Five Towns Jewish Home 06.12.25

June 12, 2025

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Dear Readers,

I

remember the first time I noticed that I was a registered Democrat. I came to the presidential primaries with one of my kids in tow. I was told that I had two choices: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders – two stellar candidates! I never thought too much about my voter registration before then. When I registered to vote, I probably asked someone which party I should register for, and I was told to register as a Democrat.

Being a registered Democrat in New York is the preferred way to have a real say in the election process. Generally, when it comes to most state and local elections in New York, the Democratic candidate wins. That’s not to say we haven’t had great Republican representatives – think Mayor Rudy Giuliani or Governor George Pataki – but New York hasn’t yet turned red in the city and so Democratic candidates come in with a tremendous advantage.

So why do people register as Democrats if they’re going to vote Republican in the election? Well, when it comes to major elections, the primaries have huge sway over the final result. That’s because, if the Democratic candidate comes into the race with a lead just because they’re “blue,” you want to be part of the process to decide who will be on the Democratic ticket.

Essentially, that primary is the determining factor in who wins in November.

Attention all registered Democrats in New York City (that includes Far Rockaway): now is your turn to help sway November’s mayoral race.

This week, primary voting is open for those running on the Democrat ticket for mayor. There is a serious salad of candidates – eleven of them vying for the position to run the most populous city in the United States. Some of these candidates have been around for a while – Andrew Cuomo, Brad Lander, Adrienne Adams, Scott Stringer are all familiar names. Others have less familiar names. And some, whom we may not have known before, are certainly garnering a lot of notoriety as they campaign.

Take Zohran Mamdani, an assemblyman from Queens, who recently said that when he becomes mayor, he would not let Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into New York. He has called Israel’s actions in Gaza against Hamas a “genocide.” He plans to freeze rents on the city’s roughly 1 million rent-regulated apartments. Young, white New Yorkers are lining up behind this candidate who wants to defund the police. Clearly, he is not someone who represents our community.

With ranked voting in New York, Mamdani has a real chance of winning. Polls show that he is coming very close to Andrew Cuomo in the polling, a frightening prospect for those who wish to safely walk the streets of New York wearing a yarmulke.

With ranked voting, the candidate that secures more than 50% of the first-choice votes wins. But if no one earns more than half of the first-choice votes, the ranking system kicks in, with counting continuing in rounds. At the end of each round, the candidate in last place is eliminated and voters who chose that candidate will instead have their vote redistributed toward their next highest choice. In other words, if you don’t want a candidate to win, don’t put their name down as any of your choices since your vote could still count toward them if your higher-up picks are eliminated.

For now, our community is rallying around Andrew Cuomo. Sure, he has his faults, but this list of candidates is far from beautiful. Cuomo has the experience, he knows our community, and he listens to us when we need to be heard.

So, Democrats, the choice is really in your hands.

Your vote will determine which candidate rises to the top. And with people like these, we need to make sure that those who support us have our support.

Go out and vote!

Wishing you a wonderful week, Shoshana

Yitzy Halpern, PUBLISHER

publisher@fivetownsjewishhome.com

Yosef Feinerman, MANAGING EDITOR ads@fivetownsjewishhome.com

Shoshana Soroka, EDITOR

editor@fivetownsjewishhome.com

Nate Davis Editorial Assistant Nechama Wein Copy Editor Rachel Bergida Shana Brecher Lani White Design & Production Gabe Solomon Distribution & Logistics P.O. BOX 266 Lawrence, NY 11559 Phone | 516-734-0858 Fax | 516-734-0857 Classified Deadline: Monday 5:00PM classifieds@fivetownsjewishhome.com text 443-929-4003 PAYMENT VIA CREDIT CARD MUST BE SUBMITTED ALONG WITH CLASSIFIED ADS The Jewish Home is an independent weekly magazine.

Opinions expressed by writers are not neces­sarily the opinions of the publisher or editor. The Jewish Home is not responsible for typographical errors, or for the kashrus of any product or business advertised within. The Jewish Home contains words of Torah. Please treat accordingly.

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Weekly Weather | June 13 – June 19

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Candle Lighting: 8:08 pm Shabbos Ends: 9:18 pm Rabbeinu Tam: 9:40 pm

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Contents LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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COMMUNITY Readers’ Poll

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Community Happenings

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NEWS Global

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National

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That’s Odd

42

ISRAEL

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Israel News

28

Tradition by Barbara Deutsch

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My Israel Home

103

JEWISH THOUGHT Torah Sparks

88

Rabbi Wein on the Parsha

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The Dialogue by Rav Moshe Weinberger

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To Build a Bayis Ne’eman B’Yisrael

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Delving into the Daf by Rabbi Avrohom Sebrow

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Headlines and Halacha by Rabbi Yair Hoffman

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PEOPLE The Wandering Jew

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Rebbetzin Shoshana Perr: Master Mechaneches

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Inspiration Nation

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Combat Jumps During World War II by Avi Heiligman

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HEALTH & FITNESS School of Thought

121

A Listening Ear by Michal Goldman

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FOOD & LEISURE The Salad Formula by Danielle Renov

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The Aussie Gourmet: Summer Chicken Salad

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LIFESTYLES

HUMOR

92

Dating Dialogue, Moderated

by Jennifer Mann, LCSW

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What Now?

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Parenting Pearls

122

The Friendship that Changed the World

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Dear Editor, After this war, which must decisively dismantle Hamas’s capacity to govern or even exist as a militant force, attention must turn to Judea and Samaria. Without a genuine will for peace from the Palestinian leadership — a leadership that, if elections were held today, would likely fall under Hamas control — there can be no viable path forward.

The two-state solution, once a widely held aspiration, has become untenable under the current realities. It is time to acknowledge this and move toward a pragmatic and lasting resolution. Jordan, with its historic and demographic ties to the Palestinian population (70% of the population in Jordan consider themselves Palestinian), should play a central role by offering citizenship to the Arab residents of Judea and Samaria. Those among them who are willing to live in peace, accepting the legitimacy and sovereignty of the Jewish State, should be welcomed to remain — just as many Arab citizens already do in Israel, enjoying full civil rights and equal protection under the law.

This is not a vision of exclusion, but one of security, coexistence, and long-overdue realism. Peace will not emerge from illusions — it will come from courage, clarity, and the moral resolve to ensure both safety and dignity for all people in this land.

Pedram Bral, M.D. Mayor, Village of Great Neck Dear Editor, I read the letter that was posted in regard to voting for Cuomo for Mayor in the

Democratic Primary.

Mamdani and his followers are the worst of the worst, not only for the Jewish community but for the future of New York and beyond. How this antisemite has gotten this far shows the state of affairs that New York and our country is in.

I would surely agree that as far as that primary goes, the only choice is Cuomo.

He must win the primary.

That being said, he is in my mind not worthy of being the dog catcher. Between how Covid was handled and other issues he failed us all.

Every one or at least ALMOST everyone is now showing solidarity with the Jewish community but for the most part they have done little. All talk and little action.

So going a step further, the only person who is fit to be the mayor is Curtis Sliwa. I feel it is important for city voters to do their due diligence and learn about how Curtis has ALWAYS been there for our community and for the entire city.

We need sanity and common sense to return. Laws need to be followed before we go down a rabbit hole and can’t get back.

Howard Hassan Dear Editor, As a community, we take immense pride in our simchos, our homes, our vacations, and yes—our cheesecakes. We have built a culture of excellence, beauty, and comfort. But alongside this material success, we must ask: Have we matched it with a communal structure that sustains Continued on page 12

Here I Go With My Chapeau

by Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., CLC, SDS 150

Centerfold

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Dovi’s Diaries

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POLITICAL CROSSFIRE Notable Quotes

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Stanford is a Case Study by Marc A. Thiessen

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Ukraine’s Dirty War is Just Getting Started by David Ignatius

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Make the Holocaust Memorial Council Great Again by Martin Oliner

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Trump’s Travel Ban by Jonathan S. Tobin

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The Man Putin Couldn’t Kill

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CLASSIFIEDS

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If you were given a free vacation, would you prefer to take your family to Disney or to a National Park?

58 42 %

National Park

%

Disney

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Continued from page 10

the heartbeat of our people—those who sit and learn Torah day and night?

Ma’alim is a new initiative rooted in Lakewood with a bold yet simple idea: a mandatory community-wide luxury tax, specifically dedicated to supporting lomdei Torah through kollelim like those supported by Adirei HaTorah.

This is not a tzedakah campaign. This is structural accountability.

We propose a 10% “luxury maaser” on non-essential high-end spending, such as: ● Designer clothing, custom wigs, and imported fashions ● Boutique cheesecakes, curated food boards, and aesthetic baby décor ● Premium vacations and luxury resort stays ● Lavish simchos beyond basic community norms ● High-end SUVs, upscale nursery furnishings, and lifestyle extravagance Our estimates suggest that if just 5% of the frum community adopts this standard, we can redirect over $50 million annually toward supporting full-time Torah learning—without the need for extra dinners, auctions, or emergency appeals.

Is this enforceable? Yes—if rabbanim, askanim, and baalei batim embrace it

as a communal expectation, on par with kashrus and tznius standards.

We, the gvirim, the business community, the donors—we helped create this new standard of luxury. Now we must create a corresponding standard of responsibility.

Let’s transform our comforts into kavod haTorah. Let’s be the generation that turned prosperity into purpose.

Respectfully, Dovid Aryeh Rosenblatt Founder, Ma’alim Luxury Into Lifelines Dear Editor, Rabbi Moshe Weinberger of Aish Kodesh made a fascinating point that shouldn’t be lost on anyone. Many ask: but I am making so much change in my life to come closer to G-d, why isn’t G-d talking and reaching out to me? He notes, G-d is talking to you in everything you do.

The Gemara you just learned was necessary to move your life forward. Maybe it brought you to the next level in learning or gave you the necessary perspective for understanding something in your life.

That Rashi you just read, you needed to see. That Gra on Mishlei you just studied was necessary for you to study and learn from at that exact moment. The Ramban

on the Torah that you just looked up was necessary for you to see for the next move in your life. It can be added, the video you just watched, or article or quote you just read was necessary to see at that exact moment for setting a new trajectory in your life.

Every event and occurrence that comes your way prepares you for the next step of life. We’re being spoken to and led moment by moment. My hearing of the Rav’s shiur when I did was a message I needed to hear at that moment to bring the proper perspective to my life and propel me towards an infinite future of growth.

Steven Genack Dear Editor, Growing up, my family took me to a fantastic group of pediatricians – Doctors Olin and Blinderman on Broadway in Hewlett.

I didn’t look forward to getting shots and definitely not blood tests. But beyond that, even as a kid, I felt totally confident that I was in good hands. From the pediatricians who listened to my lungs when I had terrible bronchitis, down to the receptionists filing paperwork, they always greeted us with smiles and made us all feel valued, irrespective of which insurances we had or other personal circumstances.

Furthermore, every single staff member in their office took the time to listen to our concerns and explain to us what to expect. Doctors Blinderman and Olin even cracked a few jokes here and there.

I was particularly impressed that they scrutinized a patient’s entire medical history with every visit, rather than simply working with the information given.

When ill, patients were able to be seen quickly, to have their sickness addressed, while well visits were scheduled in a timely matter.

Little did I know that I took all of that stellar service and care for granted.

In my 20s, I came across an article

in Newsday which explained that young adults were trying to stay with their pediatricians – and for good reason, as I’ve experienced personally, especially with the aftermath of COVID: First of all, every single primary care provider had extremely limited availability months out.

Secondly, those PCPs I was able to see rushed me.

And don’t even get me started with the office staff.

This morning, for example, I saw a new PCP. The office staff was nothing but pathetic: All they literally cared about was that you showed up for the appointment, used a biometric device to check in, and did not even bother to check your insurance to see if it was in network. There was no “good morning,” “have a nice day,” “thank you for coming, ”or even thanking me for choosing their facility over another. Not a single staff member even thought to quicky smile or wave in the middle of a phone call or booking an appointment. A receptionist printed me two referrals for my stated chronic condition, leaving me to ask questions out of confusion, instead of expressing empathy for the pain I’ve been in or guiding me through the process. The desk staff treated every single patient like clockwork, like human robots. The building was confusing, and not one staff – nurse, doctor, or receptionist – even bothered to ask me if I knew how to get out, while I stood in the middle of the hallway all confused.

I understand that offices can be very busy with tight deadlines that have to be met, but when people see the doctor, or receive any type of face-to-face customer service for that matter, they want to be treated with some form of respect, beyond such employees simply fulfilling the requirements of their jobs and earning a paycheck.

Sincerely, Where is customer service these days?

Make your voice heard!

Be part of TJH’s weekly poll.

Email the editor to be included in the weekly poll at Editor@FiveTownsJewishHome.com

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The Week In News

Am Yisrael Chai

According to a new Global Religious Landscape report by the Pew Research Center, the world’s Jewish population grew by less than one million from 2010 and 2020, which is a meager 6% increase, especially when compared with the world’s overall population growth rate of 12%.

The Jewish population’s growth is similar to the Christian population, which, during the same timeframe, grew from 2.1 billion to 2.3 billion. In comparison, the Muslim population, the fastest-growing religious group in the world, grew by 21% from 1.7 billion to 2.0 billion.

Around 6.78 million Jews (46%) resided in Israel between 2010 and 2020, while 5.7 million (39%) lived in the United States. Still, the Jewish population has yet to reach its pre-Holocaust level. In 2020, there were around 14.78 million Jews. In 1939, there were 16.6 million Jews.

Sergio DellaPergola, an Israeli scholar who used to be a professor and the Chairman of the Hebrew University’s Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry, expects it to take one to two decades for “the global Jewish population [to] … surpass its pre-Holocaust numbers.”

Much of the Pew research was based on data collected by DellaPergola for the American Jewish Year Book’s “World Jewish Population” chapters. Though Pew’s figures go until 2020, DellaPergola’s data goes until January 1, 2024, when it was estimated that there were around 15.7 million Jews in the world.

“The general trends remained the same, even though some numbers, especially for Israel, have increased,” DellaPergola explained, adding that Israel’s Jewish population increases yearly by around 100,000.

The Pew Report, however, only in-

cludes individuals who identify as religiously Jewish, while DellaPergola’s estimate includes those religiously, culturally, or ethnically Jewish.

“It is important to consider that the general birthrate in Israel has been stable at around three children per woman for many years,” he said. “This is unique. If we take the 100 most developed countries in the world, not a single state reaches a similar birthrate.

“For about a century, Jewish diaspora communities generally had lower birthrates than the broader societies in which they lived.… Today, the trend is shifting, as birthrates in many countries have fallen so low that Jewish families are actually having more children on average,” he added. “For instance, the Jewish community in the United Kingdom has grown for the first time in decades, largely driven by the charedi population.”

According to DellaPergola, assimilation rates have decreased recently.

“For about 100 years, assimilation increased steadily,” the expert noted. “In the U.S. and many European countries, it reached 60%. Essentially, it can’t go higher.”

Simultaneously, he noted, many assimilated or partly assimilated Jews have reclaimed their Jewish identity in light of the rise in antisemitism.

Interestingly enough, more people left Israel than came between 2023 and 2024, he noted.

“Some 80,000 people who had left Israel by 2023 had not returned yet by December 2024. During the same period, approximately 30,000 Israelis returned to the country from abroad, and another 30,000 immigrated. This still leaves Israel with 20,000 fewer people. It is unprecedented,” DellaPergola explained.

“Today, approximately 45% of Jews live in Israel, and that share increases by about half a percentage point each year,” he noted. “Reaching the 50% mark will be another historic milestone — just like when the global Jewish population will surpass its pre-Holocaust numbers.”

Japan’s Rice Shortage On Tuesday, Japanese Farm Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said the government was prepared to sell more rice from its emergency stockpile to ease the ongoing rice shortage.

Around two weeks ago, the Japanese government started taking rice out of its emergency stockpile and selling the staple to retailers with the goal of offering a

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DAIRY

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BOWL & BASKET ORANGE JUICE

2 $1

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5 $5

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399

MORNING STAR BUFFALO CHIKN NUGGETS

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KINERET CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH

MCCAIN FRIES ASSORTED 20-32 OZ

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5 kg bag for 2,000 yen ($14), which is less than half the average price. To purchase that rice, however, hundreds of customers, over the span of a weekend, had to wait four hours in line, with each household only allowed one bag each.

Since 2024, the price of rice has doubled in Japan for a few reasons, including because production was impacted by last year’s extreme heat. The country’s rice shortage crisis is a key issue in the upcoming June and July elections.

Koizumi said that the government is prepared to sell its entire rice stockpile if it needs to.

“If we let rice prices remain high, (store) shelves will be filled with imported rice,” he said, referencing a common Japanese concern. Japan levies tariffs on foreign rice to protect Japanese farmers from global competition. However, many are now calling for cheaper, foreign rice to be imported in order to handle the high

rice prices and rice shortages.

The 2025 harvest year is supposed to be a better year for rice production in the country.

Shipping in the Red Sea Avoided

The largest commercial shipping companies continue to avoid the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, despite a recent ceasefire agreement between the United States and Houthis intended to make the trade lanes safer.

The ceasefire, which began May 6, ended a U.S. campaign that involved more than 1,100 strikes against the Houthis in Yemen. The Pentagon had planned on a months-long bombardment, but President Donald Trump ended it after about 50 days.

“If the intention was to restore free-

dom of navigation, which is what they stated it was, then the results speak for themselves: The shipping industry has not gone back,” said Richard Meade, editor-in-chief of Lloyd’s List, a shipping publication.

Ship traffic through the Red Sea is down by around three-fifths since 2023 when the Houthis started targeting ships there in solidarity with Hamas in its war with Israel in the Gaza Strip, Meade said.

Fearing that their vessels would be struck, big shipping companies avoided the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, taking a much longer route around the southern tip of Africa to travel between Asia and Europe.

The Houthis have said they are still at war with Israel and will attack vessels bound for the country. And though the Houthis have not attacked a commercial vessel since December, shipping companies say they worry that their vessels may be hit, deliberately or mistakenly, and have no plans to sail the southern part of the Red Sea anytime soon.

“We’re pretty far from the threshold,” said Vincent Clerc, the CEO of A.P. Moller-Maersk, a large shipping line based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Speaking soon after the ceasefire in May, he said the Red Sea would have to remain safe for the foreseeable future before the company’s vessels returned.

Shipping executives said they also feared a severe disruption to their networks if they returned to the Red Sea but suddenly had to pull out of the region because attacks resumed. (© The New York Times)

Colombian Pres.

Candidate Shot

Miguel Uribe, a conservative presidential hopeful in Colombia, was shot at close range in the head at a rally on Saturday. He remains in critical condition.

According to doctors, the 39-year-old senator had “barely” responded to medical interventions that included brain surgery following the assassination attempt that has had a chilling effect on the South American nation.

President Gustavo Petro has condemned the attack. The attack on Uribe

comes amid growing animosity between Petro and the Senate over blocked reforms to the nation’s labor laws.

Petro had organized protests in favor of the reforms, where he delivered fiery speeches referring to opposition leaders as “oligarchs” and “enemies of the people.”

Fiery rhetoric has emerged on the issue from both sides.

“There is no way to argue that the president … who describes his opponents as enemies of the people, paramilitaries and assassins has no responsibility in this,” Andres Mejia, a prominent political analyst, wrote on X. On Monday, Colombia’s Senate said it will suspend sessions for an undetermined number of days to show its solidarity with Uribe. The Senate was expected to vote this week on labor legislation that Colombia’s president wants to enact through a referendum.

The Attorney General’s office said a 15-year-old boy was arrested at the scene of the attack against Uribe. On Monday, Colombia’s Attorney General Luz Adriana Camargo said that minors in Colombia face sentences of up to eight years in detention for committing murders. She noted that the lenient sentences against minors contribute to armed groups recruiting minors to commit crimes.

Uribe launched his presidential campaign in October. His lawyer, Victor Mosquera, said the National Protection Unit ignored multiple requests by Uribe to have his security detail expanded as he campaigned.

“His security detail had to be improved,” Mosquera said in a press conference. “We have to investigate whether the attack (on Uribe) was a consequence of negligence.”

In a message on X on Monday, Petro wrote that Uribe’s security detail was “strangely” reduced from seven to three bodyguards on the day of the assassination attempt and said he asked police to investigate.

Australian Released from Iraqi Jail Robert Pether, an Australian, was jailed in 2021 in Iraq on fraud charges amid a contract dispute between the consulting firm he worked for and the Central Bank of Iraq. Pether is a mechanical engineer.

The UN has said that Pether’s incarceration and treatment was illegal. Now,

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🛑🛑🛑 🛑🛑🛑🛑 🛑🛑🛑🛑e s for Our Community Have Ne ve r Be e n Highe r

Every election matters. Of course. But this one is different. For the first time, we face an existential threat.

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Only two candidate s can win this De mocr atic Pr imar y : Andr e w Cuomo or Zor an Mamdani.

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Mamdani is backe d by the DSA—a r adical move me nt pus hing to de fund y e s hivas , s las h police , and vilify Is r ae l.

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Afte r Octobe r 7, Mamdani blame d Is r ae l for the mas s acr e . No me ntion of mur de r e d Je ws . That was n’t a mis take —it was a de clar ation of value s .

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The DSA calls our s chools r e gr e s s ive , our value s dange r ous , our community an obs tacle . This is n’t about inclus ion—it’s about e r as ur e .

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Cuomo is not a tzaddik. But this is n’t about liking him. We ’r e not choos ing a r e bbe —we ’r e choos ing a s hie ld.

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Ye s , we r e me mbe r the pain of the 2020 r e d zone s . But what’s coming is wor s e .

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May or Er ic Adams is NOT on this ballot. A vote for any one but Cuomo = a vote for Mamdani.

Ple as e note that in r anke d-choice voting, y ou ar e not r e quir e d to r ank mor e than one candidate , e ve n if a poll wor ke r te lls y ou othe r wis e .

Khalid Radwan, after the bank accused the men of stealing money from the project.

After being held without charge for almost six months and then subjected to a speedy trial, the two were each given a five-year jail sentence and a joint fine of $12 million.

Desree said she spoke with her husband this week and saw a video of him.

He looked sick and weak, she said, noting that he can’t keep food down and hasn’t eaten properly in months. There are also worries he has a potential skin cancer relapse, she added.

“He’s unrecognizable. If he got on a plane now and they were checking his passport, they would not know it was the same person.”

Vietnam Ends 2-Child Policy

🛑🛑🛑 EARLY VOTING STARTS SUNDAY, JUNE 15 🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑 Stay home = s ur r e nde r . Vote = pr ote ct. 🛑🛑🛑 This is about Our s afe ty . Our futur e in this city .

FAR ROCKAWAY JEWISH ALLIANCE Elkana Ade lman

Jack Br ach

Chaim Rapfoge l

Richar d Altabe

Mor de chai Zvi Dicke r

Bar uch Rothman

Shalom Be cke r

Ruchie Dunn

Aar on Zupnik

Zvi Bloom

Joe l Kaplan Dr Mos he Lazar Mois he Mis hkowitz

he has been conditionally released from jail, after four years of what the UN has called arbitrary detention.

Iraqi officials are yet to provide an explanation for the decision, Pether’s wife Desree said, noting her “extremely sick” husband is still banned from leaving the country despite needing urgent medical care.

She has been lobbying tirelessly for his release.

“It’s the first time in over four years

that we’ve taken one step in the right direction,” she said. “There’s a tiny glimmer of hope, but there’s another mountain still to go over. He really needs to be home and in hospital.”

Simon Harris, the tánaiste (deputy prime minister) of Ireland, where the Pether family lives, said in a statement to media that Iraq’s Foreign Minister had called him to confirm the “welcome news.” “[This] has been a long and distress-

ing saga for Robert’s wife, three children and his wider family and friends,” Harris said.

“I welcomed this as a first step to his being allowed to return to his family in Roscommon.”

Pether worked in the Middle East for almost a decade before taking on a huge rebuild of the Central Bank of Iraq’s Baghdad headquarters in 2015.

The 50-year-old was arrested alongside his CME Consulting colleague, Egyptian

Vietnam’s two-child policy originated in the 1960s in Northern Vietnam to help prevent overpopulation. After the reunification of Northern and Southern Vietnam, the two-child policy was encouraged throughout the entire country to prevent overpopulation and bring about a “golden population.” It was made into official policy in 1993. Now, the communist country’s National Assembly passed a new amendment that nullifies the policy, allowing families to have more children.

Vietnamese families are giving birth to fewer children. The birth rate declined to 1.91 children per woman in 2024, especially in the urban areas like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, where there are higher living costs.

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the proportion of citizens under 15 has declined dramatically from 43% to under 25% in comparison to the entire population.

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According to a study by Macrotrends. com, birth rates continuously dropped until 2003, and then saw a steady rise until 2013, when the free fall began again.

Today, Vietnam’s population is estimated to be more than 101 million people, making it the 16th-most populous country globally and third-largest in Southeast Asia.

Additionally, the country has been grappling with a gender imbalance in its population. The imbalance of male to female births grew from 103 boys per 100 girls in 2006 to 111 boys per 100 girls in 2024.

To help counter this, the ministry has proposed raising the fine from 30 million to 100 million Vietnamese dong — roughly $1,150 to around $4,000 — for gender-selective practices.

Iran: No Dog Walkers When Iran banned dog walking in 2019, few dog owners were all that worried about the order. But after years of lax enforcement, officials in recent days have pledged to crack down, according to the state news media.

Prosecutors in at least 20 cities cited public health risks and threats to pub-

lic safety in announcing the heightened enforcement of the bans, which include both dog walking and driving with dogs.

“Dog walking is a clear crime,” Mohammad Hossein Doroudi, the prosecutor in Mashhad, told reporters Monday as he announced that city’s plan, according to IRNA, a state-owned news outlet.

Iran’s government has also long seen pet dogs as a sign of Western cultural influence. Much of the opposition to dogs in Iran stems from religious beliefs, with dogs considered to be “najes,” or impure, in Islam.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, had issued a fatwa, or religious order, explaining the logic: A dog’s saliva or hair would render anything it touched — including a person, clothing or a surface — impure.

“Prayer is invalid with the presence of dog hair,” his fatwa read.

Some Iranian veterinarians and pet surgeons, including Dr. Damoon Ansari, are skeptical of the recent moves.

“Each summer, new plans emerge to regulate citizens’ morality or lifestyles,” Ansari, who is based in Tehran, the capital, said in a phone interview. “This year, the focus is on dogs and dog walking.”

“The popularity of pet ownership has surged in recent years,” Ansari added, pointing to a large number of veterinary clinics in cities across the country.

“Pets, including dogs, have become integral to Iranian family culture, even in religious households,” he said. “Whether officials approve or not, they cannot eliminate the millions of pets in Iran.”

But even if officials are not planning to take away all pets, they are certainly trying to restrict their presence in public spaces.

Doroudi said enforcement had lapsed over the past two years but that officials now planned to be far more strict. He said violators in Mashhad, Iran’s second-most-populous city, would first receive a warning and that they could be fined or their dogs could be confiscated if they failed to comply.

Some people in Iran share the skepticism about dogs as pets, and although some tolerate the presence of guard dogs, they see the “man’s best friend” narrative as a step too far. (© The New York Times)

Container Ship Burns off Indian Coast

A massive blaze is consuming a container ship that’s threatening to sink about 15 miles off the coast of Kerala, India. India’s coast guard has been battling the huge flames and towering plumes of diesel smoke rising from the MV Wan Hai 503 that was tilting “10 to 15 degrees” in the water, according to Indian Coast Guard Commandant Amit Uniyal.

The Coast Guard received the distress call on Monday. The ship’s crew reported a fire caused by an explosion, though it’s not clear what caused the blast.

Eighteen sailors were rescued from the stricken ship with “some injuries,” according to The Maritime and Port Au-

thority of Singapore. Four crew members remain missing.

The MV Wan Hai 503 is managed by Wan Hai Lines (Singapore) Pte Ltd. The 890-foot vessel left Colombo, Sri Lanka, on June 7 and was set to arrive in Mumbai, India, on Monday. More and more containers on the ship are catching fire.

The incident is the second serious shipping incident off Kerala in under a month, after the Liberian-flagged MSC ELSA 3 sank on May 25. The vessel went down with over 600 containers including 13 containing “hazardous cargo,” according to the government of Kerela which initiated an environmental emergency and instructed fisherman against working in the area.

Fatal Shooting in Austria

Ten people were killed in a shooting at a high school in Graz, Austria, on Tuesday. Several others were injured in the attack.

The attacker was a 21-year-old Austrian from the local area. He killed himself in the attack.

Graz is the second-largest city in Austria. The attack took place inside the BORG Dreierschützengasse school.

“Today is a dark day in the history of our country,” Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said at a news conference in Graz on Tuesday afternoon. “There are no words to express the pain, disbelief and grief felt by the whole of Austria.

Our country stands still in this moment of horror.”

School shootings are uncommon in Austria, a country with a low prevalence of gun violence.

Austria had two public mass shootings between 2000 and 2022; during that time, the United States dealt with 109 public mass shootings. Neither of the previous mass shootings in Austria occurred at a school.

At least six females and three males were killed in the attack this week.

“According to the current state of the investigation, the alleged perpetrator committed suicide in a toilet facility,” the

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police director said.

Police confirmed that two legally-owned weapons — a long gun and a handgun — were used in the attack and recovered at the scene.

Officials said that Austria will observe three days of mourning, during which flags will be flown at half-staff on public buildings. A minute’s silence will also be held nationwide on Wednesday morning.

Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen noted, “This horror is impossible to put into words.”

Graz, which has a population of around 300,000 and is in Austria’s southeast, also experienced a deadly attack almost 10 years ago, on June 20, 2015, when a man drove a car into the crowd in the center of the city, killing three people and injuring dozens of others.

So Much Pain At around 6 a.m. on Friday, four IDF soldiers died and five were injured after a

booby-trapped building they were in partially collapsed near Bani Suheila, Khan Younis.

The deceased soldiers were named as Staff Sergeant Tom Rotstein, Staff Sergeant Uri Yehonatan Cohen, Reserve Staff Sergeant Chen Gross, and Staff Sergeant Yoav Raver, all of whom fought in the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, except Gross, who fought in the Maglan commando unit. Gross, from Gan Yoshiya, was 33; Rotstein was a 23-yearold from Ramat Gan; Cohen, from Neve Yarok, was 20; and Raver, from Sde Warburg, was 19.

The soldiers are believed to have been killed while attempting to secure a building and remove Hamas infrastructure, such as tunnels. While in the building, an improvised explosive device was detonated, trapping the troops in the building.

One other soldier was seriously injured and four were moderately wounded and were subsequently brought to hospitals

by air. The Home Front Command’s recovery teams searched for the fallen soldiers’ bodies for hours.

On Monday night, the Israel Defense Forces released a preliminary report on the tragic incident. Before the soldiers entered the building, the IDF, in hopes of using a building to help them fight Hamas, examined three buildings. The first two were deemed too suspicious and unhelpful and were thus destroyed. The third was less suspicious and would be strategically useful. Shortly before they entered the building, the soldiers sent a drone to scan several floors and found no traces of a potential IED. The soldiers found the first floor to be safe. The second floor, however, showed signs of danger.

As such, the soldiers regrouped by the stairwell and waited for a safety check, which is when the IED exploded. The IDF is still investigating the incident.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the soldiers sacrificed their lives to “defeat Hamas and to bring back our hostages.”

“Our four fighters gave their lives for all of our security,” Netanyahu stated.

“The entire people of Israel embrace the dear families in their heavy grief.”

“This is a time of great sorrow but also of great commitment: to stand behind the generation of heroic fighters, to embrace the families of the fallen, and to ensure that their names and heroism will never be forgotten,” said President Isaac Herzog.

Since Israel launched its ground offensive in Gaza, following the October 7 massacre, 424 Israeli soldiers have been killed in combat.

Results of WZC Elections

Preliminary results of the U.S.’s recent World Zionist Congress elections were released on Thursday.

According to estimates, right-wing slates secured 81 of the United States’ 152 seats. Liberal slates won 71. In this recent election, Orthodox and charedi groups won over 40% of the vote, earning more than 100,000 out of 230,257 votes.

“For the first time, the conservative

and right-wing bloc has achieved a clear majority,” WZO Chairman Yaakov Hagoel said. “This is a historic moment in which American Jewry has voiced a strong stand for proud Zionism, for tradition, and for bringing hearts together.”

In first place was the Vote Reform slate, with 47,887 votes. Last election, in 2020, Reform earned 31,483 votes and also came in first place. Am Yisrael Chai, a newly formed group of Jewish college students and young professionals in favor of promoting the “love of Torah and Judaism,” won second place, securing 13% of the vote with 31,765 votes. In third place was the charedi Eretz HaKodesh slate, which received 12.7% of the vote with 29,159 votes, up from 20,045 votes in the last election. Mercaz, a slate for Conservative Jews, won fourth place with 27,893 votes, a huge increase from the 14,655 votes it received in 2020. Another 26,975 votes went to the Orthodox Israel Coalition, which won fifth place this time around. In last election, OIC came in second place and had 21,692 votes. Around 13,500 more votes went to other Orthodox slates.

This election had around 86% more votes than the last election. In addition to the 230,257 votes cast online, another 18,948 were suspected of being fraudulent and were, as such, thrown out.

The World Zionist Congress was formed in 1897 by Theodor Herzl. The results of the election decide how $1 billion is allotted to Jewish causes and Israeli national institutions, such as the World Zionist Organization, which executes the Congress’s plans, as well as the Jewish agency, which relates to aliyah, and the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund.

Over 35 countries hold their own elections to be represented in the World Zionist Congress. Of the congress’s 525 seats, Israel holds 200, which are apportioned based on Knesset party representation; the U.S. holds 152; and the remaining 173 seats are allotted to other countries. On October 28-30, 2025, the World Zionist Congress will meet in Jerusalem.

Israel Arming Hamas’ Enemies Under the direction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel has been providing weapons to the Abu Shabab clan, an armed Palestinian group that opposes Hamas.

“The Israeli government is giving weapons to a group of criminals and felons, identified with Islamic State, at the

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tions of all the heads of the security establishment.”

Netanyahu later admitted that, “in consultation with security officials, we made use of clans in Gaza that are opposed to Hamas.” The premier added that “it saves lives of IDF soldiers.” Netanyahu also criticized Liberman for publicizing the move, adding that “it only does good for Hamas.”

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The gang has said it has been working to secure humanitarian aid convoys at southern border crossings. However, some have claimed the militia has looted aid packages intended for Gazans.

Sources from Hamas claimed without proof that the gang has around 300 members, 250 of whom were hired through the intelligence service of the Palestinian Authority. The other 50 were allegedly recruited by Abu Shabab himself.

The gang, which started in May 2024, has been a problem for Hamas, which has been trying to crack down on the group.

Netanyahu’s opponents have claimed that the premier similarly armed Hamas to fight the Palestinian Authority.

“Netanyahu, who transferred billions to Hamas in suitcases full of cash, based on the incorrect belief that Hamas is an ‘asset,’ is now promoting a new dangerous concept: arming a Gazan militia with ties to ISIS,” Yair Golan, the leader of The Democrats, a left-wing party, said.

“Netanyahu is dangerous to Israel’s security,” Golan added. “This is not a mistake.

This is systematic. Netanyahu is selling Israel’s security for another day in office.”

direction of the prime minister,” Avigdor Liberman, the head of the opposition party, Yisrael Beytenu, said, adding that Shin Bet head Ronen Bar knew about Netanyahu’s move. “I don’t know how much the IDF chief of staff was in on it… To my knowledge, this did not go through approval by the cabinet.”

Liberman’s claim was later confirmed by defense officials and Netanyahu. However, the gang’s connection to ISIS is unclear. The Palestinian militia, which

is controlled by Yasser Abu Shabab, has been associated with Egyptian Jihadist groups’ smuggling operations. Recently, the group has been spotted working near the Kerem Shalom border, which is under the control of the IDF. According to anonymous defense officials, Israel has been giving the group Kalashnikov rifles, some of which were originally owned by Hamas before being taken by Israeli troops. Netanyahu’s decision to arm Abu Shabab, which operates

in Rafah, was approved by security bodies but not by the security cabinet.

Abu Shabab recently published a video of the group’s militants wearing military-style uniforms with the words “Counter-Terrorism Mechanism” and a picture of the Palestinian flag.

After Liberman revealed that Israel has been arming the group, Netanyahu’s office said that the Jewish state was “working to defeat Hamas through various means, based on the recommenda-

Israel Intercepts Activist Ship Bound for Gaza

Last Sunday, the Madleen — a ship with 12 activists, including Greta Thunberg, Thiago Avila, and Rima Hassan, a

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French-Palestinian member of the European Parliament — left Sicily and headed to the Gaza Strip. The stunt was organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an anti-Israel organization. The activists brought along some aid that they said they intended to drop off in Gaza.

On Monday at around 3 a.m., the ship neared the Gaza Strip and was intercepted by the Israeli Navy’s Shayetet 13 commando unit and the Snapir harbor security unit.

Before Israeli authorities took control of the vessel, the Foreign Ministry and the Navy warned the activists to turn back, but they would not. The Foreign Ministry warned, “The Gaza maritime zone remains an active conflict area, and Hamas has previously exploited sea routes for terrorist attacks, including the October 7th massacre.

“Unauthorized attempts to breach the blockade are dangerous, unlawful, and undermine ongoing humanitarian efforts,” it added, urging “all actors to act responsibly and to channel humanitarian aid through legitimate, coordinated mechanisms, not through provocation.”

On Telegram, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said it lost connection with the activists after Israeli troops came onto the boat. The organization then posted several pre-recorded videos of the activists asking their home countries for help and claiming they were “kidnapped by Israeli forces.”

“The ship was unlawfully boarded, its unarmed civilian crew abducted, and its life-saving cargo—including baby formula, food and medical supplies—confiscated,” one of the videos said.

Thunberg said in one of the pre-recorded videos that she had been “kidnapped” by the “Israeli occupational forces.”

The pre-recorded videos copied language typically used in reference to the hostages kidnapped on October 7. After Israeli soldiers took control of the ship, many anti-Israel Instagram accounts called on the Jewish state to “release the hostages now” and listed the 12 activists aboard the ship.

The Jewish state announced that it had seized the ship, which it called a “selfie yacht,” and was bringing it to Ashdod Port. According to the Foreign Ministry, the ship only carried “less than a single truckload of aid.” Meanwhile, “more than 1,200 aid trucks have entered Gaza from Israel within the past two weeks, and in addition, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has distributed close to 11 million meals directly to civilians in Gaza.”

“There are ways to deliver aid to the

Gaza Strip — they do not involve Instagram selfies,” the Foreign Ministry declared. “The tiny amount of aid that was on the yacht and not consumed by the ‘celebrities’ will be transferred to Gaza through real humanitarian channels.”

The ministry soon thereafter posted a video of the activists “safe and unharmed” being brought to the Ashdod Port and given sandwiches and water.

The ministry posted on X a picture of Thunberg smiling as a soldier offered her a pastrami sandwich and added that she was “in good spirits.”

Before sending the activists back to their respective countries, the Israeli military was expected to show them a 43-minute video called “Bearing Witness” that shows uncensored, traumatizing footage of the October 7 massacre, as per an order from Katz. However, the activists refused to view it.

“It’s appropriate that Greta the antisemite and her Hamas-supporting friends should see exactly who the terror group Hamas is that they support, and act on behalf of, what atrocious acts they carried out on women, the elderly and kids, and who Israel is fighting for its defense against,” said Katz.

“Greta [Thunberg] and her flotilla companions were taken into a room upon their arrival for a screening of the horror film of the October 7 massacre, and when they saw what it was about, they refused to continue watching,” Katz stated. “The antisemitic flotilla members are turning a blind eye to the truth and have proven once again that they prefer the murderers to the murdered and continue to ignore the atrocities committed by Hamas against Jewish and Israeli women, adults, and children,”

Hostages’ Bodies Recovered

Last Thursday, the IDF and the Shin Bet recovered the bodies of hostages Gadi Haggai and Judih Weinstein from the Gaza Strip. The married couple had held U.S. citizenship and were murdered during their morning walk near Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023.

Their bodies had been held by the Mu-

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jahideen Brigades, a small terror group in the Strip that was also responsible for the abduction and murder of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir.

Gadi was 72 years old; Judih was 70.

The IDF said the recovery operation was carried out using “precise intelligence” from the IDF’s Hostages Headquarters unit, the Intelligence Directorate, and the Shin Bet. They had received information on the bodies’ location during a Shin Bet interrogation of a Palestinian terror operative who was detained in Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, announcing the operation on Thursday, said, “We will not rest until we bring all of our hostages home — both the living and the dead.”

President Isaac Herzog called the recovery of the bodies “a moment of deep pain, but also one of solace and the resolution of uncertainty.” He said Israel “will continue to do everything in our power to bring our sisters and brothers back from hell – the living for healing and rehabilitation, and the fallen to be laid to rest in dignity. Every last one of them!”

On October 7, Judih called paramedics for help. She described the head wound her husband was suffering from.

“Parts of his brain are out of his…ev-

erything is covered with blood,” she told the operator, confirming that terrorists had shot at the couple. Asked if she was somewhere safe, she responded: “No, [I’m] outside, under a tree, next to the road.”

“They came on the road. There were lots of motorcycles and guns. They shot us. We were lying down and they shot us,” she recalled, clarifying that she, too, was shot in the hand and the head.

“This is a shocking moment,” their son, Ahl Haggai, said last week. “I am both relieved and anxious. This isn’t simple, despite it easing things and removing something [weighing] on the heart. There was an uncertainty that has ended.”

Haggai said their return “shines a spotlight” on the 56 hostages remaining in Gaza and efforts to bring them home as well.

“This was really surprising and I’m thinking why did we deserve for our loved ones to return and not others,” he said.

On Friday, the IDF recovered the body of hostage Nattapong Pinta, a Thai national, who had been kidnapped alive by terrorists of the Mujahideen Brigades on October 7. It is believed that the terror group killed Pinta during the first months of his captivity.

During the October 7 massacre,

Hamas terrorists invaded Kibbutz Nir Oz and entered all but six of the over 200 homes in the community. They either murdered or kidnapped one of every four residents — 117 people out of some 400.

Sinwar’s Body Found

The IDF found the body of Hamas military chief Mohammed Sinwar following a targeted operation in May. The terrorist’s body was uncovered in an underground tunnel beneath a hospital in southern Gaza.

Mohammad Shabana, commander of the Rafah Brigade, was also found dead at the scene along with a number of other terrorists, according to IDF spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin.

Israeli forces gave a small group of foreign reporters a tour of the tunnel that had been uncovered beneath the European Hospital in Khan Younis.

Brigadier General Defrin said it was a major command and control compound for Hamas.

“This is another example of the cynical use by Hamas, using civilians as human shields, using civilian infrastructure, hospitals, again and again,” he said. “We found underneath the hospital, right under the emergency room, a compound of a few rooms. In one of them we found, we killed Mohammed Sinwar.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sinwar’s death in May, but Brigadier General Defrin said they now had his DNA which proved beyond doubt it was him.

Mohammed Sinwar was the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the Palestinian militant group’s deceased leader. Yahya was the mastermind behind the October 7, 2023 massacre in which 1,200 people were slaughtered.

Shabana was one of Hamas’s most senior and battle-hardened commanders in southern Gaza. He played a central role in constructing the network of tunnels under the southern city of Rafah, which were used for ambushes and cross-border raids.

When soldiers found Mohammed’s Sinwar’s body, they also recovered weap-

on stockpiles, ammunition, cash and documents that are now being reviewed for intelligence value.

“We will dismantle Hamas because we cannot live with this terror organization right in our backyard, right across our border,” Brigadier General Defrin said.

Qatar’s Years-long Support of Hamas

Newly published documents retrieved from Gaza since the October 7 massacre seemingly confirm what many have long suspected: Qatar has deep ties with Hamas.

On Monday, Qatar’s International Media Office claimed the documents, which were reported on by Channel 12 news, were “fabricated” in an “attempt to sow tension and division between Qatar and the United States at a crucial stage in our efforts to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.”

Although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently claimed that Qatar’s years of contributions to Hamas — millions of dollars a month in cash — did not significantly help the terrorist organization start and continue the war in Gaza, the documents recount that Ismail Haniyeh, the now-deceased Hamas politburo leader, declared in a 2019 conversation with Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani that Qatar’s financial contributions were “Hamas’s main artery.”

After an 11-day battle between Israel and Hamas, Haniyeh told then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who has also since been killed by the Israeli military, that the Qatari emir privately “agreed in principle to supply the resistance discreetly, but he does not want anyone in the world to know. Until now, $11 million has been raised from the emir for the leadership of the movement.”

Haniyeh requested that Sinwar “write a letter, in which you will focus on the military campaign, your urgent needs — and dedicate the victory [in the war] to His Highness.”

According to a classified Palestinian Authority document, on an undisclosed

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date, a representative from Hamas allegedly met with Qatari intelligence officials to talk about the prospect of Hamas special training units being supervised on Qatari and Turkish military bases and Syrian Palestinians taking refuge in Lebanon to be integrated into Hamas’s battalions in Lebanon.

Other documents discuss how Hamas and Qatar handled the “Deal of the Century,” a peace plan proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump in 2020, wherein a Palestinian state would be recognized with the Palestinians receiving around 70% of Judea and Samaria, not including Israeli communities, a part of the Negev desert, and a generous economic aid package. The Palestinian Authority rejected the deal. In August 2020, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain agreed to join the Abraham Accords, thus normalizing relations with Israel. Over a year before then, in June 2019, Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the emir of Qatar, informed Hamas that Oman seemed open to normalizing relations with Israel.

“With respect to Palestine, Oman is on one side and we are on the other side,” the emir told Hamas leaders during a meeting.

During the same meeting, Khaled Mashaal, a Hamas leader, declared, “We must work together to oppose the Deal of the Century and eliminate it.”

According to documents, Hamas leaders feared that Qatar would build formal ties with Israel, which the terror group believed would lead to “the elimination of the Palestinian national project.”

The documents also show that Hamas and Qatar worked together to minimize Egypt’s role as a negotiator between Israel and the terror group.

“The Egyptians were attempting to restrain the escalation, and we caused them to leave the picture with empty hands. In their place, the Qataris came, and we gave them an opportunity to dictate the fruits of diplomacy,” Sinwar wrote.

Currently, two senior aides of Netanyahu are under fire for allegedly taking bribes from Qatar in exchange for boosting Doha’s reputation in a case that is known as “Qatargate.”

Documents also highlight Hamas’s relationship with Turkey.

“It is on you all to begin to prepare the campaign,” Sinwar wrote to Haniyeh.

“We must begin immediately with our allies — Iran, Qatar, and Turkey. Qatari and Turkish diplomacy must be in a leading role. Our role is to make it hard for the occupation to breathe and ensure the severing of international actors’ diplomatic ties with them.”

Qatar called the report a “deliberate distraction deployed by those who want to deflect attention from negative coverage of their own irresponsible actions in Gaza.”

“This tactic has been used previously by those who want diplomacy to fail. They do not want Qatar’s work with the Trump administration – on the Gaza file and other regional files – to succeed in bringing peace to the region,” Qatar’s International Media Office stated. “Similar methods have been used against those who have spoken out against the continuation of the war or worked diplomatically to bring the hostages home including members of President Trump’s administration, in an effort to discredit them and undermine the diplomatic process.”

The statement added, “Their efforts will not succeed. No fabricated documents will weaken the bond between Qatar and the United States. We urge all media outlets to remain vigilant against misinformation spread by those who want to disrupt the negotiations by any means necessary in order to prolong the conflict.”

Trump Travel Ban

On Monday, President Donald Trump’s ban on travel to the U.S. by citizens of 12 African, Middle Eastern and South American countries went into effect.

The ban, signed last week, applies to citizens of Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. It also imposes heightened restrictions on people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela who are outside the U.S. and don’t hold a valid visa.

The order does not cancel visas that have already been issued to citizens of the countries, and those who possess them will remain free to travel to the U.S.

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from the UK Biobank, which is one of the largest health databases in the world. Using wearable fitness trackers and artificial intelligence-aided brain scans, the biobank, over the span of a week, collected data on adults between the ages of 37 and 73, over half of whom were female. Less than 3% of participants were not white.

Researchers found that the brains of participants who spent too little or too much time exercising aged slightly faster than those who spent a moderate amount of time physically active.

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The president said on X the travel ban was being introduced after a terror attack against a pro-Israel group advocating for Hamas to release Israeli hostages in Boulder, Colorado, last weekend, perpetrated by an Egyptian man who had overstayed his visa.

Trump said, “We will restore the travel ban, some people call it the Trump travel ban, and keep the radical Islamic terrorists out of our country.”

“We cannot have open migration from

any country where we cannot safely and reliably vet and screen those who seek to enter the United States,” Trump said before signing the ban.

“That is why today I am signing a new executive order placing travel restrictions on countries including Yemen, Somalia, Haiti, Libya and numerous others,” he concluded. “We will not allow people to enter our country who wish to do us harm, and nothing will stop us from keeping America safe.”

Exercise and Brain Aging Researchers from the Hangzhou Normal University in China analyzed 16,972 adults’ brain scans and exercise data and found that too little – and too much – physical activity accelerates brain aging.

The study was published in Health Data Science. Researchers analyzed data

The average (median) participant spent around 34 hours a week doing light exercise, such as slow walking; 7.7 hours of moderate exercise, including brisk walking; and around 20 minutes of vigorous activity, including running or intense sports. Those in the highest quartile did much more exercise than those in the middle. Participants in the lowest quartile were far less active.

The reason physically inactive people experience accelerated brain aging is that a lack of exercise reduces blood flow to the brain and causes a drop in the production of a protein that helps keep neurons healthy. Those who exercise too much may have older brains because intense exercise can cause oxidative stress and inflammatory responses in the brain.

However, extreme physical activity’s link with accelerated brain aging is still unclear.

According to the research, moderate exercisers also had less white matter damage in their brains and saw other signs of brain health.

Those with older brains are more likely to develop dementia and depression and tend to underperform on cognitive tests.

It is worth noting that this study only finds the sort of exercise that top fitness devotees, including professional bodybuilders, do problematic. The type of exercise that the average person finds intense will likely not harm the brain.

The study had two main issues. First, it’s based on data collected over the span of just a week. A long-term study would be required to prove a direct causation between exercise and brain aging. Secondly, nearly all participants were white.

As such, the findings may not apply to individuals of other races.

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Finally Caught

Grant Hardin was finally captured by law enforcement on Friday afternoon.

The former police chief had escaped prison while serving a 30-year sentence for murder. He had been on the run for almost two weeks before he was hauled back behind bars.

Police found him around 1.5 miles from the prison in northern Arkansas where he had escaped.

Hardin, 56, escaped the Calico Rock North Central Unit in Izard County on May 25 after donning a uniform and impersonating a corrections officer and being allowed to walk through a sally port pulling a cart.

“Tracking dogs were able to pick up a scent in the area, and Hardin was apprehended a short time later,” Arkansas Department of Corrections said in a press release.

Arkansas’ secretary of corrections, Lindsay Wallace, thanked those who helped “bring this search to a peaceful conclusion.”

Hardin, the former police chief of Gateway, Arkansas, pleaded guilty in October 2017 to first-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of 59-year-old James Appleton. He was also convicted of the 1997 assault of an elementary school teacher in Rogers, Arkansas, a crime highlighted in the 2023 television documentary “Devil in the Ozarks.”

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders expressed gratitude for local, state and federal law enforcement and especially thanked the Trump administration for sending a Border Patrol team “that was instrumental in tracking and apprehending Hardin.”

“Thanks to the great work of local, state and federal law enforcement Arkansans can breathe a sigh of relief, and I can confirm that violent criminal Grant Hardin is back in custody,” she said in a statement.

Nathan Smith, the former Benton County prosecutor who helped put Hardin behind bars, told the media that the escaped inmate is “a sociopath.”

Trump Admin.

Sanctions 4 ICC Judges

On Thursday, the administration of President Donald Trump sanctioned four International Criminal Court justices who have targeted the United States and Israel.

The sanctions were imposed on judges Beti Hohler and Reine Alapini Gansou, who supported ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan’s arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The Trump administration also sanctioned Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza and Solomy Balungi Bossa, who played a role in allowing the court to investigate the United States for war crimes in Afghanistan and have also previously targeted Israel.

Hohler, from Slovenia, was employed by the ICC’s prosecutor’s office before becoming a judge in 2023. Gansou, from Benin, was on the bench that voted in 2021 in favor of investigating Israel for the Jewish state’s actions in Judea and Samaria, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. Given her role in the prosecutor’s office, Israel was against Hohler hearing cases against Israeli officials, though she claims she was never involved in the 2021 investigation against Israel.

“The United States will take whatever actions we deem necessary to protect our sovereignty, that of Israel, and any other U.S. ally from illegitimate actions by the ICC,” Marco Rubio, U.S. secretary of state, stated. “I call on the countries that still support the ICC, many of whose freedom was purchased at the price of great American sacrifices, to fight this disgraceful attack on our nation and Israel.”

In response, the ICC accused the U.S. of undermining the court’s independence.

The office of Prime Minister Netanyahu praised the sanctions.

“Thank you, President Trump and Secretary of State Rubio, for imposing sanctions against the politicized judges of the ICC. You have justly stood up for the right of Israel, the United States, and all democracies to defend themselves against savage terror,” said Netanyahu’s

office.

The sanctioned judges will be banned from coming into the United States. Additionally, their U.S. assets will be confiscated.

Khan issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, accusing Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza during the Jewish state’s war against Hamas, the terrorist organization that killed 1,200 people and abducted 251 others on October 7, 2023. Last February, the U.S. put Khan on a list of “Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons,” thus banning him from conducting business with U.S. citizens and blocking him from entering the country. In May, Khan stepped down amid allegations.

The United States and Israel did not sign the Rome Statute, the treaty that formed the ICC. However, the Palestinian Authority is subject to the court’s rulings, as are nearly all of the U.S.’s Western allies, Japan, South Korea, most African countries, and almost the entirety of Latin America. Any signatory to the Rome Statute would technically have to arrest Netanyahu or Gallant if they entered the country’s territory. Recently, Hungary hosted Netanyahu and declared it would leave the ICC.

LA Anti-ICE Riots

On Sunday, President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to quell anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles.

Trump announced the deployment of troops on Saturday night in a post on Truth Social following what he called “two days of violence, clashes and unrest.” At least 2,000 National Guard troops were to be deployed, according to a Presidential Memoranda, most of whom came from the California National Guard.

The National Guard reportedly responded to rioters by using tear gas and firing non-lethal rounds at protesters.

On Friday and Saturday, many federal law enforcement officers were injured in clashes with rioters, who threw concrete rocks and drove motorcycles into law enforcement officers, according to a federal official. On Sunday, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said in a press conference that 39 protesters had been arrested on Saturday

and Sunday. As of the now, the National Guard does not have the power to arrest protesters unless President Trump invokes the Insurrection Clause. For now, they can only protect property and businesses.

Trump condemned California Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, saying that they should “apologize to the people of Los Angeles for the absolutely horrible job that they have done, and this now includes the ongoing L.A. riots.”

“These are not protesters, they are troublemakers and insurrectionists,” the president noted. “Remember, NO MASKS!” Newsom called Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard “purposefully inflammatory” and accused the president of “escalating the situation.”

“The federal government is taking over the California National Guard and deploying 2,000 soldiers in Los Angeles — not because there is a shortage of law enforcement, but because they want a spectacle,” Newsom claimed.

“State and local authorities are the most appropriate ones to evaluate the need for resources to safeguard life and property,” Newsom said in a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. “Indeed, the decision to deploy the National Guard, without appropriate training or orders, risks seriously escalating the situation.”

Newsom said on Monday that he would file a lawsuit against the Trump administration for allegedly deploying the National Guard unlawfully.

Kamala Harris, a former vice president and presidential candidate, condemned the deployment on X as “a dangerous escalation meant to provoke chaos.”

The protests are in response to a major immigrant detainment operation in LA recently launched by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE claimed that the operations led to the arrests of a child abuser and a “domestic abuser.”

At around 3 p.m. on Sunday, rioters started clashing with federal officials outside a building in downtown L.A. that hosts the ICE detention center. Protesters hurled concrete and projectiles at police, after which the LA Police Department declared an unlawful assembly in the area of Alameda between 2nd street and Aliso street and ordered an immediate dispersal. Two motorcyclists, who have since been arrested, injured two officers while attempting to break in.

A few blocks away, a smaller group of rioters spray-painted up to six Waymo driverless cars, threw objects, and

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jumped on the windshields before setting the vehicles on fire. Several explosions occurred. Rioters blocked roads with chairs, garbage bins, and street signs.

Demonstrators blocked a Metro bus and vandalized it with anti-ICE messages.

Some lit fireworks.

Shortly before 9 p.m., the LAPD’s Central Division declared Downtown L.A. an unlawful assembly and ordered protesters to disperse. Around half an hour later, the group went to the L.A. Live area and blocked traffic on Figueroa Street and 11th Street. Rioters set dumpsters and garbage cans on fire. At least one store was reportedly robbed by looters who also broke a window. Demonstrators covered several buildings with graffiti.

In San Francisco, where buildings and a police cruiser were vandalized, 60 people were arrested on Sunday night. Two police officers were injured.

At around 4 p.m., rioters blocked traffic on the 101 Freeway and damaged police cars. An hour or so later, the protesters were removed. Debris and cars damaged by protesters forced authorities to shut down the southbound 101 Freeway until the road was cleaned up.

Summer Woes

Parents in Italy are seeking help to deal with the country’s three-month school vacation.

State schools in Italy went on break for the summer on Friday. Italy’s school summer holidays are the longest in Europe and have been a source of conster-

nation for parents who work outside the home.

Now, it seems that many parents are seeking professional help in dealing with the long break.

The number of parents who seek psychiatric help between June and August increases by up to 40 percent, according to the Order of Psychologists of Lombardy.

Common complaints include anxiety, irritability and a sense of inadequacy, according to Mara Compagnoni, a psychologist.

“Holidays are meant to be an opportunity for the family to connect but the myth of the perfect holiday and the impossibility of satisfying the needs of children, work and partners often generates stress and frustration,” she shared.

The annual struggle to secure childcare is a logistical, financial and even psychological challenge.

Among working mothers, 63 percent say they feel “exhausted” during the summer holidays because of the strain of juggling work and family.

“For parents, summer is a nightmare,” said Francesca Fiore, one of the founders of an irreverent blog on parenting.

The ordeal begins months before, as parents turn to spreadsheets in an effort to work out how they are going to have their children cared for while they are at work, she said. With grandparents working into their 70s, there are often no caregivers at home who can pitch in to take Tommy or Molly to the beach.

Additionally, around 72 percent of Italian families have to make hefty financial sacrifices to pay for childcare and summer camps, according to Altroconsumo, a consumer rights organization, and Censis, a polling firm.

Some couples are compelled to go on holiday separately – dad will take the children off for a couple of weeks, and then it is mom’s turn, so that together they can cover a three or four-week block with their annual leave.

Others resign themselves to having their kids glued to screens for most of the day while they work from home.

Did you know?

Blind cave fish live in caves and never venture outside. They have no eyes and have clear, pink skin.

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Last year, Italian mothers launched a campaign to reduce the length of the school holidays, saying they were fed up with entertaining their children for three months each summer. An online petition to have school terms lengthened and summer holidays reduced attracted more than 70,000 signatures, but nothing changed.

“Don’t trust all those idyllic photos you see on Instagram,” the newspaper La Repubblica commented. “Summer is a nightmare for hundreds of thousands of Italian families.”

The “Write” Ritual

Hundreds gathered on Saturday in the neighborhood near Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis. It was an annual ritual, and they all came to celebrate the big No. 2.

Years ago, a 20-foot-tall pencil was sculpted out of a mammoth oak tree that had been damaged in a storm at the home of John and Amy Higgins. The couple turned the giant tree into a huge writing implement.

The yearly sharpening ceremony on their front lawn has evolved into a community spectacle that draws hundreds of people to the leafy neighborhood, complete with music and pageantry. Some people dress as pencils or erasers. Two Swiss alphorn players provided part of this year’s entertainment.

“Why a pencil? Everybody uses a pencil,” Amy Higgins said. “Everybody knows a pencil. You see it in school, you see it in people’s work, or drawings, everything.

So, it’s just so accessible to everybody, I think, and can easily mean something, and everyone can make what they want of it.”

The Higginses had enlisted wood sculptor Curtis Ingvoldstad to transform the tree into a replica of a classic Trusty brand No. 2 pencil.

“People interpret this however they want to. They should. They should come to this and find whatever they want out of it,” Ingvoldstad said.

That’s true even if their reaction is negative, he added. “Whatever you want to bring, you know, it’s you at the end of the day. And it’s a good place. It’s good to have pieces that do that for people.”

John Higgins said they wanted the celebration to pull the community together.

“We tell a story about the dull tip, and we’re gonna get sharp,” he said. “There’s a renewal. We can write a new love letter, a thank-you note. We can write a math problem, a to-do list. And that chance for renewal, that promise, people really seem to buy into and understand.”

To keep the point pointy, they haul a giant, custom-made pencil sharpener up the scaffolding that is erected for the event.

Like a real pencil, every time they sharpen it, it gets a bit shorter.

“Like any ritual, you’ve got to sacrifice something,” Ingvoldstad said. “So we’re sacrificing part of the monumentality of the pencil, so that we can give that to the audience that comes, and say, ‘This is our offering to you, and in goodwill to all the things that you’ve done this year.’”

It’s the “write” thing to do.

World’s Oldest Restaurant?

Sobrino de Botin, located in Madrid, Spain, is the proud holder of the coveted Guinness World Record for the world’s oldest restaurant. Botin opened its doors to patrons 300 years ago and has never stopped serving hungry diners since.

But another eatery in Spain, Casa Pedro, is vying for the title. Its owners claim that the establishment endured not just the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s and the Napoleonic invasion in the early 1800s but even the War of Spanish Succession at the start of the 18th century — a lineage that would make Casa Pedro older than Botin.

“It’s really frustrating when you say, ‘Yes, we’ve been around since 1702,’ but ... you can’t prove it,” said manager and eighth-generation proprietor Irene Gui-

nales. “If you look at the restaurant’s logo, it says, ‘Casa Pedro, since 1702,’ so we said, ‘[Darn] it, let’s try to prove it.’”

The eatery has hired a historian to prove its extensive existence. So far, documents found date the restaurant’s operations to at least 1750. That puts them within striking distance of Botín’s record.

Both taverns are family-owned. Both offer Castilian classics like stewed tripe and roast suckling pig. They are decorated with charming Spanish tiles, feature ceilings with exposed wooden beams and underground wine cellars. And both enjoy a rich, star-studded history.

But there are many differences to the eateries. Casa Pedro is popular more with local regulars; Botin is flooded daily with tourists in the busy city of Madrid.

For now, Guinales is still sifting in the past, hoping for proof of her restaurant’s old age.

“It’s a dream, but it’s a dream,” she says.

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Around the

Community YKLI Celebrates a Historic Chanukas HaBayis as the Yeshiva Expands to Meet the Community’s Needs

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his past Sunday, the vibrant halls of Yeshiva Ketana of Long Island were filled with joy, pride, and Torah celebration as the Yeshiva marked a momentous milestone: the Chanukas HaBayis for its newly completed expansion. The addition of a third track was designed to meet the growing needs of the local Torah community—ensuring that every child can benefit from YKLI’s renowned chinuch while maintaining its hallmark small class sizes and individualized attention to each talmid.

With remarkable mesiras nefesh, the Yeshiva not only expanded its physical campus but also strategically enhanced its staff, adding members to the Hanhala, rabbeim, moros, and support team to

preserve the high standard of care and excellence YKLI is known for.

The event was attended by an enthusiastic crowd of parents, grandparents, community friends, elected officials, and gedolei rabbonim and roshei yeshiva, all of whom came to show support for the Yeshiva’s continued growth and impact.

The program began with a warm and heartfelt welcome by Rabbi Moshe Katz, YKLI’s Director of Development, who expressed gratitude to the many individuals and families who made the expansion possible. He was followed by divrei bracha from Rabbi Tzvi Krigsman, Menahel of the Yeshiva, who pointed out that for the majority of the program the boys remained learning in class – meaning de-

spite the expansion, YKLI talmidim did not miss a single day of learning. It was indeed a special kavod to be addressed

by Harav Chaim Yehoshua Hoberman, shlit”a, Rosh Yeshiva of Long Beach and a close yedid of the Yeshiva. Following the Rosh Yeshiva, Mr. Ariel Aber, esteemed board member, also shared meaningful reflections of growth and expansion while staying true to the Yeshiva’s mission. The program concluded with powerful and inspiring words from Rabbi Ari Ginian, longtime Executive Director of YKLI, who referred to future projects and enhancements to the campus.

One of the most memorable highlights of the day was the spirited dancing that brought together talmidim, fathers,

grandfathers, rabbeim, and friends in a moving display of kavod haTorah and simchas haTorah. The music and energy were elevated by the unforgettable performances of Joey Newcomb and Elchonon Gartenhaus, who infused the celebration with warmth and ruach.

The Chanukas HaBayis was more than just a dedication of a building—it was a true Kiddush Hashem – a public reaffirmation of YKLI’s mission: to provide a chinuch that is personal, passionate, and profoundly rooted in yesodos of chinuch.

As the Yeshiva continues to grow, it remains unwavering in its commitment to each and every talmid.

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Around the Community

Local Runners Raced for Israel at the 5T5K Race

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Around the Community

Photos by Sruly Saftlas

The Jewish Home | JUNE 12, 2025

Yaakov Langer Interviews Eli Sharabi in YI of Woodmere

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OXFORD, UNITED HEALTHCARE, AETNA, THE EMPIRE PLAN, UFT Teachers, HEALTHFIRST

HAS YOU COVERED

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ormer hostage Eli Sharabi was interviewed live in Young Israel of Woodmere by Yaakov Langer from Inspiration for the Nation on Tuesday night. Eli opened up about being held captive for 491 days in Gaza and about losing his brother, wife and two daughters in the massacre. He spoke about never giving up hope and about making kiddush in Gaza and growing in his faith to Hashem. Despite the challenges that he faced, he refuses to stay in bed and wallow in his bed. He is determined to continue living his life and is actively trying to get his brother’s corpse back from Gaza.

More than 1,000 people came to Young Israel of Woodmere to bear witness to Eli’s testimony. Rabbi Axelrod introduced the event and Rabbi Shay Shachter led the prayer for the soldiers.

The audience sang together in unison. Eli

broke down when he was thanking everyone for their support. There was not a dry eye in the room.

The full podcast of the interview will be available this Motzei Shabbos on Living L’Chaim’s channel.

To support Eli and help him rebuild his life, go to: Charidy.com/sharabi.

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The Nursery class at Shulamith ECC enjoyed a Shabbat workshop with their parents The second grade boys at HALB had a blast at their end-of-the-year trip to Urban Air

The Final Tish of the Year

Yeshiva of South Shore Honors Legacy of Rabbi Binyamin Kamenetzky with Focus on Middos Tovos

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he HALB Middle School boys enjoyed their last pre-Shabbos tish of this school year. The students and their rebbeim enjoyed a delicious breakfast and made the most of their time singing and dancing together.

Dr. Ash Visits Shulamith

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he eighth graders at Shulamith finished off their Science Scholars Program with a visit from Dr. Zev Ash, a local pediatrician and father of Morah Rachel Ash. Dr. Ash spoke to the girls about a multitude of topics, including his journey to become a pediatrician and the highlights and challenges of the job. He also answered questions on other health related topics, including

the importance of wearing a helmet, the impact of phones on our sleep, seasonal allergies, etc. He shared many stories that connect to the eighth grade Biology curriculum from this year and how those topics come up daily in his work.

We really appreciate Dr. Ash for giving us his time and for teaching us so many interesting things that we did not know in such a dynamic and relatable way.

he Yeshiva of South Shore community recently honored the yahtrzeit of its revered founder, Rabbi Binyamin Kamenetzky, zt”l, with a special emphasis on the enduring legacy of his exemplary middos tovos (fine character traits). Rav Binyamin, zt”l, known for his profound wisdom, unwavering kindness, and deep dedication to every individual, embodied the very essence of a Torah personality.

Among Rav Kamenetzky’s many visionary initiatives was the establishment of the Bachurei Chemed program at Yeshiva of South Shore. This unique program recognizes and celebrates students who distinguish themselves not merely through academic achievement, but primarily through their outstanding middos.

It is a testament to Rabbi Kamenetzky’s belief that true greatness lies in cultivating a refined character and treating others with respect and compassion.

In a beautiful and heartwarming tribute to his memory this past month, the students in grades one through five participated in a special initiative: the “Compliment Box.” The school maintained a designated box and students were encouraged to fill it with written compliments directed at their rebbeim, teachers, staff members, and fellow students.

The Compliment Box was more than just an activity; it was a daily reminder to actively seek out and acknowledge the good in others. Rav Binyamin, zt”l, with his constant focus on the positive and his genuine appreciation for everyone, taught us the importance of looking for the good. This initiative allowed our students to internalize that crucial lesson in a very practical and uplifting way. As Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky, Rosh Yeshiva, Yeshiva of South Shore Bais Binyamin, wisely stated, “The best way to keep a legacy alive is by perpetuating it.”

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Touro’s New York Medical College Forms Affiliation with Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach

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ouro’s New York Medical College (NYMC) has formed a new academic affiliation with Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida, designating the hospital as a teaching site for the training and education of NYMC’s medical students, Touro President Dr. Alan Kadish announced this week. This partnership further enhances NYMC’s extensive network of affiliated hospitals and clinical sites that encompasses more than 30 affiliates, now across seven states—New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Arizona, and Florida.

“We are excited to welcome Mount Sinai Medical Center to NYMC’s robust network of clinical affiliates. Mount Sinai is

renowned for its exceptional patient care and the expertise of its physicians. I am confident that our students will greatly benefit from the outstanding educational opportunities available to them there, which will significantly enhance their clinical skills,” said Dr. Neil W. Schluger, dean of the NYMC School of Medicine.

The agreement establishes clerkship rotations for medical students in internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, and surgery and electives in emergency medicine, anesthesiology, and urology. Named America’s 100 Best Hospitals™ by Healthgrades™ for 2024, Mount Sinai operates across 13 locations, including three emergency centers and is the largest private, independent, not-for-

profit teaching hospital in Florida.

“The partnership between Touro University and Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach will greatly increase the number of healthcare professionals serving the community, creating a pipeline of young physicians for MSMC residency programs who will practice locally,” said Dr. Kadish.

“Educating the next generation of expert physicians for our community has been at the core of Mount Sinai’s mission for 75 years,” said Gino R. Santorio, President and CEO of Mount Sinai Medical Center. “Our newest affiliation with NYMC enhances our ability to continue to attract top medical minds, fostering an environment where emerging doctors are

Touro President Dr. Alan Kadish

mentored by expert faculty. This steadfast commitment to continuous learning fuels medical advancements, which results in enhanced quality care and better patient outcomes.”

YUHSG Class of 2025 Celebrates Graduation

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t’s the end of an era: on Monday, June 9, the class of 2025 graduated from the Yeshiva University High School for Girls (Central), officially transforming from students to proud alumnae and savoring the last chance to celebrate one another as a class before making their way into the world. For Central faculty, the school’s 73rd annual commencement, which was held at Yeshiva University’s Lamport Auditorium, was an opportunity to honor students who have spent the last four years striving to become their best selves. The event began with Misheberach and Tehillim from Central’s Mashgiach Ruchani, Rabbi Joshua Goller, and was followed by a message of welcome from Central’s Head of School, Ms. Bracha Rutner, who highlighted the landmark importance of the evening.

“Graduation marks the conversation between who you’ve been and who you’re becoming,” Ms. Rutner said. “Not every word needs to be long to be meaningful, and not every path the same to be worthy.

The class of 2025 is about to embark on their future, having arrived there on a path that they built with the help of their classmates, their teachers and their parents.”

Following Ms. Rutner’s remarks was the presentation of the first annual Dr. Regina Herzlinger STEM award. This new award is named in honor of Dr. Herzlinger, a 1967 Central alumna and the first woman to be tenured and chaired

at Harvard Business School. Intended to honor a graduating senior who will be studying STEM in college, the first Herzlinger Award was given to Reema Gampel. Among others celebrated for their accomplishments were this year’s Stephen Klein Memorial Founders Award Valedictorian for Excellence in Honors Jewish and General Studies, Shira Fisher, who delivered a reflection on her experiences at Central. Salutatorians Maya Kikov and Serah Tolchin were also recognized. The class’s Keter Shem Tov Award was presented to Gabrielle Boriskin, with the Leah Lefkowitz Humanitarian Chesed Award going to Dena Joshua.

Lastly, the Malka Fishhaut Memorial Award, intended for a senior demonstrating overall excellence in Judaic Studies

who is bound for studies in Israel, was given to Neima Bronstein. Graduation awards were granted by Central’s Associate Principal, Ms. Leah Moskovich, and the graduates were presented by Judaic Studies faculty member and Senior Grade Dean, Mrs. Rebecca Teper.

“I am so proud of this graduating class – their growth, their leadership, and their heart,” Ms. Moskovich reflected. “Central will miss them deeply, and so will I.” The theme of the 2024-2025 school year was courage—a fitting theme for this particular class, who have made their last year as Wildcats count and are entering a changing world with bravery, character, and kindness.

The Central community congratu-

lates the class of 2025 for their accomplishments and looks forward to welcoming these new graduates into the YUHSG alumnae network. It’s been a wildly successful year at YUHSG. From academics to the visual and performing arts, athletics to chesed initiatives, students in all corners of the school have found opportunities for progress and have gathered the courage to change and grow. The community looks forward to welcoming a whole new generation of Wildcats into the building as the class of 2029, and is already anticipating the excitement of the 2025-26 school year. Best of luck to all on final exams – and have a wonderful, restorative summer vacation!

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Around the Community

Shulamith High School Celebrates Achievements

Keter Shem Tov awardee Mia Kaplowitz

Salutatorian Tzipora Thau

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hulamith High School celebrated its 7th annual graduation ceremony on Monday night. The evening highlighted the accomplishments of its newest alumni, while also keeping focus on the ongoing heartache of the hostages in Eretz Yisrael, exemplified by the poignant decision made by many in the graduating class to decorate their caps focusing on Eretz Yisrael.

SHS valedictorian, Aliza Zahler, has challenged herself in every arena throughout her high school journey, partaking in any academic opportunity available. She holds an astonishing spectrum of knowledge and extracurriculars, holding court at Mock Trial and winning several awards at CIJE STEM competitions. She was an AP Scholar with Distinction, a finalist in the Jerusalem Science Contest, and Chidon Hatanach National Qualifier. Aliza’s capabilities literally shined this year at Production spotlight, prompting the staff at the venue to ask if they could meet “this student who figured out our lighting system in an hour.” She plans to attend MMY this fall, followed by Stern Honors as a Leadership Scholar.

Our salutatorian, Tzipora Thau, combines academic strength and leadership qualities. She is a force in the classroom, on the production stage as Dance Head, and through her extensive commitment to chessed. Through Tzipora’s respectful, gracious, and humble nature, she has brought excellence and dignity to every corner of SHS. Tzipora plans to attend

Valedictorian Aliza Zahler

Michlalah and Touro College.

The Keter Shem Tov honor is awarded to a student who exemplifies selflessness, kindness, inclusivity, and respect to all whom she encounters. The awardee is chosen by her peers and faculty, and the recipient is revealed at the graduation ceremony. Mia Kaplowitz, this year’s Keter Shem Tov, has embodied these qualities throughout her high school years. Through her positivity, friendship, and humility, she has made every classmate feel accepted and honored. Mia was G.O. Treasurer, a member of the basketball and soccer teams for all four years of high school, a regular participant in the Beit Midrash program, and an Israel Advocacy Student Ambassador. Mia plans to attend MMY next year, followed by Queens College.

Congratulations to all of our wonderful graduates. We are so proud of your achievements and character, and we know you will continue to make us proud as you take your extraordinary qualities into the world.

Did you know?

The maximum depth a cave can reach underground is about 9,800 feet.

MTA Celebrates Class of 2025

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Around the Community

Yeshiva Darchei Torah Second Graders Share Their Knowledge of 39 Melachos at Year-End Celebration

Rav Shmuel Strickman, menahel, addressing the crowd

Rav Yaakov Bender, Rosh HaYeshiva, handing out seforim to the talmidim

SKA Celebrates Achievements

Hadassa Klahr, valedictorian

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adassa Klahr is Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls’ Valedictorian of the Class of 2025.

Throughout her years at SKA, Hadassa has been a dedicated student and an active member of her class. She served as model congress and college bowl captain in addition to being a part of the debate team, Israel action committee, Torah bowl and writing for the school newspaper. She also did science research and was published in the Anthology of Poetry for Young Americans. She enjoys volunteering and helping others in her free time. Hadassa was Yachad President and volunteers at iShine, Yachad, and Friendship Circle weekly. She has also participated in the Tikvah Scholars Program.

She has enjoyed taking numerous AP courses including AP Calculus BC, AP Chemistry, AP Biology, AP Government, AP United States History, AP Psychology, and AP World History. Hadassa is a member of the principal’s honor roll and

Sarah Goldstein, salutatorian

Eden Israeli, salutatorian

Kayla Paul, Keter Shem Tov awardee

was inducted into the Re’ut National Honor Society.

Next year, Hadassa will be studying at MMY in Israel followed by attending the honors program at Stern College for Women.

Sarah Goldstein is Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls’ Salutatorian of the Class of 2025. Sarah has been an involved and committed student at SKA throughout her four years. Sarah’s rigorous course selection included AP World History, AP U.S. History, AP Chemistry, AP Calculus BC, AP U.S. Government, and AP Psychology. Sarah is a member of the principal’s honor roll and was inducted into the Re’ut National Honor Society. Sarah was a dance head in SKA’s Production 2025 and a captain of the college bowl team. She was a staff writer for SKAppenings and an editor in the weekly Parsha Press. Over her years at SKA, she volunteered as a peer tutor, Friendship Circle volunteer, and JEP counselor.

Sarah will be attending MMY in Israel next year, followed by the honors program at Stern College for Women.

Eden Israeli, salutatorian of the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls Class of 2025, has been a distinguished and well-rounded student throughout her four years. Her challenging academic program included AP World History, AP U.S. History, AP Chemistry, AP Calculus BC, AP Psychology, and AP Government and Politics. Eden earned a place on the principal’s honor roll and was inducted into the Re’ut National Honor Society.

She contributed as a writer for the Matrix, participated in E2K, volunteered as a peer tutor, and played on the varsity Volleyball team.

Eden will be attending Michlalah in Israel next year, followed by Touro College.

Kayla Paul, the 2025 Keter Shem Tov awardee of SKA, has consistently demonstrated her love for chessed and

her desire to volunteer and help others throughout the community. Kayla can often be seen volunteering at The Special Children’s Center, iShine, Tomchei Shabbos, or JEPP during her free time.

Kayla is always looking for a chance to help others, whether that means going out of her way to pick someone up for an event, baking for a bake sale, or tutoring someone who needs help in a class. When she is not dedicating her time to helping others, Kayla takes on her role as College Bowl captain and participates in a Halacha Bekius program in SKA. Kayla has received Principal’s Honor Roll and the student-voted Middot award for the past three years and has had a poem published in the Anthology of Poetry by Young Americans.

Kayla will be spending a year in Israel at Michlelet Mevaseret Yerushalayim and then attending the Honors program at Stern College for Women.

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zra Academy proudly announces the Class of 2025 valedictorian and salutatorian: Hannah Simuov and Rivka Gavrilov, two outstanding young women whose academic excellence, leadership, and dedication to service have left an enduring impact on the school community.

Valedictorian Hannah Simuov will be continuing her academic journey at Pace University, where she plans to study eye medicine. A true scholar and leader, Hannah served as President of the Student Council, consistently demonstrating a commitment to enhancing student life. She was a top-performing member of the Ezra Academy Debate Team, earning accolades in multiple competitions, and maintained an exceptional academic record across all subjects.

Salutatorian Rivka Gavrilov will attend Adelphi University to pursue a career in nursing. Rivka was the head of the Ezra Academy Chessed Committee, organizing school-wide initiatives to support those in need and fostering a culture

of kindness and compassion. Like her classmate, she also brought home awards as a member of the Debate Team, while maintaining a high standard of academic achievement throughout her years at Ezra.

“These young women exemplify the values of Ezra Academy,” said Principal Sima Fish. “Hannah and Rivka have excelled not only in the classroom but in leadership, service, and character. We are proud of their accomplishments and excited to see the impact they will make in their future professions.”

Ezra Academy extends heartfelt congratulations to Hannah, Rivka, and the entire graduating class of 2025. We wish all of our seniors continued success as they embark on the next chapter of their journeys—whether heading to college, yeshiva in Israel, seminary, the IDF, or entering the professional world. The school takes immense pride in all they have accomplished and the remarkable individuals they have become.

Did you know?

Mammoth Cave, located in Kentucky, is the world’s longest known cave system with more than 400 miles of surveyed passageways.

JUNE 12, 2025 | The Jewish Home

Ezra Academy Announces Class of 2025 Valedictorian and Salutatorian

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HAFTR Celebrates Outstanding Achievements

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AFTR High School is proud to celebrate the exceptional accomplishments of our valedictorian, Sean Harris, and salutatorian, Quinn Oliner—two students whose dedication, leadership, and character exemplify the best of what our school stands for.

Sean Harris has distinguished himself as a scholar, leader, and innovator.

With a 4.0 GPA and an impressive array of extracurricular activities, he has left an indelible mark on HAFTR. From captaining the Robotics and College Bowl teams to contributing to multiple student publications in English, Hebrew, and Spanish, Sean has demonstrated both intellectual depth and creative range. His accolades include Valedictorian honors, National Merit Scholarship recipient, AP Scholar with Distinction, and medals in the Long Island Math Fair. Sean’s commitment to service shines through his

work as a peer tutor, mentor, and volunteer for both school and community initiatives. His deep engagement in STEM, Judaic studies, and music reflects his holistic pursuit of excellence.

As Salutatorian, Quinn Oliner has made a powerful impact on both the academic and extracurricular life of the school. A standout in the classroom and a leader among his peers, Quinn serves as President of the National Honor Society and is a multi-year Tikvah Fellow, where he has explored the relationship between Jewish values and Western civilization.

He is the longtime editor of HAFTR’s Haftorah Newsletter, a dedicated member of both College Bowl and Torah Bowl teams, and a competitor in the CIJE Hackathon. Quinn is also a proud threesport athlete, playing for HAFTR’s basketball, football, and softball teams in junior varsity, and continuing to varsity

Quinn Oliner, salutatorian

Sean Harris, valedictorian

soccer and hockey, balancing athletics and academics with remarkable discipline.

Sean and Quinn now look ahead to bright and exciting futures. Sean will be attending Binghamton University as part of their prestigious Scholars Program, where he plans to study Computer Science. Quinn will spend a meaningful year

in Israel at Yeshivat Har Etzion (Gush), and will then continue his academic journey at Yeshiva University, where he has been accepted into the Honors Program and will major in Mathematics.

HAFTR High School is incredibly proud of all they have accomplished and confident they will continue to make a meaningful impact in the world.

Touro Ranks in TechGuide’s Top 20 List of Best Computer Science Programs for 2025

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ouro University’s computer science program was ranked #17 in TechGuide’s Best Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science Programs for 2025, up 7 points from its #24 ranking in 2024. The list highlights colleges and universities that excel in providing educational opportunities and training for today’s students interested in pursuing this high-demand career.

Computer science is one of the university’s most popular majors with 150

students and the bachelor’s degree in the field is offered both in person and via Zoom. Last semester, Touro offered a course focused on Python programming and its application in AI, and beginning this fall, Touro is planning to incorporate AI throughout the computer science curriculum.

According to Dr. Shmuel Fink, deputy chair of the computer science department at Touro’s Lander College of Arts & Sciences, the plan is to teach students

how to use tools such as GitHub Copilot, Anthropic Claude, and Cursor to assist with writing code. Touro will also cover technologies such as retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, Weaviate), orchestration libraries (LangChain, LlamaIndex), and graph-based link-chains. These tools help large language models (LLMs) access up-to-date information, store and retrieve that information efficiently using specialized “smart” databases, and connect related pieces of data. Together, they enable AI systems to generate accurate, natural-language responses that include company-specific or context-specific information.

The National Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that employment of computer scientists will grow 26 percent in the next decade, much faster than the average for all occupations. About 3,400 openings for computer and information research scientists are projected each year. According to TechGuide, earning a computer science degree can be a lucrative educational path for students looking to expand their job opportunities and pursue an analytical, computational and even creative career.

“Touro University’s bachelor’s in com-

puter science offers students the foundation necessary to develop cutting-edge computing solutions and adapt to a world of ever-evolving new technologies. It is the perfect blend of theory and hands-on skills,” said Dr. Fink.

“Our graduates have secured top-tier positions and begun successful careers as software engineers, mobile app developers, full-stack developers, analysts, senior managers and more,” continued Fink.

Recent Touro alumni have landed internships and jobs at Goldman Sachs, IBM, Northwell Health System, Capital One Bank, Deloitte, Cross River Bank, HealthFirst, among others.

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Mercaz Academy Hosts Night School Fundraising Event

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ercaz Academy continued its tradition of an annual night out with this year’s Night School event. The multi-faceted evening began with a tribute to those who provided pivotal support to the Plainview school through their participation in its ongoing Capital Campaign. Chairman of the Board Gary Katz unveiled the Mercaz Academy Capital Campaign Wall of Gratitude, revealing elegant silver plaques bearing the names of loved ones and inspirational messages from generous donors, interspersed with photos of students learning, playing, and participating in school life. Mr. Katz thanked Dr. Joshua Kirschenbaum and Dr. David Vilkas for their work on the donor wall and remarked that the donors shared “a deep commitment to the future of Jewish education and a belief in Mercaz’s mission that we are here to inspire each student to become committed to Torah, Zionism, and American ideals, with an

enduring curiosity and determination to understand our world.”

The evening continued with a wine-tasting featuring a sampler provided by The River Wines, followed by a rollicking auction conducted by Mercaz grandparent Alan Fromm, whose witty quips kept the audience laughing through the bidding. Items for auction included experiences like a three-hour boat tour and perks like the highly coveted year-

long Official Auction Winner Parking Spot, as well as many fun experiences for the students, such as the opportunity to be principal for a day and private lessons from the art teacher and technology director. As the auction progressed, excitement built with interspersed raffle drawings for items including a Weber grill, a three-month health club membership, and other valuable prizes. The famed Manischewitz Food Truck provided hot-

dogs, knishes, matzah ball soup, and other treats, supplemented with fresh and dried fruits.

Led by Mercaz parent Melissa Fryman, a committee of numerous volunteers and lay leaders made the evening a successful one. These devoted friends of Mercaz contributed their skill, talent, and hard work, raising money for the school and providing attendees with a fun and memorable evening.

strung together a number of timely hits to hang on to the win.

Men’s Playoff Basketball Emporio 57, Piu Bello 47 Emporio’s Yitzy Wieder was lighting it up before going down with an injury late in the first half. It seemed Piu Bello would have an opening to strike, but Emporio found refuge in Simcha Zev Beren’s 19 points to hang on for the win. Ezra Beren is moving on in 5TLL and JSL. Hewlett Auto Body 46, Maidenbaum 35 Rabbi Yitzy Stern carried the shorthanded HAB squad and went vintage against a hot Maidenbaum squad coming off a regular season that shocked many.

In signature Hewlett Auto Body style this was a low scoring game. It was Rabbi Stern’s 20 pints that really made a difference. To the Netzach boys, yes, your Rebbe is actually a baller :).

Growtha 72, Traditions 64 Growtha seemed to be in control the whole way. Leading by 17 points in the 2nd half this game seemed over. Traditions then made a big run behind 30 points from Yeshiva League superstar senior Joe Aaron and a pair of clutch three’s from Yehuda Buchbinder to cut the deficit to just 2 points. Eitan Gettenberg and co regained control and stayed on top for the win. Eitan was this week’s leading scorer with 34 points and 7 three pointers. He’s been shooting lights out this season averaging over 20 ppg.

Smash House 68, SR Whee 57 Smash House’s Shelby Rosenberg, the league’s points per game leader (averaging 28 ppg) scored 30 in the playoff opener win. A barrage of three pointers from SR Whee’s Yitzy Berger kept this one competitive until the end.

5TLL Playoffs Recap

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his week, we kicked off playoffs

by FM Home Loans for the 5TLL boys and for the JSL men’s basketball! Sunday was a great day of unexpected outcomes, including the sprinklers at LMS suddenly going on a few times! We partnered with the Rip It Card Co for their grand opening, and the boys are eagerly anticipating the raffle for a Jalen Brunson signed basketball that the boys all got tickets for. Now let’s take a look into some of the matchups….

1st Grade Future Care Consultants 10, Maidenbaum 9 This thriller was highlighted by Future Care’s Avi Eisenreich’s 2 amazing catches and double play! He was given MVP honors for making sure FCC was in good care.

Drifters 13, Wieder Orthodontics 6 Drifters really picked things up in the second half of the season after a slow start. They took care of business this week and Shua Badian had a standout performance.

2nd Grade Drifters 11, Bravo Pizza 1 Drifters pulled off an awesome upset win and MVP Dovid Levitan hit 3 home runs to lead the way for his team!

3rd Grade John’s Auto 20, Drifters 4 MVP Shmulie Rosenberg had a home run and a triple for John’s in a dominating victory over Drifters!

VMM Legal Eagles 16, Town Appliance 14 The VMM law firm was a highlighted sponsor this week giving out custom water bottles for the boys. Their service and expertise is the kind you will want from a legal team, and their Legal Eagles have exemplified similar quality on the field all season. They came into the postseason as a top seed and delivered a first round win. Congrats to Coaches Yanky Berman and AC and VMM’s very own team father and VMM lawyer, Avraham Geffen!

4th Grade Drifters 1, Extreme Vent Cleaning 5 Coach Ezra Beren rallied his boys to the 2nd round behind more superb pitching from Shmuli Sitzer and MVP Dovi Sitzer who hit a monster home run!

Eden Gardens 9, Built By Nate 8 In an exhibition we were excited to see two teams absolutely show up and bring it! This game was great! MVP and as someone else put it “MVT – Most Valuable Talker” Moishy Sebrow led the Eden Gardens team with his voice and leadership. Moishy and his teammates

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Ezra Academy Honors Excellence and Character at Awards Night Bikur Cholim of Five Towns & Far Rockaway brought flowers and cheer before Shavuos to residents at The Five Towns Premier Rehabilitation Center

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zra Academy celebrated its outstanding students at the highly anticipated Awards Night 2025.

The event brought together students, faculty, and families to recognize academic excellence, personal growth, leadership, and commitment to Torah values.

With heartfelt speeches, proud applause, and a palpable sense of community, the evening served as a culmination of a year marked by hard work and meaningful achievement. Honors were bestowed across a wide range of categories, including academic distinction, middot development, student leadership, extracurricular involvement, and community service.

Among the evening’s highlights were the presentations of the valedictorian and salutatorian awards to this year’s graduating seniors, as well as specialty recognitions such as the Ameilut Award, Yagata U’Matzatah Ta’amin Award, Temimut

Award, and Derech Eretz Award—each symbolizing core values central to the school’s mission.

“Tonight is not only a celebration of what our students have accomplished, but who they are becoming,” said Ms. Sima Fish, principal of Ezra Academy.

“These awards reflect effort, kindness, determination, and integrity—the true markers of success in our community and beyond.”

Student performers, heartfelt tributes, and inspiring faculty reflections added to the evening’s warm atmosphere, creating memories that will last long after diplomas are handed out.

As Ezra Academy closes the chapter on another incredible school year, Awards Night 2025 reaffirmed the school’s commitment to nurturing not just minds, but hearts and souls—preparing its students to lead with wisdom, strength, and compassion.

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n June 4, HAFTR Middle School hosted an unforgettable and deeply moving Names, Not Numbers® evening—an event that marked the culmination of a year-long journey in Holocaust education, memory, and responsibility. Now in its 14th year, this sacred program brings together students from both HAFTR and Lawrence Middle School in a powerful partnership rooted in shared purpose and humanity.

Throughout the year, eighth grade students from both schools collaborated, learning the skills of historical research, interviewing, and filmmaking. But far more meaningful than any technical skill was the rare and sacred opportunity they had: to sit face-to-face with Holocaust survivors and World War II veterans, to listen to their stories of unimaginable loss, strength, and faith, and to become the next generation of memory-keepers. The students understood that as the number of survivors dwindles, their responsibility grows—this may be the last generation to hear these stories firsthand.

The evening began with remarks from Dr. Yali Werzberger, Assistant Principal of HAFTR Middle School, Joshua Gold, HAFTR K-8 Principal, as well as Mr. Willis Perry, Principal of Lawrence Middle School, and Ms. Karen Silver, Assistant Principal of Lawrence Middle School, who each expressed the value of the project to not only their students but to the world at large. They were then followed by student reflections from both schools that spoke of transformation, perspective, and deep personal growth while working on the project. Tova Fish-Rosenberg, founder of Names, Not Numbers®, addressed the audience and shared that over 8,000 students have taken part in this program to date, underscoring its impact and the vital role our students now play in shaping Holocaust remembrance.

The centerpiece of the event was the

JUNE 12, 2025 | The Jewish Home

HAFTR Hosts Names Not Numbers Program

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premiere of a documentary entirely created by the students. With sensitivity and care, they shared survivors’ stories—from their lives before the war, to their experiences during the Holocaust, and their journeys of resilience and rebuilding. The film was more than a project; it was a sacred tribute, leaving the audience visibly moved and inspired.

After the film, closing remarks were made by Ms. Ivy Adwar, a teacher at Lawrence Middle School, who expressed her deep appreciation for participating in such a critical yet meaningful endeavor. Lastly, Mrs. Rinat Balsam, HAFTR’s project coordinator and eighth grade English teacher, thanked the survivors with gifts while students went up to greet and extend their gratitude to them and their families.

Names, Not Numbers® is not just about preserving history—it is about forging identity. At HAFTR, we strive to instill in our students a strong sense of Jewish pride, moral courage, and responsibility to speak out against injustice. In partnership with Lawrence Middle School, we are proud to be part of this meaningful and enduring effort.

We thank the survivors and veterans for their bravery, the educators for their leadership, and the students for honoring the past with heart, humility, and hope.

May the lessons learned live on through them, and may we all continue to be guardians of memory and messengers of light.

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Mr. Daniel Lifshitz, a great-grandfather of Yeshiva Darchei Torah talmidim, inspired the bachurim of the Mesivta with recollections of his early years in America and mesiras nefesh for Yiddishkeit

HALB Navi Play

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he fifth grade girls at HALB put on a beautiful Navi play for their mothers, grandmothers, and students in third and fourth grade. They then displayed their projects and ran a carnival for the younger students.

Aliyah to the GCP at Yeshiva Har Torah

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eshiva Har Torah’s second graders made “Aliyah to the GCP” this past Friday. With cheers, songs, and excitement, students and parents walked proudly from the ELC to our

new home for third grade! The GCP crew welcomed us with a balloon arch, music, dancing, and smiles all around. The second grade students met the amazing third grade Dream Team and celebrated

with refreshing Rita’s Italian Ices! Special thank you to the local Precincts 105 and 111 for their continuous and wholehearted support in keeping our community safe.

complishments of all of our students. We know that they will transition beautifully into kindergarten and look forward to their continued growth in our new West Hempstead HANC campus.”

HANC wishes to thank the dedicated ECC staff for providing their students with a loving, nurturing environment in which to learn and grow and for all of their efforts to make this past year of learning so exciting and meaningful for

their young students. Hakarat hatov also goes to Morah Kayli Joseph, for writing some of the songs that the children sang and for accompanying them so beautifully on her keyboard. Additional thanks go to the PTA for providing the yummy treats that added icing on the cake for the darling yeladim, which left them with extra sweet memories of their year in the HANC Early Childhood Center.

Yom Shalom at HANC ECC

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t has been weeks of joy and celebration in HANC’s Early Childhood Center in West Hempstead. Our new Shirainu, Nursery Aleph culmination program named by Morah Shani, focused on what the children learned this year. They were so proud of all of their accomplishments. The four-year-old students performed in their Yom Shalom ceremony, which served as a moving up and end-ofthe-year celebration. As the parents and grandparents of the Nursery Bet children entered the auditorium, there was a tremendous sense of excitement in the air.

Performing a delightful mix of Hebrew and English songs, accompanied by the ECC music teacher, Morah Kayli Joseph, the children expressed their gratitude to Hashem for everything that He has bestowed upon them.

Throughout the delightful program, we stopped to recognize Eretz Yisroel and sang Acheinu to wish everyone well. The

children also thanked their families for their love and support, their friends who add so much joy to their lives, and for their teachers who taught them so much during the course of the year. HANC alumni Morah Rena Maryles, Morah Chana Goldenberg and Morah Caryn Lenefsky even taught the children the school song that they used to sing when they were young students in HANC. At the conclusion of the program, each child received a certificate of completion and then joined their families for a delicious dessert reception that was sponsored by the HANC PTA. The children have all grown in tremendous ways, physically, educationally and emotionally, and their many accomplishments were reflected in their Yom Shalom Ceremonies. As Morah Trudy Rubinstein, Director of HANC’S Early Childhood Center, stated, “We are extremely proud of all of the growth and ac-

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Mess Day at Gan Chamesh

$623,000 Nassau County Grant for a Brighter, Safer Lawrence

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ess Day was called “the best day ever” by the children at Gan Chamesh. It was a day of uninhibited fun and joy, where the children had a full body experience, exploring different textures. They loved diving into mountains of foam, slathering

shaving cream, digging in a sand kitchen, and engaging in exciting water play, among other activities. It was a blast for the children and helped them work as teams, problem-solve and experiment with different mediums. We wish Mess Day could be every day!

he Village of Lawrence has received a $623,000 grant from Nassau County through the efforts of Legislator Howard Kopel for beautification and restoration. These funds will ensure the completion of the planned upgrade for 800 carriage fixtures to be fitted with bright new LED lights with better light distribution.

Plans also include installation of additional surveillance cameras and license plate readers to enhance village security.

Finally, historic Rock Hall Road will be restored with new pavement, sidewalks, and tree plantings.

“I am extremely proud to announce that the Nassau County Legislature’s presiding officer, Howard Kopel, has worked through the budget and granted the Village of Lawrence $623,000 on behalf of the county,” Mayor Nahmias said.

“The grant is for beautification, which includes replacement of all the (street) lights in Lawrence. Security cameras will be purchased with that as well, and Rock Hall Road will have a new road.”

Following the news of the grant facilitated by State Sen. Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick of $150,000 for improved lighting along 878 near the Atlantic Beach Bridge, and the innovative plans to combat the greenhead fly, Mayor Nahmias comments, “These projects reflect our administration’s firm commitment to deliver meaningful, tangible improvements to the Village of Lawrence.

Whether it’s a safer road, a brighter streetlight, a new sidewalk or relief from insects, each initiative is rooted in one goal: improving the quality of life for our residents.”

CHAZAQ Hosts Parlor Meeting in Lawrence

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n a powerful evening that stirred hearts and reaffirmed commitment to the Jewish education, CHAZAQ held an exclusive parlor meeting at the elegant home of Mr. and Mrs. Ahron Wolfson in the Five Towns . The event united community leaders, philanthropists, and friends of Jewish education to support CHAZAQ’s expanding network of afterschool programs that uplift public school students across New York and beyond.

The night’s highlight was a stirring keynote address by Don Ghermezian, CEO of the American Dream Mall. Revered for both his business acumen and his deep dedication to Torah values, Mr. Ghermezian spoke with passion about the transformative power of education,

the responsibility we all share in shaping the next generation, and how CHAZAQ is at the forefront of that mission.

Yaakov Barzideh, who cochaired the event, emphasized how CHAZAQ had become a movement that restores identity, purpose, and hope to Jewish youth who might otherwise be lost to our tradition.

The emotional pinnacle of the evening came when a young woman, once a public school student herself, shared her personal journey. She described how CHAZAQ found her at a time when she knew little about her heritage. Through the warmth and guidance of CHAZAQ’s afterschool programs, she enrolled in a yeshiva, embraced Torah life, and today—full circle—she now works for CHAZAQ, dedicating her life to inspiring

other public school students just like her.

“CHAZAQ didn’t just change my life— it gave me a life,” she said tearfully. “Now I have the privilege to give that same gift to others.”

The atmosphere in the Wolfson home was one of inspiration, unity, and purpose. The hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Ahron Wolfson—renowned for their global support of Jewish causes—welcomed guests into a beautifully prepared setting filled with warmth and elegance, setting the perfect tone for an evening of meaning.

Rabbi Ilan Meirov, CHAZAQ’s Director, opened the program with a passionate appeal: “Every Jewish child deserves the opportunity to know who they are and where they come from. CHAZAQ is here to make sure that no child is left be-

hind.”

CHAZAQ’s afterschool initiatives impact thousands of students, offering academic support, mentorship, and a foundation in Torah values—all in a nurturing environment with a special emphasis on transferring students to Yeshiva.

“We’re seeing real transformation,” Rabbi Meirov said. “Young people are discovering their Jewish identity, their voice, and their mission. The ripple effect is beyond anything we imagined.”

The evening concluded with a heartfelt call to action. Attendees responded with generosity and resolve, pledging their continued partnership in CHAZAQ’s mission to build a brighter, stronger future for Klal Yisrael—one neshama at a time.

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This week, in TAG’s ABC program with Morah Dena Isaacs, MA OTR/L, our students played a fun writing game to differentiate between letter G and letter Q. Here at TAG Ganger Early Childhood, our students have learned that learning to write is so much fun!

HANC Wax Museum

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he auditorium in HANC’s Elementary School in West Hempstead was recently transformed into a wax museum which was created

by Mrs. Mindy Lehmann’s and Mrs. Bella Matatov’s third grade classes. The room was decorated like a castle from a fairy tale, complete with a palace gate, heroes, knights, portrait gallery and creative chandeliers.

This extraordinary program was the culmination of a research project on a famous person whom they wanted to portray in the museum. Utilizing their reading, research, computer and art skills, the students then created a myriad of presentations and artifacts that reflected their famous person. Once their person was selected, each child read a book about them, filled in a fact sheet about their life, created a speech about the person, and recorded all that they learned in a Google slide presentation complete with a timeline that recorded the significant moments in their life and a word cloud that included adjectives that described the character of the famous person that they had chosen. All of these presentations were included in a website for all the families to enjoy.

On the morning of the event, significant figures from the past to the present came to life as each child came dressed

famous people included scientists, world leaders, entrepreneurs, athletes, authors, explorers, entertainers and fashion designers. Some of the famous people that were featured were: Benjamin Franklin, Jacques Cousteau, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Ilan Ramon, Alex Trebek, Oskar Schindler, and Wayne Gretsky. The children stood like wax statues and only spoke when approached by a museum visitor. As the room filled with parents, the children proudly recited their speeches, highlighting the significant moments and accomplishments of their famous person.

Later that morning, the first and second graders were invited down to the auditorium for a Wax Museum Fashion Show.

This year’s Wax Museum was made possible by a generous donation from Mrs. Randi Silber and family in memory of Randi’s mother, Mrs. Marion Zierler z”l. Mrs. Silber shared with the students and guests that her mother was a lifelong learner who loved to read. She expressed her pride in her grandson, Binyamin Silber, a current third grader, and his participation in this year’s museum. Mrs. Zierler’s love of reading and learning will continue to inspire us all for many years to come.

NYS Assemblyman and Cedarhurst Deputy Mayor Ari Brown and Cedarhurst Trustee Dan Plaut recently arranged for weekly NCPD protection for the Cedarhurst Run for Their Lives weekly walk

HAFTR Mock Trial Team Finishes Undefeated Season

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n an exciting and inspiring season, HAFTR’s Lower School Mock Trial Team went undefeated, capping off their success with a culminating trial held at the Nassau County Supreme Court. The young litigators impressed judges and spectators alike with their poise, preparation, and powerful arguments.

The team was expertly guided by dedicated volunteer lawyer moms, Sharon Aspis and Tamar Weinrib, whose mentorship and enthusiasm brought re-

al-world experience and passion into every practice and courtroom appearance.

Under their leadership, students learned not only the art of legal reasoning but also the importance of teamwork, public speaking, and confidence.

This season’s undefeated record is a testament to the students’ hard work, their coaches’ commitment, and the school’s dedication to hands-on learning experiences. Congratulations to the entire team on an incredible journey and a well-deserved victory!

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Thousands Join in Massive Display of Kavod HaTorah at Adirei HaTorah Gathering Photos by Yossi Gee

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Strong Show of Support for the Madraigos Annual Five Towns Breakfast

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his past Sunday morning, June 8, the beautiful home of Devory and Yossi Davidson was filled with warmth, unity, and purpose as friends and supporters gathered for the Madraigos Annual Five Towns Breakfast. The event brought together a devoted community committed to uplifting the youth, young adults, and families served by Madraigos through innovative prevention programming and critical intervention services.

The energy in the room reflected more than just attendance—it revealed a deep, shared commitment to supporting those navigating life’s challenges.

Madraigos continues to thrive because of people who show up not only with their presence but with purpose, passion, and the will to make a difference.

Rabbi Dov Silver, Founder and Executive Vice President of Madraigos, opened the event with heartfelt words of appreciation for the Davidsons’ gracious hospitality and their pivotal role in creating a meaningful and memorable gathering.

“The existence and growth of Madraigos is thanks to sincere, committed friends like the Davidsons,” he shared.

“I’m deeply touched by their genuine sensitivity to the needs of our teens and young adults, and I am humbled by their warmth and dedication.”

Corporate sponsors from across the region demonstrated outstanding support for Madraigos’ mission. Leading sponsors included Cross River, Miller Realty, Visionville, SHMA Camps, Town Appliance, Platinum, and And Beyond.

These generous contributors—spanning a wide range of sectors—underscored the community’s collective values and commitment to addressing the challenges faced by families and youth. Madraigos extends heartfelt thanks to all the sponsors for their invaluable support and partnership.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of Devory and Yossi Davidson, along with the devoted event committee, Madraigos was introduced to many new friends from the Five Towns and surrounding communi-

ties. Attendees learned more about the extensive services Madraigos offers to families both locally and beyond.

“It was a true privilege for me and my family to be involved with Madraigos and support the incredible work they do,” said Yossi Davidson. “Their dedication to helping individuals and families in our community is inspiring, and the impact they make each year is truly remarkable.

We are grateful to play even a small part in their important mission.”

Mrs. Sharon Gross, Executive Director of Madraigos, concluded, “We are

sincerely grateful to the Davidson family for their passionate involvement and to all who helped make this Breakfast a tremendous success. We look forward to continuing these relationships as we grow stronger together in meeting the evolving needs of our community.”

To learn more about Madraigos or to support the Annual Breakfast campaign, please visit www.madraigos.org or call 516-371-3250. The community can still participate by visiting www.madraigos. org/breakfast.

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Around the Community

Lev Chana’s Trip to Big HALB

BYAM and BYQ Pen Pals Meet

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he Lev Chana Kindergarten children had a very exciting day last week. They went on a special trip to Big HALB! They met their teachers for next year and had the chance to get some advice from the current first graders.

Looks like they are ready for first grade!

YOSS Students Participate in End-of-the-Year Math Olympics

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he Pre-1A classes in Bais Yaakov Ateres Miriam and Bais Yaakov of Queens celebrated their yearlong Pen Pal relationship by getting together. BYQ Pre1A-Z came by bus to the new BYAM Preschool wing. The girls exchanged gifts with their pen pals, played together in the playground and

then enjoyed a Pizza Picnic! Morah Deenie, BYAM’s preschool director, read the girls a funny story about friends. After a refreshing ices treat, the pals-turnedfriends bid each other farewell. Making friends and memories together was so much fun!

Mesivta Athletics Crowns Champions

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he halls of Yeshiva of South Shore buzzed with an electric mix of concentration and excitement recently as students from grades one through five participated in Math Olympics. Far from a typical year-end review, this event transformed the typical review of a year’s worth of mathematics into a vibrant and engaging competition, celebrating academic achievement.

The Math Olympics, designed to comprehensively review all the math concepts taught throughout the academic year, saw students tackling a variety of challenges tailored to their grade level.

Young minds were put to the test through a series of fun, interactive math games, demonstrating an impressive grasp of numerical principles and logical thinking.

The friendly competitive atmosphere, combined with the satisfaction of tackling complex problems, created a truly memorable experience for the young par-

ticipants. The goal was to make reviewing math fun and challenging. A great time was had by all!

Students eagerly awaited the announcement of the winners, their faces beaming with pride as gold, silver, and bronze medals were presented to the champions of each grade. The ceremony served as a powerful testament to the students’ hard work and dedication and the school’s commitment to fostering a love for learning.

The Yeshiva of South Shore Math Olympics proved to be an innovative and highly effective method for reinforcing crucial academic concepts. By transforming review into a spirited competition, the school successfully engaged its students, instilled confidence, and celebrated their mathematical prowess.

With such a positive reception, the Math Olympics is sure to become a cherished annual tradition at Yeshiva of South Shore.

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s another exciting year of Mesivta Athletics comes to a close!

Congratulations go to the MAY Eagles on their Varsity Basketball championship win over the Netzach Knights and to the Darchei Devils for their Junior Varsity Football victory over the Netzach Knights. These teams join the other 2024-2025 champions: the Net-

zach Knights in Varsity Football, Darchei Devils in Junior Varsity Basketball, MAY Eagles in Varsity Hockey, and Darchei Devils in Junior Varsity Hockey. The League expresses its deep appreciation to all coaches, players, and fans for their dedication and commitment throughout another great year of Mesivta Athletics!

Did you know?

The deepest known cave on Earth is the Voronya Cave, located in the country of Georgia. It plunges around 7,257 feet below the surface.

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his past week, MTA had the tremendous zechus to celebrate with over 500 talmidim, rebbeim, faculty, parents, and grandparents at their annual Yeshiva-Wide Siyum and Seudas Preida. The energy in the room was palpable as the yeshiva community came together to recognize and rejoice in the incredible Torah growth their talmidim have achieved this year.

The evening began at the end of the yeshiva day as the whole yeshiva descended on the Beis Medrash. Even after a full day of classes, the talmidim quickly came together to learn with their chavrusos and their rebbeim. The kol Torah reverberated throughout the building.

The Seudas Preida and Siyum opened with divrei Torah from both talmidim and rebbeim, followed by siyumim on five different masechtos. It was a true simchas haTorah, punctuated by incred-

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MTA’s Siyum and Seudas Preida Was an Inspiring Night for All

ible dancing, an uplifting kumzitz, and a beautiful fleishig seuda. The yeshiva was especially proud of the 90 talmidim who completed an entire masechta, an inspiring accomplishment!

This year, MTA inaugurated a new yearly custom of completing Maseches Tamid l’zecher nishmas their dear talmid, Donny Morris Z”L (‘20). When Donny was a talmid in MTA, he connected deeply to the learning of this masechta and the yeshiva hopes to continue the learning in his memory.

The Seudas Preida concluded with each Rebbe presenting his talmidim with personally inscribed seforim, creating a powerful and memorable moment that highlights the deep relationships between the talmidim and their rebbeim.

This special evening served as a beautiful reflection of the depth, commitment, and ruach that defines Torah life at MTA. 212-481-3721

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Around the Community

Yachad New York Gala Celebrates Inclusion and Honors Community Partners Credit_ Abbie Sophia Photography

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Chani Herrmann, associate director of Yachad, presents the IVDU Family Award to the Trauring family

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he Yachad New York Gala, held on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, was an evening filled with support and inspiration, celebrating Yachad families, participants, staff members, and advisors. Attendees gathered at the Woodmere Country Club for a special evening which highlighted the honorees and the collective impact of Yachad for individuals with disabilities, their families and beyond.

“Yachad means together, and we aren’t only looking to engage with our participants. We’re also looking to engage with the New York communities we operate in to create a space where everyone belongs,” says Jonathan Zar, regional director of Yachad New York.

Yachad is an international organi-

zation that’s dedicated to enriching the lives of Jewish individuals with disabilities and their families, via social, recreational, educational, and vocational programs in 10 regions across the United States, Israel, and Canada.

“The Yachad Gala is more than a celebration,” says Rebecca Shatz, Director of Development, Yachad New York. “It’s really a testament to the power of inclusion. Every story shared and connection formed is a powerful reminder of why we do this work.”

The gala centered around the organization’s three core pillars: education, employment, and relationships – highlighting Yachad’s IVDU schools as the educational component, the Jewish Union Foundation (JUF) which provides em-

Jon Zar, regional director, Yachad NY, presents the School Partnership Award to SAR students

ployment services, and the relationships fostered through Yachad’s summer and regional programs.

Yachad New York offers unique social integration opportunities for individuals with disabilities of all ages, including nightly activities and Shabbatons, to foster inclusion in the greater Jewish community. Every honoree was celebrated for their dedication, commitment, and leadership within this region. Among the honorees were Beth and David Swedarsky, Yachad Dor L’ Dor Award recipients; Sarah and Aaron Trauring, IVDU Family Award recipients; and Rosie Bleich, Keter Shem Tov Award recipient.

Additionally, SAR was honored with the School Partnership Award for their role in fostering support and inclusion oppor-

tunities for individuals with disabilities.

Yachad’s leadership, including international director Avromie Adler and associate director Chani Herrmann, were excited to participate in this meaningful event.

“Mazel tov to all the honorees,” says Herrmann. “We are so grateful to the New York community for coming out to support Yachad. This was an incredible night filled with dedication and tremendous support for all the work we are doing together.”

There is still time to make a contribution to support the work of Yachad New York. Donate now at yachad.org/newyork/gala.

Green Acres Recognizes Ten Local Schools with $15,350 in Awards

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reen Acres, a premier shopping center located in Valley Stream, Long Island, celebrated ten local schools through its annual School Cents program, awarding a total of $15,350 in funding to support PTA initiatives. On Saturday, June 7, school administrators and PTA representatives gathered at the mall for a celebratory check presentation.

Green Acres’ School Cents program rewards school communities for their active involvement at the center. From September through April, teachers, parents and friends of each school earned points by submitting receipts from shopping, dining and service purchases, as well as attending mall-hosted events. At the end

of the program, each school’s total points were tallied and translated into a monetary award, with every participating PTA receiving a cash prize based on their final ranking.

The ten participating schools included Brooklyn Avenue School, Robert W. Carbonaro School, Forest Road School, William L. Buck School, Lawrence Elementary School, Lawrence Primary School, Shaw Avenue School, Lawrence Woodmere Academy, Valley Stream Christian Academy and Wheeler Elementary School.

“The School Cents program continues to be one of Green Acres’ ways of giving back with the goal of turning everyday

visits to the mall into meaningful support for local education,” said Jill Bromberg, Marketing Community Relations Manager of Green Acres. “We were proud to celebrate the incredible efforts of these PTA communities and support the important work they do for our children.”

Green Acres’ School Cents program is part of the center’s broader mission to encourage education, reward community participation and provide lasting impact to local families.

“It’s heartening to see Green Acres not only investing in the future of our children though the School Cents program, but also helping teach them the importance of saving and investing in their

communities,” said Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages. “This powerful partnership between Green Acres and our PTAs raises vital funds for our schools while instilling valuable life lessons in the next generation.”

Green Acres is a Macerich property and one of four New York retail centers, including The Shops at Atlas Park, Queens Center and Kings Plaza. For more information on these locations and the Macerich properties throughout the U.S. visit https://www.macerich.com/ Leasing.

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1. *

TJH

Centerfold

Flag Trivia 7. How many folds are in a ceremonial flag folding? a. 10 b. 7 c. 13 d. 21

1. When is Flag Day celebrated? a. June 14 b. July 4 c. June 4 d. May 14 2. The largest American flag ever flown, known as the Superflag, was owned by Thomas Demski of California. It is 505 wide, 225 feet tall, and weighs 300 pounds.

When unfurled at the Super Bowl it took 500 people to stretch it out and hold it. How tall is each star on the flag? a. 4 feet b. 9 feet c. 17 feet d. 62 feet 3. Which U.S. building displays over 200 American flags? a. The Betsy Ross museum b. The Pentagon c. The Capitol d. The Library of Congress 4. In 2006, a Revolutionary War-era U.S. flag sold at auction for how much? a. $12.3 million b. $21 million c. $45 million d. $217.5 million

5. How many versions of the U.S. flag have there been?

A. 13 B. 37 C. 27 D. 50 6. Robert G. “Bob” Heft designed the current 50star U.S. flag in 1958 as a high school project while attending Lancaster High School in Ohio. Heft meticulously arranged and sewed 50 stars (even though only 48 states existed then) onto a blue canton made from a 48-star flag inherited from his parents What grade did he get on the project? a. A+ b. Bc. C d. F

8. What happened to the flag planted on the Moon in 1969? a. It was removed and brought back b. It’s still there, but likely bleached white c. It was stolen by aliens d. It burned up on re-entry Answers: 1-A 2-C 3-B 4-A 5-C 6-B 7-C 8-B Wisdom Key: 6-8 correct: Happy Flag Day! L’flaga tova!

3-5 correct: You are a few stars short of a full flag.

0-2 correct: You’ve got more bunting than brains.

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You’ve called in sick to work on Flag Day…and felt it was patriotic.

Riddle Me This Three campers — Abe, Baruch, and Chaim — each brought a different flag to hang outside their tents: a checkered flag, a skull flag, and a smiley face flag.

Your shidduch resume has an American flag on it.

You’ve gotten into a heated argument about the correct flag-folding technique…at a family barbecue.

You describe your mood as “half-mast.”

You starch your flag more often than your dress shirts.

Your ringtone is “The Star-Spangled Banner” – in four-part harmony.

You own more flag-themed socks than you do regular socks.

You once stopped traffic to rescue a flag that was “flapping disrespectfully.”

Abe did not bring the smiley face flag.

The person with the skull flag is next to Chaim’s tent.

Baruch’s tent is not next to the checkered flag.

Each person has one flag, and the tents are in a straight row.

Who has which flag?

You get your flags dry cleaned.

You call Betsy Ross “Aunt Bets.”

You Gotta Be Kidding Me Which flag is the most highly rated?

The American flag. It has 50 stars.

Answer: Abe – skull flag Baruch – smiley face flag Chaim – checkered flag

Your dream vacation? The United Nations Headquarters, so you can see all the flags.

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You Might Be a Flag Nut If…

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PARSHA OVERVIEW

Aharon is instructed how to kindle the Menorah in the Mishkan (Tabernacle). The Levites are inaugurated to their special role. Korban Pesach was offered in the desert; those who were impure brought their offering a month later. The Jewish people prepare for their departure from Sinai and their first stops in the desert. The Jews complain a few times and are rebuked. Miriam criticizes Moshe, gets tzaraas, and is then healed.

“

Torah parks S Inspiration. Everywhere.

on

Beha’aloscha

QUICK VORT

Quotable Quote

”

“Holiness is the space we make for G-d.”

Rabbi Lord J. Sacks zt”l

GEMATRIA

Parshas Beha’aloscha happens to be the 36th parshah of the Torah.

This is incredible, because Parshas Beha’aloscha begins with the discussion of the lighting of the Menorah, and we know, the total number of candles we light on Chanukah is 36!

Rabbi Ori Strum is the author of “Ready. Set. Grow.” “Dove Tales,” and “Karpas: The Big Dipper.”

His shiurim and other Jewish content can be found on Torah Anytime and Meaningful Minute.

You can reach him at 443-938-0822 or oristrum@torahsparks.com

Prior to kindling the flames of the Menorah, the Kohen was required to climb the steps that was positioned in front of the Menorah.

There is an important message here.

In order to kindle something else someone else - you must first be "kindled" yourself.

To teach confidence, you must breathe confidence. To teach passion, you must live with passion. To teach joy, you must experience joy.

As such, the Kohen first had to climb up - experience a moment of elevation - and feel lofty, chashuv, and elevated within, and then - and only then - can he go ahead and light the Menorah, which would illuminate beyond.

In our Avodas Hashem, it is so important that we feel qualified and important; not because we deserved it per se, but because Hashem chose us. He handpicked us, and that means something.

The candles of the Menorah would face the middle candle, teaching us that no matter what greatness we possess, we must strive to channel in towards a spiritual and holy cause, and utilize this gift from Hashem to light up the world.

PARSHA STATS Pesukim - 136 Words - 1,840 Letters - 7,056 Mitzvos - 5

Thoughts in Chassidus In Mishlei (20:27), we are taught, “Man’s soul is a lamp of G-d.” Our soul illuminates G-dliness, and it is up to us to access this light and allow it to shine forth. The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that the instruction of Beha’aloscha “to fire up the lamps” - is a message to turn on the switch/button inside every Jew, igniting the fiery soul within!

Did You Know?!

A source for saying “Im Yirtzah Hashem” and “B’ezras Hashem” are from this week’s parsha! The Shla"h HaKadosh learns from the verses of ‫ על פי ה יסעו ועל פי ה יחנו‬an allusion to the concept of saying ‫אם‬ ‫ ירצה ה‬or ‫בעזרת ה‬. We should make it a practice to say these things so as to incorporate Hashem into every facet of our lives.

Points to Ponder The Menorah was 18 tefachim high, which is a little over 5 feet tall. If so, why were steps necessary by the Menorah? After all, the average person/kohen should have been tall enough to reach the top of the Menorah without the means of steps?

(See the Quick Vort for a possible approach)

Scan the QR code to view Torah classes from R’ Ori Strum on Torah Anytime!

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Torah Thought

Parshas Beha’aloscha

By Rabbi Berel Wein

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he troubles, disappointments and disasters that visit the Jewish people on their trek through the Sinai desert begin in this week’s parsha. Moshe announces that “we are traveling now to our ultimate destination – the Land of Israel.”

But deep down in their hearts, the people are not really that anxious to go there. They have in their minds and hearts two options: either to remain in

the desert and live a life of supernatural miracles and become the dor deah – the generation of exclusive intellect and Torah knowledge – or to return somehow to Egypt with all that that radical move would entail, physically and spiritually.

The Torah will soon detail for us that neither of these two options are satisfactory either. They will complain about the manna that falls from heaven daily and the seeming lack of variety in their

meals. They don’t like the water supply, which is never guaranteed to them.

They remember the good food that they supposedly had in Egypt, but according to Midrash, only a small minority actually wishes to return to Egypt on a permanent basis. They will press forward with Moshe to reach the promised Land of Israel, but they will do so reluctantly and halfheartedly.

This will lead inexorably to further rebellion, tragedy and the death of an entire generation – notwithstanding its being a dor deah – in the desert of Sinai. This makes this week’s parsha a sad

Moshe’s clarion call – “that we are traveling to the place” of our destiny – echoes throughout the Jewish ages. Not all such calls are heard and even fewer are followed. Nevertheless, the call has resonated within the Jewish people throughout its history. It is that call that appears in today’s parsha and again it is that call that Moshe proclaimed millennia ago that was and is the guiding motive for the existence of the State of Israel today.

Just as then in the desert, there are options for Jews today present in our world. The many “Egypts” of the world

Moshe’s clarion call – “that we are traveling to the place” of our destiny – echoes throughout the Jewish ages.

and depressing one, for we already know the end of the story. We can already see that this generation has doomed itself to desolation and destruction.

Coming to the Land of Israel and its Jewish state, whether as a tourist and most certainly when someone immigrates, requires commitment and enthusiasm. There are many who came to Israel over the past one hundred years by default, but the country has truly been served and built by those who came with a sense of mission, purpose, happiness and expectation.

beckon with their seeming allure but also with great underlying faults and dangers. And there are those who wish to continue to live in a desert that demands nothing from them and contemplate themselves somehow as being a dor deah. History has always arisen and smitten these options from the Jewish future. The long trek begun by Moshe and Israel in this week’s parsha continues. We hope that we are witnessing, at last, its final successful conclusion.

Shabat shalom.

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From the Fire Parshas Beha’aloscha

The Dialogue

By Rav Moshe Weinberger Adapted for publication by Binyomin Wolf

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he Torah says,“With the word of Hashem they camped, and with the word of Hashem they traveled” (Bamidbar 9:20). All of us are on a journey through life, and this journey must be undertaken with Hashem’s guidance. What does he want us to know to succeed in our trek through this world?

I would like to share a remarkable teaching from Rav Yaakov Abuchatzeira, zt”, found in the sefer Pituchei Chosam, explaining the deeper meaning of the dialogue between Moshe Rebbeinu and his father-in-law Yisro (ibid. 10:2934). In this conversation, Moshe Rebbeinu is the soul, consisting of three parts, the nefesh, ruach, and neshama.

Thus, Moshe’s side of the conversation uses the first-person plural – “we.” And Yisro is the body.

Rav Abuchatzeira explains that “it is known that the body is made of coarse material. Its desire and longing is therefore to attach itself to the vanities of this world and its pleasures, while the soul’s desire and longing is only for Torah and good deeds, which are her primary purpose for coming [into the world] because she is a piece of G-d above.”

Because the body will eventually end up the grave, the soul tries to cause it to realize that pursuing physical pleasures to the exclusion of eternal, lasting goals is pointless. And because the soul is dependent on the body to fulfill its eternal purpose, it attempts to enlighten the body to focus on the supernal parts of life benefits the body as well as the soul.

When the pasuk says, “And Moshe spoke,” it refers to the soul. “To Chovev [Yisro]” refers to the body because the word Chovev comes from the root word meaning “precious,” since the body can also recognize the preciousness of To-

rah and good deeds. And the Torah calls Yisro “ben Reuel,” which literally means “friend of G-d” – even the body is called Hashem’s friend when it works to learn Torah and do mitzvos. The pasuk then describes Yisro as “chosein Moshe,” father-in-law of Moshe. But the word for father-in-law also means “chassan, groom,” because the body is the soul’s partner in their joint pursuit of Torah and mitzvos in this world.

The soul tells the body, “We are travelling.” The soul is trying to deliver the message that no one knows how long he or she will be in the world such that he could think, “Because I have a long time still left to live, I can do teshuvah later.”

Every day could be his last. Accordingly, she tells the body that “we are traveling” from this world today or tomorrow. We

must live today with our eternal welfare in mind because we do not know how much more time we have.

Moshe continues that we are traveling “to the place,” meaning to the World to Come, “about which Hashem said, ‘I will give it to you.’ Go with us.”

In other words, “Follow our advice and only devote yourself to good deeds.” If you do this, Moshe/the soul assures the body, “We will cause it to be good for you.” Meaning that through Torah and mitzvos, the body also gets tremendous benefit, because it is only through those good deeds that it merits to come alive again at the time of the resurrection of the dead. It will then have its soul returned to it and attain great and lofty spiritual levels.

The soul then clarifies that the body

will also benefit because “Hashem has spoken good regarding the Jewish people.” Resurrection of the dead is only for the Jewish people. The soul tells the body, “Because we have a right to earn this eternal, why should we miss out by squandering our life here on earth with ephemeral and fleeting pursuits?”

At first, the body refuses: “And He [Yisro] said, ‘I will not go.’” Because its nature is part of the natural world, it responded that it would not follow the soul’s advice by nullifying the pleasures of this world. “Instead, I will go to my land and birthplace.” The body demurs, saying that it will follow its own earthly, physical nature and pursue the pleasures of this world.

Moshe/the neshama therefore redoubles her efforts: “Do not abandon us!” The soul needs the body because it is only through the body that the soul can act in the physical world. “You know our encampments in the desert.” In other words, “You know that our only encampment in this world is within you.”

The pasuk hints at this because the word desert, midbar, also means “one who speaks, medaber – a human being. The body is the soul’s “spokesman” because only through the body can the soul engage with the world.

The soul then continues, “And it will be when you go with us…” As we know, the word meaning “and it will be” implies joy and happiness (Bereishis Raba 43:3). The soul is telling the body that it can experience no greater joy than going with her and following her guidance.

“You will receive that same good that G-d will do with us.” In other words, “You will enjoy that same world of the resurrection of the dead that we will enjoy.”

The body then agrees, as the next pa-

him to his grandfather. The Meor Einayim sat his grandson on his lap and asked him to tell him where he had gone and what had happened. The boy answered: I heard two Jews talking outside Zayde’s house, and they said that Eliyahu HaNavi was in the marketplace. I got excited, and so I went to the market. I looked around, walk-

tential buyers came to “test drive” each horse, I noticed that some of them were a pleasure to ride. When the driver indicated that the horse should turn right, it turned right.

When they indicated that the horse should stop, go, slow down, or speed up, the horse would immediately do it. But I noticed a different type of

We must live today with our eternal welfare in mind because we do not know how much more time we have.

ing past each of the stalls. I saw many of the Jewish merchants, but I did not see Eliyahu. When I reached the end of the market street, there was a square with horses in a pen available for sale. I stood on the side watching. I noticed that there were two types of horses. When the po-

horse. There were some who were always conflicted, going this way and that, and the people test driving those horses were constantly struggling with their horses and attempting to cause them to go in the right direction. After watching for a while, I noticed that the horses

who were attentive to their drivers’ directions had all gone home with nice Jewish owners. But the rowdy, chaotic horses remained there still for sale at the end of the day.

The Meor Einayim told Yochantche that it seemed to him that he did see Eliyahu HaNavi in the lesson he learned from those horses. When the body, which is a Jew’s horse, listens to the soul’s guidance and advice, both of them are happy and both of them benefit in the long term. When one’s body remains conflicted and ignores the good advice of its rider, its soul, no one is better off in the end.

May all of us merit that our bodies and our souls work together in harmony harnessing the guidance of our souls and the power of our bodies to sanctify the physical world with the light of Hashem’s Presence throughout each of our journeys in life.

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.

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suk says, “And they traveled from the mountain of G-d,” because the mountain hints at the evil inclination (see Sukkah 52a). The body, together with the soul, travels away from evil and the pursuit of ephemeral pleasures. The Torah then says that the newly unified team traveled “a three-day journey.”

This hints at their devotion to the three parts of Torah to which a person dedicates himself – Tanach, Mishnah, and Gemara (Kiddushin 30a).

We find additional good advice in our journey through life from a sweet story of Rav Nachum Chernobyler, zy”a, known as the Meor Einayim. One day it happened that the family panicked because one of the Meor Einayim’s young grandchildren, Yochanan, who was called Yochantche, was missing. The family could not find him, but they knew that the Chernobyler had special eyes, so they ran to the boy’s grandfather to see if he could tell them where to find little Yochanan. The Rebbe “looked” for his grandson and told the family, “I do not know where Yochantche is, but he is all right. You will see that he will return home soon on his own.”

When he came back, they brought

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ANNUAL FIVE TOWNS BREAKFAST TO BENEFIT

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Torah Thought

To Build a Bayis Ne’eman B’Yisrael

By Nataly Magendzo Inspired by Kassy Akiba

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ast Shabbos, I had the zechus to hear Kassy Akiva, Deborah Ruth, an internationally renowned journalist and inspiring giyores, share her powerful journey of becoming a Jew. Her process of geirus spanned more than seven years, marked by trials, detours, and unwavering determination. Listening to her speak with such passion about mitzvos and her love for Yiddishkeit left a deep impression on all who were present.

At the end of her talk, the floor was opened for questions. One person asked Kassy if, throughout her journey, there was anything she didn’t like about the Orthodox community. After an hour and a half of heartfelt reflections and spiritual triumphs, we were all curious to hear what challenge might have stood out. Her answer was simple—and painful: “I didn’t like the amount of fighting among Orthodox Jews.”

That moment hit hard. Just hours before we would usher in Shavuos—the day we stood under the chuppah with Hashem to receive the Torah—her words echoed in my heart. How could it be that someone who chose to join our people with such self-sacrifice saw disunity as the hardest part of her experience?

Shavuos is our spiritual wedding day.

And what is a marriage without shalom bayis? Hashem took us as His people at Har Sinai, and yet today, so many years later, we struggle to maintain peace in our own house—among ourselves.

Let’s not even look beyond the Orthodox world for a moment. Just within our own communities, why do we find so much division? Why is unity so elusive?

On my walk home from the speech, I shared my thoughts with a friend. She invited me to join a group learning one halacha a day from the Chofetz Chaim’s sefer on lashon hara. Our first lesson was titled “The Source of Exile.”

Chazal teach that it was sinas chi-

nam—baseless hatred—that destroyed the second Beis HaMikdash and sent us into exile. The Chofetz Chaim makes it clear: this isn’t some ancient punishment dragging on for 2,000 years. Our exile continues because we haven’t fixed the cause. The responsibility lies with us.

ize just how much work we still need to do to get our house back.

We left the tumah of Mitzrayim, counted the Omer to refine ourselves, and stood at Sinai—unified—as one. K’ish echad b’lev echad. But what is the next significant date on the Jewish calendar

We are meant to use the inspiration of Matan Torah to repair what’s broken: our unity, our speech, our relationships.

Think of a newlywed couple, excited to build a home. Now imagine they can’t find a place to live because they keep fighting. How tragic would that be? And yet, that’s our story.

At every chuppah, we bless the couple: “May you merit to build a bayis ne’eman b’Yisrael.” We had such a home—with Hashem. Not one, but two. And we lost them both. Kassy’s words made me real-

after Shavuos? Tisha B’Av. The message could not be clearer. Tisha B’Av is not something we start thinking about on the 17th of Tammuz. The work starts now—right after Shavuos. We are meant to use the inspiration of Matan Torah to repair what’s broken: our unity, our speech, our relationships.

Hashem doesn’t have a home because we haven’t earned it yet. Not because He

doesn’t want one. He does. But it must be built on unity. A house built on division and machlokes cannot stand. If we want to be zocheh to a third Beis HaMikdash, we must actively promote ahavat Yisrael and cultivate positivity. This house must be built together, as a nation.

Those of us who are married know how much work it takes to build a peaceful, loving home. When there’s shalom bayis, the Shechinah dwells between us.

The letters of ish (man) and isha (woman) together form the name of Hashem—yud and hei. Without unity, all that’s left is aish, fire. And how was the Beis HaMikdash destroyed? By fire.

As we close this week of Sheva Brachos after Shavuos—our national wedding—we must remember that we once had a house with Hashem. And now, we must earn it again.

As the Baal Shem Tov taught, “A neshama (soul) strives tirelessly for 70 to 80 years, sometimes just to perform a single act of kindness for another. Let us love each Jew with all our heart, for every Jew is truly our brother.”

If someone who fought to join us saw disunity as the most difficult part of becoming a Jew, that should be our wake-up call.

Let’s not wait for Tisha B’Av to reflect.

Let’s act now. The clock is ticking.

It’s time to reflect deeply: Who can I help? Am I doing all I can to support those around me? Whose life can I still impact in a positive way?

It’s time to daven—not just for personal needs, but for a nation reunited, healed, and worthy of Hashem’s presence once again. Let us strive to rebuild relationships with compassion, love, and humility—not with judgment or division.

Then, b’ezras Hashem, we won’t sit and cry next Tisha B’Av—we’ll dance in the streets, greeting Moshiach and entering the third and final home, together.

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Delving into the Daf

No Promises

By Rabbi Avrohom Sebrow

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he 2000 presidential election was one of the closest contests in U.S. history, ultimately hinging on the results in the state of Florida. In that state, George W. Bush received 2,912,790 votes, while Al Gore received 2,912,253— a margin of just 537 votes. Third-party candidate Ralph Nader, representing the Green Party, garnered 97,488 votes in Florida.

It appears likely that Nader’s candidacy affected the outcome by siphoning off enough votes from Gore to allow Bush to carry the state – and, by extension, win the presidency. One might say Gore would have won bli Nader. (Groan here.)

Bli neder is a Hebrew phrase that is often thrown around casually, sometimes even without regard for its true meaning.

Technically, it signals that the speaker is not making a binding halachic vow or oath.

At times, the phrase is used in seemingly nonsensical contexts: Waiter: “What would you like for your main?”

Guest: “Chicken, bli neder.”

Colloquially, it has come to mean something like, “I’ll try my best, but no promises.”

Yet the phrase carries genuine halachic weight, especially in the context of tzedakah. The halachic parameters for what constitutes a vow are broader when it comes to pledges involving mitzvos. As a result, when someone makes a Mi Sheberach and pledges to give charity, it is customary—and highly advisable—to say bli neder, just in case the promise is forgotten or unfulfilled.

But perhaps bli neder is more halachically relevant than it first appears.

The Gemara teaches that simply saying, “I will do something” or “I will not do something” can constitute a vow. This is derived from a verse in Yeshaya (54:9) where it states that Hashem swore nev-

er again to bring a great flood upon the earth. Nowhere in the Torah is this oath explicitly stated. It must be that when Hashem said that He would not bring a flood, it is considered an oath.

This interpretation seems like a tremendous chumra. Rava clarifies that the Gemara refers to someone who says twice, “I will do” or “I will not do” something. The repetition elevates the commitment to the status of a vow. Rava states similarly that Hashem stated twice that He would not bring a great flood again.

Since Hashem repeated it twice, it is considered a vow. Still, the Rashba places a significant limitation on this principle: it only applies if the person intended to make a vow. If someone simply says, “I will go to the store,” and then repeats it, it’s not a vow unless he consciously meant it as one. The Gemara is merely providing a formula for a valid vow if there was an intent to make one.

Tosafos, however, takes a different approach and outright disagrees. According to Tosafos, the Gemara isn’t discussing a legally binding oath at all. Instead, it serves as a moral or spiritual warning: when one repeats a statement of intent, it carries extra weight. Tosafos comments: “Ketzas yesh onesh b’davar”—there may be some punishment if the commitment is not upheld. Though not a formal neder, it is still more serious than casual speech.

Thus, according to Tosafos, if someone says, “I’ll buy lunch today” and then repeats it, the statement has now risen above casual talk, even without intent to vow. In such a case, it would be appropriate to say “bli neder,” to make it clear that the commitment isn’t intended as more than one’s word.

Nonetheless, as a matter of practical halacha, the Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh De’ah 237:5) does not follow Tosafos. Instead, it rules like the Rashba: without intention to vow, there is no vow.

The Shulchan Aruch adds one further limitation based on the view of the Rosh.

For a repeated statement to qualify as an oath, the two declarations must be consecutive. For example: “I will go to the store. I will go to the store.”

However, in the following exchange, the statements are not consecutive and thus do not form a vow: “I will go to the store.”

“Really?”

“Yes, I will go to the store.”

In any case, the Shulchan Aruch maintains that intent remains the critical factor. Without it, there is no halachic consequence.

Based on the above Gemara, the Vilna Gaon offers a striking interpretation of a verse in Malachi (3:6): “Ki ani Hashem lo shanisi, v’atem Bnei Yaakov lo kilisem, for I, Hashem, have not changed; and you, the children of Yaakov, have not been destroyed.”

The Vilna Gaon reads “lo shanisi” alternatively as: “I repeated the word ‘lo’ (no).” In other words, Hashem is saying, “I made a vow not to destroy the Jewish people by repeating the word ‘lo.’” Where is this found?

In Vayikra 26:44 (Parashat Bechukosai), Hashem promises regarding the Jewish people in exile: “V’af gam zos

b’heyosam b’eretz oyveihem, lo m’astim v’lo g’altim l’chalosam, l’hafeir brisi itam, yet even so, when they are in the land of their enemies, I have not rejected them, nor have I abhorred them to destroy them and annul My covenant with them.”

According to the Vilna Gaon, the repetition of “lo” (I have not) constitutes a divine oath.

He further explains that this idea ties back to the original verse in Yeshaya (54:9): “Just as I swore never again to let the waters of Noach flood the earth, so have I sworn not to be angry with you or rebuke you.”

Why does the verse link the Flood with Hashem’s promise to Klal Yisrael?

Because just as we learn from the repetition in reference to the Flood that saying something twice constitutes an oath, so, too, we learn that Hashem’s double expression in Bechukosai likewise forms an oath – guaranteeing that He will never utterly abandon His people.

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.

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Headlines

Halacha

Seatbelt Tickets and More

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman

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new driver just got her license and was driving two friends to the mall. Not sure of where to turn, her driving appeared somewhat erratic, and she was soon pulled over.

The police officer ticketed her but not for erratic driving. Her front passenger was not wearing a seatbelt.

What is the halacha? Does the passenger have to pay the cost of the ticket or can she leave it up to the driver?

The Halachic Obligation to Wear Seatbelts Before we address this issue, it should be known that all poskim who address the halachos of seatbelts rule that wearing them is an out and out halachic obligation (see Shaivet HaKhasi Vol. V #241, Menuchas Emes, by Rav Mordechai Gross, Vol. IV #10, Responsa Nuta Gavriel, oral ruling of Debreciner Rav, z”l ,to this author, and Nesivos Chaim by Rav Asher Zelig Mirsky Shaar #2). The obligation appears to be a biblical one predicated upon the verse, “V’nishmartem me’od l’nafshosaichem – And you shall be very careful regarding yourselves” (Devarim 4:9). Indeed, it is even a mitzvah for the driver to command to all his passengers, both seated in the front and back, to put on their seatbelts (Shaivet HaKhasi).

Statistical Evidence Statistically, if someone makes sure to always wear a seatbelt, one can reduce the chance of dying by 54%. What is perhaps a shocker is that passengers who do not wear seatbelts in the back seat actually cause additional risks to those who are traveling in the front seat. There is a five hundred percent increase in deaths to the front passenger when the back passenger does not wear a seatbelt.

Who Bears Responsibility for the Ticket?

Getting back to our case, Rav Mordechai Gross rules that the ticket is actually the driver’s obligation because she

should have told the passenger to put on her seatbelt. Even though the driver may have done so and the passenger refused, the driver always had the option of not continuing to drive until the passenger put on the seatbelt.

a moral obligation to fulfill one’s words, there does not seem to be a legal obligation, at first glance, on the part of the passenger to pick up the cost of the ticket.

In halacha, there is a similar notion called “asmachta lo kanya” – just saying

There is a five hundred percent increase in deaths to the front passenger when the back passenger does not wear a seatbelt.

What if the passenger told the driver that she would pay for any ticket received? Believe it or not, this is a somewhat complicated question.

Secular Contract Law Consideration We know that in secular contract law there is a concept called “consideration.”

A contract is not legally valid unless both sides receive something of value, either money or the item that is being contracted to receive. Here, while there is certainly

something does not cause a legal transaction to take place (See Shulchan Aruch Choshain Mishpat 207:11).

It would seem from here that although it would be a rather shabby thing to do, the passenger could get out of her financial obligation to pay for the seatbelt ticket.

But things are not so simple. Both the Shach and Sma rule (CM 61:12) that if a borrower told the lender orally that he would pick up all the costs that the lender incurred in loaning him the money,

this is not counted as “asmachta” but rather the borrower is fully obligated in paying what he had agreed to pay. The explanation is that this statement has become part of the condition of the monetary arrangement and is not a standalone issue.

In our case as well, it seems clear that the passenger is receiving something of value from the driver, and that is the ride itself. Thus, when the passenger stated that she would pay, or indemnify the driver of the cost of any ticket, she did receive a form of compensation and that is the continuous benefit of being in the car. This would be true whether the ride was free or whether the passenger paid for ride as well.

We should also note that response of the passenger to the driver that she would pay for the ticket was incorrect as well. The Mitzvah of wearing a seatbelt is not just limited to “v’nishmartem” (Devarim 4:9). The verse later on (Devarim 4:15), “Rak hishamer lecha,” is understood by most poskim to actually comprise a second mitzvah (see Rav Chaim Kanievsky, zt”l, Shaar HaTeshuvos #25).

There is also a third mitzvah, “v’chai bahem, And you shall live by them” (Vayikra 18:5).

The Broader Principle of Safety The Ben Ish Chai writes that a person should make every effort to ensure the general safety of both himself and those around him (Parshas Pinchas year cycle #2). The Turei Zahav in his commentary to Choshein Mishpat (427:10) cites a Midrash on Shir HaShirim that when one does this and protects himself from dangers and damage not only is he protected, but he receives extraordinary credit for the mitzvah, too.

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

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School of

Thought

Tradition!

By Barbara Deutsch

F

iddler on the Roof was the first Broadway show that I ever saw; it celebrated a special new couple occasion. The simple majesty of seeing a live performance blew me away. The show’s theme, the singing, the dancing and the acting still bring me to a special place.

It’s been almost 60 years, more than 15 various productions, in English, Yiddish and Hebrew, with wonderful leads including Herschel Bernardo, Theodore Bickel and Joel Grey, and Fiddler still does not disappoint. Among the best productions we have ever seen was this past week in the Jerusalem Theater, in Hebrew, accompanied by yet another siren for background music.

It must be that the Houthis have inside knowledge of our social calendar.

Despite the sirens, the Fiddler continued to fiddle. No one moved. No one left.

Experiencing the Kanar al Hagag in Hebrew, in Jerusalem, is the next level.

The show ran a little over three hours long with every song a gem. The audience sang and clapped along to the iconic “bottle dance” and cried and hummed to “Sunrise Sunset.”

Tevye was outstanding.

The overriding themes of Jewish family values still resonate after all these years. Compromises can be made for financial insecurity and political ideologies but not for marrying out of the faith. “On the other hand, there is no other hand.”

Parallels can be made to the current world stage and antisemitism. As Jews, the security and confidence that we once felt in democratic countries is no longer a given. Scary things are happening on college campuses, public gathering places, and in businesses large and small.

How do we protect our children – a hard question that needs to be explored and dealt with. During these compli-

workload. We loved the chag opportunity that enabled us to spend quality time around the table with family and friends.

In Israel, we keep one packed eventful day; it still feels strange.

For visitors, depending on what your rabbi paskens, some keep two days, others keep one, and stranger still, a few hold 1½ days. We went to a brit milah of the grandson/great-grandson of our dear

The overriding themes of Jewish family values still resonate after all these years.

cated times, nothing can be taken for granted.

Shavuot marked the celebration of the Shalosh Regalim for us in Israel.

There were many visitors from all over the world staying in Jerusalem; the guests crowded the streets with their excitement and enthusiasm. The Kotel was packed with people, mostly dressed in white, reading from the Book of Ruth.

Learning groups and lectures in every neighborhood abounded.

The one day/two day chag still confuses me. When I was working, we embraced the break from school and its

friends. We arrived by cab to Bais Yisroel, a neighborhood past Geulah. The minyan was a private one and the tefillah was full yom tov.

The meal was a kiddush and a full holiday feast.

The young Israeli parents keep one day. A set of Israeli great-grandparents and uncles and aunts keep one day; the American grandparents and friends keep two days.

No pictures were allowed to be taken.

We decided to walk home with our American friends. Walking through Geulah, all of the shops were open and

crowded with customers. The dress code of the people gave us a clue as to who were natives and who were the visitors. The foreign men wore suits, ties and jackets. We did not see many hats.

Our friend Lewis played a “guess who?” game identifying the one day/two day observers.

Celebrating one day is nice, for us, not such a big deal.

As I write this, sirens are blasting their warning signals. While Bob and I are home and cozy in our bedroom with no windows, the hardship of waking kids and dragging their sleeping forms to shelter continues to impact. We have to find a way to stop it!

In Fiddler’s Anatevka there was no haven for Jews who were expelled from country to country; sirens and all, these wandering Jews are home.

Tradition, mesorah, will keep us safe in our faith.

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.

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Encapsulating the Past, Building the Future

PHOTO By ElIEzER GOldBERG

By Gedaliah Borvick

Encapsulating burial grounds

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erusalem is a city literally built on its past. Every time a shovel pierces the ground, there’s a chance of uncovering history – sometimes glorious, sometimes inconvenient. From archaeological treasures to ancient tunnels to long-forgotten graves, construction projects in the capital can occasionally be a careful negotiation between development and preservation.

Of all the discoveries that can surface during excavation work, graves are among the most sensitive. When a suspected Jewish grave is found, construction doesn’t just grind to a halt — it enters a holding pattern of halachic consultation, archaeological assessment, and logistical recalibration.

Today, the go-to solution is a method known as encapsulation. Rather than disturbing the grave, it is carefully enclosed in a protective casing and respectfully relocated – often to the edge of the site.

This process ensures that kavod hameis (dignity for the deceased) is upheld while

allowing development to continue.

It’s a delicate dance between past and future – one that Jerusalem has slowly mastered. Gone are the days when a single grave could paralyze a project for years.

Thanks to the collaboration between developers, rabbinic authorities, and the Israel Antiquities Authority, there is now a clear protocol that honors halacha (Jewish law) and enables growth.

For developers, it’s a practical path forward, avoiding major delays and costly confrontations. For city residents, it means new housing can rise without erasing history. And for religious authorities, it ensures that halacha is observed with care and precision.

One vivid example is Givat Hamatos.

This new 2,600-unit neighborhood is rising in southern Jerusalem – the first largescale residential development in decades and a critical part of the city’s housing future. But before a single crane went up, archaeologists surveyed the land and uncovered signs of ancient life: terraced

farms and burial caves from the Second Temple period.

Working with the Israel Antiquities Authority, the developers creatively adjusted the plans to preserve the archaeological integrity of the site. In some areas, graves were encapsulated and moved to the perimeter. In others, roads were gently rerouted to leave ancient remains undisturbed.

Another example goes even further back in our history. A few years ago, during excavation for a new residential development in the Arnona neighborhood, archaeologists made a remarkable discovery: a sprawling administrative complex from the First Temple period. The site included buildings and dozens of jar handles stamped with the words L’melech (“belonging to the king”) – likely used to collect and store taxes in the form of grain and oil.

Rather than freeze the project, the developers and the Israel Antiquities Authority worked together to excavate and document the site. In areas where ancient

graves were found, the solution followed the now-familiar script: encapsulation and respectful relocation to the periphery. Construction continued, but not at the expense of Jerusalem’s past.

These development challenges are not new, and Jerusalem’s growth has never been straightforward. But in many ways, it’s vintage Jerusalem — where the past is never far beneath the surface and where building the future means carefully addressing the past.

Perhaps that’s part of what makes Jerusalem real estate so meaningful. Here, a new apartment isn’t just a roof and four walls — it’s a continuation of our story thousands of years in the making.

Gedaliah Borvick is the founder of My Israel Home (www.myisraelhome.com), a real estate agency focused on helping people from abroad buy and sell homes in Israel. To sign up for his monthly market updates, contact him at gborvick@gmail.com.

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The Wandering

Jew

Spain and Gibraltar Again Part II

Alhambra

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fter a beautiful and enlightening week of taking in the sights of Madrid, Toledo, Seville and Cordoba, our group arrived on Thursday afternoon, May 11, 2006, to the frontier of Gibraltar. Gibraltar, being a British Territory on the Iberian Peninsula, had a stormy relationship with Spain. There was no direct transportation from Spain into Gibraltar, so we had to leave our bus, shlep our suitcases over the border crossing, and take local taxis to our hotel.

There, we met our guide, Moses Banjo. In May 2005, I was in Gibraltar to organize the itinerary for this trip and contracted with Moses to take care of all the details during our stay. This included hotel,

Girona

transportation, restaurants, Shabbos meals, and tourist attractions.

Gibraltar is small, with just under 40,000 residents, but at any given time there are double the number of tourists present. Many cruise ships make daily stops for duty-free shopping and casino gambling. The formidable Rock, the Moorish Castle, the Great Siege Tunnels, the Barbary Apes, and dolphin watching are just some of the most popular attractions. The city has the feeling of a small town, but it is full of life and action.

The Jewish community, in particular, is very vibrant. Most Jews originally hailed from North Africa, mainly from Morocco, and many were descendants of

In a narrow alley of the Calle in Girona

the expelled Jews of Spain and Portugal.

The make-up of the over 800-member kehillah is entirely Orthodox. There are four functioning synagogues and primary and secondary schools for both boys and girls, although some older children travel abroad for higher education options.

There are kosher restaurants, kosher food stores, a mikveh and a kollel. The community, led for the past 25 years by Rabbi Ron Hassid, has been a successful model for other small kehillahs to emulate. Many merchants on Main Street are Jewish and are closed on Shabbos even though they miss the opportunity of selling their merchandise to the thousands of visitors coming off the cruise ships. Jew-

A dolphin in the Straits of Gibraltar

ish children wearing kippot and tzitzit play in the streets while little girls in their Shabbos finery chat and laugh among themselves. In short, this is a beautiful and dynamic community with great accomplishments.

After checking into the Elliot Hotel, we went for dinner to Solly’s. Afterwards, we went to daven at Etz Hayim, where we joined a Hilula Seudah for the Rashbi (Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai) as it was Lag B’Omer. There we met Rabbi Ron and Rabbanit Kochava Hassid, who welcomed us in the name of the kehillah.

Friday, after Shacharis at Nefusot Yehuda, we took a boat out to Straits of Gibraltar, which is less than ten miles from

On the group cruise to watch the dolphins

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Morocco. There we spent a delightful hour and a half watching dolphins gliding above the ocean surface. We had an outdoor festive lunch spread at Solly’s and visited the Talmud Torah where I spoke to a gathering of children about my experiences with the KGB in the Soviet Union.

We then returned to our hotel and readied ourselves for Shabbos. After Kabbalas Shabbos at Nefusot Yehuda, we had a lavish Shabbos seudah at Solly’s.

Shacharis was at Shaar Hashamayim, where I was asked to speak before Mussaf. For the day seudah, I arranged for five local families to invite two couples each. This was a major success since it enabled our group to interact and get a deeper understanding of Gibraltar’s Jew-

ish community. After a Shabbos nap, the women went for Shalosh Seudos to Rabbanit Hassid, while the men were in the

The women of our group with the Alhambra in the background

Sunday morning, we went up to the top of the Rock and toured the Great Siege Tunnels, which were constructed in 1779

It was here on March 31, 1492, that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella signed the infamous Alhambra Decree ordering the expulsion of all Jews in Spain unless they converted to Christianity.

Abudarham Synagogue. After Shabbos, we had a beautiful Melave Malka on the terrace of our hotel.

as a defense against France who wanted to seize Gibraltar from the British. The Tunnels were also activated as a defense

during World War Il. We then gave the iconic Barbary Apes an opportunity to be photographed with us. We then made our way back to check out of our hotel rooms but made one more stop at the Old Jewish Cemetery.

A most unusual experience happened when we went to the 250-year-old cemetery. It was a hot day, and the trek uphill to the bais olam was a bit challenging.

Nine couples, including Pesi and myself, went up, while one couple chose to remain behind. We said some Tehillim at the kevorim of some of the Chachamim who were the leaders and chief rabbis of the local community. At one point, I noticed a lone kever with a tombstone and went over to read the inscription. It was

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Our group after Shacharis at Nefusot Yehuda. Rabbi Ron Hassid is on the left

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My brother Yossi with me and a Barbary Ape

the gravesite of Rabbi Yisroel ben Yeshaye who was niftar on the 16th day of Iyar in 1841. I immediately realized that since Pesach Sheini was two days earlier this very day was the yahrtzeit of this rabbi. I alerted the group and we helped the missing tenth member of our group to climb the hill so we can have a minyan and say kaddish for this forgotten tzaddik. The special feeling we all had from this episode greatly inspired us and made us feel accomplished. Who knows if our whole trip’s purpose was realized during this very moment?!

After we crossed the border into Spain, our tour bus took us directly to Granada. Our hotel in the city’s center was luxurious, but we had scant time to enjoy it as we were heading straight to the Alhambra.

The Alhambra palace and fortress was constructed between 1238 and 1358 by the Moorish monarchs. It is one of the best preserved palaces of the Islamic world. The combination of well-proportioned courtyards, water fountains, gardens, arches buttressed by slender

Yeshiva children in Gibraltar

columns and intricately sculpted stucco and tile decoration creates architectural qualities that are intimate and ethereal.

The decorative features include geometric design and inscriptions of arabesque poetry. The fact that we spent three full hours at the Alhambra indicates how we were mesmerized and overwhelmed by this gorgeous edifice. Nevertheless, the palace also has a tragic meaning for us as Jews. It was here on March 31, 1492, that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella signed the infamous Alhambra Decree ordering the expulsion of all Jews in Spain unless they converted to Christianity. While marveling at the beauty of this place, we felt the pain of our people as they faced this challenging choice and the life altering decisions that they eventually accepted. Many Jews left Spain forever and some remained while practicing Judaism in secrecy. Many of them were tragically ultimately exposed and burned at the Auto de Fe. Most others who converted eventually lost their Jewish identity forever. We were definitely glad that we came to the Alhambra, but the plight of

Alhambra’s Lion Fountain

In the Rashba Synagogue in Barcelona

our brothers and sisters was at the forefront of our consciousness.

Monday was a bit of a lighter day. We went to see the Arabian and Gypsy Village, which was mainly a tourist trap promoting cheap tchotchkes and cafes for visitors. We stopped into a small mall before heading to the airport, but the selection and quality of goods were shoddy and unimpressive. We finally boarded our plane to our next destination, Barcelona.

I had arranged that our dinners would be provided by Chabad in Barcelona, and Rabbi David Libersohn came through with delicious meals over the next two days. Breakfast and lunches were still being prepared daily by Pesi and yours truly. I tried to arrange some musical entertainment for the evening, but unfortunately that did not work out. We decided to make an early evening to be rested for the final two days.

Tuesday, we went to the Barri Gothic Quarter, an area teeming with alleyways and squares in the center of the city, where the presence of palaces, houses and Gothic churches exposes the city’s medieval past. We went to the square where the Holy Office of the Inquisition carried out public executions of Marranos (secret Jews). We said a number of kapitlach of Tehillim there. We discovered by sheer accident the small shul of the Rashba (Rabbi Shlomo ibn Aderet), which was transformed to a Jewish Museum. We took the group for a city tour on the hop-on/hop-off bus, and we stopped at the quaint Spanish Village for last minute souvenirs. Our final activity for the day was a visit to Park Guell where all the structures were created by Antoni Gaudi.

This park was so much fun to see as every building and object displays Gaudi’s fantasy. They exude a feeling of entertainment and adventure and generate great photo opportunities.

Our final day included a three-hour excursion to the city of Girona, famous for Rabbeinu Yonah. We roamed the medieval streets and alleys of the Calle with

Matzeivah of Rav Yisroel ben Yeshaye, who passed away on the 16 of Iyar 1841

the assistance of an expert guide and visited the Jewish Museum. When we returned, we gave the group the afternoon off to go shopping at Barcelona’s Passeig de Gracia, which has famous department stores as well as boutiques. We prepared a gala dinner with a siyum of Pesachim. It was a very memorable trip for all participants and a successful accomplishment for Pesi and me.

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.

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Rebbetzin Shoshana Perr Master Mechaneches: Learning, Teaching and Leading with Flair

By MiRiaM LieBeRMann

W

ith the school year soon coming to a close, and the summer camp season approaching so swiftly, now is the perfect time to focus on our beloved friend and neighbor, mentor and teacher, Rebbetzin Shoshana Perr.

Rebbetzin Perr’s career as a teacher and as the director of Camp Bnos has spanned five decades. There is much to glean from this ace mechaneches. We have a veritable treasure in our midst!

Rebbetzin Shoshana Perr is a bridge between two worlds, spanning the generation of pre-war Europe and our contemporary world. A great-granddaughter of the Alter of Navardok, she represents the dignity, religious fervor, dynamic presence and intellect of that earlier world. She was the devoted eishes chayil of Rav Yechiel Perr, zt”l, whose recent loss is mourned by his family, his many devoted talmidim, and the greater Jewish community. As a super creative, passionate, motivated individual, and a superb mechaneches, Rebbetzin Perr has had a huge impact upon thousands, ever since arriving on these shores, 80 years ago.

Rebbetzin Perr shares the following: My father, Rav Yehuda Leib Nekritz, zt”l, the most influential person in my life, was among those who refused Russian citizenship and consequently was shipped off to Siberia. Although only my father had been officially exiled, my dear mother, Rebbetzin Menucha Ettel, exhibiting incredible fortitude and courage, insisted on accompanying him together with my sister and myself, aged 6 and 3 at the time. In retrospect, being exiled to Siberia was an incredible instance of hashgacha pratis. After the war, my father was even-

tually permitted to leave Russia because he was still a Polish citizen. Those who had become Russian citizens were forbidden to leave. And of course, many of those who stayed in war-torn Europe were tragically killed.

We spent five years in the most difficult area in Siberia, afterwards, two more years in a slightly more hospitable environment. There is a family legend that has been passed down through the generations. My father had gone out, desperate to find food for his starving family. He was feeling dejected. Making his way down the muddy path, he encountered Ivan, who was known to be brutal and even violent at times. Encountering my father, Rav Nekritz, he yelled at him, “Nekritz!!

Why is your head down? Don’t you know that the same G-d who took your people out of Egypt will take you out of Siberia? I’ll be here forever. But not you!”

After that chance encounter, we would ask my father, “Poppy, was that man Eliyahu Hanavi?”

His response, “Those who know don’t tell. Those who tell don’t know.”

That meeting, however, did lift his spirits and encourage him to persevere.

To this day, when our children are facing a challenge in life, they will comment to me, “Mommy, that was my Siberia.” This stay in Siberia became a frame of reference for our children and grandchildren, too.

There is a sefer entitled Lev Ari, published decades later, which recounts the saga of those years, written by my brother, Rav Daniel Nekritz. This sefer includes the shmuesen of my father who had been a gifted writer, which were full of divrei Chazal that provided much needed encouragement, along with details from interviews with those who had been in Siberia, and passages from a diary kept by Yankel Pasternak, one of my father’s devoted talmidim.

T

older sister would conjure up toys and dolls in her mind and share her vision with me. She had played with real toys before leaving for Siberia and could still picture them in her mind’s eye. We would thus have imaginary items to play with!

My father, Rav Yehuda Leib Nekritz, eventually arrived, B”H, three years later, via Canada, to join our family.

I did not attend school until arriving in America, seven years old at the time. Not speaking a word of English, but so eager to learn, I soaked it all up and was soon able to communicate properly without even a trace of an accent.

Rebbetzin Perr attended Bais Yaakov in Boro Park, where she received a silver medal, and later attended Bais Yaakov High School in Williamsburg, graduating as valedictorian. Her passion to learn has never waned. That passion for learning was soon expanded on by the passion to teach!

Rebbetzin Perr shares memories of her teaching career.

I taught third grade in Boro Park for many years initially, then sixth grade, and then taught high school and seminary students as well as adults. In fact, while sitting shiva recently for my dear husband, a woman came by cab to the shiva from Williamsburg. She identified herself as a former third grade student.

“You changed my life!” she exclaimed. A young student, totally enamored, most sincerely asked me, “Miss Nekritz, can I marry you?!!”

I would compose my own songs to enhance the learning experience. There were songs for the Torah portion of the week. Songs for our Yomim Tovim, for Hallel, the shivas haminim, for every occasion. Children respond more readily to music than to text. I was always eager to engage with my students and see them come alive and vibrant while absorbing lessons of our mesorah.

Was there a particularly shy girl in the class? I would select her to play a major role in the class performance. Davka, she would be Queen Esther. This was not a speaking role. But as she would stride onto the stage dressed in her finery, her glorious appearance enabled her to feel beautiful and grand. This young girl would then go on to blossom and develop her skills in a confident fashion.

I married my husband on November 8, 1961. I had dated for a while and was almost 23 years of age at the time. Rav Aharon Kotler, zt”l, was our shadchan!

Rav Perr, a young man at the time, was learning in Bais Medrash Govoha in Lakewood. Rav Aharon was walking down the stairs. Rav Perr was walking up the stairs. As they met in the middle, Rav Aharon called out to his beloved talmid, “Reb Avraham Yaffen’s granddaughter!”

o appreciate Rebbetzin Perr’s huge impact upon those within her orbit and

herself through life’s more challenging situations. She’s always been the ultimate

beyond, it is advantageous to hear their voices. Many discuss her role as

teacher and mentor, with impeccable middos, whom I aspire to emulate.

a mechaneches. Others talk about her role within Camp Bnos.

Whilst many of us are not formal teachers, we are all educators to some extent.

Basie Tress Rosenblatt

In “Ahava Rabbah,” which we daven each morning, we ask Hashem to bestow upon

Rebbetzin Shonnie has been, and continues to be, the greatest influence in my

us the binah “lilmod u’lelamed,” in order to learn and to teach. We are all per-

life! My relationship is a bit unusual. At the age of 10, I lost my dear father, zt”l. We

petual students and perpetual teachers, impacting upon those around us, young

sat shiva in July. In August, I arrived in Camp Bnos as a new camper. Surprisingly,

and old. To enhance our roles, it will be most beneficial to glean from this master

it was a natural transition. This was a comfortable place for me. Rebbetzin Shonnie

mechaneches.

made us all feel at home, myself included. She gave everyone the TLC needed, no favorites. She has the special gift of making each person feel beloved.

Rebbetzin Tzurtie Braunstein

She brought out the strength in each of her girls, strengths we were unaware

I had been in camp with Rebbetzin Shonnie many years ago, Camp Eagle Point

that we possessed! She was flawless in her dedication to camp and to her principles.

and then Camp Bnos. I had always admired her. I was a bit younger than her, so

Many of the hashkafos that she bequeathed to us have stayed with us to this day.

our paths did not really cross much those years. But then, Reb Shonnie moved to

Not all came from a super strong background. The Shabbos atmosphere that she

Far Rockaway, and we became close friends.

created was such a rich experience. We would link hands, creating a chain as we

We were very much involved in each other’s lives and shared momentous mo-

danced from the social hall to the dining room singing “Sholom Aleichem.” This

ments over the years. She is a wonderful listener, impartial and most discreet. In

was a huge eye-opener for many, exposing them to the beauty and grandeur of

our discussions, she would say, “Let’s explore the options…,” enabling me to make

Shabbos Kodesh.

the appropriate decisions for myself and my family.

Years later, I became a psychiatric social worker, undoubtedly, following in Reb

When she became a social worker in TAG, we would land up working together on

Shonnie’s footsteps. Rabbi and Rebbetzin Perr were close friends of our family. She

various projects. Rebbetzin Shonnie did not limit herself to helping the individual

continues to be a shining light in our lives, always kind and gentle, generous with

girls but would step in when necessary to assist the families. She would contact my

positive words to share. Rabbi Perr was the best listener. He would extend an ear

late husband, Rabbi Yisroel Bloom, for help in finding employment for parents in

to each person, as if each were his own child. They were totally dedicated to one

need, assistance in procuring appropriate housing for those in desperate situations.

another. An amazing couple.

These days, I have the privilege of learning with her privately. Learning together and working on chessed projects have created a special bond between the two of us. B”H, we share our lives. I’ve learnt much from her, seeing how she has handled

Mrs. Shani Schmalz, Director of Camp Bnos There are many lessons I absorbed through watching Rebbetzin Shonnie in

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Finally, in 1945, we were able B”H to leave Siberia. We traveled through Poland and Czechoslovakia, spending two years in France, where the surviving yeshivos had gathered in a hamlet called Bahi, and then on to America. However, the authorities did not allow my beloved father, Rav Nekritz, to enter America, as he had contracted tuberculosis.

The following image is seared in my mind. Before we boarded the boat for America, leaving my adored father behind, he gave me a doll, the first real doll I had ever held in my arms. As I walked up the gangplank, I embraced the doll. I then turned to wave goodbye. As I did so, my cherished doll fell into the waters, never to be seen again. The pain of separating from my father was immense. It was as if I had fallen into the water myself. I had become my doll. My father had been my lifeline. Leaving without him was unbearable. Would I ever see my beloved father again?

It’s interesting to note: dolls did play a role in my life during my Camp Bnos years. Each summer, there would be a designated doll for the season. I would dress it according to the summer’s theme. This doll, introduced during the first Shabbos in camp, was eagerly greeted by the campers! These dolls, close to 30 in total, were very precious to me, perhaps helping me heal from my earlier childhood trauma.

Although we certainly had no toys in Siberia, my

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His talmid responded, “I’ve heard of her, but she is very short.”

Answered Rav Kotler, “She’s still young. She can still grow.”

Amazingly, his bracha came true! When I walked with my husband, I stood straight and tall! I must have grown an inch or two each time I was beside him!

Camp Bnos, established by Agudath Israel in 1950, played a major role in Rebbetzin Perr’s life, or perhaps we should say Rebbetzin Perr played a major role in Camp Bnos! Truth is, Rebbetzin Perr and Camp Bnos must be said in one breath – they are synonymous. As a young woman remarked to her, “You went to Camp Bnos?” And the retort from a bystander, “She is Camp Bnos!!”

Rebbetzin Shonnie, as she was affectionately called in camp, had graced Camp Bnos for over 60 years! She first attended camp as a CIT, when she was 13 years old.

She then served as a JC and eventually drama counselor. After her marriage, she returned as advisor to the head counselor. Soon after, she was invited to become program director by Rabbi Moshe Sherer, zt”l, who understood that Rebbetzin Perr had been blessed with unusual strengths.

“You are the neshama, the soul, of Camp Bnos,” he wrote to her in a moving note, encouraging her to give her best to these young girls.

Can we imagine how many young girls fell under her spell! The annual cantata, under her direction, displayed her amazing creativity and artistic flair. Involved in every aspect of this performance, she would select the theme, based on a meaningful phrase from Shir

“i was always eager to engage with my students and see them come alive and vibrant while absorbing lessons of our mesorah.”

Hashirim. The pasuk would be written across a banner, draped over the stage. Rebbetzin Perr would write the script, select the songs to be performed, consult with those creating the sets and collecting the props, and di-

action: don’t look at the clock. Whatever you’re doing, do it to perfection. Do it right and to completion. Don’t get anxious if it takes a bit longer.

I well recall when we received the news that Rav Elyashiv, zt”l, had passed away. Rebbetzin Shonnie immediately summoned the entire camp into the dining room, staff as well as campers. This was a monumental chinuch moment. She had everyone remove their shoes and sit on the floor. These sort of moments had an enormous impact on the campers.

rect the actresses. This was a multimedia performance, with video presentations incorporated into the show.

Reb Perr would introduce the evening, with her dramatic flair. Before the actual performance, Rabbi Perr would come to see the set and “shep nachas.”

Rebbetzin Perr shares: The concept of the cantata was an original one. At the start, Camp Bnos, as did many of the other camps, would perform adaptations of Broadway musicals.

The Manhig Ruchani, Rabbi Heller, a”h, approached me and announced, “No longer are Broadway shows acceptable in Camp Bnos.” I was forced to create a different sort of performance, a new genre. There was tremendous pressure, but I was told again and again, “If anyone can do it, you can.” I did my best, and ultimately, what a blessing this has turned out to be. Over the years, we’ve created close to 25 cantatas. Today, they are being revived and performed once again, imparting timeless messages.

The actresses would walk straight into the audience, from all sides of the room, engaging with those seated there. “Did you long? Did you yearn? Amidst the hustle and bustle, do you wait for Moshiach on 13th Avenue?” All were engaged in the drama.

My husband had been a masterful baal tefillah. I would tape his moving renditions of the tefillos of our

Tzipi Rubinstein Jurkansky, Head Counselor, 2002 Rebbetzin Shonnie’s presence added a dimension of magical energy to the Camp Bnos experience. Her very name evokes nostalgia.

Her constant message to us: dream big! Anything’s possible! Make it happen!

She would encourage us to reach higher, to figure it out, just go for it!

Her creativity was unsurpassed. The theme for that summer was “bayis,” house.

As a play on words, she would say, “By-us, impossible? Never!” And how was the

Camp Bnos, associated with Agudath Israel, had the privilege of hosting var-

theme introduced? Rebbetzin Shonnie shared with us her vision. “Let’s erect a huge

ious gedolim over the years who would address the girls, leaving them with a

candy house, the sort we would see in our fairytale books, with the candy canes

meaningful bracha. Rebbetzin Shonnie would always prepare the girls, including

framing the windows.” We thought that was rather absurd and perhaps in disbelief

the campers of Bnos Chayil and Bnoseinu, who were included in these gatherings,

even giggled among ourselves, but nothing stopped her. Ultimately, Yossi’s Sweet

before the gadol would arrive. “How does one greet a gadol?” All would stand up

House of Brooklyn drove up to camp and helped us erect an absolutely exquisite

and remain totally silent, sometimes waiting 7-10 minutes till the gadol actually

candy house. The excitement in the camp was tangible! The magic, the joy filled

entered the hall. Can you imagine close to a thousand young women and girls, all

the air! And that evening, all enjoyed the trappings of the house; there was enough

totally silent? Awesome. The kavod given to rabbanim was huge.

candy adorning this house to the delight of close to 1,000 girls! Yes, there was

While all had a great deal of fun in Bnos, the chinuch aspect was definitely a

magic in the air all summer long!

focus. The cantatas were Rebbetzin Shonnie’s essence. The rich material would simply pour out of her. Within the context of the production, there would be dis-

Chani Braun Kassirer, Lifeguard and Singing Counselor

cussion of the gedolim who had been niftar that year. There was always a major

Rebbetzin Perr had been my sixth grade teacher. Her classroom was sunny and

takeaway message. The music. The drama. It spoke to us deeply. At the end of the

fabulous. Friday afternoon was the highlight of the week. We would be seated in

extraordinary evening, we would leave yearning, pining for Moshiach.

the shape of a “ches,” which was quite an innovation those days, and enjoy a festive

There was much preparation prior to the actual cantata performance. Reb-

oneg Shabbos. We eagerly anticipated Monday mornings when we would enter the

betzin Shonnie would give a shiur on the material the day before so that staff and

classroom and find the pisgam hashevua, a quote from Pirkei Avos perhaps, or a

campers would be able to follow the drama whilst absorbing powerful, relevant

mamar Chazal, adorning the wall. Rebbetzin Perr would discuss that concept and

messages.

teach us a song to those words.

These were teachable moments that had a huge impact on thousands of young girls over the years.

Till this day, I have hundreds of “pisgamim” engraved in my mind, with the lessons and the melodies still intact!

Rebbetzin Perr reminisces: There was a special room in Camp Bnos, especially furnished and designed for my mother. Two

girls would be assigned to be her companions. It was a cherished position. Rebbetzin Nekritz was treated as a queen in camp, and these girls appreciated her chashivus, her royalty. Needless to say, these girls would enjoy front row seats together with their “queen” at all camp performances. Rebbetzin Nekritz would be seated on a special armchair, decorated especially for this isha chashuva. It was her throne.

The girls would hear her saying Tehillim with a beautiful, hartzig melody. I am just sorry that it was never taped or committed to memory. She made a huge impression on these young girls.

Throughout our childhood, my mother would sing the classic Yiddish songs to us, instilling basic emunah and bitachon through the lyrics. That faith kept us going through those difficult years.

At one point, as a young girl, I had taken ill. My mother was terribly worried. Over the years, she would have significant dreams. As I lay there terribly ill, she dreamed that a cat would be the “kappara.” Sure enough, the day after, one of the students who had been exiled along with the family to Siberia was suffering from severe stomach cramps. My mother heated up the water for him and filled the rubber water bottle with the boiling water. As he was walking, he tripped. The boiling water scalded the cat. The cat died. I recuperated soon after that.

Another amazing story involving a dream occurs years later. We were already living in Far Rockaway.

It was leil Shabbos, Parshas Vayeshev, the family was sitting around the dining room table, the younger ones sprawled comfortably on the floor. Our oldest son, Ahron Yosef, headed to the library to study his pshetel; his bar mitzvah was swiftly approaching.

With the Rosh Yeshiva, zt”l

The hashkafos covered in school were further reinforced in Camp Bnos. Called

ciently mature to appreciate her role in camp. But as a head counselor years later,

“Ruach Country” for good reason, these lessons, our sacred mesorah, taught in

I saw firsthand how involved she was in every aspect. Rebbetzin Shonnie literally

Bnos through song in a joyous fashion, stayed with us forever.

personified Camp Bnos.

My first summer in Bnos was directly following sixth grade when I had enjoyed

She encouraged us to feel that we were part of something much greater than our

Rebbetzin Perr as a teacher. Having this prior relationship with Rebbetzin Perr

individual selves, part of Agudath Israel. I recall the 40th year of Camp Bnos. The

gave me confidence and standing within the camp. Imagine, I even had the courage

theme of the summer was “Journey of Trust.” She would compare it to the 40 years

to perform in front of the camp and actually received an award for singing some

of our wandering in the Midbar. She impressed upon us that we are the future.

of the melodies from “The Sound of Music”!

Rebbetzin Perr was very serious about being happy! And super serious about transmitting our mesorah with much joy.

Soon after my camp days had come to an end, Rebbetzin Perr suggested shidduchim for me. I met up with her after a long hiatus of half a century! To my surprise, she remembered me, along with my sisters. “You and your sisters always sang your hearts out!” What fabulous validation!

Singing surely elevates our soul. Being involved in the creative process, we have no need to look elsewhere for diversion. Rebbetzin Perr did not view music as an

Rabbi Moshe Sherer, zt”l, would come to visit during the summer. It was always a major occasion. We were told to wash up properly and don clean, white shirts.

Rebbetzin Shonnie would introduce him. As he would enter, all stood in total, absolute silence. With reverence and awe.

Afterwards, she would commend us, “Girls, you were amazing!”

We would practice how to stand in unison, sit down as one, clap together. I attended his levaya many years later. Those of us who had had the privilege of meeting with him and connecting to him, we knew we were part of something extraordinary.

extracurricular activity, rather it was primary, used to elevate our souls.

She spoke in a very soft voice. She never needed to raise her voice, she had such command over the classroom. Through her, we learned that Yiddishkeit is beautiful and joyous. Rebbetzin Perr brought out the music in us! And we are forever grateful!

another Head Counselor Everything Rebbetzin Shonnie accomplished was done with great thought and mindfulness. Every detail counts. Nothing haphazard.

She gave incredible respect and valuable time to every person, staff and campers alike. Her respect for her husband, Rabbi Yechiel Perr, was incredible. For many of

estie Kaufman Cohen, Head Counselor Rebbetzin Shonnie taught us to aim always for greatness. This drive carried on to every aspect of our lives and has been passed on to our daughters as well as our own students. “Don’t think little. Think big!”

As campers, Rebbetzin Shonnie was an enigma – we simply were not suffi-

our young women, she became the model of the Eishes Chayil. She taught us about shalom bayis by example.

Rebbetzin Shonnie had once received a somewhat critical letter. Upon opening the envelope, she realized it was not signed. Anonymous? I won’t be reading this.

She strongly believed that if you want to say something, you must properly own it.

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Yamim Noraim. These melodies and prayers were incorporated into the cantatas, all expertly orchestrated by the renowned Dina Storch.

There was enormous self-induced pressure for me to produce year after year, original, creative material. I made huge demands upon myself. I competed with myself, accepting the challenge to reach greater heights in every arena. For me, the self-induced pressure was a positive force. I certainly would not recommend this, though, for others! All the material had to be brand new each season. A huge chunk of time, throughout the entire year, was devoted to creating the unique summer program.

Rebbetzin Perr was very devoted to her mother, Rebbetzin Menucha Ettel Nekritz, and hosted her in her home for the last 22 years of her life. Those years Rebbetzin Perr worked as a therapist. With her office in the basement of her home, she was able to check in on her mother and supervise her aide. The arrangement worked well. Rebbetzin Nekritz had cared for her grandmother, the esteemed Bubba Chaya, the wife of the Alter of Navardok. Emulating her own mother, Rebbetzin Perr, in turn, now took exquisite care of her.

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Suddenly, a stranger rushed into the library with a gun pointed at him! “Freeze!” the intruder yelled out.

Ahron Yosef ran back and informed us of what was happening. I ran out with the young ones to the safety of the neighbor’s home. Taking his role as the family protector seriously, Rav Perr spontaneously rose to the occasion and tackled the intruder. Miraculously, Rav Perr was able to subdue him.

That Motzei Shabbos, my father called. “I woke up

Lighting the Chanukah menorah together

this morning with a pasuk on my lips, ‘Shomer Hashem es kol ohavav.’ Someone obviously needed ‘shmirah,’ protection. Did something happen in your home?” Yes, Hashem was guarding our family.

Not one to allow an amazing chinuch opportunity to go by, that Sunday morning Rabbi Perr delivered a powerful, moving vaad to his beloved students. His focus, “Over Shabbos, I learned the real meaning of ‘Shehechezarta be nishmasi b’schemla rabah emunaseicha.’”

Rav Perr had grown up in South Ozone Park, which was a rough neighborhood. He was not easily intimidated. On one occasion, he was stopped by a rough teen who held a cross in his hand and ordered him: “Bow to this cross, or I will kill you!”

Rabbi Perr’s response: “Kill me!”

Thank G-d he survived that encounter!

In 1969, Rabbi Perr established Yeshiva Derech Ayson, named for Rav Avraham Yoffen; ‘ayson’ referring to the mighty road. My Zayde would elaborate on “aysan” as an acronym, saying with a smile that the word stands for Avraham, Yoffen, Talmid, Navardok.

The Yeshiva later moved around the corner to our home. The Yeshiva become the home away from home for the students, many of whom were from out of town. For quite a number of years, there was no official dorm. The boys would room with neighbors and

At the end of every summer, we would sit down and review all the programming. What can we do better for next year? How can we achieve perfection?

If she was upset, she would not reprimand or chastise the offender till the next morning. Perhaps by the morning, this will no longer bother her. She knew how to handle absolutely everything.

Camp Bnos is a makom chinuch; chinuch enters through the back door.

She would follow up on absolutely everything. When staff worked hard, she would always acknowledge their efforts and accomplishments. She ran a huge operation. An aura of respect surrounded her. It was apparent that when with her, we were in the presence of an absolute genius!

My friend was summoned to the office. She knew that she would be asked to embark on a particular project that was not to her liking. She actually practiced saying “no” as she approached the office. Yet, when asked by Rebbetzin Shonnie, she absolutely could not refuse. Nothing was too hard or impossible for Rebbetzin Shonnie. That attitude rubbed off on us! She would push us to our limits, and we would perform.

It was two days before a major camp trip. We were to travel in school busses.

We were in the midst of a major heat wave. She contacted Rabbi Meir Frischman, Director of Camp Agudah and Camp Bnos. My campers cannot travel on these busses for hours on such a hot day. We must get proper coach busses. Take it off my wages if necessary. She so cared about her girls. Of course, the proper busses were obtained.

The camp was going ice skating in two days. Earmuffs and gloves were needed. This was pre-Amazon, pre-internet days. How would we obtain these items?

Rest assured, by the time the girls boarded the busses, they had these treasured items. It was fascinating to see how her plans worked out, time and time again.

You can achieve. Sweat it out. You can do it. Do it all the way. The details count.

Dream big. Make it happen!

Rebbetzin Shonnie is a magnificent person. She is royalty. Never raising her

friends. Shabbosos would find these young men sitting around our dining room table. The Purim seudah, with Rabbi Perr, their Rosh Yeshiva as well as their father figure, was a highlight of the year for all. My daughters and I worked hard for that seudah, preparing, setting up, cleaning up. Ultimately, these seudos were most memorable.

Till today, the talmidim come to our home on leil Shabbas, following the seudah, to enhance our Shabbas with their divrei Torah and beautiful zemiros. They sing the Rosh Yeshiva’s favorite niggunim, including “Lulai Torascha,” which Rabbi Perr would sing on Simchas Torah in his inimitable style, and “Kol b’ramah,” which is my favorite melody And on Shabbos morning, members of Rav Perr’s vaad, all married men, come visit and share with me that which they had just spoken about in Yeshiva. B”H, I am still connected to the Yeshiva and to the Torah learning.

In 1981, Rebbetzin Perr, eager to assist those in need and to understand herself better, began to attend Wurzweiler School of Social Work. As an involved community rebbetzin, many women would approach for help in dealing with life’s vicissitudes. She was eager to hone her skills to help these women in an optimal fashion. Earlier, she had pursued her degree in Brooklyn College’s night program, graduating summa cum laude.

Her children were still young at the time – the oldest,

voice, she is able to offer a sincere compliment or a necessary rebuke. She has mastered the art of expressing herself in the most respectful way. Whether talking to staff, campers or staff, she is appropriate and super respectful.

Every staff meeting would begin with a dvar Torah. Every project, every event had a distinct focus. What will the campers walk away with? What is the takeaway?

Blimi Braunstein, Married Head Counselor Rebbetzin Shonnie is a woman who epitomizes emes, integrity, through and through. She is authentic in every aspect of her being. In her relationships. In the materials that she would impart to the girls. How she still prepares for her teaching, till today, checking every source, making sure that every statement, every detail is totally accurate.

She teaches in the most creative, brilliant ways, through the “back door,” reaching even the youngest campers. Years later, older campers would recall the lessons taught in earlier years, finally grasping the full impact of the lesson as they matured. We all learned so much from her, through her creativity; her brilliance came bursting through.

She always exhibits tremendous strength of character, gevurah. The strength to always do what is right and necessary at the moment. Camp is a very intense working arena. So much going on. So many details to tend to, 24/7. Of course, we try not to step on anyone’s toes, to always be appropriate and gentle in our interactions with others. Yet…there are times when Rebbetzin Shonnie would ask a staff member to please see her after the night activity to gently offer mussar. As loving and as warm as she always was, she demanded that we pay attention to every detail in our interactions, with the younger set also. We always accepted her mussar, knowing that it comes from a caring heart.

Erev Shabbos, Rebbetzin Perr was always the first to light candles. Tisha B’Av, through her words and actions, we literally felt the Churban. It was so real

itive, one tries to outdo the other, keep raising the bar higher and higher. The focus on materialistic pursuits is a problem across the board.

Amazingly, our esteemed rebbetzin is busier than ever these days. Has she retired? Certainly not! Chavru-

“She brought out the strength in each of her girls, strengths we were unaware that we possessed!” sos are lined up several times a week. She is busy learning. Teaching. Advising. Supervising. Spending quality time with her family members. Years ago, Rebbetzin Perr instituted a delightful family tradition, composing charming birthday poems for her children and grandchildren. These poems are cherished by her progeny.

to us. We understood what we are missing today. Shabbas Nachamu, she would be dressed in white, totally, top to bottom. Always making such an impression on staff and campers alike.

Gedolim would visit Camp Agudah and at least once a summer, a gadol would visit Camp Bnos to bestow a bracha upon the girls. A thousand girls would wait for the gadol in absolutely, total silence. Such reverence. Such kavod given to our gedolim.

Mayor Bloomberg came to visit camp. There was a totally different approach.

Then, we were encouraged to applaud. Respect, yes. But certainly not the awe and reverence that was given to our gedolim. There was a marked difference.

Rebbetzin Perr was intent on doing her utmost, giving her utmost, 100%, to enrich the summer experience of the campers. The summers were meaningful as well as enjoyable.

Reb esther Reisman, Learning Director Rebbetzin Perr was my teacher in BYA High School. Rooted in divrei Chazal, totally passionate over Torah and with a super strong sense of emunas chachomim, yet we found her so relevant, so contemporary.

Rebbetzin Perr helped us view our lives and all events from a new perspective.

Using the power of dimyon, imagination and creativity, she helped deliver these messages straight to our hearts.

A powerful lesson that I learnt from my esteemed teacher: Whatever you speak about, ground it in divrei Chazal. Find an appropriate Torah teaching to help root your lesson. I recently discussed the role of the rebbetzin in dealing with mental health issues. In preparing for the session, I read through Pirkei Avos, seeking an appropriate Mishnah to base my talk on. I found it in the sixth perek, the phrase “Makir es mekomo.” The Torah is acquired through 48 qualifications, one of them being, ‘he knows his place.” I grounded my presentation on that phrase. We must realize our “place,” acknowledge our responsibilities as well as

Our cherished rebbetzin lovingly advises us: We women need to keep learning. Attend Torah classes to keep our minds stimulated. We must keep growing in our Yiddishkeit. I now have the time to do things I’ve never been able to do, engage in writing, enjoy varied artistic pursuits.

Rebbetzin Perr is certainly not merely counting her days; she is making her days count! Kol hakovod! What a role model for the rest of us!

T

u B’Shvat is Rebbetzin Shonnie’s birthday. It is certainly not a coincidence that our beloved teacher/ mentor shares her birthday with the world of trees. She continues to plant so many seeds, nurturing thousands of seedlings, watering the blossoms with her love and caring, her warm, beautiful smile, her wisdom and devotion. Rebbetzin Shonnie has ka”h never stopped growing, is consistently fruitful and productive, enhancing the lives of so many.

Wishing her many productive, healthy, wonderful years up ahead to continue her avodas hakodesh!

our limitations, our borders.

For 11 summers, I had the privilege of joining Rebbetzin Shonnie in Camp Bnos as learning director. Rebbetzin Shonnie had enormous kavod habriyos for absolutely everyone, younger and older. She had an enormous thirst to learn, to discover novel ideas. So alive, so vibrant! Her love for all was so obvious.

Rebbetzin Shonnie never let go of the little girl inside of her. Forever youthful, with an enormous appreciation for all. She commanded enormous love and respect with her mere presence. She would easily engage and talk to people of all ages, of all backgrounds, to each on her level.

Rebbetzin Shonnie mindfully created an atmosphere that permeated the entire camp. While she was refreshing and with-it, all was steeped in tradition.

Through her incredible cantatas, she helped instill within us a powerful longing for the final Geulah. Even if at times we did not understand every detail of the cantata, nevertheless, we were drawn into the beauty, the transcendence. We emerged yearning for more…yearning for that which is profound and deep. Her passion was contagious!

These cantatas made the words of Chazal come alive for us. Incorporating stories from Chazal, piyutim, evocative, holy melodies from the Yomim Noraim….

We absorbed it all, deep into our bones! Such a gift!

I was once visiting Yerushalayim. Rebbetzin Perr asked me to please visit her grandmother, Bubba Yoffen. Naturally, I did so. As I was leaving, I wished her much nachas from her family. Bubba Yoffen was not happy with my blessing, and she vehemently announced, “Ich vill nachas fun alle Bnei Torah, zennen alle meine kinder!” I want to have nachas from all the bnei Torah, they are all my children!

Our beloved Rebbetzin Shonnie obviously absorbed this approach from her Bubby Yoffen. We feel her love, her warmth, her caring. And we hope and pray that we continue to learn our lessons well! May we all continue to bring her much nachas!

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JUNE 12, 2025 | The Jewish Home

15, the youngest, an infant.

Rebbetzin Perr became a social worker in TAG, providing counsel in various complicated situations within the school setting, community yeshivos, and the community at large. Working with Counterforce, she supervised the mental health counselors based in the Far Rockaway yeshivos. She also ran her own clinical practice, helping private clients. Her professional experience, together with her exceptional insight and wisdom and tremendous chinuch acumen, all combine to make our beloved rebbetzin a valuable resource to the greater Jewish community.

Naturally, Rebbetzin Perr made good use of her finely honed skills within the camp setting also. She would help counselors grow into their positions, assist staff members and campers dealing with bullying scenarios, help out-of-towners adjust to this new and novel setting, help campers integrate into the camp routine, deal with homesickness... There were occasions, when sadly she would have to inform campers or staff members that their beloved parent had passed away. She would be the one to inform them of the tragic news, and then would be the one to help them integrate back into the camp setting upon their return after the week of shiva.

Her take on the state of our contemporary camps?

Unfortunately, camps today have become very compet-

nspiration Nation

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David Mandel Never Stop Believing

By Eliyahu RosEnBERg

“W

hat was it like?” David Mandel recalls. “On a scale from one to ten, it was a billion. It was difficult. It was hard. It was impossible. It was awful. It was mind-boggling. It was lonely.”

But in their darkest hour — even when it felt like they might never have a child — David and Susan Mandel nev-

er gave up hope. Even after 20 years of struggling to have a baby, they never stopped believing.

Years ago, the couple visited a doctor to discuss the issue. After some conversation, David cut to the chase.

“So, what are the chances?” he asked.

“What do you mean?” the doctor replied, confused.

In Her Words… leadership is my favorite word. What is the difference between a manager, a supervisor, and a leader? a manager or supervisor tells people what they need to do. a leader shows people what can be done. a leader doesn’t tell. a leader shows by example. if you allow yourself to be stopped by the naysayers, you won’t accomplish anything in life.

Most people don’t call back to say thank you. But a few do. and in my office, on my wall, i’ve got a bunch of thank you notes. Every once in a while, when a person calls and says thank you or invites me to a simcha, i go. i don’t introduce myself. i don’t say, ‘i’m from ohel.’ i just go.

Those occasional thank you notes, those occasional thank yous from a person, they’re 14-karat gold.

David took a deep breath.

“Doc, you know how old my wife and I are. And every single doctor quotes statistics,” David said. “So, what are the statistics?”

The doctor looked at the couple.

“One hundred percent,” the doctor said.

“What?”

“If G-d wants you to have a baby, you have a 100% chance of having a baby.”

That moment has stuck with David Mandel all these years later. In a world ruled by statistics, we often forget that sometimes, the numbers don’t matter. If Hashem wants something — no matter how unlikely it may seem — it will happen. No, that didn’t make the situation easy. But it definitely made it easier.

“One Shabbos, my rav, Rav Mordechai Stern, was speaking about Parshas Terumah and how Hashem gave Moshe Rabbeinu every single nuance of a measurement to build the Mishkan,” David recounts. “The rav explained that there was one thing that Moshe Rabbeinu couldn’t build. He couldn’t build the Menorah.

And he went back to Hashem and he said, ‘I can’t build it.’ Moshe Rabbeinu tries and tries, and he can’t build it. And he says to Hashem, ‘You build the Menorah.’”

What’s the message of Moshe’s struggle? You can try and try, but there comes a time when you have to surrender and turn to G-d.

“I went to my rav afterwards. And I said, ‘You know, I don’t know what anybody else was thinking. But I was thinking about the whole issue of fer-

tility: that at some point, you just give yourself over to G-d. You can daven, and you can go to doctors, and you can go to rabbanim. At some point, it’s like Moshe Rabbeinu,’” he shares. “Moshe Rabbeinu said to Hashem, ‘I can’t do it, Hashem.

You build the Menorah.’ That, to me, was like the conversation about fertility. At some point, you say, ‘G-d, I’m done. I’m giving myself over to you. You want to give me a baby? I would like a baby. I’m giving myself over to you. I can’t do this anymore.’”

David remembers the day the news arrived. It was just days before Purim. He recalls hearing the news over the phone. And then…silence. Nothing needed to be said. Nothing could be said.

There were no words.

Twenty-four years, eight months, and five days after David and Susan Mandel got married, they had a baby girl. They named her Eliana — “Hashem answered.” *

*

*

1995 was a big year for David Mandel.

It was the year he became a father, the year he and his wife moved from Canarsie to the Five Towns, and the year he began his work at Ohel, an organization that offers social and mental health services to Jewish communities around the world.

“I always worked in the field of disabilities. That was my career,” David explains. “My life was devoted to public service and people with disabilities… At

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“We set out very hard to help the community to destigmatize disabilities, to destigmatize people with mental illness — by talking about it, by having the best speakers speak about it. We had parents who lost their children to accidental drug overdoses. We had parents who lost their children to suicide speak publicly about it,” he explains. “Today, it’s so different. It may have gone to the other extreme. Everything has to have a balance. But there were much fewer services years ago than there are today.

Today, there is thankfully a plethora of services. People understand that we live in a different world.”

Today, Ohel offers a wide range of services, from foster care to housing for individuals with mental illness to trauma services to addiction treatment to school services to shelters for victims of domestic violence. Ohel saves lives.

“If the community needs something, we want to be in the lead of it. If no one else is doing it, we want to be there,” David says.

In fact, one of Ohel’s most beloved programs is Camp Kaylie, which David describes as “a magical place.” It’s a beautiful program in Upstate New York that brings together typical children and children with special needs in a fully inclusive environment.

“We have kids with Down syndrome.

We have kids on the autism spectrum.

Every single bunk has two or three kids with disabilities, the majority of whom are on the spectrum,” David explains.

“The magic of Camp Kaylie is that at the end of the summer, when your typical kid comes home, and you say to him, ‘Dovid, how many kids in your bunk had a disability?’ he says, ‘Zero,’ not even realizing that three of the kids in his bunk

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.

were on the spectrum. That’s the magic of Camp Kaylie.” *

*

*

What’s the difference between a leader and a manager?

“A manager or supervisor tells people what they need to do. A leader shows people what can be done. A leader doesn’t tell. A leader shows by example,” David explains.

But there’s another part of being a leader. Leadership is also about having the courage to move forward, even when others doubt you. As David says, “If you allow yourself to be stopped by the naysayers, you won’t accomplish anything in life.”

Indeed, the worst advice David has ever received came in just one word: “Don’t.” And that advice has come in countless forms: “Don’t create that program,” “Don’t pursue a career in public

service,” and the like.

But perhaps the most painful version of “Don’t” came not from others, but from that little voice of doubt: “Don’t hold on to faith. Don’t believe that Hashem will bless you with a child.”

David Mandel’s life’s work is built on chessed — on helping others. And yet, with every moment — every time he blesses his miracle daughter or spends time with his grandchildren — he’s reminded of a chessed that transcends human kindness: the chessed that Hashem did for him and his wife when He answered their tefillos — the chessed that Hashem does for all of us, every single day.

“I talk a lot about inner peace. There’s so much turmoil today. So much conflict.

Everyone has to find an inner peace, a place where their body can rest,” David Mandel declares. “And my inner peace is my two granddaughters. That only happened because of Eliana. And that’s Hashem’s chessed.”

JUNE 12, 2025 | The Jewish Home

the time, I was working in the non-Jewish world. I was doing work in Queens, in Harlem, and Spanish Harlem, developing housing for people with disabilities.

“One day, Ohel reached out to me and invited me in for a conversation,” he recalls. “In essence, Ohel asked me to do what I love doing — but for the Jewish community. It was a no-brainer.”

In David Mandel’s words, he and the nonprofit “got married quickly.” On August 1, 1995, he joined Ohel. Today, he serves as its CEO. “I like to say that I’ve never had a bad day at Ohel,” he says. “Sure, I’ve had difficult days. I’ve had hard days. But I’ve never had a bad day at Ohel. I’ve never had a day that I didn’t want to go to work.”

As David explains, Ohel doesn’t only offer services for individuals with disabilities or mental illness. It’s also an institution that educates the public in an effort to foster awareness and acceptance. Indeed, when David joined Ohel 30 years ago, the biggest issue the organization faced was stigma.

“The world has gone from one opposite to another opposite. People don’t understand. Twenty-five years ago, there were literally closet children. People had children with mental illness or disabilities who didn’t leave the house because of the shame, the stigma,” shares David.

“Years ago, shortly after I joined Ohel, I went to a bris in Brooklyn. I went over to a person that I knew. His son with mental illness was living at Ohel in one of our residences. And he takes me aside after he shakes my hand. He walks with me and he says, ‘Please don’t tell anyone that you know me or that my son lives at Ohel. No one knows that I have a son who lives at Ohel.’ That was not unusual.

It’s painful.

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Dating Dialogue

What Would You Do If… Moderated by Jennifer Mann, LCSW of The Navidaters

Dear Navidaters,

I look forward to reading your insightful column weekly. I’m twenty-three, very intelligent, and grew up more “yeshivish” attending a Bnos Bais Yaakov type of school. Currently, I am in my final semester of college and working towards becoming a nurse.

I have been dating a great guy who is a year older than me and is currently in my class. Things couldn’t have been going any better. However, recently I found out about his past through a mutual friend, who was with him in his freshman year of college. To say I was most surprised with his past was an understatement. Long story short, this friend regretfully informed me that the boy I am dating used to attend frat parties and pool halls to cope with stress. When I confronted him about his unorthodox past, he dismissed it, saying that he was just trying to find some relaxation from his heavy course load. He reassured me he was no longer involved.

I’m extremely alarmed. Not only because of his past but, because I know great relationships sometimes do involve stress, which ultimately strengthens the relationship. I’m left feeling uncertain about our future.

Please advise, Leba*

Disclaimer: This column is not intended to diagnose or otherwise conclude resolutions to any questions. Our intention is not to offer any definitive conclusions to any particular question, rather offer areas of exploration for the author and reader. Due to the nature of the column receiving only a short snapshot of an issue, without the benefit of an actual discussion, the panel’s role is to offer a range of possibilities. We hope to open up meaningful dialogue and individual exploration.

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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 Faigie Horowitz, M.S.

I

think you are either confused and/or not understanding the effect of stress on a relationship. Your next to the last sentence reflects a lack of realism. All of life

includes stress, no matter what age and stage. Relationships have highs and lows and stressors that come from the outside as well as from inner struggles.

Stress relief may be healthy (sports, hobbies, board games, music, for example) or unhealthy (smoking, for example). But relationships require listening, verbalizing understanding, communicating through love languages, and giving, besides for cre-

ativity and negotiating differences.

Talking with the young man about how he spends his free time in creative and healthy pursuits is one way to open the conversation further as well as becoming vulnerable yourself as to how you have dealt with problems and stressors in the past. Open up and listen and understand.

Being judgmental without understanding how stress and people work will not help you in the short- or long-run, with this young man or in other relationships. Get professional help, too.

I’d be more optimistic about this relationship if the guy would show a modicum of remorse instead of trying to justify past behaviors.

The Shadchan Michelle Mond

D

ear Leba, Thank you for writing in with this important question! I understand

that this caught you by surprise, but could it be that he really did not feel that these details were relevant? Going to parties and pool halls are things that many baalei teshuva or flip-outs may

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The Panel

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have done years before when they were less religious. If it was clear to you that he is a BT (baal teshuva) or flip-out, you could have already assumed he did these things as it is normal for that type of college culture. Generally BT’s/flipouts don’t want to go into every detail of their “previous life.” If you had specifically asked him to share and he didn’t, that is a different story.

If he presented himself as similar to you in all respects (from a typical yeshivish background, nothing out of the ordinary...), I wonder why you didn’t go along with the standard practice of checking into the boy before dating him.

In those cases, you almost always find out relevant information so that you are able to make an informed decision.

I understand you met in nursing school, however, singles from your background would still make calls to see if it is a proper shidduch before meeting. You did not, and that is out of the ordinary.

At this point, you have to deal with reality. If he is a BT or flip-out, I’m not alarmed that he did not give you every detail of his past if you did not ask about it. However, if he presented himself as having always been similar to you, I would be concerned. Communication and learning about the other person is a key factor in dating. If he is presenting as always having been one type, why wouldn’t he have opened up about this challenging time in his life yet?

The way you describe presenting it to him and his response – “trying to find some relaxation from his heavy course load” – leads me to believe that my initial assumption that he is a BT or flipout is correct. You are from different worlds. That is what people do to help with stress in that world before being turned on to sincere Torah and Yiddishkeit. In this case, he is merely explaining to you his background when you finally asked about it. He did not mean to do anything nefarious by not mentioning it. If the way I am assessing it is correct, you must understand that the two of you will have many differences and outlooks. If you want this to work, you will have to understand this and be patient. You will also have to work on your communication and learn to understand each other better.

If, however, my assumption is wrong and he has been presenting as always having been your “type” with the typical yeshivish, straight-forward background, I would be concerned by his reaction and response, as culturally that is not a normal practice of stress relief for this type of person. In this case, it is concerning that he did not mention this period of his life, and when asked about it he tried to make nothing of it.

If this is the scenario, I would urge you to take a look at your relationship. Talk to him frankly about why this bothers you. Talk to people who know him and find out about his past and patterns.

Think back to prior interactions with him and make sure he has always been honest and transparent. Does he generally make you feel bad and belittle your concerns in other areas? Do not jump into anything until you are feeling good about this.

Hatzlacha!

relieve stress. They go because they enjoy socializing with their friends, or because they enjoy engaging in friendly, or even not-so-friendly, competition.

I’d be more optimistic about this relationship if the guy would show a modicum of remorse instead of trying to justify past behaviors. I’d feel better about this relationship if the guy would honestly acknowledge that he went to frat parties and pool halls because he enjoyed them, but he has now moved on with his life, matured, and realized that those are not wholesome or worthy activities.

I hope you can make this work and that the two of you can commit to a healthy, respectful, future together.

The Zaidy

Y

Dr. Jeffrey Galler

Y

ou would probably be very surprised to learn that many respected, highly admired people in your very own community have experienced less-than-respectable past episodes in their lives.

The point is that many folks have pasts that they’re not proud of, but that does not define who they are today. People grow, change, and evolve. If your boyfriend is genuinely not involved in those behaviors anymore and has moved past them, that’s a good sign.

However, I am extremely troubled by how he is handling these revelations about his past. If you are accurately describing his reaction, it sure sounds like he’s simply brushing it off as if it doesn’t matter. This is very disturbing.

Here’s a revelation for you: college freshmen do not go to frat parties because they have a heavy course load. If they worry about an overly heavy course load, they stay home and study.

And they do not go to pool halls to

Reader’s Response Deena Zivarts Navidaters’ Fan ou are right to be concerned. Both the incidents and your boyfriend’s response when confronted about them raise red flags. The incidents are troubling not only because they are inappropriate behavior for a frum person but because they raise additional potential problems. For example, the attendance at frat parties raises the question of how your friend knew about and got into those parties, and, if it was through friends, whether he still associates with them. Also, frat parties generally involve alcohol or even drugs. Could your friend have had a problem with these substances at the time, or even now?

As to frequenting pool halls, did your friend ever bet on games, which sometimes happens? Thus, the activities your friend engaged in may have “only” been a means to relax, but they could potentially involve something more serious.

Your friend’s response when confronted about these activities is also troubling. Although he did say that he was no longer involved in them, his explanation made it sound as though the reason for this was not that he realized how inappropriate they were but that he simply did not “need” them anymore be-

When hard things come up, does this relationship make you feel more anchored or more confused?

cause his course work was no longer as stressful. If so, then, as you suggested, he might view this sort of behavior as an acceptable option in the future should he again experience a large amount of stress. Finally, while I hope your friend’s assurance that he is no longer involved in such activities is true, you cannot be entirely sure of that without further research.

So how do you go about learning more? Certainly, additional conversations with your friend on this matter are needed. You might want to start by framing such a discussion as a general desire to see if you two are on the same page in terms of your view of Yiddishkeit and how it fits into your life’s goals so that he doesn’t become overly defensive about the particular indiscretions at hand. I think that you should also speak to a trusted advisor and/or your rav about doing the kind of research usually done by a shadchan.

However, because you’ve already been dating and did not agree to investigate each other beforehand, an extra layer of diplomacy and sensitivity to your friend’s feelings might be in order.

Lastly, you might consider asking your friend if you two could meet with some of his friends. While couples who meet through a shadchan usually refrain from that until after becoming engaged, since you already met on your own, your friend might be open to this suggestion. Seeing your beau interact with his friends could help you further assess his overall character and determine whether or not he is what you are looking for in a husband.

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The Navidaters Dating and Relationship Coaches and Therapists

D

ear Leba, First, I want to thank you for writing in with such honesty and thoughtfulness. It’s clear that you’re someone who takes life seriously, who wants to build something meaningful, and who holds herself to high standards. That matters.

Let’s start with this: Finding out something surprising about someone you’re growing close to can shake you. It makes sense that you feel unsettled right now.

It’s not just about what he did—it’s about whether the person you’re letting into

your life shares your values, your worldview, and the vision you have for the kind of home you want to build. That’s not small.

It’s also important to name this—his past doesn’t necessarily define his present or his future. People make choices in college (and outside of it) that don’t always reflect who they really are or who they’re becoming. The fact that he was open about it, didn’t lie, and reassured you that it’s no

longer part of his life—that says something, too.

But here’s the real work: this is less about his past and more about how you feel in relationship with it. Does his past behavior challenge your sense of emotional safety or spiritual alignment? Do you believe him when he says it’s no longer a part of his life? Do you trust the man he’s showing up as now?

You mentioned something else that struck me—that relationships include stress, and that facing challenges together can actually strengthen them. You’re absolutely right. But relationships don’t just grow stronger through stress alone. They grow stronger through honesty, accountability, mutual respect, and emotional safety. The question is: when hard things

come up, does this relationship make you feel more anchored or more confused?

Only you can know what your core values are and what you can live with. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer here. But I will say this—every love story will come with things you didn’t expect. What matters most is whether you feel respected, safe, and at peace with the whole person you’re inviting into your life.

Give yourself permission to pause and reflect. You don’t need to rush to a decision. Keep your eyes open, stay honest with yourself, and trust that clarity often comes not just from thinking—but from observing, asking questions, and allowing the truth of the relationship to reveal itself.

With warmth and respect, Jennifer

Jennifer Mann, LCSW is a licensed psychotherapist and certified trauma healing life coach, as well as a dating and relationship coach working with individuals, couples, and families in private practice at 123 Maple Avenue in Cedarhurst, NY. To set up a consultation or to ask questions, please call 718-908-0512. Visit www.thenavidaters.com for more information. If you would like to submit a dating or relationship question to the panel anonymously, please email JenniferMannLCSW@gmail.com. You can follow The Navidaters on FB and Instagram for dating and relationship advice.

JUNE 12, 2025 | The Jewish Home

Pulling It All Together

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L festyles

What Now? Part I

By Basya R.

Y

ou’re back home from seminary, and everything feels familiar…or maybe not. How did your little siblings get so big? And when did those new restaurants open? But the biggest thing that hits you isn’t the changes. It’s the looming question of what now?

Baruch Hashem, in 2025, there are so many options. Should you take a teacher’s assistant position? Work for your father’s business? Take an accounting course?

Pursue a degree in social work? And with all the options comes the overwhelm.

Trial and error sounds tempting. Everyone else seems to figure it out eventually. Just pick something and see what happens. But rushed choices can turn into months or years of feeling stuck.

The good news is, you don’t need all the answers today. But you do need to start with the right questions.

This short quiz isn’t about what you should do. It’s about discovering what feels most like you. Answer honestly – there’s no right or wrong!

You’re hands-on, practical, and love seeing immediate results. You thrive when you’re doing something physical or creative, and enjoy action-oriented tasks.

You might be great at roles that involve creativity, manual work, or direct engagement. Think: event planner, entrepreneur, or designer.

Mostly D’s: The Thinker (The Rational) You enjoy solving problems and thinking critically. You’re motivated by intellectual challenges and enjoy analyzing situations to find the best solutions. You might thrive in careers that require strategy, research, or innovation. Think: data analyst, software developer, or strategist.

Your Homework

D. Dive into a book, listen to a shiur/ podcast, or something that challenges my thinking.

1. When you’re learning something new, how do you prefer to approach it?

A. I like to take notes and follow a structured method to understand everything step-by-step.

B. I enjoy discussing new concepts with others and figuring it out through conversation.

C. I prefer learning by doing – hands-on experience helps me grasp things better.

D. I enjoy reading, researching, and analyzing the information on my own before taking action.

3. When you’re faced with a decision, what’s your approach?

A. I like to weigh the pros and cons and have a clear plan.

B. I think about how it will affect others and whether it aligns with my values.

C. I prefer to take action and figure things out as I go.

D. I want to understand the reasoning behind the decision and the potential for growth.

2. If you had an unexpected free afternoon, you’d most likely...

A. Organize something at home, tackle a to-do list, or catch up on work.

B. Call a friend or spend some time reflecting.

C. Try something creative – maybe a DIY project or a hands-on hobby.

4. How do you enjoy helping others?

A. By making things run smoothly and offering practical solutions.

B. By listening, offering emotional support, and offering guidance.

C. By taking action and jumping in to solve problems directly.

D. By sharing knowledge, offering insights, and helping them grow.

Results Mostly A’s: The Planner (The Guardian) You’re organized, reliable, and thrive in structured environments. You excel at managing tasks and ensuring things run smoothly. Consider roles in administration, finance, or project management.

Think: office manager, bookkeeper, event coordinator.

Mostly B’s: The Nurturer (The Idealist) You’re empathetic and connect with others on a deep level. You value making a difference in people’s lives and helping them feel heard. Consider careers in counseling, education, or social services.

Think: teacher, social worker, counselor, or mentor.

Mostly C’s: The Doer (The Artisan)

Take the quiz and jot down your results. But don’t stop there. Write down one thing you’ve always been drawn to – even if it seems unrelated to a career. Think: I love organizing the carpool schedule, I’ve always been curious about how websites work, people always come to me with their problems, I light up when I’m explaining something to a group. These little clues are worth more than a dozen classified ads.

Knowing your personality is great.

But what do you do with that?

In the next installment, we’ll explore how to turn this self-awareness into actionable steps.

Basya is a career coach at Careerly. At Careerly, we redefine recruitment by going beyond resumes and job descriptions. Through personalized services such as aptitude testing, career coaching, and expert resume writing, we help individuals uncover their strengths and connect with roles that truly fit. Whether you’re navigating a career transition or looking to refine your path, Careerly is here to guide you forward. Learn more at www.careerlyny.com or reach out to info@ careerlyny.com

School of

Thought

JUNE 12, 2025 | The Jewish Home

By Etti Siegel

Q:

Dear Etti, The school suggested that my child has executive functioning issues. The way they describe it, I might have the same issues!

What is executive function?

Can you offer ideas to help my child (and me) improve his executive functioning skills.

I need ideas for summer break when I can spend time with him and help improve his skills.

Thanks, - Tzafloigen

A:

Dear Tzafloigen, Summer is a wonderful time to help (you and) your child strengthen their executive functioning skills, especially because the pressure of school is off and you have the freedom to slow down and work together.

Executive functioning refers to the brain’s ability to manage tasks like planning, staying organized, managing time, controlling impulses, and regulating emotions.

These are skills that some kids pick up naturally, but many need explicit practice, and you can give them that practice through your day-to-day summer activities.

One of the most helpful things you can do is to create a predictable daily routine, which is even more helpful when you include your child in the planning. Instead of telling your child what the day will look like, sit down together after breakfast and say, “Let’s decide what we want to get done today.” For example, you might say, “We need to go to the library and make lunch. What else do you want to do?” Then you can work together to figure out when and how those things will happen.

If your child goes to day camp, plan the late afternoon and evenings, and of course, Shabbos and Sunday.

This builds your child’s ability to plan ahead, estimate time, and feel a sense of control. If your child enjoys visual tools, you can write the day’s plan on a whiteboard or use sticky notes so they can see what’s coming next and cross things off as they go.

Games are another excellent way to practice executive functioning without it feeling like work. If your child has trouble with working memory or cognitive flexibility, try playing games like “Uno,” “Simon Says,” or even “20 Questions.” These types of games require children to remember rules, shift their thinking, and respond to changing situations. For older kids, strategy games like checkers, chess, or logic puzzles also help. Some electronic games, like Bop It, Simon, and the electronic Pop-It games, require intense focus and sequencing. Even video games, when used in

121

fully calm down, they’re learning moderation and with a specific to recognize and respond to their goal, can provide opportunities feelings in a healthy way. for planning, perseverance, and Games are One especially empowering attention. (The games should be another excellent thing to try is setting a summer recommended by educators and goal together. Let your child occupational therapists so they way to practice pick something they care about, are not mindless, which would executive maybe learning to ride a bike, defeat the whole purpose of albaking three different desserts, lowing the limited screen time.) functioning writing a comic book, or reading Real-life activities also offer five chapter books. Then work countless chances to build execwithout it with them to break the goal into utive functioning. For instance, feeling like work. manageable steps. If the goal is you can involve your child in baking, the first step might be planning a family trip or outchoosing recipes, followed by ing. Start by asking, “What do shopping for ingredients, then we need to bring?” and let them make a list. Then ask, “What order should we do things trying one together. You can even make a poster or progin to get ready?” If the trip is on Sunday, they may realize ress tracker and celebrate each little milestone. This helps they need to buy food on Friday and pack the cooler on your child learn how to stay focused on a bigger goal, even Sunday morning. These are the exact kinds of thinking when it takes time and effort. steps that kids with executive functioning challenges often Warning: children who struggle might just want to skip over, but when they do them with your guidance, they give up the goal midway because it seems too hard or build real-world skills. taking too long.

If your child struggles with starting tasks or sticking Since that is a reality, throughout the summer, your with them, you can support them by breaking things into attitude will matter just as much as the activities. Focus small steps and giving them reminders in a helpful way. on effort, not just results. Say things like, “You really stuck For example, if cleaning their room feels overwhelming, with that even when it was hard,” or “I saw you take a deep you can say, “First let’s just pick up the dirty clothes. That’s breath when your sister annoyed you – that’s not easy.” it for now.” Once that’s done, you can move on to the books These comments help reinforce the skills your child is deor the toys. You might even use a kitchen timer to make it veloping and remind them that progress is what counts. into a challenge: “Let’s see how much of the bookshelf we Summer doesn’t have to be packed with structured can organize in five minutes.” programs to be productive. Time spent cooking together, Emotional regulation is also part of executive function- organizing the garage, building a fort, writing a story, or ing, and summer is a great time to help your child learn just talking about plans for the day can all strengthen the more about their emotions and how to manage them. Go mental muscles your child needs to thrive. for a walk together in the evening and talk about what felt With your support, patience, and encouragement, hard that day. You can say, “I noticed you were getting your child can head into the new school year feeling more frustrated when your Lego tower kept falling. What helped capable, more confident, and better equipped to manage you calm down?” You might create a calm-down space at challenges on their own. home with drawing supplies, a soft pillow, or a favorite Enjoy your summer! book. When your child uses that space, even if they don’t - Etti

Mrs. Etti Siegel holds an MS in Teaching and Learning/Educational Leadership and brings sound teaching advice to her audiences culled from her over 35 years of teaching and administrative experience. She is an Adjunct at the College of Mount Saint Vincent/Sara Shenirer. She is a coach and educational consultant for Catapult Learning, is a sought-after mentor and workshop presenter around the country, and a popular presenter for Sayan (a teacher-mentoring program), Hidden Sparks, and the Consortium of Jewish Day Schools. She is a frequent contributor to Hamechanech Magazine and The Journal for Jewish Day School leaders. She will be answering your education-based questions and writing articles weekly for The Jewish Home. Mrs. Siegel can be reached at ettisiegel@gmail.com.

The Jewish Home | JUNE 12, 2025

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Parenting Pearls

Happy Birthday!

By Sara Rayvych, MSEd

W

e are celebrating the birthday of our little one, and like all youngsters, she’s been anxiously awaiting this day. For children, their birthday is truly a year-long event as they excitedly anticipate its arrival.

Technically, on your birthday, you’re only one day older than the previous day, but it still reflects a milestone of growth and achievement. For parents, a child’s birthday brings up memories and reflection. We remember their birth, those difficult first months and each step that has brought them to this big day. As exciting as it is for the child, it can be more emotionally overwhelming for the parent!

It’s only natural we would want to commemorate these occasions. There are so many ways to celebrate, but parties have become a popular option. Parties may include just the immediate family, like we did for our child recently. For older children, they often want to include friends, and the invite list gets longer.

Keeping It Simple There are numerous stories of ridiculous amounts being spent on a child’s party. Parties don’t need to be extravagant. It not only establishes unfair standards for others, it also creates an unhealthy expectation in the child themself who would otherwise be happy with a simpler celebration.

Birthday parties shouldn’t create major stress for the parents. It’s unfortunate when the parent is under so much tension that the party is no longer worth it. It’s better to keep it simpler and calmer.

When the birthday boy/girl is very little, the party is really for the parents (or grandparents). The child will never remember the party, although taking pictures may help. For little ones, a simple cake is just as exciting as a gigantic extravaganza. There is no need to go overboard. Especially for the earliest birthdays, keep it simple. If you spend some time reading to them or taking them to the park, they will enjoy that much more than an elaborate event.

The party should match the child’s

needs. Many children get overwhelmed by big events or being the center of attention. Sadly, it’s not uncommon to find a child crying at their own birthday party.

This is especially noticeable during an upsherin when many little boys struggle.

No Child Left Behind Children are very sensitive to being left out or treated differently. It’s important to make sure that children are not being excluded from any event. If a number of children are being invited from a class, then the guest list should include all their classmates. Similarly, if a few invited children are part of a “chevra,” then please include each member of that group. Whether or not your child plays with a particular peer does not change the need to be mindful of each individual’s feelings. This can be an opportunity to educate the birthday boy/girl on the importance of being sensitive to everyone’s feelings.

Schools often have rules in place to ensure each child is included and that events maintain the standards of the school’s parent body. Parents should be mindful to follow the rules of their child’s school.

Parties usually involve food – lots of it. It may be a meal, snacks or goody bags. Parents should take into consideration the kashrus standards of the children being invited. For example, if most of the children come from homes that only eat cholov Yisroel, it would be considerate to maintain that standard for all food. If only one or two children’s families maintain a particular standard, it’s still appropriate to take their feelings into account. If that’s not possible (for example, the particular item isn’t available), please politely inform the parents in advance so they can make the necessary accommodations.

Allergies affect many children. Unfortunately, they can also be quite dangerous for some kids. Presumably, parents of children with severe allergies will already have precautions in place to maintain their child’s safety. The party’s

hosts should be respectful of the child’s needs and carefully follow the parents’ protocol. This may include only serving that child food sent from home. When possible, parents can try to have a comparable item for children with less severe dietary restrictions (for example, a gluten-free cookie or cake for those who can’t eat the regular one).

Gift giving has become a part of the festivities in many communities. No child should ever feel shamed for not bringing a gift. Perhaps their family may not have known that others would be bringing gifts. Maybe they didn’t have the finances or they were in the midst of a crisis and couldn’t arrange it.

It’s better to avoid opening gifts during the party or in front of their friends. Too many children have had their feelings hurt by comments that were made or by comparing their gift to those of others.

Children should write thank-you cards or find another meaningful way to acknowledge their gratitude. They should recognize that others don’t “owe them” a gift and appreciate that others thought of them.

Surprise Parties Often, families will choose to make a surprise party to celebrate an occasion.

For example, my siblings and I arranged a surprise party for our parents’ anniversary a few years ago. In these situations, the one being celebrated is unaware of the festivities to come and is surprised to walk into a party in their honor.

Many people are beyond thrilled to be surprised for their birthday or other special occasion. They are excited to walk into an already prepared event and see how much was done in their honor. It’s important to match the party to the personality and only surprise those who will appreciate it. There are many children (and adults) who would not be comfortable with it, and we certainly need to take the honoree’s feelings into consideration.

Often, when making a surprise party, there is a lot of work done behind the child’s back. This is an inherent part of surprising them. Please be mindful that the child may become aware that something is happening behind their back, and they may feel excluded or hurt – even if they will eventually find out the truth. Watch the child carefully and be considerate of their feelings. It may be better to ruin the surprise than to allow a child to wander around feeling the pain of exclusion during the weeks leading up to the party.

Birthdays are a special day that hit once a year but give us each the opportunity to feel like it’s “our” personal day.

It’s a chance to celebrate those we love and appreciate having them in our life.

“Happy birthday” to all TJH readers – whenever that day comes.

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.

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Health & F tness

By Michal Goldman, LCSW

M

y husband always asks me to listen when he is struggling with something and give him compassion (not ideas about what to do).

I know he wants that, but it’s just not who I am. Some people are more soft and gentle – I’m more of a “say it the way it is” type of person, and I don’t like listening to other people’s problems. At the same time, I do see that my way of responding is impacting him, and I want to help him.

Do you have any ideas for what I can do given my personality?

The Therapist Responds I want to start by acknowledging how much you want to be there for your husband. A big part of any relationship is stretching beyond your comfort zone to be there for the other person, and that is exactly what you are doing here. Your husband is lucky to have a partner who’s not only aware of his needs but actively trying to meet them.

To answer your question, you describe yourself as someone who isn’t wired to listen with compassion. You are right that certain parts of personality are fixed and not easily changeable. However, many traits that feel like “just who we are” are actually learned (or not-yet learned) skills. The good news is that listening compassionately is one of these learned skills.

It isn’t easy to learn a new way of relating, but it is very much possible for you to change.

With that said, learning a new way of relating starts with understanding your internal experience. Before you try to do things differently, it’s most helpful to start by being curious about your own reactions. What comes up for you when you think about listening like this to your husband? Is there any frustration, helplessness, relief, or uncertainty? Are there any physical sensations such as tightening or a desire to shut down?

If you have a hard time noticing your reactions and find that you tend to push away your feelings, that’s an important clue. It’s hard to truly show up for someone else when you’re pushing away your

own reactions. Compassionate listening means attuning to the other person’s experience or giving them a sense of “I get you and I’m with you.” It’s very difficult to attune when you’re trying to push away discomfort in yourself. So ironically, the first step towards listening may not be focusing on your husband at all – it may be about staying present with yourself.

Instead of trying to get rid of your reactions, you can experiment with simply noticing them. Let them be there in the background, like a car driving down the

down into smaller parts and intentionally practicing that skill.

Let’s break down the skill you are trying to learn: compassionate listening.

Compassionate listening is made up of many smaller elements including patience (sticking around even if it takes a while), curiosity, staying with uncertainty, holding back from offering solutions, and assuming good intentions (also known as practicing being nonjudgmental).

You probably don’t struggle with all the mini-skills I mentioned above. For

The good news is that listening compassionately is one of these learned skills.

street outside your window. You don’t have to chase them or stop them. Just notice them and return to the person in front of you. This will give you the space to really be with your husband in his experience.

If you’re able to stay with your own reactions in this way, that’s great! From there, the next step is to build the actual skill of listening compassionately without trying to solve anything.

The framework I like most when thinking about building skills is called “deliberate practice.” Deliberate practice is used across many fields (from music to business), and it is about breaking a skill

instance, one person might not have any trouble assuming their partner means well, but they start getting antsy after five minutes of listening. Someone else might have endless patience but find it nearly impossible not to jump in with a solution.

Both are struggling with the same overall compassionate listening, but their starting points are completely different. That’s why identifying your own “sticking point” matters: it helps you practice in a way that actually works for you.

Once you pick a mini-skill, set up as many low-stake situations to practice as possible. For example, if you decided to

start with patience, at a different time, try staying fully engaged in a podcast or a conversation that doesn’t interest you for a few minutes longer than you would have and slowly increase the time. If it’s holding back from giving advice right away, try listening to people describing a challenge and gradually increase the amount of time that you spend empathizing and reflecting before giving a solution. (This can even be done with a recording – as strange as it seems, you can practice empathizing with the recording!) The goal in each mini-skill is to gently stretch your capacity over time.

Throughout this process, keep noticing your own reactions. If your reactions feel too strong, it’s a sign that you need to make the mini-skill even more “mini.” If you aren’t having much of a reaction, then you can probably up the ante. Just like learning anything else, you want to find the sweet spot where the practice is hard enough to build new skills but not so hard that you shut down. The more you practice these mini steps, the more competent you will get at compassionate listening.

Learning this won’t just help your husband feel more supported, it can be very rewarding for you, too. There can be a big sense of accomplishment in developing a new part of yourself and seeing the impact on your relationship can be powerful. Your husband will feel your effort, and that effort alone can build a deeper connection.

You don’t have to change who you are.

But you can grow your capacity. And in doing so, you’re already becoming the partner you want to be.

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.

JUNE 12, 2025 | The Jewish Home

A Listening Ear

The Jewish Home | JUNE 12, 2025

124

L festyles

The Friendship that Changed the World

By Patrica Sarles

W

Author and illustrator Ann Diament Koffsky is a frum woman living in West Hempstead. Her newest book, The Peddler and the President, describes

ho knew that casual encounters at a bank between two young men in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1903 would later help lead to the creation of an entirely new country? Those young men were Eddie Jacobson and Harry S. Truman. Eddie was Jewish and Harry was Christian, and this friendship would later “change the world,” according to author Ann Koffsky.

Eddie worked at a dry goods store as a 15-yearold who had to leave school early to help support his family. Twenty-two-year-old Harry also had to leave school early to support his family. Harry worked at the bank where Eddie would deposit the cash from the register of the dry goods store, and the two would become friends. When Harry eventually left Kansas City, the two lost touch. And although they each missed the other, neither had the time to stay in touch.

However, fate would find a way to bring them back together when, during World War I, they were both stationed on the same base in Oklahoma. And to further be grateful to fate, they were both assigned to work in the same canteen. They were thrilled to get the chance to be together again, and when the war ended, they decided to go into business together.

The business, unfortunately, failed during the recession of 1921, and again, Harry moved away and got involved in politics, while Eddie remained a salesman, later opening his own clothing store in Kansas City. Harry would visit Eddie’s store whenever he was in town.

As young readers might realize, Harry was elected vice president of the United States under Franklin Del-

the friendship between Eddie Jacobson and Harry Truman, which led to the U.S. recognition of Israel.

A page from Ann Koffsky’s newest book

ano Roosevelt and, after Roosevelt’s death, would become president. All dur ing Ha rry’s time spent in the White House, Eddie made trips to Washington to see his friend.

Eddie was guided into the Oval Office without an appointment. Although the two were best friends, Eddie never sought favor with Harry. By this time, the two had been close friends for 45 years, and it wasn’t until three years into Harry’s presidency that Eddie felt compelled to finally ask his friend for a favor. That favor was for Harry to invite Dr. Chaim Weizmann to the White House to hear from him why the Jewish people needed their own country after World War II. Eddie was Jewish and felt strongly about what happened to the Jewish people during the war. Until Eddie asked him, Harry would not allow Weizmann an audience with him. But he listened to his friend and agreed to meet with Weizmann.

After their meeting, Koffsky writes that Harry told the world, “‘Yes, the United States supports a new Jewish country.’”

This early chapter book is beautifully written and tells a complex story about the creation of Israel in very simple language and of the friendship that influenced its development. Young readers will be able to relate to the concepts of friendship and of people wanting to return home and away from the struggles they endured during World War II. Although these struggles are not detailed in the book, they are certainly mentioned, and children curious about them might be encouraged to learn more on their own or in the library. As an early chapter book, it is recommended for grades one through five.

Patricia Sarles is a librarian and writer living in New York City.

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Creamy Balsamic Vinaigrette Serving Size: 2 SaladS

Five Towns. Bagels. If you know, you know. If you don’t, welcome to the club.

This dressing is famous where I come from because it goes with everything, is delicious and completely addictive.

IngredIents

dIrectIons

• 3 Tbsp (51 g) balsamic vinegar

Place everything except the oil

• 1 Tbsp (17 g) red wine vinegar

in a jar or bowl.

• ½ cup (115 g) mayonnaise • 1½ tsp (4.5 g) granulated onion • 1 tsp (3 g) granulated garlic • 1½ tsp (9 g) salt • ¼ tsp (<1 g) pepper

Whisk to combine until smooth.

While whisking, slowly stream in oil.

• ½ tsp (<1 g) dried oregano

Store in an airtight container in

• ½ cup (108 g) avocado oil

the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

salad 1

salad 2

• 4 cups romaine lettuce, roughly chopped

• 8 cups kale, shredded

• 2 cups arugula

• 1 cucumber, halved, thinly sliced

• ½ cup cherry tomatoes, halved

• 1 avocado, diced

• 1 scallion, thinly sliced

• ½ cup snow peas, thinly sliced on a bias

• 1 cup fresh broccoli, separated into florets • Citrus roasted salmon, 4 pieces (see page 60)

• 1 shallot, halved, thinly sliced

• 1 ½ cups rotisserie chicken, shredded (see page 62)

• 2 cups pita chips (see page 72)

Reprinted from Micro Peas - The Salad Formula with permission from the copyright holder, ArtScroll Mesorah Publications.

JUNE 12, 2025 | The Jewish Home

Micro Peas - The salad ForMula by danielle renov

The Jewish Home | JUNE 12, 2025

126

In The K tchen

Summer Chicken Salad

By Naomi Nachman

I recently was asked to create a recipe using this new mayonnaise by Melmons Foods that was coming out. I happen to love mayo and use it in everything from sandwiches, dips, and salad dressing. Seeing su mmer is upon us and we are looking to eat lighter dinners, I thought I would make a chicken salad with the rich and crea my canola and avocado oil mayonnaise. It is also great for a Shabbat lunch salad, and if you already have cooked chicken from the chicken soup, save it for this and then you don’t have to grill extra chicken for the recipe.

Ingredients

Chicken Cutlets ◦ 8 pieces, very thinly sliced chicken cutlets ◦ ¼ cup olive oil ◦ 2 cloves garlic, crushed ◦ ¼ cup soy sauce Dressing ◦ 1 cup canola and avocado mayonnaise

Preparation 1.

Prepare the chicken: Combine chicken, oil, garlic and soy sauce in a Ziplock bag;

◦ 2 cloves garlic, minced

marinate in the fridge for 2-4 hours.

◦ 1 teaspoon fish-free imitation Worcestershire sauce

2. Heat a grill pan over a high flame. Grill for 2-3 minutes per side. Set aside to cool

◦ ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

completely.

◦ ¼ teaspoon kosher salt

3. Prepare the dressing: Whisk dressing ingredients together in a small bowl until

◦ ¼ teaspoon black pepper

combined.

Salad

4. Assemble the salad: Add lettuce and tomatoes to a large bowl. Cut chicken into

◦ 6 cups romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces

cubes and add to bowl.

◦ 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

5. Add dressing just before serving; toss to combine.

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.

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The Jewish Home | JUNE 12, 2025

Notable Quotes “Say What?!”

The Jews’ fight is my fight - Dr. Phil in an interview with JNS News

The avant-garde thing to do today is to stand up for the underdog, stand up for the oppressed, and they don’t dig in deep enough to find out what “oppressed” really means.

- ibid.

People jump on this idea and find themselves celebrating and cheering on a terrorist organization, who are murderers and absolute psychopaths, and you kind of get the world PR machine behind it.

- ibid.

I mean, obviously, this is a moment where we have to be on the streets all over the country to protest what’s happening to our immigrant community, but more broadly, to protest what’s happening to our democracy.

- Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) on “Morning Joe” urging more protests

LA riots? Have these geniuses ever seen what happens when the Eagles win a playoff game?

- Izzy Gardon, Gov. Newsom’s communications director, in a TV interview, arguing that burning cars, looting, and blocking roadways is not a riot

Even those who were out of step with what we were advocating, [which is] peaceful protest, did not create any violence. Nobody was shot, nobody was killed. Get it through your head.

- Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)

I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations, and immigration—but this is not that. This is anarchy and true chaos. My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement.

- Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) posting on X about the insurrectionists rioting in Los Angeles

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The Jewish Home | JUNE 12, 2025

Looks like her kidnappers didn’t want her either.

- One of many social media responses to the Israeli Foreign Ministry tweeting that Greta Tunberg and the other people from their “selfie yacht” have been sent back to Europe

I learned having doubt enter your head is impossible to escape but not impossible to overcome.

- Tennis star Coco Gauff, 21, who won the French Open women’s singles title on Saturday, becoming the first American since 2015 to claim the trophy

I realize that you just try to redirect those into positive thoughts, even if you don’t truly believe them.

- ibid.

Just so we are clear, this FBI needs no one’s permission to enforce the Constitution. My responsibility is to the American people, not political punch lines. LA is under siege by marauding criminals, and we will restore law and order. I’m not asking you, I’m telling you.

- Tweet by FBI Director Kash Patel

I don’t know if it’s real anger. It’s hard to believe, actually, but I saw what happened. She’s certainly different. Anger management, I think she has to go to an anger management class. That’s my primary recommendation for her.

- Pres. Trump when asked about Greta Thunberg, whose “selfie flotilla” was stopped by Israel from entering Gaza

I am illegal in this country. My parents are illegal here in this country.

- State House Rep. Kaohly Her (DFL-St. Paul), while arguing in an interview against the illegal immigration crackdown, disclosing that her father lied on paperwork for the family to come to the U.S. as refugees

What my father did was, one of our uncles worked for USAID, and because his mother had died, my father, as the one processing the paperwork, put my grandmother down as his mother.

– ibid.

It’s incredibly disheartening that my floor speech — where I shared my family’s deeply personal immigration story — was twisted into antiimmigrant clickbait. Let me be absolutely clear: my parents are citizens, and so am I. – ibid. several hours later, after her Republican opponents called for an investigation into an illegal alien serving in the state legislature

- Jesse Watters, Fox News

Musk is the wealthiest guy in the world, but Donald Trump is the most powerful person in the world, and I think probably that Musk kind of forgot that.

- Newt Gingrich, Fox News

I think what you’re seeing is a battle between the purist and the pragmatist.

I don’t like it. I want it to stop. I want to tell them if they’re both watching, knock it off. We’re done with this. This is an incredible moment for our country. It’s awake. It’s optimistic. It’s on board with the golden age. Don’t sabotage it with the self-inflicted feud. Don’t let the Dems get back up from the floor where they belong.

- Greg Gutfeld, Fox News

LOL - Tweet by Jeremy Edwards, who served under Karine Jean-Pierre, responding to her claim that she is leaving the Democrat Party due to misinformation and is writing a book about it titled “Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines”

I’d like to congratulate Democrats for ridding yourselves of this untalented mediocrity. I mean, this is the most self-aggrandizing liar that has ever held this job.

- Conservative pundit Scott Jennings responding on CNN to Jean-Pierre’s announcement

The pitch went like this- if Jake Tapper can write a book about “the Original Sin” why can’t I write a book about being independent?

- Former Trump spokesman Sean Spicer talking about Jean-Pierre’s new book

This is just we need—a tell-all from the woman who said that Joe just had a cold and not rigor mortis.

– Greg Gutfeld, Fox News

He has no idea what to do with the sustained and growing and intractable and indomitable protest and opposition of the American people against him. And so he has decided to try to fix it by using the army. Sure. Game over, big guy. You lose. The movement against Trump is unstoppable, now more than ever.

- Rachel Maddow, MSNBC

“I didn’t see any violence on the streets of LA” is the new “I didn’t see any Biden decline.”

- Jesse Watters

- A Los Angeles ABC reporter, standing in front of plumes of smoke and fire, proving once again why the mainstream media has lost all credibility

Republicans should forget calling this gargoyle of a bill their “Big Beautiful Bill.” They might as well call it the “We’re All Going to Die Act.” – Sen. Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on cue, resorting to the classic attack that Republicans are going to take away everyone’s health insurance

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Trump’s actually pretty forgiving. Vance called him a Nazi, and now he’s V.P. Megyn Kelly and Trump hated each other, and now she’s at his rallies. Musk was an Obama donor, then he backed DeSantis, then he went all in on Trump, and now he wants him impeached, so he’s been all over the place.

Will they patch it up? Only those two know.

It could turn very volatile if you move law enforcement in there in the wrong way and turn what is just a bunch of people having fun watching cars burn into a massive confrontation or altercation between officers and demonstrators.

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Political Crossfire

Stanford is a Case Study In How Beijing Infiltrates U.S. Universities

By Marc A. Thiessen

T

he Trump administration is revoking visas for Chinese students “with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields” and revising its “visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications” for students from China and Hong Kong.

This is both necessary and long overdue. For years, China has been engaged in a systematic effort to target U.S. universities, using Chinese students to conduct extensive espionage and intellectual property theft on elite campuses across the United States – which has helped fuel China’s technological and military growth.

To understand how China uses its students as spies, read the stunning investigative report published last month by Stanford Review reporters Garret Molloy and Elsa Johnson in which they documented the infiltration of Stanford University by the Chinese Communist Party. “The CCP is orchestrating a widespread academic espionage campaign at Stanford,” Johnson told me and my co-host, Danielle Pletka, in a recent podcast interview. “Stanford is in the heart of Silicon Valley,” she added, “and that’s a huge incentive for China.”

Johnson and Molloy interviewed Chinese nationals on campus who told them how the espionage works. “In conversations, Chinese students would report, ‘Every single week I’m asked to meet a handler where I’ll be asked to talk about the research I’m doing, the directions that research is going in, how that research is progressing and how we could reimplement that research back in China,’” Molloy said.

If their handlers “have interest in, let’s say, [artificial intelligence] or quantum computing,” he said, “they will then reach out to that student and ask them to provide documents, internal memos, methodologies, future directions of the research.”

Some conduct espionage for Beijing willingly. “There are some students who want to work with the Chinese govern-

ment and they’re happy to do this, they want to advance their careers,” Johnson said. Others are victims of what the reporters call “transnational repression,” in which the long arm of Chinese state security reaches across the Pacific into the United States. In 2017, China passed a National Intelligence Law mandating that Chinese citizens must “support, assist, and cooperate with state intelligence work,” whether at home or abroad.

“At Stanford, students who refused to hand over certain documents had their family taken to police stations in China,” Molloy told me, adding, “if you do not comply with the national intelligence law, your family back in China is under threat. Therefore, students have a very strong incentive to do exactly what the party says.” What this means is, whether enthusiastically or reluctantly, countless Chinese nationals at U.S. universities must inform on their schools to the Chinese Communist Party.

Stanford is not alone. There are approximately 277,398 Chinese students in the United States, according to the Institute

of International Education, second only to India in terms of U.S. enrollment. The majority are studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics – areas of high priority for CCP espionage.

Nearly half of Chinese students are pursuing advanced degrees. Many graduate students are sponsored by state-backed vehicles, such as the China Scholarship Council, which the Chinese regime uses to recruit and pay tuition for Chinese students chosen to attend, and almost certainly spy on, U.S. universities. CSC-funded students are must pass party loyalty tests, Molloy said, and are “required to go to the Chinese consulate and provide information” on research taking place at the university as well as conduct “peer surveillance” of other Chinese nationals.

Stanford and other universities appear more than happy to look the other way and take Beijing’s money, which has become a major source of revenue for U.S. universities. Indeed, an investigation by the Free Press found that China has become the second-largest source of foreign funding

for U.S. universities, behind only Qatar.

Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Michigan), chairman of the House select committee on China, recently wrote to the presidents of Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Purdue, the University of Illinois, the University of Maryland and the University of Southern California warning that “America’s student visa system has become a Trojan horse for Beijing, providing unrestricted access to our top research institutions and posing a direct threat to our national security.”

He asked them to provide Congress with detailed information on Chinese national undergraduate, graduate and PhD students attending their institutions, including: the sources of tuition funding for Chinese nationals at their schools; the type of research Chinese national students are conducting; and what policies are in place to prevent Chinese nationals from working on projects tied to U.S. government grants and export-controlled coursework, such as advanced semiconductor engineering, quantum computing, AI and aerospace engineering.

Molloy, an economics major, visited China last summer and was shocked to meet with many members of the CCP who were educated at Stanford. “We’re educating the head of the Chinese [securities and exchange commission], we’re educating the head of Beijing’s tariff negotiators. I’m meeting all these people and they all say, ‘I work for the Chinese Communist Party in a really high role. I hope that China beats the U.S. And I also went to Stanford for my undergraduate and master’s degree.’ And I’m putting this together, and I’m saying it’s shocking that we are educating such high-level Communist Party officials. …

What’s going wrong here?”

It’s a fair question – one of many for which the Trump administration plans to get answers. © 2025, Washington Post Writers Group

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Political Crossfire

Ukraine’s Dirty War is Just Getting Started

By David Ignatius

U

kraine’s daring drone attack against Russian air bases last weekend delivered “a serious slap in the face of the power … of the Russian Federation,” as Lt. Gen. Vasyl Malyuk, the head of SBU, Ukraine’s security service, boasted after the operation. Some Ukraine supporters hoped the strikes might mark a breakthrough in the war.

But what’s ahead appears to be a bloody continuation of this terrible conflict. President Donald Trump, who came into office promising to settle the war, on Thursday glibly compared it to “two young children fighting like crazy in a park.… Sometimes, you’re better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart.”

With Trump stepping back as a peacemaker, at least for now, Ukraine will depend more than ever on its intelligence services, which have shown an ability to strike Russian forces deep inside their home country and around the world. The front line inside Ukraine will remain a hellscape of drones and artillery. But covert operations could expand into a “dirty war” beyond the front, with more targeted killings, sabotage, and strikes on countries that supply arms to

Ukraine and Russia, respectively.

Both sides have long wanted to break out of the stalemated war of attrition, and Sunday’s “Operation Spiderweb” was a bold Ukrainian attempt to reset the table. Malyuk said preparation for the coordinated attacks across Russia’s vast territory began 18 months ago. Other sophisticated operations are in the works, intelligence sources tell me.

The SBU and the GUR, Ukraine’s two spy agencies, have been working for more than three years to deliver on the motto of Ukraine’s special forces: “I’m coming for you.” They have run operations to take the battle into Russia – and abroad against its forces and partners around the world.

The goal has been to strike in unexpected locations through devious means and make Russia bleed far beyond the front lines in Ukraine.

The SBU and GUR have an intense rivalry, much like the decades-old competition between the FBI and the CIA. The SBU, responsible for internal security but also active outside the country, was plagued for years by claims that it was penetrated

by Russia. That’s why Sunday’s complex

operation was such a coup: It didn’t get leaked. Intelligence sources told me that Malyuk had informed President Volodymyr Zelensky but not some other top members of his administration. Malyuk didn’t even tell a key deputy, the sources said.

A sign of the SBU-GUR rivalry is that on May 30, just two days before the SBU drone attack on air bases, GUR operatives launched an attack on an army base at Desantnaya Bay, near Vladivostok in the Russian Far East – the most distant target yet in the war.

The Vladivostok attack involved a combination of truck bombs and drones, intelligence sources told me, with the drones mostly used for diversion. The target was the 155th Marine Brigade, which has fought at Mariupol and in other Ukraine battles, according to the Kyiv Independent, to which GUR sources confirmed the attack.

The SBU, beyond trucking the ingenious containers carrying small quadcopters into Russia, has also taken the lead on naval drones that forced the Russian navy to retreat in the Black Sea. European intelligence officers have helped with the design of these sea drones, sources told me.

Ukraine has considered a naval version of the sneak-attack tactic it used so effectively on Sunday. The sources said the SBU weighed sending sea drones hidden in cargo containers to attack ships of Russia and its allies in the North Pacific. But, so far, they apparently have yet to launch these operations.

A big target for the SBU has been the bridge spanning the Kerch Strait and connecting Russia to occupied Crimea.

SBU operatives have struck the bridge three times since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, most recently in a big underwater blast on Tuesday. The heavily protected bridge is a prime symbolic target for Ukraine – another way of delivering a “slap.”

The GUR, headed by the charismatic Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, has run extensive operations into Russia and against Russian forces around the world. He told me in an interview last year: “We’ve offered a plan aimed at reduction of Russian potential. It encompasses a lot of aspects, like the military industry … critical military targets, their airfields, their command-and-control posts.”

U.S. and Ukrainian sources told me. One example was the August 2022 assassination of Daria Dugina, the daughter of a Russian writer who has been a prominent advocate of the war with Ukraine (and was the likely target). U.S. intelligence learned that Ukrainian spies had organized the

forces, Ukraine considered an operation to attack the Russian troops there but decided against opening this new front.

Now, Russia is considering sending 10,000 additional troops to Transnistria and seeks to destabilize pro-Western Moldova, the Moldovan prime minister

The SBU and the GUR, Ukraine’s two spy agencies, have been working for more than three years to deliver on the motto of Ukraine’s special forces: “I’m coming for you.”

plot and told them Washington strongly opposed such actions, according to the New York Times.

The countries bordering Ukraine might become new battlegrounds as the war continues. An example is Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova on Ukraine’s western border that is aligned with Moscow and hosts a Russian “peacekeeping” force.

Using Russian defectors and other local

claimed in an interview with the Financial Times this week.

The spillover danger affects all the other countries bordering Ukraine: Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania – as well as Germany, the Baltic states, and Norway and Finland beyond. Most of these countries support Ukraine, and the Ukrainian intelligence services use Eastern European capitals as hubs for their

operations. It’s all too easy to imagine a widening campaign of Russian sabotage and assassination threats such as those that began last year.

When Trump took office, he appeared to think it would be easy to end this war. He got his answer this week when Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met in Istanbul. Russia’s terms amounted to demanding Ukraine’s capitulation. According to a Tass report, Russia’s negotiating memorandum seeks “Ukraine’s neutrality, which means its pledge not to join military alliances and coalitions, a ban on any military activity … and on the deployment of foreign military forces.”

Ukraine won’t be “forced to be neutral,” it said in its own sheet of terms. “It can choose to be part of the Euro-Atlantic community and move toward E.U. membership.” That, in essence, is what this war is about.

Trump spoke on Thursday about the terrible carnage of this war, describing gruesome intelligence photos he had seen of severed limbs and shattered bodies.

Those aren’t children “fighting in a park.”

As the president steps back, the body count continues to climb. © 2025, Washington Post Writers Group

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One GUR tactic has been to strike Russian mercenary forces from the Wagner Group in Africa. A GUR-organized strike last July killed 84 Wagner fighters and 47 Malian soldiers, according to the BBC. Budanov had told me: “We conduct such operations aimed at reducing Russian military potential, anywhere where it’s possible.

Why should Africa be an exception?”

Intelligence sources described several GUR operations in South Africa to disrupt weapons shipments to Russia. In December 2022, GUR agents discovered that a Russian cargo ship, the Lady R, had docked at the Simon’s Town naval base to receive what the sources said was a shipment of weapons. The GUR passed the information to the United States, and the U.S. ambassador in Pretoria made a public protest in May 2023. GUR agents also disrupted a weapons transfer to a Russian cargo plane that visited South Africa in 2022, the sources said.

When the Smolnyy, a Russian naval training ship, docked at Cape Town in August, Ukrainians sharply protested. Sources told me that some GUR officers considered attacking the ship but held back.

Ukraine’s readiness to launch risky spy operations has produced recurring tension between Washington and Kyiv,

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Political Crossfire

Make the Holocaust Memorial Council Great Again

By Martin Oliner

T

he tragic murders of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim in Washington, D.C., and the attempted murder of Jewish senior citizens in Boulder, Colorado, were a painful reminder that the lessons of the Holocaust have not been learned.

The Holocaust occurred in European countries where ordinary citizens cooperated or remained indifferent to the mass murders of their neighbors. After decades of crying out “never again,” antisemitism in the U.S. has hit a frightening new peak.

Just in case the message about the need to halt antisemitism in the U.S. did not hit home, the victim of the Boulder attack was 88-year-old Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor Barbara Steinmetz.

Thankfully, America has the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to lead the efforts to educate the masses about the dangers of antisemitism.

But in its current form, is the museum really fulfilling that important role? As a proud member of the Holocaust Memorial Council, I shudder to say that the answer is unfortunately no.

Thankfully, President Donald Trump, who has made combatting antisemitism a priority of his second term, appears to understand these challenges and has begun cleaning house at the museum.

I must lament the weak connection between museum and the Jewish people, which could get even worse if budgeted allocations are not changed immediately.

The museum was designed when it was thought that antisemitism was a thing of the past, and it has moved on to combatting other types of hate.

The museum already provides no context of Jewish history before 1930 or after 1945. A planned $150 million renovation of the main exhibit hall could make the museum even more woke and disconnected, a liberal monument to the dangers of immigration enforcement and conservative politics.

What the museum should be doing is teaching Americans that antisemitism is the world’s oldest hatred. It started all the way back, some 4,000 years ago, when Nimrod threw the world’s first Jew, Avraham, into a fiery furnace.

More importantly, the museum needs to teach its visitors about the story of Jewish survival. It needs to present the facts about the founding of Israel in 1948, the wars of 1967, and yes, the massacre of October 7, 2023. It needs to educate its visitors about pogroms that led to the creation of the Zionist movement. And it needs to paint America in the most positive light – highlighting the opportunities that America has offered to survivors and their families to this day.

It has been 19 months since more Jews were murdered than any day since the Holocaust. Every day since then, there has been an elephant missing from the room at the museum.

Its educational approach must be changed. The museum has no shortage of visitors and reaches thousands of teachers. But they are taught generally about hate and not enough practical information on antisemitism to enable the Holocaust to become more relatable to them. There has not been enough of an emphasis on preventing antisemitism in America, including where the problem is

raging at universities.

The museum’s message must be much more direct, as Trump’s messages are.

Being indirect by talking more generally about “hate” has really been ineffective.

Harvard-Harris polling has asked Americans of all ages monthly if they are more pro-Israel or pro-Hamas since October 7, 2023.

April 2025 was the first month that a majority of 18-24-year-olds said they preferred Hamas over Israel, 51-49%.

Such polls indicate that a different approach is required at the Holocaust Memorial Council.

The amount of antisemitism that exists came as a total surprise to the operators of the museum. There is unfortunately no metric to demonstrate that the museum has done anything to quell the disturbing rise of antisemitism in America or prove that the museum changes its visitors’ views about Jews.

All indications are that the museum is failing in that regard.

Happily, help is on the way. The museum now has a new board. Of course,

descendant or survivor.

Still, Emhoff decided against leaving the council gracefully, telling the Associated Press that his firing “dishonors the memory of six million Jews murdered by Nazis that this museum was created to preserve.”

Actually, since Mr. Emhoff’s wife’s own administration, it has now become customary for a new president to bring in his own people, as Biden did four years ago when he terminated the chairman of the United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad and other key commission roles.

Biden cleaned house on the boards of the military service academies as well, which presumably Democratic senators didn’t feel dishonored America’s fallen heroes.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum was indeed created not for politics

Every day since then, there has been an elephant missing from the room at the museum.

former deputy national security adviser Jon Finer, and Anthony Bernal, a former senior adviser to first lady Jill Biden, none of whom in this writer’s opinion belonged on the council to begin with.

Are we to believe that Susan Rice, who pressured Israel to make dangerous territorial security concessions, was a great champion of Israeli sovereignty? Rice was similarly responsible for politicizing the Biden National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism by nodding to alternative definitions of antisemitism that exclude anti-Zionism and include Islamophobia which were completely out of step with the mainstream Jewish community.

Finer called members of the Israeli government “abhorrent” and said, “I do not have any confidence in this current government of Israel” in 2024 remarks to Arab leaders in Dearborn, MI. How did firing him detract from the Yom Hazikaron commemoration?

Bernal is under investigation by a U.S. House committee over the potential misuse of the Biden autopen that ironically may have been used in his own appointment to the council.

Replacing them with other, more qualified people some months later obviously does no disservice to the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust or any

but to preserve the memory of the Shoah and consequently shield future generations from violent antisemitism, a critical role that should never be curtailed.

If the members of the council who were dismissed did not realize that modern enemies of the Jewish people, including Iran and Hamas, must be recognized at the museum, perhaps they were not so fit to begin with.

The new members of the council appointed by President Donald Trump will bring their expertise from their careers as well as their skills and their important values.

The museum in D.C. and its Baltimore site require greater oversight by the council, and there must be input from the Trump administration to have a positive impact on its future.

It is time to rethink the museum and what it is supposed to do to combat antisemitism in America and make the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum great again.

Martin Oliner currently serves as a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, appointed by President Trump five years ago. He is the former mayor of the Village of Lawrence.

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Democrats are upset.

On the eve of Israel’s Memorial Day, Yom Hazikaron, the partisan organization Democratic Majority for Israel had the audacity to falsely accuse President Donald Trump of diminishing the memories of the Israeli fallen by firing political appointees to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council “Choosing this day to remove public servants from the board shows again a troubling lack of awareness of history,” the leftist organization said. “This is a day to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice for Israel’s sovereignty.”

The now-fired Biden appointees included his former Biden chief of staff Ron Klain, former vice president Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff, former labor secretary Tom Perez, Barack Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice,

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Political Crossfire

Trump’s Travel Ban and the Defense of the West

By Jonathan S. Tobin

L

eading liberal and left-wing Jewish groups responded like Pavlov’s proverbial dogs last week when President Donald Trump issued his latest travel ban. Without hesitation, both the larger organizations, such as the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League, in addition to smaller, more far-left ones like T’ruah, J Street and HIAS, dug out their old press releases condemning Trump’s previous efforts to curb the entry of people from countries he deemed most likely to be a threat to Americans.

Their current arguments are largely the same as the ones they put out in 2017 during the first Trump term. They insist that liberal immigration policies are a Jewish imperative because of the community’s history. More importantly, they claim that the president’s order is rooted in xenophobia and prejudice, rather than prudence, and disconnected from any real security concern.

Immigration and Antisemitism What makes it different now is that most of them have to take another factor into account, even as they reflexively attack the administration. Whether the group pretends to represent mainstream views, like the AJC and the ADL, or is more easily categorized as primarily interested in attacks on Israel and its supporters, like T’ruah and J Street, they all had to at least acknowledge the current surge of antisemitism in the United States. It is a fact that this has culminated in a number of violent and recent murderous attacks on Jews, and these groups had to mention it, if only to claim that it had nothing to do with Trump’s actions.

Yet it takes a particular sort of ob-

tuseness not to understand that the question of who is allowed to enter or stay in America—legally or illegally— can’t be separated from the unprecedented wave of hatred directed at Jews in the last 20 months since the Hamasled Palestinian Arab terror attacks on southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023.

Biased media accounts and the indoctrination of a generation of Americans in toxic leftist ideologies such as critical race theory, intersectionality and settler-colonialism, which falsely label Jews and Israel as “white” oppressors, have played a decisive role in the mainstreaming of antisemitism. But as we’ve seen in both the unrest on college campuses and in the last two violent attacks on Jewish targets—in Washington, D.C., and Boulder, Colo.—the role of foreign nationals in this problem can’t be denied.

But as with the discussion about

antisemitism, the one that has flared anew about immigration is also about more than just the controversies of the moment.

The legitimization of Jew-hatred is largely the result of the way so-called progressives have been able to inject their toxic ideas into public discourse, thus persuading many Americans to adopt, either wittingly or unwittingly, their distorted Marxist take on Israel and Jewish identity. This is just a small part, albeit particularly conspicuous, of their general war on the canon of Western civilization and the core foundational values of the American republic.

In this way, the Jews are, as they have always been, the canaries in the coal mine, whose distress is an early indicator of the threat posed to everyone else.

Importing Religious Prejudice Though Jewish liberals are too

stuck in the past to realize it, the same standard also applies to the question of immigration. It’s not just that many foreign nationals are behind the surge of antisemitic invective on social and other media and the targeting of Jews on college campuses and in the streets of U.S. cities, as well as being responsible for attempts to kill them. The real problem is that the broken immigration system is leading to the importation into the United States of a large population of people more likely to be unwilling to adopt traditional American ideas of liberty. Just as important, they are bringing their contempt for those values, as well as their religious prejudices, into the country in a manner that is antithetical to the preservation of democracy.

In the past, mass immigration was a process by which immigrants from lands ruled by tyrants arrived in the United States eager to embrace the blessings of liberty. Via the process of assimilation, learning English and adopting the culture of their new land—something that was neither easy nor always appreciated by their neighbors—the overwhelming majority of these immigrants became not only passionate American patriots but also devout believers in its democratic values.

What we’re witnessing in recent years is largely different.

Influenced by the woke catechism of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) that is itself at odds with the cause of equal opportunity for all that is the heart of the American idea, the process of assimilation has, in essence, reversed itself. Now it is immigrants, including some from the countries Trump seeks to ban, who are importing the values of tyranny and religious prejudice with them.

That’s particularly true of the in-

Europe’s Lessons One need only look at Europe to see what mass immigration from Muslim nations has done to nations like France, Sweden and others, where not only are Jews targeted for hatred and violence, but the national identity and culture of those places are being called into question.

Indeed, even in the United Kingdom, which was long the bulwark of democracy and freedom, deference to the prejudices of Muslim immigrants has led to the erosion and perhaps the complete erasure of such values. As recent articles in The Free Press and The Spectator noted, Britain now effectively has, for the first time in centuries, blasphemy laws that prevent citizens from criticizing Islam and Islamists for their prejudice and violence. The case cited in those pieces is just one instance in which the impact of its immigration policies has caused authorities there to turn a blind eye to violence or other illegal conduct, including attacks on and intimidation of Jews, from that population, while treating those who speak up against these outrages as criminals.

Britain was not the only nation that opened its borders to a mass immigration composed of those who not only didn’t share their values when they arrived but actively sought to change their new home into a place where Western civilizational values were replaced by those of the Middle East or Africa. And the consequences have become all too obvious for those not ideologically committed not to see it.

That doesn’t mean that Americans should adopt prejudicial views against all foreigners or Muslims, but it does obligate their government to fully vet them in a way that has not been the practice in recent years. It also ought to influence the debate about how immigration should be allowed. The absence of such a discussion can lead to a situation where the nation is presented with a fait accompli, in which the public is

told that they must simply accept the consequences of such actions. The point being: If you want to avoid a repeat of what has happened in Europe, then policies like those advocated by Trump are of vital importance.

The History of Immigration Much of the debate on this issue or anything connected to immigration, including the one about the millions of illegal immigrants and bogus asylum claimants that flooded into the United States during the four years of the Biden administration, hinge on the notion that a defense of American borders or enforcement of existing laws is somehow morally wrong or mean-spirited.

In a sense, that’s understandable in

the government to fund their efforts to allow non-Jewish immigrants to stay in the country. Rather than helping Jews adjust to America, HIAS is paid to help facilitate the importation of people who are more likely than not to be hostile to Jews and Western democracy.

In the 21st century, big business may still want to import a vast number of unskilled workers, whether they enter legally or not, to depress the wages of working-class Americans. It also raises the price of housing and burdens municipalities with the cost of caring for so many people not supporting themselves.

Some on the left may also believe, probably wrongly, that in the long run, these immigrants, who largely form a class of poorly paid serfs who perform low-in-

In this way, the Jews are, as they have always been, the canaries in the coal mine, whose distress is an early indicator of the threat posed to everyone else.

a nation where a substantial majority trace their roots to the arrival of members of their family in America in the last 150 years. That’s especially true for Jews. But it is both ahistorical and absurd to compare the Jewish immigrant experience to what is happening today.

That’s true with respect to the days of mass immigration from Eastern Europe from the 1880s to 1924 (when immigration laws became substantially more restrictive), or the efforts of Jews to flee certain death at the hands of the German Nazis and their collaborators in the 1930s and 40s.

Unlike in the late 19th century, when immigration was vital for a country that needed more workers for labor-intensive industries and to fill a largely vacant continent, the contemporary situation is very different. The notion that those arriving from the Middle East, Africa or Central and Southern America are all motivated by the threat of certain peril comparable to that of the Jews of the past is also false.

HIAS – a group whose name was once an acronym for Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. But now it is merely a brand that stands for open borders for all and has a business model solely concerned with getting payments from

come jobs for the credentialed elites, will ensure their future political dominance.

Even if we ignore those reasons to adopt a less liberal immigration process, the claims that what Trump is doing is harmful to American values is simply incorrect. Until the culture tilts back toward a demand that immigrants adopt Western values rather than demanding that the West accept the destructive mores they bring from abroad, the traditional attitude that open borders are synonymous with democracy and safety for Jews in America has it backwards.

The riots in Los Angeles that broke out over the past few days in response to an effort by federal authorities to arrest those who are here illegally (many of whom already have deportation orders in place) are based on an assumption that America’s borders and laws can be erased. As such, the anti-Trump “resistance” is wrong to claim that the attempt to roll back Biden’s open borders policies is racist or authoritarian.

Of course, many immigrants contribute greatly to American life. And many of them want, like those in the past, to embrace Western values. But to concede those points doesn’t erase the threat so many others pose. In the ab-

sence of a system that doesn’t promote the adoption of genuinely liberal values or prevent the creation of enclaves where some can work to make the country less safe for Jews and the future of the West, a more restrictive approach to the issue is necessary.

A Flawed Plan It’s true that Trump’s travel ban is inconsistent and crafted more in response to judicial efforts to overturn past orders than to effectively deal with the problem it attempts to address.

The list of nations from which immigration and travel are to be limited has clearly been written to avoid the appearance of focusing solely on Muslim nations. And some Muslim countries where immigration is problematic, such as Egypt (the Boulder attacker was Egyptian) or Syria, were left off to avoid offending their current rulers, which Washington either counts as an ally, as is the case with Cairo, or wishes to convert it into one, as is true of Damascus.

The same might be said of leaving China off the list. Trump likely doesn’t want to inflame already tense relations with the Communist regime in Beijing, which actively seeks to influence and control the activities of those who come here as well as to undermine American democracy.

Flawed though it is, Trump’s order is an attempt to deal with a serious problem that many political liberals avoid because they fear being called racists or xenophobes.

At a time of an epidemic of antisemitic incitement and violence, support for limiting immigration from countries where Jew-hatred is normative, if not obligatory, is just common sense. More than that, anyone who cares about the preservation of democracy should also understand that this cause is undermined by the mass importation of those who are not merely unused to it, but actually oppose it because of their ideological or religious indoctrination.

Think what you like of Trump, but the time has come for Americans to recognize that their democratic culture and the values of liberty that made this country a haven for Jews are under attack by progressives and immigrants who want to destroy the West rather than join it.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate).

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ternational student programs, largely funded by the federal government, which sought to expose foreign-born students to American concepts of liberty, freedom and democracy in the hope they would take those beliefs back to their nations of origin. As the United States and the world have seen on college campuses since Oct. 7, many of those who have benefited from America’s open-door policy to higher education seek to impose the beliefs of their home nations on Americans.

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Political Crossfire

The Man Putin Couldn’t Kill

By M. Gessen

I

nterpol had been looking for a disgraced finance executive for weeks when Christo Grozev, an investigative journalist, found him, hiding in Belarus. Grozev had become expert at following all but invisible digital trails — black-market cellphone data, passenger manifests, immigration records — in order to unmask Russian spies. These were the sleeper cells living in Western countries and passing as natives, or the people dispatched to hunt down dissidents around the world.

He identified the secret police agents behind one of the most high-profile assassination plots of all: the 2020 poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. That revelation put Grozev in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s crosshairs.

He wanted Grozev killed, and to make it happen, the Kremlin turned to none other than the fugitive financier, who, it turns out, had been recruited by Russian intelligence. Now the man that Grozev had been tracking began tracking him. The fugitive enlisted a team to begin the surveillance.

The members of that team are behind bars now. The financier lives in Moscow, where several times a week he makes visits to the headquarters of the Russian secret police. Grozev — still very much alive — imagines the man trying to explain to his supervisors why he failed in his mission. This gives Grozev a small measure of satisfaction.

On May 12, after a lengthy trial, Justice Nicholas Hilliard of the Central Criminal Court in London sentenced six people, all of them Bulgarian nationals, to prison terms between five and almost 11 years for their involvement in the plot to kill Grozev, among other operations.

The group had spent more than two years working out of England, where the ringleader maintained rooms full of false identity documents and what the prosecution called law-enforcement-grade surveillance equipment. In addition to spying on Grozev and his writing partner, Russian journalist Roman Dobrokhotov, the Bulgarians spied on a U.S. military base in Germany where Ukrainian soldiers were being trained; they trailed a

former Russian law enforcement officer who had fled to Europe; and most embarrassingly for Moscow, they planned a false flag operation against Kazakhstan, a Russian ally.

In the past two decades, England has been the site of at least two high-profile deadly operations and more than a dozen other suspicious deaths that have been linked to Russia. Yet the trial of this six-person cell appears to be the first time in recent history that authorities have successfully investigated and prosecuted Russian agents operating on British soil. The trial and its outcome, then, are victories. They are small ones, however, relative to the scope of the threat. The Bulgarians seem to be only one part of a multi-year, multi-country operation to kill Grozev. That, in turn, is only a small part of what appears to be an ever-broadening campaign by the Kremlin, including kidnappings, poisonings, arson and terrorist attacks, to silence its opponents and sow fear abroad.

The story of the resources that were marshaled to silence a single inconvenient voice is a terrifying reminder of what Putin, and beyond him the rising generation of autocratic rulers, are capable of. The story of how that single voice refused to be silenced — in fact, redou-

bled his determination to tell the truth, regardless of the very real consequences — serves as a reminder that it’s possible to continue to speak and act in the face of mortal danger. But the damage that was done to Grozev’s own life and the lives of the people around him is a warning of how vulnerable we are in the face of unchecked, murderous power.

A decade ago, Grozev, like much of the world, was stunned when a Malaysian passenger plane was shot down over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people onboard. Russia and Ukraine immediately blamed each other, Russia unleashed a torrent of disinformation, and the West seemed confused. At the time, Grozev was living in Vienna and helping run a company that owned a string of radio stations. But he had always been afflicted with an insatiable hunger for information. Back when the communist government of Bulgaria fell, he broke into one of his country’s embassies and spent two weeks reading through piles of documents marked “burn after reading.” (“Everyone in the embassy was snitching on everyone else,” he later told me.) He stopped only when the police showed up.

When the Malaysian plane went down in July 2014, he started looking

at Flightradar24, an online service that tracks the movement of aircraft around the world, and he quickly fell down a rabbit hole.

His fascination with Flightradar24 set Grozev’s second career in motion. He joined Bellingcat, an innovative outlet that was practicing a new kind of opensource investigation. Using geolocation data and a trove of variously sourced videos and photographs, the Bellingcat team pinpointed the missile launcher used to shoot down the airplane, traced its route from Russia to eastern Ukraine, identified senior Russian military intelligence officers who were involved, and ultimately determined that Russia was responsible for downing the Malaysian plane, a finding later confirmed by professional investigators and the United Nations.

In later investigations, Grozev expanded his tool kit to include black-market databases such as Russian passport data and cellphone logs, which allowed him to name the Russian military intelligence officers who most likely poisoned defector Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in England in 2018. The following year, when a former Chechen rebel leader was gunned down in broad daylight in a park in Berlin, Grozev used passport and travel data, as well as a deep analysis of Russian government records, to identify the assassin, Vadim Krasikov, a Russian national who was later convicted of the crime in Germany. And in 2020, when Navalny, the Russian opposition hero, was nearly killed by poisoning, Grozev used a massive data set of airline bookings to identify a group of men who had been trailing Navalny for at least three years, and then traced them to a chemical weapons research lab run by the secret police in Moscow.

Most great ventures of Grozev’s life involve Karl von Habsburg, his best friend, who, in a narrative detail not out of keeping with the novelistic sweep of Grozev’s life, is the grandson of the last Austro-Hungarian emperor, Charles I. Together Grozev and von Habsburg rode into Timbuktu, Mali, with troops that liberated the city from Islamist reb-

The first time I met Grozev in person was in 2023, at a New York City screening of “Navalny,” the documentary that started with his investigation. He appears in it prominently: all 6 feet 3 inches, 200-odd pounds of enthusiastic nerdiness. It was later that night that law enforcement informed Grozev his life was in danger and he should not return home to Vienna.

By this point, the Bulgarians had been tracking him for more than two years. A friend put Grozev up in a New York City town house, and he began his life in exile.

A few weeks later, producer Geralyn Dreyfous brought him to an event for Amal and George Clooney’s charitable foundation. As they were walking in, Grozev glanced at his phone. His sister, who lives in Bulgaria, had texted that she had been unable to reach their father, who lived in Vienna. “He went pale,” Dreyfous told me. “And just then George Clooney was there to greet us. Christo stepped away, I told George Clooney what had happened and he immediately went to Christo: ‘You can’t go back there. It’s just a ruse to get you to go back there.’”

The police found Grozev’s father dead in his house. Two days later, the Metropolitan Police in London arrested five Bulgarian nationals who, they said, had

been conducting surveillance of Grozev and his writing partner, Dobrokhotov.

Despite the movie star’s wise advice and law enforcement authorities’ stern warning, Grozev did, in fact, return to Vienna — “on a cargo plane to a neighboring country, to not leave a trace,” he texted me. Austrian authorities did not conclude that Grozev’s father had been the victim of foul play. The family was not given access to his body.

Back when he lived in Russia, Dobrokhotov had lost a couple of journalism jobs apparently for being too outspoken, one time shouting at Dmitry Medvedev, who was then Russia’s president, about censorship and “shameful” policies.

So in 2013, Dobrokhotov launched his own publication, The Insider, which has grown into a remarkably comprehensive mix of analysis and investigative stories, many of them co-written by Dobrokhotov and Grozev. “They are joined at the

Marsalek, discussed using the new Facebook connection to seduce Grozev and perhaps make a compromising video.

Marsalek advised proceeding with caution. “I hope she does not fall in love with him. I had that problem before with a honeytrap.” (According to Grozev’s investigations, Marsalek’s work for Russian intelligence began when he himself was honey-trapped.)

If Gaberova did make any attempts to seduce Grozev, he didn’t notice. His son, Chris, a medical student, casually diagnoses him as both “an ADHD kid” and “definitely autistic.” Grozev’s friends describe his uncanny ability to see connections. “He looks at an Excel table with 300 rows and 90 columns and immediately spots a pattern that it would take me three hours to identify,” Maria Pevchikh, who was a close associate of Navalny’s, told me. “He can see structures that others cannot see,” von Habsburg said. “He is like a truffle hunter.” But he

The story of the resources that were marshaled to silence a single inconvenient voice is a terrifying reminder of what Putin, and beyond him the rising generation of autocratic rulers, are capable of.

hip,” Dreyfous said. They seem to think in unison.

In the summer of 2021, Russia cracked down on independent journalists in what in retrospect looks like clearing the deck before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Police seized Dobrokhotov’s electronics and passport. So he left Russia — on foot, walking through the woods to Ukraine, carrying only a small backpack with some clothes, an academic book and a bottle of Hennessy cognac.

His family later joined him and they settled in the U.K. Around that time, one of the team of Bulgarians, Vanya Gaberova, a young woman with long brown hair, added Dobrokhotov as a friend on Facebook. “Roman is very easy to befriend if you are pretty,” Grozev noted. When the same woman sent Grozev a friend request, he saw that she had a few connections to people in his network, so he accepted the request, too.

Orlin Roussev, the head of the spy cell, and his Moscow-based handler,

is often oblivious to the actions and feelings of women, including his own wife of three decades.

Grozev had the good sense to marry a woman who is, by all accounts, his temperamental opposite. (His wife, Stefka Grozeva, declined to talk to me for this story.) In contrast with her impulsive, risk-loving, restless husband, she is stable, fond of rules, an introvert. She has worked as an accountant for most of her adult life.

In the film “Navalny,” Grozev confesses that he has spent more than $150,000 on black-market databases and says that if his wife knew, “she wouldn’t be my wife.” He didn’t seem to consider that she would eventually see the film. And when the time came for both of them to attend the premiere in Copenhagen, Denmark, he neglected to warn her.

At the end of the screening, she booked a separate cab back to the hotel.

Months later, Grozev told me that his wife was not speaking to him, though she occasionally agreed to attend events with

him. He seemed mystified.

It was more than a year after that premiere that Grozev told me, excitedly, that he had figured out what bothered her: That line in the movie had turned her into the butt of a joke. He started telling interviewers that there was nothing funny about having deceived his wife. “I figured it out, and I fixed it!” he told me.

In the summer of 2023, Grozev made a breakthrough in his own case.

Grozev works by analyzing massive amounts of data. He might start by trawling through cellphone records, to draw a picture of a suspected spy’s life: Never starts work before 10, always calls his parents on a Sunday. Then he can focus on anomalous phone events, such as a weekend work call, to reconstruct the chronology of the person’s travels and actions.

As part of his ongoing project of identifying Russian spies, Grozev had long been looking at a man named Stanislav Petlinsky. Now in his early 60s, Petlinsky appears to have been groomed for his job since childhood, like the characters in the television series “The Americans.”

He had spent most of his adult life outside of Russia, but Grozev noticed that he still had a Russian cellphone number, and that a person who had access to that number — Petlinsky’s assistant, perhaps?

— was using it to schedule appointments for someone at a medical lab in Moscow.

Using a massive leak of Russian medical data, Grozev located the lab’s records and found several patients who were connected to the number. One of them was Alexander Ivanovich Schmidt — a conspicuously Germanic surname, he noted.

Schmidt’s record listed a birth date one week away from that of Marsalek, the fugitive financier. Russian intelligence covers, Grozev had long observed, tend to use a falsified birth date that falls under the same Zodiac sign as the person’s real birth date. It was a clue.

According to the Moscow lab’s records, which he analyzed with the help of his son, Chris, the patient named Schmidt had been having his blood glucose levels checked. Another clue: colleagues at Der Spiegel, the German magazine with which Grozev frequently collaborates, had confirmed that Marsalek had diabetes.

Grozev also checked airline logs. An Alexander Schmidt, born on the day listed in the lab’s medical record, had been using a French passport to travel on Russian airlines — including, a source told Grozev, on trips to Libya, where Marsalek has invested in a cement factory.

Grozev knew he had found Marsalek.

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els. At another time they started the first all-Ukrainian-language radio station in Ukraine. Around 2020, von Habsburg had become connected with a group of filmmakers. Grozev’s hunt for Navalny’s would-be assassins seemed like it would make a great documentary, so the team drove to Germany, where Navalny was undergoing rehabilitation.

On Dec. 14, 2020, Bellingcat co-published Grozev’s findings about the people behind the Navalny attack.

The same day, the disgraced finance executive who had been recruited by Russian intelligence hired a team to follow Grozev. That financier was Jan Marsalek, who had gained international notoriety when his fintech company, Wirecard, was consumed by one of the biggest financial scandals in European history. Roughly $2 billion was missing.

The company’s CEO was arrested. Marsalek, a clean-cut 40-year-old who had served as the company’s chief operating officer, disappeared.

He was a logical choice for the Kremlin’s assignment. As a fugitive of the West, he had a strong incentive to stay in Putin’s good graces, whatever it took. And as a Vienna-born Austrian, Marsalek knew well the city where his target, Grozev, was living.

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And the best part, he told me, was that he had done it the way he had imagined, as a child, that Sherlock Holmes would have found someone.

Starting in winter 2022, Grozev used his many behind-the-scenes connections to help negotiate what would become the biggest East-West prisoner exchange since the Cold War: the swap that would free Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and 15 others from prisons in Russia and Belarus. Grozev’s primary goal was to free Navalny, who had been behind bars for a year. Grozev wished for this outcome so dearly that, for all his analytic brain power, he had even allowed himself to believe Petlinsky, the superspy, when he said he could help make it happen. But that was a lie.

In February 2024, Navalny died in a Russian prison.

Grozev and I met up a couple of days later, in the most depressing of all the odd places we’d had lunch over the preceding year: the food court in Brookfield Place, an upscale shopping mall in lower Manhattan. It was as sterile as the apartment Grozev was then renting, one of those furnished hotel alternatives.

He was toggling between two different explanations for what we both assumed had been a murder. Was Navalny killed to prevent Western negotiators from insisting on his release? And if so, was Grozev somehow culpable? Or was the murder part of an escalation of Putin’s attack on dissidents, a sign that he no longer cared about even a semblance of deniability? “If it’s the beginning of a new wave, that’s really scary,” he said, “because it will affect people like us.”

He didn’t have to explain what he meant. My connection to Grozev is more than just journalistic. We share a bond, along with hundreds of other people, of being persona non grata in Putin’s Russia.

Across the globe, members of this club live with the suspicion that they could be targeted by Russia for surveillance, kidnapping or assassination. Around this time, female Russian opposition journalists and activists living in exile were falling ill, apparent victims of a series of poisonings. These weren’t fatal, but they produced alarming effects, including signs of psychosis.

Every time Putin’s exiles hear about incidents like that, we look for all the ways in which we are different, all the reasons we’ll be spared: We are not so well known as to draw attention, or we are too well known to be attacked. We haven’t been as harsh or as political in our

statements, or it’s been long enough since we left, or we had the good sense to settle in a safe country.

It’s always a fool’s errand. Investigative journalists work by finding patterns, and terror works by being random. When two women we knew received confirmation that they had been poisoned and others experienced alarming symptoms, it started to feel as if anyone could be a target and everyone was. When other acquaintances seemed angry, impulsive, not themselves, both Grozev and I wondered if they had been poisoned, too — as if living in exile with a target on your back weren’t reason enough to act erratically.

Sitting there in the shopping mall, Grozev told me that police officers had recently found text messages in which the Bulgarian spies described breaking into his Vienna apartment two years earlier.

Perhaps to lighten the mood, he read me some of the texts.

my son was playing video games in his room. If he had just gotten up to pee, they would have killed him.” Beyond that, he was struck by the extent of the surveillance footage that the police showed him, and the fact that it included his father’s apartment. “I now think it was 50-50 that he was killed.”

When he visited his family, Grozev was now under extremely tight security — “sentries 24/7” was how he described it — and this wasn’t helping his marriage. “Weeks under house arrest with police on the premises probably showed how unsustainable it is,” he told me when he returned.

Grozev was becoming a person without a past. He lived in exile. His parents were both dead. His adventures with von Habsburg were suspended indefinitely.

His marriage was floundering. His access to the physical objects from his life before January 2023 was uncertain. All

There is something profoundly insulting about having your life turned upside down by people who call themselves Jackie Chan and Van Damme and can be convinced that toilet paper wrapped around someone’s head is proof of cancer surgery.

“‘We entered the apartment, headed straight for the safe.’”

“Wait,” I interrupted him. “You have a safe?”

“Of course not.” He did not have a safe. He was forever losing things — his laptop, his driver’s license.

Grozev heard about the break-in more than a year after the fact, but when he told his family about it, his daughter, Sophia, remembered that right around that time they had seen a man taking photos of the two of them at an Indian restaurant.

They both remembered what he looked like, and Grozev was able to connect him, through photos on Facebook, to the Bulgarian woman who’d made the friend request. Sophia picked the man out of a photo lineup, and the police confirmed that he had indeed been in Vienna the day of the break-in. Thus a sixth suspect was arrested, and Sophia started thinking about following her father into investigative journalism.

Grozev was shaken. “The whole time,

he had was a small black backpack with his laptop, when he could remember where he left it.

With little choice in the matter, Grozev started getting used to New York. He developed a work routine and started shaving again. Marsalek, the former high-flying finance executive, was settling into an unglamorous life in Russia. Grozev tracked him to a vacation in a sad tourist trap in the North Caucasus.

“And we are sitting here,” Grozev said to me. It was one of those summer days when all of New York looks like the setting for a rom-com. We were seated outdoors, having good food. “Little moments of revenge,” he said.

The trial of Grozev’s would-be assassins began at the end of November 2024 at the Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court building in London. The plot against Grozev was deadly serious, but the details, as they emerged in more than 70,000 archived text messages, hours of

video and an entire binder of charts illustrating the timing of operations and the flow of money, were at times ridiculous.

The leaders of the group used the aliases Jean-Claude Van Damme and Jackie Chan; they referred to the lower-ranking members of the spy ring as the “minions,” a term to which they were apparently so committed that among the objects entered into evidence — and passed around to the members of the jury — was a surveillance camera that had been hidden in the flower of a Minion toy from the “Despicable Me” movies. The second-in-command conscripted his two female friends into the espionage operation, concealed the existence of each of them from the other and lied to both about having cancer, at one point sending a photo of himself with toilet paper wrapped around his head to convince one of them he was recovering from surgery. She believed him.

He had told the women that they were working for Interpol and said the same thing to his friend’s ex-boyfriend, when the Bulgarians recruited him. In a police interview played for the jury, the ex-boyfriend was asked, “Who are Interpol to you?” “From the movies,” he said. “Just, uh, chasing criminals.” He added, “Right now, the dumbest thing I have ever done in my life.”

Half the group pleaded guilty to espionage charges, so in the end only those three — the two women and the ex-boyfriend, the man whom Grozev’s daughter identified — stood trial. Gaberova, the youngest defendant, and Bizer Dzhambazov, the second-in-command, were arrested when they were in bed together.

Gaberova screamed at him, “What have you done?” Her defense attorney pointed to this as evidence that she herself never considered that she might be doing something wrong. Gaberova told the court that she thought that Grozev was “a bad journalist.” All three defendants, it seemed, had been fools for love.

Watching the trial unfold was a surreal experience for the spies’ targets. On at least one occasion the group had been able to book an airline ticket for one of their members in the seat next to Dobrokhotov; using a hidden camera, she captured a long video of him and noted his phone passcode. Dobrokhotov learned that he had been under surveillance almost from the moment he walked out of Russia in 2021. In Vienna, he had rented a room on Grozev’s street. The spies, too, were renting on that street — directly across from Grozev, a couple of doors down from a new, remarkably good espresso bar. “We always wondered

With none of his usual humor and with little elaboration, he enumerated the devastating consequences of the Kremlin’s campaign against him: separation from his family, hypervigilance, anxiety, disrupted sleep, the expense of maintaining two homes.

The sentencing was televised. Grozev watched from a prosecutor’s office in a European capital with a group of law enforcement officers. It was, as he has become fond of saying, surreal. “I loved the delivery,” he said. “The judge made it clear that he didn’t buy their [garbage] that they didn’t know” that they were working for Russia. The sentences, of five to 11 years, sounded longer than they were: Under U.K. guidelines, the convicted spies might spend only half of their nominal sentences behind bars. Gaberova, for example, will probably be released on parole in a couple of years.

The London press covered the case as a breakthrough. No longer would Britain look away while Russian billionaires used the country as their playground and Russian agents as their killing field.

“In the U.K., this is the biggest spy case they’ve prosecuted since the Cold War,” Grozev said. “They see it as a slap in the face for Putin. In Russia, it is seen

as an embarrassment — the six Bulgarians were disposable. They even have a term for it: ‘dropy,’ from the English ‘to drop.’” Nor was the operation a complete failure, from the Kremlin’s point of view: A trove of surveillance data on Grozev and Dobrokhotov had been delivered to Russian intelligence. “There will be new attempts,” Grozev predicted. “Other units will be eager to prove that they can do better. That’s how they work.”

Before he left New York for the sentencing, we met up for coffee. He was frustrated that he did not have access to all the evidence assembled by the Metropolitan Police. He was certain that he could find information they’d missed, clues that would help find others who were involved, enabling him to solve the biggest case of his life — the case his life may depend on.

It is clear to Grozev that he, and perhaps even more so Dobrokhotov, who is Russian, face a risk to their lives wherever they go in Europe. The United States used to be safe. But even under the Biden administration there were many Russian dissidents in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention. The Trump administration has threatened to deport at least one dissident back to

Russia, where she would almost certainly be imprisoned. The FBI’s foreign influence task force, which used to protect foreign dissidents in the United States, has been disbanded. What if the Trump administration decided to do something nice for Putin?

Grozev reminded me that I too could be a nice gift, since Russia has a warrant out for my arrest. I pointed out that he was even more “wanted.” But where could he go? “I am disturbed by not knowing where my home is,” Grozev said.

His daughter is about to graduate from high school and his son is finishing medical school. For a long time, both had assumed they could join their father in the United States, but this no longer appeared obvious. Nothing did.

“Is your wife still your wife?” I asked.

“I believe so,” Grozev said. “We don’t see each other, but we are very friendly.”

By any measure, Grozev won this round. He is alive. Marsalek is stuck in Russia, and his minions are in prison in England. But here was the price Grozev had paid for surviving: his family, his home and the ability to feel safe anywhere in the world. © The New York Times

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how it stayed in business, given that Christo was always the only customer,” Dobrokhotov told me. The espresso bar closed after Grozev left Austria and the spy ring was busted.

There is something profoundly insulting about having your life turned upside down by people who call themselves Jackie Chan and Van Damme and can be convinced that toilet paper wrapped around someone’s head is proof of cancer surgery.

Even the amount of money involved, at least in this part of the operation, was comparatively modest: just a couple of hundred thousand dollars.

The trial seemed to have an improvised, make-believe quality. Even the usual British court garb — the lawyers’ black gowns and white wigs, and the judge’s red robe with white fur cuffs — rather than elevating the proceedings, made it feel like everyone might just be pretending. Except for the fact that Putin clearly wanted these two journalists hunted down and killed.

In March, a jury handed down its verdict: Like the three who offered earlier pleas, Gaberova, Katrin Ivanova and Tihomir Ivanchev were guilty of espionage.

Before the sentencing, Grozev submitted a two-page victim impact statement.

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Forgotten Her es

Combat Jumps During World War II

By Avi Heiligman

509th PIR Paratroopers in 1942

J

umping out of an aircraft and using a parachute to land behind enemy lines was first tested and performed during World War I. In the years leading up to World War II, the United States evaluated the concept of training paratroopers, and the first paratrooper unit was formed in 1940. During 1940, many of the major belligerents dropped paratroopers into battle. The most famous American paratrooper drops were in Normandy on D-Day and Operation Market Garden in September 1944. Several other combat jumps were made during the war as well as during other major conflicts including in Iraq and Afghanistan. These were not as widely known but their contributions to the war efforts made a huge impact on the outcome.

Combat jumps have several objectives and benefits. These include seizing and holding key enemy targets like airfields and bridges, causing turmoil in enemy rear areas, and exploring opportunities that would be hard for ground units to achieve.

The first American combat jump in history took place on November 8, 1942. The 2nd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) jumped near

Oran, Algeria. Their objectives were to gain control of key airfields in the support of the landings during Operation Torch. Over 500 paratroopers led by Lt. Col. Edson D. Raff were flown from their bases in England. Many landed far away from the drop zone due to adverse wind conditions. Twenty-eight of the 37 planes didn’t even drop their troops. Instead, the planes landed on a dry lakebed, and the troops marched towards their objectives. Despite setbacks, the members of the 509th were able to disrupt Axis patrols and severed key enemy communications.

However, they weren’t able to secure the airfields. Airborne units were now seen as feasible, and lessons learned from the jump were applied to future operations.

A week later, on November 15, the 509 th PIR made their second combat jump. They boarded C-47 transport aircraft and jumped at Youks Les Bains to capture the key North African airfield.

The mission of capturing the airfield was a success, with the Vichy French offering little resistance. The 509th continued to operate through March 1945 and made a total of five combat jumps. After the war, the 509th was reactivated and maintains its airborne status as they fought in the

recent War on Terror.

Elements of the 82nd Airborne Division made combat jumps into Sicily in Operation Husky and Italy as part of Operation Avalanche.

A quarter past midnight on the morning of June 6, 1944, the first of the 13,400 American paratroopers jumped into France as the invasion of German-occupied Europe began. Together with the British 6th Airborne, the men from the 82 nd Airborne and the 101 st Airborne jumped from C-47 Skytrains and landed in motor-less gliders. The paratroopers were scattered throughout the countryside, but nevertheless they began to form small groups to head to their objectives. One of these objectives was to open up a causeway for the men landing at Utah Beach. About 100 paratroopers from different units formed the group that successfully completed the mission. The scattered landings also caused confusion within the German high command as messages from the front told of many more paratroopers than had actually landed.

Operation Market Garden took place in September 1944 when both the 82nd and the 101 st Airborne Divisions were

part of a large mission led by British General Bernard Montgomery. The operation ultimately failed when the Dutch bridges over the Rhine River remained in German hands.

In March 1945, 16,000 paratroopers, including the 17 th Airborne Division, made a combat jump into Germany.

Called Operation Varsity, the paratroopers gained control of key bridges and high ground. This successful operation was the last major air assault in Europe during World War II. While three paratroop divisions were deployed to Europe, the 17 th, 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, the 11th Airborne Division and other smaller units made at least seven combat jumps in the Pacific Theater of War. Nicknamed the “Angels,” the 11th Airborne landed mainly by boat on the Philippine island of Leyte.

Some paratroopers did make an unopposed combat jump. This was the start of a three month grueling jungle campaign against the Japanese.

On February 3 1945, the 511th PIR flew in over 1,800 paratroopers to make a combat jump near Manila at Tagaytay Ridge to support the rest of the division.

Three waves of paratroopers dropped

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during this battle, but as with many other World War II combat jumps, the troopers landed far from their intended targets. Showing tenacity in the face of adversity and facing the constant threat of Japanese attacks, it took the regiment just five hours to link up and form into the rest of the 11th Airborne Division.

Two other jumps were conducted by the 511th PIR during the war. One of these was to rescue 2,147 Allied citizens and military personnel from the Los Banos prison camp. The mission was a success as 130 paratroopers from the Company B, 1st Battalion jumped into the camp. The

last jump of the war took place on June 23, 1945, by over 1,000 men of the 511th PIR with the objective of preventing the escape of the Japanese command from Luzon.

Smaller airborne units not attached to airborne divisions operated during the war, including the 503rd PIR. They made a jump in July 1944 on an island off of New Guinea and helped eliminate the Japanese garrison. The 503rd Regimental Combat Team made the jump onto the island of Corregidor to begin an intense eleven-day battle. The tiny island had been captured by the Japanese early in the war, and the recapture of Corregidor

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Troops landing near Luzon

A trooper of the 509th PIR during Operation Torch

would be a morale booster for the entire American Army. One-thousand paratroopers jumped into Corregidor on February 16, 1945. The surprised Japanese garrison put up heavy defenses, and the American paratroopers had to drop explosives by hand on Japanese positions.

The regiment was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for its successful capture of the island.

This is just an overview of the many combat jumps that took place during World War II. There were other jumps during the war including in support of the invasion of southern France in Operation

Dragoon. In a future article, we will talk about some of the combat jumps since the end of World War II. The lessons learned from the valiant paratroopers during World War II have been applied to training and combat jumps during conflicts such as the Korean War, Vietnam War, Panama and Iraqi Freedom.

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.

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Life C ach

Here I Go With My Chapeau

By Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., LMFT, CLC, SDS

W

hat happens when you’re not in the mood for a wig? Or it’s not done, or you’re hot, or you just want to feel relaxed? You need to wear a head covering , but you just want to use something else.

Oh, the choices we make!

There’s the “we are blending in look” with our trusty baseball caps – except that we can spot each other a mile away.

Who are we blending in with?!

I don’t think anyone thinks we are off to a ballfield. We have no bat and ball, and often these hats are adorned with glitter and designer emblems. And if that isn’t a complete giveaway, then the skirt and long sleeves usually out us.

Then there’s the winter tams. But who is wearing a tam these days? Are we in France? That went out with the easel and French countryside. So again, we are a dead giveaway anyway.

There’s also the very popular Israel look. A head scarf that’s wrapped and wrapped and wrapped, and still there’s some fringey pieces hanging out

or down, as if they couldn’t find a place for themselves. But, no, that’s the look!

Absolutely, a very popular choice these days. I think it’s called: newly married chic!

sported dazzling earrings and gloves. All of her, put together, screaming elegant!

Short of us giving that much attention to details, these hair sacks have a hard time doing anything other than cover-

Short of us giving that much attention to details, these hair sacks have a hard time doing anything other than covering our hair.

Then there’s the oh, so lovely snood – need I say more?

Yes, comfortable, however, the last time they looked amazing was in some black and white movie where a stunning actress had her makeup done perfectly, wore a striking designer outfit, and

ing our hair. Perhaps with only that on our heads, we might just opt for pulling it over our faces and hiding altogether!

We’ve got a collection of scarves and caps and kerchiefs and shmattas. And we try to grab one whenever we can to get comfy or create a look.

But our best look for our head covering these days is still to wear someone else’s head – or rather their hair.

Wigs do the trick best.

Sure, sometimes they feel a bit heavy, or tight, or burdensome. But they do job.

You are covering your head and feeling a part of the crowd and usually looking awesome.

Still, it’s natural to want a change or to find a new look.

The bottom line is, as we are always still figuring it out in the game of: here I go with my chapeau!

Rivki Rosenwald is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist working with both couples and individuals and is a certified relationship counselor. Rivki is a co-founder and creator of an effective Parent Management of Adolescent Years Program. She can be contacted at 917-705-2004 or at rivkirosenwald@gmail.com.

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