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Jan. 2-29, 2026 [Next issue Jan. 30] • Vayechi • 13 Teves 5786 • Vol. 25, No. 1

In 2025, The Jewish Star covers told the story of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.

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Jan. 16 to 23, 2025 • Shemos • 17 Teves 5785 • Vol 24, No 2

6 million dead Jews? Forgetaboutit! They don’t know about the Shoah or don’t believe it happened, says ADL

By Mike Wagenheim, JNS A new survey released by the Anti-Defamation League shows nearly half of the global population holds elevated levels of antisemitic attitudes. The Global 100 poll found that an estimated 2.2 billion people, representing 46% of the world’s adults, “harbor deeply entrenched antisemitic attitudes,” the ADL stated. That figure is double the level from a decade ago and the highest on record since the group monitoring Jew-hatred began examining worldwide trends. Through its polling partners, including Ipsos, the ADL surveyed more than 58,000

adults from 103 countries, covering some 94% of the world’s adult population, with responses solicited between July 23 and Nov. 13, 2024. Alarmingly, the survey revealed that one-fifth of respondents have not heard about the Holocaust with only 48% recognizing the historical accuracy of the mass-murder operation to eradicate European Jewry. That figure of recognizing the accuracy of the Holocaust fell to just 16% among respondents in the Middle East. That figure falls under 40% among 18to 34-year-olds — a demographic among which some 50% overall hold antisemitic

sentiments. Forty percent of that age category also agreed that “Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars.” The antisemitic figures among the younger generation were noticeably worse than their elders in many categories. “We live in a world in which a literal modern-day pogrom can take place in the streets of a major Western European capital, unchecked for hours, and in the aftermath, we are gaslit and told that what happened was something we imagined or blamed for the act in the first place,” Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL national director See Hates us on page 4

Floodgates keeping antisemitism under wraps broke on Oct. 7, 2023. Pro-Hamas, anti-Israel and anti-Jewish rallies exploded around the world after Hamas’ mass murder, rape, mutilation and kidnapping of Jews, including this rally in Times Square on Oct. 9, 2023. Lev Radin, Shutterstock

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Military support

The ammunition shortage crisis, stemming from the Biden administration’s restrictions on certain munitions, heads Israel’s immediate requirements. Trump’s transition team has indicated plans for comprehensive removal of these restrictions and expedited military shipments to the Israel Defense Forces within the first 48 hours after his inauguration. The Gaza war presents another urgent priority. The incoming president has articulated a more definitive

Looking forward

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump, UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan (right) and Bahrain Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani (left)attend the Abraham Accords Signing Ceremony at the White House on Sept. 15, 2020. Avi Ohayon, GPO

stance on concluding the war — following an Israeli victory — than has the current Israeli leadership. While an immediate cessation is not expected, Trump’s team anticipates resolution within months. The administration plans to request that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu provide a detailed strategic roadmap for bringing the campaign to its conclusion.

Diplomacy, legalities

In what would be a significant move against international legal pressure targeting Israel, Trump plans immediate action regarding the International Criminal Court in The Hague

(ICC). As reported by Israel Hayom, comprehensive sanctions will target the institution and its personnel, including economic restrictions and U.S. entry bans. This executive action parallels congressional initiatives for stringent legislation against the court and its collaborators. The administration also plans to swiftly address the Biden-era sanctions affecting Israeli citizens, particularly those targeting Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria and Tzav 9 movement leaders who opposed Hamas supply transfers. Trump’s team has committed to removing these restrictions during their initial days in office.

Regional dynamics

The completion of the Abraham Accords through Israeli-Saudi normalization remains a shared objective, though significant challenges persist. Saudi Arabia’s nuclear development aspirations conflict with Israeli security principles, while their expectation of Israeli acknowledgment regarding a future Palestinian state faces increased resistance following the Oct. 7 massacre. Israel’s strategic concerns extend to the growing influence of Muslim Brotherhood-aligned states. This includes Turkey’s expanding regional role, its Syrian protectorate and Qatar’s mounting in-

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Additional bilateral matters await discussion, including Israel’s potential support for various American global initiatives. The US also maintains its reservations about Chinese involvement in Israeli strategic investments. These issues are considerably interconnected: Addressing Iran’s nuclear program could influence Saudi nuclear ambitions, while expedited military support could accelerate conflict resolution in Gaza. Two fundamental principles warrant consideration. First, contemporary leadership typically dedicates 80% of its attention to emerging challenges rather than planned initiatives. Second, Trump — historically considered Israel’s strongest presidential ally — employs unconventional approaches and strategic surprises to achieve breakthrough results. While such behavior may emerge, it is unlikely to disadvantage Israeli interests.

As DC power shifts, Cruz says airlines will return

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A village trustee said Chabad is ‘buying the world town by town,’ adding, ‘They have the numbers, they procreate.’

he Village of Atlantic Beach is incurring sizable financial costs as a result of its long-running dispute with Long Beachbased Chabad Lubavitch of the Beaches over the organization’s effort to open an outreach center at the foot of the Atlantic Beach Bridge. •The village’s egal costs have totaled about $375,000 — so far •The village may also have to pay Chabad at least $400,000 stemming from a federal court’s finding of violations of the Chabad group’s constitutional rights. At the same time, Atlantic Beach’s 1700 year-round residents are facing a local tax increase of 50 percent or more. That steep hike is unrelated to the Chabad case and stems from the village’s past mismanagement of its finances. Not only money is at stake. The reputation of the South Shore community that’s adjacent to the Five Towns has also been badly damaged. The move to keep Chabad out of Atlantic Beach partly reflects intolerance toward pious and proselytizing Jews whose culture

and beliefs are not shared by a majority of residents. The controversy dates to 2021 when Chabad of the Beaches paid $950,000 for a 10,000-square-foot property at the foot of the bridge, a prominent location was listed for sale following the closure in 2019 of a Capital One branch. The village made no move to buy the building during the two-year period when it remained vacant and available. But soon after Chabad’s purchase, the village sought to use its eminent-domain power to seize the property, with the stated intention of opening a community center and a lifeguard operations facility there. ome Atlantic Beach residents voiced opposition to the seizure of Chabad’s property. They noted that the village already owned other parcels suitable for a community center. Constructing it at an alternate location would avoid the cost of compensating Chabad for the taking of its property via eminent domain, the critics said. See Atlantic Beach on page 2

S 2025 Park St., at the foot of the Atlantic Beach Bridge, was formerly a CapitalOne branch that included drive-thru banking. The proposed use of the property by Chabad of the Beaches would feature a drivethru for kosher-food pickup.

By The Jewish Star Sunday’s Run 4 Their Lives — a weekly walk through Riverdale calling for the release of Hamas’ captives — reflected a mix of joy and sadness. “We never imagined we would be here a year after we started this walk,” said Netta Pack, a Riverdalian who is a junior at The Leffell School in Hartsdale. She began the walks on Jan. 19, 2024, with family friend Ari Vogel, a junior at The Heschel School near Lincoln Center. In exchange for 33 hostages Hamas commited to release in the first phase of the current ceasefire deal (including Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher who were freed on Sunday), Israel pledged to release hundreds of prisoners, including Abdullah Sharbati, Majdi Zaatari and Samer al-Atrash, masterminds behind a 2003 bus bombing that killed 24 people including seven children. While thrilled that three hostages were released on Sunday, Pack explained her personal frustration with the deal.

After their march ended at the Bell Tower in Riverdale, there was singing.

Jewish Star columnist

W Freed hostage Agam Berger is a violinist. As a balat teshuva, she’s an inspiration.

Courtesy

atching video after video of the hostages released over the last few weeks brings forth feelings of happiness for the individuals released and their enormously grateful loved ones, along with feelings of unease and despair at the apparent surrender to terrorist demands. Watching the barbaric hordes, salivating and celebrating like wild beasts around Arbel

Ed Weintrob, The Jewish Star

“In 2012, my great-grandfather Yitzchock was on a bus in Jerusalem on a quiet morning. A suicide bomber walked onto the bus and detonated his bomb, blowing up the bus and injuring 20 people, including my great-grandfather,” she said. “He lost his hearing and was in pain from the injuries he sustained in this attack. The quality of his life was dramatically impacted and he died shortly after. “In this deal, that suicide bomber, who actually wanted to die that day but somehow managed to survive, will be released from jail.” “This shows us what has been happening not just for the last 471 days but for years. We all must remain together to sustain who we are and overcome this pain together,” Pack said. “Three beautiful souls are coming home today but there are still 96 left.” Every Sunday at 10 am, Riverdale residents set out from Seton Park, parading through the community and congregating at the Memorial Bell Tower while chanting “Bring them all home!” See Joy, sorrow on page 10

Mobilizing Germany to hate: A 1934 Nazi Party rally in Nuremburg. WikiCommons, Public Domain

Holocaust survivors — fewer in number each year — attend the commemoration of the liberation of the German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Red Army 80 years ago on Jan. 27. Sergei Gapon, AFP via Getty Images.via JNS

World marks ‘Holocaust Remembrance Day’ as its memory of Shoah fades Fiamma NiReNSTeiN

he sentiment “Never Again,” once a solemn vow against repeating the horrors of the Holocaust, has eroded in the face of rising global antisemitism and the ideological tides that now threaten the Jewish people and the State of Israel. On Monday, the world marked Holocaust Remembrance Day — but it was a day not of remembrance but of “non-remembrance,” a stark reckoning with the betrayal of that promise. Antisemitism manifests itself today

through a coordinated assault on Israel, a nation surrounded by hostility on multiple fronts. Globally, antisemitic ideologies flourish, infiltrating academia, workplaces and cultural institutions. This widespread animosity belies the hollow commemorations of the Holocaust; performative gestures by some nations contrast sharply with actions that vilify and discriminate against modern Jewish communities. The Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023 — marked by atrocities against civilians, including children — laid bare the resurgence of genocidal hate. It is a grim reminder of the dehumanization that fueled the final solution of Jews that Nazi Germany worked so hard to achieve. Hamas’ actions — filmed and disseminated for propaganda — mirror the worst atroci-

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WORD ON THE STREET

ties of the past, albeit with modern tools and a chilling openness. The cries of “From the river to the sea” and “Kill the Jews,” heard in protests across Europe, the United States and elsewhere, echo the rhetoric of annihilation. While the scale and methodology of these acts differ from the Shoah, the intent to demonize and eradicate remains disturbingly

Anti-Jewish hatred that fueled the Holocaust is alive and adapting to modern contexts.

familiar. The Holocaust’s haunting images — a mother clutching her child moments before death in Ivangorod, Ukraine — resonate with the horrors of families slaughtered in their homes or burned alive in October. These parallels challenge us to confront a painful truth: The anti-Jewish hatred that fueled the Holocaust is alive and adapting to modern contexts. he failure to uphold “Never Again” is evident in the political opportunism and ignorance surrounding responses to contemporary antisemitism. Institutions that claim to honor Holocaust memory often simultaneously endorse narratives that demonize Israel. For example, universities expel Israeli representatives, while activists call for a “free Palestine” without addressing See Nirenstein on page 2

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Yahud and Gadi Moses as they were released, fills us with anger, despair and uncertainty. Was the price worth it? As the value of a human life is incalculable, this question has no answer. The release of Agam Berger, one of several women military observers at Nahal Oz on the Gaza border (whose warnings were ignored by higher-ups), provided a spark of hope. A gifted violinist, she was a baalat teshuva who, it’s been reported, during her captivity kept Shabbat as best as possible, did not eat meat to maintain kashrut, and even fasted on Tisha B’av. As result of her daughter’s commitment to Shabbat, her mother, Meirav, asked that Agam not be released on Shabbat, to avoid any furSee The news on page 13

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Wrath of Trump If hostages aren’t freed by noon Saturday, ‘all bets are off and let hell break out’ By Combined Sources President Donald Trump vowed on Monday that “all hell is going to break out” if Hamas does not release the remaining hostages by Saturday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that if the hostages are not released in line with Trump’s ultimatum, the ceasefire will expire and the IDF will resume fighting until it defeats Hamas totally. “As far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12 o’clock — I think it’s an appropriate time — I would say, cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out,” Trump told reporters at the White House as he was signing a new round of executive orders.

“I’d say they ought to be returned by 12 o’clock on Saturday,” the president said. “And if they’re not returned — all of them, not in drips and drabs, not two and one and three and four and two — by Saturday at 12 o’clock. And after that, I would say, all hell is going to break out.” After that time, Trump said, “it’s going to be a different ball game.” Asked what “all hell will break out” means, Trump responded: “You’ll find out, and they’ll find out, too. Hamas will find out what I mean.” “We want them all back,” Trump said. “I’m speaking for myself. Israel can override it.” See Wrath of Trump on page 2

Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades parade Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi before handing him over to the International Red Cross on Feb 8. Abed Rahim Khatib, Flash90

MASHA MERKULOVA CLUB Z

Anti-Israel demonstrators in San Francisco on Oct. 9, 2023.

Phil Pasquini, Shutterstock via JNS

Jews, Israel’s indigenous people, aren’t going anywhere their mother, respond by violently attacking Orthodox Jews in Borough Park, the heavily Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn in which I grew up? No matter what our individual views may be, and whether or not we are religious, Jews are indigenous to

PHylliS S CHeSleR leR

60% of 14-year-old Jewish teens sympathize with Hamas. And what are we doing about it?

We shall not be moved hat kind of a liberation movement purposely, with malice aforethought, murders a 9-month-old infant, a 4-year-old toddler and their terrorized mother? What kind of world praises Hamas’ atrocities? How “civilized” can people in the civilized West be if, in response to the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, they continue to support the rape, torture, murder and kidnapping of civilians from southern Israel? Or, just hours after Hamas announced that it would be returning the corpses of the Bibas children and

The kids are NOT alright

From Agam Berger, joy DR. ALAN MAZUREK

leged antisemitism, Title VI violations, and threats of violence on university campuses. He singled out elite schools — which receive material percentages of their budgets from federal sources — as places most likely to have their funding reduced. “I do believe one of the most significant shifts under Trump is that the Department of Justice is going to go after any university that looks the other way, that tolerates antisemitic threats of violence, intimidation and threats directed at Jewish students,” said Cruz. “And Columbia [University] is right at the top of the worst, worst offenders. And so if they don’t change their conduct dramatically, I think you’re going to see the Trump administration cut off their federal funds.”

Joy and sadness at Riverdale’s hostage march

16 Shevat 5785 • Yisro Vol. 24, No. 6

Atlantic Beach continues costly war to stop Chabad LI Herald columnist

ing flights go in and out. I think it is politics that is driving that decision rather than their stated concerns.” Particularly, the politics of the flight attendants union “that has been very vocally anti-Israel and in fact has supported the antisemitic protests on college campuses,” he said. Cruz said he was “going back to drawing a line in the sand.” “I’m going to predict within 30 days they’ll resume flights.” Meanwhile the resumption of international flights to Israel is gaining momentum, with the Lufthansa Group preparing to restore service through six of its carriers within two weeks. On other matters, Cruz told Weiss that changes were coming to how the federal government treats acts of al-

Feb. 14-20, 2025

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KEVIN J. KELLEY

After meeting a hostage family, Senator Ted Cruz presented PresidentElect Trump with pictures their children drew for Trump. @tedcrux, X

By The Jewish Star There’s a new marshal in town and his sheriffs are preparing for high noon. For some time, Texas Senator Ted Cruz has been asking the US airlines to resume flights to Israel. Now his demands are carrying considerable weight. “Look, I’m the incoming chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee that has jurisdiction over, among other things, over 40 percent of the US economy, including aviation. “A lot can be done. I think this will be fixed,” he told The Free Press’ Bari Weiss on Monday. “I think US airlines need to resume flights to Israel. We have El Al that has flights. We have regional airlines in the Middle East and in Europe that are hav-

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Senate big cites anti-Israel politics, not safety worries, for prolonged cancellations

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ANALYSIS fluence in the West through sophisticated diplomacy and economic leverage. While unaddressed in initial discussions between the incoming administration and Netanyahu, these developments demand increasing attention. The Palestinian question, central to Trump’s first-term “Deal of the Century,” now occupies a markedly lower priority. While his national security appointees largely align with Israeli rightwing positions, the president’s current stance remains undefined.

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Jan. 31 to Feb. 6, 2025 • Bo • 2 to 8 Shevat 5785 • Vol. 24, No. 4

24 Tevet 5785 • Vaera Vol. 24, No. 3

Trump: Good heart, uncertain agenda By Ariel Kahana, Israel Hayom As Donald Trump prepares to reclaim the White House in just a few days, an extensive portfolio of international and domestic challenges awaits — with Israel’s security concerns commanding significant attention. Unlike his first term, Trump enters office on Jan. 20 following methodical preparation and with a clear grasp of both priorities and implementation strategies. The Iranian nuclear threat stands as the foremost security concern. Having withdrawn from the nuclear agreement in 2018 during his previous term, Trump demonstrates acute awareness of the immediate danger Tehran represents. Two assassination attempts by the ayatollahs’ regime have only reinforced his determination for swift resolution. The incoming administration’s approach encompasses multiple strategies: stringent American sanctions, enhanced Israeli-American military collaboration and the potential formation of a broader international coalition.

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n a California public high school arts class, a conversation unfolded between students. One shared that his great-grandparent had been a Nazi while a Jewish teen revealed that her great-grandmother, now 103, had survived the Holocaust. When another student heard this, he remarked, “I guess his greatgrandfather didn’t complete his mission.” Across the country, at a public high school on the East Coast, a math teacher’s personal choice of jewelry consists of a necklace with a Palestinian flag in the shape of a map of Israel and another necklace with watermelons on it. •In an era where 91% of Generation Z obtain their news and world opinion from social media, we can’t afford to be passive about Jewish education and advocacy. •When 60% of 14-year-old Jewish teens sympathize with Hamas, we’re failing our youth.

Yet there’s hope in these stark numbers. How? Education and empowerment. These statistics demand immediate, decisive action. But instead of confronting these challenges head-on, our community is lost in debates about what to call our response. •Is it “education” or “advocacy?” •Are we “politicizing” our children or “empowering” them? •Should we focus on “dialogue” or “action?” hile we parse these terms, our teens are learning to hide their identity in ways that should alarm us. •They’re staying quiet about their trips to Israel. •Some won’t even mention they’re Jewish in class discussions. •They’re learning to make themselves invisible while we debate words instead of taking action. When African-Americans advocate for their civil rights, when LGBTQ+ individuals demand equal treatment and when women push for equality, we call it empowerment. Yet when American Jews stand up for themselves, many of us hesitate, excuse the bad behavior and even demand that these stand-up Jews See To save our kids on page 2

‘Beards for Bibas’ meets tragic end The Kotel in Jerusalem.

Courtesy G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection and LOC

Bari Weiss warns threat is growing on right as well By The Jewish Star The “last thing” pro-Israel conservative stalwart Bari Weiss wanted to have to reckon with “is the extent of profound anti-American and anti-Jewish sentiment on large parts of the American right.”

the Holy Land. We were there long before anyone else ever visited or occupied us. There were always Jews there. Now, we are a sovereign nation in the Holy Land once again. See Chesler on page 2

“I’ve spent the past decade of my life so focused in so many ways on the excesses of the illiberal left,” she said on her Honestly podcast last Thursday. “Over the past several months, I feel like my gaze is now shifting to what’s happening on the right.”

Press group visits NYC shul Representatives of the American Middle East Press Association discussed efforts to facilitate access by reporters and news media leaders to stories and key players in the region, at Congregation B’nai Avraham of Brooklyn Heights on Sunday. From left: AMEPA’s Kim Kamen and Suzanne Zionts, NY Post contributor Doree Lewak, and AMEPA media adisers Warren Cohn and Jeremy Pink. They were welcomed by CBA President Ellen Kamaras and Rabbi Aaron Raskin. Ed Weintrob, The Jewish Star

Weiss famously quit a prominent editorial position at the New York Times in 2020 over its anti-Israel bias and later founded The Free Press. “A lot of the illiberalism on the left … began as a fringe online movement that a lot of Democrats and a lot of liberals waved away because it was just some crazy influencers online,” she recalled. “Woe to the people … [who] believe that the things that Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson are saying will not make an impact on the right, because they will.” While some of the policy priorities voiced by President Trump have generated a whirlwind, there is “a profound unpredictability, not just of Trump but of the world right now,” she said. “Trump went on Twitter and said there would be ‘hell to pay,’ sent a real-estate guy from the Bronx who seems to have accomplished, arguably, … more than Jake Sullivan and any of these fancy pointy heads over the past few years,” Weiss said. “Looked at another way, Trump is a See Warns on page 2

By Steven Goodstein The Riverdale Press It was an emotional week for a longtime Riverdale resident who vowed not to shave until two Israeli children hostages kidnapped by Hamas were released. Instead, their bodies were returned to Israel. James Lapin, who has lived in Riverdale for the past 25 years, began his no-shave journey in January 2024 as he advocated for the release of Kfir Bibas, a 9-month-old infant, and 4-year-old Ariel Bibas, two of the more than 240 hostages kidnapped by Gazan terrorists during their Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel. On Feb. 19, more than 500 days after they had been kidnapped, the two children, along with their mother, Shiri Bibas, 33, and longtime Israeli journalist, Oded Lifshitz, 83, were officially declared deceased. Despite the long-held hope that the young hostages were alive, Hamas announced they had been killed a month after their kidnapping. Four bodies were returned to Israel the next day. Lapin, who shaved his beard later that evening, explained his decision not to shave his facial hair or cut the hair on his head was a way to be connected to the Bibas boys until the two children returned home. “I felt like I needed to do something in solidarity with the Bibas boys, on behalf of all hostages — and the hostages don’t have access to barber shops,” Lapin said. The father of the boys, Yarden Bibas, was released on Feb. 1 as part of a Gaza ceasefire involving a hostages-and-prisoners exchange agreed upon by Israel and Hamas last month.

Riverdalian James Lapin grew out his beard for more than a year in solidarity with Israeli hostages.

Lapin, who got a haircut when the first hostages were returned on Jan. 19, continued to let his beard grow while monitoring developments. “I was constantly checking for updates on released hostages, but I was reminded of the situation every time I would look in the mirror,” Lapin said. See ‘Beards for Bibas’ on page 2

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Tabloid war over Khalil

By The Jewish Star New York’s tabloid newspapers faced off on Monday with dueling front pages screaming opposite angles on the day’s big news: The arrest of Columbia University Israel-bashing provocateur of campus antisemitism Mahmoud Khalil. The New York Post’s cover delighted in the seizure by ICE of Khalil, with similarlytoned coverage inside. The Daily News, on the other hand, focused on “outrage” among pro-Hamas protestors and others who claim for Khalil — a Syrian-born Palestinian who in 2024 became a permanent US resident with a green card after having entered on a student visa two years earlier — the right to make trouble unhindered. “Columbia University and its sister school Barnard College did an exceedingly poor job handling nasty anti-Israel campus protests, which too often bled into even nastier antisemitism,” the Daily News conceded in an editorial in Monday’s paper, “but the federal government, restricted by the First

Daily News: Set him free

NY Post: Throw him out

Amendment, cannot use its tremendous powers and unlimited resources to crack down on institutions and people based on solely on speech.” In its editorial, the NY Post cheered “the reported arrest and likely deportation of Mahmoud Khalil.” “ICE has put fresh teeth on President Donald Trump’s crackdown on campus hate. Hooray!” said the Post, which pointed out that the post-Oct. 7 anti-Israel movement, personified by disruptions at Columbia and Barnard, “sought to intimidate America with passion and force — occupying campus quads, blockading and/or rampaging through libraries, harassing and assaulting visible Jews.” While the News said “we are pretty sure that a permanent resident status can’t be canceled like that [and Khalil] bundled onto a plane to Louisiana,” the Post countered that “this is both a defense of decency and a push against the perversion of privilege, and we look forward to seeing a lot more of it.” See Tabloids on page 2

JonaThan S. ToBIn JnS Editor-in-Chief

Boys join Lemmer at YIW dinner Shulem Lemmer was accompanied by three of Rabbi Shay and Rebbetzin Rina Schachter’s children, as he performed during last week’s dinner marking the Young Israel of Woodmere’s 64th anniversary, at Marina Del Rey in Throgs Neck. Ira Thomas

Aliyah Fair visitors spoke with exhibors and collected literature. Ed Weintrob, The Jewish Star

Bonnie and Issac Gelb of Riverdale visit exhibitors at the Nefesh B’Nefesh Aliyah Fair in Teaneck. Ed Weintrob, The Jewish Star

years, alongside thousands of other healthcare professionals, by facilitating recruitment, licensing, and professional integration into Israel’s medical system. A record-breaking 519 physicians made aliyah in 2024. This year’s New Jersey MedEx drew physicians from 25 states and provinces across the US and Canada, along with other medical professionals, including nurses, dentists, podiatrists, psychologists, optometrists, pharmacists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, physiotherapists, audiologists, dietitians and nutritionists, and dental hygienists. For the first time, physician assistants were also able to receive guidance and support. See Aliyah hopefuls on page 6

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Chutzpadik Chuck’s not our ‘shomer’

Moving on up: Aliyah hopefuls flock to fairs With two powerful events dedicated to advancing aliyah, Nefesh B’Nefesh and its partners drew hundreds of participants to Teaneck on Sunday and Monday. About 600 people attended NBN’s flagship Aliyah Fair, an annual gathering that’s a one-stop hub for essential services and expert consultations on every step of the aliyah journey. Participants engaged with trusted professionals, including representatives from the Jerusalem Municipality, legal and real estate experts, notaries, and financial consultants, receiving personalized guidance on documentation, licensing, background checks, and financing options in Israel. Throughout the fair, attendees participated in workshops designed to simplify the complex aliyah process. Real-time consultations, one-on-one expert sessions, and interactive panels ensured that each individual received tailored assistance for their unique aliyah plans. On Sunday, over 500 Jewish doctors and healthcare professionals gathered at the 10th annual MedEx event hosted by Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Negev, Galilee and National Resilience and Nefesh B’Nefesh and in partnership with the Jewish Agency for Israel. MedEx works to streamline the aliyah process for medical professionals and ensure their successful integration into Israel’s healthcare workforce. MedEx is a flagship initiative of the International Medical Aliyah Program (IMAP), a nationwide effort to address Israel’s physician shortage — an issue highlighted by both the World Health Organization and the OECD. IMAP aims to bring 2,000 Jewish doctors to Israel over the next five

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April 4–10, 2025 • Vayikra • 6 Nisan 5785 • Vol. 24, No. 12

21 Adar 5785 • Vayakhel 28 Adar 5785 • Pekudai

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LIer is 10K Birthright volunteer Long Islander Madison Stock is the 10,000th participant in the Birthright Israel volunteer program. The 22-year-old from Woodbury has extended her visit to Israel after completing work on agricultural projects in Moshav Gamzu, Moshav Zeitan, Moshav Beit Yitzchak, Moshav Gan Haim and Hinanit. Stock participated in the 10-day Birthright Israel trip last summer, fell in love with the country, and decided to return as a volunteer. In the US, she works in event planning and the restaurant business. Read how Birthright impacts the children of participants, on page 8.

lan Dershowitz may have written a book titled “Chutzpah,” but if anyone’s picture deserves to be in the dictionary alongside that idiomatic Yiddish word, it’s that of Sen. Chuck Schumer. There is fierce competition for such a dubious honor among politicians. But when it comes to the most shameless opportunist, most disingenuous and most willing to betray the principles he never stops telling us he is dedicated to defending, the Senate Minority Leader wins the argument hands down. Any doubt about that was erased when it was announced that he was writing a book about antisemitism, due to be released this week. But his office just canceled the senator’s book tour, which would have taken him to stops at prestigious Jewish venues in Atlanta, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and California. The reason cited was “security concerns.” That really seals the deal. At a time when Jews are facing an unprecedented surge in hate directed against them, that a Jewish leader who is protected around the clock by Capitol Police — and who claims to be a leader of his community, as well as the self-styled shomer or “guardian” of Israel — would choose to hide rather than face his critics says all there is to know about him, his book and exactly why we don’t need to hear a word from him on the subject. he shomer title is a piece of dishonest shtick that Schumer has been using his entire adult life, all spent in political office. It’s an attempt to cash in on the fact that his name sounds like the Hebrew word for “guardian” or “watchman.” In truth, its meaning derives from a German word that meant “shoemaker” or a good-for-nothing vagabond. That wouldn’t matter if the 74-year-old

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in Statuary Hall at the US Capitol on March 14. Tasos Katopodis, Getty Images via JNS

had acted as the shomer of the Jewish community or a valiant supporter of Israel during his 44 years serving in Washington, the last 26 in the Senate. When running for re-election or speaking to Jewish groups, he puts on a show whose purpose is to portray himself as an ordinary guy from Brooklyn determined to look out for other Jews and the most devoted friend of Israel in Congress. The truth has always been different. Schumer is — like many in his profession and much of humanity — solely interested in his own interests and professional advanceSee Chutzpadik Chuck on page 10

The Jewish Star will not publish next week. We will return ‫בעזרת השם‬ on Wednesday, April 5, with our pre-Pesach issue.

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‘My name is Eli Sharabi. I am not a diplomat. I am a surivor.’ ‘I’m here before you now to give my testimony and to ask: Where was the United Nations? Where was the Red Cross? Where was the world? ‘491 days. That is how long I starved, how long I was chained, how long I begged for humanity. And in all that time, no one came. ‘Now, I’m here before you at the United Nations to say: Bring them all home. ‘No more excuses. No more delays. If you stand for humanity, prove it. Bring them home.’

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Eli Sharabi shares testimony of his captivity in Gaza at the UN Security Council on March 20.

In a 19-minute address to a hushed session of the United Nations Security Council, freed Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi recounted the murder of his wife and daughters and his harrowing 491 days of captivity in Hamas tunnels in Gaza where he endured physical and psychological abuse and starvation. “I cannot begin to describe the agony. It was hell,” he said. Sharabi criticized the UN and the Red Cross for their inaction. “491 days. …In all that time, no one came,” he said. “I know that you’ve discussed the humanitarian situation in Gaza very often,” he continued. “But let me tell you, as an eyewitness, I saw what happened to that aid: Hamas stole it.” He emphasized the urgent need to secure the release of remaining hostages. This is the text of his address. y name is Eli Sharabi. I am 53 years old. I’ve come back from hell. I’ve returned to tell my story.

I used to live in Kibbutz Be’eri with my British-born wife, Lianne, and my daughters, Noiya and Yahel. It was a beautiful community. We were all passionate about creating the best life for our children and for our neighbors. At 16, I left Tel Aviv for Be’eri seeking a peaceful home, away from the concrete city. I found a loving community and knew I would raise my family there. Many asked why we lived near Gaza, but to me, Be’eri was heaven. Lianne came from Bristol, UK, as a volunteer. She was meant to stay a few months, but she met me and we fell in love. We were married for 23 years and had two wonderful daughters and a dog, Mocha. [Sharabi holds up a picture of his family.] On October 7, my heaven turned to hell. Sirens began. Hamas terrorists invaded. And I was ripped away from my family, never to see them again. For 491 days, I was kept mostly

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Perry Bindelglass, Israeli UN mission

underground in Hamas terror tunnels — chained, starved, beaten, and humiliated. I was held captive in the darkness, isolated from the world by Hamas terrorists. They took pleasure in our suffering. I survived on scraps of food with no medical attention and no mercy. When I was released, I weighed just 44 kilos [97 pounds]. I had lost over 30 kilos, nearly half my body weight. For 491 days, I held on to hope. I imagined the life we would rebuild. I dreamt of seeing my family again. Only when I returned home, I learned the truth. My wife and my daughters had been slaughtered by Hamas terrorists on October 7.

’m here today, less than six weeks after my release, to speak for those still trapped in that nightmare. •For my brother Yossi, murdered in Hamas captivity, his body still held hostage. See Stand for humanity on page 2

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April 11–24, 2025 • Pesach • 13 Nisan 5785 • Vol. 24, No. 13

Why this Pesach is different Here are 8 reasons By Deborah Fineblum For an entire year, the story waits patiently in the Haggadah to whisper powerful secrets in our ears on Seder night. Though the words have remained unchanged for the last 3,336 years, the Passover message offers nuances annually, its ageless wisdom illuminating the Jewish experience of that exact moment. The Torah tells them to mark this momentous experience “in the month of springtime,” and the holiday begins this year on Saturday night, April 12, with the first (and for Israelis, the only) Seder and runs eight days through the evening of April 20 (seven days in Israel). Down through the ages, Jews have gathered with family and friends on the night of the Seder to relive their people’s most dramatic and defining moment: No less than the Master of the Universe rescuing the Israelites from 210 years of back-breaking and soul-killing slavery at the hands of the cruelest of Egyptian pharaohs and his whip-cracking taskmasters. But even now, as Jews around the globe prepare to celebrate freedom from Egyptian slavery, the message that Passover delivers strikes to the heart of what it means to be a Jew in 2025/5785. What does it mean to know that 59 people, living and dead, are being held captive in the Gaza Strip by a terror organization — and have been for nearly 18 months while the world waits and watches? That Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran and other rogue entities seek Israel’s destruction … yet again. To put a finger on this pulse, JNS asked eight people to speak at about what the Haggadah can teach right now.

1. Michael Levy

March to freedom at HALB

For the Levy family, the holiday of freedom has never been as poignant as it is this year, since Michael Levy’s little brother, Or Levy, was See Here are 8 reasons on page 8

Second graders at HALB didn’t just learn about the Exodus,they re-enacted it, leaving Mitzrayim and crossing Yam Suf. See more schools on page 11.

The story of life is like Seder’s broken matzah RABBi YoSSY GoLdMAn S. African Rabbinical Assn.

eder means “order.” And one of the items in the order of the Seder agenda is yachatz. Well, what is yachatz? We break the middle matzah of the three matzahs on our Seder plates. The larger part is put away for the afikomen and the smaller part remains inside the Seder plate throughout the recital of the Haggadah, until we say the blessing of Hamotzi. This is true lechem oni, the bread of poverty. Not only is it a flat, tasteless waferm but it’s broken as well. Rabbi Shlomo Riskin has pointed out that we say all of maggid, virtually the entire Haggadah, over half a matzah. And he makes a very powerful conclusion:

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A young boy breaks a piece of matzah during a model Seder.

Nati Shohat, Flash90

Isn’t life just like that? There is always something eluding us. For some, it may be health, for others wealth or success, nachas or happiness in general. Somehow, as much as we achieve in life, there is always something more that we want that keeps slipping out of our grasp. Our Sages taught, “No person dies having achieved even half of his ambitions and desires.” “Really?” you may say. Aren’t there many individuals who have achieved everything they set out to achieve? I know a couple of guys who seem to fit the description of “the man who has everything.” The answer is yes, there are such people. The problem is that as soon as they achieve one ambition, they have broader horizons, and new and bigger ambitions. With each success, our ambitions develop further. Elon Musk is currently the world’s richest man. So he seeks a new challenge (to balance the United States See The story of life on page 22 budget).

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May 2-8, 2025 • Tazria-Metzora • 4 Iyar 5785 • Vol. 24, No. 15

By Ed Weintrob The Yom Hashoah commemoration in the Five Towns was different this year. And it was a preview of what’s to come. In prior years, six Holocaust survivors would each light one candle in memory of one million of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis. This year, as the community assembled in Beth Sholom in Lawrence last Wednesday night, only one survivor was in the room. He lit one candle. Additional candles were lit by five high school students in memory of relatives who survived but are no longer with us to retell their stories themselves. “Sadly, as we reach the 80th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust, we are approaching the loss of the generation of witnesses,” Sharon Fogel, who co-chaired the event with Nathaniel Rogoff, told The Jewish Star. “This means we have a responsibility to instill in the next generation the importance of keeping alive the experiences of those who are no longer with us here to tell their stories.” The survivor who delivered the evening’s Fanya Gottesfeld Heller keynote address was Paul Gross, a member of the Young Israel of Lawrence Cedarhurst and earlier of the White Shul in Far Rockaway. He lit a memorial candle accompanied by his wife and family.

Paul Gross, a child survivor from Hungary, accompanied by his wife and family members, lit a candle at the Greater Five Towns Community Yom Hashoah Commemoration last Wednesday. Ed Weintrob, The Jewish Star

Gross was born in 1937 in a small town in Hungary where the Holocaust came in 1944. In introducing him, Rabbi Yaakov Trump of the Young Israel of Lawrence Cedarhurst, said Gross had told him that it took 75 years for his family to rebuild the numbers of those who were lost in the Holocaust. “We celebrae every one of their lives,” Rabbi Trump said. “Unfortunately, not many Holocaust survivors are alive anymore, therefore I feel more obligated to tell my story,” Gross said. He described how he first encountered antisemitism, how the relative safety of living in Hungary disappeared when the Germans entered the country in 1944 and forced Jews inside a walled ghetto, and how he was stunned when neighbors turned on their Jewish friends. “On the last Shabbos in the ghetto, we got word that we would be going to labor camps,” Gross recounted. “The rabbi of our town, with a long white bear, showed up in the shul clean shaven. I was a young boy but it shook me up. It made me realize that nothing would be normal from that point on.” The rabbi had heard that the Nazis were ripping out the beards of Jews. “Many of us in this room grew up hearing Holocaust stories that most people in the world can’t even imagine,” Fogel told the gathering, composed of members of several Five See Just one candle on page 2

May 23-29, 2025 25 Iyar 5785 Behar-Bechukosai

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Rep. Ritchie Torres is interviewed by Larry Rosenberg, Holocaust Remembrance chair, at a Holocaust Remembrance Day event in West Hempstead on Sunday night. Madison Gusier, LI Herald

the Israeli government.” Torres recalled that in 2020, the New York City Democratic Socialists of America, which has endorsed Mamdani, sent a questionnaire to City Council candidates with two questions: “Do you pledge never to travel to Israel if elected to the City Council [and] do you pledge to

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support the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Movement against Israel.” “So in the Democratic Socialist worldview, it’s morally permissible to go travel to China, which has committed genocide against Uyghur Muslims; to travel to Russia, which has invaded a sovereign nation state Ukraine; to travel to Iran,

which is the leading sponsor of terrorism in the world,” Torres said. “But travel to the world’s only Jewish state, that is strictly forbidden.” Linking Jew-hatred in Nazi Germany to antisemitism today, Torres pointed out that “Germany at the time was the most educated society on Earth. How could the most educated society on Earth be so barbaric to commit the greatest crime against humanity?” “The lesson,” he said, “is that education is no guarantee of morality. Education without ethics will not bring civilization, it will bring barbarism. One of the cruel ironies is that some of the most academically educated people in our society often are the least morally educated.” Shifting his focus from a society’s educated elite to its mass of ordinary people, he referenced a phrase coined by Hannah Arendt in her coverage of the Adolf Eichmann trial: Banality of evil. “One need not be like Hitler to be monstrous,” Torres said. “There were masses of everyday Germans who were complicit in the Holocaust, who were content to be cogs in a machine of industrial mass murder against See Torres issues a call on page 2

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Torres issues call to action to stop Jew-hate By Ed Weintrob Rep. Ritchie Torres told a Yom Hashoah commemoration in west Hempstead on Sunday night that to be successful in the fight for Israel and against antisemitism, Jews must be “politically engaged, civically engaged.” Torres, a gay Latino Democrat whose district includes both the South Bronx and Riverdale, is one of the staunchest supporters in Congress of the Jewish state and American Jews. “We need every member of the Jewish community who cares about fighting antisemitism, who cares about Israel, to be politically engaged, because the soul of America is at stake,” he told the more than 300 people assembled at Congregation Shaaray Shalom for the event hosted by the Jewish Community Council of Long Island and sponsored by 20 organizations from different parts of Long Island. Eying local developments, he cautioned that “what’s unfolding in New York is terrifying.” In a reference to Zohran Mamdani, one of the leading candidates in June’s Democratic primary, Torres said, “We have a mayoral candidate who said that if he were elected mayor, he would direct the NYPD to arrest members of

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Celebrating Israel

Local schools joined tens of thousands marching in and viewing Sunday’s parade up Fifth Avenue, joyously proclaiming hatikvah, the hope! More inside.

HANC — Hebrew Academy of Nassau County Samuel & Elizabeth Bass Golding Elementary School, located in West Hempstead.

SKA — Stella K. Abraham HS for Girls, located in Hewlett Bay Park.

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Central — YU HS for Girls, located in Holliswood.

Brandeis Hebrew Academy, located in Lawrence.

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June 20-26, 2025

SAY THEIR NAMES! #YaronLischinsky #SarahMilgrim

RED LINES CROSSED

No place for Jews? No place for nukes Cuomo: Not a first choice, but the only choice. P. 2

he deranged and depraved pro-Hamas constituencies on Ivy League campuses have taken many liberties with their “higher” education over the past 20 months. What tops the list is a twisted misreading of the First Amendment. The fact that constitutional law professors never bothered to set them straight says a lot about the failed integrity of the custodians of our laws. Remember when the three university presidents from Harvard, Pennsylvania and MIT testified before Congress in response to the alarming spike in antisemitic agitation on their campuses? Negligently advised by counsel and terrified of Jew-hating students (many of whom came from Middle Eastern countries

Law enforcement officers outside the Capital Jewish Museum on May 22, where Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were murdered by a terrorist shouting “Free, Free Palestine.” Tasos Katopodis, Getty Images via JNS

where antisemitism is baked right into the pita bread), they were unable to say with certainty that calling for the genocide of Jews violates their policies on bullying and harassment. It was a question with an obviously simple answer: Such threats are protected by neither principles of free speech nor academic freedom. But this unholy trinity had, as their first order of business, the avoidance of no-confidence votes at home. After all, their many antisemitic colleagues — incubated in “Humanities” departments flush with Qatari money and obsessed with anti-colonial fixations that depended on See By any means on page 2

Israel’s Iranian payback is long overdue. P. 3

As bombs fall, it’s OK to ask: Where is G-d? SHMULEY BOTEACH

Thunderous gaslighting language materialized into senseless murder outside a Jewish museum.

Distinguished University Professor Touro College

WAKE UP, NEW YORK!

EDITORIAL

ost New Yorkers who voted for Zorhan Mamdani did not do so because they hate Jews or the Jewish state. While Israel and the fight against antisemitism are closest to our hearts and homes, the priorities of others differ; not everything is about us. Some voted as they did because Mamdani was an attractive candidate whose opponent, Andrew Cuomo, is deeply flawed and widely despised and who, despite a huge war chest, mostly sat out the campaign. Many bought into Mamdani’s fanciful vision of a socialist paradise, reflecting ignorance or naivety about how a city works. We’ll have another chance to get this right in November. If we unite behind one candidate (likely Eric Adams, because Curtis Sliwa is both unqualified and unelectable) and create a get-out-the-vote machine like the one that defeated radical Israel-foe Jamaal Bowman in Westchester last year, we can win. At stake is the safety and future of Jews in New York and of New York itself. Indeed, use of the Big Apple’s stage to propel Mamdanism across the county puts the future of America at stake. It’s not just about the Jews.

NYC IRAN Mamdani vote makes it clear:

‘By any means necessary’ THANE ROSENBAUM

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June 27–July 3, 2025 • Korach • 1 Tamuz 5785 • Vol. 24, No. 21

24 Sivan 5785 Sh’lach Vol. 24, No. 20 Reach the Star: Editor@TheJewishStar.com 516-622-7461 x291

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3 Sivan 5785 Bamidbar / Shavuot 10 Sivan 5785 Naso 17 Sivan 5781 Beha’alascha

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s: s:

journey and tradition

May 30-June 19, 2025 Vol. 24, No. 19

January 2-29, 2026 • Vayechi • 13 Tevet 5786 THE JEWISH STAR

Missiles fired from Iran over Jerusalem on June 14.

Menahem Kahana, AFP via Getty Images via JNS

n Oct 7, 2023, the Jewish state endured the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Babies beheaded. Grandmothers burned alive. Young women raped next to the corpses of their murdered friends. And now, just months later, thousands of Iranian missiles are blowing Jewish and Arab Israelis to smithereens. Where is the world’s outrage? But more hauntingly — for believers like myself — where is G-d? It’s a question many religious leaders are too afraid to ask. But

Judaism is not a religion of silence. Ours is not a faith of resignation. We do not submit to suffering — we challenge it. In the Jewish tradition, it is not only permitted to question G-d in times of moral catastrophe — it is a mitzvah. Because the opposite of faith is not doubt — it is indifference. And the Jewish people, even in our darkest moments, have never been indifferent to G-d’s silence. We have challenged it. Our very name — Yisrael (Israel) — means one who wrestles with G-d. Not worships blindly. Not accepts passively. But wrestles. When Abraham stood before G-d and heard that Sodom would be destroyed, he did not fall to his knees in obedience. He stood tall and asked: “Shall the Judge of all the

earth not do justice?” When Moses descended Mount Sinai and saw the Golden Calf, he did not excuse G-d’s wrath — he smashed the Tablets, demanded mercy, and told G-d He would need to forgive the people or blot him out from the Book of Life. This is our spiritual inheritance: not piety in the face of evil, but protest. And today, in the wake of Oct. 7 and in the shadow of Iranian rockets, we must summon that protest once more. e must ask the Almighty: How can You allow such horrors to befall Your people? We rebuilt the land You gave us, we revived Your Torah, we made the deserts bloom, we returned to Zion not with swords but with song — See As bombs fall on page 27

Jews are not welcome in NYC

By Vita Fellig and Andrew Bernard, JNS Zohran Mamdani’s victory in Tuesday night’s Democratic mayoral primary in New York is alarming many Jews in the city who say that his anti-Israel rhetoric legitimizes antisemitism and deepens divisions. Daniel S. Mariaschin, CEO of B’nai B’rith International, told JNS that Mamdani’s dismissive “attitude to the concerns of New York’s Jewish community during the campaign, particularly its strong support for the State of Israel, is more than troubling.” “New York is home to the largest Jewish population in the world outside Israel,” Mariaschin said. “Over more than three centuries, Jewish New Yorkers have made countless contributions to making it one of the world’s greatest cities.” Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, and William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, spoke to JNS about Mamdani on the sidelines of emergency meetings that their organizations convened in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday.

New York Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani greets supporters during an election night gathering on Tuesday. Michael M. Santiago, Getty Images via JNS

“I’m certainly hoping that that all rightthinking New Yorkers, and certainly our Jewish community, will organize themselves to make sure that there’s a serious opposition in the general election,” Fingerhut said. Daroff said that he is “very concerned about the normalization of antisemitism in America.” “Among the battle cries of those who seek to murder Jews is to ‘globalize the intifada,’ and as a purveyor of that attitude, as someone who rationalizes and minimizes and denies the dangers that accrue to the Jewish people and the importance of the State of Israel, it’s deeply concerning,” he said. Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, told JNS that Mamdani’s electoral success portends trouble for the Jewish community in New York City. “As an American Jew and as a human, I am truly frightened that an antisemitic communist, Mamdani, has actually promoted murdering Jews by supporting and legitimizing the antisemitic rally cry ‘globalize the intifada,’ refuses to accept the Jewish State of Israel See With Mamdani on page 3

Fringe is mainstream after primary GABE GROISMAN

ohran Mamdani, who resoundingly defeated former Governor Andrew Cuomo in Tuesday’s Democratic mayoral primary, represents the absolute worst of the worst in American politics. This primary election With the chaos we’ve seen on college cam-

puses and city streets over the past several years now reaching the highest level of local politics, this election should be a wake-up call to all Americans. New York is the largest city in the country, with nearly 8.5 million residents. While its

population does not represent the rest of the nation, the fact that a radical socialist is the Democratic Party primary winner and candidate for the general mayoral election signals that the “woke left” is no longer just a fringe See After the primary on page 3

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Jennie Katz

July 4-10, 2025

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He showed Iran who’s boss. Now he must strong-arm Curtis Sliwa.

Zohran Mamdani at a Resist Fascism Rally.

Mayoral Photography Office

tion, we should follow it. At the moment, that appears to be coalescing behind Mayor Eric Adams. But signaling support for Adams isn’t enough. Jewish leaders must do what they failed to do in the Democratic primary — build coalitions with other communities threatened by Mamdani, educate the broader community to the catastrophe that awaits New York if he’s elected, and execute a get-out-the-vote drive. Meanwhile, Mamdani forces are hard at work, as illustrated by two fact-deprived Jewish-authored opinion pieces in the New York Times last weekend (see Gary Rosenblatt’s column about that on page 2); by numerous other articles that sugarcoat Mamdani’s positions, and in TV and podcast appearances by Jewish fifth columnists young and old.

EDITORIAL

fter nearly two years of harassment and high tensions, New York doesn’t feel like “Hymietown” anymore. That derisive dig by Jesse Jackson during his presidential campaign in 1984 put New York Jews on edge, but we fought back and won. Now we face something much worse — the mayoral candidacy of Zohran Mamdani. He does not oppose Israeli or Netanyahu “policies” but rather the very existence of the Jewish state (as in “Palestine shall be free, from the river to the sea,” a chant he won’t criticize). Mamdani’s doubling down on his refusal to sanction those who would “Globalize the Intifada” will make New York Jews less safe. If that’s not bad enough, when he’s not focused on deriding Jewish values and putting Jewish lives at risk, Mamdani is determined to wreck New York’s economic engine to further his utopian socialist vision. If there’s a path to derail Mamdani’s corona-

Curtis Sliwa in 1979.

Donald Trump at a rally in Arizona.

WikiCommons

niting behind Adams is essential if there’s any chance — and it’s a longshot — of stopping Mamdani. That requires the withdrawal of both a failed Andrew Cuomo (who’s still on the November ballot as an independent) and a doomed Curtis Sliwa (the Republican nominee). Only President Donald Trump is in a position to read the riot act to Sliwa, make him a job offer in Washington that he “can’t refuse,” and get him to withdraw. Trump can also nudge New York’s Republican county leaders to see the light and select Adams to replace Sliwa on their ballot (adding the GOP line to Adams’ two independent lines). But whether Trump sees such a move to be in his interests is debatable. A Mayor Mamdani would be a Trump

Just as every vote for Brad Lander was in effect a vote for Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic primary, every vote for Curtis Sliwa will help Mamdani over the finish line in the November election.

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Gage Skidmore

whipping boy, perhaps rightly so; and while the president would certainly not deride New York as “Hymietown,” he would paint the city in grotesque colors and add to the damage done by Mamdani. While even California Gov. Gavin Newsom has moderated his leftist worldview under Trump’s assault, Mamdani, who’s pushing a socialist vision with messianic undertones, is unlikely to do so. New York Republicans, along with Trump, must decide whether the future well-being of New York and support for Israel trumps scoring political points for their party (as a disastrous Mamdani mayoralty almost certainly would do). Meanwhile, suburbanites should not assume this won’t affect them: The earthquake of New York City’s collapse will quickly ripple through the region. Sliwa will not be elected mayor. Full stop. Just as every vote for Brad Lander was in effect a vote for Mamdani in the Democratic primary, every vote for Sliwa will help push Mamdani over the finish line in November. Ed Weintrob, Editor & Publisher Write: Editor@TheJewishStar.com

‘JEWS COGENS’: August 8-14, 2025 • Vaetchanan / Shabbat Nachamu • 14 Av 5785 • Vol. 24, No. 25

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Israel advocate

ohran Mamdani does not just hate Jews and the Jewish State of Israel; he hates America and all it represents as well. Mamdani is on record as saying that he does not recognize the right of the Israel to exist. Moreover, by championing the effort to “globalize the intifada,” he admits that he does not just want to destroy the Jewish State, but that he supports violence, including murder, against Jews around the world. When asked repeatedly in a recent interview on NBC to renounce violence against Jews, he refused. Maybe this is his answer to how he will solve the housing crisis in New York City. Think of all the housing units that will become available if the city’s approximately 960,000 Jewish residents (about 11.5% of the city’s population) “vacate” their homes. Mamdani does not limit his hatred to Jews and Israel. He also appears to question America’s legitimacy as a nation and evidences a strong contempt for Americans in general. hile a student at Bowdoin College in Maine, Mamdani founded the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. As a reminder, SJP is the group that was expelled by Columbia University without prompting from outside forces because the organization was too extreme. Given Columbia’s tolerance for violence against Jews and their supporters, one can only imagine how extreme SJP is. But

Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani at the Caveat comedy club in Manhattan’s Lower East Side on May 25. Dmitryshein via WikiCommons

one need not imagine. One need only read their publications to confirm what a vile, antisemitic and anti-American organization it is. SJP’s website acknowledges its “purpose”: Building on the legacy and impact of previous student movements on the occupied Turtle Island (so-called US and Canada), National Students for Justice in Palestine (National SJP) seeks to empower, unify and support the Student Movements for Palestinian liberation.

hat exactly does it mean to say “socalled US and Canada?” Does it mean that America, like Israel, is an illegitimate nation with no right to exist? Does Mamdani think that? New Yorkers should demand that he explain himself. SJP’s website also explains the group’s “values”: We are continuously crafting a political framework that addresses collective liberation from

Daily News: Zohran ‘fuels fires of hate’ fear among Jewish New Yorkers,” it added. The editorial board wrote that Mamdani will need to engage more effectively with New York Jews and change his language, which has been “harmful to the New Yorkers he hopes to lead.” “A Muslim who backs rights for Palestinians, Mamdani accuses Israel of committing ‘genocide’ against Palestinians in the war in Gaza, which is the intentional extermination of a people,” the board continued. “The false charge is even more hurtful to be laid on one of the few world populations, the Jews, on whom a real genocide was inflicted.” The paper’s editorial board criticized Mamdani’s repeated refusal to condemn the chant

The editorial board of the New York Daily News, which endorsed Joe Biden for president in 2020 and whose owner has discontinued endorsements, stated that Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor, “must disavow the language of Jewish hate or stop pretending he believes in unity.” “Mamdani can’t just say he’s not antisemitic and that he wants to protect all New Yorkers,” the board said. “Those are hollow words that he continues to undermine by his actions, by using and supporting language and positions that fuel the fires of hate.” “His candidacy and naive, even cartoonish, positions on the Mideast have rightly sparked

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“globalize the intifada” and said that his support for the movement to boycott Israel singles out the world’s only Jewish state. “There was a time — well before the Hamas Oct. 7 terror attack slaughtered 1,200 Israelis — that many in Israel supported the idea of an independent Palestinian state in exchange for lasting peace,” the board stated. “Mamdani wants that, but refuses to support an independent Jewish state.” “Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were gunned down in Washington by a gunman shouting ‘free Palestine’,” the board observed. “You cannot simply disavow violence. You must disavow the words and beliefs that drive the hatred.” —JNS

Palestine to the Rio Grande. … We believe the struggle for a free Palestine is interconnected with the struggle for Black liberation, for gender-based and sexual freedom, and for a livable sustainable planet. All pursuits for freedom, justice and equality are materially intertwined and require us to struggle against state violence, colonialism, capitalism and imperialism in all of their forms. Who exactly does Mamdani believe needs “liberation” from the United States? What form does he think this “liberation” should take? If Oct. 7, an atrocity Mamdani condones, is any indication, then he will have no problem with a violent attempt to overthrow the US government. Does he believe America engages in “state violence?” Does he see it as his mission to fight American “colonialism” and “imperialism?” If so, what exactly does that mean? What steps will he take as mayor to fulfill that mission? Mamdani has been vague and evasive about these issues during the campaign. Unfortunately for New Yorkers and America, he is an avowed Socialist who views capitalism as an evil that he is crusading against. During an interview with CNN, anchor Erin Burnett asked whether he likes capitalism, Mamdani responded: No, I have many critiques of capitalism. … And I think, ultimately, the definition for me of why I call myself a democratic socialist is the words of Dr. [Martin Luther] King decades ago. … Call it democracy, call it democratic socialism, there must be a better distribution of wealth for all of G-d’s children in this country. As it relates to the remainder of his agenda: •If he chooses to distance himself from the vile views of SJP, all he needs to do is issue a simple statement rejecting and condemning the organization. •If he does not believe in violence against Jews, all he needs to do is publicly renounce calls to “globalize the intifada.” •If he does not believe Israel should be destroyed, he simply needs to say that the Jewish State of Israel has a right to exist and that he rejects any efforts to destroy and/or undermine it. •If he loves America, it should be easy for him to publicly and clearly reject the notion of “Turtle Island” and just as publicly recognize the legitimacy and greatness of the United States of America. I suspect Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran will recognize Israel’s right to exist — and Mexico will reclaim Texas — long before Mamdani issues any of these statements. Attorney Eric Levine is a passionate advocate for Israel. Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

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North Dakota’s mezuzah August 15-21, 2025 • Eikev • 21 Av 5785 • Vol. 24, No. 26

100 years after Jews settled on the Great Plains, Long Beach rabbi returns to set a gravestone for his grandmother

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These people aren’t fooling around GLOBAL FOCUS

BEN COHEN

In 1892, nativist antisemites complained: Why don’t Jews rebuild Jerusalem instead of invading New York?

ews in the West are facing a gradually unfolding witch-hunt, spurred by fanatics and zealots no less venomous than the Puritans who drove the Salem Witch Trials. Let me make crystal clear the goals they are striving for. •They want Western publics to regard Israel as the greatest misfortune plaguing the world today. •They want Western publics to recognize Zionism as a political cancer as dangerous as fascism and racism (but not communism), as expressed in their slogan “Dismantle Zionism.” •They want Western publics to adopt the cause of Israel’s elimination as a noble aim that will advance human rights. •They want their governments to cut all diplomatic, commercial and cultural links with Israel and impose punishing sanctions in their place. •They want Western civil society — universities, unions, media outlets, organizations and campaigns pursuing social justice, religious groups, intellectuals, health workers, lawyers and a myriad of other sectors — to embrace a total boycott of Israel. •They want to criminalize Israeli citizens and diaspora Jews who serve in the Israel Defense Forces. •They want to criminalize Israel’s political and military leaders. •They want to outlaw Zionist political and social organizations, youth groups and charities. •They want to strictly police Jewish communities in order to eliminate the presence of any Zionist affiliations — meaning that Jewish schools, synagogues, community centers, kosher markets and restaurants would be prohibited from using or trading in Israeli products, displaying the Israeli flag, reciting the prayer for the State of Israel on Shabbat and during festivals, carrying out Zionist education programs, teaching the history of Israel and assisting with aliyah. And make no mistake: Any Jewish resistance to these measures would be met with a merciless response. Public condemnation. Media vilification. Fines. Arrests. Eventually, worse, if we let them. hese witch-hunters have been on the margins of democratic societies for decades, coming to the fore on those occasions when the violent Palestinian objection to Israel’s existence returns to the boil. See The ‘Riverway to Sea’ on page 2

Jewish replacement theory, shouted in 2017 by torch-bearing marchers in Charlottesville, Virginia, was featured in this 1892 cartoon that proclaimed: ‘Instead of returning to the holy land to build up Jerusalem and to restore the glories of their race, the chosen people are coming to the metropolis of the new world.’

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This political cartoon, one of a series of antisemitic works appearing in Judge magazine in the 1890s, was titled, “Their New Jerusalem.” It shows Jews driven from Russia by persecution coming to New York City in rags and becoming prosperous due to their “Perseverance and Industry,” and in the process forcing established New Yorkers to move West (that’s the Jewish replacement libel echoed in Charlottesville a century and quarter later). Cornell University Library, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, restored by Adam Cuerden, via WikiCommons

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43 New Yorkers among 225 aboard 65th Nefesh B’Nefesh aliyah charter By Ed Weintrob As the wheels under Nefesh B’Nefesh’s 65th aliyah charter flight rose from a JFK runway on Tuesday afternoon, the olim onboard cheered their journey home. “Israel wants you, Israel needs you, Israel’s waiting to welcome you,” NBN Executive Director Yehoshua Fass told the 225 olim — including 43 from New York — before boarding. “Israel needs your optimism, your idealism and your chizuk.” “Your decision will set in motion a new legacy for your children, grandchildren and great grandchildren,” he said. He congratulated the olim for making the decision to “be part of this incredible move.” The flight was the first charter ar-

HOWard BrESSlEr THE JEwISH STAR

here is a legal term, jus cogens, that refers to a category of norms — peremptory norms — that govern international law. The term speaks to a body of law from which no exemption is permitted, including war crimes and crimes against humanity — rules from which international state actors cannot be excused from compliance. But lately, there appears to be another area of international law: the law of Jews cogens. That would be a set of “norms” that are only considered normal and inescapable when applied to the Jewish state.

France

The olim preparing to board a Nefesh B’Nefesh ElAl charter flight at JFK on Tuesday were bursting with happy anticipation. Pictured from left: The Mermelsteins from Kew Gardens Hills (Alexander and Ilana and their three children); The Frenkels from Woodmere (Ilan and Sarah); The Wertentheils from West Hempstead (Sruli and Atara with their two children), and The Cymbalistas of Cedarhurst (Ariel and Rachel) with blue and white shirts proclaiming on the back, “The Cymbalistas are finally coming home.” Ed Weintrob, The Jewish Star

When Islamic terrorists killed 128 people and wounded 200 in Paris, France’s President announced: “To all those who have seen these awful things I want to say that we are going to lead a war which will be pitiless.” But when similar Islamic extremists kill ten times that number — and also rape, mutilate and kidnap hundreds of people in Israel — France intends to reward them with a state of their own. This is France, which collaborated with the Nazis during its Vichy regime, that now seeks to punish the Jewish state for refusing to allow people who mean to commit genocide against it to do so, endangering Jews with its fecklessness.

England

Even if anime robots like this one were subject to jus cogens (defined as fundamental principles of international law from which no exception is permitted) and they violated those rules by committing such attrocities as genocide, it’s unlikely the international community would call them to account. While anime robots — and killer-states such as China, Sudan and Syria — get a free-pass, Israel, uniquely, is subject to exaggerated claims under what our columnist calls Jews cogens. Andrey, Adobe

England, in response to Islamic terror attacks in London in 2017, expressed that “[the attacks] are bound together by the single, evil ideology of Islamist extremism that preaches hatred, sows division, and promotes sectarianism. It is an ideology that claims our Western values of freedom, democracy See Blood-stained England and France on page 2

Rabbi Benny Berlin leads a hakamas matzeiva, the unveiling of the gravestone, for his grandmother Edith Porter (Edit bat Mendel), pictured inset, at the Hebrew Cemetery in Minot, South Dakota. Born in 1927, she was niftar on June 2, 2024. Flanking Rabbi Berlin (from left) is his

RABBI BENNY BERLIN

Pro-Israel at the Times? Fuhgeddaboudit!

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want to share something a bit unusual for a rabbi on Long Island. I just returned from a trip to North Dakota for the hakamas matzeiva, the setting of the gravestone for my grandmother. Over 100 years ago, a group of Jews came to North Dakota during the Homestead Act of 1862, which offered up to 160 acres of free land to anyone who lived there for at least five years. That opportunity attracted my Russian immigrant great-grandparents to the Great Plains, where they built homes, raised families, and preserved their Judaism far from the kind of Jewish community they had known. Life was not easy. The winters were brutal, and keeping Jewish life alive took real effort. My grandparents helped build a small shul that became the heart of the community, where Bar Mitzvahs, weddings, and funerals marked each stage of life.

A Timesman for 35 years, he’d never be hired there today

YAAKOV ORT

ERUSALEM — After working for the New York Times for 35 years (and now, almost 20 years after I retired as managing director for creative services), this and a related post on Facebook is my first public criticism of the work of my for-

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mer colleagues. In the past, I’ve confined my comments to a private Facebook group of about 2,500 Times alumni and staff, as well as to personal discussions with friends and former co-workers. But what we are seeing at the Times today is not just bad journalism. It is an appalling twisting of the facts and a mindful, heartless concealment of the truth. Last Saturday, rather than running a photo of hostage Evyatar David being forced to dig his own grave by Hamas terrorists and writing about the actual reaction of millions of Is-

raelis who had seen it, the video desk and foreign desk ran an article leading with a photo of a relative handful of protesters in Tel Aviv, with the following headline and subhead: Hundreds Protest in Tel Aviv After Hostage Videos Surface From Gaza: The circulation of videos created by Hamas showing Israeli hostages living in dire conditions incited families to protest in Tel Aviv on Saturday to demand a cease-fire and the return of their loved ones. If the Times still had a Jerusalem bureau that reported the thoughts, communications and actions of the vast majority of Israelis, as

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it once did, it would have told readers that the reaction of millions to this and other photos and videos of the physical and psychological torture of our children is neither fear nor protest. It is horror, rage and resolve. he symbolism of the photo is so apt, since this is exactly what most current Times news, editorial and op-ed page writers and editors — and those justifiably fearful of the Islamic street in the West — are arguing daily that the people of Israel should do: Dig our own graves. See Newspaper of record on page 3

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Happy travelers. LEFT: Asher and Batsheva Katz of Plainview onboard the aliyah charter. CENTER: Elizabeth Snyder with her parents Steven and Ilana and sister Samantha at JFK before departing for Israel (on page 2, she’s pictured on arrival). RIGHT: Jack and Talia Borenstein arrive from Florida with their three chil-

looked after, total strangers trying to help us.” William Bingham, who has worked in information technology across industries and also taught, hopes to teach in Israel. Linda

n this week’s parsha, Eikev, the Torah commands us to place Hashem’s words “Al mezuzos beisecha” on the doorposts of our homes. The Gemara in Sanhedrin 71a teaches that if even one mezuzah exists in an Ir HaNidachas, a city whose people have turned to idol worship, the city cannot be destroyed. This is why Chazal say “Lo Haya V’Lo Yihyeh,” it never happened and never will happen that such a city will be destroyed, no matter how wicked its inhabitants. One mezuzah can save an entire city. That is the power of the mezuzah. It stands quietly on a doorpost, but its presence declares that Hashem’s name is in this place. It reminds us, every time we walk through the door, that we are stepping into a space where the Divine Presence dwells. We often think major change requires dramatic action, but Jewish tradition reminds us that even the smallest constant presence of holiness can shift the balance of an entire environment. here is little Jewish life left in Minot today. The shul is closed, the Torah scrolls have been moved, the minyanim See The power of one on page 2

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Jew-hate spreads thru ‘denial disease’ Outlandish and truth-defying, the sweep of Jew-hate today is breathtaking

THANE ROSENBAUM Distinguished University Professor Touro College

Antisemitism in Russia led to the mass expulsion of Jews in a Podolian village. Antique illustration, 1882, via Adobe

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he hatred of Jews, from time immemorial to the outlandish way it has resurfaced globally today, is truly breathtaking. What on earth could this infinitesimal population of Jews, and their tiny ancestral homeland, Israel, have possibly done to inspire such universally unflinching contempt? Many of the original justifications for why Jews are to be despised above all others — why hating them is so justly deserved — have been debunked by the absurdity of those blood libels and the upsurge of a (relatively)

enlightened public. No, Jews did not kill Jesus; and no, they don’t murder Christian children to improve the taste of Passover matzoh. As for having horns and tails, no one has ever seen a Jew with such anatomical features. More stubbornly historical tropes require Olympian suspensions of disbelief. You don’t need to be a savant to recognize that levers that “control the world” are not being pulled by Jews. Would Israelis and the Diaspora be this perpetually miserable if they were in possession of such powers? Here’s one obvious example: the yellow fever of yellow journalism practiced daily against the Jewish state. Only a diehard conspiracist believes that Jews actually control the major news outlets. See ‘Denial disease’ supercharges on page 2

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said her dream job would be with Nefesh B’Nefesh helping new olim. The olim on last week’s flight join over 90,000 who have made aliyah with the assistance of Nefesh and its partners since its inception in 2002. August was set to see more than 1,000 new immigrants arriving in Israel, the highest monthly total in over 20 years, Nefesh said. Since the events of Oct. 7, over 7,000 new immigrants from North America have made aliyah, underscoring an extraordinary commitment to the Zionist dream in the face of ongoing regional conflict, it added. “These olim are fulfilling their dream of making Israel their home,” said Nefesh CoFounder and Chairman Tony Gelbart. “People are not running away from anything,” he said, alluding to a well-document increase in antisemitism in the Diaspora. “They’re running to something, they’re running to Israel [where] they’re going to contribute right away, right when they hit the ground.” That so many Jews are making aliyah while Israel is engaged in a protract war “is a strong message,” Ofir Soffer, Israel’s minister of aliyah and integration, told a reporter. “During a war people escape from a country. But Jewish people are coming to Israel.” Nefesh emphasized that it would not be successful in all it does without its parter organizations — Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, the Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael, and JNF-USA. See more about Nefesh B’Nefesh on page 2.

dren, now Israelis, after a 12-hour flight. She’s originally from Cleveland, he’s from New York, both grandchildren of Shoah survivors survivors. (Both families lived in Israel in the 1940s and 1950s but found it difficult and left.) Going home’s been on the Borenstein’s minds: they talked about it while dating. Ed Weintrob, The Jewish Star

Sept. 19 - Oct. 2, 2025 • Nitzavim • 26 Elul 5785 • Vol. 24, No. 31 TWO SECTIONS THE LEADER IN PROPERT Y TAX REDUCTION

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Hochul sides with Mamdani, Cuomo scolds Israel on war, Adams vows not to quit race Jews sidelined in NYC mayor race By Ed Weintrob, The Jewish Star Jewish voters were on the losing end of New York City politics this week on at least three fronts: •Apparently fearful of being primaried from her party’s left in next year’s gubernatorial election, Gov. Kathy Hochel endorsed its anti-Israel mayoral nominee, Zorhan Mamdani. •Independent candidate Andrew Cuomo, long a full-throated supporter of Israel and its Gaza war, softened his stiff posture and criticized the Jewish state, urging that it end its campaign against Hamas. •Mayor Eric Adams, the Democratic incumbent running for re-election as an independent, found himself at the bottom of several polls, lagging far behind Mamdani as well as Cuomo and the improbable Republican choice, Curtis Sliwa. Adams, a solid supporter of Israel and the city’s embattled Jewish communities, discounted the polls during an interview with The Jewish Star and said

he would stay in the race. [A report on the Adams interview is on page 4.]

Hochul’s endorsement

Hochul’s endorsement came late Sunday evening in an online-only New York Times op-ed that referenced her and Mamdani not seeing “eye to eye on everything” but dodging specifics. She did not mention Mamdani’s refusals to endorse the existence of Israel as a Jewish state or to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada”; his frequently repeated support for the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions Movement; and his pledge to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when the Israeli leader visits New York, saying only that “we discussed the need to combat the rise of antisemitism urgently and unequivocally.” Hochul added, “I’ve been glad to see him meet with Jewish leaders across the city, lisSee Jews are sidelined on page 9

Wishing our entire community, both in the New York area and in Eretz Yisrael, a 5786 filled with an abundance of good health, happiness and peace. Ketivah V’Chatima Tova!

us feel welcome and comfortable.” When they visited their son in Haifa during the war, “we never experienced a community where I felt so welcome and so safe and so

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With 4 dogs in cargo, Binghams oozed joy on arrival in Promised Land

Two olim from Fairfield, Iowa, discuss their move with Nachum Segal during a taping of JM in the AM onboard last week’s Nefesh B’Nefesh charter flight. These olim from the American heartland were an Ed Weintrob, The Jewish Star example of the diversity of Jews choosing to return to the Promised Land.

The legacy of those North Dakota Jews lives in me, in my family and, G-d willing, in the generations yet to come.

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Iowa to Jerusalem By Ed Weintrob, The Jewish Star Last week’s Nefesh B’Nefesh flight — the group’s first ElAl charter since the Oct. 7 invasion — carried a diverse group of 225 olim. Those returning home were tech workers and teachers, lone soldiers, physicians and other healthcare professionals, children and retirees, baalei teshuva and frum-from-birth, observant and traditional. They came from 10 states and one Canadian province. One of those states is Iowa, the quintessential “flyover” state that is rarely stumbled upon in the game of Jewish geography. Linda and William Bingham followed their son, a professor at the Technion in Haifa, who made aliyah on the last Nefesh charter flight before the war. “He said, ‘come on, just do it’.” For 15 years, the Binghams lived in Fairfield, a town of 9,500 in southeast Iowa that is an international center for Transcendental Meditation and home to Maharishi University. The town, which Linda said “might” have 300 Jews, is a 2-hour drive to the Maccabee’s Kosher Deli in Des Moines, the state capital. It’s not a hub of thriving yiddishkayt, The journey that culminated in the Binghams’ moving to Haifa was complicated — at least a bit — by the fact that they were bringing along their four dogs, who traveled in cargo and were happily reunited at Ben Gurion airport. “I have worked with Nefesh B’Nefesh on so many different issues, and every single time they handle the logistics,” said Linda Bingham. “What stood out was the way they made

Last week, I stood in the small Hebrew Cemetery in Minot, North Dakota, surrounded by more than a hundred graves with traditional Hebrew inscriptions. The gravestones stood as silent witnesses to a once small but thriving Jewish community that has now almost entirely disappeared. My mother gave me the mezuzah from my grandmother’s front door at her assisted living apartment. It was likely the only mezuzah on any doorpost in the entire building. That small parchment, rolled in its case, was more than a ritual object. It was a declaration that Hashem was present in that home. Holding it, I reflected on the power of a single mezuzah.

Sept. 12, 2025

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uncle David Porter, his mother Carol Berlin, and his uncle Gary Porter. Rabbi Berlin’s father, Daniel Berlin, livestreamed the ceremony. The pictured mezuzah is on the door of his grandmother’s assisted-living residence in Minot. Rabbi Berlin is spiritual leader of BACH Jewish Center in Long Beach.

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ranged by NBN since the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion. It carried 45 families, 125 children and 10 singles. The continued flow of olim to the Jewish state, personified by the NBN charter, “shows the enemies of Israel they cannot put us down,” Fass said. In addition to New Yorkers, homeward bound passengers hailed from ten states and Ontario. As the olim arrive in Israel, The Jewish Star’s coverage will continue in its next edition.

Ed Weintrob, Editor and Publisher Nechama Bluth, Jewish Star Associate Stuart Richner, Richner Communications

B”H, a bigger Jewish Star will return after the holidays, in new green boxes all around town!

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Here is the full text of President Donald Trump’s 20-point comprehensive proposal to end the war in Gaza that was instigated by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. 1. Gaza will be a deradicalized terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbors. 2. Gaza will be redeveloped for the benefit of the people of Gaza, who have suffered more than enough. 3. If both sides agree to this proposal, the war will immediately end. Israeli forces will withdraw to the agreed upon line to prepare for a hostage release. During this time, all military operations, including aerial and artillery bombardment, will be suspended, and battle lines will remain frozen until conditions are met for the complete staged withdrawal. 4. Within 72 hours of Israel publicly accepting this agree-

ment, all hostages, alive and deceased, will be returned. 5. Once all hostages are released, Israel will release 250 life sentence prisoners plus 1700 Gazans who were detained after October 7th 2023, including all women and children detained in that context. For every Israeli hostage whose remains are released, Israel will release the remains of 15 deceased Gazans. 6. Once all hostages are returned, Hamas members who commit to peaceful co-existence and to decommission their weapons will be given amnesty. Members of Hamas who wish to leave Gaza will be provided safe passage to receiving countries. 7. Upon acceptance of this agreement, full aid will be immediately sent into the Gaza Strip. At a minimum, aid quantities will be consistent with what was included in the January 19, 2025, agreement regarding humanitarian aid, including

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rehabilitation of infrastructure (water, electricity, sewage), rehabilitation of hospitals and bakeries, and entry of necessary equipment to remove rubble and open roads. 8. Entry of distribution and aid in the Gaza Strip will proceed without interference from the two parties through the United Nations and its agencies, and the Red Crescent, in addition to other international institutions not associated in any manner with either party. Opening the Rafah crossing in both directions will be subject to the same mechanism implemented under the January 19, 2025 agreement. 9. Gaza will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for delivering the day-to-day running of pubSee Trump’s 20 points on page 4

Library acquisitions: ‘Vessels of time, touch and community’ By Menachem Wecker, JNS This Yom Kippur, Chaim Neria intends to bring copies of two manuscripts, which the National Library of Israel recently acquired, to synagogue with him to study and to “deepen my knowledge” during services. “Taking to shul different mahzors and holding them side by side with your mahzor helps to reflect on the nusach and see unique nusachim, renewing your experience,” Neria, curator of the library’s Haim and Hanna Solomon Judaica collection, told JNS. In recent days, the library announced its acquisition of a 14th-century mahzor

for Yom Kippur from the Crimean peninsula and of two out of three parts of a 15thcentury mahzor from Lisbon. Neria confirmed that the 14th-century manuscript is one that Kedem Auction House in Jerusalem sold on May 6. The curator also said that the 15thcentury manuscript is one that Kedem withdrew from a sale “due to the historical value of the item,” and which the auction house says was “purchased by the National Library of Israel with the assistance of Kedem Auctions.” Kedem listed an estimate of $150,000 to $200,000. Neria said that in a “screen-saturated

age,” the library’s new acquisitions offer “a lesson in how culture endures.” “These books aren’t only carriers of words — they are vessels of time, touch and community,” he said. “They reveal the Jewish year not as an app or a feed but as something literally held together by thread and parchment, calibrated by generations who turned those pages on festivals and fasts.” The fact that the two mahzors have endured “is a lesson in resilience and responsibility,” according to Neria. “Both the Lisbon mahzor — a survivor of expulsion and upheaval — and the Crimean mahzor, See Vessels of time on page 3

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including that of a mohel, performing the sacred ritual of brit milah in Israel and around the world. That was the purpose my visit to the Far East. I make these trips regularly because many places in the world don’t have a resident mohel, and if I didn’t go the mitzvah would not be fulfilled. But these trips have become more complicated of late. Much of the recent news coverage about circumcision has been negative — from Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. linking the practice to autism to new data indicating declining rates of circumcision. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine report that neonatal circumcision rates have fallen since 2010 to below 50 percent for the first time. This number has been in decline since its peak of 80 to 85 percent in the 1980s. This may seem staggering to some, given how widespread the procedure has been. But for those of us who’ve been following the topic, this downturn seems almost inevitable. See A push to ban on page 2

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did not eplicitly call for outlawing brit milah — but in asserting that the use of Tylenol (acetaminophen/paracetamol) to ease a baby’s pain following circumcision is a cause of autism, he added fuel to a growing anti-circumcision movement whose goal is exactly that: to stop brit milah. Rabbi Hayim Leiter, a world-traveling mohel, explores this troubling phenomenon.

RabbI HaYIM LEITER Letter from Efrat

s my plane touched down in Thailand, I received the check-in email for my journey back home. Despite the 11-hour flight, I could only stay one day. I had a wedding to officiate upon my return to Israel. As a “freelance rabbi” — meaning I’m not the head of a synagogue — I serve in a few capacities

President Trump and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. both said earlier this month that pregnant women should not take Tylenol. Kennedy also said that giving it to infants afFile photo by Joyce Boghosian, WH ter circumcision is a contibuting factor in the development of autism.

Flexible Mamdani remains true to one thing: His hate of Israel

icon of New York baseball, Yogi Berra, and say, “It ain’t over until it’s over.” Still, it is necessary to examine the hard facts.

JoNaTHaN S. TobIN

an anti-Mamdani flop

JNS Editor-in-Chief

State, city and national Democrats could have reacted to the primary results in June by rejecting Mamdani and declaring their willingness to support an independent alternative, rather than let their party be taken over by not merely a hardcore Marxist but someone with a long record of support for the anti-Zionist and antisemitic cause of destroying the State of Israel. But they didn’t. While some Democratic leaders, like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both from New York City, have remained neutral, most of the party, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, has rallied behind him. In the contest’s first three-way dustup on See Mamdani’s Israel obsession on page 20

ith less than two weeks until Election Day (and early voting beginning this Saturday, Oct. 25), it’s clear that hopes of preventing the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor are dwindling. That means it’s time to stop pretending it won’t happen. Instead, what is needed is a sober assessment of how Jewish residents of the five boroughs will be affected by having an openly antisemitic mayor of the greatest Jewish city outside of Israel. For those who prefer to avoid that, we can roll out all the usual clichés about how the only poll that counts is the one in which the voters cast ballots. We can even quote that

Zohran Mamdani with his mother, Indian-American Mira Nair, and his father, professor Mahmood Mamdani, celebrating his primary win on June 24. Michael M. Santiago, Getty Images via JNS

Cuomo tells UWS shul: No NYC without Jews. Page 8

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Dov dumps Curtis It ain’t over ’till it’s over! as worries mount over a split vote By The Jewish Star New Yorkers who believe that a win by Democrat Zohran Mamdani in the Nov. 4 mayoral election would be a city-dooming event, have stepped up eleventh-hour efforts to prevent election of the anti-Israel socialist. Last-minute appeals to Jewish voters to support independent candidate Andrew Cuomo, the only viable alternative to Mamdani, include key supporters of red-beret-wearing Curtis Sliwa who have turned against the Guardian Angel. See 11th hour save on page 4

Curtis Sliwa.

Andrew Cuomo.

Hold your nose and vote Cuomo EDITORIAL

The odds seem insurmountable, but every election is a toss-up until the votes are counted. If you live in NYC: make sure that your vote counts — and urge your friends and relatives to vote as well. Andrew Cuomo is lousy candidate. He was a lousy governor. He’s likely to be less than a stellar mayor. But since he is the only alternative to Zohran Mamdani, he has my vote and he needs yours. No one should delude themselves that they’re being righteous by supporting Curtis Sliwa. A vote for Sliwa is, explicitly, a vote for Mamdani. Recriminations about how we got to this sorry juncture will come soon enough after the election. For now, it’s sufficient to acknowledge that Mamdani as mayor of the largest Jewish city outside of Israel would be very bad news. Accept this tip from Perkei Avot: We are not mandated to finish this job, but neither are we excused from trying. Get out and vote. Ed Weintrob, Editor

Zohran Mamdani.

Leader of Park Avenue Synagogue stands with Israel, calls Zohran loss an imperative

This is the text of the Shabbat sermon delivered by Elliot Cosgrove at the Park Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan on Shabbat Bereshit. o be clear, unequivocal, and on the record: I believe Zohran Mamdani poses a danger to the security of New York Jewish community. Mamdani’s refusal to condemn inciteful slogans like “globalize the intifada,” his denial of Israel’s legitimacy as a Jewish state, his call to arrest Israel’s Prime Minister should he enter New York, and his thrice-repeated accusation of genocide in Thursday’s debate — for these and so many other statements, past, present, and unrepentant — he is a danger to the Jewish body politic of New York. … Zionism, Israel, Jewish self-determination — these are not political preferences or partisan talking points. They are constituent building blocks and inseparable strands of my Jewish identity. To accept me as a Jew but to ask me to check my concern for the people and State of Israel at the door is as nonsensical a proposition as it is offensive — no different than asking

Israel is not a detachable policy preference. To delegitimize Israel, as Mamdani has repeatedly done, is an attack on my personhood as a Jew, as an American, and as an American Jew.

Elliot Cosgrove, spiritual leader of the Park Avenue Synagogue on the Upper East YouTube Side, delivering his sermon on New York’s mayoral election.

me to reject G-d, Torah, mitzvot, or any other pillar of my faith. … Mamdani’s distinction between accepting Jews and denying a Jewish state is not merely rhetorical sleight of hand or political naivete, though it is, to be clear, both of those things. His doing so is to traffic in the most dangerous of tropes, an anti-Zionist rhetoric that, as we have seen time and again — in Washington, in Colorado, in ways both small and large, online and in person — has given rise to deadly antisemitic violence. This past summer, you may recall, at the Glastonbury Music Festival in England, the crowd erupted into chants of “Death to the IDF.”

Where exactly would a Mamdani administration stand should that happen next summer in a concert on Governors Island, or in Central Park? I am not one to play the politics of fear. The entire thesis of my career is to play offense, not defense. But today, as I have before, I am throwing a flag on the field and calling out a threat to the Jewish people five minutes early rather than risk being five minutes too late. or me, the breaking point came not with Mamdani’s earlier statements — his accusations of Israeli genocide, his refusal to name Hamas a terrorist organization, or, See Park Ave pulpit on page 2

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If the mob had targeted a church or mosque, the outrage would have been unconditional. But in Mam’s eyes, it’s OK to intimidate Jews

Big Apple turns rotten DAnIeL MAeL Mael Time

ew York has seen thousands of demonstrations since October 2023, but what happened last Wednesday night marked a moral rupture. A crowd did not gather outside a consulate or a corporate tower. It gathered at the doors of a synagogue. It gathered to frighten Jews. It gathered while the incoming mayor of the largest Jewish community in America searched for language that would allow him to acknowledge hatred without condemning those who delivered it. This was not activism. It was a show of force. A masked protester climbed above the crowd of roughly 200 and shouted the words that defined the night. “We need to make them scared.” His target was a house of worship — the Park East Synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side — a place that stands under the protection of the First Amendment and its guarantees of free exercise, free assembly, and free speech. Those protections are designed to ensure that Americans may enter a sacred space without intimidation. On this night, that constitutional promise was violated in full view of the city. Inside, families attended a routine Nefesh B’Nefesh event about moving to Israel. Outside, the chants became vicious. “Death to the IDF.” “Globalize the intifada.” “Take another settler out.”

Boys will be boys By The Jewish Star Friday’s White House press conference was expected to be a wild, bruising affair. The script was simple: President Donald Trump (a 79-years-old ruffian, undisputed champion of take-no-prisoners political theater) would tutor greenhorn Zorhan Mamdani (at 34 two generations his junior, a silver spoon-fed political novice — an immi-

grant!). After reading the riot act, president would put the mayor-elect in his place. But Trump and Mamdani ignored the script and improvised instead. Downplaying but not denying their differences (Trump’s called Mamdani a Communist, Mamdani’s called Trump a fascist), both men surprisingly appeared to relish an ability to get along (if not a genuine affection).

When Jews are targeted, the city’s moral confidence dissipates. The condemnation becomes conditional. The clarity evaporates. Some protesters dispensed with politics entirely. “You are part of a death cult.” “You rapist pedophiles.” rotesters did not gather at a distance. They positioned themselves directly at the synagogue entrance. They forced attendees to walk through jeers and raised cameras that labeled them “settlers.” They posted videos online for humiliation. The intention was unmistakable. This was not a political rally. It was a deliberate attempt to make Jewish religious life feel unsafe. It was an effort to convert the entrance of a synagogue into a psychological checkpoint. If this scene had unfolded at a church or a mosque, New York’s elected officials would have raced to microphones to condemn it as an assault on religious freedom. The outrage would have been unified and immediate. Yet when Jews are targeted, the city’s moral confidence dissipates. The condemnation becomes conditional. The clarity evaporates. Then came the mayor-elect. Zohran Mamdani was presented with a test that required no complexity. A mob had surrounded a synagogue. Jews were told exSee With shuls on page 2

On Amtrak, a rabbi’s call to thanksgiving RABBI DR. TzvI HeRSH weInReB Orthodox Union

H TheJewishStar.com

Honest Reporting • Torah-True

e may or may not have been an antisemite, but he sure was an abrasive personality. He was my seatmate on an

Amtrak train as I was returning to Baltimore from New York some years ago. As I recall, it was at the end of a particularly long and grueling day for me. I had a series of rabbinical meetings, delivered a talk during lunch which provided me no opportunity to eat, and was involved in an unsuccessful attempt to keep the marriage of a young couple from breaking up. I was looking forward to the respite of some quiet time on the return

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trip to my home in Baltimore, but even that luxury was denied to me that evening. I sat down, as I always try to do, in the window seat. This fellow entered the railroad car and walked past me in search of a seat for himself. There were several seats that he could have chosen, but for some reason he returned to where I was sitting, glared at me, and sat down with a gesture of dissatisfaction.

I immediately sensed that I would not experience the peaceful train ride that I had anticipated. I tried burying my head in the book I was reading, but that was not sufficient insulation from my neighbor’s insistence upon conversation. “You are obviously Jewish,” he began. “Your yarmulke, for one thing, is a dead giveaway. Plus, I see that you are reading a HeSee I have cause on page 14 brew book.”

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‘Maoz Tzur’ beyond Chanukah STepHen M. FlaTow

anthem of Jewish resilience

fter the terror attack at a Chanukah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach — with memories still raw from the Yom Kippur attack on worshippers at Manchester’s Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation in England and the double murder in May of a young couple outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington — Jews are once again absorbing the shock of hatred aimed at our people. One response is hiding in plain sight within Maoz Tzur, a song we usually reserve for the eight nights of Chanukah. It’s a beautiful melody, a warm tradition, a moment by the candles before we move on. But listen closely to its words, and you realize that it isn’t seasonal at all. It is a weekly anthem — an argument for Jewish resilience and a reminder that even when our enemies mean to plunge us into darkness, the story doesn’t end there. “Rock of Ages, let our song/Praise thy saving power…” The opening isn’t merely poetic. It’s a declaration of orientation: We praise not because everything is easy but because we remember what holds us up when it isn’t.

“Thou amidst the raging foes/Wast our sheltering tower.” That line doesn’t deny the existence of enemies. It assumes them. It acknowledges what Jewish history has never had the luxury of forgetting. We do not live in a world where hatred is imaginary; we live in a world where it periodically organizes itself — politically, militarily, culturally — and comes for us. And then: “Furious, they assailed us … And thy Word broke their sword/When our own strength failed us.” This is not naive optimism. It is hardearned optimism, the kind that can stare down real danger and still say, without blinking, we have outlived empires before. That’s why “Maoz Tzur” belongs not only when we light the Chanukah menorah but as part of our regular spiritual vocabulary, especially now, when so many Jews feel unsteady. he song does something we Jews have always done at our best: It ties today’s fear to yesterday’s rescue — not to minimize the pain of the present, but to keep it from becoming the whole story. Consider the verse that many paraphrase about the Seleucid Greeks: “Greeks gathered against me … they defiled all the oils … and from the one remnant. … a miracle was wrought. … Men of insight — eight days established for song and jubilation.” See ‘Maoz Tzur’ anthem on page 2

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Rabbi Eli Schlanger.

Supplied

Matilda Brituan, youngest victim of the Sydney attack.

Boris Gurman and Sofia Gurman. Boris jumped one of the gunmen and seized his rifle as the terror attack began. The gunman used a handgun to murder the couple. GoFundMe

Gurerrilla fighters for religious freedom Rabbi YoSSY GoldMan

If you suspect a ‘Mamdani-type’ is emerging in your community:

Trust your instincts CHARLES JACOBS and

DILLON HOSIER

e have spent years documenting the systematic infiltration of anti-Israel activists into state and local government. We’ve published an analysis of the pipeline that moves candidates from campus chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine

to city councils and state legislatures. We’ve built the Mamdani Index to track and score officials nationwide. We have warned that while traditional pro-Israel organizations focus on Congress, a parallel political infrastructure is being constructed beneath them

— one school board, one city council, one state legislature seat at a time. This article is the field guide. Whether you’ve noticed something concerning about a candidate in your community, identified a See Trust your instincts on page 2

S. African Rabbinical Assn.

A Sufganiyot crawl in Jerusalem

A display of sufganiyot at in Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda Market om Dec. 8. Follow Aish’s SufSharon Altshul ganiyot crawl through Jerusalem, led by Jamie Geller, on page 6.

s the rabbi who initiated the public “Festival of Lights” with a giant menorah in Johannesburg in the late 1970s, I am personally affected by the horrific hate crime perpetrated against our people in Sydney. Our hearts go out to all the families of the victims, and our prayers are with the injured for complete and speedy recoveries. The popular impression of the heroes of the Chanukah story — the Maccabees — is that they were a brave band of partisans fighting against the mighty Greek army. Perhaps they were even the originators of guerrilla warfare. In many editions of the siddur, in the Al Hanissim prayer recited throughout Chanukah,

we thank G-d “for the miracles, and for the salvation, and for the mighty deeds, and for the victories, and for the battles which you performed for our forefathers in those days at this time.” The “battles,” referring to the military victory, are mentioned explicitly. Yet not all editions of the prayer book include “the battles.” Why? Because the war was only a means to an end. The end was religious freedom. The Greek Hellenization campaign had taken a huge toll on the spiritual state of the Jewish community, with many assimilating into Greek culture. James Michener’s book, “The Source,” describes how Jewish athletes would perform in the Greek stadiums naked, even displaying the fact that they had “uncircumcised” themselves, quite a painful procedure apparently. Such was the degree of assimilation taking place. Those Hellenist Jews enjoyed full, democratic rights. They suffered no discrimination. Only Jews who were steadfast in their faith See Religious freedom fight on page 2

Edith Brutman.

Dan Elkayam.

Israel Hayom

Reuven Morrison.

Rockdale Ilinden FC

Peter Meagher.

Israel Hayom

Alexander Kleytman (pictured with his wife Larisa) is a Shoah survivor who came to Australia from Ukraine.

Facebook

Marika Pogany.

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Israel Hayom

confrontation it would strike oil facilities and paralyze tanker traffic in the Persian or Arab Gulf. Yet on the path toward confronting Iran, Israel is dealing with a very friendly US administration whose internal views differ, both on Iran and on several other arenas.

Back to war with Iran?

According to American and Israeli sources, one side of the divide includes envoy Steve Witkoff and senior adviser Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law; the other side includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio, backed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Witkoff and Kushner, who in practice manage the negotiations on behalf of the president, are pushing for rapid progress across all fronts. On Iran, the Defense Department, led by Hegseth, supports the intelligence Israel has provided regarding Iran’s renewed buildup of missile systems and air defenses. Hegseth aligns with Rubio’s hardline approach toward Iran, including the demand for an ultimatum before any negotiations begin. Witkoff, by contrast, believes Iran can be prevented from returning to its nuclear program and is particularly wary of renewed war, partly because of the danger Iran poses to other Gulf states and their oil infrastructure.

The Gaza deal

Gaza is at the top of the talks alongside Iran, in part because of the president’s strong desire to move toward a complete end to the war. Here, Witkoff and Kushner argue for advancing to Phase Two, pressuring Israel to open the Rafah crossing and prepare for a second withdrawal. Sources say they are

Trump reinforces Bibi with White House hug Except for an apparent disagreement about Turkey’s role in American-influenced developments in the Middle East, President Trump gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a bear hug of a verbal embrace at Mar-a-Lago on Monday. Trump credited Netanyahu with guiding the Jewish state to victory over a “force the likes of which very few countries could have handled.” “He’s a wartime prime minister,” Trump said of Netanyahu. “He’s taken Israel through a very dangerous period of drama.” Trump said that under other leadership, Israel “might not exist right now.” “That’s a pretty big statement, but it’s true,” Trump said. “If you had the wrong prime minister, Israel right now would not exist.” Trump said he would “absolutely” support additional Israeli strikes on Iranian missile and nuclear facilities.

The president agreed to military action alongside Israel if Iran “will continue with missiles” and nuclear activities. It was not clear if Trump meant that he would support a strike under current conditions but suggested that any potential military action would be a response to Iranian moves. “I hear that Iran is trying to build up again and if they are we’re going to have to knock ’em down — we’ll knock the hell out of them,” Trump said. He added that Iran should “make a deal,” but that he would not discuss the overthrow of the regime. Regarding Gaza, Trump said: “There has to be a disarmament of Hamas,” Trump said. He said expects that reconstruction of the enclave under Phase II of his 20-point peace plan would begin “pretty soon.” —With JNS

seeking workarounds to the issue of Hamas disarmament, potentially stretching the process over a long period. Rubio, whose department in previous Democratic administrations often pushed to impose solutions on Israel, is taking the opposite approach this time. According to the sources, Rubio has presented more cautious positions and insists on adhering to the Trump plan framework. That means demanding Hamas’ disarmament and the transfer of governing authority before a full Israeli withdrawal. Rubio is also cautious on Turkey and supports Israel’s position opposing the involvement of Turkish troops in the multinational ISF force. Defense Secretary Hegseth, who receives briefings from US Central Command chief Gen. Brad Cooper

and from the headquarters in Kiryat Gat, is aware of Hamas’ violations, its seizure of aid supplies and the importance of an Israel Defense Forces presence in the Gaza Strip. Another unresolved issue is the role of the Palestinian Authority in weapons collection and in the new governance arrangement in Gaza. Political sources who spoke with Israel Hayom say there is a strong likelihood that an announcement would be made soon on the new governing body and the international oversight mechanism, as well as a date for opening Phase Two talks, even though the body of hostage Ran Gvili has not yet been returned. Gvili’s family traveled with the prime minister’s delegation to showcase the need for full implementation of Phase One — includ-

ing the return of all dead hostages — before moving to the next phase. The internal US debate has not escaped Israeli attention. An Israeli official said it is clear who in the administration is briefing against Israel in an effort to create pressure for concessions and a rapid but dangerous agreement to end the war. Witkoff was expected to attend the president’s meeting with Netanyahu, while the prime minister met separately with Rubio on Monday, ahead of the meeting with Trump.

The opportunity

Two additional issues that Trump and his team want to advance are civilian talks with the Lebanese government and negotiations over a security arrangement with the al-Sharaa administration See Divided on page 23 in Syria.

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Analysis by Danny Zaken Israel Hayom It is often customary to exaggerate the importance and impact of summit meetings. This week’s meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump was indeed dramatic, with an agenda that included the end of one war in Gaza, a historic security arrangement with Syria, the launch of civilian talks toward a compromise with Lebanon, and, above all, Iran. That last issue may be the most critical. Iran is the engine driving regional wars and terrorism. Israeli intelligence and security establishments have devoted extensive work to preparing their case, assembling the evidence and drawing the conclusion that as long as the current regime in Tehran remains in power, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to advance meaningful processes on any of Israel’s other fronts. This includes expanding the Abraham Accords to Saudi Arabia and other partners. •In Lebanon, Iran maintains Hezbollah, rebuilds its capabilities and missile arsenal in the Beqaa Valley, and bars the terrorist organization from any compromise regarding disarmament. Sheikh Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s secretary-general, has escalated his rhetoric by the day. •In Syria, Iran stirs friction through militias and tribes it supports in order to prevent an arrangement with Israel, while also attempting to establish terrorist cells along the Golan Heights border. •In Gaza, Iran operates through its proxies under the leadership of Hamas, hardening the organization’s positions in negotiations to prevent the surrender of weapons and governing authority. •It also threatens the Gulf states, warning that in the next military

THE JEWISH STAR January 2-29, 2026 • Vayechi • 13 Tevet 5786

A house divided: Inside the Trump inner circle, where bigs clash on Israel and the Middle East

Jerry Goodman, a leader in Soviet Jewry fight, 93

January 2-29, 2026 • Vayechi • 13 Tevet 5786 THE JEWISH STAR

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Jerry Goodman (right), executive director of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, with New York Mayor Ed Koch in front of City Hall in May 1977. American Jewish Historical Society via Wikipedia

By JNS Staff Jerry Goodman, one of the organizers of the Freedom Sunday for Soviet Jews, which drew an estimated 250,000 people to the National Mall in Washington on Dec. 6, 1987, was niftar on Nov. 23 at age 93. His death is just now being reported. Goodman founded the National Conference on Soviet Jewry in 1971 and led the group until 1989. He described it as a “coalition of 54 national organizations and over 300 local Jewish community councils and federations.” Goodman said that he was influenced in his decision to step away “by several important milestones in the Soviet Jewry movement, including the release of many long-term refuseniks, whom he had personally known, and the success of the Dec. 6 Freedom Sunday mobilization in Washington,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported at the time. The NCSJ chairman said then that Goodman “has been the professional most responsible for placing the redemption of Soviet Jewry as a high priority in Jewish life” and was a “wise, intelligent and honorable executive, to whom the movement owes a debt it can never sufficiently acknowledge.” Goodman told the group’s executive committee when he announced his resignation that “I never thought Soviet Jewry would be a career,” according to JTA. “It was originally supposed to be a temporary job, but nobody foresaw how the movement would evolve.” Andrew Baker, director of international Jewish affairs at the American Jewish Committee, told JNS that “the persecution and imprisonment of Jews in the Soviet Union demanded a response from the American Jewish community.” “But it took someone with consummate diplomatic and political skill, first to unite Jewish organizations in common purpose through the creation of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, and then to place the issue high on the agenda of US-USSR relations,” he said. “This was Jerry Goodman’s work and his lasting legacy.” Testifying before a subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Feb. 6, 1984, Goodman said the NCSJ’s “primary purpose is very simple: to enable Jews to leave the Soviet Union in accordance with international law, and to help those who choose to remain in the Soviet Union to live as Jews with the same rights accorded every other Soviet national and religious minority.” According to his LinkedIn profile, Goodman graduated from Christopher Columbus High School in Miami, studied for a year at Beit Berl College in Israel and earned a bachelor’s degree in political sociology at City College of New York, where he wrote for the Campus, a student newspaper. He also earned graduate degrees in international relations and public

administration from CUNY and from New York University, per his profile. Goodman, who listed his languages as English, French, Hebrew and Yiddish, stated in the profile that, in addition to his work with the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, he was European affairs director at the American Jewish Committee from 1964 to 1971, founder and senior adviser at the Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement at the American Jewish Historical Society from 2006 to 2011, and subsequently was a senior adviser at Strategy XXI-Partners and president and CEO at Phoenix Ventures. Mark Levin, CEO of the National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry (formerly the National Conference on Soviet Jewry) stated that Goodman was a “pioneer and a giant of the Soviet Jewry advocacy movement.” “There were few individuals anywhere in the world who possessed the depth of knowledge and understanding of the Soviet Jewish community that Jerry did,” Levin stated. “Jerry led NCSJ from its infancy to one of our crowning achievements: the 1987 Soviet Jewry March in Washington, DC, where more than 250,000 people stood in solidarity with the Jews of the USSR.” Among the chants at the event in Washington was “let my people go.” The next day, President Ronald Reagan told the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that “yesterday, I had 250,000 people in my backyard saying, ‘Let my people go.’ Until you do what they want, nothing will happen.” At the NCSJ, Goodmen “led the community effort in support of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which linked permanent normal trade relations to a country’s emigration performance,” he added. “Jerry also played an instrumental role in helping to create the US Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, better known as the Helsinki Commission.” Levin stated that after KGB and other Soviet security agents detained him, Goodman and three members of Congress — who were on a joint trip to the Soviet Union in the early 1980s to meet with Jewish activists and refuseniks — for “allegedly possessing sensitive and secret material,” there was a question about what to do after they had missed their flights and were finally allowed to depart. “There was a subsequent discussion about whether we should publicize what had happened. Jerry convincingly argued that we should not make the trip about ourselves but rather keep the focus on the Soviet Jews who were trapped and unable to leave,” Levin stated. “This was just one of many examples of Jerry’s clear-headed approach and leadership.” “Jerry Goodman’s imprint on one of the most important chapters of 20th-century Jewish history is indelible,” he added.

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THE JEWISH STAR January 2-29, 2026 • Vayechi • 13 Tevet 5786

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Documentary tells of nearly-blind soldier’s climb By Mike Wagenheim, JNS Filmmaker Elena Neuman first met former Israel Defense Forces sharpshooter Eitan Armon at Columbia University’s Hillel, during a screening of a documentary. Armon, who works in finance in New York City, went to the same suburban Washington Jewish day school — though not at the same time — as Neuman’s kids, and befriended Neuman’s daughter in college. “He made this instant impression upon me,” Neuman told JNS. “I noticed everything about him, except the fact that he couldn’t see.” That’s an apt observation, given that Armon, the subject of Neuman’s film “Looking UP,” took on the challenge of scaling El Capitan, the 3,000-vertical-foot rock formation in California’s Yosemite National Park, with no rock-climbing experience, and with only 5% vision due to a rare disease. “Having a limitation isn’t inherently a bad thing,” Armon said. “Everyone has different versions. And when you are honest about what’s difficult and challenging, and you ask for help, you can do more.” Armon, 28, a native of Kemp Hill, Md., excelled in an IDF paratrooper unit, but progressive struggles seeing at night led to the revelation that he was suffering from retinitis pigmentosa, known as RP. The disease causes the cells in the retina to break down, resulting in blindness. Around 100,000 people in the United States deal with RP, but the version Eitan was diagnosed with is extraordinarily rare, affecting fewer than 100 people around the world. With no peripheral vision, and only about 5% central vision remaining, Armon describes the sensation as looking through a straw. After that chance encounter at Columbia, Armon reached out to Neuman for advice about

Former IDF paratrooper Eitan Armon in a still from “Looking UP.”

crafting a public service announcement promoting an expanding medical trial in which he was taking part. Some five months later, at the height of the COVID pandemic, Armon reached out again, to gauge Neuman’s interest in taking on production of the video, which led to some basic shooting for two days in New York City. But the project hit a brick wall when Armon’s doctors in Baltimore backed out the night before scheduled interviews, at the demand of inquisitive, suspicious hospital lawyers, looking to protect proprietary information about the medicines involved in the trials. Armon and Neuman needed to figure out

what to do with the footage they’d already shot. “If I wasn’t impressed before, I was even more impressed by him then, because there’s this positive aura about him,” Neuman said of Armon’s reaction. “He’s just up for anything, and doesn’t let his visual problem get in his way.” Neuman told Armon that perhaps there was a bigger, more inspirational story to tell, beyond a public service announcement. As they were discussing the possibilities, Neuman’s husband, Jay, a passionate rock climber, came home. Knowing of Jay’s adventures, including that he had climbed the Nose of El Capitan a few years earlier, Armon, an avid outdoor adventurer himself, started peppering Jay with questions, and found out he was nine months away from another climb. “I saw it happening,” Neuman said of a sense of knowing what was coming next. “Jay looked at Eitan, then he looked at me, and he said, ‘Why don’t you join me?’ And Eitan being Eitan said, ‘Hell yes. What’s involved?’” That’s how a simple promotional video turned into a feature film, documenting Armon’s training and eventual scaling of El Capitan. “I’m really fortunate that I got to just focus on getting in shape and learning,” Armon said, crediting his climbing partners for taking care of everything else needed. “They’ll take care of their part, I’ll take care of my part, and together, we can climb this, both literally and figuratively,” Armon said of the process. “It was just really like a microcosm of everything else that the film talks about: Focus on what you can control, and be honest about what you can’t.” Neuman said one of the more difficult aspects of making the film, aside from the critical safety

precautions, was reminding viewers that Armon really can’t see. If Armon is standing face-to-face with someone, he essentially is only able to see an area as big as their nose at first, and needs to conduct a scan of their face, putting together a more complete image from there. When it comes to piecing together the image of the gigantic mountain he’s climbing, Armon utilizes an iPhone feature to make the screen appear smaller, so that he can more centrally focus the image in front of him, narrowing it into his limited field of vision. In fact, Neuman said, “that’s how he was able to see the cuts of the film,” though up on the big screen in theaters, it’s much more difficult. “Looking UP” recently ran at the Marlene Mayerson Jewish Community Center on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and has been shown all over the world, including in Moscow, Helsinki, Tel Aviv and St. Louis, while taking home the award for best documentary at the Lonely Seal Film Festival in in Arlington, Mass., and documentary directing accolades at the Soho International Festival in New York City. More screenings are coming up early next year in Denver and Indianapolis. Richard Propus, a prominent disabled film critic known as the Independent Critic, gave “Looking UP” a glowing review, noting the film doesn’t carry with it the typical tropes captured in films about disabled people. “It’s resonating with audiences, because it’s not preachy,” Neuman said. “Eitan doesn’t ask for anyone’s sympathy, and he doesn’t even ask to be seen as somebody with a visual disability. He just wants to climb.” She said the film is more about taking on one’s limitations, which everyone has. “I think the film speaks to everybody,” Neuman said. “I say to audiences at the end of screenings, ‘What’s your mountain? Go climb it, whatever it is.’” Armon said he has received messages from people who have just been diagnosed with RP, and who “talked about how meaningful it was to to see the film and get a good reminder that just because they have this diagnosis, it doesn’t mean that they can’t live an engaging, meaningful, fun, challenging life.” The project has also helped to raise medical research money, as promising stem cell research that could perhaps treat RP takes place at the University of Iowa. Not one to rest on his laurels, Armon has since taken to backcountry skiing. And, this month, he’s taking on a challenge of a different kind, marrying his girlfriend, Tamar. “That will be the next big chapter, and I’m sure it’ll have its own ups and downs and challenges, but I’m certainly trying to imbue those things that we talked about into our day-to-day,” Armon said. “That means fun, being around good people, and challenging ourselves, even if it’s not a literal mountain, but a figurative one.”

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January 2-29, 2026 • Vayechi • 13 Tevet 5786 THE JEWISH STAR

9 THE JEWISH STAR January 2-29, 2026 • Vayechi • 13 Tevet 5786

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As Jew-hate rises, Israeli tech grows in Europe Backgrounder by James Spiro While public sentiment toward Israel has grown increasingly hostile in parts of Europe, the continent appears to be moving in the opposite direction economically. Israeli technology companies are expanding their workforce, R&D presence and executive leadership across the continent, positioning the Jewish state as a critical contributor to the EU’s future in cybersecurity, AI and defense-related innovation. A new report by EIT Hub Israel, Planven VC and KPMG maps the growing footprint of Israeli technology companies across Europe and finds deepening integration, resilience and long-term commitment. More than 1,600 Israeli tech companies now employ over 30,000 people across Europe, with a 4.8% annual growth rate over the past three years. There is a “significant presence of the Israeli technology ecosystem in Europe,” said Dina Pasca-Raz, partner and head of Technology at KPMG Israel, who noted a strong alignment between Israeli strengths in AI, cybersecurity, healthtech, defense and climate tech and EU strategic priorities in security, sustainability and digital infrastructure. Europe’s reliance on Israeli technology is structural, not ideological. Companies from the Startup Nation fill gaps in cybersecurity, defense, AI and infrastructure — all sectors where Europe seeks strategic autonomy without total dependence on the US or China. In this sense, the growth outlined

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel attends an Elnet conference in Germany marking five years since the AbraRuthe Zuntz ham Accords.

in the report shows that Israeli tech sits at the center of Europe’s economic and security mission for the coming years. Today, it is clear Israeli companies have a significant presence in both EU and non-EU countries, with major hubs in Germany, Spain, France, the UK, Poland, and Ukraine. They also have growing operational centers in Central and Eastern Europe, including Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic. Notable Israeli tech companies with the biggest workforce footprints across Europe include SentinelOne, Wix, CyberArk, Check Point and Playtika.

“Israeli technology has become a significant economic and innovative force within Europe,” added Eden Dvir-Zano, Managing Director of EIT Hub Israel. “The data demonstrate how deeply Israeli companies are embedding themselves in the European market. They are not only creating tens of thousands of jobs, but also establishing R&D centers, building long-term partnerships with universities and industry, and contributing directly to core areas Europe has defined as priorities — artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, climate technologies, and digital infrastructure.”

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This deepening economic integration is unfolding against a worrying social backdrop. Even among these trends, there remain questions for many Jews and Israelis surrounding systemic antisemitism, which has only become more prominent since Oct. 7, 2023. A recent survey from the Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism shows there has been up to a 400% rise in antisemitic incidents in some regions since late 2023, and that 96% of Jews in Europe have encountered antisemitism in their daily lives.

Some of the political and social hostility toward Israel among the continent’s citizens appears to be happening alongside institutional and economic openness, creating a cognitive dissonance for those who wish to do business in Europe despite concerns for their personal safety. “Despite geopolitical challenges and the sentiment we’ve seen over the past two years, there is a natural synergy between Israel’s strengths in AI, cybersecurity, robotics, and defense,” Pasca-Raz added. “We can hope that the end of the war will pave the way for the adoption of groundbreaking Israeli technologies and foster new, meaningful strategic collaborations.” Looking ahead, the question for many Jews is not whether Israeli tech companies have a home in Europe, but whether Europe can afford to politicize sectors it relies on. Because the continent may protest Israel politically, but economically, it is building a future that increasingly relies on Israeli innovation: securing its networks, defending its borders, optimizing its infrastructure, and powering its AI ambitions. “The data shows that Israeli startups are deepening their long-term presence in Europe,” concluded Elle Taitou Spruch, Investor at the Pan-European VC, Planven. “The alignment between Israel’s strengths in AI, cybersecurity, and health and Europe’s priorities is creating meaningful opportunities, and we expect Israeli activity on the continent to continue to accelerate in the years ahead.”

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January 2-29, 2026 • Vayechi • 13 Tevet 5786 THE JEWISH STAR

YCQ’s 85th Scholarship dinner Yeshiva of Central Queens (YCQ) hosted its 85th Annual Scholarship Dinner at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation on motzei Shabbat,Dec 13. The Dyckman Family was recognized with the Dor L’Dor Legacy Award. Parents of the Year were Laya and Evan Daniel. Members of the 2011 Varsity Boys Basketball Team, led by Coach Daniel, were also recognized on the 15th anniversary of their championship. Rachel & Yisroel Orenbuch received the Hakarat Hatov Award. And Gregorio Cruz, YCQ’s beloved security guard, was honored with the Distinguished Service Award for his devotion to keeping the yeshiva safe and lifting the spirits of everyone who enters. Chairman of the Board Israel Glaser recited Tehilim, followed by the recitation of the Mi Sheberach for the IDF by JHS Principal Rabbi Stephen Knapp, and Acheinu

Left photo: Parents of the Year Laya & Evan Daniel, Right photo: Gregorio Cruz Distinguished Service Award Recipient and Executive Director Malka Fishman

by Principal Rabbi Mark Landsman. President Julie Faska highlighed the school’s continued growth and success. Dinner Co-Chairs Aliza Peled and Zishy Barth thanked the administration for their efforts. Honoree were recognized with moving tribute videos.

After Cruz’s film, Rabbi Landsman invited the YCQ faculty onto the stage for a well-deserved standing ovation and photo opportunity (pictured at left). The event concluded with a Parade of Desserts and a much-anticipated

Grand Raffle. YCQ extended its gratitude to all attendees, sponsors, and supporters and to Malka Fishman and the Dinner Committee for organizing the event. To view dinner videos, the event journal, and the photo gallery, visit ycq.org/dinner

The 2010-2011 Varsity Boys Basketball Championship Team.

The Dyckman Family — Dor L’Dor Legacy Award Recipients.

From left: Dinner Co-Chair Aliza Peled, YCQ President Julie Faska, Executive Director Malka Fishman, Hakarat HaTov Award Recipients, Rachel Orenbuch and Yisroel Orenbuch, Dinner Co-Chair Zishy Barth, Principal Rabbi Mark Landsman, Chairman of the Board Israel Glaser

THE JEWISH STAR January 2-29, 2026 • Vayechi • 13 Tevet 5786

SCHOOLS

WINE AND DINE Chicken soup for the bowl and for our soul Who’s in the Kitchen

And my favorite: ”The only thing chicken about Israel, is their soup.” Bob Hope.

Jewish Star columnist

Chicken soup

JuDY JoszEf

chicken in every pot, getting up with the chickens, chicken out, running around like a chicken without its head — and let’s not forget chicken soup! Chicken soup has been called the “Jewish penicillin.” The 12th-century Jewish physician, Rambam, started the chicken soup-asmedicine trend when, in his book, “On the Cause of Symptoms,” he recommended the broth of hens and other fowl to “neutralize body constitution.” In Jewish Food: The World at Table, Matthew Goodman reports on a 1978 study conducted at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach that confirmed at least part of Maimonides’ prescription: “Chicken soup proved more effective than simple hot or cold water in clearing congested nasal passages.” While no single culture can claim it as exclusively its own, Jews and their chicken soup maintain a particularly close relationship. Research has been conducted that supports the notion that eating chicken soup can relieve the symptoms of the common cold in an anti-inflammatory manner, but its curative powers remained somewhat unclear, until some doctors started to do research on it. Dr. Stephen Rennard is one such doctor. His experiment to test the effects of chicken soup as an anti-inflammatory agent has been widely accepted for its unequivocal evidence. The targeted cells were neutrophils, a type of white blood cell involved in the inflammatory response immune system. These cells are responsible for phagocytosis (consumption) and destruction of foreign bodies or antigens. In his experiment, Rennard demonstrated how the ingredients in his “Grandma’s” chicken soup recipe inhibited the activity of neutrophils. I also found some interesting facts to back up the curative powers of chicken soup. Amino acid released from chicken during cooking chemically resembles the drug acetylcysteine, prescribed for bronchitis and other respiratory problems. The onions added to the soup have anti-inflammatory properties that help sore throats and help stop the movement of neutrophils. The steam you inhale as

you sip the hot soup helps clear up congestion. And the spices added to chicken soup, like garlic and pepper, work the same way as modern cough medicines, thinning mucus and making breathing easier. Perhaps future scientists will discover some miraculous benefits of the matzoh ball. OK, so maybe our grandmothers and moms were right about the chicken soup, but did we really have to have Vick’s VapoRub spread on our chest when we were kids? The active ingredients consisted of camphor, menthol and eucalyptus oil, yuck. It wasn’t bad enough that we were sick and stuck in bed, but we had to have that “gook” on our chests with a towel over it to make sure none of the vapors escaped — of course had we listened to our moms and stayed out of the “draft” we wouldn’t have gotten sick to begin with, right? The memories I have of being home, with swollen glands, running around the house with a scarf tied around my neck and a woolen beret on my head to keep the draft away. Was I sick or a French artist? It seemed all ail-

ments could be blamed on a draft. Stiff neck, sprained shoulder, cold, flu, sore throat, virus of any kind — it was the draft that caused it. Wait, it could have also been going out with wet hair or barefoot, not just in the winter, in the summer as well. It’s actually amazing that Americans have dodged death all these years and that the American race itself has not yet been extinct. All of you with parents or grandparents of European origin know exactly what I’m talking about. •Americans sip over 10 billion bowls every year. •The earliest evidence of making soup was in 6000 BCE…And guess what kind of soup it was? Hippopotamus! •In the 1700s, apparently the French King was so enamored with himself that he had his royal chefs create a soup that would allow him to see his own reflection in the bowl. As a result, consommé (clear broth) was born. •Thin soups became all the rage in Europe during the 17th century, when the spoon was invented to accommodate the giant ruffles that people wore around their necks.

Ingredients: • 14 cups of water • 1 tsp. salt (or more to your taste) • 1/4-tsp. white pepper • 1 inch piece of fresh ginger peeled • 1 bunch flat Italian parsley (I find this variety more flavorful than the curly one) • 1 bunch dill • 2 cloves of garlic • 3 cubes of Telma reduced sodium consomme • 1 square of beef flavored consomme • 5 chicken thighs • 3 large carrots peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces (the ones you purchase by the pound) • 5 stalks of celery cut into 1 inch pieces • 1 large parsnip peeled and cut in quarters • 1 small sweet potato (don’t peel, as it tends to fall apart when peeled) • 1 medium green squash cut in half • 1 large onion peeled and cut into quarters • 3 cheese cloth bags to hold the ingredients, so you can lift them out easily and nothing falls apart. After cooking I lift the bags out. I throw out the bag with greens, and save the chicken and vegetables to be served along with the soup. Directions: Bring water to a boil and add salt, pepper, chicken and beef consomme cubes. Place carrots, celery, sweet potato, squash, parsnip and onion into a cheesecloth bag and place in water. In another bag, place the dill, parsley, garlic and ginger and place into the water. Lastly, place chicken in third bag and add to the soup 30 minutes after placing the other bags in. Boil for another 1-1/2 hours. I like to prepare the soup the night before so I can chill it and remove the fat before reheating. Originally published in 2013.

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January 2-29, 2026 • Vayechi • 13 Tevet 5786 THE JEWISH STAR

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Western aliyah rises as overall immigration falls Analysis by Canaan Lidor, JNS In the first 11 months of 2025, Israel saw the arrival of about 20,000 Jews and their relatives from abroad, marking a 34% drop from the corresponding period last year, due mainly to a massive decrease in aliyah from Russia. Jewish immigration to Israel, or aliyah, from Western countries, meanwhile, more than doubled, jumping to 9,256 in the first 11 months of 2025 from 4,570 in last year’s corresponding period. Israel’s government has not yet published figures from December 2025. In previous years, about 2,000 newcomers came in December. The drop in aliyah from Russia accounted for most of the difference between the periods, going from 18,313 in the first 11 months of 2024 to 7,993 during those months this year — a 56% decrease. Aliyah from Ukraine dropped by 14% to 805 newcomers, according to the records of Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration. In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, triggering a war that has affected Ukrainian population centers and ravaged both countries’ economies amid a curtailment of civil liberties on both sides. Aliyah surged in 2022, with more than 60,000 moving to Israel from Russia and Ukraine out of 74,474 in total — a two-decade record high. Aliyah from Ukraine subsided after that, partly because of emergency provisions preventing military-age men from leaving, and because European countries, as well as Russia, opened their borders to war refugees. On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas invaded Israel and murdered some 1,200 people, triggering an Israeli counterattack against Hamas in Gaza and a two-year regional war. Following the war, aliyah decreased drastically. In 2024, Israel received a total of 32,161 olim — a 30% decrease from the 2023 tally, and a 56% drop from 2022. During the first 11 months of 2024, aliyah from Western countries totaled 6,986 arrivals. In the corresponding months of 2025, Western aliyah has increased by 35%. Following the slump in aliyah from former Soviet countries, and the increase in Western aliyah, the two contingents — which account for most olim — were almost equal during the first 11 months of 2025, split 10,098 and 9,256, respectively. “Aliyah from the West continues to rise, probably due to Zionism and antisemitism,” Howard Flower, director of aliyah for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, told JNS about the data. Among Western countries, France saw the highest increase in aliyah this year: A 45% jump to 3,030 over the corresponding period last year. Germany saw a 19% hike to 204, the Unit-

Happy olim arriving in Israel walk down onto the tarmac at Ben Gurion International Airport after a Nefesh B’Nefsh charter flight on El Al in August. Ed Weintrob, The Jewish Star

ed Kingdom had a 16% rise to 760. Aliyah from the United States and Canada rose only slightly, by 4% and 5%, to 3,257 and 388, respectively. France is home to Europe’s largest Jewish community, estimated in a 2020 study as numbering 449,000 people who self-identify as Jews. Amid rising antisemitism there, France has a “unique potential for providing Israel with olim who possess both strong professional skills, a democracy-oriented social skill set, and a deep attachment to their Jewish identity,” Dov Maimon, a senior fellow at the Jewish People

Policy Institute (JPPI) think tank in Jerusalem, told JNS. But to tap more effectively into that potential, Israel must better compete with the myriad social benefits on offer to French citizens, Maimon, who was born in France, said. “The less well-off French Jews, of which there are at least 100,000, live in uncomfortable proximity to hostile Muslim populations. They suffer a grinding routine of harassments, but they know that if they make aliyah, they will live in abject poverty,” Maimon said. Consecutive Israeli governments have

Young olim Nefesh B’Nefesh winners Young olim from West Hempstead and Cendarhurst were among nine who were awarded the Nefesh B’Nefesh Maor Youth Prize for their contributions in enriching Israeli society amidst the challenges of the past year. The prize, named after the Hebrew word for “light,” was presented during a ceremony on the eighth night of Chanukah. Other recipients, ages 15 to 17, are from Washington Heights, Manhattan, Teaneck, Toronto, Denver and South Africa. “These impressive young olim exemplify the determination and spirit that lie at the heart of aliyah,” said Rabbi Yehoshua Fass, co-founder and executive director of Nefesh B’Nefesh. “We honor their contributions which have strengthened and enriched their local communities. “Not only have they risen to the personal challenges of acclimation, language, and building new homes, but they have excelled by transforming their new beginnings into oppor-

Lizzy Kramer of West Hempstead and Akiva Fein of Cedarhurst.

tunities to make a meaningful impact through dedication and hard work.” Lizzy Kramer, 15, made aliyah from West Hempstead to Ramat Beit Shemesh in 2022, when she was in eighth grade. She is an active leader in her local Ezra chapter and a madricha for 6th-grade girls.

Kramer plans activities, trips, and learning programs, all in Hebrew, while also organizing teen programming in her neighborhood. She volunteers extensively as well, meeting weekly with an elderly woman through Sabavta, supporting a young girl with Down syndrome through Et Laasot, and participating in the Beit Shemesh Yachad Hub. Akiva Fein, 16, made aliyah from Cedarhurst to Ramat Beit Shemesh in 2009. After October 7th, Akiva channeled his fear and uncertainty into thoughtful writing, sharing his perspective as a young teen living through the war on social media platforms. Fein began studying Israel’s history and conflicts in depth, using his growing platform to debunk misinformation and speak openly about life in Israel today, gaining a significant following. He has been invited to speak on a Birthright trip and was even offered the opportunity to represent Israeli teens abroad. Story submitted by NBN

launched initiatives to attract more olim from Western countries and beyond in recent years. In August, the government launched one such plan tailored to bring in skilled olim, and physicians especially. Under an incentive package unveiled this year, physicians who make aliyah and settle in southern or northern areas affected by the war may be entitled to a grant of up to $116,000. In parallel, Christian Zionist groups and donors have increased their involvement in facilitating aliyah. Earlier this year, Keren Hayesod, also known as United Israel Appeal, arranged a visit to France for Pastor Larry Huch of the New Beginnings mega-church in Texas. He met olim there who left for Israel aboard an aliyah flight that his church funded. Huch was astonished by the accounts of French Jews who told him of experiencing antisemitism on an almost daily basis, he told JNS. “We’ve heard about it in France, but we didn’t realize how severe, pronounced and constant it is, the hatred that our Jewish brothers and sisters face over there every day,” he said. Despite this, the communities Huch visited displayed a joie de vivre and optimism about making aliyah. “It was amazing. The atmosphere was jubilant. The people I met in synagogue before their aliyah were applauding, cheering, shouting happily. They didn’t behave like refugees or victims, but people with a mission. It was inspiring,” Huch said of his June visit, which was facilitated by Keren Hayesod. Sam Grundwerg, world chairman of Keren Hayesod UIA, told JNS, “It’s a testament to the determination and attachment that French olim have to Israel and Zionism, that even during war, they’re coming to Israel in their thousands.” This also “shows the potential for much more aliyah when these challenges subside,” added Grundwerg, whose organization is the fundraising arm of the State of Israel and funds many welfare, immigration, absorption and education projects. Maimon, who this year published a book titled “La Fin des Juifs de France?” (“The End of French Jewry?”) along with co-author Didier Long, estimated that over the past 25 years, some 100,000 Jews have left France, with half moving to Israel. The 2015 Hyper Cacher murders of four Jews at a kosher supermarket in Paris marked a significant acceleration in departures, he said. The United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia received most of the remaining half of departing French Jews, Maimon said. Yet Israel has become a more attractive destination for departing French Jews after Oct. 7, 2023, Maimon argued. Antisemitic incitement and violence have since proliferated not only across Europe, but also in North America and Australia, making those areas less desirable for Jews. On Dec. 14, two suspected jihadists murdered 15 people at a Chanukah party in Sydney, Australia. The following week, prosecutors in Canada revealed that they had exposed a ring of three men, including an alleged ISIS operative, who planned to abduct Jewish women. Amid these developments, efforts must be made to mitigate Israel’s high cost of living, Maimon said. “Housing is the main expense,” he added. Maimon favors a business model in which wealthy French Jews and others provide discounted accommodations to French olim. Maimon called this the Telfed Model after the modus operandi of Telfed — South African Zionist Federation, Israel. “Just as the arrival of one million Russianspeaking Jews in the 1990s changed Israel and its status in the Middle East, so can this next wave of aliyah, that’s waiting to happen, boost Israel even further and, at the same time, solve the plight of Diaspora Jews,” Maimon said. “If we think a little bit out the box, we can make it happen sooner rather than later.”

THE JEWISH STAR January 2-29, 2026 • Vayechi • 13 Tevet 5786

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January 2-29, 2026 • Vayechi • 13 Tevet 5786 THE JEWISH STAR

‫כוכב של שבת‬ Jewish Star Torah columnists: Rabbi Benny Berlin, spiritual leader of BACH Jewish Center in Long Beach; Rabbi Avi Billet of Anshei Chesed, Boynton Beach, FL, mohel and Five Towns native; Rabbi Binny Freedman, rosh yeshiva of Orayta, Jerusalem; Dr. Alan A. Mazurek, former ZOA chair, retired neurologist, living in Great Neck, Jerusalem and Florida. Contributing writers: Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks zt”l, former chief rabbi of United Hebrew Congregations of British Commonwealth; Rabbi Yossy Goldman, president South African Rabbinical Association; Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, OU executive VP emeritus. To submit commentary, inquire at: Editor@TheJewishStar.com. Contact our columnists at: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com.

Fri Jan 2 / 13 Teves

Fri Jan 16 / 27 Teves

Fri Jan 9 / 20 Teves

Fri Jan 23 / 5 Shevat

Vayechi Five Towns candles: 4:21 • Havdalah: 5:31 Scarsdale candles: 4:20 • Havdalah: 5:25 Shemos Five Towns candles: 4:28 • Havdalah: 5:38 Scarsdale candles: 4:27 • Havdalah: 5:32

Vaera • Shabbos Mevarchim Five Towns candles: 4:35 • Havdalah: 5:45 Scarsdale candles: 4:34 • Havdalah: 5:39 Bo Five Towns candles: 4:43 • Havdalah: 5:53 Scarsdale candles: 4:42 • Havdalah: 5:46

Five Towns Candlelighting: From the White Shul, Far Rockaway, NY Scarsdale Candlelighting: From the Young Israel of Scarsdale, Scarsdale, NY

Blessed are those who recall past and future rabbi Sir JonaThan SaCkS zt”l

he drama of younger and older brothers, which haunts the book of Bereishit from Cain and Abel onwards, reaches a strange climax in the story of Joseph’s children. Jacob/Israel is nearing the end of his life. Joseph visits him, bringing with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. It is the only scene of grandfather and grandchildren in the book. Jacob asks Joseph to bring them near so that he can bless them. What follows next is described in painstaking detail: Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left, and Manasseh in his left hand towards Israel’s right, and brought them near him. But Israel reached out his right hand and put it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger, and crossing his arms, he put his left hand on Manasseh’s head, even though Manasseh was the firstborn. … When Joseph saw his father placing his right hand on Ephraim’s head he was displeased; so he took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. Joseph said to him, “No, my father, this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.” But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a group of nations.” He blessed them that day, saying: “In your name will Israel pronounce this blessing: ‘May G-d make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.” So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh. Gen. 48:13-14, Gen. 17-20 It is not difficult to understand the care Joseph took to ensure that Jacob would bless the firstborn first. Three times his father had set the younger before the elder, and each time it had resulted in tragedy. He, the younger, had sought to supplant his elder brother Esau. He favored the younger sister Rachel over Leah. And he favored the youngest of his children, Joseph and Benjamin, over the elder Reuben, Shimon and Levi. he consequences were catastrophic: estrangement from Esau, tension between the two sisters, and hostility among his sons. Joseph himself bore the scars: thrown into a well by his brothers, who initially planned to kill him and eventually sold him into Egypt as a slave.

Consequences of a sibling rivaly were catastrophic.

Had his father not learned? Or did he think that Ephraim — whom Joseph held in his right hand — was the elder? Did Jacob know what he was doing? Did he not realize that he was risking extending the family feuds into the next generation? Besides which, what possible reason could he have for favoring the younger of his grandchildren over the elder? He had not seen them before. He knew nothing about them. None of the factors that led to the earlier episodes were operative here. Why did Jacob favor Ephraim over Manasseh? Jacob knew two things, and it is here that the explanation lies. He knew that the stay of his family in Egypt would not be a short one. Before leaving Canaan to see Joseph, G-d had appeared to him in a vision: Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes. Gen. 46:3-4 This was, in other words, the start of the long exile which G-d had told Abraham would be the fate of his children (a vision the Torah describes as accompanied by “a deep and dreadful darkness” — Gen. 15:12). The other thing Jacob knew was his grandsons’ names, Manasseh and Ephraim. The combination of these two facts was enough. hen Joseph finally emerged from prison to become Prime Minister of Egypt, he married and had two sons. This is how the Torah describes their birth: Before the years of the famine came, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest of On. Joseph named his firstborn

Manasseh, saying, “It is because G-d has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.” The second son he named Ephraim, saying, “It is because G-d has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.” Gen. 41:50-52 With the utmost brevity the Torah intimates an experience of exile that was to be repeated many times across the centuries. At first, Joseph felt relief. The years as a slave, then a prisoner, were over. He had risen to greatness. In Canaan, he had been the youngest of eleven brothers in a nomadic family of shepherds. Now, in Egypt, he was at the centre of the greatest civilization of the ancient world, second only to Pharaoh in rank and power. No one reminded him of his background. With his royal robes and ring and chariot, he was an Egyptian prince (as Moses was later to be). The past was a bitter memory he sought to remove from his mind. Manasseh means “forgetting.” But as time passed, Joseph began to feel quite different emotions. Yes, he had arrived. But this people was not his; nor was its culture. To be sure, his family was, in any worldly terms, undistinguished, unsophisticated. Yet they remained his family. They were the matrix of who he was. Though they were no more than shepherds (a class the Egyptians despised), they had been spoken to by G-d — not the gods of the sun, the river and death, the Egyptian pantheon — but G-d, the creator of heaven and earth, who did not make His home in temples and pyramids and panoplies of power, but who spoke in the human heart as a voice, lifting a simple family to moral greatness.

y the time his second son was born, Joseph had undergone a profound change of heart. To be sure, he had all the trappings of earthly success — “G-d has made me fruitful” — but Egypt had become “the land of my affliction.” Why? Because it was exile. There is a sociological observation about immigrant groups, known as Hansen’s Law: “The second generation seeks to remember what the first generation sought to forget.” Joseph went through this transformation very quickly. It was already complete by the time his second son was born. By calling him Ephraim, he was remembering what, when Manasseh was born, he was trying to forget: who he was, where he came from, where he belonged. Jacob’s blessing of Ephraim over Manasseh had nothing to do with their ages and everything to do with their names. Knowing that these were the first two children of his family to be born in exile, knowing too that the exile would be prolonged and at times difficult and dark, Jacob sought to signal to all future generations that there would be a constant tension between the desire to forget (to assimilate, acculturate, anaesthetize the hope of a return) and the promptings of memory (the knowledge that this is “exile,” that we are part of another story, that ultimate home is somewhere else). The child of forgetting (Manasseh) may have blessings. But greater are the blessings of a child (Ephraim) who remembers the past and future of which he is a part.

RABBI BENNY BERLIN Jewish Star columnist BACH Long Beach

everal years ago in Israel, a tragedy occurred that shook the entire country. A young man named Nachum was responsible for driving a group of small children to school. He was one of the rebbeim of the cheder and also served as the carpool driver. One hot summer day, he made a devastating mistake. A four-year-old boy fell asleep in the back seat, and Nachum did not realize the child was still in the car. Hours later, the child was found dead from heatstroke.

It was an unbearable tragedy. The driver was crushed. The family was crushed. Nachum was arrested, charged with criminal negligence under Israeli law, and publicly broken. He did not deny what had happened. He collapsed under the weight of guilt. His life was permanently altered. He was a young married man, and everything changed in a single moment. What happened next was even more astonishing. The child’s grandfather, the mother’s father, reached out to Nachum and asked him to come to the shiva. Nachum could not imagine how he could face them. And yet he came. The family embraced him and forgave him. The grandfather went even further. He pleaded with the prosecution to drop the charges. He cited a teaching from the Gemara Yerushalmi (Nedarim 9:4), which

A crown of moral mastery, not merely power. states that if one hand accidentally injures the other, a person does not punish the second hand in retaliation. Sending Nachum to prison would not bring their child back. He was already crushed. His life would never be the same. They did not want him to go to jail. Ultimately, the charges were dropped. Years later, Nachum named his own son after the child who had died.

That story leaves a person stunned. Yet this is precisely the kind of forgiveness that lies at the heart of this week’s parsha, Vayechi. fter Yaakov Avinu passes away, the Torah describes his funeral procession from Egypt to the Cave of Machpelah. It is a massive event. Yosef comes, his brothers come, their families come, and even the elders and dignitaries of Egypt accompany them. Along the way, the Torah tells us they stop at a place called Goren HaAtad, where they mourn for seven days. “When the Canaanite inhabitants of the land saw the mourning in Goren HaAtad, they said, ‘This is a grievous outpouring of mourning for the Egyptians.’ The place was therefore called Avel Mitzrayim” (Bereishis 50:10–11). See Berlin on page 22

Vayechi reminds us to bring our brothers home DR. ALAN MAZUREK

Jewish Star columnist Great Neck / Jerusalem

his week is Parshat Vayechi, the final parsha of sefer Bereishit. Vayechi means “and he lived,” referring specifically to Yaakov Avinu, who lived the last 17 years of his life in galut, in Egypt. But as the parsha makes clear, Yaakov is adamant that Yosef have him buried at home, in Eretz Yisrael, to the point of requiring Yosef to swear an oath that he will fulfill his father’s

final wish. Later in the parsha, we note that Yosef, too, does not want his remains to stay forever interred in Egypt, and instructs his children and brothers to have his bones removed and buried in the Holy Land. But as we know, it will take many years until that happens. Our forefathers had to live through the persecutions of Egypt — torture, murder and slavery. Then, through the miraculous Yetziat Mizraim. With Hashem’s open intervention, they were able to leave, taking Yosef’s bones with them. But because of their own misguided actions, instead of almost immediately entering Eretz Canaan, they had to wander another 38 years. They then had to battle to conquer

By the standards of parshat Vayechi, Ran Gvilli is alive. the land until they were able to resettle in Shechem, Yosef’s biblical portion, and bury him there. All told, it was over 250 years until they were able to inter Yosef in the land of his — and our — fathers. ronically, this parsha — which begins “and he lived” and has the very word for “life” in its name — is actually preoccupied with

death. In addition to the aforementioned Yaakov and Yosef, the parsha also notes Leah imenu’s death when it describes the Me’arat HaMachpelah in Hevron, the burial place of Avraham and Sarah, Yitzchak and Rivka (as the pasuk, 49:3, says, Yaakov relates before his own death: “and there I buried Leah”). The haftarah for our parsha is also about death — that of David, the greatest king of Israel, father of fthe uture Melech HaMashiach. It begins: And the days of David drew near that he should die… What is it about us and our seeming preoccupation with death? Chazal explain that this is See Mazurek on page 22

THE JEWISH STAR January 2-29, 2026 • Vayechi • 13 Tevet 5786

At the heart of Parashat Vayechi: Forgiveness

We’re all different, each of us is one of a kind RABBI DR. tZvI hERsh wEINREB Orthodox Union

was embarrassed by her sharp rebuke. But looking back, I realize the lesson I learned from her brief criticism was more valuable than most of my other training experiences. It happened about 40 years ago at a workshop designed to teach young mental health professionals the basic skills of the method known as psychodrama. The workshop leader was a world famous psychodramatist, expert in both the complexities of the human psyche and the art of improvisational theater. In psychodrama, a person’s inner emotional

conflicts are acted out in dramatic fashion under the direction of a skilled clinician. It is similar, but much more powerful, than what is known as role-playing. Early on the second day of the workshop, I volunteered to play the therapist for another member of the group (let’s call him Charles) who played the patient. Charles told of the challenges he was facing with certain key persons in his life. I suggested that he act out one of these conflicts in a particular fashion. I, of course, was convinced that my suggested strategy was brilliant and insightful — until about two or three minutes into the exercise, the workshop leader thundered: “That’s your psychodrama! That’s not Charles’ psychodrama!” Those words of rebuke taught me a lesson to remember forever: I am different from you, and

No two people, no two things in the universe, are alike. you are different from me. We are all different from each other, exquisitely and irrevocably different. This lesson was well understood by our forefather, Jacob. In this week’s Torah portion, Vayechi, just before Jacob dies, he blesses all of his sons and two of his grandsons. He bestows these blessings upon them separately, fully aware that no one blessing fits them all. The Torah sums up the entire deathbed drama with these words: “Their father spoke unto

them and blessed them; every one according to his blessing, he blessed them” (Genesis 49:28). No two blessings were alike. have often thought that the greatest blessing that they each received was the message: “You are special. You are not the same as your brother. You have different personalities, different strengths, different talents, and therefore you each have a different destiny.” When I read this week’s Torah portion, I am struck with wonder by the dazzling array of metaphors which Jacob uses: “unstable as water … weapons of violence … a lion’s whelp … a colt bound to a tree … the blood of grapes … the shore of the sea … a large boned donkey … a hind let loose … a bowed shoulder … a judge … a serpent on the road … a troop upon their heel … fat bread.” Diversity, uniqueness, complexity, See Weinreb on page 22

When in Rome, Jews should do … as Jews do RABBI YossY GoLDMAN

S. African Rabbinical Assn.

new book brings a new theme. Next week’s parsha begins the book Shemos and the story of slavery and bondage that leads leads to freedom and redemption. And the land was filled with them.” Shemos 1:7. The Jewish population in Egypt was growing — from just 70 souls, Jacob’s progeny was being fruitful and multiplying exponentially. The Egyptians feared they might become a fifth column that could overthrow the government.

Has this ever happened? Have the Jews ever overthrown the government of the day? Even when a government was oppressive and antisemitic, we still recited prayers for the government in synagogue on Shabbat. (After all, who knows if the next government won’t be worse!) So why did the Egyptians feel the need to oppress the Jews and enslave them? The Jews were never really a credible threat to them. The midrash Yalkut Shimoni comments on the sentence “And the land was filled with them,” saying it means that “the amphitheaters and circuses were filled with them.” It appears that the Israelites began assimilating into Egyptian culture, attending their arts and entertainment events, Egyptian sports arenas and cultural pastimes becaming popular attractions among the Israelites.

Be proud and never deny our heritage.

hen the Egyptians saw how their cultural centers became “infested” with Jews, they said that’s far enough — we must act to stop this infestation of Egyptian society. Apparently, the Egyptians were fine with the Israelites so long as they stayed in Goshen, the area that Joseph had earmarked. But now, Jews were moving into other neighborhoods, mingling with the general populace, mixing and becoming more integrated, and the Egyptians didn’t like it. This is how it’s been throughout the centuries of our people’s history. Our host countries

may have been able to handle our existence and presence, but not our becoming their peers and mixing in their social circles. Some years back, I read about a community in Florida that was upper-class, very posh and non-Jewish. Surprisingly, when several religious Jewish families moved into their neighborhood, it didn’t seem to worry them. Why? Because they knew that these religious Jews were not interested in mixing with them socially, nor were they looking to marry their daughters. They didn’t threaten the social status quo or make them feel uncomfortable. They were not applying for membership in their golf clubs or attending their parties at the beer hall. ut when affluent Jews who are not religious and are, in fact, looking to assimilate into the non-Jewish, genteel higher class, See Goldman on page 23

January 2-29, 2026 • Vayechi • 13 Tevet 5786 THE JEWISH STAR

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OPINION COLUMNISTS

Mitchell Bard, foreign policy analyst, authority on USIsreal relations; Ben Cohen, senior analyst, Foundation for Defense of Democracies; Stephen Flatow, president, Religious Zionists of America-Mizrachi and father of Alisa Flatow, murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995; Yisrael Medad, Americanborn Israeli journalist and political commentator; Rafael Medoff, founding director of David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies; Fiamma Nirenstein, Italian-Israeli journalist, author of 13 books, leading voice on Israeli affairs, Middle Eastern politics and antisemitism; Melanie Phillips, British journalist; Moshe Phillips, national chairman, Americans for a Safe Israel; Thane Rosenbaum, Distinguished University Professor at Touro University (published by Jewish Journal); Jonathan S. Tobin, editor-in-chief, Jewish News Syndicate.

Mamdani’s Jew-haters will change New York JONATHAN S. TObIN

JNS Editor-in-Chief

he most important thing about the AntiDefamation League’s latest “Mamdani Monitor” is that its results were so unsurprising and generated few headlines. That 20% of the 400 appointees to the transition committees of Zohran Mamdani — who became mayor of New York on Jan. 1 — have ties to anti-Zionist and antisemitic groups or have engaged in acts of Jew-hatred online is, in and of itself, an astounding figure. It’s even more astounding when you consider that they are engaged in an effort to govern a city with the largest Jewish population in the world. But then, what else would you expect from someone whose entire political career is rooted in opposition to the existence of the one Jewish state on the planet? Mamdani dismissed the ADL’s data as unimportant and claimed that those who accuse him of complicity with Jew-hatred don’t distinguish between “criticism of Israel” and actual antisemitism. That isn’t true since the ADL report took into account such a difference.

Hostile administration

Like Mamdani himself, appointees who had engaged in antisemitism weren’t merely “critical” of Israeli government policies. They seek the destruction of the Jewish state and/or support terrorism against it, as well as acts of intimidation and violence elsewhere aimed at bolstering Hamas’s genocidal goals and silencing Jews who will not renounce their ties and affection for Israel. The question is: Will the sheer numbers of antisemites in the Mamdani camp overwhelm the ability of those seeking to hold him account-

able for his tolerance and encouragement of Jew-hatred? One such appointee, Catherine Almonte Da Costa, who was set to hold the crucial job of director of appointments, was forced to resign after her record of making antisemitic comments on social media was made public. But in an administration where there will be more than 1,200 political appointees, the ADL report points to an obvious problem. It indicates just how prevalent this sort of behavior, which would have been considered aberrant even in the most liberal of governments in the recent past, has become among the Democratic Party activists who will take these jobs after Mamdani takes office on Jan. 1. Mamdani leapt into prominence from obscurity only after he won the New York City Democratic primary in June. Before then, the 34-yearold was an obscure member of the New York State Assembly and one of many hard-core leftists who make up a body that has a veto-proof Democratic supermajority. In the few months since, he has become not just a leading political figure in New York City, but a national celebrity of sorts that even some on the other end of the political spectrum — such as President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance — have acted as if it was in their interest to ingratiate rather than confront him.

Does it matter?

We have been assured by leading Democrats not to worry about Mamdani endangering the Jews of New York, and he has himself often spoken as if that is not his intention. His stated intention of leaving Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who is Jewish and perceived as a moderate Democrat, is also supposed to demonstrate that Mamdani’s long record of anti-Zionist activism and statements — which is, his disclaimers notwithstanding, indistinguishable from antisemitism — is a mere biographical detail that will have no impact on Jewish life in New York over the next four years. Indeed, Mamdani is clearly aware that it’s in his interest to disarm Jewish critics.

Why be surprised when someone whose political career has been based on an obsession with destroying Israel, hires antisemites to staff his administration?

Zohran Mamdani announces two deputy mayors, Leila Bozorg and Julie Su, at a Department of Sanitation garage being converted into affordable housing in Staten Island, on Dec. 19, 2025. Spencer Platt, Getty Images

In the wake of the mass shooting that killed 15 people on the first night of Chanukah in Australia, Mamdani reached out to the ChabadLubavitch movement and visited the grave of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe — Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson — in Queens, as a solidarity gesture. In the week before the terrorist attack, he met with prominent rabbis, including some who were deeply critical of him. He also had a friendly meet-and-greet with the anti-Zionist Satmar sect that supported him in the election. Yet even as he keeps saying that he wants to keep New York Jews safe and is opposed to antisemitism, he hasn’t budged an inch from his position that the Jewish state has no right to exist. And even after Bondi Beach and two years of the surge in antisemitism that followed the Hamasled Palestinian Arab terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Mamdani still won’t condemn the use of the slogan “Globalize the intifada” from his fellow anti-Israel activists. As the ADL report indicated, he’s not alone in thinking that way. A significant number of those who are key members of his team and who will govern the city agree. They were among those who were cheering the illegal protests at colleges and universities throughout the five boroughs, where pro-Hamas mobs set up encamp-

ments, bullied Jewish students, blocked their entrance to classes and engaged in the violent takeover of buildings on campus. Mamdani and his liberal media cheering section insist that there’s a difference between antiIsrael agitation and being anti-Jewish. But as his reaction to the siege of Park East Synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side indicated — where a pro-Hamas mob sought to “scare” Jews and prevent them from attending a pro-Israel event — the mayor-elect’s sympathies are with those attacking the Jewish community, not the victims of such attacks.

Hostile environment

As that incident demonstrated, at the very least, his administration will create an atmosphere where those who target Jews in New York for intimidation and support violence against them in Israel will feel empowered. Whether or not Tisch remains police commissioner for long — or even if she is willing to act as a real check on his soft-on-crime and tolerance for antisemitism — the policies he is likely to implement will only exacerbate the problem. In particular, the shift toward a “community safety” approach to crime that will emphasize See Tobin on page 22

THANE ROSENBAUM Distinguished University Professor Touro College

emocrats rejoice! Republicans are on the path toward crashing and burning, and then toppling off a cliff. The origins of their undoing should be familiar to you, however. They’re using your own misguided playbook in how to seduce the altogether wrong political bedfellows. Progressive lunatics and Islamist apologists have called the shots in the Democratic Party ever since Joe Biden was given the keys to the White House. What appeared to be an illiberal, anti-intellectual and un-American fringe suddenly went mainstream. At the center of this makeover was a policy plank — gleefully adopted by Bernie Sanders, the Squad, and a host of hard-left mayors in major metropolitan cities — that turned against the State of Israel and American Jews who self-identified as Zionists. The Democratic Party was remade without a political or moral center. America was no longer a force for good. White supremacy was the country’s rotten past and inescapable destiny. Terrorists were our friends and the police our outlaws. Screaming about “racism” and “genocide” replaced democratic debate. The enormous racial progress America had made was discounted; and a war Israel did not start became one which it

Republicans also have a Jew-hating fringe.

Unless you count the Jews murdered outside a museum in Washington, DC; or the ones set on fire in a mall in Boulder, Colorado; killed in Thousand Oaks, California and assaulted in Times Square and the Diamond District in New York City; and the pipe bombs circulating among protesters outside synagogues in Los Angeles and Manhattan. These were most assuredly not friendly, respectful disputes over America’s support for Israel. ance went to Yale and is not obtuse. Something else aligns him with the newly unabashed Jew-hating wing of the MAGA movement. Their very existence is irrational. Why reject the one democratic ally in the Middle East that possesses the technical and military capacity to keep America safe and shares the same enemies list? And what’s the appeal of antisemitic conspiracists and Holocaust deniers? Social media influencer Myron Gaines, a Carlson acolyte, wears a sweater with the phrase “Let Em Cook,” which is a popular antisemitic meme justifying the ovens at Auschwitz. Vance is cool with that? Carlson pinned the murder of Turning Point’s Charlie Kirk on Israel. Here’s the scene he set: Jews “sitting around eating hummus” and rejecting Christianity by ordering up the assassination of another messiah. Carlson has been doling out antisemitic falsehoods liberally: lever-pulling bankers and American Jews with dual loyalties to a genocidal state. He has also platformed the ravings of white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. Fuentes has attacked “organized Jewry in America,” praised Adolf Hitler as “awesome and cool,” and openly called for the “annihilation” of “perfidious Jews . . . when we take power.” Carlson listened passively, offering no rebuttal. He has also hostSee Rosenbaum on page 23

Supporters of hunger strikers affiliated with the group Palestine Action, which has been deemed a terrorist organization by the UK government, protest in London’s Parliament Square on Dec. 15. Guy Smallman, Getty Images via JNS

was not allowed to win. American Jews who had long solidified their home within the party of FDR and JFK suddenly found themselves alienated by the party’s embrace of DEI. ow Republicans have very publicly signaled that they, too, have a Jew-hating fringe. Talk about squandering whatever political capital Donald Trump achieved in the first year of his second term. He should put an end to the party’s unsightly antisemitism before it engulfs his presidency. Meanwhile, his Vice President, J.D. Vance, is making things worse and revealing the Ap-

palachian side of his American persona — a bitter, anti-globalist, anti-cosmopolitan political strain that is elevating America First into an isolationist religion reminiscent of the 1930s. Vance recently minimized rising antisemitism within the Republican Party, calling it a mere distraction “from the necessary conversation we need to have about the U.S.-Israel relationship.” Really? Obviously, he’s spending too much time with his close friend, Tucker Carlson, who said he didn’t know “anyone in the United States in the last 24 years who’s been killed by radical Islam.”

Returning home after parting from my father RUTHiE BlUM

land at Ben-Gurion International Airport after a week in New York that feels like a lifetime. The wheels hit the tarmac with a dull thud that spurs customary applause from passengers. They’re either relieved after the long journey or clapping for arriving in the Jewish state. Before passengers are permitted to unbuckle, the pilot takes to the loudspeaker. “Welcome home,” he says in Hebrew, proceeding to highlight the bravery of the Israel Defense Forces and express hope for the swift return of the body of Ron Gvili, the last remaining hostage held by Hamas in Gaza. His tone is steady, yet cheerful. He doesn’t hedge or sermonize. He’s unapologetically patriotic. I am instantly reminded of a different El Al pilot, who chose Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah) in April 2023 — a mere six months before the Oct. 7 massacre — to bash the government in Jerusalem for its plans to reform the judiciary. As he prepared for takeoff from Tel Aviv to the Big Apple, he announced, “[T]hings like

the Holocaust are potentially to be occurring in a dictatorship, and we are fighting in Israel to remain a democratic country. Thank you all and have a nice flight.” By the time the plane landed 12 hours later, his statements had gone viral on social media, causing outrage and leading El Al to threaten him with disciplinary action or dismissal. His response, upon hitting the ground at John F. Kennedy Airport, was to issue a weak apology. This he did by invoking his status as a secondgeneration survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp. As though this gave him moral authority over the majority of the Israeli public who wasn’t sufficiently enlightened to hold with his views. The pilot on my flight, in contrast, speaks not as an activist but as a citizen. This is especially uplifting for me at the moment, as I have come from burying my father, Norman Podhoretz. t his funeral and shiva, the conversations focus mainly on his contribution to the battle of ideas. He was a public intellectual, after all, whose death naturally has been noted with a series of articles by admirers and critics. I peruse the obituaries with a mixture of pride and ill ease. For me, he is not an author or editor or controversial pundit. He is a parent. Though he and I discussed politics ad nauseam, his ideas about the world weren’t what mattered most to me as his daughter. Not because

I suddenly understood the traditional Jewish condolence, ‘May you be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.’

Norman Podhoretz, columnist Ruthie Blum’s father.

Sarah Merians, Courtesy of Commentary Inc

they weren’t important, but because they constituted only a fraction of our deep, sometimes fraught, always tight, personal connection. The same applies to my relationship with Israel. It’s not an abstract concept. Not a cause. Not a problem to be solved or re-imagined. So many of those who don’t live in Israel — whatever side of the spectrum they occupy — view it as a project to be dissected, judged and analyzed, either for its betterment or for its destruction. For me, it’s more personal than political. When the pilot lauds the IDF, I hear names and see faces, including those of my own kids. When

he mentions Gvili, I envision the ache of a family yearning for closure. And when he says, “Welcome home,” it’s not rhetorical. It’s real. s I walk through the terminal, carrying the weight of the shiva along with my luggage, I suddenly understand the traditional Jewish condolence phrase, “May you be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.” I want to phone my father to report this revelation to him, since I know he’ll be amused. And then I’m struck by the realization that such a call is no longer possible. Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

THE JEWISH STAR January 2-29, 2026 • Vayechi • 13 Tevet 5786

The right is now slouching toward the wrong

January 2-29, 2026 • Vayechi • 13 Tevet 5786 THE JEWISH STAR

We’re wondering what the new year will bring PETER KING Retired Congressman from Long Island

very new year brings with it the anticipation of what might be. Leaving 2025 and all its tumult and drama in our rearview mirror, we 2026 with hope, anticipation … and some concern. On a positive note, the economy appears to have stabilized and might even be ready to take off. Inflation has slowed and gas prices are down. All is not perfect, of course. Too many basic food products still have high prices, and there is the specter of artificial intelligence and what impact it will have on the economy and our lives. At least for the short run, the signs are positive for solid growth and an overall good economy on Long Island. New York City, though, could be another story, and difficulties in the Big Apple necessarily carry the risk of bleeding over into Nassau County. This isn’t a partisan screed, but with its first election ever of an avowed democratic socialist mayor, the city has raised the stakes. Will Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s economic policies drive businesses — businesses that employ many Long Islanders! — out of New

Long Island is at the epicenter of the governor’s race.

York? Will his proposals to curtail police activity cause an increase in crime and a concomitant increase in cross-border crime? All this will be part of the statewide gubernatorial campaign, which will have Long Island at its epicenter, with County Executive Bruce Blakeman carrying the Republican banner against incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul. This race will not only have a focus on the Mamdani factor but will be run against the competing backdrops of the progressive hold on the Democratic Party and the favorable/unfavorable ratio of President Trump’s policies on Long Island and New York. It could well be a campaign for the history books, with Long Island dominating the prologue, the chapters and the conclusion. he new year will mark the 250th anniversary of the American experiment, which has seen the United States emerge as the world’s beacon for freedom and liberty — and the most prosperous and powerful military force in the history of the world. With that power and prosperity has come responsibility beyond our borders, manifested dramatically in assisting our European allies in World War I; crushing Hitler and Nazism in World War II; and forging NATO and other alliances with democratic allies to lead the free world through the long struggle of the Cold War to defeat Soviet imperialism and bring down the prison of the Iron Curtain to free the captive nations of Eastern Europe. This was followed, of course, by America’s heroic response to the horrific attacks of Sept. 11, and its coordination of the larger response of the civilized world to Islamist terrorism — particularly its main components, Al Qaeda and ISIS. That struggle isn’t entirely over, and we can nev-

In 2026, we’ll be celebrating America.

er take our foot off their throats, but the forces of terrorism have definitely been subdued. My concern now, as we begin 2026, is whether America is in danger of abdicating its position of world leadership and returning to the failed America First isolationist policies of the 1930s, which led us to retreat within our borders and refuse to assist European democracies in the climactic struggle against Hitler and Nazism until it was almost too late. We can’t be weakening western alliances like NATO or in any way enabling resurgent despots like Russian President Vladimir Putin. In deciding what aid to provide countries like Ukraine

Adobe

that are courageously resisting brutal Russian aggression, we must not once again make the isolationist mistake of focusing on the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Forgetting the cruel lessons of the past could only force us to relive them. America’s history is a proud one. It’s my hope that 2026 will see the rekindling and strengthening of the flame of freedom that has burned so brightly since 1776, and the love of liberty that has fueled it. Happy New Year! Published in the LI Herald. Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

What to do about the surge in attacks on shuls JasoN shvIlI Facts and Logic About Middle East (FLAME)

s anti-Jewish and anti-Israel attacks skyrocket in the United States, their targets are increasingly synagogues. Nearly all of the high-profile attacks on shuls reported by mainstream media since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, were orchestrated by so-called “Free Palestine” mobs. Such attacks — sometimes deadly — dispel any excuse that protesters “do not hate Jews,” but only want to “free Palestine.” Let’s be clear: These attackers have nothing to do with forming a state in “Palestine.” Most of the slogans associated with synagogue attackers call for the death of Jews and the elimination of Israel. Synagogue attacks have nothing to do with free speech. Indeed, murdering worshippers at a religious institution doesn’t constitute an expression of First Amendment rights, nor do assaults on Jews, blocking access to a place of worship and building vandalism. Rather, the “pro-Palestinian” groups leading these attacks have everything to do with threatening Jews and eliminating the Jewish state. At a highly publicized attack last month on a synagogue in Manhattan, for example, a protest leader chanted, “We need to make them scared,” revealing the true intention

of these synagogue attacks — to make Jews cower. So far, responses by synagogue and Jewish community leadership, as well as civil authorities, have been disorganized and ineffective. Often, law enforcement has reacted haphazardly. Some politicians have advocated for measures, such as “buffer zones,” which will only regulate the problem rather than resolve it. or the sake of public safety and civil order, American Jews, as well as legislators and civil authorities, must fight back against personal attacks on Jews and on Jewish houses of worship. The solutions must be forceful and determined; they must deter such attacks. Attacks on synagogues are skyrocketing. According to a 2024-25 survey by the Anti-Defamation League, incidents of attacks on synagogues spiked to twice the five-year, pre-2023 average. Nearly all high-profile attacks post-Oct. 7 were orchestrated by antiIsrael groups, such as the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and American Muslims for Palestine. And they were accompanied by such chants as “Death to Israel” and “We don’t want no Zionists here.” Synagogue attackers have no interest in building a Palestinian state. No wonder none of the chants heard at synagogue attacks call for actions toward building a Palestinian state. Instead, the attackers chant “Zionist pigs,” “Globalize the intifada,” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” None

Authorities must crack down on those who use force to prevent people from exercising their rights to freedom of worship, speech and assembly.

Mayor Eric Adams meets with Rabbi Arthur Schneier at the Park East Synagogue on the Upper East Side after antisemitic protests outside the building Nov. 24. Benny Polatseck, Mayoral Photography Office

of this has anything to do with building a Palestinian state, and everything to do with destroying Israel and intimidating Jews. Attacks on synagogues are not free speech. ndeed, murdering Jewish worshippers in cold blood is not an exercise of First Amendment rights. But that’s what Robert Bowers did on Oct. 27, 2018, at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, where he slaughtered 11 Jewish worshippers while at Shabbat morning services. Assaults have occurred at several synagogues, including one in New Jersey, where protesters attacked two Jewish worshippers, one of whom they hit in the head with a flashlight and required hospitalization. Synagogue attackers want to destroy Israel and intimidate Jews. Not surprisingly,

many synagogue attacks are perpetrated during events related to Israel. In fact, five attacks took place at synagogues holding Israeli real estate events. One attack in Los Angeles on Dec. 3 occurred at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, in which a “public-safety symposium” was taking place. This event was co-hosted by the consul general of Israel, the local Jewish community, and a Korean American community group. It was aimed at increasing security and community safety. Some anti-Israel agitators managed to get inside the synagogue, damage property and shout slogans like “baby killers,” “Zionist pigs” and “Occupation no more.” In another instance, at the Park East SynaSee Shvili on page 23

21 THE JEWISH STAR January 2-29, 2026 • Vayechi • 13 Tevet 5786

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Tobin: Jew-hating Mamdanites will change NY… Continued from page 18 social work, rather than police action, is likely to make a city where few feel safe even more dangerous. His determination to eliminate the New York Police Department’s Strategic Response Unit, which is trained to deal with protests, will also be a gift that is likely to keep on giving to those who chant “Globalize the intifada” in the coming years. Yet at the most basic level, the statistics about the number of his appointees who have engaged in Jew-hatred point to the real problem. It’s not just that the election as mayor of someone whose adult life has been dedicated to hatred of Israel is chilling to the overwhelming majority of New York’s Jews, who regard Israel and Zionism as an integral part of their faith and ethnic identity. In his administration, such sentiments will become so commonplace that it won’t be possible to single them out as worthy of condemnation and outrage. It’s true that Mamdani won’t be able, as he continues to threaten to do, to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visits the city. And the fact that, unlike every other mayor since it began in 1964, Mamdani won’t march up Fifth Avenue in the annual “Salute to Israel” parade isn’t that big a deal.

Berlin…

Continued from page 17 The Gemara in Sotah 13a reveals what was happening beneath the surface. The children of Esav, the children of Yishmael, and the children of Keturah all came to the burial of Yaakov to wage war against Bnei Yisrael. They believed the time had come to exact revenge. All three carried the wound of rejection. •Esav had been passed over when Yaakov received the blessings. •Yishmael had been sent away when Yitzchak was chosen as Avraham’s heir. •The children of Keturah were likewise sent eastward, separated from Yitzchak’s inheritance. Rejection had hardened into hatred, and now they came for war. But then they noticed Yosef’s crown resting on Yaakov’s coffin. Yosef was the rejected brother, sold into slavery, imprisoned for years, and separated from his family for decades. And yet he had risen to become the most powerful man in the world. If anyone had the ability and justification to seek revenge, it was Yosef. Instead, he forgave. His crown represented moral mastery, not merely power. eeing Yosef’s crown, the descendants of Esav, Yishmael, and Keturah were shaken. They removed their own crowns and hung them on Yosef’s crown. The coffin became surrounded by crowns, resembling thorn bushes, which is why the place was called Goren HaAtad, a threshing floor encircled like thorns. In that moment, their will to fight dissolved. The meaning of this becomes clear in the next scene of the parsha. After the burial, the brothers panic. With Yaakov gone, they fear Yosef will finally take revenge. Yosef responds, “Ha-Tachas Elokim Ani?” (Bereishis 50:19). This is often translated as “Am I in the place of G-d?” but the word Tachas also means beneath. Yosef is teaching something deeper. There are two ways to live. One is beneath G-d, ruled by instinct, anger, resentment, and ego. The other is to strive to align with G-d by emulating His attributes. Forgiveness does not come naturally. Our instincts pull us toward revenge and grudges. Yosef reframed his suffering entirely. Again and again he says, “You intended harm, but G-d intended it for good” (Bereishis 50:20). By seeing his pain as part of a divine plan, he

Still, such gestures and policies will have a cumulative effect on public life in New York. They will create what in other contexts is easily identified as a hostile environment that will not only put Jews at risk but also make Jewish life more precarious. Outside of interactions with outlier groups like the Satmars or the not-inconsiderable number of (though still a minority) Jews who share the Democratic Socialist’s radical views, Mamdani’s disingenuous attempt to be an open opponent of a key aspect of Jewish identity without being viewed as antisemitic won’t wash.

Lessons of history

The Mamdani administration in New York is likely to teach us a lesson that should have already been obvious from even a cursory glance at Jewish history. Targeting one group of Jews or Jewish beliefs always leads to growing hostility against and ultimately violence against all Jews. And ignoring such problems or complacently wishing for them to go away won’t work. Such horrors are only averted when societies regard the traditional tropes of Jew-hatred that are employed by left-wing antisemites like Mamdani, as well as the growing number of right-wingers who mimic them, as beyond the pale of civil discourse. Leading media outlets freed himself from bitterness. That is what true forgiveness looks like. Not denial of wrongdoing, but transcendence of it. This message could not be more urgent today. Antisemitism is once again rising openly and violently. Does it feel like we are living in the 1930s again? We are still reeling from the horrific attack in Bondi on Chanukah. What can we do? When we are divided, we are vulnerable. When we are united, we are strong. Repairing relationships strengthens families. Strengthening families strengthens Klal Yisrael. Personal forgiveness can even reshape the behavior of nations. Each of us must ask: •Whom can I forgive? •What relationship can I repair? •Can I make that phone call? •What resentment can I release? When we rise above our instincts and act in a G-dly way, we tap into the supernatural strength that Yosef seared within our spiritual makeup. His forgiveness melted the hatred of nations and brought their crowns to his feet. When we choose forgiveness, other nations will recognize that moral strength and lay their crowns alongside ours. Benny Berlin is the rabbi of BACH Jewish Center in Long Beach. Visit: bachlongbeach.com Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

Mazurek… Continued from page 17 our own misconception. They tell us quite clearly that there are two stages to life — the life we naturally experience day to day, (olam hazeh), and the life after what we call “death” (colloquially known as the “afterlife,” olam haba). What olam haba means in practice, we do not know because it is shrouded in mystery. Yet its acceptance — including the idea of techiyat hameitim (resurrection of the dead) — is one of the pillars of our faith. It is no euphemism, therefore, that cemeteries in Israel can be referred to as Eretz HaChaim (the Land of the Living). hich brings us to Ran Gvilli, the last hostage, whose body is somewhere in Gaza. At the age of 24, on Oct. 7, 2023, he was home in Meitar, southern Israel, awaiting

like the New York Times have mainstreamed antisemitic arguments about Israel and the Jews since Oct. 7 in their news coverage and commentary. However, the election of Mamdani and the inauguration of a city administration where such views will be routine will take this process to the next level. Though the new mayor will claim to oppose violence against Jews, the presence of so many city officials who have engaged in acts of Jewhatred will remove any remaining stigma from such actions, no matter who is doing it. In recent years, under its current CEO and national director, Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL has seemed to abandon its primary mission of defending Jews against antisemitism in favor of left-wing and partisan activism. While there is still much to criticize in ADL’s approach to the issues, its decision to employ its considerable resources to scrutinize Mamdani is a welcome sign that it is returning to the job the Jewish community needs it to do. They should not be alone in this. Understandably, the reaction of most New York Jewish institutions and leaders to Mamdani’s election is to find a way to work with him, and hopefully, to influence the new mayor to abandon his radical past. But Mamdani is no

surgery on his shoulder. When the onslaught began, he put on his police uniform and went out to fight. He was killed defending Kibbutz Alumim. I, like most of you, had never heard of him before this. By our standard definition, he is no longer alive. But by the standards of parshat Vayechi, he is alive. He lost his corporeal life defending the Jewish people al kiddush Hashem — making him a tzaddik, on par with Yosef, and he must not be abandoned. At a Kabbalat Shabbat service in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square that was attended by mostly non-observant Jews, Ran’s mother passionately spoke out, beseeching those present: When we talk about unity — this is precisely that unity. Because at the end of the day we really are a strong nation, and we stick with each other. Rani is not just my boy — he’s your boy, too. He needs you now because he’s going to be abandoned. This is what our Torah — this is what yahadut — demands of us. This is our correction, our cure for all that ails us, our secret weapon, our superpower: achdut, ahavat achim. And finally, another tzaddik — Eitan Oster. He is the namesake of the recently launched Iron Beam laser weapon system that is a game changer in the defense of Israel and the pursuit of our enemies. Only hours prior to this writing, it was announced that the system is fully operational in the field. It was named the Or Eitan — the Light of Eitan, or the Mighty Light. He was the first to fall in battle in Lebanon against Hezbollah on Oct. 2, 2024, at age 22 — almost a year to the day after the fall of Ran Gvilli in Gaza. From the town of Modiin, a member of B’nei Akiva, a student at a hesder yeshiva, an observant Jew and commander of the elite Egoz reconnaissance unit, he had won an Outstanding Officer’s Award in August 2023. His father, Dov, is one of the engineers who developed the laser system. Yosef. Ran. Eitan. Brothers in life, brothers in the afterlife. And just as the brothers came together with Yosef — and their descendants made certain that ultimately Yosef’s body was brought home — we must come together and bring all our brave kedoshim home. This is a typical week in the life of a Jew. Review the parsha. Read the news. Put it all together. Thank you, Hashem. Chazak chazak v’nitchazek. Shabbat shalom. Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

ordinary politician, both in terms of his ability to appeal to young voters and his commitment to the causes that he supports.

Accommodation won’t work

No amount of making nice with the mayor or seeking common ground will ever convince this hard-core ideologue to give up his lifelong commitment to Israel’s destruction. He has made no secret of the fact that his “pro-Palestine” support for the ongoing war on the Jews is non-negotiable. While that won’t stop him from carrying out some of the basic functions of running the city, it is incompatible with Jewish safety. The ADL report is one more warning to New York’s Jews that the only path forward must involve active resistance to an administration that is determined to marginalize and isolate them, even if it won’t openly back attacks on them. That will mean public protests and activities to confront the mayor and make it clear that business as usual will be impossible if Jewhatred is tolerated and encouraged. And that will require the kind of courage and chutzpah to which the liberal-leaning Jewish establishment is generally allergic. But it is the only choice if New York is to remain a place where Jews and their families can still feel at home. Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

Weinreb…

Continued from page 17 individuality. That’s the message. Every parent and teacher must learn this basic lesson. They must treat each child individually and assure that each child comes to know his or her specialness. Our sages throughout history have imparted this lesson to us. For example, Maimonides, in his fascinating review of the early life of Abraham, writes that “he reasoned with each and every person according to that person’s intelligence, until he convinced him of the truth” (Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Avodah Zara, 1:3). Again, when instructing us of our duties at the Passover seder, he tells us that it is a mitzvah to relate the story of the Exodus to each child according to his or her intellectual ability. A very young child must be told stories, one with limited mental capacity must be given concrete examples, older and wiser children can be taught in a more abstract fashion. “Everything must be done according to the particular intelligence of the child” (Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Chametz U’Matza, 7:2). mong my favorite essays on the subject of education was the one by the late Rabbi Elimelech Bar Shaul, once the Rabbi of Rehovot. He wrote, “If we give more to one who is only capable of receiving less, then we have given him nothing. And if we give less to one who can receive more, we have failed our mission, and worse — the student may come to think that there is no more, or that there is no more for him.” Giving too much to one with a lesser capacity can frustrate him irremediably. Giving too little to one with a greater capacity shortchanges him and cheats him, and worse, may alienate him forever. Jewish mystics see human differences as but part of the Almighty’s cosmic design. Thus, Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Charlap, a mystic in the tradition of his master, Rav Kook, writes that “there is no duplication in the universe.” Just as no two people are perfectly alike, so there are no two things, in all of universe, that are alike. Each person, like the grains of sand on the seashore, has a special quality and a special novelty. Mystic or realist, appreciating our differences is our vital task as Jews, as human beings, and as residents of the Almighty’s cosmos. Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

Continued from pag 17 then the locals may resent that and resist in one way or another. A Jewish presence upsets non-Jews when they get too involved, too intimate. As long as we know our parameters, we are welcome. But cross those boundaries and we may be made to feel very uncomfortable indeed. The story is told of one such Jew who was a wannabee gentile, and he changed his name and his nose hoping to gain admittance to the prestigious local country club. When his application was declined, he called the manager demanding an explanation. He was successful, wealthy and lived in the neighborhood. Why was he not accepted? The manager told him it was his religion. “But what’s wrong with my religion?” the applicant asked. “Sir, on your application form, under ‘Religion,’ you wrote Goy.” Of course, this is no justification for Jews to be herded into ghettos as the Nazis and others throughout history have done. We have every right to live where we want, as well as be treated as equals anywhere and everywhere. If we prefer to live in predominantly Jewish areas, that is our choice. It should never be an obligation imposed upon us by others. Wherever we live, we ought to be proud of who we are and never deny our heritage nor seek to abandon it by mixing in other circles. If we have business obligations and find ourselves in non-Jewish environments, we can remain dignified and proud of who we are in every situation. We have nothing whatsoever to be ashamed of. As Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks famously said: “Non-Jews respect Jews who respect themselves.” Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

Continued from page 19 ed “historians” who blame World War II on Winston Churchill. The vice president has had many opportunities to denounce what these podcasters have been peddling — revamped blood libels and nefarious cabals that reflect poorly on MAGA’s intellectual honesty. The brainy neoconservatives who once led the Republican Party have seemingly been replaced by numbskulls wearing dunce caps. ather than reject Carlson and his cadre of Jew-hating sycophants, Vance told the audience at last week’s Turning Point USA’s inaugural AmericaFest that he didn’t want to “impose any purity tests.” But by not taking a moral stand against open displays of antisemitism, he has sanctioned its pernicious return to civilized life. Vance is not alone in defending Carlson. The president of the Heritage Foundation validated the platforming of Fuentes and then shuffled the deck of canards by referring to some “venomous coalition” that sought to cancel the podcaster. Megyn Kelly, Carlson’s former colleague at Fox News, defended him, too. Jewish conservative Ben Shapiro, speaking at AmericaFest, as well, called Carlson, Candace Owens, and Steve Bannon “frauds and grifters . . . charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty.” Shapiro got the attention of many — but not all were in agreement. American Jews should take note. If the Republican Party doesn’t change course, it will foreclose the possibility of a new political home for moderates and Jews. Jews are begrudgingly beginning to see that they are on the verge of

Shvili…

Continued from page 20 gogue in New York City on Nov. 19, anti-Israel activists targeted an event being held by Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organization that helps Jews immigrate to Israel. Some 200 protesters, many masked, gathered outside the synagogue, chanting slogans like “Globalize the Intifada” and “Take another settler out.” One of the protest leaders told the crowd that “it is our duty to make them think twice before holding these events.” Responses to synagogue attacks are inconsistent and often lackluster. Local police reaction to attacks is habitually muted nationwide. After the Park East attack, for example, the New York City Police Department commissioner admitted that police should have done a better job of keeping anti-Israel protesters away, by keeping the front entrance clear and ensuring “people could easily enter and leave shul.” Authorities at all levels of government need to crack down on those who use violence and other force to prevent people from exercising their rights to freedom of worship, speech and assembly. This means, for example, enhanced, aggressive prosecution for hate crimes, and mandatory arrests for vandalism, threats or obstruction. Notably, no arrests have been made in connection with several attacks on synagogues in the past two years. In the period from October 2023 to December 2025, only five individuals across documented incidents faced arrest for attacks on synagogues. There have been no convictions. Strong, resolute action is required to prevent attacks on synagogues, so American Jews are not intimidated by thugs seeking to destroy them and their state. Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

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Continued from page 5 Here, US officials see an opportunity to set positive processes in motion that could pull the entire region forward. According to a regional diplomat, differences over Syria can be bridged, and with Lebanon there are many shared interests that could form the basis of a future agreement. Netanyahu himself said last week, in response to a question from Israel Hayom, that Israel wants to see a sovereign and stable Lebanon. In the same breath, he added that Hezbollah terrorists operated by Iran must be addressed. Syria introduces an additional player to the talks: Turkey. Ankara, the patron of al-Sharaa, is seeking to establish a full protectorate and in doing so to restrict Israel’s freedom of action in Syrian airspace and on the ground. That airspace is critical for Israel on the route to Iran. According to unverified reports, Turkey is moving radar batteries into Syrian territory, which would enable it to detect Israeli Air Force flights. Two more issues are also expected to come up. •One is the memorandum of understanding (MOU) on security assistance between the two countries, which is set to expire in 2027 and now requires groundwork in preliminary talks. •Alongside this, the sides are expected to raise economic, technological and trade relations, from tariffs to cooperation in advanced technology research.

THE JEWISH STAR January 2-29, 2026 • Vayechi • 13 Tevet 5786

Goldman… Rosenbaum

homelessness on the American left. If Trump was a better student of history, he would realize that festering antisemitism always leads to national annihilation. Social upheaval and cultural decline always seem to have antisemitism at its source. Jew-hatred has proven to be an Olympic sport where nearly every country gets a medal. Throughout history, nations that passionately hated Jews did not fare well — whether in Ancient Greece, Rome, Spain, England, Germany, and today’s France. Every Arab and Islamic nation in the Middle East, Persian Gulf and North Africa that once had a significant Jewish presence also had thriving mercantile economies and more enlightened lives. Now most have neither. The successful adoption of the Abraham Accords manifests that truism. he Republican Party in post-World War II America had the worldly and cultivated men — William F. Buckley Jr., and his National Review, and the recently deceased Norman Podhoretz, with Commentary — as solid bulwarks against antisemitism within the John Birch Society in the 1960s and Pat Buchanan’s presidential campaign in 1992. But now, antisemitism among young Republicans is inexplicably rising, apart from what was imported to America by way of illegal immigration. Homegrown hatred is worrisome. So, too, are recent findings by the Manhattan Institute where Gen Z conservatives alarmingly harbor antisemitic attitudes. A few years ago, the story was Kanye West and Kyrie Irving. Today, the next wave of country music artists, NASCAR drivers, and any of the Yellowstone TV drama offshoots may portend where Jews stand among conservatives. Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

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