The Jewish Star 03-15-2024

An act of genocide

As the world marked International Women’s Day last Friday, the various social-media platforms lit up with posts from pro-Israel celebrities and influencers demanding the release of the female hostages who remain in the captivity of the Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

In the depths of the sewer that is social media — with X at the head of the pack when it comes to antisemitic and anti-Zionist barbs — these posts were a welcome tonic, providing us with a glimpse of humanity amid all the hatred and dehumanization. But what they won’t achieve is the defeat of the Oct. 7 denial trend that is being actively stoked by far-leftists (and a few far-rightists), Islamist sympathizers and fellow travelers, assorted minor academics, virtue-signaling Gen Z’ers and many more

of the sub groups encountered on these platforms.

I was struck, as I surveyed these outpourings, by a simple realization. We — the Jewish community and the non-Jewish allies we cling to — have been stuck at the first hurdle in telling the terrible story of Oct. 7. Too many people don’t believe us. Too many people won’t believe us.

The atrocities — the mass rapes and decapitations, the orgy of slaughter — which amount to a genocidal assault on the Jewish people are, in their fevered minds, a cynical Zionist fabrication designed to do what Zionists always do: Change the subject and shift the world’s attention from the situation on the ground in Gaza.

Just as there is no point in debating Holocaust deniers — all of whom are predisposed to the belief that the Holocaust was fabricated for the purpose of winning sympathy for Jews and Israel, but who nonetheless would embrace the opportunity to finish what Hitler started (or didn’t start!) — there is no point in debating Oct. 7 de-

3 of our eshet chayil

Feeling Adar’s joy, despite all the pain

S. African Rabbinical Assn.

The Talmud advises that when Adar comes in, we increase in joy.

brothers and sisters in Israel are in danger, displaced, fighting for their lives, besieged and still under attack north and south?

I was a guest speaker at a hotel program over Sukkot in Tuscany on Oct. 7, Shabbat Shemini Atzeret followed by Simchat Torah — when we heard the shocking news of the Hamas attack on Israel. There were a number of Israelis with us at the hotel. One woman couldn’t stop crying.

See Feeling the joy on page 16

By Tabby Refael, Jewish Journal

I recently watched a YouTube video filmed last year in which a Jewish woman tried to have a respectful conversation with a virulently antiIsrael student at UC Berkeley.

Oscars’ Hamas moment

By David Swindle, JNS

Accepting the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, Jonathan Glazer, director of the Holocaust movie “The Zone of Interest,” read, with quivering hands, from a prepared statement (photo).

“All our choices are made to reflect and confront us in the present. Not to say, ‘Look what they did then,’ rather ‘Look what we do now,” Glazer said on Sunday night at the 96th Academy Awards. “Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst.”

“Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people,” Glazer added. “Whether the victims of Oct. 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?”

I was in awe of her courage, grace and cogent arguments. She didn’t need to be there, on a campus where a riot recently broke out against Jewish students in response to an Israeli speaker, and in a city whose school district is now being accused of knowingly tolerating “antisemitic bullying,” according to a federal complaint.

See 3 women on page 20

Abraham Foxman, director emeritus of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote on social media that while he was glad that the film had won an award. “But as a survivor of the Holocaust, I am shocked the director would slap the memory of over one million Jews, who died because they were Jews, by announcing he refutes his Jewishness,” he wrote. “Shame on you.” (About one million Jews were murSee Oscars’ on page 4

Families of Israelis held by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, at Kibbutz Be’eri on Dec. 20. Yonatan Sindel, Flash90

See

From left: Mandana Dayani, Debra Messing (by Red Carpet Report) and Noa Tishby.

Jews celebrate Purim at a yeshiva in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim neighborhood last March.

Yonatan Sindel, Flash90

RABBi YOssY GOldmAn

83-year-old LI leader brings chizuk to Israel

By Daniel Offner, LI Herald

The 83-year rabbi emeritus of a Long Island synagogue said his visit to four of the communities savaged by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 “was exhausting, sad and exhilarating.”

“They had planned this for years, to attack and infiltrate the kibbutzim,” Barry Dov Schwartz said. “When you see it and witness it, it’s altogether different. It will take me weeks to process and absorb everything I experienced.”

Schwartz, who led of Congregation B’nai Sholom-Beth David in Rockville Centre for 37 years before retiring in 2010, visited Israel on a goodwill mission sponsored by the Israel Law Center.

In kibbutzim near the Gaza border — Sderot, Be’eri, Kfar Aza and Nirim — Schwartz “saw what they did, how they ransacked and bombed our homes.”

He walked through one of the tunnels used to infiltrate Israel and saw how terrorists destroyed a police station near the border to handicap a defense by law enforcement. The attacks claimed the lives of at least 1,200 people who were massacred in their homes, on the streets and at the Nova Music Festival. More than 250 people were taken as hostages in Gaza.

Schwartz said that after seeing the impact of the attacks up close, he was in disbelief that there are so many people in the United States protesting against the victims.

“Many want to reward the enemy for what they did,” Schwartz said. “I know how Israelis feel. They feel

alone. They feel isolated. I wanted to show them there are people who care.”

He explained that since there are so many men and women serving in the IDF, there have been shortages in the workforce. That is why, during the trip, Schwartz and others volunteered to spend an afternoon in fields, picking avocados and clementine oranges.

Months after the attacks, Schwartz said, the Israeli people are simply trying to get back to life as usual. Stores are reopening and people are going back to work.

“Some might think that the Israelis are angry,” he said. “They’re not. They just want to live their lives. If anything, they’re angry at themselves for not being more vigilant.”

Throughout his mission, Schwartz carried a bag filled with more than 200 letters, written by Rockville Centre children and adults, which he gave to Israeli soldiers and citizens.

He said that one of the soldiers was so taken with the gesture, that he took his letter and affixed it to his tank. “You never thought a letter from a stranger would be received so enthusiastically,” Schwartz said.

The mission was organized by the Israel Law Center, an organization that fights terrorism through the courts by bringing lawsuits against those who support violent acts and warfare. The group consisted of several people, Jews and non-Jews alike, from all across the United States, who came to show their support.

At each of the localities along the

way, they heard from a number of different speakers about the attacks, and in the evening would return to their hotel in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, where more panel discussions were held with lawyers, journalists and other experts in their field.

“It was very emotionally straining,” Schwartz said. “At the same time it was beautiful to see the Israeli people united and full of love.”

He said that during one presentation, a woman shared how her son was killed by friendly fire. She stood up and said that she has no hatred in her heart and that in every war, there is friendly fire.

Instead, she suggested people embrace each other and respond with more love.

“The main concern of every Israeli, no matter what the political nuances, is to get those hostages home.”

He explained how in Tel Aviv, people have set up a long table with place settings for all of the approxiately 130 hostages still being held in Gaza by Hamas, in the hopes that they will soon come home and eat with them once more.

He said that it was important for him to bear witness to what was happening in the country and to be there to show support and goodwill.

“I really don’t know what the solution is,” Schwartz said. “The world has to remember we didn’t start the war … because right now there is too much going against the victims and not against the perpetrators.”

A version of this story appeared in this week’s Rockville Centre Herald.

Dov Schwartz delivered 200 letters from Rockville Centre congregants to soldiers in the IDF.

By Mike Wagenheim, JNS

On Oct. 11, four days after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, the City University of New York’s portal for reporting discrimination and retaliation included both the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s working definition of antisemitism and the Jerusalem Declaration of Antisemitism in a list of external resources.

By Nov. 10, CUNY excised both the IHRA and the Jerusalem definitions, archived versions of the website show.

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Forty-three countries have adopted the IHRA definition, which comes with 11 contemporary examples of Jew-hatred that include “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor,” per its website.

The Jerusalem definition, which has not been adopted as widely, says that the IHRA definition “caused confusion and generated controversy, hence weakening the fight against antisemitism.” It also says that “evidence-based criticism of Israel as a state,” calling Israel “apartheid,” and the boycott Israel movement are not antisemitic.

CUNY leaders had promoted the portal as the place to report discrimination and retaliation in an effort to combat rising hatred of Jews and Israel on its campuses.

A CUNY spokesman told JNS that the university removed the IHRA definition when it launched a dedicated page for “combating antisemitism.” That page, first listed on a prominent web archive site on Oct. 31, contains neither mention of nor links to the IHRA and Jerusalem definitions.

At some point after Nov. 18, the page linked to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s “2020 proclamation and the guidance from the US Department of Education, identifying the International Holocaust

Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism as a vital resource.”

“This use of the IHRA definition at CUNY will not diminish or infringe upon any rights protected under the First Amendment to the US Constitution or the NYS Constitution, and shall not be construed to conflict with local, federal or state law,” CUNY states.

With the IHRA and Jerusalem definitions removed, the portal no longer lists any resources specifically about antisemitism. It lists seven external resources: the city’s human rights commission and the latter’s LGBTQ protections info card; the state’s human-rights division, hatecrimes task force, guide to discrimination based on gender identity or expression and guide to racial discrimination; and the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Jeffrey Lax, chair of the business department at CUNY’s Kingsborough Community College is cofounder of SAFE CUNY, which advocates for Zionist Jews across the university’s 25 campuses. Lax was one of four CUNY professors that the public university investigated — allegedly as retaliation for vigorously reporting antisemitism on campus.

Lax and another professor have since been cleared.

He told JNS that CUNY’s chancellor and its chief diversity officer “should be immediately terminated” for removing the IHRA definition from the discrimination complaint portal.

Saly Abd Alla, CUNY’s chief diversity officer, referred JNS questions about the removal of the IHRA definition from CUNY’s portal to the university’s media relations office. (Abd Alla was a director at the Council on Islamic Relations, which has a long history of antisemitism.)

CUNY pulls Jew-hatred definitions from its bias reporting portal Oscars’ Hamas moment

Continued from page 1

dered at Auschwitz, site of Glazer’s film.)

Malka Simkovich, chair of Jewish studies and director of the Catholic-Jewish studies program at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, told JNS that Glazer’s was “a dumb, nonsensical phrase, which is why people are misquoting it — or not understanding it.”

“Yet he wrote it out!” she said.

Simkovich noted that many celebrities at the awards ceremony wore red stickers “in support of Gaza” and that “Jews are pointing out that it signifies the bloody hands that two Palestinian terrorists held up in that famous photo after they committed a murderous attack.” (A man displaying bloody hands was photographed during the 2000 Ramallah lynching of two Israeli reservists.)

Many of those wearing the stickers probably didn’t know about the 2000 photo, according to Simkovich. “That’s exactly the point. The fact that they don’t know what they’re supporting embodies the very problem,” she said. “This is the only cause I know of where the dissonance between passionate activism and ignorance is truly astounding.”

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David May, a research manager and senior research analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, wrote that “what’s worse is that he read it from a page to make sure he got the wording right, and the wording was terrible. Best case scenario, he was saying Israel’s defense against Hamas is like the Holocaust.”

Noa Tishby, an actress, model, author and former Israeli special envoy for combating antisemitism, wrote that the show “was a subtle and overt display of Jew-hatred.” She called out Billie Eilish, Finneas, Mark Ruffalo, Ava DuVernay, Ramy Youssef and Quannah Chasinghorse for wearing red Artists4Ceasefire pins.

“Notably absent were the yellow pins representing the hostages kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7,” Tishby wrote. “If you’re calling for a ceasefire without calling for the release of the hostages, you are promoting Hamas’s agenda by questioning Israel’s right to self-defense.”

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach wrote that he loved the film, but the filmmaker was a “fool” and his speech “absolutely disgusting.”

Glazer “betrayed his people and disgraced himself and trivialized the six million martyrs of the Holocaust, when he said that Israel’s war in Gaza was hijacking the memory of the Holocaust,” Boteach wrote. “How dare you compare the two?”

As many as 1,000 anti-Israel protesters reportedly disrupted the arrival of stars at the awards ceremony. Some weren’t in their seats when the show started late, apparently because they had to walk as much as a mile from their cars due to the protests, as did “Best Actress” nominee Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”).

“No one expected it to be as chaotic as what we’ve seen tonight,” a security guard told the Mirror. “All the drivers have been told it’s impossible to get to the Dolby Theatre.”

The year’s “Best Picture” favorite, “Oppenheimer,” won the top award, and the film also garnered best awards to Cillian Murphy (actor in a leading role), Christopher Nolan (director), Robert Downey Jr. (actor in a supporting role), Hoyte van Hoytema (cinematography), Jennifer Lame (film editing) and Ludwig Göransson (music, original score).

Downey’s award recognized his role as US government official Lewis Strauss, who was Jewish and served on the American Jewish Committee’s executive committee.

Hamas fakes figures: ‘The numbers are not real’

The Hamas terrorist organization is disseminating fictitious figures for casualties in the current war in Gaza. That’s the conclusion of a deep dive into the data published on March 7 in Tablet magazine.

“The numbers are not real. That much is obvious to anyone who understands how naturally occurring numbers work. The casualties are not overwhelmingly women and children, and the majority may be Hamas fighters,” writes Abraham Wyner, a professor of statistics and data science at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and author of the report titled “How the Gaza Ministry of Health Fakes Casualty Numbers.”

For those familiar with “Pallywood,” the term coined to describe the Palestinian industry of faking everything from casualties to Israeli attacks, the fact that Hamas produces phony numbers will seem selfevident.

But the casualty numbers matter. They are the foundation on which today’s anti-Israel propaganda is built, justifying demands for a “ceasefire” that leaves Israeli hostages in captivity and accusing the Jewish state of “genocide.”

The Biden administration has recently “lent legitimacy” to the Hamas numbers, the report notes, citing Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s appearance at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Feb. 29 where he said “over 25,000” Palestinian women and children had been killed since Oct. 7, the day of the Hamas massacre.

The Pentagon felt compelled to clarify that Austin “was citing an estimate from the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.”

Even President Joe Biden has come to embrace the numbers. He first expressed healthy skepticism, but has recently repeated the latest Hamas figure.

Wyner started from the premise that if the Hamas numbers are fake, there may be evidence “in the numbers themselves” to show it.

“While there is not much data available, there is a little, and it is enough: From Oct. 26 until Nov. 10, 2023, the Gaza Health Ministry released daily casualty figures that include both a total number and a specific number of women and children,” he writes.

He first looked at the total number of deaths. What he found was that the daily reported casualty rate increases with “metronomical linearity” — a “regularity… [that] …is almost surely not real.”

“One would expect quite a bit of variation day to day. In fact, the daily reported casualty count over this period averages 270 plus or minus about 15%. This is strikingly little variation. There should be days with twice the average or more and others with half or less,” Wyner observes.

Secondly, Wyner notes that child casualties should track with women casualties. The reason has to do with the daily variation in strikes on residential buildings and tunnels.

“Consequently, on the days with many women casualties there

should be large numbers of children casualties, and on the days when just a few women are reported to have been killed, just a few children should be reported,” he writes.

But the numbers don’t show that correlation, a “second circumstantial piece of evidence suggesting the numbers are not real.”

He also says that the daily number of women casualties should be “highly correlated” with the number of male casualties, because “of the nature of battle.”

“The ebbs and flows of the bombings and attacks by Israel should cause the daily count to move together. But that is not what the data show,” he notes.

Wyner reports other anomalies,

such as contradictory numbers on Oct. 29 and Oct. 28 that suggest 26 men came back to life.

The Gaza Health Ministry also claims that about 70% of the casualties are women or children, a total “far higher than the numbers reported in earlier conflicts with Israel,” he says.

Another warning sign, which Wyner says has been noted elsewhere, is that if 70% of the casualties are women and children, and 25% of the population are adult males, then Israel isn’t doing a very good job eliminating Hamas fighters.

“This by itself strongly suggests that the numbers are at a minimum grossly inaccurate and quite probably outright faked,” he said noting

that on Feb. 15, Hamas admitted losing 6,000 of its fighters, “which represents more than 20% of the total number of casualties reported.”

“Hamas is reporting not only that 70% of casualties are women and children but also that 20% are fighters. This is not possible unless Israel is somehow not killing noncombatant men, or else Hamas is claiming that almost all the men in Gaza are Hamas fighters.

“Taken together, what does this all imply? While the evidence is not dispositive, it is highly suggestive that a process unconnected or loosely connected to reality was used to report the numbers,” he says.

“Most likely, the Hamas ministry settled on a daily total arbitrarily,” Wyner hypothesizes.

Wyner says the truth may never be known but that the total casualty count of civilians is likely “extremely overstated.”

Noting that Israel puts the number of terrorists killed in Gaza at 12,000 [with another approximately 1,000 killed inside Israel on and immediately after Oct. 7], Wyner concludes, “If that number proves to be even reasonably accurate, then the ratio of noncombatant casualties to combatants is remarkably low: at most 1.4 to 1 and perhaps as low as 1 to 1.

“By historical standards of urban warfare, where combatants are embedded above and below into civilian population centers, this is a remarkable and successful effort to prevent unnecessary loss of life while fighting an implacable enemy that protects itself with civilians,” he writes. —JNS

Palestinians bury relatives killed in an Israeli air strike in Khan Yunis on Feb. 26.

Rahim Khatib, Flash90

Disgruntled Palestinian laborers turn against Hamas

By Khaled Abu Toameh Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

Public opinion polls may indicate an increase in Hamas’s popularity among Palestinians in the West Bank after the Oct. 7 massacre, but a growing number of Palestinians living there have begun speaking out against the terror group.

Most of those critical of Hamas are the Palestinian laborers who used to work inside Israel before the carnage. It is estimated that more than 140,000 Palestinians from the West Bank used to cross into Israel every day — legally and illegally — to work in a variety of jobs, including construction and agriculture. These laborers have not been able to return to their workplaces since the Hamas attack due to strict Israeli security restrictions. Many of them fear that they may never return to work in Israel and that they will be replaced with foreign workers.

An average Palestinian used to earn 400 to 600 shekels a day ($112 to $167) as a laborer in Israel. That’s much more than what a Palestinian earns working for the Palestinian Authority or employers in the private sector in the West Bank.

Moreover, the PA is not able to provide most of the laborers with work. Five months after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, most remain unemployed, and they are beginning to vent their anger and frustration at both the PA and Hamas. PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has advised the laborers to find work in their villages and cities.

In interviews with several laborers who used to work in Israel before the Hamas massacre, they warned that the situation in the West Bank was on the brink of an explosion due to the dire economic conditions.

“Many laborers have been forced to work as vendors in their cities and villages,” said a construction worker from Nablus. “Some sell vegetables and fruit, while others sell clothes and sandwiches.”

He added: “The laborers were always considered the lucky ones. They used to make a lot of

money working in Israel. Some built themselves new houses with the money they made in Israel, while others bought new cars. Now, these laborers are complaining that they can’t feed their children. They are very angry with Hamas. But many are also angry with the Palestinian Authority for failing to help them.”

A shopkeeper from Tulkarem, whose son also used to work in Israel before Oct. 7, said that he has noticed that even people who were previously known as Hamas sympathizers have begun criticizing the terror group.

“I meet many people every day who are complaining that Hamas has brought a new nakba [catastrophe] on the Palestinians in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank,” the shopkeeper remarked. “Many are asking why Hamas did not prepare the people for the war before it launched

its invasion [of Israel]. Most of the criticism is directed against the Hamas leaders leading lavish and comfortable lives in Qatar, Lebanon and other countries.”

In another village near Jenin, a Hamas-affiliated imam reportedly told his followers that he and his family have decided to distance themselves from the terror group because of its responsibility for the “tragedy” that befell the Palestinians as a result of the Oct. 7 massacre.

The disgruntled imam was quoted as saying that it was “inconceivable” and “insane” that Hamas would sacrifice thousands of Palestinians and destroy the entire Gaza Strip to secure the release of a few hundred Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. The imam added that the abduction of Israeli women and children has caused tremendous damage to the Palestinians

and their cause. “Holding civilians as hostages is very bad for us in the international arena,” the imam reportedly argued.

The critical voices emanating from the West Bank do not necessarily imply that there is love for Israel. True, Palestinians who have been directly affected as a result of the war are furious with Hamas because they can no longer enter Israel to work. Are they prepared to speak out in public against Hamas? Not yet. Does this mean that we will witness an intifada against Hamas in the West Bank? Unlikely, at least in the foreseeable future.

If anyone has good reason to be worried, meanwhile, it’s the Ramallah-based PA that has not been able to provide solutions for the unemployed laborers. Instead of seizing the opportunity to rally Palestinians against Hamas, the PA has escalated its anti-Israel rhetoric since the beginning of the war. By inciting Palestinians against Israel, the PA is effectively destroying the chances of West Bank Arabs returning to jobs in Israel and driving more Palestinians into the arms of Hamas.

The PA’s anti-Israel campaigns are designed to divert attention from the incompetence and corruption of the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah. PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas cannot even bring himself to condemn the Oct. 7 butchery perpetrated by Hamas. He finds it safer to divert the anger on the Palestinian street toward Israel rather than Hamas. This tactic has thus far proven ineffective. According to public opinion polls published by Palestinian groups, a majority of Palestinians have lost confidence in both Abbas and the PA.

The disillusionment with Hamas among a growing number of Palestinians in the West Bank is a positive development. However, the trend is unlikely to gain momentum as long as the PA leadership does not seize the opportunity to communicate to its people that Hamas’s path of slaughter prevents them from achieving any of their aspirations.

A Palestinian police car in Al-Manara Square in Ramallah. Tomasz Przechlewski, Flickr via WikiCommons

Gaza war poses challenges for summer camps

By Howard Blas, JNS

When Jacob Cytryn, executive director of Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, was asked to share a story of the camp’s strong connections to Israel with the hundreds of delegates at the Foundation for Jewish Camp’s Leaders Assembly in Atlanta in December 2022, he recounted an emotional night in June 1967, just days after Israel’s stunning victory in the Six-Day War.

“Around midnight, the group of Israeli shlichim descended from their rickety bus in the still, pitch-black Northwoods of Wisconsin after a trip that must have taken nearly 10 hours from the airport in Chicago and over a day since they departed from Israel. Exhausted, they walked into the auditorium, and the lights flicked on, and the entire camp erupted in cheers, song and dance.

That June of 1967 changed the Jewish world. Many campers of that generation made aliyah and others felt forever connected to the promise of the modern Jewish state. And, 50 years later, their descendants in this room — in leadership and Jewish identity-building — still grapple with the miracle of Israel’s stunning victory and the thorny, complex and unresolved political and military morass it left in its wake.

This summer, nearly 60 years after that war in Israel, Jewish summer-camp directors across North America are hoping that Israeli shlichim — an important source of inspiration, Israel education and experience, and labor — will show up this summer. If and when they do, the campers and counselors will be ready for them. After all, they, too, have had a challenging year. All three groups will arrive seeking the solace and sense of community that American Jewish summer camping has offered for generations.

Cytryn and fellow camp directors are hard at work preparing for a summer they hope will have Israelis on staff, as they have for decades.

Still, uncertainties remain due to Operation Swords of Iron, Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip, which started on Oct. 7 — Shabbat and Simchat Torah morning — after the infiltration of Hamas terrorists across the border and into southern Jewish communities, murdering 1,200 men, women and children, and taking some 250 hostages (134 who still remain captive, with 32 confirmed dead).

And given the current realities in both Israel and North America, planning for this summer involves much more than recruiting Israelis, planning programs and outings, and purchasing food, basketballs and life jackets. Camps are also investing a great deal of time on staff training, camper and staff care, and security.

According to Julie Finkelstein, senior director of program strategy and innovation at the Foundation for Jewish Camp, “camps are moving full-steam ahead and want to hire Israelis, but they know the new shlichim are still up in the air due to the army/miluim [reservist service] and school. There is lots of interest on the part of Israelis wanting to come, but they are still waiting.”

The camps remain both optimistic and realistic, focusing on staffing since these issues affect operations.

“The camps are discussing how we responsibly tell the story of the past year with or without shlichim,” acknowledges Finkelstein.

The facilities are also bringing in security personnel to make sure that the grounds are as safe and secure as possible, and also working on an initiative with the Jewish Agency for Israel to bring 750 campers from areas near Gaza — along with staff and mental-health professionals — to Jewish camps this summer.

Still, Finkelstein notes, “there is less panic than you may think.” FJC sees these unusual times as an opportunity. “It’s been a while since we’ve had to focus not on health and safety, but on what we are about — mission, vision and values.”

As part of this process, FJC has planned two Israel trips for camp professionals so they can “bear witness and understand what is happening,” as well as show solidarity and help them “better talk about Israel at camp.”

For some camps, talking about Israel will be

natural and close to home.

Alan Silverman, who lives in Alon Shvut (a Jewish community in Judea and Samaria) and has been serving as director of Camp Moshava in Honesdale, Pa., for 38 years, reports that his camp is filled with Israeli staff and kids, including families who live in Israel. This summer, he is also expecting to include two groups of 40 campers displaced from the communities near Gaza, accompanied by Israeli staff members.

They will naturally be able to share firsthand stories of the current realities of Israel; nonetheless, Silverman faces many uncertainties as he plans for June, July and August.

“The adults who made aliyah and are not army-eligible, and their young kids who are too young to serve, they will come. For the others, we don’t know,” he says. “I have some excellent staff from the woodworking, education and ropes programs who were all called up for army service. And we started doing interviews — out of 50, 45 were women — most men are in the army now.”

Silverman, who usually expects staff members to honor their commitments to camp, is prepared to be especially flexible this season. “Everybody has family, friends and boyfriends in the army. They may not want to come, or they may need to go back,” he said.

He has a number of mental-health professionals on staff, including many who live and work in Israel, and “understand the Israeli psyche and speak Hebrew.” They include psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, social workers and those who have experience working with the army and with people grappling with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Silverman, who expects to have 1,600 people in camp for the first session — noting in the same breath that he almost never leaves camp during

the summer — will also be concentrating on the Jewish state. “I have three boys in the army. If things heat up, I may have to fly back and forth. Luckily, I have wonderful staff.”

For now, he is focused on all things camprelated. He is recruiting staff, reviewing security protocols and shifting educational curricula. While educational programming usually follows a five-year cycle, this year they will move to their “Shevet Achim” curriculum, which incorporates knowledge of Israel and antisemitism.

Silverman and other camp directors have not lost sight of the goals and importance of camp, saying kids need it now more than ever. Still, he said, “we need it to be a safe environment so campers can learn about and practice Judaism, have a great time, grow, develop and not worry.”

Helene Drobenare-Horwitz, executive director of the Young Judea Sprout Camps, agrees and is already planning a week where staff both “own” the current realities and put them aside so they can create a strong, sound environment for their campers.

“There’s never been a year like this,” she attests. “There has never been an Oct. 7 or a year like this in the United States with such an uptick in antisemitism.” While Drobenare-Horwitz is sensitive to and preparing for the needs of her Israeli staff and campers, she points out that “we are preparing to support all staff — not just Israelis. There has been trauma on both sides of the ocean.”

At camp, one full day will be devoted to MESH (Mental, Emotional and Social Health) training. Drobenare-Horwitz is working closely with trauma specialists to help create a “space for staff to unpack it and actively work on how to move forward.”

She feels strongly about stating that “we, as a Jewish people, have been through trauma.”

Once staff members begin to understand that trauma and work through it, they will be prepared to offer campers the experience they are coming for. After all, “camp is a place for kids. Lots will happen over the summer. We don’t want staff stopping every 10 minutes to check the news. Parents are not sending their kids to camp for that. They are coming to get away from it all.”

Drobenare-Horwitz shares the expectation that staff be “fully present” at the interview. “I tell them, ‘If you can’t do that, this may not be the camp for you.” In interviewing Israelis to work at camp, she asks more questions than in past years so she has a better understanding of where they have been this year and how they have been impacted by the situation in Israel. “Did they serve? If not, did they volunteer? How was their family affected?” And she is conducting all interviews in person.

She remains keenly aware of the responsibilities that she and her team face this summer — much different than in other years. Namely, she states, the issue is how do we take care of the Jewish people?

“There are lots of different traumas coming to camp this summer — Israeli kids coming to camp, Americans who spent the year in Israel and (American) kids with stories of antisemitism,” she notes.

In the Reform movement, Ruben Arquilevich, vice president for Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) camps, National Federation of Temple Youth (NIFTY) and Immersives is proud that thousands of Israeli participants have cultivated deep friendships, community and sacred Jewish learning at our camps over the decades.

“These connections are year-round and lifelong,” he says.

In preparing for the summer, Arquilevich expects that the numbers of shlichim will be lower than in past years due to army reserve duty but points to “the great interest in Israeli teens joining Jewish camps across North America this summer.”

He explains that Campers2Gether (C2G), a new partnership between the Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC), the Jewish Agency for Israel and Mosaic United, aims to bring 75 groups of 20 Israeli teens (a total of 1,500) entering grades nine and 10, along with two group leaders and one MESSH support specialist per group, into second-session or post-camp environments for two-week visits to Jewish overnight camps across North America.

This program is designed specifically for teens who have been displaced from the Gaza Envelope in Israel’s south and the border with Lebanon in the north. In addition, the URJ Camps are continuing their longstanding partnership with the Israel Movement for Progressive and Reform Judaism (IMPJ), thanks to a generous anonymous donor, Reform and Progressive communities and congregations across Israel to URJ Camps for four-week camp experiences.

Arquilevich says that “in preparation for the summer, we are developing culture and skillsbuilding opportunities to create communities of belonging, including safety around diverse perspectives.” He stresses the need to provide a safe, educational environment for discussing Israel “while also setting clear boundaries, guidelines, tools, resources for staff in the camp environment.”

Back at Ramah Wisconsin, 57 years after those Israeli heroes of the Six-Day War arrived at camp, Jacob Cytryn is preparing for his Israeli delegation. Like his colleagues across the Jewish camping world, he acknowledges that he may not know until just before camp starts just how many Israelis will arrive.

Cytryn and his team are also preparing their “curricular response” to recent events in both Israel and North America. “I know cabin-age staff may want a break from the onslaught of the year, but I feel as an educator, we have a mandate to our parents to respond educationally.”

While the details have not been fully worked out, he is clear about one thing: “We will adopt the theme of Kol Yisrael areivim zeh bah zeh — All Jews are responsible for each other!”

Kids celebrate “Israel Day” at Camp Ramah in California.

Havdalah at a summer camp run by the Union for Reform Judaism.

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither Standing with Israel

Ed Weintrob, The Jewish Star

We stand with

with Israel

Queen Esther 3D mini-crown cookies for Purim WINE AND DINE

You can add a touch of whimsy to your misloach manot with 3D Queen Esther cookies, an edible art activity that’s a joy to design, in part because to create the cookies, we turn kitchen throwaway items into baking tools.

Here is how the magic happens:

The heavy-duty cardboard cylinder from an empty roll of plastic wrap becomes a baking tube. The lid from a plastic yogurt container becomes an accordion shaped cookie cutter. Best of all, this is a child-friendly food art activity — no sharp knives, or electric mixers are needed.

Decorating the cookies before baking eliminates waiting hours for icings to dry. Roll, cut, decorate, bake … and these sweet cookie crowns are ready for your mishloach manot.

What you need:

• 1 recipe Sweet Ring Cookie Dough

• 1 egg white

• Assorted colored sugars or sprinkles

• Silver dragée and/or mini-M&Ms for crown jewels

• Heavy duty cardboard core tube(s) from plastic wrap or aluminum foil

• (Empty 6-ounce tomato paste cans can be substituted for cardboard tubes)

• Pliable plastic food lid, such as from a yogurt container

Sweet Ring Cookie Dough

Adapted from “Cooking alla Giudia: A Celebration of the Jewish Food of Italy by Benedetta Jasmine Guetta”

Ingredients:

• 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk (reserve egg white)

• 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

• 1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp. sugar

• 2 tsp. vanilla

• 1 tsp. orange zest

• 2 cups plus 1 Tbsp. flour

Directions:

• Place egg, egg yolk, oil, sugar, vanilla, and orange zest in a bowl. Whisk or stir with a fork until all ingredients are thoroughly blended.

• Add 1/2 of the flour to the egg mixture and stir until flour is thoroughly incorporated.

• Add the remaining flour to the dough and knead until the dough is smooth.

This dough should be soft, but not tacky. If dough sticks to the work surface, knead in additional flour, one tablespoon at a time, until the dough can be lifted off your work surface without leaving any residue. Divide the dough in half. Wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes before using.

Note: I also use this dough for hamantaschen

Instructions:

Preparing the baking tube and accordion cookie cutter

• Cut a piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil that is 2-inch longer than the length of your tube.

• Place the tube on the foil so that there is a 1-inch border of foil at each end of the tube.

• Tightly wrap the foil around the tube. It is important that the entire tube is completely covered. Tuck the foil ends into the tube to secure the foil.

• Lightly grease the baking tube with margarine or butter.

• Secure the baking tube to your baking sheet with a small piece of cookie dough placed at each end of the tube. Set aside.

• To make the accordion cutter, cut a 4-inch x 1/2-inch strip from a pliable plastic lid. Use a ruler to mark off 1/2-inch intervals along the length of the strip. At each interval bend the strip to create accordion-like folds, as shown.

Rolling, Cutting and Decorating the Cookies

• Add 1 tsp. of water to reserved egg white and stir. Set aside.

• On a lightly floured work surface, roll cookie dough into a rectangle 1/8-inch thick or

slightly thicker.

• Cut dough into strips 2-inch high x 3.5-inch long.

(Note: If you are using tomato paste cans, cut strips 2-inches x 4.5-inches)

• Use the accordion cutter to cut the crown’s top edge.

• Brush the cookie with the egg white.

• Gently press your jewels (mini-M& Ms or dragée) into the cookie.

• Sprinkle cookie with colored sugar and/or sprinkles. (image)

• Carefully lift the decorated cookie off your work surface and lay the cookie on top of the baking tube; gently molding the cookie to the tube. The cookie will fit around 2/3 of the tube. (image)

(Note: There is no need to worry about spacing the cookies on the tube, as there is minimal spread during baking.)

Baking:

Bake in a pre-heated 350-degree oven for 18 to 20 minutes or until the edges are slightly browned. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly before slipping cookie crowns off the tube. For an extra crunchy cookie, after you have turned the oven off, stand the baked cookies on a baking sheet and return to the oven. Leave the cookies in the oven until the oven is cold.

Deborah Bonelli, creator of Nosh Art Fun, is a pastry chef and award-winning sugar artist specializing in edible art for the Jewish holidays. For inquiries about classes, workshops or parties, email noshartfun@gmail.com

Queen Esther crowns.

Baking tube crowns.

Accordion composite.

jewish star torah columnists:

•Rabbi Avi Billet of Anshei Chesed, Boynton Beach, FL, mohel and Five Towns native •Rabbi David Etengoff of Magen David Yeshivah, Brooklyn

•Rabbi Binny Freedman, rosh yeshiva of Orayta, Jerusalem

contributing writers:

•Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks zt”l,

former chief rabbi of United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth •Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh

Weinreb, OU executive VP emeritus

•Rabbi Raymond Apple, emeritus rabbi, Great Synagogue of Sydney

•Rabbi Yossy Goldman, life rabbi emeritus, Sydenham Shul, Johannesburg and president of the South African Rabbinical Association.

contact our columnists at: Publisher@TheJewishStar.com

Five towns candlelighting: From the White Shul, Far Rockaway, NY

Fri March 15 / 5 Adar II

Pekudei

Candles: 6:44 • Havdalah: 7:54

Fri March 22 / 12 Adar II

Zachor • Erev Purim • Vayikra

Candles: 6:52 • Havdalah: 8:02

Sun March 24 / 14 Adar II

Purim

Monday March 25 is Shushan Purim

Fri March 29 / 19 Adar II

Parah • Tzav

Candles: 6:59 • Havdalah: 8:09

Fri April 6 / 26 Adar II

Shmini • Shabbas Mevarchim

Candles: 7:06 • Havdalah: 8:16

Fri April 12 / Nisan 4

Tazria

Candles: 7:13 • Havdalah: 8:23

Focus on the Jewish character of generosity

rabbi sir jonathan sacks zt”l

Pekudei has sometimes been called “The Accountant’s Parsha,” because that is how it begins, with the audited accounts of the money and materials donated to the Sanctuary. It is the Torah’s way of teaching us the need for financial transparency.

But beneath the sometimes-dry surface lie two extraordinary stories, one told in last week’s parsha, the other the week before, teaching us something deep about Jewish nature that is still true today.

The first has to do with the Sanctuary itself. G-d told Moses to ask people to make contributions. Some brought gold, some silver, some copper. Some gave wool or linen or animal skins. Others contributed acacia wood, oil, spices, or incense. Some gave precious stones for the High Priest’s breastplate.

They brought too much. Moses had to tell them to stop.

What was remarkable was the willingness with which they gave:

The people continued bringing [Moses] additional gifts every morning. So all the skilled workers who were doing all the work on the Sanctuary left what they were doing, and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than enough for the work G-d has commanded us to do.”

Moses ordered an announcement to be made throughout the camp:

“Let no man or woman make anything more as an offering for the Sanctuary.” And so the people brought no more, because what they already had was more than enough to for all the work that was to be done. Ex. 36:3-7

They brought too much. Moses had to tell them to stop. That is not the Israelites as we have become accustomed to seeing them, argumentative, quarrelsome, ungrateful. This is a people that longs to give.

One parsha earlier we read a very different story. The people were anxious.

Moses had been up the mountain for a long time. Was he still alive? Had some accident happened to him? If so, how would they receive the Divine word telling them what to do and where to go? Hence their demand for a Calf — essentially an oracle, an object through which Divine instruction could be heard.

Aaron, according to the most favoured explanation, realised that he could not stop

See

Sacks

Feeling the joy of Adar, despite all of our pain…

Let’s begin by asking why should anyone be happy. Because life is good? And what if it’s not so good now — should we be depressed?

Psalm 100 tells us, “ivdu et hashem b’simcha (serve G-d with joy).” It doesn’t qualify this by saying when or under what circumstances we should be happy. So, as we are always meant to be serving G-d, it appears that the psalmist expects us to be happy always, no matter the situation.

But is that possible? Must we throw caution to the wind and sing and dance with gay abandon?

Does G-d need a bunch of idiots who are blissfully oblivious to reality serving Him with joy when the world is falling apart?

Actually, some people do have that attitude. Are you old enough to remember the ridiculous song that, unbelievably and to my utter horror, became an international hit? Written by Bobby McFerrin in 1988, it won the Grammy Award for song of the year despite having — to my mind — the inanest lyrics of any song in history.

The song was “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Here are some of its less than memorable lyrics: Don’t worry, be happy

In every life we have some trouble

But when you worry you make it double

Don’t worry, be happy.

The landlord say your rent is late He may have to litigate

Don’t worry, be happy.

Why?

’Cause when you worry your face will frown

And that will bring everybody down

So don’t worry, be happy.

This is not a philosophy of life and certainly not a solution to the cause of our worries.

So let me share with you some of the lyrics of another song which I believe will give us a motivation to be happy and not worry. It goes back over 200 years, and it’s in Yiddish.

The composer of this song, entitled “Ah Dudeleh,” is the legendary Chassidic master Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (1740-1809). The song is.”

Dudeleh is a play on words. Literally, it means a little ditty, a limerick or a ballad. But dudeleh can also come from the word du, which in Yiddish means “you.” And who is “you”? The One

Above, G-d Almighty.

Here’s the chorus:

Look to the East? Du. Who do you see? You! Almighty G-d. Look to the West? Du! Hashem, You again. North? You. South? You. Look Up? You. Look down, You again!

Wherever I turn what do I see? Du! You, Hashem. You are all over, all pervasive, all-present. On every continent and in every corner and crevice.

The most important part of the song says:

When times are good? Who is responsible? You Hashem. And if, G-d forbid, things are not so good? It’s You again, Hashem. Everything is part of Your Divine Providence and Your Higher Plan.

Here’s the critical bottom line: If indeed whatever life throws at me, good or bad, comes from You, then it must be good.

We have always believed that G-d runs the world and G-d is good. He’s not throwing darts or lightning bolts at us. He loves us. This is a cardinal principle of Jewish faith and theology.

So, even when things appear not to be good, we believe that somehow, with the passage of time, we will see G-d’s higher plan unfolding. Sooner or later, we will see that everything was for the best and, yes, everything is actually good.

That is why regardless of the situation now or

at any other time, we are called upon to “Serve G-d with joy.”

G-d is running the world and He alone is calling the shots — not Hamas, not Iran, not even Vladimir Putin. “The hearts of kings are in the hands of G-d,” says Proverbs 21.

Let us continue to pray for our brethren in Israel and the world over. Let us continue to pray that we won’t need to rely on our faith alone but will have tangible, physical reasons to feel happy, safe, secure and comfortable, with no threats, no war, no terror and no violence.

That Shemini Atzeret in Tuscany, I told my congregants that we must dance with the Torah, even on Oct. 7. We dare not allow our enemies the pleasure of destroying our holidays. We will dance through the darkness and overcome our foes by rededicating ourselves to our Jewish mission.

We will celebrate the joyous month of Adar and the beautiful festival of Purim, please G-d, with joy and happiness, with faith and fortitude, with smiles and l’chaims, with singing and dancing. We will have a happy Purim and, please G-d, we will all see the downfall of today’s Hamans speedily in our day.

Is this a time for celebration or rededication?

Rabbi DR. tzvi HERsH wEiNREb

Orthodox Union

Be strong, be strong, and we will be strong! — Chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek!

The week we read parshat Pekudei, which comprises the concluding chapters of sefer Shemot. As the ba’al koreh approaches the final verses, we stand. And when he pronounces the last words, we exclaim loudly and with dramatic flourish: Chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek!

There are two ways of understanding this cus-

tom. Possibly, we are enthusiastically expressing our sense of celebration at having completed the second book of the Bible. Or perhaps, recognizing that we have at least minimally failed to understand and appreciate the book just completed, we now assert our intention to do better next time.

Are we celebrating our recent achievement, or, acknowledging the inadequacy of our study of Shemot, are we rededicating ourselves to achieve an improved understanding of Vayikra?

There is a passage in the Talmud (Berachot 32b) which provides the beginning of an approach to resolving this question. It reads: Rabbi Chama bar Chanina said, “If a person finds that he has prayed but has not been answered, he should pray and pray again, as it is written:

‘Hope in the L-rd. Be strong and of good courage, and hope in the L-rd!’ (Psalms 27:14).”

One can understand Rabbi Chama’s advice as a suggestion of persistence, of stubborn repetition of the prayer again and again until it is heard. Or perhaps Rabbi Chama is urging those who have been disappointed in prayer (and which one of us has not suffered such disappointment?) to reinvigorate their prayers with deeper emotion, with greater urgency, in clearer detail, or with a more effective vocabulary.

If we adopt the latter view, we will have learned the lesson that dedication to prayer must entail a modicum of renewed dedication, of innovation, and yes, of creativity. It cannot just be the “same old, same old.”

When I reflect further on Rabbi Chama’s advice, I begin to realize that understanding him might not be an either/or choice, either a call for dedicated persistence or a plea for renewal. It may very well be both. Yes, be persistent, repeat the old prayers for they may not have been in vain, but also try some new approaches to pray.

This realization helps me return to the chazak, chazak that we will exclaim in unison this Shabbat. It is a retrospective back to our months-long journey throughShemot. We celebrate the fact that we attended synagogue every Shabbat and heard the holy words. Many of us studied the text on our own, shnayim

See

Most of the time, it is the events that find us

From Heart of Jerusalem

Rabbi biNNY FREEDMaN Jewish Star columnist

In a cattle car in Poland, in the summer of 1942, Reb Azriel Dovid Fastag, a composer for the Modzitzer Rebbe, was headed to his death in Treblinka. Over a hundred Jews, forced to stand for days on end with only a bucket in the middle of the car for waste, no room to sit or lie down, no food or water, in the stifling heat, all crammed together heading to whereabouts unknown, for reasons they could not even imagine.

Listening to the clickety-clack of the wheels of the train, a tune sprang into his mind, and he composed the now-famous Ani Ma’amin tune, “I believe, with complete faith, in the

coming of the Messiah, and though he may tarry, I await him nonetheless.”

He began to hum and then to sing the haunting melody, in the crowded cattle car full of despair hurtling into the darkness. One by one, the Jews in the car picked up the tune and begin to hum, and then to sing with him. And when the Jews in the car next to them heard the singing, after a time, they picked up the tune as well, and began to sing along.

Overwhelmed by the power of this tune, he wrote down the notes and shared them, determined to ensure the tune would survive.

One of the young students in that car, who eventually escaped and survived the war, made his way back to the court of Modzitz, now in Brooklyn, and shared the tune with the Modzitzer Rebbe. It became the unofficial anthem of the Holocaust in the Jewish religious world. Imagine singing about the coming of the messiah in a cattle car on the way to Treblinka!

This week, we will conclude the second of the five books of the Torah, sefer Shemot. And the way in which the Torah concludes this book, which shares the story of the Exodus from Egypt, is interesting. With the building of the Mishkan complete, the Torah tells us:

“When the cloud arose above the Mishkan, the Children of Israel would travel on all their journeys, but if the cloud would not rise, then they would not travel until it rose. For the cloud of G-d was on the Mishkan by day, and a pillar of fire at night before the eyes of Israel, on all of their journeys” (Shemot 40:36-38).

After all of the events of the book of Shemot — the ten plagues, the Exodus, the splitting of the sea and the revelation of Sinai, not to mention the building of the Mishkan — why do we conclude this book with the cloud above the Mishkan and the system that signaled the Jews to travel? This is the big finale

of the book of Exodus: traffic control?

And there is an interesting detail which begs a question: When it was time for the Jews to journey again, the cloud would rise and go before them to lead the way, so why does the last verse suggest the cloud was on the Mishkan on their journeys? If it was on the Mishkan, that meant they were encamped. Rashi explains that their encampments were part of the journey. What does this mean? And why is this the conclusion to the book of Shemot?

Fast forward to the beginning of the book of Yehoshua. After forty years in the desert, Yehoshua is getting ready, with the Jewish people and an army of 600,000 men, to enter and conquer the land of Israel. He decides to send two spies to the land.

It is difficult to understand why, especially after the debacle of the spies nearly forty years earlier, but even stranger is the mis-

See Freedman on page 22

As Purim nears, 2 books for Esther’s Megillah

JaY GERbER

Jewish Star columnist

Perhaps the two most popular literary works on the Jewish calendar are the Megillah and the Haggadah. Here are two unusual commentaries that pull together ancient pshat and drash in a modern lingo that should help further enrich an already crowed field of Megillah publications.

The first is titled “The Kol Menachem Megillah: The Book of Esther,” with commentary and insights based upon the works of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe complied and edited by Rabbi Chaim Miller. The format is similar to

that of the our volumes in this distinguished and well received series, that being the famed Gutnick Chumash.

This well-annotated work presents to us an eloquent foreword containing valuable, historical and bibliographic data on both the Megillah texts and Targumin, including many famous commentaries, unique information concerning the role of the previous Rebbe in helping to enhance the serious nature of the themes of Purim and the role that the Rebbe’s Farbrengens played in generating a more spirited and informed holiday observance of Purim. The commentary itself references both the Rebbe’s works as well as

those from the many classical rabbinic texts.

The one major feature that is the citation of the Nusach Ari’s custom concerning the limitation in the number of times that people are to bang at the mention of Haman’s name. This fact alone makes this particular work most unique.

According to Rabbi Miller, “The custom of banging only at certain places when Haman is mentioned is not uniquely Chabad. It is mentioned in the work ‘Itim LeBinah’ (Warsaw, 1886, page 119), that is practiced in Lithuania and other areas. It seems to be a partial concession to those authorities who maintain

that no banging at all should take place, since it causes a disruption in the shul. Throughout the rabbinic literature there are many other different variants of this custom mentioned such as: banging only when Haman’s wickedness is mentioned (Sefer Haminhag); banging up until Haman’s sons hanging (Makor Chaim); and banging only when Haman’s downfall is mentioned (Emek Bracha).”

This edition of the Megillah highlights, in bright red letters, the name of Haman where the author deems it to be banged in accordance with his observed tradition, and there aren’t too many times that this occurs.

The next work is a narrative written by our Five Towns neighbor Rabbi David Fohrman of Woodmere — “The Queen You Thought You Knew: Unmasking Esther’s Hidden Story”

See Gerber on page 22

In the coming days, with arrival of Mashiach

Sefer Shemot is a grand journey that takes us from the depths of Egyptian servitude to the construction of the Mishkan wherein Hashem’s Schechinah was revealed to the entire Jewish people. Parashat Pekudei concludes Sefer Shemot and provides Rabbeinu Bahya ben Asher with the platform to share his vision of the ultimate future that awaits the Jewish people. His presentation begins with a passage based on Midrash Tanchuma:

The Holy One blessed be He said: “In this world, I caused my Schechinah to dwell among you in the Beit HaMikdash; [yet,] as a result of your purposeful sins, it departed from you. In the time of the Mashiach (literally, l’atid lavo,) my Shechinah will never move away from you. As the text states: ‘I have placed My holy dwelling place in your midst, and My spirit will never reject you…and you will be My people.” (Vayikra 26:11-12)

Rabbeinu Bahya presents nine constitutive aspects of l’atid lavo. This analysis includes the reinvigoration of our relationship with Hashem, the transformation of all humankind, and the realization of the promised role of the Jewish people.

According to Rabbeinu Bahya, the time of the Mashiach will mark three dynamic changes

in our connection to Hashem: Nevuah will return to the Jewish people as in earlier times, the Schechinah will return to its rightful place in the soon-to-be-rebuilt Beit HaMikdash, and wisdom from above (shefa chochmah) will overflow, enabling all of klal Yisrael to fully acquire Hashem’s holy Torah.

Moreover, three crucial transformations will impact all humankind: the study and practice of warfare will cease (Yeshayahu 2:4), new hearts (proper moral principles and ethical behaviors) will replace hearts of stone (Yechezkel 36:26), and the desire to pursue evil will vanish from the world (ain satan v’ain yetzer hara).

In Rabbeinu Bahya’s schema, the realization of the promised role of the Jewish people comprises the third aspect of the Geulah Sh-

laimah. As glory and honor returns to our nation, Hashem’s hashgacha (Divine Providence) will reach its highest heights, and His majesty, revealed unhidden by the Anan (Cloud of Gory) will be directly visible to us all.

Rabbeinu Bahya concludes his eschatological vision with a stirring pasuk from Sefer Yeshayahu that underscores this new level of revelation: The voice of your watchmen shall be raised in unison, and they shall sing together, for eye to eye they shall see when Hashem returns to Tzion. (52:8) May this time come soon and in our days, when we will witness the fulfillment of Zechariah’s famous words: “And Hashem shall become King over the entire earth; on that day Hashem shall be one and His name one.” (14:9). V’chane yihi ratzon.

Kosher bookworm alaN

torah Rabbi DaviD EtENGoFF

Jewish Star columnist

Jewish Star Associate: Nechama Bluth, 516-622-7461 ext 241.

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Woke antisemitic ‘as a Jew’ Oscars moment

Unless you’re a film buff, you may not have heard of Jonathan Glazer before his viral moment at this year’s annual Academy Awards ceremony.

After “The Zone of Interest” — a highlypraised film about the commandant of the Auschwitz death camp that is very loosely based on a Martin Amis novel with the same title — was named the winner of the Oscar for Best International Feature Film, Glazer appeared on the stage along with the rest of the production team to accept their trophies.

Standing with producer James Wilson and their billionaire financial backer Leonard Blavatnik, Glazer, who wrote and directed the movie, chose not to speak extemporaneously but instead read the following prepared statement:

“Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It’s shaped all of our past and present. Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness in a Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza — all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?”

The tortured syntax of his comments notwithstanding, what Glazer said wasn’t merely deeply offensive. It marked a new low in Hollywood’s descent into fashionable rationalizations of hatred for Jews. It also showed us how the new woke antisemitism works, especially when its standardbearers are Jews with little or no connection to their heritage. As such, it was the quintessential “as a Jew” moment in which persons invoke their Jewish identity to denounce other Jews.

Who ‘hijacked’ the Holocaust?

Glazer had made a movie about the extermination of Jews at Auschwitz, and on Sunday night was being showered with praise and all the financial, professional and social benefits that go with it. But he was not content

Having

won for a Holocaust movie, he gave tacit support to modern-day Nazis.

with that. He decided to use his invocation of the most painful moment in Jewish history to smear Israel and the Jews.

To link the Holocaust to Israel’s campaign in the Gaza Strip to eradicate the organization that perpetrated the atrocities committed in Jewish communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7 is to turn history on its head. Pretending that it is the Jews who are today’s Nazis, rather than Hamas and its Palestinian supporters, is a big lie.

It is the Palestinians of Hamas who are the contemporary torch-bearers for Adolf Hitler’s plans for the genocide of the Jewish people, as made explicit in their charter and all of their propaganda, which seeks Israel’s destruction and the slaughter of its population. This sort of inversion tactic is — as the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s working definition of the term makes plain — textbook antisemitism.

To speak of the “occupation” in this context is to use the word in the way that Palestinians deploy it. When they say “occupation,” they refer to the Jewish state’s rebirth in 1948 and are referencing all of Israel, as Hamas makes explicit.

Moreover, by speaking of an “occupation” that had “hijacked” the Holocaust, he was using carefully chosen language to back up the canard that the existence of the one Jewish state on the planet was the result of Jews exploiting the Nazi campaign of extermination that he had depicted on film. Zionists didn’t “hijack” the Holocaust to help create a Jewish state. They had asserted Jewish historical rights to their ancient homeland which they had never abandoned. The murder of 6 million Jews who lacked the power that a sovereign state would give them and who had no safe haven to go to was proof that the establishment of one was necessary and just.

If anyone “hijacked” the Holocaust, it was Glazer.

To say that the “occupation” led to the current conflict is also a lie if it is a reference to Israel’s gaining control of Judea and Samaria, Jerusalem or the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Six-Day War or whether Jews have the right to live there. The Gaza Strip wasn’t “occupied” on Oct. 7.

Israel had withdrawn every soldier, settler and settlement from it in 2005, and it had been an independent Palestinian state in all but name since then. And to treat the largest mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust in the Palestinian orgy of slaughter, rape, torture and kidnapping on Oct. 7 as analogous to Israel’s efforts to eradicate the terrorists is as absurd as it is immoral.

That puts the murderers on the same moral plane as those who wish to stop them from murdering again.

And what else could he have meant by saying that he and his colleagues “refute our Jewishness” in connection with this “occupation” other

than to try to disassociate Jews and Judaism from Israel and its efforts to defend itself?

But that is the point of such “as a Jew” virtue-signaling. Such protestations that seek to differentiate the “good” Jews who want to tell the world that they want nothing to do with the “bad” Jews in Israel and those who support them are particularly important right now. They are an essential element of the new version of antisemitism that is rooted in the toxic ideas of critical race theory and intersectionality in which the world is divided between two perpetually warring groups: “white” oppressors and “people of color” who are their victims.

In this worldview dictated by the woke catechism of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), it is incumbent that members of the oppressor class — who are all deemed as guilty of racism as the worst neo-Nazi or Ku Klux Klan member — must repent of their crimes by embracing “antiracism.” DEI deems Jews and Israel to be “white” oppressors” of Palestinians, even though the conflict isn’t racial and half of all Jewish Israelis are themselves “people of color” since they trace their origins to North Africa or the Middle East. So “good” Jews must condemn Israel, regardless of what it or those who wish to destroy it do.

And that is why Glazer, as well as those who wore red pins — which bear an eerie resemblance to the bloody hands of a Palestinian Arab who had participated in the lynching of two Israelis at the start of the Second Intifada in 2000 in an iconic photograph of that awful moment — in support of an immediate ceasefire, was doing at the Oscars this year.

Politics at the Oscars

There is nothing new about Oscar winners

using the internationally televised ceremony to virtue-signal their political beliefs or to highlight the causes they support.

We’ve come a long way from the moment in 1973 when Marlon Brando decided to have Sacheen Littlefeather accept his Best Actor Oscar for appearing in “The Godfather” to highlight his support for the plight of Native Americans.

When the buckskin-dress-clad woman took the podium, she was booed by the audience. But like everyone else in Hollywood, Littlefeather was just playacting. It turned out that she was not, as she claimed, a member of the White Mountain Apache tribe or any other sort of Native American, though that only became known after her death.

Five years later, when Vanessa Redgrave accepted her Best Supporting Actress award for “Julia,” she used her moment to denounce “Zionist hoodlums” who had protested her support for the terrorists of the Palestine Liberation Organization that sought Israel’s destruction. Later in the show, the writer Paddy Chayefsky — himself a three-time Oscar winner, as well as a wounded combat veteran of the war against the Nazis and an ardent supporter of Israel — repudiated Redgrave to the applause of those in attendance.

But what seemed shocking then is commonplace now. In recent years, as just about everyone associated with the entertainment industry has become more and more concerned about demonstrating their adherence to fashionable leftist causes (or determined to hide their actual beliefs if they don’t), politics at the Oscars is a given.

And the best way to curry favor with the woke mob that’s always ready to tear apart anyone in the public eye who dissents from the current orthodoxy is to proclaim one’s fealty to its causes. There was no audible booing and no refutation of Glazer’s statement from any of the actors and filmmakers who subsequently were seen on stage.

That is why so many in Hollywood are following the lead of political progressives and wrongly characterizing Israel’s efforts to ensure that there will be no more Oct. 7 pogroms as “genocide.” They treat the war in Gaza as an unpardonable crime rather than a campaign that is a necessity if peace is to ever have a chance in the Middle East.

Fighting Nazis, then and now

It is no small irony that the only way the mass murderers who are depicted in “The Zone of Interest” were defeated and brought to justice was by Allied soldiers and airmen who were presented with the same dilemma faced today by Israel. In 1945, as American, British and Soviet troops closed in on the last Nazi strongholds, the Germans refused to acknowledge their inevitable defeat and fought to the bitter end. As they did

Jewish star-wearing British film director Jonathan Glazer at “The Zone of Interest” premiere in 2023. Fred Duval, Shutterstock

Media and pols malign our humanitarian army

james sinkinson FLame

The following headline — an unsubstantiated lie — exemplifies how the media mislead millions of readers into believing that the Israel Defense Forces is a brutal, vengeful army that disregards the lives of innocent civilians caught in the current conflict in the Gaza Strip: Gaza health authorities say Israeli fire kills 104 waiting for aid — Reuters, Feb. 29

Do we read anything about misdeeds of the Russian, Syrian or Sudanese armies? Of Hamas’s daily war crimes? Indeed, major media and politicians express greater distrust of Israel’s military than of any other military force on earth. The IDF is constantly attacked — usually without warrant — for killing too many civilians, blocking aid, or not doing enough to protect civilians.

Yet the IDF is, factually, by any measurement, the world’s most moral military force. It makes unmatched efforts to protect civilian life — which often put its own personnel at greater risk of harm and make military objectives harder to achieve. The IDF’s success at preserving civilian lives is especially impressive considering that its terrorist enemies do their utmost to maximize civilian casualties.

Israel’s military spares no effort to be transparent about its activities. In contrast, its enemies invariably lie—and those lies are parroted by the media, who make a mockery of journalistic integrity by taking the words of terrorists as truth without verification.

Since 80% of Americans support Israel’s defensive war against Hamas, politicians and journalists risk what little esteem the public still holds for them by disrespecting the IDF — the world’s

Hamas’ lies are parroted by the media, making a mockery of journalistic integrity.

most moral fighting force — and by ignoring the outright lies of Hamas, its use of human shields and its thuggish robbery of humanitarian aid.

Protecting innocent victims of armed conflict is among the IDF’s fundamental values. Its code of ethics specifies several fundamental values, primary among which is the preservation of life: “The IDF serviceman will, above all, preserve human life, in the recognition of its supreme value, and will place himself or others at risk solely to the extent required to carry out his mission.”

Moreover, the code states, “The IDF and its members are obliged to preserve human dignity. All humans are to be valued, regardless of race, creed, nationality, gender, status or role.”

Since the media cannot disprove the IDF’s adherence to these values, it resorts to half-truths and innuendo. For example, NPR anchor Ayeesha Rascoe reported: “Last week the arrival of aid trucks in Gaza City caused more misery. Gaza health authorities said Israeli soldiers killed more than 100 Palestinians trying to get that food. Israel said its forces only fired when the crowds put them in danger.”

Notice: No evidence of any actual deaths by gunfire. No mention of the stampede that actually killed the victims. No mention of the IDF’s categorical denial of any killing of aid seekers by its soldiers. No mention of Hamas stealing such aid and selling it on the black market. This is journalistic integrity?

The IDF goes beyond the call of duty to avoid civilian casualties. In fact, US army veteran John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at West Point’s Modern Warfare Institute, maintains that during the Gaza war, Israel “has implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties than any other military in history.”

Spencer notes, for example, that Israel provided civilians in northern Gaza days, even weeks, of warning before carrying out full-scale military operations. Warnings included leaflets, phone calls, text messages, voicemail messages and “roof-knocking” — dropping small munitions on the roof of a building as a warning to residents that an airstrike is imminent. The IDF also sometimes pauses fighting to allow civilians to evacuate combat zones. Spencer asserts that the United States did not provide warnings to civilians or evacuate urban areas when it invaded Iraq in 2003.

Outrageously, the media rarely mention the IDF’s concerted efforts to protect civilians.

Instead, they highlight the number of Palestinian casualties, currently estimated at over 30,000. But these claims come from the Hamasrun Gaza Health Ministry, whose lies about death tolls are notorious, and which does not distinguish between terrorists and civilians.

The IDF is often blamed for the deaths of civilians for which it is not responsible For example, following an explosion at Gaza City’s Al-Ahli Hospital on Oct. 17, the New York Times published the headline, “Israeli Airstrike Hits Gaza Hospital, Killing 500, Palestinian Health Ministry Says.” The Times was later forced to issue an embarrassing retraction after Israeli evidence confirmed it was a rocket misfired by terrorists that hit the hospital’s parking lot, killing some 50 people. The Times chose to believe Hamas without checking the facts.

The IDF has also been accused of killing more than 80 journalists during the conflict. But it turns out that most of these “journalists” were Hamas or Islamic Jihad members, such as Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Washah and Hamza alDahdouh. Washah was a Hamas anti-tank mis-

sile system developer, while al-Dahdouh was an electronic engineer for Islamic Jihad.

In contrast to the IDF, Hamas does its utmost to maximize civilian casualties. Its ideology, taught in Palestinian schools operated by the United Nations, encourages even children to die fighting Israel. Hamas also purposely locates its personnel and weapons in or near civilian buildings, like schools and mosques. According to UK Col. (ret.) Richard Kemp, “Hamas is the first ‘army’ in history to use their own civilian population as a primary weapon of war.”

In contrast, the IDF is constantly maligned in a smear campaign led by Hamas and its American supporters, who use the media to parrot their lies. Though the IDF repeatedly refutes these lies with facts and evidence, they are often belittled or ignored by smug commentators, who prefer to cynically promote an anti-Israel agenda.

Evidence overwhelmingly proves Israel and the IDF deserve the trust of their allies and of the media. They should not be the victim of politics or political media agendas — especially those favoring terrorists whose murderous acts and malicious lies are well documented.

October 7: Rape as instrument of genocide…

Continued from page 1

niers. These are not people who sift through evidence with an open mind. They come from an ideologically fixed position. They are unbending.

To my mind, there is a more important task than arguing with these useful idiots. And that is securing the recognition that the bestialities carried out by Hamas were war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The pogrom was a necessary, integral component of its bid to destroy what the Hamas charter calls the “Zionist project” it characterizes as “the enemy of the Arab and Islamic Ummah … a danger to international security and peace and to mankind and its interests and stability.” In other words, a program of genocide.

That perhaps explains why so many commentators sympathetic to Israel hailed the recent United Nations report confirming many of the accounts of sexual violence committed by the Hamas monsters on Oct. 7. The UN, a thoroughly anti-Zionist body despite the fact that Israel is a member state, not only authenticated these claims but opened the door to a legal process targeting the Hamas leadership and its key operatives.

It is that latter goal that we need to focus on: The creation of an international tribunal to prosecute Hamas for its crimes in the legal tradition established by the post-World War II Nuremburg trials, as well as more recent

international courts to try the atrocities committed in Bosnia, Kosovo and Rwanda.

By the UN’s own legal calculus, the foundations for such a tribunal are firm.

Witnesses interviewed by the world body’s investigative team during its visit to Israel effectively described Oct. 7 as an “indiscriminate campaign to kill, inflict suffering and abduct the maximum number possible of men, women and children — soldiers and civilians alike — in the minimum possible amount of time.

“People were shot, often at close range; burnt alive in their homes as they tried to hide in their safe rooms; gunned down or killed by grenades in bomb shelters where they sought refuge; and hunted down at the Nova music festival site as well as in the fields and roads adjacent to the Nova music festival ground.

“Other violations included sexual violence, abduction of hostages and corpses, the public display of captives, both dead and alive, the mutilation of corpses, including decapitation, and the looting and destruction of civilian property.”

At the Nova site, as well as on Road 232, the artery used by some festival-goers to escape the onslaught, and at the kibbutzim overran by the terrorists, the UN team found that there were “reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred … including in the form of rape and gang rape, during the 7 October 2023 attacks.”

When it comes to prosecuting these horrors, there is a clear precedent set by the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, when 850,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were slaughtered by the loathed Interahamwe militias. One of the perpetrators, a former schoolteacher named Jean-Paul Akayesu, was prosecuted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on 15 counts that included rape.

Through its deliberations, the tribunal determined that rape and sexual violence “constitute acts of genocide insofar as they were committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a targeted group, as such.

“It found that sexual assault formed an integral part of the process of destroying the Tutsi

Rape was a predetermined part of Hamas’ genocidal strategy, as necessary for the fulfilment of their aims as the murders and other atrocities.

ethnic group and that the rape was systematic and had been perpetrated against Tutsi women only, manifesting the specific intent required for those acts to constitute genocide.”

These words apply to the Oct. 7 atrocities with the same degree of legitimacy. Hamas is dedicated not just to the destruction of Israel as a sovereign state, but the physical destruction of its Jewish citizens as well.

The rapes on Oct. 7 cannot be explained as the consequence of high spirits, ease of access to young, defenseless women by armed men or the effect of the amphetamines ingested by some of the terrorists. Rape was a predetermined part of their genocidal strategy, as necessary for the fulfilment of their aims as the murders and other atrocities.

Not surprisingly, the United Nations has given little indication that it intends to act on the findings of its own report.

Both the Israeli government and the Jewish organizations present at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva need to hold the organization to account. The global agency now recognizes that the accounts of mass rape were genuine, and it recognizes, too, that rape is a key instrument for the execution of a genocide.

We learned that in the Balkans and in East Africa, and now we’ve seen the same phenomenon in Israel as well. So, let’s worry less about what the deniers think and more about securing justice for the victims.

IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip on March 3 IDF

3 women who are standing strong with Israel…

At one point in the video, a male student screamed in the woman’s face and called her a “dumb mother[expletive].” Another male student referred to the woman and the proIsrael students surrounding her as “you people,” prompting her to respond, “It’s not ‘you people.’ Don’t discriminate. I’m a person. My name is Noa.”

I’m referring to Noa Tishby, the best-selling author of “Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth” and Israel’s former special envoy for combating antisemitism and delegitimization.

A prolific actress, producer and activist, Tishby, a Tel Aviv native now living in Los Angeles, has completed her second book, “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew,” co-written with best-selling author Emmanuel Acho and available in late April.

Witnessing Tishby’s bravery also made me think about actress and activist Debra Messing. Like Tishby, she confronts vicious antisemites with resilience and grace.

Messing, who was born and raised in Rhode Island, spoke at the Nov. 14 rally for Israel in Washington, and recently visited Israel. She sat with soldiers and victims of Oct. 7, simply offering to listen to their stories. I adore Messing for this, and for the fact that she is constantly posting Instagram videos reminding all of us, especially young Jews, not to be afraid.

And then there’s my childhood friend Mandana Dayani, a visionary entrepreneur and creator and co-founder of the “I am a voter” organization, which promotes democracy by encouraging people to vote.

Dayani, who escaped post-revolutionary Iran as a little girl with her family, also recently traveled to Israel, visiting the remains of devastated kibbutzim in the south and speaking with victims of Oct. 7. Dayani is fearless when it comes to exposing antisemitism and defending (and celebrating) Jews and Judaism, especially on social media. She shares this wonderful fearlessness with Tishby and Messing.

I decided to ask each of these extraordinary women two simple questions.

Of course, the female victims of Oct. 7, the female IDF soldiers and medics, the mothers and wives of slain soldiers and so many more Israeli women are heroes who should be honored each day.

But day in and day out, women like Dayani, Messing and Tishby are battling antisemites and putting much on the line in defense of Israel and the Jewish people. Their responses to my questions reminded me of “Eshet Chayil,” King Solomon’s tribute to the Jewish woman in the Book of Proverbs, which begins by asking, “A woman of valor who can find? Her value far exceeds that of gems.”

Q: For years, you have been targeted on-

line by relentless antisemites. From where do you derive such courage and clarity to confront one antisemite or ill-informed person after another?

Mandana Dayani: Everything I have ever done has been rooted in my commitment to upholding humanity and advocating for more rights for more people. And as we see misinformation being weaponized to divide us and propaganda being deployed with the clear agenda to delegitimize Israel and dehumanize Jews, I refuse to be a participant in the dissemination of more hate and divisive language in this world.

Progress is not taking rights from one group of people to give them to another. The violence and targeting of Jews today is not activism. It is a witch-hunt fueled by bots, propaganda and an alarming mental health crisis around the world.

I will continue to ask for more people to do the right thing, to stand up against hate, to share fact-based information, and to lead with compassion. I believe the majority of the world disagrees with the radical ideologies of the mobs inciting violence. We cannot pander to extremists because they are louder or scarier.

Debra Messing: “What has given me strength when the hate and accusations start to penetrate is moral clarity. I always return to “What is my purpose?” I believe [that] because I was given a platform, that it is my responsibility to use it intentionally.

I know that antisemitism and anti-Zionism are racism. I know all racism is wrong. I know Israel is the ancestral homeland of the Jews, and I know Israel has a right to exist. I know that I

have facts behind me and that it is possible to hold my beliefs about Jews and Israel and also hold compassion for, and acknowledge the suffering and painful history of, the Palestinians.

Noa Tishby: The Berkeley event was intense and hostile. So, I am glad it didn’t end up with anybody physically attacking me. I get my strength first and foremost from my mom.

When people ask me how I’m such a strong woman, I literally brush them off and send them to my mother, because she is the fiercest woman I have ever met. She’s never met a fight that she didn’t want to take on and it’s always for what she thought was right. I think I get my strength from her, along with my sisters, my dad and my entire family.

I also have a very strong compass of what’s right and what’s wrong, and that’s why I’m unmovable on those issues. I don’t get fazed out by bad comments or when people attack me. I just know that we need to be strong and united and fight for what we know is right.

There is an unprecedented level of Jew-hate that is rising right now and the only way that we can fight against it is to be firmly planted in who we are and stand up against it and not be afraid. So, I honestly attribute all of that to my mother, Yael Artzi. She is just incredible.”

Q: How has your identity as a Jewish woman inspired and informed your tireless advocacy on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people?

Dayani: My identity as a mother and activist is deeply rooted in the influences of the strong, brave matriarchs of my family. Our family was held together by their unwavering

courage, fortitude and commitment to upholding the traditions that defined us.

So many of the values of our culture — welcoming the stranger, tikkun olam, compassion, curiosity, hope, resilience and a commitment to upholding family and community — all define my activism.

My advocacy has always tried to perpetuate these values and to bring in others to do the same — to advocate for humanity as a collective. I sort of see advocacy like a Shabbat dinner table — we always leave the door open and seats available at the table so others can feel welcome and join in.

Oct. 7 completely shook me to my core. The unspeakable violence we witnessed that day and the unimaginable hatred and propaganda that has since taken hold of so many around the world, woke up many of us in the Diaspora.

As someone who fled the terrorist leadership of my homeland [Iran] for the opportunity to live safely as a Jew, I believe that my safety and security are inextricably linked to Israel. And I am never going to stop advocating for a world free of that same terrorism that seeks to destroy all the values I mentioned above and democracies around the world.

Messing: I was raised by two very proud Zionist parents. They taught me that it is our responsibility as Jews in the Diaspora to protect Israel. I was taught that Israel is precious.

I am a proud Jew and it is impossible for me to see the massacre of our people by a terrorist group and not scream out that it is wrong. I know our history of persecution and feel a new potent unity amongst our very diverse Jewish community. I will always stand with the Jewish people and the Jewish homeland. We are all intertwined.

Tishby: I talk about my identity a lot in my first book. My identity was shaped more as a secular Zionist than as being Jewish. I grew up in a very secular family, I always tell people I had never been to a synagogue before I moved to Los Angeles. It’s a beautiful thing because it allowed me to reach my Jewish identity from an independent place and find it for myself.

I think that living in America as a Jewish person, as an Israeli, after taking being Jewish for granted for so many years, allowed me to connect to it at an entirely different level.

I did an event a couple of years ago and this rabbi came up to me and said, “I read your book, and do you know why God invented America? So, Israelis can remember that they’re Jewish.”

I started laughing, but it resonated with me because my Jewish identity was essentially shaped after moving to the Diaspora and finding for myself how brilliant and inspiring and beautiful and smart and deep, ancient, diverse and poetic our culture and traditions are. It is such a blessing.

Hadassah demands that world ‘end the silence’

Hadassah, the largest Jewish women’s organization in the United States, held an event during the UN Commission on the Status of Women meetings to highlight both the irrefutable evidence that Hamas and its collaborators committed war crimes, including rape, during their Oct. 7 attack and the UN’s slow and disingenuous response to holding Hamas accountable.

Subsequently, Hadassah National President Carol Ann Schwartz delivered a petition signed by 129,859 Hadassah supporters from 118 countries and a letter signed by 116 organizations to UN Secretary-General António Guterres demanding action, justice and accountability.

“Rape should never be used as a weapon of war. Not in Israel. Not anywhere. We cannot let our international institutions undermine efforts to pursue justice,” said Schwartz. “UN Women denied our request to speak about this issue during Commission on the Status of Women meetings, but we will not be silent. For the sake of women everywhere, we must come together around the world to speak the truth and demand action”

At the event, Schwartz spoke about Hadassah’s End The Silence campaign and historic global mobilization, which marked International Women’s Day last Friday, March 8, when 189 End The Silence events were held in 23 cities in 17 countries around the world, including the United States.

“Let’s be clear,” said Schwartz. “The UN’s current recommendation that the biased, antisemitic Commission of Inquiry (COI) established May 2021 be the primary group investigating these crimes can only be interpreted as a disingenuous move designed to bury evidence and undermine justice.”

Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, chair of the Civil Commission on Oct. 7 Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children, discussed her group’s efforts to document the evidence of Hamas’ war crimes against humanity on Oct. 7, including the brutal acts of rape and sexual violence, and to determine the path needed to pursue justice.

“The denial and silence from the world’s most vital international human rights bodies constitutes a betrayal not just of Israeli women, but of all humanity. To confront this, we are committed to meticulously documenting every detail through a comprehensive legal framework and rigorous global standards. Our aim is to fight denial and to ensure accountability for the perpetrators,” said Dr. Elkayam-Levy.

Marie-Sarah Seeberger, head of International Affairs at Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France, spoke about her work to bring the sexual violence that occurred on Oct. 7 to the attention of the French government. Céline Bardet, founder of We Are NOT Weapons of War, spoke about sexual violence linked to armed conflict.

“I have borne witness to sexual violence used as a weapon of war all over the world, and it is a war crime that should be vigorously

prosecuted everywhere. Israel is no different,” said Bardet. “We will continue to gather and process evidence of Hamas’ war crimes in order to seek justice for the Israeli women and girls they brutalized.”

The 129,859 signatures on the petition came from 118 countries including, Albania, Andorra, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Curaçao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Guatemala, Guernsey, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Northern Ireland, Norway, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Polynesia, Portugal, Republic of South Africa, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, The Bahamas, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uruguay, United States of America, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Learn more about Hadassah’s End The Silence campaign at www.hadassah.org/endthesilence. Report submitted by Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America.

Noa Tishby at a rally against antisemitism in Washington on July 11, 2021. Ted Eytan, WikiCommons

We are Zionists.

The children of Israel are the indigenous people of the land of Israel, returning home at last.

Sacks…

Continued from page 16

the people directly by refusing their request, so he adopted a stalling manoeuvre. He did something with the intention of slowing them down, trusting that if the work could be delayed, Moses would reappear. This is what Aaron said:

“Take off the gold rings from the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” Ex. 32:2

According to the Midrash, he thought this would create arguments within families, there would be resistance to the requests for jewellery, and the project would be delayed. Instead, immediately thereafter without a pause, we read:

So all the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. Ex. 32:3

Again the same generosity. Now, these two projects could not be less alike. One, the Tabernacle, was holy.

The other, the Calf, was close to being an idol. Building the Tabernacle was a supreme mitzvah; making the Calf was a terrible sin. Yet their response was the same in both cases. Hence this comment of the Sages:

One cannot understand the nature of this people. If they are appealed to for a Calf, they give. If appealed to for the Tabernacle, they give. Yerushalmi Shekalim 1, 45

The common factor was generosity. Jews may not always make the right choices in what they give to, but they give.

In the twelfth century, Moses Maimonides twice interrupts his customary calm legal prose in his law code, the Mishneh Torah, to make the same point. Speaking about tzedakah, he says:

“We have never seen or heard about a Jewish community which does not have a charity fund.” Laws of Gifts to the poor, 9:3

The idea that a Jewish community could exist without a network of charitable provisions was almost inconceivable. Later in the same book, Maimonides says:

We are obligated to be more scrupulous in fulfilling the commandment of tzedakah than any other positive commandment because tzedakah is the sign of the righteous person, a descendant of Abraham our father, as it is said, “For I know him, that he will command his children … to do tzedakah.” … If someone is cruel and does not show mercy, there are sufficient grounds to suspect his lineage, since cruelty is found only among the other nations. … Whoever refuses to give charity is called Belial, the same term which is applied to idol worshippers. Laws of Gifts to the poor, 10:1-3

Maimonides is here saying more than that Jews give charity. He is saying that a charitable disposition is written into Jewish genes, part of our inherited DNA. It is one of the signs of being a child of Abraham, so much so that if someone does not give charity there are “grounds to suspect his lineage.” Whether this is nature or nurture or both, to be Jewish is to give.

There is a fascinating feature of the geography of the land of Israel. It contains two seas: the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. The Sea of Galilee is full of life. The Dead Sea, as its name implies, is not. Yet they are fed by the same river, the Jordan. The difference — and this is key — is that the Sea of Galilee receives water and gives water. The Dead Sea receives but does not give. To receive but not to give is, in Jewish geography as well as Jewish psychology, simply not life.

So it was in the time of Moses. So it is today. In virtually every country in which Jews live, their charitable giving is out of all proportion to their numbers. In Judaism, to live is to give.

Weinreb…

Continued from page 17

mikrav’echad targum, twice the Hebrew original and once the Aramaic translation of Onkelos. Some of us studied Rashi’s commentary as well. Some delved into the vast ocean of commentaries and super-commentaries. We all have much to celebrate.

But we cannot rest on our laurels. None of us was perfect. We all can improve the time we spend and the intellectual energy we devote to our study of the next chumash, of Leviticus, which offers challenges and rewards of its own.

Chazak, chazak is prospective. We commit to strengthen ourselves, to courageously resolve to do better with Vayikra than we did with Shemot. And we know full well that when we exclaim chazak, chazak several months from now after completing Vayikra, with the help of the Almighty, we will have much to celebrate but also must find the strength to rededicate ourselves with more intensity to the next “big book,” Bamidbar.

Might I suggest that this is why we repat the word chazak twice: once to find the strength to celebrate our past accomplishments while recognizing our imperfections and a second time to pray for the strength to re-dedicate ourselves to greater success in our future Torah study.

Permit me to share with you another Talmudic text along with a Chassidic interpretation that support my way of thinking. The text. found in Tractate Nedarim 38a, is based upon a biblical text that we read just two weeks ago in parshat Ki Tisa: “And He gave Moshe, when He finished addressing him, at Mount Sinai, two tablets of stone.”

The Talmud suggests that the Hebrew phrase for “He finished” is k’kaloto, which calls to mind the Hebrew word kallah or “bride,” and thus we have this talmudic gem:

“This teaches us that Moshe studied the Torah and quickly forgot it, studied it repeatedly and forgot it again and again, until the Almighty gave the Torah to him as a gift, as a bride to a groom.”

The great early Chassidic master, Rabbi Menachem Nachum of Chernobyl (yes, the same Chernobyl where the nuclear disaster occurred), offers a very instructive and original interpretation of this talmudic passage. I must give credit to the late Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski, of blessed memory, who was my dear mentor and friend, who was a descendant of the great Reb Menachem Nachum, and who introduced me to his exquisite work, Maor Einayim.

I summarize and paraphrase the master and author:

“Love is never constant. It ebbs and flows. There are moments when love is intense, perfect, and seemingly will last forever. The moments after the chupah, immediately after the wedding ceremony, when the bride and groom are finally alone for the first time, is a high point in a marriage. As time goes on, the emotions of those moments diminish, but not forever. There are times when the ecstatic love re-emerges and is renewed and often heightened.

“So too was the Torah like a bride to Moshe. Upon his first introduction to the Heavenly Torah, he was ecstatic. But that emotion soon faded. He forgot that “peak experience.” So, he studied more and not only regained the original ecstasy but surpassed it. He studied and forgot, studied again and forgot. Indeed, the relationship between Moshe and the Torah mirrored the relationship between a bride and a groom.”

And so it is with all of us, in our marriages, in close friendships, and in our relationships with the Almighty and His Torah. There are peak moments which we celebrate, but those moments fade, and return only with rededication.

With the completion this Shabbat of one chumash, we have reached a summit. And there is much to celebrate. Chazak!

But then we realize that this sense of satisfaction, this “love-experience,” will fade with time. And so, we rededicate ourselves to cultivate another love experience, when we again will celebrate and, in just a few short months, will again exclaim, “Chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek!”

Freedman…

Continued from page 17

sion itself. The two spies cross the border and head straight for … a brothel (though some suggest it was an inn).

They are discovered almost immediately.

(One can only imagine two individuals, who spent 40 years learning Torah from Moshe under clouds of glory, eating manna every day, walking into a Canaanite bar in yarmulkes and tefillin debating what blessing to make on beer. However were they caught so fast?)

But Rachav the righteous innkeeper hides them on the roof under bales of flax. She then advises them to escape westward into the mountains, as the king’s men will look for them to east. Heeding her advice, they indeed hide for three days in the hills before subsequently making their way back east over the border.

And then comes the most incredible part of the story: rather than apologize for their failed mission, they clearly feel they have succeeded! “Hashem has given the land into our hands,” they say (Yehoshua 2:24). This, despite getting no further than the underside of a pile of flax!

There is a unique phrase the two spies employ when they report on the events of their mission: “kol hamotzot otam” (ibid v. 23), which literally means “all that found them.” We find this word again at the end of the book of Bamidbar, in the portion of Masei, which literally means “journeys.” The Jewish people traveled 42 journeys in their forty years in the desert, and the Torah describes them as motza’eihem, “that which found them” (Bamidbar 33:2).

Because the places described in these 42 journeys are not really places. A rock or a sand dune in the wilderness is not a place we normally encounter. There were no towns or Bedouin encampments; no hospitals or lakes. Refidim was where rafu yadam, their hands became weak and they needed water. Di-Zahav means gold; it was here that the Golden Calf occurred. These are not places, they are events. We don’t travel to events; events find us.

There is a blessing we say every morning as part of the morning blessings: “Hameichin metzadei gaver (He prepares the steps of man).” And the Talmud (Brachot 60b) shares that originally, this blessing was said when we put on our shoes. Really? A blessing for putting on shoes?

But in truth, this blessing hides a deep idea: We wake up in the morning full of plans for the day — but we must remember, with all our best-laid plans, Who really prepares our steps.

Everything that will come into our lives, today and every day, are events that find us. We cannot change those events, but we can change how we react to them, and what we choose to do.

Perhaps that is what the spies are telling Yehoshua: “We had a very different idea of how this mission would go, but these are the events that found us.” Hashem wanted the Jewish people to see just how terrified the Canaanites were of them, and He planned the mission as it transpired.

And maybe that explains the end of Shemot. Even when we encamp, we are always on a journey, and everything that happens finds us for a reason.

So how do Jews in a cattle car headed for Treblinka find the strength to sing?

Perhaps in the same way the Jewish people survived 2,000 years of bitter exile: we somehow understood that every event or encampment is just part of a much larger journey. It was never about controlling the events, it was always about deciding what we are meant to do with them, and Who is really planning them.

All of which will lead us to the third book, which we begin next week: Vayikra, “and He called” — the recognition that hidden in all of the events of our lives is always a calling.

Gerber…

Continued from page 17

(OU Press / HFBS Publishing, 2011).

Rabbi Fohrman, in a breezy and seemingly light hearted style writes a serious analysis of the actions, behaviors and motivations behind the Megillah narrative.

Rabbi Fohrman parses each major player’s personal quirks and attempts to go behind their seemingly superficial behavior in an attempt to ascertain the true spiritual, as well as human, motivations contained both within and without the printed text.

“When you really stop to think about it, Purim was deadly serious,” Rabbi Fohrman explains. “The Jews faced the very real prospect of genocide. Long before the world ever heard of concentration camps, we were almost wiped out on a single, terrifying day. The story is real — and it is harrowing. We owe it to ourselves to look at the story’s narrative as adults and ask what it really means to us.”

Rabbi Fohrman’s work deserves attention. It will most certainly help enhance one’s appreciation of the Megillah’s narrative, a new and refreshing take about Queen Esther and her actions, and offer a better understanding as to the true, serious and spiritual meaning of Purim.

Originally published in 2011.

Tobin...

Continued from page 18

elsewhere, they made the Red Army fight for every street and house in Berlin. Two million German civilians were killed in Allied bombing campaigns and the conquest of the Third Reich, and as many as 125,000 were killed in the last weeks of the war in Berlin alone.

As horrible as those numbers may sound, decent people everywhere understood that the future of civilization required the defeat of the Nazis, and if that meant German civilians must die, then so be it. They knew that massive civilian casualties — far outstripping even the dubious figures supplied by Hamas of those killed in the current war — were the price that the nation had to pay for allowing itself to be led by a genocidal movement that most of its citizens had supported so long as the Nazis were winning the war.

The Palestinians and Hamas are in a similar position today. Their ideology of hatred for Jews is hardly different from that of the Nazis depicted in Glazer’s movie. Their crimes on Oct. 7 were committed with a shameless embrace of barbarism that those who administered Auschwitz actually sought to conceal from the world. But because woke ideology deems the Palestinians to be intersectional victims and Israelis as their oppressors, fashionable opinion is adamant that the war to eradicate Hamas must stop and the Jews must be subjected to more atrocities in the future, if not killed and robbed of their homeland “from the river to the sea” as the pro-terror mobs demand.

Sadly, in 2024, there was no proud Jew who would refute and denounce Glazer later in the ceremony as Chayefsky did to Redgrave in 1978.

Steven Spielberg had the chance to say something but chose to stick to his script. In contemporary Hollywood, complaints that Jews are being erased by the woke catechism that is inextricably linked to antisemitism in the new Oscar “diversity” rules going into effect for next year’s awards are ignored.

It is the “as a Jew” celebrities who have the bully pulpit and those who would speak for the justice of Israel’s cause who are marginalized.

Those, like Glazer, whose efforts are aimed at helping contemporary practitioners of Jewish genocide survive and win — and do so “as Jews” — are a disgrace and deserve to be remembered throughout history with opprobrium along with the worst examples of those who betrayed their own people.

They also illustrate the moral depravity of artists and intellectuals who have been captured by an ideology that enables a virulent form of antisemitism that masquerades as advocacy for human rights.