The Jewish Star 02-02-2024

NY’s Trusted Jewish Newspaper • Honest Reporting, Torah-True

February 2, 2024 23 Shevat 5784 • Yitro • Vol 23, No 5

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Germans honor survivor Hewlett woman kept truth alive

By Parker Schug, LI Herald Marion Blumenthal Lazan, a longtime Hewlett resident, has received the highest honor given by the German government, for her courageous retelling of her experience living through the Holocaust.

“We’re running out of time, this is the last generation that’s going to hear this firsthand, but the questions answered and the lessons learned is what’s so important,” Lazan said.

David Gill, the consul general of Germany, welcomed Lazan, 89, and about 20 family members and friends into his Manhatan apartment on Jan. 21, where he presented her with the award, given to individuals for services to the nation.

“By sharing your experience as an eyewitness and survivor of the Holocaust, you help to preserve the remembrance for further generations and contribute to the fight against antiSemitism and to keeping the demand of ‘Never Again’ alive,” Gill wrote in the letter informing Lazan of the award.

Lazan was among those selected for the award by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, to salute achievements in entrepreneurial, global, philanthropic, religious, scientific and social work.

During the ceremony, Gill recounted Lazan’s story from birth to early childhood in her hometown of, Hoya, Germany, and her family’s desire to go to America after six-and-a-half years in See Germans honor on page 14

BIGGEST CHALLAH Live from NY, Guinness record-breaker, with help from OU, Strauss, and David’s

By Faygie Holt, JNS A New York Jewish community has created what it believes is the world’s longest challah, and hopes it’s recognized as a Guinness World Record.

The effort to shape and bake the 35-foot-long braided bread was undertaken as part of the “Shabbat of Love” — a national event sponsored by the Jewish Federations of North America to spread “love for the Jewish people at one of our darkest times.”

JFNA advanced the challah initiative as part of “Shabbat of Love” in partnership with the Orthodox Union, involving 30,000 participants and more than 240 organizations on Jan. 19.

Spearheading the recordbreaking build was the Rodeph

Mitigating the damage: We didn’t win at the ICJ EUGENE KONTOROVICH International Law

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sraelis last week celebrated that the pogromniks only broke the windows, but did not kill anyone. In the twisted world where the International Court of Justice is putting Israel, not Hamas, on trial for genocide, the court did not demand a halt to the Gaza War — which

would have effectively ordered us to wait to be tortured and murdered. That is certainly good — but otherwise, the decision was horrible.

The ICJ accepted South Africa’s argument that the court has jurisdiction and that Israel could possibly be proven to be committing genocide.

The ICJ made clear that it considers itself to have authority to review and superintend every aspect of Israel’s war for survival — and demands monthly reports. No other country receives such treatment, and it is designed to make

the military constantly look over its soldiers’ shoulders.

The case will go on for years.

The ICJ is not an independent body — it is an organ of the United Nations.

Its justices serve a renewable nine-year term, further undermining their independence. The judges are elected by the General Assembly and Security Council, and their positions largely track the foreign policy of their home countries. Thus, while we might get lucky sometimes, over the long run, the policy of the court will See ICJ vote’s on page 2

For 30+ Years!

Sholom School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, affilated with the Reform Congregation Rodeph Sholom.

The brainchild behind the endeavor was Sarah Eisenman, chief community and Jewish life officer at JFNA and parent of a student at the Rodeph Sholom School.

She was looking for an activity that would “bring Jewish pride and Jewish joy” on the day of the event, and “during a late evening of scrolling through articles found that there is a world record for the longest challah, and I knew we could surpass it.”

That record was held by Grandma Moses Bakery in Australia, which won the title in 2019 for making a 32-foot-long challah in See A big twist on page 2

CARING &

The South African delegation presents its case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

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ICJ vote’s not a win…

Continued from page 1 reflect the policy of the United Nations.

The General Assembly’s obsessive condemnation of the Jewish state is well known — Israel would never agree to have its fate determined by them. But agreeing to the jurisdiction of the court indirectly does the same thing. In Israel it is thought unacceptable to have judges appointed by democratically elected politicians decide the meaning of ordinary laws — yet we agreed to have judges elected by dictatorial regimes decide the basic question of whether we can exist (and whether we can defend ourselves).

It does not have to be this way: The ICJ does not automatically have jurisdiction over countries — they must specifically agree, typically by agreeing that The Hague can decide a specific dispute or questions under a specific treaty. In this case, Israel signed the Genocide Convention, which provides that “disputes between the … parties” about the treaty can be decided by the ICJ. But that does not mean cases like this, where a totally unrelated state (in this case, South Africa) has brought a purely political complaint in a matter it has no relation to.

The court should not have accepted jurisdiction, and by doing so it effectively claimed for itself power to supervise the conduct of wars around the world, so long as some country claims genocide is involved. srael did not have to agree to the ICJ jurisdiction to be a member of the Genocide Convention, and in retrospect, doing so was a major mistake. Countries are allowed to opt out of ICJ jurisdiction in various treaties, and very commonly do so. Indeed, 16 countries have opted out of the Genocide Convention minus the ICJ jurisdiction — including the world’s largest democracies, the United States and India. Even the world’s biggest superpowers did not trust the ICJ to hear cases involving the use of force in an apolitical way.

The United States also did not agree to the provision of the Genocide Convention that deals with speech, knowing the court can twist legitimate speech into supposed “incitement.” Indeed, those who think the statements of some Knesset members are what got Israel into trouble should consider the comments of President Obama, who spoke of “eradicating a cancer” in the campaign against Islamic State, or Biden, who once said, “We should never take

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anything off the table when we are in war.”

But Israel did not opt out, leaving itself exposed.

The Genocide Convention was a response to the Holocaust, and it seemed appropriate that the Jewish state would be fully on board.

Also, Israeli officials did not expect such a gross abuse of the court’s authority. But they should have. And the Genocide Convention which Israel so respected was turned into a farce, a platform to accuse the Jews of genocide even as they defend themselves from a systematic attempt to wipe them out.

The hearings in The Hague were a judicial Oct. 7.

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he hearings in The Hague were a judicial Oct. 7 — a completely unjustified surprise attack that shows us we must fundamentally rethink our defensive posture. In this case, the extraordinary work of the State’s lawyers, and good fortune, prevented disaster.

But we must see that mere sentimentalism, or some lingering faith in international institutions, cannot be allowed to leave us open to such attack again. Even a slight change in the composition of the court or the geopolitical climate would bring a disastrous result — and hostile states like South Africa can roll the dice as many times as they want, with no consequence if they lose and a huge payoff if they win.

Thus Israel must immediately end its acceptance of the ICJ’s jurisdiction concerning the Genocide Convention. This will not end the current proceedings, but it will prevent further such attempts in this or other conflicts.

Moreover, Israel must review all of its treaties for provisions granting ICJ jurisdiction and opt out of those. The United States did just that when Iran used a long-forgotten treaty to bring America to The Hague a few years ago.

Professor of Law Eugene Kontorovich is one of the world’s preeminent experts on universal jurisdiction and maritime piracy, as well as international law and the Israel-Arab conflict.

A pretty big twist…

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Continued from page 1 conjunction with the Jewish National FundAustralia.

Eisenman enlisted help from the Orthodox Union, which arranged for the challah to be crafted and braided at Strauss Bakery in Brooklyn. She visited the facility, saw the dough after it had been braided, and recalled being amazed that the “baking crew actually pulled it off.”

From there, it was sent to the David’s Cookies factory in New Jersey, which has ovens large enough to bake the massively oversized bread.

Once baked, the challah was loaded onto a 40-foot, 18-wheeler truck and delivered to Rodeph Sholom, where a group of 30 volunteers from all parts of the Jewish community spontaneously began singing “Am Yisrael

Chai” as they carried the oversized item into the synagogue building.

Parents and grandparents snapped pictures of the challah while kids expressed their admiration.

“They knew right away it was something special and that they were part of it,” said Eisenmann, adding that the finished challah was divided up and given to the families to enjoy.

“I had some of the challah, and it was great!” she said. “It was amazing that something so big, made by so many sets of hands, still kept the taste that we’d all expect.”

Summing up the experience, Eisenman said: “It was a simple and sweet embodiment of Jewish pride and love.”

Proof documenting the results have been sent to Guinness, and those involved are awaitng their ruling.

THE JEWISH STAR February 2, 2024 • 23 Shvat 5784

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February 2, 2024 • 23 Shvat 5784 THE JEWISH STAR

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UNRWA exists to aid war to eradicate Israel T

JoNAthAN S. tobiN

JNS Editor-in-Chief

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et’s not get caught up in the details of the controversy that made headlines about the fact that 12 employees of UNRWA — the UN refugee agency dedicated to assisting the Palestinians — took part in the Hamas pogroms in southern Israel on Oct. 7. The New York Times broke the story, and many of the governments that are the principal funders of UNRWA, including the United States, which is the largest donor giving $422 million to it in 2023, have since expressed various levels of concern or outrage.

No one who knows anything about UNRWA can pretend to be surprised by what happened.

The notion put forward by some of its apologists that the people who took part in the terror attacks are just a tiny minority of its 13,000 employees is not to be taken seriously. As the Wall Street Journal subsequently reported, it is estimated that approximately 10% of UNRWA employees are either active members or have ties to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

For years, it has been well known that UNRWA facilities, including schools and other places that are supposed to be devoted to charitable purposes, have been used by Hamas to store weapons or otherwise assist terrorists.

Its education programs are as bad as those run

by Hamas or the Palestinian Authority when it comes to indoctrinating young Palestinians in hatred for Israel and the Jews. UNRWA’s creation in 1949, coupled with its actions and the infrastructure it has built up since then, is dedicated to perpetuating the conflict with Israel. Forget philanthropy or — as every other refugee agency in the world focuses on — resettling those displaced by war in some safe place where they can make a new start in life.

That said, the notion that anything is shocking about the fact that a few of the UNRWA staff were caught taking part in the Oct. 7 attacks, including direct participation in kidnapping and mass murder, is a joke.

Sadly, so is most of the discussion about holding UNRWA accountable.

Unaccountable UN agency

Much to the dismay of Israel-haters like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of Queens and the Bronx, the Biden administration announced that it was suspending funding of UNRWA. But when the details are drilled down, it turns out that the United States is continuing to pay the money it already pledged but will only put a pause on sending cash for new projects.

The same is true for Germany and Canada, as well as some other donor nations. The government of the Netherlands has suspended all funding but other countries, like Ireland, Spain and Turkey, are refusing to take any actions to hold UNRWA accountable. f the past is any indication of the future, even those who have spoken out about this, like the United States, will eventually, even if quietly, resume full funding of UNRWA. As part of his policies that attempted to hold Palestinians and their enablers accountable for their support for terrorism and rejection of peace, former President Donald Trump cut

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The world needs an agency that will give Palestinians new homes rather than keep them in misery awaiting another Holocaust for the Jews.

A Palestinian man outside the UNRAW in Gaza City protests cuts to aid on June 20, 2023.

Anas-Mohammed, Shutterstock

all ties with and funding for UNRWA in 2018.

Unfortunately, among the first actions when Joe Biden took office in 2021, he reversed that move and restored funding. Biden and his foreign-policy team are steadfast supporters of the United Nations and everything it does, regardless of the fact that it has long been a cesspool of antisemitism.

Even those administration officials who have been the most outspoken in reaffirming Israel’s right to self-defense — like John Kirby, the communications director for the National Security Council, who has also denounced Hamas and supported the goal of its elimination — also defended UNRWA. According to Kirby, UNRWA does “amazing work” saving lives. Incredibly, he even gave it credit for wanting to investigate the problem.

The reason for this is that UNRWA has made itself indispensable to the business of caring for Palestinians in Gaza. It is, as it has been for the last 75 years, the primary conduit of assistance to a population that has been made dependent on the international community for all services, including employment. As such, it can and does present itself to the world as the embodiment of philanthropy, providing sustenance to an enormous number of people in need.

That is why any effort to investigate its activities and penalize it for its close ties to terrorists is always derailed by invoking its good works and the notion that if it were shut down, millions would starve.

So, even when UNRWA is caught red-handed storing rockets to be fired at Israel or even having its staff actively taking part in the largest mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, the odds that its parent organization or the various nations that have spent billions of their citizens’ taxpayer dollars on funding it will do anything other than slap it on the wrist are negligible. s with the rest of his policies that ignored the advice of the foreign-policy establishment and the “experts,” Trump had it right on UNRWA. The only theoretical hope for there to be peace between Israel and the Palestinians must start with the abolition of institutions that not only provide assistance and employment to terrorists but have as their purpose the perpetuation of a futile quest to destroy the one Jewish state on the planet. UNRWA must not merely be defunded. It must be abolished.

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A world full of refugees

The very fact of its existence is a function of the way the international community has acted to prevent a resolution of the conflict.

When UNRWA was created by the United Nations in 1949, the plight of refugees was among the world’s most pressing problems.

Up to 60 million people were displaced in Europe during and immediately after the Second World War. That included those Jews who had survived the Holocaust seeking to go to Israel or the West, as well as millions of others who

had been uprooted for one reason or another.

Among them were ethnic Germans who were thrown out of their homes throughout Eastern Europe, including traditionally German regions like East Prussia.

As Europe adjusted to new borders largely imposed by the demands of the Soviet Union, many people were forcibly evicted and told to move to places where their ethnicity would be welcomed. Any who resisted were not supported by the international community. They were violently repressed, imprisoned and forgotten.

Nor was Europe the only region where there was a refugee crisis. When Britain abandoned its rule of India, the subcontinent was partitioned into two separate nations — largely, Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan. The drawing of those lines on the map created 14 million people who found themselves on the wrong side of the new borders and became refugees. More than 1 million people died in the ethnic and religious violence there as massive populations scrambled to find new homes.

Arab and Jewish refugees

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oming around the same time as the catastrophe caused by the partition of India was the refugee problem caused by Britain’s leaving another of its former possessions: the Mandate for Palestine.

The United Nations voted to partition Palestine into two states: one for the Jews and one for the Arabs with Jerusalem being an international enclave. While the Jews accepted the partition scheme, the Arabs did not. The leaders of the Palestinian Arabs — like the pro-Nazi Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al-Husseini — declared war on the Jews. Neighboring Arab nations supported them and invaded the newborn State of Israel on its first day of existence in May 1948.

The Arab war to destroy Israel not only failed; the fighting led hundreds of thousands of Arabs in the former Mandate to flee. A small minority were forced out by Israelis during bitter fighting in some areas. But most of them left out of fear of what would happen to them if they fell under the rule of Jews (and with the expectation that they would take over all the land once the Jews were “thrown into the sea”).

That was mostly the product of projection since in many instances Jews captured by their foes were massacred. But it was also the result of propaganda from the Arab side in the fighting in which they sought to demonize their enemies and strengthen the will of the Palestinian Arabs to fight.

During the same period as approximately 700,000 Arabs became refugees, some 800,000 Jews either fled or were forced to flee their homes in the Arab and Muslim world where they had lived for centuries. The very different disposition of those two populations says all anyone needs to know about the next 75 years of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

he Jewish refugees were resettled in a massive philanthropic project funded by Jews around the world. Most of those refugees went to Israel, where they faced hardships in what was then a very poor and embattled country. Today, their descendants make up about half the Jewish population and have contributed enormously to its defense and flourishing as a modern state. Others found new homes in the US and other parts of the world.

Unlike every other refugee population, the Palestinian Arabs were not resettled. They were kept in camps throughout the Middle East with the largest concentration in Gaza, which was controlled by Egypt from 1949 to 1967. They were prevented from finding new homes in Arab and Muslim countries, where they spoke the language and shared a common culture. Nor were they enabled to go elsewhere to make new lives.

Instead, they were kept in place to wait for the day when they could “go home” to their former villages in what was now Israel. Their leaders and the rest of the Arab world opposed their resettlement, doing all they could to prevent it.

And the agency that enabled this policy to continue for generations was none other than UNRWA.

For Palestinians only

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t’s important to understand that at the time when all these refugee problems arose, the United Nations created two refugee agencies. One, UNRWA, deals only with the Palestinians. The other, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (or UNHCR) has the responsibility for all of the other refugees in the world.

The UNHCR has its flaws, but its job is to help the refugees by giving them not just immediate aid in surviving being displaced by wars and other disasters but also assistance in resettling in places where it will be safe for them.

Their goal is to ensure that their problems are resolved and that their children will make new lives rather than continue to live in camps.

By contrast, the UNRWA exists solely to ensure that Palestinian refugees are never resettled. That’s why almost all of the people who are called Palestinian refugees are the descendants of the people who fled the war the Arab world started in 1948. Several generations have been born in the camps but, contrary to the way other populations are treated, all are given the same status as those who were the original 1948 refugees.

A humane and rational policy would have led to their being absorbed into other populations. But that’s not UNRWA’s job.

It operates the ultimate welfare state in which generations are kept dependent on charity. Worse than that, its programs and policies all encourage the Palestinians to go on believing that someday Israel will cease to exist, and then they can return to where their grandparents and great-grandparents lived three-quarters of a century ago.

Though it pretends to be a humanitarian force, it encourages its charges to look forward to the day when Hamas’s genocidal objective — the mass murder of Israel’s 7 million Jews — will be achieved.

Therefore, it’s little surprise that UNRWA is riddled with supporters of Hamas and that among its staff are people who take part in terrorist atrocities. And that much of the aid it receives from the world goes to help Hamas continue to function.

UNRWA allows the very people its donors think are helping to be used as human shields in a cynical hopeless war.

So, let’s not waste much time arguing about the details of UNRWA’s complicity in Oct. 7 or other acts of terror.

The only discussion that needs to be held is one about its abolition and replacement by a genuine refugee agency. The world needs one that can give Palestinians new homes rather than keep them in misery awaiting another Holocaust for the Jews that they’ve been led to believe will magically solve their problems.

5 THE JEWISH STAR February 2, 2024 • 23 Shvat 5784

SOLDIER MOTHER FIGHTER As a Nassau County Legislator, Mazi Pilip held the line on spending, cut property taxes by $200 million and hired hundreds of new police officers to keep our communities safe.

Mazi Pilip is the leader we need in Congress.

3 Repeal the Middle Class Tax Hikes passed by Joe Biden and Tom Suozzi.

3 Restore the full State and Local Tax (SALT) Deduction to help homeowners.

3 Pass the strongest Border Security Law to close Biden’s Open Borders.

SPECIAL ELECTION

TUESDAY

FEB.13

REQUEST AN ABSENTEE BALLOT

REQUEST AN EARLY VOTE

BY MAIL BALLOT

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Riverdalians on the run: Free our hostages now

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Run For Their Lives, a national movement of runners demanding the release of the hostages, reached Riverdale on Sunday.

Fifty Riverdalians gathered at Seton Park gathered for a 30-minute walk of solidary.

“We first learned about the organization from friends who attended the 100-day rally at Central Park,” said Ari Vogel, a sophomore at Abraham Joshua Heschel HS. “The idea of starting a weekly local walk for people in Riverdale resonated with us, and we quickly mobilized by spreading the word through schools, synagogues, and friends.”

When she first arrived, Netta Pack, a sophomore at Leffell HS, said she didn’t know what to expect. “No one was showing up and the rain seemed to Riverdalians Netta Pack (left) and Ari Vogel, who organized the be coming down harder,” she Riverdale Run For Their Lives, stand for the hostages in front of the Bell Tower on West 239th Street at Riverdale Avenue. said. “But before I knew it, 50 people were standing in a circle filled with flags an aunt, I cannot imagine the grief that these and wearing the number “114” on their hearts.” families must be facing. I want to do more!”

“From ‘Riverdale to Israel,’ our hearts and The event concluded with a prayer for the hosprayers are each day yearning for the liberation tages and the singing of Hatikva. Walkers hoped of the hostages,” said Riverdalian Stephanie the hostages would soon be freed, but if not, they Tzvi. “As we gathered today, we reinforced our anticipate even louder voices and increased parsolidarity to voice this urgent matter. May we ticipation in a run next Sunday, continuing their unwavering commitment to the cause. have only good news.”

“Walking is the least I could do to voice the To join them, be in Seton Park at 9:55 am. message of ‘Bring them home NOW’,” says Lisa The group will walk to the Bell Tower via JohnW. “As a mother and a daughter and a sister and son and Riverdale avenues.

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7 THE JEWISH STAR February 2, 2024 • 23 Shvat 5784

END O R SED BY Suozzi’s support for Israel has been admirably strong and consistent, evidence of a deep personal commitment to the Jewish State... it is extremely important to bolster the pro-Israel, centrist majority among House Democrats.

Having Tom Suozzi on Israel’s side in the halls of Congress will help offset the increasing influence of extreme left-wing progressives who are hostile to Israel and its interests. At the same time, we know that he will support all efforts to fight the growing antisemitism in this country.

01/24/2024

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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February 2, 2024 • 23 Shvat 5784 THE JEWISH STAR

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It’s time for American Jews to toughen up CHarLes JaCOBs CarY KOZBerG Jewish Leadership Project

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ince the Oct. 7 massacre, American Jews have experienced attacks that are now burned into our souls: On dozens of campuses and nearby streets, Jews have been screamed at, attacked, hectored, threatened and bullied — and did not fight back.

These images are humiliating, and all the more so because our historical experience has taught us that not responding with force has consequences: The easier Jews are to bully, the more we are attacked. The bleating of the sheep excites the tiger. Our exclusively non-violent reaction to the current wave of antisemitism invites a continuing open season on Jews.

We are now generations away from the Jewish toughs in Irvington, NJ, who famously broke up a Nazi meeting with stink bombs, baseball bats and iron bars. Octogenarian Myron Sugarman described in his book, “The Last Jewish Gangster,” how notorious Jewish mobsters like Meyer Lansky, Longie Zwillman and Puddy Hinkes recruited Jews who worked with their hands: Jewish plumbers, carpenters, electricians and other workers who, in the 1930s, were called upon to protect Jewish street peddlers and storekeepers from antisemitic thugs.

These folks made sure Jew-haters and supporters of Hitler had a fight on their hands when they threatened Jews.

We no longer have a Jewish working class today. Almost every Jewish male works at a desk tapping keys, making phone calls and studying books and reports. We live in middle-class and uppermiddle-class bubbles. We teach our children that differences need to be settled with words, not violence. It’s a good bet that most American Jewish children have never even witnessed, much less been involved in, an actual fistfight.

But cowering in fear damages us psychologically. We know that Jews, especially Jewish men and boys, fantasize about different, more valiant responses to threats, danger and attacks. We know that, since the creation of Israel, American Jews have gotten naches from the actions of tough Israelis — both male and female — who fight back.

If 18-year-old Israeli Jews can fight Hamas in Gaza, then surely 18-year-old American Jews can fight antisemitism in the United

Mugshot of Jewish American gangster Bugsy Siegel taken in 1928.

NYPD, Wikimedia

States. Yes, antisemitism on college campuses and elsewhere is intimidating, but cowering in fear will not make it less so.

Parents and the Jewish community must shift from raising Oct. 6 children to raising Oct. 8 children. We must cultivate self-sufficiency and resilience. We must instill the value of working for a cause greater than oneself: the security of the Jewish people.

Given what we are now experiencing in the Diaspora, we have no choice but to toughen up. For this reason, we propose a national effort that will take specific measures to accomplish this. irst, religious schooling should include some level of personal self-defense training as a requirement for becoming a bar or bat mitzvah. Just as synagogues and religious schools require students to demonstrate mastery of a specific section of the weekly Torah and/or Haftarah portions, so rabbis should require that students preparing to take on the responsibilities of an adult Jew should be capable of defending themselves.

This can include learning situational awareness; how to properly use pepper spray; how to use hands, arms, legs and feet to defend oneself; and how to use common items like keys, umbrellas and jackets for protection. This is specific and limited training using gross motor skills and does not assume that the student will become an expert in any martial art.

Students who learn the above basics should also be encouraged to learn judo, boxing and even krav maga.

This bar/bat mitzvah requirement conforms with the theological basis of the Jewish moral responsibility to engage in haganah

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atzmit — self-defense. Among the religious responsibilities of becoming an adult Jew are the mitzvot that command us to defend ourselves. Judaism teaches that our lives and bodies ultimately belong to the Almighty and we are merely their stewards. Thus, we are responsible for their safekeeping. We are commanded to stay healthy and out of danger to the best of our ability. When danger finds us, we have the responsibility to defend ourselves against it.

American Jewish parents must also prioritize their children’s physical fitness and have them play team sports, and teach them outdoor skills, self-reliance and self-sufficiency. Furthermore, Jewish teens should be taught how to fire a weapon.

In addition, military service should be valued and encouraged

by American Jews, just as it is in Israel. During World War II, approximately 11% of Jews served in the military. Today only 1% of Jews serve.

This is problematic for two reasons: First, it denies American Jews the training necessary to defend themselves and their families.

Second, serving in the military and defending the United States is one of the most important causes for which we Jews can fight. or decades, Jews have been saying: “Never again.” Although once upon a time this was a virtual battle cry for Jews to do anything necessary to protect themselves — including resorting to force of arms — in recent years it has become merely a bromide, a final slogan to conclude a letter to the editor.

We must reinvigorate “never again” to inspire us to stand up and fight those who would defame and intimidate us.

The American Jewish community has begun to shore up defenses of its synagogues and institutions. However, these efforts usually involve the use of professionals, such as law enforcement and security companies. We assert that, from a Jewish point of view, it is immoral to rely solely on others to risk their lives to protect us. From a practical point of view, having trained laity as backup would ensure an extra layer of protection should the professionals be neutralized.

The word “Jew” comes from the name Judah. In Hebrew, the word for Jew and the word for a member of the tribe of Judah is the same: yehudi. The symbol of the tribe of Judah is the lion.

Living in the Diaspora for so long, our lion’s roar of yesteryear has devolved into the bleating of sheep. We need to turn our bleating into roaring. It’s time for American Jews to toughen up.

Charles Jacobs is co-founder of the Jewish Leadership Project.

Cary Kozberg is spiritual leader of a Reform congregation in Springfield, Ohio, and for three decades an advocate of Jews learning selfdefense.

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We must earn the right to say ‘never again’ Fiamma NireNsteiN

I

nternational Holocaust Remembrance Day — commemorated Jan. 27 (while Israel marks Yom HaShoah on 27 Nisan) — has perhaps never been more difficult to observe.

It should be a day to contemplate the antisemitism that murdered six million Jews. It should be a moment to reject viewing history through an opaque glass. It is a moment when we must embrace the moral clarity that prevent us from repeating the atrocities of the past.

Instead, we are faced with a world that refuses to learn.

Since Oct. 7, antisemitism has exploded despite the images of the atrocities that are now seared into our memories: The children of the burnt kibbutzim; the mothers murdered in front of their children; girls and boys raped and dismembered.

Israel did not only have to suffer the deadliest antisemitic attack since the Holocaust, but Jews worldwide must now contend with an army of genocidal lies, ignorance, defamation and denial.

The peak of this horrific eruption of racism was the blood libel that the once-noble South Africa brought before the International Court of Justice, falsely accusing Israel of genocide.

It was a bitter irony indeed to see Israel in the dock rather than Hamas, which committed a

Today, ‘never again’ means victory in our war.

Graves of Kibbutz Be’eri residents who were murdered by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7.

genuinely genocidal assault that it documented with bloodthirsty pride. Instead of moral clarity, South Africa and numerous other international players allied themselves with genocidists, defaming the victim rather than condemning the perpetrator.

The world should not be piling on to this bandwagon. Instead, it should be terrified of it.

The last century saw epic massacres committed by murderous ideologues. Millions were sacrificed on the altars of Nazism, Stalinism and Islamic fundamentalism. Millions more were persecuted, oppressed and exiled. Antisemitism and antisemitic violence have played an enormous role in these atrocities. Those who target the

Chaim Goldberg, Flash90

Jewish people always have the ultimate ambition of destroying liberal democracy and the JudeoChristian values on which it is built. his new antisemitism is not as new as it seems, however. It is only the latest iteration of the ancient hatred. As the great historian of antisemitism Robert Wistrich has pointed out, Nazism’s murderous Jew-hatred survived Nazism’s fall. It was passed on to the Muslim world, driven by Nazi collaborator Haj Amin al-Husseini, the founder of Palestinian nationalism. This Islamic antisemitism is the essence of Hamas, supported by the equally antisemitic Iran.

Antisemitism also passed to the Soviet Union and the dutiful left adopted it as its own. Today,

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this is personified in woke culture, which pits “oppressed” Arabs — who are not oppressed — against “oppressive” white colonizers and racists.

Israel is not white, a colony or racist, but this does not matter to left-wing bigots, who have placed Israel firmly in the category of “oppressor.”

This legacy inherited from Nazism has now been witnessed by some who themselves survived the Nazis’ crimes.

•Gina Semetrich was 91 years old. Originally from Czechoslovakia, she emerged from the Holocaust to rebuild her life and family in Kissufim, a kibbutz near the border with Gaza. On Oct. 7, she was beaten and murdered by Hamas Nazis.

•Sara Jackson was 88, another survivor of the Holocaust, barricaded herself in her home at Kibbutz Sa’ad, just as she had done during a pogrom in Poland decades ago. She helped shelter three boys who had managed to escape the Nova Festival, where 360 innocents were massacred.

•Avigdor Neuman, 93, speaks simply as he shows the blue number tattooed on his arm: “There are things that cannot be erased.” o earn the right to say “never again,” we must courageously face what is happening. We must accept that Israel has no choice but to end this war by destroying the new ISIS on its border, wiping it off the face of the earth.

This is today’s “never again”: Victory in a war on the most difficult battlefield imaginable.

One in which every inch of land hides a tunnel from which terrorists can emerge. One in which every civilian building, every house, hospital, school or mosque, can hide missile launchers and RPGs. One in which every civilian can be a protector or human shield of Hamas — which alone is responsible for their deaths.

“Never again” means having the courage to understand that Israel is now the frontline in the battle for freedom and for life itself. And it is fighting for all of us.

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WINE AND DINE With frost nipping at our noses, it’s soup time!

Kosher Kitchen

JoNI SchocKETT

Jewish Star columnist

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t is 30 degrees outside, and the wind is howling. It’s amazing how fast winter appears. Sometimes I wonder why I stay in this climate. My nose is always freezing, my lips are always chapped, and I use hand cream by the gallon. I just want to hibernate until the landscape turns green again.

All the cold weather changes our food choices. We’re back to winter foods — those stick-to-your-ribs dishes that people make in winter and avoid all spring, summer and fall. Although I have never figured out why anyone would want food to stick to their ribs and not travel through their digestive track, I get the idea of eating heavy foods that take longer to digest and are steaming hot.

If you are a carnivore, you eat stews and more meat in the winter. Cavemen hunted for meat in the winter, eating vegetables and grains in the summer and fall because they were available. Even though we can get all these foods year round, we still gravitate to meat in the winter and lighter foods in the summer. Even vegetarians and vegans look for more beans and hearty veggies in the winter.

We also gravitate to soups. Their joys are countless. Soups soothe and warm, they comfort, they nourish the soul as well as the body, and they fill us with warmth. They heal as well — chicken soup is prescribed for upper respiratory infections, and vegetable soup is healthful and perfect for anyone with a virus or recovering from surgery. It is filled with healthful nutrients and is easy to digest.

Soup is the perfect diet food. Anyone on a diet knows that a bowl of light, broth-like veggie soup before dinner can decrease the number of calories consumed in the meal.

We can’t change the season. It’s grey and cold and miserable — unless you are one of those people who loves cold weather. But we can make it more tolerable with some delicious, nutritious soup to soothe that first winter cold and help you avoid winter weight gain.

Roasted Garlic, Leek and Potato Soup (Dairy or Pareve) • 2 heads garlic, or about 20 cloves • 1/2 to 2/3 cup canola oil • 2 to 3 large leeks, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced, slices broken apart • 1-1/2 lbs. Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes • 3 to 4 cups vegetable broth • Salt and pepper, to taste Optional: 1 cup milk or non-dairy substitute Place the garlic cloves and oil in a small, heavy saucepan over medium-low heat. The oil should cover the cloves completely. If it does not, add more oil.

Simmer until the cloves are golden and softened, about 20 minutes or more. When done, remove from the heat and let cool.

Place 2 to 3 Tbsp. of the oil in which the garlic was cooked in a soup pot. Add the sliced leeks and cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Stir often to break up the slices.

Strain the garlic cloves over a container.

Add the cloves to the soup pot and reserve the oil for another use. (It’s great in salad dressings.) Add the potatoes to the soup pot and mix well. Add broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes, until potatoes have broken down and are mushy.

Use an immersion blender to emulsify the soup until it is creamy. Add the milk or cream and mix well. Heat until steaming, but not boiling. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish with snipped chives or scallions.

Serves 4 to 6.

NOTE: You can add personalize this soup to your family’s tastes. Use buttermilk instead of milk for a little tang. You can also add sour cream or yogurt. Add some thyme or oregano, if you like, or add some carrots to the recipe while cooking for a bit of sweetness. You can also season with smoked salt or a bit of chili powder or tobacco sauce.

Turkish Lentil Soup (Pareve or Dairy)

• 1/3 cup olive oil • 2 large onions, diced • 4 garlic cloves, minced • 2 quarts vegetable broth • 1 lb. dried red or mixed lentils (red, brown, etc.)

• 2 to 3 fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded and quartered OR • 2 carrots, peeled and diced

• 2 potatoes, peeled and diced • 3 ribs celery, diced • 1-1/2 tsp. Kosher salt, to taste • 1/2 tsp. pepper Pour the olive oil into a large soup pot and add the onions and garlic. Sauté until lightly golden, about 7 minutes. In a large pot, bring the water to a boil. Add all the ingredients and boil for 15 minutes. Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 to 60 minutes more. Taste and adjust seasonings.

You can use an immersion blended and blend the soup to any consistency you like or leave the lentils and veggies whole. Makes about 4 quarts soup.

Variations: Try adding cooked rice or macaroni. Or, just before serving, you can add some freshly made large toasted croutons and/or sprinkle some Parmesan cheese over the top. You can also drizzle some mild chili oil in a design on the soup before serving, or top with toasted, chopped pistachio nuts.

White Bean and Kale Soup (Pareve or Meat) • 3 to 5 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil • 2 large onions, chopped • 6 to 10 cloves garlic, minced • 3 to 6 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced • 2 to 4 ribs celery, thinly sliced • 2 large yellow gold potatoes, peeled and diced

• 2 bay leaves • 2 to 3 quarts vegetable or chicken stock • 2 to 3 cans white navy beans, rinsed and drained • 1 large bunch kale, washed thoroughly, stemmed and cut into bite-sized pieces • 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes • salt and pepper to taste • 1/4 cup chopped, fresh parsley • Optional: 1 to 2 cans red beans, rinsed, drained • 1 large can (28 oz.) diced tomatoes with liquid Heat the oil in a heavy stockpot. Add onions and garlic and heat until translucent, 5 to 9 minutes. Add the carrots, celery, and potatoes, and cook until softened, 5 to 7 minutes.

Stir frequently. Add the bay leaves and mix well.

Slowly add the stock and beans and simmer for about 30 to 40 minutes. Remove the bay leaves and discard. Add the kale and simmer for another 30 minutes. Add salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Simmer an additional 5 to 10 minutes. Garnish with minced parsley.

Serves a crowd.

If you hate kale, use baby spinach leaves for the last 5 minutes of cooking time.

Variation: For an added calcium boost, add some broccoli florets to the soup during the last 5 to 8 minutes of cooking. You can add any vegetables or beans you like — I have used frozen lima beans and frozen cut green beans instead of the white beans and kale.

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Public Notices

LSTA1 0201

LEGAL NOTICE PUBLIC NOTICE OF NASSAU COUNTY TREASURER’S SALE OF TAX LIENS ON REAL ESTATE Notice is hereby given that commencing on February 20th, 2024, will sell at public on-line auction the tax liens on certain real estate, unless the owner, mortgagee, occupant of or any other party in interest in such real estate shall have paid to the County Treasurer

by February 15th, 2024 the total amount of such unpaid taxes or assessments with the interest, penalties and other expenses and charges against the property.

Such tax liens will be sold at the lowest rate of interest, not exceeding 10 percent per six-month period, for which any person or persons shall offer to take the total amount of such unpaid taxes as defined in Section 5-37.0 of the Nassau County Administrative Code.

Effective with the February 2019 lien sale Ordinance No. 175-2015 requires a $175.00 per day registration fee for each person who intends to bid at the tax lien sale.

Ordinance No. 175-2015 also requires that upon the issuance of the Lien Certificate there is due from the lien buyer a Tax Certificate Issue Fee of $20.00 per lien purchased. Pursuant to the provisions of the Nassau County Administrative Code at the discretion of the Nassau County Treasurer the auction will be conducted online. Further information concerning the procedures for the auction is available at the website of the Nassau County Treasurer at: https://www.nassaucount y n y. g o v / 5 2 6 / C o u n t y Treasurer Should the Treasurer determine that an inperson auction shall be held, same will commence on the 20th day of February 2024 at the Office of The County Treasurer 1 West Street, Mineola or at some other location to be determined by the Treasurer.

A list of all real estate in Nassau County on which tax liens are to be sold is available at the website of the Nassau County Treasurer at: https://www.nassaucount yny.gov/527/Annual-TaxLien-Sale A list of local properties upon which tax liens are

to be sold will be advertised in this publication on or before February 07th, 2024.

Nassau County does not discriminate on the basis of disability in admission to or access to, or treatment or employment in, its services, programs, or activities.

Upon request, accommodations such as those required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) will be provided to enable individuals with disabilities to participate in all services, programs, activities and public hearings and events conducted by the Treasurer’s Office. Upon request, information can be made available in Braille, large print, audiotape or other alternative formats. For additional information, please call (516) 571-2090 ext.

1-3715.

Dated: January 24, 2024 THE NASSAU COUNTY TREASURER Mineola, NewYork ___________________ TERMS OF SALE Such tax liens shall be sold subject to any and all superior tax liens of sovereignties and other municipalities and to all claims of record which the County may have thereon and subject to the provisions of the Federal and State Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Acts.

However, such tax liens shall have priority over the County’s Differential Interest Lien, representing the excess, if any, of the interest and penalty borne at the maximum rate over the interest and penalty borne at the rate at which the lien is purchased.

The Purchaser acknowledges that the tax lien(s) sold pursuant to these Terms of Sale may be subject to pending bankruptcy proceedings and/or may become subject to such proceedings which may be commenced during the period in which a tax lien is held by a successful bidder or the assignee of same, which may modify a Purchaser’s rights with respect to the lien(s) and the property securing same. Such bankruptcy proceedings shall not affect the validity of the tax lien. In addition to being subject to pending bankruptcy proceedings and/or the Federal and State Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Acts, said purchaser’s right of foreclosure may be affected by the Financial

Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act(FIRREA),12 U.S.C. ss 1811 et.seq., with regard to real property under Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation(FDIC) receivership.

The County Treasurer reserves the right, without further notice and at any time, to withdraw from sale any of the parcels of land or premises herein listed.

The Nassau County Treasurer reserves the right to intervene in any bankruptcy case/litigation where the property affected by the tax liens sold by the Treasurer is part of the bankruptcy estate. However, it is the sole responsibility of all tax lien purchasers to protect their legal interests in any bankruptcy case affecting their purchased tax lien, including but not limited to the filing of a proof of claim on their behalf, covering their investment in said tax lien. The Nassau County Treasurer and Nassau County and its agencies, assumes no responsibility for any legal representation of any tax lien purchaser in any legal proceeding including but not limited to a bankruptcy case where the purchased tax lien is at risk.

The rate of interest and penalty at which any person purchases the tax lien shall be established by his bid.

Each purchaser, immediately after the sale thereof, shall pay to the County Treasurer ten per cent of the amount for which the tax liens have been sold and the remaining ninety per cent within thirty days after such sale. If the purchaser at the tax sale shall fail to pay the remaining ninety per cent within ten days after he has been notified by the County Treasurer that the certificates of sale are ready for delivery, then all amounts deposited with the County Treasurer including but not limited to the ten per cent theretofore paid by him shall, without further notice or demand, be irrevocably forfeited by the purchaser and shall be retained by the County Treasurer as liquidated damages and the agreement to purchase shall be of no further effect. Time is of the essence in this sale. This sale is held pursuant to the Nassau County Administrative Code and interested parties are

referred to such Code for additional information as to terms of the sale, rights of purchasers, maximum rates of interest and other legal incidents of the sale.

Furthermore, as to the bidding, 1. The bidder(s) agree that they will not work with any other bidder(s) to increase, maintain or stabilize interest rates or collaborate with any other bidder(s) to gain an unfair competitive advantage in the random number generator in the event of a tie bid(s) on a tax certificate. Bidder(s) further agree not to employ any bidding strategy designed to create an unfair competitive advantage in the tiebreaking process in the upcoming tax sale nor work with any other bidder(s) to engage in any bidding strategy that will result in a rotational award of tax certificates.

2. The tax certificate(s) the Bidder will bid upon, and the interest rate(s) bid, will be arrived at independently and without direct or indirect consultation, communication or agreement with any other bidder and that the tax certificate(s) the Bidder will bid upon, and the interest rate(s) to be bid, have not been disclosed, directly or indirectly, to any other bidder, and will not be disclosed, directly or indirectly, to any other bidder prior to the close of bidding. No attempt has been made or will be made to, directly or indirectly, induce any other bidder to refrain from bidding on any tax certificate, to submit complementary bids, or to submit bids at specific interest rates.

3. The bids to be placed by the Bidder will be made in good faith and not pursuant to any direct or indirect, agreement or discussion with, or inducement from, any other bidder to submit a complementary or other noncompetitive bid.

4. If it is determined that the bidder(s) have violated any of these bid requirements then their bid shall be voided and if they were the successful bidder the lien and any deposits made in connection with said bid shall be forfeited.

Dated: January 24, 2024 THE NASSAU COUNTY TREASURER Mineola, New York 144440

Search for notices online at: www.newyorkpublicnotices.com

Legal Notices are everyone’s business

READ THEM

Shoah ed at Hewlett HS

By Parker Schug, LI Herald Two days after International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Hewlett High School students received an education on the horrific event with several classes gathered in the building’s library to learn. Mireille Taub, a French refugee who lives in Freeport, shared her story of escaping from Paris before the Nazis took control along with her husband’s tale of concentration camp survival.

Taub’s Jan. 27 discussion was followed by a live, interactive, virtual tour of the Auschwitz concentration camp complex in Poland, as part of the first Holocaust Awareness Day in the public high school.

Principal Alexandra Greenberg invited interested teachers to bring their classes to hear Taub speak. Additional students who expressed curiosity were also invited to participate.

“I wanted this to be a more intimate setting,” Greenberg said.

Taub told her story of leaving Paris with her family, amid aerial bombing, on a train to Bordeaux enroute to cross the border.

“We get off the train, we’re lucky to be alive, we start walking to Bordeaux,” Taub said.

She showed the shoes that she had worn as a young girl making the trek, with worn down heals. The family stopped 20 to 40 miles from Bordeaux, she said, then boarded other trains to other fascist countries such Portugal and Spain, and eventually taking a boat to the United States.

Taub also recounted her late husband David Taub’s story. He and his brother were in and out of multiple concentration camps and

received help from people throughout their journey that led to their liberation.

Junior Aaron Isakov asked Greenberg for permission to attend, because his classes were not viewing the presentation.

“I want to hear more perspectives because we come from the Soviet Union,” Isakov said.

“My family, my great grandfather, always told me all his stories, his experience. So, I wanted to see everyone’s different experience and what they shared, what’s the difference, what’s the parallels today to what’s happening.”

Isakov said he found Taub’s story interesting “because when you hear these stories, there’s always some amount of luck and coincidence — the stars have to align in some way for everything to work out.”

“It’s crazy how many lucky things, you can’t plan these kinds of things, opportunities that allowed people to get out and allowed people to live and provide for their families,” he said.

Taub finished her retelling of events by reminding students of an important lesson.

“How courageous must you be to stay alive in such difficult times?” Taub said. “Even staying alive is an act of resistance.”

Isakov said he was inspired by the attitude of Taub and her family.

“They all have strength and resilience and persistence in common, they just keep on pushing through,” he said.

On the same day, Cedarhurst resident and another Holocaust survivor, Fred Zeilberger, was honored by Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman at the ceremonial chamber in the Theodore Roosevelt Executive & Legislative Building in Mineola.

Marion Blumenthal Lazan accepts a Federal Republic of Germany honor on Jan. 21.

Germans honor…

Continued from page 1 refugee camps in the Netherlands, concentration camps in Germany, and transit camps after liberation in 1945. He spoke of her strength and “unwavering belief in humanity.” He said that her advocacy and education after the Shoah paved the way for a compassionate future.

“It is truly impressive and cannot be praised enough, how much time and effort Marion Blumenthal Lazan devotes to public speaking, addressing students at various levels of education worldwide, as well as adult audiences in religious institutions and civic organizations,” Gill said.

Michael Lazan, Marion’s son, discussed the success of her book, “Four Perfect Pebbles,” which sold 800,000 copies in five languages, her global presentations and her tireless efforts in promoting Holocaust education.

“In a time marred by a disturbing rise in antisemitism and alarming ignorance about the Holocaust, this honor is particularly significant,” Michael said. “It signifies a commit-

Nathalie Schueller

ment by the German government to combating historical ignorance and fostering a world where tolerance prevails.”

Susan Weinberg, Marion’s daughter, shared a news release about the event that noted the added significance of the award during a resurgence of antisemitism.

“Marion Blumenthal Lazan, at the age of 89, remains undeterred in her mission to combat misinformation and educate people about the Holocaust,” Weinberg wrote. “The global rise in anti-Semitism and the unsettling survey results serve as a stark reminder of the critical importance of her tireless efforts.”

“It was an extraordinary — beyond extraordinary — experience,” Lazan said of the award ceremony. “I didn’t know what to expect, but it was quite elaborate.”

Lazan said she plans to continue sharing her story and speaking with people of all ages, all around the world.

“Be kind and good and respectful towards one and other, I keep saying that that’s the basis for peace, such a simple, simple message and so difficult to achieve,” Lazan said.

15 THE JEWISH STAR February 2, 2024 • 23 Shvat 5784

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February 2, 2024 • 23 Shvat 5784 THE JEWISH STAR

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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 Feb 2 / 23 Shevat

Fri 23 / 14 Adar I

Fri Feb 9 / 30 Shevat

Fri March 1 / 21 Adar I

Fri Feb 16 / 7 Adar I

Fri March 8 / 28 Adar I

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

Ki Sisa Candles: 5:29 • Havdalah: 6:39

Shekalim • Vayakhel • Shabbos Mevarchim Candles: 5:37 • Havdalah: 6:47

G-d and His people in Yitro: Deed and creed rabbi Sir JonaThan SaCkS zt”l

T

he parsha of Yitro records the revolutionary moment when G-d, Creator of Heaven and Earth, entered into a mutually binding agreement with a nation, the Children of Israel, an agreement we call a brit, a covenant.

Now, this is not the first Divine covenant in the Torah. G-d had already made one with Noah, and through him all of humanity, and He made another with Abraham, whose sign was circumcision. But those covenants were not fully reciprocal. G-d did not ask for Noah’s agreement, nor did He wait for Abraham’s assent.

Sinai was a different matter. For the first time, He wanted the covenant to be fully mutual, to be freely accepted. So we find that — both before and after the Revelation at Sinai — G-d commands Moses to make sure the people do actually agree.

The point is fundamental. G-d wants to rule by right, not might. The G-d who brought an enslaved people to liberty seeks the free worship of free human beings.

Christians have theology. Jews have law, two very different approaches to the religious life.

G-d does not act toward His creatures like a tyrant. (Avodah Zarah 3a) So at Sinai was born the principle that was, millennia later, described by Thomas Jefferson in the American Declaration of Independence, the idea that governors and governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” G-d wanted the consent of the governed.

That is why the Sinai Covenant was conditional on the people’s agreement.

Admittedly, the Talmud questions how free the Israelites actually were, and it uses an astonishing image. It says that G-d suspended the mountain above their heads and said, “If you agree, well and good. If you don’t, here will be your burial.” That is another topic for another time. Suffice to say that there is no indication of this in the plain sense of the text itself. hat is interesting is the exact wording in which the Israelites signal their consent.

To repeat: they do so three times, first before the Revelation, and then twice afterwards, in the parsha of Mishpatim.

Listen to the three verses. Before the Revelation: All the people answered as one and said, “All that G-d has spoken, we will do [na’aseh].” Ex. 19:8 Then afterward: Moses came and told the people all of G-d’s words and all the laws. The people all responded with a single voice, “We will do [na’aseh] every word that G-d has spoken.” Ex. 24:3 He took the Book of the Covenant and read it aloud to the people. They replied, “We will do [na’aseh] and we will hear [ve-nishma] all that G-d has declared.” Ex. 24:7 Note the subtle difference. In two cases the people say: all that G-d says, we will do. In the third, the double verb is used: na’aseh ve-nishma.

“We will do and we will hear, (or obey, or hearken, or understand).” The word shema means “to

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understand,” as we see in the story of the Tower of Babel: “Come, let us descend and confuse their speech, so that one person will not understand another’s speech.” Gen. 11:7 Now note that there is another difference between the three verses. In the first two cases there is a clear emphasis on the unity of the people.

Both phrases are very striking. The first says: all the people answered as one. The second says, the people all responded with a single voice.

In a book that emphasizes how fractious and fissiparous the people were, such declarations of unanimity are significant and rare. But the third verse, which mentions both doing and listening or understanding, contains no such statement. It simply says: They replied. There is no emphasis on unanimity or consensus. hat we have here is a biblical comment on one of the most striking features of all in Judaism: the difference between deed and creed, between asiyah and shemiyah, between doing and understanding.

Christians have theology. Jews have law.

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These are two very different approaches to the religious life. Judaism is about a community of action. It is about the way people interact in their dealings with one another. It is about bringing G-d into the shared spaces of our collective life.

Just as we know G-d through what He does, so G-d asks us to bring Him into what we do. In the beginning, as Goethe put it, was the deed. That is why Judaism is a religion of law, because law is the architecture of behavior.

When it comes, however, to belief, creed, doctrine, all the things that depend on shemiyah rather than asiyah, understanding rather than action: on this Judaism does not call for unanimity. Not because Judaism lacks beliefs. To the contrary, Judaism is what it is precisely because of our beliefs, most importantly the belief in monotheism, that there is, at least and at most, one G-d. The Torah tells us in Bereishit about creation, in Shemot about redemption, and in this week’s parsha about revelation.

Judaism is a set of beliefs, but it is not a community based on unanimity about the way we See Sacks on page 22

The Big Ten is our headline, 613 are our duty rabbi raYMonD aPPLE zt”l BDE. We are sad to report that Rabbi Dr. Raymond Apple was niftar on Jan. 19. He was the Senior Rabbi of The Great Synagogue of Sydney between 1972 and 2005 and one of Australia’s highest profile rabbis, considered the leading spokesman for Judaism in Australia.

May his memory be a blessing. he Ten Commandments come twice in the Torah, the first time in parashat Yitro (this Shabbat) and the second time (with

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changes) in parashat Va’et’channan.

There are actually 613 commandments, of which the Decalogue is a part. Most people say they keep the Ten Commandments but they don’t mention (or often don’t know of) the 613. Our question is why the Decalogue is so famous and the other 603 are generally accorded less priority.

The answer could be that the Ten are basic principles which are spelled out in detail in the 613 mitzvot. This seems to be supported by Professor Eliezer Berkovits, who spoke of our age needing “a theology or a philosophy that does justice to the essential nature of Jewish teaching about God, man and the universe.”

But in the end the 613 do not lack theology or ethics.

The Ten Commandments speak of knowing God, placing Him above all other deities and committing ourselves to Him; the Shema — coming in the 613 but not the Ten — speaks of loving Him and expressing that love in acts such as Torah study, tefillin and mezuzah.

Long and short of it

Rabbi Solomon Goldman says, “What has made these commandments unique is… the terseness and conciseness of language. They whiz, as it were, through the air and strike the conscience of man like an arrow its target”.

The staccato phraseology is highly effective — no ifs and buts, no qualifications or conditions.

Yes, each commandment can be analysed and debated, for example the law against kill-

ing. Does it mean killing or murdering? Is there any exception in time of war? Does it apply to the unborn child? Are some types of killing more insidious? Does it apply to animals, even to insects?

Take the law against stealing. Does it mean stealing a thing or stealing a person, does it include stealing from yourself, or stealing when the owner of the item knows nothing about it?

Does it include stealing someone’s dignity or pride?

Each of these five laws has problems of application, so what the Decalogue gives us is a headline. But the headline says enough.

“God Almighty hath said in a voice that goeth thundering through the centuries, ‘Thou shalt not. Never!’”

Rabbi dR. tzvi heRsh WeinReb Orthodox Union

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ssembling complicated gadgets is generally facilitated by the printed instructions that the factory provides. Occasionally, however, there are no instructions, either because of the manufacturer’s negligence or because of his assumption that there is no one out there dumb enough not to be able to figure out how to assemble the gadget on his own. That assumption is frequently mistaken. There are plenty of dummies out there, and I count myself among them.

So what’s a person to do without the instruc-

tions for the new gadget he eagerly wishes to put into action?

Some people, perhaps most of them, use the method of trial and error. They tinker with the various parts, desperately attempting to force round pegs into square holes, or alternatively, square pegs into round holes. After a while, typically after much frustration, they succeed. With that success comes the exhilaration which naturally accompanies the elimination of ignorance and doubt, and the discovery of certainty.

There are others who are blessed with a native understanding of all things mechanical. They require no painstaking course of trial and error.

They just look at all the pieces spread out before them and somehow immediately apprehend which piece goes where. In an instant the gadget is perfectly assembled and ready for use. Person-

Let’s avoid the path of ’trial and error’ and instead emulate King David’s inward spiritual journey. ally, I envy these gifted individuals.

In this week’s Torah portion, Yitro, we read of someone who fits the first category. Yitro, the father-in-law of Moses whom we first met several weeks ago when we began the book of Exodus, clearly is the “trial and error” type. His frustrating

ordeal, however, was not with some complicated gadget but rather with something of far greater significance.

Yitro’s was a lifelong search for a G-d to worship. According to our Sages, he worshiped all the idols of the ancient world, and even succeeded in becoming the high priest of at least one of those pagan religions. But he found none of them satisfactory.

Where did our Sages learn of Yitro’s religious odyssey? Nowhere in the Bible is there any explicit mention of this “trial and error” search for a deity that he could accept. Yes, we do know that he was the high priest of Midian, but we are not in possession of evidence of the rejection of the multitude of false G-ds that is attributed to him.

The answer lies in a single phrase. It appears See Weinreb on page 22

Weighing the essence of the Asseret HaDibrot torah

Rabbi david etenGoff

Jewish Star columnist

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he most celebrated section of our parasha, Yitro, is that of the Asseret HaDibrot. It begins with the well-known words: “And Elokim spoke all (kol) these words saying.”

The Mechilta of Rabbi Yishmael focuses on the word kol and suggests: “This comes to teach us that the Asseret HaDibrot were said in one utterance (b’dibbur echad), something that is impossible for a human being to say in this manner.”

In his Rashi cites this statement nearly verbatim,

signaling that this is the correct interpretation.

This citation is further interpreted by the Maharal (Rabbi Yehudah Loew ben Betzalel), in his supercommentary on Rashi’s Commentary, entitled Gur Aryeh: “This is to say that the entire Torah is one entity and one word — inyan echad v’dibbur echad.” He bases his interpretation on two premises: •The entire Torah is derived (yotzim) from the Asseret HaDibrot.

•These Asseret HaDibrot were stated b’dibbur echad; therefore, the entire Torah was [initially given in] one pronouncement.

In an interpretative tour de force, the Maharal expands on this approach in his sefer, Tifferet Yisrael, chapter 34: “Based on the aforementioned, we can state that

the Asseret HaDibrot were said in one word. This is coming to teach that the entirety of the Torah is one, and it is one ordered and inseparable entity.

This is the case, since all of the mitzvot derive from the Asseret HaDibrot, and that each of the Taryag (613) mitzvot are included therein. Moreover, the Asseret HaDibrot were stated in one word, which teaches us that the Torah is completely indivisible.

It is, therefore, proper to say, [as well,] that it is one order (seder) [that is, an undividable object].

Closer to our own time, the Rav provides a different analysis of the Mechilta. Rather than suggesting that the word kol encompasses the entire Torah, the Rav limits its scope to the Asseret HaDibrot: Apparently, the Mechilta and Rashi have interpreted va’yidabare Elokim ate kol hadevarim

ha’aleh in the holistic sense, and translated it as follows: G-d proclaimed the whole, the entirety, or the totality, of those Commandments. They did not interpret kol as referring to each and every one of those Commandments. Kol is not interpreted as in terms of every Commandment, rather, it is interpreted as referring to the totality, the organic unity of all Ten Commandments … lol injects a new idea, a new world.

What exactly is the “new world” that is revealed in the word, kol?

As the Rav explains: The Decalogue is not an incidental sum consisting of mutually unrelated precepts. Rather, the Decalogue constitutes a primordial entity, whose unity and integrity are inherent in the very esSee Etengoff on page 22

Collectively given, Torah mandates are personal Parsha of the Week

Rabbi avi billet Jewish Star columnist

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hough this week’s parsha begins with a story of Yitro, its chronological relationship with the rest of the Exodus narrative is debated by the commentaries. If we ignore this story for a moment, we can see that the events in Refidim, where Israel fought Amalek, and at Messah U’Meribah, where they were provided water, were precursors to their arrival at Mt. Sinai.

And yet, when they were attacked by Amalek, they were forced to band together to fight a common enemy. While this unity on the military front is not surprising, it did not last in the continued sojourn through the desert, until they got

to Mt. Sinai, a place which caused them to come together as one.

As Kli Yakar puts it, “the seeking of honor and appointment was the reason behind every fight and plague,” but once they realized how small Mt. Sinai actually was, “then they saw that G-d chooses the humble.”

Seeing Sinai caused them to embrace the feeling of submission and avoid strife so that they could embrace peace. The essence of the mountain, modesty and humility, is what brought about peace among the factions of Israelites who previously had strife with one another.

The Torah speaks in the plural: they came to the Sinai Wilderness (19:1) and they traveled from Refidim, they came to the Sinai wilderness, and they camped in the wilderness, a singular Israel at the Mountain (19:2). ilderness-wise they were still many people, many opinions, not united. But when they got to the mountain, realizing G-d

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would reveal Himself at this particular and specific place, they realized the key ingredient to accepting the Torah was humility. Then they were “as one heart, as one man.”

The Talmud (Shabbos 89b) gives a number of explanations for why the mountain and its surrounding wilderness were called Sinai, rejecting each one by one.

“It’s a play on words,” says Rav Kahana. Sinai reflects nissim (miracles) done for Israel. The Talmud responds, “In that case, it should be called Mt. Nisai!”

The next suggestion is that Sinai almost sounds like siman tov, a place where good things happened to Israel. Well, in that case, the Talmud recommends “it should be called Mt. Simanai!”

The last suggestion is that Sinai reflects the place where sinah (hostility) was descended toward the nations at this mountain.

Another argument of the Talmud is that the mountain’s real name was Horeb, reflective of

the hurbah (desolation) which descended to idolators from that place and time.

Rashi explains the “hatred” or the “destruction” to the nations of the world as meaning their moral compass was demonstrably skewed because they did not accept the Torah. I do not believe this means that people who are not guided by the Torah can’t live a moral life, nor does it mean that those who live by the Torah can’t be immoral.

There are exceptions to any rule. It just means that the moral compass has a different source.

And yet who did accept the Torah? Not the Israelites as individuals, each with a unique personality, but the Israelites as a group. They were united at Sinai because the mountain demonstrated for them that the Torah isn’t just for the mighty and lofty and powerful, it is for everybody. And everybody has a personal challenge, to ask, how am I making the Torah mine?

See Billet on page 22

Joyous ‘Purim Eternal: Inspiration and Depth’ Kosher bookworm

alan Jay GeRbeR

Jewish Star columnist

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n an essay titled “Double Adar,” Rabbi Berel Wein writes that “there is an underlying value that the month of Adar possesses that no other month in the Jewish calendar can lay claim to. This idea of the joy of survival, of the ultimate downfall of the wicked, of the better tomorrow in physical, spiritual and national terms, belongs exclusively to Adar. There is no substitute for it in the rest of the year’s calendar.”

It is from this observation that we proceed to the teachings of Rabbi Avi Feiner of Lawrence,

reflected in this excerpt from his book, “Purim Eternal: Inspiration and Depth’ (Mosaica Press, 2019).

••• “And these days should be remembered (nizkarim) and celebrated in every generation.” This verse is the source for many of the laws regarding the mitzvah of reading the Megillah, and may be the actual source for the obligation to read the Megillah on Purim.

The Gemara even labels the mitzvah of reading the Megillah as one of zechirah, meaning

remembrance.

But why is Megillas Esther called “remembrance?” If it is because the main purpose of the reading is to commemorate the miracle, then why not refer to all of the mitzvos of Purim as a remembrance or commemoration? Are not the mitzvos of seudas Purim, mishloach manos, and matanos l’evyonim also commemorations of the great miracles that occurred at the time of Purim?

To gain a greater understanding of the word zecher (or zechirah), let us look back to find the first time that this word appears in the Torah.

There is a famous principle brought from Rav Tzadok HaKohen m’Lublin that the essential meaning of a word can be best understood by analyzing the first time that word appears in the Torah.

The first place that a form of this word zecher (to remember) appears in the Torah is in Parashas Noach. The verse states, “Vayizkor Elokim es Noach … vayashochu hamayim (And Hashem remembered Noach … and the waters subsided).” Hashem’s remembrance of Noach took place while he was inside the teivah in the midst of the Great Flood, and it was this remembrance that ultimately prompted Hashem to cause the waters to subside.

Rashi on this verse explains that obviously Hashem never forgets anything and therefore has no need to “remember.” Rather, G-d’s remembrance signifies that the attribute of Hashem’s strict judgment (Elokim) was now substituted with the attribute of Hashem’s mercy, which became manifest as a result of the tefillos of Noach.

See Gerber on page 22

THE JEWISH STAR February 2, 2024 • 23 Shvat 5784

Knowing what to do without having instructions

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February 2, 2024 • 23 Shvat 5784 THE JEWISH STAR

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‘Anti-racism’ made antisemitism fashionable suring President Joe Biden to abandon Israel.

Equally important is the way that anti-Israel protests and the adoring coverage they have gotten in publications like the Times have not just undermined support for the Jewish state but mainstreamed antisemitic attitudes and positions about the desirability of Israel’s destruction, in addition to justifying the slaughter of its people as understandable acts of “resistance.”

The path of people of like Eva Borgwardt and those, like the writers and editors at the Times, who treat her as an idealist rather than a hatemonger can only be explained by the way her “anti-racism” activism led to a movement that routinely engages in acts of antisemitic intimidation.

JonAthAn S. toBin

JnS Editor-in-Chief

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ith each passing week since the Oct. 7 Hamas pogroms in Israeli communities in southern Israel, the magnitude of the sea change in attitudes towards antisemitism becomes more and more apparent. But as the 110-day mark since the terrorist assault approaches, the straight line that runs between what fashionable liberal American opinion likes to call “anti-racism” and hatred for Jews has become not just obvious but undeniable.

The evidence for this has been readily seen on the streets of American cities and college campuses as mobs march, signs held high and chanting slogans calling for Israel’s destruction (“from the river to the sea”) and in favor of continued terrorism, if not genocide against Jews not just in Israel but wherever they live (“globalize the intifada”).

What is most striking about all of this is that wherever these demonstrations pop up — whether at elite schools or while blocking traffic on major thoroughfares, bridges or tunnels, or outside Jewish-owned businesses as socalled “progressives” emulate the tactics of Nazi Germany in the 1930s — the language they use is not that of the tropes of traditional Jew-hatred. Rather, the tenor of their remarks and the tactics that are employed are those of the political left and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The woke ideology that fuels BLM — intersectionality, white privilege and critical race theory — have nothing to do with the conflict between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East. But for both veteran ideologues and young progressives who have been indoctrinated in these specious concepts, the same bogus way of looking at the world is just as easily applied to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

The result is that a significant portion of young Americans are quick to view the events of Oct. 7, as well as the subsequent fighting in Gaza, as essentially an extension of their assumptions about racial strife in the United States. And that is exactly the context for a revealing and troubling article published in the New York Times Sunday Magazine.

Black-Jewish divide

The conceit of the piece is an exploration of the growing divide between African-Americans and Jews that has been evident for a generation but has become even more obvious since Oct. 7.

But rather than focusing on the chasm that has opened up between the two communities

Backlash against the victims of terror

Pro-Hamas activists wheel a mock tank into Freedom Plaza during a “March for Gaza” on Jan. 13.

Philip Yabut, Shutterstock

because of the disappointment most Jews feel about the way those who purport to represent American blacks have taken sides against Israel after Oct. 7, the Times Magazine took a different tack. Instead, the piece was centered on the activities of one small group of Jews — and, in particular, one of its most prominent activists, who agrees with those seeking Israel’s destruction.

This says very little about how most Jews or African-Americans really feel about each other or whether they understand their differing perspectives and problems. But it speaks volumes about how the woke ideology that motivates people like those who belong to IfNotNow, an anti-Zionist group that traffics in antisemitism, despite its claim to embody the Jewish tradition of support for human rights.

Even more to the point, it demonstrates how the array of slogans and neo-Marxist concepts that is the foundation of “anti-racism” and much of contemporary progressive politics on the left have made antisemitism fashionable in 2024.

Antisemitic shock troops

The Times Magazine takes a deep dive into the life of IfNotNow’s Eva Borgwardt and how she and her group — and its various allies on the left — have become key figures in an effort to demonize Israel. It also describes their supporters, who have captivated the mainstream liberal press. Their effort to pressure the Biden administration to cut off aid to the Jewish state and hand a victory to the Hamas perpetrators of the Oct. 7 massacres has had an impact far out of proportion to their relatively small numbers.

They are the shock troops on the streets and on the campuses. More than that, their campaign to smear Israel as an “apartheid” state carrying out a “genocide” in Gaza has gotten support not just among the chattering classes but a broad array of Democratic staffers in Congress, the Biden administration and the president’s re-election campaign.

Much of the analysis about the impact of the pro-Hamas protest movement has centered on the way the left wing of the Democratic Party has bought into their talking points and is pres-

The New York Times presents IfNotNow activists as liberal idealists. But beneath their rhetoric is contempt for Jews and indifference to Jewish genocide.

It was clear from the moment the news spread of the largest mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust that the reaction from much of the chattering classes in the West, as well as elite intellectuals, academia, popular culture and the fine arts and left-wing political activists, would be exactly what Hamas intended.

Rather than creating a backlash against the barbaric nature of Palestinian national “resistance” (and a recognition that the widely popular Hamas movement’s goals truly were the extinction of Israel and the genocide of its Jewish population), the crimes of Oct. 7 did the opposite.

Even before the Jewish dead were buried or the Israel Defense Forces began its campaign to root out the terrorist forces from their fortified positions in the Gaza Strip, the plight of the victims of mass murder, rape, torture and kidnapping was largely forgotten by most of the international media. Instead, a worldwide campaign to delegitimize Israel was launched — one that sought to attack not merely Israel’s right to defend itself in the war Hamas had launched but its very existence.

To the shock of American Jews, fashionable opinion on the left now regarded the Jewish state as a whole — and not merely familiar right-wing punching bags like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “settlers” or religious Jews — as inherently wrong, if not evil.

Far from this being merely the sentiment expressed by radicals dwelling in the fever swamps of the far-right or the far-left, such ideas have become commonplace in the pages of the Times, the Washington Post, MSNBC and other bastions of contemporary progressivism.

The reason for this is easily seen in the way people like Borgwardt and her companions have helped set the tone for much of the See Tobin on page 21

Viewpoint

BEN COHEN

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hould governments and public institutions take punitive measures against groups or individuals who promote antisemitism through such measures as cutting funding, criminalizing aspects of their speech or even proscribing them outright?

Here in the United States, such a discussion is purely theoretical because the First Amendment protects all forms of speech, including Holocaust denial, and racist and antisemitic barbs.

Because freedom of speech is a natural right, the American tradition promotes debate, fostering the optimistic, if often misplaced, notion among some that better arguments and clearly presented facts will invariably overwhelm lies and conspiracy theories.

But in Europe, there is no right of absolute free speech, and in most countries, antisemitic

and racist speech, as well as declared sympathies for terrorism or violence, can run you afoul of the law.

The current European dilemma is whether to tighten and strengthen these measures in a bid to bring a greater sense of security to Jewish communities facing a wave of antisemitism unprecedented in its intensity for nearly a century.

The proximate cause was, of course, the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in Israel, but the themes incorporated in this discourse are much older, even ancient. In part because of their frustration at the sheer stubbornness of these toxins, politicians who sympathize with the plight of their Jewish constituents are examining legal means to stem the flow of antisemitic tropes.

Two weeks ago, Berlin’s State Senator for Culture and Social Cohesion, Joe Chialo, attempted to introduce a new measure that would deny funding to artists who promote antisemitism, including antisemitic depictions of Zionism and Israel. In order to determine what is and isn’t antisemitic, Chialo urged the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemi-

There is an unmistakable correlation between antisemitic memes spread on social media, antiJewish invective at pro-Hamas demonstrations, and actual violence.

Joe Chialo in 2023.

Sandro Halank via Wikimedia Commons

tism, which includes several examples of when anti-Zionism crosses the line into antisemitism.

Last week, Chialo was forced to withdraw his proposal. “I must take the legal and critical voices that saw this clause as a restriction on the freedom of art seriously,” he said in a statement.

“Let there be no doubt: I will continue to fight for a Berlin cultural scene that is free of discrimination.” o be clear, the problem here was not the substantive argument of the IHRA definition that anti-Zionism and antisemitism are frequently the same. Rather, it centered on the issue of whether measures in Germany taken to combat Holocaust denial are — in terms of jurisprudence — appropriate when it comes to denial of Israel’s right to exist.

“The denial of the Holocaust is about denying a fact, while Israel’s right to exist is about denying a right,” Professor Stefan Conen of the German Lawyers’ Association told the German

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parliament’s legal affairs committee last week.

Another witness, Professor Michael Kubiciel, forecasted a series of procedural headaches should the proposal advance, which could only be resolved, he said, through the adoption of a “more open wording … for example by also recording the right to exist of states to which the Federal Republic has made a particular commitment, such as the E.U. member states.”

None of these objections invalidate the underlying claim of a symbiosis between antisemitism and anti-Zionism, and nor should we conclude that Chialo will abandon his efforts to banish antisemitism from the German arts scene because of one setback. However, the uncertainty around his proposal has bolstered the argument that the IHRA definition is not so much a means of understanding antisemitism as a tool for censoring Israel’s adversaries.

Last Monday, the Berliner Zeitung news outlet interviewed one of the co-authors of the IHRA definition in the context of Chialo’s stalled initiative. “The definition has often been misused as a blunt instrument to label someone as antisemitic for a variety of reasons, including criticism of Israel,” said Ken Stern, the director of the Center for the Study of Hate at Bard College and a former American Jewish Committee (AJC) in-house expert on antisemitism.

Elaborating, Stern said that this “misuse” of the definition was more pronounced “not so much for disqualifying criticism of Israel as antisemitic, but rather, for pro-Palestinian attitudes. I may not agree with some of these See Cohen on page 22

Writing is on the wall: Jews must go populist BENjamiN KErstEiN

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t is often believed that antisemitism is essentially an elite phenomenon. Unscrupulous leaders, it is held, exploit hatred of the Jews to further their malicious designs, whipping up popular sentiment against a convenient scapegoat. The archetype of this kind of leader is the biblical Haman, who urged the genocide of Persia’s Jews out of his own personal resentments.

However, while elite antisemitism is hardly unknown to history, antisemitism has just as often been a populist phenomenon: The mob turns violently against the Jews, thus forcing political leaders to embrace antisemitism to maintain popular support.

Popular antisemitism has prompted horrific violence, forced conversions, expulsions, blood libels and other atrocities for centuries — from ancient Alexandria to medieval Spain to the Cossack pogroms and beyond. Even Nazism was a popular movement.

Moreover, the elite class did not always collaborate with popular antisemitism. In ancient times, leaders such as Julius Caesar were positively disposed towards the Jews and served as their patron and protector. During the Middle Ages, political and even Church leaders sometimes denounced popular blood libels and sought to tamp down antisemitic agitation, if only to head off anarchy.

The community must acknowledge that the American silent majority is a formidable weapon against an antisemitic elite.

The modern era is no exception. For example, the movement that sought the exoneration of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a French army officer falsely accused of treason in the 1890s, was led by many prominent non-Jewish elite intellectuals, such as Emile Zola. The most significant role in proving Dreyfus’s innocence was played by Georges Picquart, head of French counterintelligence, who sacrificed his career on behalf of the cause. n the United States today, however, this paradigm has been essentially reversed. While populist antisemitism exists in certain circles — mainly on the far right — American Jew-hatred is unquestionably an elite phenomenon.

The eruption of antisemitism that struck the U.S. following the Oct. 7 massacre revealed what had been festering for years in the heart of the American overclass. The Axis of Antisemitism that injected the poison is composed of several factions: The dictatorship of the professoriate that exercises totalitarian rule over academia; the leadership of the Muslim American community, backed by their thugs in the streets; the activist industry; the legacy media; leftist celebrities; progressive politicians such as Rashida Tlaib, AOC and Ilhan Omar; and upper-middle class progressive activists and intellectuals.

While granted wildly disproportionate media coverage, these forces are decidedly marginal. A 2021 Pew study found that only 6% of Americans are progressive leftists. Just over 1% of the U.S. population is Muslim. The number of Americans involved in academia is vanishingly small.

Moreover, there is evidence that the overwhelming majority of Americans reject antisemitism. For example, while it found deeply disturbing sentiments among younger voters, a Quinnipiac poll conducted in November 2023 found that 75% of American voters believe antisemitism is a serious problem in the United States. This implies not only a lack of antisemitic sentiments, but also strong opposition to such sentiments. While there are divisions between parties and age groups, 75% is a massive majority.

What this means is that opposition to antisemitism in the United States is a popular phenomenon.

This indicates a way forward in the fight against antisemitism, though it will require a shift in strategy by the American Jewish community.

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Claudine Gay (center), the president of Harvard University, testifies during a House committee hearing about antisemitism on campus on Dec. 5, 2023.

House Committee on Education and the Workforce

For the most part, American Jews have concentrated on attempting to educate and persuade the American elite. This is somewhat understandable.

American Jews tend to be highly accomplished, well-educated and politically liberal. As a result, they tend to identify with or imagine they belong to constituencies like the activist industry and the professoriate regime. Thus, American Jews’ overriding concern is to reconcile with their ostensible friends and allies.

They are almost certain to fail. There are good people in all the elite institutions that have been hijacked by the antisemites, but those people have an uphill struggle ahead of them — though they should not desist from it — and if they succeed, it will take them a very long time to do so. American Jews do not have time to wait.

Therefore, American Jews must go populist.

They should reach out to the anti-antisemitic majority of Americans and seek not only to counter the elites of the Axis of Antisemitism, but to smash the Axis itself.

This is by no means an impossible task, because the Axis is not just antisemitic; it is also virulently anti-American. Elite institutions like the professoriate regime, with their constant denunciations of the US.and its people as irredeemably racist and bigoted, are widely and rightly despised

by millions of Americans. Those millions are tired of being bullied and intimidated by these elites and will likely jump at the chance for payback.

Moreover, a large number of Americans see this elite as imposing policies that are antithetical to their interests. For example, environmentalist measures advocated by the progressive elite often drive up fuel prices and housing costs and thus harm the financial well-being of most Americans.

This is not even to mention the Rust Belt communities who see themselves as the primary victims of globalization. None of these constituencies have much love for the progressive elite. Indeed, many of them blame it for essentially ruining their lives.

Thus, the American majority, often but not always silent, is a formidable weapon against the Axis of Antisemitism. To use this weapon, however, the American Jewish community must undergo a paradigm shift. It must realize that the antiantisemitic majority is the victim of a decayed and decadent elite; an elite that is now an existential threat to American Jews.

What is required, then, is for American Jews to declare not only that the emperor has no clothes, but also to join with those who wish to depose him in favor of something new, different and, perhaps, better.

THE JEWISH STAR February 2, 2024 • 23 Shvat 5784

Critical dilemma: War, antisemitism, free speech

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February 2, 2024 • 23 Shvat 5784 THE JEWISH STAR

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Our isolated generals: Shape up or ship out tion, and the more ingrained the goal, the more obvious the imperative of destroying them becomes.

The government did not make Hamas’ eradication the goal of the war because it sounded good politically. They did so because, after Oct. 7, the existential nature of the Palestinian war against the Jewish state is undeniable. Israel cannot fight to a draw or lose (as the anonymous sources in the General Staff advocate) and long survive.

Not only will Hamas rebuild its strength over time and strike again, but strategic diffidence and weakness guarantee future aggression from Hezbollah and Iran that will be orders of magnitude greater than the one-day Holocaust Israel suffered on Oct. 7.

cArolinE glick Israel Hayom

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hortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, its sadistic massacre of 1,200 Israelis and kidnap of 246 men, women and children from southern Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government declared war on Iran’s Palestinian proxy.

The government set four war goals: •the military eradication of Hamas •the eradication of Hamas’ civilian regime in the Gaza Strip •the return of all the hostages •the permanent pacification of Gaza to ensure that it will never pose a threat to Israel again.

Almost immediately thereafter, anonymous “senior IDF sources” began grousing to the media about the government’s war goals. “Sources in the General Staff” have been regularly cited advocating for replacing the goals of the war with others that rule out Hamas’ eradication and the permanent pacification of Gaza.

A few weeks into the war, the Biden administration began insisting that the government set out its vision for postwar Gaza while making no effort to hide what it expects the plan to include: the transfer of power to the terror-infused, Hamas-aligned Palestinian Authority.

As Netanyahu hemmed and hawed and delayed his response to avoid a confrontation with the administration, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevy and the other generals hopped on the US bandwagon.

Buttressed by a chorus of retired generals, the sitting generals have insisted on and off the record that the absence of a vision of the day after the war leaves the military directionless. Netanyahu, they gripe, is making it impossible for the IDF to fight strategically.

The generals have things backwards. Israel’s strategic goals of destroying Hamas and securing the release of the hostages are both straightforward. It is the General Staff’s job to set out a plan for achieving them, replete with benchmarks to mark success. By demanding a plan for the day after the war, the General Staff is not asking for further guidance. It is demanding that the war goals be revised. ast Saturday, the General Staff’s insubordination reached an all-time high. Israeli reporter Ronen Bergman co-authored an article in the New York Times based on the claims of four unnamed generals in the General Staff.

Titled, “In Strategic Bind, Israel Weighs Freeing Hostages Against Destroying Hamas,” Bergman wrote, “After more than 100 days of war, Israel’s limited progress in dismantling Hamas has raised doubts within the military’s high command about the near-term feasibility of achieving the country’s principal wartime objectives: eradicating Hamas and also liberating the Israeli hostages still in Gaza.”

The fact that the IDF is making slower progress than anticipated owes in large part to the intelligence failures that preceded the Hamas invasion.

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Ending humanitarian aid

IDF Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi meets with commanders in the Gaza Strip on Dec. 31, 2023.

IDF

On Oct. 6, the IDF assessed that Hamas had around 160 kilometers (nearly 100 miles) of underground tunnels. Now, after two months of ground (and underground) warfare, the IDF realizes that it was off by around 500%; Hamas’ underground tunnel complex span up to 800 kilometers (500 miles).

Obviously, under the circumstances, the ground operation is taking longer than initially anticipated.

Rather than roll with the punches and keep slogging forward, Bergman wrote that the slowness of Israel’s advance “has led some commanders to privately express their frustrations over the civilian government’s strategy for Gaza, and led them to conclude that the freedom of more than 100 Israeli hostages still in Gaza can be secured only through diplomatic rather than military means.”

“The dual objectives of freeing the hostages and destroying Hamas are now mutually incompatible, according to interviews with four senior military leaders, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to speak publicly about their personal opinions,” he wrote.

Bergman is based in Tel Aviv. After telling the world that Israel is incapable of winning, he turned to the Israeli media to share the generals’ message with the public. Speaking on Channel 12, Bergman said it is time for Israel to quit the fight and sue for a deal — any deal — to secure the release of the hostages. Citing the four generals, Bergman proclaimed that defeat is the only option.

Appeasement doesn’t work

The generals’ rank insubordination — and efforts to demoralize the public during a time of war while failing to develop clear benchmarks for victory — comes as no surprise. For the past generation, the General Staff has undergone radical politicization.

In successive appointment cycles in the past 30 years, colonels and brigadier generals unwilling to toe the political left’s line have been blocked from appointments to strategically significant postings, and have generally found themselves out of the IDF

Hundreds of Israelis block trucks carrying humanitarian supplies towards the Gaza Strip at the Kerem Shalom border crossing on Jan. 24.

Bashi Darshan, TPS

before reaching the rank of major general.

For a generation, the Holy Grail of the General Staff has been to reject the very concept of victory.

The purpose of military campaigns is to secure deterrence, rather than destroy the enemy. The amorphous concept of deterrence has enabled the General Staff to embrace the incongruous claim that appeasement — that is giving the enemy a payoff — can build deterrence. But, of course, if a state seeks to appease its enemy, then it is the state, and not the enemy, that is deterred.

The Israeli public has made clear that it opposes cutting a deal for the hostages that will enable Hamas to survive the war. Its leaders should listen.

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ejecting the concept of victory is the natural consequence of embracing the left’s paradigm that Israel’s enemies from Iran to Hezbollah to the Palestinians are appeaseable and that their shared strategic goal of annihilating Israel is a bluff.

According to this thinking, in Iran, the regime is riven by power struggles between moderates and extremists. And the trick is for the Americans to figure out how to strengthen the moderates by giving the extremists concessions.

Hezbollah, they argue, is deterred by the Lebanese government. Hezbollah won’t go to war because it will make the Lebanese government, which doesn’t want war, angry. And if Hezbollah goes to war over the objections of the government, the government will order the Lebanese Armed Forces to go to war against Hezbollah.

This is the US line, and the IDF General Staff has stuck to it through thick and thin since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. The only problem is that it is based on a wilful blindness to two basic realities: First, Hezbollah controls the Lebanese government; and second, Hezbollah controls the LAF. As for the Palestinians, members of the General Staff, like their fellow leftists, are convinced that all they need is to appease the Palestinians to resolve their conflict with Israel. Give them money or jobs, let them build illegal villages and neighborhoods in commanding positions along highways or adjacent to Israeli cities, as well as villages on both sides of the 1949 Armistice Line, and they will be appeased.

Give Hamas-ruled Gaza cash from Qatar and jobs in Israel, and prosperity will trump jihad.

This worldview, which has guided the General Staff for decades, was destroyed completely on Oct. 7. Enemies who seek to annihilate you are by definition undeterrable. Their goal is your total destruc-

Notably, all of the General Staff’s paradigms are shared by the US foreign-policy establishment. So it isn’t surprising that a consistent position of the generals is that the United States, rather than the IDF, is the guarantor of Israel’s survival. Accordingly, the generals oppose actions that would limit or even end Israel’s strategic dependence on America.

That dependence commits the United States to protect Israel, and that protection will be guaranteed if Israel maintains faith in its appeasement policies towards Israel’s enemies.

The public — and rank-and-file officers and soldiers on the ground in Gaza, along the border with Lebanon, and in Judea and Samaria — are unmoved by the generals’ demoralizing messages. They understand that Israel has no option other than to fight the war until victory, whatever the price.

The notion of appeasement-based deterrence died on Oct. 7.

In successive opinion polls since then, the Israeli public has made clear that it opposes cutting a deal for the hostages that will enable Hamas to survive the war. They oppose Palestinian statehood, and under no circumstances is the public willing to countenance a PA takeover of the Gaza Strip the day after the war.

The public’s unwillingness to accept anything less than victory has placed the General Staff in a bind. Reservists being sent home from the front have reacted not with happiness but with indignation at leaving before victory has been achieved. On Feb. 8, angry reservists are planning to hold a mass demonstration demanding to be permitted to fight to victory down the street from the Prime Minister’s Office.

On Wednesday and Thursday, hundreds of relatives of hostages, mothers of IDF soldiers and other concerned citizens blocked humanitarian aid trucks from entering Gaza through the Kerem Shalom border crossing. These citizens recognize that humanitarian aid is just a euphemism for resupply to Hamas.

The government, they say, may need to agree to humanitarian aid to placate the Biden administration, but private citizens are under no such constraints. And given the dire implications of the aid for the war effort, standing idly by while Washington compels Jerusalem to give Hamas a lifeline to remain in the tunnels is nothing short of insane. he public’s operations are not limited to the domestic realm. A new group, Mothers of IDF Soldiers, sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Thursday demanding an end to humanitarian aid to Gaza, arguing that the truckloads of fuel, food, water and medicine endanger the lives of IDF soldiers; is not being distributed to Palestinian civilians; enables Hamas to remain in charge of governing affairs in Gaza; and prolongs the war by giving Hamas terrorists the means to keep fighting from their tunnels and refusing to release the hostages.

Netanyahu, for his part, is not relenting. Nearly every day, he reiterates the war goals and insists that Israel will fight until it achieves all of them. He is demanding that the IDF provide him with benchmarks to measure its progress towards victory.

The generals in charge owe their positions to their full adherence to the strategic paradigms of the United States and the political left. They don’t want to move on. But the unanimity of opinion from the public below and the government above will leave them little choice.

They will either get on board and deliver the required victory, or they will eventually be forced to resign and make room for others capable of doing the job.

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Continued from page 18 discourse about Israel. The path to anti-Israel activism for this child of an affluent St. Louis Jewish family came about through her support for the BLM movement.

BLM began to gain momentum in 2014 after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., fueled by myths about the incident. It then went mainstream in 2020 after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, creating a moral panic about racism that spawned a summer of mass demonstrations and “mostly peaceful” riots that shook the nation.

The BLM arguments about America being an irredeemably racist nation dismiss the enormous progress made in race relations since the triumph of the civil-rights movement in the 1960s. Worse than that, they seek to worsen racial harmony by putting forward a vision of the world in which all people are categorized as belonging to one of two immutable classes that are locked in perpetual conflict: white oppressors and victimized people of color.

For Borgwardt, Brown’s death was a seminal moment in history that propelled her into a career of activism. Steeped in the propaganda of the BLM movement, she and others who joined her in the subsequent protests ignored the truth about the incident. Brown was a violent thug who assaulted a police officer, not the innocent victim of an unjustified killing.

As even a report about the controversy issued by President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice made clear, the claim that he died with his hands up while imploring a cop not to shoot — echoed in chants to that effect — was a lie. But truth doesn’t matter if you’re determined to justify falsehoods about systemic racism and myths about an epidemic of police shootings of unarmed black men.

But it is the comments of Rabbi Susan Talve, the spiritual leader of the Reform synagogue where Borgwardt’s family belonged when she was a teenager, that illustrate the tragedy of liberal American Jewish institutions. Talve, a devout political liberal who marched in the Ferguson protests, was dismayed by the BLM rhetoric about Israel.

She foolishly thinks that the Jewish community lost people like Borgwardt by not giving them a more even-handed education about the Middle East, although it’s clear that the IfNotNow leader seems to know little, if anything, of the arguments for the justice of the Zionist cause or even basic facts about the conflict. It is precisely Jews like Talve that Borgwardt regards with special animosity because they want to support AfricanAmericans as well as Israel’s right to exist.

It is telling that Borgwardt claims that when she sees “Fiddler on the Roof,” all she can do is weep about the nakba — the Palestinian term for the birth of Israel that means “disaster” or “catastrophe.” For such people, Jewish experi-

ences are not simply unimportant but deserve 21 to be erased altogether, including the lives of the 7 million Jews of Israel threatened by her Palestinian allies.

Her journey from a typical liberal Jewish background to activism for Israel’s destruction makes for a disturbing tale. It matters because it demonstrates that woke progressives aren’t so much interested in saving Palestinian lives as they want to erase Jewish life.

For them, the only acceptable expression of Jewish identity is in support of other peoples — never their own interests or rights — even when it is a matter of life or death. They seem to be saying that Jews are the one people on the planet for whom self-determination must be forbidden.

The ideas that helped transform Eva Borgwardt into a willing accomplice to Hamas’s genocidal campaign have not just turned some Jews against their own but have made antisemitism fashionable on campus and in the pages of the New York Times Sunday Magazine.

THE JEWISH STAR February 2, 2024 • 23 Shvat 5784

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semitic agitation since Oct. 7. And because it has been linked to the intersectional mindset of BLM that falsely views the Palestinian war to destroy the one Jewish state on the planet with the struggle for American civil rights, it has become not just acceptable but part of the orthodoxy about race that prevails in academia, the media and other sectors of American society.

Also featured in the Times Magazine article is Nicole Carty, one of Borgwardt’s black allies, a BLM activist who helped train IfNotNow members in radical tactics. Despite her ties to Jews who share her visceral hate for Israel, she bristles with contempt for Judaism, even complaining about the fact that Passover seders are about the Exodus of Jewish slaves from Egypt and not equally interested in the black experience.

Just as repellent is the way she views the efforts of some Jews on the left to mourn the Oct. 7 victims equally with Palestinians who have been killed as wrongheaded and evidence of Jewish “trauma myopia.” For her, Jewish victims had it coming, so they deserve no mourning.

Antisemitic blood libel

While Brown has been supplanted in the BLM martyrology by Floyd, the Ferguson protests were influential in fueling a particularly noxious variant of anti-Israel smear. It was in the aftermath of that controversy that groups like Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and IfNotNow began to argue that American first responders who received training in Israel (as at least one member of the Ferguson police had done) were being taught how to kill blacks on the streets of American cities.

This was nothing less than an antisemitic blood libel that wasn’t just circulated in the black community. It was specifically embraced

by JVP and IfNotNow as a “deadly exchange” that traced the sources of black problems to a Jewish source.

That JVP and IfNotNow would seek to demonize Israel in this fashion is hardly surprising since they are avowedly anti-Zionist, call for the destruction of the Jewish state and oppose all measures taken in its defense against Palestinian terrorism. Thus, for Borgwardt, the chants in favor of Israel’s demise and terrorism against Jews are about “freedom and equality.” She and her friends have swallowed the claim that Jews are interlopers in the Middle East who must be “decolonized” by Palestinians rather than the actual indigenous people of the land of Israel.

They ignore the fact that Jews and Arabs are the same race and that the majority of Israeli Jews are — by the definitions of the American left — people of color since they trace their origins to the Mideast or North Africa. he roots of many of the smears against Israel are to be found in the Marxist antisemitic propaganda that the Soviet Union flooded the West with during the Cold War and that found a willing audience among various extremists and hate groups. But the same lies have gained a far wider audience in recent years once they became part of the platform of the BLM movement and were validated by the newly fashionable woke ideology sweeping through academia and the rest of American society.

For them, Jews and Israel were “white” oppressors who must be defeated along with American white racists. It is this same propaganda that has been driving the current anti-

Honest reporting.

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Continued from page 16 understand and interpret those beliefs. It recognizes that intellectually and temperamentally we are different.

Judaism has had its rationalists and its mystics, its philosophers and its poets, its naturalists and its supernaturalists: Rabbi Ishmael and Rabbi Akiva, Judah Halevi and Maimonides, the Vilna Gaon and the Baal Shem Tov. We seek unanimity in halachah, not in aggadah. Na’aseh, we act in the same way, but nishma, we understand each in our own way. That is the difference between the way we serve G-d, collectively, and the way we understand G-d, individually.

What is fascinating is that this well-known feature of Judaism is already signaled in the Torah: in the difference between the way it speaks about na’aseh, “as one,” “with a single voice,” and nishma, with no special collective consensus.

Our acts, our na’aseh, are public. Our thoughts, our nishma, are private. That is how we come to serve G-d together, yet relate to Him individually, in the uniqueness of our being.

Weinreb…

Continued from page 17 in the conversation which occurred during the reunion of father-in-law Yitro with his son-in-law Moses: Moses recounted to his father-in-law everything that the L-rd had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake. … And how the L-rd had delivered them. And Jethro rejoiced.

Not only did Yitro rejoice, but he made the following proclamation: Now I know that the L-rd is greater than all gods! hat single word “now” says it all. “Now,” after many false leads and blind alleys, Yitro at last discovers the L-rd of the universe, the G-d of Israel. It is upon this single word that our Sages base their contention that Yitro experimented with every G-d in the galaxy of pagan G-ds before finally “assembling the gadget.”

By contrast, we find another biblical hero who typifies the second type of person, one who has intuitive insight into things and does not require a process of trial and error. That hero is none other than King David.

One does not commonly think of the former high priest of Midian as having much in common with the “sweet singer of Israel,” the source of most of the sublime psalms, and the progenitor of the Messiah. But, like Yitro, King David also proclaims the greatness of G-d. He does so in words that are almost identical to the words of Yitro, with one small but very significant difference.

Psalm 135 reads, “For I know that the L-rd is great, that our L-rd is greater than all G-ds.”

David does not say “now I know.” He insists, “I know!” His knowledge is not the result of experimentation, of trial and error, of a frustrating philosophical quest. Rather, he knows G-d’s greatness from within himself.

The source of his knowledge is not based upon his disappointment with foreign s. It is based upon what he knows in his own soul. He is blessed with a capacity for the kind of spiritual insight which dispels uncertainty and doubt. His inner self is the source of his certainty.

We have here two paradigms of men of faith.

Yitro typifies the seeker whose journey is long and tortuous, and focused outwardly. David exemplifies the seeker who finds G-d through an inward journey, which can sometimes be equally lengthy and trying. abbi Elimelech bar Shaul, the rabbi of Rehoboth who passed away in the mid-20th century, quotes the 16th century mystic Rabbi Moses Cordevero, who offers a parable in his book Eilima to illustrate these two paradigms.

Here is a loose translation of those wise words: Imagine Reuben carrying a heavy package on his back. Observing him are Simon, Levi, and Judah. They begin to try to surmise the nature of the package that Reuben is carrying. Simon says: “Reuben is a strong man, and it is a small bun-

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dle. Yet he seems to have difficulty bearing the burden. So whatever he’s carrying must be very heavy.”

Simon’s observations are totally accurate, yet he is far from knowing what the package contains. All he knows is that it is heavy and small.

It might be iron, but it can equally well be tin or lead, or silver or gold.

So Levi chimes in: “If it was iron he would not have put it into such a fine cloth container. So it must be silver.” Levi is getting closer to truth, but he still not there. Judah then speaks up: “if it was silver or gold he would not have brought one thousand warriors along with him to guard and protect the contents of the package. It must be a very precious gemstone.”

Judah is even closer to the real truth about Reuben’s burden. But none of them knows the full truth. Only Reuben, who actually bears the burden, knows not only that it is a gemstone, but knows its nature, its size, its color, and its value.

So it is with spiritual truths. Philosophers can use their skills of reasoning to approximate the true nature of the divine. But it is only those bear the burden, who come to know the Almighty from within, who can really “know” the truth.

This knowledge was given to each of us when we stood at Mt. Sinai, participating in the glorious occasion of the gift of the Torah. Only when we heard, “I am the L-rd thy G-d,” were we able to say, “Iknow.”

This Shabbat, we read those glorious passages which describe the scene at Mount Sinai in full dramatic detail. These passages are designed to instill within us the capacity to draw upon our inner selves in order to be able to proclaim, not “now I know,” but rather, “I know.”

Let us take advantage of this week’s very special Torah portion to use this capacity of spiritual introspection. Let’s avoid the path of “trial and error” and instead take advantage of the opportunity to emulate King David’s inward spiritual journey.

Etengoff…

Continued from page 17 sence of the system. In other words, there are not Ten Commandments. There is one Commandment which branches out into ten aspects. The practical consequence of this concept is clear and obvious.

The Decalogue is indivisible. One either accepts all of the Commandments or none at all. … All of the precepts were pronounced and promulgated in one utterance, within an indivisible, infinitesimal period of time.

Rav Saadia Gaon, cited in Rashi’s Commentary on Sefer Shemot, takes this one step further: “All 613 mitzvot are included in the Asseret HaDibrot.”

I believe this the true essence of the Asseret HaDibrot, and the reason why they have captured our attention since time immemorial. For on the day they were given, the entire Torah was revealed to klal Yisrael, and we became Hashem’s nation forevermore.

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Continued from page 17 he Ten Commandments are written in the singular. It is as if G-d was speaking to every Jew, tête-à-tête, so that each Israelite could internalize the message and apply the Torah as an individual mandate with each individual a cog in the collective nation of Israel.

The Kli Yakar’s lesson was that the seeking of honor is what causes strife, and that the lesson of humility that was learned merely from looking at the mountain is what brought the Jewish people together.

It was called Sinai, because from there “sinah went down upon the nations” — it doesn’t mean hatred, it just means that there’s a difference between “us” and “them” and that difference is that we received the Torah. Thus, it is important to remember that while “loving one’s fellow Jew” is meant to lead us to love all Jews, we should especially have such feelings towards those who

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identify with Torah and who struggle to do their best in adhering to it and in their dedication to the Master of the World.

Don’t be judgmental, don’t view others as lesser people or lesser Jews, stop looking over shoulders to see what others think, or even worse, to be nosy in order to bring others down.

Remember that the Torah is the great uniter, and humility is the ingredient that allows for such unifications to take place.

Gerber…

Continued from page 18 We see from Rashi’s explanation that zechirah refers to the vehicle of tefillah that causes Hashem to display mercy — even when mercy may not be deserved. …

The Purim story is a story of Hashem listening to our tefillos and pouring out His incredible compassion and kindness toward His children.

That is precisely why the Megillah is called a “remembrance,” because it reflects how tefillah can prompt Hashem to “remember” His covenant with His nation and to save them, even when they do not necessarily deserve to be saved. …

Just as Hashem “remembered” Noach in the time of the Flood and caused the boiling and destructive waters to cool down, so too in the time of Purim, Hashem ‘remembered’ Mordechai, Esther, and the Jewish people, and His attribute of strict justice was thus similarly cooled down. The Gemara in Megillah even suggests that when the verse says that the king’s anger subsided, it may not only be referring to Achashveirosh’s anger, but may also be a reference to the cooling down of the anger of the King of the World.

Therefore, it is very appropriate that Megillas Esther be called a “remembrance.” Not only does reading the Megillah enable us to recall and to publicize the tremendously miraculous events that occurred, but it also teaches us how we can cause Hashem to “forget” about His attribute of strict judgment and to instead “remember” His love and compassion for the Jewish nation.

Even if we are undeserving, we must pour out our hearts in prayer and supplication, and through the vehicle of tefillah we can cause Hashem to suppress His anger and instead pour His great mercy and rachamim upon us.

A version of this column was published in 2019.

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Continued from page 19 attitudes or statements, but calling them antisemitic is wrong, even harmful.” Later in the interview, Stern clarified that while he opposed the “boycott, divestment and sanctions” campaign targeting Israel, he vehemently objected to calling anyone who supports it “antisemitic.”

“Do I think that supporting BDS makes you an antisemite? No, I don’t think so,” he said, before adding: “Although, of course, you can be an antisemite who supports BDS.” In other words,

while the campaign may attract antisemites because of its obsession with the Jewish state, it is not inherently antisemitic. should say, at this point, that I knew Stern professionally some years ago when I worked with him on antisemitism issues at the AJC. My assessment, which hasn’t changed, is that his overarching goal was to persuade progressives to take antisemitism seriously, and he was willing to cut them all sorts of slack in order to achieve that.

What he was unwilling to acknowledge is that making these allowances undermines the very definition he helped to write! Because while the definition doesn’t explicitly say that BDS is antisemitic, it does say that “[D]enying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” is. That pretty much sums up the core philosophy of the BDS movement, which regards the boycott as an instrument to secure the eventual elimination of Israel as a sovereign state and makes no secret of this aim.

The most disturbing aspect of the interview was the sense that in his desire to mollycoddle progressive students and activists who regard as Israel as a colonial interloper, Stern has lost empathy with the actual victims of antisemitism.

The atrocities and bestialities of the Hamas pogrom were straight out of the Cossack playbook of previous centuries, executed with the purpose of humiliating the enemy and denying their basic humanity because fundamentally, antisemites regard Jews as adjacent to, rather than belonging to, the rest of the human species.

Yet all Stern could bring himself to say was that the conflation of anti-Zionism and antisemitism within the IHRA definition was a product of the tensions around the UN’s 2001 Durban anti-racism conference.

“I’m not saying that every form of anti-Zionism is antisemitic, but that was the climate at the time,” he remarked — the bizarre implication being that the climate in the 2020s, in the wake of the worst outburst of antisemitic violence since the Holocaust, is, in fact, more benign.

What makes the present situation different is that antisemitism is surging against the background of a war in the Middle East that could easily intensify and expand, and whose most vulnerable front consists of Jewish communities around the Diaspora who cannot be protected

by Israel’s military might.

In such an environment, when there is an unmistakable correlation between antisemitic memes spread on social media, anti-Jewish invective at pro-Hamas demonstrations and actual violence — I am thinking of the brutal assault last Saturday night on three Israelis walking through London’s West End by a mob of thugs yelling “Free Palestine” — tougher measures, including censorship, are warranted in those cases where such tools are legally available.

While we didn’t choose this outcome (as the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky said, “You don’t choose war; war chooses you”), we have no choice but to deal with it, as decisively as we can.

I

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