Exclusive Israel Hayom interview: Trump unclear about Israel — P. 4
TheJewishStar.com
Joseph Lieberman April 5, 2024 26 Adar II, 5784 • Shmini • Vol 23, No 13
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A proud Jew and a pathbreaker with integrity Survivors tell LI the horrors they lived By Michael Hinman, Riverdale Press When Al Gore chose Joe Lieberman as his Democratic vice presidential running mate in 2000, it was a gamechanger for Jews in America as, for the first time, a Jewish candidate was on a major party ticket to lead the country. “I don’t know if any presidential nominee would have had the courage to do it 20 years, let alone 50 years, before,” said Lieberman, who died last Wednesday at the age of 82 from complications due to a fall at his home in Riverdale. And he was just a few hundred hanging chads away from actually winning the spot alongside Gore, ultimately losing in a very close race to then-Texas governor George W. Bush. Throughout all of it, Lieberman never shied away from his faith, or his principles. Just a few years later, in 2008, he almost found himself on a presidential ticket again — this time with his longtime Republican Senate colleague, John McCain. But McCain went with Alaska governor Sarah Palin instead, heeding the advice of his staff that Lieberman’s proabortion stance could split the GOP. “It was sound advice that I could reason for myself,” McCain would later share in his autobiography. “But my gut told me to ignore it, and I wish I had.” McCain would ultimately concede to thenSee Joe Liberman on page 21
Riverdale residents Joe and Hadassah Lieberman, at a support-Israel event in the Riverale Jewish Center on Jan. 8. Ed Weintrob, The Jewish Star
Jew-hating Bowman’s ignorance on display in ‘happy Purim’ wish I
Rep. Jamaal Bowman at SUNY Westchester Community College in Valhalla on May 10, 2023. Paul Froggatt, Shutterstock
Commentary by Nachama Soloveichik t’s no surprise that one of Israel’s harshest critics in Washington doesn’t understand Judaism, even as he uses it to obscure his antisemitism. Rep. Jamaal Bowman, the card-carrying member of the leftist “Squad,” whose district includes parts of the Bronx and Westchester, wished the Jewish community a happy Purim on X. “Chag Purim sameach to all of those in the Jewish community! Let today be filled with joy, hamantashen, and costumes,” he wrote. “As the Megillah is reread, let’s remind ourselves of the incredible bravery of Esther and the resilience of the Jewish community.” Bowman was quickly roasted as a hypocrite who cares little about the “resilience
of the Jewish community.” After all, Bowman is an unrepentant, one-sided critic of Israel. Even before Oct. 7, he blamed Israel exclusively for the lack of peace in the region. He spearheaded a bicameral letter with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, calling on the Biden administration to “undertake a shift in US policy” towards Israel. Oct. 7 should have been a wake-up call for Bowman. It wasn’t. Only a month after Hamas’s horrific massacre, Bowman was already calling for a ceasefire and defending this call as “uplifting deeply what it actually means to be Jewish.” (Bowman is not Jewish, deeply or otherwise.) A few days later, in a newly unearthed See Bowman’s ignorance on page 2
By Ben Fiebert, LI Herald Amit and Tomer Ades decorated their home in the beginning of October to celebrate their son’s fifth birthday. What they didn’t prepare for was celebrating his birthday in a safe room while hearing gunfire outside draw closer and closer. Oct. 7 was a dreadful day for the Ades family and their Kfar Aza kibbutz. Amit and Tomer, along with their three children — Ori, 7, Shir, 5, and Ellie, 1 — narrowly escaped Hamas’ attack on their community, which is inside Israel about a mile from the Gaza border. Amit and Tomer recounted their harrowing experience to a large audience at Temple Am Echad in Lynbrook. The Ades family lived in the center of the kibbutz along with about 800 others. Amit explained that because she lives near a weapons cache, where first defenders keep weapons safe until the IDF arrives, her home was in a danger zone. “We think they knew about this place because they were coming very fast to our house,” Amit said. At 6:30 am, alarms blared throughout the village, and Amit woke up to the sound of strong, nonstop bombing. Less than 10 minutes after the first alarm, there was shooting right outside of her home. “We started chatting in our kibbutz’ What’s App group chat and people were saying that we should lock ourselves in the safe room,” Amit said. Their kids’ bedroom doubled as a safe room. Without trying to panic them, they closed the bedroom door and created a barrier. By 6:45 am, the family huddled toSee On LI on page 6
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