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Rivlin visits Riverdale to restate Zionist vision

By Ed Weintrob Former Israeli President Reuven Rivlin restated a Zionist axiom on Monday night, telling an enthusiastic crowd in Riverdale that “Israel is not compensation for the Holocuast — Israel is the name of the Jewish people, the Promised Land, and no one can take it away.” Because Rivlin’s family has lived in Jerusalem since 1809, he voices this message with extra confidence. They moved there from Lithuania around the same time as did disciples of the Vilna Gaon — which was more than 70 years before the first wave of Zionist immigration and 130 years before the Shoah. “Why should we pray three times a day, crying to G-d, please G-d with your mercy, help us to return to our homeland, to Jerusalem [when] we can go to Jerusalem,” said Rivlin, relating the thinking in Vilna. “And 250 returned to Jerusalem in 1809 — not after 2,000 years but after 1,800 years.” “Jerusalem at the time was neglected, no one wanted to live in Jerusalem — but we brought prosperity” and by 1886, Jews formed a

At the Riverdale Jewish Center on Monday night, from left: Rep. Ritchie Torres, former Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, Riverdale Jewish Center Rabbi Dovid Zirkind, and New York City Councilman Eric Dinowitz. Ed Weintrob, The Jewish Star

majority of the city’s population, he said. Since Oct. 7, Rivlin has been visiting broken families and injured people throughout Israel “and attended more funerals than what one should.” “Hamas are not the sons of the Satan, they are not freedom fighters,” he said. “Their only wish is not to build Palestine, not to build their own country, their only wish is to butcher Jews because they are Jews, because they are Israelis. They are the Satan himself.” We need to keep telling this story to the world, he said. Despite the atrocities committed by Hamas as well as their pledge to commit genocide, Rivlin offered an expression of measured optimism about Israeli-Arab relations. “I really believe that we can live together,” he said, noting that when his family arrived in 1809, “we believed the Arabs would understand, as we had come back to our homeland, our only homeland.” He touched on the political turmoil that engulfed the Jewish state See Rivlin visits on page 8

They’ll be back! Cops arrest 334 (but officials mostly shrug) as Hamasites seize NYC streets By Ed Weintrob Pro-Hamas demonstrations continued to wreak havoc on New York City streets this week, shutting down the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges and the Holland Tunnel for several hours on Monday morning, then promising more mayhem in the days ahead. In Monday’s action, the New York Police Department arrested 209 and the Port Authority Police Department arrested 125. NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said many would receive misdemeanor charges and a ticket to appear in court. Mayor Eric Adams said he understood “the pain of innocent lives being lost right now” but questioned the tactics used by the antiIsrael demonstrators. Up to now, the city has been allowing demonstrators to disrupt city spaces almost at will, eventually arresting protestors to end blockages and quickly releasing them to dis-

Pro-Hamas disrupters blocked the entrance to Holland Tunnel on Monday morning. They also blocked traffic on the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges, leading to 325 arrests and promises of more protests.

rupt again. The city did not reveal any plan to handle the demonstrations differently in the future. “The right to protest does not give one the right to block bridges and tunnels, as we saw this morning,” Adams cautioned. “The goal is to peacefully protest without doing major disruption to the city,” he said. “Some people are not just driving to and from, across our bridges to go to their place of employment, some of them are dealing with some real emergency type issues.” Adams added, “I have been extremely clear — it gives us all pain to see innocent lives being lost right now, we need to do whatever is possible to end anything that is going to take the lives of innocent people, but Hamas must be destroyed, they are a terrorist organization.” Adams called for every hostage to be reSee 334 arrests on page 8

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Red Cross leaves CNN anchor speechless

The Red Cross, seen as a loathsome apologist for Hamas terror that is biased against Israel and a shirker in its battlefield responsibilities in Gaza, was reported to have chastised a hostage family for caring more about their captive loved one than about Palestinians in Gaza. On Monday, Dor Steinbrecher, the brother of hostage Doron Steinbrecher (a nurse and veterinarian from Kibbutz Kfar Aza) described his 30-year-old sister’s experience on the morning of Oct. 7. He told CNN anchor Jake Tapper how she called their mother and cried, saying she was lying under her bed in a safe room after attempting to barricade the door. “She thought it would be enough; it wasn’t,” Dor said. “Have you any evidence that she’s still alive? Are there photographs or other hostages that have been freed who saw her?” Tapper asked. “No, unfortunately, no,” answered Dor, who lives outside the kibbutz. “All the hostages who came back, no one [has seen] her in Gaza. We didn’t have any sign of life for her.” Tapper responded, “Well, that doesn’t mean

she’s not alive … they’re all separated. Your sister takes medication daily, and I know your parents reached out to the Red Cross to help ensure that she’s able to get that medication. What did the Red Cross have to say?” Dor said that his sister needs her medication daily and suspected that she has not taken it since Oct. 7. “My mom had a few minutes with the Red Cross and she told them my sister need[s] to get her medicine. And they told her that we should care more about Arab people on the other side.” Tapper asked to clarify the Red Cross statement saying that the Steinbrecher family “should care more about the people in Gaza.” Dor responded: “Yeah. And less about our beloved one who didn’t get her medicine.” Tapper then sought to confirm the story, saying “Wait a second. So your sister takes medication every day. She was taken hostage. She’s a civilian; she was taken hostage by Hamas three months and a few days ago. … And your parents told this to the Red Cross in the hope they would be able to get the medication to her. …

And their response was, ‘You should be more concerned about the people of Gaza’?” Dor affirmed Tapper’s summary, prompting the CNN anchor to say, “That’s shocking,” leaving himself speechless for a moment. Tapper concluded the interview on another note, asking Dor for his message to individuals around the world, particularly in the United States, who tear down posters of the hostages. “I want them to know not just about my sister, each one of the hostages in Gaza, they are just citizens, most of them pulled out of their beds on Saturday morning, and taken to Gaza, with no reason,” Dor said before he paused for a moment.

“I want them to try and imagine that all of the hostages in Gaza the babies, the woman, the grandfathers — it’s their family members, their family beloved ones which need their help. And then think about why they did with the hostages posters.” On Monday leaders of Hadassah delivered a petition to the International Committee of the Red Cross calling on the ICRC to intervene and ensure the well-being of Israeli hostages. In Riverdale on Monday night, former Israeli President Reuven Rivlin scolded the Red Cross for not visiting any of the hostages. —With reporting by JNS

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President Biden’s Zionist bona fides and burden THANE ROSENBAUM Distinguished University Professor Touro College

he world feels like it’s on fire. If the Jewish state was not at center stage, however, there would not have been any smoke. Israel’s retaliation in defense of its sovereignty, and to ensure its future sanity, remains a global obsession. The preciousness of Palestinian lives is a true mystery, given that roughly a million Muslims have been killed by other Muslims over recent years and not a global tear was shed, a single protest mounted or media blitz unveiled. The world demands of Israel that no harm come to Gazans, even though the Jewish state targets terrorists and many of the civilians in Gaza are adult accessories to Hamas’s crimes. There are showdowns everywhere, with the soundtrack of the war in Gaza blaring in the background. A multifront battle simmers in the Middle East with Iran stoking the kindling of its proxies — Hezbollah and the Houthis. Mass demonstrations fueled by ill-informed passions have overtaken college campuses and city streets. Hollywood’s awards season kicked off over the weekend with the Golden Globes. Amid all the fashionable attire and the merriment of an open bar, there was restless anticipation that an acceptance speech might go off-script — a shout-out to an agent gets bumped for actual shouting about Palestinians. Remember Vanes-

Biden has actually performed like a Zionist since Oct. 7.

sa Redgrave, who received an Oscar in 1978 for Best Supporting Actress and took her support one step further, stridently calling Israel “Zionist hoodlums”? In those days, such a remark was widely condemned. Today, I am not so sure. In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 massacre, two sets of Hollywood elites sent signed letters to President Biden: one imploring him to secure the release of the Israeli hostages; the other urging him to call for a ceasefire to spare Gazans. Both lists had many signatories, with little to no overlap. Agents and publicists have done a cynically admirable job reminding clients that spinelessness translates into better paydays. Save the backbone for the silver screen when riding off into the sunset. presidential election is heating up, too, and the warfare in Gaza has become a campaign issue. The Biden administration’s favoritism toward Israel at the perceived expense of the Palestinian plight is splitting the Democratic Party. Some governmental personnel have resigned in protest. Barack Obama’s West Wingers have taken to social media to publicly proclaim their break with Biden. In many ways, this extra caretaking of the “special relationship” has been a total surprise. Soon after his inauguration, Biden instantly kowtowed to the progressive wing of his party. He may have run as a moderate, but he has governed like a progressive. Yet, almost inexplicably, when it came to Israel, he has selected a different refrain, an illicit word choice among a growing number of Democrats — he acknowledged that while not Jewish, he is a longstanding “Zionist.” The Squad gasped audibly. And he wasn’t merely placating a needy audience of Jews and Israelis. Biden has actually performed like a Zionist since Oct. 7. He resupplied Israel’s military, publicly stated that Is-

rael has the right to defend itself, declared that the defeat of Hamas is no less important than America’s vanquishing of Islamic State, and displayed moral clarity in blaming civilian casualties on Hamas and not Israel. Yes, at times Biden paid lip service to calls for more precision in Israel’s bombing campaign. And he helped negotiate a humanitarian pause in the fighting to exchange Israeli hostages for imprisoned Palestinians. But overall, Biden sees Israel’s moral dilemma and geographic handicap clearly. Even his State Department, otherwise stacked with Iran Deal alumni, has cleared a path for Israel to maneuver. This has not been without sacrifice, and Biden may pay a price for it. Obama was no Zionist. If he were president today, as he was in 2014 during Israel’s last war with Hamas, the drumbeat from the White House would have been for Israel to exercise more “restraint,” along with hectoring about the “disproportionate” Palestinian death toll. ow would this change with a Republican presidency? Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis genuinely comprehend the importance of Israel’s security. The mindset of the frontrunner, however, is a mystery. After he left office, Donald Trump had dinner with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes in Mar-a-Lago. And his first statements after Oct. 7 seemed to be critical of Israel and admiring of its enemies. To be sure, Trump’s foreign policy was bountiful in its pro-Israel tilt: moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem; re-imposing Iranian sanctions; ignoring Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights; and brokering the Abraham Accords. But was that Trump, or was it the handiwork of those Jewish triplets in his administration — son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner; Special Envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt; and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman?

President Joe Biden on Oct. 11, 2023

Oliver Contreras, White House

Unlike with his other cabinet-level appointments, Trump didn’t interfere with matters involving Israel. Without that Jewish touch, who knows whether the alt-right, with its isolationist platform and antisemitic impulses, would not have exerted more influence over Trump’s foreign policy. They were loudly present at red-state rallies, but without access to the Oval Office. President Biden has most definitely chosen sides. If his pro-Israel leanings result in costing him the election, Democrats will wonder whether he chose wisely.

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orn in Ethiopia, Mazi was evacuated to Israel as part of an Israeli/U.S. mission, which provided sanctuary to people like Mazi, who lived in fear of antisemitism. This experience gave her a passion to serve in an Israel Defense Forces Paratrooper Brigade. She legally immigrated to the U.S. in pursuit of the American Dream. Mazi and her husband now live in Great Neck where they are raising their 7 children. In 2021, Mazi was elected to the Nassau County Legislature, where she added cops to the streets, held the line on property taxes, and stopped New York City from sending unvetted migrants to Nassau. Mazi is a national leader in the fight against antisemitism and Jew hatred. As part of the Republican majority in Congress, Mazi Pilip will be the critical vote to stop the disastrous policies of Joe Biden, AOC and The Squad.

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Conservative politics extends welcome to Jews Heritage Foundation

hese are deeply unsettling times for American Jews. Politically speaking, over recent decades significant parts of the American Jewish community have become ever more liberal and secular while enthusiastically embracing progressive orthodoxies. In the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre, however, they have been shocked to discover that the movements and candidates they supported have no interest in supporting Jews. They have suddenly realized that the values promoted by these organizations and politicians are not those the Jews thought they had shared. Many Jews now feel they are politically homeless. They’re not searching for a home in the right neighborhood. Hard as it may be for many

hood in the Jewish homeland. he American left upholds a very different set of values that are explicitly hostile to the Western tradition. The left believes that individuals can be divided into the categories of “oppressor” or “oppressed” on the basis of their racial, ethnic and sexual identity. Those deemed oppressors must be stripped of their “privilege,” while those classified as oppressed deserve reparations for the wrongs they’ve endured. Jews tend to thrive in the US, but the left sees their success as evidence that they must be oppressors, thriving by virtue of colonization and exploitation. The remarkable accomplishments of the tiny Jewish State of Israel, with its Western political system, elicits admiration from conservatives, but condemnation and demands for “decolonization” from progressives. In short, Jews have allies in the conservative movement, eager to embrace them with open arms. Why don’t more Jews make the leap? For one thing, longstanding political affiliations are hard to change. In addition, many Jews look at the list of causes supported by conservatives and invariably find some with which they strongly disagree. For some Jews, differences over immigration or gun policy

JAY GREENE JAMES CARAFANO Jews to admit, the values they hold dear, which they thought were being advanced by progressives, are in fact the bedrock of conservativism. In their hearts, Jews both here and abroad have always viewed America as a force for good in the world. They have clung to Western traditions rooted in ancient Jerusalem, Athens and Rome; traditions that hold all individuals are made in the image of God and deserve equal treatment under the law. Conservatives cherish these Western traditions; not because they are old, but because they foster human flourishing. They are an expression of God’s will. That is why conservatives support the equal treatment of individuals on the basis of merit, the opportunity to prosper and the realization of Jewish state-

The left’s betrayal is an opportunity for Jews to reassess which side truly embraces their most essential values.

Former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s conference in Las Vegas in 2021.

make them think that they could never become conservatives. he idea that one needs to agree with every aspect of a certain ideology is a misunderstanding of how political movements work. Most people who consider themselves conservative disagree on some issues. In fact, we believe that disagreement is an expression of human freedom and that the best way to promote human flourishing is through debate and dialogue. We identify as conservative because we recognize that the conservative

movement best represents our views on the issues that are most important to us. Jews need to prioritize which issues are essential to them. If they do so, most will recognize that those issues are best represented in the conservative movement. Just like everyone else, Jews can feel at home in the conservative movement while agreeing to disagree with conservative orthodoxy on some issues. Most Jews do not agree with every aspect of religious orthodoxy, but still consider

themselves Jews. They do so because being a Jew is a core part of their identity. Similarly, most Jews do not agree with every aspect of conservative orthodoxy, but they can recognize that their core interests and values are best served by the conservative movement. It’s time for Jews to recognize they are not politically homeless. They are conservatives. Jay P. Greene is a senior research fellow and James Jay Carafano is EW Richardson fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

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Torah of healing and hope: Nogah Safer story By Deborah Fineblum, JNS Why is this Torah different from all other Torahs? It may well be the fact that inside it is the pain of more than 1,000 Israelis whose lives have been forever changed by this war. When Nogah Safer, whose day job is in hi-tech but whose heart is in his work as a sofer, a Torah scribe, started writing this scroll six years ago, he never expected that those adding letters to it would eventually include Israeli soldiers on the Gaza border and survivors of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, the deadliest day in Israel’s history. Beginning two and a half months ago, Safer says he felt a new urgency to complete the Torah scroll. And mornings often found him driving away from the Pardes Hanna home he shares with his wife and three children to destinations around the country where he knew there were many warimpacted Israelis. In the end, some 1,000 added a letter. Last Thursday night, after Safer inked the final one of the 304,805 letters in the Torah (it’s a lamed, by the way, ending the word “Yisrael“), the scroll was rolled up and dressed in its blue velvet mantle to be escorted by hundreds of celebrants through the streets of Pardes Hanna. Dancing and singing, they made their way to the Torah’s new home at the Hamama, a Breslov-Carlebach congregation in what may be the only synagogue in existence where a crystal chandelier hangs from the peak of a tremendous tent. Safer is a Boston native (his family immigrated to Israel when he was 12) who graduated from Bezalel Academy

IDF soldiers add their letters to the Torah scroll at a base on the Gaza border.

of Art and Design in Jerusalem and worked as an artist before launching his hi-tech career or beginning his scribe training in 2010. Now 38, this is his first Torah. He had, in fact, gotten all the way up to Deuteronomy “when something told me not to leave 50 letters for others to finish but more like 2,000,” he says. And then came Oct. 7, and he began to understand why. Because it’s only when the soldiers and survivors began adding letters, says Safer, that he saw the true power the Torah has to unite Jews. “No matter where we took it, no matter how religious or nonreligious they were, everyone was drawn to it like a magnet,” he said. Including wait-

Rivlin visits… Continued from page 1 up until the moment Hamas struck on Oct. 7. “With G-d’s help — we need G-d’s help — we will find the way now to solve this once and for all,” he said, referring to the country’s political divisions. “While Hamas may have thought we are weak, they actually reminded us of our strength when we are united,” Rivlin continued. “Without any kind of hesitation [we must] let everyone around the world know that we are all together, that we have the right to live as an independent nation.” Rivlin said that he is “working in the international arena, making sure the truth is being heard — unfortunately, it’s very very difficult, because people know that there are more Muslims in the world than Jews, so they have to listen to them.” The question of majority rule was central to political arguments in Israel before the war. “Democracy means that the majority has to take the minority as much about the majority” into account, and those who run the country have to “take care of every citizen,” he said. He referenced a speech he gave at the University of Herzliya in 2015 (known as the Four Tribes speach) in which he warned about the danger of division in Israel in which each of its “four tribes” — secular Jews, national religious Orthodox Jews, ultra-Orthodox Haredi Jews, and Arabs — starts to think that the country and the state belongs to them. He said that population figures since 2019 show that Israeli Arabs form 25% of the country, versus just 4% when the state was established; the Haredim are 25%, compared to 5% or 6% in 1948 when “they were fighting, taking part in the Independence War; and 38% are secular (people he described humorously as “keeping the tradition, but they are called secular because they’re not keep 613 mitzvot,

ing in long lines to add their letter. And the places themselves touched him. “Kibbutz Be’eri was like something out of a Hollywood movie set — there was a shot-up nursery school with broken toys everywhere. It’s not like going to a Holocaust museum and seeing what happened to our people 80 years ago. This is happening to us now,” he said. Imri Horowitz was born and raised on Kibbutz Kfar Aza but was away with his family on Oct. 7, for Shabbat and Simchat Torah. He considers it a “total miracle” that his 81-year-old parents were unharmed the day 67 of their neighbors were murdered and 16 were taken hostage. But when Safer unrolled the Torah at the hotel where the Kfar Aza resi-

but maybe 30.”) Rivlin expressed sadness over “a violent rise in antisemitism all over the world” after Oct. 7. “That is a shame.” “We find ourselves in a position that people in the name of freedom of speech are using antisemitism. We have to fight this.” When we say “never again,” we didn’t need to say it to ourselves [but] to remind you, people of the world, of what happened during Hitler and the Nazi regime and fascism. You have to remember that it should never be again happening. And please, let us do the job for you — but don’t bother us asking us not to do something other people are doing to us and you say nothing.” Not everything is alright with all Israelis, Rivlin pointed out, and that was actually one of the reasons for his appearance in Riverdale and elsewhere this week. As the modern Jewish state grew, some people “were left behind, living in poverty and in the socio-disadvantage groups,” he said. He urged his audience to support the Israeli organization Maagalim, which “has taken upon itself a noble mission” to assist “at risk youth, those who are facing a real danger, such as violence and economic hardship.” An IDF soldier who spoke before Rivlin explained how Maagalim turned his life around, moving him from a trajectory leading to poverty, crime and violence, to one infused with pride in his Zionism and his Judaism. Maagalim explains that its mission is to empower “11th and 12th grade at-risk youth from the geographical and social peripheries of Israel and helps them undergo a process of personal growth … to enter adulthood as individuals with strong Jewish and Zionist identities [enhancing] personal potential, the belief in one’s own ability and self-worth.” For more about Maagalim, visit maagalim.org

dents are living until it’s safe to go back, “Even though most of our kibbutz isn’t so connected to Judaism, they all wanted to be a part of it,” said Horowitz. And when it was his turn to sign, he named all his 67 murdered neighbors and the 16 hostages. “I felt like I was whispering in God’s ear, like it was a gift to their souls. Just saying their names, I could feel the power of it,” he said. So could Yonah Greenberg (whose name has been changed for security reasons), an IDF soldier serving outside Gaza. “Seeing 200 guys stand in line to add their letter, religious and not religious, you could tell they felt a deep desire to be part of the Torah, in whatever way they could,” says Greenberg. “It felt like we were writing the Torah of the Moshiach that will be sent to Jerusalem when the Temple gets rebuilt.” Indeed, many of the soldiers included their personal prayers — devarim meha lev, words from the heart, in the blessing they made before adding to the scroll: “I hereby write for the sake of the holiness of the Torah, the Eternal of Israel, in the name of all of Israel.” Which is why Safer calls his scroll Torah Netzach Yisrael, the Eternal Torah of Israel. The scene Safer and friends encountered at the Nova festival memorial may have been different from that at the base and the kibbutz survivor hotel, but the upshot was the same. “It started out as a slow trickle of people coming over to the Torah, but then more and more wanted to add their letter,” said Akiva Gersh, who accompanied Safer that night. Including a young woman in a wheelchair, having lost a leg on Oct. 7. “So many of them said, ‘This is to honor my friend

who was killed’ or ‘who was taken by Hamas and still missing’.” And Safer ended up writing with them for three hours straight. “That night I got the feeling that, at a time of national pain, this is a Torah of healing, because we’re realizing our differences mean nothing,” added Gersh. “Guys with tattoos and body piercings asked, ‘Can I?’ ‘Of course,’ we said. ‘Everyone’s invited.’ Jewish tradition teaches us: Every Jew is like a letter in the Torah. And that night it felt like everyone who came up to the Torah was searching for their letter.” “I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime,” said Tovah Goldfine of Caesarea, who was among the last to add her letter last Thursday. “A scroll that soldiers touched and kibbutz survivors touched and people from that nightmare of a party touched, it reminds us of the connection we all share to our God, even in this hard time. And to participate as a woman, it’s an incredible honor that will live with me forever.” “In a way this Torah is a healing for what happened to us on Simchat Torah,” said Rabbi Tuvia Aronson, who accompanied Safer on some of his Torah travels. “A tikkun, a fixing, coming through the blessing of unity. When we can really see each other, the negativity falls away and the light can come in.” “I don’t care what you do or how religious you are,” said Safer, six years after he wrote the bet that’s the first letter in Genesis. “We’ve gotten back to a place where it doesn’t make any difference, because if you’re a Jew something about the Torah pulls you to it. It’s like when you approach it, you’re already in a place where our differences melt away.”

334 arrests… Continued from page 1 leased and, in a kumbaya moment, expressed hope for peaceful resolutions everywhere. “Not just what is going on in the Middle East, but what is going on in Ukraine, and parts of the continent of Africa, there is no place for war and innocent people losing their lives,” Adams said. Previous disruptions in New York City included a New Year’s Day effort to stop passengers from reaching their flights at JFK, takeovers at Grand Central Station abd the Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station, and rolling street closures. On Tuesday, two people who glued themselves to Sixth Avenue during the Thanksgiving Day Parade were released after pleabargaining to a disorderly conduct violation, and not a criminal charge for which they were arrested in November. The two told the judge that they were simply trying to support a cause they believe in, and were ordered to “lead a law-abiding life” and not get rearrested for one year to uphold the plea deal, according to transcripts of their hearings reported by the NY Post. “We are out here just taking action for the liberation of Palestine so that they have the right to freedom and for safety, which they don’t have now,” one of them said. “So we just have to liberate them and their people.” In the hallway, the other person vowed, “I will get arrested again and again and again, and I will fight for my rights and I will fight for the rights of the people of Palestine until a cease-fire, and a full return of the land to the people of Palestine.” When asked what he thought about the murder of innocent Jews on Oct. 7, the person said, “Armed occupation requires armed resistance.” The disruptor added that there was no

proof Hamas sexually assaulted its hostages and alleged that the IDF sexually abuses Palestinian women and children. Monday’s “Shut it Down for Palestine” protests were reportedly led by groups including the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Jewish Voice for Peace and the Palestinian Youth Movement (a group associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization). “We jam the arteries of the city and we reclaim the bridges and tunnels — which are funded by our taxes and fares — in solidarity with Palestine and all who are immiserated by the forces of capitalism and imperialism,” Palestinian Youth Movement said on Instagram: Protesters also chanted, “NYPD, KKK, IDF they’re all the same!” according to video posted on social media. Some sat down in the middle of major roadways, linking themselves together using zip ties and cementfilled tires, which forced cops to use power tools to get them apart. Actress Susan Sarandon, 77, who was dropped by her talent agency for making anti-Jewish comments in November, said at the protest, “There’s no place for genocide,” according to footage shared on social media. She was filmed standing on the Bowery as demonstrators clogged the Manhattan Bridge. Elsewhere on Monday, a group of anti-Israel activists attempted to block an entrance at Dallas’s Love Field Airport, timed to the arrival of President Biden aboard Air Force One. Police arrested 13 people in the protest co-organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement. “We’re not going to let any of these politicians rest, including Biden, while Palestinians have no justice,” said Youth Movement spokesperson Nashwa Abdelwahed.

9 THE JEWISH STAR January 12, 2024 • 2 Shevat 5784

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WINE AND DINE Soup’s on! Money-saving winter warmth combo EthEl G. hofmAN

hick, aromatic and brimming with good taste, soup is the perfect food in cold weather. Each spoonful warms and comforts like nothing else. Besides chicken soup — the panacea for what ails you — chances are you can whip up a pot of soup with whatever you have on hand. There’s no need to rush out and buy lots of ingredients. Soup is a delicious catch-all for food items you might otherwise toss. As food costs skyrocket and favorite items are no longer on market shelves, this is the time to use whatever is on hand — wilted celery, soft zucchini, a carrot or onion that has been lingering at the bottom of the vegetable bin. No tomatoes? Try a few spoonfuls of jarred spaghetti sauce. No mushrooms? Use canned ones. Researchers in Canada introduced a clever idea they called “Use-Up Day.” Pick one day a week to create a meal incorporating ingredients already in your fridge and pantry. Participants who took part in their study found that not only did they reduce food waste by onethird, but reported saving money, too. My “Use-Up Day” vegetable soup starts off with a tube of Manischewitz lentil soup mix, though any blend will do fine. Don’t be afraid to add, change or double the ingredients, and don’t be intimidated by the lengthy list of ingredients. Whatever you have on hand can work — anything goes! I use a Yemenite soup spice available in markets or online, but any spice blend may be used, including curry. The result is an aromatic, filling potage to enjoy the same day, bring to a friend’s or freeze early in the week in preparation for Shabbat. Bannocks, a recipe from my Shetland Island childhood and made with basic simple ingredients, can be baked at the last minute. Eat it hot off the skillet and dunk into soup. Stay warm!

“Use-Up Day” Vegetable Soup.

Dinner in a Bowl: Beef and vegetable soup.

‘Use-Up Day’ Vegetable Soup (Pareve) Makes 18 to 20 cups Cook’s Tips: •No tomato juice? Add water to tomato sauce and mix. •I use Leiber’s instant pareve onion-soup mix. •If too thick, add tomato juice or broth to desired consistency. Ingredients: • 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil • 1 small onion, thinly sliced • 7 cups water • 1 (6 oz.) tube Manischewitz lentil soup mix

Ethel G. Hofman

Pixabay

• 1 medium white turnip, peeled and cut in chunks • 15 baby carrots, cut in chunks • 6 medium Brussel sprouts, halved • 1/2 medium potato, cut in chunks • 3 to 4 mushrooms, sliced • 1 (14-1/2 oz.) can diced tomatoes, undrained • 1 (15-1/2 oz.) can black beans, drained • 1 crisp medium apple, unpeeled, cored and diced • 3 to 4 cups tomato juice • 3 Tbsp. instant onion soup mix • 2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar • 1 cup dill, snipped in ¼-inch pieces • 2 Tbsp. Yemenite soup mix or other spice blend (curry, etc.) • Salt and pepper to taste Directions: In a large pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion. Sauté for 5 minutes. Do not brown. Add 7 cups water and bring to boil over high heat. Add the lentil soup mix, holding back the small packet. Stir, cover and bring to simmer for 30 minutes. While the soup is simmering, place the turnip, carrots, Brussel sprouts and potato in a food processor. Pulse until mixture is coarsely textured (5 or 6 pulses). Add to soup with mushrooms, tomatoes, beans, apple, 3 cups tomato juice, instant onion soup mix, balsamic vinegar and contents of small packet contained in lentil soup mix tube. Stir well, cover. Bring to simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce to low and cook 30 minutes longer. Stir in dill. Season to taste with Yemenite soup mix or other spice blend, and salt and pepper. Ladle into bowls and serve.

Beef and Vegetable Soup.

Ethel G. Hofman

Beef and Vegetable Soup: Dinner in a Bowl

(Meat) Makes 15 to 18 cups Cook’s Tips: •Chop beef coarsely in a food processor. •Use packaged low-sodium beef broth. •May substitute beer or vegetable juice for wine. •Add a can of drained mushrooms, stems and pieces. •Use diced potatoes as a substitute for pasta. Ingredients: • 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil • 1 lb. beef such as chuck, coarsely chopped • 1 medium onion, sliced • 1 Tbsp. bottled chopped garlic • 3 ribs celery, cut in ¼-inch slices • 3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour • 3-1/2 cups beef broth • 1-1/4 cups dry red wine, such as Malbec or Shiraz • 1 cup water • 1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce • 1 cup pasta, broken into 1-inch pieces • 2 bay leaves See Soup’s on! on page 14

11 THE JEWISH STAR January 12, 2024 • 2 Shevat 5784

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Continued from page 10 • 1 tsp. dried thyme • 1 (12 oz.) package frozen peas and carrots • Salt and pepper Directions: Heat vegetable oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the beef, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook over high heat until nicely brown. Add the onion, garlic and celery. Sprinkle flour over top and mix. Stir in the beef broth, wine, water, tomato sauce, pasta, bay leaves and thyme. Bring to boil and then lower to simmer. Cover. Simmer for 1 hour Vegan Pumpkin Vichyssoise. Ethel G. Hofman or until beef becomes tender and falls apart. • 1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin (not pumpkin Add the peas and carrots. Stir and cook unpurée) covered 15 minutes longer. Season to taste with • 1 tsp. nutmeg salt and pepper. Pour into bowls and serve. • 1 tsp. cumin Freezes well. • Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste Directions: Greek Egg and Lemon Soup Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high (Meat) heat. Add the onion, potato and pear. Reduce Serves 4 to 6 heat to medium. Sauté for 10 minutes but do not Cook’s Tips: •To make pareve, use a vegetar- brown. ian broth. Add the broth, cover and bring to simmer. Ingredients: Cook for 30 minutes or until potatoes are soft. • 4 cups chicken broth Cool slightly before puréeing in blender or • 1/2 cup long-grain white rice food processor. Have to do in two batches. • 2 eggs Return to pot. Whisk in the pumpkin purée • 3 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice and spices. Bring to simmer. Season to taste • 1 Tbsp. finely chopped cilantro or parsley with salt and pepper. Directions: In a medium saucepan, bring the chicken Floury Bannocks broth to a boil. Add the rice, lower heat to sim(Dairy) mer. Cover and cook 20 minutes, or until rice is Makes 6 to 8 tender. Remove from heat. Cook’s Tips: •If using all-purpose flour, In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, add 3 tsp. baking powder and 1/4 tsp. salt. lemon juice, and cilantro or parsley. Slowly add •For buttermilk, pour 1 Tbsp. vinegar into 1 1/2 cup hot broth, whisking madly to avoid cur- cup milk. Do not stir. Let stand at room temdling. perature for 10 to 15 minutes to curdle. Pour this mixture into the remaining broth, Ingredients: whisking constantly. Return to medium-low • 1-1/2 cups self-rising flour heat. Whisk constantly until soup is hot and be• 2 Tbsp. margarine, softened gins to thicken. Do not boil. Serve hot. • 1 tsp. baking powder • 1-1/2 cups buttermilk Vegan Pumpkin Directions: In a medium bowl, rub the margarine into the Vichyssoise flour to make a coarse crumb mixture. Stir in the (Pareve) baking powder. Make a well in the center. Add Serves 6 to 8 Cook’s Tips: •Use 1/2 cup leftover pareve enough buttermilk to make a soft, but not sticky, mashed potatoes instead of 1 potato. •For a dairy dough. Start off with 1 cup buttermilk. Turn onto a soup, whisk in 1/2 cup sour cream before servfloured board. Pat into a circle about 1/4-inch ing. thick. Cut into triangles or squares. Ingredients: Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium• 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil high heat. It’s ready when a pinch of flour browns • 1 medium onion, sliced in 6 to 7 seconds. • 1 large potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch Arrange triangles in preheated skillet. Reduce chunks heat to medium. Cook 2 minutes on each side un• 1/2 pear, cored, unpeeled cut in 1-inch til nicely browned. chunks Serve hot or at room temperature. • 6 cups vegetable broth

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‫כוכב של שבת‬ Jewish Star Torah columnists: •Rabbi Avi Billet of Anshei Chesed, Boynton Beach, FL, mohel and Five Towns native •Rabbi David Etengoff of Magen David Yeshivah, Brooklyn •Rabbi Binny Freedman, rosh yeshiva of Orayta, Jerusalem Contributing writers: •Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks zt”l,

former chief rabbi of United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth •Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, OU executive VP emeritus •Rabbi Raymond Apple, emeritus rabbi, Great Synagogue of Sydney •Rabbi Yossy Goldman, life rabbi emeritus, Sydenham Shul, Johannesburg and president of the South African Rabbinical Association.

Contact our columnists at: Publisher@TheJewishStar.com Five Towns Candlelighting: From the White Shul, Far Rockaway, NY

Fri Jan 12 / 2 Shevat

Fri Feb 2 / 23 Shevat

Fri Jan 19 / 9 Shevat

Fri Feb 9 / 30 Shevat

Fri Jan 26 / 16 Shevat

Fri Feb 16 / 7 Adar I

Vaera Candles: 4:31 • Havdalah: 5:41

Bo Candles: 4:39 • Havdalah: 5:49

Beshalach Candles: 4:47 • Havdalah: 5:57

Yitro Candles: 4:55 • Havdalah: 6:06

Mishpatim • Rosh Chodesh Adar I Candles:5:04 • Havdalah: 6:14

Terumah Candles: 5:13 • Havdalah: 6:23

Reading Vaera, witnessing the birth of history rabbi Sir JonaThan SaCkS zt”l

he parsha of Vaera begins with some fateful words. It would not be too much to say that they changed the course of history, because they changed the way people thought about history. In fact, they gave birth to the very idea of history. Listen to the words: G-d said to Moses, “I am Hashem. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as E-l Shaddai, but by My name ‘Hashem’ I did not make Myself fully known to them. Ex. 6:1-2 What exactly does this mean? As Rashi points out, it does not mean that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah did not know G-d by the name Hashem. To the contrary, G-d’s first words to Abraham, “Leave your land, your birthplace and your father’s house,” were said using the name Hashem. It even says, just a few verses later (Gen. 12:7), Vayera Hashem el Avram: “Hashem appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So G-d had appeared to Avram as Hashem. And in the very next verse it says that Avram built an altar and “He called on the name of Hashem” (Gen. 12:8). So Avram himself knew the name and had used it. Yet it is clear from what G-d says to Moses that something new is about to happen, a Divine revelation of a kind that had never happened before, something that no one, not even the people clos-

Together with G-d, we can change the world. This idea was born in our parsha.

est to G-d, has yet seen. What was it? The answer is that through Bereishit, G-d is the G-d of Creation, the G-d of nature, the aspect of G-d we call, with different nuances but the same overall sense, Elokim, or E-l Shaddai, or even Koneh shamayim va’aretz, Creator of heaven and earth. Now, in a sense, that aspect of G-d was known to everyone in the ancient world. It’s just that they did not see nature as the work of one G-d but of many: the G-d of the sun, the G-d of the rain, the G-ddesses of the sea and the earth, the vast pantheon of forces responsible for harvests, fertility, storms, droughts, and so on. here were profound differences between the G-ds of polytheism and myth and the one G-d of Abraham, but they operated, as it were, in the same territory, the same ballpark. The aspect of G-d that appears in the days of Moses and the Israelites is radically different, and it’s only because we are so used to the story that we find it hard to see how radical it was. For the first time in history G-d was about to get involved in history, not through natural disasters like the Flood, but by direct interaction with the people who shape history. G-d was about to appear as the force that shapes the destiny of nations. He was about to do something no one had ever heard of before: bring an entire nation from slavery and servitude, persuade them to follow Him into the desert, and eventually to the Promised Land, and there build a new kind of society, based not on power but on justice, welfare, respect for the dignity of the human person and on collective responsibility for the rule of law. G-d was about to initiate a new kind of drama and a new concept of time. According to many of the world’s greatest historians, Arnaldo Momigliano, Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, J. H. Plumb, Eric Voegelin, and the anthropologist Mircea Eliade, this was the moment when history was born. Until then, the basic human drama was struggling to maintain order against the ever-present threats of chaos, whether through natural disasters, foreign conquest, or internal power struggles. Success meant maintaining the status quo. In fact, religion in the ancient world was intense-

ly conservative. It was about teaching people the inevitability of the status quo. Time was an arena in which nothing fundamentally changed. And now G-d appears to Moses and tells him that something utterly new is about to occur, something the patriarchs knew about in theory but had never lived to see in practise. A new nation. A new kind of faith. A new kind of political order. A new type of society. G-d was about to enter history and set the West on a trajectory that no human beings had ever contemplated before. Time was no longer going simply to be what Plato beautifully described as the moving image of eternity. It was going to become the stage on which G-d and humanity would journey together toward the day when all human beings — regardless of class, colour, creed, or culture — would achieve their full dignity as the image and likeness of G-d. Religion was about to become not a conservative force but an evolutionary and even revolutionary one. hink about this: Long before the West, the Chinese had invented ink, paper, printing, porcelain manufacture, the compass, gunpowder, and many other technologies. But they failed to develop a scientific revolution, an indus-

trial revolution, a market economy, and a free society. Why did they get so far and then stop? The historian Christopher Dawson argued that it was the religion of the West that made the difference. Alone among the civilizations of the world, Europe “has been continually shaken and transformed by an energy of spiritual unrest.” He attributed this to the fact that “its religious ideal has not been the worship of timeless and changeless perfection but a spirit that strives to incorporate itself in humanity and to change the world.” To change the world. That is the key phrase. The idea that — together with G-d — we can change the world, that we can make history, not just be made by it, this idea was born when G-d told Moses that he and his contemporaries were about to see an aspect of G-d no one had ever seen before. I still find that a spine-tingling moment when, each year, we read Vaera and recall the moment history was born, the moment G-d entered history and taught us for all time that slavery, oppression, injustice, are not written into the fabric of the cosmos, engraved into the human condition. Things can be different because we can be different, because G-d has shown us how.

Why is it that we call a matchmaker ‘shadchan’? Torah Questions

rabbi Dr. raYMonD aPPLE

he term derives from a word which means “to persuade,” “to negotiate.” As a distinct profession or business, shadchanut dates from the time of the Crusades, when Jewish life was so disrupted parents worried that their children might remain unmarried.

At first match-making was a sideline often adopted by the rabbi, who in the Middle Ages received no salary for performing rabbinical functions and had to seek an income from subsidiary pursuits. The expansion of shadchanut is reflected in references to the subject found in halachic literature from the 13th century. How much commission may a shadchan claim? What happens if the projected marriage does not take place? At times the shadchan was such a respected personage that the words of Job could be applied to him, as they were to Jacob Mollin, the

Maharil, who was a highly esteemed marriage broker (Job 29:21): Unto me men gave ear, and waited, And kept silence for my counsel, After my words they spake not again, And my speech dropped upon them But many lacked the unquestioned integrity and good judgment of the Maharil. They tried to persuade people that it was immodest to do their own courting, that it was undignified for families to approach each other direct and the sales talk of the experienced shadchan could obtain a young man or woman who might oth-

erwise be far beyond the wildest dreams of the client. In many places an untidy appearance, plus a rolled umbrella and a bowler hat was the uniform of the matchmaking profession. A shadchan’s most valuable piece of equipment was his little dog-eared book, which a recent writer has called “the social register of the shtetl.” From Mendele Mocher Sefarim to Sholom Aleichem to Israel Zangwill and far beyond, the shadchan was depicted in literature, with all his goings-on. But he did have quite a high rate of success.

Rabbi DR. tzvi heRsh weinReb Orthodox Union

here was a time when I was fascinated by the great psychoanalytic thinkers, chief among them Sigmund Freud, whose attitude towards his Jewish origins piqued my curiosity. Although Freud’s work is now out of fashion, he unquestionably said some profound things about humanity. One of his remarks has remained with me over the years: “Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness.” He con-

sidered the ability to love and the ability to work the two criteria of mental health. Otto Rank was a disciple of Freud who disagreed with his mentor in many ways. He left “love” out of the formula for the healthy personality. Instead, he inserted his concept of “the will.” For him, our ability to work productively and to express our will creatively were the cornerstones of our humanness. Rank wrote entire volumes about the nature of man’s will, and of its importance. In simplified terms, the will is the directive intention by which we get things done in life. In his words, “It is a positive guiding organization of the self which utilizes creativity” to accomplish one’s objectives. In a much more recent time in my life, I have come to ponder the nature of spirituality. I have be-

come convinced that ability to engage in meaningful work and the capacity to exercise one’s will creatively are two essential components of spirituality. In this week’s Torah portion, Vaera, we read about the first stages of the redemption of the Children of Israel from bondage in Egypt. We learn that freedom from slavery does not come easily. A measure of spiritual preparedness must first be achieved. Were the Jewish people spiritually ready for redemption? When we read last week’s parsha we were inclined to believe that they may very well have been ready. “Aaron repeated all the words that the L-rd had spoken to Moses…and the people were convinced … they bowed low in homage” (Exodus 4:30-31).

This week, however, we learn that that level of spiritual readiness was short lived. “When Moses told this to the Israelites, they would not listen to Moses, because their spirits were crushed [literally, “out of shortness of breath”] and their bondage cruel [literally, “out of difficult labor”]” (Exodus 6:9). wo factors stood in their way. “Their spirits were crushed.” In Otto Rank’s terms, their “will” was crippled. They could not dream, they could not plan, and they could not utilize their creativity. In no way could they “get things done” in their lives. A person without will is a person paralyzed. Such a person cannot transition from slavery to freedom. See Weinreb on page 22

A challenge of Vaera: Are we truly free agents? from heart of Jerusalem

Rabbi binny fReeDMan

Jewish Star columnist

recall an incredible series of coincidences that to me were nothing short of miraculous. A student had been desperate to speak with me, and we finally managed to connect in New York the day before I was scheduled to return to Israel. The student knew a woman who had been going through a very difficult time for nearly eight years, as her husband had left her but could not be found. Thus she was an agunah, unable to receive a Get and unable to remarry. Jewish tradi-

tion considers efforts to free a woman of such circumstances a mitzvah of the highest order, so naturally I said would do everything I could, though having no idea how I would be able to make any headway under the circumstances. The husband was living in Israel, but had not been heard from in nearly five years. However, based on the story, and the description of the individuals who might know where the husband was currently residing, I immediately thought of a fellow who might know one of the individuals who might be able to find this recalcitrant husband. I had not seen the fellow I was thinking of in nearly 15 years, since my army days, and had no idea how on earth I would find him, but I promised I would try.

The next day, as we were boarding the plane to Israel, I was shocked to see this very same fellow, with whom I had long since lost contact, boarding my flight with his family! As we spoke during the flight he began to laugh — because the missing husband was also on this very same flight, seated one row behind me! (My friend was eventually able to help facilitate a Jewish divorce, freeing this woman to re-marry.) o we really have the freedom to choose and make our own decisions in life, or are we just pawns in some larger plan? Are we surrounded by miracles, or does nature simply take its course? This question, perhaps, is one of the challenges of this week’s parsha, Vaera. The story of the Exodus is a classic that we all grew up with. Back then, it seems, it was

so much simpler: there were the good guys and the bad guys, and when Moses and Aaron squared off against Pharaoh and the evil empire of Egypt, you never had any trouble with who you were supposed to be rooting for. After all, Pharaoh was the villain everyone loves to hate, right? But a closer look suggests that the choices Pharaoh and the Egyptians made to enslave the Jewish people in the first place were not really their own free choice, because way back in the time of Abraham, G-d tells Abraham that he should know that “your offspring shall be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved, and made to suffer” (Bereishis 15:13). See Freedman on page 22

‘Nitzutz HaYehudi’ is the Jew’s eternal spark torah

Rabbi DaviD etenGoff

Jewish Star columnist

ur Sages maintain that Hashem performed ten miracles for our forefathers in Egypt. The Rambam, Rabbeinu Yonah and the Ritva interpret this statement as referring to the ten Makkot. Pharoah is warned in our parasha, Vaera, that if he refuses to let our ancestors go and serve the Almighty, G-d “will incite against you and against your servants and against your people and … the houses of Egypt will be filled with the arov.” Arov connotes a mixture of some kind, but the text does not reveal its composition. This leads Rashi to suggest that it includes “all species of

wild beasts, snakes, and scorpions in a mixture, and these played havoc among them.’ The Rav explores the first three havdalot in tefilat Havdalah: the separations that obtain between the holy and profane, light and darkness, and between the Jewish people and the nations of the world. While at first glance they may appear to be similar, the Rav notes that there is a fundamental difference between them. The havdalah between light and darkness is clear for all to perceive — even animals and plants respond to these stimuli. This is not the case, however, regarding the distinction between kodesh and chol — “The eye cannot perceive this havdalah. A person needs to have special intuition, to see with his heart, as this separation can only be sensed.” ccording to the Rav, the havdalah between the Jewish people and the nations of the world shares elements of the first

two havdalot, that become fully actualized through holiness: — “When Jews keep the commandments, when they live their lives as a holy nation, the contrast between Israel and the nations becomes evident to all. When the Jew abandons G-d, however, no longer is there obvious evidence of havdalah.” The Rav adds that this should not lead to a loss of hope, for even when our people have turned away from the Almighty, the connection between ourselves and the Holy One blessed be He remains eternal: “Yet as mired in sin as the Jew may be, deep in the Jewish soul there remains something holy and mysterious, which can neither be erased nor destroyed.” What is this holy and mysterious entity that remains deep in the Jewish soul? It is the pintele Yid, the nitzutz haYehudi, the eternally burning spark that can never be extinguished, no matter how far a Jew may drift away from

Hashem, the Torah and the mitzvot. Chazal note in a variety of midrashim and kabbalistic sources, that both the Egyptians and the Jewish people at this time were idol worshippers. As the Rav explains, however, even though “one could barely perceive a contrast between them…the Master of the Universe indeed separated between them.” He did this because, “He discerned holiness in the soul, which was profane and full of sin, and therefore saved His people.” May the time come soon, and in our time, when the nitzutz haYehudi will burn bright as the sun in the souls of us all, and may Hashem bring us back to Him b’ahavah rabbah, in great love. As Yirmiyahu the prophet said so long ago: “Hashiveinu Hashem alecha v’nashuvah, chadeish yameinu k’kedem. Cause us to come back to You, Hashem, and we will return! Renew our days as of old.”

The world’s longest hatred, ‘A Lethal Obsession’ Kosher bookworm

alan Jay GeRbeR

Jewish Star columnist

t over 1,000 pages, “A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad” (Random House, 2010) does not lend itself to a quick read. Nevertheless, due to this large tome’s exquisite organization I am able to select several facets of this work to bring to your attention. Each self-contained chapter treats a different element of the history of anti-Semitism as a unique situation in world history. Taken together, the 25 chapters make for a detailed history of the world’s longest surviving hatred. The author, Dr. Robert Wistrich, is a profes-

sor of history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He has authored twenty scholarly works on the study of Jew-hatred ranging from its genesis to its ideological base. This book brings his previous works chronologically up to date and fine-tunes the latest historical detail. This essay will bring to your attention Wistrich’s treatment of the role that Marxist and Communist ideology and their cognate personalities played in the enhancement of the hatred of the Jewish people. In two chapters, “Between Marx and Stalin” and “The Soviet War Against Zion,” the author details the rancid bigotry that went into the actions, ideology and politics governing these so-called equalitarian movements. Wistrich makes clear that these movements were in reality based upon the most crass versions of bigotry in human history. These totalitarian movements along with their ideological twin, Fascism, would result in

the murder of over six million of our people and the subjugation of millions of others both spiritually and physically. In addition, within the political and diplomatic sphere, the Communist threat to Israel led to the establishment of a false Palestinian nationalism. The PLO was initially formed as a satellite of the Soviet Empire and a subvention of the international Communist apparatus. This fact haunts us to this day. imply put, had it not been for Communism there would be no Palestinian military threat to Israel today. All this is placed in sharp contrast to other historical developments that, in turn, helped compromise the legitimacy of the Jewish nationalist cause and undermine the Jewish state in world affairs. This is just one facet of the book’s scholarship. Future reviews will expand upon other

facts dealing with the history of anti-Semitism, including the European and the Islamic roles in the expansion of anti-Semitism as a weapon to destroy Western civilization. In considering the above, may I suggest that you consult the author’s previous work, “The Longest Hatred,” as well as the video of the same name. They serve as an apt introduction to this work. Taken together, these works are among the best in this field of study and Wistrich is among the leading interpreters of this insidious hatred. Originally published in 2010.

THE JEWISH STAR January 12, 2024 • 2 Shevat 5784

Thinking, and rethinking, both work and will

January 12, 2024 • 2 Shevat 5784 THE JEWISH STAR

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Let’s confront real root of Jew-hating protests Jonathan S. tobin

JnS Editor-in-Chief

e could look at it as just another day in New York, where protests on behalf of one cause or another have been part of the culture of the place for more than a century. But the organized effort to snarl traffic with demonstrations blocking a tunnel and three major bridges by people chanting support for the killing of Jews ought to be treated as more than just another day in Gotham. The answer as to why this is happening is linked to recent controversies about college presidents who had trouble deciding whether advocacy for the genocide of Jews violates their academic institutions’ rules of conduct. Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, there has been an epidemic of antisemitic incidents throughout North America. Jewish businesses and even Jewish neighborhoods have been targeted for boycotts or harassment. Jewish students are harassed and heckled with vicious antisemitic taunts, most recently during a high school basketball game. •The people committing these antisemitic actions are not right-wing extremists, neo-Nazis or members of the Ku Klux Klan — groups that Jews have long feared and whose existence was highlighted by the 2017 “Unite the Right” violence in Charlottesville, Va., as well as the synagogue shootings in Pittsburgh in 2018 and Poway, Calif., in 2019. •Instead, so-called “progressives” are the ones engaged in behavior that seeks, at the very least, to silence and drive Jews from the public square unless they are prepared to join with those opposing efforts to defeat genocidal antiJewish terrorists. The reason for this is no secret. The pervasive influence of intersectional and critical race theory (CRT) teachings, coupled with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), is the cause. These

Their goal is Hamas’ goal: the destruction of the only Jewish state, which can only be accomplished by the genocide of the Jewish people.

toxic ideas divide the world into two immutable groups: white oppressors and people of color, who are always the victims. It has created an atmosphere in which people who think of themselves as enlightened liberals think it is acceptable to single out Jews for opprobrium and ill-treatment because the woke catechism that is their secular faith falsely labels Israel and the Jewish people as “white” oppressors. The side whose goal is to destroy the Jewish state and slaughter its people are considered the victims, not terrorists who must be defeated rather than appeased.

Protest or terrorism?

While the New York Times referred to it as a “pro-Palestinian protest,” those who shut down the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges, as well as the Holland Tunnel, on Jan. 8 — effectively preventing vehicular access to Lower Manhattan during a traffic-heavy Monday morning — were doing more than demonstrating support for a cause or inconveniencing tens of thousands of people. They were effectively holding a city hostage and creating circumstances that might have led to the loss of life had there been an emergency of any sort during the two hours they blocked these arteries on which the city’s economy and normal life depend. That, in of itself, ought to dictate that those involved — 135 of them were arrested by the New York Police Department, which struggled to regain control of the situation for hours — would be subject to serious punishment. But there is an aggravating factor that also ought to be taken into account. They and their apologists claim that they are only doing this to show New Yorkers what Gazans are allegedly experiencing during the war begun by Hamas by the Oct. 7 atrocities. While blocking traffic, they were also voicing chants that were a thinly veiled call for more terrorist attacks on Jews, both in Israel and around the world. That’s what the “long live intifada” and “globalize intifada” slogans heard at these and other “pro-Palestinian” protests mean. Along with the “from the river to the sea” chant, this is ample evidence that what was going on was an antisemitic protest carried on by a coalition of groups, including some like Jewish Voice for Peace that pose as Jewish, which make no secret about the fact that they share a goal with the Hamas terrorists: the destruction of the one Jewish state on the planet. It’s also a goal that can only be accomplished by the genocide of the Jewish people. That ought to mean that such protests would be treated as hate crimes or at least prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Unfortunately, it’s likely those involved will — like those involved in other recent protests in what they themselves describe as an effort to “flood” various sites, a reference to the “Al-Aqsa flood,” the name Hamas gave its orgy of murder, rape, torture and kidnapping — get the usual

Facing a House of Representatives committee, from left: Harvard’s Claudine Gay, University of Pennsylvania’s Elizabeth Magill, American University’s Pamela Nadell, and MIT’s Sally Kornbluth, on Dec. 5, 2023. House Committee on Education and the Workforce

slap on the wrist that weary city officials have given to most demonstrators in recent memory. Much like the crowds that participated in the “mostly peaceful” protests in the summer of 2020, the antisemitic traffic disruptors will likely get off scot-free. In the Black Lives Matter riots, many of those who assaulted cops, destroyed property and looted stores went largely unpunished. Indeed, the Times referred to what happened at the bridges and the tunnel as “peaceful.”

Prejudicial double standards

But just imagine if three New York City bridges and a tunnel were similarly shut down by MAGA red-cap-wearing supporters of former President Donald Trump, protesting efforts to prosecute or throw him off the 2024 presidential ballot. They would almost certainly be labeled as “insurrectionists” and deemed by the US Department of Justice to be “domestic terrorists” whose tactics were a threat of civil disorder not to be tolerated. And the treatment they’d get from authorities would be harsh. But because endangering New Yorkers while calling for the death of Jews is treated by the chattering classes as merely exercising free speech about a topic on which reasonable people ought to agree to disagree, the protesters will likely be free to terrorize some other thoroughfare as soon as they like. Similar incidents have happened elsewhere in the country, with highways blocked and businesses that the “pro-Palestinians” associate with the Jewish community subjected to harassment with few, if any, repercussions for those engaged in this conduct. In Toronto, Canada, “pro-Palestinian” demonstrators were even less subtle about their antisemitism. They have been blocking traffic on a highway bridge in a Jewish neighborhood, causing not just inconvenience but creating an

atmosphere of intimidation for its residents. Yet rather than throw these people in jail, the police brought them coffee and doughnuts in a vain effort to “manage” the situation rather than restore public order. To put that into perspective, this outrage is taking place in a country in which truckers protesting COVID-19 policies by parking their vehicles paralyzing traffic in the capital of Ottawa in what they called a “freedom convoy” were treated as insurrectionists. Their bank accounts and those of their supporters were frozen, and their leaders are being tried now on a variety of charges that could land them in prison, even while pro-Hamas protestors were given kidgloves treatment in the same city. It’s all part of the same mindset that led to girls from Leffell, a private Jewish high school in Hartsdale, withdrawing from a basketball game being played in Yonkers against Roosevelt High School, a college-prep magnet school, after they were repeatedly subjected to antisemitic taunts and rough play by their opponents. •One Roosevelt player screamed at the Lefell players, “I support Hamas, you f**king Jew.” Roosevelt forfeited the game. One player was suspended a day later, and the coach was fired. •But again, just imagine, if one of the Jewish girls or any non-minority had yelled, “I support the Klan” at an African-American player. It would have made the front page of the Times and become a national cause-célèbre. But as of this writing, the Times has yet to even acknowledge it in much the same manner that it was late to account for the that took place in a Queens high school that targeted a pro-Israel teacher. hese incidents and the growing total of opinion surveys that point to a spike in antisemitic attitudes are not just a result of indoctrination in the intersectional lie about the See Tobin on page 22

Viewpoint

Ben COHen

f you thought the sordid row in 2017 over the contention that women who support Israel have no place in the feminist movement was a low point for the far left, you might want to reconsider that view. Daniel Jadue is the mayor of the Recoleta district in the Chilean capital of Santiago. A product of Chile’s Palestinian community — numbering 300,000, they compose the largest Palestinian diaspora outside of the Middle East — he was the Chilean Communist Party’s candidate in the 2021 presidential election that was eventually won by another far-left contender with equally extreme anti-Zionist credentials, Gabriel Boric. Last week, Jadue delivered a speech at an event in Santiago to launch a screed titled “Zionism: The Ideology of Extermination” by a writer named Pablo Jofré, who contributes to HispanTV, the Iranian regime’s Spanish-language broadcaster, and Russia Today, the official broadcaster of Vladimir Putin’s dictatorship. The title of Jofré’s offering conjures unpleasant memories of the stream of books and pamphlets published at the height of the Soviet Union’s antisemitic campaign with such titles as “Beware: Zionism!” Jadue’s target on the evening in question wasn’t Zionism or its followers, however. Eschewing the code words of the pro-Hamas left, he spoke unambiguously about Jews.

‘The Jews are our misfortune!’ the Nazis used to whine. That slogan now belongs to the far left.

“For me, it is a contradiction to be on the left and assume yourself Jewish, because being Jewish is part of a conception that has to do with a supremacist conception of being part of a chosen people,” he stated. “So if you are already part of a chosen people, you do not believe in the equality of all human beings before anything, right?” He then went on to add the observation, with regard to Zionism, that “we are dealing here with an ideology that is the most Nazi that I have seen in my life.” More Nazi, apparently, than the Nazis themselves. he reaction to Jadue, at least from Chile’s small Jewish community of 16,000, was swift and harsh. Two veteran members of the Communist Party, both Jews, issued a wounded statement reminding him of the number of struggles and campaigns he had participated in alongside Jewish comrades. “The Communist Party of Chile is proud of having had in its ranks many people of Jewish origin who, in some cases, gave their lives for the noble cause they supported throughout their lives,” they said. A separate statement signed by more than 200 Jewish leftists accused Jadue of displaying “manifest conceptual ignorance and intellectual poverty” in an attempt “to erase the historical contribution that Jews have made for centuries … in the fight for a more humane, just, and united world.” Asserting that their left-wing stances are anchored in Jewish values, the group also charged that Jadue was legitimizing the wave of antisemitism that has not spared Chile just as it hasn’t spared other countries. Meanwhile, an opinion piece in the Chilean daily El Mostrador (titled “Comrade Daniel Jadue, Shalom!”) asserted that Jadue’s comments had regurgitated classic antisemitic tropes about Jews. “Jadue does not need to be reminded that there are left-wing Jews. What he seeks, as part of the more traditional antisemitic thinking, is to create a division between ‘good’ Jews and ‘bad’ Jews,” wrote the author of the piece, Professor Daniel Chernilo, who teaches in the government department of the Adolfo Ibáñez University in Santiago. “Both were present in medieval Christianity: while the good decided to convert to Catholicism — out

Daniel Jadue in 2015.

Nacionales via WikiCommons

of fear, conviction, or strategy — the latter stubbornly maintained their religious practices.” Jadue has remained unrepentant, asserting that his invocation of Nazism was not a slight against left-wing Jews, only Zionist ideology as distorted and defamed by his friend Jofré! Anyone familiar with his record will know that this is hardly surprising. In 2020, the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) included him on its list of the top 10 antisemites of that year, citing his inflammatory statements against Chile’s Jewish leaders (“agents of Israel”) and provocative comments (“I get along very well with Jews; it’s Zionists I have a problem with”). ctually, Jadue has a problem with Jews qua Jews, as his comments at the Santiago event made painfully clear. It should also be remembered that in 2021 — when Jadue spent much of the year as the Chilean Communist Party’s frontrunning candidate for the presidency before being edged out by Boric — he was the subject of a parliamentary resolution that condemned him as an antisemite. The trigger was the emergence of Jadue’s high school yearbook, which contained an en-

try, written in a humorous and affectionate style by Jadue’s fellow students, noting his desire to “cleanse the city of Jews” and suggesting that a suitable gift would be “a Jew for him to use as target practice.” Yet the problem is bigger than just Jadue himself. The aftermath of the Oct. 7 pogrom in southern Israel carried out by the rapists and murderers of Hamas has bolstered the dehumanization of Jews and Israelis on the far left, a process that was already underway across more than two decades. In this milieu, Jews are seen as “colonists” who have stolen the land of the indigenous Palestinians in the name of a racist, supremacist ideology. Victims of the Hamas atrocities, including the untold number of women who were raped, are dismissed as having fabricated their recollections of what happened. As Chernilo outlined in his opinion piece, more traditional antisemitic tropes are easily imported into such discourse, leaving its audience, and especially its uninitiated members, with the abiding belief that Jews are not so much a people as they are a destructive cabal. “The Jews are our misfortune!” the Nazis used to whine; that slogan now belongs to the far left. Jadue’s words also tap into an older tradition of Communist antisemitism. Karl Marx, the founder of communism, famously argued in favor of Jewish emancipation on the grounds that this was the equivalent of the “emancipation of society from Judaism.” His argument was that the advent of capitalism had preserved the Jews in an economic role as moneylenders and bankers (“hucksters” was his phrase). Once socialism was installed, he maintained, there would be no need for a separate community identified as “Jews.” We had hoped such noxious ideas had been left behind in the 20th century. In the last three months, they have returned with a vengeance. Right now, Jadue may seem like an extreme example, but he can equally be regarded as an early adopter of an ideology combining antisemitism with a loathing of Zionism that is increasingly prevalent on a political left less and less concerned with being tarred as antisemitic.

It’s time we get nasty with Israel’s key critics Benjamin Kerstein

s the storm of blood libels continues apace and Israel’s detractors shriek their usual blizzard of clichés about civilian casualties, settler-colonialism, apartheid and so on, many of us are yet again forced to wonder why Israel so rarely gets a fair hearing. The problem is not a new one. For decades, the media, academia and the activist industry have adopted the most radical tropes of Palestinian ultra-nationalism and dressed them up as universalist humanitarianism. Against the relentless bias of this anti-Israel establishment, supporters of Israel often feel frustratingly helpless. There is a tendency to blame Israel for this and lament that it is very bad at what is variously called hasbara, public diplomacy or just PR. It feels as if the Jewish state is constantly outfoxed by genius Palestinian propagandists.

If the public knew the details of the Palestinians’ genocidal racism, it might think Israel has a point.

This prompts the question: Why is Israel so bad at making its case? Israel isn’t all that bad at it. Certainly, it is better at it than its enemies. Generally, Palestinian propaganda is terrible: crude, obvious, bloviating, blatantly dishonest and often straightforwardly racist and genocidal. Israel may have a PR problem, but its enemies are hardly media savants. In fact, the reason Israel has a problem making its case is that its case is not permitted to be heard. Israel could come up with the most brilliant public relations campaign in history and it would still be ignored by the media, silenced on campus, drowned out by armies of bots and professional haters online, demonized by activists and NGOs, and ultimately consigned to the memory hole. The best lawyer in the world cannot defend his client if the judge tells him to shut up. This is a structural and political problem. The anti-Israel establishment is fervently dedicated to the most extreme forms of progressivism and, thanks to the howling mobs of demented Hamas supporters who recently polluted the streets of America and Europe, we now know what this progressivism thinks of Israel and of the Jews in general. he establishment silences Israel and its supporters for obvious reasons. It knows that if the public knew the details of the Palestinians’ genocidal racism, their century-long legacy of unspeakable atrocities and Israel’s inherent geographic vulnerability, it might think Israel has something of a point. It is better to silence Israel and let people conclude that Israel is killing Palestinians for no reason at all. This is connected to a much larger issue. For

the most part, progressivism’s approach to any information that might cast doubt on its rectitude is to silence it. While there are noble exceptions, progressivism today operates very much like a cult that not only suppresses heresy but prevents its members from knowing that heresy even exists. This is not new either. It is a totalitarian culture of intellectual paranoia that I remember from my childhood in a very progressive American suburb. When we were growing up, we did not just oppose conservatism, we could not understand how anyone could be conservative. The existence of a rival point of view was incomprehensible to us. The reason was that we had never heard a single conservative argument. We were taught, for example, about the evils of McCarthyism, but not that Soviet intelligence had successfully infiltrated parts of the US government during the 1930s and ’40s. Had we known this, we might have concluded that, whether or not Sen. Joseph McCarthy was a monster — and, in many ways, he was — the “Red Scare” had at least some basis in reality. Instead, as was intended, we saw McCarthyism as nothing more than a satanic force erupting out of America’s corrupted psyche. iven this strategic imposition of silence, the most important question is how can Israel counter it. The answer is invective. Israel should start calling the anti-Israel establishment what it is: racist, chauvinist, pro-terrorist, corrupt, derelict, unprofessional, mendacious and nihilistic. In other words, attack the ambush. There are two good reasons to think this might work: •First, an establishment that has enjoyed near-total impunity for years is unused to losing

it. It can handle critics so long as they show proper deference to its members’ power and rectitude. A critic who does not, however, throws them into paroxysms of fear and loathing in which they, almost without fail, make fools of themselves. This is fatal to any establishment. The halo effect can survive many things, but it cannot survive laughter. •Second, nongovernmental establishments have very particular neuroses. George Orwell once noted, “Despotic governments can stand ‘moral force’ till the cows come home; what they fear is physical force.” The reverse is true of a nongovernmental establishment. It does not care about physical force, because it can always fall back on government protection or proclamations of martyrdom. It very much does care about moral force, because an establishment’s power is predicated on the “noble lie” that it deserves that power. This is why the members of almost all establishments, of whatever political bias, tend to consider themselves something like a caste of saints composed of the finest and most moral people who have ever lived. Saints don’t deal well with being told that they are not particularly saintly. It is not certain, of course, that any of this will work. What is certain is that Israel has put up with quite enough from these people. Reasonableness and respect have not worked, nor do the members of the anti-Israel establishment deserve them. Direct confrontation might at least shame them into acting with some measure of decency. If it does not, it will nonetheless leave them looking very silly. That, in itself, is a kind of victory.

THE JEWISH STAR January 12, 2024 • 2 Shevat 5784

Chile’s Jew-hating Jadue speaks for the world

January 12, 2024 • 2 Shevat 5784 THE JEWISH STAR

Lies behind push to colonize Jewish history YOnIna PRITZKeR educator

he history of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel did not begin in 1948, as those who want to erase Jewish history and the Jewish connection to Israel would have us believe. In fact, Jews have been living in their ancestral homeland continuously since antiquity. Throughout that long history, there have been adversaries who attempted to drive the Jewish people out of their land, such as when the Babylonians destroyed the First Temple in 586 BCE. Those exiled as a result sang, “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat; we also wept when we remembered Zion” (Psalm 137). The Romans also attempted to drive out the Jewish people when they destroyed the Second Temple in 70 CE. Images of the ancient Roman looters can still be seen in Rome today, carved on the Arch of Titus. Many more conquerors have tried to incorpo-

rate the Land of Israel into their own territories, including Persian, Greek, Byzantine, Umayyad, Abbasid, Crusader, Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman conquerors. Yet Israel has always been the sovereign country of the Jewish people alone. This ancient bond between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel has been universally acknowledged for thousands of years, including in recent centuries. n 1830, the governor of Damascus, writing of the Jewish connection to the Matriarch Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem, instructed the Mufti of Jerusalem that “they [the Jews] are accustomed to visit it from ancient days — and no one is permitted to prevent them or oppose them [from doing] this.” Similarly, in 1919, Emir Faisal ibn Hussein, later King Faisal of Iraq, wrote a letter to Prof. Felix Frankfurter, later an associate justice of the US Supreme Court, stating: “I want to take this opportunity of my first contact with American Zionists to tell you what I have often been able to say to Dr. [Chaim] Weizmann. … We feel that the Arabs and Jews are cousins in having suffered similar See Pritzker on page 22

Francesco Hayez’s 1867 oil on canvas painting “The Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem” at Venice’s Gallerie dell’Accademia. Francesco Hayez via WikiCommons

Israel’s trick is balancing security and values URI PILICHOWSKI

wo months before the Oct. 7 massacre, two families and their assorted guests sat around a Shabbat table in Herzliya discussing Israel’s values and priorities. A heated discussion between a left-wing scholar and a young right-wing IDF commander, both strong Zionists, ensued. The left-wing Zionist began the discussion by explaining the importance of values to Zionism and the State of Israel: Israel isn’t meant to be a nation like all other nations. It was designed to play a unique role, to be a light unto the nations. It is supposed to uphold the highest moral standards, to go even farther than the demands of international law. If any other nation holds Israel to a double standard, it is antisemitism; but the Jews should hold their leaders, soldiers and people to their own double standard. The scholar admitted that this isn’t easy. Keeping to the highest standards requires sacrifice. When opportunities present themselves, the na-

Israeli reserve soldiers take part in a war drill in the Golan Heights on Dec. 7.

tion can’t act like all other nations and jump at the chance. It has to judge whether the opportunity is consistent with the nation’s values. They then said, if Israel is truly a nation of values, those values and the sacrifices they entail must extend to the battlefield. There will be times when Israel has to sacrifice battlefield victory and put its soldiers at greater risk to ensure moral integrity. The young IDF commander waited patiently for the left-wing scholar to finish their statement on the importance of values, calmy and respectfully holding his tongue; but when it was his turn to speak, he spoke with fiery passion: He had been

Ayal Margolin, Flash90

tested in battle against Israel’s enemies. His experience of the threats Israel faces wasn’t through headlines but in face-to-face combat with evil men who had tried to kill him and his soldiers. To him, security isn’t an abstract concept to be discussed at the Shabbat table. Real discussions of Israel’s security are those in which missions to hunt terrorists are planned in armored vehicles waiting outside the theater of operations. He did not appreciate Israel’s security being relegated to second place on anyone’s list. Israel, he said, faces actual enemies who are dead set on destroying it and wiping out her

people. This isn’t some theoretical issue for the classroom or think tanks. Israel’s enemies are real and, given the chance, would kill as many Israelis as possible. Nothing, he argued, can take priority over Israel’s security, because the minute Israel takes its eyes off its security, its enemies will rise up and take advantage of the opportunity to ravage the Jewish people and their state. He said that he understood the importance of keeping to the highest moral standards, especially on the battlefield. He explained that he was taught the rules of war as part of his training. He was well aware of what is permitted and what is forbidden. He knew the steps the IDF takes to ensure its morality. He didn’t disagree with any of the army’s policies on this issue; but he did disagree with imposing an impossible moral standard on Israel that could damage the security and safety of his soldiers and the Jewish people. Without a guarantee of Israel’s security, all discussions of morality are simply abstract thought experiments. The dinner came to a close. In only a few hours, alarms would ring to wake everyone up for morning services. The participants wished each other “Shabbat shalom.” Everyone had been given a great deal to think about. Two months later, the war in Gaza broke out.

Are protesters pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel? jameS SInKInSOn FLame

hose who claim to support the Palestinian Arabs in fact do precious little to help them. The plight of the Palestinians globally — such as the denial of civil rights by their own dictators, withholding of citizenship rights by other Arab nations and the murder of thousands of Palestinians by their Arab brethren — is largely ignored by Western leftists. Where were demonstrations opposing the “occupation” of “Palestinian” lands when Jordan seized Judea and Samaria (aka “the West Bank”) and Egypt took over the Gaza Strip following Israel’s War of Independence in 1948? Where are groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today when both Palestinian dictatorships — the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria, and Hamas in Gaza — ruthlessly oppress their people, denying them virtually all basic human rights and civil liberties?

Do any “progressives” protest the treatment of Palestinians by Arab states, where they are denied citizenship, restricted from many professions and have repeatedly been massacred and deported? Do feminists or gay activists on college campuses rail against the mistreatment of women or the LGBTQ+ community by Palestinian rulers or Arab society generally? Why not? The reality is, those who call themselves proPalestinian exclusively attack Israel — leveling false accusations against the world’s only Jewish state and the Middle East’s only democracy. Indeed, Israel is the region’s only nation where Arabs are granted not only citizenship and full equality under law, but also enjoy greater economic opportunity than most all other Arabs. Israel also provides significant material support to Palestinians who are not Israeli citizens — including healthcare, water, electricity, employment. Tragically, the only reason Palestinians get so much lip service (and not much more) from the Western left is precisely because they consider Israel — rather than Arab antagonists of the Palestinians — their archenemy. The cause of the hypocrisy is a perverse blend of neo-Marxism and classic antisemitism. Leftists did not protest between 1948 and

An anti-Israel demonstration in San Francisco in 2021. Raphaël Vinot, WikiCommons

1967 when Jordan occupied Judea and Samaria and Egypt ruled Gaza, even though the international community declined to recognize either annexation as legitimate. Neither Jordan nor Egypt even mentioned forming a Palestinian state, and in fact, not even the Palestinians demanded statehood from them. Curiously, it was only after the Six-Day War, when the Jews recaptured their ancient heartland in Judea and Samaria, that the Palestinians and the left screamed “occupation!” The Western left is almost completely silent about criminal human rights abuses committed by the Palestinian dictatorships. P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas is now in the 20th year of his four-

year presidency, and he has cancelled “national” Palestinian elections since 2006. In both the P.A. and Gaza, Palestinians are denied free speech, a free press, women’s independence and virtually all other civil liberties. Corruption in both dictatorships is rampant, and arbitrary arrest and torture are commonplace. Members of the LGBTQ+ community are ruthlessly persecuted and murdered. Yet leftist groups like Queers Against Israeli Apartheid ignore these outrages, and hypocritically criticize Israel — the only nation in the region where LGBTQ+ rights are respected. What explains this hypocrisy? “Pro-Palestinian” leftists pay virtually no attention to how Palestinians are treated in other Arab states. Palestinians in most Arab states have no citizenship or rights of any kind. In Lebanon, Palestinians are banned from 39 professions and confined to squalid refugee camps. It also seems not to faze progressives that Arab states have frequently subjected Palestinians to massacres and mass deportations. During the 1970-71 Black September revolt in Jordan, for example, the Hashemite regime killed 15,000 Palestinians and expelled 20,000. After the Gulf War in 1991, Kuwait expelled 200,000 Palestinians See Sinkinson on page 22

21 THE JEWISH STAR January 12, 2024 • 2 Shevat 5784

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Weinreb... Continued from page 17 Their “bondage was cruel.” Freud was correct that productive work was one of the “cornerstones of humanness.” Meaningful work nourishes the soul. But the work that the Jews were forced to do in Egypt was far from meaningful. Besides being physically tortuous, it was purposeless. Our Sages teach us that the labor that Egypt forced the Jews to do was not only unbearably strenuous; it was belittling and demeaning. Such work is poison for the soul, and a poisoned soul is not ready for redemption. Pharaoh knew all too well how to thwart the initiative of his slaves, how to assure that they would take no effective steps to attain their freedom. “Let heavier work be laid upon the men; let them keep at it and not pay attention to deceitful promises” (Exodus 5:9). Denied the access to their creative will and deprived of the rewards of meaningful work, the Jews were spiritually handicapped. They could not hear the words spoken to them by Moses — not because their hearing was impaired, but because they were spiritually deaf. Moses had his work cut out for him, and only with Divine assistance could he hope to advance his people to the point where they would be ready to hear the clarion call of incipient redemption. There is a lesson here for all of us. We too are deaf to G-d’s redemptive messages. Our spiritual condition is woefully inadequate to prepare us to hear higher callings. Rabbi Moses Chaim Luzzatto puts it so well in the second chapter of his Mesillat Yesharim: This is, in fact, one of the cunning artifices of the evil inclination, who always imposes upon men such strenuous tasks that they have no time left to note whither they are drifting. He knows that, if they were to pay the least attention to their conduct, they would at once reconsider what they were doing. … This ingenuity is somewhat like that of Pharaoh … for Pharaoh’s purpose was not only to prevent the Israelites from having any leisure to make plans or take counsel against him, but to deprive them also of the very opportunity to reflect. owadays, it is as if each of us has an “inner Pharaoh” whose malicious intent it is to entrap us into a lifestyle where we not only overwork, but where our work is unfulfilling and, therefore, spiritually unrewarding. This “inner Pharaoh” is also shrewd enough to know how to stunt that creative human will that is such an essential component of spirituality. Mankind’s struggle against “crushed spirits” and “cruel burdens” is a historical struggle, one that is certainly relevant in our times. There are obstacles to finding and defining a work-life that is meaningful. There are impediments to our ability to exercise our creative wills. But we must use whatever tools are at our disposal to lift those cruel burdens and free our crushed spirits. Those tools include introspective reflection, contemplation of pertinent religious texts, conversation with like-minded friends, and dialogue with experienced spiritual mentors. There are many practical lessons to be garnered from the story of the Exodus. Passover is, of course, the occasion on the calendar for reflecting upon that story. But at this wintry time of year, with the springtime Passover festival still long months away, a careful reading of the weekly Torah portion will serve to motivate us to strive to learn those lessons.

Freedman...

Continued from page 17 Since Hashem had already determined, far in advance, that the Jewish people would be enslaved in Egypt, how could the Egyptians then be held accountable for what they never chose to do? What was the purpose of this entire exercise? “Ve’Hirbeti Et Ototai, Ve’Et Moftai Be’Eretz Mitzraim (And I will multiply my signs and miracles in the land of Egypt)” (7:3). In other words, G-d wants to show off how

awesome He is, and that He can defeat the Egyptians time after time. But that is ridiculous! Are we meant to view this story as a battle between Egypt (or Pharaoh) and Hashem? Could anything be more absurd? Egypt could no more be G-d’s opponent than can my own pen begin to argue with the hand that holds it! Egypt is created by G-d, and serves Hashem’s purpose, so what is this all about? t the beginning of next week’s parsha, Bo, the Torah makes it abundantly clear: “For I have hardened Pharaoh’s heart … in order to place my signs in him (in his heart). And in order that you will tell over in the ears of your sons and your sons’ sons, that which I have done (“Hita’lalti”) in Egypt, and the signs that I have placed in them, and you will know that I am G-d.” (10:1-2) What then was the purpose of all the plagues? Certainly, G-d does not need to get Pharaoh’s permission to let the Jewish people go? And if the point was simply to free the Jewish people, then Hashem, in the blink of an eye, could simply transport them out of Egypt — no need for the entire Exodus story. Rashi (10:2) suggests that the word “Hita’lalti” does not mean that G-d performed miracles, but rather that through these signs G-d was actually ridiculing the Egyptians. (As in, for example, when Balaam suggests that his donkey is ridiculing him [Ki Hitalalt’ bi”] in Numbers 22:29). We live, to a degree, in a world of illusion. Once you accept that Hashem is the source of all reality, indeed is all reality, then why are miracles such a big deal? After all, if G-d runs the world, then the fact that He does miracles is only natural. And, more to the point, all of nature is really miraculous. bout two weeks after that remarkable incident allowing me to find that person on the plane, I happened to catch a ride with Rav Yehuda Amital ZTz”l, one of the great Torah scholars of our generation, (in whose yeshiva I was privileged to study), and I told him this story. His response, was: “Atah Mevi Li’ Ra’ayah She’HaKadosh Baruch Hu’ Manhig et Ha’Olam?” (“You are bringing me a proof that G-d runs the world?”) In other words, we seem to need such incredible stories to affirm that G-d is running the show, but in truth, every story, indeed every moment of every day, is as much an affirmation of G-d as any other. We think that there is nature, and then sometimes G-d performs miracles. But in truth, all of nature is miraculous, and one person’s natural occurrence is another person’s miracle. In the end, the greatest choice we have is how we choose to look at the world. And that freedom is what the entire story of the Exodus from Egypt is all about. In ten plagues, Hashem turns nature on its ear: water, the symbol of life in the Torah (and in which we immerse ourselves, in a mikveh, in response to contact with death) became blood, the symbol of death (hence the prohibition against partaking of the blood of even kosher animals). Fire and Water are mixed together in the plague of hail, and light and darkness exist together in the same place and time. Because nature is not a tool of G-d; rather, G-d is manifest in nature, G-d is the source of all of nature. Hence the verses proclaim: “And Egypt shall know that I am G-d” (7:5, 17; 8:19). “In order that you (Egypt) shall know that there is none like me in the Land.” (9:14). Ancient Egypt worshipped nature, as a tool of many gods. But Hashem meant to teach the world that nature is a manifestation of Hashem, if we could only learn to see. And this is perhaps our greatest challenge. We live in a world where we are surrounded with a constant stream of contention that tends to forget who really runs the world. The papers regularly declare what America will do, if Iran will do whatever it will do, and how Israel will react. But nowhere in the New York Times does it remember to suggest what G-d is doing. Incredibly, even today, after the bloodiest century in history, some people still view man as the pinnacle of creation. Thirty two hundred years ago, we were blessed to rediscover that in the end, our world depends first and foremost on how we choose to view it, and only then, on what we choose to do with it.

Tobin... Continued from page 18 Palestinian war to destroy Israel being analogous to the struggle for civil rights in the United States. It’s also a product of the mainstreaming of anti-Zionist invective and barely disguised prejudice against Jews in publications like the Times and the willingness of pop-culture outlets like the “Saturday Night Live” show to take the side of those justifying the advocacy of genocide of Jews rather than those calling it out. The problem is that the people who are committing the growing list of antisemitic acts on the streets and on college campuses are not part of a tiny radical fringe like the tiki-torch-bearing neo-Nazis who gathered in Charlottesville. These demonstrators are educated “progressives” who claim to support human rights and are often connected in one way or another to the elites who run the institutions of academia, the media, the arts and liberal politics. In other words, the new shock troops of antisemitism are people that liberal Jews are used to considering as allies. That’s why it is so hard for even groups such as the Anti-Defamation League, which is supposed to be protecting the Jewish community, to stop defending DEI policies that are behind this rise in antisemitism. Jews cannot afford to look away from the main cause of their current woes. Instead, they must focus on why it is that progressives think that Jews are the one minority group that can be discriminated against with impunity. The community needs to mobilize its resources and demand that political leaders start treating those who are carrying out these antisemitic hate crimes in the name of supposed sympathy for the Palestinians with the harshness they deserve. It must also insist that mainstream publications go back to treating anti-Zionism as a form of hatred against Jews. Only then can we hope to quell this dangerous surge of hate.

Pritzker...

Continued from page 20 oppressions at the hands of powers stronger than themselves.” Faisal stated that the Arabs “look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement” and would “do our best … to help them through: We will wish the Jews a most hearty welcome home.” He also acknowledged that “The Jewish movement is national and not imperialist. Our movement is national and not imperialist. … I look forward, and my people with me look forward, to a future in which we will help you and you will help us.” The Supreme Muslim Council also acknowledged the Jewish connection to the Land in a 1925 guide to the Temple Mount, which stated, “Its identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute.” This connection was also recognized by the world powers at the close of World War I. It was unanimously affirmed by the League of Nations and codified in international law that the Jews have an indigenous claim to all the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, including Gaza, as well as the Golan Heights and the land that comprises the country of Jordan. Nonetheless, we have seen countless attempts to strip the Jewish people of their land and to denigrate and even criminalize their presence in it. For example, almost immediately after the Jewish right to the land was recognized, the international representatives entrusted with facilitating the resettlement of Jews in the Land of Israel gave away 77% of it to create Jordan. The remaining 23% is precisely the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea about which people chant in the streets today, fabricating this land’s “occupation” by Israel. Previously, this tactic to erase Jewish history and replace the Jewish people by calling Israel a colonial, occupying enterprise would have shown the claimants to be either ignorant or deceitful. It would not have earned them a teaching position at our celebrated institutions of higher learning, where they have been able to mislead and indoctrinate a generation of students who have not

been taught actual history or critical thinking. Similarly disingenuous was United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres when he claimed that the massacre of Israelis and others in the pogrom of Oct. 7 had context because of Israel’s “occupation.” His statement was in direct contradiction of the UN charter, since the UN inherited the obligations of the League of Nations, including the reestablishment of the State of Israel on precisely that “occupied” land. We also see the word “occupation” deceptively applied to Israel in various newspapers and on other media platforms. We see it used by international leaders and elected officials who, at best, unthinkingly parrot these tired mantras about Israel and, at worst, are actively aiding in the effort to wrest the Jewish homeland away from the Jewish people by verbally rewriting history and denigrating the Jewish state. Had Israel’s neighbors offered it any kind of reciprocity, any acknowledgement of the rights of the Jewish nation to a sovereign state in its ancestral homeland, they would have planted the seeds of peace. Unfortunately, in the face of the current attempt to drive the Jewish people out of the Land of Israel, the Jews are once again forced to defend their history, heritage and home while the yearning and praying for peace continue.

Sinkinson...

Continued from page 20 because the PLO supported Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. At least 4,000 Palestinians were killed during the Syrian civil war. None of this stirred protest among the Western left, who only accuse Israel — with no basis in fact — of massacring and deporting Palestinians. Why the inconsistency? Focus on the Palestinians’ conflict with Israel is rooted in neo-Marxist critical race theory (CRT), which sees the world divided between oppressors and the oppressed. Of course, since Jews in the United States and Israel have achieved notable success—and because Jews are supposedly “white people” — they are by definition oppressors. This, notwithstanding the fact that Jews are the most frequent victims of hate crimes, and that Jews have historically been persecuted for not being white. CRT also ignores the reality that most Jews in Israel are people of color, with origins in Africa and the Middle East. This CRT bias bars the progressive left from acknowledging the remarkable rights and prosperity enjoyed by Israel’s two million Arab citizens. Unlike Palestinians in other Arab states, Arab Israelis enjoy full civil rights and equal opportunity. Unlike Palestinians in Lebanon, for example, Israeli Arabs can aspire to any career they want. Indeed, Israeli Arabs comprise 30% of the country’s doctors and 50% of its pharmacists even though they make up only about 20% of Israel’s population. Moreover, Arab Israelis have achieved wide success in government — as Members of the Knesset, cabinet ministers and Supreme Court Justices. An Arab party was part of Israel’s previous coalition government. In a triumph of antisemitic double standards over hard reality, Western leftists have the chutzpah to accuse Israel of practicing apartheid. Finally, Israel does more to improve the lives of Palestinians in Judea and Samaria and Gaza than any other entity. Israel supplies both electricity and water to the P.A. and Gaza. Until Oct. 7, Israelis provided tens of thousands of jobs — and some five billion dollars in revenue — to Palestinian workers. Thousands of Palestinians receive medical treatment in Israel. Most pro-Palestinian groups — like SJP and CAIR — provide no social benefits to Palestinians, who suffer brutal oppression and poverty under the P.A. and Hamas dictatorships. In truth, Western leftists ignore real Palestinian suffering unless they can blame Israel for it. They were silent when “Palestinian” land was occupied by Egypt and Jordan. They ignore the maltreatment of Palestinians by their iron-fisted rulers. They overlook massacres, deportation and torture of Palestinians by fellow Arabs. Above all, they refuse to acknowledge the exemplary treatment Palestinian Arabs receive from the Jewish state. The “pro-Palestinians” among the “progressive” left are not pro-Palestinian at all. They are simply anti-Israel and antisemitic.

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