 miles thick). China has set its sights on Greenland’s mineral riches, too, and Greenlanders aren’t used to feeling like everyone wants a piece of them.

They’re part of a wider Inuit community stretching from Russia across Alaska and Canada where many people still follow a traditional life, hunting seals and the occasional whale and scraping a living from one of the most hostile environments on the planet. They have long felt marginalized and disrespected, and their resentment has been steadily building toward their former colonial overseers, the Danes, who first came to the island in 1721 and still control its foreign policy, defense and police forces.

Now that Trump has declared his intentions to control the island, Greenlanders are extracting some major concessions from the Danes, whom Trump keeps ridiculing.

“They put two dogsleds there two weeks ago,” Trump said recently, referring

to Denmark’s efforts to safeguard Greenland. “They thought that was protection.”

Even though many Greenlanders said they are not fans of Trump, they enjoy watching him push Denmark around. In interviews, they expressed confidence that this would ultimately help them get a sovereign state of their own — something no other Inuit community has achieved — unless America swallows them first.

“Everyone I know is saying, ‘This is all so hilarious, it’s all so absurd, but it’s also so nice,’” said Svend Hardenberg, a mining executive and, more recently, a star in a hot Danish Netflix series that, serendipitously, had a whole season about Greenland.

“There’s going to be a lot of people trying to sway us this way or that,” he said. “So now we have to figure how to do the best for ourselves, to really see what the U.S. and Denmark can offer.

“This,” he added, “is our moment.”

The Political Question

One afternoon last month in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, Kuno Fencker, a member of parliament, marched out of a news conference, the frustration showing on his face. Greenland’s prime minister, Múte B. Egede, had ducked a question about independence, refusing to answer clearly why the government should not push for it now.

Fencker wants Greenland to start divorce negotiations with Denmark immediately.

“Why shouldn’t we be a part of the global world?” he asked. “Why are we not allowed to become members of the U.N.? Why shouldn’t we be able to be members of the international organizations regarding our fisheries, whales, everything? Why is it that a Danish guy or woman in Denmark has to decide that?”

He spoke from his office, a modern, clean-lined, Scandinavian-designed building, as a bulldozer outside his window lifted away chunks of snow. Nuuk’s

streets and sidewalks were coated in ice, and newcomers, including me, needed to strap plastic spikes on our boots to keep from suddenly finding ourselves airborne. Greenlanders, meanwhile, tramped quietly across the same sidewalks as if they were strolling across a carpet.

Fencker recently returned from Washington, where he managed to finagle a tour of the West Wing. He’s part of Greenland’s small pro-Trump group, which helped organize a visit by Donald Trump Jr. in January.

Rival politicians were quick to call him a traitor, and there is a contingent of Greenlandic politicians who are wary of Trump, seeing him as imperious and unpredictable. But Fencker says that engaging with the Trump team is “necessary if Greenland wants to take its future into its own hands.”

Like many Greenlanders, he believes the island should become independent. But just as important, he and many other Greenlanders argue, is establishing their own close relationship with the United States. They believe this will open up more opportunities for investment and trade and ensure that no other country like Russia or China will cause trouble for them.

The hope among Fencker’s camp is that when Greenland breaks free from Denmark, it will sign a free association agreement with Washington, similar to what the United States has arranged with the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau, three small independent countries in the South Pacific that rely heavily on U.S. military protection and millions of dollars in subsidies.

That scenario is different from Trump’s insistence that America should simply take over. He hasn’t fully explained his fixation on Greenland, which goes back to his first term, when he unsuccessfully tried to buy it from Denmark, except to say that it’s important for “economic security” and “freedom throughout the world.” No one really knows what kind of arrangement Trump would ultimately accept.

As it is, the island gets some American protection: There’s a small U.S. base in the north with around 150 personnel focused on missile defense and space surveillance.

But researchers say that the Arctic region is warming at nearly four times the pace of the rest of the planet, and as the polar ice melts, this whole area is becoming more accessible — and more contested. This includes the shipping lanes around Greenland coveted by Russia and China.

Denmark keeps stressing that Greenland is entitled to determine its own fate. Under Danish and Greenlandic law, the is-

land has the right to hold a referendum on independence. And there’s a simple reason it hasn’t yet.

Greenland’s economy is small, based mostly on fishing and still dependent on Denmark for hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance each year. That money pays for good roads, cheap gas, nice schools and free medical care, a Scandinavian standard of living that many Greenlanders are reluctant to give up.

“We are fortunate here,” said Finn Damgaard, a retired office worker who was warming up the other day on a bench in one of Nuuk’s few malls. The weather was horrendous — vicious winds and subzero temperatures — and he was taking a break on his way to the library.

Like others, Damgaard believes Greenland should pursue independence — but not right now.

“I don’t think we’re ready yet,” he said. “We need to develop a form of income.”

His answer: mining.

Greenland’s Mines

“Greenland is like a paradise for geologists,” said Qupanuk Olsen, a Greenlander who wears many hats — mining engineer, social media influencer, mother, hunter, shaman-follower. “We have gold. We have iron. We have titanium. We have even diamonds,” she said. “We have rubies. We have rare earth elements. We have uranium. We have so many minerals. But the thing is, they’re not profitable at this moment because of the infrastructure.”

The few ports in Greenland are often blocked by ice. The entire 800,000-square-mile island has less than 100 miles of paved roads. Many promising mining areas are so hard to reach that it’s

extremely difficult simply drilling for samples, let alone getting loaded ships out of ports boxed in by icebergs.

Still, some international mining companies are trying. Lumina, owned by European and Canadian investment firms, is digging out anorthosite, a grayish mineral used in paints and glass fibers.

Several hundred miles up the west coast from Nuuk sits Disko Island, where KoBold, a mining startup backed by investments from Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, among other billionaires, has explored for nickel.

Another player is Critical Metals Corp., which has a rare earth mine in southern Greenland and has drawn a significant investment from the New York financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald. Howard Lutnick, Trump’s commerce secretary, has been the firm’s CEO for years.

These days, there’s a huge appetite for rare earth elements, which are used in new technologies like electric cars. Greenland is rich in them.

China bought a stake in another promising rare earth mine, but operations are now blocked because of environmental concerns.

Several years ago, the Chinese government commissioned a geological study of Greenland, saying it had “great potential for minerals.” But “potential” remains the operative word.

“Greenland is like a huge deposit just sitting there waiting for the prices to rise dramatically enough so we can sell it,” Olsen said.

A Complicated Relationship

Olsen spoke from her beautiful, new, airy house overlooking Nuuk’s port and

the thin slices of what is called “pancake ice” floating in the harbor. (Greenlanders have a lot of categories of ice: pancake ice, young ice, old ice, pack ice, black ice, glacier ice and sea ice, to name a few.)

“I don’t want to become part of the U.S.,” said Olsen, who is running in the next parliamentary elections, in March. “But at some point, we need to do business with them.”

As with many Greenlanders, Olsen’s feelings toward America are complicated. She knows that America’s attention on Greenland could deliver benefits. It already has.

Just in the past few weeks, with Trump breathing down their necks, the Danes have agreed to things that Greenlanders have been demanding for years. Greenlandic, for example, will be recognized as a legitimate national identity on passports, and Greenland can now export fish more easily to foreign markets.

Denmark also just announced a major increase in military spending for the Arctic, something Greenlanders say should have been done long ago.

People on the island are increasingly critical of Denmark, part of a broader reinterpretation of the 300-year-old relationship between mainland Denmark and an island 50 times as big.

What is important to Greenlanders, interviews revealed, is their strong sense of identity. They come from a small group of people who have survived for centuries in a bleak but beautiful homeland. They are proud of their icebergs, their red and white flag that represents the sun and the ice, and their traditions like ice fishing and dogsledding. They want to make sure that whatever happens in this next chapter of their history, they get the respect they deserve.

Many felt insulted by a visit from the Nelk Boys, a group of pro-Trump social media influencers known for their prank videos, who descended on Nuuk a few weeks ago, passing out red MAGA hats and crisp $100 bills. “You think you can buy us?” one man yelled, tearing a $100 bill in half.

If Trump were trying to win them over, his presumptuous tone hasn’t helped.

“We know full well that he sees us as nothing — because, at the end of the day, he’s just a businessman trying to make deals,” Olsen said.

“We are not furniture,” she added. “We have been colonized enough already, and we are tired of it.”

© The New York Times

Seagulls soar around a fishing boat in Ilulissat, Greenland

Forgotten Her es Vice Presidents in Uniform

By Avi Heiligman

The U.S. Constitution gives the president powers to lead the military and makes him the commander-in-chief. The chain of command does not go through the vice president, although if something were to happen to the president, then the vice president would become president, thereby making him the new commander-in-chief. Today, the vice president is privy to high-level security clearance and is giving briefings in case of an emergency. Not all vice presidents became presidents, and even though they remained in relative historical obscurity, several of them served with distinction in the military.

Aaron Burr became the country’s third vice president and served a term under President Thomas Jefferson. He joined the Continental Army in 1775 and was part of Benedict Arnold’s failed expedition in September of that year to invade Quebec. The number of troops dwindled during the trek as cold and hunger set in, but Burr was undeterred. He made a name for himself and was promoted to captain. During the Battle of Quebec, he attempted to retrieve the body of General Richard Montgomery. After returning to the colonies (this was just months before independence), Burr was selected to serve on General Washington’s staff. However, that did not work out, and he was assigned as General Israel Putnam’s aide-de-camp. Burr saved an entire regiment from capture in Manhattan by moving the troops out of harm’s way, but Washington did not give him credit for that. In July 1777, he

was a lieutenant colonel in Colonel William Malcolm’s regiment, and Burr often led the men on nighttime raids. He was in charge of a small group of soldiers during the harsh winter at Valley Forge and was tasked with guarding an isolated pass.

Burr had endured so much physical hardship during his military career that he was forced to retire due to health conditions in 1779. In 1791, he served a six-year term as senator from New York and in 1801 was elected as vice president of the United States. Despite all his success on the battlefield, Burr is remembered today for one thing: his famous duel where he mortally wounded his rival, Alexander Hamilton.

Burr’s successor as vice president was another veteran, George Clinton. Born in New York, his first stint in the military was on a privateer ship. His father was a colonel in the provincial militia, and young George joined the unit during the French and Indian War. During this war, he took part in the Battle of Fort Frontenac, which was a French trading post in Ontario. This resulted in a British victory, and they were able to cut the French communication and supply lines. Later, George and his brother helped capture a French ship. A few years later, during the American Revolution, he became a brigadier general and helped defend the Hudson Valley from British attack.

When Ulysses Grant became the 18th president in 1869, his military exploits were well known as he was the general that President Lincoln called on to defeat the Confederate Army later in the

Civil War. Grant’s second vice president was a senator from Massachusetts whose military contributions were relatively obscure. Henry Wilson came from a very poor family and was indentured as a laborer for two years. He was self-taught, and when he was finally able to go free, he became a shoemaker to make money. One of his talents was that of being a gifted speaker, and he became a vocal supporter of ending slavery. In 1844, he joined the Massachusetts Militia and rose to the rank of brigadier general. Soon, he became a politician and is considered a founding member of the Republican Party. During the Civil War, Wilson helped raise the 22 nd Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment and served as its commanding officer for a short period. Wilson spent much of the war giving valuable assistance to Lincoln’s staff on organizing the Union Army and Union Navy. Top Union commanders like General Winfield Scott gave Wilson high praise for assisting the war department in preparing for war.

Charles G. Dawes came from a very well respected family in American culture. One of his ancestors, Edward Doty, came to America on the Mayflower in 1620, and another, William Dawes, rode with Paul Revere on his famous midnight ride on April 18, 1775. Rufus Dawes, Charles’s father, was a Civil War general, and his uncle served with General Grant. During World War I, Dawes was commissioned as a major and promoted to brigadier general in 1918. He was tasked as being the chairman for the purchasing

board for the Allied Expeditionary Forces. In recognition for his dedication while overseas, he received the Distinguished Service Medal and the French Croix de Guerre. In 1924, he was selected as the running mate for Calvin Coolidge and became the country’s 30th vice president. The only marine to serve in the nation’s second-highest office is the current vice president, JD Vance. Born James Donald Bowman, he took the last name Vance from his mother’s side and was raised by his maternal grandparents. A young Vance entered the Marine Corps after graduating high school and became a journalist with the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing. He served for four years, and his time included six months in Iraq in 2005. During the Iraq War as a combat correspondent, he wrote articles and took pictures for the marines in a non-combatant role.

Of the fifty vice presidents in America’s history, less than half have a military record, with several of those eventually becoming president. In this article, we highlighted those who did not become commander-in-chief, with the possible exception of JD Vance who may run for president in the future. The military careers of the vice presidents are history not to be forgotten.

Avi Heiligman is a weekly contributor to The Jewish Home. He welcomes your comments and suggestions for future columns and can be reached at aviheiligman@gmail.com.

A drawing of Aaron Burr

JD Vance as a marine

Charles Dawes

Henry Wilson

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We Got This

By Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., LMFT, CLC, SDS

Therapy is big these days. So is AI.

Just think: you can solve all your problems by googling or chatting. Then why do we still need to talk to someone?

Because we are spending too much time talking to no one!

It’s not a person. Technology may know a lot, but it can’t actually give you a lot.

You may love your laptop or cellphone, but it’s never going to love you back.

Maybe the marketers do, but the only way they let you know it is by offering you

Ask anyone with fresh eyes (I guess that means anyone under two), and they’ll tell you, if they could, that there’s nothing like human closenesss.

So what’s a society to do? Especially since more and more ways to be disconnected from one another keep coming down the pipeline.

I think we all know the answer. We get it at least once a week. It provides conscious contact, focused stopping, disconnecting in order to connect. It’s not costly. We don’t need to wait for a new version

It’s just waiting there for us every TGIF.

more product, thus maybe pulling you further into the abyss.

Technology can’t give you a comforting smile. An assuring glance. A supportive shoulder to cry on, so to speak.

The more time we spend interacting with technology, the more time we need to counter that.

And when we don’t, we isolate or disconnect, at least with something of flesh and blood.

to come out. It’s just waiting there for us every TGIF.

So, as life keeps presenting challenges to the warmth of human contact, don’t go down that slippery slope. Access the talent you have to put it down, to shut it off, and to be present.

We’ve got the skills. We just need to use them throughout the week.

The challenges are great. But so are we!