Jewish Action Summer 2016

SUMMER 5776/2016

THE MAGAZINE OF THE ORTHODOX UNION

REMEMBERING

Vol. 76, No. 4 • $5.50

RABBI CHAIM YISROEL BELSKY, zt"l

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JEWISH ACTION

SUMMER 5776/2016

RABBI'S DIARY

42 Shira Smiles

as told to Rachel Wizenfeld

12 Why Prenuptial Agreements Work

By Shlomo Weissmann

46 Erica Brown

14 The Art of Advocacy:

54 Rivka Segal

ISRAEL 70 On and Off the Beaten Track in . . . the Maimonides Heritage Center

By Peter Abelow

56 Rochel Sylvetsky

72 INSIDE THE OU

48 Aviva Weisbord

Maury Litwack

20 Financial Squeeze: How One Shul Overcame a $50,000 Deficit and Raised Over $1 Million

By Ron Solomon

COVER STORY

Remembering Rabbi Belsky

25 A Portrait of Greatness

By Menachem Genack

27 Rabbi Belsky:

The Person and the Posek

By Eli Gersten

50 Channah Cohen as told to Rachel Wizenfeld

PROFILE 62 A Traditional Revolutionary: Sarah Schenirer's Legacy Revisited

By Leslie Ginsparg Klein JEWISH LAW 66 Gun Control in Halachah

By Joshua Flug

By Yissachar Dov Krakowski

90 The Koren Tehillim—

34 The Consummate American Gadol

SPECIAL SECTION Women Leaders Speak . . . about their work, their choices and their lives

40 Sharona Kaplan as told to Rachel Wizenfeld 42 Rabbanit Shulamit Melamed Translated from Hebrew

by Rochel Sylvetsky

THE CHEF’S TABLE 82 Cooking Smart to Outsmart Alzheimer’s and Dementia

By Norene Gilletz BOOKS 86 Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence

By Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Reviewed by Francis Nataf

32 An Unconventional Gadol

By Bayla Sheva Brenner

VOL. 76, NO. 4

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LETTERS

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PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE Advisors: the Heart and Soul of the OU

By Martin Nachimson

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FROM THE DESK OF ALLEN I. FAGIN An Open Letter to Michael Steinhardt

94 Reviews in Brief

By Gil Student

LASTING IMPRESSIONS 96 One Good Deed Leads to Another

By Akiva Males

10 CHAIRMAN'S MESSAGE

By Gerald M. Schreck

PAGE 20

Rohr Family Edition English translation by Rabbi Eli Cashdan, Commentary by Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb Reviewed by Aryeh Spero

PAGE 24

PAGE 62

PAGE 82

Correction In the spring 2016 issue, we mistakenly wrote that 8,000 families live in Kiryat Arba. This is incorrect. Kiryat Arba's total population is 8,000.

Cover: Andres Moncayo Cover photo: Shulim Goldring Jewish Action seeks to provide a forum for a diversity of legitimate opinions within the spectrum of Orthodox Judaism.

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

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Summer 5776/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 1

Letters THE MAGAZINE OF THE ORTHODOX UNION www.ou.org/jewish_action

Editor in Chief Nechama Carmel carmeln@ou.org

Orthodoxy in America I was deeply touched by the article “Unbroken Faith” (by Bayla Sheva Brenner [spring 2016]), which featured profiles of familes who helped build Orthodoxy in America. The opening sentences of the article corrected the widely held misconception that Torah Judaism’s story in this country began in 1945, a misconception I have spoken and written about.

Unfortunately, efforts to give those generations of stubbornly frum American Jews the recognition they deserve is sometimes viewed as an attempt to minimize the mesirus nefesh of those who suffered through the Holocaust and rebuilt Torah-true families in America.

This is not the case. We need to recognize the generations of frum Jews in America who endured a different form of mesirus nefesh, and who are too often overlooked My family descends from grandparents on both sides who came to the US in the early 1920s and wrestled with many of the same trials to remain frum. We too have our own stories to tell. I offer my profound hakaras hatov to Ms. Brenner for presenting the story of “the other mesirus nefesh” of frum Jews in the twentieth century. c

PERETZ PERL Brooklyn, NY

I enjoyed “Unbroken Faith— The Bienenfeld Family.” I am descended from the original Yaakov Bienenfeld’s brother, Rabbi Shlomo Zali Bienenfeld, who was a dayan in Warsaw. Rabbi Shlomo Bienenfeld also has many frum descendants in America that include ba’alei teshuvah, as well as prominent Gerrer chassidim in Israel. As a ba’al

c

2 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

teshuvah, it is fascinating to find out that I am related to so many distinguished talmidei chachamim and yirei Shamayim.

BEN FIRST Manchester, England

Confronting Interfaith Dialogue In his erudite review-essay of Rabbi Shlomo Riskin’s The Living Tree: Studies in Modern Orthodoxy (spring 2016), Dr. David Berger critiques Rabbi Riskin’s advocacy of theological interaction with Christians as “based on a tendentious and indefensible reading of [Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s landmark essay] ‘Confrontation.’” Dr. Berger thus invokes the large question of the nature of the Jewish relationship with other faith communities, especially the Christian.

In the interreligious arena, dialogue means discussion of issues that come under the rubric of theology, over which there is little or no agreement. For the Orthodox world, the bearing around which the debate over dialogue turns is, of course, Rabbi Soloveitchik’s “Confrontation.” Yes, engage with other faith-communities in “improving conditions of the world,” counseled Rabbi Soloveitchik, but any discussion that goes to the core of the faith community—for example, theology—is off the table.

“Confrontation,” which appeared in Tradition in 1964, was a direct response to the Vatican II discussions going on at that time that led to the watershed document Nostra Aetate.

On the question of discussion with non-Jews about the nature of c

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respective faith-communities there has been healthy debate within the Orthodox world. Indeed, there are significant voices calling for revision or rescission on the part of the Orthodox on the Rav’s ban on interreligious theological dialogue.

To the Rav, true confrontation with God is possible only within the covenant or faith-community. As the Rav put it, the “curtain of communication” falls when we engage as Jews in the confrontation unique to our faith-community.

This confrontation, asserted Rabbi Soloveitchik, is untranslatable to others and is not discussable. The content of our revelation cannot be the topic of conversation between Jews and non-Jews.

Rav Soloveitchik, writing in 1963 and 1964, was carrying the baggage of 2,000 years of Christian supersessionism and conversionism, and he held the view that the Catholics were using Vatican II as another vehicle for conversion of Jews.

But what about the exclusiveness of our confrontation?

“The content of our revelation cannot be the topic of conversation between Jews and non-Jews.” Can it not be? Any number of contemporary Jewish thinkers raise this question.

The conditions that informed Rabbi Soloveitchik’s expression in 1963 no longer obtain today. Whilst the theological underpinnings of “Confrontation” are yet valid, much has happened in the Church to make the theological issues pale. As one church theologian has put it, “the six ‘R’s”—the repudiation of Catholic anti-Semitism, the

rejection of deicide, repentance after the Holocaust, review of teaching about Jews and Judaism, recognition of Israel and rethinking of proselytizing Jews—are a reality. It is true that the rejection of anti-Semitism and deicide require very little conceptual and philosophical development. The main challenge today is not clarification of these points, but their broad promulgation and implementation in the Catholic community. This indeed happened, for the most part, thanks mostly to the efforts of Karol Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II, in the 1990s. Likewise with respect to issues such as Israel, although this is a highly-nuanced arena deserving of its own discussion. These are the issues, not theology, argue those who call for revision.

Dialogue today does not attack the foundations of the other faith. Indeed, all of Rav Soloveitchik’s four conditions for theological engagement—acknowledgment of the Jewish people as a vital faith-community; non-negotiability of the Jewish commitment to God; mutual non-interference with the faith of the other; and agreement that each community “has the right to live, create, and worship God in its own way, in freedom and dignity”—have been met. The Church has in numerous ways agreed to these conditions. Dialogue today is not the antagonistic confrontation of Jacob and Esau of which the Rav spoke in 1964 in “Confrontation.”

The countervailing position, that “Confrontation” ought not be rescinded, has best been expressed by Dr. Berger. “It is clear,” says Dr. Berger, “that Rabbi Soloveitchik assumed

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Summer 5776/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 3

he was dealing, on the eve of Nostra Aetate, with a thoroughly supersessionist Catholicism whose adherents were interested in converting Jews.” But “Confrontation” is not exhausted, argue Dr. Berger and others, by depicting it as a warning against engaging in oldfashioned disputation. The call for dialogue in 1963 was not framed in disputational terms; that’s precisely why Rav Soloveitchik had to caution against it. The issue in “Confrontation,” and in the Rav’s stance, is explicitly communicating a faith, not demonstrating the truth of a position. As Dr. Berger pressed the argument, “The personal experience of a faith cannot be communicated.”

To Dr. Berger, “Confrontation” is yet a done deal, and no rescission, or even revision, of Rabbi Soloveitchik’s protocol is called for. Nothing could be further from reality.

Two final points: First, the Rav himself and other Orthodox thinkers indeed learned from Christian theology. We need only take a peek at Rabbi Soloveitchik’s footnotes in Halakhic Man and elsewhere in his writings. So it turns out that core theology is not incommunicable. Indeed, there are parallels and insights that may be exchangeable between faiths.

Second, in the contemporary world Judaism and Christianity both are in need of chizuk in confronting aggressive secularism and radical Islamism. Might not dialogue enable each to help the other, and perhaps save lives?

JEROME CHANES Fellow, Center for Jewish Studies CUNY Graduate Center

Rabbi Dr. David Berger Responds c The evaluation of Rabbi Riskin’s discussion of “Confrontation” in my review was formulated with such brevity that I can begin my response by reproducing it almost in its entirety: Essentially, [Rabbi Riskin] argues that Rabbi Soloveitchik was opposed to theological dialogue only under conditions that no longer apply given the changed attitude toward Judaism among Catholics, evangelicals and many mainstream Protestants. I responded at length in the Hebrew version of this essay. 1 In my view, Rabbi Riskin’s argument is based on a tendentious and indefensible reading of “Confrontation” and is refuted by a simple fact.

Rabbi Soloveitchik provided guidance to the RCA and OU with respect to interfaith dialogue even after the bulk of the changes to which Rabbi Riskin refers had already taken place. This guidance decidedly followed the principles set forth in “Confrontation.”

I am not prepared to say that this ends the discussion.

Rabbi Riskin is not precluded from maintaining that the acute challenges facing Israel require cultivating Christian supporters even through the means of theological interaction, but this argument should be made without turning Rabbi Soloveitchik into an unwilling ally.

Mr. Chanes essentially reproduces Rabbi Riskin’s

4 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

arguments without dealing in any substantive way with the points that I made in the Hebrew article to which I referred. He does cite a few assertions from my response to an article that had a major influence on Rabbi Riskin,2 but his presentation does not convey my arguments adequately. Let me then attempt to provide at least a taste of those arguments.

Rabbi Soloveitchik, as Mr. Chanes reports, affirmed that matters of religious faith cannot be communicated.

This is a notoriously problematic assertion, and in an effort to explain the Rav’s intention, I suggested, in the formulation cited by Mr. Chanes, that he meant that “the personal experience of faith cannot be communicated.”

(In the Hebrew essay, I added another point that cannot detain us here.) This was not proffered as my own reason for reservations about theological dialogue.

I went on to note that key elements of Rabbi Soloveitchik’s presentation go beyond the issue of incommunicability. These include some of the very conditions that Mr. Chanes and Rabbi Riskin consider inapplicable today. I then asserted that in my view, elements of the Rav’s concerns remain relevant and can even be characterized as prescient. It is this essential part of my argument that makes no appearance in Mr. Chanes’s letter.

The issue on which I laid greatest emphasis was the prospect raised by the Rav that theological dialogue would lead to “the trading of favors” with respect to matters of faith. Far from having been rendered irrelevant, this dynamic has indeed developed, and it persists to this day. Here are two examples.

On September 10, 2000, a declaration entitled Dabru Emet: A Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity was published in the New York Times. Written by four distinguished theologians and eventually signed by nearly two hundred rabbis and scholars, it is a thoughtful and largely impressive document. I wrote a few paragraphs posted and endorsed by the OU and RCA explaining why I did not sign, and later elaborated in an article.3 The first reason I provided was that the statement “implies that Jews should reassess their view of Christianity in light of Christian reassessments of Judaism.” Indeed, a prominent Catholic ecumenicist welcomed Dabru Emet by asserting that, “the dialogue will be stymied if Christians affirm a theological bonding with Jews . . . without an acknowledgement of such bonding from the Jewish side.”

The most recent manifestation of this tendency is an “Orthodox Rabbinic Statement on Christianity” issued by Rabbi Riskin’s Center and now signed by fifty-eight rabbis.4 In “accepting the hand offered to us by our Christian brothers and sisters,” the signatories endorse the alleged view of Maimonides “that the emergence of Christianity in human history is neither an accident nor an error, but the willed divine outcome and gift to the nations.” Two of these formulations (“nor an error” and “gift to the nations”) are profoundly misleading characterizations of Maimonides’s view and almost

surely result from an impairment of judgment driven by a desire to affirm an appreciation of Christianity analogous to Christian affirmations of the value of Judaism.

In the articles noted, I underscored the ambiguities that can exist in defining theological dialogue, and I do not regard participation in such dialogue even on a communal level as a deviation from Orthodox Judaism. I do regard it as perilous and unwise, and I am certain that it is inconsistent with the guidelines and intention of Rabbi Soloveitchik. g Notes 1. “Emunah bi-Reshut ha-Yahid,” Makor Rishon: Musaf Shabbat, 16 November 2012. The easiest way to access this article is through a Hebrew Google search under emunah bi-reshut ha-yahid.

2. “Revisiting ‘Confrontation’ After Forty Years: A Response to Rabbi Eugene Korn,” in David Berger's Persecution, Polemic, and Dialogue: Essays in Jewish-Christian Relations (Boston, 2010), 385-391. Available at www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/research_sites/cjl/texts/center/ conferences/soloveitchik/Berger_23Nov03.htm.

3. “Dabru Emet: Some Reservations about a Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity,” in Persecution, Polemic, and Dialogue, 392-398. Available at www.ccjr.us/dialogika-resources/ documents-and-statements/analysis/286-dabru-emet-berger.

4. http://cjcuc.com/site/2015/12/03/orthodox-rabbinicstatement-on-christianity.

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President’s Message

By Martin Nachimson

Advisors: the Heart and Soul of the OU

T

his past year, NCSY reached 19,000 kids in nearly 200 cities across the US and Canada.

In May alone, NCSY ran 1,361 events in 191 cities.

To what can we attribute NCSY’s extraordinary success?

There’s no question that NCSY’s vibrancy is due to its dynamic and charismatic international director Rabbi Micah Greenland and his stellar national team including Keevy Fried, associate international director and Rabbi Moshe Benovitz, managing director. Of course, on the regional level, we have much to boast about as well: some of the most creative and inspired Jewish educators and outreach professionals have chosen to make NCSY their professional home. We are ever so grateful and lucky.

But if you ask me who is truly responsible for the astounding success of an organization that some sixty years ago many predicted would never make it (and they most certainly did not dream it would become the largest and most effective Jewish youth organization in the world!), I would have to say that the key to our success is the young men and women, the advisors, who work hard to serve as role 6 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

models and develop deep and enduring bonds with NCSYers.

From its inception, NCSY’s success was rooted in its advisors, a select group of highly idealistic, highly motivated college-age students and young adults who volunteered to travel to Shabbaton after Shabbaton in NCSY regions across the country, making Yiddishkeit come alive in communities where Orthodox life was barely surviving or nonexistent. In the fifties and sixties, when shuls struggling amidst rampant assimilation invited NCSY for a Shabbaton, it often changed the dynamics of the shul and the entire community. Suddenly, aging shul members witnessed, for the first time, dozens of teens who were passionate and excited about religious life. This gave these shuls not only hope for their own future, but hope for the future of Orthodoxy in America.

Today, NCSY’s success is still tied to our cadre of energetic and enthusiastic advisors—now numbering close to 750 young men and women. But in truth, volunteers do not only serve as the backbone for NCSY; they serve as the heart and soul of so many OU programs including Yachad, Heart to Heart/ Kahal Fellows and Israel Free Spirit-Birthright Israel. All in all, OU volunteers number well over a thousand.

We are deeply indebted to our exceptional group of volunteers, and because we value them, we invest in them.

At the OU, we have made volunteer management and training a priority.

Just a few weeks ago, gearing up for its fourteen summer programs, NCSY ran a five-day, intense mandatory training in Connecticut for 230 summer program staff and advisors from across the country. Led by top professionals, the NCSY Summer Staff Training Weekend—an impressive, highly

professional seminar—focused on team-building and preparing staff to give the teens the best summer of their lives.

When it comes to training though, Yachad often takes the lead. Offering high-level training for those working with individuals with special needs, Yachad ensures that its advisors are well prepared to provide for the specific needs of Yachad members of all ages. But training takes place across the board—our Heart to Heart program/Kahal Fellows as well as our Israel Free Spirit-Birthright Israel teams all receive quality leadership training.

We invest in our volunteers because we believe in them. Our volunteers are the crème de la crème of the Orthodox world; they are motivated, they are passionate, they are driven. By providing our volunteers with the right leadership training and opportunities, we are helping to create the Jewish leaders of tomorrow.

Before I end, I’d like to share a message with the volunteers themselves.

We recently celebrated Shavuot, a yom tov during which Jewish farmers in ancient times used to bring bikkurim, the first and finest fruit, to the Beit Hamikdash. Bikkurim represent the idea that we must devote the best of ourselves, our “first” energy and resources, to Hashem.

This interpretation, which I heard from Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz, a maggid shiur at Yeshivat Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem and a contributor to Jewish Action, so beautifully exemplifies your mesirut nefesh. Irrespective of which OU program you volunteer for, we thank you for devoting your prime energy and kochot for the klal. A tremendous yasher kochachem. g

From the Desk of ALLEN I. FAGIN, Executive Vice President of the Orthodox Union

An Open Letter to Michael Steinhardt

D

ear Mr. Steinhardt, I read with great interest, but also with a sense of profound disappointment, your recent address to a group of Jewish parents and educators on “The Future of Jewish Day Schools.”* Let me begin by expressing enormous gratitude for all you have done for the Jewish people.

Hakarat hatov—“recognizing the good,” and expressing gratitude for it—surely is one of the fundamental Jewish values that you eloquently describe in your essay. You have done much to alter the landscape of Jewish identity.

Perhaps most importantly, your pioneering efforts in creating and nurturing the remarkable Birthright Israel program have transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of young Jews. You are a true ohev Yisrael; your vision, tenacity and conviction have emboldened and enlightened our people.

It is precisely because of the enormous impact you have had in formulating the communal agenda that your recent comments on the future of Jewish day schools were so deeply troubling. You posit a Jewish world in which the forces of “denominationalism” are somehow

arrayed against those fostering “a sense of Jewish belonging.” And yet, despite your articulated desire to break down denominationalism, you repeatedly, deliberately, bifurcate our community into the Orthodox and the “nonOrthodox,” as if the Orthodox stand apart from, and fail to relate to, the broader Jewish world. No fewer than nine times in your remarks are the words “nonOrthodox” used adjectivally (“nonOrthodox students”; “non-Orthodox leaders”; “non-Orthodox families”; “nonOrthodox Jews”).

I must admit that I find your effort to demarcate, indeed to segregate our community into “Orthodox” and “nonOrthodox” components both divisive and, more importantly, fundamentally counterproductive to achieving what I know you strive to accomplish.

You write, for example, that “[w]e need a cadre of non-Orthodox Jewish leaders who are able to think broadly about how to engage the rest of the community.” The clear implication is that Orthodox Jewish leaders are concerned only about their own community; that only the “nonOrthodox” are capable and willing to engage with all Jews. And so, you direct your remarks regarding the future of Jewish day schools—a future that is of critical importance to all Jews— exclusively to the non-Orthodox world.

Your fundamental premise, however, is conceptually wrong, and factually erroneous. Most importantly, it robs the broader community of the energy, the dynamism, the talent and the commitment that the Orthodox community brings to the entirety of the Jewish people.

I have the privilege of serving as the executive vice president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (OU), the umbrella organization

of some 800 Orthodox congregations in the United States. Our members are fully committed to Torah observance, to support for Medinat Yisrael and to engagement with the society in which we live. We are also dedicated to the wellbeing of every Jew. The Orthodox Union has and will always place the needs of Klal Yisrael—all of Klal Yisrael—at the forefront of its agenda. You recognize that “a day school education gives a young person the literacy skills and sense of Jewish connections that increase their chance of ongoing Jewish involvement.” Quite so. But so do a myriad of other life experiences: summer and camping programs; youth programming; experiential education; college campus programming; and, of course, Birthright Israel and Birthright Israel follow-up programs. Each year, tens of thousands of young people participate in a broad array of OU programs designed to engage non-observant Jewish youth and collegiates with their Jewish heritage, foster their Jewish identity, spark their Jewish pride and incorporate Jewish values in their lives.

Consider the following: • NCSY, the youth movement of the OU, engages with over 19,000 Jewish teens annually. Thousands of these young people participate in over 200 Jewish Student Union public high school clubs in communities across the country. These students are overwhelmingly nonobservant and unaffiliated. Each summer, we take 500 public school teens to Israel on the Anne Samson Jerusalem Journey, TJJ. It is a truly transformational trip.

Recently, sociologist Professor Steven Cohen surveyed ten years of TJJ alumni: teens with little or no background in Judaism; teens on the verge of falling off

*The article to which this open letter responds, “The Future of Jewish Day Schools,” can be found at ejewishphilanthropy.com/the-future-of-jewish-day-schools/.

8 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

the radar screen of the Jewish people; teens on the way to becoming cold statistics in the journey to Jewish oblivion documented in the Pew Research Center’s “A Portrait of Jewish Americans”; teens waiting for someone to ignite the fire of Jewish identity within them. The results, Professor Cohen’s study found, were remarkable. TJJ spurred quantum leaps in the Jewish identification of the majority of the trip participants.

Over 60 percent of TJJ alumni reported that they now participate in some form of Jewish learning at least weekly; 93 percent of TJJ alumni said it was important to date only Jews; 83 percent said it was very important to raise their children as Jewish.

• Yachad, the OU’s program for children and adults with special needs, provides a broad array of social, educational and vocational services to hundreds of participants in communities throughout the United States, Canada and Israel. Yachad participants and their families come from every segment of the Jewish community.

• Our Harriet & Heshe Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus (OU-JLIC), now on twenty-three campuses throughout the United States and Canada, places educator couples on

Our faith, our areivut, our sense of communal obligation, compel a profound responsibility to our fellow Jews—not just to respond to the decimation of Jewish identity, the results of which leap off the pages of the Pew report, but instead to affirmatively and vigorously seek to prevent it with all the means at our disposal.

Mr. Steinhardt, the Modern Orthodox community is uniquely well-suited to carry out this critical responsibility. You bemoan the fact that Jewish professional leadership is, for the most part, incapable of telling “the Jewish story” in a way that allows the mainstream of uncommitted American Jews to see themselves in that story. With all due respect, your view is myopic. The Modern Orthodox community is positioned and uniquely prepared to engage with our less observant co-religionists. The vast majority of us have been privileged to receive an outstanding yeshivah education. We are Jewishly literate. And we are secularly literate. We are Jewishly committed, and our commitment is genuine and contagious. And we are equally committed—as you are—to success in the secular world; we see that success as a kiddush Hashem. There is barely an industry or profession in

Why do we spend millions of dollars each year on programming outside the Orthodox community? The answer can be summarized in one word: areivut. campuses to provide robust Jewish learning opportunities for collegiates. In partnership with Hillel, OU-JLIC is open to—and utilized by—college students of all denominations seeking to expand their Jewish learning and literacy. And on dozens of other campuses, our renowned Heart to Heart program provides peer-led Shabbat and holiday meals to hundreds of additional collegiates seeking joyful and meaningful Jewish experiences.

• Israel Free Spirit—the OU’s Birthright Israel program—is an integral part of our programming efforts. Now one of the largest Birthright Israel providers in the United States, the award-winning Israel Free Spirit program brings over 2,000 young men and women to Israel annually—the overwhelming number from non-observant, non-affiliated backgrounds. And, of particular significance, we then provide a wide variety of meaningful follow-up programs, events and Jewish learning experiences for Birthright Israel alumni that capitalize on their often transformative Israel experience.

Why? Why do we do this? Why do we spend millions of dollars each year on programming outside the Orthodox community? The answer can be summarized in one word: areivut. Every Jew is obligated for every other Jew. Areivut means that my obligations, and those of every other Jew, are interrelated and intertwined; that enmeshed in my own personal obligation to God is a larger, broader responsibility to the entire community. Areivut means that as long as Natan Sharansky remained a prisoner of conscience, each of us was imprisoned; that as long as Gilad Shalit was in captivity, we were all in captivity; that when three Israeli teens were kidnapped and murdered, the pain and grief were shared by us all.

which we are not well represented (except perhaps for professional sports). We are filled with energy and passion.

I graduated Columbia College, summa cum laude. I hold degrees from Harvard Law School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. I chaired one of the largest and most prestigious law firms in the country. And following my retirement from the practice of law, I now head one of the largest Orthodox organizations in America. I can tell you unequivocally that I am not at all unique. To the contrary, we live in a society where a candidate for vice president of the United States writes a book about the importance of Shabbat; where the secretary of the Treasury is a regular shul-goer; where the former American ambassador to the Czech Republic complained about the difficulty of finding kosher mozzarella cheese in Prague.

You may find it comforting to banish Orthodoxy to some walledoff corner of the Jewish community. But before you do, before you mistakenly condemn us to outsider status, consider the impact on what you hold most dear: fostering a sense of Jewish belonging; developing Jewish literacy skills and ongoing Jewish involvement.

If you can see past the talismanic application of denominationalism, you will discover that we share a mission and that areivut is a compelling motivator. You will discover our dynamism and our passion for our fellow Jew. You will discover common ambition and common commitment. And you will discover a wealth of talent and skill—the very talent and skill that you dream of infusing into the world of Jewish education and Jewish communal life.

Before you separate us from “mainstream Jewry,” come discover who we are and what we stand for. We invite you to meet. Bring your friends. You will be pleasantly surprised. g Summer 5776/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 9

Chairman’s Message

T

here are two photos on my iPhone that I am careful never to delete: one is Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel’s high school graduation photo. Rabbi Finkel, zt”l, known as “Nate” in his youth, was an all-American, baseball-loving teen who graduated from Ida Crown Jewish Academy, a Modern Orthodox day school in Chicago. The second is a photo of Rabbi Finkel when he was the venerated rosh yeshivah of Mir in Yerushalayim, a yeshivah that today boasts some 7,000 students.

How does a graduate of a coed day school become rosh yeshivah of one of the largest and most impressive Torah institutions of our day? This is the question I pose to my grandchildren when I show them the two photos. I wait for them to come up with an answer. And then I tell them my own answer: “Gedolim are made, not born.

You too can become a gadol one day.”

This truism also encapsulates the life of Rabbi Chaim Yisroel Belsky, who served as one of the pillars of OU Kosher for almost three decades.

Rabbi Belsky grew up at a time when young American Orthodox boys, assuming they were lucky enough to attend yeshivah, did not spend their post high school years studying Torah. They went off to pursue ca-

By Gerald M. Schreck

reers, attend university and live the American dream. Rabbi Belsky, blessed with an extraordinary mind, loved music and, in his youth, aspired to be a musician. In truth, he could have easily chosen any number of careers in which he would have certainly excelled. Instead, he chose to devote his life to Torah study. He chose greatness.

In this special tribute issue, we tried to capture Rabbi Belsky’s multi-faceted, tremendously broad and fascinating personality. Working on this tribute issue has been a true honor for me. I learned so much about Rabbi Belsky—not only about his brilliance as a posek, but about his humility, his warmth and his kindness, the qualities that made him a true gadol B’Yisrael.

Of course, not everyone is destined to be a Rabbi Finkel or a Rabbi Belsky. But greatness, I have learned, comes in many different forms. At my stage in life, I unfortunately have to attend a lot of levayas.

And time and time again, I have seen how seemingly ordinary Jews have achieved extraordinary things. Let me give you two examples: This past month, my friend, Herb Scheer, from West Hempstead, New York, passed away after a brief but terrible illness. Herb was neither a well-known rabbi nor a famous Torah scholar—but whoever knew Herb knew you could count on him to be in shul five or ten minutes before the start of the minyan. He wanted to make sure his tefillin were on properly. He wanted the time to make his tefillah real. He didn’t want to feel rushed in shul. And so for more than sixty years, he came to shul not just on time, but early. Amazing.

As Herb’s son mentioned at the levaya, “My father never stood out, but for that particular reason he stood out.” In his low-key, unassuming way, Herb, who had been an accountant, was known for his exceptional integrity. Despite the corruption that permeates contemporary society, Herb was extraordinarily honest—so honest in fact, that he was unan-

imously elected to serve as treasurer of Anshe Chesed of Boynton Beach, Florida, where he had moved to in his later years.

And then there’s my late friend Charles Goldfarb, originally from Woodmere, New York, who had also recently migrated to Boynton Beach. Few knew that Charles, a lawyer who handled multi-million dollar estates, managed over the years to encourage many of his clients who were unsure how to distribute their assets to leave significant bequests to worthy causes. Many Jewish organizations benefited immensely from Charles’ discreet, behind-the-scenes work.

Herb and Charles were seemingly “ordinary” Jews; but of course, they were anything but. So tell me, am I right when I tell my grandchildren that great people are made, not born?

In addition to the tribute to Rabbi Belsky, this wide-ranging issue also includes a special feature on women leadership in the Orthodox community. Women in various fields, ranging from education to media, discuss the challenges, the struggles but also the immense satisfaction and fulfillment they experience as leaders in the Jewish community. The section also includes an in-depth analysis of an Orthodox woman leader whose eightieth yahrtzeit was recently celebrated by Orthodox women across the country: Sarah Schenirer. As author Dr. Leslie Ginsparg Klein states, one of the most important lessons we can learn from the founder of the Bais Yaakov movement is how to “successfully and appropriately balance tradition and innovation . . . Schenirer did not believe tradition and innovation were mutually exclusive. [To Schenirer,] You could be a traditional revolutionary—which is exactly what she was.” Finally, with reading high on everyone’s summer list, I suggest you check out our book reviews, and especially Rabbi Gil Student’s always enlightening “Reviews in Brief” along with the many other thoughtful articles on halachah, traveling in Israel, recipes and more. Wishing all of you a healthy and happy summer. g

Gerald M. Schreck is chairman of the Jewish Action Committee and vice chairman of the OU Board of Governors.

10 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

Fashionably Late

ZINFANDEL | WHITE RIESLING | CHENIN BLANC | ORANGE MUSCAT

Rabbi's Diary

By Shlomo Weissmann

WH Y P r e nup T I A L A G R E E M E N T S W O R K

A

few months ago, Jessica, a thirty-year-old woman,1 called the offices of the Beth Din of America. She said she was getting married in one month at a destination wedding in Italy. The Orthodox rabbi whom Jessica had approached about officiating would only agree to do so if Jessica could obtain a get from her first husband, Barry. Jessica is a non-observant woman drawn to tradition (her first marriage was also performed by an Orthodox rabbi). When Barry declined to give her a get at the time of their civil divorce three years earlier, Jessica simply dropped the subject.

But now she needed one, so she called our office to see if we could help. Jessica remembered that, at the insistence of the rabbi who performed her first wedding, she and Barry had signed the halachic prenuptial agreement promulgated by the Rabbinical Council of America and Beth Din of America. That agreement creates a legally enforceable support obligation, at the rate of $150 per day, for as long as the couple is married as a matter of Jewish law. Its purpose is to provide an incentive for the timely issuance of a get. Following our standard protocol, we sent a hazmanah (lit. invitation) to Barry, a gently worded letter stressing an ex-spouse’s moral obligation to participate in the get process, and attached a copy of the prenup he and Jessica had signed.

Barry called me up two days before the deadline to respond to the hazmanah, obviously agitated by the request. Their divorce had been a messy affair, and this man was in no mood to help out the woman he claimed had caused him so much trouble. Barry said he knew Jessica was getting married in ten days. He would give her the get, but he was in retail and this was his busy season.

He also needed to check with his lawyer, and he didn’t like that we were rushing him, and he had signed the prenup under duress (Jessica’s chosen rabbi wouldn’t marry them unless he signed it, and he had no choice, Barry argued), so he needed a few weeks to come to terms with all this.

Obtaining a get from a reluctant husband is a long game, and ten days is an overly ambitious goal. Jessica’s wedding planning didn’t stop. She would be tying the knot with or without the participation of the Orthodox rabbi she preferred.

On the phone with Barry, I realized that if we were going to succeed in arranging a get within the next few days this was probably my only chance. I have had dozens of these conversations about the prenup with divorcing spouses over the years, but this case needed a quicker resolution than usual.

“I’m going to be frank with you,” I said. “You signed a prenup that is going to withstand the legal challenges you think are going to work. You can litigate this in beit din arbitration and in court, but it’s going to cost you money to do so, and you are going to lose and will have to pay Jessica even more money.

Obt ai ni ng a get from a reluct ant hus b and i s a long game, and t en days i s an overly ambi t i ous goal.

We will visit you at a location of your choice—your office, a library, wherever you want—and it will take fifteen minutes of your time to authorize a get, and then you won’t be bothered with this, because you have better things to do with your time.

Rabbi Shlomo Weissmann is the director of the Beth Din of America. The Beth Din of America’s prenup agreements are available at www.theprenup.org.

12 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

It’s your choice, but you need to let me know within the next few days.”

“This isn’t fair,” Barry said. “Let me get back to you, but this isn’t fair.”

He called me one hour later. “I spoke to my friend who is a lawyer, and he told me to just do it. I’ll give the get on Monday,” he said.

The scribe, a second witness and I met Barry at the main branch of the New York Public Library in Manhattan on Monday morning at 11:00, and he verbally authorized the get to be written, signed and delivered to Jessica. On the way back from picking up her wedding dress on Wednesday afternoon, Jessica stopped by our office and received her get.2 Divorce is complicated, and there is often a lot about a given situation that we don’t know. But a few things are patently apparent in this case. Barry wasn’t keen on giving a get, and for three years following their civil divorce Barry and Jessica had continued their separate lives without one.

Jessica preferred an Orthodox ceremony, but she hadn’t

A ny h a la ch ica lly san ction ed docum en t t hat r e mo v e s f rict io n fr om th e g et pr ocess i s so me t h in g t h a t s h oul d com m an d our ser i ous c o n si d e r a t io n . called off her wedding when she found herself without a get with ten days to go. And without a prenup, it is likely that Barry and Jessica would still not have a get today.

In publicizing the importance of the prenup we usually focus on the concern that a get will be withheld to obtain improper negotiation leverage or for extortion or for spite.

The bein adam lachaveiro (interpersonal ethical) argument for a prenup is strong: even divorcing spouses must treat one another with at least a minimal level of decency, and fairness should dictate the outcome of divorce negotiations. But there is a bein adam laMakom (Divine moral) argument for the prenup that is often overlooked, and which ought to be part of the calculus when we contemplate issues of halachic pesak and Torah-based communal policy. Rampant non-observance, sky-high divorce rates and extremely limited rabbinical power to ensure halachic (Jewish law) compliance all combine to create a situation rife for indifference to the Torah’s laws governing marital relationships. Halachic prenups are a necessary tool for restoring the power of batei din to ensure the proper dissolution of failed marriages with a get.

Jessica’s story demonstrates that in some cases get recalcitrance might result in outright marital infidelity and, Heaven forbid, mamzeirut. Chazal teach us that a singular way to achieve kedushah—holiness—is by enacting safeguards that protect against societal promiscuity.3 Any halachically sanctioned document that removes friction from the get process is something that should command our serious consideration. g Notes 1. Identifying details have been changed to protect confidentiality.

2. Marrying within a few days after the issuance of a get raises the issue of havchana, the mandatory ninety-day waiting period between a woman’s receipt of a get and her remarriage. See Shulchan Aruch, Even haEzer, Siman 13. But see also Rabbi Yosef Henkin, Teshuvot Ibra, no. 79.

3. “Wherever you find a fence protecting from promiscuity, you find holiness” (Vayikra Rabba 24, 6).

The future is in your hands.

Meet Shlomo Anapolle of Edison, New Jersey. When it comes to a love of Israel, few college students can match the Sabra passion of this Yeshiva University junior. A pre-med, biology major with plans to attend an Israeli medical school, Shlomo balances his time between neo-natal diagnostic research, intensive shiurim and a commitment to Israel advocacy.

Whether it’s planning lobbying missions to Washington, D.C. with YUPAC or teaching English to teens in the Negev through Counterpoint Israel, Shlomo brings to bear his leadership skills for the sake of the Jewish people and homeland. He is proud to invite Israeli diplomats to YU to help his peers contextualize current events. Shlomo chose YU because, to him, Torah Umadda isn’t merely the convergence of science and our mesorahat Yeshiva University, it is the formula for a values-driven preparation for life. This is the essence of Torah Umadda and what sets YU apart.

Picture yourself at YU. #NowhereButHere

www.yu.edu | 212.960.5277 | yuadmit@yu.edu

www.yu.edu/enroll Summer 5776/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 13

Photo: Josh Weinberg

THE

ART OF A DVOCACY: MAURY LITWACK

M

aury Litwack, the director of state political affairs at the Orthodox Union, has over fourteen years of public policy and political experience. In his role at the Orthodox Union, Maury develops and implements state-by-state advocacy plans for the OU’s many communities around the country. Prior to working with the Orthodox Union, Maury served as a policy staffer for two members of Congress and helped launch the Washington lobbying office of Miami Dade-County, the sixth largest county in the country.

Maury’s efforts are currently focused on education reform and tuition affordability. In 2012, OU Advocacy-NY and the Teach NYS initiative merged to consolidate resources. OU-Teach NYS focuses on advocating for the needs of the non-public school community in New York. Maury is a critical member of the OUTeach NYS team.

In the battle for tuition affordability, Maury has engaged tens of thousands of community members in grassroots advocacy, created coalitions of opinion leaders and elected officials and crafted impactful media campaigns. Last year, Maury’s leadership helped the OU secure tens of millions of dollars in local, state and federal funding across the country.

Jewish Action: It seems to have been a remarkable year for advocates of increased New York State aid to parochial schools. Tell us how OU-Teach NYS helped secure $96 million in new funding for nonpublic schools across New York for 2016-2017.

Maury Litwack: We had some extraordinary victories this year in three different areas: One, security; two, financial aid— increasing the amount of money that yeshivot receive from the state and local government; and three, recognition by the state and city of the non-public school community and, specifically, the Jewish day school and yeshivah community.

Let’s start with security. When the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred a few years back, there was significant pressure from day school advocates and others to improve security for the public and non-public school communities.

Unfortunately, there have been many school security incidents around the country; for our community there are obviously additional security concerns. In fact, as we discuss this very topic [in early May], there have been no less than three troubling incidents in our community in the past week alone, including a school bus being set on fire in front of a yeshivah in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.

When we poll yeshivot [OU-Teach NYS polls yeshivot and day schools regularly], administrators tell us time and again that security is their greatest concern, the one issue that parents talk about incessantly.

14 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

JA: So you made obtaining security funding a priority this year.

ML: Yes, we put a lot of resources into fighting for serious security funding for the 150,000 students in New York’s yeshivot and day schools, which is an incredibly large constituency. Most people don’t know this, but in New York City alone, there are more yeshivah and day school students than there are Catholic students.

We knew that obtaining significant security funding was possible because a decade earlier, OU Advocacy Executive Director Nathan Diament spearheaded the creation of a federal program that has provided tens of millions in security grants for yeshivot and shuls. Nathan innovated and championed this model on the federal level; we wanted to do the same on the local level.

JA: Tell us about the specific victories.

ML: Our talented OU Advocacy-NY team, including Jake Adler, policy director, and Arielle Frankston-Morris, director of field operations, worked diligently to have Intro 65 passed by the New York City Council, the first piece of legislation in the nation that provides non-public school students with the same security as their peers in public school. In January 2016, our advocacy efforts paid off. Mayor Bill de Blasio signed Councilman David Greenfield’s Intro 65 into law. For the first time, New York City will provide $19.8 million for non-public schools across the city to hire security guards.

Additionally, we were able to increase New York State security funding to non-public schools to $15 million over the next two years. Aside from security equipment, this new funding can be used to pay for security personnel costs. We got the state to essentially triple the amount of security funding it was providing.

JA: Extraordinary—especially for those of us who

live in New York City. What about accomplishments in other areas?

ML: Our second major victory this year pertains to financial aid. About four years ago, when the OU started on this path of trying to obtain more government funding for yeshivot and day schools, there were critical programs that were being underfunded by the state including Comprehensive Attendance Policy (CAP) and Mandated Service Reimbursement (MSR).

These programs reimburse schools for taking attendance and for fulfilling a variety of specific mandates the state requires.

JA: What do you mean by “underfunded?”

ML: There was not enough money allocated in the state budgets over the years to pay the total cost of what the schools were entitled to under various legislative enactments. The schools were noticing [that they were not getting paid the full amount of their entitlements] and had been complaining about it for many years. To their credit, lay leaders like Jack Bendheim and Sam Sutton really pushed us to demand that the state fully reimburse the schools.

During the last three years, not only have we advocated for increases to these two vital programs, CAP and MSR, and have therefore grown both programs to historic levels [see charts on pages 16 and 18], but we have gotten the state to reimburse the schools the money that was owed. Our advocacy persuaded

The future is in your hands.

Meet Rachel Mirsky from White Plains, New York. A biology major on a pre-med track, and captain of the YU softball and basketball teams, Rachel chose YU to allow her to explore and develop her unique talents and interests.

Rachel loves YU because it enables her to engage in her extracurricular passions and prepare for her career while remaining true to her religious commitments. An exceptional athlete, Rachel was recently named to the Capital One Academic All-District team. Whether in an Israeli laboratory conducting research on the properties of red blood cells, or authoring a medical ethics paper on eating disorders and the Biblical matriarchs, Rachel can find the perfect balance at YU. This is the essence of Torah Umadda and what sets YU apart.

Picture yourself at YU. #NowhereButHere

www.yu.edu | 212.960.5277 | yuadmit@yu.edu

www.yu.edu/enroll Summer 5776/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 15

JA: Can you elaborate on the grassroots effort here? Seems like a David/Goliath story. How were you able to overcome the “Goliath” of government?

OU-Teach NYS helped secure $96 million in new funding for non-public schools across New York for 2016-2017. See the breakdown above.

Governor Andrew Cuomo to allocate over $250 million in back payments to CAP for the many years it was severely underfunded. We estimate that yeshivot and day schools, representing 40 percent of the total non-public school enrollment in New York State, are receiving some $90 million as a result of this agreement. Just to give you a sense of the scope of this program, an administrator at a yeshivah with a student body of about 1,000 told me that his yeshivah received over a half a million dollars in back payments.

Our third victory is the recognition by the state and city that they have an obligation to our kids; they now recognize that there is responsibility for funding not only public school students, but all students.

JA: You’re referring to the creation of New York’s Office of Religious and Independent Schools.

ML: Yes, the state has now determined to create that office, which is an acknowledgment that it has to start investing more in our children. This victory, albeit a very modest first step, has been one of OU Executive Vice President Allen Fagin’s primary goals in the fight for education reform. As Allen sees it, our battle is to secure unprecedented levels of funding for our schools and to ensure the safety of our children. But these battles must be premised on the fundamental recognition that parental freedom to choose where and how their children are educated is a basic civil right, a right that can and should be exercised without the inherent discrimination of affording some taxpayers subsidized education for their children, but not others.

JA: Did you envision working for a Jewish organization when you

entered politics?

ML: Truthfully, no. I envisioned spending my career in the political arena. However, when the opportunity to work on tuition affordability came up a few years ago, I felt I had to embrace this cause. When I first joined the OU, Simcha Katz was the president at the time. He passionately believed that there was only one way to deal with the tuition crisis: government funding. Much of our current success reflects his early vision and foresight.

The tuition crisis and Jewish education funding are at the top of the list in terms of priorities for our community. I hear people talk about the crushing tuition bills nearly every day and the opportunity to attack it from the political side, which I have always enjoyed, was something that I just could not resist. The issue is also somewhat personal for me, as I have kids in the yeshivah system.

16 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

ML: It has been a grassroots effort. At the same time, it has been about tactics. We have done things dramatically differently than the way we used to. When Allen became executive vice president, he insisted that we approach tuition advocacy the way a major corporation or interest group would—approach government advocacy for a matter of singular and critical concern with the most sophisticated tools at their disposal.

We engaged in extensive fundraising in order to hire top political consultants, communication strategists and lobbyists. If a real estate firm or a finance group wants to achieve their objectives in city politics, they hire the best people; we did the same.

We also brought along the top lay leaders from across the state—people like Sam Sutton and Neil Cohen, New York co-chairmen of OU-Teach NYS. These men are deeply passionate lay leaders with extensive experience in day school leadership who realize that bringing government money into the yeshivah base is a game changer. They have been to Albany with me, they have accompanied me to City Hall.

But perhaps even more importantly, they have encouraged their individual communities to make their voices heard, and they have been instrumental in our efforts to celebrate politicians who help us and to make politicians who are not helpful to us understand that our community will

Maury Litwack addresses parents and school representatives in the Senate Chamber in Albany on a community mission in support of day school and yeshivah affordability.

Photo: Semeraro Photography

not back down. All of these community activists understand the very real need for greater funding for our yeshivot and tirelessly dedicate themselves to this cause. Such lay leaders are critical to our success.

JA: Are these lay leaders new to the OU network?

ML: Yes. They are mostly activists in the school community.

But when people hear how serious we are and learn about our tactics, they want to get involved. Nearly every day we have people knocking on our door saying they or their schools want to get involved. When you start to produce results, as we have these past few years, people start to notice. Both the management of the OU and the lay leadership involved in this effort expect that we will do even better going forward.

JA: This is a story in itself, the power of grassroots advocacy. What about the political leaders? Have they been supportive?

ML: I would be hard-pressed to find a greater champion in state politics than Councilman David Greenfield, who has been and continues to be a tremendous asset. On the state level, Senator John Flanagan, who is majority leader of the Senate, has been incredibly helpful as well. Governor Andrew Cuomo has done a tremendous amount of work with us over the last few years. And we are optimistic that the new speaker of the house, Speaker Carl E. Heastie, is going to be a friend to our community on these issues as well.

JA: Which organizations are working with the OU to achieve these goals?

ML: We are working with anyone and everyone who wants to make a difference with regard to government assistance to yeshivot and day schools. We work with organizations across the spectrum, including the New York State Catholic Conference as well as Jewish organizations such as Sephardic Community Federation, Agudath Israel of America, Torah Umesorah and UJA-Federation of New York, to name a few.

JA: Who are your main opponents?

ML: Honestly, I think that the main opponent to this endeavor is ourselves. If our community members realized the impact of voting at 100 percent of our capacity, if they

The future is now.

Enroll today.

At Yeshiva University, Jewish value enhancement is neither a club nor an extracurricular activity, it is YU. From Tanakh to differential equations, and Mishna to biomedical research, fusing Torah study and Jewish values with a rigorous academic curriculum is the hallmark of YU. With student programs across our campuses and around the world, YU takes a global approach to learning, education and values, creating a full college experience.

Moreover, we are committed to ensuring that cost not be an obstacle to enrollment.

Our financial aid services will make sure your college education is an affordable, life-long investment in your future.

This is the essence of Torah Umadda and what sets YU apart.

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realized that there is strength in numbers and that state and local politicians can have a meaningful impact on tuition affordability, they would view education reform the way they view support for Israel. For this to work, people need to get involved. There is simply no substitute for direct contact with members of the State Legislature.

Most Orthodox Jews living in New York and New Jersey have no idea if their state and local representatives voted for or against funding for yeshivot. We need to hold elected officials accountable for their positions vis-à-vis education reform the same way we hold them accountable for their views on Israel. We would never tolerate officials representing us if they are anti-Israel; why do we tolerate officials representing us if they do not promote our interests and vote against funding for our schools?

JA: Is there any other message you want to convey to our readers?

ML: I would encourage people to stop complaining about tuition on social media and around the Shabbat table and realize that there is something we can do. Our OU-Teach NYS team travels to communities and attends more yeshivah board meetings than any other organization.

We need hands-on volunteers who are passionate and dedicated. Something is already happening that can really change the future of Jewish schools; if we had everyone’s involvement, a lot more would be happening.

JA: How can readers get involved?

ML: Educate yourself about the issues. Know who represents 18 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

you. Make your voice heard. You can make your voice heard when you vote. You can make your voice heard when you let politicians know they are not doing enough for you.

There is strength in numbers. The one thing politicians care about is getting elected and the way they get elected is through votes. Too often state and local politicians get away with saying “I am pro-Israel” and that’s it. Truthfully, an elected official in Albany has very little pro-Israel work to do. And even if he is engaged in pro-Israel activity, it requires maybe 1 percent of his time; the rest of his political time—99 percent of it—is spent working on local issues, such as education reform.

The message I want to spread is simple: we are winning. The proof of concept is over—our efforts have generated more outside funding for yeshivot than any other source. The fact that we can go from having little or no security funding for non-public schools to having city-sponsored security guards in non-public schools, as well as millions in other security funding—all within the space of one year—should convince our community that there is a lot more we can accomplish. There is much that we have achieved; there is far more that we can do if we put ourselves and our resources to work. g To get involved in the fight for tuition relief, call 212.613.8228 or visit www.advocacy.ou.org.

Special thanks to the devoted members of our OU-Teach NYS New York Executive Committee including Chuck Mamiye, Morris Smith, Cal Nathan, Jack Cayre, Barry Lovell, Elliot Gibber, Moishe Bane and Jack Bendheim. Additionally, we thank tireless lay leaders Abe Eisenstat and Ira Balsam.

out in the boond ock s

life is a little simpler Time-honored. Traditions are taken seriously.

Craftsmanship is respected. Things are not slow, but we leave enough time for things to be done right. And the results show in every bottle. Boondocks Whiskey is brought to you by Whisky Advocate Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Dave Scheurich. And while you may have never heard his name, Dave has helped create some of America’s most recognized whiskeys over the last 40 years.

But all this talk would make Dave blush. The real audience Dave cares about has enjoyed the drinks he created and has never given a second thought to the artist behind the scenes. And that’s just fine with Dave. His love, passion and expertise are legendary – and can be found in every bottle of Boondocks, what may well be his crowning achievement.

Enjoy Responsibly.

Synagogue Life

I

BY RON SOLOMON

n the Los Angeles Orthodox community, everybody knows Shaarey Zedek Congregation as San Fernando Valley’s oldest and largest Orthodox shul. It is the “hub” of Valley Village and the community’s Ashkenazi “synagogue of record.” Traveling scholars from around the Jewish world know that in order to “reach” the Valley community, they have to appear at one time or another at Shaarey Zedek. The shul’s three Shabbat minyanim, each featuring a diverse population of worshippers, serve as a magnet for community semachot and all milestone celebrations, from britot and birthday parties to levayot and everything in between. It offers an array of shiurim and has an active seniors’ club, sisterhood, men’s club, dynamic youth programs and its own mikvah. At last count there were nearly 330 member families. The sixty-four-year-old OU-member shul has always projected stability and permanence.

But a different story was known to its board members at the end of 2010. It was then that this “unvarnished emet” was explained to me by my friend and shul board member Herman Muhlstein: “We are currently operating with about a $50,000 deficit. The Kol Nidre appeal produced commitments from about 20 percent of the members and the highest level of giving was $1,000. The shul has a mortgage of $850,000 left over from when the current building was constructed some twenty years ago. The rabbi, who had been here over three years (at the time), is articulate and dynamic but from a small market with some fundraising experience, but not in major giving. “On top of that,” Muhlstein continued, “the shul is

Shaarey Zedek Congregation, an OU shul that is San Fernando Valley’s oldest and largest Orthodox shul. Photos: David Miller

20 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

still feeling the pain of 2008 when a number of members lost their jobs or experienced a deep drop in their businesses. Many watched their pensions crumble and more than a few can no longer pay their membership.”

I was shocked. How could this venerable synagogue with its lofty reputation and history be in such a position? Knowing my professional background (thirty years in development as western region executive director of the American Friends of Bar-Ilan University in Israel), Muhlstein asked me to meet with the shul rabbi and president and to work on a strategy to “dig out.”

Could it be done? Could this shul, which always lived in the shadows of the “rich city shuls,” run a successful development

There is a saying in the development profession: “When it comes to major giving there is no elevator. You must take the steps.” campaign with no building to name and hardly any inside facilities to dedicate? Could we stir a deeply hibernating giant?

Starting with the 2008 crash, the elusive goal was always to somehow put a “dent” in the mortgage. With that as the backdrop at the end of 2010, I met with Rabbi Jonathan Rosenberg, the shul rabbi, and Dr. Victor Schweitzer, president. This first meeting

was not easy. As much as I loved the shul, I told them that I would only volunteer to take on this project if two conditions were met: a serious time commitment and priority from the rabbi and a serious financial and leadership commitment from the president.

I thought the effort might stop right there. I was wrong. At the next meeting Dr. Schweitzer announced that he and his wife, Irene, would be making a serious financial commitment and the rabbi told me he was “in” and had already arranged some meetings.

So we were off.

Like any serious development campaign, we established an initial goal: to pay off the mortgage and provide monthly breathing room for the shul to help members who cannot pay the membership fee. We decided that half of everyone’s donation would apply to the mortgage and the other half would help with the running budget. Complete transparency was of critical importance due to some perceived difficulties with that in the past.

Next we established categories for giving. A beautiful plaque would be hung on the front wall of the shul for donors of $50,000 or higher. (The location was a point of contention early in the process. There were those who felt it was too conspicuous. But we decided that this recognition would create greater possibilities for larger gifts.)

Another striking plaque would be placed in the lobby for the donors of $5,000 to $50,000.

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Summer 5776/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 21

Listen to Ron Solomon discuss fundraising strategies at ou.org/life/money/savitsky-solomon/.

And thus began the door-to-door fundraising process by the rabbi, the president and the development professional to speak to congregants about the “campaign.” There is a saying in the development profession: “When it comes to major giving there is no elevator. You must take the steps.”

There are no shortcuts. So we climbed the steps with literally hundreds of hours of individual meetings.

A number of the early encounters were not easy. Members were not used to hearing requests for sums such as $100,000 or higher. But we knew that we had to set the bar high in order for this to succeed. Also, I guess it is human nature that when you ask for large sums of money for a synagogue, you have to be prepared to hear a myriad of constructive suggestions. And we did. I think we fielded every kind of comment concerning how a shul should run—from the type of speakers to the quality of the herring and everything in between. But at the end of the day, the generosity of the shul members was astounding.

We had very few refusals and even fewer people who couldn’t appreciate why we came.

That is not to say that everyone gave meaningful sums.

There were a few disappointments, but we were undaunted.

Most people gave with all their hearts. In fact in a twomonth period $125,000 came in from people who stepped forward without being asked, simply because they heard about the campaign and wanted to be part of the mitzvah of strengthening their house of worship. Not only was the goal met, but funds were raised above and beyond the goal.

The campaign was dynamic. There were people who gave for one category and once they were into it upped their donation to the higher category.

During this process we learned many important lessons.

1. People want to give if they are presented with the right opportunity.

2. Raising funds for a shul can be most meaningful, rewarding and exciting.

3. You cannot give up, even when you experience disappointment. “No” doesn’t necessarily mean “no.” It 22 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

Synagogues needing assistance in fundraising and other areas should contact the OU Synagogue and Community Services Department at 212.613.8300 or e-mail synagogue@ou.org.

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Key members of the shul's fundraising "dream team."

From left: Ron Solomon, Herman Muhlstein, Rabbi Jonathan Rosenberg and Dr. Victor Schweitzer.

can mean you didn’t come at the right time. Or it can mean I have too many commitments right now. Or it can mean there are personal issues. But it seldom means “no.”

4. There is no substitute for the personal meeting.

5. An organized development campaign for a synagogue can succeed if it is carefully thought through and carried out with sensitivity.

A young couple who attend another shul came forward to give generously because they wanted to strengthen the Orthodox community.

Another couple told us they cancelled a vacation in order to fulfill this commitment. Another individual thanked us for giving him the zechut to be a part of this “holy work.”

The Valley religious community and its “spiritual heart” Shaarey Zedek have every right to be proud of changing a once-dormant culture of giving in this important and vibrant synagogue. g

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THE PETIRAH OF RABBI CHAIM YISROEL BELSKY WAS A TRAGEDY

for the Jewish world at large as well as for our close-knit OU community. We at OU Kosher had the privilege of having Rabbi Belsky work closely with us over the years, and we had the opportunity to experience first-hand his exceptional gifts.

Anyone who interacted with Rabbi Belsky was immediately impressed by two qualities. First, there was his astounding knowledge. Aside from his total command of Torah She’bichtav (the Written Torah) and Torah She’be’al Peh (the Oral Torah), he was an expert in mathematics and the sciences, including astronomy, zoology, anatomy, botany, physics and other branches of science, all of which was self-taught. The second quality that was immediately apparent about Rabbi Belsky was his winning smile and listening ear.

Rabbi Belsky’s vast scientific knowledge was often useful in analyzing halachic issues and was especially helpful concerning kashrut issues that OU Kosher had to deal with.

Not only was his expertise in animal anatomy invaluable in determining difficult kashrut questions, but his technical skill and mechanical aptitude were critical in analyzing kashrut problems concerning the machinery and equipment used in plants that produce and process OU-certified products. Plant managers were often amazed by Rabbi Belsky’s grasp of the intricacies of the machinery, which often exceeded their own knowledge, and were also struck by his courteous and dignified demeanor. One non-Jewish plant manager sent the following message to the OU shortly after Rabbi Belsky’s

Summer 5776/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 25

Photo: Rabbi Chaim Loike

petirah: “Just found out about his passing. He had a profound impact on me with his wisdom to analyze and solve problems. May his memory be eternal.”

Let me share with you a few examples of Rabbi Belskly’s remarkable scientific knowledge and how he applied it to kashrut issues. Some years ago, the OU was approached to certify the shechitah of deer for the purpose of obtaining kosher venison. One halachic concern was whether it was permissible to perform nikkur on deer. Nikkur is the process of removing the prohibited sciatic nerve (gid hanasheh) and the forbidden fats (chelev) from the hindquarters of an animal. There is a prevalent minhag, generally followed in the United States, that even though it may be physically possible to perform nikkur on an animal, we generally do not perform it, and simply refrain from consuming the hindquarters of animals. With regard to deer, were nikkur not permitted, the desired cuts of meat would not be available. The prohibition of gid hanasheh applies to deer, but not the prohibition of chelev.

So the halachic question that needed to be resolved was whether the minhag of not performing nikkur applied to deer. Rabbi Belsky consulted with Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, z”tl, who stated that the minhag of not preforming nikkur was due to the difficulty in properly removing all of the chelev. Thus, since the prohibition of chelev does not apply to deer, the minhag of not performing nikkur did not apply either; hence, nikkur could be performed on the deer. The next challenge was a practical one. The nikkur, the removal of the gid hanasheh, had to be done in a way that would not ruin the hindquarters and the desired cuts of meat could be obtained. To resolve this, Rabbi Belsky consulted with various surgeons. Using special scalpels, he performed the nikkur on the deer.

During the summer months, Rabbi Belsky would bring boys from Camp Agudah to a plant in Goshen, New York, to illustrate how to peform nikkur on a deer.

Rabbi Belsky was famous for his public demonstrations in which he would dissect an animal and explain the Rabbi Menachem Genack is CEO of OU Kosher.

26 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

Left: Rabbi Chaim Yisroel Belsky, senior halachic consultant, OU Kosher, with Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO, OU Kosher.

Above: Rabbi Belsky in his office at OU national headquarters in Manhattan evaluating the kashrut of chicks vaccinated in the egg.

different treifot, infirmities and defects in the limbs and organs of the animal which would render it non-kosher.

I recall one demonstration where Rabbi Belsky gave instructions ahead of time to have the front portion of an animal brought to the program. He had prepared a shiur on the various treifot found in that part of the animal. At the demonstration, while we unwrapped the large package prepared by the butcher, lo and behold, it became clear that there was a mistake: the butcher had sent the hindquarters of the animal rather than the front portion.

Without missing a beat, Rabbi Belsky said, “Well, there is much we can learn about kashrus from the hindquarters of an animal”; he then proceeded to give an expert shiur on the topic.1 The foundation of all of Rabbi Belsky’s qualities was ahavah, a profound and enduring love, consisting of ahavat Hashem, ahavat haTorah and ahavat haberiyot.

Maimonides, in the second chapter of Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah, states that the way one achieves ahavat Hashem, love of the Almighty, is by looking at the grandeur of nature and the design in the universe, which brings love of Hashem to the sensitive heart. This theme certainly describes Rav Belsky. He used his amazing aptitude for science and understanding of the natural world to enhance his appreciation of God’s handiwork.

Rabbi Belsky’s ahavat haTorah was boundless. He used his scientific knowledge as a handmaiden to Torah, which served to broaden his Torah knowledge and enhance his lomdut. In addition to his mastery of the world of Torah, he also took the greatest pleasure in teaching and transmitting Torah. Always accompanied at the OU by his talmidim, his concern for his students’ learning, for the pedagogic process, for maximizing the way the

students would learn both the substantive knowledge and the method of analysis, was legendary.

Rabbi Belsky was renowned for his ahavat haberiyot, concern for his fellow human being. He was known for caring about and fighting for those who were most dejected and most in need of help. And he would always take action on their behalf. Whenever he was aware of an agunah situation, he would take the lead in trying to help. With the wave of Jewish immigration from the Former Soviet Union to the US, Rabbi Belsky learned Russian on his own in order to be able to communicate with these souls who had been cut off from their religion for so long. He often took action to help others in need at risk to himself and his own reputation, yet he did not

Plant managers were often amazed by Rabbi Belsky’s grasp of the intricacies of the machinery, which often exceeded their own knowledge. hesitate to do what he felt was needed. If publicly humiliated, he did not respond. The Gemara in Gittin (36b) states: “Those who are insulted but do not insult others, those who are shamed but do not respond . . . about such people, Scripture says, ‘ve’ohavav ke’tzeit hashemesh bi’gevurato, but they that love Him be as the sun when he goes forth in his might’” (Sefer Shoftim 5:31).

Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik, quoting Rabbi Avraham

R

osh yeshivah, maggid shiur, rav, ba’al tefillah, mohel.

Rabbi Chaim Yisroel Belsky, zt”l, held all of these titles as well as one more: posek for OU Kosher. I had the privilege of assisting Rabbi Belsky in this capacity, presenting kashrut questions to him and recording his pesakim (rulings). What made Rabbi Belsky such an outstanding posek? Below are a few of the exceptional qualities I merited to observe while working with him.

Rooted in Mesorah (tradition): Rabbi Belsky was a ba’al mesorah. When Rabbi Belsky would give a pesak, it was often built on a principle that he had heard from one of his rebbeim, Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky, zt”l and Rabbi

Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, asked: how does the Gemara derive that the verse is referring to those who are insulted but do not respond? He answers with a question: Why does the verse state that the sun is most potent when it first rises? Doesn’t the sun’s strength peak at midday?

The verse, he says, is coming to teach us that when the sun first rises, and restricts its own power by emitting its heat gradually, that is precisely when it exhibits its greatest “strength”—its capacity for self-discipline and self-restraint. Similarly, those who are insulted and do not respond, those who have the ability to respond but deliberately hold back, are displaying genuine strength, the attribute of gevurah. Rabbi Belsky exercised this type of discipline, the self-control to not retaliate in kind when humiliated, and this discipline was also a manifestation of his characteristic of ahavah, great love for the other person.

Rabbi Belsky was a man of great humility and of great strength; of great kindness but also great tenacity; of unbending principle but also deep love. He was a man of steel cloaked in the most delicate, gentle velvet.

Yehi zichro baruch. g Note 1. This anecdote brings to mind Abraham Lincoln’s reaction to correspondence he received from one of his less competent generals, Joseph Hooker. Hooker would sign his dispatches to Lincoln, “Joseph Hooker, his headquarters are in the saddle.” Lincoln remarked that the trouble with Hooker was that “his headquarters was where his hindquarters ought to be.”

Moshe Feinstein, zt”l. At OU Kosher, we felt confident that the halachic decisions rendered by Rabbi Belsky were rooted in mesorah.

Knowledge of the sugya (topic): Once a complex halachic question arose involving a section of the Shulchan Aruch that is not commonly studied. Another rav who had taken a public position on the matter commented to Rabbi Belsky that he was gratified that this question had arisen, as it presented him with the opportunity to study the topic in depth. Rabbi Belsky related that he was troubled as well as mystified. How can a rav render a halachic decision after learning the sugya “in depth” only one time? Rabbi Belsky

Rabbi Eli Gersten is Recorder, OU pesak and policy.

Summer 5776/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 27

T

he Torah warns that those who adjudicate the law “may not tremble before any man,” “lo ta’guru mi’pnei ish” (Devarim 1:17). The Torah demands that judges have courage. Rabbi Belsky was someone who fought for the truth; he never gave a thought to how popular his position would be, or what others would say.

Below is but a sample of the breadth and scope of Rabbi Belsky’s wide-ranging rulings and how they affect every kosher consumer: • Rabbi Belsky dispelled the myth that glycerin, one of the prominent ingredients in liquid medicines, is a foul-tasting chemical that does not need to be kosher.

• He protested the use of meaningless contracts that are written as artifices devised solely to circumvent halachah.

• He made the public aware that lipstick, toothpaste and mouthwash should have kosher certification, or at the very least, one should check that they do not contain any animal byproducts.

• He spoke out against the institution of “mezonot” rolls and pita breads.

With Rabbi Belsky’s vast technical knowledge and skill, he provided halachic and spiritual guidance to OU Kosher for nearly three decades. Courtesy of OU Kosher

• Rabbi Belsky was equally outspoken when reasoning dictated that it was appropriate to be lenient. In just the past few years, Rabbi Belsky wrote many teshuvot (responsa) defending the consumption of some of the most basic staples.

• A question arose regarding the status of cow milk. Some dairy cows are affected by a condition called displaced abomasum. One treatment option for this illness involves puncturing the animal’s stomach to relieve the pressure.

The question arose as to whether this procedure would render a cow a treifa (unfit for slaughter), causing its milk to be forbidden as well. Rabbi Belsky reasoned that since only a small proportion of cows develop this condition, and an unknown percentage of those cows undergo this procedure, one can assume that each cow retains its original status until informed otherwise; hence, he ruled, cow’s milk is permitted. Rabbi Belsky further questioned whether this procedure even renders the cow a treifa.

• Rabbi Belsky permitted drinking New York City water, even though it contains copepods. He argued that since Jews have been drinking this water for over one hundred years, and no one ever noticed them, they must not be considered nirah l’einayim (visible to the the naked eye). Furthermore, since the copepods only live in the reservoirs, which have the status of mei borot (gathered water), the copepods are actually permissible to be eaten. [Note: In deference to the opinion of other posekim, the OU requires filtration of New York City water.]

• Rabbi Belsky ruled that the Anisakis worms, found in the flesh of almost every saltwater fish, do not need to be removed. These are the very worms described by the Gemara and Shulchan Aruch as being permitted. Rabbi Belsky refuted those who interpreted the Gemara to be referring only to worms that spontaneously generate inside the fish, but rather he explained that the Gemara is referring to all worms that grow inside the flesh of the fish. Rabbi Belsky further explained that there cannot be two types of worms that live in the flesh, some permitted and some forbidden, since there is no mention of this in the Gemara or in any commentary.

• Rabbi Belsky permitted the consumption of tropical oils that are transported overseas in heated parcel tankers.

Although the ships carry many loads, and the possibility exists that non-kosher and kosher products may be heated simultaneously on the ships with the same steam, investigation of the trade routes has shown that the likelihood of this happening is remote. Furthermore, these non-kosher shipments would impart a ta’am lif ’gam (no beneficial taste) to the kosher oils, and therefore any transfer of taste would be batul, nullified.

28 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

would say that only after one has studied a sugya for years and years, turning the sevarot [theories] over in one’s mind, can one apply them to real-world situations (halachah l’ma’aseh). The Gemara (Shabbat 145b) quotes the verse in Mishlei, “Say to wisdom, ‘You are my sister’” (7:4). The Gemara explains that the verse means the following: one must be absolutely certain about a particular topic—as certain as one is that his sister is forbidden to him [i.e., constitutes one of the forbidden relationships in the Torah]—before he speaks about the topic. If he lacks that level of certainty, he should refrain from speaking. When Rabbi Belsky would put forth an opinion based on logical deduction (sevarah), he had already considered the matter and all of its ramifications countless times.

With each she’eilah, Rabbi Belsky showed his complete mastery of the topic, and his decisive rulings left no room for doubt.

Deliberate: “Hevu mitunim ba’din, Be careful in judgement” (Avot 1:1). A posek should not make decisions hastily. He must first assemble all the relevant facts. Often when a she’eilah would arise pertaining to a kashrut issue, there would be pressure for decisions to be made quickly and for the OU to take a position. Rabbi Belsky never allowed himself to be pressured into rendering a pesak prematurely. He would insist on waiting until all the facts had been established. He was quick to point that a safek chisaron yediah

(a doubt brought about by lack of knowledge) does not have the halachic status of a doubt. The vast majority of the time the hype proved to be just that. After all the data would be reviewed and scrutinized under the prism of halachah, invariably the wisdom of Rabbi Belsky’s approach would become apparent.

Familiarity with the metziyut (reality): Rabbi Belsky was not only familiar with Shulchan Aruch, Shas and posekim, he was also very knowledgeable in the sciences, including chemistry, biology, physics, astronomy and mathematics. His encyclopedic knowledge enabled him to grasp the intricacies of food technology and manufacturing processes. He could explain to a plant manager how various equipment would need to be modified so that they could be kashered. I recall once discussing with Rabbi Belsky the status of a storage tank that had undergone a process called passivation. Rabbi Belsky proceeded to give a lecture on passivation and how it works; he then issued a ruling on the halachic status of the tank. With each she’eilah, Rabbi Belsky showed his complete mastery of the topic, and his decisive rulings left no room for doubt.

Wary of chiddushim: Although Rabbi Belsky was an original thinker, he was very selective when it came to chiddushim (novel or untraditional halachic ideas). He would only accept a chiddush that had halachic ramifications if it could be supported by the sugya and early commentaries. Rabbi Belsky loved to joke that the two-letter abbreviation “eiyin-daled” often used at the introduction of a chiddush, which stands for aniyut da’ati (in my humble opinion), could also stand

Summer 5776/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 29

Listen to Rabbi Menachem Genack discuss his memories of Rabbi Belsky at ou.org/life/inspiration/savitsky_genack/.

Above: Rabbi Belsky with Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, rosh yeshivah of the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia. Courtesy of Devorah Presby

for olam ha’dimyon (in the world of fantasy). Referring to a teshuvah as “an unsupported chiddush” was one of his harshest criticisms.

Consistency: Rabbi Belsky would often quote the Gemara in Eruvin (13b)—“Rabbi Acha Bar Chanina said, ‘It is revealed and known before He who spoke and created the world that there was no one in the generation of Rebbi Meir that was his equal. So why does the halachah not follow Rebbi Meir? Because his peers could not understand his conclusions. He would declare that something tamei [ritually unclean] was tahor [ritually clean], and he would be able to prove it; he would declare that something tahor was tamei, and he would be able to prove it.’” Rabbi Belsky explained that Rebbi Meir’s greatness was that he could delve into a topic many times and each time he would learn it with a freshness that allowed him to arrive at a new and different conclusion. One day Rebbi Meir would study the topic and conclude that the item was tamei. The next day he would learn the topic from a different perspective and conclude that the item was tahor. His peers never knew what his final conclusion was. Rabbi Belsky explained that Rebbi Meir was a rosh yeshivah, and the ultimate purpose 30 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

of a rosh yeshivah is to instill in his students the ability to think. This requires constantly viewing a thought or idea from new and different angles and perspectives. Unlike a rosh yeshivah, however, a posek must come to a conclusion and be consistent. Rabbi Belsky would quote the Gemara in Bava Metzia (117b): “Rabba said, ‘Accept the words of Rebbi Nosson since he is a judge [posek] and has plumbed the depths of halachah.” Rabbi Belsky had exactly this characteristic. He would plumb the depths of halachah before he would make up his mind as to the halachah, but once he came to a conclusion he was unmovable. OU Kosher has thousands of Rabbi Belsky’s rulings that have been recorded and indexed. One can compare his various rulings, amassed over thirty years, and he will find extraordinary consistency throughout.

Ahavat Yisrael: Rabbi Belsky had tremendous love and respect for every Jew. Rabbi Belsky had a way of making everyone feel included and important. He would bring talmidim from Torah Vodaath to the OU national headquarters in downtown Manhattan every week to show them the behind-the-scenes workings of the koshercertification industry; and he would always include them in the discussions and ask for their opinions. Although he came to the OU to discuss various kashrut issues and she’eilot that arose, there would always be lines of people waiting to seek his advice or guidance or to unburden their troubles. He would never rush anyone, or act as though he had anything more important to do but to sit and discuss whatever issue was at hand.

Yehi zichro baruch. g

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R

abbi Chaim Yisroel Belsky was not your conventional gadol. A gadol, by definition, is someone larger than life. Rabbi Belsky was not just a “larger-than-life” figure, he was truly an enigma.

Rabbi Belsky cared for nothing other than learning Torah, doing mitzvot and fulfilling ratzon Hashem. And yet, he could enjoy a spirited game of paddleball or a trip whitewater rafting down the Delaware River. Raised as an all-American boy in Brooklyn in the 1940s and 50s, Rabbi Belsky knew how to enjoy every aspect of life, and yet he was the epitome of piety.

How did Rabbi Belsky become such a gadol? Through hard work, diligence and perseverance. Even his ability to multi-task—which he did in an almost supernatural way—was something he trained himself to do. Rabbi Belsky could learn Mishnah Berurah while simultaneously listening to someone else. My brother was once talking to Rabbi Belsky, and the entire time, Rabbi Belsky was learning Mishnah Berurah. A fellow nearby remarked with a smirk, “Don’t you see the rosh yeshivah is learning and isn’t listening to you?” Rabbi Belsky looked up and said, “Of course I heard him.” He then proceeded to repeat

No job was too trivial for him. This was an essential part of his ideology.

my brother’s monologue, word for word.

Rabbi Belsky was not born with this talent. He recounted that when he was a young boy, he actually had to train himself to focus. He would stare at a coin for as long as he could. He would repeat this staring exercise and try to increase the amount of time he could stay focused. He would then twiddle his thumbs in opposite directions in order to split his focus.

Rabbi Belsky was also extraordinarily persistent. The first time he finished Shas he did so over the span of two daf yomi cycles. Why two? Because he would skip every other tractate in order to review the previous one. Most people would be unwilling to embark upon a journey that would take fifteen years. But Rabbi Belsky had the foresight and fortitude to do so—even in his teen years. When he finished his fifteenyear cycle through Shas, he heard that the Chofetz Chaim

had once told Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman that it’s important to learn Shas in order, lest one accidentally miss a minor tractate somehow. He immediately began to learn Shas again—this time in order. Rabbi Belsky continued learning the daf and delivered a daf yomi shiur for the rest of his life.

His persistence and determination were evident in so many of his accomplishments.

Many people want to have a share in tikkun olam, improving the world, but they often feel incapable of doing so because of one obstacle or another. Rabbi Belsky saw the need to help Russian Jewry—a significant population of Russian Jews lived in his Brooklyn neighborhood—but the language barrier did not deter him. He taught himself how to speak Russian. Nor was he satisfied with just learning the basics—he mastered two different dialects as well as the ability to read Russian.

********

Rabbi Belsky was a true scholar. There wasn’t a subject on which he couldn’t comment intelligently. He loved music and nature. He had a burning thirst to understand Hashem’s world. To this end, he mastered much of biology, physics and chemistry. He knew all of the constellations, and was able to reassemble dismembered animals, a skill that was especially useful in his role as a posek for OU Kosher. His love for mankind fostered a love for history. Because of his uniquely broad perspective, he had a tremendous advantage when advising talmidim and when determining complex kashrut issues. It was this vantage point that gave him the ability to explain the most complicated Torah concepts in the most lucid way.

Rabbi Belsky’s fascination with the world around him was evident. He would often quote the expression “youth is wasted on the young” and note that they have it backwards. “The best part of being young is youth,” he would say. He would go on to explain that when one is young, one can experiment and enjoy different experiences without suffering irreparable consequences.

Sports to Rabbi Belsky were a way of enjoying Hashem’s world. He played paddleball, hiked and went swimming during the summers he spent with his “masmidim” (Rabbi

Rabbi Yissachar Dov Krakowski is rabbinic coordinator for OU Kosher, Israel. He served as rabbi of Kehillas Torah Ve’Chessed in Nachlaot Yerushalayim and currently serves as an official posek in Shaarei Chessed, Jerusalem. An alumnus of Camp Agudah's Masmidim Program, Rabbi Krakowski spent many summers learning with Rabbi Belsky.

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Belsky oversaw Camp Agudah’s Masmidim Program).

Nonetheless, none of these other studies or activities came at the expense of his learning; Torah was paramount. On the rare occasion that Rabbi Belsky had spare time, he seized the opportunity to engage in more Torah study.

Once in camp on a five-hour bus ride he reviewed the entire tractate of Gittin with Rashi and Tosafot.

The Chofetz Chaim was known to spend two hours a day on self-introspection. Rabbi Belsky said that when he first heard this, he thought to himself, “What a waste of time! Imagine how much more the Chofetz Chaim could have learned those two extra hours each day?” Rabbi Belsky realized, however, that it was precisely the time he used for introspection that made the Chofetz Chaim who he was. When one reflects on one’s life, said Rabbi Belsky, he can transform all of it into Torah study.

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Despite his remarkable brilliance, Rabbi Belsky had no airs about him. We all know Rabbi Belsky as the rosh yeshivah of Torah Vodaath, the senior posek for OU Kosher and the rav of Camp Agudah. However, he had humble beginnings: he started out as a math teacher in Torah

Vodaath; his first kashrut position was with the Kof-K and he served as a counselor and learning instructor in Camp Agudah.

No job was too trivial for him. This was an essential part of his ideology. The mishnah in Pirkei Avot (1:10) says: “Ehov et hamelachah u’sena et harabbanut, ve’al titvada larashut— Love work, hate public office and do not become too intimate with the ruling power.” At first glance it appears as if the mishnah is saying that one should avoid the rabbinate and work in a different field. Rabbi Belsky asked the obvious question: how could Chazal tell us to avoid the rabbinate? He answered: the mishnah is saying that one should pursue the aspects of the rabbinate that entail work and develop disdain for the ceremonial and honorary aspects of the rabbinate. This teaching truly personified him. For this reason, he said, he enjoyed working in the kashrut industry, as it offers little honor or glory and entails much hard work.

*******

Rabbi Belsky was a constant source of positive energy.

He never focused on the negative. When people would bring Summer 5776/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 33

their children to him to receive a berachah, he would tell the children that they should become tzaddikim and talmidei chachamim and that they should have a fun time doing so.

His attitude was “build people, don’t break people.”

Parents, he believed, should reproach their children when they misbehave. But he would always advise parents not to rebuke their children too much. He would say, “Tell your child that what he did was wrong or that he cannot do such a thing, but don’t dwell on it. Change the topic immediately afterwards.” He would also emphasize the importance of complimenting and rewarding children whenever possible.

Similarly, with regard to shalom bayit, Rabbi Belsky would say, “It’s not your job to correct your spouse’s behavior.”

Rabbi Reuven Cohen, one of Rabbi Belsky’s sons-in-law, recalled how devoted Rabbi Belsky was to his rebbetzin. In recent years, Rabbi Belsky’s wife became afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease, a devastating illness that takes an obvious toll on its victims but also on their spouses. Even as the rebbetzin’s situation deteriorated and she became less and less aware, Rabbi Belsky would always compliment her and ease her worries—over and over again. He truly practiced what he preached.

*******

L

ike any boy raised on Brooklyn Dodgers turf, he loved to play ball and ping-pong and roller skate.

But that didn’t stop him from becoming a diehard Yankee fan. Or an American gadol.​ Rabbi Belsky, OU Kosher’s beloved senior halachic consultant, could have pursued a stellar career in the sciences, mathematics or music. Instead, he chose to dedicate his life to learning and disseminating Torah.

Rabbi Belsky saw the Torah and the magnificence of Hashem’s world as one and the same. And he used his breadth of knowledge to enrich as many lives as he could—starting with his family.

“I knew that whatever I asked him, in any area of life—halachah, hashkafah [Jewish philosophy] or hadrachah [life direction]—I’d get the right answer,” says Sarah Hindy Gross, the eldest of the thirteen Belsky children. “And he was always on target.”

The Belsky children grew up on stories about their illustrious ancestors, including Rabbi Binyamin Wilhelm, their father’s maternal grandfather, who was instrumental

The number of chassadim that Rabbi Belsky was involved in is truly extraordinary. He was almost constantly giving to others in some form or another.

Seventeen years ago he remarked that he hadn’t learned a proper seder for himself in at least twenty-five years.

What he meant was that most of the time he spent learning was for the purpose of giving to others: to prepare a shiur or to decide a difficult halachic query.

But his chesed went way beyond learning and teaching.

Anyone seeking a Friday night meal had an address in Brooklyn to go to—the Belskys. You didn’t need to call up before; all you needed to do was show up. When the meal was over, Rabbi Belsky didn’t bid his guests farewell; he would bring out snacks and sing with whomever wanted to remain. With each song he sang, he would share a story. Because Rabbi Belsky’s kavod habriyot knew no bounds and he had respect for everyone, all sorts of people ended up at his Shabbat table. Not every guest was a dream guest, yet Rabbi Belsky and his rebbetzin treated them as honored and esteemed company.

Rabbi Belsky’s passing leaves a huge void. Let us recall his life as a source of inspiration. His life was a lesson that patience, persistence and perseverance pay off. May his legacy live on. g

in founding Yeshiva Torah Vodaath. They also heard stories about their father’s paternal grandparents, Yisroel and Lena Belsky, who made sure their son Berel— Rabbi Belsky’s father—went to yeshivah and stayed in yeshivah, not an easy feat when the majority of Jewish American youth were assimilating rapidly.

America’s Torah giants came to life at the Belsky Shabbat table as their “Poppy” told them about prominent activists and roshei yeshivah with whom he became close, such as the legendary Mike Tress, Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky, Rabbi Yisroel Chaim Kaplan, Rabbi Reuven Grozovsky and Rabbi Gedalia Schorr.

“I felt myself transported back fifty years,” says Rabbi Zvi Belsky, executive vice president at Telshe Yeshiva in Cleveland and one of Rabbi Belsky’s sons. “We always knew he was brilliant, but the influence that his rebbeim had on him was strongly felt.”

The Belsky children were also keenly aware of their father’s untiring concern for fellow Jews. “He felt a burning passion to take care of others,” says Gross. She

Bayla Sheva Brenner is senior writer in the OU Communications and Marketing Department.

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1. Rabbi Belsky at the bris of his son Zvi. 2. On a hike with his beloved campers in Camp Agudah, circa 1980. 3. In Israel, during Sukkot, circa 1989. 4. Reciting Kiddush. 5. With Torah Vodaath students at a Purim seudah, circa 1985. 6. Giving a shiur, May 1999. 7. At a matzah bakery in Russia. 8. With roshei yeshivah of Torah Vodaath; Rabbi Belsky is on the far right seated next to Rabbi Avraham Pam, zt"l, former rosh yeshivah of Torah Vodaath.

Photos on this page courtesy of Devorah Presby

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remembers as a young child sitting at a picnic table at Camp Agudah in the Catskills, where for forty-seven summers Rabbi Belsky served as the rav. She watched a disheveled and broken Holocaust survivor conversing with her father. As Rabbi Belsky was about to hand him a wad of money, he noticed his daughter’s gaze and quickly withdrew the money.

“He was so careful about protecting the man’s kavod [sense of pride],” says Gross. “He didn’t even want a child seeing this man having to accept charity. My father proceeded to pretend that he was getting change from the man.”

All kinds of Jews knew Rabbi Belsky was the address for spot-on advice and comfort.

“There would be people [coming at him] from all sides, in his office, over the phone, waiting in the dining room,” says Peretz Levin, who attended Rabbi Belsky’s minyan at Torah Vodaath. “In the middle of it all, a woman would call him with an elementary she’eilah and then continue to call every five minutes with additional ones. He would take each call, unruffled and unhurried. [He dealt with the caller] as if she were the only person he was dealing with at the time.”

In the 1970s, droves of beleaguered Russian Jewish immigrants poured out of the Former Soviet Union and discovered Shabbat at the Belsky table. “My father always gave them the greatest respect,” remembers Gross, a young girl at the time. “He wanted to encourage them, so he taught himself Russian. He sang songs with them in Russian; it made them so happy.” To ensure their children would have a solid Jewish future, he helped found Be’er Hagolah Institutes in Brooklyn.

When it came to helping his fellow Jews, his work was never done. Over three decades later, barely a year after he was hospitalized with an illness that nearly took his life, he joined a mission to Azerbaijan and Georgia to reach out to the Jews who remain there.

Levin accompanied him on the trip where they met with a group of women who observed Shabbat and taharat hamishpachah, but their husbands weren’t yet on board. The women lamented that they desperately needed a rav. “As we left them, Rabbi Belsky was almost crying,” says Levin. “He said, ‘Can you imagine, they need a rav and I cannot stay there with them? We have to help them.’”

his students and asked, “Nu? What do you guys think?”

Students never forget the teachers who saw greatness in them. “Rabbi Belsky and I were in the hallway of Torah Vodaath when it was in Williamsburg,” says Rabbi Avrohom Braun, dean of Ohr Somayach in Monsey, New York. “We were about to close one of our numerous personal conversations and he said, ‘Avrohom, you’re going to go far.’ It was almost fifty years ago, but those words and his belief in me still ring in my ears.”

For close to three decades, Rabbi Belsky also conducted a Monday night shiur for Torah Vodaath alumni and other ba’alei batim. “He loved Torah so much,” says Levin. “When we would finish an inyan [topic] in a shiur, he would ask, ‘What do you want to learn next? We could learn this or that; I love every topic!’”

He also loved every talmid.

“Rabbi Belsky once told me the secret to chinuch,’”

says Rabbi Mordechai Karfiol, a former Torah Vodaath talmid. “He said, ‘Never talk down to anyone. Find his ma’alot, love him, believe in him, but most importantly, empower him to show him you really believe in him.’

Rabbi Belsky said ‘I never had a talmid whom I didn’t love.’ Is it a wonder than that we loved him back?”

“I remember him telling us, ‘I feel like making a Birkat Ha’ilanot [blessing for fruit trees] on you bachurim,’” says Rabbi Avrohom Krohn, maggid shiur and rosh yeshivah at Yeshiva Ateres Shmuel of Waterbury in Connecticut and a former talmid of Rabbi Belsky. “‘Why do we say the berachah when we see only buds?’ Rabbi Belsky would ask. ‘A bud shows promise; we know it’s going to blossom into a ripe, delicious fruit from which everyone is going to derive pleasure. Looking at you [bachurim], I know that Klal Yisrael has a bright future.’”

Born to Teach Rabbi Belsky knew the power of encouragement and he used it often.

Once, in the middle of teaching his talmidim the laws of shechitah, he received an urgent phone call from the OU. A she’eilah had come up in a slaughterhouse—one of the knives used for shechitah had a pegimah (nick) a few millimeters above the sharp edge. The pesak could affect thousands of chickens. Seizing a perfect opportunity for his talmidim to apply a sugyah they had just learned to a real-life situation, he turned to

Camp Agudah Every summer, Rabbi Belsky took his love of chinuch and nature to the Catskills. As Camp Agudah’s rav for decades, he gave shiurim, answered she’eilot, joined the boys on hikes and made himself available to thousands of campers, no matter the need or hour.

“You never knew what you were going to find in his office,” says Rabbi Dovid Frischman, who has run the camp’s Masmidim Program for the past nineteen years.

“Chickens, shechitah knives or a camper’s tefillin waiting to be fixed.”

In the 1970s, droves of beleaguered Russian Jewish immigrants poured out of the Former Soviet Union and discovered Shabbat at the Belsky table.

Summer 5776/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 37

Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO, OU Kosher, eulogizing Rabbi Belsky.

On Friday nights, the camp waiters typically rushed through their Shabbat meals so that they would be available to serve the rest of the camp. This bothered Rabbi Belsky.

“Right after davening, Rabbi Belsky would go quickly to join the waiters,” says Rabbi Frischman. “He sat down with them, sang zemiros and gave a devar Torah.”

Rabbi Frischman remembers when the camp lifeguards approached Rabbi Belsky, concerned about the huge responsibility they had, watching so many

“His approach was ‘What’s the emes? Let the chips fall where they may.’”

children at the pool. They asked if he would write a special tefillah for them that they could say before starting work. “He spent hours writing that tefillah,” says Rabbi Frischman. “It still hangs by the pool.”

When mussar was called for, Rabbi Belsky would try to get the message across in a gentle way.

Rabbi Frischman recalls an incident when Rabbi Belsky walked by the bunk houses wearing his tallit and tefillin and noticed a boy exiting his bunk, considerably late for Shacharit. Rabbi Belsky wrapped himself up in his tallit as he passed by so as not to embarrass the boy.

Wanting every camper to experience the wonders of Hashem’s world, he didn’t hesitate taking a boy in a wheelchair on an overnight trip to Niagara Falls. The trek involved an elevator ride 175 feet down into the Niagara Gorge, where visitors stand on observation decks a mere twenty feet from the Falls. Unfortunately, 38 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

the observation decks weren’t wheelchair accessible and it was necessary to climb many steps after exiting the elevator. The group was told that the boy who was in a wheelchair wouldn’t be able to go. Rav Belsky instructed the others to go ahead, and said that he would stay behind with the crestfallen camper. Just then, he observed a man with a young child sitting atop his shoulders heading for the elevator. He asked if he would be allowed to physically carry the camper to the site.

He was told he could. He carried the boy on his back to and from the Falls.

Rabbi Yossi Aszknazy, a close talmid of Rav Belsky’s, said, “The gadlus of Rabbi Belsky was not only the chesed he did for this child, but that [despite his exhaustion from the unusual exercise he had that day], he got up at four o’clock the next morning to learn.”

Rabbi Frischman regards Rabbi Belsky as the “most unlazy person” he has had the privilege to know. “He pushed himself to do more and more. You can’t imagine all the phone calls that came into his office [at the camp] and the people coming to speak with him. Motzaei Shabbos there were often ten to fifteen people waiting at his door.”

Some years back, the camp faced serious financial difficulties. One Shabbat, it could only afford one watermelon for the entire camp. “They had to slice the watermelon into 144 pieces,” says Rabbi Frischman. “Rabbi Belsky told me, ‘Many times I feel like that watermelon.’”

OU Kosher’s Dedicated Posek Every Thursday afternoon, for close to thirty years, Rabbi Belsky would come to OU Kosher headquarters in Manhattan to review and discuss various kashrut questions and issues with OU rabbinic coordinators. A

frequent statement heard in the office these days is, “What would Rabbi Belsky have said about this?”

“He delved into the depths of an issue until he understood it. Only then did he give a pesak,” says Rabbi Menachem Genack CEO, OU Kosher.

Rabbi Belsky never took political correctness into account, recalls Rabbi Moshe Elefant, COO, OU Kosher.

He was lenient or strict because that was what the halachah required of the particular situation. “[He was an anomaly] in a world where everyone looks over their shoulders before they make a decision, taking into account what others say or think,” says Rabbi Elefant.

“His approach was ‘What’s the emes? Let the chips fall where they may.’”

Some rabbis suggested using video cameras rather than on-site supervision to ensure that milk products would be chalav Yisrael. Instead of being on-site, someone would observe the milking of the cows remotely, via video monitors. Rabbi Belsky disapproved.

“He said, ‘The halachah states that you need to have a mashgiach. A camera is not a mashgiach,’” recalls Rabbi Elefant.

He enjoyed a close relationship with all of the OU Kosher rabbis. Despite his busy schedule, he made a point to attend their family semachot.

Rabbi Belsky frequently brought talmidim on his Thursday visits to OU headquarters to experience what he called “the living Shulchan Aruch.”

“He felt very much part of our OU family and important to our mission,” says Rabbi Elefant. “At all hours of the night, people would call him about issues.”

He left behind thousands of halachic rulings for OU Kosher rabbis to refer to (stored on the OU Kosher she’eilot and teshuvot database). But Thursdays at the OU will never be the same. g Summer 5776/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 39

Special Section

What does it mean to be a woman with a leadership role in the Orthodox community? This is the question we posed to a diverse array of women—some educators, others communal professionals; some based in the US, others based in Israel; some in the twilight of their careers, others at the midpoint of their careers or just starting out. We asked them to reflect on the nature of their work on behalf of the klal and on insights they have gained. No question these women are a highly impressive bunch—but what makes these essays so very compelling is that the women take us into their inner worlds, sharing personal thoughts about their families, their work and their lives. These are their personal stories and we encourage those with different experiences to share their stories with us as well.

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HARONA KAPLAN is in her twelfth year as a Torah educator for the Heshe & Harriet Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus (OU-JLIC) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In this role, she teaches and mentors students while supporting an Orthodox Jewish infrastructure on campus. Sharona, a mother of five young children, serves as a mentor for the national network of OU-JLIC educators. Together with her husband, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, Sharona is working to expand OU-JLIC to additional campuses on the West Coast.

As told to Rachel Wizenfeld My job offers the ultimate professional fulfillment. The Jewish ideal is to be a lifelong learner and to continuously be involved with things that nourish and mature your Jewish identity. A lot of women at my stage in life don’t have that luxury, and I’m so grateful to OU-JLIC for giving me that platform. I get to live in that blessed “gets-me-out-of-bed-every-morning” excited space; if I could have seen how this job was going to enrich my life, I would have come running in this direction.

Teaching and learning Torah is a huge part of what I do. It’s amazing to teach someone a text and experience an epiphany with her. In addition, mentoring young women and forging relationships

with them is so gratifying. I work a lot with kallahs and newlyweds; helping people at these critical junctures of their lives is a true privilege. Recently I met with a kallah on a Friday afternoon—a challenging time to meet—but she was experiencing one of those “crisis” moments in her relationship. I was able to help calm her down and recalibrate, and she entered Shabbat in a new place, which was incredibly rewarding.

There’s a real geshmack (satisfaction) I get from introducing students to their next stage of sophisticated Jewish learning.

Chavruta learning is qualitatively different from high school classroom learning. In a university setting, students who choose to study Judaism on their own are studying topics that interest them at a time that works for them. Sometimes when a student in high school asks a philosophical or theological question, the teacher deflects the question, maybe because she doesn’t want to veer off topic or she’s afraid she’s going to lose the rest of the class, but often those questions are critically important. When my husband and I arrived on campus, our motto was “any text, any time.” One girl actually bought me flowers after our first chavruta session—she finally had had a chance to explore a question that had remained unanswered throughout her yeshivah education. Together we unpacked and repacked the issue, and now she’s engaging this area of Judaism with a passion and richness that she didn’t have before. Another student was shaken after her first Judaic studies

Rachel Wizenfeld is a Los Angeles-based writer and editor and is a frequent contributor to Jewish Action.

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class on campus exposed her to ideas she had not encountered in yeshivah high school. Instead of beginning to question her twelve years of yeshivah education, she was able to turn to OUJLIC to make sense of it.

My husband and I coteach a weekly class at Hillel. At the beginning of each Sharona Kaplan academic quarter we survey the students to determine the best time to meet. This quarter the responses were split; half of the respondents wanted one day, the other half a different day, so we decided to try offering the same class two days in a row to reach both populations. We called the second class “Instant Replay” and ended up having a pool of between twenty and twenty-five students for each class, which is a great turnout for a class offered in the middle of the school day. Students were saying, “We can’t believe that you would take another hour and teach the exact same thing again!” For us it was a no-brainer. But it shows that the students not only appreciate the content we teach them, they appreciate the time we invest in them. We want to work with them and escort them through college in a way that fits with their schedules, and they appreciate that.

On campus, students might not be able to easily identify other Jews—they’re often “undercover Jewish,” wearing a trendy skirt or baseball cap. But when a Jewish student is introduced to another Jewish student who is sharing a similar college experience, they’re naturally drawn to each other.

Sometimes I’ll meet students who are best friends and they tell me that they actually met through OU-JLIC! In some ways, helping people make lifelong friends as they meet through our OU-JLIC community is just as rewarding as helping to make shidduchim. (To date, seventeen couples met through our program!) nnnnnnnnnn When it comes to juggling my various responsibilities, I try to be strategic: it’s about prioritization. Having my professional and personal lives bleed into each other can be a good thing for both sides, if done strategically. Because campus life is 24/7 instead of nine-to-five, I can plug in at different junctures. When my students need me, I can be there, and when my kids need me, I can be there too. My job also enriches my kids’ lives—last week my daughter was off from school and she came to a chaburah I was giving to female students. It enriches her to see my work and the students appreciate interacting with my kids. Shabbat is really great—work and family converge, and I try to take that time to be really present and to immerse in the moment. And when it comes to chagim like Simchat Torah or Shavuot, it’s fabulous—on campus we rock around the clock!

My schedule is sustainable because there’s a lot of selfdefinition in the work. I try to keep my finger on the pulse of my schedule to constantly evaluate where changes need to be

made. I strive to embrace the tiny pockets of time that unexpectedly pop up throughout the day. If a student’s late to a chavruta session, she’s apologizing, but I just made my Google Express shopping order. If I have a car ride alone, I’ll make a “mazal tov” phone call or check in with a colleague. I can tell you what I’ll be doing from the morning until 9:00 in the evening in fifteen-minute increments.

Preparing for classes is manageable because we’ve been doing this for twelve years, so we have amassed a resource bank of shiurim and have a sense of what works. With the shiurim in place, it’s easier to inject the newness and personalize the messaging without starting from scratch.

It’s so valuable for collegeaged women to see women who love and pursue advanced Torah learning.

While extreme intensity can’t be sustained indefinitely, the campus schedule is set up so there are spurts of intensity, where I dig deep and invest intensively, and then it’s spring break or summer vacation, and I can focus on other parts of my life.

The schedule does get exhausting but it’s also exhilarating— there’s a real momentum. I imagine people in a desk job just zone out at a certain point, but for me there’s always something compelling that’s fueling me and giving me strength. nnnnnnnnnn It’s so valuable for college-aged women to see women who love and pursue advanced Torah learning. They need to see a space for them to become Jewish communal professionals so that they are encouraged in their personal Torah growth. If the most advanced opportunity they see is teaching a high school class, it can be hard to stay motivated to develop their Jewish learning in college.

Unfortunately, I find that there’s a real lack of female Torah educators in many communities. Many shul rebbetzins have other jobs and their focus is diffused. Hiring women as Torah educators, which is part of the brilliance of the OU-JLIC program, enables women to fully devote their time and energy to the community.

Jewish learning and mentorship are my professional mandate.

Naming that as my role is a real game changer and allows me to fully immerse myself in my job. I’ve found that to whatever extent I’m willing to go, doors keep opening and the “glass ceiling” keeps rising. Whether it’s teaching in the broader community or taking on new managerial roles, doors continue to open professionally.

Summer 5776/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 41

RABBANIT SHULAMIT MELAMED

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ne of the most successful and innovative women in Israel, Rabbanit Shulamit Melamed is the current founding head of the popular Religious Zionist news network Arutz Sheva (israelnationalnews.com).

Arutz Sheva was founded in 1988 after Rabbanit Melamed experienced a terrorist attack and was shocked by the radio report, which made it seem as if the Jewish passengers on the bus had been the aggressors rather than the victims. Rabbanit Melamed lives in Beit El. She runs the organization’s news site and oversees the newspaper Basheva. She has seven children.

Translated from Hebrew by Rochel Sylvetsky Photo: Pnima

For the first fifteen years of my married life, while raising young children, even though I worked outside of the home, I tried to be home the rest of the time. It was important to me that I be there for my children whenever they needed me and that it was a parent who set the tone Shulamit Melamed of family life. Although this was the period when Jewish communities were first being built in Judea and Samaria, I did not attend demonstrations or the ceremonies when yishuvim were founded. I even tried to avoid going to parties and other events, except for family obligations.

At the same time, I devoted myself to my teaching job in Jerusalem. For years I was somewhat frustrated because I felt that I could not handle both my home and even that level of outside employment as well as I wanted to; at one point, I took a year’s leave from work to be at home with my children, even though financially it was difficult. As my children grew however, and I was able to be away from home more, I began to view my work in education as a mission.

When we moved to Beit El, I accepted an offer to be a teaching advisor in a school and teach a class of children with special needs. Both of those positions were less demanding than being a home room teacher, a job which entailed a good deal of responsibility and much after-school time.

Looking at my grown family, I am happy that I chose to find fulfillment at home and in a less demanding job when they were young. My guiding principle to women who ask my advice: do not accept a position if you are not sure that you can give your utmost. Time passes, children grow up, and in the future, the day will come when you will be able to contribute more outside the home. Never forget what your main responsibility is and what’s secondary to it.

Once my children were older, I established the Ra’aya Academy (Ulpana) for Girls, a religious high school in Beit El. The school has expanded greatly and has an excellent reputation scholastically and religiously. Currently, I work there in an advisory capacity.

42 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

In 1988, shortly after Ra’aya was founded, when my youngest child was already in school most of the day, I helped establish and became the director of Arutz Sheva news network, a position I continue to occupy today. The Arutz Sheva media venture aimed to present programs “in the spirit of Jewish tradition and Jewish settlement throughout the land of Israel.” [The radio station began operating from a floating studio aboard a vessel anchored off the Tel Aviv coast, just outside Israeli territorial waters.] It was an initiative that involved learning about the media world, a world that was entirely foreign to me and included a myriad of responsibilies like acquiring funding, contending with technical issues, finding suitable broadcasters, deciding on and approving content and troubleshooting. The work was fraught with difficulties, demanding endless time and energy. Had I been aware of what I was getting into, I might never have done it! Still, the public’s positive response to the radio station and the feeling that we were filling a void and doing something special for Israel and the Jewish people was gratifying and gave us the strength to deal with all the challenges we had to face.

Women who choose a career outside the home when their children are young must be careful to ensure that their work does not have a negative effect on their family’s health. The continued existence of the entire world rests on a woman’s shoulders and the continuity of the Jewish world depends on how she raises her children.

I have spoken to sad and lonely older women whose investment in successful career choices made them wait until it was too late to have a family. I have heard them tell me they wish they could be one of the mothers and grandmothers who are kept busy celebrating semachot, the fruits of choosing family over fame.

The late Professor Nehama Leibowitz was, unfortunately, childless, and once said that she would have given up her entire career as the most famous woman Torah scholar of all time to feed a soft-boiled egg to her own child. That, in a nutshell, is the Jewish woman’s scale of values.

SHIRA SMILES

S

hira Smiles has taught Torah to women worldwide for three decades. Known for her sophisticated shiurim, she blends intellectual rigor with a downto-earth presentation. She currently teaches at Darchei Bina, a women’s seminary for gap-year students in Jerusalem, and gives several parashah classes and chumash chaburahs weekly, many of which are streamed over the Internet and viewed across the globe.

As told to Rachel Wizenfeld We live in an age where women are more learned than ever before. Women want to be challenged to think, and they appreciate the intellectual rigor of an in-depth shiur. Yet challenging the mind without engaging the heart is too limiting. People are searching for meaning. I try, with my shiurim, to provide a message for life, to nurture the soul as well as the mind.

I love teaching. But I did not start teaching adults until my husband encouraged me to do so. Not every husband would encourage his wife to pursue such a path. Some men might be intimidated, but my husband embraced it.

The work is intense. Each parashah shiur I give requires ten hours of work, which entails researching and compiling a source sheet. (I can’t even repeat a shiur because they’re all available online!) Every week I need to start from scratch. My eighteen-year-old daughter helps out with the research. nnnnnnnnnn When I was pregnant with my daughter, I was living in Los Angeles and I recall attending the fiftieth birthday party of one of my students. She invited me and two Chabad rebbetzins—she viewed us as her spiritual mentors. At one point, the woman turned to us and asked if each of us had our own mentor. Without a moment’s hesitation, the Chabad women said their mentor was the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Then she asked me. I said, “I don’t know. I don’t have one.”

Later on, it hit me: infertility was my spiritual mentor.

Infertility forced me to examine my relationship with God—where I’m coming from, where I’m headed, what Yiddishkeit is all about. Going through a challenge makes one a different person. It had spurred me to look into the sources and see what Jewish thinkers over the centuries had to say about struggle.

I found chizuk in the Chassidic sefarim and, in particular, in the Netivot Shalom. I felt siyata d’Shmaya throughout my entire journey through infertility. nnnnnnnnnn While I enjoy teaching immensely, I see my work centering more and more around relationships. In today’s day and age, people need mentoring more than anything else. I maintain close relationships with many of my former students as well as with women in the community. Maintaining a connection is a commitment. Just answering e-mails and phone calls takes an inordinate amount of time. But I always remind myself of what Rabbi Moshe Feinstein said: “You have to give ma’aser of your time, not just of your money.” We’re in this world to be involved in tzarchei tzibbur, the needs of the klal.

In Israel, where I currently live, the role of the rav and rebbetzin is defined very differently than in America. The rav and rebbetzin in the States tend to be more involved in the lives of their congregants. This is not the case in Israel.

Here, many women seek out a teacher from whom they can receive guidance. Women have approached me about all kinds of personal issues, ranging from family planning and divorce to more contemporary challenges such as male addiction to Internet pornography. These are sensitive issues that women understandably feel more comfortable discussing with another woman rather than with a rav.

One thing is certain: I don’t have all the answers. I’m constantly saying, “Lishuatcha kiviti Hashem, I long for Your salvation, Hashem.” I’m also constantly seeking advice from others. I once said to Rebbetzin Kalmanovitch, “All these people are coming to me [with their questions and 44 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

problems] and I don’t feel equipped to advise them.” She said, “Tell them: you daven and I daven.”

I frequently refer women to rabbanim and therapists.

They say a teacher’s job is like a Hatzalah worker: you give them first aid and decide if they need more care.

But the home always has to be first. We’ve really cut back on hosting Shabbat meals. And my preference for e-mail gives me more time to devote to family life. I often get up at 2:00 in the morning so I can answer e-mails on my own time.

For women, the priority has to be family, period. This is the reality. Women between the ages of twenty and fifty are very busy with familial obligations.

Part of this challenge is that they don’t have the opportunity to develop themselves the same way as men do. Thus, it’s no surprise that their learning is curtailed and their teaching isn’t as developed. Of course, one grows tremendously through the process of raising children, but it’s a different kind of growth.

Generally women over the age of fifty who have finished raising their children are much more available. And I have a secret to share—one should want a mentor who is over fifty.

Older women have more wisdom, more learning and more life experience under their belts.

If we as a community are not going to value women leadership, then why should young women go into this field?

nnnnnnnnnn Students often ask me if they should pursue a career in chinuch. And the truth is, how can I encourage them to go into teaching when they need to support a family and the teaching salaries are significantly lower than other professions? The community needs to recognize that we need more women teachers and we need to pay them accordingly. There’s a huge pay gap between male and female teachers in the day school/yeshivah system. If we as a community are not going to value women leadership, then why should young women go into this field?

Nevertheless, if a young woman is drawn towards teaching, I always say, “Go for it!” There’s such a need and it’s very fulfilling. I feel like I am making a contribution to the Jewish community without needing a title. Hakadosh Baruch Hu put me in this place. It’s avodat hakodesh.

Shira Smiles’ shiurim can be accessed at Naaleh.com and at YUtorah.org.

Summer 5776/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 45

DR. ERICA BROWN

D

r. Erica Brown is an educator and author who consults for non-profits and serves as the community scholar for The Jewish Center in Manhattan. She was the scholar-in-residence for the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, where she directed the Jewish Leadership Institute. She also held that position at the Combined Jewish Philanthropies. Erica was a Jerusalem Fellow, is a faculty member of the Wexner Foundation, an Avi Chai Fellow, and winner of the Ted Farber Professional Excellence Award. Erica, the author of ten books, has degrees from Yeshiva University, University of London, Harvard University and Baltimore Hebrew University. She lectures and writes widely on subjects of Jewish interest and leadership and lives with her husband and children in Silver Spring, Maryland.

When I had been in the field of Jewish communal service for twenty-five years, I was asked to give the commencement address to the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program’s class of graduates at Brandeis University. It was a great honor. I observed at the Erica Brown time that when I entered the field [of Jewish communal service], the Berlin Wall was still up, Nelson Mandela was still in prison and the Former Soviet Union was not yet former. No one could have imagined a 9/11. There had been no Hurricane Katrina, no tsunami on the other side of the world and no earthquake in Haiti. We knew nothing about genocide in Darfur. We never had a black president. There were no e-mails. There was no Internet, and friend was still a noun. The world has changed so much.

The field of Jewish communal service has also changed.

Professionals were better educated and had more mentoring; our first “Training School for Jewish Social Work” opened in 1922 and morphed into the Graduate School for Jewish Social Work to create a Jewish civil service ten years later.

In the 60s, Bernie Reisman created a program in Jewish communal service at Brandeis. Several universities have followed suit.

I “fell” into the field of Jewish adult education twentyeight years ago. I applied to teach Jewish studies in an Orthodox Jewish day school. The principal wanted to know the street I lived on, what my husband did for a living and if I covered my hair (it was covered at the time). There were no questions asked about my educational background, my teaching aspirations or my goals in a classroom. Those who interviewed me were not comfortable that I was interested in teaching both Tanach and Gemara. They were not sure what to do with me. I did not get the job.

46 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

This led to a happy accident. A few weeks later I was asked to apply to be a Judaic studies tutor for an adult education program run by the Melton Center for Jewish Education out of Hebrew University. Thus began my life-long obsession with adult education; this is almost too broad an age range, from eighteen onwards, with all of the developmental divisions this implies. The adult classroom felt safer, more open, and more adaptive to the kind of work that deeply interested me. Fascinated by adult development and maturation, by transformative adult experiences and by organizational structures and their leadership, I’ve had the good fortune to explore all of these arenas in my work. And I have a very old-fashioned high school principal to thank for rejecting me.

This growth and professionalization of Jewish communal life led me to believe that possibilities were endless. I also felt that working on behalf of the Jewish community at large took me out of the echo chamber of Orthodoxy and helped me appreciate that Jews showed their commitment to our people not only through the lens of halachah but also through philanthropy, community organizing, social services and social justice. In my eighteen years of serving as a scholarin-residence at two federations, I dreamt that one day all 155 federations in North America (now 151) would also have scholar-in-residence positions, creating a natural home for Jewish education to influence philanthropy and communal planning and a good place for learned Orthodox women.

That dream stalled; there are very few federations with such positions, less than a handful. The Jewish renaissance of learning, never out of fashion in the Orthodox community, cycles in and out of popularity in the organized Jewish community. I believe, sadly, we are now at an all-time low in providing high-quality, low-barrier adult education services to the broader community.

Although I do a great deal of volunteer teaching in my local community, the bulk of my work has always been outside of the Orthodox community. When I started out, there really was no obvious place for me in the Orthodox educational world outside of high school teaching or administration. All these years later, there is still no obvious place. While I almost always write my own job description— not neatly fitting into existing frameworks—I think you can only do that for so long before fatigue sets in. It’s kind of crazy to have this conversation in virtually every workplace: “What should we call you?”

“I don’t know.”

Today, I do not advise young women to follow my path.

It’s too hard. It’s too risky. Even now. In your professional life, your business card should make sense; it should not always require an explanation. The Orthodox community— if there is such a construct—is too unclear about a woman’s role in the spiritual arena that if you add the overlay of a professional role, the confusion mounts. The pay discrepancies between men and women in the Orthodox community and the range of high-profile educational, administrative and spiritually edifying positions are too limiting. It’s critical to be in a supportive professional setting

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where you don’t have to battle the surrounding culture to find worth and validation. For me, a satisfying job should not be a minefield, a battlefield or a political statement. In the Orthodox world for women, it has often been this. Work should be a place where your skills, talents and passion match the mission of the organization and not where you feel yourself under glass, observed and scrutinized to see if your gender will seep through and become a question mark.

The Orthodox community, of necessity, has begun to understand that women need to have a more visible, more influential role, even if that role is still a mystery. But if it is to be significant, then large Orthodox communal organizations need to spend less time hopelessly catching up with the rest of the world on gender issues and spend more time analyzing and forecasting current needs and

When I started out, there really was no obvious place for me in the Orthodox educational world outside of high school teaching or administration. All these years later, there is still no obvious place. demands. In the meantime, please don’t ask women to be the token figure on a panel of men or think it’s a compliment to ask women to lecture or be scholars-in-residence because they are women. Invite women to your schools and shuls because they have something important to say, just like anyone else. Biology does not trump intelligence.

There is an important flip side for me. Among my friends who are generally happy with their professional choices, there are also the less happy ones: the recovering lawyers, the doctors disgruntled about changes in healthcare and the struggling non-profit employees. I, on the other hand, engage in work which provides me with a profound sense of meaning and purpose. My lack of a formal, local home at times also fuels my writing, creating a larger platform for ideas. I feel I have chosen a noble and sacred career, even if, at times, I have trouble describing it.

48 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

DR. AVIVA WEISBORD

D

r. Aviva Weisbord has been involved in community service in Baltimore for decades. She has held leadership positions in several organizations, including Maalot Seminary, Jews for Judaism, AJOP, and The Associated’s Jewish Big Brother and Big Sister’s League (JBBL). Dr. Weisbord currently serves as executive director of SHEMESH, which provides educational support services to Jewish schools in Baltimore. She holds a PhD in psychology and has counseled individuals for twenty-five years. Dr. Weisbord lives in Baltimore with her husband and children.

My leadership training began around age five. That’s when my mother, Rebbetzin Chana Weinberg, a”h, recruited me to participate in a Ner Israel Ladies Luncheon. Did I know that watching her present a vision to the group, making sure they took responsibility for the implementation of that vision, and then give them all the credit for the final product was leadership at its best? Not a clue! But by the time I was fifteen, my heart and head had absorbed these basic principles; everything else was commentary.

Back then, we didn’t know or think about self-fulfillment, the woman’s role or “maximizing our contribution” to Judaism.

Life in our extended household, an environment that included my grandmother, Rebbetzin Feige Ruderman and her mother, Rebbetzin Dvora Kramer—all very strong, exceedingly capable women—was about seeing a need and stepping in to meet that need. That definition of leadership works for me until today, and not only because it was planted in my genes.

To me, the question of leadership is not necessarily about how I find fulfillment or the impact I want to have. It’s about asking, “Why are we here?” It’s about serving HaKadosh Baruch Hu to the best of my ability; doing what He wants in the way that fits the values and standards of Judaism. This is the essence of the difference between leadership by Jews and leadership in a Jewish way. While there is much we can learn from general leadership training, it’s crucial that we combine that knowledge with our Jewish training and apply the basic principles of Judaism to those of leadership.

I learned a lot watching my mother, a”h, put the issue of domestic violence on the Jewish agenda. It was an uphill battle, with most people wishing she would just go away and take that unpleasant topic with her. There were serious setbacks along the way to establishing safe houses for Jewish women and their children, centers for counseling and education and a cadre of knowledgeable, articulate advocates.

Setbacks—definitely; defeat—never.

Every time my mother hit a brick wall, I saw her passion intensify, along with the dogged determination to give a voice to those suffering in silence.

She was angry, frustrated, sometimes fed up, but never once did her conviction waiver. My siblings and I watched her, wondering if maybe, just this once, she was too far ahead of her time. She taught us that leadership is about staying the course, even when it hurts personally. My mother was insulted,

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mocked and shunned. And she just kept going. She personified Paul Wellstone’s incisive insight, “If we don’t fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don’t really stand for them.”

For my mother, this was not a leadership issue per Dr. Aviva Weisbord se, although great leadership permeated the entire process. This was about championing a community cause and creating a vehicle that could carry that cause. When I have moments where it would be easy to shrug my shoulders and tell myself that now’s not the time or someone else can take care of a burning issue, the leadership lessons I have learned speak quite emphatically to me: Stand up for what you know is right and keep marching forward. It took several years, but there are now safe houses for Orthodox women in more than a dozen communities across the United States, and the topic is on the agenda of almost every frum organization. More lessons learned: Patience, perseverance and lots of networking.

I don’t think anyone wakes up one morning and says, “I’m going to be a leader in my community,” any more than anyone wakes up and says, “I’m going to be a gadol B’Yisrael.” As experience and knowledge accumulate and the tasks for which we enlist grow in quality and quantity, we may come to realize that this is, indeed, leadership. I have the privilege of being a member of the board of directors of ACHARAI, a Jewish leadership-training institute. Interestingly, the individuals selected for the training are all in position to become the heads of their organizations within the next few years; they all went through the process of working for the community and acquiring basic leadership skills and now, after years of commitment and growth, they are ready for a full-scale, sophisticated program offering leadership training through a Jewish lens.

Leadership starts with a sense of responsibility, seeing something missing or off course and then stepping in to create or fix. That willingness to assume a burden, to make a commitment, is the beginning of leadership.

Once it’s not about “Me,” many issues that we find challenging fade away: Is there someone who can do a better job with this than I can? No problem—let’s give her the responsibility. Is it important to train others, young women who will be able to take their place at the heads of organizations? Certainly—I can share my knowledge and experience by mentoring someone and helping her prepare to take over. In fact, I can be objective enough to know when it’s time to hand the baton to the next generation and can do so gladly.

Leadership is also about believing in others. Community leaders get to see the best and worst of community members.

We don’t live in denial, but we do focus on the best. John Quincy Adams said, “If your actions inspire others to dream 50 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

Often our leadership is about making a positive impact on one person at a time, with no public fanfare or credit. And sometimes, the most important things we do are completely behind the scenes. There have been many opportunities for me to intervene and help settle a machloket, simply because I had worked for and with the people and organizations involved. Helping someone get a job interview, being able to pinpoint community resources and offering assistance to newcomers navigating the search for a home and school are all unanticipated bonuses of committing myself to the community.

All of this takes place as background to the essential task of finding a workable, living equilibrium between nurturing our family and nurturing our community while making sure we are not depleted. When we ourselves are energized (even if fatigued) by our involvements and can be of service guilt-free, that’s a sign of healthy, balanced leadership. It means knowing when taking on one more thing will upset that balance, leaving family members feeling ignored and ourselves torn. I am deeply grateful to my parents and grandparents for making sure that did not happen to us, and I am fairly certain that this is the reason my siblings and I have all chosen to be involved with the community, each in our own way.

Perhaps the greatest reward of serving in leadership positions is the opportunity to know myself and be myself.

Living a truly authentic, directed life is what Judaism is about; and feeling that message deeply while conveying it unabashedly is what leadership is about and why it is so compelling.

CHANNAH COHEN

W

orking for the Heshe & Harriet Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus (OU-JLIC), Channah Cohen serves as a Torah educator at Queens College in New York. In this role, she gives shiurim and organizes programs and events while serving as a role model for Orthodox women on campus. An alumna of Tomer Devorah Seminary and a graduate of Stern College for Women, Channah completed a master’s in adult learning & leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University. She lives in Passaic, New Jersey with her husband, Jeff, and their son, Aryeh.

Oh, sure, I knew all about leadership. I knew that the trait theory was passé and would turn up ludicrous hypotheses; for instance, that through studying Napoleon and Caesar one can deduce that great leaders must be left-handed and shorter than 5’4”. I knew that the difference between good leaders and good managers lay in asking “how” versus asking “why.”

I even had a master’s in adult learning and leadership to boot.

So yeah, I knew all about leadership.

Until I became a leader.

When I started working for OU-JLIC on the Queens College campus in the fall of 2015, things weren’t quite as I expected they would be. I spent the entire first semester on campus in absolute shock. Here’s some of what I learned about leadership—and about myself—along the way.

Lesson One: The only characteristics that research studies have successfully correlated to effective leadership are not charisma, extroversion or even intelligence; they are humility and perseverance. Humility is the ability to work as a team and to give credit to others. Perseverance is Channah Cohen the ability to fail—repeatedly—and to try again.

I learned this lesson from the leadership of OU-JLIC, an incredible organization both on the national and campus levels.

Its leadership isn’t composed of loud, charismatic, bombastic personalities; rather, they are quiet, thought-out, passionate individuals. At our biannual conference, the national staff spends five minutes patting us on the back for our work and countless hours making sure that we are acutely aware of our responsibility to our students, and as well-equipped as possible to handle the various challenges we face. Humility is their most blatant characteristic, but it’s coupled with traits that are often overlooked in the literature on leadership and that are, in my opinion, integral: the caring and the passion to affect others in a positive way.

I’ve witnessed these same qualities in the OU-JLIC staff on my campus (and that of every other campus that I’ve interacted with). They don’t expect me to be perfect at teaching or running events. In the hours we spend planning every detail of every event we run, reviewing later what worked and what didn’t, and taking most seriously an event that belly-flopped, the staff has taught me that mistakes are human, but that we care enough to improve for next time. It isn’t about having the “right” opinions on how to do things best, it’s about asking questions to one another, to the students, to those who have done this before us.

Humility and perseverance.

Lesson Two: The extraordinary power of a woman in a leadership position. At the risk of being controversial, I don’t usually put many women on the list of great historical leaders that I try to learn from and emulate. I’ve read the biographies of Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin. I’ve studied the Biblical personalities of Jeremiah and Moses. In graduate school, women flitted

in and out of leadership classes, but men had center-stage.

On campus, I’ve seen what a woman in a leadership position can do. Naturally, women have a balancing act between work life and home life that’s more difficult and complex than that of men.

But I’m surprised again and again at how the skills I work on in my home life as a wife and mother—organization, patience and the ability to validate and reflect emotions—play out at work.

I’ve been shocked at how often just sitting across from a student and listening to her, holding her moral debate in my hands, has given her the small amount of courage that she needed to make a real change. I distinctly recall numerous conversations that progressed as follows: a student tells me about a relationship she has with a young man she knows is not right for her but she’s too afraid to break up. I listen, I validate and I reflect back the dreams of the young woman. She checks her watch and rushes off to class. Within a few days, she calls to tell me she ended the malignant relationship, and I am surprised every time.

Another example: A student insists that she does not want to get involved in Jewish programming on campus. What’s more, she wants to change her name and befriend only non-Jews who don’t know her. I listen; I try to hear her motivation. I say goodbye after our meeting, sighing heavily, certain that I will never see her again. Surprisingly, I receive several e-mails from her requesting information on upcoming events. I see her at several programs. Speaking with her and accepting her must have enabled her to believe in and accept herself.

Before I started working for OU-JLIC, I thought it was jejune to say that what students really need is “someone to listen.”

But after a semester on the job, I understand that what students need most really is someone to listen, to reflect, to validate. And I learned, to my surprise, that being a woman gives me a special capacity to provide a quiet, encouraging and compassionate form of leadership. I think of myself as a “leader in the middle”: I’m not a distant, charismatic, pontificating rabble-rouser who is going to change political structures. But I am a woman leader who can use her innate characteristics to effect real, lasting change on an individual level.

Lesson Three: Making an impact is not the most difficult task.

I have listened to the life stories, the hopes, the dreams and the challenges of my students. And in only one semester on campus, I have been blown away by the heroism of my students. I have spoken to students who are struggling with mental disorders that make daily living a battle. I have spoken

I think of myself as a “leader in the middle”: I’m not a distant, charismatic, pontificating rabblerouser who is going to change political structures. But I am a woman leader who can use her innate characteristics to effect real, lasting change on an individual level.

52 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

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Touro College is an equal opportunity institution.

with students who have combatted physical disabilities and have fought their way to independence. I have spoken with students who are fighting chronic diseases, or dealing with perpetual rehabilitation, and need to take life one day at a time. And it has taught me that as a society, we have a definite affinity to the glorious halo that surrounds leaders, instead of learning about the quiet inner strength of the people that are all around us. And having been inspired so often by my students, I believe society might be missing out . . . big-time.

This first semester as a Torah educator on campus has been an eye-opening one for me. I did not realize how myopic my view of leadership was until I was introduced to leaders who are both humble and perseverant, actively working to positively impact the Jewish community. I found my place as a woman leader, a leader in the middle between the community and the distant figures we read about in history books. I have learned infinitely more from the discreet, private conversations I have had with real-life student heroes than I did from bombastic, egoistic lecturers on leadership in graduate school. Perhaps if I can continue to learn from my students and others around me, in a few decades I will be the kind of humble, perseverant leader that our community always needs.

RIVKA SEGAL

R

ivka Segal is the program director at the Seymour J. Abrams Jerusalem World Center (the OU Israel Center), which offers fifty shiurim weekly, runs several tiyulim each month and organizes special courses and events that attract more than a thousand people weekly. Prior to serving in this position, she taught at various seminaries in Israel. Before she made aliyah, she was director of the Women’s Institute of Torah (WIT) in Baltimore and taught at various Jewish high schools.

As told to Rachel Wizenfeld Chinuch was always my passion. As a young child, I dreamed of being a teacher.

And yet, for a long time, I felt guilty about teaching while raising my family. It’s such a privilege to devote oneself solely to raising one’s children. It took me time to realize that I needed to work to be a good mother. I would not have been happy being an at-home mom and neither would my children.

What Makes a Good Leader? By Aviva Weisbord 1

Take responsibility: We lead because there’s something that needs to be accomplished.

2

Offer a vision: People join when there is a clear purpose and end-goal.

3

Make a team: We really can’t do it all ourselves!

4

Build relationships, not hierarchies: Believe in the positive qualities of the people you lead; use influence, not control.

5

Keep your eye on the goal: Stay focused on your objectives and on helping others. Leadership means living the Torah principles we talk about. This may require us to work on ourselves.

6

Make time to learn and to think: It will keep you sharp, knowledgeable and grounded.

7

Face reality: Learn to accept the pressures and frustrations that go along with the territory.

8

Corollary: Give others opportunities to grow—and then give them credit, too.

9

Seek and accept guidance: There are always people who are wiser and more objective than we are.

10

Remember that Hashem is in charge: If it’s supposed to happen, He’ll make sure it works out.

54 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

Rivka Segal

Everyone has his or her own mission. You follow the dots that God has given you and you go with it. There are women who derive immense satisfaction from working full time, and there are women who thrive as stay-athome moms. We all have to respect each other’s choices. That ability to value everyone’s unique

role comes from learning Torah.

While I didn’t start working full-time until my kids were older, I still felt as if I was being squeezed from all sides when I was juggling my part-time positions. Women need a supportive environment to balance everything, whether it’s support from one’s parents, husband or friends. Without support, one can easily be stretched too thin.

Women whose jobs revolve around the community often have it harder. As do their children. It’s well known that the children of rabbis, rebbetzins or others heavily involved in communal work often have to compete for their parents’ time and attention. My husband and I are careful about making special family time. On Friday nights, we have lots of company—we live in a neighborhood in Jerusalem that’s full of singles—but for Shabbat lunch, it’s just the family.

On the other hand, there are some real benefits to being involved in communal work. My children have become very close to many of my students; in fact, some of the ba’alei teshuvah who frequent our home have become members of the family.

I find that the real challenge with adult education is the constant pressure of preparation. I come home at 5:00 or 6:00 PM, spend some time with my family and the rest of the night I’m preparing a shiur. I teach a weekly Tehillim shiur at the OU Israel Center and a weekly parashah shiur in Nachlaot. I never feel like I prepared enough. It’s a good pressure, but it’s constant. It’s also harder to recycle content nowadays because everything is available online.

Adult education is, however, only a piece of what I do. I serve as the director of the OU Israel Center, and my day centers around planning and executing our many varied and multi-faceted programs. We offer between forty and forty-five shiurim weekly, delivered by cutting-edge teachers like Shira Smiles and Rebbetzin Yemima Mizrachi. We’re also expanding to offer classes like art, dance, health, history, cooking, financial management and more. We just started an all-women’s choir and are planning an art exhibit for local artists to display and sell their work.

The shuls in Israel do not serve as a focal point for the com-

munity, as they do in the States. The OU Israel Center steps in to fill the void. Our mission is to create a diverse array of programs to enhance the lives of English-speakers in Yerushalayim and beyond. nnnnnnnnnn The number-one necessity for all women in leadership roles is a true friend. You don’t need many friends—most women in these positions don’t have time for too many friends—but a good friend will tell you if you’re working too hard, or if you’re doing something wrong. When I lived in Baltimore, I had one friend who would help me re-assess my priorities every once in a while. I called her my “yetzer tov.”

It’s also important to connect with other women occupying similar roles. Every few weeks I meet with several women in communal leadership positions just to network and brainstorm.

Is it harder for women to get a top administrative position in Jewish communal life than it is for men? For sure. In some communities there’s the old boys’ network where they just don’t let women in; but even the girls’ schools in certain communities would rather choose a male director or principal because their perception is that men perform better in such a role.

It’s hard to be a woman in a leadership position in the Jewish world. But women who have the drive and energy and want to use their talents to make an impact on the broader community have to do so or they’ll feel frustrated.

At the same time, we need to recognize that all women are

Women need a supportive environment to balance everything, whether it’s support from one’s parents, husband or friends.

leaders regardless of their professional roles. Leaders are people who influence other people’s lives. Women don’t even understand the impact they have on others. A woman thinks that because she’s not a renowned public speaker or the president of an organization she has little impact, but that’s completely untrue. When people reflect back on who had the most influence on their lives, the answer usually is their mother.

Summer 5776/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 55

ROCHEL SYLVETSKY

in a caravan in an army camp for a year, and helped establish the yeshivah there.

Once my three children were older, I was elected chairochel Sylvetsky is currently op-ed and Judaism editor person of Emunah Israel. There was, of course, the public of Arutz Sheva’s English site. She served as aspect of the position, which necessitated representing Rechairperson of Emunah Israel from 1991 to 1996, ligious Zionist women in the media and at various Knesset CEO/director of Kfar Hanoar Hadati youth village, committees.

However, I derived true gratification from worka member of the Emek Zevulun Regional Council and a member ing with the organization’s children’s homes, which put of the Religious Education Council of Israel’s Education Ministry. at-risk youngsters of all ages on the right track.

She also served as managing editor of Arutz Sheva. She holds Soon after, as a member of the Religious Education Coundegrees in mathematics and Jewish education. cil of Israel’s Education Ministry, I was asked by the Ministry to head a youth village, Kfar Hanoar Hadati, for 500 My beloved high school at-risk teenagers in northern Israel. A youth village is a faNavi teacher, Rabbi Eb- cility staffed by counselors and social workers, based on a stein, z”l, a survivor who holistic educational concept for dealing with at-risk youngtried hard to make the sters. The young people live in the vilmessages of the ancient lage and study for matriculation in the prophets relevant to our village’s high school, but also have B e t h Ja c o b E s t h e r much of the responsibility for runSchoenfeld high school ning the village. In our case, that senior class, would often meant kitchen duty, gardening, ask us: “What is the rea- milking the cows at the village’s son you are in this world?” therapeutic farm Rochel Sylvetsky Moving to Israel in 1971 and turning the as a young mother of two brought Rabbi Ebstein’s question olive crop into to mind in a different context as there were—and are—so oil in our small many pressing needs in this beloved Land that provided a b u t m o d e r n reason for being in this world. Life was economically difficult olive press, as for many of the immigrant families from Middle Eastern well as enjoying countries living in the small town we came to at first, and extra-curricular the euphoria of the Six-Day War was tempered with worry sports, choir, about sons in uniform, as it still is. To these families, we swimming, carseemed like well-off Americans and we were lucky to have pentry, et cetera. close family in Israel, but it was not easy. For months our The difficult kindergarten-age son cried every night that no one under- backgrounds of stood him; we had to travel by bike, as there were only a few the students buses a day (and our car took months to arrive); and we had made this a 24/7 to deal with an unfamiliar bureaucracy and look for a per- challenge. I was manent home and jobs in a much-less developed Israel. the first woman It was wonderful, though, because those same immigrant elected to run a families really welcomed us, inviting us to their homes even religious youth though they had much less than we Americans did; and I village in Israel, just loved teaching my major, math, to the daughters of im- but my (newly migrants from Morocco, Tunisia, Iraq, Yemen and other retired) husband countries, as well as to those whose families had been in and I fell in love with those Israel for generations. I felt I was doing my part to put these young people, said “yes,” and stayed there for seven years.

Trying to find ways for these at-risk teens to experience young women on the road to success. So I spent hours every night memorizing theorems, mathematical expressions and the strength that Yiddishkeit could provide them, I founded how to do even simple arithmetic in Hebrew, inviting my the first yeshivah (Nachalat Yisrael) and Torah Umadda students to our tiny absorption center apartment for one- program in any youth village. I hired a graduate of Yeshivat on-one tutoring and fun.

Hesder HaGolan in Hispin, who had immigrated from Shortly afterwards, I was asked to travel to development Ethiopia as a youngster, to serve as rabbi of the youth village. towns under the aegis of Hebrew University to give work- The dedicated roshei yeshivot attracted students from all shops on improving teaching. Subsequently, we moved to over Israel, giving these troubled youth the opportunity to Beit El with the first fifteen families who founded it, living learn about observant life from their peer group, while giving continued on page 60

R

To me, finding fulfillment as a Jewish woman is not about me at all, it is about getting nachat from those I love or those whose lives I have tried to touch.

56 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

Lander College for Men. Where knowledge and values meet.

What if there were a college where students could pursue challenging academic and Torah studies under the guidance of distinguished faculty and rebbeim and enjoy a warm chevra—on a seven-acre campus nestled in the heart of a thriving Jewish community? There is.

Lander College for Men. Beis Medrash L’Talmud A division of Touro College.

For information contact Rabbi Barry Nathan at 718.820.0400/5019 or barry.nathan@touro.edu | lcm.touro.edu LANDER COLLEGE FOR MEN BEIS MEDRASH L’TALMUD A DIVISION OF TOURO COLLEGE

Where Knowledge and Values Meet

Summer 5776/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 57

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Benefa Thank you from the OU family for your generous annual support of our vital programs, including: YACHAD - Inclusion for people with disabilities OU-JLIC - Supporting Jewish life on college campuses NCSY - Life-changing teen empowerment and inspiration program OU ISRAEL - Outreach to at-risk youth, support for soldiers and olim SYNAGOGUE & COMMUNITY SERVICES - Educational content, programs, consulting for synagogues and communities IFS BIRTHRIGHT ISRAEL - Connecting Jewish youth with their heritage OU ADVOCACY CENTER - Promoting Jewish interests in the halls of government

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$50,000 - $99,999 MR. & DR. RAANAN AGUS DANIEL & RAZIE BENEDICT DR. EDWIN & MRS. CECILE GROMIS MS. LORRAINE HOFFMANN MR. DAVID LICHTENSTEIN STEVEN & MURIELLE URETSKY LILLIAN ZEIDES Z"L

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continued from page 56 the new students a lesson in ahavat Yisrael. Informal activities and chores, including pot-scrubbing, broke down barriers—as did the hours my husband spent teaching motivated Ethiopian and Russian boys to lead the Minchah and Ma’ariv prayers.

Our home was open to our students day and night, and there were constant crises to deal with, but it was also the only home for the thirty-odd orphaned Russian teenagers who had no families to go to during summer vacation. For holidays, we found adoptive families for them, including our own. Sixteenyear-old Ina and her eighteen-year-old brother Leonid seemed to want to connect to Yiddishkeit when we took them to our Jerusalem home for the yamim tovim, so we made them part of our family. Their mother, a nurse, had died when they were young children. Today, Ina, a nurse like her mother, is married to a ben Torah and has four children of her own. Leonid, now Arye, went on to yeshivah gavohah and married a lovely Israeli girl. At Ina’s wedding, her new father-in-law told us that he had known Ina’s grandparents in Odessa, where he is from—she had not known them or any details about them! Apparently,

Except for being able to learn more Torah than women in previous generations could and using that knowledge to try to be more meticulous about keeping mitzvot—which is what “Jewish feminism” is all about to me—being a Jewish woman today means what it always did. her grandparents had a secret shul in their house to which Ina’s father-in-law had been brought as a child so he would see a tallit and say Shema. (Rabbi Ebstein, my beloved high school Navi teacher, are you listening? Is being a part of that story— bringing the grandchildren of someone who had a secret shul in Odessa back to the fold in Eretz Yisrael—one of the reasons for being in this world?)

Running the village entailed significant challenges—from convincing the Education Ministry to fund the laser removal of crosses tattooed on Ethiopian girls’ foreheads to taking girls to the mikvah as part of their conversion. I will never forget when the dayanim ( judges) asked Tamar, “Why do you want to be a Jew and suffer from anti-Semitism?” and this motherless girl whom I loved, with her head held high, said “Ki ani 60 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

bacharti, because that is what I have chosen.” Alex, whose father had been Jewish, changed his name to David when he converted at sixteen, announcing that he wanted the name of a brave Jewish king, his own bravery coming to the fore in the IDF commando force he later volunteered to join. Sweet Maria converted and became Moriya, and Yana’s paternal grandmother, who was affiliated with Chabad, called us up in joyous tears the first Friday after Yana’s conversion to thank us for being able to light Shabbat candles together with her now-Jewish granddaughter.

Upon my retirement as village director, Arutz Sheva asked me to be managing editor of its English site, and I accepted the challenge of helping to bring the truth about Israel to a global audience. Today, I am editor of Arutz Sheva’s op-ed and Judaism sections as well as deputy editor of the magazine of the Religious Zionists of America, The Jewish Word.

To me, finding fulfillment as a Jewish woman is not about me at all, it is about getting nachat from those I love or those whose lives I have tried to touch. Except for being able to learn more Torah than women in previous generations could and using that knowledge to try to be more meticulous about keeping mitzvot—which is what “Jewish feminism” is all about to me—being a Jewish woman today means what it always did. Today it is possible for women to pursue careers of their choice, but that is an historical development, not a Jewish one. Being the cornerstone of the family, assuming an educator’s role at home and taking the tzeniut factor into account when making choices have stayed the same, because those are Jewish issues and the continuity of mesorah is a basic Jewish concept.

Women, in my view, are most fulfilled when they are nurturers. They pray to join the Almighty in creating new life and sustaining it. Childbirth, nursing and childrearing however, are actually vicarious and selfless experiences in which the child is the central figure and the mother’s happiness lies in seeing the children she loves thrive due to her efforts. This is a powerful message to womankind about real fulfillment.

It was Rabbi Ebstein’s message. It is why I would rather watch my husband and sons dance with their rosh yeshivah and the Torah than do so myself—and why I have no need to try to take over men’s roles in Judaism when I have a rich, demanding and fulfilling status of my own. g

Welcoming our inaugural class in July 2016

2 2 Color Color — — CMYK CMYK PMS 286 286 and and PMS PMS Cool PMS Cool Gray Gray 9 9 Font Font is is Pill Pill

Announcing the historic opening of the

Touro College of Dental Medicine Continuing our tradition of excellence in medical and health education

As a leading national educator of healthcare professionals, we are proud to add Touro College of Dental Medicine to the Touro system. TouroCDM is the first dental school to open in New York State in nearly 50 years and will be located on the campus of New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York. TouroCDM will include a four-year pre-doctoral program for students, a continuing education program for practicing dentists and a 132-chair community dental clinic focused on providing treatment for patients in underserved neighborhoods in the Bronx and Hudson Valley. For more information please visit http://dental.touro.edu

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Profile

By Leslie Ginsparg Klein

O

n a rainy Sunday morning in March of woman leader, who unlike the women 1935, the streets of Krakow, Poland filled seeking ordination, remained faithful to with mourning girls. They joined other the mesorah without sparking controversy Orthodox Jews in paying their respects to or being influenced by the secular Sarah Schenirer, the founder of Bais Yaakov, ideologies of the day. Who was this who had passed away the day before. After the complicated personality and how does her Illustration from Eim B'Yisrael: funeral, the girls went back to their school influence continue to impact the Jewish Kitivei Sarah Schenirer (B'nei Brak, Israel, 1955) building. There, in the words of Schenirer’s community today? student Pearl Benisch, they sat until late that Sarah Schenirer founded Bais Yaakov night, “lamenting and mourning the loss of our dear mother in Poland in 1917. Before that time, Orthodox communities . . . retelling stories and anecdotes about our noble mentor’s in Eastern Europe considered formal Jewish education for great acts of piety and loving-kindness.”1 These girls’ reaction girls to be unnecessary, inappropriate and even forbidden to a teacher’s death might seem a little extreme, but to them, by Jewish law. For most girls, Jewish education took place Sarah Schenirer was not just a teacher. She had become their in the home. Taught by family members or private tutors, spiritual leader, and she remains a spiritual leader today. girls’ education generally consisted of basic literacy in A little more than a year ago, the Orthodox world marked the Yiddish and enough Hebrew to read a siddur. Anything eightieth yahrtzeit of Sarah Schenirer and events commemorating else a girl needed to know about halachah or Jewish the occasion attest to the continued centrality of Sarah Schenirer observance could be learned by observing her mother and in Orthodox Jewish life. On a brisk Tuesday morning in March other women in the home.2 of 2015, over 14,000 women and girls gathered together in With government laws mandating compulsory education, Brooklyn’s Barclays Center from all over North America—with more and more Jewish children began attending secular public many more watching via satellite hook-up. They came to schools. While significant numbers of boys and girls attended commemorate the life of a woman they had never met, but who modern secular schools, a far greater number of girls than boys impacted their lives profoundly. Sarah Schenirer turned the received this type of education. Some Orthodox Jews considered socially unacceptable idea of girls learning Torah in a Jewish it preferable that women should spend the time acquiring school into a way of life for Jews all over the world, providing secular skills, so they could later use them to help support the a model of how to successfully balance tradition and innovation. continued learning of the men in their family. One rabbi, in Modest. Radical. Pious. Revolutionary. Staunch traditionalist. looking for a shidduch for his sister, boasted that she knew how Proto-feminist. All of these words have been used to describe to write Hebrew, Polish and German fluently and had this woman. Even more than eighty years after her death, Sarah knowledge of Russian as well. These were qualities that could Schenirer is consistently invoked to defend diverse viewpoints secure a woman a good shidduch in those days. on contemporary issues. For example, Rabbi Avi Weiss, in a But as a result of their exposure to secular learning, girls Jewish Week editorial supporting women’s ordination (11/3/15), experienced a great disparity between their intellectual presented her as proof that women can be spiritual leaders in engagement with secular studies and their informal training line with tradition, a forerunner to the Orthodox women rabbis in the laws and traditions of Judaism. These girls, who were of today. The following week, Rabbi Efraim Epstein, in a Jewish never formally taught about their Jewish heritage, saw religion Link of Bergen County editorial opposing women’s ordination as archaic and a hindrance to intellectual growth. Assimilation, (11/12/15), presented her as an example of a true Orthodox intermarriage and conversion became rampant.

Dr. Leslie Ginsparg Klein is the dean of secular studies at Maalot Baltimore. She previously taught at Touro College, Hebrew Theological College and Gratz College and has lectured internationally.

62 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

Chassidic families like her own, violating Shabbat and making heretical remarks. Schenirer also described a gap she perceived between girls and their families in her Chassidic community.

While Schenirer saw boys and men involved in intense Jewish learning and spending the yamim tovim gaining spiritual inspiration from their rebbe, she viewed women’s religious lives as empty. She is quoted as saying, “We stay at home, the wives, the daughters with the little ones. We have an empty yom tov. It is bare of Jewish intellectual concentration.”4 Schenirer perceived girls and young women growing disconnected from religion and tradition, and blamed this distance on their lack of Jewish education.

Sarah Schenirer did not envision playing a part in a solution to this problem until she fled to Vienna during World War I and became exposed to and profoundly impacted by the NeoOrthodox thought of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch. Rabbi Hirsch’s works were not available in Poland and many Eastern Europeans leaders considered his writings non-applicable to their insular society, which had not yet come into much contact Pupils in the Bais Yaakov religious girls’ seminary of Krakow with Reform Jewish thought. Schenirer thought that if she during a visit to Rabka, Poland, interwar period. could only transmit these ideas to Polish women and girls, they Courtesy of the Ghetto Fighters’ House Archive would feel connected with their religion.

Upon returning to Poland, she resolved to teach what she had learned. After failing in her first attempts at teaching Some rabbis blamed this development on the girls’ lack of women and older girls, who mocked her religiosity, Schenirer any significant Jewish education, but community leadership decided that her best plan of action would be to start a school remained steadfastly opposed to any innovation in women’s for young girls, whom she hoped would be more responsive. education. In 1903, at a convention of Polish rabbis held in Her brother discouraged her from getting involved in such a Krakow, a delegate called for the establishment of schools for controversial and political project. He suggested she go with girls, stating that his colleagues had neglected him to visit the leader of their sect of girls’ education. The conference almost Chassidim, the Belzer Rebbe, and ask These girls, who were unanimously opposed his suggestion and his advice. He likely assumed the highly stated in its resolutions that Jewish parents never formally taught about conservative rebbe would say no and should definitely educate their daughters at Jewish heritage, saw religion thereby put an end to his sister’s crazy home, but for the community to establish as archaic and a hindrance to plan. The rebbe, however, responded schools would be wrong. to her query with two words, “Berachah intellectual growth.

Where others failed, an unknown Polish v’hatzlachah” (“blessing and success”). seamstress and her grassroots Bais Yaakov Even though he did not allow the movement would prove astoundingly successful. Sarah daughters of Belzer Chassidim to attend Bais Yaakov, his Schenirer was born in 1883 to a prominent Chassidic family blessing was a strategic coup for Schenirer. In subsequent in Krakow, Poland. She attended a state school until age years, Bais Yaakov received approbations from prominent thirteen, but her family’s poor financial condition precluded rabbis including the Gerrer Rebbe, Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman her from pursuing her formal education any further. Schenirer and the Chofetz Chaim. The Chofetz Chaim in general stressed taught herself to be a seamstress and continued her secular the propriety of Jewish education for girls and stated that the learning through reading and attending lectures. She also old system needed to be readjusted in accordance with the actively pursued a Jewish education through self-study. She times. Jewish communities were no longer isolated from the writes about studying the Tze’na Urena, a Yiddish translation outside world, as they might have been in the past. Therefore, of the Chumash that was standard fare for women. However, it was necessary to teach girls about Judaism if they were to she also mentions studying texts that were more unusual for stay in the faith.5 women to study—such as a Yiddish version of the Chok L’Yisrael, In 1917, with twenty-five elementary school-age girls, most which contains a daily portion of Chumash, Navi, Mishnah of them former customers of her seamstress business, and Gemara.3 Schenirer opened the first Bais Yaakov school. Within a few Schenirer wrote in her autobiography that she became months, the school expanded to forty students. Word of the concerned about assimilation in her community for a number school spread, and other towns petitioned Schenirer for help of years before she started Bais Yaakov. She recounted attending starting their own schools. Schenirer started a teachera meeting of a Jewish girls’ organization on a Friday night. She training program to train older girls to staff the new schools. expressed her alarm at seeing girls, who had grown up in As the school took shape, the organized community became

Summer 5776/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 63

concerned with its survival. Agudas Yisroel of Krakow took school there and staying with her grandmother. She said, “I the fledgling school under its wing, and in 1924, when the had the privilege to prepare her negel vasser and to serve her. national Agudas Yisroel pledged its resources, the Bais Yaakov The holy countenance remains in my mind and her sweet voice movement grew exponentially. It expanded to include day still rings in my ears. Her mouth spoke only holy words and schools, afternoon programs for girls attending public school, she illuminated the whole Jewish world with her shining secondary schools, trade schools, summer institutes, youth eyes.”8 These girls finally had their own leader, someone they groups, publications, hachsharot (preparatory institutes) for could look to as a guide and a role model, and that made all girls planning to make aliyah and a teachers’ seminary. By the difference in their lives.

During her lifetime, Sarah Schenirer’s reputation as a holy the year 1937, Bais Yaakov had over 35,000 students in 248 leader was recognized beyond the world of Bais Yaakov. Pearl schools, mostly afternoon programs.6 All this time, Sarah Schenirer was still involved. She was the Benisch cites a story of a man bursting into the classroom where spiritual leader of the movement, the “mother of Bais Yaakov.” Schenirer was teaching and begging her to go to the grave of a Though she had no children of her own (her first marriage famous rabbi to pray for his sick child’s recovery. Schenirer quickly ended in divorce and she only remarried towards the immediately acquiesced. She apologized to her students for leaving, charged them to pray for the child end of her life), her students stressed that and departed with the man. she was a mother to them all. Schenirer In the eighty years since her death, her was constantly traveling, opening new “We stay at home, the wives, the influence has continued to permeate schools and visiting already existing daughters with the little ones. Orthodox society and the impact of her institutions. Schenirer remained actively We have an empty yom tov. It innovation has grown stronger. Bais Yaakov involved with her students and an active successfully created new and exciting contributor to Bais Yaakov publications. is bare of Jewish intellectual opportunities for Orthodox Jewish women, Schenirer died in 1935, after a battle with concentration.” religiously, educationally, professionally cancer, at the age of fifty-two. and communally. Bais Yaakov introduced Sarah Schenirer became more than her students’ teacher, she became their rebbe and Bais Yaakov their girls to a new world of studying limudei Kodesh (Jewish studies), Chassidut. Like Schenirer, most of the Polish Bais Yaakov and made Jewish education for girls an indisputably accepted students were Chassidic, and Bais Yaakov provided them with community norm. Women and girls are no longer ignorant of the active role in religious life that they had previously been their traditions. They know halachah, how to daven and how to missing. School functions, oftentimes taking place on Shabbat learn. For many women, this knowledge and the ability to and around holidays, replicated traditional Chassidic intellectually engage with Torah is a major source of connection gatherings, with intense singing, jubilant dancing and students to Yiddishkeit. The story of Sarah Schenirer and Bais Yaakov rejoicing at the opportunity to dance with Schenirer herself. suggests that the more girls and women are introduced to highNow girls, like their father and brothers, spent Shabbat and level secular studies and secular ideologies, the more compelling, challenging and rigorous their Jewish education needs to be. holidays being spiritually uplifted with their leader.

Schenirer’s colleague, Rebbetzin Dr. Judith (Rosenbaum) Announcement of Sarah Schenirer’s death Grunfeld noted the similarities to Chassidic life in Bais in the Bais Yaakov Journal, 1935. Illustration from the 70th yahrtzeit Yaakov culture: gathering booklet, compiled and edited by Bais Yaakov D’Gur High School Here among the girls, the inspiration of the chassidic life had found its way into the woman’s world. It had formed it [sic] own style, softened and differently molded, but it was of the same fibre that made the Hassidim crowd round their Rebbe, made them stand for hours to catch a glimpse of him, made them unfold all their latent powers in the elevated atmosphere of chassidic devotion. No longer was the life of the Jewish daughter empty at home. She too had her community life, her school, centre and club, where there were comradeship and studies and wellorganized activities—an outlet and a spur for her eager ambitions.7 Sarah Schenirer and her innovative Bais Yaakov movement inspired a new generation of women to be committed to Orthodoxy and provided them the opportunities to reach their potential.

Like Chassidim with their rebbe, Bais Yaakov students revered Sarah Schenirer, tried to learn from her every action, repeated her teachings and expressed joy when she chose them to assist her in some way. Former student Miriam Lubling recalled Sarah Schenirer coming to her town to establish a Bais Yaakov 64 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

Listen to Dr. Leslie Ginsparg Klein speak about the life of Sarah Schenirer at www.ou.org/life/education/savitsky-klein/.

An artist’s rendering of the Bais Yaakov Seminary building in Krakow. Illustration from the 70th yahrtzeit gathering booklet, compiled and edited by Bais Yaakov D’Gur High School

In addition to education, Bais Yaakov offered women leadership opportunities that have enhanced Orthodoxy. Sarah Schenirer saw a need for girls to have female leaders with whom to forge a connection. Her movement trained women to be those leaders and educators for the next generation. The Bais Yaakov school system’s primary goal was to create qualified women leaders to run new Bais Yaakov schools. And it did.

Then those women’s students went on to start schools. Bais Yaakov helped create new Torah personalities that continue to influence ensuing generations.

Sarah Schenirer’s story also demonstrates that change happens on the ground. One woman, with little fanfare, just did what needed to be done. She didn’t wait for the big organizations to get involved, or let herself get mired in the politics. She started her school, its success spoke for itself, and the organized community followed suit. In this respect, Bais Yaakov is a model grassroots movement. Starting Bais Yaakov was not the only example of Sarah Schenirer initiating grassroots change. In Schenirer’s community, it was not socially accepted for single girls to attend shul on Shabbat. However, Schenirer felt that it was essential to her students’ spiritual development that they daven with a minyan. Schenirer simply began taking her students with her to shul and thereby changed another societal norm.

For the Orthodox community today, one of the most important lessons we can learn from Sarah Schenirer is how to successfully and appropriately balance tradition and innovation. On the one hand, Sarah Schenirer was reconnecting girls with the past and reinstating tradition. Her students and Bais Yaakov publications stress how she embodied traditional Jewish values such as tzeniut and followed da’at Torah. On the other hand, Sara Schenirer went about reinstating tradition in a very modern way. She challenged convention after convention in a highly conservative society. She called for change in an anti-innovation culture. Modest. Radical. Traditional. Revolutionary. Can all these traits exist in one person?

Perhaps a clue lies in a speech given by Sarah Schenirer herself. Schenirer taught her students that they must learn to balance two important concepts: the idea of turning inward— for the traditional Jewish concept of modesty, and the need for turning outward—for extraordinary action. Schenirer did not believe tradition and innovation were mutually exclusive.

You could be a traditional revolutionary—which is exactly what she was.

Sarah Schenirer saw a problem. She saw frum girls disengaged and alienated. And she formulated a solution: educate and empower. She saw that the community’s approach was no longer working, and while remaining staunchly traditional and committed to halachah, she pushed for innovation and creativity. Like Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch and the Chofetz Chaim, Sarah Schenirer demonstrates that innovation is an integral part of the halachic process. A commitment to mesorah does not preclude an understanding that if we remain complacent and don’t continue to move forward with respect to building and expanding educational and leadership opportunities—opportunities that address the challenges of the contemporary world—we will be failing as a community.

At the eightieth yahrtzeit commemoration event, Rabbi Paysach Krohn recounted a story about Rabbi Yechezkel Sarna, former rosh yeshivah of Yeshivas Chevron, who told a crowd of people that the person who had done the most for Am Yisrael in the past 100 years was not the Chofetz Chaim, the Alter of Slabodka or any of the great Chassidic rebbes of the previous generation. It was Sarah Schenirer. She fought assimilationists, she fought community leaders, she fought threats of excommunication. She fought l’shem Shamayim and she persevered. In doing so, she has become an integral link in the mesorah. She continues to serve as a connection for girls and women to Orthodoxy and she provides an approach to tradition and innovation that, b’ezrat Hashem, can help our community thrive and grow. g Notes 1. Pearl Benisch, Carry Me in Your Heart: The Life and Legacy of Sarah Schenirer (Jerusalem, 2003), 319-320.

2. For women’s education in Poland before Bais Yaakov, see Shaul Stampfer, “Gender Differentiation and Education of the Jewish Woman in Nineteenth-Century Eastern Europe,” Polin 7 (1992): 63-87.

3. For the history of Sarah Schenirer and Bais Yaakov in Europe, see Benisch; Sarah Schenirer, Eim B’ Yisrael (Bnei Brak, Israel, 1955); and Deborah Weissman, “Bais Ya’akov—A Women’s Educational Movement in the Polish Jewish Community: A Case Study in Tradition and Modernity,” (MA Thesis, New York University, 1977).

4. Sarah Schenirer’s words, as recounted by Judith Grunfeld in Judith Grunfeld-Rosenbaum, “Sarah Schenirer,” in Jewish Leaders: 1750-1940, ed.

Leo Jung (Jerusalem, 1953), 410-411.

5. Chofetz Chaim, Likutei Halachot, Sotah 21b.

6. For the role of Agudas Yisroel in the development of Bais Yaakov, see Gershon Chaim Bacon, The Politics of Tradition: Agudat Yisrael in Poland, 1916-1939 (Jerusalem, 1996).

7. Grunfeld-Rosenbaum, 419.

8. Miriam Lubling, “Every Bais Yaakov Girl Is Her Memorial,” in booklet commemorating the 70th yahrtzeit of Sarah Schenirer, sponsored by Zichron Sarah Schenirer and compiled by Bais Yaakov D'Gur.

Summer 5776/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 65

Jewish Law

By Joshua Flug

N U GONTROL C

in

AH H C A L A H

I

f you drive around different parts of the US long enough, you are likely to encounter two bumper stickers asserting two contradictory ideas. One states, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” The other states, “More guns, more death.” Those who support stricter gun control measures believe that gun control reduces violent crime by taking guns away from criminals. Those who are opposed to stricter gun control measures believe that gun control increases crime by disarming the “good guys” who deter criminals from committing violent crimes. Each side of the debate has statistics to support its side of the argument. There are studies that “prove” that areas with looser gun restrictions have less crime.1 There are also studies that “prove” that areas with greater availability of guns have a higher rate of violent crimes.2 As intellectually honest people, we strive to gather the facts before making decisions about controversial topics. Yet the conflicting studies in the area of gun control should not deter us. One possible resolution to this conflict is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to the way people behave with guns. Sometimes guns will be used to commit violent crimes and sometimes they will be used to protect people. How then, does one come to a decision? In Talmudic times, the rabbis struggled with similar issues. Perhaps we can glean some lessons about gun control from the Talmud and its commentaries.

WEAPONS IN THE TALMUD The Gemara (Avodah Zarah 15b-16a) has a lengthy discussion about laws relating to selling weapons and their accessories. The discussion involves a number of points. 1) The Gemara quotes a beraita that one may not sell weapons or their accessories (holsters, et cetera) to a non-Jew or a kuti. (A kuti, for these purposes, represents anyone who we suspect may sell the weapons to non-Jews.) One may not sharpen non-Jews’ weapons nor sell them handcuffs or similar tools. The Gemara explains that the reason for the prohibition is because non-Jews are prone to use these weapons or tools for murder, an observation that was true at the time. 2) The Gemara further states that just as it is prohibited to sell weapons

to a non-Jew, it is also prohibited to sell them to a Jewish bandit. The Gemara adds that this certainly applies to a bandit who might murder, but it also applies to a mashmuta (Jewish bandit who has no history of violence). 3) The Gemara then quotes a dispute about whether one may sell shields to non-Jews. The dispute centers around one question: will the shields be used as weapons to attack others or for self-defense? 4) The Gemara further states that one may not sell iron to non-Jews because they might use it to make weapons. The Gemara notes that while one can convert any tool into a weapon, this rule relates to a type of iron primarily used for weaponry. 5) The Gemara goes on to justify selling iron to the Persians because they protected the Jews at the time. The Gemara seems to be permitting the sale of a specific type of iron.

Yet many Rishonim extend the prohibition to ban the selling of all types of weaponry to non-Jews.

What is the nature of the prohibition against selling weapons? Is it based on public policy considerations (i.e., the safety of the public) or is it based on pre-established halachic principles? This seems to be the subject of a dispute among the Rishonim. Rabbi Yosef ibn Chabib, Nimukei Yosef (Avodah Zarah 16a), writes that the prohibition is based on a concern that it will lead to murder. Ritva (Avodah Zarah 16a) writes explicitly that it is based on the concept of lifnei iver, the prohibition against enabling someone else to commit a transgression. By providing weapons to someone who might use them for crime, one is enabling the purchaser to violate a transgression. Rambam codifies these laws in Hilchot Avodat Kochavim as well as in Hilchot Rotzei’ach. In Hilchot Avodat Kochavim, Rambam emphasizes that we don’t provide people with tools that can harm society, while he downplays lifnei iver.

In Hilchot Rotzei’ach, Rambam connects these laws with the concept of lifnei iver.

Thus, for Rambam both the societal concerns and the issur of lifnei iver play a role in the prohibition against selling weapons.

Rabbi Joshua Flug is the director of Torah research for Yeshiva University's Center for the Jewish Future. He aslo serves as director of divorce proceedings for the Beth Din of Florida. Rabbi Flug previously served as the rosh kollel of the Boca Raton Community Kollel.

66 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

If the basis for prohibiting the sale of weapons is solely the concept of lifnei iver, then perhaps it is permissible to sell weapons to someone who has another means of acquiring them.3 If the prohibition is based on the harm weapons do to society, then the prohibition would still apply even if the purchaser has other means of acquiring the weapons.

GUNS FOR PROTECTION The most significant practical difference between these approaches emerges in explaining why the Gemara permits selling weapons to the Persians. According to Nimukei Yosef (op. cit.), selling weapons to those who protect us will certainly (vaday) provide an added measure of security, while the concern that they might use the weapons for murder is only speculative (safek). Rabbeinu Nissim (Avodah Zarah 5a) follows a similar approach and writes that one must analyze whether selling the weapons will prove to be more protective or more harmful. In Talmudic times, selling weapons to the Persians provided greater security overall.

Applying Nimukei Yosef’s analysis to modern times would require knowledge of whether less restrictive gun control laws are inherently protective or not. As we noted earlier, there is no clear consensus on whether this is true or not. Do gun control laws contribute to public safety (pikuach nefesh d’rabim) or detract from it? Ritva (op. cit.) writes that the Gemara permits selling weapons to the Persians because there is no lifnei iver in this situation. Perhaps what he means is that lifnei iver only applies when one knows that the weapon is going to be used for harm. If one sells to people who are trying to protect themselves or who serve

Jewish law recognizes that weapons control is complex and that a key determinant in whether to provide weapons to someone is whether doing so is more protective than it is dangerous. to protect, one can assume that the weapon will be used for good, similar to the permissibility of selling ordinary tools to someone. We are not concerned that they may be converted into a weapon. Advocates for looser gun control restrictions might use this comment to support their argument and claim that lifnei iver doesn’t apply because normally guns are sold for protective or neutral purposes.

Opponents might counter that argument and claim that this is only true if we properly evaluate the purchase and perform a proper background check on the purchaser. Rambam, both in Hilchot Avodat Kochavim and in Hilchot Rotzeiach, seems to limit the permissibility of selling weapons to (Persian) military and law enforcement personnel. Rambam seems to not permit selling weapons to civilians even if their stated goal is to protect themselves or to provide protection to society.

BACKGROUND CHECKS IN HALACHAH Some advocates for stricter gun control laws are asking for enhanced criminal background checks as well as psychological evaluations of those purchasing weapons. Interestingly, support for this can be found in a Talmudic discussion.

As noted earlier, the Talmud prohibits selling a weapon to a mashmuta—a Jewish bandit who has no history of violence but may use the weapon to escape capture.

Rashi (Avodah Zarah 15b, s.v. L’Olam) notes that even if one is certain that the bandit won’t use the weapon to kill someone, he may use it to threaten someone and commit a crime (steal, et cetera). Thus, selling weapons to a bandit could make one guilty as an accessory to a crime. Rabbeinu Nissim (Avodah Zarah 5a), however, has a different explanation. He suggests that even if the bandit does not have a violent past, he will eventually be in a situation where he will use the weapon to avoid being captured. According to Rabbeinu Nissim, we are not only prohibited from selling weapons to people who are actually prone to commit

murder, we may not sell weapons to those who have a greater than average propensity to use the weapon in a destructive manner. As such, perhaps one should not sell a weapon to someone who has a criminal past or a psychological proclivity towards violence.4 The entire Talmudic discussion takes place against the backdrop of a barbaric society. In Talmudic times, Jews lived in a society where Jewish blood was routinely spilled in vain and there was good reason to suspect that any non-Jew might commit an act of violence against a Jew. There are a number of other laws in the Talmud that are based the same premise. Rabbi Yair Bachrach (Chavot Yair no. 66) and Rabbi Avraham Danzig (Chayei Adam 12:42) write that nowadays, we live in civilized societies and we don’t have to suspect that any non-Jew will attempt to murder us.5 Does this mean that in today’s times, we can ignore the entire Talmudic discussion?

If we apply Rabbeinu Nissim’s argument here, we can suggest that even though we need not be suspicious of the average citizen, we have the right to suspect that there are people in the general population who should not own guns and as such, we can take protective measures to ensure that guns don’t come into their hands.

NO RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS As a concluding point, there is an important distinction between Jewish law and US law with regard to gun ownership.

Whereas US law—as per District of Columbia v. Heller (2008)—guarantees each individual a right to bear arms, Jewish law does not. Jewish law does not guarantee anyone’s right to bear arms and such a right plays no role in the Talmudic discussion. Jewish law is primarily interested in preserving society and ensuring that public policy keeps people safe. US lawmakers are also interested in protecting its citizens, but must do so within the confines of the Second Amendment right to bear arms.6 At the same time, Jewish law does value the importance of providing weapons to those who serve to protect us and by extension, those who are interested in protecting themselves, whether it was the Persians of Talmudic times or the security officers of today’s times, despite the possibility that those very weapons may be used to harm us. Jewish law recognizes Summer 5776/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 67

SHOULD I CARRY A GUN? With mass shootings and terror attacks in the news with frightening frequency, it is only natural for the average civilian to want to be able to defend himself. Indeed, fear of attacks has caused some to advocate bringing guns to shul. What are some of the halachic issues concerning purchasing or carrying a gun?

Below are a few things to consider: Safety First The Torah prohibits placing hazards in one’s home (Devarim 22:8). Rambam, Hilchot Rotzei’ach 11:4, states that one must remove all potentially lethal hazards from one’s possession. Gun owners must act with the utmost caution to ensure that all guns are secured in a location that is not accessible to children or others who may accidentally discharge the weapon. While many states require a gun safety course as a prerequisite for receiving a permit, it is incumbent upon a gun owner to regularly review gun safety protocols and follow the safety precautions taught in these courses. If one is not going to follow commonly accepted safety protocols, one should not purchase a gun.

Defining Danger The Torah prohibits placing oneself into a situation of danger (based on the verses in Devarim, chap. 4 [see Berachot 32b and Sh’vuot 36a]). Rabbi Hershel Schachter, B’Ikvei HaTzon no. 34, notes that one can distinguish between dangerous activities that most people would not engage in (“category A”—such as civilians walking through an active war zone) and activities that only some people would refrain from and others would engage in (“category B”—such as undergoing certain risky medical procedures for elective purposes). Regarding category A, the prohibition against self-endangerment applies to all people regardless of whether they themselves are concerned about the danger. Regarding category B, the prohibition only applies to those who are concerned about the danger.

Carrying a gun will generally not provide sufficient protection in a category A situation to justify endangering oneself. If one were to walk through a war zone, a gun would do little to make one safer. However, in a category B situation, carrying a gun may help alleviate the concerns of those who are nervous. For example, if people are refraining from attending shul because of fear of an attack, and having armed security guards would alleviate their fear, then having armed guards would provide a concrete benefit, both on a practical level and from a halachic perspective. Yet much of the controversy surrounding carrying a gun to shul centers on situations that don’t fall into category A or B. The situation, at least here in the US is not, as of this writing, B”H, so dangerous that people are refraining from attending shul or school. Nevertheless, while the threat of danger is too remote for the situation to be categorized as “dangerous” from a halachic point of view, it still may still be worthwhile (and perhaps a fulfillment of the mitzvah to safeguard one’s life) to have armed guards or armed volunteers as an added measure of protection and to help alleviate the fears of those who are attending. [In almost every area of life, we take precautions and add safety measures even when the situation does not even qualify as a category B, whether it is the use of enhanced auto safety features, screening ourselves for rare diseases or wearing protective equipment while engaging in leisure activities.]

Recently, there has been much discussion about bringing weapons to shul or to have teachers carry weapons in schools. This is a sensitive subject. On the one hand, armed citizens could provide greater protection for the institution. On the other hand, a gun-carrying private citizen may not respond appropriately in the event of an attack and his actions may cause more harm than good. The decision to allow congregants or teachers to carry a gun in order to protect a synagogue or school is something that the rabbinic leaders and lay leaders of the institution should decide after consulting with security experts or local law enforcement. It goes without saying that anyone carrying a weapon in an institution, whether professional or volunteer, should undergo rigorous training to ensure that their presence makes the situation safer and not more dangerous.

Weapons in Shul?

There are halachic problems with bringing a weapon into a synagogue in general, and specifically on Shabbat (see Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 151:6; Shemirat Shabbat Kehilchatah, chap. 20; note 28 regarding muktzeh). For security reasons, there are certainly grounds for leniency (see Piskei Teshuvot 151:16 and SSK op. cit.). However, given that the leniency is based on the fact that security overrides the other concerns, the rabbi should consult with security experts or local law enforcement to determine how many gun-carrying individuals are necessary for the security of the institution. For security reasons and for halachic reasons, if an institution allows or encourages members to come armed to the synagogue, it should be through a coordinated, rather than a haphazard, effort.

68 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

One possible resolution to this conflict is that there is no onesize-fits-all approach to the way people behave with guns.

Sometimes guns will be used to commit violent crimes and sometimes they will be used to protect people. that weapons control is complex and that a key determinant in whether to provide weapons to someone is whether doing so is more protective than it is dangerous. In Jewish law, knowledge is our friend and the more we know about the effects of gun control laws on public safety and about the specific individuals who are interested in purchasing guns, the better equipped we are to address this complexity. g Notes 1. See Carlisle E. Moody and Thomas B. Marvell, “The Debate on Right-toCarry Concealed Weapons Laws,” Working Papers 71 (2008), Department of Economics, College of William and Mary, available at http://economics. wm.edu/wp/cwm_wp71.pdf.

2. See Lisa M. Hepburn and David Hemenway, “Firearm Availability and Homicide: A Review of the Literature,” Aggression and Violent Behavior (2004) 9: 417-440, abstract available at https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/ publications/Abstract.aspx?id=206421.

3. The Gemara (Avodah Zarah 6b) states that the Biblical prohibition of lifnei iver is only violated if one provides the prohibited item and the recipient has no other reasonable means of attaining the item. If he has other means of attaining the item, there is no Biblical violation of lifnei iver. Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch (Da’at U’Machshavah 9:8) notes that this rule may not apply in the case of selling weapons. Even if the rabbis based the prohibition against selling weapons on lifnei iver, the parameters of the rule may not follow the same exact parameters as lifnei iver.

4. Even according to Rabbeinu Nissim’s interpretation, the prohibition only applies to selling to a known bandit. Requiring a criminal background check would mean checking every individual to make sure that a gun isn’t sold to the few people who are criminals. Nevertheless, when the likelihood of violating a prohibition is small but significant (miut hamatzui), Jewish law generally requires one to investigate the matter if the facts can be determined with relative ease (see Tosafot, Avodah Zarah 40b, s.v. Kol based on the Gemara, Yevamot 121a, Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De’ah 1:1 and Beiur HaGra ad loc.). When the matter can potentially lead to a life-threatening situation, the threshold for statistically significant risk is even lower. Given that performing criminal background checks can be done with relative ease, one should screen all customers to ensure that they aren’t established criminals.

5. The comments of Rabbi Bachrach and Rabbi Danzig were not said with regard to the prohibition against selling weapons to non-Jews.

6. It is also noteworthy that the debate about gun control in the US focuses on possession rather than sale. If an individual purchases a gun illegally or produces it on his own, he is still in violation of the law. While the Talmudic discussion addresses the provider and not the purchaser, the values that can be extrapolated from the discussion provide guidance as to who should own a gun.

Listen to Rabbi Joshua Flug discuss gun control in halachah at ou.org/life/inspiration/savitsky_flug/. ‎

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Israel

By Peter Abelow

On and Off the Beaten Track in . . .

the

Maimonides

Heritage

Center

I

n the summer of 2003, Rabbi Yamin Levy, senior rabbi at Congregation Beth Hadassah, Iranian Jewish Center in Great Neck, New York, and a small group of friends visited the kever of Maimonides, Moshe ben Maimon, in Tiberias.

They were horrified by what they saw.

Located in an economically depressed area, the gravesite was terribly neglected; people would literally throw their garbage on the grounds surrounding the grave. There was no biographical information about Rambam, no explanation about his enormous Torah scholarship or contributions to Jewish life. The building adjacent to the kever was a hangout used by drug addicts and troubled teens.

Distressed, Rabbi Levy decided then and there to do something. Upon returning to the States, Rabbi Levy collaborated with a group of dedicated volunteers and donors, as well as MK Limor Livnat and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, to transform the area from a drug-infested slum into a beautiful tourist destination, enabling visitors to experience the spirituality of Israel’s second-holiest city and generating muchneeded revenue for the neighborhood. Rabbi Levy and several donors succeeded in purchasing the dilapidated building adjacent to Rambam’s kever and began to turn the place into a center for study, education, tourism and inspiration, a place befitting Rambam’s stature and legacy.

Fast forward to 2009. The once-decrepit building is now the Maimonides Heritage Center, dedicated to teaching the history of the Rambam. The Center includes a museum, a kollel and a women’s midrashah, and it hosts annual conferences on the Rambam that attract more than 600 participants. Additionally, it serves to boost the local economy and to provide support for

the community. “The Center is a major force in social services for the needy families of Tiberias,” says Rabbi Levy. “In no small measure, Rambam’s legacy is impacting the world in ways beyond the beit midrash.”

Rambam: The Person

There is a famous saying about Rambam: “Between Moses (Moshe Rabbeinu) and Moses (the Rambam), no one arose like Moshe!” Maimonides was a Talmudist, halachist, physician, philosopher and communal leader—and he remains one of the most important figures in the history of Torah scholarship. The Maimonides Heritage Center makes the life of Rambam come alive in a dramatic and inspiring way. State-of-theart multi-media, educational displays and colorful, eye-catching exhibits highlight the four stages in the life of Rambam: his birth and early life in Cordoba, Spain in 1138; his years in Fez, Morocco (1160-1165); his aliyah to Eretz Yisrael and brief sojourn there (1165-1168); and finally, his years in Fostat, Egypt (near Cairo, 1168-1204), where Rambam achieved fame as a great doctor and was the personal physician to the Sultan Saladin. One of the new interactive features of the Center that is both fun and educational is set in Cairo in 1172. Visitors to the museum are challenged to solve clues that are required to unlock a box that contains medication urgently required by the Sultan.

The museum also captures the essence of the great halachic works of this Torah giant of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, in particular the Mishneh Torah, and his great philosophical work, Moreh Nevuchim, The Guide for the Perplexed. Various panels describe Maimonides’ greatness as a physician, his medical

Though centuries have passed since Rambam served as a guiding light for the Jewish people, he remains one of the most widely studied Torah scholars.

Peter Abelow is a licensed tour guide and the associate director of Keshet: The Center for Educational Tourism in Israel. He can be reached at 011.972.2.671.3518 or at peter@keshetisrael.co.il.

70 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

Exterior of the Maimonides Heritage Center in Tiberias.

Portrait of the Rambam.

Photos by Sasson Tiram Photography, except where indicated otherwise.

doctrine, his philosophy of living a good life and his Thirteen Principles of Faith. All of the exhibits are captioned in English and Hebrew. Visitors are invited to watch a short film about the life of Rambam.

But what truly makes a visit to the Heritage Center come alive is the animated tour guide, Rabbi Michael Schachter, executive program director, who was instrumental making the museum a reality. Rabbi Schachter greets each group and provides a fascinating and lively tour that is perfectly suited to the ages and backgrounds of the particular group.

A Holy City

Tiberias is considered one of the four holy cities of Israel because of its strong association with the development of Torah She Be’al Peh. The city is represented in the Kabbalah as water (Jerusalem is fire, Hevron is earth and Safed is air), not only because it is located on the shores of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), but also because water symbolically represents Torah, and Tiberias was the final stop of the ten stops of the Sanhedrin’s exile. (See Rosh Hashanah 31a, b: “Correspondingly, the Sanhedrin wandered to ten places of banishment, as we know from tradition, namely, from the Chamber of Hewn Stone to Hanuth, and from Hanuth to Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem to Yavneh, and from Yavneh to Usha, and from Usha [back] to Yavneh, and from Yavneh [back] to Usha, and from Usha to Shefar’am, and from Shefar’am to Beit She’arim, and from Beit She’arim to Tzipori and from Tzipori to Tiberias.”)

The Rambam’s gravesite is just one of the mekomot hakedoshim in Tiberias. Close to his kever are the graves of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, who is credited with moving the Sanhedrin from Jerusalem to Yavneh, and his two talmidim, Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Eliezer, who carried Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai past the Roman lines in a coffin so the latter could confront the Roman general (and soon-to-be-emperor) Vespasian. Not far from the Rambam’s kever is the frequently visited grave of the Tanna Rabbi Meir Baal Haness and just up the hill is the grave of Rabbi Akiva. It is unclear why Rambam chose to be buried in Tiberias, but many speculate that it was precisely because of the city’s longstanding connection to the ongoing development of Torah.

Today, archaeologists are uncovering extensive sections of Tiberias from the period of the Sanhedrin and the Amora’im.

One day in the not-too-distant future, these excavations will undoubtedly be open to the public for exploration. (See my article “On and Off the Beaten Track in . . . Hamat Tiberias” [fall 2013].)

Though centuries have passed since Rambam served as a guiding light for the Jewish people, he remains one of the most widely studied Torah scholars. Now, thanks to Rabbi Levy, we can gain an appreciation for Rambam at the Maimonides Heritage Center.

If you plan on visiting the museum, call in advance. Rabbi Schachter can be reached at 053.530.3018 (Israel), 646.396.1388 (US) or via e-mail at michael@harambam.org.il. Visit the web site at www.mhcny.org. g

Learning about the Rambam’s life and legacy at the Maimonides Heritage Museum. Photo: Yoram Cohen

Excerpts from the Rambam’s many writings, arranged chronologically.

Summer 5776/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 71

Yachad Family Shabbaton

More than 650 people from throughout the Northeast attended the highly-anticipated Thirtieth Annual Northeast Yachad Family Shabbaton, held this past April at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Stamford, Connecticut. The weekend provided Yachad members and their families the opportunity to recharge and relax in an inclusive atmosphere. Yachad, an agency of the OU, provides social, educational and recreational programs for Jewish individuals with disabilities.

The Shabbaton featured a wide variety of programming, from parent support groups and sibling workshops to sessions on dating and marriage, being an effective advocate for your child, and navigating Medicaid services. Participants had the opportunity to share their experiences with one

another and network with the caring and knowledgeable professionals of Yachad.

“Words cannot begin to adequately describe the very powerful impact this one weekend a year has on so many families,” says Dr. Jeffrey Lichtman, International Director of Yachad. “Siblings who have never spoken find their voice. Parents begin a difficult journey towards plans for a time when they will no longer be able to care for their special child . . . so much more can and does happen.”

Many families receive generous scholarships through Yachad in order to participate in this unique event. To sponsor a family, please contact Ken Saibel, Associate Director of Yachad at SaibelK@ou.org. g

New OU Initiative Building a Jewish community is no small feat. Especially when it’s on a college campus. Yet this is the goal of a relatively new initiative launched by Heart to Heart (H2H) Founder and Director Hart Levine and Dov Winston, Assistant Director of H2H. Known as the Kahal Fellowship Program, the program, now in its second year, continues the H2H mission of studentled Jewish outreach, but addresses a new demographic—the religious student with little or no campus community.

“While H2H primarily targets campuses with pre-existing Jewish communities to encourage religious students to engage their peers in Jewish life on campus, Kahal is about creating a community and resources for religious students living on campuses with little to no Orthodox structure,” says Levine.

“It’s more in-reach than outreach.”

To recruit Fellows, now on fifteen campuses throughout the US and Canada that do not have an OU-JLIC presence, Levine and Winston contact gap year schools, cold call freshmen, and network with NCSY Alumni, the Anne Samson Jerusalem Journey (TJJ, a popular NCSY summer program), and OU-JLIC to identify students who have leadership potential.

“I wanted to create a middle ground for my campus,” says Shaina Stasi, Kahal Fellow at University of Kansas. “There’s a Hillel and a Chabad on campus, but no JLIC. I decided that since there was no Modern Orthodox role model on campus, I should step up and be that role model.”

Once selected, the Fellows’ leadership skills are developed via training webinars and personal mentoring. Fellows are required to run a minimum of two programs a semester (such 72 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

as Shabbat dinners, weeknight mishmar learning, havdalah/ melavah malkah, Shabbat onegs, et cetera), attend at least two webinars, and check in with their mentors once a month.

Participants receive a stipend each semester to help cover the costs of programming. And as part of the Heart to Heart network, Fellows have access to resources like a database of programming ideas, a Shabbaton guide, inter-campus networking and halachic and hashkafic guidance.

“People have told me that they really appreciate how I anticipate and provide for my community’s needs,” says Talia Weisberg, Kahal Fellow at Harvard University. “The weekly student-led ‘Lunch and Learns’ have been particularly successful.” Talia also serves as co-president of Harvard Hillel’s Orthodox Student Minyan.

Levine and Winston hope to double the number of Fellows next year. Interested students can apply to become a Kahal Fellow by visiting kahalfellowship.wix.com/home. g

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offers master’s and doctoral degrees in Jewish studies and, in conjunction with the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, a dual master’s degree in Jewish studies and Jewish education.

Prepare for a career as a teacher, academic or communal professional, or simply for a life enriched by deep Jewish learning.

Study with an unsurpassed faculty of worldclass scholars in Bible, Talmud, Jewish history, and Jewish philosophy and mysticism.

n Students may pursue a master’s degree—or register as non-degree students—on a part-time basis, taking one or two courses per semester. Courses meet once a week Monday through Thursday at 2:50, 4:50 and 6:50 p.m. n Generous financial aid is available

For more information and to apply, visit yu.edu/revel or contact Rona Steinerman, Director of Admissions, at steinerm@yu.edu For the schedule of summer and fall 2016 classes, visit yu.edu/revel/courses.

Applications may still be filed for the summer of fall 2016 semesters.

Entebbe Rescue July 4, 1976: Americans were jubilantly celebrating the bicentennial with fireworks, nautical parades and a visit from Queen Elizabeth bearing a replica of the Liberty Bell, proudly letting freedom ring. For Israelis and for Jews around the world, the celebration of freedom was a cruel reminder that 106 of our brothers and sisters, including children and the elderly, were the antithesis of “free.” They were being held hostage after their Air France flight had been hijacked by Palestinian and German terrorists, and taken to Entebbe in Central Uganda. Idi Amin Dada, president of Uganda, welcomed the terrorists with open arms and consistently declared Israel responsible for the fate of the hostages.

Holocaust survivors among them, the hostages endured an Eichmann-esque selection, and were isolated from their fellow gentile passengers, who were subsequently released.

The hostages were then used as pawns in a deadly game intended to make the Israeli government capitulate to the hijackers’ outrageous demands.

This summer, we mark the fortieth anniversary of “Operation Thunderbolt.” Many of us remember being glued to our TV screens watching the miraculous events unfold. We have all seen at least one film version of what is termed “the most audacious hostage rescue mission in history.” And recently, military historian Saul David authored a new book entitled “Operation Thunderbolt” that reads like a fast-paced, nail-biting thriller, but is, in fact, a work of non-fiction. The book is culled from news reports, diaries, private papers and extensive interviews. It contains fascinating declassified information about the tense eight days during which leaders like Yitzchak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak and Yoni Netanyahu had to make unimaginably difficult decisions, weighing the lives of the hostages against the inherent risks of negotiating with terrorists or conducting military action in hostile, foreign territory. The book also paints a vivid picture of the experiences of the hostages, their fears as well as their discomforts, including the lack of privacy, hygiene, food and clean clothing. We get an up-close view of their interactions with one aother and with the terrorists, unraveling the twisted dynamics that coalesce in an inhuman situation. Forty years later, many of the untold stories are told, and our appreciation for the intelligence, the risks, the chutzpah, the bravery, the sacrifices, the commitment to Am Yisrael and the Hand of God orchestrating every detail, deepens like a bottomless pit. The book is a must read.

While the raid on Entebbe was undoubtedly a national triumph for Israel and ignited a swelling of Jewish pride all over the world, the likes of which had not been experienced

74 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

since the Six-Day War, the victory was tempered with tragedy. Most famously, Yoni Netanyahu, the mastermind of the plan and the leader of the Sayeret Matkal unit that carried out the rescue was shot and killed in the first stages of the mission. The Jewish people not only lost a heroic soldier, we lost a man with a brilliant mind, a poetic soul and a bright future, cut down as he was securing the future of so many others. Yoni’s name, reputation and legacy are forever linked with the success of this mission. Sadly, Yoni Netanyahu was not the only one to lose his life in Entebbe. Pasco Cohen and Ida Borochovitch were killed by stray bullets; nineteen-yearold Jean-Jacques Mimouni was killed by friendly fire when the Israeli soldiers entered the room and, following orders, shot whoever was standing. Seventy-four-year-old Dora Bloch became ill and had been taken to the hospital. Though well enough to return to the airport, a compassionate doctor kept her longer than necessary, thinking she would be more comfortable in the hospital than in the poor conditions in the airport terminal. She was dragged screaming from her hospital bed, and brutally murdered by Idi Amin’s henchmen, revenge for being duped by the Israelis.

On this fortieth anniversary of one of the most miraculous events of the twentieth century, we celebrate with the survivors and their families, and we marvel and praise the stream of miracles that were outpouring every step of he way. In their wildest dreams, no one anticipated that the casualties would be so few, and yet every life is a world unto itself, and every lost life a black hole to the grieving family. We owe it to them to remember that their grief is revived every time the world champions this victory. Forty years later, as terrorism has evolved into something even more horrific, we must learn from the courage of those who dared to stand up to evil, be inspired by those who chose life even if it meant giving up their own, and even as we rejoice, we must be humbled by the fact that freedom does not ring for free. g

“

Touro College and University System

The Deans, Faculty, Trustees and President of Touro College proudly congratulate our students on their Fall 2016 acceptance to Harvard Law School.

Yosef Dov Gottlieb

Yaffa Leah Pacht

B.A. Economics Lander College of Arts & Sciences, ’16

B.A. Political Science (Honors) Lander College for Women, ’16

Flatbush

Benjamin Roth

B.S. Business Management and Administration Lander College of Arts & Sciences, ’16 Flatbush

May you merit to create a Kiddush Hashem in all your endeavors.

Students at the Lander Colleges are grounded in knowledge and values, and strive to achieve excellence academically and professionally. We are proud of our ten Touro College graduates that have been admitted to Harvard Law School since 2010.

Where Knowledge and Values Meet Touro is an equal opportunity institution. For Touro’s complete Non-Discrimination Statement, please visit www.touro.edu

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Lander College of Arts & Sciences • 718.535.9320 | las.touro.edu Lander College for Women • 212.520.4263 | lcw.touro.edu Lander College for Men • 718.820.4884 | lcm.touro.edu

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Updates Retreat Offers Rabbis Opportunity to Network As part of its ongoing initiative to strengthen the OU presence in the Southeast region, Synagogue Services Southeast conducted an inaugural rabbinical retreat in May at the Knickerbocker Estate of Naples, Florida.

Organized by Naftali Herrmann, OU Regional Director for Synagogues, Southeast, the three-day event, which attracted twenty-five rabbis from throughout the area, was designed to foster networking between rabbis in the region, which currently encompasses North Carolina to Florida, and as far west as Louisiana.

“We wanted to promote ongoing conversation about everything that being a congregational rabbi entails,” says Herrmann.

“All too often, rabbis feel alone in the issues they face,” says Rabbi Adir Posy, OU Director of Regions, Western States.

“This conference connected them to their neighbors and friends who are experiencing similar issues.”

Sessions covered a wide range of issues including fundraising, attracting new members, youth programming and re-energizing the rabbinate. Cultural and demographic challenges unique to the Southeast region were also discussed.

Joining the participants as moderators were OU Executive Vice President, Emeritus Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, OU Senior Managing Director Rabbi Steven Weil, and Dr. David Pelcovitz, the Gwendolyn and Joseph Straus Chair in Psychology and Jewish Education at the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration at Yeshiva University. g

Largest Bukharian Shul Becomes OU Member This past May, the OU Department of Community Engagement warmly welcomed Congregation Beth Gavriel/Bukharian Jewish Center of Forest Hills, New York as a new OU member shul.

Beth Gavriel is comprised of over 1,000 families, making it the largest Bukharian shul in New York, possibly even in the country.

“On behalf of our beloved synagogue Beth Gavriel and the entire Bukharian Jewish community, we are extremely excited about joining a renowned organization such as the OU,” says Ilya Koptiev, president of Beth Gavriel. “We look forward to building a strong relationship and working together in the foreseeable future.”

The “seeds” were planted through parenting programs and the SPIRIT program (Stimulating Program Initiative for Retirees that Inspires Thought) that were held for the past two years in various shuls in Kew Gardens Hills, Hillcrest and Jamaica Estates. The events were coodinated by Rebbetzin Judi Steinig, Associate Director, OU Community Services and long-time resident of Queens.

“They were impressed by the experience and relayed their interest in our programming to their shul’s leadership,” says Yehuda Friedman, Associate Director of Synagogue Services and Regional Director for Synagogues, Long Island and Queens.

“Not long after, we met with the leadership of Beth Gavriel to discuss what other programs and services the OU had to offer.

Representatives from Chazaq, an organization dedicated to 76 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

building a stronger Jewish future that works closely with many Bukharian shuls, also attended the meeting.”

One of the most attractive elements of OU membership to Congregation Beth Gavriel is the OU’s vast shul network, which connects shuls across the US. “The network is an amazing resource,” says Friedman. “It’s important for a shul to know that it is not alone in its mission, that it is a part of this great collective. Joining our network is a major benefit for the shul and the network as a whole.” g

Thought Leaders Share Ideas and Expertise with Shul Lay Leaders Shul lay leaders from throughout the Greater New York area gathered in downtown Manhattan this past March for a day of skill building and leadership training. The seminar, organized by Rabbi Dovid M. Cohen, OU Regional Director for Synagogues, Manhattan, Bronx, Westchester and Connecticut, in coordination with Rabbi Sion Setton, Chair of the Downtown Vaad, featured two distinguished thought leaders: Dr. Erica Brown and Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. Rabbi Setton also serves as Rabbi of Congregation Magen David of Manhattan (CMDM), which hosted the seminar.

Dr. Brown opened the seminar with a riveting session entitled “Dealing with Difficult People,” which included text study, role play and exercises. Participants then headed to NYU for a “leadership discussion” between Rabbi Sacks and Dr. Brown, organized by the Vaad and co-sponsored by the OU. The wide-ranging talk touched upon presidential politics, the millennial generation, building community, sense of self and sources for models of leadership.

Participating congregations included The Jewish Center on the Upper West Side, Young Israel of White Plains, Young Israel of Harrison, The West Side Jewish Center, Congregation Shearith Israel (the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue), Young Israel of Stamford, Congregation Agudath Sholom of Stamford, and Congregation Mt. Sinai Anshe Emeth of Washington Heights. The Downtown Vaad, created three years ago, is comprised of a number of shuls seeking to build a more cohesive community in downtown Manhattan. g

Take a break.

OU West Coast Launches New Lecture Tour “What’s a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn doing in the US Air Force?”

You’ll have to ask Rabbi Alan Kalinsky, Director of the OU’s West Coast Region, during his upcoming summer/fall 2016 lecture tour. Visiting OU congregations on the West Coast from California to Colorado to Western Canada to Washington, Rabbi Kalinsky will speak on a variety of topics, drawing on his experience as a Rabbinic Field Representative for OU Kosher for over thirty years, and as a Chaplain in the US Air Force for twenty-eight years.

“Coordinating guest speakers and scholars-in-residence is one of the many services provided to shuls with OU membership,” says Rabbi Kalinsky. “However, many smaller congregations have limited funds to enable them to bring in guest speakers. With this new initiative, we hope to benefit many of our shuls. Based on the enthusiastic response we are getting from shuls throughout the West Coast, we are sure it will be a success.”

For booking information, please contact the OU West Coast office at 310.229.9000 or e-mail adlerl@ou.org. g

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Summer 5776/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 77

Best. Summer. Ever. Just Got Better: Making summer a meaningful and transformative experience in a young person’s life is the mantra of NCSY Summer. No wonder it keeps growing. This past year, NCSY Summer added two new programs to its array of summer programs catering to teens with different interests and backgrounds: JOLT Israel and Camp Maor.

NCSY currently offers fourteen unique summer programs in Israel, Europe and the US. A leader in Jewish camping, NCSY is also the largest single provider of teen trips to Israel, sending over 1,000 teens to Israel each summer.

JOLT Israel Like its parent program, Jewish Overseas Leadership Training (JOLT), which takes teens to Eastern Europe where they receive leadership training, JOLT Israel takes teens to Israel where they hone their leadership skills. The highlight of JOLT Israel is when teens get to run a ten-day camp for siblings of children with cancer through Zichron Menachem. JOLT Israel participants use their leadership skills to plan, create and run a camp for these children, and ensure that each child is given the love and attention they need.

“JOLT Israel teaches leadership skills through the lens of Israel and has participants put those lessons to use within the program,” says David Cutler, Director of NCSY Summer. “The hands-on element sets JOLT Israel apart from other leadership development programs.”

Camp Maor Founded by Camp Director Sari Kahn in 2014, Camp Maor is now operating under the NCSY umbrella. Located on a beautiful campus in the Pocono Mountains, the camp enables teen girls to explore their passions for the performing arts.

Participants choose between four “majors”—voice, dance, film, and theatre—taught by leading professionals who have combined their creative passions with Torah observance.

The schedule also includes the usual swimming, sports and night activities, as well as daily shiurim, chessed projects, and inspirational Shabbatot. The summer culminates with a non-musical play for families followed by an original song and dance performance for women only.

For more information about any of the NCSY summer programs, visit summer.ncsy.org/. g

78 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

Social work is not just a career.

For Touro graduates, it’s a calling.

Yoni Benedek Touro MSW, ’16 Current Clinical Fieldwork: Long Island Jewish Medical Center Emergency Department

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Chana Lazar Touro MSW, ’12 Director, Clinical Training Initiatives, Child & Family Clinician at Pesach Tikvah Boro Park Outpatient Center

Yoni and Chana fulfill their mission every day, by utilizing the professional training they received at Touro’s Graduate School of Social Work to serve their clients with professionalism and compassion. Equal part academics and real world clinical experience, our school is the right choice to advance your career—and answer your calling. Apply now and make a difference in your own life and the lives of others. Visit gssw.touro.edu for more information.

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AIPAC

This past March, 150 NCSYers from regions across the country gathered at the Washington D.C. Convention Center to attend the annual AIPAC Policy Conference. Representatives of NCSY’s National Board were also present, including National President Sarah Engel.

In addition to participating in AIPAC’s itinerary, NCSYers had the opportunity to learn about the Israel-US relationship from Howard Tzvi Friedman, OU Chairman of the Board and former President of AIPAC, as well as from Maury Litwack, Director of State Political Affairs for OU Advocacy.

“It was a really fantastic to have our students spend time with Jewish leaders from all across the spectrum and to engage with thousands of others standing up for Israel,” says Rabbi Jonah Lerner, NCSY Regional Director, Atlantic Seaboard. “It is really important for our teens to understand the complex Israeli-American political relationship.” g

NCSYers from the Atlantic Seaboard, New York and New Jersey regions with OU Chairman of the Board Howard Tzvi Friedman, after his address at the AIPAC Conference 2016 in Washington D.C. this past March. Mr. Friedman is at the center of the back row in front of the window.

Community Fair 2017 More than forty lay leaders from sixteen communities across the US—from Oak Park, Michigan to Richmond, Virginia to Syracuse, New York—gathered at Congregation B’Nai IsraelOhev Zedek in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania this past May to attend the first- ever Jewish Communal Growth Leadership Retreat. The all-day intensive training retreat taught participants how to market their communities in preparation for the highly anticipated Sixth OU International Jewish Communities Home and Job Relocation Fair, to be held April 2017.

“Many communities are looking to grow and encourage families to join their community, and the community fair is only one component of that,” says Rabbi Judah Isaacs, OU Director of Community Engagement. “We initiated this retreat to help communities create a comprehensive strategy to attract new families during and beyond the fair.”

The retreat’s schedule featured a fantastic lineup of professionals in advertising and marketing. Arnold Gerson, 80 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

OU Chief Institutional Advancement Officer, stressed the need for effective fundraising to foster significant community growth. Elie Rosenfeld, CEO of Joseph Jacobs Advertising, shared his expertise on planning successful marketing campaigns. And a panel discussion featuring representatives of two “success-story” communities—Monica Fischman of Southfield, Michigan and Ben Hoffler of Springfield, New Jersey—focused on ideas for achieving significant community growth; both of these communities experienced considerable growth following their participation in the 2015 community fair.

The OU International Jewish Communities Home and Job Relocation Fair highlights thriving communities across the US that have the amenities of Orthodox life at a lower cost than in the New York metro area. g

Echoes of Eden: Sefer Devarim— Echoes of Sinai

Derashot Ledorot: A Commentary for the Ages— Deuteronomy

By Rabbi Ari Kahn OU Press and Gefen Publishing House

By Rabbi Norman Lamm, edited by Stuart Halpern OU Press, Yeshiva University Press and Maggid Books

Sefer Devarim, as Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO, OU Kosher, notes in his preface to this volume, is both the final book of the Torah as well as the beginning of interpretation of the Torah, the end of Torah Shebichtav but also the beginning of Torah Shebe’al Peh. Sefer Devarim, Moshe Rabbeinu’s poignant farewell address to the nation he helped bring into being, bears Moshe’s unique imprint as he looks back on the nation’s formative experiences in the desert and looks forward to its future in the Promised Land.

Echoes of Sinai, the fifth and final installment in Rabbi Ari Kahn’s Echoes of Eden series, calls attention to the ways Sefer Devarim retells, expands on and explains earlier sections of the Torah. For example, the retelling of the Ten Commandments in Sefer Devarim contains many discrepancies with the version in Shemot. The Ten Commandments of Shemot, explains Rabbi Kahn, speak from God’s own perspective, while the Devarim version represents Divine revelation from the human perspective.

In Devarim, Moshe recounts the story of the spies, but this account differs in a number of subtle ways from the “original version” of the story in Bamidbar. Noting these nuances, Rabbi Kahn comes to a new interpretation of the entire story of the spies and ends with a methodological point: “The insight we gain from the book of Devarim is what makes Moshe our greatest teacher. As he retells our history and reteaches God’s word, he ensures that the deep philosophical and practical messages of the Torah with which he was entrusted are internalized.

Only then does he step off the stage and allow the Jewish people to continue their journey.”

Rabbi Ari Kahn’s Echoes of Eden series, with its unique style of close reading and finding unexpected connections, deserves a place of pride in the libraries of every seeker of the messages Moshe Rabbeinu left behind for us.

Thirty years ago, Rabbi Norman Lamm lamented the demise of the sermon (“Notes of an Unrepentant Darshan,” RCA Sermon Anthology, 1986). Unlike the shiur or lecture of the Talmudic scholar, the purpose of a sermon is not to explicate a difficult text or attain deeper understanding of a passage in the Talmud. The goal of the sermon is to awaken the religious sentiment of a community, to provide guidance in spiritual and moral questions and to address the issues of the day. A good sermon must do this and more—there is an art and a method to the sermon as well.

In the Deuteronomy volume of his Derashot Ledorot series, as in all the other volumes, we encounter Rabbi Lamm as an exceptional practitioner of this lost art. Although these sermons were delivered from the 1950s through the ‘70s, their messages remain remarkably pertinent today. (The historical backdrop of these sermons—whether it is Watergate or the Yom Kippur War—adds another layer of interest.) To give one example, in a sermon on Parashat Shoftim, Rabbi Lamm discusses the different views of monarchy, concluding with the following timeless and relevant lesson: For Judaism, God is not an Executive Vice President of the Cosmos in charge of Human Happiness. A truly religious person does not wake up in the morning and say to God, “What have you done for me recently?” God is not looking for our votes in an election or popularity contest. He is not interested in our approval.

An authentic religion does not cater to what people want and think they need. It teaches them to want what they really need. It leads them to aspire to higher deeds and more sublime ideals. If Judaism may be cut and truncated and transformed and reformed to conform to the latest ephemeral intellectual currents and fads of fashions and tastes, then it reveals that at the bottom there is an immature conception of God as a kind of divine Servant or at best a divine Insurance Agent who will provide for our happiness and convenience. God is not a King for us; He is a King over us. “You shall set over yourself a King.” That is the essence of Torah and the meaning of halachah.

If, as Rabbi Lamm argued, “A good sermon, like a mitzvah, begets other good sermons,” then perhaps the model of Derashot Ledorot will create a sermon renaissance. Regardless, we will have Derashot Ledorot to guide and inspire lay people and rabbis alike. g

O U PR E S S . O R G

Summer 5776/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 81

The Chef’s Table

By Norene Gilletz

The following scrumptious summer recipes are packed with brain-boosting ingredients that can help you outsmart Alzheimer’s and dementia. They’re simple to prepare and use easily available ingredients, so they’re perfect for those hot summer days when you don’t feel like cooking heavy, time-consuming meals. As an added bonus, these delicious dishes are perfect for the Nine Days as they’re meat-free. But don’t just save them for summertime—they’re so good for you, you’ll want to make them all year round!

Daniella’s Halibut, Grapefruit and Spinach Salad (Pareve) Adapted from The Silver Platter by Daniella Silver and Norene Gilletz (ArtScroll/Mesorah) Yields 4 main dish or 8 appetizer servings Fresh, clean colors and perfectly balanced flavors make this a company-worthy starter salad. The tartness of the grapefruit, smoothed by the drizzle of honey in the dressing, adds a bright citrus aroma.

Fish: 4 halibut, tilapia or sole fillets (about 8 oz/250 g each) 1-2 Tbsp olive oil kosher salt freshly ground black pepper Salad: 6 cups baby spinach or arugula leaves 2 pink grapefruits, supremed (see Norene’s Notes) Dressing: 1/4 cup grapefruit juice (preferably fresh) 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 1 Tbsp honey kosher salt freshly ground black pepper Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place fish onto prepared baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil; sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Bake uncovered for 10-12 minutes or until fish flakes with a fork. Let cool.

Salad: In a large bowl, combine spinach with grapefruit segments.

Dressing: Combine dressing ingredients in a glass jar; seal tightly and shake well.

Drizzle dressing over salad; toss to combine. Add halibut and mix gently, breaking fish into chunks.

Norene’s Notes: • How to supreme grapefruit: Cut a slice from the top and bottom of each grapefruit so it will be easier to peel. Slice off the peel and pith by following the curve of the fruit. Cut grapefruit into segments, removing flesh and discarding membrane and seeds.

Do this over a bowl to catch the juice.

• Salmon, Mango & Spinach Salad: Instead of halibut, use salmon.

Instead of grapefruit, substitute 2 mangoes, peeled, pitted and cut into thin strips. Use mango juice instead of grapefruit juice. Add 2 sliced baby cucumbers and 1 avocado, diced.

Kale Salad with Roasted Sweet Potatoes (Pareve) Adapted from The Silver Platter by Daniella Silver and Norene Gilletz (ArtScroll/Mesorah) Yields 8 servings Roasted sweet potatoes bring hearty texture to this fresh kale salad while keeping things light and simple. Tossed with a saltysweet dressing and topped with a touch of tart cranberry flavor, this salad makes a colorful side dish.

Salad: 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced 1 Tbsp olive oil kosher salt freshly ground black pepper 1 bunch kale (about 1 lb/500 g) 1 cup dried cranberries Dressing: 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 1/4 cup rice vinegar

Norene Gilletz is the leading author of kosher cookbooks in Canada. Visit her web site at www.gourmania.com or e-mail her at goodfood@gourmania.com.

82 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

2 Tbsp soy sauce or tamari 2 Tbsp pure maple syrup 1/2 tsp kosher salt, or to taste freshly ground black pepper Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Spread sweet potatoes on prepared baking sheet. Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Roast uncovered for 25-30 minutes or until tender.

Let cool.

Wash and dry kale. Remove and discard tough stalks and center veins. Massage kale with your fingertips for about 5 minutes, until leaves are wilted. Chop into bite-sized pieces and place into a large serving bowl. Cover and chill.

Dressing: Combine dressing ingredients in a glass jar; seal tightly and shake well. Refrigerate.

Add sweet potatoes and cranberries to kale; toss with dressing just before serving.

Norene’s Notes: • The darker the flesh, the sweeter and moister the sweet potatoes will be. They are delicious baked, boiled, steamed, grilled or roasted.

• Because of their lower glycemic index, sweet potatoes are a carb-friendly choice for people with diabetes or insulin resistance.

• Brain-Booster Variation: Replace dried cranberries with pomegranate arils.

Norene’s Balsamic Baked Salmon (Pareve) From The New Food Processor Bible

by Norene Gilletz (Whitecap) Yields 4 servings This simple and popular salmon recipe comes from my book, The New Food Processor Bible (Whitecap) and was then included in A Ta’am to Remember: Recipes & Recollections from the Terraces of Baycrest 2 large onions, sliced 2 cups mushrooms, sliced 2 Tbsp olive oil 4 salmon fillets (about 2 lb/1 kg) 4 Tbsp balsamic vinegar 2 Tbsp honey salt, pepper and dried basil to taste Place onions and mushrooms on a sprayed foil-lined baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Place salmon on top.

Drizzle balsamic vinegar and honey over salmon, onions and mushrooms. Season with salt, pepper and basil.

Marinate for 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 425°F. Bake, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Salmon will be nicely browned on the outside, but still juicy inside. Onions and mushrooms should be tender and golden.

Serve immediately.

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Left: Kale Salad with Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Cranberries Photos: EyeCandyTO

Right: Halibut, Grapefruit and Spinach Salad

Norene’s Notes: • Timesaver: Cooking fish and vegetables together in one pan saves time and cleanup.

• This recipe is also excellent with halibut, sea bass, or black cod.

• Salmon is an excellent source of protein and is high in Omega-3 fatty acids. It’s good for heart health and brain function, so try to eat fish at least twice a week.

• This recipe reheats well and keeps up to two days in the refrigerator. However, if frozen, the vegetables become soggy.

Norene’s Sesame Broccoli or Cauliflower (Pareve) Adapted from A Ta’am to Remember: Recipes & Recollections from the Terraces of Baycrest Yields 4 servings There’s always fresh broccoli in my refrigerator and this is one of the easiest ways to make it. You can also make it with cauliflower or a combination of the two. So versatile!

1 large broccoli or 1 medium cauliflower (about 1 1/2 lbs/750 g) 2-3 Tbsp sesame seeds 1 Tbsp soy sauce or tamari 1 Tbsp lemon juice 1 Tbsp brown sugar or honey 1 tsp Oriental sesame oil salt and pepper to taste Cut broccoli or cauliflower into florets and trim off tough stems.

Rinse well.

Place in a medium saucepan or vegetable steamer. Cover and steam (or microwave covered on High with 2 Tbsp water) for 5-6 minutes until tender-crisp.

Meanwhile, place sesame seeds in a small pan and toast on 84 I JEWISH ACTION Summer 5776/2016

medium heat for 3-4 minutes. Watch carefully to prevent burning. Set aside.

Drain broccoli or cauliflower. Combine with soy sauce, lemon juice, brown sugar, sesame oil, salt and pepper. Top with toasted sesame seeds.

Norene’s Notes • Green vegetables such as asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and green beans do not require a long cooking time. If cooked more than 7 minutes, they won’t retain their bright green color.

• Can be reheated briefly in the microwave. Do not freeze.

Freda Brown’s Green Pea Mock Chopped Liver (Pareve) Adapted from A Ta’am to Remember: Recipes & Recollections from the Terraces of Baycrest Yields about 2 1/2 cups 2 Tbsp canola or olive oil 1 large Spanish onion, diced 3 hard-boiled eggs (Omega-3 eggs are a great choice) 1 can (14 oz/398 ml) green peas, drained 1/2 cup chopped walnuts salt and pepper to taste Heat oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add onion and sauté until well browned, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

In a food processor, process eggs with quick on/off turns until coarsely chopped. Add sautéed onions, green peas, walnuts, salt and pepper. Process with several quick on/offs until desired texture is reached.

Transfer mixture to a covered container and refrigerate several hours or overnight.

Serve chilled. Do not freeze. g

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Books Not in God’s Name:

Confronting Religious Violence

By Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Schocken Books New York, 2015 • 305 pages Reviewed by Francis Nataf

I

don’t think there is any one on the Jewish scene today who combines the breadth, creativity, insight and eloquence of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. And were that not to already tip the scales in his favor, I confess to a personal identification with many of his sensibilities and agendas as well. But none of that kept me from being a little disappointed by his latest book, Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence. That being said, Rabbi Sacks definitely does succeed in bringing a treasure of fascinating sources and original insights to get us thinking about an issue that deserves the Orthodox community’s sustained interest.

Coming in the midst of a new wave of global terrorism, Rabbi Sacks’ confrontation with the religious roots of what we see daily on the news could not be timelier. He tackles this touchy and nuanced topic by dividing his analysis into three parts. The first explores the centrality of both religion and conflict in human events. After noting the outrages committed by ISIS and their ilk, Rabbi Sacks declares his interest in preventing religion from being misused by those whose outlook is born out of socio-historical frustration and abetted by a misunderstanding of the Abrahamic tradition. Accordingly, the second and central part is an attempt to present a new philosophy based on original interpretations of Rabbi Francis Nataf is a Jerusalem-based educator and thinker. He is associate editor of the Jewish Bible Quarterly and the author of multiple volumes of Redeeming Relevance on the Torah.

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Biblical texts that make sacred room for the other. In that section, his main interest is exploring the notion of chosenness and how it need not imply anything negative about the one not chosen (i.e.,Yishmael, Esav). The main point is succinctly summarized by his apt phrase, “God may choose but God does not reject” (p. 124).

The final third section applies these and other related insights and teachings to the contemporary scene.

While the outline is quite cogent, one wonders whom Rabbi Sacks sees as his audience. Certainly not the radical Muslims he seems to be arguing against. Even if they would be open to reading the work of a rabbi, his style, assumptions and conclusions are from another world (or better, worlds). He uses Jewish tradition and Jewish history as his points of reference and speaks in the language of the contemporary Christian West. That he peppers his work with citations from the Koran and from Muslim thinkers is noble, but it is a far cry from seriously engaging the worldview of mainstream Islam, let alone its radical wing.

One of Rabbi Sacks’ favorite topics is the need to (figuratively) fight religion with religion—that there is a need to encourage a passionate religiously-grounded tolerance in order to combat passionate religiously-grounded hatred. That means that “we must train a generation of religious leaders and educators who embrace the world in its diversity and sacred texts in their maximal generosity” (p. 262). But, again, who is the “we” here? He admits that the Catholic Church has already done much of what he is advocating, having made sacred space for the Jews in the last few decades. So apparently, Catholicism is not in need of the new leaders that he is speaking about. Is Judaism? To the extent that Judaism and Catholicism can be positive forces for peace, the main agenda item is not moderation but precisely its opposite—the creation of more passion and dedication. I am reminded of Rabbi Norman Lamm’s pithy observation: In looking at the Islamic revolutionaries in Iran, he remarked that no matter how problematic their beliefs, their religious passion was something we could only envy.

To be fair, Rabbi Sacks makes the interesting claim that political liberalism never resolved the conflicts between religions, but rather just put them to the side. The implication is that religious conflict can always be revived unless we deal with it straight on. Hence it is not only Muslims who need to think about these issues, but also Christians and Jews. While I am sympathetic to the idea, it is not because I am afraid that Christianity will go back to the virulent anti-Semitism of the late Middle Ages. That being said, there are many reasons why religions do need to work out the place of the outsider—the most important to my mind being the implications of the belief that all mankind is created in God’s image. To the extent that this book contributes to the Jewish and Christian understandings of this important issue, it is certainly worth our communities’ respective attention.

My biggest problem with the book, however, has to do with its argumentation from Tanach. Ostensibly, we agree on the ground rules. Rabbi Sacks shows this by making some important and correct meta-statements about text and tradition, pointing out that a religious text cannot be divorced from its interpretive context (pp. 208-9) and that the existence of multiple legitimate interpretations implies that there is no definitive reading of the Biblical text (p. 218). But if there can be more than one reading, some readings are still better than others.

In the context of what Rabbi Sacks is trying to do, I think it is only on the peshat (literal meaning) level that one can make convincing arguments clearly rooted in the text—especially if one is also speaking to readers outside of the Jewish tradition.

And it seems that this is exactly the type of arguments that he is trying to make. Sometimes he does so quite successfully, but at others he slips into a more homiletical mode. Because of that, some of the textual interpretations that form the main bulwark of Rabbi Sacks’ argument do not withstand careful scrutiny.

More specifically, his reading of Sefer Bereishit as a continuum of how siblings (the relationship he locates as central to the coexistence of the monotheistic religions) need to deal with one another—

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though not new—is certainly well supported. But when he charts new ground, his readings are more open to question. For example, he suggests that the phrase “rav ya’avod tzair” “the larger/older will serve the younger” is indeterminate and can be, and eventually would be, read the opposite way—that the younger will serve the older. This concept is not new. Rabbi Sacks cites the famous medieval commentator, Rabbi David Kimchi (Redak), who, among others, accepts this approach as well. What is new is the assertion that by Yaakov giving Esav’s blessing back to him, which Rabbi Sacks seems to be convinced of, Yaakov would definitively change the meaning of the prophecy. However, Redak says two things that Rabbi Sacks omits: 1) Even if it possible to read it both ways, the grammatical default remains that the older will serve the younger and 2) Fundamentally, Jewish tradition is unambiguous that in the messianic

While the outline is quite cogent, one wonders whom Rabbi Sacks sees as his audience. Certainly not the radical Muslims he seems to be arguing against. era, Yaakov will be dominant. (In fact, the key phrase to this effect in the Book of Ovadiah (1:21), which Rabbi Sacks tries to address in a footnote, is part and parcel of the daily morning prayers.) This is no small point. How we read peshat is rooted in Tanach, of which the Book of Ovadiah is certainly a part, but also in certain ground assumptions that Jews have always made.

For example, Rav Aharon Lichtenstein, zt”l once pointed out that no matter how much a simple reading of the text might incline us to do so, we simply cannot look to David as a villain.

In any event, because Rabbi Sacks reads the phrase “rav ya’avod tzair” to be completely indeterminate, he comes to the unusual conclusion that this phrase that Rivka heard was actually just an “oracle” and not a prophecy at all. From there, he claims that it was meant to carry little weight, as such things “do not belong in Israelite religion” (p. 140). Among other unanswered questions that this raises, one wonders why Rivka would inquire and sub-

sequently put so much weight on such an insignificant source.

His understanding of Yaakov’s reunion with Esav is even more difficult. Making a solid observation about the repeated use of the word “panim” (face) in this story, Rabbi Sacks then makes a big jump by equating this word with the blessing that Yitzchak had meant to give Esav. His basis is that Yaakov was able to get that blessing because Yitzchak could not see his son's face, telling us that, “somehow, the idea of a face connects [this scene with the reunion of the two brothers]” (p. 134). Given that Yitzchak was blind, there was obviously more than just Yaakov's face that he could not see! Moreover, the face is one of the things that is actually not emphasized in that scene, and not because it has no relationship to the story. When the Torah tells us that Yitzchak did not recognize Yaakov, it could easily have said that it was because he could not see his son’s face. Since it does not, this interpretation seems rather shaky.

Rabbi Sacks could have come to many of the same conclusions about the Bible’s concern for the other without some of his more debatable readings. Had he done so, it would have been a stronger book. Also surprising is Rabbi Sacks’ almost total inattention to contemporary parshanut. This is even more pronounced in his bibliography of the Biblical readings he proposes, where we do not find a single traditional Orthodox writer. Instead, the interested reader is pointed in the direction of James Kugel, Michael Fishbane and Jon Levenson, among others. I understand his desire to keep to academic standards and only cite academic writers. Still, it is a real missed opportunity not to have exposed his readership to the serious contemporary Orthodox Bible scholarship blossoming in our days.

The topic Rabbi Sacks addresses is important and his attempt to deal with it from a religiously informed reading of certain sections of the Bible is captivatingly ambitious. The importance of his topic and the creativity of his ideas join powerfully with his eloquent sermonics. Nonetheless, while they will no doubt appeal to many, I wonder whether his arguments are sufficiently powerful to convince those who do not share his conclusions already. g

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The Koren Tehillim The Rohr Family Edition

English translation by Rabbi Eli Cashdan Commentary by Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb Hebrew/English Reviewed by Aryeh Spero

A

s people of religious spirit, we look to Tehillim to help us overcome the hardships of life as well as the challenges of remaining faithful, of defeating despair, of maintaining courage against all odds and of prevailing over a frightening force of Evil. Tehillim resonates with us; its style is beautiful and direct, cosmic in scale, majestic, poetic and rhythmic. It is full of Divine footsteps and fingerprints.

Psalms read in English can affect one almost as much as when read in Hebrew.

Those cultures based on a Biblical outlook, such as American, and English from the Elizabethan Age until World War II, have looked to Psalms in times of great need. It supplied the values and reflected deeply held beliefs. Those of us brought up when the Biblical outlook was the touchstone of American society well remember those episodes in cinema and early TV where the minister preached a sermon that centered around a verse from Psalms and sprinkled his conversation with maxims lifted from King David’s repertoire.

Part of Americana has been the ubiquitous scene at the funeral or the house of worship where the clergyman Rabbi Aryeh Spero has served pulpits in Canton, Ohio, Manhattan and Great Neck, Long Island; has published in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, Human Events, Tradition and numerous other publications, and is a frequent guest on FOX News.

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intones: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want / He makes me lie down in green pastures /. . . You anoint my head with oil, my cup runneth over.” Psalm 23 in English, especially in the King James translation, carries a loftiness and sobriety, a cadence of sacredness. Psalms has served as a common bridge where Jews and Christians have been able to nod in respect to one another. The new Koren Tehillim will, no doubt, serve the spiritual, religious and emotional needs of all those seeking the Almighty.

Admittedly, upon first reviewing the new Koren Tehillim with translation by Rabbi Eli Cashdan, zt”l, of London, and commentary by Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, OU executive vice president, emeritus, a question came to mind: what need is there for another commentary on Tehillim? I soon realized, as will the reader, that this edition provides two vital and beneficial features that, to my knowledge, are not readily offered elsewhere.

First, for every chapter (ke’pittel), Rabbi Weinreb, a qualified psychotherapist, offers a short but profound introduction describing the chapter’s dominant theme.

Consequently, the chapter becomes more than a collection of beautiful statements, it becomes a stanza with each idea building upon the previous one, thereby offering a deeper and broader understanding of the particular psalm. After reciting and reflecting on the chapter, one leaves with a heightened sense of relief and comfort, a soul greater nourished and soothed.

When feeling afflicted and in want of Divine friendship, or when seeking a specific answer, where does one go? By identifying the specific theme of each chapter, Rabbi Weinreb provides the supplicant with a destination for his search, a recitation tailor-made for that moment’s quandary. These “introductions” give Tehillim a far greater immediacy and relevance.

Growing up in the ‘50s, I remember the group of European-born men who would gather two hours before Minchah each Shabbat afternoon in shul to recite the entire Tehillim, alternating between reader and responder. No doubt it was a religious undertaking; nonetheless, we characterized those sessions as a “zag up,” a dry experience of merely saying the words. In contrast, the Koren Tehillim

makes Tehillim recitation a genuinely transformative experience.

The theme, for example, of Psalm 14, as Rabbi Weinreb describes it, is “standing up to the cynics wishing to bring down religious believers.” This is especially useful to those of us demoralized by the moral relativism sanctified in our times and the frenzied attacks on traditional values. His digest of Psalm 64: “asking God to help against powerful and frightening forces and the wicked councils arrayed against us.” Today’s matzav makes Psalm 64 a “go-to” Psalm.

Rabbi Weinreb encapsulates Psalm 121 with the following: “I feel alone. I’m afraid of failing. God, please help me.”

By identifying the specific theme of each chapter, Rabbi Weinreb provides the supplicant with a destination for his search, a recitation tailor-made for that moment’s quandary.

Rabbi Weinreb writes in Psalm 8: “We are told that our relationship with God must be a paradoxical one: we are to love Him, but we are also to stand in awe of Him. We feel love when we look up and see God’s works, yet we stand in awe when we contrast ourselves with Him . . . we feel insignificant. Yet, he has made us a little less than Divine and has given us dominion over all of His creations.

But with that power, He challenges us with great responsibility.”

These Psalms appeal to us as individuals, as members of the Jewish people and as creatures longing for answers to universal questions.

Furthermore, by being made aware of the dozens of sentiments and themes expressed by David the Songster, our minds and hearts discover new ideas, exposing us to new waters of refreshment heretofore not experienced or pondered.

Horizons and consciousness are broadened, as are our spiritual and emotional worlds. We are given a spiritual

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Second, in addition to the insightful introductory statements, Rabbi Weinreb makes another significant contribution in this edition—the commentary itself, the peirush on the individual verses. His commentary makes the Psalmist’s words personal. It is as if David is speaking to me . . . and for me. It is not an arcane or esoteric commentary directed at an academic audience. It is a commentary that promotes Tehillim as prayer, not as study/ text. Its aim is the heart and soul.

Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook and Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch are featured prominently in Rabbi Weinreb’s commentary. He also gleans from the Midrash, Chassidic and Litvishe thinkers, the Talmud and insights he has absorbed in his work as a psychologist. Rabbi Weinreb is keenly aware of the questions and dilemmas facing contemporary man.

This Tehillim does not overdo with regard to commentators—as if the more commentators the merrier.

It doesn’t show off. It allows Tehillim to remain a personal companion. Its lessons are down to earth, a kind of low-hanging fruit available for emotional sustenance. The language is accessible, serious and direct. Thankfully, it is neither overflowing with the

It is not an arcane or esoteric commentary directed at an academic audience. It is a commentary that promotes Tehillim as prayer, not as study/text. Its aim is the heart and soul. latest spiritual trendiness nor with the language and motifs of a new-age political correctness.

Physically, this edition is a winner. While not the King James English, the translation is dignified and lofty. The font is attractive, laid out on exquisite, silky paper. The layout is soothing and appealing, as a Tehillim should be.

It is rich looking, yet understated and classy. Henceforth, it will be the Tehillim unit by my side.

The Koren Tehillim’s true test will be this: will this be the Tehillim we choose to take with us on a trip, a Shabbat away, when going to the hospital, when alone at night seeking solace after a turbulent day or when the sureties of life are challenged and restless confusion sets in? Will this be the Tehillim we use to pass on to our children and grandchildren the lessons, the remedies, the messages they need? Will this be the Tehillim that will become a family heirloom—the proverbial family Bible? After all, Tehillim is unique among the Biblical books. It is not meant simply for study, it is something to feel. It should console, make us aspire and burst us with joy. It should envelope.

Koren has published a first-class Tehillim. g

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Reviews in Brief

By Gil Student

Lashon Hakodesh: History, Holiness, & Hebrew

By Reuven Chaim Klein Mosaica Press 2015 • 289 pages We pray and recite blessings in Hebrew, study sacred Hebrew texts and speak Hebrew in Israel. But what is this language? Where did it come from and how did it become the de facto Jewish language after centuries of Yiddish, Ladino and other Jewish languages?

In an exhilarating journey through history, Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein describes the progression from Adam (the first Hebrew speaker) to the Chazon Ish (who offered legitimacy to yeshivot that teach in Modern Hebrew), from the Tower of Babel’s linguistic destruction to Eliezer Ben-Yehudah’s linguistic victory.

This masterful work weaves together midrash, Medieval philosophy, modern rabbinic commentary and a light touch of academia to create a traditionalist history of Hebrew. With his feet firmly planted in rabbinic thought, Rabbi Klein fleshes out a theory of a holy language, corrupted at times by outside influence, replaced at times by other languages like Aramaic and Greek, and finally transformed into Modern Hebrew that has only been reluctantly adopted by religious Jews.

Rabbi Klein sees history through a rabbinic lens but does not resort to harmonizing different views in order to present a single approach. What language did Adam speak? Rabbi Klein places six different opinions before the reader, covering a remarkably broad base of rabbinic texts. This book is a readable encyclopedia of rabbinic views on the Hebrew language and much more.

Aggadah: Sages, Stories & Secrets

By Immanuel Bernstein Mosaica Press 2015 • 266 pages

Rambam famously listed three ways to read Aggadah, the non-legal portions of the Talmud. In so doing, Rambam inadvertently left room for a fourth way that he certainly did not intend. Rambam says that some readers take the rabbinic stories literally and accept them as fantastic fact; others understand them on a literal level and reject them as rabbinic fantasy. The third and proper way, he explains, is to read the stories symbolically, as allegories presenting profound ideas. To Rambam, Aggadah is the storehouse of Jewish thought, not

mere legend. Some readers take this to an extreme, turning Aggadah into abstract concepts far removed from the text. Effectively, they read their own ideas into the rabbinic stories, turning every detail into a symbol for their personal ideology.

Rabbi Immanuel Bernstein, who currently teaches at Yeshivas Machon Yaakov and at several women’s seminaries in Jerusalem, takes a middle path. With tremendous breadth, he explores eighteen topics of Aggadah. One of the challenges of studying Aggadah is that the commentaries directly on the text are sparse. The greatest insights into Aggadah are spread widely across rabbinic commentary, in sermons and discourses on a variety of topics. Therefore, it is very difficult for a student of texts to find the relevant commentaries (although I have found Rabbi Moshe Zuriel’s Leket Peirushei Aggadah to be an extremely useful index, even if not comprehensive).

Rabbi Bernstein does not offer an answer to this dilemma of disperse commentary. However, on his selected topics, he shows how a master explains Aggadah symbolically but not abstractly, deftly quoting commentaries from across the spectrum of literature.

Rabbi Bernstein chose his topics well. He addresses the key elements of Jewish faith and life, such as free will, Divine tests and truth. While he does not teach students how to delve into the wisdom of Aggadah on their own, he shows example after example of how diverse commentaries explain the texts in ways that are profound and meaningful.

This is a book of Aggadah interpretation, a rare window into classic discourses on Aggadah.

Tanakh: An Owner’s Manual: Authorship, Canonization, Masoretic Text, Exegesis, Modern Scholarship, and Pedagogy

By Moshe Sokolow Ktav/Urim Jerusalem, 2015 • 219 pages

Orthodox Jews grow up familiar with the Bible stories from hearing them during the weekly Torah readings and studying them in yeshivah. Knowing the text and characters so closely from our youth, we often fail to think about basic questions, such as where these stories come from, who wrote them and how accurately these stories are portrayed after thousands of years.

We know the standard commentaries by name but often fail to ask who they were and what influenced them to explain the Torah in that way.

Rabbi Gil Student writes frequently on Jewish issues and runs Torahmusings.com. He is a member of the Jewish Action editorial board.

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Every Yeshiva College student is required to take an “Intro to Bible” course that offers an overview of Hebrew Scripture and its history. I remember my experience taking that course, which was full of lively discussion and debate as we reexamined the familiar text and its commentaries. These issues touch on sensitive theological matters, which is why it is so important that the course be taught by Orthodox scholars. However, a mature understanding of the Bible requires thinking about many of these issues, especially those that arise within Talmud and traditional commentaries.

Dr. Moshe Sokolow, professor of Jewish education and the associate dean of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration at Yeshiva University, encapsulates this course in his book, Tanakh: An Owner’s Manual. He carefully describes the different opinions on issues of authorship of later books of the Bible, placement of the books in the divisions of Prophets and Writings, the transmission of the Masoretic Text and the different approaches of Biblical commentators. Dr. Sokolow writes concisely and carefully. Fully aware of the minefields of Biblical criticism and archeology, he explains that Orthodox Jews should not feel bound to respond to speculative theories, but he nevertheless provides a survey of Orthodox scholarly responses.

In his precision, Dr. Sokolow avoids polemics and apologetics.

However, he also omits the back-and-forth arguments, a wise editorial decision but one that causes the book to lose the liveliness I remember of my “Intro to Bible” course. This book serves as an excellent refresher for Yeshiva College graduates who have long lost their college notebooks. It is also an important resource for any Orthodox Jew curious about how the Bible we know came to be.

study, both locally and globally, since the full journal is placed on the shul’s web site. A handful of other shuls around the country are engaged in similar projects, producing quality Torah from members who joyously study and teach in this way.

The latest issue of Nitzachon, the fifth to date, is dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Dovid Landesman, the beloved principal of Yeshiva University for Los Angeles Boys High School, who passed away suddenly last summer. In addition to a biography, the journal contains two important essays by Rabbi Landesman that reflect his enormous charisma and his ability to convey the most important lessons in simple terms. May his memory serve as an inspiration and a blessing. All issues of Nitzachon can be accessed at http://adastorah.shulcloud.com/nitzachon. g

Nitzachon Journal

Volume 3:2, Spring/Summer 5776 Adas Torah Los Angeles, 2016 • 204 pages Under the leadership of Rabbi Dovid Revah, Adas Torah, a congregation in Los Angeles, has been engaged in a longterm project to enhance Torah study in its community and around the world.

For the past two years, the shul has published a high-level, English-language Torah journal, Nitzachon. Rabbis, educators and laypeople, all members of the shul, contribute original essays on Jewish texts and thought to this semiannual publication. This is a project of intense communal learning on multiple levels.

The research involved in preparing an article can be enormous.

The writer has to carefully study a number of subjects until arriving at one on which he has an original contribution. He then has to delve deeply, exploring related texts and alternate interpretations. Then comes the difficult task of clearly formulating his thoughts so that readers can appreciate the ideas. For some people, this is the hardest part. Each writer becomes a teacher, taking readers on a journey through the questions and answers, the texts and commentaries. When the journal is finally published, the community shares in the Torah

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Lasting Impressions

By Akiva Males

ONE GOOD DEED LEADS TO ANOTHER . . . and Sometimes a Wedding

A

s we drove back to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania from the wedding, my wife, Layala, and I felt giddy. On that November afternoon in 2015, we had attended the wedding of Margot and Josh in New York. Weddings are always uplifting, but this one was extra special. The relationship we share with Margot and Josh is unique, even though we met them for the first time at their wedding. Let me explain.

The night before Pesach of 2015, I had completed the search for chametz at my home, and as the rabbi of Kesher Israel Congregation (KI) in Harrisburg, was about to perform bedikat chametz there as well. My father, who was visiting for Pesach, decided to accompany me and we set off to KI, flashlights in hand.

After we inspected the chapel and main sanctuary, my father suggested we check a rarely used coatroom. Upon entering the room, my father pointed his flashlight at a backpack resting on a high shelf and asked me if I knew its owner. The knapsack held a digital camera, a small volume of Mishnayot, and several postcards sent from a “Margot Reinstein” to a “Josh Botwinick.” I left the backpack in the shul office, figuring I’d return it after Pesach.

We went home and resumed preparations for the holiday.

When things calmed down after yom tov, I began thinking about reuniting that backpack with its owner. I assumed it belonged to Josh—after all, the postcards were mailed to him at Camp Stone in Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania. Each summer, a large group of campers from that camp stops at KI to daven and enjoy a catered dinner. Josh must have been a counselor who accompanied his campers to KI the previous summer, and accidentally left his backpack behind. However, I only had Margot’s address on the postcard. The easiest way to reunite Josh and his knapsack was to mail it to Margot. I dropped the knapsack—along with an explanatory note—off at the post office, and forgot about it.

Several weeks later, I received a phone call from Margot, who could barely contain her excitement. She thanked me for sending the backpack, and told me there was more to the story. I apologized for not having noticed the knapsack sooner. That’s when Margot told me that she and Josh really appreciated the fact that it took three years for the bag to be found. (Turns out, the backpack had actually been on the shelf that long before I noticed it!)

Margot went on to share the most amazing chain of events. She and Josh had been dating one another while they were college undergraduates. For various reasons, they decided to break up right after the summer Josh had forgotten his backpack at KI. They went on to pursue their education and lost touch with one another. They began dating other people. Then the knapsack arrived at Margot’s home. After reading my note, Margot contacted

Josh for the first time in three years, and asked if he wanted to get together so she could return his backpack. Margot told me they met, spent a long time catching up, and had been dating steadily ever since. Both she and Josh agreed that they had not been ready to get back together until then, and that nothing

And so there I was, a few months later, standing under Josh and Margot's chuppah reciting the sixth of the sheva berachot. It felt surreal. would have developed had Josh’s bag been found and returned to her at an earlier date. Margot told me that they had a strong feeling that a wedding was in their future—and if that should happen, I would definitely receive a berachah under their chuppah.

I listened in amazement, and wished them the clarity I knew they were praying for.

A few months later, Layala and I received a phone call from a just-engaged Margot and Josh who were bubbling with excitement. We were thrilled to wish them “mazal tov.” Of course, we responded in the affirmative when the wedding invitation arrived. And so there I was, a few months later, standing under Josh and Margot’s chuppah reciting the sixth of the sheva berachot. It felt surreal.

Could God have found a way to reunite Margot and Josh without our involvement? Of course, but we feel so privileged to have acted as His agents. While we’ll never know why God chose us to play a role in this wonderful story, one thought does come to mind. In Pirkei Avot (4:2) our Sages teach us, “Mitzvah goreret mitzvah”—one good deed leads to another. The commentaries explain that God blesses those who engage in good deeds with the ability to engage in even more. This story began with bedikat chametz, continued with hashavat aveidah and ended up with a radiant couple standing together under a chuppah. Who can predict what might result from any mitzvah we choose to perform? g

Rabbi Akiva Males served as rabbi of Kesher Israel Congregation in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania from 2007 to 2016. Beginning in the summer of 2016, he will serve as rabbi of the Young Israel of Memphis.

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