The Jewish Star 02-16-2024

Pull out and display the ‘Stand with Israel’ poster in centerspread

Tom terrific February 16, 2024 7 Adar I 5784 • Tetzaveh • Vol 23, No 7

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Suozzi beats Pilip by 7+ points

By Ed Weintrob In the end, it wasn’t even close.

After weeks of seemingly endless negative television commercials promoting Democrat Tom Suozzi and Republican-Conservative Mazi Pilip, Suozzi defeated Pilip by more than 7 points on Tuesday. He will replace Rep. George Santos, who was removed from Congress, in the 3rd CD, which covers portions of northern Nassau and eastern Queens.

With all election districts counted by 1 am Wednesday, this was the unofficial tally: Suozzi — 91,338 (53.70%) Pilip — 78,229 (45.99%) Suozzi’s victory narrows the thin majority Republicans have in the House of Representatives, where that majority has allowed them to block key legislation passed by the Senate, including border security fixes and aid to Israel and Ukraine.

More than $22 million was spent on this election — $13.8 million by Democrats and $8.1 million by the GOP, according to ad tracker AdImpact, Politico reported.

“Despite all the attacks, despite all the lies about Tom Suozzi and the Squad, about Tom Suozzi being the ‘godfather of the migrant crisis,’ about ‘sanctuary Suozzi’ — we won,” Suozzi told cheering supporters at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury.

His victory lap was interrupted by two or three protesters, one displaying a Palestinian flag and another shouting “you support genocide.” Both candidates back Israel and the Jewish state’s right to self-defense.

“There are divisions in our country where people can’t even talk to each other,” Suozzi said, referencing the protesters. “All they can do is yell and scream at each other.”

The winner will finish Santos’ unexpired tern through December. An election for a full term that begins next Jan. 2 will take place in November.

Pilip thanked supporters at her post-vote gathering, at The Lannin in East Meadow.

“We are fighters,” she said. “Yes, we lost, but it doesn’t mean we are going to end here. We’re going to continue to fight, to bring commonsense government.”

Suozzi said that what the 3rd District race focused on was “much like the issues across the country.”

The Biden-Harris presidential campaign found national implications in the race.

“Donald Trump lost again tonight,” it said.

“When Republicans run on Trump’s extreme agenda — even in a Republican-held seat —voters reject them.

“Trump and the MAGA extremists in the House are already paying the political price for derailing a bipartisan deal to secure our borders and fix our broken immigration system.”

“People of Long Island and Queens are sick of the political bickering,” Suozzi said. “They want us to come together and solve problems.

“It’s time to move beyond the petty partisan bickering and the finger-pointing. It’s time to focus on how to solve the problems. It’s time to get to work — on immigration, on Israel, on combatting Putin, on helping the middle class, and on getting the state and local tax deduction back.

“Let’s send a message to our friends running the Congress these days — stop running around for Trump and start running the country.”

Concluding his remarks, Suozzi said that “we’ve all seen what politics has become. In this campaign we’ve tried to give a vision of what it could be.”

Asked what Tuesday’s results might portend for November, Republican Howard Kopel of the Five Towns, the Nassau Legislature’s presiding officer, said, “We wind up and start again. Maybe we’ll get him next time.”

Democrat Tom Suozzi tells supporters at his post-election victory rally, “Let’s send a message to our friends running the Congress these days — stop running around for Trump and start running the country.”

Adrienne Daley, The Jewish Star

Republican Mazi Pilip conceded Tuesday night, flanked at left by former Long Island Rep. Peter King, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, and Republican County Chairman Joe Cairo. At right, Rep. Anthony D’Esposito.

Tim Baker, The Jewish

Torres rips GOP for blocking Israel aid, says Putin-loving Carlson should move to Russia Ritchie Torres, Riverdale’s progressive Democratic congressman — and staunchest supporter of Israel in the House of Representatives — expressed renewed disappointment on Tuesday as House Republicans continued to block emergency aid to Israel. House Speaker Mike Johnson vowed to kill a $95 billion aid bill passed on Tuesday by the Democratic-controlled Senate.

The bill. which supports Ukraine and Taiwan as well as Israel, appeared doomed in the House, where Republicans said no new foreign defense appropriations would be approved until America’s borders are properly defended.

House Republicans have said that they would honor former President Trump’s insistence that they not approve substantive border legislation

until after the November presidential eleciton, including legislation that passed with bipartisan support in the Senate.

“I’m pessimistic because we’ve seen nothing but disfunciton, incompetence and extremism from House Republicans under speaker Johnson,” Torres said.

Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson, the former

FoxNews host who reportedly has Trump’s ear, paid homage to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. And he described Moscow as “so much nicer than any city in my country, so much cleaner, and prettier aesthetically — its architecture, its food, its service.”

Torres quipped on X: “Tucker Carlson should stay in Moscow.”

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Israel needs your visit now more than ever THE CARE IS

A man whose father was murdered by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 searches the rubble of his home in Kibbutz Be’eri for family mementos.

Chen Schimmel, Flash90

By Rabbi Zalman Bluming veryone remembers where they were on Oct. 7 when the impossible news started trickling and then flooding in. We may not have understood the extent of what was happening, but we all knew one thing: Our lives in the United States — 6,000 miles from Israel — had been forever changed.

Yet the daily schedule of school, work and the vicissitudes of life crept back in. Our promise of “never again” receded as we began to allow life to “return to normal.”

But life isn’t normal when hundreds of our finest soldiers have been killed and thousands seriously wounded, many clinging to their lives. It can’t be normal until the 200,000 displaced Israelis are back in their homes. It can’t be normal until all of our hostages are returned.

But what can we do from so far away?

Recently, my wife and I were scrolling through our social-media feeds and saw pictures of our friends’ midwinter getaways in Florida, the Caribbean, Hawaii and many other wonderful destinations. Our own posts documenting our time spent in Israel in towns near the Gaza border stood in stark contrast. eople asked us why we decided to go to Israel amid a dangerous war. The truth was we didn’t go on a mission or with an organization. We went on our own as Jews standing in solidarity. The everlasting words of Moses resonated deeply within us: “Shall your brethren go to war while you stay here?” (Numbers 32:6).

One of the first places we visited was the temporary homes of evacuated families of Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the sites of the massacre in southern Israel, where more than 97 people were killed.

When we arrived, a woman — who my wife immediately recognized as a recently released hostage — approached us and asked, “It’s wartime; why did you come? No one seems to be visiting us.”

My wife responded, “If Israel was Disneyland, we would all show up for the sun and fun. But if Israel is our motherland, we show up when our mother and her children are in pain. We came to

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cry and to hug every Jew who lives here. We are all at war, and in tough times, family must come together.”

The woman fell on my wife’s neck, and they wept together: Two Jewish women beating with one Jewish heart.

A group of 10th-graders came by to say hello.

Two of their classmates had been murdered and one had been taken hostage. One of them asked me with pain and tears in her eyes, “Can I come visit you in your home back in the States? My whole house is burnt. I don’t have a home. We don’t know where we will live!”

I told them with a swelling heart that when they come to America, Durham-Chapel Hill will be happy to host them.

As we left, my wife gave every woman and child a silver heart necklace, connecting their hearts to the hearts of all the women in our community back home. The whole kibbutz now walks around with that symbol of love and unity. tanding there, I thought of the words recorded in the Torah from the first Jewish father to his son. When Isaac called out in distress, Abraham said, Hineni — “I am here, son. I will be with you every step of your life’s journey. I will never leave your side. Never.”

We met hundreds of soldiers on our trip, thanked them for their service and reminded them that their fight is not just for Israel. It is to enable all Jews around the world to walk proud so we can be safe and empowered to fight antisemitism on college campuses.

So what can you sitting at home do to help your brothers and sisters in Israel? Donating money, attending solidarity rallies and expressing your Jewish pride are all great starting points, but maybe this year, consider going a step further and changing your vacation plans.

Don’t go just when you need Israel for a convenient getaway. Go now when Israel needs you.

While a few days’ trip to the Holy Land might not seem like a lot, it means the world to the people of Israel. These are historic moments for our people, and it is on us to be a part of that history.

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February 16, 2024 • 7 Adar I 5784 THE JEWISH STAR

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During a recent visit to Israel, Great Neck activist Dr. Paul Brody met with Jonathan Pollard at Jerusalem’s Inbal Hotel. In 2004, Brody was the first Anglo to visit Ateret Cohanim’s Beit Yonatan — dedicated to Jonathan Pollard — in the Silwan (Yeminite Village) just outside the Old City walls. During their two-hour discussion, Pollard stated: “It is clear that the galut is closing down. It is time for the Jewish People to return to their homeland before it is too late.” Pollard and Brody are pictured holding flyers for the annual Israel Day Concert in Central Park, which Brody chaired, at which the cause of the long-imprisoned Pollard was advanced. He was freed in November 2015 and moved to Israel in December 2020.

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Shoah novel about ‘price we pay for lies we tell’

car crowded with other neighbors. Only when it is too late does he grasp that he helped the Nazis send the people he loved — and countless others — to their doom at Auschwitz.

“Sebastian and Fanni miraculously survive the death camp and spend years searching for Nico and the Nazi officer who radically changed their lives,” Albom said.

The novel follows Nico for 40 years after the war, as he seeks redemption for his lie.

“The book is hopeful in a hopeless situation because his family and a little girl who loved him when she was young seek him out over the course of her entire life until she can find him again to tell him it wasn’t his fault,” Albom said.

The author figures that it’s not so difficult to balance historical accuracy and creative storytelling — in what is sometimes referred to as “creative nonfiction” or “the fourth genre” — since “about that period of time and the people that endured it, you don’t have to go to great fictional length to be moving.”

He also aimed to make “a very heavy point” about truth and how it was abused during the Holocaust, as well as “the price we pay for abusing it,” Albom said. “It’s a tricky device, but it works really well in the end.”

Judaism played a role — albeit less centrally — in his prior books.

When a childhood rabbi asked Albom to pen a eulogy for him, the writer said he didn’t know the rabbi well enough. He sought to understand the man better, which threw him back into a world of faith he had left years prior. The result was the 2009 nonfiction book “Have a Little Faith.”

“I started visiting with him extensively, thinking he was going to die soon,” Albom said. “He was in his 80s, but he lived eight more years.”

Growing up, Albom attended a Conservative Jewish day school in South Jersey after he turned 11. He was part of the large Jewish community at Brandeis University in college.

“I always have identified myself with my Jewish culture, but not very religiously involved,” he told JNS. In addition to writing books, which have collectively sold more than 40 million copies, Albom is a screenwriter, journalist, broadcaster and philanthropist. He has funded and operates nonprofits that assist people in the most dangerous Detroit neighborhoods and has run an orphanage in Haiti since 2010.

He also finds the time to keep writing.

His books don’t emerge from just a great idea, a strong character or a twist-turning plot, Albom explained. It has to be something deeper.

“People come to my books because when they’re finished, they have something to think about that maybe applies to them,” he said.

“If people can see themselves in your stories, they are going to embrace them at a greater level.”

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By Ellen Braunstein On a visit to Yad Vashem 10 years ago, Mitch Albom, the sports journalist turned inspirational book author, was struck by a story that emerged from one of the video displays.

“A woman was saying that everyone always asks how come we got on these trains if they were taking us to our death,” Albom, who is Jewish, told JNS during a wide-ranging conversation at his home in Michigan.

The question stuck with Albom, and he decided to write a novel about it.

Albom said that he had long wanted to pen at least one book on the Holocaust, “to remind younger people coming up that it cannot be forgotten and should never be overlooked.” He also wanted to write about the truth and deception, and “the price we pay for the lies that we tell.”

He brings his gift for tugging at the reader’s heartstrings — which came through famously in his 1997 memoir, ”Tuesdays With Morrie,” about spending time with his dying former Brandeis University professor Morrie Schwartz — to his novel “The Little Liar,” which came out about a month after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Albom, 65, who counts Holocaust survivors among his extended family, writes in the new novel about Nico, his brother Sebastian and their schoolmate Fannie, all of whom hail from Salonika, formerly Thessaloniki and the site of Greece’s largest Jewish community prior to the Holocaust. (Some 56,000 of Greece’s 77,000 Jews on the eve of the war lived in Salonika, and 96% of Salonika’s Jews were killed during the Holocaust.)

The story of Greek participation in the Holocaust is not well known, according to Albom, who lived in Greece as a recent college graduate. Just 1,100 Jews returned to the Greek city after the war.

A German officer in Albom’s new novel discovers the trustworthy Nico and offers the boy a chance to save his family if he convinces fellow Jews to board trains to their “new homes” and “new jobs.” They are promised safety at their destinations.

The innocent boy — in a manner that evokes the 17-year-old Israeli boy whom Hamas terrorists used as bait, and made go door to door telling neighbors it was safe to reemerge on Oct. 7 — doesn’t realize that the whole mission is a cruel ruse.

He goes to the train station platform every day and reassures passengers that the journey is safe. When the final train arrives at the station, Nico sees his family being loaded into a large box-

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WINE AND DINE Bask in a Moroccan Purim’s flavorful glow EThEL G. hofMAN

P

urim, which is celebrated on the 14th of Adar (this year, 14 Adar II, starting on motzei Shabbat on March 24) commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from Haman’s plot to kill Persia’s Jews in a single day.

Northern Morocco was part of ancient Persia where spices, such as cinnamon, cumin, ginger and coriander were used liberally. On a pre-COVID trip to Morocco — before the country signed on to the Abraham Accords and renewed its ties with Israel in the fall of 2020 — I came back with some of the recipes below. Include one or two in your festive Purim meal.

Moroccan Tea, also called Maghrebi, is fragrant and syrupy sweet. There’s an art in serving it. With one arm raised, the tea is poured into small decorated glasses to aerate and create a light foam. When offered, always accept to avoid insulting your host.

Tagines are a traditional Moroccan dish served everywhere and eaten any time during the day. You’ll find the colorful pots filled with meat and vegetable stews, livened with mouth-watering spicy aromas at roadside stands as well as on upscale menus. The conical shape of a tagine creates a hot, moist environment for whatever is cooked. The base is wide and shallow, and the lid fits tightly inside. As the food cooks, steam rises into the cone, then trickles down into the dish.

No worries if you don’t have to own a tagine; a heavy pot with a tight-fitting lid or a Dutch oven works just as well.

I first tasted Brown Boiled Eggs in a Casablanca souk, a mellow, tasty street snack. Oil keeps the water from evaporating during the long cooking process. You’ll find Pickled Lemons in every Moroccan kitchen; it’s the essential zest to savory dishes, like couscous, soups and stews. Add a smidgeon to cakes and desserts as well to elevate them from ordinary to the divine.

The similarity between mohn in Yiddish and the name Haman made poppy seeds popular at Purim. For meringues, I simply fold a spoonful of poppy seeds into a basic meringue mixture. Don’t be intimidated. There are only three ingredients, so whisk and leave overnight in the oven. Just be sure all utensils are scrupulously clean and not a speck of yolk gets into the whites. Separate each egg over a cup before adding the whites to a bowl. That way, if you break a yolk, it won’t spoil the rest of the whites.

And for the easiest dessert eaten at a fancy restaurant, simply fold yogurt into pomegranate kernels. It makes for a delicious contrast: crunchy and creamy.

Chag Purim sameach!

Ingredients: • 4 cups boiling water • 10 sprigs (about 1/2 cup tightly packed) fresh mint leaves • 1 Tbsp. green tea leaves • 3 Tbsp. sugar Directions: Swirl about 1/4 cup boiling water around in a pot to warm.

Add the mint, pressing with a spoon to release flavor. Add the green tea and sugar.

Pour the remaining water over top. Stir to dissolve the sugar, cover and brew for 3 minutes. Stir lightly.

Pour into small glasses (shot glasses work fine) and serve.

Brown-Boiled Eggs (Pareve)

Makes 12; can be made 1 to 2 days ahead of time

Fruit and vegetable market in Morocco.

Brown eggs.

Pixabay

Cook’s Tips: •No need to brew coffee. Stir 1 tablespoon instant coffee into 1 cup hot water.

•Cool before use. Or use leftover coffee, adding 1 teaspoon instant. •Substitute 2 teaspoons loose tea for two tea bags.

Ingredients: • 12 eggs • 1 cup of cold strong coffee • 2 tea bags • brown skin of 2 large onions • 2/3 cup vegetable oil Directions: Place eggs carefully in a large, heavy saucepan.

Pour enough cold water over to come about 2 inches above the eggs.

Add the coffee, tea, onion skins and oil. Bring to simmer over a medium heat.

Cover and reduce heat to simmer. The liquid should never be more than barely simmering.

Cook for 4 to 5 hours, adding more water as needed. Remove from liquid. Refrigerate.

Serve cold, in the shell.

ons and boil for 2 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water.

Cut 7 lemons in quarters leaving the wedges attached at one end. Sprinkle a rounded teaspoon of salt into each lemon. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon salt over the bottom of a clean 1-quart canning jar.

Pack the lemons into the jar, pressing down to fit snugly. Cut the remaining lemon in half.

Squeeze the juice into the jar.

Sprinkle 1 teaspoon salt into each cut half.

Add to the jar, cut side down and press.

Pour enough olive oil into the jar to cover lemons. Cover tightly with lid. Let stand at room temperature for 10 days or until the skins are translucent.

Store in refrigerator 3 to 6 months. Use as needed.

Chicken Tagine (Meat)

Serves 6 to 8 Cook’s Tips: •Substitute 1-1/2 pounds cubed lamb for chicken. •May cook in a crock pot. Sear chicken before adding to pot. •Chopped ginger is available in the vegetable section of markets.

Pixabay

8Pereg makes a kosher Moroccan spice blend.

Use 3 tsp.s to replace ginger, cumin and cinnamon. Available in some markets and online.

Ingredients: • Olive or vegetable oil • 8 chicken thighs (about 3 pounds) • Salt and fresh ground pepper • 1 medium onion, thinly sliced • 3 baby carrots, cut in 1/2-inch slices • 1-1/2 tsp. bottled minced garlic • 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh ginger root • 2 tsp. cumin • 1 tsp. cinnamon • 1 cup chicken stock • 1/2 cup dried apricots, snipped coarsely • 1 Tbsp. honey • 1 (15-ounce can) chickpeas, drained • 6 pitted dates, halved lengthwise Directions: Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a heavy pot (5 to 6 quarts) over medium heat.

Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper.

Place the chicken in the pot in one layer.

See Basking on page 8

Pickled Lemons (Pareve)

Moroccan Mint Tea (Pareve) Serves 4 to 6

Pickled lemon or preserved lemon.

Alpha, Flickr via Wikimedia Commons

Mint tea.

Pixabay

Cook’s Tips: •No need to search for gunpowder tea; tea leaves rolled into tiny balls. Green tea is just fine •Instead of loose tea, use 3 green tea bags.

Makes 1 quart Cook’s Tips: •Lasts up to 6 months or more in refrigerator as long as brine is covering them.

•Add to dishes such as stews, dressinazgs and couscous.

Ingredients: • 8 lemons • Kosher salt • Vegetable or olive oil Directions: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add lem-

Chicken Tagine.

Ethel G. Hofman

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Bowl & Basket Mayonnaise

Basking in Moroccan Purim’s flavorful glow…

Continued from page 6 Sear to golden brown on all sides. You may have to do this in two batches adding a little more oil for the second batch. Remove and set aside.

Add the onion and carrots to the pot. Cook over medium heat until beginning to brown, 5 to 10 minutes.

Stir in the garlic. Cook 10 seconds. Add the ginger, cumin and cinnamon.

Stir and cook slowly for 1 minute to release flavors. Stir in the chicken stock, apricots and almonds. Arrange the chicken on top. Bring to a boil.

Cover and reduce heat to simmer. Cook for 50 to 60 minutes until chicken is cooked (no pink remains when tested with a sharp knife.)

Transfer the chicken to a large, shallow serving dish. Add the honey and chickpeas to the pot.

Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook until liquid is slightly thickened.

To serve: Spoon over lemon couscous and scatter dates to garnish.

Lemon Couscous (Pareve)

Serves 6 to 8 Cook’s Tips: •Use chicken broth instead of water to prepare the couscous; it is now a meat meal. •Substitute 2 Tbsp. lemon juice and 1 teaspoon lemon zest for the pickled lemon.

Ingredients: • 2 (6 ounce) packages couscous • 1 Tbsp. chopped pickled lemon • 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley • 1/2 tsp. garlic powder Directions: Prepare couscous according to package directions. Stir in the lemon, parsley and garlic powder. Heap onto a large platter with tagine spooned over.

Serve hot.

Almond Konafa (Dairy)

Lemons.

Pixabay

Mohn Meringues (Pareve)

Makes 20 to 25 Cook’s Tips: •Shaved bittersweet chocolate may be added instead of poppy seeds.

Ingredients: • 4 egg whites • 1 cup sugar • 2 tsp. poppy seeds Directions: Preheat oven to 225 degrees.

Line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment.

Spray lightly with nonstick vegetable spray. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until they peak softly.

Add sugar gradually, 2 tablespoons at a time.

Continue beating until stiff and glossy peaks form. Fold in the poppy seeds.

Drop tablespoons of meringue onto prepared cookie sheets or press through a pastry bag with a large star nozzle.

Bake in a preheated oven for 1 hour. Turn oven off. Leave meringues in the oven without opening the door for 3 to 4 hours or overnight to dry completely.

Store in an airtight container in a cool dry place. Do not refrigerate.

into squares with a serrated knife.

Serves 12 to 16 Cook’s Tips: •To make pareve, substitute Simple Pomegranate melted margarine for the butter. •If you can’t Dessert (Dairy) find konafa in store, shred filo dough finely with Serves 4 to 6 a sharp knife.

Cook’s Tips: •Pomegranate kernels are availIngredients: able in markets. •Sprinkle 1/2 cup chopped dark • 1/2 pound almonds, finely chopped chocolate to garnish. •To make pareve, stir in • 3/4 cup, plus 2 tsp., sugar softened non-dairy frozen yogurt instead of yo• 1/2 pound frozen konafa, thawed gurt. Serve at once.

• 6 Tbsp. butter, melted Ingredients: • 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice • 1-1/2 cups vanilla yogurt Directions: • 1-1/2 cups pomegranate kernels Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 9 to inch • Cinnamon to sprinkle baking pan with nonstick vegetable spray.

• Warm honey to drizzle Place almonds in a small saucepan with water Directions: to cover. Bring to a boil. Cook until softened, 3 to In a large bowl, fold the yogurt into the pome4 minutes. Drain well, patting with a clean towel granate kernels. Chill. to dry completely. Transfer to a small bowl and To serve, spoon mixture into serving dishes. toss with 2 teaspoons sugar. Set aside.

Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon and drizzle with In a large bowl, pull the konafa apart into thin honey. threads. Add half of the melted butter and toss. Spread half the konafa mixture over the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Cover with the almonds. Spread the remaining konafa on top and drizzle with the remaining butter.

Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes until golden.

While the konafa is baking, prepare the syrup.

Syrup: Bring 1 cup water, the remaining 3/4 cup sugar and lemon juice to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar.

Continue boiling over high heat without stirring, until syrupy, about 8 minutes.

Spoon over hot konafa. Cool Pixabay completely before cutting Pomegranate seeds.

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‘Too many people doubt what happened on Oct. 7’

Greenblatt: ‘We’re at a very dangerous time’

By Amelie Botbol In 2017, then-President Donald Trump appointed Jason Greenblatt as Special Representative for International Negotiations. In his role as the White House’s point man on the Middle East, Greenblatt served as one of the chief architects of the administration’s Peace to Prosperity Plan between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as of the Abraham Accords that normalized relations between the Jewish state and four Arab nations — the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.

Greenblatt subsequently wrote of his experiences in his book, “In the Path of Abraham: How Donald Trump Made Peace in the Middle East — and How to Stop Joe Biden from Unmaking It.” In a conversation with JNS, Greenblatt shared his post-Oct. 7 insights into the region, including the Biden administration’s approach to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, US policy regarding Iran and how Trump navigated complex Mideast realities.

Greenblatt also recently spoke with the Qatari prime minister in Doha, one of the epicenters of negotiations aimed at freeing the 134 hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza.

Greeblatt is currently senior director of ArabIsraeli Diplomacy at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and has been working independently on building economic, cultural and tourism bridges between American and Israeli companies and those in the Arab world.

Q: Have you been speaking to contacts you made as special envoy to the region, and if so do they view the war against Hamas as depicted in the media or are their opinions different behind closed doors?

A. It depends on which contact. I spoke to many diplomats and leaders in the region. Some view and understand the conflict more clearly than others. They all want to see the conflict end since it has a tremendous impact throughout the region.

Most understand why Israel is fighting this war but, at the same time, it is very difficult and challenging for them to see what is happening in Gaza.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir recently created a firestorm by saying that former US president and 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump would have been more supportive of Israel’s military campaign than the Biden administration. Do you agree with him?

I say this as a huge Trump supporter: President Trump did many terrific things for Israel and I believe he would be extremely supportive of Israel at this difficult and challenging time. However, the comments by Minister Ben-Gvir are not helpful.

Credit needs to be given to President Biden for his support of Israel since Oct. 7.

There are certainly things that the Biden administration is doing which I strongly disagree with, especially pushing for a two-state solution, recognizing what they call an independent Palestinian state, talking about Israel dehumanizing Palestinians and even equating what happened

Former US Special Envoy Jason Greenblatt.

in Israel on Oct. 7 with what Israel is doing in response.

I think this is all misguided and terribly bad.

Still under any US administration, Trump, Biden or otherwise, it’s important for Minister Ben-Gvir to be grateful for the support that the US president gives.

That type of criticism could jeopardize it. While I do agree with him that Trump was terrific for Israel, he should choose his words more carefully.

The Biden administration came out with some strong statements vis-a-vis the prospective Israeli operation in Rafah in southern Gaza. Do you think they’re still fully supportive of Israel’s goal to destroy Hamas?

I certainly hope they are and that they understand the intense challenge that Israel faces. Israel did not ask for this war. Israel is doing everything it can to reduce civilian casualties. I hope that the Biden administration stands by Israel and understands it. I can’t speak for whether they do or don’t.

Why can’t the Biden administration place the full leverage of the United States on allies such as Qatar, Turkey and other regional countries to get the Israeli hostages released?

I was in Qatar earlier this week with some families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. I spoke to the Prime Minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and his National Security Council. I believe that they are doing everything they can. I don’t think they have the kind of leverage some people say they do.

The United States or Israel could pressure Qatar to send Hamas’s leadership away to Iran or somewhere else. Perhaps that would help.

Whoever makes that decision should think very carefully. If it does not work then Qatar will have no leverage whatsoever. Having sat on meetings with them, I appreciate everything they do for the hostage families.

The Biden administration is again pushing for the establishment of a Palestinian state and is reportedly even exploring the possibility of unilaterally recognizing one. Why do you think

this is, and do you think it is counterproductive to reward the Palestinians with such a victory post-Oct. 7?

Not only do I think it’s counterproductive, it is dangerous, foolish and mind-boggling. President Biden has suffered politically as a result of his decisions on Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. That’s why he’s doing it. This kind of talk is extremely dangerous and I hope they drop it immediately.

Did former President Trump ever consider recognizing a Palestinian state?

No. President Trump never considered it outside the context of the peace plan that was developed under his administration, which was extremely detailed and always premised upon negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. It was never unilateral. We were very careful with regard to how we defined what would constitute a state. It’s very different from the definition of the Biden administration, the United Nations or the European Union. It’s very different from what most people think and talk about, which is why we were very careful to write a long and detailed plan that explained what it could be.

Did he trust Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas?

No, I wouldn’t say that. When President Trump first met him, perhaps the first meeting or two, President Abbas put himself out to be somebody who was interested in negotiating peace with Israel in good faith. Over time, President Trump realized that President Abbas was not interested in negotiating anything other than what he was demanding and what had been promised to the Palestinians for decades, none of which was realistic or appropriate.

Do you think the Americans in general understand the Palestinian national movement’s inherent opposition to Zionism? Did Trump?

Some do. We’re at a very dangerous time, and a lot more effort has to be made to educate them better on Hamas, who committed atrocities against Israelis on Oct. 7 and who vowed to destroy Israel over and over again, or the Palestinian Authority with their “pay-for-slay” rewarding Palestinians for the murder of Israelis.

There are so many other factions of Palestinians who truly do not want to see a thriving Jewish state in the Land of Israel. More should be done to educate the American public on that.

President Trump understood the Palestinian national movement’s inherent opposition to Zionism and also surrounded himself with a very large team of people who also understood it. I was never concerned when I worked at the White House.

There is again talk of a normalization agreement between Israel and the Saudis. Do you see this happening any time soon?

It’s very difficult to tell at the moment. All countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, are having a very difficult time watching what is happening to Palestinians in Gaza, and understandably so.

They may understand why Israel has to uproot

Hamas, but what they see over and over again are images of Palestinians who are not part of Hamas and who do not look like Hamas, including children, dying. That puts a lot of pressure on them. At the moment, we are not on the right track, but I am always optimistic that we will get back on the right track at the right time.

In your experience dealing with the Saudis, are they serious about conditioning normalization on the creation of a Palestinian state? Or would they suffice with declarative steps in exchange for US security guarantees vis-a-vis Iran?

I think their messaging has changed over the past number of months. They realize that the creation of a Palestinian state is an enormous challenge. They are very supportive of the Palestinians and they will make their position known overtime.

This week, they had a much stronger message about the conditions, that differed from the messaging in the past number of months. It’s a bit difficult to answer this question at the moment.

What do you think of the Biden administration’s Iran policy?

Extremely weak. Extremely dangerous and part of the reason why we’re in this mess to begin with.

Do you think Israel will be better off if Trump wins in November, and why?

A: I think that President Trump understands Israel’s challenges. He is hugely supportive of Israel. He is supportive of a realistic peace and stability in the region. Most Arab countries also understand where Trump stands on policies, especially with regard to the Iranian regime, so in my opinion Israel and most of its Arab allies will be safer and more secure with a leader like President Trump in the Oval Office.

In your time negotiating the Abraham Accords, were there other countries that seemed open to normalization with Israel?

There were, but it’s impossible to look back and wonder what could have succeeded. We certainly had a lot of positive conversations with certain countries. I can’t name who. These things change so quickly based on what is happening in the region.

It was an opportunity that was lost then, but hopefully one which will come again at the right time.

Is there anything you’d like to add, maybe regarding your recent visit to Kfar Aza? Thank you for mentioning it. I did that specifically with a Palestinian. There are too many people around the world, especially in Arab countries, who doubt what happened on Oct. 7 and who believe that Israel is exaggerating the atrocities.

I wanted them to hear it directly from a Palestinian who walked around in Kfar Aza and saw the horrific things that happened there, expressing sorrow. I figured that they are not willing to listen to Israelis, they might listen to a Palestinian. I hope more people watch the video and understand the tremendous damage and destruction in Israel caused by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists.

IDF officer in RVC describes his Gaza experience

By Daniel Offner, LI Herald An IDF officer who served in Gaza told a Rockville Centre synagogue that “personally, if there can be a solution that will include any sort of agreement or ceasefire, I don’t believe in that any longer.”

“We thought we knew the situation, and then Oct. 7 came and we realized the situation is different,” Amit Yaacov said at the Conservative Congregation B’nai Sholom-Beth David.

“We saw the videos of how the Gazans celebrated when Hamas brought back hostages, dead bodies, soldiers, citizens, kids. They were celebrating.”

Yaacov displayed a Hamas T-shirt celebrating the Oct. 7 attack. “The

department of the massive terror attack” is printed on the shirt in Arabic.

“We have merch for summer camps, they have merch for terror attacks,” he said.

The reason he thinks peace is not attainable is that from the Palestinian perspective peace was never the goal.

“When they talk about an agreement or going back to their homes that we hear a lot, Hamas doesn’t mean to go back to the ’67 borders before the Six Day War,” he said. “They’re not talking about the West Bank or settling in Sinai or even in the Golan Heights. They’re talking about Israel. They’re talking about Tel Aviv.

They’re talking about Haifa. They’re talking about all of the state of Israel.”

IDF officer Amit Yaacov at Congregation B’nai Sholom-Beth David.

He said Palestinian supporters adopted the genocidal slogan “From the river to the sea” is that their objective

is to cause the State of Israel to cease to exist. “And in that case, no peace can be reached with anyone.”

Meanwhile, no army does as much as the IDF to try and prevent casualties on the other side, he said.

“We got a mission that was delayed two or three times because not all of the population in the area we were supposed to be attacking was evacuated,” he said. In another instance, where an air force drone confirmed that four terrorists were driving in a vehicle, the mission was aborted because it was too close to a populated area.

“Even though we confirmed it,” Yaacov said. “We saw their ammunition and recognized the vehicle they

were using. It was aborted because the price was too high.”

He said his sister was once wounded by a piece of a missile that was shot out of the air by the Iron Dome defense system. “People get hurt, even though we’re trying to protect ourselves,” he said. “It’s the same on the other side.”

Yaacov, a native of Jerusalem who currently resides on Long Island where he works as a shaliach with the Sid Jacobson JCC in Greenvale, said he would never forget his experience in Gaza. “It definitely was one heck of an experience,” he said.

A version of this story was published in the Rockville Centre Herald.

15 THE JEWISH STAR February 16, 2024 • 7 Adar I 5784

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‫כוכב של שבת‬ jewish star torah columnists: •Rabbi Avi Billet of Anshei Chesed, Boynton Beach, FL, mohel and Five Towns native •Rabbi David Etengoff of Magen David Yeshivah, Brooklyn •Rabbi Binny Freedman, rosh yeshiva of Orayta, Jerusalem

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.

Fri Feb 16 / 7 Adar I

Fri March 8 / 28 Adar I

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Fri March 15 / 5 Adar II

contact our columnists at: Publisher@TheJewishStar.com Five towns candlelighting: From the White Shul, Far Rockaway, NY

Fri March 1 / 21 Adar I Ki Sisa Candles: 5:29 • Havdalah: 6:39

Fri March 22 / 12 Adar II

contributing writers: •Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks zt”l,

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

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

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

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Zachor • Erev Purim • Vayikra Candles: 6:52 • Havdalah: 8:02

G-d’s assignment to mankind: Build builders rabbi sir jonathan sacks zt”l

A

s soon as we read the opening lines of Terumah we begin the massive shift from the intense drama of the Exodus with its signs and wonders and epic events, to the long, detailed narrative of how the Israelites constructed the Tabernacle, the portable sanctuary that they carried with them through the desert.

By any standards it is a part of the Torah that cries out for explanation. The first thing that strikes us is the sheer length of the account: one third of the book of Shemot, five parshiyot — Terumah, Tetzaveh, half of Ki Tissa, Vayakhel and Pekudei, interrupted only by the story of the Golden Calf.

This becomes even more perplexing when we compare it with another act of creation, namely G-d’s creation of the universe. That story is told with the utmost brevity: a mere thirty-four verses. Why take fifteen times as long to tell the story of constructing the Sanctuary?

The question becomes harder still when we recall that the Mishkan was not a permanent feature of the spiritual life of the Children of Israel. It was specifically designed to be carried on their journey through the wilderness. Later, in the days of Solomon, it would be replaced by the Temple in Jerusalem. What enduring message are we supposed to learn from the construction of a travelling Sanctuary that was not even designed to endure?

Even more puzzling is that fact that the story is part of the book of Shemot. Shemot is about the birth of a nation. Hence Egypt, slavery, Pharaoh, the Ten Plagues, the Exodus, the journey through the sea, and the covenant at Mount Sinai.

All these things would become part of the people’s collective memory. But the Sanctuary, where sacrifices were offered, surely belongs to Vayikra, otherwise known as Torat Kohanim, Leviticus, the book of priestly things. It seems to have no connection with Exodus whatsoever.

The answer, I believe, is profound.

During the whole time the Tabernacle was being constructed, there were no complaints, no rebellions, no dissension.

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he transition from Bereishit to Shemot, Genesis to Exodus, is about the change from family to nation. When the Israelites entered Egypt, they were a single extended family. By the time they left they had become a sizeable people, divided into twelve tribes plus an amorphous collection of fellow travellers known as the erev rav, the “mixed multitude.”

What united them was a fate. They were the people whom the Egyptians distrusted and enslaved.

The Israelites had a common enemy. Beyond that they had a memory of the patriarchs and their G-d.

They shared a past. What was to prove difficult, almost impossible, was to get them to share responsibility for the future.

Everything we read in Shemot tells us that, as is so often the case among people long deprived of freedom, they were passive and they were easily moved to complain. The two often go together. They expected someone else, Moses or G-d Himself, to provide them with food and water, lead them to safety, and take them to the Promised Land.

At every setback, they complained. They complained when Moses’ first intervention failed: May the L-rd look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us. Ex. 5:21 At the Red Sea they complained again. They said to Moses: Was it because there were no graves in Egypt, that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?

Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert! Ex. 14:11-12 After the division of the Red Sea, the Torah says: When the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the L-rd displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the L-rd and believed in Him and in Moses His servant. Ex. 14:31 But after a mere three days they were complaining again. There was no water. Then there was water but it was bitter. Then there was no food.

The Israelites said: If only we had died by the L-rd’s hand in

Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death. Ex. 16:3 Soon Moses himself is saying: What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me. Ex. 17:4 y now G-d has performed signs and wonders on the people’s behalf, taken them out of Egypt, divided the sea for them, given them water from a rock and manna from heaven, and still they do not cohere as a nation.

They are a group of individuals, unwilling or unable to take responsibility, to act collectively.

Their first response is always to complain.

And now G-d does the single greatest act in history. He appears in a revelation at Mount Sinai, the only time in history that G-d has appeared to an entire people, and the people tremble. There never was anything like it before; there never will be again.

How long does this last? A mere forty days.

Then the people make a Golden Calf. If miracles, the division of the sea, and the Revelation at Mount Sinai fail to transform the Israelites, what will? There are no greater miracles than these.

That is when G-d does the most unexpected thing.

He says to Moses: speak to the people and tell them to contribute, to give something of their own, be it gold or silver or bronze, be it wool or animal skin, be it oil or incense, or their skill or their time, and get them to build something together — a symbolic home for My Presence, a

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Tabernacle. It doesn’t need to be large or grand or permanent. Get them to make something, to become builders. Get them to give.

Moses does so. And the people respond.

They respond so generously that Moses is told, “The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the L-rd commanded to be done” (Ex. 36:5), and Moses has to ask them to stop giving. uring the whole time the Tabernacle was being constructed, there were no complaints, no rebellions, no dissension.

What all the signs and wonders failed to do, the construction of the Tabernacle succeeded in doing. It transformed the people. It turned them into a cohesive group. It gave them a sense of responsibility and identity.

Seen in this context, the story of the Tabernacle was the essential element in the birth of a nation. No wonder it is told at length; no surprise that it belongs to the book of Exodus; and there is nothing ephemeral about it.

The Tabernacle did not last forever, but the lesson it taught did. It is not what G-d does for us that transforms us, but what we do for G-d.

A free society is best symbolized by the Tabernacle. It is the home we build together. It is only by becoming builders that we turn from subjects to citizens. We have to earn our freedom by what we give. It cannot be given to us as an unearned gift.

It is what we do, not what is done to us, that makes us free. That is a lesson as true today as it was then.

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Rabbi dR. tzvi heRsh WeinReb Orthodox Union

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here is a well-known joke that is told about the Jews, which I find particularly sad. The joke tells of a group of explorers who find a Jew who has been stranded on a desert island for years. As he takes them around the island and shows them how he survived, they find that he built two synagogues for himself. When asked why he needs two since he is all alone, he says that one is the one he prays in, and the other is

the one he would never walk into.

This joke, if you can call it that, makes a discouraging comment about some of our people.

Some of us to seem to have a favorite house in which to worship and another house which we stubbornly shun.

It is true that every Jew needs at least two houses of worship. But he must enter both of them. One is his synagogue, and the other is his home.

Jewish worship takes place in the home to an even greater extent than in the synagogue. It is in the home that we recite grace after meals, prayers upon awakening and before bedtime, special prayers before Shabbat candle lighting, and countless informal prayers and benedictions.

Learning from technical and seemingly outdated passages of Torah.

The synagogue, on the other hand, is the place for formal prayer and for communal worship. n this week’s Torah portion, Terumah, we learn of the very first house of worship: the Mishkan, or Tabernacle. We also learn about some of the furnishings which were essential to the construction of this house.

I want to suggest that these furnishings are not

I

merely of historical import but are necessary in both the public synagogue and the private home.

The first three components mentioned in this week’s Torah portion are the Ark, in which the tablets with the Ten Commandments (and according to some, the entire Torah) are contained; the holy Table upon which 12 breads were placed every Sabbath; and the golden Menorah, exquisitely decorated.

These three vessels are also prominent features of both synagogue and home and indeed should be so.

Like the Tabernacle of old, every synagogue today has an ark in which the Torah scrolls, often along with scrolls of the Prophets and of the MeSee Weinreb on page 22

Knowing Hashem is with us, we are never alone Parsha of the Week

Rabbi avi billet Jewish Star columnist

I

n one of the opening statements of his essay “The Lonely Man of Faith,” Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik writes, “The nature of the dilemma can be stated in a three-word sentence. I am lonely.”

He goes on to explain that he is not lonely in the sense of not having friends and loved ones.

That would be categorized as being “alone.” He is lonely, as in misunderstood by others, as in having thoughts and feelings that others don’t share,

see, or relate to.

He relates this loneliness to the verse of “For my father and mother have abandoned me, and G-d has gathered me in” (Tehillim 27). I don’t even have my parents to lean on — all I have is G-d.

It is a fantastic essay.

Different life choices, and in particular some professions, can lead anyone to a similar kind of feeling. Several times have I heard Dr. David Pelcovitz tell the story of the Rebbe RaShab, the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe (Sholom Dovber Schneersohn), who wrote in his diary of feeling similarly alone. He describes how he went to a famous doctor (possibly Freud) for help. The guidance he was given, which he found helpful, was to ask people for feedback on the work he was doing, as

a rebbe, in helping them.

How does one fill the existential loneliness one might feel? For Rabbi Soloveitchik, having family, friends, colleagues, students, helped counter feeling alone. But it could not undo the loneliness. Only G-d could do that.

It’s a fascinating concept that King David introduces us to: when parents are gone, G-d gathers me in.

But the truth is that this teaching is one of the oldest teachings in Parshat Terumah.

On the verse “They shall make for Me a sanctuary and I will dwell in them,” the literal interpretation or translation is hard to understand.

The verse should say, “And when you make a sanctuary for Me, I will dwell amongst you.”

Most divrei Torah on this parsha that focus

on this verse follow the interpretation that the creation of a sanctuary will translate to G-d being found in the hearts, minds, and bodies of the Israelites.

And I think that is really what Rabbi Soloveitchik was getting at. How does a person create a sanctuary of G-d in oneself, in order to, with G-d’s help, overcome loneliness?

Each of us ought to ask ourselves, does G-d dwell in me? or those who are naturally more spiritual, perhaps the answer is an easy “Yes.” For others, each of us can hopefully find a way that “G-d’s presence in me” is tangible and noticeable.

What does it take? I think one important step is tapping into our tefillah experience.

See Billet on page 22

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What we need to become the mikdash of G-d torah

Rabbi david etenGoff

Jewish Star columnist

T

he best-known pasuk in our parasha, Terumah, is this: “And they shall make Me a sanctuary (mikdash) and I will dwell in their midst.” It is followed by many verses that specify every possible detail of the constitutive elements of the Mishkan. Yet, as the Mechilta d’Rabbi Yishmael notes, the very act of constructing a mikdash for Hashem is problematic.

After all, was it not already said, “Behold I fill the heavens and the earth?” (As such, how can any dwelling contain Hashem?)

The great Lithuanian Torah sage, Rav Chaim

of Volozhin was acutely aware of the conceptual challenges posed by the mitzvah to build a mikdash for Hashem. He addressed them by emphasizing the later part of our pasuk, “and I will dwell in their midst,” and suggests this revolutionary interpretation: “Behold, there is no doubt whatsoever, that the very idea of the holy (hakodesh), the sanctuary (hamikdash) and the in-dwelling (shriyat shechinato) of the Holy One blessed be He refers to man, himself.

[This is the case,] for if he sanctifies himself in the proper manner through the fulfillment of all the mitzvot … then he, himself, will be the sanctuary of Hashem (hu atzmo hamikdash mammash) and within him will be Hashem, may His Name be blessed.” (Nefesh HaChaim, I:4) At this juncture, it seems the physical structure of the Mikdash, or even of the Beit HaMikdash, is well-nigh superfluous, as it is supersed-

ed by the Jewish people, themselves. A careful reading of Rav Chaim’s next words seem to support precisely this approach: “In addition, according to our manner of explanation, one should not think that the essential purpose of My [G-d’s] intention [regarding the commandment to construct the Mikdash] is the creation of the physical Mikdash itself (hamikdash hachitzoni).”

What, then, is the rationale inherent in the construction of the Mikdash?

For Rav Chaim, it is nothing less than the creation of the greatest teaching device the world has ever known: But you should know that My [Hashem’s] overarching purpose and desire regarding the Mikdash’s construction and all its vessels, is solely to indicate to you [the Jewish people individually, and as a people,] that you should model your-

selves after these physical entities and reconstruct yourselves and all of your actions, so that they will be as proper to Me as the building of the Mikdash and all its [sanctified] vessels.

[For in truth,] all of you are holy, fitting, and prepared (kedoshim, re’uyim u’muchanim) for My holy presence to literally dwell within you (lehashrot shechinati b’tochchachem mammash).

This, then, is the true meaning of, “And they shall make Me a sanctuary (mikdash) and I will dwell in their midst.”

Rav Chaim’s message is unbelievably inspiring: We, the Jewish people, are holy and fitting for the Schechinah to dwell amongst us, for in truth, we are His mikdash.

With Hashem’s help, may we rededicate ourselves to His holy Torah and the fulfillment of His mitzvot, and become His mikdash soon and in our days. V’chane yihi ratzon.

Of ‘Esther: Power, Fate, and Fragility in Exile’ Kosher bookworm

alan Jay GeRbeR

Jewish Star columnist

A

s we enter Adar I, with Purim five weeks away, I’m pleased to present excerpts from an online interview with Dr. Erica Brown, author of “Esther: Power, Fate, and Fragility in Exile” (Maggid Books, 2020). Dr. Brown is Vice Provost for Values and Leadership at Yeshiva University and founding director of its Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks-Herenstein Center for Values and Leadership.

“The megillah keeps us on the edge of our seats because of the tensile range of emotions throughout. There is King Ahasuerus’ rage and impulsivity. Haman’s evil. Esther’s beauty. Mordechai’s anxiety and then finally the joy that

spills over from the protagonists to the Jews of Shushan and then the Jews in the 127 provinces of the Persian empire. Esther and Mordechai, indeed all the Jews of this empire at this time experienced a constant change in this emotionally charged political landscape.

“We as readers see unchecked power in this narrative. This includes the King’s power over Queen Vashti and then, by a strange

act of extrapolation, the power each male was given to be the dominant member of the household.

“Power and fate ripple through a story where Mordechai stops an assassination plot against the king, but, Haman is rewarded with enhanced status and authority. Haman manipulates the king into declaring an entire nation subject to death, making not only the Jews, but every people in this vast empire to become insecure, thus the fragility noted in this book’s title.

“Power, fate and fragility is also evident for the women not selected by the king in his grotesque beauty contest.

“Haman himself moves from the power to determine the fate of others to becoming victims of the king’s ire. He was ultimately hanged not because he abused his power but because the king thought that he had made advances against his queen, Queen Esther.

“G-d is noticeably absent while all of these

reversals are taking place in the narrative, suggesting that one aspect of exile is the lack of religious autonomy and thus the need to use politics rather than religion to secure safety. In the hands of a powerful, lustful and volatile ruler, it is difficult to be a citizen. Life always feels precarious.

“Not mentioning G-d may also be a condemnation of this exiled community who put their trust in an untrustworthy king rather than the King of Kings.”

I highly recommend this book to further enhance your appreciation of this joyous yet sacred holiday.

Consider this from the author’s preface: “The Book of Esther asks its celebrants to turn the world upside down because that is what can be expected in exile: the unpredictable, the surprise turn, the change in fate. If Purim is a holiday to examine exile, then Esther is its textbook and our guide.”

A version of this column appeared in 2020.

THE JEWISH STAR February 16, 2024 • 7 Adar I 5784

Building the Mishkan: Our house and His house

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February 16, 2024 • 7 Adar I 5784 THE JEWISH STAR

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Fighting Jew-hate, you can’t pick and choose Global Focus

BEN COHEN

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t was one of those incidents that you never expect will happen to you, but when it does, it changes your life irrevocably.

On June 8, 2023, a Thursday, a 67-year-old Orthodox Jewish woman whose name was reported as “Sarah” was driving to her home in Créteil, a suburb in the southeastern outskirts of Paris. As she drove, a group of traffic cops who were sitting at a nearby gas station noticed that she was speeding. They duly pulled her over.

Clearly flustered and nervous as she sat talking to the police officers, who informed her that she was driving dangerously, Sarah accidentally released the brake on her car, backing into a police motorcycle that was parked behind her.

Thinking that she was trying to flee the scene, the cops promptly arrested her and brought her to the police station in Créteil.

How can someone be moved by the cries of a elderly Jewish woman in police custody, yet dismiss the horrors of Oct. 7.

Absolutely terrified by this point, Sarah said in a later media interview that she lost consciousness. When she came around, she discovered that she was lying prostrate on the police station floor, handcuffed to a bench. When she realized that her wig, which she had worn since she married at the age of 18, according to the custom of Orthodox Jewish women, had been removed, she panicked.

An amateur video of the incident was shared with the French news website Mediapart, which posted it last week. It shows Sarah’s ordeal to its full, harrowing extent. “I’m a Jew!” Sarah declares with an ear-splitting scream. “I want my wig! My wig! My wig!” she continues, writhing helplessly on the floor as a policeman stands imperiously over her, sandwiching her legs between his feet.

The video also shows a disturbing level of contempt from the police officers. One of them describes Sarah as a feuj, an insulting French

slang term for “Jew.” When a male officer finally returns with her wig, an exasperated female officer is then heard telling Sarah: Allez, putain (“Come on, bitch”).

From the police station, Sarah was taken to the emergency room of a local hospital, where her husband came to collect her. A doctor who examined her noted that she had suffered both bruising and psychological trauma. Nevertheless, on March 4, Sarah will go on trial, charged with “endangering the lives of others” due to her allegedly careless driving. arah has herself now gone on the offensive, telling investigators from the General Inspectorate of the police that the removal of her wig represented the “ultimate humiliation” for an observant Jewish woman. She has also filed a complaint against the police, charging them with “sexist, antisemitic” violence towards her.

“Créteil police know the city, they know that there is a sizable Jewish community, so they cannot claim to be unaware of what a wig means,” her lawyer, Arie Alimi, told the media.

Sarah’s case is significant for two reasons — one of them uncomplicated, the other far more complicated.

The uncomplicated reason is simply that the behavior of the French police was clearly antisemitic. The video suggests that they rather enjoyed having a vulnerable Jewish woman at their mercy, whom they essentially dehumanized.

In a democracy, the police are accountable for their actions, and in this case, one can legitimately ask whether the officers who attended to Sarah at the police station should continue to serve on the force, particularly as they are in regular contact with other members of the Jewish community in Créteil.

The other reason is complicated because it involves overtly political considerations.

It is striking that Sarah’s case has been taken up by important swathes of the French left — a left that is normally at loggerheads with the Jewish community because of its consistent demonization of Israel.

Counter-accusations of antisemitism are both frequent and hotly denied, especially in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in Israel, which has triggered a vicious wave of antisemitism in France and other countries, frequently deploying progressive, anti-colonial messaging to camouflage what is — and what has always been — a deeply reactionary and backward form of prejudice.

Yet Sarah’s case has been reported on sympathetically and in detail in many organs of the French left, including L’Humanité — the daily paper of the French Communist Party, which once had the unenviable reputation of being the

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Protesters associated with the far-left group La France Insoumise demonstrate Nice, in the south of France, against governmental reform in 2018.

Frederic Dides, Shutterstock

most slavishly pro-Moscow of all the European Communist parties affiliated with the late, unlamented Soviet Union. arah has also won the support of parliamentarians from the far-left group La France Insoumise (or LFI, translated as “France Rising”), which occupies 75 of the 577 seats in the French National Assembly. In a social-media post, Mathilde Panot, who heads LFI’s parliamentary grouping, denounced “the sexist and antisemitic” treatment meted out to Sarah by police officers who had behaved with “dishonor,” and who should now be the subjects of a “rapid investigation and sanctions.”

While Sarah’s case against the police deserves the full backing of her fellow Jews, it behooves us to look critically at her other sources of support.

When Panot and three of her LFI comrades turned up at last week’s memorial ceremony in Paris for the 42 French citizens who were among the more than 1,200 people murdered

by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, pro-Israel demonstrators on the sidelines barracked them, shouting, “LFI, Hamas thanks you.” Panot’s explanation for her attendance was her desire to call attention to the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, whom LFI falsely believes, in common with much of the left globally, are undergoing a “genocide.”

On a human level, it’s hard to understand how someone could be moved (and understand-

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ably so) by the cries of a frail, elderly Jewish woman in police custody, yet dismiss the horrors of Oct. 7 — the slaughter, the mutilation, the rape of untold young woman at a music festival — as so much “Zionist propaganda.” As long as that remains the case, politicians on the left who intervene only in those incidents of antisemitism are unconnected to Israel will never win the trust of the Jewish community. imply put, if you are going to fight antisemitism, you cannot pick and choose which incidents you focus upon on the basis of your ideological convictions. And since the farleft is not, for the foreseeable future, going to accept the contention that its attacks on Zionism and Israel’s legitimacy are forms of antisemitism, one has to probe the political price of acknowledging their support in cases like those of Sarah.

Because if Sarah had been a resident of the West Bank instead of Créteil, and if she had been pulled over by Palestinian Authority officers and then detained, facing treatment even worse than her humiliation by French police officers, LFI and those who share its worldview would have, at best, remained silent.

Such hypocrisy would never pass muster on the left when it comes to racism against members of the black community, Muslims or any other minority. But Jews, as we have painfully learned yet again over the last four months, are different.

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REBECCA GUZMAN

Straus Scholar, Stern College

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n Oct. 7, I woke up in my brother’s apartment in eastern Jerusalem to the sound of sirens. Despite what my family and I wanted to believe, the horrors unfolding in the southwest of Israel were not figments of our sleep-addled imaginations.

Rockets were flying overhead, Hamas terror-

The difference between the Jewish response to Oct. 7 and the Hamas supporters’ is the difference between light and darkness.

ists were dragging women’s bodies through the streets of Gaza, and for a moment I had the sense that I had somehow traveled back in time, to the Belarusian shtetl of my grandparents’ youth, and I was watching it burn.

Catching whispered fragments of information in the stairwell, I thought that I finally understood what my family had run away from. But it was only days later, when college students took to the streets of Manhattan and London, justifying the murder of innocents and calling for the eradication of the world’s only Jewish state, that I began to see the shape of antisemitism’s ugly head.

And it was not until last week, on a trip back to Israel, that I realized how the Jewish future could overcome such darkness and illuminate the path forward.

As part of a program conducted by the Yeshiva University’s Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought, I had the privilege to travel with my fellow students and spend four days immersed in study at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. nder the guidance of our professors and guest speakers, we explored the most pressing topics of the moment. I listened as Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik spoke to Natan Sharansky about the interconnectedness of Jewish souls,

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Pro-Palestinian demonstrators block the Holland Tunnel between Manhattan and New Jersey, Jan. 8, 2023.

Source: YouTube Screenshot, NBC New York 4

and in wonder, I watched as the young men and women studying beside me raised their hands to ask about the role of Jewish students today.

(Former Israeli Cabinet Minister and Jewish

Agency Chairman Sharansky is today chairman of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, or ISGAP.) See Guzman on page 22

Are we destined to live in never-ending tragedy?

BENjAMiN KERstEiN

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ver the four months since Oct. 7, anyone working in Jewish media has been going all-out, and I am no exception. Our ordeal has been far less onerous, of course, than that of IDF soldiers and others directly involved in the Israel-Hamas war. But the crush of events has tended to overwhelm everything, including the emotional impact of the events themselves.

The Oct. 7 massacre, the war that followed, and the eruption of antisemitism that accompanied both were things that I had to report on and analyze. But I had not really felt them.

There simply wasn’t time.

A few days ago, it all hit me. First, it took the form of practical terrors: Israel is fighting with strong U.S. support, but how long will it be before the Biden administration snaps? Polls indicate that the Muslim-American community is largely fine with Hamas’s atrocities. The Democratic Party is leaning into the burgeon-

ing genocidal antisemitism of its progressive base and the professoriate regime that created and empowers it. Younger voters appear to be perfectly sanguine about this. Killing Jews has become trendy—just another way to get likes on TikTok and Instagram. With Biden running for reelection, none of this bodes well for us.

I could not escape the thought that the Passover Haggadah was right: “Not just one alone has risen against us to destroy us; but in every generation, they rise against us to destroy us.”

B’kol dor v’dor.

This was enough to provoke infinite anxieties. There are, after all, so many more of them than there are of us.

But I was also forced to ask a still more daunting question, one that left me deeply disturbed: What does all this say about the historical fate of the Jewish people? his is not just a question for us, but also the vast and often cruel non-Jewish world. We are entitled to ask the world: Are we destined to do this forever? How much of our blood will you require before you are satisfied; before you finally leave us alone? Will there come a time when you have finally had enough? Give us a date and a number, so at least we’ll know

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when we’re getting close.

I do not doubt that the world will have no answers to these questions. It likely knows that there is no date and no number. It intends to keep doing this forever.

It may be that it is the fate of the Jewish people to go through this again and again, but we can still rebel against it.

Beset by such thoughts, I spoke to a friend of mine who grew up in Sderot, the southern Israeli city ravaged on Oct. 7. Stoically, she told me that none of this should be a surprise.

It is the same thing that has always happened.

There have been pogroms and massacres in the past and there will be more in the future. They have occurred before and they will occur again.

We can do what we can, but we cannot and

should not expect better of the world.

If she is right — and perhaps this troubles me more than anything else — then we are faced with a terrible irony: It is possible that the Jews, a deeply messianic people, ultimately have a tragic destiny.

I mean tragic in the sense of the suffering that comes from the inescapability of fate. Perhaps it has been decreed from the beginning that we will be buffeted by the world until the world ends.

Perhaps, like my friend, we should accept that things will not get better. In every generation, we are going to do this again.

If this is so, then it is worth remembering that the Jews are not unique. It is entirely possible that humanity itself has a tragic destiny. Human history is a mosaic of war and atrocity. Many peoples have ravaged many other peoples. Perhaps this too will not change. s it says in Ecclesiastes, “A generation goes and a generation comes, and the earth stands forever. … What was is what will be and what was done is what will be done and there is nothing new under the sun.” We may take some comfort in the fact that at least we are still here.

The same cannot be said of many other peoples.

See Kerstein on page 22

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End of story: Israelis are refusing to be erased FiAMMA NiRENstEiN

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t’s time to wake up: We are faced with a wave of catastrophic antisemitism, worse than any since the 1930s, a complete collapse of a society supposedly dedicated to human rights. The wave has resulted in violence against people of all ages and walks of life, against property and schools, creating a totalitarianism of hate and prejudice.

In Italy, where I was born and am visiting, the courageous honorary consul of Israel in Florence, Marco Carrai — a Christian — is being ruthlessly persecuted, besieged by demonstrations and abuse both physical and rhetorical, accused of remaining silent “on the massacre of children in Gaza.”

He is the president of a children’s hospital,

yet a terrorist ready to throw a Molotov cocktail at the consulate has been discovered by police.

The “demonstrators” have made no mention of the Israeli children massacred by Hamas. Many of them openly state that the massacres never happened at all.

Antisemitism in Italy is becoming a flood. According to the Fondazione CDEC-Observatory on Antisemitism, Italy saw 454 antisemitic incidents in 2023, compared to 241 in 2022. In Italy’s leading daily Corriere della Sera, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was just accused by the secretary of the main left-wing party Elly Schlein of preparing a “new massacre” in the Hamas stronghold of Rafah, as if destroying Hamas’s last redoubt were not a strategic objective but the target of Netanyahu’s sadistic obsessions.

Indeed, to the media, there is only this blood libel. The war that has been forced upon Israel by 13,000 missiles, the slaughter of over 1,200 people, the rape and mutilation of women and children, the kidnapping of over 300, and all the other atrocities of Oct. 7, does not exist.

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war fought in 800 km of tunnels against an Islamic Nazi group with 30,000 terrorists, weapons and weapons factories in civilian structures, command centers beneath the headquarters of the collaborationist UN agency UNRWA, and an entire population to use as a human shield; a population from which Hamas steals the so precious humanitarian supplies that were so demanded from Israel by all the world, and among whom the kidnapped are hidden.

What of the Israelis displaced from their kibbutzim, the families deprived of their loved ones, and the soldiers fighting without rest for months? They do not exist either. They are Jews, so they are erased. There is nothing else in the news, in politics, on the screens but the blood libel. Pure antisemitism everywhere.

Thankfully Israel is not allowing itself to be erased. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, for example, fought back when the U.N.’s Special Rapporteur (read collaborator) on “the occupied Palestinian territories,” Francesca Albanese, engaged in the vilest antisemitism. French Presi-

dent Emmanuel Macron, she said, was wrong to call the Oct. 7 massacre antisemitic.

The massacre was, she raged, caused by Israeli oppression. It appears that she believes Israelis deserve to be murdered, raped, and kidnapped.

Her cynicism and sadism know no bounds.

To Albanese, Israelis are nothing. Therefore Katz has rightly banned her from entering the Israel she hates so much. To her, there is only the inestimable “suffering” of the Palestinians, which justifies anything and everything—even a generation of new Hitlers.

Katz demanded Albanese be fired, saying, “The time of Jewish silence in the face of such misrepresentations has passed. We must stand strong and vocal against such narratives.” This resolve in the face of Albanese’s racism was heartening and true.

He, like other Israelis and Jews, knows that the threat posed by antisemitism is global, as it was in Hitler’s time.

No one understood this back then. We must ensure that they do so now.

THE JEWISH STAR February 16, 2024 • 7 Adar I 5784

Summoned to both fight and speak for Israel

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February 16, 2024 • 7 Adar I 5784 THE JEWISH STAR

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We’ve always had different Zionist experiences URI PILICHOWSKI

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ionism has never been experienced the same way by different Zionists. Two early Zionist experiences highlight these differences.

Before the founding of the State of Israel, two simultaneous Zionist movements were underway. First, there were the pioneers of practical Zionism who moved in the tens of thousands to the Land of Israel. These halutzim broke their backs and risked their lives in the face of Arab attacks and disease to settle the land. The other Zionist movement took place in Europe, where political Zionists were planning the new state, lobbying for international support and raising much-needed funds.

The year 1929 saw devastating Arab attacks that set the Jewish community in the Land of Is-

We must be sensitive to the unique hells we have each experienced since Oct. 7.

rael back decades. At the same time, towards the end of the year, the American stock market crash and ensuing worldwide depression harmed the European Zionists’ fundraising abilities, putting the Zionist movement in a precarious position.

In August 1929, Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, later Israel’s first president, gathered world Jewry’s most impressive personalities in Zurich for the 16th Zionist Congress. Attendees included Albert Einstein, Leon Blum, Sholem Asch, Herbert Samuel, Louis Marshall, Felix Warburg, Lord Melchett and Sir Osmond d’AvigdorGoldsmid. To thunderous applause, Weizmann stated, “We never wanted Palestine for the Zionists; we wanted it for the Jews. The living, evolving Judaism of Palestine is no party matter. The Balfour Declaration is addressed to the whole of Jewry.”

But to harness world Jewry was no easy task.

Much of assimilated European and American Jewry rejected the idea that the Jews were a single united people. Yet Weizmann’s effort was a tremendous success and Zionism took a turn for the better. n particular, the 16th Zionist Congress created the Jewish Agency for Israel, which Weizmann had advocated for decades. The Jewish Agency’s mission was to assist world Jewry in the development of the Land of Israel and the upbuilding of a proto-Jewish state. Weizmann was elected the Agency’s first president and its creation was perhaps his greatest achievement.

Yet the same month, Zionists in the Land of Israel were experiencing a nightmare. On the

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Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann (second from right) with supporters Albert Einstein, Ben-Zion Mossinson and Menachem Ussishkin in 1921.

US Library of Congress

morning of Aug. 25, 1929, a telegram interrupted Weizmann’s post-conference vacation. It informed him of the mob violence that had erupted in the Old City of Jerusalem two days earlier and that in the coming days would sweep the Land of Israel. The ancient Jewish communities of Hebron and Safed were savagely attacked by Arab terrorists. Some 472 Jews in total were killed or wounded.

The Jewish community in the Land of Israel was severely damaged. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on Oct. 9, 1929 that “it could not help hearing reports of the mob’s demand that Eliezer Dan Slonim, a Hebron council member should surrender the ‘foreigners,’ meaning the yeshiva students sheltered in his house, if his and his family’s lives were to be spared, and the See Pilichowski on page 22

In hostage rescue, media mourns the kidnappers DanIeL GReenfIeLD Jewish studies

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he media defies satire.

“Palestinians in Rafah Describe ‘Night Full of Horror’ During Israeli Hostage Rescue” —NY Times “Dozens reported dead in Rafah strikes as Israel rescues two hostages” —Washington Post “Israeli military says it’s rescued 2 hostages during Rafah raid; Palestinian officials say doz-

ens of Palestinians killed” —CBS News “Israel frees two hostages in Rafah under cover of air strikes, Gaza health officials say 67 killed” —Reuters How bizarre is this coverage? Here’s what normal coverage of a hostage rescue looks like: “How Israeli commandos blasted their way into Rafah apartment to rescue hostages” — The Telegraph But the media has stopped pretending that its concerns are anything other than the lives of Hamas terrorists. Except that it refuses to actually say the words. Instead, in keeping with the same distorted framing we hear from the likes of AOC or Bernie Sanders, no distinction is made

between Hamas and “Palestinians” or “Gazans.”

All of this has been passed along to the Biden administration. Here’s the CNN coverage of that: “The Biden administration is deeply concerned about an Israeli operation that rescued two hostages out of Rafah but may have also resulted in some 100 Palestinians being killed as part of that operation, according to a senior administration official.”

We’ve gone from dozens to 67 to a hundred.

By next Wednesday, it’ll be a thousand.

“For now, United States officials are still gathering information on details of the rescue operation, including how exactly the opera-

tion unfolded and how many civilians may have been killed, that official said. But such a high rate of Palestinian deaths would be deeply worrisome, according to the official, and comes as US President Joe Biden and US officials have been warning Israel about their preparation to make a ground incursion into Rafah.”

High rate of what? Hamas claims 97 dead.

Who were those 97? How many of them were Hamas?

Don’t ask the media, which is not concerned with such questions or distinctions. All it does is repeat Hamas propaganda.

Two hostages were rescued from Hamas, but all the media cares about is protecting Hamas.

Introducing America’s other white supremacists KaRen LeHRMan BLOCK White Rose Magazine

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n Jan. 25, Temple Emanu-El on the Upper East Side held a memorial service for Henry Kissinger. This was unacceptable to leftist millennials, hundreds of whom gathered across the street to cheer on the diplomat’s death.

But that wasn’t enough for these angry white millennials. Six surrounded an elderly couple as they were leaving the service, shouting: “You’ll burn in hell forever!” “You [expletive] piece of [expletive].” “We will burn your homes, too!”

The leader of the pack, a tall redhead, mocked the couple and threw water in their faces.

As my teenage son said when I showed him a video of the assault: “Who does that to an elderly couple?”

Who indeed? Anti-Israel protests have brought to the fore a contingent that would please both Hitler and Stalin: They’re white, neoMarxist, ignorant and despise Jews. They are the new white supremacists, who in both their ignorance and abhorrence of Jews might share some laughs with the old white supremacists.

Pro-Hamas, anti-Israel protesters at the Jewish National Fund-USA annual conference in Denver last November.

Carin M. Smilk

New Yorkers are all too familiar with this group. As “teachers,” they screamed at our sons for being male and tried to indoctrinate them with every aspect of leftist orthodoxy.

At “protests,” they savage both the American and Israeli flags with glee. Their European and Australian counterparts have taken to chanting “Gas the Jews” while offering up a Sieg heil.

While there was no shortage of violence and incivility in the Antifa protests of recent years, this contingent of leftists considers Jews a far bigger menace than neo-Nazis. Indeed,

the new white supremacists came to their antisemitism the old-fashioned way: scapegoating us. Those who went to college were taught that Jews, less than 2% of the world’s population and the most persecuted minority in history, are hyper-privileged oppressors and neo-colonizers. hey glommed on to neo-Marxism and Islamism as vehicles for their hatred, but neither ideology created that hatred.

This hatred became the answer to their own intersectional dilemmas: If “whites” are the

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root of all evil, how can they absolve their own white guilt? By spitting, literally or figuratively, on Jews. Never mind that we are an ethnicity that hails directly from the Middle East, multihued only because of the rapes and forced conversions we endured after being exiled from our homeland.

Jewish students have been forced to stand in the corners of classrooms, walk across stages with their heads down and verbally self-mutilate. Leftist professors could barely contain their glee. They finally had us where they and their brethren wanted us: lined up for the guillotine.

Except their final solution missed a key element: These were not the poor, persecuted Jews that their great-grandfathers beat up.

These Jews are Zionists — Maccabees. These Jews are proud; they fight back. Not by using lies and violence. But by using precisely what white leftists fear the most: our brains.

Bill Ackman, who took the fight to Harvard University’s antisemites, represents the new Maccabean Jew. He’s currently giving leftists nightmares. As for the white millennials attacking elderly Jewish couples in New York, I’ll just quote my Israeli neighbor who told me, “The one benefit of social media: We know who they are.”

THE JEWISH STAR February 16, 2024 • 7 Adar I 5784

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Weinreb…

Continued from page 17 gilot, are contained.

In our faith, traditional holy texts are at the core of our worship. The original holy texts were housed in the Tabernacle’s Ark, and later in the Ark of the holy Temple in Jerusalem. So too, in the contemporary synagogue, the holy texts are central to our worship experience, and every occupant of the synagogue faces those texts as he or she prays.

Where, you might ask, is the analog of the Ark in one’s private home? I maintain that the bookcase is the Ark of one’s personal dwelling. Ideally, that bookcase contains the entire Jewish Bible, along with essential commentaries and classic Jewish texts.

So the Ark, which was situated prominently in the Tabernacle, is a feature of both of our “houses of worship,” our synagogue and our home.

So too, with the table. A wooden table covered over with a layer of gold occupied a place of honor in the Tabernacle. The food kept there, the “shew bread” was distributed to the priests on duty every Sabbath. This table symbolized the divine blessings of sustenance. very synagogue has a bima that is analogous in many ways to the table in the Tabernacle.

The synagogue’s table is the place from which the Torah is read and from which G-d’s spiritual nourishment is shared.

In traditional synagogues, this table is not placed up front, on stage as it were, for spectators to behold. Rather, it is placed in the middle of the synagogue sanctuary, among the people. The message is clear: The table symbolizes G-d’s spiritual providence and bounty and as such is something of which every member of the congregation should partake.

The table in the home, equally sacred, is the place for physical nourishment. A beautiful Talmudic expression has it that “the table is like an altar.” Whereas the Jew of old expressed his ultimate sense of worship by offering a sacrifice upon the altar, the contemporary Jew worships G-d by sharing the food on his table with other individuals.

Again, like the Ark, the table which glorified the ancient tabernacle persists as a central feature of both of our modern houses of worship, our synagogues and our homes.

Finally, the golden Menorah which beautified the historic tabernacle and the later Beit HaMikdash. Just about every synagogue I ever attended features a menorah in a very conspicuous place.

And Hanukkah menorot occupy a place of honor in the Judaic art collections of even the humblest Jewish home.

There is a symbolism to the Menorah which is even more apt when applied to the two houses of worship we have been discussing. The Menorah symbolizes light; the light of wisdom, the light of the intellect. A central feature of Judaism is that it is not a mystical religion based upon blind faith or irrational emotions.

Quite the contrary. Our faith is largely based upon reason and is respectful of the power of the intellect and the gift of true wisdom. Thus, many

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commentators see a connection between the seven branches of the Menorah and the seven classical sciences, or categories of knowledge. The Torah is pre-eminently sacred, but other sources of wisdom are important and have their place. o too, in our two houses of worship. Our synagogues must allow for the expression of knowledge from all human sources. As Maimonides put it, “We must accept the truth from wherever it comes.” For him, that meant even from the ancient Greek philosophers.

Our private homes must be open to the truths of science, of literature, and of other cultures. The intellectual life should not be seen as threatening to our religious belief. A life of Torah is made more sublime when it is appropriately enriched by the wisdom of the world.

When some people read this week’s portion, they are frequently put off by the details of an ancient religious structure which seems to have little relevance for their lives. But by looking a little more deeply, and with a dose of creative contemplation, there is much to be learned from even the most technical and seemingly outdated passages of our Torah.

I hope that my suggestions in this week’s column help the reader connect the Ark, the Table, and the Menorah of the Tabernacle in the wilderness to the ark, the table and the menorah of our own synagogues.

I hope, too, that the reader can take the further step and see his or her own home as a house of worship and discover, or construct, arks and the tables and menorot in the places dearest to us.

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Billet…

Continued from page 17 Of course, finding the strength to put away the phone during the week is paramount! Between the words of the siddur, the words of Psalms, and just the atmosphere we can easily create in the right space and with the right group of people, we can let the words we say penetrate our hearts.

I find the very familiar songs of Adon Olam and Yigdal to be so profound in helping us achieve that — except that we tend to view them as children’s songs. I have found that sitting down and reading the English while reciting the familiar Hebrew words, to be an absolute game-changer in remembering to Whom we are praying.

In explaining why Aharon became the High Priest over Moshe, the Slonimer Rebbe noted there are two kinds of humility. Moshe’s type came from an understanding of the infinity of G-d and realizing that man is nothing in comparison.

Aharon’s humility came from going through a broken heart, through feeling oneself as the lowest of the low, only able to stand in the presence of the Almighty because of G-d’s graciousness in accepting teshuvah. This is something Moshe couldn’t relate to. He hadn’t sinned with the Golden Calf. Aharon had.

If we can approach G-d with either kind of humility, we are well on our way of having G-d dwell in us.

Rabbi Soloveitchik’s loneliness was a type which should challenge each of us.

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How can I build to have such a relationship with G-d? How can I make my regular tefillah, my learning, my dedication, my service of G-d turn into an insurance policy, that I build on and continue to foster, so that when I need G-d, He carries me?

Because I know if He is carrying me, if He dwells in me, I will never feel alone.

Hamas captivity for the salvation they deserve.

This responsibility is not one we shy away from, and we refuse to join a frenzied pursuit of hatred.

Instead, my classmates and I will look to the past as we work to realize a peaceful future for all.

Rebecca Guzman is a Straus Scholar at Stern College for Women.

Guzman... Kerstein…

Continued from page 19 We examined the fifth chapter of the Book of Judges, reading the Song of Deborah not only as products of the modern Orthodox educational system but also as Jews witnessing a war unfold on Israeli soil. We danced with displaced children from southwestern Israeli communities, witnessing in their quiet strength the makings of true heroes.

This, I realized with stunning clarity, is what the Jewish future looks like. I was part of a group of young men and women committed to intellectual discovery and imbued with an immutable faith — a group of future leaders. But these qualities are emblematic of a common nature the Jewish people shares, a nature that has blossomed and emerged over the past more than 100 days amid utter tragedy and demoralization.

As pro-Palestinian rallies reached levels of frightening hostility, almost 300,000 Jews and Israel supporters marched through the National Mall in Washington, linking arms and singing “Acheinu” (“Our Brothers”). As protesters replaced the fight for Palestinian self-determination with a hateful crusade, we gathered together to signify the first birthday of Kfir Bibas, the youngest hostage held in Hamas captivity. understand that this dichotomy is simplistically rendered, and thus limiting, but the core difference between the Jewish response to the Oct. 7 massacres and the shamelessness of Hamas supporters is the difference between light and darkness. Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, once stated, “We have discovered how to hit the Jews where they are the most vulnerable. The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are going to win, because they love life and we love death.”

Nasrallah’s premise can be extended to our present: The Jews are instructed to love and improve this world, and those who stand against us seek to radically dismantle it. In my classmates, I recognized this love and a commitment to preserving it. In my classmates, I saw a profound respect for history and a reverence for the future, and because of them, I feel hopeful.

I am a long way from the village of my ancestors, and my generation is far removed from the death camps of generations past. But when Hamas slaughtered innocent civilians and captured our brothers and sisters, my peers and I heard, for the first time, an ancient call. We have been summoned, not only to fight for our country but to speak for it.

We have been tasked with honoring the memories of those who have fallen, those whose lives have been stolen from them, those who wait in

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Continued from page 19 My friend did offer some words of comfort: The best response to our enemies, she said, is to ensure that we not only survive but also thrive.

We should live a good life despite everything, and thus frustrate our enemies’ designs.

She is, of course, partially correct. I certainly believe that, even if the threat is perpetual, we can ameliorate the worst of it through activism and self-defense. Certainly, we should work to ensure that the cost of rising against us is higher than the sadistic dividends our enemies receive by doing so.

I am not sure, however, that this is quite enough. The Jewish people may have a tragic destiny, but one can accept tragedy and still rebel against it.

Even if it is futile to do so, we have the right to demand that the world cease and desist. We can continue to judge and denounce its satanic cruelty. We can defy tragedy and fate, if only by denying the world the satisfaction of our acquiescence. We can say a resounding “no” to the world as it is. In such defiance lies the revolt and the struggle. Perhaps they are perpetual, but they are worth fighting for.

Pilichowski Continued from page 20 martyr’s historic answer, ‘We Jews are one’.”

Slonim and his family, including his wife and young children, were killed. One child, one-yearold Shlomo Slonim, survived. He was found with a knife wound in his forehead in his dead mother’s arms.” In 1929, the Zionist experience in Europe was very different from the Zionist experience in the Land of Israel.

These different Zionist experiences continue today. Israeli Zionist experiences are different from those of Diaspora Zionists. The experiences of Zionists in northern and southern Israel are different from those of Zionists in central Israel.

Zionists serving in the IDF have different experiences than those at home.

Nonetheless, every Zionist community has been living a kind of hell since Oct. 7. All Zionists share the experiences of checking the news every few minutes, worrying about family members, having trouble sleeping and more.

Yet those hells are different for different Zionists. As they connect and communicate with each other, it’s important for Zionists to take their different experiences into consideration and be sensitive to their uniqueness.

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