Oct. 3–23, 2025
11 Tishrei 5786
Sukkot
Vol. 24, No. 32
Reach the Star: Editor@TheJewishStar.com 516-622-7461 x291
Trump’s 20 points
Here is the full text of President Donald Trump’s 20-point comprehensive proposal to end the war in Gaza that was instigated by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
1. Gaza will be a deradicalized terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbors.
2. Gaza will be redeveloped for the benefit of the people of Gaza, who have suffered more than enough.
3. If both sides agree to this proposal, the war will immediately end. Israeli forces will withdraw to the agreed upon line to prepare for a hostage release. During this time, all military operations, including aerial and artillery bombardment, will be suspended, and battle lines will remain frozen until conditions are met for the complete staged withdrawal.
4. Within 72 hours of Israel publicly accepting this agree-
ment, all hostages, alive and deceased, will be returned.
5. Once all hostages are released, Israel will release 250 life sentence prisoners plus 1700 Gazans who were detained after October 7th 2023, including all women and children detained in that context. For every Israeli hostage whose remains are released, Israel will release the remains of 15 deceased Gazans.
6. Once all hostages are returned, Hamas members who commit to peaceful co-existence and to decommission their weapons will be given amnesty. Members of Hamas who wish to leave Gaza will be provided safe passage to receiving countries.
7. Upon acceptance of this agreement, full aid will be immediately sent into the Gaza Strip. At a minimum, aid quantities will be consistent with what was included in the January 19, 2025, agreement regarding humanitarian aid, including
rehabilitation of infrastructure (water, electricity, sewage), rehabilitation of hospitals and bakeries, and entry of necessary equipment to remove rubble and open roads.
8. Entry of distribution and aid in the Gaza Strip will proceed without interference from the two parties through the United Nations and its agencies, and the Red Crescent, in addition to other international institutions not associated in any manner with either party. Opening the Rafah crossing in both directions will be subject to the same mechanism implemented under the January 19, 2025 agreement.
9. Gaza will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for delivering the day-to-day running of pubSee Trump’s 20 points on page 4
By Menachem Wecker, JNS
This Yom Kippur, Chaim Neria intends to bring copies of two manuscripts, which the National Library of Israel recently acquired, to synagogue with him to study and to “deepen my knowledge” during services.
“Taking to shul different mahzors and holding them side by side with your mahzor helps to reflect on the nusach and see unique nusachim, renewing your experience,” Neria, curator of the library’s Haim and Hanna Solomon Judaica collection, told JNS.
In recent days, the library announced its acquisition of a 14th-century mahzor
for Yom Kippur from the Crimean peninsula and of two out of three parts of a 15thcentury mahzor from Lisbon.
Neria confirmed that the 14th-century manuscript is one that Kedem Auction House in Jerusalem sold on May 6.
The curator also said that the 15thcentury manuscript is one that Kedem withdrew from a sale “due to the historical value of the item,” and which the auction house says was “purchased by the National Library of Israel with the assistance of Kedem Auctions.” Kedem listed an estimate of $150,000 to $200,000.
Neria said that in a “screen-saturated
age,” the library’s new acquisitions offer “a lesson in how culture endures.”
“These books aren’t only carriers of words — they are vessels of time, touch and community,” he said. “They reveal the Jewish year not as an app or a feed but as something literally held together by thread and parchment, calibrated by generations who turned those pages on festivals and fasts.”
The fact that the two mahzors have endured “is a lesson in resilience and responsibility,” according to Neria. “Both the Lisbon mahzor — a survivor of expulsion and upheaval — and the Crimean mahzor,
Mamdani makes nice with ‘Yevsektsiya’ Jews
Barring a black-swan event, Democratic Party candidate Zohran Mamdani will emerge as the winner of New York City’s mayoral election on Nov. 4. Polls show him with an insurmountable lead, with the momentum behind him likely to consolidate even further as Election Day approaches.
This is a moment of reckoning, then, for New York’s Jewish community, as a declared enemy of the State of Israel takes the helm of a city so defined by its Jewish population that it was once insultingly referred to as “Hymietown” by the Rev. Jesse Jackson. These days, “Mamdanistan” may be a more accurate descriptor for what lies in store going forward.
Mamdani is the sort of candidate who could only emerge at a time when conspiracy theories have overwhelmed much of the left and the right alike, with both ends of the spectrum mired in identitarian politics. Israel is one issue on which both extremes intersect, with their positions rooted in deeply antisemitic notions.
He
Much as it is now, anti-Zionism was rife in far-left circles at the height of the Cold War. The difference is that back then, if a right-wing political commentator like Tucker Carlson, who was booted out of his cable-TV host spot on Fox News in the fall of 2023,
licing and housing are the answer to this city’s swelling problems of poor infrastructure, diminished public services and eyewatering expenses from groceries to rent.
We might forlornly hope that he will have no time to worry about Israel and the Palestinians, given both these challenges and the undoubted hostility that he will encounter from the Trump administration in Washington. Yet that ignores the power that performative politics exercises in this febrile period of history.
As influencers like Carlson have discovered, Jerusalem is an animating subject. Just as Arab leaders used to trot out “Israel” as the excuse for their failure to provide their subject populations with basic rights, jobs and education, Mamdani and his ilk will do the same.
At the same time, Mamdani is transitioning from professional activist to professional politician. He understands very well that the best way to blunt accusations of antisemitism is to assemble a group of Jewish sycophants around him, skillfully playing to their parochial fears that pesky, colonial Israel is driving a wedge between them and the rest of the left.
had invoked the crucifixion of Jesus as a means of explaining Israel’s supposed desire to eliminate its antagonists, he would have been loudly condemned in the left-wing press for reviving ancient antisemitic libels. These days, the left either ignores such things, or — as the response to Carlson’s demented rant about the murder of Charlie Kirk attests — agrees with them.
A Mamdani victory will serve as additional confirmation of the Democratic Party’s swing to the antisemitic far left, with its centrists frozen out as it further aligns itself with the cause of socialism. Like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mamdani is a poster child for this pivot: young, aaffable, photogenic, always smiling, social-media savvy and fond of words like “healing.”
As is always the case on the left, as Mamdani grasps the reins of power, there will be a core of activists — not remotely photogenic, not remotely affable, and who pepper their speeches with words like “revolution” and “imperialism” — who will sooner or later denounce him as a “sellout.”
Any sniping at Mamdani from his erstwhile comrades will make little difference to how he is perceived by the bulk of New York’s Jews — but, as I will explain, his Jewish supporters have a key role to play.
•Mamdani is a product of Students for Justice in Palestine, a violently antisemitic group that proudly identifies with the rapists and murderers of Hamas.
•He supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement that seeks to “globalize the intifada.”
•He rejects Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish, democratic state. In other words, he is not simply opposed to Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.
•He is opposed to the idea and the very existence of Israel, and has been long before the Hamas-led pogrom of 1,200 people on Oct. 7, 2023.
During his campaign, Mamdani has artfully attempted to soften the edges of these positions in a bid to appeal to Jewish voters, as well as to calm down those New Yorkers who don’t believe that his views on crime, po-
That was why, on Rosh Hashana, Mamdani was the guest of honor at Kolot Chayeinu, a Brooklyn synagogue known, as the New York Times observed in an extensive write-up of the event, for its progressive activism and the presence of Jewish anti-Zionists in the congregation.
The vast majority of Jews — Orthodox, Conservative and Reform — would balk at the thought of a synagogue where the rabbi uses his sermon to accuse Israel of “genocide,” and where kippahs are optional but face masks are not. [Editor’s note: A photo accompanying the Times article showed most congregants in masks.] Someone wearing a kippah and a tallis, but not a mask, would have been turfed out of the proceedings. Someone wearing a mask decked in the colors of the Palestinian flag would have been welcomed with open arms.
For Mamdani, this is the acceptable face of the Jewish community. For most Jews, this is not a synagogue worthy of the name.
As long as he associates only with Jews whose identity revolves around denunciations of Israel and Zionism while failing to revise, or apologize for, his own lengthy record of Israel-hatred, Mamdani will make no inroads with the mainstream Jewish community.
Indeed, the mistrust and alienation will only intensify if the only Jews he appears with are those like Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller who loathes Israel, and who are destined to play a similar role to the “Yevsektsiya” — the Jewish section of the Soviet Communist Party dedicated to purging religious practice, the teaching of Hebrew and the spread of Zionist beliefs among Jews in revolutionary Russia.
In such an environment, the only path available to pro-Israel Jews in New York is to boycott Mamdani. No mainstream Jewish institution should offer him a platform. His administration should be forensically monitored for any and all acts of anti-Jewish discrimination dressed up as opposition to Zionism.
Any politician, whether Democrat or Republican, who appears alongside him should be treated as suspect — unless, of course, they do so as adversaries. Finally, the campaign to oust him four years from now needs to begin right now. Write:
Zohran Mamdani campaigns outside of St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx on Sept. 24. Stephanie Keith, Getty Images via JNS
Vessels of time…
Continued from page 1
from an area of vibrant, diverse Jewish life at a Black Sea crossroads, carry the marks of dispersion and return.”
But admiring the physical beauty and importance of centuries-old books on parchment doesn’t mean that one must be a Luddite who attacks machines.
“The computer screen is not an enemy,” Neria said. “We will digitize and share these volumes online to allow access to a global audience, but the aura of the original — its marginal notes, thumb-worn corners and traces of past readers’ voices — can only be fully grasped through the object itself.”
The 14th-century mahzor for Yom Kippur from the Crimean peninsula, which the Krauss Family Charitable Trust purchased for the library, includes piyutim, liturgical hymns that are chanted on holidays, including the High Holidays, that don’t appear in any other known texts, according to the National Library of Israel.
There is a need for scholars to study the manuscript, which includes prayers for Yom Kippur morning, afternoon and evening, more to ascertain its significance, according to Neria.
The curator said that the Kaffa rite is one from the port city of Kaffa on the Black Sea.
“It started as a Greek colony in the first century, and its earliest tradition stems from the Romaniote tradition practiced by Judeo-Greek Jews,” he said. “However, as a port city, it housed many different Jewish communities: Rabbanites, Karaites,
There were so many kinds of Jews in Kaffa that Rabbi Moses ben Jacob of Kiev, the city’s spiritual leader, opted to create a prayer book of the Kaffa rite in the late 15th or early 16th century, according to Neria. The mahzor that the library acquired predates that standardized mahzor “and is predominantly in the Romaniote tradition,” he said.
Only some 3,000 Crimean Jews survived the Holocaust, and although there are small communities of Krymchak Jews, Neria isn’t aware of the Kaffa rite being practiced today. “It was never put into print form and therefore fell out of use centuries ago,” he told JNS.
Neria called the mahzor “an irreplaceable piece of Jewish history that enriches our understanding of medieval Jewish prayer, poetry and community life” and said that the prayer for mourners in the manuscript could be adopted today “as we pray for the return of the hostages and for a time of peace.”
The Lisbon mahzor, which the Haim and Hanna Solomon Judaica Foundation and Zukier Family bought for the library, was split into three parts at some point. The library says it is now “reunited” in Jerusalem.
The Aleppo community gifted one volume of the manuscript — with Shabbat prayers — and the Aleppo Codex to then-Israeli president Yitzhak Ben-Zvi in 1957, and it was placed in the Yad Ben-Zvi archives. “The whereabouts of the other two volumes was unknown until they recently came up for auction,” the library said. “These have now been acquired by the library that will digitally reunite the Lisbon mahzor and make it available online.”
The “reunited” manuscript contains prayers and poems for the High Holidays, Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot, as well as other holidays, in the Sephardic rite, according to the library. It was made during a period in which Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, and some moved to Portugal. The latter expelled Jews, or forced them to convert, in 1496.
“It appears that even in their most difficult moments, the Portuguese Jewish community did not give up its books,” Neria said. “They took these cultural treasures along to their next destination.”
Trump’s 20 points…
Continued from page 1
lic services and municipalities for the people in Gaza. This committee will be made up of qualified Palestinians and international experts, with oversight and supervision by a new international transitional body, the “Board of Peace,” which will be headed and chaired by President Donald J. Trump, with other members and heads of State to be announced, including Former Prime Minister Tony Blair. This body will set the framework and handle the funding for the redevelopment of Gaza until such time as the Palestinian Authority has completed its reform program, as outlined in various proposals, including President Trump’s peace plan in 2020 and the Saudi-French proposal, and can securely and effectively take back control of Gaza. This body will call on best international standards to create modern and efficient governance that serves the people of Gaza and is conducive to attracting investment.
10. A Trump economic development plan to rebuild and energize Gaza will be created by convening a panel of experts who have helped birth some of the thriving modern miracle cities in the Middle East. Many thoughtful investment proposals and exciting development ideas have been crafted by well-meaning international groups, and will be considered to synthesize the security and governance frameworks to attract and facilitate these investments that will create jobs, opportunity, and hope for future Gaza.
11. A special economic zone will be established with preferred tariff and access rates to be negotiated with participating countries.
12. No one will be forced to leave Gaza, and those who wish to leave will be free to do so and free to return. We will encourage people to stay and offer them the opportunity to build a better Gaza.
13. Hamas and other factions agree to not have any role in the governance of Gaza, directly, indirectly, or in any form. All military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, including tunnels and weapon production facilities, will be destroyed and not rebuilt. There will be a process of demilitarization of Gaza under the supervision of independent monitors, which will include placing weapons permanently beyond use through an agreed process of decommissioning, and supported by an internationally funded buy back and reintegration program all verified by the independent monitors. New Gaza will be fully committed to building a prosperous economy and to peaceful coexistence with their neighbors.
14. A guarantee will be provided by regional partners to ensure that Hamas, and the factions, comply with their obligations and that New Gaza poses no threat to its neighbors or its people.
15. The United States will work with Arab and international partners to develop a temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF) to immediately deploy in Gaza. The ISF will train and provide support to vetted Palestinian police forces in Gaza, and will consult with Jordan and Egypt who have extensive experience in this field. This force will be the longterm internal security solution. The ISF will work with Israel and Egypt to help secure border areas, along with newly trained Palestinian police forces. It is critical to prevent munitions from entering Gaza and to facilitate the rapid and secure flow of goods to rebuild and revitalize Gaza. A deconfliction mechanism will be agreed upon by the parties.
16. Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza. As the ISF establishes control and stability, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will withdraw based on standards, milestones, and timeframes linked to demilitarization that will be agreed upon between the IDF, ISF, the guarantors, and the Unites States, with the objective of a secure Gaza that no longer poses a threat to Israel, Egypt, or its citizens. Practically, the IDF will progressively hand over the Gaza territory it occupies to the ISF according to an agreement they will make with the transitional authority until they are withdrawn completely from Gaza, save for a security perimeter presence that will remain until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat.
17. In the event Hamas delays or rejects this proposal, the above, including the scaledup aid operation, will proceed in the terrorfree areas handed over from the IDF to the ISF.
18. An interfaith dialogue process will be established based on the values of tolerance and peaceful co-existence to try and change mindsets and narratives of Palestinians and Israelis by emphasizing the benefits that can be derived from peace.
19. While Gaza re-development advances and when the PA reform program is faithfully carried out, the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognize as the aspiration of the Palestinian people.
20. The United States will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous co-existence.
By Menachem Wecker, JNS
In an interview in his office in mid-February, Amichai Chikli, Israeli minister for diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, quoted from the weekly Torah portion, Yitro, which was read in synagogues the prior day and includes one of Jewish scripture’s two versions of the Ten Commandments.
Part of the prior day’s reading was “honor your father and your mother,” Chikli said. He quoted Samson Raphael Hirsch, a famed 19th-century German rabbi, who said that the verse, which continues, “in order that your days be numbered,” suggests that mother and father (abba v’ima) are essential to Jewish continuity.
“There is no replacement for abba v’ima,” he said.
In August, when JNS spoke with Ofir Sofer, Israeli aliyah and integration minister, aboard the first Nefesh B’Nefesh charter flight since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the official also quoted the Torah.
“Now we are reading in parshat ha’shavua Sefer Dvarim,” in which Moses recounts the Israelites’ journey through the desert, which serves as both a roundup and a farewell address in one. “It’s so moving to read his thanks,” Sofer said. He switched to Hebrew to say that Moses “is so emotional” as he tells the Jews “the most significant things to him.”
When Moses said those things, Sofer told JNS in a mixture of Hebrew and English, “he meant for us.
He intended our time.”
Israeli ministers quoting Torah
Since March 21, Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, has posted 11 video messages on social media that draw upon the weekly Torah portion.
In the most recent one, Sept. 12, he wrote that Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA who was assassinated during a college event in Utah, “exemplified” the values of that week’s Torah portion, Ki Tavo, which teaches values that form the “foundation to American democracy: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Experts told JNS that it is a golden age of Israeli officials quoting from the Torah, noting that Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of the Jewish state, quoted Samuel and Deuteronomy in his address to the UN General Assembly in September 2024 and drew from scripture to name the operation against Iran in June.
“This battle against Iran, I called it ‘Rising Lion,’ because in the Bible there’s a phrase that the people of Israel should rise like lions, will rise like lions,” the prime minister said at an Aug. 13 Newsmax event. “Our brave soldiers did just that.”
Rabbi Jeffrey Woolf, retired associate professor of Talmud at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan and adjunct professor of Jewish history at the Touro Graduate School of Jewish Studies in New York City, told JNS that the number of religious ministers in the Israeli government and ministers who received formal reli-
gious training has grown.
“That is something which would feed the phenomenon,” he said.
Woolf thinks that officials citing so many biblical proof texts is “relatively new,” although “Israel has been going through a deepening of its relationship with Judaism in a very, very profound sense already for about 30 years.”
“It took a big step forward after
the intifada, but the war has accelerated the process intensely,” he said. “You see it all over the place. You see it with the soldiers. You see it in all kinds of ways.”
Israelis aren’t just quoting the weekly Torah portion. “It’s become, I don’t know if de rigueur, but certainly something which nobody is going to hesitate to do,” the rabbi said. “It’s become very acceptable,
if not expected.”
“Invocations of G-d are just very, very common,” Woolf said. He noted that Israeli soldiers wear tzitzit prominently, and faithful songs have become anthems of the war.
“It’s really transcended all of the various sectors of Israeli society except for the very, very hardcore, secularist, anti-religious elements, which are very loud,” the rabbi said.
Extreme circles have pushed back and “become almost hysterically antireligious,” he said, “accusing everything of being messianic and crazy and so on, but that’s an extreme reaction to a very, very profound shift in the population.”
David May, research manager and senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JNS that “Jewish scripture has always been an inseparable part of the outlook of many Israeli politicians.”
“After all, part of Israel’s ethos is Jews returning to their roots in the land in which the Bible was written. Prime Minister Menachem Begin often quoted the Hebrew Bible, but the rightward shift in Israeli politics and a general reawakening of spirituality among many Jews has given rise to a new class of politicians that draws heavily from Jewish tradition,” May said.
“Given the centrality of the Bible in Israeli education and how the Torah is not a thing of the past but rather a living document, it is not surprising to see Israeli politicians quoting from their heritage,” he said.
Amichai Chikli, minister of diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, in Lod on April 15. Jonathan Shaul, Flash90
Levi MEDIA SPONSOR
No AI at reopened Florida Shoah museum
By Menachem Wecker, JNS
Many museums have “don’t touch” or “no photography” signs. At the newly reopened Florida Holocaust Museum, which spans 27,000 square feet in downtown St. Petersburg, several signs state that there is “no artificial intelligence” at the museum.
“History based on facts,” the signs state. “We do not use AI technology in the creation of our exhibits. Every story, artifact and display is researched and curated to ensure factual authenticity and accuracy.”
Some 25 minutes into four hours of private tours at the museum, spread over two days, JNS asked Ursula Szczepinska, senior director of education and research at the museum who calls some of her job “cold case” work, if she would ever use artificial intelligence to sift through vast amounts of information to identify things that might merit closer attention.
“I wouldn’t use that for that,” she told JNS. “This is such sensitive information, and AI makes so many errors that we actually do not use AI at all.”
Szczepinska has worked at the museum, which moved to its current location in 1998, for about 21 years. The museum, which is one of three such Holocaust institutions which the American Alliance of Museums accredits — the other two are the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and Holocaust Museum Houston — was established in a “modest space” some 10 miles west in Madeira Beach, Fla., in 1992. It was then called the Tampa Bay Holocaust Memorial Museum and Educational Center.
When the museum moved into its current location in 1998, Elie Wiesel, the Nobel laureate who spent winters co-teaching at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg over 30 years and who was the museum’s honorary chairman, took part in the ribbon-cutting ceremony. The museum, which changed its name the following year, now operates with a $5.3 million annual budget.
Visitors experience the redesigned museum, which closed to the public in July 2024 and reopened Sept. 9, in largely the same way as the prior building, Szczepinska said.
“The square footage is the same. The exhibition was smaller. It had fewer artifacts. Obviously, less technology,” she told JNS. “We have a better understanding now about people’s needs as visitors. Some people respond better to technology. Some respond better to text on the panel. Some people prefer photographs, or artifacts or a combination of all of these.”
“We made sure that we have ways to share this history for people with different preferences,” she said. “We want to make sure that there’s something for everyone. Some people spend 20 minutes. Some people spend two hours. It’s fine. Everybody learns in a different way.”
The museum, whose collection includes more than 25,000 artifacts, did and does display text-heavy labels, with more words than one typically sees at a museum. It also hangs objects and labels lower than many museums do to accommodate guests who cannot see and read things higher up on the wall.
Its new displays, shown in front of blown-up images of photographs that appear in the display, are customizable, unlike its prior labels that needed to be updated in their entirety when new research needed refreshing in a single section. “We were fitting in as much as possible, but at the same time, it needed to be updated,” Szczepinska said.
The prior permanent exhibition did not address the beginning of World War II and how anti-Jewish hatred spread, according to Szczepinska. It now addresses that in one of its sections. Another section on heroes addresses both non-Jewish rescuers and “Jews who were trying to help other Jews,” she told JNS. “Especially with that accusation that Jews went like sheep to the slaughter — it’s not true.”
‘Seen as a target’
One of the largest changes in the visitor’s experience of the museum is the process for entering the museum, which takes place on the side of the museum, which is lined with metal barriers to block vehicles from driving into the building.
Visitors go through airport-style security — which is not the case at other St. Petersburg museums — in which they go through a metal detector
and put their belongings through an X-ray machine. The museum provides clear bags for those who want to carry items inside, and there are lockers for placing other belongings.
Eric Stillman, who became president and CEO of the museum three months ago — “it’s been a whirlwind,” he told JNS — came into the process “far enough along that people before me had thought through issues, and it really is of tremendous importance.”
“In the time in which we live, where anything, such as the Florida Holocaust Museum, that has Holocaust as its subject matter or ‘Holocaust’ in its name is going to be seen as a target to some people,” he said.
“For the safety of our staff, visitors, guests and artifacts, we’ve taken what I would consider prudent security measures, and that has made this a safer and more secure environment,” he told JNS. “At the same time, it has been done unobtrusively, which is to say that you can stand in front of our tetrahedral window, which is an architectural engineering marvel unto itself as it tilts outward, and yet we have the bulletproof or ballistic glass in front of it.”
That and the new security entrance are “measures that are not really inconveniencing people and yet enhancing their sense that when you are here and you’re visiting us, you’re safe,” he said.
Death towers over hope
As visitors enter the museum, they experience the permanent collection on the ground floor as if navigating a monastic cloister. The ex-
hibition winds around a central area, which contains a very dramatic juxtaposition of a boxcar and a boat, and at various points, one can see the central display through screens and doorways.
Boxcar #113 069-5, which the museum states is one of a few remaining railroad boxcars “of the type used by the Nazis to transport Jews and other prisoners to places like Auschwitz and Treblinka,” is displayed on original tracks from the Treblinka killing center. Szczepinska told JNS that rings were found beneath the floorboards of the boxcar, indicating that people were aboard, but it isn’t known exactly what route it traveled and when.
“You may be wondering why the door is closed. In other museums the door is open,” she told JNS. “Our survivors find it extremely disturbing to see the door open. For us it’s an artifact. To them, it’s a reality. So we are keeping it closed while they are still with us, because they are our priority.”
Boxcars were “the first place of death for many during the Holocaust” and “often became a suffocation chamber for some of the people — 100 or more at a time — who were squeezed into it,” according to the museum. “Those who survived the trip had to endure the journey under conditions of hunger and thirst, extreme overcrowding and horrible sanitation. Many of those deported, especially the elderly and children died during the journey.”
The boxcar, which the museum dedicated as a memorial in May 1993, overlooks a more recent museum acquisition—from 2022—the Danish fishing boat Thor.
Irene Weiss worked with the museum starting in January 2022 to find a Danish rescue boat to bring to the museum. At first, none seemed available. Then she secured the help of Margot Benstock and a friend who lives in Denmark to contact someone who owned the boat Thor. The boat’s logbook and records of purchase confirm its provenance, according to the museum. “In 1943, Erik Olsen purchased Thor, an eel fishing boat. That fall, he used Thor to transport four Jews from Køge to safety in Sweden,” the museum states, noting that Olsen’s son Claus Olsen shared the rescue story with staff. “Thor continued to serve as an eel fishing boat until the 1990s, long after the rescue operation.”
The museum states that both Weiss’s and Benstock’s relatives were rescued during a threeweek period in October 1943, during which 300 fishing boats like Thor smuggled more than 7,200 Jews and 500 non-Jewish family members — accounting for 90% of Danish Jews — out of the country.
“Margot’s father sailed from Køge, Denmark, to Skanör, Sweden on a fishing boat like Thor. Her mother, Ester Fisch, who was born in Den-
Thor, a Danish fishing boat used in 1943 to save more than 7,000 Jews, and Boxcar #113 069-5, one of the few remaining railroad boxcars of the type used by the Nazis to transport Jews and other prisoners to places like Auschwitz and Treblinka, on view at the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla.
A sign at the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla., in September 2025. Menachem Wecker
An exhibit wall in the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla. Menachem Wecker
See Florida Holocaust Museum on page 10
Florida Holocaust Museum opens without AI…
Continued from page 8 mark, was ferried by fishing boat from Gilleleje to Höganäs. Her maternal grandparents escaped on a different fishing boat to Sweden,” the museum states. “Irene’s father was taken from Copenhagen to Sweden, also via a similar boat. Irene’s mother almost did not make it out of Denmark, as her first attempt failed before finally leaving from Copenhagen to arrive in Sweden (also on a Danish fishing boat).”
Stillman, the museum’s president and CEO, told JNS that the display of the boxcar and the boat is “very intentional.”
“The boxcar represents fear and death, and Thor, the Danish fishing boat, represents hope and future,” he said. “By having them juxtaposed so close together, it really makes it a very apparent way for someone to look up at the boxcar, because it’s huge. It towers over everybody, versus Thor, where you’re as if you’re at water level and you can look down and you can see into the boat.”
“You can see where the Jews were hidden under the floorboards and picture their scent being masked by fish to keep the Nazi dogs from being able to find them,” he told JNS. “That to me is probably the most powerful place, and wherever I am in the museum, I think of myself as being centered there.”
Wiesel collection
During its tours of the museum, JNS viewed both its “sneak peek” of its newly acquired Elie Wiesel collection on the second floor and the voluminous third-floor space, whose non-loadbearing walls it intends to take down, which will serve as a center of study (the “Wiesel experience”) connected to the survivor and Nobel laureate.
Stillman, who is fundraising to support the third-floor displays, told JNS that he thinks that the Wiesel collection and experience will be-
come “another signature component for me of this museum, and I think for many, many visitors.”
“We have received and are cataloguing an enormous quantity. I think 30 cubic feet is the term,” he told JNS. “Documents, photographs, passports, clothing and books.”
The museum states that part of the collection is 800 boxes from the late professor’s office in New York City. Other materials come from his Boston office and from his wife, Marion Wiesel, who died in February.
On the third floor of the museum, Marion Wiesel’s pink blazer — which her friend and executive assistant dubbed her “power blazer” and which she wore to all of the White House events that she attended — is displayed in the preview of the collection. (It is a loan from the Wiesel family.)
Stillman told JNS that it is important for the museum to display photos and other materials of Marion Wiesel’s to tell her story (she was also a Holocaust survivor) and to tell human stories rather than ones of only her iconic husband. Marion Wiesel has never been the subject of a museum exhibit, he said.
“We’re presenting her to the world for the first time,” he told JNS. “Even though she was a known person, she was never known in this context.”
The Wiesel family and foundation chose the St. Petersburg museum in 2024 to receive its entire collection. “We are giving people truly a glimpse into the person, who was both the Holocaust icon who is known throughout the world, yet also a father, a grandfather, a husband, a son, a grandchild,” Stillman told JNS. “What we are really challenged to do is help introduce the person as well as the icon.”
The museum has also committed to using “a substantial portion of our physical space” to show materials related to Wiesel. “I don’t believe
that any other institution that was competing for this opportunity, this honor, would be able to have made that level of commitment,” he said. He added that a terrace on the third floor, outside the Wiesel experience, which offers sweeping views of the city, affords those who have had an emotional experience to “have the proverbial and literal breath of fresh air and contemplate and reflect.”
The space for which Stillman is now fundraising will include pods, learning centers, a replica of Wiesel’s office and areas for conversation, and it will have interactive, large touch screens to access the digital collection. “Really to sort of pose the challenge to people, if you were a student of Elie Wiesel’s today and you were facing the ethical and moral dilemmas that we have in our world, how would you respond?” Stillman said. “What questions would you be asking? What questions would you be answering? And do it in a way that you’re surrounded by his life, his work, his family in the digital sense.”
Local flavor
Throughout the museum, hometown stories weave in broader attention to the Holocaust.
One of many objects with a local angle is a pan, which was used to make a Passover version of a traditional Sephardic donut that generations of Rosa Miller’s family used. A Holocaust survivor from Salonika, Greece, Miller “carried her family’s traditions with her through war, displacement and ultimately, survival,” according to the museum.
After surviving the war, Miller was a linguist for the CIA and the NSA and moved to Tampa, where she “became a dedicated volunteer at the Florida Holocaust Museum, sharing her story with students and visitors,” the museum states.
The museum also interviewed four survivors for 10 hours a day, daily for a week, to create interactive displays, in which visitors can pose questions to the survivors and they “answer” from among the 1,000 questions that museum staff asked them. The technology is created to recognize keywords in the question and match them up with an appropriate answer.
“That’s the closest you can get to talking to a survivor,” Szczepinska told JNS.
Other metaphorical “dialogs” emerge in the collection, like an image of Anne Frank in school in Amsterdam in 1940 (displayed alongside one of Albert Einstein riding a bicycle in Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1933) directly across from another image of Frank, with her father Otto, mother Edith and sister Margot in Basel, Switzerland, in 1941.
One fortuitous connection emerged from the way the designers arranged materials, according to Szczepinska. “We had no way of knowing these pictures would end up near each other,” she said.
An image of Henryk Ross photographing ghetto residents for identity cards for the statistics department at the Lodz ghetto, around
1941, shows him positioning large groups on a platform that he built. By photographing many residents at once—and then cropping the negatives into individual portraits—he saved film that the Nazis assigned him. He used the leftover film to secretly capture pictures of the ghetto.
Near the image of Ross photographing is an image of a Lodz ghetto work permit for Ferka Herman, who wove straw overboots for German soldiers to wear over their leather boots for warmth. The picture shows Ross’s white platform behind Herman and a cropped arm of another person. This image was one of the ones that Ross used to save film, Szczepinska said.
Local angles also emerge in the museum’s temporary exhibit “I’ll Have What She’s Having: The Jewish Deli,” curated by the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.
Stillman learned that the exhibit was planned when he applied to be the museum’s CEO and director, he told JNS. He asked why a Holocaust museum would show such an exhibit.
“It was explained to me, and I’m learning as I go, that the cuisine of American Jewish delis in fact very much hearkens back to the cuisine that the Jews in central and eastern Europe from before the Holocaust were accustomed to eating,” he said. “So it was familiar to them, and we have survivors and others from our local Jewish community who are connected to Jewish delis.”
Among the additions that the museum placed in the show — with permission from Skirball — in a section titled “A local taste” are a shirt from Jo-El’s Kosher Deli, in St. Petersburg, and a booklet to track monthly dues to the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America issued to Sam Lefkowitz, a Berlin native and champion boxer who survived a brief imprisonment in a concentration camp after Kristallnacht. He fled to the United States via Shanghai.
The section also includes soda bottles, soap, a wall calendar, a blank receipt and meat counter number 38 from Katz Grocery, a local Jewish-owned establishment in a “historically segregated and predominantly black neighborhood” of St. Petersburg. Abe Katz, who took the store over after his father’s death, “was known locally for helping his customers in need,” per a wall label, “including cashing welfare checks, loaning money, providing goods to those who couldn’t pay and teaching kids how to drive.”
He and his wife Bunnie and their daughter Sandy ran the store until 1987, “when the business was demolished to make way for Tropicana Field,” home of the Tampa Bay Rays, per the label. “Abe didn’t let his business go easily, though, fighting for two years to keep his store open for the sake of his customers.”
‘Lessons for today’
JNS asked Stillman and Szczepinska how the museum addressed Jew-hatred today and how it
The Elie Wiesel collection at the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla. Menachem Wecker
would respond if, say, a young person on a tour asked a museum guide about allegations that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza.
“We are a non-political organization,” Stillman said. “Because we have a clear mission and purpose, which is to honor the memory and to teach of the Holocaust, people come to this museum and they hopefully leave this museum with a deeper understanding of what were the root causes of the Holocaust, what occurred in the Holocaust, what has occurred since the Holocaust and then be better educated and better able and better informed to be able to apply those lessons to understanding both antisemitism and other forms of hatred and bigotry.”
In the exhibition state devoted to Wiesel, the museum plans to “definitely include” that he was a staunch Zionist, according to Stillman, “so people can come to understand what his perspective was on Israel and Zionism and how he viewed it.”
The core exhibit on the museum’s floor includes a “lessons for today” display, which contains entrance doors to a doctor’s office with one reception area marked for “white” and the other for “colored” people.
A panel on “modern antisemitism,” with a photo that Szczepinska took at a memorial at the site of the Nova festival, which Hamas attacked on Oct. 7, addresses the violent attacks against Jews glob-
ally, which have been “on the rise in the second decade of the 21st century.” The panel notes the 11 Jewish worshippers killed in the attack at the Pittsburgh synagogue Tree of Life “by a follower of antisemitic conspiracy theories.”
It states that Oct. 7 was “the largest mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust,” which was carried out by “Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist organization, and other Palestinian terrorist groups.” It states that more than 1,200 people — including 45 US citizens — were murdered, and “some victims were also subjected to sexual violence.”
“After Oct. 7, antisemitic incidents have skyrocketed in the United States and around the world,” it adds. “The number of incidents on college and university campuses was 84% higher than in 2023 and increased more than in any other location.”
The label also names Israeli embassy staffers Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, who were murdered in an antisemitic attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington on May 21, and the “antisemitic terror attack” less than two weeks later in Boulder, Colo., in which people were injured including an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor, Barbara Steinmetz, and Karen Diamond, 82, died from severe injuries from the attack.
“Since the Holocaust, including to the present day and will be going on, unfortunately, probably forever as part of the human condi-
tion, we know that there are acts of antisemitism which occur,” Stillman said. “We know there are other forms of bigotry, hatred and violence toward other people simply because they’re different.”
“Whether it’s different by religion, different by race, different by ethnicity, there’s unfortunately no end to the way in which humanity and people can treat each other in these ways,” he said. “While we are not a museum devoted to Oct. 7 and not specifically a museum about antisemitism, I’ve said very much that I consider Holocaust education to be a very important tool in fighting antisemitism.”
Visitors “will understand more about antisemitism and hopefully how to react and respond to it by learning about the Holocaust through the experience of this museum,” he said.
Szczepinska told JNS that the museum will receive questions about whether Israel is committing “genocide.” She said it also received antisemitic messages prior to Oct. 7.
“We are not a political organization, so we don’t make any comments about politics,” she said. JNS pressed what a museum docent would say if a student asked directly about Israel committing “genocide.”
“We do not engage in discussions about politics, but we do engage in history, so we refocus,” she said, noting that the museum has issued statements since Oct. 7. JNS asked directly if the museum would tell someone posing the question that Israel isn’t guilty of genocide or would it say that it doesn’t talk politics. “I think both,” she said. “We believe in facts, so we would absolutely share the information.”
The panel on present-day antisemitism is necessary “to make sure that visitors understand that antisemitism is not something just of the past, that it’s actually happening right now,” she said. “These are facts.”
Right before the panels were sent to production, she was able to add the names of the more recent victims. “There will be a QR code,” she told JNS. “Because sadly this continues.”
A typewriter that Bessie Martin, a secretary to judge Harold Sebring, used at the Nuremberg Trials, on view at the Florida Holocaust Museum.
WINE AND DINE
Dining under the stars and sky during Sukkot
EthEL G. hoFMAN
During Sukkot, the weeklong “Festival of Booths,” we celebrate a thanksgiving while eating in the sukkah, often with family and friends. Especially in cities, where not everyone can have their own sukkah due to rules of apartment dwelling, construction, weather-related issues and other practical considerations, the next best thing is visiting someone else’s. Don’t go empty-handed, though! Bring a dish that highlights fall produce, such as squash and pumpkin, pomegranates and apples. Think: Cook and carry out.
To dining among the sky and stars … Chag Sameach!
Sukkot-to-Go Tips: •Use foil pans for dishes to be reheated in the host’s oven. •Use a thermos for hot soups or a tightly lidded plastic container for cold soups. •For Chicken Pastilla or other pastry dishes, use an ovenproof pie dish that is easy to warm in the host’s oven. Do not microwave a pastry dish, though; it toughens the pastry. Cook it in a foil pan and serve at room temperature.
Pear and Plum Bisque (Dairy)
Serves 4 to 6
Cook’s Tips: •Italian plums are a late-season stone fruit. They have a slightly tart flavor and a distinct egg-like shape with a purple skin and a powdery white or blue coating. •No need to peel the pears.
Ingredients:
• 8 to 10 Italian plums, stones removed and quartered
• 2 ripe pears, cored and cut into 1/2inch chunks
• 3/4 to 1 cup apple juice
• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
• 2 Tbsp. honey or to taste
• Pinch nutmeg
Directions: Place plums, pears, 3/4 cup apple juice, yo-
gurt, nutmeg and honey in a blender or food processor. (You may have to work it in two batches. Blend until plums and pears are finely chopped and the mixture is smooth. Adjust honey to taste. If too thick, add more apple juice to desired consistency. Serve chilled.
Chicken Pastilla (Meat)
Serves 6 Cook’s Tips: •Substitute cooked brisket for chicken.
Ingredients:
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
• 4 cups shredded, cooked chicken
• 2 tsp. bottled minced garlic
• 2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
• 2 tsp. cumin
• 1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. allspice
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 cup snipped parsley, loosely packed
Lamb Stew with Fall Vegetables (Meat)
Serves 6 to 8
Cook’s Tips: •May substitute chicken or beef for lamb. •Trim the fat from the lamb.
Ingredients:
• 2 lb. boneless lamb shoulder, cut into 1-1/2-inch pieces
• 1 Tbsp. sweet paprika
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 large onion, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1-1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1-1/2 tsp. lemon-pepper seasoning
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 (14 1/2 oz) can diced tomatoes
• 2 red bell peppers, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch wide strips
• 2 yellow zucchini, sliced 1/2 inch thick
Directions:
Dust lamb with paprika. In a large pot, heat oil over medium-high heat.
Add the lamb, cook, turning, until nicely browned all over, about 7 to 8 minutes. Reduce heat to medium.
• 1/4 cup snipped cilantro, loosely packed
• 3/4 cup almonds, finely chopped (optional)
• About 1-1/4 cups chicken stock, divided
• 3 eggs
• 1 sheet prepared puff pastry
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat the olive oil in a large deep pot over medium heat. Add the onion. Lower the heat and cook until the onion is softened.
Add the chicken, garlic, pepper, cumin, cinnamon, allspice, sugar, parsley, cilantro and almonds. Add 3/4 cup of chicken stock or just enough to moisten. Set aside.
Whisk the eggs with 1/4 cup of chicken stock. Pour into a small skillet and scramble softly over low heat. The mixture should be soft and creamy. Stir into the chicken mixture to thoroughly combine. Spoon into a 10-inch pie dish.
Place the puff pastry on top, trimming to fit. Cut three 1 - inch slits on top. Bake in a preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until pastry is puffed and golden.
Serve warm.
Add the onion. Cook for 5 minutes or until the onion is translucent.
Sprinkle with thyme, lemon pepper and salt. Stir in the tomatoes and 1/3 cup hot water. Bring to a simmer. Cover and cook for 1 hour. Add the bell peppers and zucchini. Cook for 30 minutes longer or until the lamb is tender. Serve hot.
Stuffed Peppers, IsraeliStyle (Meat)
Serves 8
Cook’s Tips: •May be cooked in crockpot, 4 to 5 hours at low heat. •Use 1 cup store-bought diced onion. •The sliced bottoms of peppers may be chopped and added to the meat mixture. •Use 1 teaspoon each of cumin and coriander for Shawarma Seasoning.
Ingredients:
• 2 large red bell peppers
• 2 large yellow bell peppers
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1-1/2 lb. lean ground beef
• 1 large onion, chopped
Continued on page 13
Berry Compote Crumble.
Ethel G. Hofman
• 1 cup cooked couscous
• 2 tsp. Shawarma Seasoning
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
• 1-3/4 cans (15 oz each) tomato sauce, divided
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Slice off the tops of the peppers. Remove seeds and membranes and rinse. If needed, cut a thin slice from the bottom of each pepper so they stand upright.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over mediumhigh heat. Add the ground beef and onion and cook, stirring, until no pink remains in the beef. Drain off any fat.
Add the couscous, seasoning, salt and pepper. Mix well.
Pour 1 can of tomato sauce into a 9-inch square baking dish. Stuff peppers with the meat mixture.
Place stuffed peppers upright in the baking dish. Pour the remaining tomato sauce over. Cover tightly with foil.
Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until the peppers are tender. Remove foil.
Spoon remaining sauce over and sprinkle with parsley. Cut in half to serve.
Cochin Dessert Couscous (Pareve)
Serves 6 to 8
Cook’s Tips: •May use Israeli couscous, which is larger and rounder than the traditional couscous. It’s also known as pearl couscous.
•Toss the bananas in a little orange or lemon juice to avoid browning.
Ingredients:
• 2 packages (approximately 5.8 oz each) couscous
• 2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. cardamom
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/4 cup brown sugar or to taste
• 2 firm bananas, coarsely chopped
• 1 (15-oz) can pineapple chunks, drained
• 2 ripe mangos, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1/4 cup chopped pistachios
• Nondairy whipped topping (optional)
Directions:
Cook couscous according to package directions. Transfer to a large bowl. Stir in the lime juice, spices and brown sugar to taste. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork. Fold in the bananas, pineapple and mango. Sprinkle with pistachios.
Serve warm. Top with nondairy whipped topping, if desired.
Berry Compote Crumble (Pareve)
Serves 4 to 6
Cook’s Tips: •Use fresh berries, but frozen ones are also flavorful and convenient. •Any preserves may be substituted for marmalade.
Ingredients:
• 1/4 cup sweet red wine
• 1/2 cup orange marmalade
• 2 cups frozen blueberries
• 2 cups frozen strawberries
• 1 cup frozen raspberries
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch, mixed with 3 Tbsp. of water
• 1/2 roll thawed phyllo dough, cut into 1/2-inch slices
• 1 Tbsp. margarine, melted
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a medium pot, combine the wine and marmalade. Warm over medium heat until the marmalade is melted.
Stir in frozen berries, cinnamon and nutmeg. Warm over medium heat until the berries are thawed, about 8 to 10 minutes.
Stir in the cornstarch mixture and bring to a boil. Cook for 1 minute, stirring often. Transfer to a 10-inch ovenproof or foil pie dish.
Cool in the fridge for 10 minutes. Crumble the phyllo dough on top to cover. Drizzle with melted margarine.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes or until phyllo is nicely browned.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Red and yellow bell peppers.
Hans, Pixabay
Pear and Plum Bisque.
Ethel G. Hofman
Sukkot: Harvest festival as autumn arrives
eTheL G. hoFMan
We are twice blessed. Sukkot, the harvest festival — and sometimes called the “Jewish Thanksgiving” — takes place this year at the beginning of October, and just one month later, Thanksgiving in America is a holiday that many Jewish families have made their own, celebrating their good fortune to live in freedom and peace in the United States.
During the week-long observance of Sukkot, an abundance of late-summer and early-fall produce can be found at our favorite supermarkets, as well as at farm stands and farmer’s markets (and yes, all things “pumpkin spice” have arrived!).
Now is the great time to buy organic, as tomatoes, corn, squash — everything has to go before the coming of the cold weather.
Feasting in the sukkah is the keynote throughout the week, with some Jewish families eating all meals in these temporary huts. There is a real emphasis on food, family, friends and the great outdoors. Guests (ushpizin) for all these meals are welcome and encouraged.
If you have time, desire and help, prepare ingredients the old-fashioned way: peel, core, chop and dice. Otherwise, many of the items, which stress fruits and vegetables, come prepared for you, with much of the grueling labor already been done. Some dishes can be made ahead of time.
All recipes serve four to six people.
Golden Vegetable Vichyssoise(Dairy)
Ingredients:
• 2 yellow bell peppers, seeded
• 4 yellow tomatoes, cut up
• 4 to 5 cups vegetable broth
• 2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup frozen chopped onion
• 1/2 tsp. bottled minced garlic
• 1 Tbsp. rice vinegar
• 6 basil leaves, shredded
• Pinch of dried thyme
• 3/4 cup plain yogurt
Directions:
In the food processor, pulse the peppers and tomatoes until coarsely chopped.
In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat.
Stir in the peppers, tomatoes, 4 cups vegetable broth and all the remaining ingredients, except the yogurt. Simmer for 5 minutes until vegetables are softened. Cool slightly.
Whisk in the yogurt. If too thick, add a little more broth.
Serve chilled or warm.
Tip: Use scissors to shred fresh herbs.
Tomato Bread Salad (Pareve)
My first meal in Tunisia, then I was hooked!
Ingredients:
• 2 beefsteak tomatoes, cut in 1/2-inch chunks
• 1 medium yellow tomato, cut in 1/2inch chunks
• 1/2 cucumber, peeled and cut in 1/2inch chunks
• 1 green zucchini, cut in 1/2-inch chunks
• 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup or more snipped mint
• 1-1/2 to 2 cups pareve bread, torn in 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/3 cup bottled vinaigrette dressing
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Directions:
Place all ingredients except dressing, salt and pepper in a large bowl.
Toss to mix. Pour dressing over. Toss again.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Tip: A ripe red tomato has a deep color and gives just a tiny bit when squeezed gently. Keep in a cool, dark place (not the fridge) and use within two to three days.
Israeli Salad, ‘My Style’ (Pareve)
A chunky vegetable-herb salad
Ingredients:
• 1/2 cucumber, unpeeled and cut in 1/2 to1 inch chunks.
• 2 to 3 ripe tomatoes, each cut in 12 wedges
• 1 red or orange bell pepper, seeded and cut in 1/2-inch chunks
• 1/2 cup corn kernels
• 1 cup fresh basil leaves, lightly packed and shredded
• 1 cup fresh dill, lightly packed and shredded
• 1/2 green onion, thinly sliced
• 3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Directions:
Place all ingredients in a bowl. Toss to mix and season to taste. Serve chilled.
Tip: Squeeze juice from 5 or 6 lemons. Pour into six sections on an ice-cube tray and freeze. Remove a cube as needed. Heat in a small glass dish in the microwave to thaw, about 18 seconds.
Caramelized Parsnips and Carrots (Pareve)
Parsnips and carrots with their high sugar content caramelize easily.
Ingredients:
• 5 parsnips (about 1-1/2 pounds), peeled and sliced about 3/4-inch thick
• 12 baby carrots, cut in half lengthwise
• 1-1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 4 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. honey, warmed
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Directions:
Preheat oven to 425. Spray a rimmed baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Place parsnips and carrots on prepared baking sheet. Pour the olive oil and honey over. Sprinkle with thyme,
Add 1-3/4 cups water and bring to boil. Stir in the rice and spice sack (included in pilaf mix). Return to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low.
Simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, until liquid is almost absorbed. Stir in lemon and parsley. Fluff with a fork. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
Tip: Sliced fresh or frozen leeks are available in the supermarket. If using unsliced fresh, pull apart the leaves and rinse thoroughly in cold water. Use the white part only.
Note: May be made the day before, covered and refrigerated. Zap in microwave to heat through.
Sweet-and-Sour Salmon Salad (Pareve)
Ingredients:
• 1/2 cucumber, peeled and thickly sliced
• 1/2 green bell pepper, seeded, cut in chunks
• 1/2 yellow or orange bell pepper, seeded, cut in chunks
• 1/2 apple, unpeeled, in chunks
• 1 Tbsp. sweet pickle relish
• 12 oz fresh-cooked salmon, flaked with a fork*
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup rice vinegar
• Freshly ground pepper to taste
salt and pepper.
Toss vegetables to coat. Spread in one layer. Drizzle 2 tablespoons water over top.
Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, turn with a spatula and bake 15 to 20 minutes longer, or until tender and golden.
Tips: Buy peeled baby carrots. Line a baking sheet before spraying with aluminum foil for easy clean-up.
Spicy Mashed Pumpkin (Pareve)
Ingredients:
• 2 lbs. diced pumpkin or squash
• 1/2 cup corn kernels
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 2 tsp. powdered cumin
• 2 tsp. za’atar (spice)
• 2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• freshly ground pepper
• pumpkin seeds to garnish (optional)
Directions:
Place pumpkin or squash in shallow microwave dish. Drizzle with 3 tablespoons water. Cover loosely with wax paper. Cook on High for 8 to 10 minutes or until soft. Test with a sharp bladed knife. It should slip out easily.
Drain off any liquid. Mash with a fork. No need to be smooth.
Add the corn, garlic, cumin, za’atar and oil. Mix well. Season to taste with pepper.
Serve at room temperature with pumpkin seeds scattered over top (optional).
Tip: Or buy 2 packages frozen mashed squash. Microwave according to package directions. Then proceed as above.
To cook pumpkin from scratch: Cut in half, remove seeds and place cut side down in microwave safe dish. Pierce several times with sharp knife. Pour about 1/3 cup water around. Cover and cook on High for about 12 minutes or until tender. Peel and use as above
Leek-Lemon Pilaf (Pareve)
Ingredients:
• 1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• 1-1/2 cups sliced leeks
• 1 package (6 ounces) rice pilaf, such Near East
• 1/4 lemon, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup snipped parsley
Directions:
In a medium saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the leeks and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes.
Directions: Place cucumber, bell peppers and apple in food processor. Pulse a couple of times to chop coarsely. Transfer to a bowl.
Add the pickle relish, salmon and enough rice vinegar to moisten. Toss to mix.
Season with pepper to taste. Serve chilled. May be made ahead of time.
Tip: To serve, heap salad in a bowl. Arrange thinly sliced cucumbers around the sides.
*May use canned pink or red salmon, instead of fresh-cooked.
Wine-Steeped Figs (Pareve)
Ingredients:
• 3/4 cup red wine, such as Merlot
• 3 Tbsp. frozen orange-juice concentrate
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 8 fresh figs
• 1 blood orange or seedless orange, cut in wedges
Directions: In a medium saucepan, mix the wine, frozen orange-juice concentrate, honey and vanilla extract.
Warm over medium heat, stirring to blend. Reduce to a simmer.
Prick each fig 2 to 3 times with a fork. Place in saucepan, spooning wine mixture over top. Simmer for 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a serving bowl.
Arrange orange slices around. Serve chilled.
Tip: Any leftover red wine may be used, even flat champagne No figs? Substitute cubed cantaloupe or honeydew melon
For a dairy meal: Top figs with a scoop of chocolate-studded ricotta (recipe below). Or sprinkle with crunchy granola.
Chocolate-Studded Ricotta (Dairy)
Ingredients:
• 1 cup whole-milk or part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1 to2 Tbsp. confectioner’s sugar or to taste
• 1/4 cup miniature chocolate chips or chopped semisweet chocolate
Directions:
In a small bowl, combine all ingredients. Serve chilled.
May be made ahead of time.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Honest repor ting and Torah-true.
Jewish Star Torah columnists: Rabbi Benny Berlin, spiritual leader of BACH Jewish Center in Long Beach; Rabbi Avi Billet of Anshei Chesed, Boynton Beach, FL, mohel and Five Towns native; Rabbi Binny Freedman, rosh yeshiva of Orayta, Jerusalem; Dr. Alan A. Mazurek, former ZOA chair, retired neurologist, living in Great Neck, Jerusalem and Florida.
Contributing writers: Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks zt”l, former chief rabbi of United Hebrew Congregations of British Commonwealth; Rabbi Yossy Goldman, president South African Rabbinical Association; Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, OU executive VP emeritus.
To submit commentary, inquire at: Editor@TheJewishStar.com.
Contact our columnists at: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com.
תבש לש
Fri Oct 3 / 11 Tishrei
Ha’Azinu
Five Towns: 6:16 • Havdalah: 7:23
Scarsdale: 6:16 • Havdalah: 7:14
Mon Oct 6 / 14 Tishrei
Erev Sukkot
Five Towns candles: 6:11 • Havdalah Wed: 7:07
Scarsdale candles: 6:11 • Havdalah Wed: 7:17
Fri Oct 10 / 18 Tishrei
Shabbat Chol Hamoed Sukkot
Five Towns candles: 6:04 • Havdalah:7:12
Scarsdale candles: 6:04 • Havdalah: 7:03
Mon Oct 13 21 Tishrei
Monday is Hoshana Rabah
Five Towns candles: 6 • Havdalah Wed: 6:09
Scarsdale candles: 6 • Havdalah Wed: 6:56
Five Towns Candlelighting: From the White Shul, Far Rockaway, NY
Scarsdale Candlelighting: From the Young Israel of Scarsdale, Scarsdale, NY
Mash-up: Torah, transgressors, togetherness
We all know that there is something special about Yom Kippur. The historic, traditional melody of Kol Nidrei gives everyone a somber, sacred feeling. Even if we can’t quite explain it, it just does, in every synagogue around the world.
And then, there is also the short preamble we recite just before Kol Nidrei: With the sanction of the Almighty, and with the sanction of the congregation, by authority of the Heavenly Court, and by authority of the earthly court, we hereby grant permission to pray with those who have transgressed.
Some explain that this goes back to the dark days of the Spanish Inquisition, when Jews were forbidden to practice Judaism on pain of death. Many Marranos, or secretly practicing Jews, proclaimed publicly that they had embraced the dominant faith while still practicing their own Jewish faith in secret, clandestinely. Indeed, many were caught and burned at the stake.
Some understand, too, that this is when Kol Nidrei became so powerful. Because those Jews were renouncing the vows, oaths and promises they had made against their own faith, and they were now coming back to serve the one and only G-d of Israel.
And so, we recite a special prayer to welcome these Jews who were overtly Christian and covertly Jewish back to the fold. These “transgressors” were welcomed by the congregation.
It’s as if at the very beginning of Yom Kippur, even before Kol Nidrei, that we declare publicly: All agree that on this day, there are no differences between Jews; we all stand united, together as one, in the presence of G-d.
Today, too, an important theme of Yom Kippur is Jewish unity.
Now, a synagogue is a “holy congregation.” People sometimes don’t understand why congregations are not more particular about whom they allow to join. Why should someone who has been convicted of embezzlement, or who is known to have been unfaithful to his or her spouse, be accepted into a community that claims to be striving for holiness?
Believe it or not, some argue that people who do not strictly follow the laws of kashrut or who do not strictly embrace the laws of Shabbat should not have a place in the sanctuary. And for many people, the big question is: Why should such people be given honors in shul? And even be called to the Torah.
The answer can be found in the humble declaration that it is permitted, indeed expected, that we pray together, even with “transgressors.”
I don’t know the author, but someone once said it as follows:
Perfection is not a prerequisite of joining a holy community. We are all imperfect, and the synagogue, therefore, is at best a collection of people who are “works in progress.” What unites the faithful is not what they have accomplished, but what they are striving to accomplish. We join together on Yom Kippur in recognition of the fact that we want to be better, that we need to be better, and that we understand that, in accepting imperfections in others, we can hope that they will, in turn, accept and forgive our own imperfections.
But the basic premise is that “a Jew is a Jew, is a Jew, is a Jew.” Ad infinitum!
Ican share so many stories that reflect this theme. I am sure that each one of you can as well.
Here’s but one example. My friend’s father once ran into a synagogue that was on fire to rescue the Sifrei Torahs from the Holy Ark. The firemen warned him not to, but he ran in anyway. Now this fellow was not a religious man by any stretch of the imagination, but for him, saving the Torah scrolls was not up for negotiation. It just had to be done. He put his own life in real danger to save our precious, most sacred religious objects. Is that not “religious?”
We must never become complacent. We must all keep growing, but let no one feel that they are not contributing to G-d and our faith, regardless.
This is a message that every religious Jew needs to hear. Because all too often, many not-yet-religious Jews are put off the faith by those who are intolerant and judgmental.
Have you watched the Israeli TV show “Shtisel?” I did not. But I hear a lot about it from many people. Did the religious father irritate you sometimes? He was very frum, right? Still, I got the impression that maybe he wasn’t so tolerant, fair or reasonable.
Or what about those who throw stones in Jerusalem on Shabbat at anyone they catch driving on the holy day? You know, there was once a demonstration against that sort of behavior. And one of the placards held by the demonstrators read, “Get Jerusalem out of the stone age!”
Would you describe these types of Jews as “religious?” Are they good examples of how religious Jews should act or behave? Are they
Anytime, anywhere: A Jew is a Jew is a Jew…
loyal ambassadors for our faith?
Now, trust me, I’m not here to knock anyone, but just to make us pause and ponder, to stop and think, do we really know who is “religious” and who is a “transgressor?”
The Lubavitcher Rebbe taught that we do not know who is “religious” and that we should not judge people, neither on the right nor on the left, or anywhere in between.
I end with this story, which shows how people whom we normally do not associate with being “religious,” still have strong Jewish feelings and that we should appreciate that this is the true inner identity and reality for every single Jew, whether it is superficially obvious or not.
A man in Jerusalem was saying the Mourner’s Kaddish for his mother. As you know, we say Kaddish for 11 months after the death of a parent, but one can only say it when praying with a minyan
Every day, the man would say Kaddish for his mother. He never missed a single service. Then one night, he returned home late from a function. It was one in the morning. He collapsed into bed, exhausted. As soon as he turned out the light, he bolted upright as he realized he had forgotten to go to synagogue for the evening prayer.
With tremendous effort, he dragged himself out of bed and started to dress, but where was he going to find a minyan at this hour?
No problem. As anyone who lives in Jerusalem can tell you, day or night, you can always find a minyan at the Shteibelach, a building with many small synagogue rooms in the Zichron Moshe neighborhood. People gather in one of the rooms, and as soon as 10 men
show up, they start praying. It’s like a minyan factory there. You can show up at pretty much any time of day and find a service about to begin.
But not at 1 a.m. So the man took out his cell phone and dialed the number for a taxi company. “Hello! Can you please send nine taxis to the Shteibelach in Zichron Moshe?”
“Adoni (‘sir’), it’s 1 in the morning! You think I have nine taxis? What do you think I am, a magician? … I only have five.”
“OK, so send five.”
He dialed another taxi company’s number. “Hello, please send five taxis to Zichron Moshe…”
“Atah meshugah? Are you crazy? I only have four.”
“OK, so send four.”
Within 20 minutes, there was a line of nine taxicabs parked neatly outside the shteiblach
“Adoni,” said one of the drivers, “why do you need nine taxis? There’s no wedding here, no bar mitzvah, nothing.”
“Listen to me, chevra. I want you all to turn your meters on and come inside with me. We are going to pray together the evening prayer, Ma’ariv. I will pay each of you just as if you’re giving me a lift.”
These taxi drivers were not observant Jews. Some of them had not been inside a synagogue since their bar mitzvah. Some had a kipah in their glove compartment, which they hadn’t used in years; yet they dusted them off, put them on their heads as they went inside the synagogue. Others wore baseball caps. Although they were fluent in Hebrew, these cab drivers had little idea of how to dav-
See Goldman on page 22
Rabbi YoSSY
Goldman
S. African Rabbinical Assn.
Looking to Torah to find the genesis of justice
There are words that change the world, none more so than two sentences that appear in the first chapter of the Torah:
Then G-d said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So G-d created mankind in His own image, in the image of G-d He created them;
male and female He created them. Gen. 1:26-27
The idea set forth here is perhaps the most transformative in the entire history of moral and political thought. It is the basis of the civilisation of the West with its unique emphasis on the individual and on equality.
It lies behind Thomas Jefferson’s words in the American Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal [and] are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights…”
These truths are anything but self-evident. They would have been regarded as absurd by Plato who held that society should be based on the myth that humans are divided into people of gold, silver and bronze and it is this that determines their status in society. Aristotle believed
that some are born to rule and others to be ruled. Revolutionary utterances do not work their magic overnight. As Rambam explained in The Guide for the Perplexed, it takes people a long time to change. The Torah functions in the medium of time. It did not abolish slavery, but it set in motion a series of developments — most notably Shabbat, when all hierarchies of power were suspended and slaves had a day a week of freedom — that were bound to lead to its abolition in the course of time.
People are slow to understand the implications of ideas. Thomas Jefferson, champion of equality, was a slave-owner. Slavery was not abolished in the United States until the 1860s and not without a civil war. And as Abraham Lincoln pointed out, slavery’s defenders as well as its critics cited the Bible in their cause. But eventually people change, and they do so because of the power of ideas planted long ago in the Western mind.
What exactly is being said in the first chapter of the Torah?
The first thing to note is that it is not a standalone utterance, an account without a context. It is in fact a polemic, a protest, against a certain way of understanding the universe.
See Sacks on page 22
Simchas Beis HaSho’eivah: Joy in the process
Have you ever had a nagging feeling that you just want to move on to the next stage? In grade school you cannot wait to get to high school. In high school you are already dreaming of Israel. Once you are in Israel, you want to start college. In college, you cannot wait to finish and move on. Then it is marriage, then children, then waiting for the children to grow up, and so on.
Life begins to feel like a race from one milestone to the next, always climbing but never arriving. The finish line keeps moving forward. And the question is: can we learn to find joy not only in the destination, but in the process itself?
This question is at the very heart of Sukkot. In the Beis HaMikdash there was a unique Avodah known as Nisuch Ha’Mayim, the water libation. Each day water was drawn, placed into a golden vessel, and poured on the Mizbeach. Yet astonishingly, the drawing of the water, not the pouring, became the catalyst for one of the greatest celebrations in all of Jewish life. Simchas Beis HaSho’eivah was marked by music, dancing, and even the
As I write this column in Jerusalem, it is the Fast of Gedalia, having just completed our yoma arichta, one long day of Rosh Hashana (masechet Sukka 45b). The Fast of Gedalia is welcomed by many as an opportunity to shed a few of the excess pounds heaped on at the seemingly endless meals during Rosh Hashana. Explain to a non-Jew in America that a twoday yom tov is like a four-day Thanksgiving — with four major meals in just two days. And that doesn’t count the kiddush after davening! Then, after the Yom Kippur fast, there’s the Festival of
Eating, otherwise known as the Festival of Sukkot, followed by Shmini Atzeret/Simchat Torah.
Talk about feast or famine! We are a people of extremes.
It is strange that we eat at all on Rosh Hashana. This is the Judgment Day; we should be so nervous and anxious that we would not want to eat. And yet after spending several hours in shul, asking G-d to be charitable in His examination of our own lives, we feel comfortable enough to go home, or to friends or family, kick off our shoes and plunk down for delicious, multicourse meals. Is this proper?
As always, the answer has its origins in the Tanach.
In sefer Nechemiah, years after the destruction of the first Temple, as the walls of Jerusalem were being rebuilt, the people gathered as “one man” “before the water-gate.” At the
greatest sages juggling fire before the people. The Mishnah makes a striking claim: Mi Shelo Ra’ah Simchas Beis Hasho’eivah, Lo Ra’ah Simchah Mi-Yamav. One who never witnessed this celebration has never experienced true joy in their life. Think about that. Never experienced joy. What could possibly make this celebration so unique, so surpassing all others?
An even deeper question sharpens the mystery. The Mishnah refers to the entire celebration by the name Chalil, the flute. But the flute was only one instrument among many. Harps, lyres, and cymbals all played their part. Why did the flute alone give its name to the Simchah?
Life
is drawing water.
The Rambam and the Bartenura explain that the flute was a piercing instrument, able to rise above the softer sounds like the harp. It was, in a sense, the leading voice of the orchestra. But why should the flute, of all instruments, symbolize the essence of the joy?
The answer lies in the very walls of the sukkah itself. Rashi tells us that the Schach must be made from Psoles Goren V’yekev, the byproducts of the threshing floor and the winepress: straw, branches, and chaff.
See Berlin on page 23
water-gate, which was situated near the Gihon spring, and the past and future Holy Temple complex, they called to Ezra Hasofer, to bring forth the “sefer Torat Moshe asher tzivah Hashem et Yisrael (the Torah scroll of Moses that Hashem had commanded Israel).”
What day was that? It was Rosh Hashana, “b’yom echad la’chodesh hashvii (the first day of the seventh month).”
Ezra read the Torah to them aloud, but as the people heard the words of Hashem and realized how they had sinned and did not fulfill the Torah as a Hashem had commanded, they began
What an irony. I always knew that the first commentary on a Sukkot machzor describing the rather sharp medieval reaction to a British-based Simchat Torah service would come from the pen of a former British chief rabbi, in this case, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. This strange chapter in Jewish religious history, and Rabbi Sacks’ interest in it, was foreshadowed last month in an essay by the rabbi on his website entitled, “The Deep Power of Joy,” wherein he relates to us the following:
“On 14th of October 1663 the famous diarist Samuel Pepys paid a visit to the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in Creechurch Lane in the city of London. Jews had been exiled from England in 1290 but in 1656, following an intercession by Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel of Amsterdam, Oliver Cromwell concluded that there was in fact no legal barrier to Jews living there. So for the first time since the 13th century Jews were able to worship openly.”
In the introduction to his liturgical commentary in the Koren Sukkot Machzor, Rabbi Sacks relates the details — quoted in archaic medieval worded English, from Pepys’ diary — of a visit that Pepys made to this synagogue on Simchat Torah to witness firsthand a Jewish worship service. Pepys’ impressions are quoted at length in the machzor and, separately, in an essay by his-
torian Dr. Eliezer Segal entitled, “Mr. Pepys’ Outrageous Outing.”
After detailing the holiday rituals he observed, Pepys’ sympathies undergo a decidedly weird deterioration and he writes:
But, L-rd! To see the disorder, laughing, sporting, and no attention, but confusion in all their service, more like brutes than people knowing the true G-d, would make a man forswear ever seeing them more and indeed I never did see so much, or could
to weep. But Nechemia told them to cease their mourning and their tears; “rather, go eat and enjoy good food, and drink sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to G-d.” And that is exactly what the people did.
“They went to eat and drink and send gifts (u’lishloach manot) and celebrate with great joy.” Instead of a day of that began with trepidation and fear, mourning and sadness, that Rosh Hashan was a day of happiness and gladness, joy and celebration.
It is interesting to note that it was a celebration in the same location as the once and future Simchat Beit HaShoeva on Sukkot, Zman Simchatenu (the Time of our Joy), the celebration of the water-drawing for the water libations for the Temple — which the Talmud in masechet Suk-
See Mazurek on page 23
Confoundingly, we are a people of dual extremes For Samuel Pepys, a
have imagined there had been any religion in the whole world so absurdly performed as this.
This quote teaches us a sober and somber lesson concerning the raucous behavior that we have come to witness on this feast.
Rabbi Sacks continues his teachings by detailing for us the historical background to Simchat Torah, including the logic behind the holiday, sans some of the craziness that has been prevalent from medieval time unto our own day.
Rabbi Sacks performed a valued service, lending an air of long overdue sobriety to this often misunderstood festival. Both Rabbi Sack’s work, and that of Dr. Segal, deserve your attention and study.
Another feature in Rabbi Sack’s Sukkot machzor is his excellent introduction and com-
See Gerber on page 23
Samuel Pepys.
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OPINION COLUMNISTS
Mitchell Bard, foreign policy analyst, authority on USIsreal relations; Ben Cohen, senior analyst, Foundation for Defense of Democracies; Stephen Flatow, president, Religious Zionists of America-Mizrachi and father of Alisa Flatow, murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995; Yisrael Medad, Americanborn Israeli journalist and political commentator; Rafael Medoff, founding director of David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies; Fiamma Nirenstein, Italian-Israeli journalist, author of 13 books, leading voice on Israeli affairs, Middle Eastern politics and antisemitism; Melanie Phillips, British journalist; Moshe Phillips, national chairman, Americans for a Safe Israel; Thane Rosenbaum, Distinguished University Professor at Touro University (published by Jewish Journal); Jonathan S. Tobin, editor-in-chief, Jewish News Syndicate.
Mamdani dilemma: Jew-hate as good politics
Was it a sign of growing confidence that his victory in November was inevitable, or merely another indication of the strength of his hatred for the State of Israel and the Jews? Perhaps it’s a bit of both. Either way, it’s clear that Zohran Mamdani feels no need to feint to the center or water down his fervent anti-Zionism.
When the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City promised to have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested the first time he visits Gotham, it was more than a deliberate provocation aimed at offending pro-Israel voters and most Jews. It was also an indication that he truly believes that doubling down on blood libels about “genocide” is good politics in deep-blue New York.
The question is: Do other Democrats, especially those whose constituencies extend beyond the five boroughs, agree with him?
Kathy’s choice
One person who seems to feel that way is Gov. Kathy Hochul, who endorsed Mamdani in a glowing New York Times op-ed published only two days after his empty boast about jailing the Israeli leader, which would be prevented by federal law and possible Republican legislation.
Mamdani didn’t need her endorsement. With or without Hochul’s blessing, he continues to hold a commanding lead of 18.6% over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, his nearest competitor in what was, until Mayor Eric Adams dropped out on Sunday, a four-man race. His opponents may have more combined support than Mamdani (48.4%,
Hochul thinks backing an antisemitic mayoral candidate will help get her re-elected.
including Adams, to 43.4%). But Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa refuse to unite behind a single challenger, Mamdani seems to be coasting to an easy plurality victory.
That means that New Yorkers need to brace themselves for four years of the rule of a Socialist extremist whose single-minded support for Israel’s elimination is not something that he thinks he needs to moderate or downplay.
Like his threat to Netanyahu, his refusal to even distance himself from antisemitic chants about Jewish genocide and terrorism against Jews — “From the river to the sea” and “Globalize the intifada” — indicates the depth of his ideological commitment to cheerleading for Hamas and jihad against the one Jewish state on the planet.
But Hochul, whose power over the city’s budget gives her the ability to play a pivotal role in limiting the harm that Mamdani can do to the city’s economy and the security of its citizens, has higher priorities than whether New York’s Jewish communities feel safe. She’s up for re-election in 2026 and faces a formidable opponent in Rep. Elise Stefanik, the likely Republican nominee for governor, whose national reputation rests in no small part on her zealousness in holding the presidents of elite universities accountable for their toleration and encouragement of antisemitism.
To hold off a challenge from a well-funded challenger like Stefanik, she’s going to need a united Democratic Party and the enthusiastic support of its left-wing activist base.
Stefanik waits in wings
That’s why — after dithering for nearly three months, and under pressure from proIsrael and moderate Democrats to keep her distance from him — Hochul decided that she had more to lose by failing to endorse him than the potential backlash against her for aligning herself with an extremist such as Mamdani.
Not everyone agrees with that judgment, and Stefanik probably celebrated Hochul’s decision. The upstate congresswoman likely intends to spend 2026 linking the governor to an antisemitic Socialist. And considering that the GOP results in the last two statewide elections — in 2022 when Hochul’s Republi-
can challenger Lee Zeldin got nearly 46.7% of the vote and in 2024 when President Donald Trump received 43.3% — were their best showings in 20 years, Stefanik has reason for optimism in a state where no member of her party has won a statewide office since 2002.
National Republicans are also viewing the prospect of Mamdani being mayor as a gift to them in the 2026 midterms and perhaps even the 2028 presidential election, even if it is terrible for New York. The White House surely intends to make Mamdani the poster child for the Democrats’ inability to marginalize woke extremists who have linked them to unpopular positions on crime, illegal immigration, gender ideology and Jew-hatred on college campuses.
Meanwhile, what’s at stake in the Mamdani race is not merely a matter of who will be running New York City and what policies the winner will pursue. Rather, it’s a test of whether antisemitism is political poison, or — for the first time in living memory in the United States, let alone New York — a successful strategy.
From opulist bigots to progressive Jew-haters
Antisemitism is far from unknown in American political history.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, populists in the South and Western states who were embittered by the economic plight of farmers embraced conspiracy theories about Jewish bankers. They did so along with animus for the people who actually ran Wall Street and major US corporations and cartels, such as J.P. Morgan, John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Jay Gould, Cornelius Vanderbilt, E.P. Harriman and other Gilded Age “robber barons” who weren’t Jewish.
The faint echoes of that variant of Jewhatred, which was linked to the racism and anti-Catholic bigotry of the Ku Klux Klan that became a national force in the Democratic Party in the 1910s and 1920s, linger on in the fervid imaginations of both far-right and farleft antisemites. Still, it hasn’t been a serious electoral factor since then.
That’s especially true with respect to New York, where the Jewish vote has been an im-
Politicians, including Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, Gov. Kathy Hochul and NYS Attorney General Letitia James at New York’s Labor Day Parade on Sept. 6. Heather Khalifa, Getty Images via JNS
JONATHAN S. TObIN
Editor-in-Chief
The mob vs. justice: Lessons from Leo Frank
The final performance of “Parade,” a Tony Award-winning musical, was held just days ago at the Kennedy Center in Washington. It told the story of the 1913 murder of Mary Phagan, a teenage girl in Atlanta, and the flawed trial, conviction, and, ultimately, the vigilante lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish New Yorker transplanted to the American South who managed the factory where the murder took place. The trial was marred by antisemitism, bribery, coerced testimony and mob intimidation.
Though the curtain has closed, Frank’s conviction marks one of the most infamous miscarriages of justice in American history, and it leaves us with critical and urgent lessons we must use to confront the challenges Jews are facing today.
Antisemitism is seeping into nearly every
part of American life — its schools, health-care system, unions, public spaces. It can be heard in chants on college campuses, seen in synagogues defaced with hate and spread through conspiracy theories online. The patterns are the same as in Frank’s day: Jews scapegoated, leaders staying silent and crowds too willing to follow the mob.
Then-Gov. John M. Slaton of Georgia stood
The patterns of antisemitism today are the same as those of more than a century ago.
as the rare exception. After reviewing the case, he commuted Frank’s death sentence in 1915, knowing it would cost him dearly. The backlash was so fierce that he and his family were forced to flee their home. Yet in that moment, he showed what true moral leadership looks like: the courage to stand up to a mob and do what is right, even when the price is great.
As Slaton himself declared, “Two thousand years ago, another governor washed his hands and turned over a Jew to a mob. For 2,000 years, that governor’s name has been accursed.”
That responsibility does not fall on individuals alone; it rests on the institutions and leaders
who shape our society. When lawmakers stay silent as antisemitic tropes are voiced even within their own political parties, they are complicit. True courage is speaking up, condemning rhetoric and pushing for stronger protections for Jewish communities.
When university presidents claim “neutrality” as students chant for the destruction of Israel, they abdicate their responsibility. Courage is calling out that hate, ensuring Jewish students are safe and making it clear that intimidation has no place on campus.
When CEOs dismiss antisemitic remarks in the boardroom or excuse bias in the workplace, they signal tolerance for hate. Courage is setting a zero-tolerance standard and backing it up with action. And when health-care leaders allow Jewish doctors, nurses or patients to be singled out or harassed because of their faith, they betray their mission of care. Courage is making sure that hospitals and medical institutions remain safe places for everyone, and where bigotry has no place.
Calling out the Jews who engage in ‘Jewicide’
Hannah Einbinder and Bernie Sanders are two Jews, along with plenty of others, committed Jewicide recently. For those unfamiliar with the term, I just made it up.
Jewicide (Jew·i·cide ’jü-ə-sīd), plural: suicides; the act or an instance of ending one’s own Jewish identity intentionally, as well as erasing the characteristics of other Jews, whether religious, national, cultural or ethnic, that define the essence of being Jewish.
Post-Emmy awards ceremony, at a backstage location, after her de rigueur shout-out of “Free Palestine,” Einbinder said she wished to speak out about Palestine, and the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Why? Well, because it’s an issue that’s “very dear” to her heart, along with her favorite football team, which was also included in
her final shout-out.
She told the attending reporters: “I have friends in Gaza. … It’s an issue that’s very close to my heart for many reasons. I feel like it’s my obligation as a Jewish person to distinguish Jews from the State of Israel because our religion and our culture is such an important and longstanding … institution that is really separate to this sort of ethno-nationalist state.”
She also reminded them she had signed the recent Film Workers for Palestine pledge, adding, “it only boycotts institutions that are directly complicit in the genocide. So it’s important to me. … It’s an important measure, and I was happy to be a part of it.”
It is very much impossible, I would suggest to her, to separate a core national identity from being just sort of Jewish, as if the Jewish religion possesses no national elements. If she participated in a Passover seder recently, she heard the “Next Year in Jerusalem” finale. She also may have heard the breaking of a glass at a Jewish wedding, a symbol of mourning the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the loss of our political sovereignty.
A religion, a culture and a community that has a sacred territory at its core.
I doubt if the Jew-married-to-a-non-Jew
Sen. Bernie Sanders has had personal experience with Jewish faith traditions these past few decades. Shortly after Einbinder’s staged performance, he wrote, “The very term genocide is a reminder of what can happen if we fail. That word emerged from the Holocaust — the murder of 6 million Jews — one of the darkest chapters in human history. Make no mistake. If there is no accountability for Netanyahu and his fellow war criminals, other demagogues will do the same.”
He then added, “I agree. It Is Genocide. The intent is clear. … We, as Americans, must end our complicity in the slaughter of the Palestinian people.”
The propensity of Jews to link their identification to the Arabs of Palestine — never a state
Zorhan-loving Maryland pols
As a staunch Zionist and leader in Baltimore’s Jewish community, I cannot remain silent when American leaders give their blessing to those who reject Israel’s very right to exist. The endorsements of Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (DMd.) are not just disappointing; they are dangerous. Mamdani is not a critic of Israeli policies. He is an open anti-Zionist who seeks to dismantle the Jewish state.
Mamdani has declared that the Palestinian cause is “central to my identity.” He has said Israel should not exist as a Jewish state, backed the BDS movement, defended academic boycotts of Israeli universities, and, after Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, accused Israel of committing “genocide.” He even vowed that if Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits New York, he would try to have him arrested. Most chilling of all, Mamdani refuses to condemn Hamas, a US-designated terrorist organization respon-
or even a country, but rather, an internationally charged territory — is mind-numbing. They falsely accuse the State of Israel of conducting actions that somehow remind them of the German Nazis and the Holocaust in a most psychologically corrupt and pernicious comparison. Sanders not only resorts to hyperbole when discussing Jews. When he mentions Hamas, all he can do is write “Hamas, a terrorist organization, began this war with its brutal attack.” They apparently are not evil. They did not intend a genocide. They did not engage in a Nazi-like slaughter. They are not at all extreme, though he insists that the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “extremist.” He quotes Hamas-propagated numbers and claims and dismisses any of Israel’s counterclaims.
Athird instance of Jewicide is the “Statement From US Jews,” predictably published in The Nation, that condemns President Donald Trump’s “disingenuous” weaponization of antisemitism to target universities and deport campus activists. More
betray their
sible for murdering Israeli civilians.
This is the candidate Van Hollen and Raskin are championing. Their endorsements carry weight, and their choices matter. By elevating Mamdani, they are legitimizing the most extreme voices of anti-Zionism and telling the world that even America’s political elite are prepared to stand with those who excuse terrorism.
Van Hollen’s trajectory shows just how far he has drifted. He once backed the Iron Dome to defend Israeli civilians from Hamas rockets. Today, he smears Israel with false charges of “ethnic cleansing” and attacks his fellow Democrats as “spineless” for not endorsing Mamdani. He supports legislation that punishes Israelis living in the West Bank, aligning himself with activists who demonize Israel at every turn.
Raskin’s betrayal cuts even deeper. As a Jewish lawmaker with national stature, his words reverberate far beyond the state of Maryland. When he co-sponsored the “Block the Bombs Act” to restrict the transfer of US arms to Israel and when he called Israel’s war against Hamas “unjust, immoral and futile,” he lent legitimacy to the lie that Israel’s fight for survival
Jews
When officials endorse those who demonize Israel, the consequences ripple outward.
is somehow immoral.
By endorsing Mamdani, he has crossed an unmistakable line: Giving Jewish cover to antiZionism. That is not leadership. It is betrayal. When elected officials endorse candidates who demonize Israel, the consequences ripple outward. It emboldens anti-Zionists, normalizes their hatred and weakens America’s bipartisan tradition of support for Israel’s security. It signals to adversaries like Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran that even in Washington, Israel is vulnerable to isolation.
Baltimore’s Jewish community has always been strong, generous and outspoken. That
See Leven on page 23
See Medad on page 23
See Barall on page 23
Karen PaiKin Barall Caren
Zionist
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) in 2021. MDGovpics via WikiCommons
Yisrael medad
Leo Frank, circa 1910-15. Bain News Service via WikiCommons
benefits from Israel’s shift to pre-emption
When Israel struck senior Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, confusion spread quickly in Washington. Hamas is the US-designated terrorist group responsible for the Oct. 7 massacre. Yet Qatar, where those Hamas leaders have been living under official protection, is a major non-NATO ally hosting America’s largest military base in the region. U.S. President Donald Trump even called Qatar a “great ally.”
Israel’s message was clear: There is no sanctuary for the masterminds of Oct. 7, 2023. That strike reflects a strategic transformation in Jerusalem, one with profound consequences for American policymakers.
For decades, Israel has preferred to “manage” its enemies rather than defeat them outright. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu permitted Qatari cash transfers to Hamas, believing money could buy calm in Gaza. The long-term threat was deferred, not solved.
The events of Oct. 7 ended that calculus. The slaughter of more than 1,200 people and the kidnapping of 251 others was Israel’s Sept. 11. Almost overnight — the doctrine of deterrence, of waiting to respond — was replaced with a doctrine of pre-emption: Strike first, strike hard and never allow an enemy bent on annihilation to entrench.
Where Hezbollah once planted outposts inside Israel’s borders near Har Dov without an immediate response, today Hezbollah is hit by Israeli weapons swiftly and often. Where Hamas leaders once enjoyed safe havens abroad, today they are targets, even in the capital of a US ally. This is not a tactical adjustment, but a doctrinal shift that will define Israeli security policy for years to come.
Two other American allies, Turkey and Egypt, have warned against Israeli pre-emption while at the same time sheltering terrorists. Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other groups oper-
ate openly from their territory. Ynet has reported that PIJ leader Ziyad al-Nakhalah enjoys the protection of Egyptian intelligence, as do members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
But Israel has learned the region’s unforgiving rule: Weakness invites aggression, strength earns quiet. Hamas’s attack proved that terrorists committed to Israel’s destruction cannot be contained by aid or temporary truces.
Iran is the clearest case in point. Tehran boasted of its intent to wipe Israel off the map while racing ahead with nuclear and missile development. In June, Jerusalem and Washington pre-emptively struck Iranian assets being readied to attack Israel. Iran is rearming, acquiring Russian and Chinese anti-missile systems. With an unrepentant regime bent on Israel’s destruction, an Israeli airstrike is not a matter of if but when.
To Washington, pre-emption can appear de-
stabilizing. But Israeli strikes on Iran, Hezbollah and in Syria have actually reduced the chance of wider war.
Strikes on Iran, Hezbollah and in Syria have reduced the chance of wider war.
Qatar adds another layer of complexity. While bankrolling Hamas and spreading Islamist, anti-American propaganda through its state-run Al Jazeera news network, the emirate simultaneously hosts the most extensive US military base in the Middle East. Its dual role demands a reassessment. The United States should use its leverage to force Doha to choose between being a genuine ally or a financier of terror.
And Israel is hardly alone in acting pre-emptively in “friendly” territory. The United States killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan and Qassem Soleimani in Iraq without advance notice, knowing the local Islamic governments would likely tip off the targets. Israel’s logic is no different. History shows the danger of empty threats. President Barack Obama’s unfulfilled “red line” in Syria branded the United States a paper tiger, emboldened former Syrian leader Bashar Assad and reverberated from Moscow to Beijing. By contrast, credible military force used prudently but decisively restores actual deterrence. The United States cannot forget the lesson of 9/11. Militant Islamism is patient, transnational and deadly. From Al-Qaeda and ISIS to Hamas and Iran’s Shi’ite proxies, these groups target both America (“the big Satan”) and Israel (“the little Satan”).
Israel’s trauma on Oct. 7 underscored the same point: Do not ignore threats, do not underestimate religiously motivated adversaries, and do not analyze the region through Western assumptions. Pre-emption is not reckless; it is a matter of survival. Diplomacy is most effective when backed by a credible military threat. Arab regimes publicly condemn Israeli strikes but privately welcome them. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan view Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood as existential threats. Iran’s and now Qatar’s humiliation is quietly celebrated across Arab capitals. Yet Arab and Muslim leaders fear an Israel that is growing too powerful or unpredictable. For years, they relied on Jerusalem to quietly contain Iran. Now, with Israel projecting strength openly, they must recalibrate. With America and Israel already decreasing Iran’s capacity, they need Israel less in the short term. That is where US leadership becomes indispensable, reassuring Arab allies while coordinating with Israel.
The American message to its Arab allies should be clear: Iran’s revolutionary and hegemonic ambitions remain intact; it is already planning or rebuilding its nuclear, missile, naval, air and military capabilities. For moderate
Why I left tech world to become ‘Miss Israel’
When I graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and later earned my MBA at Tel Aviv University, I thought my future was written in code, product launches and pitch decks. I dove into the startup world, co-founding a venture that I believed could scale and change lives.
For years, I was laser-focused on proving myself in Israel’s hyper-competitive tech ecosystem. I was an entrepreneur, a strategist, a leader. And then, I walked away.
People often ask why. Why would anyone leave a promising startup career — backed by years of education, hard work and sacrifice — to step into the world of beauty pageants? Why exchange investor meetings for a crown and stage lights?
For me, the answer was clear: representation. Israel’s story is not told often enough or fairly
‘This is who we are. This is what we represent.’
enough on the world stage. As much as I loved building a company, I realized that startups weren’t the only way to represent innovation, courage, and resilience. “Miss Israel” is not just a pageant; it’s a platform. It’s a stage where one young woman can embody the complexity and beauty of a country that is both ancient and endlessly modern.
My decision wasn’t about abandoning technology; it was about expanding my mission. Tech gave me problem-solving skills, discipline and the ability to think globally. Those are tools I now bring into every interview, appearance and interaction as “Miss Israel.”
Standing on that stage, whether in Israel or at international events like the Eurovision Song
Contest, I’m carrying the story of my nation — its diversity, its innovation and its humanity — into rooms and conversations that might otherwise never hear it.
When I take the stage — whether at home or at shows abroad, from Israel to Thailand — I represent Israel proudly. And I hope that many smart, beautiful Jewish girls around the world will join me in standing up for our people, our nation and Am Yisrael.
Yes, it’s a challenge. Startup life trained me to thrive on challenges, but this is different. The world often misunderstands or misrepresents Israel. To stand proudly as a young Israeli woman and say, “This is who we are. This is what we represent,” is to put yourself at the front lines of cultural diplomacy. And just like in tech, the stakes are high, but so is the potential for impact.
I know this role will be scrutinized. I know it will come with critics. But I also know that when an Israeli woman walks onto a stage with confidence, intellect and grace, the world sees something it cannot ignore. That is worth the risk.
Leaving entrepreneurship for “Miss Israel” was not about leaving one dream for another. It was about recognizing that sometimes the most important startup isn’t a company. It’s the mission to represent, to inspire and to stand tall for a country that has given me everything. And that, I believe, is a challenge worth doing.
Melanie Shiraz is “Miss Israel” 2025. Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Volunteers clear houses in Bat Yam, in central Israel, damaged in a missile attack in mid-June. Yossi Zamir, Flash90
See Mandel on page 23
Rehearsal for the 77th Israel Independence Day ceremony, held at Mount Herzl, on April 28, 2025. Yonatan Sindel, Flash90
MELANIE SHIRAZ
Miss Israel 2025
ERIc R. MANdEL
Making Jewish journalism great again.
Tobin: Will Jew-hate prove to be good politics…
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portant factor in determining the outcomes of elections for more than a century.
In recent years, however, as progressives have dominated academia, the arts and popular culture, woke antisemitism rooted in toxic theories about race, intersectionality and settler-colonialism, which falsely label Jews and Israel as “white” oppressors, has come into fashion among elites and the chattering classes.
New York has long been a Democratic Party stronghold, but the city’s politicians, both Jewish and non-Jewish, have taken it as a given that backing for Israel was a political necessity. That was illustrated by the stance of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has spent the last 40 years pretending to be the shomer, or “guardian,” of Israel in Washington despite actually being a lessthan-reliable backer of Jerusalem.
The Democratic base
In the not-so-distant past, someone like Mamdani — a chapter president of the openly antisemitic Students for Justice in Palestine in college and who supports the pro-Hamas line about Israel to this day — would simply
Goldman…
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en, what to say, when to answer Amen, when to speak aloud and when to stay quiet. It took a while, but the man who needed to say Kaddish showed them what to do. That night in Jerusalem, at 1:30 am, the man was finally able to say Kaddish for his mother.
After the service, they went back out to the taxis. The meters were pushing upward of 90 shekels each. The man pulled out his wallet and started to count out the approximately 800 shekels it was going to cost him. That’s nearly $300!
“How much do I owe you?” he asked the first taxi driver in the line.
“Adoni, what do you take me for? Do you honestly believe I would take money from you? You just gave me such an opportunity to help my fellow Jew say Kaddish, and I should charge you money?”
The man went to the second driver, who also refused payment and said, “Do you know how long it is since I prayed?”
And so it went, on and on. Not one taxi driver was prepared to take a single shekel. My friends, do you know Israeli taxi drivers? They are some of the most opinionated people in all of Israel. They’re not shy. Suddenly, these secular taxi drivers became tzadikim, holy men.
This just proves my point; even transgressors are holy.
So, let’s not make any judgment calls. A Jew is a Jew is a Jew, and we believe that fervently with every fiber of our being. May we all come to shul together, always. May we all pray together. May we all practice our faith together. And, together, may we all be blessed with a good and sweet New Year as we stand united, all of us, as one. Amen!
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Sacks…
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In all ancient myth the world was explained in terms of battles of the gods in their struggle for dominance. The Torah dismisses this way of thinking totally and utterly. G-d speaks and the universe comes into being. This, according to the
have been a non-starter as a Democratic nominee for anything in New York City, let alone mayor. But the belief that the existence of the one Jewish state on the planet is a crime and the willingness to buy into Hamas propaganda about “genocide” in Gaza has gained tremendous traction among the activist base of the Democratic Party and, as polls show, rank-and-file Democrats.
Indeed, in a multi-candidate race like the Democratic mayoral primary in June, being the most notorious Israel-basher and cheerleader for the antisemitic mobs rampaging on campuses like Columbia University and New York University may have been something of an asset, since it made it hard for anyone to get to Mamdani’s left.
Were he facing a sole opponent who could be portrayed as a moderate and a supporter of Israel, Mamdani’s extremism might have been a problem in the general election. But with the anti-Mamdani vote split and with the Democrats’ leftist base that hates Israel energized to turn out to support the young and charismatic candidate, he seems headed for certain victory.
Leaving aside the mayoral race, the willingness of Hochul and a host of other nation-
great nineteenth century sociologist Max Weber, was the end of myth and the birth of Western rationalism.
More significantly, it created a new way of thinking about the universe. Central to both the ancient world of myth and the modern world of science is the idea of power, force, energy. That is what is significantly absent from Genesis 1. G-d says, “Let there be,” and there is. There is nothing here about power, resistance, conquest or the play of forces. Instead, the key word of the narrative, appearing seven times, is utterly unexpected. It is the word tov, good.
Tov is a moral word. The Torah in Genesis 1 is telling us something radical. The reality to which Torah is a guide (the word “Torah” itself means guide, instruction, law) is moral and ethical
The question Genesis seeks to answer is not “How did the universe come into being?” but “How then shall we live?” This is the Torah’s most significant paradigm-shift. The universe that G-d made and we inhabit is not about power or dominance but about tov and ra, good and evil. For the first time, religion was ethicised. G-d cares about justice, compassion, faithfulness, loving-kindness, the dignity of the individual and the sanctity of life.
This same principle, that Genesis 1 is a polemic, part of an argument with a background, is essential to understanding the idea that G-d created humanity “in His image, after His likeness.” This language would not have been unfamiliar to the first readers of the Torah. It was one they knew well.
It was commonplace in the first civilisations, Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, where certain people were said to be in the image of G-d. They were the Kings of the Mesopotamian city-states and the Pharaohs of Egypt. Nothing could have been more radical than to say that not just kings and rulers appear in G-d’s image. We all do. Even today the idea is daring: how much more so in an age of absolute rulers with absolute power. Understood thus, Genesis 1:26-27 is not so much a metaphysical statement about the nature of the human person as it is a political protest against the very basis of hierarchical, class- or caste-based societies whether in ancient or modern times. That is what makes it the most incendiary idea in the Torah. In some fundamental sense we are all equal in dignity and ultimate worth, for we are all in G-d’s image regardless of colour, culture or creed.
A similar idea appears later in the Torah, in relation to the Jewish people, when G-d invited them to become a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Ex. 19:6). All nations in the ancient
al Democrats who may be liberal but not as far to the left as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Sen. Bernie Sanders, who are enthusiastic supporters of their fellow Socialist, to back Mamdani is an ominous development. It’s true that the Democrats’ congressional caucus leaders, Schumer and House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries — both New Yorkers — have so far refrained from endorsing Mamdani. However, others, such as Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and even Jews such as Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), have jumped on the Mamdani bandwagon.
In the current hyper-partisan political environment, leading politicians in both parties have come to the conclusion that securing the base is more important than chasing after the declining portion of the electorate that can be considered swing voters who are up for grabs.
A Mayor Mamdani could help Republicans tar all of their opponents as nothing more than a bunch of far-left-supporting extremists — something that isn’t going to do any good for Democrats in the midterms next year or in 2028. But as influential Democrats demonstrate that they are more afraid of offending the party’s left-wing base that loves him and others who share his point of view,
world had priests, but none was “a kingdom of priests.”
All religions have holy individuals — but none claim that every one of their members is holy.
This too took time to materialize. During the entire biblical era there were hierarchies. There were Priests and High Priests, a holy elite. But after the destruction of the Second Temple, every prayer became a sacrifice, every leader of prayer a priest, and every synagogue a fragment of the Temple. A profound egalitarianism is at work just below the surface of the Torah, and the Rabbis knew it and lived it.
Asecond idea is contained in the phrase, “so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky.” Note that there is no suggestion that anyone has the right to have dominion over any other human being.
In “Paradise Lost,” Milton, like the Midrash, states that this was the sin of Nimrod, the first great ruler of Assyria and by implication the builder of the Tower of Babel (see Gen. 10:811). Milton writes that when Adam was told that Nimrod would “arrogate dominion undeserved,” he was horrified:
O execrable son so to aspire
Above his Brethren, to himself assuming Authority usurped, from G-d not given: He gave us only over beast, fish, fowl Dominion absolute; that right we hold By his donation; but man over men
He made not l-rd; such title to himself Reserving, human left from human free. Paradise Lost, Book 12:64-71
To question the right of humans to rule over other humans without their consent was at that time utterly unthinkable. All advanced societies were like this. How could they be otherwise? Was this not the very structure of the universe? Did the sun not rule the day? Did the moon not rule the night? Was there not a hierarchy of the gods in heaven itself? Already implicit here is the deep ambivalence the Torah would ultimately show toward the very institution of kingship, the rule of “man over men.”
The third implication lies in the sheer paradox of G-d saying, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” We sometimes forget, when reading these words, that in Judaism G-d has no image or likeness. To make an image of G-d is to transgress the second of the Ten Commandments and to be guilty of idolatry. Moses emphasised that at the Revelation at Sinai, “You saw no likeness, you only heard the sound of words.” (Deut. 4:12)
G-d has no image because He is not physical.
like AOC, the most serious and far-reaching consequence of Mamdani’s rise may be to remove the stigma from politicians who are antisemitic or supportive of those who are Jew-haters.
Whither
the GOP?
Nor should we ignore the possibility that this troubling trend might influence future Republican races. Israel-hating and antisemitic political commentators like former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens retain large followings, despite abundant evidence of their extremism and their opposition to Trump’s pro-Israel policies. That means there is a chance that the race to succeed the president might include a GOP candidate who has much in common with the left on Israel and antisemitism.
The normalization of Jew-hatred is no longer simply an issue in New York and the Democratic Party. The question to ask is whether it will soon be seen in the same way as it was in late 19th-and early 20th-century Europe — something ambitious would-be officeholders consider good politics.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
He transcends the physical universe because He created it. Therefore He is free, unconstrained by the laws of matter. That is what G-d means when He tells Moses that His name is “I will be what I will be” (Ex. 3:14), and later when, after the sin of the Golden Calf, He tells him, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” G-d is free, and by making us in His image, He gave us also the power to be free.
This, as the Torah makes clear, was G-d’s most fateful gift. Given freedom, humans misuse it. Adam and Eve disobey G-d’s command. Cain murders Abel. By the end of the parsha we find ourselves in the world about to be destroyed by the Flood, for it is filled with violence to the point where G-d regretted that He had ever created humanity. This is the central drama of Tanach and of Judaism as a whole. Will we use our freedom to respect order or misuse it to create chaos? Will we honor or dishonor the image of G-d that lives within the human heart and mind?
These are not only ancient questions. They are as alive today as ever they were in the past. The question raised by serious thinkers — ever since Nietzsche argued in favour of abandoning both G-d and the Judeo-Christian ethic — is whether justice, human rights, and the unconditional dignity of the human person are capable of surviving on secular grounds alone? Nietzsche himself thought not.
In 2008, Yale philosopher Nicholas Woltersdorff published a magisterial work arguing that our Western concept of justice rests on the belief that “all of us have great and equal worth: the worth of being made in the image of G-d and of being loved redemptively by G-d.”
There is, he insists, no secular rationale on which a similar framework of justice can be built. That is surely what John F. Kennedy meant in his Inaugural Address when he spoke of the “revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought,” that “the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of G-d.”
Momentous ideas made the West what it is, ideas like human rights, the abolition of slavery, the equal worth of all, and justice based on the principle that right is sovereign over might. All of these ultimately derived from the statement in the first chapter of the Torah that we are made in G-d’s image and likeness. No other text has had a greater influence on moral thought, nor has any other civilization ever held a higher vision of what we are called on to be.
To comment on Rabbi Sacks’ column, write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Medad: Calling out turncoat ‘Jewicide’ Jews…
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than 100 “Jewish Americans” signed on. They proclaim:
We write, specifically, as Jewish Americans who condemn the charge of antisemitism being leveled against student activists — many of whom are Jewish — for their legitimate criticisms of Israel’s violence in Gaza and their universities’ connections to the Israeli occupation
One signatory, sports editor Dave Zirin,
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Why would the Torah command us to cover the Sukkah not with the polished fruits of our harvest, but with the seemingly worthless leftovers? To teach us a profound truth: what looks like Psoles is not waste at all. The inbetween stages, the discarded fragments, the “means” that appear to serve only the “end” are in truth the very building blocks of holiness.
This is the secret of the Simchas Beis HaSho’eivah. The water was not yet poured. The Avodah was not yet complete. And yet it was specifically in the preparation, in the process, that the joy reached its highest pitch. Chazal are teaching us: if you only feel Simchah at the finish line, if you wait until the goal is reached to rejoice, then you have never truly experienced joy at all.
Life is not made up only of weddings and diplomas, new homes and milestones. Life is drawing water. Life is the pink slips and the setbacks, the countless steps, the small preparations, the ordinary days that feel like they are just on the way to something greater. The Schach above our heads reminds us that the Psoles is not garbage. It is the very material from which Simchah and kedushah are woven.
Rav Hutner explained that this is why the flute became the symbol of the celebration. Breathing out seems wasted. Inhaling gives life, but exhaling appears to serve no purpose except to prepare for the next breath. Yet the flute takes the exhale, the seemingly empty breath, and turns it into music. The Chalil transforms what looks useless into song. So too with our lives. The moments we dismiss as meaningless, the efforts that feel small, the endless days that look like Psoles, all of these can become music when sanctified in the service of Hashem.
There is a powerful story from early Jewish immigrants in America. A Jew would find work, but every Friday, when he explained that he could not come in on Shabbos, he was fired. By Sukkot, his home was filled with pink slips. Instead of despair, he took those slips and hung them as decorations in his Sukkah as noy Sukkah. He understood that the challenges of keeping Shabbos, the “waste” of being fired again and again, were not wasted at all. They were his Schach, the very crown of his Sukkah, transformed into holiness and joy.
This is the essence of Simchas Beis HaSho’eivah: to recognize that every breath, every effort, every step of the process is not wasted but sanctified. To hear the music in the Chalil, to see the holiness in the Schach, to find joy in the very act of drawing water.
As the Navi promises: U’she’avtem Mayim B’sason Mi’ma’aynei Ha’Yeshua. You shall draw water with joy from the wells of salvation. May we merit not to live our lives waiting for the next stage, but to rejoice in each stage, to embrace every process as holy, and to discover Simchah not only at the end, but in every step along the way. When we wait to live, we are in truth only living to wait. On Sukkot we rejoice in living fully, right here and right now.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
added that he signed the letter “ out of respect for my great-grandparents, who fled the pogroms .” He then assumed that his progenitors would be pro-Palestinian and “ certainly would have been appalled that anyone would take seriously … an administration of Nazicurious Christian Zionists .”
If only these oh-so-important Jews would take on the Tucker Carlsons, the Candace Owens and the other outright anti-Jewish figures
Mazurek…
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kha 51a describes as “the most joyous event ever witnessed.”
They utilized the custom of mishloach manot, sending gifts of food, the same custom and language used earlier on Purim, considered probably the happiest day of the Jewish year. Two extremes, mourning and tears coexisting with happiness and joy, on the same day at the same time.
Rosh Hashana today shares the same duality of somberness and happiness, that our forbears displayed, and it is evidenced in our prayer liturgy. We have prayers dealing with the enormity of Judgment Day, with the prospects of life and death, and at the same time we ask Hashem to grant us “simcha l’artzecha, v’sasson l’irecha (gladness to Your land, and joy to Your city).”
This is the paradox of Eretz Yisrael, the state of Israel, the Jewish people today. We go from one extreme to the other. The horrific bereavement of Yom Hazikaron to the elation of Yom Haatzmaut, in the blink of an eye.
We are experiencing daily, such tragedy and heartbreak — continuous war, terrorist attacks, soldiers dying in battle, imprisoned and tortured and murdered hostages, rocket and missile attacks, traffic accidents, lack of Jewish unity, and internecine squabbles. Yet at the same time we have truly inconceivable joy. I know it because I feel it the minute I return home to Jerusalem. No matter how bad the “situation, after you grieve, you build, you donate, you connect and you blossom with a joy that is palpable.
The conventional explanation is that happiness is “dependent on the human connection and the role of caring and sharing for others,” which Israel certainly has. But the verse in Nechemia, which took place on Rosh Hashana, describes the people who heard the words of Torah, and at first realized their shortcomings. They felt mournful and cried, as they should have, for they realized their error, but then immediately were told, today is not a day of sadness but celebratory rejoicing.
They were not yet forgiven for their sins, but still told to go ahead and rejoice. That is because the Jewish people, who had returned to build the walls of Jerusalem (the Temple had not yet been re-built) were inherently committed to the Torah. They heard its words from Ezra himself and responded.
The same is true for the nation of Israel, in the land of Israel today. Even the most irreligious Jew in Israel is connected in some way to Torah. On Friday, the buses say “Shabbat Shalom,” the street signs are filled with the names of Prophets and Kings, Tribes and Torah scholars, all connected to one another through the millennia by their connection to Torah.
The two features of happiness, common to the happiest countries in the “happiness index” — namely human connection and caring and sharing with others — are commanded by our Holy Torah, in Vayikra 19:18: “V’ahavta l’reacha kamocha (love your neighbor as yourself).”
As long as we remember our strength, and that our purpose comes from Torah, we will be truly happy.
Going back once again to that very same verse in Nechemiah when the he tells the peo-
of the right with the same courage and forcefulness as they do Israel and its 3,000-year old Zionist essence — from the time that Abraham was told to go to Moriah, when the Children of Israel set out for the Land of Israel and those who had been exiled to Babylonia returned to Zion.
But they do not.
Their target is the authentic and genuine fundamentals of Judaism — a religion, a cul-
ple not to be saddened, but to go eat and drink and celebrate, because “Chedvat Hashem he Ma’uzchem (The joy of Hashem is your strength).”
Let us remember that singular lesson, whether in Israel or elsewhere.
Gmar v’Chatimah Tova v’Chag Sameach! Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Gerber…
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mentary to the Book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes). Given the joyous nature of this holiday, the reading of this somber book benefits from this sober interpretation by one of this generation’s leading theologians. This feature is not some sidebar interpretation, but long overdue expansive interpretation.
“Sukkot is the time we ask the most profound question of what makes a life worth living,” writes Rabbi Sacks. “Having prayed on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to be written in the Book of Life, Kohelet forces us to remember how brief life actually is, and how vulnerable. ‘Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom’.”
Further on we learn that, “Most majestically of all, Sukkot is the festival of insecurity. It is the candid acknowledgment that there is no life without risk, yet we can face the future without fear when we know we are not alone.
“G-d is with us, in the rain that brings blessings to the earth, in the love that brought the universe and us into being, and in the resilience of spirit that allowed a small and vulnerable people to outlive the greatest empires the world has ever known.”
Editor’s note: It is a privilege for us to continue publishing Alan Gerber’s columns, and we wish him and his family the very best in the new year. This column was originally published in 2016.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Leven…
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strength must now be summoned again. We cannot shrug off betrayal as “just politics.”
We must hold Van Hollen and Raskin accountable, and we must make clear that the Jewish community will never stand with those who deny Israel’s right to exist.
There is room in Jewish politics for debate, disagreement and different perspectives on policy. But there is no room for anti-Zionism. The stakes are too high, the threats too real. If Israel loses the support of American leaders, it loses its lifeline.
We must open our eyes, speak with clarity and act with resolve. Our community will not be complicit in giving power to voices that embolden Israel’s enemies.
Silence in the face of betrayal is not an option. Baltimore’s Jewish community is standing up, and we urge other communities across America to do the same. Wherever political leaders embrace anti-Zionism or give cover to antisemitism, they must be challenged and held accountable. Our collective voice can and must ensure that hatred of Israel and the Jewish peo-
ture and a community that has a sacred territory at its core. They prefer to commit Jewicide. In doing so, they harm the more than 7 million Jews who live in Israel and the additional millions of Jews of the Diaspora who support Israel. They misrepresent what Judaism is to those from whom they seek favor and adulation. It represents an act of betrayal that will also, eventually, come to harm them, too. Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
ple has no place in American public life. Caren Leven is the executive director of the Baltimore Zionist District. Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Barall…
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Leo Frank’s story shows what happens when hatred and silence prevail. Governor Slaton’s legacy shows what it means to choose courage over convenience.
As we look to honor America’s 250th anniversary next year and lift up untold stories and unsung heroes, we must turn to the bravery of those who spoke out against injustice, who put principle above politics. When we tell these stories, we inspire others to follow in their footsteps. True patriotism is not joining the mob but standing against it, and that is how we will secure the next 250 years of freedom and justice for all.
Karen Paikin Barall is chief policy officer at The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
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Arab states, sidelining Israel now would ultimately undermine their own long-term security interests.
So far, the Trump administration has backed Israeli pre-emption in Lebanon and Syria, reinforcing real deterrence and signaling shared resolve to Tehran. But the Qatar strike marks a turning point.
Washington now faces a choice: Remain blinded by Qatari money and influence, or adapt to a post–Oct. 7 Middle East is defined by shifting alliances and new realities. That means:
•Deepening military coordination with Israel and Arab nations under CENTCOM.
•Pressuring Qatar to stop financing Hamas and broadcasting incitement via Al Jazeera
•Guiding Israeli policy away from maximalist goals that could alienate Arab partners, such as annexing the entire West Bank.
•Leverage moderate Arab states to prepare for “the day after Hamas,” ensuring that Qatar and Turkey do not dominate the Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian arenas, while positioning the UAE and Saudi Arabia as the primary financiers and stabilizing forces.
Oct. 7 is not only Israel’s tragedy, it’s also America’s warning. The ideology that fueled Hamas is the same that drove Al-Qaeda on Sept. 11. Ignoring it risks repeating history.
Israel’s shift to pre-emption serves U.S. interests. A stronger, more assertive Israel eases the burden on American forces, deters aggressors and enforces a regional order where threats face real consequences. This is not reckless or unlimited action. It is precise, tactical pre-emption when provoked, creating a strategic paradigm that stabilizes the region rather than repeating the failed pattern of waiting until it’s too late. The lesson is clear: In the Middle East, waiting invites disaster. Diplomacy is strongest when backed by credible, pre-emptive military power.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
