Most 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.
Mamdani vote makes it clear:
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.
“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
Fringe is mainstream after primary
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
does not represent the rest of the nation, the fact that a radical socialist is the Democratic Party
and candidate for the general mayoral election signals that the “woke left” is no longer just a fringe
New York Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani greets supporters during an election night gathering on Tuesday. Michael M. Santiago, Getty Images via JNS
GABE GROISMAN
Reasons to support Israel’s ceasefire with Iran
ALEX TRAIMAN
JNS Jerusalem Bureau Chief
There are some people in Israel criticizing the ceasefire with Iran. Let me state here why I believe they are wrong.
This war would not have been waged without President Donald Trump in office. Aside from the “green light” and the diplomatic cover, Trump delivered the weapons Israel needed for this campaign.
Without those weapons, Israel could never have pummeled Iran for 12 days. In particular, Israel used heavy 2,000 lb munitions — the very munitions the Biden administration admitted to withholding from Israel. We know that the Biden administration withheld many other munitions as well.
After Trump joined the Israeli campaign and took out the Fordow nuclear reactor from the air — using B-2 bombers and GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, which Israel does not possess — a ceasefire was his choice to make.
Once the United States entered, even in a limited strike, the rules of the game changed. Iran was no longer fighting only against Israel. Trump warned Iran that retaliation would be met with the full force of the US military.
After suffering humiliating losses on the battlefield, Iran knew it could not survive the wrath of Trump. Iran begged for a ceasefire. It was essentially a complete surrender. Had Israel gone it alone, there is no doubt that Iran would have kept firing ballistic missile barrages at Israel. Israelis would have been forced into bomb shelters multiple times a day, perhaps for several more weeks. The airport would have remained closed.
This would have stretched Israeli resilience to the extreme.
Meanwhile, Israel accomplished its two primary goals: First, destroying Iran’s nuclear facilities as well as their ability to enrich uranium and develop a nuclear weapon and, second, neutralizing the ballistic missile threat by destroying manufacturing facilities, storehouses and launchers.
Even though Iran still likely has several hundred ballistic missiles, its program has been stopped in its tracks, along with its ability to fire large barrages.
Additionally, Israel had already succeeded in significantly degrading each of Iran’s major terror proxies.
•Hamas is down to its final fighters in Gaza.
•Hezbollah’s command and control hierarchy was taken out at the top and mid-levels, and their missile capabilities were degraded by nearly 80 percent.
•The Houthis suffered significant losses after over 1,000 US airstrikes and massive Israeli strikes on weapons facilities, Sanaa airport and Hodeidah port.
The unstated goal, of course, and the major remaining question is regime change in Iran. Israel struck hard at regime symbols and infrastructure. Even in the final hours, Israel struck hard at Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps infrastructure and leadership, as well as that of the Basij, domestic shock troops that terrorize the population.
While the Iranian propaganda machine boasts of major successes, destroying America’s Al Udeid airbase in Qatar and crushing Israeli military facilities and capabilities, Iranians will soon learn the truth: that the Islamic Republic has been weakened and thoroughly humiliated.
It will now be up to the Iranian people to do the rest and take advantage of a golden opportunity to overthrow their regime and take back their country. If and when that happens, it will be the final death blow to the Islamic Republic and can usher in an era of peace.
Just as with the ceasefire declared in Leba-
non in November 2024, while Hezbollah was on its heels, Israel has proven that Hezbollah is sufficiently deterred, even if not completely destroyed. Hezbollah did not fire a single shot at Israel during the 12-day war with Iran — an unthinkable occurrence just a year ago.
Further degrading Hezbollah was possible, but likely would have had diminishing returns in terms of time and damage suffered on the Israeli home front. Plus, Israel received a letter of guarantee from the United States that it would permit Israeli strikes if Hezbollah violates the terms of the ceasefire. Israel has regularly struck at Hezbollah even in the wake of the ceasefire.
Now, Israel can turn its attention towards Gaza and conclude the war with Hamas. Hamas has been decimated, and most of Gaza flattened. Israel will focus on getting the re-
maining hostages home. Focus will then shift towards moving willing Gazans out of the Strip.
Closing the Hamas front will culminate a 600-plus day war, and will give Israel a multifront victory.
And while Trump expressed his frustration with both Israel and Iran over their strikes leading up to and past the ceasefire deadline, all attacks stopped within just a few hours. No one will remember if the ceasefire took hold at 7 am or 11 am. It doesn’t change the stunning outcome of the war one bit.
Trump will be very happy with his strike on Fordow and the ceasefire he brokered.
Israel should similarly be very satisfied with the ceasefire and very proud of its stunning war accomplishments.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Jewish communities in Iran keep a low profile
By Karmel Melamed, JNS
Iranian-American Jewish activists in contact with Jewish friends and family inside Iran say their community is safe, but has been keeping a low public profile during the current conflict.
“While the (Iranian) regime has shut down the internet and phone lines for a few days recently because of the war, I was able to speak to some Jewish leaders in Tehran earlier who said they have directed the Jews there to leave the city due to the bombings and go to other Iranian cities such as Shiraz, Isfahan and Yazd where it’s safer and they can stay with their family members or other Jews,” one Iranian Jewish activist in Los Angeles told JNS.
Jewish Iranian American leaders have, for decades, largely avoided public comments about the regime, for fear that this could potentially lead to revenge being taken on the Jews who are still living in Iran.
Saeed Banayan, a retired Iranian Jewish businessman living in Los Angeles, said many Jews have recently fled Tehran for quieter areas north of the city during the conflict.
“I spoke to a family member of mine several days ago who lives in Tehran,” said Banayan. “She said she and her husband, along with many other Jews, have all fled the city and are now staying in the areas near the Caspian Sea, which are safer and have no military sites that would be targeted by Israel.”
An Iranian Jewish activist in Los Angeles, who asked that his name be withheld because of his fear that the Iranian regime would retaliate against his family members inside Iran, told JNS the Jewish leadership has shut down all synagogues and cancelled Shabbat services
during the conflict.
“The Jewish community leaders have told Jews not to come out in public wearing kippahs, they’ve cancelled Jewish religious events and asked the community to maintain a low profile in public right now to avoid any potential issues with the regime or those who Muslims who hate Israel,” the activist said.
JNS obtained a Persian language e-mail that originated from the Shiraz Jewish Charity Association asking Jews in Tehran to temporarily come to Shiraz during the conflict for their safety.
“Due to the emergency situation, the Shiraz Jewish Charity Association has arranged for tem-
porary accommodations for our loved ones from Tehran who plan to leave for Shiraz,” the e-mail said. “Therefore, we invite our dear fellow Jews in Tehran to coordinate with us. We welcome your arrival and will have accommodations available for you and your loved ones.”
The largest contingency of Iran’s remaining small Jewish community, estimated at 8,000, lives in Tehran.
Iranian Jewish activists in southern California said they have been in contact with Jewish friends and family members who have fled Iran altogether since the conflict broke out.
“I know of several Jews from Tehran who had
the financial means and have left Iran altogether to stay in places like Dubai or some of the European countries temporarily to avoid injury or death,” said Bijan Khalili, one of the founders of the LA-based “No To Antisemitism” an Iranian Jewish non-profit group.
Yehuda Gerami, Chief Rabbi of Iran and the Tehran Jewish Committee, which represents the Jews who remain in Iran, issued statements decrying Israel’s attacks on the regime.
Iranian American Jewish activists said Jews inside Iran are living under constant duress and must issue such statements supporting the Iranian regime or face dire consequences from the regime’s security apparatus.
“The Jews who have remained in Iran have no choice but to make public statements that will keep the regime happy because they do not want problems with the government,” said Dara Abaei, who heads the LA-based “Jewish Unity Network,” an Iranian Jewish non-profit.
Abaei said he has spoken to friends and family members in Tehran since the conflict began and they have told him that the Jewish community is safe, but their situation is precarious, like most other residents of the city.
“There are about 10 million people who live in Tehran and who have mostly fled the city — and the Jews are among them because it’s just a difficult situation for everyone right now,” he said.
“There is fear for sure by some Jews since there is a possibility of being targeted because of antisemitism from some angry radical groups,” Abaei said. “So, the Jewish community is trying to stay home and avoid getting out too much right now.”
Iranian Jewish men pray in a synagogue in Tehran, Feb. 13, 2020. Hossein Beris, ME Images, AFP via Getty via JNS
An image of slain Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Hossein Salami at a memorial for those killed by Israel, at Hafteh-tir Square in Tehran, on June 23. Atta Kenare, AFP via Getty Images via JNS
With Mamdani, Jews are no longer welcome…
Continued from page 1
as a Jewish state and is friendly with Israelbashing Jew-haters,” Klein said.
Mamdani “has been mainstreamed in the most important Jewish city in America,” he continued. “It is time to make aliyah to Israel.”
Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at the Lawfare Project, told JNS that Mamdani’s victory is more than just a political upset. It marks a dangerous turning point for the city, he said.
“Mamdani has made hostility toward Jews a political brand, proudly championing the BDS campaign, a movement that is nothing more than ethnic and national origin discrimination targeting Jews and Israelis,” he said.
“Even more alarming, Mamdani refused to distance himself from the slogan ‘globalize the intifada,’ a phrase tied to deadly antiJewish violence, effectively downplaying terror against Jews under the guise of ‘struggle’,” Filitti said.
Mamdani’s primary success sends the message that espousing Jew-hatred can be politically rewarding, according to Filitti.
“New York’s Jews, already facing rising antisemitism and the failure by its elected officials to meaningfully combat it, now must contend with the prospect of a City Hall led by a man whose purported Jew-hatred has been on full display in his politics,” he said, “a reality that threatens to undermine the city’s legacy of tolerance and leave a proud community feeling more vulnerable than ever.”
Ezra Friedlander, who runs an eponymous public relations firm, told JNS that Jewish New Yorkers dismayed with the Democratic primary result should make sure to vote in the November general election.
“Mamdani is not the mayor-elect,” he said. “He is the Democratic nominee.
“If people are afraid, they have to come together and in all likelihood, vote for Eric Adams,” he said. “You have to translate that fear to action.”
Freildander said he is an optimist, who believes that if Mamdani is elected mayor, he may soften some of his most extremist views.
“If Mamdani does become mayor, because
of what he’s being accused of, he would have to demonstrate that he is a mayor of all New Yorkers, including the Orthodox Jewish community, and be extra sensitive to it,” Friedlander said.
President Donald Trump chimed in on social media, calling Mamdani a “communist lunatic.”
“It’s finally happened, the Democrats have crossed the line,” Trump said. “We’ve had radical lefties before, but this is getting ridiculous.”
Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who did not compete in the primary but is running as an independent in November through two political parties he created — one called End AntiSemitism, the other Fight and Deliver — called Mamdani “a snake oil salesman.”
During a Fox & Friends appearance on Wednesday, Adams referred to Mamdani’s pledge to freeze rents, make buses free and offer no-cost childcare, concluding that “he would say and do anything to get elected.”
In November, “you are going to get those
grandmothers, those granddads, those working-class people who are going to come out because they realize they don’t want to defund their police department. They want police on their block,” Adams said.
“They realize that you have to invest in businesses. … And small property owners are hurting in this city, when you talk about freeze rent and no rent.”
“What NYC deserves is a mayor who’s proud to run on his record, not one who has no record,” Adams said in a statement about Mamdani, 33, who has been in the state Assembly only since 2021. “We deserve a mayor who will keep driving down crime, support our police, fight antisemitism, and stand up for working-class New Yorkers.”
Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate for mayor, said Mamdani is “too extreme for a city already on edge.”
“This is not the time for radical politics,” Sliwa said on X. “It is time for real leadership.”
The Jewish Star contributed to this report.
After the primary, fringe is now mainstream…
Continued from page 1 movement. This should concern all Americans, not just New Yorkers and not just the Jewish community, which should be particularly alarmed by Mamdani’s positions.
Mamdani, a Muslim born in Uganda, is backed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations and endorsed by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (who represents parts of Queens and the Bronx), Bernie Sanders of Vermont, former New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman and the Democratic Socialists of America.
He has refused to condemn chants to “globalize the intifada” and does not recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Listening to Mamdani speak should send chills down people’s spines. His platform reads like a socialist manifesto: government-run grocery stores, free public transportation, rent freezes, taxpayer-funded childcare, a $30 minimum wage, dismantling federal immigration enforcement, publicly funded legal defense for illegal immigrants and expanded genderaffirming care for “youth.”
It doesn’t get more extreme than this.
For the Jewish community, Mamdani would be an unmitigated disaster. He supports the antisemitic BDS movement,
The nomination of socialist Zohran Mandami as the Democratic mayoral candidate should concern people far beyond the city.
introduced legislation as a state legislator to block charitable support for Israeli settlements, refused to sign resolutions commemorating the Holocaust and supporting Israel, and co-founded a branch of Students for Justice in Palestine while a student at Bowdoin College.
And yet, according to a recent poll, Mamdani has the support of 20% of Jewish New Yorkers. That’s an alarming statistic, but it says more about a troubling segment of New York’s Jewish population than it does about the candidate himself.
That same poll found that only 76% of Jewish Democrats in New York City believe that the rise in antisemitic hate crimes is a “very serious” issue.
That’s stunning, given the undeniable explosion of antisemitism in the city. It suggests that the same subset of Jews who are supporting
Mamdani may also be among those downplaying, or even participating in, the protests that are fueling antisemitic violence on the streets of New York.
This should be of concern to people in and out of New York because the city is still viewed as a cultural and political beacon in the United States and across the world. To paraphrase Frank Sinatra, if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere.
The Democratic Socialists of America, the organization that Mamdani actively supports and vice versa, openly calls for the dismantling of capitalism and law enforcement. And for those who claim they aren’t true socialists, note that article II of the group’s constitution begins: “We are socialists.” Believe them.
Also, just six days after Hamas’s Oct. 7
massacre, the DSA published a “Palestine Solidarity Toolkit” declaring “unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people in their 75-year struggle for liberation,” calling for an end to US military aid to Israel, and proclaiming: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Mamdani is the political embodiment of the protestors at Columbia University. He represents not just the most loathsome and dangerous movement in American politics, but also one of the most loathsome parts of our society today.
His views are dangerous for New York City, dangerous for America and dangerous for the Jewish community everywhere.
His meteoric rise is an alarm bell for the nation; the fringe has entered the mainstream. Expect to see more Mamdani-type candidates popping up in cities across the country. It’s up to all Americans, Democrats and Republicans alike, Jew and non-Jew, to reject socialism and the extreme and anti-American values Mamdani represents.
As for New York City’s Jews, they will have to unite to protect against a Mamdani mayorship in November; a task that may be difficult to do in a city where 68% of the voters are registered Democrats.
Gabe Groisman is an attorney and government affairs consultant.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Broad Mamdani support KO’d Cuomo’s anchors
By Vita Fellig, JNS
Orthodox Jewish voters backed former New York governor Andrew Cuomo by a staggering 8-to-1 margin, but that wasn’t enough to stop anti-Israel Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani from pulling off a decisive win in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor, according to political analyst Henry Olsen.
“What’s pretty clear is that Mamdani put together a very wide-ranging ethnic and class coalition, winning votes in Hispanic areas, winning votes in Asian areas, winning votes in
moderate to high income areas in Manhattan and in Brooklyn,” said Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. “It was an across-the-board win.”
Cuomo’s inability to expand beyond an Orthodox base cost him the race, Olsen said.
Olsen noted that non-Orthodox Jewish communities split their votes among several candidates.
“If you look at certain areas, like the Upper East Side, the closer you got to Central Park, the better Cuomo performed,” he said. “But on the
Upper West Side, it was more of a three-way split between Lander, Mamdani and Cuomo.”
Mamdani’s anti-Israel rhetoric, including declining to denounce the expression “globalize the intifada,” did not repel secular and Reform Jewish voters, according to Olsen.
“I think anyone who wants to win this campaign against Madani has to ask why it is that people who are secular or Reform Jews were not moved by this, whereas clearly the Orthodox were,” he said.
“Mamdani’s challenge is going to be convincing
voters outside of the Democratic primary activist base to support him,” Olsen said. “If the general election becomes a one-on-one matchup, voters who disliked Cuomo but also aren’t fully comfortable with Mamdani could be up for grabs.”
“If his opponents manage to consolidate around a single candidate in November, Mamdani will need to run a different kind of campaign to win them over,” he said.
Whoever aims to defeat Mamdani “has to take dissident Democrats and combine them with Republicans and independents,” he said.
City Hall in New York.
Vita Fellig
With Jews under siege, security is a priority
HWilliam Daroff and Eric fingErhut
undreds of Jewish leaders from across the country are descending on Washington for an Emergency Leadership Fly-In convened by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Jewish Federations of North America.
We do not come as lobbyists or advocates but as witnesses — bearing testimony to a moment of profound vulnerability and rising danger for Jews in the United States, in Israel and around the world.
What began as a response to the harrowing attacks on Jewish communal events in Washington, DC, and Boulder, Colo., has become something more. It is now a national moment of resolve — a clarion call that we will not be cowed, we will not be silent, and we will not be divided.
The Jewish people are
under siege — at home and abroad.
On American soil, synagogues, schools and community centers have become targets. Jewish students face intimidation on campus. Peaceful events are disrupted by mobs. Threats pour in daily. Law enforcement at all levels is unable to keep up.
Meanwhile, the Jewish state is locked in an existential war with Iran. Israel’s actions in this war are not only legitimate — they are vital to restoring deterrence, stability and the prospect of peace.
Our enemies do not distinguish between Jerusalem and Manhattan, Tel Aviv and Los Angeles. And so we must respond with equal clarity, coordination and courage. The Fly-In addresses both pillars of our communal security: the physical safety of Jews in America
This is a moment that calls for clarity, for courage, and above all, for unity.
and the sovereign defense of the State of Israel.
Over the course of 36 hours, participants were set to meet with congressional leaders, senior White House and Cabinet officials, and top homeland security and lawenforcement authorities. Together, we would deliver six urgent messages drawn from recent events and anchored in longstanding Jewish values:
1. Guarantee the full protection of Jewish institutions across America, both the physical facilities and the massive increase in costs for security personnel.
2. Ensure the FBI has the resources it needs to fight domestic terror.
3. Provide assistance to local law enforcement to increase their patrols and capacity to protect events and public spaces.
4. Fight incitement to violence on social media.
5. Prosecute hate crimes to the full extent of the law.
6. Affirm America’s enduring commitment to Israel’s security.
None of these are partisan positions. They are moral imperatives. They are Jewish responsibilities. And they are American values.
We do not come to Washington for spectacle or sym-
bolism. We come because the stakes are real.
Our brothers and sisters in Boulder and Washington never imagined their gatherings would end in violence.
Patients at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva likely believed hospitals were off-limits, even to the Iranian regime. But we have learned — again and again — that what begins with slogans often ends with suffering.
The chants of “globalize the intifada” are not just words. The ayatollah’s threats are not just rhetoric. They are incitement. And they
demand action.
This is a moment that calls for clarity, for courage, and above all, for unity. There are times when our community must turn inward to wrestle with internal divisions. But not now. Now is a time to stand shoulder to shoulder and declare to the nation’s leaders that we will not allow fear to dictate the Jewish future.
We thank the leaders of every participating organization, the dedicated professionals in our Washington offices, and the hundreds of Jewish leaders who are step-
ping away from their daily lives to help secure the future of our people.
In 2025, we face grave threats, but we do not face them alone. We carry with us the strength of generations, the resolve of a people, and a sacred mission: to ensure the safety, dignity and continuity of Jewish life — everywhere.
William Daroff is CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
Eric Fingerhut is president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America. Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Flags fly at a meeting between US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at the Pentagon, on March 26, 2024. US Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Alexander Kubitza, Department of Defense
Rethinking Dayan’s well-intentioned surrender of the Temple Mount after June ’67 liberation
It was 10 am on June 7, 1967. Colonel Motta Gur made the now famous announcement via a scratchy broadcast through army radio: “Har Habayit Be’yadenu! Har Habayit Be’yadenu!” In English: “The Temple Mount is in our hands. I repeat: The Temple Mount is in our hands!”
For the first time in over 1,900 years, the holiest place in Judaism, home of the two Temples to G-d, was back in the hands of the indigenous people of the Holy Land, the Jews.
Immediately after the Motta Gur’s announcement, soldiers gathered near the Kotel; some cried as they emotionally recited the Shehechianu prayer. Rabbi Shlomo Goren, lead Ashkenazi rabbi for the IDF, recited a prayer and soldiers broke out into Hatikva, Israel’s national anthem.
According to the book “The Lions Gate,” by Steven Pressfield, Colonel Gur’s number two, Moshe Stempel, was on the Temple Mount, looking for the top of the Kotel. A local resident led Stempel and a few soldiers through his home to the top of the Kotel:
Yorum Zamosh, company commander, said Stempel produced a flag.
“You must write on it.”
“What should I write?”
“This flag of Israel was placed here by paratroopers of the 55th brigade.”
“What’s the date?”
“Nobody knows. The days have run together.”
“Seven June.”
Zamosh continues that he prepared to write, “7 June1967 who have captured the Old City,” but that Stempel interrupted.
“Wait Zamosh,” Stempel Stops me. “It’s not captured. Write liberated.”
During the 19 years after the armistice agreement that followed the creation of the modern state of Israel in 1948, up until that day in 1967, Jews were not allowed in Jerusalem. The occupying country of Jordan treated the holy city like a garbage dump.
At the ancient Mount of Olives, resting place of biblical and and post-biblical heroes, ancient tombstones were smashed and used for roads, a hotel, a gas station; roads were built on top of graves. An estimated 38,000 Mount of Olives graves were destroyed or desecrated.
The Kotel was used as a garbage dump and a urinal.
Thirty-four out of thirty-five synagogues in the old city were destroyed — some demolished, others converted into stables or chicken coops.
Iused to detest Moshe Dayan because I was told he gave up the Temple Mount out of fear that people would try to build a third Temple. I thought, who the heck did Dayan think he was?
While I still disagree with his actions, later research shed more light on his motivations. Dyan did not view himself as a high priest; he believed his actions would help keep the peace.
On June 7, 1967, when he got the message that the paratroopers had reached the Kotel, he took the chief of staff, Yitzhak Rabin, and the leader of the central command, Uzi Narkiss, to see the victory.
As “Lion’s Gate” reports, Dayan believed that Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War of 1967 had erased the inconclusiveness of the 1956 Suez war and created the “warrior Jew,” with Israel’s army taking “its place among the world’s elite corps-at-arms.” He spoke of the newfound pride of Diaspora Jews.
But it didn’t last.
The warrior Jew’s victory angered 1.25 million Arabs who hate them more than before and will never accept Israel’s authority.
Dayan says the only time he lost his temper was when he saw that flag put up by Moshe Stempel and Yorum Zamosh.
“My every instinct cries for grace, generosity, greatness at heart.”
“We must be strong enough to yield when yielding serves the long-term interests of all.”
The end of that quote — “serves the longterm interests of all” — sounds like one of those cheesy comments made by an American running for a political office. But unlike the politician, Dayan really meant it.
The Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA) wrote that Dayan’s most significant act on the Temple Mount, which sparked controversy over the years and was widely criticized, was to forbid Jewish prayer and worship there, unlike the arrangements that emerged at the Machpelah Cave in Hebron where a functioning mosque also exists.
Dayan decided to leave the Mount and its management in the hands of the Muslim Wakf while at the same time insisting that Jews would be able to visit it (but not pray at it!) without restriction.
Dayan thought, and years later even committed the thought to writing, that since for Muslims the Mount is a “Muslim prayer mosque” while for Jews it is no more
than “a historical site of commemoration of the past … one should not hinder the Arabs from behaving there as they now do.”
The Israeli defense minister believed that Islam should be allowed to express its religious sovereignty (as opposed to national sovereignty) over the Mount, that the Arab-Israeli conflict must be kept on the territorial / national level, and that the potential for a conflict between the Jewish religion and the Muslim religion must be removed.
In granting Jews the right to visit the Mount, Dayan sought to placate the Jewish demands for worship and sovereignty there. In giving religious sovereignty over the Mount to the Muslims, he believed he was defusing the site as a center of Palestinian nationalism.
Too often, Palestinians have falsely accused Israel of disturbing the Temple Mount status quo. Those false changes have usually resulted in violence against Israelis, violence that would not have happened had the Temple Mount not left Israel’s hands.
Moshe Dayan gave away the holiest spot in Judaism because he believed it would bring peace. Instead, it became an opportunity for the Palestinians to bring violence against Israel.
If Dayan truly wanted peace, his orders would have been that all religions, including Jews, should be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount.
As the indigenous people of the land, the Jewish nation should claim the Temple Mount for Jewish prayer. And as the Torah teaches us to respect other faiths, Jews should also allow others to pray on the Temple Mount. His mistakes may have been made with good intentions, but they still resulted in poor outcomes for which we’re continuing to pay a heavy price.
Moshe Dayan’s Temple Mount actions proved that Ze’ev Jabotinsky was correct when he said, “It is incredible what political simpletons Jews are. They shut their eyes to one of the most elementary rules of life that you must not ‘meet halfway’ those who do not want to meet you.”
Jeff Dunetz [LidBlog.com], was a regular Jewish Star columnist for many years, is the Director of Special Projects of Herut NA. Herut is an international movement dedicated to Zionist pride and education, founded on the ideals of pre-World War II Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Defense minister Moshe Dayan and chief of staff Yitzhak Rabin (second right) in the Old City of Jerusalem, June 7, 1967. GPO
‘We are not OK’: Prioritizing mental wellness HEALTH, MIND & BODY
Another firebomb. Another headline. Another wave of fear. In Boulder, Colo., a man threw a Molotov cocktail into a peaceful Jewish gathering, injuring a dozen people — among them, a Holocaust survivor. Just days earlier, in Washington, two young Israeli embassy staff members, Sarah Milgrim, 26, and Yaron Lischinsky, 30, were fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum by an assailant reportedly shouting “Free, free Palestine.”
As a clinical psychologist and rabbi working with children, adults and communities, it is clear: We are not OK.
At Chai Lifeline, we serve Jewish families already burdened by medical crises, grief, trauma and a wide range of life-event crises. Increasingly, we’re responding to a newer, more public crisis—the trauma of being Jewish in a world where that identity feels under attack, even here, in America.
Each time there is an assault on a synagogue, a Jewish school, a Jewish gathering — each time a Molotov cocktail is thrown, or a slur is shouted — we don’t just endure another physical threat. We internalize another psychological one.
•Parents ask how to explain this to their children.
•Children ask if they’ll be safe at school. Survivors of previous attacks are re-traumatized.
•Entire communities become hypervigilant, weary and unsure of whom to trust.
And yet, in many public conversations and in the media, these attacks are often described as isolated events. But they are not isolated. They are part of a dangerous pattern. And there is another insidious pattern: When the facts are
minimized, excused, it can send a message to every Jewish child and parent:
•Your pain doesn’t matter.
•Your fear isn’t real.
From a clinical perspective, we must acknowledge our fears, which can be very real at times like these. And if we fail to acknowledge them, we’re ignoring a growing psychological crisis within our Jewish communities. The fear and uneasiness from repeated attacks like those in Boulder and Washington don’t fade when the
media coverage does. They linger. They change how children view the world, how adults navigate daily life and how we relate to others.
Jewish tradition teaches us to meet adversity with resilience and faith.
Yes, we need better security, but we also need a strong emotional infrastructure. That means ensuring access to trauma-informed care, rooted in Jewish values. It means that schools, synagogues and communal leaders actively prioritize mental wellness along with physical safety. It means creating space for grief, fear and questions — and responding not just with reassurance but with teaching real tools for coping and healing.
We also need compassionate mental-health support rooted in Jewish values and cultural understanding. While strengthening our faith, we need to remind one another that trauma is not a weakness — it’s a human response to pain and fear.
To those who are hurting, anxious, angry or afraid, we will listen. We hear you and we care. You are not alone and not overlooked. And to those who still wonder why so many Jewish families feel unsettled, even unsafe, in 2025 America, let’s listen supportively to one another. Acknowledge the facts and stand with together in the aftermath of these tragedies as we continue to raise our families with wholesome values.
Rabbi Dr. David Fox, is director of Chai Lifeline’s Crisis Services.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
HS
Here are the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County’s Class of 2025 honorees.
Valedictorian Shoshana Eisner stands out for her exceptional blend of academic excellence, leadership, compassion, and drive. She was awarded the prestigious Women in Science Internship at Maimonides Hospital, attended medical conferences, observed doctors discuss complex cases, and delivered a culminating presentation on Ductal Carcinoma in Situ (DCIS), thriving in the program’s rigorous environment.
A a standout student, she earned 5’s on every AP exam, is an AP Scholar with Distinction, and has consistently made the General and Limudei Kodesh Honor Rolls. Her peers elected her vice president and later co-president of the National Honor Society, and she received the Bausch and Lomb Honorary Science Award and the NYS Scholarship for Academic Excellence.
Outside school, she pursues dance and for five years has volunteered with Friendship Circle, forming a lasting bond with a young girl in her community.
Shoshana plans to attend Binghamton University as a Pre-Med student following a gap year at Midreshet Lindenbaum in Israel.
Salutatorian Noam Traeger has pursued the
most rigorous coursework in both Limudei Kodesh and general studies, earning top grades across the board. He independently developed a year-long project connecting LEGO and physics, with plans to publish a book featuring his own.
He is a National Honor Society inductee, AP Scholar, and recipient of the Rensselaer Medal, the Gold Medal Congressional Award, and the President’s Volunteer Service Gold Award (four consecutive years). He was recently awarded the West Hempstead Community Scholarship and the Nassau Counselors’ Association Joseph Bruzzese Award.
He’s served as co-president of both the NHS and Student Senate and co-chair of Peer Tutoring, founded the Animation Club and co-founded the Star Wars Club. Outside HANC, he earned the rank of Eagle Scout and a Black Belt in Shotokan Karate, and is a Teen Council Member at the local library.
Noam launched “Books-giving,” an initiative that has donated over 2,000 books to underserved communities. He participates in food drives, clothing donations, and volunteer opportunities through DoSomething.org, accumulating over 400 hours of service.
Noam plans to study Mechanical Engineering at Binghamton University this fall.
DRS cheers 2 vals,
Co-Valedictorian Yoni Posner boasts a resume that makes everyone wonder, “Where does one find the time?”
Yoni’s unwavering commitment to Torah learning sets him apart. Academically, Yoni has always been an honors society member, balancing his drive for excellence with a tireless dedication to chesed through iShine. Driven to be ultra-productive, Yoni harnesses every moment for learning, growth, and kindness, while always maintaining a sense of humor and an appreciation for a good laugh.
Yoni plans to attend Yeshivat Sha’alvim next year.
Co-Valedictorian Doni (Nachman Daniel) Posner is an exemplar of middos tovos, menschlichkeit, diligence, conscientiousness, and kindness. His high school career has been an odyssey of expo-
nential growth in all disciplines and extracurriculars, including Torah, academic, and athletic experiences.
At DRS, Doni cultivated wonderful friendships; in the community he has given of himself in many ways, most notably volunteering for I-Shine.
Doni plans to attend Yeshivat Sha’alvim next year.
Salutatorian Mishael Lalehzari is the quintessential mensch whose smile has the power to brighten up every room he enters. He has excelled in every vista of the yeshiva with a commitment to learning, editor of the Dvarim Hayotzim Min HaLev Torah Publication, and his skilled Torah reading as the baal koreh for the Sefardi minyan.
Mishael’s presence has elevated the academic standard for everyone in DRS. He will attend Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh next year in Jerusalem.
Keter Shem Tov Awardee Yaakov Meisels is an exuberant and dedicated talmid, a multifaceted leader, role-model and scholar. His contributions to the classroom and community are unrivaled. Be it Devarim Hayotzim, mentoring younger students, tutoring in both Gemara and math, never missing a Night Seder or goalie-ing for the DRS soccer team. His campers at Kaylie and friends from Ivdu love spending time with him because of Yaakov’s ever-present smile and amazing positivity.
Yaakov will be attending Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh next year.
Valedictorian Shoshana Eisner
Salutatorian Mishael Lalehzari
Co-Valedictorian Yoni Posner
Salutatorian Noam Traeger
Co-Valedictorian Doni Posner
Keter Shem Tov Yaakov Meisels
The Ramaz Class of 2025 marched into the Congregation KJ main sanctuary in their royal blue gowns, decorated graduation caps, and stoles that read “BRING THEM HOME,” remembering and honoring the hostages even during life’s happiest moments. The whole class filled the stage and gave spirited group song performances of “Chaverim” and “I Lived.”
Ramaz alumna and mental health advocate Zoe Schreiber ’15 addressed the class about what it’s like to live Ramaz’s mission even after graduation, and Upper School Principal Rabbi Aaron Frank spoke about how to use post-graduation freedom responsibly.
After the conferral of diplomas by Principal Emeritus Rabbi Haskel Lookstein ’49 and the turning of their tassels, and a closing prayer by Associate Head of School Rabbi Joshua Lookstein ’88, seniors from the Chamber Choir returned to the stage alongside future IDF soldiers to sing Hatikvah.
8th graders at Brandeis
77th graduation at Ramaz on Upper East Side SAR HS graduation in Riverdale
It’s commencement for 107 at Yeshiva of Central Queens
Yeshiva of Central Queens hosted its annual commencement for the Class of 2025 on June 17 at the Queensborough Performing Arts Center.
The event took place under the backdrop of the matzav in Eretz Yisrael, with presentations throughout the evening making it clear that our brothers and sisters are always on our minds, in our hearts, and in
our tefilot.
One-hundred-seven students, dressed in caps and gowns, proceeded down the aisles, as proud family members looked on. Rabbi Ophie Nat led renditions of the Star-Spangled Banner, HaTikvah, and Acheinu, with musical accompaniment by Morah Tali Brody.
Principal Rabbi Mark Landsman and Associate Principal of General
Studies K-8 Melissa Cohen, offered words of Torah, encouragement, and praise for the students.
Student awardees each took on meaningful roles as well. Aiden Aminov and Sophie Sisser, the two salutatorians, recited the Tefilah L’Shlom HaMedinah and the Mi Sheberach for the IDF. Leora Traeger and Eitan Berkowitz, valedictorians, delivered powerful speeches
reflecting on their school experience and the path ahead. Ilana Ismailov, recipient of the Keter Shem Tov award, led a Tefilah for the Hostages, and Yosef Chaim Yakobov, also a Keter Shem Tov honoree, recited Tehillim.
Esther Lowinger, JHS General Studies assistant principal, recognized the students who achieved high honors, and JHS Principal
Rabbi Stephen Knapp introduced the respective performances by the boys and girls. This year’s student presentation, titled Yerushalayem, Oro shel Olam (Jerusalem, Light of the World), took the audience on a journey through time from creation until.
Led by Morah Mashie Kapelowitz, director of K-8 Judaic Studies, the talmidot told of the significance of the city in the past, present, and future with meaningful songs sung by the talmidim interspersed in between. To conclude, the lights went out and black lights turned on, girls wore white lights and signed “Oseh Shalom,” a message for peace in the future.
To conclude the spectacular evening, the crowd watched a video montage created by Jen Jaffe. Fond memories from over the many years in YCQ were displayed as the students looked on, recalling the moments they experienced together.
A collation back at YCQ concluded the memorable night.
WINE AND DINE
Zucchini for delicious, healthy summer eating
Kosher Kitchen
JoNI SchocKEtt Jewish Star columnist
t’s zucchini time! Just about now, they are approaching that perfect-to-pick size of six to seven inches in length.
I’m busy gathering all my recipes so we can eat zucchini in 20 different ways without getting bored. I personally like it blanched for just a minute or two, with a clove or two of garlic and then drained and tossed with a tiny bit of parmesan cheese or just a bit of salt and pepper. Believe it or not, the garlic actually makes the zucchini sweeter. (It also works for string beans.)
Zucchini is such a versatile veggie that it can take on any flavor from savory to sweet and anything in between. It can be used raw in salads or for dips, and can be cooked in a myriad of ways. It is great in lasagnas and latkes and can be fried, baked, broiled, steamed, grilled or cooked any other way you can imagine.
It is also a child favorite and is one of the veggies I gave my kids as infants pureed in the baby food grinder I had. Often, I would add some other food like steamed yams. My babies loved it. Today, zucchini remains a family favorite.
Zucchini might top the list as a favorite veggie in most restaurants — Italian restaurants use it on pizzas, Asian restaurants use it in tempura, and many restaurants offer a form of fried zucchini.
Zucchini bread is a staple of bed and breakfasts and for years I made dozens of zucchini breads to freeze and give away.
Choose small, firm, unblemished zucchini from the supermarket. In the garden, one or two may hide and grow to the size of a small or large baseball bat. Those are good for pictures and stories, but not much else as they tend to be very fibrous and bitter. So look under the leaves and find them when they are small and sweet. No need to peel — just cook or cut up and enjoy.
Just a note: It is advised that we eat light and easily digested foods following a fast. Some of the recipes here might be good to consider following the Tisha B’av fast on Sunday, Aug 3.
Zucchini Latkes (Pareve)
Zucchini latkes are a great light alternative to traditional potato latkes. They are delicate and must be handled carefully, but they are truly delicious and a great way to get kids to eat zucchini.
• 4 medium zucchini
• 3 to 4 medium onions
• 1/4 cup fresh snipped chives
• 3/4 to 1 cup flour
• 3 extra-large eggs
• 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. white pepper
• 1 to 2 to 1 tsp. salt
• Canola, olive or avocado oil for frying
Shred the onions and the zucchini using the fine shredding disc of the food processor. Strain the mixture through a very fine sieve or squeeze out the liquid by hand, placing the zucchini/onion mixture in a clean bowl. Add the eggs, flour, baking powder, salt and pepper. Mix well. Add the chives and mix.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat until a tiny drop of water “dances” across the pan and quickly evaporates. Add just enough oil to generously coat the bottom of the pan, about one-quarter inch deep, and allow it to heat for about 20 seconds, or until shimmery.
Carefully place a large tablespoon of the zucchini in the hot oil and gently flatten with the back of a spoon. Don’t move or disturb the latkes until they are golden brown or they will stick to the pan. When you can see a deep golden color on the sides of the latkes, gently turn them using a spatula and a fork. Cook until golden on the other side and transfer to brown paper to drain.
I always taste the first latke so I can adjust the seasonings. Continue until all the latkes are cooked, adding more oil as needed.
Fruited Zucchini Bread (Pareve)
Zucchini bread has become standard fare in many kitchens, but I thing that this recipe, given to me be a teaching colleague of mine, is just about the beast I have ever had. I always make several loaves so I can freeze them or bring them as hostess gifts. This recipe also is open to your See Zucchini for delicious on page 14
Zucchini Latkes.
Fruited Zucchini Bread.
Zucchini for delicious, healthy summer eating…
Continued from page 12
imagination. Add different kinds of fruits or nuts and enjoy.
• 3 extra large eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup Canola oil
• 1 generous Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups grated zucchini (use fine disc and pack well)
• 2 cups flour (mix white and whole wheat, if you like)
• 1 Tbsp. cinnamon
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• Pinch salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• 1 cup (generous) blueberries, pitted cherries, fresh diced peaches, plums, nectarines, any summer fruit. In the fall, switch to dried fruits such as raisins, currants, dried, pitted dried cherries, cut up apricots, dried cranberries, etc.
If you want to use other berries, pat them dry and use less fruit as a lot of sliced berries will make the bread too moist.
Beat the first four ingredients in an electric mixer just until blended. Don’t overmix or the mixture will thicken like mayonnaise. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir by hand until blended. Pour into two greased loaf pan and bake for about an hour or until a tester comes out clean. Let cool completely.
Zucchini and Green Pepper Grill (Pareve)
A friend once made this. It was so simple, yet so delicious made with fresh from the garden veggies.
• 3 small zucchini
• 2 green or red bell peppers or both
• 1 small red onion cut into quarters and layers separated
• 3 Tbsp. extra virgin Olive Oil
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp. oregano
• Pinch chili powder
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste Take 8 to 12 thin bamboo skewers and soak them in water for 30 minutes. Cut the zucchini in slices about a half-inch thick. Cut the peppers into pieces about an inch square. Separate the onions into pieces.
Mix the olive oil, cayenne, chili powder, oregano, salt and pepper together and place in a shallow bowl. Add the zucchini and turn to coat. Let stand for about 30minutes. Skewer the zucchini, onion, and pepper pieces alternately and place on a hot grill. Let cook for about 3 to 5 minutes and turn once. Brush with more marinade if desired. Grill until browned on the second side.
Serve a skewer or two to each person. Serves 4 to 6.
Zucchini and Feta Cheese
Casserole Soufflé (Dairy)
• 3 extra large eggs
• 4 6- to 7-inch zucchinis shredded (fine disc)
• 2 large onions shredded (fine disc)
• 1/8 cup fresh mint leaves, finely chopped (optional)
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 2/3 cup Feta cheese crumbled
• 1/3 cup flour (unbleached)
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 1/8 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbsp. melted butter
• 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Beat the eggs in a medium bowl. Add the zucchini, onion, flour, mint, parsley, and spices. Mix well. Add the cheese and mix thoroughly. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and add the oil. Stir.
Put the butter and the oil in a 2 quart glass baking dish and, using a pastry brush, coat the bottom and side of the dish. Pour the zucchini mixture into the pan and spread evenly. Mix the bread crumbs and parmesan cheese and sprinkle over the zucchini. Bake covered lightly with aluminum for 30 minutes.
Bake uncovered for 5 to 15 minutes to brown.
NOTES: The mint adds a cool, refreshing taste, but you can easily make the casserole without it which may be more appealing to children. I often leave out the mint and substitute 2 to 3 cloves fresh garlic, finely minced
I also substituted grated cheddar cheese for the Feta one time. Everyone liked it so, use your
creativity and cook according to what your family likes. Enjoy the summer’s bounty.
Zucchini Stuffed Tomatoes (Dairy)
• 6 medium tomatoes, about 3 inches in diameter
• 3 Tbsp. butter
• 1 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 3/4 cup bread crumbs
• 2-1/2 cups finely shredded zucchini
• Pinch salt
• Pinch freshly cracked black pepper
• Freshly grated parmesan cheese
Cut off the tops of the tomatoes, straight across. Set Aside. Scoop out the pulp and the seeds into a bowl and set aside. Sprinkle the insides of the tomato shells with a bit of salt and turn upside down on several thickness of paper towels. Let drain for about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove as many of the seeds as possible and discard. Chop the remaining pulp and set aside. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet and add the butter and olive oil. Add the onions and sauté until just barely beginning to turn golden. Add the minced garlic and cook for another 10 to 15 seconds, stirring constantly. Add the zucchini and tomato pulp and heat through. Add the bread crumbs and mix well, cooking just until heated through, about one minute.
Remove from the heat and add about 1 to 2 tablespoons of the grated cheese. Mix well and set aside. Rinse the salt from the tomatoes and dry the insides. Fill each tomato with the stuffing and sprinkle more cheese over the top. Place in a shallow Pyrex-like baking dish and
bake at 350 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes until the tomatoes look a little wilted and softened. Serves 6.
Zucchini and Vegetable Strata (Dairy)
I had this on a trip to Nova Scotia and found it absolutely delicious. It can be made with any fresh vegetables and any kind of bread. Try sourdough or even Challah. We had a mixture of Challah, French bread and some Russian rye cubes for additional color. It makes a great lunch with a salad.
• 2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
• 2 to 3 very ripe tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 cup green pepper, diced
• 1/2 cup red pepper, diced
• 2 cups, zucchini, sliced into 1/4-inch slices, cut slices in half
Gently toss the mushrooms, tomatoes, green and red peppers, zucchini, cauliflower, and carrots in a large mixing bowl.
Heat a skillet, add the Olive oil and cook the sliced onions until they are golden brown. The slices will break apart. That is fine.
Generously grease a 2-quart casserole dish and add half the bread cubes, half the onions, half the vegetables and half the cheddar cheese. Add the rest of the bread, the rest of the vegetables and top with the cheddar cheese. Top with the rest of the onion slices so that most of the cheese is covered.
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs with the milk, minced onions and garlic, the herbs, salt, and pepper. Pour evenly over the strata, pressing down to make sure the bread cubes are submerged, and refrigerate for at least three hours or overnight.
Bake uncovered in a pre-heated 350-degree oven for about 65 to 75 minutes or until golden and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over the top for the last 5 minutes of baking.
Serve hot or cold. You can serve this with heated marinara sauce. Serves 6-8.
Zucchini and Vegetable Strata.
unwrittenrecipes.com
Zucchini and Green Pepper Grill.
Jewish-proud: I, too, am the future of education
SARAH MEIRA SCHLAGER Teacher
At my graduation from Queens College, I was chosen to be hooded on stage as the representative of more than 300 master’s students in the M.S.Ed. program. I wore a visible hostage pin on my gown — symbolizing the innocent people still held captive in Gaza. For me, it was a statement of truth in a space where truth — when it came to Israel — often felt unwelcome.
Throughout my program, I was the only student who defended Israel. Many of my classmates were proudly pro-Palestinian, casually speaking in class about Israel’s “ethnic cleansing.” Some made antisemitic remarks. Others posted trendy infographics on Instagram condemning the “genocide” in Gaza.
The rest remained silent as Israel was barraged with accusations by fellow classmates.
These are the future teachers of New York. They will soon be shaping young and impressionable minds.
That terrified me.
But it also strengthened my resolve.
Because I, too, am the future of education.
I remember the moment I realized that silence in the face of false accusations is dangerous.
During a lecture on Holocaust denial and distortion, there was unanimous agreement that such behavior was abhorrent. But when the class discussed what might cause such denial, a student remarked that it could be because “people are confused how the Holocaust happened to the Jews, and now the Jews are doing the same thing to the Palestinians.”
I was stunned — but apparently, I was the only one. No one respond-
ed. The conversation simply moved on. In a space where political correctness is held sacred, how could
such a remark be made so flippantly? And how could the rest of the class just let it pass?
That’s when I realized: the rules of political correctness, safe spaces, and sensitivity don’t apply to Israel — or to Jews. You can’t deny the Holocaust, but you can accuse Jews of committing one.
In that moment, I recognized that if I didn’t speak up, I’d be allowing that kind of rhetoric to be normalized for everyone in the room.
So I challenged her. She was furious. She fired back with buzzwords — “apartheid,” “colonizer,” “ethnic cleansing”— but offered no substance. Then she questioned my character.
Afterward, classmates told me I had “attacked” her for sharing her views. “No one should feel unsafe expressing their opinion,” they said.
The double standard was glaring. She was allowed to feel safe— but I wasn’t. She could speak freely
— but I couldn’t. Was this the future of education?
Though I felt alone, I knew I had done what was right. Being surrounded by peers who so easily slandered Israel made something clear to me: teaching isn’t just a profession — it’s a responsibility. Even one person, armed with knowledge and courage, can make a difference.
Throughout my college career, I carried myself with dignity in hostile rooms — not to win arguments, but to make sure that truth had a voice.
There were moments in class when I spoke up and felt afraid. But on graduation day, when I wore that pin in front of thousands, I felt no fear — only pride and purpose.
The future of education may worry me. But as I stood on that stage, I showed the crowd — and myself — that I, too, am the future of education. And I will teach with pride, truth, and unwavering integrity.
Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Sarah Meira Schlager, teacher at Shulamith High School for Girls and SKA High School for Girls.
Jewish Star Torah columnists: •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, is a 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 Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, OU executive VP emeritus •Rabbi Yossy Goldman, president of the South African Rabbinical Association.
Five Towns Candlelighting: From the White Shul, Far Rockaway, NY
Scarsdale Candlelighting: From the Young Israel of Scarsdale, Scarsdale, NY
‘Servant leadership’ works to fulfill G-d’s will
rabbi Sir JonaThan SaCkS zt”l
Korach said to Moses, “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy — every one of them — and the L-rd is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the L-rd’s assembly?” (Num. 16:3)
At the heart of his challenge is the idea of equality, surely a Jewish idea. Was not Thomas Jefferson at his most biblical when he wrote, in the Declaration of Independence, that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”?
Of course, Korach does not mean what he says. He claims to be opposed to the very institution of leadership, and at the same time he wants to be the leader.
“All are equal, but some are more equal than others” is the seventh command in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” his critique of Stalinist Russia. But what if Korach had meant it? If he had been sincere?
There is, on the face of it, compelling logic to what he says. Did G-d not call on Israel to become “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,” meaning a kingdom each of whose members is a priest, a nation all of whose citizens are holy? Why then should there be a cadre of priests and one High Priest?
Did not the military hero Gideon say, in the era of the Judges, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The L-rd will rule over you” (Judges 8:23)? Why then should there be a single, life-appointed Moses-type leader rather than what happened in the days of the Judges, namely charismatic figures who led the people through a particular crisis and then went back to their previous anonymity, as Caleb and Pinchas did during the lifetime of Moses?
And to Gideon’s point, surely the people needed no other leader than G-d Himself. Samuel warns the people of the dangers of appointing a king:
“He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they
Even a king is commanded to be humble. He is to carry a Torah scroll with him and read it all the days of his life.
will run in front of his chariots. ... He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves. ... When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the L-rd will not answer you in that day.” (I Sam. 8:11-18)
This is the biblical anticipation of L-rd Acton’s famous remark that all power tends to corrupt. Why then give individuals the power Moses and Aaron in their different ways seemed to have?
The Midrash Tanhuma, quoted by Rashi, contains a brilliant commentary on Korach’s claim. It says that Korach gathered his co-conspirators and issued Moses a challenge in the form of a halachic question:
He dressed them with cloaks made entirely of blue wool. They came and stood before Moses and asked him, “Does a cloak made entirely of blue wool require fringes [tzitzit], or is it exempt?” He replied, “It does require [fringes].” They began laughing at him [saying], “Is it possible that a cloak of another [coloured] material, one string of blue wool exempts it [from the obligation of techelet], and this one, which is made entirely of blue wool, should not exempt itself?” (Tanhuma, Korach 4; Rashi to Num. 16:1)
What makes this commentary brilliant is that it does two things. First it establishes a connection between the episode of Korach and the immediately preceding passage, the law of tzitzit at the end of last week’s parsha
That is the superficial point.
The deep one is that the Midrash deftly shows how Korach challenged the basis of Moses’ and Aaron’s leadership. The Israelites were “all holy; and G-d is among them.” They were like a robe, every thread of which is royal blue. And just as a blue robe does not need an additional fringe to make it bluer still, so a holy people does not need extra holy people like Moses and Aaron to make it holier still.
The idea of a leadership hierarchy in “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” is a contradiction in terms. Everyone is like a priest. Everyone is holy. Everyone is equal in dignity before G-d. Hierarchy has no place in such a nation.
What then did Korach get wrong? The answer is contained in the second half of his challenge: “Why then do you set yourselves above the L-rd’s assembly?”
Korach’s mistake was to see leadership in terms of status. A leader is one higher than the rest: the alpha male, the top dog, the controller, director, dominator, the one before whom people prostrate themselves, the ruler, the commander, the superior, the one to whom others defer. That is what leaders are in hierarchical societies. That is what Korach implied by saying that Aaron and Moses were “setting themselves above” the people.
But that is not what leadership is in the To-
rah, and we have had many hints of it already. Of Moses it says:
He was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth. (Num. 12:3)
Of Aaron and the priests, in their capacity as those who blessed the people, it says: So they will put My name on the Israelites, and I will bless them. (Num. 6:27)
In other words, the priests were mere vehicles through which the Divine force flowed. Neither priest nor prophet had personal power or authority. They were transmitters of a word not their own. The prophet spoke the Word of G-d for this time. The priest spoke the Word of G-d for all time. But neither was author of the Word. That is why humility was not an accident of their personalities but of the essence of their role.
Even the slightest hint that they were exercising their own authority, speaking their own word or doing their own deed, immediately invalidated them. That, in fact, is what sealed the fate of Nadav and Avihu, and of Moses and Aaron later, when the people complained and they said, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” (Num. 20:10)
There are many interpretations of what went wrong on that occasion but one, undeniably, is that they attributed the action to themselves rather than G-d (see Hizkuni ad loc.).
Even a king in Jewish law — the office that comes closest to status — is commanded to be humble. He is to carry a Torah scroll with him and read it all the days of his life, “so that he may learn to revere the L-rd his G-d and follow carefully all the words of this law and these de-
crees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites” (See Deut. 17:19-20 and Maimonides, Laws of Kings, 2:6)
In Judaism leadership is not a matter of status but of function. A leader is not one who holds himself higher than those he or she leads. That, in Judaism, is a moral failing not a mark of stature. The absence of hierarchy does not mean the absence of leadership. An orchestra still needs a conductor. A play still needs a director. A team still needs a captain.
A leader need not be a better instrumentalist, actor, or player than those he leads. His role is different. He must co-ordinate, give structure and shape to the enterprise, make sure that everyone is following the same script, travelling in the same direction, acting as an ensemble rather than a group of prima donnas.
He must have a vision and communicate it. At times he must impose discipline. Without leadership even the most glittering array of talents produces, not music but noise. That is not unknown in Jewish life, then and now.
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Judges 17:6, Judges 21:25)
That is what happens when there is no leadership.
The Torah, and Tanach as a whole, has a marvellous, memorable way of putting this. Moses’ highest honour is that he is called eved Hashem, “the servant of G-d.” He is called this once on his death (Deut. 34:5), and no less than eighteen times in Tanach as a whole. The only other person given this title is Joshua, twice. In Judaism, a leader is a servant and to lead is to serve. Anything else is not
See Sacks on page 22
Heeding commandment to put an end to envy
I’ll share you with an extreme statement by an insightful, albeit unusual, rabbinic thinker of the early twentieth century, Rabbi Aharon Shmuel Tameres. In a book he published in Warsaw, 1920. He wrote:
Briefly stated, war is the idolatry of modernity, which, as it progressed intellectually, retained war as a remnant from all other foolish idolatries.
Harsh words which command our attention.
Allow me to soften the message significantly with an anecdote that I’ve come to cherish. I was privileged to hear it from several eyewitnesses, all Holocaust survivors.
In the months immediately after Hitler’s invasion of Poland in late 1939, while they were young yeshiva students, the Modz-
itzer Rebbe, Rabbi Shaul Yedidyah Elazar Taub, had the foresight to immediately flee his home and Chassidic court in Poland. He convinced several others to join him, among them some of his family (including my dear father-in-law, Rabbi Chaim Yitzchak Taub).
The group escaped Poland, avoiding Nazi airplanes flying overhead and setting fire from the air to Jewish homes and synagogues. They made their way into Lithuania, then safe, and spent time in Litvishe towns, including Kovno, and eventually Vilna.
There, with the encouragement of the de facto leader of the community, Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky, he was able to find refuge for himself and his entourage, and to conduct Chassidic services, including a tisch attended by the local yeshiva students, of whom many were themselves refugees.
The custom at such events was for the Rebbe to distribute small portions of his food to all in attendance. These small servings were symbolic “leftovers” from the Rebbe’s own serving. In Yiddish, “leftovers” are called shirayim
Blue tekhelet conquers green envy at every turn.
The young students, who enjoyed the Rebbe’s songs and melodies and who were hypnotized by his brief but brilliant Torah sermons, were, to say the least, unaccustomed to eating the shirayim from the rebbe’s plate. Many of them declined the honor, and many laughed scoffingly at this “primitive” custom.
The Rebbe calmed them down and gently explained:
Shirayim are not a laughing matter. They teach an important lesson. Had Hitler learned that lesson, I would not be here today. I would still be at home with my Chassidim in Poland. For shiryaim teach us the lesson of not wanting everything for oneself, of leaving something over for the other person. Imagine if
Hitler had kept to his own domain and left the rest of us to our own countries.
He then continued, or so I was told, with a longer explanation of kin’ah (envy), which he defined as desiring an object that belongs to another, of not being satisfied with one’s own possessions but plotting to obtain it from one’s fellow one way or another.
In that context, he quoted two verses, one biblical and the other Mishnaic:
1. For love is as powerful as death itself, and envy as unyielding as She’ol (the netherworld). (Shir HaShirim 8:6)
2. “Rabbi Elazar HaKappar said: ‘Envy, lust, and the seeking of honor drive a person out of the world’.” (Pirkei Avot 4:28)
I know not how the Rebbe expounded those powerful condemnations of envy, but I do know of quite a few biblical and historical characters who were envious and for whom envy was their downfall.
One was the central character of this week’s Torah portion after whom the parsha is named — Korach (Numbers 16:1-18:32).
See Weinreb on page 22
Pursuing an argument for the sake of Heaven
In Israel, even a bus ride can become an existential experience. On a long, crowded bus ride from Haifa to Jerusalem, a fellow in a long black coat and black hat was sitting towards the rear of the bus, when the man sitting next to him suddenly jumped up and off the bus. A woman standing in the aisle grabbed the seat, and this religiously-garbed fellow now found himself trapped next to the window with this woman between him and the aisle. Not wanting to give up his seat, and yet uncomfortable that this woman had chosen to sit next to him, the fellow opened the window. It was a cold winter day and the wind gusting in was clearly upsetting the woman who immediately glared at him, and in a loud voice said: “Could you please close the window?” To which he responded: “Could you please lengthen your dress?”
“You’re being ridiculous,” the woman responded.
“Your dress is ridiculous,” he replied.
“Why are you going to Jerusalem?” he asked, eyeing her short sleeves and short skirt. “You should go to a yeshiva!”
“Why are you going to Jerusalem?” she retorted. “You obviously need to go to a pub!”
At which point various members of the “audience” began to pipe in as well, and the bus ride very quickly degenerated into a fullfledged session of the Knesset!
Ever have the impression that people are arguing just for the sake of arguing? At first glance, this seems to be what happens this week in our parsha of Korach.
Korach, who bursts onto the biblical desert scene seemingly from nowhere, is upset about something, but it is difficult to logically deduce what that really is. He challenges the leadership of Moshe, as well as the priesthood of Aaron, and none of Moshe’s attempts to enter into a dialogue with either him or his followers bear fruit. Eventually, he meets a horrible end, as he and all those involved in this insurrection are destroyed, either by fire or by earthquake.
What is so terrible about Korach’s contentions?
This story raises challenging questions: First of all, how could anyone in his right mind challenge the leadership of Moshe? After all Moshe has done, leading the Jews out of Egypt amidst a barrage of miraculous plagues, capped off by the splitting of the Red Sea, one would have thought his authority to be unquestionable, especially after witnessing his direct communications with G-d at Sinai. However, to be honest, when one considers the actual contention of Korach, it does not seem all that unreasonable: “Ki Kol Ha’Eidah Kulam Kedoshim” (“For the entire congregation are all holy”) (Bamidbar 16:3). Korach points out that everyone witnessed G-d at Sinai, and everyone is holy — so why do we need a priesthood, why can’t we all serve in the Temple?
Our parsha begins with the words “Va’Yikach Korach” (“And Korach took),” but the verse never explains what it was that Ko-
rach actually took, and we are left without the end of the sentence. What did Korach take?
Equally challenging is the fact that a closer examination of the story of Korach reveals quite clearly the inconsistency of Korach’s claim. After all, the same individual rallying the people to the cry of “we are all holy,” challenging a system that creates a hierarchy of leaders and those being led, has no problem claiming that same leadership (the priesthood) for himself. Ultimately, G-d makes it clear that Korach’s rebellion is so terrible that it must be completely destroyed.
What exactly is so terrible about Korach’s contentions? After all, this is not the first time the Jews have argued with, murmured against, or even challenged the leadership of Moshe?
There is a beautiful teaching in Ethics of the Fathers (5:20) which discusses the concept of debate or argument.
“Every argument (machloket) which is for the sake of heaven (Le’Shem Shamayim) will ultimately endure, but every argument which is not for the sake of heaven will not endure.
See Freedman on page 22
In time of crisis, finding G-d and letting him in
We are, as Carolyn Glick has put it, “at a pivotal moment in history.” For we Jews, this is “not our first rodeo.”
The first Jew, Abraham faced a world that refused to accept his belief in the One Living G-d. By his loving kindness of others, force of personality and willingness to die for his belief, he brought many others to his way of thinking.
Joseph, son of Jacob, was next, rising inexplicably from prisoner to Grand Vizier, saved Egypt.
Moses, years later, led Jacob’s descendants from bondage in Egypt, with G-d intervening openly. Ultimately, this culminated in an encounter at Mount Sinai, where the giving of the Torah established the model for all humanity: that life should be governed by faith in G-d, compassion and loving kindness, concepts of law
and order, and reward and punishment.
Despite giving this gift to humanity, the Jewish people continued to face catastrophic events and peoples bent on their destruction.
After facing ancient Amalekites (5th century BCE), Haman (2nd century BCE), SeleucidGreeks, Crusaders, Spanish Inquisitors, Chmelnytsky Cossacks, 20th century Nazis and more, we are faced with Iranian mullahs (true descendants of Haman). Once again, we have had to intervene to save ourselves, and the world, this time from nuclear holocaust.
We had to do so by violent military action, but also by guile and deception. And Hashem saw fit to intervene, suspending the natural order with open miracles.
Just as the early days of the current war in Gaza and Lebanon witnessed numerous miracles (no deaths or significant casualties from countless rockets and drone attacks, the incredible “beeper” attacks and the fall of Hezbollah, the finding and killing of Sinwar, the unexpected fall of Syria), the Iran operation was also accompanied by open and hidden miracles, such as the incredible ability of Israel to elimi-
nate Iran‘s air defenses months ago without casualties.
All of this confirms the words of Zecharia we read only weeks ago the haftrah of B’Haalotcha: Lo b’chayil v’lo b’koach ki im b’ruchi amar (Not by armies and not by might, but by My spirit, says Hashem.)
Hidden miracles of many years in the making, that only the Almighty G-d could have forseen the consequences of, were evident. Did you wonder why Russia, close ally of Iran, did not enter the war on Iran‘s behalf? Putin himself answered, “There are 2 million Russians living in Israel. It’s like a Russian speaking country.” Did not G-d Himself arrange that the Jews of Russia be freed from Soviet tyranny and go to Israel over 40 years earlier!
Remarkably, one has seen an incredible transition in the words of the president of United
States and prime minister of Israel, both speaking openly about their faith and belief in G-d.
Netanyahu has seemingly undergone a remarkable transformation, using the phrase, “b’ezerat Hashem (with the help of G-d)” in his speeches. Most notably, he referenced a verse in Shelach to conclude his congratulatory address to President Trump on the B2 bombing attack, quoting Caleb, one of the two spies, along with Joshua, who rejected the 10 other spies’ negative report of the Holy Land and tried to convince Am Yisrael that they could successfully enter and settle Eretz Canaan. We are at both a pivotal moment and a miraculous time.
I recall the famous tale told of the Kotzker Rebbe. He was asked by one of his Hasidim “where does G-d dwell?”— to which he replied, “wherever you let Him in.”
Dr. Alan A. Mazurek is a retired neurologist, living in Great Neck, Jerusalem and Florida. He is a former chairman of the ZOA. Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
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Be truthful: Only Trump would have done it
Donald Trump appears to have fooled both his friends and foes and he did something none of his predecessors dared to do. With a single stroke, his orders to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities may well have altered the path of history.
The Islamist regime’s goal of building a nuclear weapon with which it could destroy Israel, intimidate America’s allies in the region into subservience and threaten the rest of the West with which it continues itself to be in a religious war is effectively finished.
After 20 years during which American presidents have variously ignored, appeased or actively aided the Iranian threat, Trump essentially broke the pattern set down by the American foreign-policy establishment. Just as he did in his first term by moving the US embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and, through the Abraham Accords, demonstrating an understanding that the Palestinians should not be allowed to veto peace between the Jewish state and Arab states, he has now extended that streak to his second term with respect to Iran.
The questions to be asked about this involve more than just the ones focused on next steps in the current conflict or if the president’s strategy will prompt Iran to finally recognize that it must give in to his demands or send the region spiraling into an even more dangerous and bloody war.
Indispensable man?
At this point, it’s appropriate to ponder whether any other recent American president or likely commander-in-chief would have done as he has done. If the answer is “no,” then it’s fair to say that Donald Trump has still proven to be not only a political and presidential outlier in many respects — he has also proven to be an essential figure in modern world and Jewish history.
To note that is not to excuse his personal faults, his often-hyperbolic modes of expression,
the way at times he plays fast and loose with the truth or his sometimes-inconsistent policy shifts. Nor does it excuse his lack of interest in ideas or a strong base of knowledge in history, flaws that can influence his choices.
But, although the cemeteries are, as Charles De Gaulle said, “filled with indispensable men,” it may be that Trump comes as close to one as any other recent world leader.
With respect to Iran, he spent his first few months in office speaking and behaving as if the foreign policy of his second administration would resemble more that of Barack Obama or Joe Biden than that of his own first term. But it turns out that it was all a ruse or, at the very least, a thorough rethinking of how American diplomacy is supposed to work.
The president gave Iran’s leaders a chance to engage with the United States to resolve the dispute over its retention of a dangerous nuclear program. However, to their great surprise, as well as to that of most onlookers, he did not do so, as his predecessors did, in order to allow them to hold onto it with minimal concessions or to run out the clock with endless delays in order to achieve the same outcome.
Instead, he meant what he said when he declared that he was giving them two months to negotiate a way to back down and give up their nuclear ambitions, and that if they failed to give him what he wanted, they would regret it. And this is exactly what has happened.
Ending a nuclear threat
By ordering US forces to strike at nuclear targets with the sort of weapons that only the American military possesses — 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs and the US Air Force B-2 bombers that can drop them on targets such as Iran’s mountainside Fordow uranium-enrichment plant — Trump has done more than tipped the scales against the Islamist regime in the current conflict.
His actions make it a given that, no matter what happens in the coming days and weeks, the Iranian nuclear threat is effectively over for the foreseeable future.
No matter what Iran’s terrorist forces and allies may attempt to do to strike back at the United States and continue to rain down missiles on the Jewish state, the chances of its nuclear proj-
ect’s surviving are likely to be effectively zero.
After decades of work and the expenditure of vast sums by this theocracy, the odds of its being able to repair or rebuild what it lost in the last 10 days are very long indeed. A regime that was already on the verge of an economic, political and military collapse, and which is under severe sanctions by the United States, simply won’t have the wherewithal to undo the damage done by the Israeli and American strikes, even if this war ends soon.
This is an enormous accomplishment for both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who made the struggle to avert an Iranian nuclear bomb a persistent theme of his leadership for the past 15 years. But while the Jewish state’s position on the necessity of ensuring that Iran’s nuclear program is destroyed has been a constant, the same cannot be said for American policy on the issue during this period.
While all American presidents, even Obama, had paid lip service to the need to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, American actions toward Iran during the last decade have at times been more of an aid to Tehran’s ambitions than a roadblock.
There have always been reasons for American presidents to avoid taking action on Iran. Key among them has been an unwillingness to acknowledge Iran’s goal or what it would mean if Tehran obtained a nuclear weapon or was allowed, as it appeared to be already the
case in recent years, to become a threshold nuclear power.
Many in the American intelligence community clung to the belief that “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s purported ban on Iran’s building a nuclear weapon was a genuine policy decision. Though it was proven false by the regime’s nuclear files obtained by Israel’s Mossad in 2018, those determined to give Tehran a pass — like current Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — have continued to wrongly insist that its nuclear project is not a threat.
Others thought that dealing with the problem could also be postponed. That was the position of the George W. Bush administration, which was already embroiled in quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Obama went even further and negotiated a nuclear deal that not only postponed a reckoning on the issue but essentially guaranteed that Iran would get a weapon once the sunset provisions in the 2015 accord expired by 2030. More than that, Obama and his former staffers who ran foreign policy during the Biden administration went even further and imagined that Tehran was open to a rapprochement with the West and believed that it should replace Israel and Saudi Arabia as the lynchpin of US policy in the region. Like them, some of Trump’s “woke right” supporters, such as former Fox News host Tucker
See Be truthful on page 22
President Donald Trump greets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington on Feb. 4. Liri Agami, Flash90
JOnATHAn S. TObIn
Voice of Iran: An enemy broadcaster in our midst
GLOBAL FOCUS BEN COHEN
The voice behind that call sign will probably be unfamiliar to most people born during the last 50 years, but it would have been instantly recognizable to many who belonged to our grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ generations.
The speaker was William Joyce, a traitor who absconded from London to Berlin in 1939 to broadcast Nazi propaganda to listeners back in Britain.
Nicknamed “Lord Haw Haw” because of the way his lazy, upper-class drawl inflected his pronunciation of “Germany Calling,” Joyce — who was actually an American born in Brooklyn to an Irish-Catholic father and an IrishProtestant mother of modest means — became one of the leading hate figures of World War II. His final broadcast in April 1945 ended with the words, “Heil Hitler and farewell.” He then tried to escape Germany, but was captured by British troops and returned to London, where he was executed for high treason at the beginning of 1946.
The case of Joyce, as well as that of the American poet Ezra Pound — a hysterical an-
tisemite who performed a similar function on Italian radio during Mussolini’s dictatorship — has become a cautionary tale about the perils of siding with the enemy.
Still, in nearly every war, you will find one or more individuals happy to follow Joyce’s example.
The current conflict with Iran illustrates this point. Iran has demonstrated on numerous occasions since the 1979 Islamic Revolution — the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, the bombing of the AMIA Jewish Center in Buenos Aires in 1994, the killing of more than 600 US service personnel in Iraq between 2003 and 2011 — that the regime and its proxies are waging a “forever war” against the United States and the broader Western alliance. Israel may be the first target in the Iranian line of attack, but it is not the last.
The Iranian regime’s allies in the West are presently fighting this assertion as hard as they can, aided by the official media outlets of the Islamic Republic.
Last week, Israel bombed the Tehran headquarters of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) while one of its presenters was ranting on air, correctly pointing out that as the main vehicle for the regime’s propaganda, it qualifies as a legitimate military target.
This justification is not unique to Israel; NATO did the same when it bombed the Belgrade headquarters of Serbia’s main broadcaster during the liberation of Kosovo in 1999, while further back, the Royal Air Force ruined the radio broadcast of a German official ceremony in 1943 celebrating Hitler’s 10th year in power by flying its planes loud and low, drowning out the proceedings as bewildered Germans tuned in.
Iran is not the only state opposed to Western democracies that is using media to reach the restive citizens of those democracies, in English, French and Spanish, among other languages. The best-known example is Al Jazeera, the Qatari state-owned network that has spent millions on burnishing its image as a fearless, independent source of journalism. Russia’s RT network is another.
For its part, IRIB has an international arm, Press TV. I recall seeing posters advertising Press TV on public transport during a visit to London in 2007, billing it as the only channel willing to
speak truth to power, piercing through the lies and deceit of the Western media. Nowhere was its IRIB connection mentioned. Even now, you have to burrow deep into Press TV’s website to discover that its CEO, Ahmad Noroozi, is also the vice-president of the IRIB World Service.
In the United States, Press TV has been designated since 2013, a move that was followed up in 2023 with its addition to the Treasury Department’s list of specially designated nationals and blocked persons.
Broadcasters and governments in other coun-
Cohen on page 23
Getting down to business, wiping a smirk away
THANE ROSENBAUM
Distinguished University Professor Touro College
Irealize there’s a lot going on in the world right now, so it’s easy to get distracted, but would someone please check in on former President Barack Obama. I fear that he must be seriously unwell.
Israel’s pre-emptive attack against Iran nine days ago, and the knock-out punch delivered by the United States early Sunday morning, has left the ayatollahs positively reeling. Obama must be inconsolably bereft. As president, he never met a mullah he didn’t simply adore. It was a little creepy, but most Americans forgave his peculiar predilection.
His one foreign policy achievement was an unmitigated disaster. Billions of dollars of unfrozen funds were awarded to Iran. Economic sanctions lifted. The United States negotiated a bogus “deal” that allowed for Iran to enrich uranium 300 feet below mountainous terrain — for ostensibly “civilian” purposes. Not even inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Commission were given complete access to verify Iran’s compliance. Energy for commercial use only requires 3 percent to 5 percent enrichment. Weapons
A Nobel Peace Prize to Trump and Israeli might correct for the one prematurely given to Obama.
grade uranium is enriched at 80 percent. Iran was enriching at 60 percent.
So much for that Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. Obama had many talents. Math was not one of them. The full implications of his misjudgment are impossible to calculate, but American soldiers stationed in Iraq, and Israelis before and after Oct. 7, 2023, lost their lives due to terrorist acts undertaken by Iran and its regional proxies.
Trump’s first term in office scuttled the Iran deal. Joe Biden’s foreign policy team — all graduates from the Obama Academy of Clueless Diplomats — lifted sanctions and spent four years begging the ayatollahs to return to the negotiating table. The clerics predictably stalled Biden, all the while tinkering with fissile material.
Now that seven B-2 bombers dropped bunker-busting bombs on Fordo and Natanz, and 30 Tomahawk missiles rained down on a third nuclear hideout in Isfahan, the bad faith balking of the ayatollahs may have finally come to an end.
The Israeli Air Force already obliterated Iran’s air defense missile systems, strategic command centers, launching facilities, and drone sites in Tehran, Bushehr, Ahvaz and Yazd. The top echelon of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps are all dead, along with 14 of the regime’s best nuclear scientists.
I’m sure we will soon hear from Obama, Biden, and other Democrats — flaunting the same instincts for appeasement as Neville Chamberlain — roundly condemning President Donald Trump’s canny deployment of American might. We’ll hear that the mullahs should have been trusted. The moron wing of the MAGA movement will question America’s self-interest in thwarting Iran’s nuclear aspirations.
Some members of Congress will insist that before undertaking any such action tantamount to a declaration of war, Trump should have first received their approval pursuant to the War Powers Act.
All except that Obama, in 2011, launched 112 Tomahawk cruise missiles aimed at over 20 targets in Libya to end the reign of Muammar Gaddafi. In 1993, President Bill Clinton ordered 23 Tomahawk cruise missiles to strike Baghdad, Iraq in a preview assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein.
Neither of those military actions received prior congressional approval. What’s more, Libya and Iraq never came close to presenting the same threat to American, and worldwide, national security as does Iran. Unless and until Trump orders ground troops to not only change the Iranian regime, but also to rebuild its nation, Congress not need have been consulted beforehand. Talk about ruining a surprise attack.
So far, Trump has done precisely what America’s Commander in Chief and the leader of the free world should be expected to do: exercise the right judgment in the service of both the United States and humankind. Their abject failings are precisely why Obama and Biden never fit the bill.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both saw the ayatollahs for what they are: trash-talking theocrats who roguishly financed and fomented terrorism around the world.
The United Nations Charter requires member states to “practice tolerance and live together in peace … as good neighbors,” and “refrain in
See
on page 23
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Dan Caine discusses the US strike on Iran at the Pentagon on June 22. Andrew Harnik, Getty Images
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivers a speech during the inauguration ceremony for “Press TV,” Iran’s first English-language news channel, in Tehran, on July 2, 2007. STR, AFP via Getty Images via JNS
See
Rosenbaum
In a decision that affirms both the power of American law and the dignity of American lives, the US Supreme Court has ruled that the family of Ari Fuld, a US citizen murdered in a 2018 terrorist stabbing in Israel, may pursue justice in an American courtroom.
In Fuld v. Palestinian Liberation Organization, the Supreme Court on June 20 reinstated the right of American terror victims and their families to sue the perpetrators of attacks committed overseas, so long as those groups deliberately maintain a presence in the United States.
It is a decision that resonates deeply with me. My daughter Alisa, then 20 years old, was murdered in a suicide bombing in 1995 while studying in Israel. Like Ari, she was an American citizen targeted simply for being who she was — Jewish, idealistic, full of life.
After Alisa’s murder, I brought a civil lawsuit using the newly adopted Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1995 against the government of Iran, which had sponsored the at-
tack. That case became the first successful effort by an American victim’s family to hold a foreign terror sponsor accountable in a US court.
But the 1995 law was directed at “state sponsors of terrorism,” and for victims of non-state actors — like the Palestinian Authority or the PLO — the way forward remained legally uncertain.
Until now.
American citizenship is not just a passport, it’s a promise.
Ari Fuld, like my daughter, was an American citizen. A proud husband, father, and Israel Defense Forces veteran, he was stabbed to death outside a mall near his home in Gush Etzion. The attack was not random. It was part of a pattern: glorify the killers, pay their families a monthly reward, name schools and soccer tournaments after them, and continue the incitement in official Palestinian media and institutions.
Ari’s family, like so many others, turned to the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) — a law that al-
US nationals injured in international terror attacks to seek civil damages against those who commit, aid, or abet such acts. But lower courts
Trump’s takeaway from FDR’s Hitler experience Supremes restore justice for Ari Fuld and us all
raFael MedoFF
Abelligerent dictator building up his military arsenal. Nearby countries watching nervously. Free World leaders desperately offering concessions to appease him. That description applied to Adolf Hitler in the 1930s and, until very recently, to the mullahs of Iran.
The first story ended in World War II and the Holocaust. The second story was hurtling towards a similar catastrophe, but the US air strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities changed that — and demonstrated that our nation’s leaders have learned a crucial lesson from history.
The Treaty of Versailles, signed by world leaders following World War I, required the complete disarmament of Germany. But when Hitler came to power in 1933, he thumbed his nose at the international community and vowed to remilitarize. The Nazi regime introduced conscription, resurrected the air force, and ordered Germany’s industries to undertake mass weapons manufacturing. Neither the United States nor its allies interfered.
Numerous American corporations assisted
FDR was determined to maintain cordial relations with the Nazi regime in the 1930s.
the German rearmament effort. General Motors and Ford sold military vehicles to Hitler. IBM provided tabulation machines. Standard Oil of New Jersey and DuPont supplied technology for producing synthetic rubber, which would be crucial to the German war machine. The Roosevelt administration did not prevent those companies from helping Hitler.
It’s not that FDR failed to recognize the threat Hitler posed to the Free World. At a 1934 press conference, he shared an anecdote that vividly illustrated the Nazi menace.
“The school children in Germany are now going through an educational process,” the president said. He then recalled what he had been told by an American professor who recently visited friends in Germany.
The professor had overheard her hosts’ eight year-old son saying his nightly prayers. “He kneeled down at his mother’s knee and said his
Rabbi Boteach’s recent column (“As bombs fall, it’s OK to ask: Where is G-d, June 20-26) raises an age-old question, and what his article most clearly conveyed to me is that our Jewish schools, including our rabbinical schools, need to provide a much better theological education.
With all due respect to R. Boteach and his many contributions to Jewish life in America, he is not a theologian.
For one, the question of “Where is G-d” is not one that emerges from the horrors of Oct. 7 or the current war between Israel and Iran. It is one that resounds in the travails and struggles of our daily lives, as we face all kinds of personal problems.
Were we to demand justice from G-d, as R. Boteach exhorts, we would soon be exhausted
after our first few days of such action after not seeing the results we want to see. Yes, the Avot were able to make such demands upon G-d, but they were on a far higher plane than we are.
Confronting G-d in anger is dangerous — it might lead to an acrimonious relationship between us and Him as well as fuel our hubris.
The problem of theodicy is a serious one over which much ink has been spilled by many great minds, Jewish and otherwise. R. Boteach offers only one of many such approaches, and one which seems to only add to our sense of futility and hurt.
Is the world set up in such a way that G-d waits for us to cry out to him with demands and anger before He stops pain and suffering? Does that really paint a picture of a loving and caring
G-d? To me, it conjures up an image of a sleeping giant who needs to be awoken with the cries of those who need his help.
It’s a question worth asking if we are to main-
To the editor, I find myself writing this with tears in my eyes. Rabbi Boteach has reached into my heart and mind and expressed everything I feel and fear.
As a child of Holocaust survivors what is going on around the world is even more disturb-
tain an authentic relationship with G-d. But it’s a question that deserves a much more sophisticated and thoughtful response than that presented here.
Robert Lebowitz
Appreciates Boteach’s view
ing. How can anyone imagine a world without Israel?
Rabbi Boteach has given me permission to question. Thank you. JJ Levine The Jewish Star welcomes letters relating to what we’ve published. Write: Editor@TheJewish Star.com. Please put LETTER in the subject line.
lows
dismissed their case, ruling that because the attack occurred overseas, and the Palestinian Au-
FDR, circa 1935.
MPI, Getty Images via JNS
Ari Fuld at his home in Efrat.
Courtesy Yishai Fleisher
See Medoff on page 23
See Flatow on page 23
stephen M. Flatow
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Be truthful: Only Trump would have done it…
Continued from page 18
Carlson, were also advocating for a soft response to Iran, either out of stubborn isolationist disinterest in stopping an Islamist enemy of the West or a malicious desire to see it harm Israel.
But not Trump.
Trump, alone among recent American presidents as well as other leaders on the international stage apart from Netanyahu, seems to have understood the peril presented by Iran and the necessity for action.
What enabled him to achieve this insight?
Trump distrusts ‘experts’
Part of it was his instinctive distrust of the Washington “inside the Beltway” establishment and the “expert” class.
The credentialed elites who make up the bulk of the Democratic Party’s opposition to Trump regard this as one of his profound flaws and evidence of his anti-intellectualism if not outright ignorance. But what they fail to understand is that Trump is right not to trust the supposedly smart people who have run foreign policy under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
They’ve been especially wrong about the Middle East.
Take, for example, their predictions of doom about a move of the US embassy or about Arab nations never making peace with Israel before the establishment of a Palestinian state. All were proven to be harmful myths.
Unlike Obama and Biden in particular, Trump also understands the necessity of pro-
Sacks…
Continued from page 16 leadership as Judaism understands it.
Note that we are all G-d’s servants. The Torah says so:
To Me the Israelites are servants; they are My servants whom I brought out of Egypt. (Lev. 25:55)
So it is not that Moses was a different kind of being than we are all called on to be. It is that he epitomised it to the utmost degree. The less there is of “self” in one who serves G-d, the more there is of G-d. Moses was the supreme exemplar of Rabbi Johanan’s principle, that “Where you find humility, there you find greatness.”
It is one of the sadder features of Judaism that we tend to forget that many of the great ideas appropriated by others are in fact ours. So it is with “servant leadership,” the phrase and theory associated with Robert K. Greenleaf (1904-1990). Greenleaf himself derived it from a novel by Hermann Hesse with Buddhist undertones, and in fact the Jewish concept is different from his.
Greenleaf held that the leader is the servant of those he leads. In Judaism a leader is the servant of G-d, not of the people; but neither is he their master. Only G-d is that. Nor is he above them: he and they are equal. He is simply their teacher, guide, advocate and defender. His task is to remind them endlessly of their vocation and inspire them to be true to it.
In Judaism, leadership is not about popularity:
“If a scholar is loved by the people of his town, it is not because he is gifted but because he fails to rebuke them in matters of heaven.”
Ketubot 105b
Nor is a true leader eager for the job. Almost without exception the great leaders of Tanach were reluctant to assume the mantle of leadership. Rabban Gamliel summed it up when he said to two Sages he wanted to appoint to office:
Do you imagine I am offering you rulership? I am offering you avdut, the chance to serve. (Horayot 10a-b)
jecting American strength and the danger of appeasement.
This is not something that many observers associate with a policy approach he dubbed “America First.” Some on the left believe it to be pure isolationism, as with the “America First” movement of the pre-WWII era, which opposed measures to stop Nazi Germany. Carlson and his “woke right” acolytes similarly think it means indifference to Iran’s multi-front campaign to eradicate the sole Jewish state on the planet.
But Trump’s interpretation of the term — besides being the only one that matters — is one that calls for a strong America that picks and chooses its fights carefully, avoiding unnecessary ones like the quagmire in Ukraine, while focusing in on those that do, like stopping a nuclear Iran.
Along with all that, Trump is a believer in decisive leadership and unpredictability. That has given him the will, time after time, to act swiftly when he believes action is needed. While others prefer to let themselves be tied up in knots in futile efforts at achieving international consensus with Europeans and others who are temperamentally unsuited to action, Trump has no such qualms, even if it means the whole world (other than his ally, Israel) is against him.
It’s possible that other conservative Republicans might have done the same thing if they had been elected president. But Trump’s unique credentials as the billionaire tribune of the working class gives him standing to act that few others might hope to possess.
That, then, was Korach’s mistake. He thought leaders were those who set themselves above the congregation. He was right to say that this type of ruler has no place in Judaism.
We are all called on to be G-d’s servants. Leadership is not about status but function. Without tzitzit, a blue robe is just a robe, not a holy garment. Without leadership, the Jewish people is just a people, an ethnic group, not a holy nation. And without reminders that we are a holy nation, who then will we become, and why?
Weinreb…
Continued from page 17
Korach was the epitome of a man who had everything. Tradition has it that he was very wealthy. He had a wife and family, sons who went on to future honor after their father met his wretched fate. As a member of the tribe of Levi, he had opportunities for leadership and even for the performance of sacred functions.
Yet he was envious of Moshe and Aharon and persuaded others to become sufficiently envious to join him in his ill-fated and blasphemous rebellion.
It is noteworthy that, as pointed out by the author of “Tosefet Yom Tov,” there is a passage in a commentary attributed to Rashi in which Korach is designated as the very archetype of envy, as the exemplary of the nasty trait of kin’ah!
How does one overcome envy? One very creative and psychologically astute approach is offered by Rabbi Baruch Epstein, the early twentieth century author of “Torah Temimah,” in his commentary to the verse in Shir HaShirim quoted above.
There, love is described as very powerful and envy as ultimately disastrous. Rabbi Epstein sees this connection in the text: When two individuals truly love each other, they will never envy each other. The more love, the less envy.
I recommend that the reader consult Rabbi Epstein’s own words and his examples in
Too many other political figures on the right begin to act as if the approval of the New York Times, CNN and liberal public opinion is essential to their sense of their own legitimacy once they attain power. Their desire for the respect of liberal opinion leaders tends to lead them to behave differently once in office. But not Trump. He thrives on the contempt of the establishment. That’s why it’s hard to imagine any other American president acting so decisively on Middle East issues.
Acknowledging the fundamental importance of Trump is a bitter pill for many in American politics. Liberals, even those who purport to care about Israel and the fight against antisemitism, simply can’t accept that the “bad orange man” is a historic friend of Israel and the Jewish people, as well as a president who grasps the basic facts about Iranian and Islamist intransigence.
The fact that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer denounced Trump’s decision to bomb Iran is evidence not just of his hypocrisy — since he supported Obama and Biden acting abroad without benefit of a congressional declaration of war. Rather, it is a sign that he never really cared about the issue of Iranian nukes, since if he did, he’d back Trump’s decision.
Such partisan obstructionists aside, the key to understanding what has happened involves the imperative to recognize Trump’s unique willingness to act with alacrity on measures involving national security.
All of which makes for a powerful argument in favor of the proposition that only Trump
his commentary found after the Pentateuch section of Chumash Vayikra.
Allow me to express a bit of my own limited creativity. In an attempt to find some themes common to last week’s parsha, Shelach, and this week’s, Korach, I recalled that last week the Torah reading concluded with the mitzvah of tzitzit, fringes to be tied onto the corners of one’s four-cornered garment. Among those fringes was to be attached tekhelet, a cord of blue.
What immediately came to my mind was that Korach is said to have mocked Moshe with silly halachic questions, one of which was whether an entire garment composed of tekhelet, blue material, would require blue fringes.
Apparently, Korach’s psyche, suffused with envy, could not be satisfied with just a few strands of blue cords. He was after much more. Entire garments of blue would not quench his thirst for it all. Envy does not allow one to be satisfied with only a sample of totality.
The envious person wants it all.
But I have another connection to tekhelet, besides the fact that I’ve carefully included blue cords in my own personal tallitot for many years. That is the Talmudic passage which reads:
“Why blue rather than any of the other colors? Because blue calls to mind the color of the sea, and the sea is the color of the heavens, and the heavens resemble the L-rd’s Throne of Glory, of which it is said (Exodus 24:10): ‘and beneath His feet what looked like a lapis lazuli pavement as clear as the sky itself’.” (Talmud Bavli Menuchot 44b)
Just a strand or two of the blue cords of tekhelet coupled with a dose of inner reflection and spirited imagination brings us, step by step, away from our self-centered envy toward the “feet” of the Master of the Universe.
But envy? Not blue. William Shakespeare knew well that green is the color of envy. In the play “Othello,” Iago warns Othello about the dangers of envy calling envy a “greeneyed monster”!
Be not green with envy. Blue tekhelet conquers green envy at every turn.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
would have acted as he has done, and that it is those qualities — which his critics continue to consider flaws rather than strengths — that impel him to do so.
History is always a matter of “what if” arguments that hinge on the accidents that could have changed everything. The moving of Trump’s head less than an inch last summer in Butler, Pennsylvania is one such moment. Had he been killed by an assassin that day, it’s clear that the history of the struggle to stop an Iranian nuclear weapon would have been very different.
Whether you believe that what happened that day was an act of divine providence designed to promote Israel’s survival or merely dumb luck, the fact remains that the ultimate disposition of Iran’s nuclear threat against Israel and the West was decided at that moment.
Those who support Israel, including among Trump’s domestic critics, must now acknowledge that, flawed or not, he is the only president who would have acted to stop Iran and potentially save Israel. Whether indispensable or not, no other possible candidate for the presidency would have done as he did in the way he did it.
Whatever happens next, Trump ensured that the world would not be forced to confront a nuclear Iran. Friends of Israel and those who want the West to defend itself against the world’s leading state sponsor of terror should be silently uttering a prayer of gratitude for what Trump has done.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Freedman…
Continued from page 17
And what is an argument (or debate), which is for the sake of heaven? This is the ‘argument’ of the students of Shammai and the students of Hillel.
“And what is an argument which is not for the sake of heaven (and therefore will, says the mishnah, not endure)? This is the argument of Korach and his congregation.”
The mishnah says that the argument fomented by Korach, “Ein Sofah Le’Hitkayem,” will not endure.
Here, Judaism is taking an important stand. The issue is not what Moshe and Korach were arguing about; the issue is why argue at all.
The Torah does not tell me exactly what Korach took, because it isn’t important. Korach, says the Torah, was a taker. And in the end, the only cause Korach was fighting for was Korach. That is why, suggests tradition, the mishnah calls this argument the argument of Korach and his followers and not the debate of Korach and Moshe. Korach was really thinking only of Korach; in the end, there was no room for anyone else.
The mishnah describes an argument that is a righteous, or legitimate, debate as one that is for the sake of heaven (“Le’Shem Shamayim”), it doesn’t refer to it as being for the sake of G-d. Why?
Heaven (shamayim) is a term that has its counter in the earth or the ground. “Ha’Shamayim Shamayim La’Hashem, ve’Ha’Aretz natan Li’vnei Adam” (the heavens belong to G-d, but the earth has been given over to mankind).
Heaven represents endlessness, that aspect of our selves which is truly unlimited. The earth, on the other hand, represents the finite limitedness of this material world.
The question to consider then, when involved in any debate, is which of these two am I feeding — is the goal of the debate to further the cause of heaven, or is it really only about me?
If all that I do is about what I can give back
Continued on next page
to the world, then ultimately I am recognizing that there is a part of G-d inside every human being; I am recognizing the endlessness, the unlimited, in all of us. That is a debate for the sake of heaven and such a debate, whatever side of the fence we choose, ultimately serves to bring us all a bit closer together.
But a debate that is in the end only about me, and about feeding my own ego, will only serve to set us all further apart. Such a position does not recognize the fact that everyone has a part of G-d inside of them.
That is why Korach is swallowed up in the ground, because that is what his argument was all about; ultimately, the world was better off without any Korach at all.
Which leaves us with the question we need to struggle with each and every day, and in each and every decision we make: Are we givers or takers? And is what we are doing in any given moment really an act of giving, or have we somehow become, even if for only an instant, a taker, from the family of Korach?
Rabbi Binny Freedman is Rosh Yeshiva of Orayta in Jerusalem. A version of this column was previously published.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Cohen…
Continued from page 19 tries have also taken action against the network, including Germany and the United Kingdom. In the UK, the revocation of its license in 2011 was triggered by its broadcast of a “confession” from Maziar Bahari, an Iranian dissident, which was obtained under torture. (This flagrant violation of humanitarian law is standard practice for IRIB, which earned it the moniker “Torture TV.”)
Yet London remains the only Western city where Press TV maintains both a bureau and a studio that produces and transmits news shows and panel discussions.
Among its nastiest offerings is a full-throated antisemitic conspiracy show titled “Palestine Declassified,” produced in London and anchored by Chris Williamson, a former parliamentarian, a stalwart ally of Jeremy Corbyn, the antisemitic former leader of the British Labour Party and a prime candidate for the mantle of William Joyce. (Incidentally, Corbyn has also anchored shows on Press TV, as has George Galloway, another former member of the British parliament who never met a dictator whom he didn’t fawn over.)
Williamson’s regular guests include David Miller, a disgraced Scottish academic who is, in my view, the most blatantly antisemitic agitator in a constellation that also includes several far-left outlets in Europe and North America. Miller’s favorite hashtag is “#dismantle Zionism,” by which he means shutting down Jewish organizations, schools and charities that have any affiliation with, or even affection for, the State of Israel, claiming that this is a manifestation of “Jewish supremacism.”
All this is being beamed out of London by the same network that broadcasts the confessions of Iranian opponents of the regime obtained through torture. There is a method here; as my colleague Toby Dershowitz has written, “IRIB, and the regime more broadly, attempt to tie prisoners to the foreign powers the regime frequently vilifies, principally the United States and Israel. It aligns with IRIB’s pattern of vilifying the ‘great Satan’ and ‘little Satan’ in television, radio and written reporting.”
With the exception of the United States and perhaps Germany, Western countries have been feeble in their response to Israel’s current campaign, acknowledging that Iran is a very real threat but keeping their distance from Jerusalem’s necessary actions. Still, is it too much to ask the UK government to shut down Press TV’s London operation entirely?
Ben Cohen is a senior analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Rosenbaum
Continued from page 19
their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.”
And, yet, Iran somehow remained a nation in good standing after repeatedly threatening to wipe Israel from the map. Now that smirk has been wiped from their faces.
Iran somehow remained a nation in good standing after repeatedly threatening to wipe Israel from the map. Now that smirk has been wiped from their faces.
A nation that worships the Stone Age finally got its wish. Iran’s military infrastructure is in rubble. The ayatollahs boastingly absorbed America’s first-strike capacity and promised “everlasting consequences.”
Apocalyptic theocrats are not known for their poker faces, or sense of irony. Their terrorist Revolutionary Guards are quaking. Missile stockpiles depleted and production facilities out of commission. Launching sites, annihilated. Fighter jets that never left the tarmac. Nuclear ambitions, now buried and impassable.
All that’s left is global terrorism — something the Western world now must take very seriously.
If Iran continues firing rockets at Israeli population centers (indisputable war crimes that seem of little interest to the global community), then the Jewish state will rightly see that as an invitation to collapse the remaining guardrails keeping the mullahs in power.
The assistance of the United States will no longer be necessary. Fear that America’s involvement in Israel’s final Middle East battlefront might set off World War III, or embroil the United States in yet another “forever war,” is more science fiction than realpolitik.
Israel was already at the 5-yard-line. America’s bunker busters merely punched this war over the goal line, allowing President Trump, like Harry Truman who once brought Japan to its heels, to relish an endzone celebration.
The Persian Gulf nations, along with honest brokers within the European Union, realize that Israel, aided by the United States, has done everyone a massive favor. Soon they will admit it, privately, at first. Eventually, Iran’s absence as a menace will be widely felt.
The Persian Gulf nations, along with honest brokers within the European Union, realize that Israel, aided by the United States, has done everyone a massive favor. Soon they will admit it, privately, at first. Eventually, Iran’s absence as a menace will be widely felt.
In the polarized United States, however, among Blue State coastal elites and anti-American academics who have co-opted its universities, if it originates from the Trump White House, it can’t be good.
With the fear of ballistic missiles on their collective brains, Israelis went from the Iron Dome to Iran being effectively done. Quite a dizzying turnaround. What might be even more improbable to imagine, notwithstanding the global significance of Iran’s fall, is a Nobel Peace Prize with Trump’s name on it.
Such a Norwegian gift is not entirely undeserved. It might correct for the one prematurely given to Obama.
Thane Rosenbaum is Distinguished University Professor at Touro University.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Flatow…
Continued from page 20
thority’s US ties were not “sufficient,” American courts lacked jurisdiction.
The Supreme Court rightly reversed that decision. It held that the Palestinian Authority and PLO’s intentional, continuous, and targeted presence in the US — including lobbying, public relations efforts, and interactions with govern-
ment officials — creates the necessary legal connection for them to be held accountable in US courts.
This is not just a win for the Fuld family. It is a restoration of a vital legal principle: that terrorists and their sponsors cannot seek the benefits of American engagement while dodging the consequences of murdering Americans.
In the years since Alisa was killed, I’ve seen countless families broken by acts of terror and then re-wounded by legal systems that shrug and say: “Sorry. There’s nothing we can do.” Fuld changes that. It reopens the courthouse doors for victims of terror attacks in Israel, Europe, and elsewhere, committed by groups that operate with impunity but maintain access to American politics, diplomacy, and fundraising networks.
It also aligns this case with earlier victories under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, where families of victims of the Khobar Towers bombing, Pan Am 103, and other atrocities successfully sued state sponsors like Iran and Libya. But Fuld goes further by confirming that non-state actors — when they establish a deliberate US footprint — can be held to the same standard.
The ruling doesn’t guarantee victory on the merits. But it guarantees something essential: a fair hearing. A courtroom. A voice.
And in cases like these, that means everything.
There is a cruel irony in how these attacks unfold. A loved one is murdered, the world moves on, and the perpetrators are celebrated and enriched. But this ruling says: Not so fast. If you murder Americans, you will be pursued. You will be called to account — not just by history, but by law.
Justice cannot resurrect the dead. It cannot replace a hug, the laughter around a family table, or the future that was stolen. But it can provide acknowledgment, accountability, and — occasionally — consequences.
For the Fuld family, and for every family that has lived through this nightmare, this decision is a reminder that American citizenship is not just a passport — it is a promise. A promise that when terror strikes, our nation will not forget. And that when the world turns away, our courts may still stand tall.
Stephen Flatow is an attorney, president of the Religious Zionists of America-Mizrachi, and the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Medoff…
Continued from page 20
prayers and ended in good German, like a good German boy, and he said, ‘Dear God, please permit it that I shall die with a French bullet in my heart’,” FDR told the reporters.
“That is what has got the French scared when ninety percent of the German people are thinking and talking that way. If I were a Frenchman, I would be scared too.”
After concluding the anecdote, Roosevelt emphasized that what he had just described was strictly off the record and could not be quoted. He did not want to risk offending Hitler. That fear also explained why, in hundreds of press conferences between 1933 and 1938, FDR never once criticized Hitler’s brutal persecution of German Jews.
Regardless of what President Roosevelt privately thought about Hitler, he was determined to maintain cordial — sometimes friendly — relations with the Nazi regime in the 1930s. That even extended to trying to sell helium to Nazi Germany, despite the danger that Hitler would use it for military purposes.
This happened in late 1937. Roosevelt told Congress that providing helium to Germany to power its Zeppelin airships would demonstrate to Hitler that the U.S. was “a good neighbor.” Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes opposed the proposal, arguing that it would be dangerous to provide the Nazis with a gas that was “of military importance.” The sale could not proceed without the interior secretary’s approval.
So FDR suggested to Ickes, during a cabinet meeting, that he could alleviate Ickes of responsibility by giving him a letter stating it was his “judgment, as Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, that this helium was not of military importance.”
The debate dragged on through mid-1938, at which point politics intervened. With congressional midterm elections looming in November, a senior presidential adviser, Thomas Corcoran, confided to Secretary Ickes that (according to Ickes’s diary) the president had decided to drop the issue, because “if we now ship helium to Germany, it would offend the Jewish vote.”
In retrospect, Roosevelt’s concern about the Democrats losing Jewish votes may seem puzzling, since the overwhelming majority of American Jews consistently voted for Democratic candidates. But it has happened more than once that fear of the Jewish vote was more significant than actual Jewish voting patterns.
The president never wavered from his prewar preference for appeasing Nazi Germany. He compelled Secretary Ickes to delete criticism of Hitler from several of his speeches. Roosevelt also supported the Munich agreement to dismember Czechoslovakia. And FDR’s Commerce Department even quietly advised the Nazi regime on how to deceptively label their exports in order to evade anti-Nazi boycotters. Needless to say, none of those policies helped stave off war. Fortunately, President Trump appears to have learned from his predecessor’s mistake. Appeasing belligerent foreign dictators, and allowing them to develop dangerous weapons, is not the path to peace.
Dr. Rafael Medoff is founding director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.
