The Jewish Star 01-19-2024

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January 19, 2024 9 Shevat 5784 • Bo • Vol 23, No 3

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To stop Jew-menacing hate, colleges must follow 4 rules DR. RACHEL FISH and AVIVA KLOMPAS

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merican universities have a history of dealing with campus unrest by waiting for their students to go home for break and hoping they return in a better mood. After a fall semester defined by tensions over the war between Israel and Hamas, and a resulting surge in antisemitism, such wishful thinking is not a viable strategy as classes resume for the spring semester and war continues to rage in Gaza.

The stakes are too high, what has been seen cannot be unseen, and world events may magnify tensions even more.

The problems on college campuses don’t require a “cooling off” period over winter break.

They require university leaders to do better.

Jewish students, parents and community leaders want to see higher education thrive and universities re-emerge as places that challenge students intellectually without endangering them physically or emotionally.

As war continues to rage in the Gaza Strip, that means university leaders must properly understand antisemitism, Zionism, national politics and how free speech operates within a democracy. Going further, that also means spreading their collective wings from an intellectual perspective — and returning to fundamentals from a moral one.

Here are four guiding principles that university leaders should embrace this semester.

They represent a more thoughtful strategy than wishful thinking.

5 Towns snowbirds, and their Rabbi

1. Stop debating what ‘antisemitism’ is.

Antisemitism in Jew-hatred. Let’s call it that.

The term “Antisemitismus” was coined in Germany in 1879 to give a respectable, scientific air to blaming Jewish people for economic and political injustice, and accusing them of double loyalties. It deliberately presented an alternative to the more commonly used, but less respectable, Judenhass, or “Jew-hatred.”

No matter what it’s called, hate does not belong on college campuses, regardless of what students or faculty think about Israel’s policies or the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The hate is real. A plurality of Jewish students said in November they do not feel safe on

Rabbi Shalom Axelrod of the Young Israel of Woodmere (back row, center, in dark suit) visited with more than 90 YIW members for a Lunch and Learn get together at Traditions South of Boca Raton, in Florida on Jan. 11. Rabbi Axelrod discussed the recent mission to Israel in which he participated.

their campuses.

•Last semester, some students had to seclude themselves in dorms and libraries for safety.

•Some were physically assaulted or cornered.

•Hillel Jewish centers were vandalized.

•Chanukah menorahs were defaced.

After Oct. 7, we saw anti-Zionists who want to deny the Jewish people’s right to self-deterSee 4 rules colleges must follow on page 2

Guiding young ‘influencers’ around Israel

Tourist kayaking on the Dead Sea in Israel.

Eliana Rudee

By Mike Wagenheim, JNS With the realization that the social-media pen is mighty like the sword, Yalla Israel brings social-media influencers to Israel to experience the Jewish state firsthand. The hope is that the influencers will portray Israel in a positive light to their large online followings.

The organization sponsors “VIP experiences” for those influencers with an average of 3 million followers across social-media platforms.

Some 100 have already participated.

“You’ll get the exclusive vacation that no one else can offer,” Yalla boasts on its website. “Experience unique fine dining by some of the world’s most famous chefs, limited access to archeological and historical sites and more.”

Yalla, which means “hurry up, “come on” or “let’s go” in Arabic, customizes itineraries in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, the Dead Sea, Eilat and more.

Since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas in southern Israel, it has brought all participants to the border with the Gaza Strip, so influencers can visit with families of those still being held hostage there.

See Influencers to Israel on page 2

4 rules colleges must follow to stop hate…

Continued from page 1 mination in their ancestral homeland use that “political” view as a guise for the very worst of Western traditions: targeting Jews.

Spending any more time debating the definition of this hate is a dangerous distraction from fighting it.

2. Don’t let hate become a political wedge issue.

When the presidents of Harvard, Penn and MIT fumbled their way through evasive answers about Jew-hatred on campus, the ensuing discussion should have focused on issues of morality, ethics, safety and legal rights. But since the setting was the US Capitol, much of the talk was about politics.

From Saturday Night Live to faculty lounges and Boards of Trustees, many were quick to frame the hearing as Republicans attacking higher education — conveniently ignoring the outrage from many Democrats — or as progressive campus leaders standing up to partisan bullies. (A similar narrative also framed Harvard president Claudine Gay’s resignation amid allegations of plagiarism.)

The conversation after the congressional hearings missed the point that Jew-hatred can come from every quarter and should never be normalized as part of a political debate.

If Jew-hatred is just another political prop in America’s culture wars, it will never be addressed.

3. Recognize when free

speech creates a hostile environment … for all groups.

During their congressional testimony, the presidents would not clearly answer a simple moral question: Is it OK to issue calls for genocide?

The answer is no, and always has been.

First Amendment protections provide no safe harbor for those who call for genocide or glorify terrorism. The legal underpinning of this truth is Title VI of the 1964 the Civil Rights Act, which limits speech in specific and limited instances when it constitutes harassment or discrimination.

•The US Department of Education gets this: It has launched an investigation of multiple campuses for creating a hostile environment for Jewish and Muslim students.

•Campus leaders sometimes get this: They have implemented codes of conduct that prohibit verbal harassment and have repeatedly condemned community members who voice racist homophobic, transphobic or Islamophobic views.

This spring they must apply the same standards to protect Jewish students and implement existing policies that hold their community accountable.

4. Recommit to

intellectual diversity.

On too many campuses, the default worldview now holds that race and power are the primary means through which we should understand the past and present. This worldview looks to Israel (and America) and sees nothing but a colonial foundation of racism, exploitation and stolen land.

Such postcolonial scholarship dehumanizes Jews and delegitimizes Israel.

Students must be taught to understand this may be a lens but is not the lens through which we look at the world. They need to recognize that history is far more messy and complicated than many critical theorists suggest it is.

Doing so requires academia to spread its

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We need a more thoughtful strategy than wishful thinking. intellectual wings — or at least not to get in the way of those who wish to do so.

It also means having the bravery to accept that academic integrity requires moral clarity. Rape, murder and hostage-taking are not “forms of resistance” against Jewish oppressors, as we heard on so many college campuses after Oct. 7.

They are evil.

The present call to reject antisemitism is therefore ultimately a call to recommit to universal human values.

Influencers to Israel…

Continued from page 1 Yalla Israel Co-Director Sarah Granof said the visitors have different approaches to and understanding of Israel.

“We have some influencers that have a Jewish friend that gives them a huge list, and they walk through 25 restaurants they want to go to and they’ve done the research on 75 sites,” she said. “Some of them are like, ‘I don’t really care. I’m expecting camels’.”

Yalla was founded in May 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, with funding from the Adelson Family Foundation and the Maccabee Task Force Foundation.

Participants post 100 times on social media on average during their trips, Yalla told JNS. That means that some share images, videos and text about Israel with millions who haven’t thought previously about the Jewish state at all, or at least not positively.

A former Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman and former speechwriter to Danny Danon when he was Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Granof was born in New Jersey and grew up in Chicago.

She met Uriel Dison, now co-director at Yalla Israel, while working with college students in 2020 to understand of campus antisemitism, especially that connected to anti-Israel sentiment.

“Students were getting their primary source of information and influence through social media, specifically the influencers they follow,” Granof said. That meant that those like Bella Hadid, the American model of Jordanian and Palestinian descent who often posts libelous anti-Israel content, “had an overwhelmingly strong voice,” she said Granoff spoke to JNS from Toronto, where she was visiting the TikTok star Josh Zilberberg at his parents’ home.

Zilberberg, who has 3.1 million TikTok followers and another 1.4 million followers on other social-media platforms, visited Israel in the summer of 2022 on a Yalla trip. His posts don’t tend to be about Judaism or Israel; still, he told JNS that it’s nice to have a platform where he can share pro-Israel content with those whom it wouldn’t otherwise reach.

“Growing up, I was always someone that connected to Israel. I grew up in the Jewish community,” he told JNS. He credited Granof with “allowing me to bridge my normal content style, which is my bread and butter and how I actually make my income, with being able to speak on something that I am so connected to and passionate about.” Granof helped him do that “in a way that maybe doesn’t feel so scary and has empowered me in times of conflict when I’m not immediately on the ground in Israel,” he said.

Dison, Granof’s co-director, told JNS that a key part of Yalla’s strategy is not to take people “from the base.”

Instead, it looks for influencers who have young, relatively progressive audiences of several million, and who are open-minded and excited to travel to Israel.

Zilberberg told JNS that different influencers work differently.

“When I have an idea, I pop my phone on a windowsill or in front of a light, and I film it right away. When I was there, I was like, this is perfect. I’m going to capture this. And within 15 minutes, it’s up.”

Others prefer long-form content that can go into editing and post-production. For all, Zilberberg said, the trip creates a bond.

“It really humanizes the country,” he said.

“It’s been a year and a half since I was there, and I’m in a group chat with five or six other major influencers that have visited Israel.”

“Whether they’re Jewish or not is irrelevant. Now they’re advocating and speaking for the Jewish people when they’re in danger,” he added.

Among the others whom Yalla has brought to Israel are actress and fashion model Torrey DeVitto; fitness influencer Sommer Ray; lifestyle influencer Racquel Natasha; and actor Noah Schnapp, all of whom have largely progressive audiences.

All are also posting pro-Israel and antiHamas material during the war.

Granot, Dison and Zilberberg have noticed a promising pattern among Yalla Israel’s influencers, who are posting more about Jewhatred as antisemitism has risen.

“When it’s time to speak up, they’re making more content and reaching eyes not only to show off the pretty beach in Tel Aviv or this cute restaurant where they got some falafel and hummus, but about how Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, and Hamas is a terrorist organization,” Zilberberg said.

It really humanizes the country.

Yalla Israel staff attempts to explain to the influencers the inevitable hate they will receive in some online comments based solely on taking a trip to Israel, and are available to answer questions about comments that they may be unsure how (or if) to respond to.

Some influencers even ask to post less as the trip goes on, affected by the vitriol directed their way. But the animus can often have the opposite effect.

“By the end of the trip, a lot of them get a little bit excited about the hate because they feel what antisemitism is like and the baseless hatred, and they don’t care so much,” said Dison. “Some of them even say it’s the most engaged they’ve ever been because they get thousands of comments, and the posts get to a lot more people. You win some, you lose some, but they do get a lot of love as well.”

For Yalla Israel, the dividends are focused not just on the immediate return of the trip and the exposure to cultural Israel for the influencers’ followers.

“You now have a friend of the country for life with a voice that reaches millions of people,” Zilberberg said.

That includes himself, who didn’t know Granof before he was invited to visit Israel.

When JNS spoke with the two, Zilberberg and Granof were planning a social strategy on how to advocate for Israel during wartime.

“I’m not someone that ever spoke about my Jewishness or my connection to Israel in the three years I had my platform,” he said. “But it’s 18 months after I met Sarah, and she’s in my mom’s kitchen.”

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By Eran Lerman The author, a former deputy director of the National Security Council, is vice president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies. s 2024 began, the Israeli war effort in the Gaza Strip changed in nature, with the focus shifting to the battles in the central and southern areas and to special forces operations against Hamas’ immense tunnel system. But the hostage situation remained unresolved, with 136 still held according to Israel’s count. The faces of the fallen continue to be at every Israeli doorstep and computer screen with the morning news.

Morale in the ranks of the fighting forces remains high, and the recognition that Hamas must be dismantled is still prevalent among the public at large. But at the same time, questions continue to be raised — in public and private discourse, in the traditional media, let alone in the busy and often bruising social networks — as to the ultimate purpose of the war and the direction in which the country is headed.

As a result, even though the end of the war is not yet in sight, the country is witnessing reawakened political debates about the legitimacy of the present government, about the proper priorities in pursuing the war and about the “day after” in Gaza. And ultimately, about the need to translate both the bitter lessons of Oct. 7, and the remarkable resilience shown by Israeli society in response, into a new national covenant and a transformed political reality.

Quite early on in the war, there were calls for Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to take full responsibility for the catastrophic failure of Oct. 7 and step down — which he refuses to do.

Moreover, in late October he attempted to put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the military and the intelligence services — for which he was forced to apologize. But his loyalists keep up the attacks on the “Deep State” (the military as well as the courts). For instance, one Likud Knesset member alleged that the IDF high command admitted to a terrible mistake in the Gaza war, in which three hostages were accidentally killed

by Israeli forces, with the deliberate intent of demoralizing the public and bringing about the end of the fighting.

As these tensions persist, they feed an ongoing rift between Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

•In March 2023, Netanyahu fired Gallant when he warned against growing security dangers, only to be reinstated due to massive public pressure. Continuing tensions between the two impede the formulation of long-term policy toward the Gaza Strip and “the day after.”

•In early January, Gallant briefed the media about his own ideas — an end to Hamas rule, a “multinational task force” and coalition for reconstruction, local Palestinian authorities playing a role, and Israel free to act to foil terrorist activities.

•A leaked clarification from the Prime Minister’s Office swiftly followed: No such plans have been taken up, let alone approved, by the Cabinet. or Netanyahu, moreover, the political danger is that any plan which implies that Gaza will not be under Israeli control would run afoul of his right-wing coalition partners, who openly advocate the migration of the present population and the rebuilding of Jewish settlements in Gaza. The underlying political rivalry thus becomes a direct obstacle to the adoption of any coherent plan capable of countering the increasing American pressure to bring in the hapless Palestinian Authority as the government in Gaza once the fighting ends.

For this and other reasons, many among those who led the judicial reform protests in the first nine months of 2023 are considering the option of taking to the streets again to force a government change; a few have already done so.

This significant political segment of Israeli society — on the left, center, and some even on the

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NEWS ANALYSIS right — is sometimes referred to as the “anyone but Bibi” camp (with the Hebrew acronym RLB “Rak Lo Bibi”).

The protesters were initially preoccupied with the war. Some of its leaders, such as Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, went south to fight on Oct. 7.

Others, calling themselves “Brothers in Arms,” set up supply centers or worked with those evacuated from their homes. Now some of them are speaking of taking to the streets again.

Political tensions have also seeped into the debate over the hostage situation. The Hamas leadership, from their shelters underground, demand an end to the war and an Israeli withdrawal, as well as the release of all security prisoners held by Israel — in other words, an Israeli defeat — before the release of the hostages.

Some of Netanyahu’s fiercest detractors are also raising the call — “Bring Them Home Now” — which explains why this, too, has taken on a political coloring, alongside the natural sentiment and sense of pain that all or most Israelis share as the agony of the hostages and their families endures.

Some of Israel’s most prominent political commentators write that they suspect that Netanyahu is prolonging the war — and refusing to accept Hamas’ terms — not on the strategic merits of the case but because he wants to put off the day of reckoning that is bound to come once the fighting ends. This accusation ignores the majority public support for the goal, also shared by the American administration, of dismantling Hamas.

But reason is not always the driving force, on both sides of the divide, when passions run high, and Netanyahu’s own conduct helped feed them.

What do Netanyahu’s detractors seek?

The need for unity as a lesson of Oct. 7 cuts both ways.

•Some are putting forward a demand for an early election, perhaps as early as May 2024 (which would require the Knesset to disband itself soon). They pin their hopes on the persistent polls which give the present coalition 20 seats less in the next Knesset, while Benny Gantz and his centrist party seem set to win and take power.

•Others would settle — as opposition leader Yair Lapid recently suggested — for the personal replacement of Netanyahu by another Likud leader in the present Knesset.

For any of these options to be realized, however, a significant number of Likud MKs would have to join the opposition in voting Netanyahu out. That’s not likely to happen, but the prospect keeps Netanyahu wary of any prominent or semiindependent voices within his own party. eanwhile, tempers are fraying on the right, within Likud as well as among the two hard-right factions that Netanyahu’s majority in the Knesset may depend upon: Religious Zionism, led by Betzalel Smotrich, and Jewish Power, led by Itamar Ben-Gvir (both came under direct criticism from the Biden administration and others around the globe for their advocacy of reducing the present population in Gaza via voluntary emigration).

They are also livid about Netanyahu’s decision to appoint former Chief Justice Aharon Barak to serve as the Israeli judge on the panel of the International Court of Justice, which is weighing South Africa’s accusation that the war in Gaza amounts to genocide.

Judge Barak is a bête noire of the right, portrayed as the architect of left-wing judicial activism. For the right, the selection of Barak indicates that Netanyahu has now given up on juSee Political divide’s back on page 8

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Hamas-love, Jew-hate at ‘March for Gaza’ in DC

By Andrew Bernard, JNS Speakers at a “March for Gaza” in Washington on Saturday promised that Israel would cease to exist and, to the cheers of thousands of attendees, accused President Joe Biden of supporting genocide against Palestinians.

Osama Abuirshaid, executive director of American Muslims for Palestine and the final speaker of the nearly four-hour event, promised that Palestine would be “victorious” and accused Biden of fueling Jew-hatred by supporting Israel.

“We’re not the antisemitics [sic] here,” he said. “It is you who are fueling antisemitism when you claim that Israel is the embodiment of Judaism, when you claim that the Israeli people are the embodiment of Jews. They’re not representatives of Jews.”

The demonstration, which drew tens of thousands of participants, rallied in Freedom Plaza and marched a couple of blocks to the White House.

Nine organizations, including Abuirshaid’s, co-sponsored the evenbt under the umbrella of the American Muslim Taskforce for Palestine.

“If Jews were being massacred the way the Palestinians are being massacred, wallah, I’d be standing here speaking on their behalf defending them,” Abuirshaid said. (Wallah is Arabic for “I swear by G-d.”)

Abuirshaid did not mention Hamas’ terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, which required Israel to defend itself. He concluded by promising to “dismantle” the Jewish state.

“Filistin will be free. Gaza will be victorious. We are not running away,” he said, using the Arabic for Palestine. “All

people will live in peace when Israel, in its current form, as a current structure, will cease to exist.”

Other speakers at the rally included 2024 presidential candidates Jill Stein (Green Party), a physician who last ran for president in 2016; Cornel West (Independent), professor emeritus at Princeton University; and Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink. The only elected officials to address the crowd were Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.) and Iman Jodeh, a Democratic Colorado state representative.

“It was a massive turnout, obviously,” said Dr. Mohsin Ansari, a pediatrician and president of the Islamic Circle of North America, one of the march’s organizers. “The majority of the American population, almost 65%, support a ceasefire right now,” he said. “They are against the policies of our current government.”

While some polls have shown significant popular US support for a ceasefire in general terms, other polling suggests that given a choice between an immediate ceasefire and a ceasefire only after Hamas is disarmed and dismantled, a strong plurality of Americans support the latter.

Given their large population in Michigan, a key swing state in the 2024 presidential election, Muslim-American voters may play an deciding role in choosing a president later this year.

Mohsin told JNS he thinks that MuslimAmerican opposition to Biden over his support for Israel increases the odds of former president Donald Trump’s reelection, but that doesn’t concern him.

“Biden should be worried about that. That’s his problem,” Mohsin said.

Scenes from Saturday’s “March for Gaza” in Washington.

“If he knows what is at stake, he should improve and he should listen to his voters. We all helped him to become the president, and he’s not ready to listen.”

Signs and conversations at Saturday’s rally indicated that attendees had come from as away as Seattle and Alabama.

While the Palestinian flag was the most common banner on display, other signs were also ubiquitous, including “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” (The crowd chanted

Andrew Bernard

that slogan frequently.)

Even more blatantly genocidal messages were chanted and displayed conspicuously at the event. One attendee, his face fully concealed by a keffiyeh, walked through the crowd waving the green banner of Hamas, greeted with cheers, including by a family with small children.

Another attendee waved a Palestinian flag with the face of Abu Obeida, the masked spokesman of Hamas.

At least one black jihadist flag,

most frequently associated with the U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization Al-Qaeda, was also visible in the crowd.

Over several hours, only a few unblemished American flags could be seen, as most were covered in fake blood. The flags of American antagonists, including the Islamic Republic of Iran, Cuba and Russia, were also visible.

Among the more obviously antiJewish signs was one carried by a womSee Hamas-love on page 8

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Continued from page 4 dicial reform. Indeed, the Supreme Court struck down (by the slim majority of 8 to 7) the one legislative act of the reform package passed thus far by the Knesset — a law forbidding the Supreme Court to use the standard of “reasonableness” in determining the legality of government decisions and appointments.

Netanyahu’s response amounted to little more than a sigh, although his right-wing allies and some of his Likud colleagues reacted sharply.

The court also ruled — by a vote of 12 to 3 — on a far-reaching issue of the balance between branches of government. The law banning the reasonableness standard was an amendment to a basic law (the 1994 Basic Law on the Judiciary).

Basic Laws are conceived of as building blocks for a future constitution.

Thus before reviewing this law, the court

took up the general issue of its ability to review basic laws and amendments to them, and decided that it could do so. This ruling further reduces the prospect for judicial changes, thus ending the coalition’s main project before the war broke out.

Do these setbacks at the polls and in the courts mean that the role of the right-wing parties will be marginalized in the post-war reality?

Not likely. One indication of continuing strength is this: A large proportion of those killed in battle have come from West Bank settlements.

The settlers may not be in a position to dictate policy post-war, but they may be able to mobilize public opinion against any notion of future evacuation of settlements in the context of Israeli-Palestinian relations. The need for unity as a lesson of Oct. 7 cuts both ways.

Hamas-love…

WHY WE SUPPORT ISRAEL We support Israel because its democratic values align with our own.

We support Israel because, despite misinformation and disinformation, its embattled people believe in truth and justice, and its embattled defense forces actively seek to protect innocent lives amidst a war it did not provoke.

We support Israel because its people have sought peace and reconciliation for close to 100 years, only to be thwarted time and time again by an ideology that denies the Jewish People’s right to self-determination.

We support Israel because it represents an ancient civilization based on Jewish values of repairing the world, steeped in innovations that have provided millions of people the world over with lifesaving and life-affirming inventions.

We support Israel in its absolute right to defend itself and free its people from captivity. Over 200 fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, and their children and grandchildren were taken hostage. Its women were raped and their babies murdered.

We support Israel because in its imperfection, it strives to do better; because in a world filled with cynicism, dictatorships, and despots bent on evil, Israel is a beleaguered bastion of decency and hope.

Americans of all walks of life, of all political ideologies, of all cultures and ethnicities, recognize the difference between those who threaten Israeli freedom and ours, between those who would destroy a democratic people and those who will defend themselves to assure the safety of all of us.

STAND WITH US AS WE STAND WITH ISRAEL To join our movement, contact Amy Sessler, Sid Jacobson JCC, asessler@sjjcc.org.

To see how Long Island is standing with Israel, visit longislandsupportsisrael.org.

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Continued from page 6 an in a niqab (a full face veil) that stated “Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews,” a reference to the Muslim prophet’s conquest of Jewish tribes in the seventh century, which Islamic extremists invoke frequently. (The full phrase about Khaybar, which is in the northwestern Arabian peninsula, ends with “the army of Muhammad will return.”)

Another stated: “Free Palestine and cleanse the earth,” with Israeli flags in a trash can.

Still others combined Nazi imagery with antiIsrael or pro-Palestinian messages.

A group that stood beside a banner proclaiming “Queers for a liberated Palestine” held a variation of the “Silence = Death” poster from the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. The group had replaced the pink triangle used by Nazis to denote gay concentration camp inmates with the Palestinian watermelon symbol — apparently linking Israel, the Nazis, AIDS and queer liberation.

Other hateful signs included an Israeli flag with the Star of David replaced by a swastika and a sign that read, “End the Palestinian Holocaust.”

Members of the Neturei Karta, an anti-Israel sect that is seen as outside the mainstream Chassidic community, wore its signs rather than carrying them since the rally was held on Shabbat. Other Jews wearing yarmulkes, who also appeared to agree with the ralliers, moved about the crowds seemingly without incident.

Some of the protesters were aware of and sought to conceal antisemitic sloganeering in their midst.

Early in the day, a protester confronted a man holding a sign that said “Children die for Rothschild, Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan” with Stars of David and swastikas. As JNS observed, he told the man to put the sign away, as it could be construed as antisemitic. He said he had no problem with the front of the sign, which read “Capitalism is Zionist/Nazi coalition.”

Speakers and the crowd also expressed support for the Houthis in Yemen who have been launching ballistic missiles towards international ships in the Red Sea for months, including hitting a U.S.owned ship off the Yemen coast on Monday.

“Who would have known that the mighty people of Yemen would challenge the empires of the world?” said Taher Herzallah, director of community outreach and organizing for American Muslims for Palestine, to loud and sustained cheers.

While most attendees headed home shortly after reaching Lafayette Square, immediately north of the White House, images and video later circulated on social media showed a group of the protesters that remained after sunset. They were seen battering temporary security barricades outside the main White House gates, some throwing water bottles and other small objects at the police officers.

Fox News reported on Saturday that some members of the White House staff were “relocated” as a precaution and that the aggressive protesters damaged some of the security fencing though did not cause damage to the White House itself.

The Secret Service reportedly made no arrests, and the president was at Camp David at the time.

9 THE JEWISH STAR January 19, 2024 • 9 Shvat 5784

SPECIAL ELECTION TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13

B

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.

ENDORSED BY

3 Congressman Peter King 3 County Executive Bruce Blakeman 3 Supervisor Joe Saladino 3 Councilwoman Vickie Paladino 3 Ambassador David Friedman 3 Supervisor Don Clavin

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.co Y N r o f i az

SPECIAL ELECTION TUESDAY

FEB.13

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January 19, 2024 • 9 Shvat 5784 THE JEWISH STAR

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WINE AND DINE

Quenching our passion for chocolate in winter Kosher Kitchen

JoNI SChoCKETT

Jewish Star columnist

I

t is January, the coldest and longest winter month (remember winter did not start until Dec. 21 and March often heralds the start of spring, so January wins this cold, dark distinction). The TV will be blasting ads for chocolate.

For those of us who live for that bite of chocolate, chocolate is a necessity of life, a pleasure beyond comparison. There is no food on the planet that elicits more passion than chocolate; the rich, silky texture, the deep, nuanced flavors, the aroma that announces its presence and makes the mouth water and the eyes glaze over. There is nothing like it for the true chocaholic and even for others who love the popular confection.

Chocolate is truly a wonder of nature that originally grew in South and Central America in large pods hanging from a small tree called Theobroma Cacao, which translates to, “food of the gods.”

It was ignored for, perhaps, thousands of years because the large pods contained a pulp that was noxious to the human palate, though monkeys and other animals loved it. They would break open the pods, eat all they could of the pulp and throw the cocoa laden seeds on the ground. Soon forests of Cacao trees flourished.

I wonder what prompted some brave individual to pick up one of those discarded seeds and bite into it for the first time, thus discovering the joys of chocolate! Whoever it was, THANK YOU! The rest of the story fills books and encyclopedia articles and is chock filled with mythology and intrigue. You can read the history of chocolate in a wonderful book called, The True History of Chocolate, by Sophie and Michael Coe. Harvesting the cocoa seed is still a laborintensive process. The trees are too thin and fragile to climb, so men with long machetes cut down the pods which are opened by hand. The seeds are carefully extracted and placed in large wooden vats, covered with banana leaves, and left alone to ferment.

Soon, the light seeds turn dark brown, the sugars turn to acids and a chocolaty smell begins to emanate from the fermenting seeds.

Chocolate Fondue.

Adobe

Once fermented (good quality seeds take a few days, poorer quality seeds up to a week or so) the beans are laid out in the sun for several days to dry. Once dried, the beans are divided by fermentation times, packed, and shipped to chocolate companies all over the world for processing into cocoa powder and all kinds of chocolate confections.

Chocolate can be a healthy food (if you avoid milk chocolate and highly sugared chocolate treat) or indulge sparingly! The more cocoa solids in the confection, the healthier it is. 80% cocoa solids is better than 56%; less sugar and more flavonoids that contain the health giving properties.

Dark chocolate is heart-healthy and boosts those feel-good hormones we all have — the same ones that get a boost from exercise! Chocolate is a treat for all the senses, from the first whiff of chocolate cooking in the kitchen, to the satiny texture, the sight of your favorite choco-

late treat and the delicious taste of your favorite flavor, from white, to extra dark, deliciousness!

It is winter. We all need a little boost, so indulge in some chocolate and enjoy a moment with a little bit of “food of the gods.”

Rich Pareve Semisweet Chocolate Fondue or Sauce (Pareve) I never thought I could find a chocolate fondue that was pareve and delicious. This is both!

Fondue is a fun dessert for the kids. Use fruit and maybe simple angel cake and the kids will have a fun activity and delicious dessert.

Ingredients • 1 lb good quality pareve bittersweet chocolate (broken into chunks 60-70% cacao) • 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate • 3/4 to 1 cup light corn syrup • Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Creamer or Pareve Coffee Creamer (up to 1 pint) • 1 to 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract • 1/4 tsp. pure almond extract or mint extract OPTIONAL: Add your favorite liqueur (2 to 3 or to taste) such as crème de menthe amaretto, cassis, Chambord, cherry or banana. You can also add some espresso powder to the chocolate as it melts.

Directions Melt the chocolates and the corn syrup over very low heat in a large heavy saucepan, stirring almost constantly.

When the chocolate is melted, add the vanilla and the almond milk or pareve creamer until a smooth, thick consistency is reached. Add any liqueur flavoring you like and mix well.

Pour into a fondue pot and keep warm over very low heat to avoid burning the chocolate.

Serve with fruit, cookies, or even over ice cream.

If you like it sweeter, omit the unsweetened chocolate.

If the fondue thickens too much, add more almond milk or creamer and mix well. Makes about 4 to 6 cups.

Triple Chocolate Treat (Dairy) Mocha Chip Cookies.

Adobe

This is a fun, easy to make treat that kids love to make.

Ingredients • 10 oz. semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate 60 to 70% cacao solids • 10 oz. milk chocolate (you can leave this out and double the dark chocolate • 10 oz. white chocolate OPTIONAL: 1 cup of any of the following: Pistachio nuts, peanuts, cashew pieces, or chopped toasted walnuts; and/or 1 cup raisins, dried cranberries, or dried cherries; and/or 1/2 cup toffee candy bits Place a piece of foil or parchment paper on a large cookie sheet. Mark off a large rectangle, about 12x10 on the foil.

Melt the semi to sweet chocolate in a metal bowl set over a small pan of simmering water.

Make sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Stir until just melted. Set aside to cool.

When warm to the touch, 100 to 105 degrees if you have a candy thermometer, pour the chocolate into the middle of the foil, and lightly spread to the edges of the marked area. Refrigerate on a flat shelf to set for 15-20 minutes. Remove the now hardened semi-sweet chocolate from the refrigerator. Place one kind of nuts evenly over the hardened chocolate.

Melt the white chocolate in the same manner as the semi-sweet. When almost cooled, about 100 degrees, add the toffee candy, raisins, dried cranberries, or cherries, and mix quickly. Pour the white mixture over the solid semi-sweet chocolate and smooth over the top so that the white covers the dark evenly. Place back in the refrigerator for 20 minutes or until solidly chilled.

Melt the milk chocolate as above. (You can use another layer of dark chocolate if you like.)

When cooled to about 100 degrees, pour over the white chocolate and spread to evenly cover the white chocolate. Immediately sprinkle the other kind of nuts over the chocolate and refrigerate to chill.

Remove from the refrigerator and bring to almost room temperature. Use a very sharp knife and cut the chocolate into triangles or squares.

VARIATIONS: For nut-free homes, use broken pretzel bits or cereal pieces, like Cheerios.

For fun, melt (separately) additional white and dark chocolate. Pour the cooled chocolate into a plastic bag and snip a tine corner off the bag. Drizzle a design over the chocolate. Repeat with the other chocolates. You can use red chocoSee Quenching our passion on page 10

11 THE JEWISH STAR January 19, 2024 • 9 Shvat 5784

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Quenching our passion for chocolate in winter…

Continued from page 8 late if you like, and even bitter chocolate in a thin drizzle for added chocolate depth.

Mocha Chip Cookies (Dairy)

Mocha Chip ice cream is my favorite so I guess Mocha Chip cookies would also fall under the same category. Delicious with hot coffee on a cold day.

• 12 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped 60 to 70% cacao solids • 1 stick butter • 3/4 cup unbleached flour • 1/2 tsp. baking powder • 4 large eggs • 1 cup sugar • 1 plus 1 (scant) tsp. espresso coffee powder or decaf espresso or coffee powder • 2-1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract • 1-1/3 cup semi- or bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks OPTIONAL: 1/2 cup chopped, blanched almonds or toasted, chopped walnuts Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 cookie trays with parchment paper and set aside. Melt the chocolate and the butter together over very low heat. Mix often. When just melted, remove from the heat to cool. Sift the flour and baking powder together into a small bowl.

Place the eggs and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium to high until pale and thick, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the coffee powder and the vanilla. Blend well. Turn off the mixer and remove the bowl from the stand.

Fold in the flour mixture until well blended and then add the chocolate chips and (optional) almonds. Mix well. Set aside in a cool place for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Place tablespoon sized dollops of the dough on the cookie sheet at least two inches apart to allow for spread.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 9 to 12 minutes per batch. The cookies will look shiny and cracked on top.

Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on the cookie sheets. Then remove to a wire rack or plate. Makes about 28 to 35 cookies.

NOTE: You can drizzle these with dark or white chocolate.

Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes (Pareve)

Perfect for any time of year — including Passover!

• 10 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (weigh and then chop) • 1/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted if very lumpy • 1 stick plus 2 pareve margarine or vegan butter, completely softened, plus extra for ramekins • 1/4 tsp. salt (ONLY IF THE VEGAN BUTTER WAS UNSALTED; otherwise, omit) • 6 large egg whites at room temperature.

Reserve the yolks for another use.

• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract • 1/4 cup sugar, plus extra for dusting ramekins

Molten Chocolate Lava Cake.

Adobe

OPTIONAL: 1/2 to 3/4 oz. chunks of bittersweet or semisweet chocolate; and/or confectioner’s sugar for dusting; and/or blackberries or raspberries for top of cakes Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and place a rack in the center of the oven. Use extra vegan butter or pareve margarine and coat 8 (6-oz.) or 12 (4-oz.) ramekins, dust with granulated sugar, shake out any excess into the next ramekin and continue until all are buttered and sugared. Set aside on a rimmed baking sheet.

Finely chop the 10 ounces of chocolate and place in a microwave safe bowl. Melt in 15 second intervals until almost, but not completely, melted. Remove from the microwave and mix to melt any remaining pieces. When melted, whisk in the cocoa powder, the margarine, and the salt.

Mix until completely smooth. Set aside.

Place the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium until frothy. Increase speed and, as the egg whites begin to turn very white, slowly add the sugar. Beat on high until medium firm peaks form that slowly fold over.

Take 1/3 of the whites and add to the chocolate.

Whisk until blended and the chocolate is a bit frothy.

Add half the remaining whites and gently fold into the chocolate until no streaks are seen. Repeat with the remaining whites. Spoon into the prepared ramekins. If using, place the chocolate piece in the center just under the batter. Do not push to the bottom.

Place in the oven for 8 minutes for the larger ramekins and 6 minutes for the smaller ones. Take out one ramekin and insert a fork. It should come out wet. If the top collapses, place it back in the oven for 1 minute. If overbaked, you will have a fudgy cake, not a molten cake. But you can serve that with sorbet and berries, and it will be delicious. Unmold using a thin knife around the edges.

Dust with confectioners’ sugar and serve with fresh berries. Makes 8 to 12.

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Gooey Chewy Super Simple Chocolate Cake (Dairy) This is such a simple cake that even kids can make it. One pot, no mixer and delicious beyond words.

• 9 (1 stick plus 1) butter • 1/2 cup dark cocoa powder (generous; I use triple blend plus 2 black cocoa to make 1/2 cup) • 1-3/4 cups sugar • 1 cup MINUS 3 unbleached flour • 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract • 3 large eggs Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8-inch spring form pan and line with parchment.

Grease the parchment and the sides of the pan.

Set aside.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan until barely melted. Remove from the heat. Add the cocoa, sugar, flour, and vanilla and mix just a few strokes to blend. Add the eggs and mix completely.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and place it in the center of the oven. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until the top is set but the center is still very moist and gooey. Remove from the oven and let cool completely. Run a thin knife around the edge and release the ring and between the paper and the pan to loosen the cake.

Transfer the cake to a serving plate and garnish with whipped cream and berries. Serves 6 to 10.

‘Shabbos for Soldiers’

The Liknaitzky-Drutz Shabbat table in Toronto.

By Deborah Fineblum, JNS When Sasha Liknaitzky-Drutz and David Drutz of Toronto held their first soup-to-nuts Shabbat on Dec. 22, the guest of honor was 6,000 miles away.

Now in their second year of marriage, the couple had been to many a Shabbat meal, but as for keeping the entire thing, “we’d just never done it,” said Sasha.

Nor did they have any immediate plans to do so until they heard that by simply observing the day fully, they could step in for a soldier on active duty in the Israel Defense Forces who normally keeps it but currently cannot.

And that’s exactly what Shabbat 4 Soldiers is designed to do. The program’s seeds were planted last November, a month after Hamas’s Simchat Torah massacre on Oct. 7 and the beginning of the war. That’s when Rabbis Tzvi Sytner and Simcha Tolwin, on a support mission to Israel, began asking the soldiers they met, “What can we outside of Israel do for you?”

“We kept hearing the same answers,” said Sytner: “Pray for us, do a mitzvah for us.”

“So we thought, wait, what if we pair up a soldier who normally keeps Shabbat but can’t with

someone who doesn’t normally keep Shabbat but can?” he said. “What if they keep it for him?”

Within days of the two Aish HaTorah rabbis returning home to their respective communities — Sytner to Toronto and Tolwin to Detroit — the seeds of Shabbat 4 Soldiers were already germinating.

Within its first month, 85 households have kept Shabbat for the first time, and more Shabbat first-timers are being matched with more soldiers each week.

When the couple visited the website to select the soldier for whom to observe Shabbat, “we both felt so drawn to Baruch,” said David. “We liked that he has a wife and little kids at home, and we felt a connection to him.” (Turns out both he and Sasha have families from South Africa).

The guests — family, friends and one man they’d just met at a Chanukah party — invited, the chicken cacciatore and carrot kugel done, the timers set and the dishes arranged on a white tablecloth, they were ready. And from the moment they lit the Shabbat candles to the time they extinguished the Havdalah candle, they stayed true to the day.

13 THE JEWISH STAR January 19, 2024 • 9 Shvat 5784

Tom Suozzi Stands With Israel & The Jewish People Suozzi has a history of speaking out on antisemitism and was one of the drivers behind a 2018 bill allowing for sanctions on terror groups...

I wanted to demonstrate my solidarity with Israel and with the Jewish people throughout the world through these difficult times.

12/23/2023

We must continue to do everything we can to defeat Hamas. There’s no equivocation...

My job right now is to show solidarity.

12/22/2023

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What’s it about and how will it end: ICJ hears South Africa’s genocide case against Israel Backgrounder by Shimon Sherman, for JNS The genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel in the International Court of Justice has advanced to a new stage. Last Thursday and Friday, the legal teams of both countries unfolded their arguments before the tribunal in preliminary hearings in The Hague.

“The South Africans are accusing Israel of the crime of all crimes,” Avraham Shalev, an adviser and specialist in public law at the Kohelet Policy Forum told, JNS. “Proving genocide has occurred requires the highest burden of proof,” he added.

The ICJ is an international legal body that operates under the auspices of the United Nations. It has the right to adjudicate cases between states either with the explicit permission of the defendant state or by prior agreement in the form of an international agreement or by formal notification to the court.

In this case, the basis for the trial is the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which was established in 1948 in response to the crimes of the Holocaust and was signed both by Israel and South Africa. According to the convention, the crime of genocide requires the intentional destruction “in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”

Israel is the fifth country to face the charge of genocide in the ICJ.

The South African case

In late December, Pretoria submitted an 84page charge to the ICJ in which it formally accused Israel of genocide. The South African legal team is headed by Professor John Dugard, who

chaired a UN Commission of Human Rights inquiry committee and who has called Israel an apartheid state and for an arms embargo on Israel.

On Thursday, the legal team unfolded its argument in which it tried to establish the intentional perpetration of genocide by the Israeli government.

“Israel has transgressed article two of the [Genocide] Convention, committing acts that fall within the definition of genocide,” attorney Adila Hassim claimed on Thursday morning.

The South African delegation also claimed that the very establishment of the State of Israel was tantamount to genocide.

“The violence and the destruction in Palestine and Israel did not begin on October 7, 2023.

The Palestinians have experienced systematic oppression and violence for the last 76 years,” South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola told the court on Thursday.

In an attempt to establish intent, the South African delegation brought a series of quotes from various Israeli personalities spanning from the prime minister and the defense minister to random soldiers fighting in Gaza and even including an Israeli singer.

In one piece of evidence, the South Africans showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talking about “wiping out the seed of Amalek.”

In another, Israeli soldiers were seen celebrating as they blew up a part of the Shejaia neighborhood in Gaza City.

“The quotes of anyone who isn’t directly involved with the decision-making process of the war are not relevant for establishing intent,” Shalev said.

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Regarding statements made by members of the War Cabinet, Shalev explained that “many of these quotes were taken out of context. They tried to say that [Defense Minister Yoav] Gallant’s statement saying, ‘We are fighting human animals’ was genocidal but it is clear he was talking about Hamas fighters.”

The South Africans continued to demonstrate what they called “acts of genocide.” The delegation mostly referenced statistics about the scale of the destruction wrought throughout the Gaza Strip. They claimed that the scale of the destruction of property and the level of civilian lives lost amounted to a purposeful attempt by the Israeli Defense Forces to destroy the Palestinians living in the Strip.

According to Shalev, the South African delegation’s request that the ICJ directly intervene in an ongoing war is almost unprecedented and is based on an earlier genocide-related case in the ICJ between Ukraine and Russia.

In that case, the Ukrainians challenged an earlier Russian accusation of Ukraine committing genocide against ethnic Russians in the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine. The ICJ found in favor of Ukraine and ordered Russia to desist from further military action against Kyiv that Russia justified based on the alleged genocide.

“The South African case is not related to the Russia-Ukraine case and it’s a far stretch to relate them,” Shalev told JNS.

The Israeli defense

The six-man Israeli delegation headed by British law professor Malcolm Shaw, a worldleading expert on international law, unfolded its argument before the court on Friday. To begin, the defense team argued that the entire conflict in Gaza cannot be discussed outside the context of the Oct. 7 attacks.

Israeli attorney Tal Becker described some of the atrocities committed on Black Saturday “not because these acts, however sadistic and systematic, release Israel of its obligations to uphold the law as it defends its citizens and territory, but because it is impossible to understand the armed conflict in Gaza without appreciating the nature of the threat that Israel is facing and the brutality and lawlessness of the armed force confronting it.”

Becker accused the South African delegation of purposefully misrepresenting the conflict, saying, “The events of that day [Oct. 7] are all but ignored in the applicant’s submissions.” Becker argued that the events of Oct. 7 established a legal basis for Israel to declare war and pursue legitimate enemy targets.

On the issue of intent, the Israel delegation strongly opposed Pretoria’s description of Israeli policy on the targeting of civilians. The delegation said that “Israel’s lawful aims in Gaza have been clearly and repeatedly articulated by its prime minister, its defense minister, and all members of the War Cabinet.” The legal team also referenced the official IDF directive to all soldiers to “distinguish between combatants and civilians.”

Finally, the team argued that Israel’s persistent efforts to protect civilians, by dropping leaflets with orders to evacuate and securing humanitarian corridors in Gaza, as well as by providing humanitarian aid, shows a clear lack of intent to commit genocide. “To produce random quotes which are not in conformity with government policy is misleading at best,” said Shaw.

The Israeli delegation further argued that the alleged “acts of genocide” as described by the South African delegation were legitimate acts of war. In his statement, Becker accused it of ignoring the ongoing military conflict going on in Gaza and exclusively painting the situation as a series of Israeli actions against an unarmed population.

“In the applicant’s telling, it is almost as if there is no intensive armed conflict taking place between two parties at all, no grave threat to

Israel and its citizens, only an Israeli assault on Gaza,” he said.

Shaw also argued that the reality of the ongoing conflict in Gaza and Hamas’s consistent use of civilian installations to launch its attacks renders the term genocide simply inapplicable to the situation.

Shaw explained that civilians suffer in all armed conflicts, “especially when a side attacks civilians and is unconcerned” by the welfare of civilians on its side.

“Not every conflict is genocidal. The crime of genocide in international law and under the Genocide Convention is a uniquely malicious manifestation and stands alone among violations of international law as the zenith of evil, the crime of crimes, ultimate in wickedness,” he said.

“The essence of the argument made argued that the ongoing conflict in Gaza is simply unrelated to genocide law but rather to the laws of war,” Shalev explained.

The Israeli team argued that the ICJ interceding in the ongoing war would effectively remove Israel’s right and ability to defend itself.

“Astonishingly, the court has been requested to indicate a provisional measure calling on Israel to suspend its military operations. But this amounts to an attempt to deny Israel its ability to meet its obligations to the defense of its citizens, to the hostages, and to over 110,000 internally displaced Israelis unable to safely return to their homes. The applicant in its submissions to the court makes almost no mention of the ongoing humanitarian suffering of Israeli citizens at the hands of Hamas, and treats the hostages still held in captivity as barely an afterthought,” Becker said.

Throughout the argument, the Israeli team also attacked South Africa for its open closeness with the terrorist group Hamas.

“South Africa has long hosted and celebrated its ties with Hamas figures, including a senior Hamas delegation that incredibly, visited the country for a ‘solidarity gathering’ just weeks after the massacre,” Becker said

What comes next

Several countries have openly supported Israel in the trial. US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Jan. 3 that the submission by Pretoria was “meritless, counterproductive, completely without any basis whatsoever.”

The government of Germany also supported Israel, saying it was defending itself from “inhuman attacks,” and that Berlin would intercede as a third party if the case went against Israel.

The governments of the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, as well as others, have also signaled their support for their Jewish state.

Many Muslim countries, however, have signaled their opposition to Israel in the trial. “I believe Israel will be convicted there. We believe in the justice of the International Court of Justice,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was quoted as saying.

An actual ruling on the case is expected to take years. However, the court is expected to issue a temporary ruling in the coming weeks or months.

“We can expect some sort of decision fairly soon,” Shalev told JNS. “To prove that Israel committed genocide is a tall order but to get some success in the temporary ruling the South Africans only have to prove that there is a case to be made. In that scenario the Israeli team has a tough job,” he added.

The court’s decision is subject to potential bias as it is composed of representatives from many countries, including authoritarian regimes that in the past have been accused of influencing the decisions of their representatives on the court.

In the current case, the court has representaSee ICJ hears on page 22

15 THE JEWISH STAR January 19, 2024 • 9 Shvat 5784

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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 19 / 9 Shevat

Fri Feb 9 / 30 Shevat

Fri Jan 26 / 16 Shevat

Fri Feb 16 / 7 Adar I

Fri Feb 2 / 23 Shevat

Fri 23 / 14 Adar I

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

Tezaveh • Purim Katan Candles: 5:21 • Havdalah: 6:31

Here come the plagues! Stop, look and listen rabbi Sir JonaThan SaCkS zt”l

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here is a fascinating moment in the unfolding story of the plagues that should make us stop and take notice.

At the opening of this week’s parsha, Bo, seven plagues have struck Egypt and the people are suffering. Several times Pharaoh seems to soften, only to harden his heart again. During the seventh plague, hail, he even seems to admit his mistake.

Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. “This time I have sinned,” he said to them. “The L-rd is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.” Ex. 9:27 But as soon as the plague is over, he changes his mind: “He and his officials” says the Torah, “hardened their hearts.”

And now Moses and Aaron have come to warn of a further plague, potentially devastating, a plague of locusts that, they say, will devour all the grain left after the hail as well as the fruit of the trees. And for the first time we hear something we have not heard before.

Pharaoh’s own advisers tell him he is making a mistake:

Pharaoh remains an enduring symbol of a failure to listen to his own advisers.

Pharaoh’s officials said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the L-rd their G-d.

Do you not yet realize that Egypt is ruined?” Ex. 10:7 These words immediately transform the situation. How so? ack in 1984 the historian Barbara Tuchman published a famous book called “The March of Folly.” In it, she asked: How is it that throughout history intelligent people have made foolish decisions that were damaging both to their own position and to that of the people they led?

By this she did not mean, decisions that in retrospect proved to be the wrong ones. Anyone can make that kind of mistake. That is the nature of leadership and of life itself.

What she was talking about were decisions that people could see at the time were the wrong ones yet warnings were ignored. One example she gives is of the legend of the wooden horse of Troy.

The Greeks had laid siege to Troy unsuccessfully for ten years. Eventually they appeared to give up and sail away, leaving behind a giant wooden horse. The Trojans enthusiastically hauled the horse inside the city as a symbol of their victory. As we know, inside the horse were 30 Greek soldiers who, that night, came out of hiding and opened the city gates for the Greek army that had sailed back under cover of darkness.

It was a brilliant ploy. Laocoön, the Trojan priest, had guessed that it was a plot and warned his people, in the famous words, “I fear the Greeks even when they come bearing gifts.” His warning was ignored, and Troy fell.

Another of Tuchman’s examples is the papacy in the sixteenth century which had become corrupt, financially and in other ways. There were many calls for reform, but they were all

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ignored. The Vatican regarded itself, like some financial institutions today, as too big to fail.

The result was the reformation and more than a century of religious war throughout Europe.

That is the context in which we should read the story of Pharaoh and his advisers. This is one of the first recorded instances of the march of folly. How does it happen? ome years ago, DreamWorks studio made an animated film about Moses and the Exodus story, called “The Prince of Egypt.”

The producer, Jeffrey Katzenberg, invited me to see the film when it was about half complete, to see whether I felt that it was a responsible and sensitive way of telling the story, which I thought it was.

What fascinated me, and perhaps I should have understood this earlier, was that it portrayed Pharaoh not as an evil man but as a deeply conservative one, charged with maintaining what was already the longest-lived empire of the ancient world, and not allowing it, as it were, to be undermined by change.

Let slaves go free, and who knows what will happen next? Royal authority will seem to have been defeated. A fracture would appear in the political structure. The seemingly unshakeable edifice of power will be seen to have been shaken. And that, for those who fear change, is the beginning of the end.

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Under those circumstances it is possible to see why Pharaoh would refuse to listen to his advisers. In his eyes, they were weak, defeatist, giving in to pressure, and any sign of weakness in leadership only leads to more pressure and more capitulation. Better be strong, and continue to say “No,” and simply endure one more plague.

We see Pharaoh as both wicked and foolish, because we have read the book. His advisers could see clearly that he was leading his people to disaster, but he may well have felt that he was being strong while they were merely fearful.

Leadership is only easy, and its errors only clearly visible, in retrospect.

Yet Pharaoh remains an enduring symbol of a failure to listen to his own advisers. He could not see that the world had changed, that he was facing something new, that his enslavement of a people was no longer tolerable, that the old magic no longer worked, that the empire over which he presided was growing old, and that the more obstinate he became the closer he was bringing his people to tragedy.

Knowing how to listen to advice, how to respond to change and when to admit you’ve got it wrong, remain three of the most difficult tasks of leadership. Rejecting advice, refusing to change, and refusing to admit you’re wrong, may look like strength to some. But, usually, they are the beginning of yet another march of folly.

Of trees, symbols of humankind, on Tu B’Shevat rabbi YoSSY Goldman

S. African Rabbinical Assn.

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here is a wealth of symbolism to the holiday of Tu B’Shevat and many lessons for human behavior.

While Tu B’Shevat (the 15th of the month Shevat), observed this year on Thursday, Jan. 25, had an halachic link tothe first fruit offerings, its observance today is mainly symbolic.

It includes such traditions as eating fruit (particularly those of the holy land — olives, dates, grapes, figs and pomegranates).

But there is a wealth of symbolism to this day and many lessons for human behavior. I remember once teasing a friend whose birthday is on Tu B’Shevat, the New Year for Trees. I told him: “Make like a tree and grow up!”

The source linking trees to humans comes from Deuteronomy 20:19, ironically, in the laws of warfare. The Torah teaches us not to destroy fruit trees wantonly, even on the battlefield. Is the tree like your human enemy? asks the verse. Indeed, to this day, we continue to practice ethics and morality during intense warfare — South Africa’s accusations to the International Court of Justice notwithstanding.

But that scriptural verse can also be construed as a statement of fact. “Man is as the tree of the field.” Indeed, this interpretation has in-

spired many a commentary on the similarities between trees and people and the numerous lessons we can learn from trees. Let me share a few of my favorites.

There are three structural elements to a tree, especially a fruit tree: the roots, the trunk and the fruit.

Trees we plant take years to develop; so too our generational continuity.

•The roots, from which every tree is nurtured, represent our forebears, particularly our parents and grandparents who nurtured us and have had such a powerful influence on our growth, upbringing and personal value systems.

•The trunk is, of course, the main body of any tree expressing its fundamental identity. It represents the person, himself or herself.

•And the fruits symbolize our progeny — our children and grandchildren, who grow and are sustained by us, and then go on to live their own independent lives. lternatively, according to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the roots are our faith; the trunk is our own good deeds and Torah study; and the fruits are the positive impacts we have on our See Goldman on page 22

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Rabbi dR. tzvi heRsh WeinReb Orthodox Union

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ometimes we feel inspired. We may be working hard, but we don’t seem to mind, because we love the work we are doing and believe

in it.

The ability to do all that is expected of us effectively and enjoyably is called “flow” by some psychologists. One such psychologist, Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi, wrote a book entitled “Flow:

The Psychology of Optimal Experience,” where he reports his research on this vital feeling of how the work we do conforms with our innermost beliefs and highest principles.

Other times, however, there is also a very different manner in which we work. We feel unhappy with our jobs not merely because they are difficult, boring, or stressful, but because we don’t really want to be doing what we are required to do. We perform out of a sense of obedience and duty, but we would rather that someone else take up our task.

In reading the recent Torah portions, this week’s (Bo) and last week’s (Vaera), we encounter one man, Moses, working very hard at almost

What motivated Moses to stand before Pharaoh? impossible tasks: leading the Jewish people and challenging Pharaoh to free them.

I often ask myself about Moses’ inner experience while carrying out his mission. Are his feelings like the first set of emotions described above?

Does he feel inspired, happy, eager? Does he experience this sense of “flow?” Or does he find himself reluctant, uncomfortable, and perhaps even feel awkward, at least at times?

Does he experience thrill in his comings and goings into Pharaoh’s royal court? Is he excited by the words he finds to challenge Pharaoh and to debate with him? Or does he approach these experiences with trepidation and suffer in agony as each successive attempt to free his people is disturbed? here is a transition, in this week’s Torah readings, in Moses’ role. Initial, he is an advocate for freedom; but by the end of the parsha, he becomes a law giver and teacher as well. And his role further expands to that of master of logistics and desert travel guide as he prepares his people for their journey and embarks upon it.

Is Moses in “flow?” Or is he struggling inwardSee Weinreb on page 22

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What if Pharaoh accepted a different opinion?

Parsha of the Week

Rabbi avi billet Jewish Star columnist

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ne of the most revealing moments in the beginning of Parshat Bo comes when Pharaoh’s officials say to him, in advance of the pending plague of locusts, “How long will this [man] continue to be a menace to us? Let the men go, and let them serve G-d their L-rd. Don’t you yet realize that Egypt is being destroyed?” (10:7) Imagine if he had listened to another opinion.

Imagine if he took their collective voice into consideration. Not only would he have avoided the last three plagues, and saved all the firstborns of his na-

tion, but there is a good chance the Israelites would have left for the three-day journey they had been asking for, to worship G-d in the wilderness, and they would have returned to Egypt!

It is incredible to consider what the consequences are when the attitude is “my way, or the highway.”

There is a tremendous quality that defined the Jewish people forever: Being receptive to opposing ideas and innovative thought, and coming to conclusions through processing as much readily available information as we can.

One of the early challenges to Moshe takes place in Bamidbar 11, when Eldad and Meidad prophesy in the camp. Yehoshua, ever the protector of his master Moshe, declared “My Master, Moshe, imprison them!” And Moshe’s response is, “Are you jealous for my sake? I only wish that all

of G-d’s people would have the gift of prophecy!

Let G-d grant His spirit to them [all]!” (Bamidbar 11:26-29) What a refreshing thing for a leader to say: Dissent is good! Disagreement is powerful! Sharing prophecy is good for the Jewish people! Hearing different voices is a strength for our community! emographics of communities often reflect this. In towns where there is always one shul, and the rabbi rules with an iron fist, shutting down any attempts at a new shul opening, one of two things happen.

The first possibility is that the rabbi lives and dies by the sword. The shul/community doesn’t grow, and when the rabbi retires or dies, the community falls apart.

The other result is that people eventually ignore the rabbi, and the community grows despite

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the rabbi’s objection, and the rabbi loses support from people who disagreed with his “my shul or bust” approach.

The most successful rabbis and leaders are comfortable in their skin, are cognizant of how a community grows, appreciates and understands how demographics move, adjust and change, and they respond to the needs of evolving times.

•Two of the greatest scholars of the Talmudic era were rigid in their approaches to Torah study.

Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, one of the great students of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, was described by his teacher as “a plastered cistern that does not lose a drop, like a flask covered with pitch which retains its wine.” Using more modern imagery, we might say his mind was like a steel trap. But his creativity in thought (certainly as compared to See Billet on page 22

January Tu B’Shvat’s hope for an early spring Kosher bookworm

alan Jay GeRbeR

Jewish Star columnist

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ext Thursday, Jan. 25, in the midst of winter, we celebrate Tu B’Shvat, the beginning of spring — albeit a spiritual spring — on the Jewish calendar.

This week I will present several pieces that will hopefully give you a better appreciation of this unique holiday, and add warmth to these frigid days.

First, we have an interview that Eric Simon conducted with Rabbi Dov Lipman for Torah.org.

“Trees are often a metaphor for humans,” explains Rabbi Lipman. “Many of us have heard the injunction that during war one may lay siege to a town, but one may not cut down the trees.

“The entire verse, Devarim 20:19, reads, ‘When you lay siege to a city for many days to capture it by making war against it, you shall not destroy its tree, wielding an axe against it; for you shall eat of it but not cut it down; for a man is a tree of the field.’

“I should hasten to point out that halachically-speaking, one is only prohibited from cutting down trees that bear fruit. Others consider the fruit of one’s tree as the mitzvot that we do. And, indeed, trees are often a metaphor for Torah. The most famous expression of this is in Mishlei 3:18, ‘It is a tree of life for those who hold fast to it’.”

We learn from Rabbi Lipman the following: “We see that the 15th of Shevat is an important growth period for trees. We also see that trees, in our tradition, are related to both Torah and to mankind, and that the 15th of Shevat was a time when there was major spiritual growth among Jews. So, Tu B’Shevat is a time for Jews to focus on ‘the tree’ — the Tree of Torah and the tree of our

own spiritual growth, and our potential for growth.”

Rabbi Dov Lipman authored a simple yet eloquent autobiography entitled, “To Unify A Nation” (Urim Publcations, 2014) in which he, a musmach of Ner Yisrael, explains the motivations and beliefs behind his heartfelt activities on behalf of the Jewish people.

We learn the follow from historian Rabbi Berel Wein, in his essay “As The Season Turns”: “Tu B’Shvat marks the turning point of the winter season. Even though there are many weeks of winter still ahead of us, there is no doubt that the season is turning.

“The days are becoming longer, the sun higher

and brighter in the sky and the advertisements for Pesach accommodations more urgent and frenzied in tone. Tu B’Shvat is thus not only a new beginning for the fruits and trees of the Land of Israel, it is meant to signal a new beginning for us as individuals and as a people and a Jewish society.”

A unique booklet is still extant in its fourth edition entitled, “Haggadah Shel Tu B’Shvat,” by Seymour Hefter z”l, who was a member of the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst. Within this brief booklet can be found an interesting collection of verses, teachings, songs and rituals all patterned as the liturgy of the Pesach Haggadah.

“This Haggadah captures the holiday spirit to be shared with family and friends,” Hefter writes.

“I firmly believe in the centrality of community, caring, and doing things Jewish. This work is intended to complement your enjoyment of this special day.”

And, truly, so it is.

Originally published in 2015.

Here’s an Exodus that you never knew about torah

Rabbi david etenGoff

Jewish Star columnist

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wo pasukim in our parasha, Bo, tell the story of our people’s departure from Eretz Mitzrayim: •It came to pass at the end of 430 years, and it came to pass in that very day, that all the legions of Hashem went out of the land of Egypt. (12:41) •It came to pass on that very day, that Hashem took the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt with their legions. (12:51) At first glance, with the exception of the phrase, “It came to pass at the end of 430 years,” 12:51 appears to be a repetition of 12:41 and adds little to our understanding of the Exodus. We

know, however, that this cannot be the case, since one of the fundamental principles of Torah exegesis is that each pasuk has an essential purpose and teaches something no other verse imparts.

As such, to comprehend the deeper meaning of these pasukim, we need to examine another text in Parashat Yitro, in the prologue to the Asseret HaDibrot: You [the Jewish people] have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and [how] I bore you on eagles’ wings, and I brought you to Me. (19:6) A mesmerizing Targum Yonatan on this verse goes far beyond an Aramaic translation in that it is, by all accounts, a “midrashic text” in and of itself: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on the clouds, as if you were on the wings of eagles, from Pilusin [town in southern Egypt]. And I brought you to the place of the Beit HaMikdash to offer your korban Pesach there. And on that same night, I brought you back

to Pilusin, and from there, brought you to the place of My Torah [Har Sinai]. ooking back at our parasha’s original two verses, we note that 12:41 states, “all the legions of Hashem went out of the land of Egypt,” whereas in 12:51 we find, “Hashem took the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt with their legions.”

I maintain that in 12:41, our ancestors went out of Egypt in a naturalistic manner, that is, on foot, namely, a yetziah gufanit (physical departure). I believe this is supported by the latter part of the Targum Yonatan passage: “And on that same night, I brought you back to Pilusin, and from there, brought you to the place of My Torah.”

What was that “same night?” The night of the 15th of Nissan, lail Pesach, and from Pilusin, He ultimately brought us to Har Sinai.

In stark contrast, Hashem is the active agent in 12:51, that is, He is the subject, and we were the

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objects. Consequently, this departure was unique in that it was a yetziah ruchanit (a spiritual departure), above and beyond the physical realm, planned and executed by the Almighty. This is supported by the first part of the Targum Yonatan passage: “I bore you on the clouds, as if you were on the wings of eagles from Pilusin. And I brought you to the place of the Beit HaMikdash to offer your korban Pesach there.”

When did HaKadosh Baruch Hu do this amazing miracle? On Erev Pesach, at the precise time we were obligated to bring the korban Pesach! After so doing, then and only then, did He bring us back to Mitzrayim, and the rest of Jewish history, began to unfold.

Just as our redemption from Egypt was a physical and spiritual journey, so may HaKadosh Baruch Hu bring us Mashiach Tzidkeinu and redeem us from galut, soon, and in our days. V’chane yihi ratzon.

THE JEWISH STAR January 19, 2024 • 9 Shvat 5784

Was Moses reluctant or did he feel the ‘flow’?

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January 19, 2024 • 9 Shvat 5784 THE JEWISH STAR

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The post-Oct. 7 era of official antisemitism Jonathan S. tobin

JnS Editor-in-Chief

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t’s easy to think of the opening of the International Court of Justice’s trial of Israel that began this week in The Hague as just more of the same from the international community.

The notion that a country that was the victim of a grotesque terrorist assault on Oct. 7 that involved the largest mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust should be arraigned before the world’s highest tribunal for defending itself against the perpetrators of that crime is patently absurd. But if you think the ICJ’s kangaroo court cannot harm the Jewish state or that this obvious miscarriage of justice will soon be forgotten, then you haven’t been paying attention to much of what has happened in the last three months.

The inversion of justice at The Hague and, indeed, the global community’s reaction to the atrocities of Oct. 7 and Israel’s military operations to eradicate the Hamas terrorists who were responsible, is the culmination of a long campaign of “lawfare” aimed at the delegitimization of Zionism and Jewish rights. In one sense, the court and the entire apparatus of the United Nations — under whose umbrella it operates — is putting itself on trial with an act of unabashed antisemitism masquerading as concern for human rights.

But it is also part of an effort to brand Israel as a pariah nation that shouldn’t be dismissed or ignored. And it is no accident that the nation of South Africa is bringing the false charge of genocide against Israel since the goal is ultimately to bring down the Jewish state in the same manner as apartheid-era South Africa was isolated and then forced to surrender. ike the preposterous though ubiquitous charge of genocide, the notion that a democratic nation like Israel is an “apartheid state” is also a big lie. Not to mention the fact that, rather than colonizers, the Jews are the indigenous people of Israel. And even if you include the Arabs living outside of the 1967 lines

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Israel’s conduct is both justified and nothing like genocide — the population of Gaza has quintupled since 1967.

in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, the Jews are still the majority, not a small minority as the whites were in South Africa.

But no matter what sanctions or other legal and economic attacks that it faces as a result of this trial and similar efforts in the future, the Jewish state is here to stay.

Still, this trial should be understood as the natural consequence of what happens when antisemitism is mainstreamed. If, as is likely — and despite logic, justice and the evidence — the court rules against Israel, it will be a signal to the world that the clock has been turned back to 1939, and that once again, official discrimination against Jews is no longer beyond the pale.

As such, it must be seen as another manifestation of the surge of antisemitism we are witnessing around the globe that comes from cultural elites throughout the West.

The specific charge that Israel’s actions in Gaza are an act of genocide makes no sense. Innocents are always going to be hurt in wars, but Hamas’ goal has always been to maximize the damage to ordinary Palestinians by deliberately positioning its military forces in and around civilian homes, schools and hospitals.

Despite this, the Israel Defense Forces make more of an effort to avoid civilian casualties than virtually any other modern-day army, often putting its own soldiers at a greater risk of being killed because of caution in using its military might. ar from waging a total war against the people of Gaza, Israel has consistently acted to help them survive the impact of a war that their leaders started and which they seem to support. What other nation would be asked to allow the flow of food, water and fuel to areas under the control of its mortal enemy, which is actively firing rockets into its territory, other than Israel?

Yet that is exactly what is demanded of Israel during this war and what the Jewish state has done even as it rightly seeks to completely defeat Hamas. And in what other war would those who supposedly sympathize with the civilians that are in harm’s way demand that they not be allowed to leave the area and move, even if temporarily elsewhere, in order to be safe — as the international community’s absolute demands that the Palestinians not be allowed to leave Gaza — other than in a war against the Jewish state?

Israel’s government has been criticized for dignifying the farce at The Hague by mounting a defense there. Yet its decision to make its case before the world was probably the lesser of two evils.

Even if the outcome of this trial is not really in doubt, to fail to put the facts about the fighting in Gaza — as opposed to the lies spread by

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Logo of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

Friemann, Shutterstock

Hamas and its foreign enablers — would be to leave the field open for its enemies without refutation.

That its conduct is both justified and nothing like genocide (the population of Gaza has quintupled since 1967 and even increased by hundreds of thousands since Hamas took it over in 2007, demographic proof that there has been no systematic killing of Palestinians there by Israel) needs to be said in public, even if the mobs crying for genocide of the Jews and those who rationalize or justify their lies in the corporate media, academia and pop-culture outlets are not listening.

But the ICJ’s proceedings and the false claims that the Israeli victims of attempted genocide are the real culprits should not be seen in isolation from the efforts to delegitimize Israel going on elsewhere. ince Oct. 7, Americans, in particular, have become accustomed to the spectacle of people who think of themselves as enlightened progressives feeling no shame about marching in the streets or on college campuses while chanting for the destruction of the one Jewish state on the planet.

The conflict in the Middle East has nothing to do with race, yet those who buy the woke doctrine that Israel is a “white” oppressor of Palestinian people of color — and therefore a target of their wrath — believe that efforts to eradicate a terrorist force dedicated to slaughter the Jews are, per se, illegal.

It has long been obvious that the ideas that are broadly characterized as “woke” — critical race theory, the catechism of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and intersectionality — grant a permission slip for antisemitism.

If you’re prepared to divide the world into two immutable groups — “white” oppressors and people of color who are victims — that’s a recipe for perpetual racial conflict. By falsely

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labeling the Jews as the oppressors, this neoMarxist mindset legitimizes discrimination against them and the Jewish state.

The post-Oct. 7 backlash against Israel for its efforts to prevent Hamas from future attempts at murder, torture, rape and kidnapping is evidence of the impact of the spread of this toxic new secular faith.

The ICJ trial is an illustration of what happens when the same prejudicial attitudes are played out in the field of international law. It’s one thing when students or street mobs mouth slogans expressing sympathy for Hamas’s genocidal aims. It’s quite another when they are expressed in faux legalistic arguments whose purpose is to treat Israel as the one nation in the world that has no legitimate rights to either defend itself or exist.

It may be that many Israelis — preoccupied as they are with the war their country is still fighting in Gaza in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas atrocities, as well as the threats from Hezbollah in Lebanon to their north — will continue to think this way. But that would be a mistake. he international antisemitic campaign against Israel has its origins in the Marxist lies about “Zionism is racism” spread by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The same themes were revived by leftists at the UN’s World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, only days before the 9/11 attacks on America in the form of the “apartheid state” smears of Israel.

But the post-Oct. 7 political and legal attacks on Israel are the manifestation of how these despicable and openly antisemitic libels have now been taken up by mainstream figures in the West. Whatever its outcome or impact, the ICJ proceeding is a harbinger of a new stage in the war against Israel.

Instead of antisemitism emanating from the fever swamps of the far-right or far-left, its next iteration will be one either embraced or treated as reasonable by respectable authority figures throughout the West.

In a saner world, Oct. 7 would have marked a turning point in which the world turned its back on a Palestinian culture of hatred and intransigence. Instead, it marks the moment when antisemitism ceases to be primarily a function of extremists and becomes one of officially sanctioned hate against Israel and the Jews on the part of many who think of themselves as liberal believers in human rights.

Israel will continue its fight for survival, no matter what is said or done in The Hague or any other UN forum, let alone the op-ed pages of the New York Times or the Washington Post, where anti-Zionist hate and contempt See Tobin on page 22

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Viewpoint

BEN COHEN

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uring the middle of December, New Yorkers were treated to the sight of brash maroon and white beams splashed across the Manhattan skyline when the Empire State Building was lit up in the colors of the Qatari flag in honor of the Gulf emirate’s national day.

Qatar owns 10% of the iconic skyscraper as a result of a $622 million investment made by its sovereign wealth fund in 2016. Qatar also owns lucrative real estate elsewhere in the city, including the Park Lane and St. Regis hotels, and retail outlets along Fifth Avenue that house such names as Victoria’s Secret and Ralph Lauren — a purchasing strategy that the Qataris have utilized in other world cities as well, including Paris and London, enabling one of the world’s smallest countries to become one of the most influential.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s message of greeting to Qatar on its national day neatly illustrated this status.

I want to express my gratitude for Qatar’s key role as a mediator in efforts to secure the release of unjustly detained Americans in Iran in September, and hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

These efforts reflect a shared US and Qatari commitment to promote security and stability in the Middle East and beyond.

Much, of course, was left unsaid, particularly regarding Qatar’s role as a principal financier and supporter of the rapists and murderers in Gaza known as Hamas.

The unvarnished truth here is that Qatar’s colossal wealth — on display every day in office buildings, university campuses, private hospitals and myriad other locations in Western cities — effectively gives the ruling Al Thani clan a pass on precisely those matters of “security

Qatar plays both sides, posing a dilemma for the West.

and stability” that Blinken talked about. he issue of Qatar gets to the heart of the policy dilemma facing Western nations in the Middle East, in that the emirate effectively plays both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

•Qatar is a key American ally in terms of both hard power, hosting the US Central Command (CENTCOM), and soft power, as at least six US universities operate their own campuses there.

•Yet at the same time that Doha is cultivating these relationships, it is backing a terrorist group that is sworn to Israel’s elimination and sending a signal to other Arab countries that it will not be compromised by their peace agreements with Israel. Unlike its neighbors the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Qatar elected not to join the Abraham Accords signed with the Israelis in 2020.

This isn’t a problem we face in dealing with our more straightforward adversaries. For example, delicate diplomacy isn’t really necessary with Iran or Russia — two more states that actively back Hamas — since we don’t have any major economic or cultural ties with these countries now that robust sanctions are in place.

Back in October, Blinken declared on Face the Nation that war with Iran was “not at all what we’re looking for, not at all what we want, but we’ll be prepared, if that’s what they choose to do.”

One can’t imagine the secretary being so glib about Qatar, even though, like the Iranian regime, its rulers also openly support Hamas and run their state in accordance with Islamic imperatives rather than democratic consent.

Arguably a similar principle applies in the case of Turkey, whose president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has outdone even the Iranians when it comes to bloodthirsty rhetoric targeting Israel. Since the Hamas pogrom of Oct. 7, Turkey has become one of the most hostile countries on earth for Jews and Israelis.

Last month, there was a grimly amusing scene in the Turkish parliament when an Islamist MP, Hasan Bitmez, abruptly collapsed and died at the podium while delivering a viciously antisemitic rant. The following day, Bitmez received what looked like a state funeral, his coffin draped with the Turkish and Palestinian flags as a military honor guard gave a salute in front of hundreds of dignitaries. The spectacle communicated the un-

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken holds a joint press availability with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Doha, Qatar, on Jan. 7.

Chuck Kennedy, State Department

mistakable message that securing the defeat of Israel is now part of Turkey’s raison d’état, just as preserving the existence of the Jewish state has been part of post-war Germany’s. uring the last week, the Turkish press has been filled with lurid yet vague reports concerning the arrest of an alleged Israeli spy ring. Key details of the arrests are missing; we don’t know the names or nationalities of those in custody, nor the exact charges they are facing, but that hasn’t prevented Erdoğan from waxing enthusiastically about his country’s resolve.

“We are aware that plots of some circles were derailed thanks to our country’s stand against crises in our region, particularly against massacres in Gaza,” Erdoğan told a gathering of Turkish intelligence officials last week. “These espionage activities show how disturbed they are. Israel is confounded by how we rounded up those suspects. But wait, this is just a first step. You will recognize what Turkey is capable of soon.”

That last line might just be grandstanding or it might be a threat worth taking seriously. The hatred of Israel and Jews being stoked by Erdoğan’s regime — some Turkish stores have even posted signs in their doorways forbidding entry to Jews — is so intense that you are forced to believe that

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anything is possible. Certainly, that is the mindset that Western policymakers should carry.

The point is this: Israel is an ally of the West and securing Israel’s continued existence is a declared aim of Western policy. But our countries are allied with states like Qatar and Turkey, both of whom are pledged to fatally weakening Israel.

The question therefore arises as to whether we challenge or mollify them.

Disappointingly, our leaders are doing more mollifying than they are challenging.

If you were to ask Blinken why this is, his answer would probably be along the same lines as the answer he gave to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell when she asked him about post-war reconstruction plans in Gaza.

“There’s something that’s very powerful, and that’s changed in the last few years in the region, and this is why I think — despite the incredible challenge of this moment, despite the horrific suffering that we’re seeing — there actually is an opportunity that we haven’t seen in the past,” Blinken remarked.

“And the change is this: All of these countries now want a region that’s more integrated. They want a region that includes Israel. They’re preSee Cohen on page 22

Here’s why we must speak up on social media MARC ERLBAUM Filmmaker

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he daily dilemma: You see a post on social media about Israel that is egregiously misleading, and you have to decide whether it is worth it to respond.

•On the one hand, there is an untruth that needs to be corrected, lest who knows how many others be misinformed.

•On the other hand, it is likely that if you do comment, a back and forth will ensue with the person who originated the post that will be at least time-consuming, and possibly contentious as well.

Even if you are successful in having a civil exchange with the one who shared the inaccurate or deceptive material, in the age of misinformation and malleable “facts,” it is unlikely

Just one true voice reduced the incidence of conformity with lies almost completely.

that he or she will be convinced, and even more unlikely that the post will be retracted.

So the cost in time and emotional engagement, coupled with the risk of being subjected to vicious ad hominem attacks and accusations, makes it difficult to speak up.

Yet it is incredibly important to speak up.

Here’s why: n the 1950s, a psychologist named Solomon Asch conducted a series of “Conformity Experiments” which reveal a fascinating fact about human behavior that is tremendously relevant in the age of social media. In short, the tests comprised a group of eight respondents who were asked to identify simple differences between basic images they were shown.

Seven of the eight respondents were hired actors who were secretly instructed to provide the wrong answer. The eighth respondent was not aware of the setup, and in over one third of the cases provided the same wrong answer given by the seven who had answered erroneously before him. When the same subjects were tested individually, without the influence of the group, they answered correctly over 99% of the time.

These findings indicate that people often conform to the prevalent opinions and attitudes of the majority group even when they are demonstrably false and contrary to one’s personal experience. The fact that group influence resulted in wrong answers 33% of the time informs us that if we allow false in-

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formation to promulgate without contradiction, a significant percentage of people will be swayed even if they do not necessarily agree with that information.

A variation on the test provided another remarkable finding which strongly reinforces the necessity of speaking up to counter false claims.

When Asch introduced a “true partner” to the study — that is, one other respondent who provided the correct answer — then the unwitting subject conformed with the lying majority only 5% of the time. In other words, even though the vast majority of the group still provided the wrong answer, the presence of just one true voice reduced the incidence of conformity almost completely. pplying these findings to today’s social media, it is clear that a single comment on a deceptive post can make a signifi-

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cant difference. It may not change the opinion of the poster, but it will have an effect on those who see the post. A single voice of question or challenge will reduce the extent to which the inaccurate post convinces those who are not as educated on the subject.

The fact is that each of us has a part in the war that is raging in Israel and the ideological battle that is being waged online. We may not be carrying a firearm on the front lines to defend innocent civilian lives with our flesh and blood, but we each have a vital role to play and we can’t rely on someone else to handle this for us. In the age of social media, we are all “journalists” capable of influencing those around us.

As we wonder how so many western liberals have been drafted into the patently un-liberal cause of Hamas, we must recognize that a significant part of the problem is that Jews and our allies have been too passive. Confident that we had truth and reason on our side, we felt that we didn’t need to counter every ridiculous statement. But if a lie is repeated enough times, it is eventually accepted as truth — particularly if it is not corrected.

If you don’t know how to best respond to the propaganda in your feed, reach out to those who do. I have had numerous people contact me over the last few months asking me how I would respond to this post or that. It is indeed a time drain, but the importance of this existential battle makes it worth the energy.

THE JEWISH STAR January 19, 2024 • 9 Shvat 5784

When our allies (like Qatar) are also Hamas allies

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January 19, 2024 • 9 Shvat 5784 THE JEWISH STAR

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We can still catch the Shoah before it disappears THANE ROSENBAUM Distinguished Univ. Professor Touro College

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f you’re a Jew looking for sympathy in these sucker-punch days of hyper-antisemitism, find a way to transport yourself back to the early 1990s, a time when Holocaust memory — “Schindler’s List”; the opening of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington; and observances of Yom Hashoah across America — was afforded largely universal respect.

Antisemites still harbored private fantasies of Jewish genocide, but it was dormant, with few public spectacles aside from clownish neoNazis desperate for recruits. The Oslo Accords were underway in Israel. The First Intifada had just been put to rest. The early 1990s may have been the safest period of Jewish history since the reign of King David.

Too bad Mr. Peabody’s Wayback Machine was only fictional, and time-travel is not yet an app.

But we can still go see a Broadway show or movie if we need cultural confirmation that Jews have always been the object of insatiable malice — the planet’s most enduringly persecuted people.

This past week, the play “Prayer for the French Republic” opened on Broadway, and the

Jew-less movies portend a one-way ticket to mediocrity.

film “One Life,” starring Anthony Hopkins, premiered at the Jewish Film Festival — an annual collaboration between the Jewish Museum and Film at Lincoln Center.

Can a double-dose of highbrow culture, on stage and screen, serve as an equalizer to all the pandemonium on the streets?

Both are stellar works of art, humorous at times, and deeply moving throughout. They also have arrived at a time when everyone could use a master class on Holocaust history, especially one imbued with contemporary relevance. ut will audiences recognize what they are seeing? And even if they do, will they care? Or will they doubt its authenticity, as so many did the nightmarishly unspeakable events on Oct. 7?

The play takes place in present-day Paris and concerns a Jewish family with a decision to make. Violence against French Jews worsens each year: the torture and death of Ilan Halimi; the Jewish day-school massacre; the murders in the kosher supermarket; two grandmothers killed in their apartments — one torched, the other thrown from her balcony.

All of those killings were preceded by the death chant in Arabic: Allahu Akbar (“G-d is great”).

It is for this reason that so many of France’s Jews — the largest Jewish population in Europe — have immigrated to Israel. And it is the play’s core dilemma and plotline: Should they leave the newly dangerous homeland of their birth and flee to the homeland of their people, a nation that speaks a different language and where they will have to start all over?

The matter is complicated by the fact that the family has lived in France with some prominence for generations. A few managed to survive the Holocaust — one of whom, then a boy,

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From left: Nancy Robinette, Daniel Oreskes, Richard Masur, Ari Brand and Ethan Haberfield in “Prayer for the French Republic.”

is now the aged grandfather. Those relatives are also on stage in their own flashback scenes, shocked and agonized by what had happened to the Jews of Vichy France.

In the film, Hopkins plays Sir Nicholas Winton, an aging former stockbroker who during the Holocaust, in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, managed to rescue nearly 700 children in what became known as the Kindertransport — parents, facing impossible moral choices, saved their children by having them board trains bound for Britain where they were to be placed with foster families.

These rescue missions were repeated many

times with children from Germany, Austria, France, Holland and Belgium, too. England ultimately saved 10,000 children, most of whom never saw their parents again. They were forever traumatized by the forced separation, yet they fared much better than the 1.5 million children who were gassed and cremated, or choked by overeager concentration camp guards. hat happened in southern Israel on Oct. 7 grotesquely involved children who were without a Kindertransport option. Some babies were beheaded, others burned in ovens See Rosenbaum on page 22

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Time for an American Jewish rethink Times to Jews: DANIEL ASIA President, Center for American Culture and Ideas

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his is a tough time for American Jews. Antisemitism has erupted to an unprecedented extent. We thought we were at home in America, but no such luck.

A few months ago, following the Oct. 7 massacre, a friend who is a major donor to Jewish, Israeli and American organizations said to me that Jews might have to leave America, just as we have left — willingly or unwillingly — many countries in the past. Another friend told me that he and all of his liberal friends are being forced to rethink what it means to be a liberal Jew in America.

At the university where I have taught for 35 years, our president took two tries to muster up the correct response to a genocidal massacre.

The dean of the college of fine arts dedicated the entire school to fighting “systemic racism”

on the day after the death of George Floyd, but has said not a word about the rise of antisemitism on campus and its effect on Jewish students and faculty. Neither has his DEI officer.

Not one of my colleagues has expressed sympathy or asked how my friends and family in Israel might be faring in the face of war.

We know that almost all American universities have been conquered and occupied by the left and that alternative voices have been silenced or simply expelled. This is appalling, but not a surprise. The Nazis, for example, easily took over Germany’s universities. Most professors simply want to be left alone to do their research and can’t be bothered to face down evil in their own backyards. efore the Nazis, the Polish intelligentsia let down their Jewish brethren following a series of pogroms of 1919. In response, the poet Leib Jaffee wrote in his newspaper Die Yiddishe Zeitung: What was Polish society doing, what was Polish society saying when the Jewry of Vilna was agonizing in its blood? Where was the Polish intelligentsia? Did the bleeding, humiliated Jews of

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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

We thought we were at home in America, but no such luck.

Vilna hear a single voice of sympathy and protest from the side of the Poles? Some individual Poles did, it is true, come to the defense of certain individual Jews. There were cases too of Polish priests defending, at the risk of their lives, the Jews of little villages round Vilna.

But where was the Polish social body as such?

Where was an appeal to be seen or a newspaper standing up against these events? … Perhaps the hardest thing to bear these days has been the loneliness, the abandoned condition in which we found ourselves.

The number of deaths in each pogrom was less than 100 hundred. And unlike Hamas, the Polish people didn’t formally adopt the idea of exterminating all Jews. Yet the reaction of the American intelligentsia and its progressive foot soldiers has been even worse than that of their Polish predecessors. It appears that they cannot understand that they are making themselves collaborators with genocidal antisemites. Or can they?

American Jews will have to reassess their place in American society. They must do so as soon as possible. While a few presidential heads have rolled at Harvard and UPenn, the administrative rot that caused the current eruption of campus antisemitism continues to spread.

This is not a time for retreat. Instead, we must bring our concerns to the fore in every communal, social and educational forum to which we belong. We are in a battle for the life of American Jewry and the Western civilization we helped to found. The civilization of which America, as long as we will it and fight for it, is still a part.

Forget your right hand

Marc Tracy’s New York Times article on Jan. 14 refers to “left-wing” Jews and a “leftwing” Jewish publication, and a “far-right” Israeli government and its “extreme-right ministers.” The avian metaphors lead to implications for human appendages as well.

“If I forget you, O’ Jerusalem,” states Psalm 137:5, “let me draw a blank on my right hand.”

The Times headline has a different notion of the Jewish faith than does Jewish scripture.

“Is Israel part of what it means to be Jewish?” the article asks, noting that “some progressive Jews” embrace “diasporism,” thus “reimagining their faith as one that blesses their lives in America and elsewhere.”

“The land of Israel is central to the religion, the foundational narrative of which is about returning from slavery to the Promised Land,” the article allows. “Over centuries of exile, Jews have pledged, ‘Next year in Jerusalem,’ and prayed facing that city.”

Since Oct. 7, “some Jews have been repelled by Israel’s military response, which has killed approximately 23,000, according to Gazan officials,” per the Times. (Hamas terrorists run the Gaza health ministry.)

“On Day 100, the NYT features a closely reported profile of the Wicked Son from the Passover Seder. ‘What does all this mean to you’?” wrote David Frum, an Atlantic staff writer and former speechwriter for former President George W. Bush.

“Oh look, the NYT has discovered more anti-Zionist Jews,” wrote John Podhoretz, editorof Commentary. “It’s their favorite thing, along with polyamorous moms and drag queens who love to entertain 3-year-olds.” —JNS

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ICJ hears… Weinreb…

Continued from page 14 tives from Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Jamaica, Japan, Lebanon, Morocco, Russia, Slovakia, Somalia, Uganda and the United States, as well as from South Africa and Israel.

“There is no doubt that there is political pressure on some members of the court. One of the judges on the court is from Lebanon, a country where it is illegal to speak to an Israeli. I find it hard to believe that we are going to get an unbiased court ruling on this issue,” Shalev said.

Once a ruling is issued, the decision of the court is binding by international law. However, there is no enforcement mechanism.

“The impact of a ruling against Israel is not direct. The ruling will likely bounce over to the [UN] Security Council where America still has a veto, but it will make it a lot more difficult for countries to openly support Israel and as a result, it will make it a lot more difficult to prosecute the war,” Shalev explained.

“Overall, this trial can go in many directions.

The court can directly intervene or uphold the Israeli defense. They can also request that more access to humanitarian aid be given. At this stage it is impossible to know,” he said.

Goldman…

Continued from page 16 family, friends and broader spheres of influence.

And our roots are long and deep. When we are inspired by our history, traditions, teachers and role models of the past, we are able to produce fruits that nourish and sweeten the world — that is, our own strong, positive values and way of life.

Another idea the Rebbe often borrowed from trees was a message on the vital importance of educating our children. When it comes to a fully-grown tree, a scratch on the trunk will cause little damage. But if someone scratches the body of a young sapling, it can have devastating effects and leave a massive scar as the tree grows. Similarly, the formative years of a child require exceptional sensitivity and great care as we would give a sapling.

Trees also present a symbol of continuity down the generations. The Talmud tells the story of a very righteous man named Choni Hama’agal, who once saw an elderly man planting a carob tree.

“How long will it take for this tree to bear fruit?” asked Choni of the old man.

“70 years,” said the man.

“What? Do you think you will live so long to enjoy the fruit of this tree?”

“I found carob trees in this world,” said the old man. “Just as my predecessors planted trees for me, so do I plant trees for those who will follow me.” (Taanit 23a) It may take many years for the trees we plant to develop and become productive, but we must ensure our generational continuity for eternity.

So on Tu B’Shevat, let us remember the importance of our trees, for the ecosystem and for all the important lessons we learn from them.

Continued from page 17 ly with reluctance, resistance, and perhaps even resentment?

The answer lies in Moses’ initial reaction to his assignment, in his ongoing expressions throughout his life, in his disappointments with his people, and in his willingness to shed his leadership role.

Initially, he asks G-d to send another in his stead. He insists that his handicaps disqualify him from G-d’s mission. He does not trust his people to respond to him, and he is certain that Pharaoh will mock him. He never, even at the end of his life, seems comfortable with his many tasks.

What, then, does motivate Moses to stand before Pharaoh, suffer his taunts, threaten him repeatedly, and teach his people lessons which they often do not wish to hear? What motivates him is his sense of duty, his commitment to a life of responsibility.

He models for us, for all of us, a life of obedience to a higher authority. He teaches us that we each have a vocation, a mission, a part to play in life’s drama.

More importantly, he teaches us that our tasks will often be frustrating and painful. We may not experience “flow.”

Our careers may not go smoothly and may not bring us gratification. But we will, nevertheless, prevail if we recognize the truth of our calling and respond dutifully and faithfully, even if it doesn’t “feel good.”

Obedience is a major value in Judaism. It may not be trendy these days, but it was certainly the hallmark of the life of Moses, and we are all challenged to emulate him in our own lives.

Billet…

Continued from page 17 Rabbi Elazar ben Arach, the favored student of Rabbi Yochanan) was unimpressive (see Sukkah 28a). In time, due in part to his inability to bend to see other views, he was excommunicated (Bava Metzia 59b).

•Rabban Gamliel of Yavneh conducted himself in a manner which essentially silenced voices of dissent. Without going into too much detail, he aimed to destroy Rabbi Yehoshua on a number of different occasions due to Rabbi Yehoshua’s having a different view (Mishnah Rosh Hashana 2:8-9; Talmud Brachot 27b-28a). Rabban Gamliel played a significant role in deposing his own brother-in-law, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus! And, in time, Rabban Gamliel himself was replaced as Head of the Academy by 18-year-old Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah. he result of the change in leadership was that 400 or 700 benches were added to the Academy, and Torah study became accessible to many more students than ever before.

It took time, and perhaps several doses of humility, before Rabban Gamliel reconciled with Rabbi Yehoshua, realizing that there is room for different voices and different understandings of law. He was subsequently reinstated.

Indeed, any practice relating to the human

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experience may have different opinions and voices. Until recently, that kind of dissent was welcomed under what many people referred to as the “big tent.”

Now more than ever, some of us are so rigid, our attitude is no different than Pharaoh or the stubborn rabbi: “My way or the highway.”

Moshe Rabbenu taught us that even previous “nobodies,” Eldad and Meidad, can become prophets. Yehoshua had no more right to silence their voices than he had to silence Moshe’s.

Silencing opposition is contrary to Judaism. In fact, the opposite is true. When we open our ears and our minds to different opinions, and have the opportunity to process new information for ourselves, we only grow from the exposure to ideas we had never heard before, even and especially as we draw our own conclusions.

All of us benefit from our newfound knowledge when, unlike Rabbi Eliezer and Rabban Gamliel, we are able to listen to dissenting voices and bend our own thinking in response to our newly acquired knowledge.

Tobin…

Continued from page 18 for Jewish rights has been mainstreamed. But it is now the obligation of every decent person — whether Jewish or not — to reject the ICJ, the United Nations and every other supposedly liberal institution that embraces woke doctrines that discriminate against the Jewish state and enable antisemitism.

The lawfare campaign against Israel also raises the stakes in the American debate about woke ideology that is fueling the surge of antisemitism in the United States. It is now just as important to eliminate DEI and other manifestations of this hatred here as it is to ensure that Hamas is completely defeated in Gaza.

The alternative is to allow the spectacle at The Hague to become the model for a new era of official antisemitism.

Cohen...

Continued from page 19 pared to do things, to make commitments, to give assurances for Israel’s security. But that also has to include the Palestinian piece.”

In other words, the final outcome of the present conflict should be a two-state solution with Israel and Palestine living side by side, enjoying good political and commercial relations with their neighbors. But Israel cannot be asked to sign up to such a vision as long as US allies in the region — most clearly, Qatar and Turkey — cozy up to Hamas and laud it as a legitimate “resistance” organization.

Both those countries need to be told by Washington that the price of inclusion in any peace process is throwing Hamas under the bus because Hamas isn’t going to be part of any post-war settlement.

With a regional conflagration still very much a possibility, the time to deliver that message is very much now.

Rosenbaum

Continued from page 20 in what has become terrorism’s latest war tactic.

And those who support Hamas refer to them as freedom fighters?

“One Life” is a reminder that Jewish children have always had a difficult time staying alive — in many different nations and eras. And those who come to rescue them are few.

Both productions are actually rare cultural sightings these days. The Holocaust has been placed in an attic that would have suffocated even Anne Frank. Today’s culture demands a binary separation between oppressor and oppressed — and art must lean in favor of telling the stories of those among the oppressed.

Jewish history is being erased as inconvenient truths.

With their white skin and undeserved success, Jews have never been victims. Their nation is a racist, colonial enterprise. Palestinians are dispossessed Arabs with the fashionably correct skin tone. Enough of this foolishness said.

How did these productions ever get made in this cultural climate? It required some libertytaking legerdemain, a bit of dented history and the leaving of woke fingerprints.

“Prayer for the French Republic” somehow manages to tell the story without directly mentioning that the present-day tormentors of Jews are French Muslims. Marine Le Pen is the play’s bait-and-switch straw-woman. But it is Muslims, and not fascists, who have made France inhospitable to Jews, causing them to seek refuge in Israel.

In “One Life,” the children are sometimes referred to as “refugees” rather than Jews. The initial marketing materials didn’t mention Jewish children at all — just “Central Europeans.”

Some Christian children were rescued (roughly 100). But the Kindertransport was intended to rescue those at risk of being killed. The death camps were conceived to exterminate Jewish children, and no other.

It’s hard to blame anyone for believing that the Holocaust doesn’t scream box-office these days. And it might lead to tragic Jewish theater. The police presence on opening night anticipated bomb threats and mobs screaming “Intifada!” Showcasing Jews as victims has the ironic consequence of endangering Jews.

No matter how excellent and well-intentioned these productions are, cutting corners on history is the least of their problems. The play and the movie might perhaps be the last Mohicans of the Holocaust genre. The Motion Picture Academy’s new rules for Best Picture nominations require that the film feature “underrepresented groups” (minorities) in a prominent role.

Such groups include racial, gender, sexual orientation and every ethnicity, except for Jews.

The Oscar for Best Picture will soon be awarded to unwatchable but inclusive movies — made not to entertain, but to placate the commissars of identity politics.

Don’t bother buying popcorn. Jew-less movies portend a one-way ticket to mediocrity.

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