jewish standard, july 31, 2015

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NOSHES4ROCKLAND 18OPINION20COVERSTORY24ABOUTOURCHILDREN29TORAHCOMMENTARY43CROSSWORDPUZZLE44ARTS&CULTURE45CALENDAR46OBITUARIES49CLASSIFIEDS50GALLERY 52REALESTATE 53

CONTENTS

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Pyramid to rise above Jerusalem skylinel Think of it as Ramses revenge.Jerusalems ever-changing skyline

is due to get a high-rise pyramid, if a recently approved plan comes to be.Designed by architects Daniel Libe-

skind and Yigal Levi, the Freedom Pyramid will put commercial shop-ping and high-end residences on the site of the old Eden theater, near the Machaneh Yisrael market.We want to bring to the city center

the revolution that Mamilla spurred in its area, Levi told Haaretz. There are a lot of new projects in the city center, but they dont create a meet-ing place where people can linger and meet. We are a one-minute walk from Jerusalems King George Street-Jaffa Road intersection, very close to the Machane Yehuda market and close to Nachlaot. Daniel managed to open up the project in all directions, and created a new network of links to the surrounding streets. If you add to this his unique design, you will see some-thing very good for the city center.The project will include 180 to 200

luxury apartments, a boutique hotel, a rooftop restaurant, retail stores, and an outdoor public plaza.This comes as the skyline of Jeru-

salem is being altered by a number of ongoing projects, including a new tower by the world-renowned Ameri-can architect I.M. Pei.Jerusalems urban preservationists

have fought a losing battle against some of these developments. But nobody seems to have dealt with

the emotional impact on those Israelites who died long ago building the pyramids in Egypt. What will they feel when they find themselves resurrected in Jerusalem rebuilt and pyramided?

LARRY YUDELSON & VIVA SARAH PRESS/ ISRAEL21C.ORG

Charcoaled scroll unrolled (virtually)l Thanks to modern technologies, a portion of a burnt 1,500-year-old Hebrew scroll found in archaeological excavations at Ein Gedi 45 years ago fi-nally has been deciphered. The mezu-zah-sized scroll was revealed to contain the first eight verses of the Book of Leviticus.The parchment scroll was unearthed

in 1970 in archaeological excavations in the synagogue at Ein Gedi, near the Dead Sea. Because it was charred, however, it was not possible to either unroll or decipher it.Ein Gedi was a Jewish

village in the Byzantine peri-od. It had a synagogue with a holy ark, where the scroll was found. Originally built in the third century C.E. and later expanded, the syna-gogue, along with the entire village, was destroyed by fire. This was in the late sixth century C.E.None of its inhabitants ever returned

to live there again, or to pick through the ruins in order to salvage valuable property, said Dr. Sefi Porath, who led the 1970 dig. In the archaeological excavations of the burnt synagogue, we found, in addition to the charred scroll fragments, a bronze seven-branched candelabrum, the communitys money box containing about 3,500 coins, glass and ceramic oil lamps, and vessels that held perfume. We have no informa-tion about the cause of the fire, but theories for the destruction range from

conquest by Bedouins from the region east of the Dead Sea to conflicts with the Byzantine au-thorities.One layer of the scroll

was decoded with help of a high resolution 3D scanner. Special digital imaging software de-

veloped at the University of Kentucky transformed the scan to allow the scroll to be unrolled virtually. Once that was done, researchers were able to read the text. Because the decoded text from Leviticus is only one layer of the tightly wrapped charred scroll, researchers hope to be able to read other layers.The Ein Gedi scroll was the oldest

Torah scroll that archaeologists had uncovered in a synagogue. And it is the oldest Torah manuscript after the Dead Sea Scrolls, which date to a few hundred years earlier. Carbon dating pegged the scroll to about 500 C.E.

LARRY YUDELSON

Nine other things that start with J for JDate to suel When it comes to defining the rela-tionship between JDate and JSwipe, you could say its complicated.JDate, one of the worlds largest

Jewish dating services, is suing its up-and-coming competitor, JSwipe, which has been nicknamed the Jew-ish Tinder, for a surprising reason the J at the front of its name.JDate claims to hold a trademark

among dating sites on the J-family of names.JDates parent company, Sparks

Networks, also is claiming to own the patent on technology that notifies us-ers of mutual matches in feelings and interests the feature that tells two users when they like each other.Forbes Gregory Ferenstein, who

unearthed the November 2014 lawsuit on Friday, explained that this patent would give JDate a case against every major dating service, including the wildly popular app Tinder. He specu-lated that JDate singled out JSwipe in an attempt to bully it into a buy-out. JSwipe has 375,000 users to JDates 750,000 or so but its on the rise among millennials and non-Jews.While JDate is enforcing its J pat-

ent, it may want to consider suing these other entities that also use the Judaism-powered letter.1. JCrush: JDate could just swap

JCrushs name for JSwipes on the lawsuit. Like JSwipe, JCrush is a Tinder-style app that uses the swipe-right-or-left model swipe right to say you have a crush; swipe left to say oy vey.2. JWed: Why give the Orthodox

a pass? After all, theyre the fastest growing segment of the Jewish com-munity. Called Frumster from 2001 to 2012, JWed once claimed to be the largest dating service for Orthodox Jewish singles.3. Jzoog: The service, founded by

Orthodox rabbi and dating coach Arnie Singer in 2013, has a match-maker feature that allows users to set each other up. Sounds like a viral threat.4. J Street: No stranger to con-

troversy, the liberal pro-Israel policy group could surely handle a little more. Plus, it has the audacity to high-light its J with a space. Worst case: A lawsuit could be settled by having J Street lobby for JDate among the Beltway crowd.

5. j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California: The Bay Area newspaper, which has been published for over a century, thinks it can get away with using a lowercase j at the start of its name but its wrong.6. JVibe: The now-defunct maga-

zine catered to Jewish teenagers the next generation of dating app us-ers. JDate should have sued it before it shuttered in 2010.7. J. Crew: Why should JDate limit

itself solely to suing Jewish compa-nies? The popular clothing retailer uses the letter J just the same.8. JSTOR: The digital database

of journals may be an invaluable academic resource, but that doesnt mean it should get away with ap-propriating the letter J. And with its reach on college campuses, its well-positioned to move into the dating world.9. J-Lo: Actress Jennifer Lopez isnt

the only celebrity with a nickname that starts with J, but hers is perhaps the most iconic. Suing Lopez would put all of those other celebrities on notice. Watch out, Jennifer Lawrence.

GABE FRIEDMAN/ JTA WIRE SERVICE

Noshes


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Do you read the Torah? Maybe you should. Do you realize how much wisdom there is for life? Ohio Governor and Republican presidential contender John Kasich, speaking to political columnist Matt Bai, who is Jewish.

Want to read more noshes? Visit facebook.com/jewishstandard

playing Jews ever since.From 1979 to the present, there have

been TV specials, movies, and series about teens living near De Grassi Street in Toronto. Several TV series have had Degrassi in the title, and generations of kids worldwide have followed whats called The Degrassi franchise. There will be a reunion special of former Degrassi: Next Genera-tion stars on the

TeenNick cable station on Friday, July 31, at 8 p.m. Tribe members (all Canadian landsmen) appearing on the special include STACEY FAR-BER, 27 (Ellie), LAUREN COLLINS, 28 (Paige), SHANE KIPPEL, 29 (Spinner), and JAKE EPSTEIN, 27 (Craig). The most famous Degrassi alumnus wont be there: rap star AUBREY DRAKE GRAHAM, 28, aka Drake, who played Jimmy Brooks. (By the way,

Netflix will show new epi-sodes of Degrassi: Next Class starting next Janu-ary. Netflix rescued the franchise from its cancellation on the Nickelodeon cable stations.)Netflix is the venue

for Wet Hot American Summer: The First Day of Camp. It is an eight-episode prequel of sorts to the 2001 film that failed at the box office but later became a cult hit. The episodes tell

the back stories of most of the lead characters. The films later success was due in part to the later fame of so many cast members, includ-ing Bradley Cooper, Amy Poehler, and PAUL RUDD, 46. It seemed clear in the original that the setting, a summer camp, was a Jewish sum-mer camp, and it had a lot of Jewish references and jokes. Expect the same in the sequel.The original and the

sequel were directed by DAVID WAIN, 45, and both were co-written by Wain and MICHAEL SHOWALTER, 45. The pair was able to coax the entire original cast to ap-pear in sequel episodes. Tribe members in the original and also in the sequel include: Rudd, MICHAEL IAN BLACK, 43, JUDAH FRIEDLAND-ER, 46 (30 Rock), ELIZABETH BANKS, 43, and KEVIN SUSSMAN, 34 (Stuart on Big Bang Theory). Tribe mem-bers who appear in the series but werent in the movie, include JASON SCHWARTZMAN, 35, JOSH CHARLES, 43, and RICHARD SCHIFF, 60 (The West Wing). Other big names in the sequel include Chris Pine, Jon Hamm, Michael Cera, and Weird Al Yankovic. N.B.

Skyler Gisondo

MORE VACATION:

Troupe heads off to Walley World

John Francis Daley Stacey Farber

Aubrey Drake Graham Paul Rudd David Wain

Vacation, the seventh in the series

of Vacation films that began with National Lampoons Vacation in 1983, opened Wednes-day, July 29. The original featured Chevy Chase as the put-upon dad, Clark Griswold, with Beverly DAngelo as Ellen, his understanding wife. In the new film, their son, Rusty, is all grown up, and he decides to follow in his fathers footsteps and take Debbie, his wife (Christina Applegate), and the kids cross-coun-try to Americas favorite fun park: Walley World. Ed Helms, well known as a Daily Show corre-spondent, plays Rusty, with Leslie Mann (Mrs. JUDD APATOW) as Rustys sister. SKYLER GISONDO, 19, plays James, Rusty and Debbies older son. Gisondo played Nick in the last Night at the Museum movie. (Three of his grands are Jewish his paternal grandpa was Italian and not Jewish.) By the way, Chase and DAngelo are in this film, too.The film was co-di-

rected and co-written by JOHN FRANCIS DALEY, 30, and JONATHAN GOLDSTEIN, 46. It marks a directorial debut for both guys. Daley, who was raised in his moth-

ers Jewish faith, became well known in the TV se-ries Freaks and Geeks, which Apatow produced. He is now known for his role as Lance Sweets on the long-running show Bones. In 2011, he and Goldstein co-wrote the hit flick Horrible Bosses. Goldstein is a Harvard-trained lawyer who switched to sit-com writing in 1998.Actor Alex Rocco died

on July 18 at 79. His Hol-lywood Reporter obit recounted how Rocco got his most famous role, playing Jewish gangster Moe Green in The Godfather. Roc-co said: When I got the script, I went in to Francis Ford Coppola, and in those days, the word was, Read [Ma-rio Puzos] book, which I already did, and then the actor would sug-gest to him which part they would like. Well, I went for I dunno, one of the Italian parts. But Coppola goes, I got my Jew! And I went, Oh no, Mr. Coppola, Im Italian. I wouldnt know how to play a Jew. And he goes, Oh, shut up. [Laughs.] He says, The Italians do this, and he punches his fingers up. And the Jews do this, and his hands extended, the palm flat. Greatest piece of direc-tion I ever got. Ive been

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The golden brideYiddish theater as it was when it was youngJOANNE PALMER

A young woman grows up almost as an orphan in Russia her mother has apparently mis-placed her in her own search for a better life, and her father is gone for good. Tragic, of course.

And then her true love the son of the innkeepers who have brought her up goes off to university, and a rich uncle shows up, and she is besieged by suitors, one more outlandish than the next, and then she brings all of them to gold-paved America, and then they all compete for her hand at a masked ball (because of course thats the way you party in America) by bringing her fake mothers, and theyre all silly, and its mistaken identity after mis-taken identity after, youve got it, mistaken identity, and then her real mother shows up, and then her true love is unmasked in his true glory.

And they all sing and sing and sing.Its not tragic. Not at all. Its funny.What exactly is it? Its Di Goldene

Kale. The Golden Bride. An operetta, fizzy and tuneful and illogical and fun, looking at real issues, the search for home, the need to stay put and the need to move on, but never letting that get in the way. Not unreminiscent of, say, Franz Lehar or Jacques Offenbach or Gilbert and Sullivan except for one thing.

Its in Yiddish.Zalmen Mlotek of Teaneck, the artistic

director of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, in partnership with Rut-gers Universitys Mason Gross School of the Arts, is presenting Di Goldene Kale as part of the 2015 Mason Gross Summer Series. The one-time-only production, set for Wednesday, August 5, is a concert read-ing, with minimal staging and costumes.

The show was a huge hit when it first opened, 92 years ago, at Kesslers Second Avenue Theatre on Manhattans Lower

East Side, but it had been forgotten for years. It was unearthed about 25 years ago, but it has taken another few decades for its dust to be blown off and its shine allowed to emerge.

Both this operetta and others like it and more broadly, other works of Jewish theater, including straight plays reso-nated so much with thousands of people, Mr. Mlotek said. And although now we tend to associate Yiddish with older peo-ple, the audience then was far younger it was a regular theater audience.

We are looking at an important exam-ple of how popular the Yiddish theater was in its time, Mr. Mlotek said. We are looking at it not only as entertainment, but when you put it in the perspective of his-tory, it is a sociological statement, in terms of the dialogue and the themes.

But also the music is so rich, such an amalgam of so many influences.

The audience will have to imagine sets and costumes, but they can get a sense of the real draw people felt to go to Second Avenue to escape into the theater. After working an 18- to 20-hour day in a sweat-shop, a seamstress might be able to save

up her pennies so she could go to the Yid-dish theater, and be transformed some-where else.

Our mission is to bring this world to a new audience, so they can hear this glori-ous literature.

Because Mr. Mloteks roots are deep within Yiddish theater his parents, Chana and Joseph, were vitally important to the rediscovery and renewal of Yiddish culture, particularly its music I hap-pened to know some of the tunes, he said. Some of them were hits, and many of them were in my consciousness all my life. But it wasnt until Michael Ochs, who was the head of the Loeb Music Library at Har-vard then, discovered the manuscript, that the long chain of work and discovery that eventually led to the performance began.

Dr. Ochs, born in Germany in 1937, was lucky since my very early childhood, he said. My family and I got out a few days before the invasion of Poland in 1939. They came to New York, where we spoke German at home, he said. Yiddish was considered beneath contempt, and the people who spoke it even worse.

(Ive been married to a Litvak for 55

The score for Di Goldene Kale, a Yiddish operetta that will be presented at Rutgers Universitys Mason Gross Performing Arts Center. Right, the program cover for its first run, on Second Avenue.

What: Di Goldene Kale The Golden Bride

When: Wednesday, August 5; Dr. Michael Ochs will talk about it from 6 to 6:30 p.m., and the performance will begin at 7.

Where: At Rutgers Universitys Mason Gross Performing Arts Center, 85 George St., New Brunswick

How much: $15; $10 for Rutgers alumni, employees, and seniors; $5 for students with valid IDs.

Information: (848) 932-7511

years, so Im no longer a yekke, he added quickly.)

Dr. Ochs first found the manuscript for Di Goldene Kale about a quarter century ago, as an exhibit for a meeting of the Soci-ety for American Music. I didnt know anything about it, and I forgot about it, he said. But then, after he retired from his second career, as music editor at Norton (I had the office next to the editor of the Norton Antholoy of English Literature, he said, marveling at it still, all these years later), he was working on a project that made him remember Die Goldene Kale, found it, and was drawn into it. About

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five years ago, it was accepted as part of a series from the University of Michigan, Music in American Life.

As he followed research leads, Dr. Ochs met Chana Mlotek; through her he met her son, Zalmen.

Dr. Ochs figured out that the manuscript was from a 1929 performance, not from the 1923 premiere. It was part of a huge and elaborate circuit. This operetta opened in a 2,000-seat theater in New York, and it ran for 18 weeks. Then it traveled all over, to all the usual places Philadelphia, Chi-cago, Boston, Omaha [!]. And then Buenos Aires New York troupes would go down to Argentina in the summer, when it was winter there. It was performed in Man-chester, England, and probably in eastern Europe as well.

Mr. Mlotek first performed the piece in New York. It was a concert performance; at the piano, he provided the only musi-cal accompaniment. Four people in the audience were from Rutgers, One of them was the dean of the school of arts, George Staufer, who is not Jewish but is very inter-ested in Jewish music. The very next day they contacted the Folksbiene and said they wanted to put it on, Dr. Ochs said.

Di Goldene Kale was written by Joseph Rumshinsky, a prolific Jewish composer

who made it his mission to raise the level of the Yiddish theater, which had begun as a popular entertainment form, more music hall, less high art. He succeeded in that goal, Dr. Ochs said, experimenting

with such changes as introducing dance to his operettas. There is a lot of dancing in Di Goldene Kale, he added.

The libretto, he added, was by a woman, Frieda Frieman, who is known to have

written a few others, although her hus-band, Louis Frieman, generally is assigned the credit for it. The story seems to have been that Louis Frieman tried to pitch it to Rumshinsky, who was impatient at first although he was bowled over by it soon enough. But it was hard enough getting the composer to listen to a young strang-ers pitch; had he added that the libretto was by my wife, could he have gotten Rumshinsky to listen to it? Dr. Ochs said. I doubt it. But he is delighted to have uncovered her secret, and now, all these years later, to attach her name to it. (Louis Gilrod, a professional lyricist, wrote the lyrics.)

Dr. Ochs, a gifted speaker whose very real delight in Di Goldene Kale is clear whenever he discuss it, will talk about the operetta before the performance. And then the performance, accompanied by a 20-piece orchestra, sung by a full cast led by the Folksbienes Dani Marcus, and who range in age from about 25 to about 45, will begin. And if you dont know Yiddish, dont worry there will be subtitles.

With any luck and of course with enough money Di Goldene Kale will be performed again. But for now, there is just this one chance to see it, hear it, and glory in it.

Zalmen Mlotek of Teaneck, artistic director of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, plays piano at the rehearsal.

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Making movies in JerusalemLocal student joins other filmmakers in Israeli workshopAbigAil Klein leichmAn

When a promo for the Jerusalem Film Work-shop (www.thejfw.com) popped up on his Face-book page earlier this year, Zev Rand of Teaneck applied right away.

The 20-year-old was in his first year at Manhattans School of Visual Arts, pursu-ing a bachelor of fine arts with a concen-tration in film editing.

Mr. Rand was one of 22 aspiring film-makers accepted to the six-week summer program, which gives participants a hands-on learning experience led by prominent professionals in Israeli cinema in partner-ship with the New Fund for Cinema and Television, the Jerusalem Film Festival, and other sponsoring organizations.

The young filmmakers produced short documentaries screened at the Jerusalem Film Festival earlier in July. (Read more about the festival on page 45.) Now Mr. Rand is doing preproduction on a narra-tive short film, which will be completed by the end of the program on August 7.

Who wouldnt want a summer in Israel, learning from the best people in the Israeli film industry, and on top of all that earn-ing a film festival credit? he asked rhetori-cally. And what else could a Zionist like me possibly ask for than having his first film festival be the Jerusalem Film Festival? Its perfection.

The workshop is based in Maaleh School of Television, Film & the Arts near Jerusa-lem City Hall. Thats a fitting location, given that the municipality has invested some NIS 50 million into planning a future state-of-the-art film production complex. In recent years, several major television and Holly-wood projects were shot in the capital city, including the NBC series Dig and Natalie Portmans A Tale of Love and Darkness.

The international student workshop, now in its second year, is an initiative of Gal Greenspan and Roi Kurland, chief executive officers of Tel Aviv-based Green Produc-tions (www.greenproductions.co.il).

Our inaugural program showed us

how Israel truly offers an unparalleled location for learning cinema and produc-ing great works of film, Mr. Greenspan said. Based on the first years success, we looked to attract a new class of budding filmmakers who recognize the filmmak-ing potential that exists here in Israel, and we are deeply proud to have some of our countrys most heralded cinematic minds among our instructors.

The faculty includes, for example, direc-tor Tom Shoval, nominated for a 2015 Academy Award for his role in the film Aya, and Tal Granit and Sharon Maymon,

Fun at summer film school. Zev Rand, in plaid shirt, with interns Gil Eliav (Jerusalem), Rita Zhang (China), Judy Kim (California), Zoey Peck (Long Island), Daria Cavlina (Croatia), Jamie Blenden (West Orange), and Yael Lior (Boston). Photo courtesy of Zev rAnd

From left, documentary team Niah Anson of Las Vegas, Gil Eliav of Jerusalem, Zev Rand of Teaneck, and Lucas Markman of Texas in Jerusalem. Photo courtesy of Zev rAnd

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whose film Summer Vacation was short-listed for an Oscar nomination.

For Mr. Rand, the superstar of the faculty is Arik Lahav-Leibovich, a celebrated Israeli film editor best known for his work on such multi-award-winning films as The Bands Visit (2007), Lebanon (2009), and Zero Motivation (2014). There really isnt much else a young editor can ask for than to learn from one of the top editors in Israeli cinema, he said. It has been an awesome experience.

Though he is only entering his sophomore year, Mr. Rand already has commercial film production and editing experience on his rsum, thanks mainly to three years in the amazing film club at the Rae Kush-ner Yeshiva High School in Livingston. The group pro-duced a range of videos for the school to use for fun-draising and other purposes, learning valuable skills along the way.

This genre has become a liberating mode of com-munication for Mr. Rand, who has struggled with a speech impediment all his life.

The reason my concentration is editing is because it is the volcano inside me and the words I do not have because of my stutter, he texts on his phone the eas-iest way for him to convey what he wishes to express verbally.

He has not allowed this challenge to keep him from achieving his goals thus far, so when he says that he aspires to be a head editor of feature films, a listener is inclined to believe it will happen.

Whether it will happen in America or Israel is a big-ger question. I want to do my part to transform Jeru-salem into a major international film production loca-tion, and I hope to make aliyah after the Israeli film scene gets bigger, he said.

He has visited Israel many times and would like to have an Israeli residence to call his own, even if its not full time. His older sister, Emma, lives in Tel Aviv and served in the Israel Defense Forces.

Mr. Rands familiarity with the Israeli landscape is helpful to first-time visitors in the workshop, who come from countries including Croatia, France, Pan-ama, and China, as well as Canada and the United States. They look up to people like me to show them all the fun stuff to do in Jerusalem, he said. Ive taken them to a lot of the great restaurants I found during my gap year in Israel at Mechinat Yeud.

The Rand family also includes parents Anne and Jonathan; Eli, 13; and Devora, 12. They are members of Congregation Bnai Yeshurun in Teaneck.

Many of the workshop participants are not Jewish, or Jewish but not religiously observant. Mr. Rand said that everyone gets along well. We all know how to deal with including everyone, even on Shabbat.

For his film festival project, he worked with three other students Lucas Markman of Texas, Niah Anson of Las Vegas, and Jerusalemite Gil Eliav on a docu-mentary about a local man who turns old windows into works of art. We did two days of photography and four days of post-production. We all hit it off right away, which saved a ton of time.

The Jerusalem Film Workshop has garnered the sup-port and involvement of leading lights in the industry. Steve Tisch, who won an Oscar for producing Forrest Gump, is a member of its advisory board, as are Dorit Inbar, general director of the New Fund for Cinema and Television, and Moshe Edry, head of United King Films.

According to Mr. Edry, We take great pride in wit-nessing how Israel has become a hub for some of the worlds most talented and ambitious filmmakers, and I know that this workshop will help bring greater expo-sure to the country.

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Experience the Difference!

WHEN?Now! Its time to satisfy your senses

WHERE?Congregation Shaarey Israel

e Traditional Synagogue ofRockland County and Northern New Jersey

For more information call us - visit us

Congregation Shaarey Israel18 Montebello Road Montebello, NY 10901 Tel: 845-369-0300 Fax: 845-369-0305

Find us at: www.congshaareyisrael.org Like us on FACEBOOK

We are a pro-active, pro-Israel

congregation welcoming all denominations

of our faith.

SIGHT: Visit and see our beautiful building, magnificent sanctuary and catering facility.

HEARING: Hear the Torah reading and thought provoking sermons delivered by Rabbi Reuven Stengel. Pray with and join in our congregational singing led by Cantor Menachem Bazian.

SMELL: the delicious aroma of our Shabbat kiddush being prepared in our glatt kosher kitchen.

TASTE: Enjoy the dairy, parve, sometimes meat gourmet foods.

TOUCH: Feel the touch of a welcoming handshake as you enter our sanctuary.

SIGHT

TASTE

SMELL

PLUS THE EXTRAS Custom crafted Hebrew School curriculum for children

5 13 years of age. Unique Cooking with the Torah classes offered to our

Hebrew School students, and children in our community. After Shabbat kiddush classes led by our clergy. Daily morning and evening services. Adult education classes by our clergy and members. Weekly Israeli dancing classes taught by Karin Sachs. Active mens club and sisterhood. Shabbat and holiday community dinners. Diversifi ed holiday and cultural programing throughout

the year. Plus a community Passover Seder.

TOUCH

From garage to basement to museumJewish Historical Society of North Jersey finds new homeLOIS GOLDRICH

Its been a long time coming. But when it opens its doors, the Jewish Historical Society of North Jerseys new home in Fair Lawn will do even more than offer its extensive collection of photos and memorabilia. According to the groups treasurer, Moe Liss, it will be a local history museum.

For two years, the JHSNJ board has been saying, We have to get out of the basement. We need a museum, Mr. Liss said.

The basement in question at Barnert Hospital in Paterson has been the most recent home to the soci-etys voluminous collection.

Overseen by Jerry Nathans, who is now the societys president emeritus, since the 1980s, the basement quar-ters supplanted the organizations ear-lier homes in Nathans garage, the Y in Wayne, and, briefly, William Paterson College.

We have a gold mine here, over 175 years of local Jewish history, Mr. Liss said. Its an amazing collection. Now the entire nation can see it. He hopes that the new location will be more visible and attract more people.

According to a JHSNJ statement, the collec-tion came into being in the 1980s, when Sylvia Firschein, at the Wayne Library, recognized [that] there was no col-lection of local Jew-ish history. She invited people to come and give oral histories and col-lected more than 100 interviews. From there the Jewish Historical Society of North Jersey was born.

Today, that collection includes artifacts such as silk mill tools and Torah covers, banners, trophies, year-books, newspapers, magazines, personal and family papers, and records of syna-gogues, service and social organizations, and businesses. The materials reflect the social, cultural, economic, and religious history of Jewish life in Bergen, Passaic, and Hudson counties, Mr. Liss said.

He hopes that the new facility will serve as a museum, library, and resource center not only for individuals but also for groups from Jewish schools.

Its a focal point we didnt have before, a valuable resource for the community, Mr. Liss said. In addition, the new location

on River Road across from ShopRite will be easily accessible and have onsite parking.

Were going to have a lot to do before it opens, he said. Theres an architec-tural firm drawing up plans for the build-ing and rooms a board member, archi-tect Marty Feitlowitz, who also is a former chair of the Paterson Historic Commission has donated his architectural skills to the project and it needs to be climate con-trolled. Then there are details like paint-ing, decorating, and buying furniture.

Still, Mr. Liss said, we plan to open after the holidays.

He said that several years ago, the

12-member board originally just friends of Mr. Nathans but now a more profes-sional body determined that the Barnert basement was just a storage space and had to be replaced by a larger, multiuse facility. Thanks to a grant from the Jewish Federation of North Jersey, the board was able to work with a strategic planner to reach this goal.

Reaching out to foundations, organi-zations, and individuals to get the funds it needed the property cost $200,000 we exceeded our goals, Mr. Liss, an active member of the fundraising commit-tee, said.

The real miracle of this is that we went

from virtually having no money at all to raising enough to buy and to renovate a property in just a few months, society president Richard Polton said in a state-ment issued by the organization. The opportunity to buy our own home was met with contributions from dozens and dozens of friends of our organization. It was exceedingly gratifying to feel the strength of support from so many people who wanted to see this happen.

The JHSNJs Photo Fridays has been a major factor not only in advertising and promoting the historical society but in fundraising as well, Mr. Liss said. Photo

Treasures from the Jewish Historical Society of North Jerseys files and display cases and, above at left, some of the files.

SEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY PAGE 12

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JOIN NOW AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR NEW TWO (2) YEAR

MEMBERSHIP PLANS Single Single Family Parent Adult

Dues Per Year $500 $350 $250

Building Fund 0 0 0

Holiday Seats 0 0 0

Hebrew School 0 0 0

Total $500 $350 $250

Newlyweds Membership Special First Year Free

Experience the Difference!

WHEN?Now! Its time to satisfy your senses

WHERE?Congregation Shaarey Israel

e Traditional Synagogue ofRockland County and Northern New Jersey

For more information call us - visit us

Congregation Shaarey Israel18 Montebello Road Montebello, NY 10901 Tel: 845-369-0300 Fax: 845-369-0305

Find us at: www.congshaareyisrael.org Like us on FACEBOOK

We are a pro-active, pro-Israel

congregation welcoming all denominations

of our faith.

SIGHT: Visit and see our beautiful building, magnificent sanctuary and catering facility.

HEARING: Hear the Torah reading and thought provoking sermons delivered by Rabbi Reuven Stengel. Pray with and join in our congregational singing led by Cantor Menachem Bazian.

SMELL: the delicious aroma of our Shabbat kiddush being prepared in our glatt kosher kitchen.

TASTE: Enjoy the dairy, parve, sometimes meat gourmet foods.

TOUCH: Feel the touch of a welcoming handshake as you enter our sanctuary.

SIGHT

TASTE

SMELL

PLUS THE EXTRAS Custom crafted Hebrew School curriculum for children

5 13 years of age. Unique Cooking with the Torah classes offered to our

Hebrew School students, and children in our community. After Shabbat kiddush classes led by our clergy. Daily morning and evening services. Adult education classes by our clergy and members. Weekly Israeli dancing classes taught by Karin Sachs. Active mens club and sisterhood. Shabbat and holiday community dinners. Diversifi ed holiday and cultural programing throughout

the year. Plus a community Passover Seder.

TOUCH

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Fridays is an email showcasing photo-graphs of community members, from a range of historical periods. Past president Dorothy Green started it a few years ago; it reaches 1,000 members and nonmembers as well as organizations and foundations.

While the new facility will retain the ser-vices of archivist Miriam Spectre, it will be staffed primarily by volunteers, Mr. Liss said.

One longtime volunteer, Miriam Gray, was drawn to the society through her con-nection to Paterson. When she was a small child, as a result of her fathers job, her family moved to the city, and it remains foundational to her.

I began kindergarten in Paterson, Ms. Gray said. More importantly, I started religious school in Paterson. So began a lifetime of commitment to Judaism, to Jew-ish education, to Israel, and to the magic of the Paterson Jewish community.

It was a special time in Jewish and

American history, she continued. The post World War II environment brought forth a passion for synagogue atten-dance, a fierce commitment to Israel, and a strong, very connected Jewish com-munity. This community, and my fam-ilys earnest devotion to the Jewish com-munity, left a lasting impression on me. Thus, my responsibility is to help main-tain, preserve, and showcase the history of the community that changed lives by being a model of charity, good deeds, and brotherhood.

Mr. Liss said that Fair Lawn was cho-sen as the location for the JHSNJ museum not just because it contained a building perfect for our needs but also because it contains a large Jewish population, is close to Paterson, where a large per-centage [of Jews] started out in the mid-1800s, and will allow the group to reach out to more Jews in Bergen County. He credited Alvin Reisbaum of Wayne, a JHSNJ board member and former presi-dent of the Jewish Federation of North Jersey, with selecting the site and negoti-ating for its purchase.

In the JHSNJ statement, Mr. Reisbaum said that the new facility will be able to offer climate-controlled rooms to protect the collections. There also will be areas for permanent exhibits and special displays, classes, meetings and events.

We were a warehouse, but now we will

be a museum, he said.People should come because its their

history, said Mr. Liss, who was born and raised in Paterson and has been active in the local Jewish community for many years. Why has he been so passionate about the historical society? I have tre-mendous roots in Paterson, he said. It was natural to get involved.

Jerry Nathans recalled some of the many treasures the society holds.

In more than 35 years, the society has amassed many wonderful items, including Jewish business and professional cards, telling who was here and what they did, he said. The Jewish community played an important part in the development of the city. Nathan Barnert was twice elected mayor, and a statue in his honor was erected in front of City Hall while he was still alive.

The society has an autobiography by Rabbi Abraham Shinedling about life in Paterson from about 1900 to 1910 in the area mostly north of the Passaic River

above Water Street. He gives many names and their occupations.

We have records of congregations that no longer exist in both Passaic and Bergen Counties, he continued. And we were able to microfilm the first five years of the Jewish Standard out of Jersey City.

When the old Jewish Community News went out of business, its editor, Edith Sobel, gave the society hundreds of its photos. Thats unusual, he said most photographers, when their business closed, left their negatives on the curb. Still, most of the photos are unidenti-fied, undated and no location or occa-sion, he said. We have Yiddish writings that need translation, as well as Yiddish and English books by local authors. We have congregation and organization scrap books and banners. There are oral interviews that need to be transcribed or digitized, handmade religious items and so much more.

To become a member of JHSNJ or make a tax deductible donation, go to https://jhsnj.wordpress.com or write to the Jew-ish Historical Society of North Jersey, 680 Broadway, Suite 2, Paterson, N.J. 07514. Email [email protected] or call (862) 257-1208 for more information.

Visitors are welcome to the collection at Barnert on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Appoint-ments are necessary.

The post World War II environment brought forth a passion for

synagogue attendance, a fi erce commitment to Israel, and a strong, very connected Jewish community.

MIRIAM GRAY

Historical SocietyFROM PAGE 10

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LETTER FROM ISRAEL

You have 60 minutes to get outEscape room games, including one from a Passaic, captivate Israelis

ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN

It was just the four of us in a small, dark room my husband and me, and our friends Esti and Benjie. To proceed to the next room we had to feel for the ringing mobile phone and the flashlights that would help us locate and correctly match up at least half a dozen locks and keys leading to the main door lock.

This task took us about 15 minutes, a quarter of the total time designated for our escape-room adventure at Secret Room Jerusalem. Not surprisingly, the clock ran down before we found the hidden stash of cash in the third and final room. But we had a heck of a good time trying.

If you havent already heard of real-life room escape games, you will soon no matter where you live. Escape rooms have been popping up all over the world, and Israel is no exception.

The concept, inspired by Agatha Chris-tie mystery novels and the 1980s Quest computer game, started in Silicon Valley around 2006. The challenge: Your group (usually two to five people, ages 12 or 14 and up) must escape a room or series of rooms within 60 minutes by scouring the environment for clever clues to solve puzzles leading to the exit. A theme, like escaping a prison cell or hunting for a trea-sure, heightens the fun.

There are now about 15 escape rooms in Israel, mostly in Tel Aviv. Nearly all of them offer a choice of English or Hebrew, and sometimes other languages. It can be a great activity for tourists at night or on a hot or rainy day, but you must register online in advance.

Olga Pasitselskaya from Secret Room Jerusalem says that people are still just learning about the concept. When Secret Room opened last March following two months of design and construction by founders Vladimir Shevelevich and Kon-stantin Karelin, they offered a Groupon deal that started the ball rolling.

People still ask us what they win at the end, Pasitselskaya said with a laugh. Of course, theres no actual prize aside from the satisfaction of successfully escaping, or the fun of trying. Many corporations use escape rooms as a team-building tool.

Some escape rooms have Israeli twists.Jerry Glazer made aliyah from Passaic.

He established Jerusalem Puzzle Quest, which poses would-be escapees in groups of up to eight with this question: In the Nazirs apartment are 4 wine bot-tles in a cabinet near the door. Get them and get out. Sound easy

Two problems. The cabinet is locked

and the Nazir is trying to stop you.(The choice to become a nazir is detailed

in the Bible. A nazir is someone who has vowed not to cut his hair or, more rel-evantly in this context, to drink wine. It is a vow viewed with some ambivalence by our tradition.)

Participants have the option of adding an actor who plays the nazir. This actor seeks to neutralize the participants as they try to unlock the wine cabinet.

The Nazir is not violent or scary, but he can slow you down, according to Jeru-salem Puzzle Quests website, www.jpq.co.il, but you will need to work fast and

brainstorm off of each other. Teamwork is key.

Questomania is another escape room offering an Israeli twist, with its Iron Dome themed game, based on the tech-nology that protected the country during last years Gaza war, coming soon.

Some of the larger escape rooms like EscapeIt Israel in Tel Aviv allow two teams of up to five members each to play against one another in identical setups.

Ofer Samuel, co-owner and founder of EscapeIt, experienced his first escape room in Berlin last year. My girlfriend suggested it; shed done one with her

family in London, he said. And it was awesome.

Then we did one in Amster-dam, and I decided I wanted to do something like this, on ste-roids. So I built EscapeIt Israel and opened last April.

In EscapeIts Syrian Spy Room, players assume the role of Mossad agents who must neu-tralize an assassination threat after Israels downing of six Syr-ian MiG-21s. The plot is based on an actual situation, which hap-pened in April 1967.

I knew at least one of my rooms would be specifically Israeli, said Mr. Samuel, who had been a chef and marketer before beginning this new ven-ture. We have so many stories

here, from biblical times on. I came up with the Syrian storyline in 12 minutes, based totally on history.

Mr. Samuel said that while many of Isra-els escape rooms use imported Russian games and technology escape rooms are popular in Moscow EscapeIt and a few others developed all their software and hardware in Israel.

Every game we will have in the future will be made in Israel as well, Mr. Sam-uel said. Our next branches in other cit-ies will be phenomenal. Im planning on doing it really, really big.

ISRAEL21C

Players search for clues inside Questomanias Total Loss escape room. PHOTO VIA YOUTUBE

Participants, like our correspondent Abby Leichman and her husband and friends, try to figure out how to escape from Secret Room. SECRET ROOM JERUSALEM

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Touro dean to address challenges of both aging and caregivingDr. Steven Huberman, found-ing dean of the Touro College Graduate School of Social Work, will discuss Growing Old: Taking Care of Yourself and Your Parents Unique Jewish Perspectives at Con-gregation Rinat Yisrael in Teaneck. The Saturday, August 15 presentation, set for 6:20 p.m. on Shabbat, Par-shat Reeh, will include a question and answer session.

Dr. Huberman will cover topics including the need for regular timed interaction with parents, medication

compliance, diet and exercise for seniors, long term care options and finances, caregiver fat igue, cons ider ing the big question, and advanced directives.

Dr. Huberman is a national expert on aging and recently served as president of the New York

State Association of Deans of Social Work Schools. The shul is at 389 W. Englewood Ave. For information, call (201) 837-2795 or go to www.rinat.org.

Rabbi Alberto Zeilicovich

Fair Lawn rabbi studies in Israel

Rabbi Alberto Zeilicovich of Temple Beth Sholom in Fair Lawn participated in this years Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar at Hart-man Institute In Jerusalem. Rabbi Zeilicovich joined scholars in Bible, Talmud, Jewish philosophy, and theology to explore jus-tice and righteousness and their application today in America and Israel. This fall, he will offer a series of adult education lec-tures at Temple Beth Sholom based on his study at Hartman.

One shul, two Kabbalat Shabbat services

Temple Israel and Jewish Community Center in Ridgewood, two congregations within one community, offers separate Conservative and Reconstructionist Shab-bat services.

Kabbalat Shabbat services will begin at 8 p.m. The Conservative service is held in the main sanctuary, while the Recon-structionist minyan meets on the centers

second floor. Both congregations come together for a festive Oneg Shabbat on Fri-day nights and for Kiddush lunch on Shab-bat morning, after both groups separate services have ended.

All services and special events are open to the community. Go to TI-JCCs website, www.synagogue.org, for information.

Local U.S. FIDF leaders visit soldiers, commanders, and basesMore than 20 young leaders and sup-porters of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, representing communities from the tristate area and across the United States, joined the FIDF Young Leader-ship Mission to Israel this month to show their appreciation for the IDF.

The mission brought members of FIDFs Young Leadership Division together with IDF soldiers. Mission par-ticipants received in-depth briefings by

military officers, toured strategic IDF bases to get a behind-the-scenes look into the Israeli military, and experienced Israel in an entirely new way.

The mission was led by FIDF national YL director Dan Haskell, FIDF develop-ment associate Carly Billig, and FIDF YL mission co-chairs and YL-NY board members Arielle Cole, Matthew Gelles, and Katie Frankel.

FIDF YL Mission participants, including Jaime Chavkin of Little Falls, atop an IDF Armored Corps Merkava IV main battle tank. OREN COHEN

Movie night honors Russian partisanMore than 100 people attended a movie night at Lubavitch on the Palisades of Tenafly to pay tribute to Nikolai Kiselev, a non-Jewish Russian partisan, who managed to save more 200 Jews of Dolginovo (Dalhinev) during World War II, at great personal risk. Kiselev later was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, an offi-cial title awarded by Yad Vashem on behalf of the state of Israel and the Jewish people to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. The title is awarded by a special commission, headed by an Israeli Supreme Court justice, according to a well-defined set of criteria and regulations.

Bertha Cremer-Karasek, one of the survivors, told the audience her story.

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Teaneck shul elects new officersThe Jewish Center of Teanecks new offi-cers, all dedicated and active members, bring a wide range of experience to the Jewish Center. According to President Isaac Student, We welcome families as well as individuals of all ages, and we all look forward to meeting members and guests at our daily, Shabbat and holiday services, weekly Shabbat kiddushes,

and various events. He also noted that the Jewish Center inaugurated a sepa-rate Sephardic minyan on Shabbat Mevarchim (the Shabbat before Rosh Chodesh); it will meet next on August 8.

The Jewish Center of Teaneck is at 70 Sterling Place. For information, call (201) 833-0515, ext. 200.

Nominating committee chair Sanford Hausler, left, with shul president Isaac Student; first vice president Sigismund Laster; second vice president Dr. Steven Myers; third vice president Elizabeth Sher; treasurer Allen Ezrapour, and secretary Daniel Chazin. MICHAEL LAVES

Jewish Home hosts wellness workshopsThe Jewish Home Assisted Living in River Vale is hosting a series of health workshops, empowering those with chronic illnesses to take control of their health. The peer-led programs, spon-sored by the Bergen County Department of Health Services, give people with chronic conditions and their caregivers the knowledge, skills, and confidence to take a more active role in their health care. Workshops are held for 2 1/2 hours weekly for six weeks.

Participants learn strategies for man-aging symptoms, working with health care professionals, setting weekly goals,

problem solving, relaxing, handling dif-ficult emotions, eating well, and exercis-ing safely and easily.

The Jewish Home Assisted Living Kaplen Family Senior Residence offers an elegant community which promotes resi-dent dignity in a home-like environment. The facility was awarded Advanced Standing status, granted by the New Jer-sey Department of Health and Senior Ser-vices for outstanding quality and consis-tency of service. Jewish Home Assisted Living is a nonsectarian community open to all seniors regardless of race, religion or national origin.

A session of Take Control of Your Health at the Jewish Home Assisted Liv-ing in River Vale. COURTESY JHAL

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Rockland countyPRe-Holiday issue

august 28

Extend an InvitationShowcase of the congregations

welcoming new families in RocklandFREE write-up for advertisers

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JOANNE PALMER

At least since the end of World War II, people have joined syna-gogues for a number of reasons. Prominent among those reasons was the need to have a place for a child to celebrate becoming bar or bat mitzvah. And an even more compelling reason often has been the understanding that its just what you do. What Jews do.

That understanding has broken down, as last years Pew study has shown (and as we have written about exhaustively), so now synagogues are trying to find their new cen-ters of gravity as the world changes around them.

The Montebello Jewish Center in Monte-bello, N.Y. thats in the town of Ramapo, across the state line from Mahwah, N.J. is facing the challenge by offering Kehillah Kedishah a sacred community. That com-munity is made up of about a dozen affinity groups, small clutches of people not nec-essarily shul members brought together by common interests, connected to the shul through the structure of the program.

Kehillah Kedishah grew out of the spiritual yearnings of two of the Conservative syna-gogues members, Nancy Recant and Laura Schneider, and its rabbi, Adam Baldachin.

Ms. Recant, who moved to Tuxedo about five years ago from Ridgewood and has been a member of the Montebello Jewish Center since then, had been feeling some

dissatisfaction with it. It wasnt working for me. It was not spiritual. It just didnt feel right, she said; Ms. Schneider shared that malaise, she said. It also was a bit off socially, she added. I was tired of going into shul and not knowing people. I would go on Shabbat and not really feel connected to anyone. I wasnt a regular shul-goer, though, because it wasnt appealing to me. Something needed to change.

It was like an old machine that wasnt working.

And as is true of many synagogues across the liberal Jewish world, the demographics were not in the Jewish centers favor. My husband and I are in our late 50s, early 60s, and we were among the younger members, she said. Where are the young people? Why werent they coming? Will we have a new

Creating sacred communityMontebello Jewish Center offers affinity groups in Kehillah Kedishah program

generation of Conservative Jews?The problems she saw, in other

words, were both specific to her syna-gogue, specific to her movement, and to a large extent true for the larger Jewish community.

Someone else might have given up on the shul, perhaps on Conservative Judaism, perhaps on Judaism itself, but Ms. Recant is a lifer, with the critical eye granted to people who know things from the inside.

Her parents, Mina Morgenstern Jacobs and Rabbi Israel Jacobs, were Holocaust survivors. Rabbi Jacobs was the cantor and ritual director at Ramat El, a Con-servative synagogue in suburban Phila-delphia, and Ms. Jacobs grew up in the home of one of the most extreme cha-sidic rebbes, the last of the dynasty of the Kotzker rebbe, Joseph Aaron Mor-gensztern. So Ms. Recant knew a great deal about religious life to her right and to her left. She liked much of it, she felt alienated by much of it, but I never left it, she said.

So there she was, unhappy but com-mitted. Ms. Schneiders father died at the beginning of January this year, and Mina Jacobs, Ms. Recants mother, died the next week. The energy of grief fueled both women; they met with Rabbi Bal-dachin, and the idea of Kehillah Kedis-hah began to take form. Soon, they had a committee they were joined by Linda Eisen and Elinor Silver.

Kehillah Kedishah is based on the work of Dr. Ron Wolfson, an educa-tor and Conservative Jew whose books delve into the ways that Jews can make community. The groups that make up Kehillah Kedishah will coalesce around such shared interests as hiking, mah jongg, arts and culture (defined in the

way that the groups members care to define it), spiritual memoir writing (which Ms. Recant will lead), morning meditation, socializing for seniors (I was shocked that there was a need for it, but so many people signed up for it, Ms. Recant said), scrapbooking, and morn-ing meditation.

Lets get people by their interests, Ms. Recant said. Those groups will be a doorway; we want to create as many doorways as possible.

We want to nurture leaders. Each group will have a leader or co-leader. Our leadership at the Kehillah Kedishah will visit each group at least twice a year.

It will be a network with a clearly defined center.

This is a unique program, Rabbi Bal-dachin said. People today are looking for community in ways that are not tra-ditional. We are looking to help people relate to other people in the synagogue in deeper ways.

The program is a low barrier to entry for anyone who is considering coming in.

Ron Wolfson offered a really great model for me personally about how I can offer connections through relation-ships, he continued. His local banker remembered that it was his childs birth-day, and that he was going on vacation. When he got back, the banker sent him a handwritten note, saying happy birthday to his daughter, and that she hoped he had a good vacation, and that he would stop by and tell her about it.

He was so touched! His own rabbi didnt remember about the birthday or the vacation.

It is so important to create more points of connection, so that even if the rabbi doesnt get to ask them how their last vacation was, at least people in the group will. Theyll know exactly whats going on with them.

Kehillah Kedishah is open to every-one; its leaders hope to draw partici-pants from both Rockland and Bergen counties. A survey up on the shuls website is offering Kehillah Kedishahs organizers more information about what people want. Registration will be open through the middle of August. For more information, go to the shuls web-site, www.montebellojc.org, and click on the Kehillah Kedishah tab at the top left.

Laura Schneider Nancy Recant Rabbi Adam Baldachin

Rockland


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Our affiliate Jewish Memorials of Rockland a complete full service monument and inscription provider.Large display on premises. 845-425-2256

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as always at Penguin, by an excellent design team."

Federation hosts trip to Berlin and PragueJoin the Jewish Federation of Rockland County on a mission to Berlin and Prague from October 26 to November 2. Spend time with German and Czech Jewish communities to learn how the federation is supporting and transforming the region as you visit a number of historical attractions.

Deposits are due by Monday, August 3. If a 15-per-son minimum is not met, deposits will be refunded. For information, call (888) 811-2812 or go to www.jewishrockland.org.

Holocaust museum plans November galaT h e H o l o c a u s t Museum & Study Cen-ter will hold its annual gala brunch on Sun-day, November 8, at 10:30 a.m., at Rockland Community Colleges Cultural Arts Center. This years honorees are the Sasson family Sharon, Uri, Elan, Ari, Yamit, Tami, and Julie.

Pulitzer Prize-win-ner Bret Stephens, the deputy editorial page editor for the Wall Street Jour-nal, will give the keynote address.

For information, journal ads, and tickets, call (845) 574-4099 or email [email protected].

Bret Stephens JASON SMITH

Family services beginscollecting school suppliesRockland Jewish Family Service is collecting donations to help make the first day of school a success for local families in need.

Suggested donations are backpacks, pens and #2 pencils, colored pencils and crayons, college and wide-ruled paper, spiral and composition notebooks, binders and folders, glue sticks and erasers, calcula-tors and pocket dictionaries, pencil boxes, sanitizers, tissue boxes, and gift cards to such stores as Staples, Walmart, and Target.

Donations can be dropped off at RJFS, 450 West Nyack Road, Suite 2, in West Nyack. Call Jessica at (845) 354-2121, ext. 177, or email [email protected].

Melton class scheduledThe Jewish Federa-tion of Rockland will hold a free Taste of Melton class, taught by Rabbi Paula Mack Drill, on August 13, at 12:30 p.m., in the Elkin conference room in the federation suite of the Rockland Jewish com-munity campus, 450 West Nyack Road, West Nyack.

The curriculum is set by the Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning, and there are also a number of individual classes. The Melton core curriculum, a two-year program, is a comprehensive series of text-based lessons.

For information call Roberta Seitzman at (845) 362-4200, ext. 130.

Upcoming events at United Hospice Several events are planned for the United Hospice of Rockland. On Sunday, August 9, the 12th annual Motorcycle Dice Run will start at Rhodes North Tav-ern, 40 Orange Turnpike, in Sloatsburg. Registration begins at 9:30 a.m. The ride ends with a party at the Haverstraw Elks Lodge. The Dancing with Our Stars gala is set for Sunday, October 4, at the Colonial Inn in Norwood.

For information, call (845) 634-4974 or go to hospi-ceofrockland.org.

Jewish wisdom on WednesdaysRockland Jewish Family Service offers a two-session course, Pirkei Avot: Ethics of the Fathers on August 5 and 12. On August 19 and 26 it will offer another two-session course, The Healing Wisdom of Rabbinic Tales. All classes are at 11 a.m. Light refreshments will be served. Call Carol at (845) 354-2121, ext. 142, or email [email protected] information, call (845) 574-4099.

Keep us informedWe welcome photos of community events. Photos must be high resolution jpg les. Please include a detailed caption and a daytime telephone. Mailed photos will only be returned with a self-addressed stamped envelope. Not every photo will be published.

[email protected] NJ Jewish Media Group1086 Teaneck Rd., Teaneck, NJ 07666(201) 837-8818

Rabbi Paula Mack Drill

Shul readies fun for summers endThe Nanuet Hebrew Center holds an end-of-summer community tot Shabbat, barbecue, and services under the stars on Friday, August 28 beginning at 5 p.m.

A white water rafting trip on the Lehigh River in Pennsylvania is planned for Sunday, August 30, leav-ing at 8 a.m., from the NHC. Reservations are requested immediately. The temple is at 411 South Little Tor Road, off Exit 10, Palisades Interstate Parkway, in New City. Call (845) 708-9181 or go to www.nanuethc.org.

Bim Bam Shabbat for Camp RamahThe Jewish Federation of Rockland continues Bim Bam Shabbat with Rocklands PJ Library and Ramah Day Camp at Ramah in Nyack, on Friday mornings through August 14 at 9:30 a.m.

The program includes Shabbat-related songs, sto-ries, and Jewish activities for toddlers and preschool-ers. The camp is at 303 Christian Herald Road. Call Lara Epstein at (845) 362-4200, ext. 180, or [email protected].

Help with combating hateThe Holocaust Museum & Study Center will offer a profes-sional workshop for teachers, professionals, and parents to help young people combat hate in all forms, including bullying and anti-Semitism.

Editorial

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KEEPING THE FAITH

Sinning against God in Ramapo

What does burying the dead have to do with raising reading scores in public schools?Everything.A bill now before the New York State Legislature

would strip away the powers of the elected members of Rockland Countys East Ramapo Central School Dis-trict Board of Education and hand those powers to a state-selected outside monitor. The districts board is made up of nine members, seven of whom are charedi.

What prompted the bill was a report issued by the New York State Board of Education, based on the find-ings of an appointed fiscal monitor, Henry M. Hank Greenberg.

What Greenberg found was horrifying.The Ramapo district is home to 33,000 children of

school age. Of that number, 9,000 students most of whom are Latino, black, or Haitian attend pub-

lic schools. Nearly all of the remaining 24,000 students attend private schools, which in the districts case is a euphemism for a net-work of 60 yeshivot.

By virtually every educa-tional measure Greenberg used, the East Ramapo dis-trict does not measure up, only down. For example, 46 percent of the 33,000 students in grades three through eight registered

well below proficient in reading skills, while 38 per-cent were merely below proficient. Only 14 percent were proficient and only 2 percent fell under the excels in standards column.

In math, 55 percent of all students in grades three through eight were well below proficient, while 32 percent were merely below proficient.

If someone needs it to be spelled out, this means that in East Ramapo, 85 percent of children in grades three through eight are incapable of simple arithmetic computations.

As to why, Beginning in 2009, [the] Board made draconian spending cuts to public school pro-grams and services in order to balance its budgets. Then, after cutting teachers, assistant teachers,

Shammai Engelmayer is rabbi of Temple Israel Community Center | Congregation Heichal Yisrael in Cliffside Park and Temple Beth El of North Bergen.


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Remembering our history

Past and present often braid together, just as hair does or for that matter chal-lah or havdalah candles do. (Maybe its a Jewish thing; our history is so very long that if we dont do that, it would tangle and snarl the way long hair does.)

In northern New Jersey, we can see two of those intricately coiled braids this week. In Di Goldene Kale, Zal-men Mlotek and the Folksbiene take an old operetta, recognize that some of its themes are modern and some are timeless, that its giggle-making silliness transcends now or then, that wonderful music is wonderful music and ask young singers to perform it in front of a modern audience.

We know that a common percep-tion of Yiddish is that its old, old, old, and that anything that touches it, even briefly, will come away faintly mildewed. Thats wrong, wrong, wrong. As Mr. Mlotek pointed out, the audiences that went to Second Avenue theaters were young (prob-ably younger than Broadway audi-ences today, because what young person can afford a ticket to Broad-way?), and the shows were made to appeal to them.

We urge our readers to experiment by going to see Di Goldene Kale at Rutgers on Wednesday night (and if its sold out, as it well might be, to push for another chance to see it). We can guarantee that you wont pick up any mold, and we can assure you that youll exit laughing. Maybe itll even tempt you to learn Yiddish.

Meanwhile, the New Jersey Histori-cal Society of North Jersey finally is able to move to a new home, a place where it can unpack, unfurl, and maybe even breathe.

The society speaks to the specific-ity of experience. If your New World roots are in New York, as mine are, then it is likely that you made the same assumption that I did that the American Jewish Ur was the Lower East Side. Yes, of course there was Ellis Island, but after that it was all Delancey and Houston and Riving-ton and Orchard. And that is true for many of us.

Our parents or grandparents moved on to the other four boroughs (or really three of them, because as far as we know almost no one went to Staten Island) and then on to the suburbs east to Long Island, north to Westches-ter, west to New Jersey. Others might

have moved on to other parts of the country (and then dropped off our radars, because really).That is not at all true, of course. Some of us learned through Philip Roth that the unpro-nounceable and nearly unspellable Weequahic, in Newark, was the mag-netic center of a tightly knit commu-nity, made up of people whose ances-tors moved there right off the boat and until recently rarely strayed farther than the towns that make up Metro-West, right next to Newark.

And thats still not the full truth. Many Jews went straight to Paterson, many of them textile workers drawn to the work there. Others went to Jer-sey City, and others to Hackensack. Each of those places developed its own community and culture. They are no longer as distinct as they used to be, but they have not vanished fully. The Historical Society pays homage to those very specific places, its objects carry their imprint, and its photographs shows us the faces of the people who lived and worked and loved there.

Places matter. Faces matter. His-tory matters. Connections matter. We are lucky to be able to see those truths this week. JP

Releasing Pollard

According to Jonathan Pollards lawyers (and as we told you on our website last week), the United States Parole Commission has decided that Jonathan Pollard will be released in November. He will have served 30 years of his life sentence.

We at this newspaper have argued before that no matter what you think of Pollards crime he did spy on the United States, albeit for a friendly country; he did sell the information, so his motive was at least partly venal; he was in prison far longer than any-one convicted of a similar offense,

even though those other crimes had far worse consequences for national security and unmasked spies he was kept in prison far too long.

He should have been released long ago, and we are glad that if nothing changes, soon he will be.

Our government denies that Mr. Pollard will be released in order to placate American and Israeli Jews, many of whom are enraged over the arms deal our secretary of state, John Kerry, signed with Iran.

Perhaps thats true. Perhaps the tim-ing was simply coincidental it is true that Mr. Pollard will be newly eligible

for parole then. But the timing seems so fortuitous the Jewish communi-tys been pushing for Pollards parole for many years, and the United States could use a bone to throw to us that it is hard to believe in that coincidence.

We are glad that Mr. Pollard will be released. It was long overdue. We pray that our leaders will have the wisdom to vote on the Iran deal in a way that history will show to have been wise our inclination is to believe that it should be rejected, but we claim no particular expertise.

We deplore the linkage between the two issues. JP

Shammai Engelmayer

Editorial

administrators, social workers, and guidance counselors, and putting a freeze on the purchase of new books, equipment, and supplies, the board diverted much of the savings to the yeshivot.

Most disturbing, as Greenberg put it, the Board appears to favor the interests of private schools over public schools.

That brings us to what burying the dead has to do with raising reading scores in public schools.

In the Babylonian Talmud tractate Gittin (61a), we are taught: We provide support for the poor of the non-Jews along with the poor of Israel, and visit the sick of the non-Jews along with the sick of Israel, and bury the dead of the non-Jews along with the dead of Israel, in accord with the Ways of Peace (darchei shalom).

In other words, you might think that Jews need to be concerned only about other Jews and their needs, but in order to live in peace with our non-Jewish neighbors, the Talmud says in Gittin, we do for them what we would do for our own.

There is nothing peaceful about the East Ramapo situation, however. Meetings of the school board tend to degenerate into verbal brawls, Greenberg wrote.

The excerpt from Gittin seems to imply, however, that we need to be concerned with the needs of the non-Jew only if not doing so could have disastrous consequences.

That indeed was the world in which the early Sages lived. Anti-Jewish riots often with fatal results were not uncommon, and the slightest slight could set them off.

By the close of the talmudic period, however, meaning around the year 600, things had improved somewhat, and halachic rul-ings reflected that. For example, Jewish physicians were told they had to heal all who were ill, without distinction, and they could not charge a fee if their patients were poor.

Jewish communities established norms of behavior that included visiting anyone who was ill, Jew or non-Jew, and giving charity to everyone in need. They also established communal phi-lanthropies, and some of those funds went to support the needs of the general non-Jewish community.

Darchei shalom was no longer the motivator; darchei Torah, the ways of the Torah, was. In his commentary to BT Bava Kamma 37b, the 13th century French scholar and author Menachem Meiri explained as much:

The double standard approach implied in the Gittin excerpt above and elsewhere (including in a passage further down) in the early stages of talmudic development referred, he said, specifi-cally to the nations that are not constrained by the ways of religion and morals, which is another way of saying they do not obey the so-called Seven Noahide Commandments.

However, the Meiri said, whenever they [the non-Jews] do observe these seven mitzvot, their legal status with respect to us is the same as our legal status with respect t

jewish standard, july 31, 2015

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