rosh hashana 5776

Vol. LXIX No. 37 | 26 Elul, 5775September 10, 2015njjewishnews.com

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5776

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W e live with a practical tradi-tion. We begin the Jewish New Year with 10 days devoted to

introspection. Between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur we are asked to review our past failures and victories, to evaluate our relationships and how we can make things better for our-selves and those we care for. We take stock of our lives and try to put our-selves back on the right path.

“Het” is the Hebrew word com-monly translated as “sin.” It is derived from the term that means “to miss the target.” The assumption is that sin is a mistake, an action we would correct, if possible. It is human to make mistakes — it is brave to try to correct them. This makes “teshuva” — translated as “to return” — an attainable task. We are not expected to be perfect, but we are expected to clean up the messes we have made.

Our tradition identifies two cat-egories of relation-ships : those we h a v e w i t h e a c h other and those we have with God. The mis-takes we make fall into these categories as well: the ways in which we hurt others and the ways in which we hurt God.

Isn’t it incredible that we can hurt God? Some may disagree and ask, “How can a perfect God be con-cerned with our sins?” In my opinion, it is a measure of God’s love for us that God created a rela-tionship in which God is affected by our actions. While some may say this is only a metaphor, I’m not so sure. If one truly believes in the concept of tikun olam, and recognizes our responsibility to fix the world, how can God not be disappointed and hurt when we fail?

This interplay between teshuva and het, our relationship to others, creates a very involved dynamic and ideally forces us to face our frail-ties and responsibilities. We have made mistakes — how can we atone for them? We are always in need of repentance and atonement.

We learn from the Midrash (Mishle 6:6):

The students of Rabbi Akiva asked him, “Which is greater, teshuva or tzedaka?”

He answered , “Teshuva , because sometimes one gives tze-daka to one who does not need it. However, teshuva comes from within (it is always needed).”

The students said, “Rabbi, have we not already found that tzedaka is greater than teshuva?”In this text, Rabbi Akiva places

emphasis on the necessity of teshuva — we are always in need of repen-tance and atonement. Yet the stu-dents refuse to accept his answer. The text doesn’t provide a resolution to the debate and seemingly leaves the matter for us to decide.

This text identifies some of the most important issues in our com-m u n i t y today: How does one

explore Judai sm and derive deep meaning from it?

What if you want to strengthen your Jewish

identity? One way is through introspection and to find yourself

in intense moments that we create through silent ritual and prayer. This is the essence of teshuva, the “return to one’s tradition.” This is one way, and it is a good way. But it is not the only way.

Another way to achieve this goal is to immerse oneself in tze-

daka. I have experi-enced moments of spiritual delight w r a p p e d i n m y

prayers and turning toward God, when the door

opened and my path was illumi-nated. But I have also experienced the intensity of giving a bag of school supplies to a child who has never had them before, of delivering 20,000 pounds of food to a shelter in Mis-sissippi or building a house in Appa-

lachia. I found these experiences equivalent ways of

becoming close to God.

I can te l l you this: When I am alone

and feel in the dark, when I am scared and aware of my

mortality, or when I am in pain, it is the tzedaka experiences that I dust off and recall. They bring me back. Rit-ual and prayer are vital expressions of my identity and form the basis of my observance, but my humanity comes from tzedaka.

Rabbi Steven Bayar received his bach-elor’s degree in religious studies and master’s degree in biblical studies and medieval Jewish philosophy from the University of Virginia. He was ordained at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and served congregations in Greenbelt, Md., and Chestnut Ridge, NY, before coming to Congregation B’nai Israel in Millburn in 1989.

Back on the proper pathSteven Bayar

My Jewish Learning/JTA

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W e love to kvetch about how early or late Rosh Hashana falls — as if we have any control

over when the holidays will appear. But this year, the Jewish New Year falls on the early side for us Americans, less than a week after Labor Day and the start of school. So there’s no time to agonize over menus or prep for weeks, which can sometimes be a good thing.

If you haven’t been menu planning since July, don’t fret. You can still put together an elegant but time-conscious meal for a deliciously sweet New Year.

CROCKPOT SHORT RIBS WITH POMEGRANATE MOLASSES

3 1/2 pounds short ribs on the bone1/2 tsp. cinnamon1/4 tsp. dried coriander1/2 tsp. sweet paprikaPinch red pepper flakes1 or 2 tsp. salt1/2 tsp. pepperOlive oil1 onion, diced3 garlic cloves, minced3 ribs of celery, diced1 heaping Tbsp. tomato paste1 1/2 cups chicken, beef, or veal stock1 1/2 cups red wine3 Tbsp. soy sauce1/3 cup pomegranate molasses, plus

extra for servingFresh parsley (optional)Pomegranate seeds (optional)

Mix cinnamon, coriander, paprika, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.

Place ribs on large plate and rub spice mix all over. Allow to sit in fridge

covered in plastic wrap a few hours if you have the time.

Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Sear ribs on all sides until brown. When all the ribs have been seared, place into bottom of a slow cooker.

Drain off all oil in pan, except for around two or three tablespoons. Add onion and celery and saute until trans-lucent, about four to six minutes. Add garlic and continue to cook. After a few minutes, add tomato paste and cook until incorporated into the vegetables.

Add cooked vegetables to slow cooker with the stock, wine, soy sauce, and pomegranate molasses. Set cooker for six hours on high, ensuring the short ribs are completely covered with liquid.

When short ribs are finished cook-ing, garnish an extra drizzle of pome-granate molasses, fresh chopped parsley, and pomegranate seeds, if desired.

Yield: Six servings


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An easy and elegant Rosh Hashana menu

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Crockpot Short Ribs With Pomegranate Molasses Photos by Shannon Sarna


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F rom Antarctica to Shanghai and from farms to cities, this year’s crop of High Holy Days books for children offers a globe-trotting explora-

tion. Friendship and family are the themes that run through five new titles that entertain and inform young ones and older readers. Turning the pages of a new book is the perfect way to usher in the hol-idays.

Penguin Rosh Hashanah, by Jennifer Tzivia MacLeod (CreateSpace Independent Publishing; ages three to six)

C e l e b r a t i n g R o s h Hashana can be tough for a young penguin in Antarctica. There are no bees to make honey and no apple trees — just a lot of snow. In this warmhearted, offbeat introduction to the Jewish New Year, illustrated with photographs of penguins and their natural habitat, the little penguin some-times finds it hard to do the right thing. In simple rhythmic verse, part of an animal-themed series on Jewish holidays (Otter Passover and Panda Purim), the Israeli-based writer Jennifer Tzivia MacLeod

conveys the themes of Rosh Hashana — reflection, for-giveness, faith, and family.

Time to Start a Brand New Year , by Rochel Groner Vorst; illustrated by Shepsil Scheinberg (Hachai Pub-lishing; ages two to five)

With this new title, Hachai Publishing adds to its collection of rhym-

ing, colorful stories for young kids. This High Holy Days story features a contemporary haredi Ortho-dox family getting ready to celebrate Rosh Hashana, from apple picking to harvesting honey to hearing the shofar. The author, who as a teen won Pitts-burgh’s Holocaust poetry contest, is a kindergarten teacher at a Jewish day school in Charlotte, NC, where she grew up.

Talia and the Very Yum Kippur, by Linda Elovitz Marshall; illustrated by Francesca Assirelli (Kar-Ben; ages four to eight)

The endearing Talia makes a return in this funny and charming encore to Talia and the Rude Vegeta-bles, featuring a young girl who sometimes confuses grown-up words that sound like others.

It’s Yom Kippur and Talia is visiting her grand-parents, who live on a farm. She helps her grand-mother prepare a noodle kugel for the family’s break fast, gathering eggs from the hen house and mi lk ing the cow with her grandfa-ther. Kids will be tickled by the bit of merry mayhem that follows when Talia mistakes the Hebrew word “yom” (meaning “day”) for “yum” — and she begins to grow impatient for her family’s “breakfast” as she wonders why a “fast day” is moving so slowly.

Grandma comes to the rescue by explaining that on Yom Kippur, people pray, fast, and ask for for-giveness for any wrongdoings, leading to a heart-

Best new kids’ books for the High Holy Days

Penny SchwartzJTA

See Books page 42

Iused to have the right idea for Yom Kippur. I liked the notion of an entire month to clean up my messes from the past year, and I worked hard

to deliver carefully worded apologies. The promise of a clean slate appealed to my resolution-making personality. And I appreciated the fact that the obligation to make life improvements deeper than, say, eating better, differentiated the Jewish New Year from the secular one. I was a High Holy Days superfan.

This year, however, I’ve found it difficult to focus solely on my faults, my wrongdoings, and my petty behavior. Enough about me, I’ve found myself thinking. Let’s talk about you.

I realize it’s not in the “High Holy Days spirit” to preoccupy myself with the ways I’ve been wronged, but I can’t stop thinking about the few relationships in my life that could use some healing. One friend, in particular, I’ve drifted apart from due to so many layers of back and forth “offenses” through the years that I’m not even sure how the tension started or why. I’m willing to do my part, but I refuse to take all the responsibility.

Knowing it was time to get some guidance, I asked one of my rabbis in Minneapolis the central question bothering me: “As I prepare for Yom Kip-pur, am I supposed to offer some kind of universal catchall forgiveness even to people who have not asked for it?”

According to Rabbi Fredman, we are not obli-gated to forgive those who do not ask. However,

Jewish law requires that we engage someone in dia-logue if we feel we’ve been wronged.

“If you are able to mend the relationship,” Rabbi Fredman said, “you should try.”

I was afraid I would get that kind of answer. It’s the worst-case scenario. I’m not obligated to forgive someone who doesn’t ask, yet I’m not supposed to hold a grudge.

What’s worse, I have to do the work of starting the conversation even if the other person has made no move to discuss where we stand. I told Rabbi Fredman that I found the task unrealistic. Let’s say I gently bring up the issue so I can put the nega-tive feelings behind me. How do I move on from my anger if my friend still won’t acknowledge any wrongdoing?

Certainly the time I’ve wasted going over the same details and telling myself that I’m justified in my point of view has added nothing positive to my life. Nevertheless, it’s hard to forgive someone who cannot shoulder any blame. Thinking that per-


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In their central Jerusalem apart-ment, Natan and Avital Sharansky can hear their new upstairs neigh-

bors chatting in French on their patio.The young family moved into the

penthouse shortly after immigrating to Israel with the help of the Jewish Agency for Israel — the semi-official organization for Jewish immigration to Israel, or aliya, which Natan Sha-ransky has headed since 2009.

The family is part of a major increase in aliya from France, amid rising levels of anti-Semitism and eco-nomic stagnation in that country. In 2014, 6,668 French people made aliya — a record number of newcomers in a single year from France — making that country the largest provider of Jewish immigrants to Israel for the first time in a given year.

But the Sharanskys and others don’t need data to confirm the influx of French arrivals. They are in plain

sight from Ashdod, where shop signs assure prospective customers that they have French-speaking staff, to Netanya, where some taxi drivers use broken, newly acquired French to communicate with tens of thousands of Francophones now living in the city.

Their presence is evident in Jeru-salem, too.

“You used to be able to get by in our neighborhood with either English or Hebrew,” Sharansky said of Old Katamon, an affluent neighborhood that’s home to many American-Israe-lis. “Now you can add French to the list.”

The influx makes 5775 ”the year of the aliya of choice,” according to Sha-ransky, who spent years in Soviet jails for his endeavors to make aliya from his native Donetsk in present-day Ukraine. This wave of olim from France — a Western and relatively

affluent democracy — is a major achievement for Israel and reward for Sharansky’s efforts to reshape the Jew-ish Agency after it had been defined by decades of “aliyas of necessity” from war zones as well as failed or dictatorial regimes.

Increasing aliya of choice was one of Sharansky’s major goals from his

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RoshHashana

O ur technology has exceeded our humanity,” Albert Einstein allegedly once lamented.

But filmmaker Tiffany Shlain — who utilizes an on-line, collaborative process and distribution method she dubs “cloud filmmaking” — says it’s possible that technology, used cor-rectly, can enhance our humanity.

As a testament to Shlain’s methods — as well as her rise to becoming one

of the most influential filmmakers in the American-Jewish world — her lat-est film, The Making of a Mensch, will be shown in more than 4,000 Jewish schools, synagogues, and other orga-nizations across the country during the High Holy Days.

The film — about the Mussar movement, a lesser-known strain of

What makes a mensch? A ‘digital diva’ wants to know

Gabe FriedmanJTA

Continued on next page

Tiffany Shlain has quietly become one of the most influential Jewish filmmakers in the country. Photo courtesy Tiffany Shlain

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Shlain near her studio in San Francisco with one of her cowriters, Sawyer Steele, right. Photo by Kristin Cofer

Jewish ethical thought known for pro-moting character development — will be released on Sept. 18. Shlain’s non-profit film company, Let It Ripple: Mobile Films for Global Change, is offering the short to the organizations for free, along with materials meant to foster discussions about moral disci-pline and ethical exploration.

It’s a pretty remarkable feat, con-sidering that just a few years ago Shlain — who founded the Webby Awards, for excellence on the Internet — had never heard of Mussar, which is Hebrew for “moral conduct.” Her new film, which has a run time of less than 15 minutes, coaches viewers on improving specific personality traits by combining Mussar teachings with strains of psychology, philosophy, social science, and Jewish history.

“The High Holy Days are a time of self-reflection...on who you are, what you did last year, and what you want to become,” Shlain said. “And Mussar is the perfect set of tools to help do that.”

This is Shlain’s second film that delves deeply into Jewish topics. Her first, The Tribe (2006), was inspired by the iconic Barbie doll.

“I always thought it was such an irony that a Jewish woman created the ultimate shiksa with the Barbie doll,” said Shlain, who identifies as “very culturally Jewish.”

The short — which used Barbie and its founder, Ruth Handler, as an entry point into an exploration of American-Jewish identity — played at the Sundance Film Festival and became the first documentary to top the iTunes film chart.

“Making of a Mensch is the next evolution of what I was wrestling with with The Tribe,” Shlain said. “The Tribe was about ‘OK, I’m Jewish, what

does that mean?’ Ten years later, ‘I’m Jewish, we celebrate Shabbat…but I want a deeper guide and meaning in this 24/7 world on living a good life and fulfilling it in my children.’”

Shlain, 45, lives in Mill Valley, Calif., just north of San Francisco, with her husband and two children. She grew up in northern California, the daughter of a neuroscientist and a psychologist, and loved film and tech-nology from an early age. She actually predicted the potential of the Internet before its time — in 1988, at age 18, she wrote a proposal called “Uniting Nations in Telecommunications and Software” that caught the eye of Cali-fornia Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Through her work for The Web Magazine — a publication that Shlain says failed because it was way ahead of its time — she founded the Webby Awards in 1996. The awards became a success partly due to Shlain’s quirky ideas, such as a five-word maximum for each award acceptance speech. San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown dubbed Shlain the “Digital Diva” of Silicon Valley.

But it wasn’t until she met her hus-band, Ken Goldberg, that she got in touch with her Jewish side. Goldberg, a professor of robotics at the Univer-sity of California, Berkeley, who now cowrites most of Shlain’s films, took her to Israel for their honeymoon and introduced her to Shabbat observance — a Jewish ritual that would inspire Shlain in the years to come.

After attending the inaugural con-ference organized by Reboot (a Jewish nonprofit that “engages and inspires young, Jewishly unconnected cultural creatives,” according to its website) in 2002 and making The Tribe, Shlain

Mensch from previous page


A Happy, Healthy, and Sweet New Year to all!

New Jersey Jewish News Staff

Shana Tova


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RoshHashanastarted working on a feature docu-mentary, Connected, which explored technology’s ways of connecting peo-ple. It was shown at the 2011 Sun-dance Film Festival.

While working on the film, Shlain watched her father, who had been diagnosed with brain cancer, deterio-rate to the point of having only “one good hour a day.” She resolved with her husband to turn off all of her fam-ily’s screens each Saturday — what she termed a “technology Shabbat” — in order to greater appreciate their time together.

“Most people are surprised by it because I founded the Webby Awards,” Shlain said. “But most of my work explores the good, the bad, and the potential [of the Internet], all three of those things. Disconnecting one day a week every week has just been the most profound experience for me.”

Reaching more peopleShlain went on to make a short film about the “technology Shabbat,” which was also the first episode of a web series called The Future Starts Here, which she was commissioned to make for AOL. Connected and the subsequent Brain Power were included in the State Department’s American Film Showcase, which showed the films at American embas-sies around the world.

Since The Tribe, Shlain has also carved out a niche for herself in the Jewish community, which she says gravitated toward the film’s distilla-

tion of complex ideas, and some Jew-ish educators and community leaders had been asking her for another “Jew-ish” film. Shlain credits her nonprofit with helping her reach out to Jewish institutions across the country with-out worrying about the profitability of her films.

“Establishing the nonprofit was a huge breakthrough as a filmmaker,” Shlain said. “Rather than focusing so much energy on licensing fees and selling the films, foundations and grants could support giving the films away for free, and we could make so many more films and have them reach so many more people.”

In producing The Making of a Mensch, Shlain on her website requested video submissions from people around the world to provide a definition of a mensch. (She had asked a different question for a previous short, The Science of Character.) Snip-pets from selected submissions will make their way into the final cut of the film, which Shlain is completing.

Shlain terms this collaborative process — along with releasing the film for free to maximize its reach and impact — “cloud filmmaking,” a term that symbolizes how deeply her work is entwined with the power of the Internet.

“I like the word ‘cloud’ because to me a cloud sounds intimate, and it sounds like creativity,” Shlain said.

“The exciting part for me is that I can be working on a script with three people at the same time or I can make a film with videos from people from all over the world. I cannot wait to share this.” n


Mensch from previous page


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B y the time the fast is over on Yom Kippur, the last thing you want to be doing is patch-keing in the kitchen to prepare lots of food.

And as much as I can’t wait to shove a bagel and cream cheese with all the fixins in my face, I also like to enjoy something sweet, something salty, and something a little fresh with my traditional post-fast carbs.

I recommend preparing the quinoa salad ahead of time, and when the fast is over, serve it on top of labne for an easy and healthful salad. The rich, sweet coffee cake hallah can also be baked ahead of time. And the flavors of the custom dill lemon caper cream cheese will only intensify when you let it sit overnight in the fridge.

Note: If you plan to make your own gravlax, you must start at least four days in advance of serving, or up to a week, otherwise the fish will not be ready to eat.

Homemade Gravlax

2 lbs. fresh center-cut wild salmon fillet, skin on½ cup kosher salt½ cup sugar

2 Tbsp. peppercorns2 tsp. crushed juniper berries 7-8 large sprigs fresh dill1-2 shots of gin or vodka

In a bowl, combine salt, sugar, peppercorns, and juniper berries. Line a glass dish that will fit your salmon fillet with two large pieces of plastic wrap and sprinkle half the salt and sugar mixture onto the bottom. Lay half the dill sprigs down, then cover with salmon. Sprinkle remaining mixture on top of fillet, then cover with remaining dill and alcohol. Wrap everything tightly in plastic. Leave it in the dish, as the salt will create a brine for the fish.

Refrigerate for three to four days, depending on the thickness of the filet. The lox is finished when the salmon’s hue has transitioned from pink to deep orange.

Beyond the bagel: Breaking the fast with flairShannon Sarna

JTA

RoshHashana

Gravlax Photos by Shannon Sarna


Before serving, discard dill and rinse fillet of the brine, peppercorns, and juniper berries. Slice thinly against the grain with a sharp knife. Serve with sliced lemon and capers.

Lemon DiLL Caper Cream Cheese

12 oz. cream cheese, at room tem-perature

2 tsp. lemon zest1 tsp. fresh lemon juice2 tsp. whole capers, chopped

roughly1 Tbsp. fresh chopped dillpinch of salt and pepper

Add all ingredients to a bowl. Mix together until flavors are incorpo-rated.

Place in a glass bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 24-48 hours until ready to serve. Garnish with additional dill if desired.

Yield: Six to eight servings

Coffee Cake haLLah

For the dough:1½ Tbsp. yeast1 tsp. sugar1 1/4 cup lukewarm water4½-5 cups all-purpose flour ¾ cup sugar¼ cup vegetable oil½ Tbsp. salt2 tsp. vanilla2 large eggs

For the crumb topping and filling:1¾ cups all-purpose flour1 cup packed light brown sugar1 heaping tsp. cinnamon¼ tsp. coarse sea salt1½ sticks cold butter or margarine,

cut into small pieces1 cup chopped pecans1 egg, beaten

For the glaze:2 cups powdered sugar1 tsp. vanilla4 Tbsp. milk or almond milk

In a small bowl place yeast, one tea-spoon sugar, and lukewarm water. Allow to sit five to 10 minutes, until it becomes foamy on top.

In a large bowl or stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, mix together one and one-half cups flour, salt, and sugar. After the water-yeast mixture has become foamy, add to flour mixture along with oil and vanilla. Mix thoroughly.

Add another cup of flour and eggs until smooth. Switch to the dough hook attachment using a stand mixer.

Add another one to one-and-one-half cups flour and then remove from bowl and place on a floured surface. Knead remaining flour into dough, continuing to knead for around 10 minutes. Don’t add more flour than the dough needs; the less flour, the lighter the dough.

Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with damp towel. Allow to rise three to four hours.

To make the crumb topping: Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, and sea salt in

a large bowl. Add cold butter or mar-garine and mix using a pastry cutter until mixture resembles crumbles. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.After the hallah is done rising, split

the dough evenly in half. Divide each half into three pieces. Roll each piece into a snake and then flatten. Sprin-kle crumb topping inside, then pinch sides up to close. Gently roll again to seal in filling. Repeat with all pieces and then braid, forming into a circle and pinching together each end of the braid.

Repeat with second half of dough.Place each hallah on a parchment

paper or silicon liner on baking sheet.Allow hallah to rise another 30-60

minutes, or until you can see the size has grown and hallah seems light.

Whisk egg in a small bowl. Brush on top of each hallah. Top each hallah with remaining crumb mixture.

Bake for 25-26 minutes, or until


L ’shana Tova!

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RoshHashana

crumbs are golden brown. Allow to cool 10-15 minutes.

Whisk together powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk (or almond milk) in a small bowl. Drizzle on top of hallah using small spoon.

Yield: Two loaves

Red Quinoa Tabouleh wiTh labne

1 cup red quinoa1 tsp. olive oilwater8 oz. labne1 large english cucumber or 2 Persian cucum-

bers, cut into ¼-inch pieces1 large beefsteak or Jersey tomato (diced), or pint

cherry tomatoes (halved)juice of 1/2 lemon plus 2 tsp. zest1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley1/4 cup chopped fresh mintsalt and pepperadditional extra virgin olive oil

Rinse quinoa well. Place with one and one-quar-ter cups water, olive oil, one-half teaspoon salt, and one-quarter teaspoon pepper in a small pot. Bring to boil then reduce heat to low for 10 min-utes. Remove from heat, fluff with a fork, and cover again for another five to 10 minutes.

Mix quinoa with cucumbers, tomatoes, lemon juice and zest, mint, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. This step can be prepared a day ahead and placed in the fridge.

When ready to serve, spread labne all over a large plate. Top labne with the quinoa tabouleh. Drizzle with additional good-quality olive oil and an extra squeeze of lemon juice. Serve immediately.

Recipes have not been tested by New Jersey Jewish News; therefore, the staff may be unable to answer readers’ questions.

Fast from previous page

Red Quinoa Tabouleh with Labne

n

C h a n c e s a r e , y o u ’ v e r e a d t h i s p a p e r b e f o r e .

N e w J e r s e y J e w i s h N e w s

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RoshHashana

felt set of apologies between Talia and Grandma. A truly yummy break fast with her family ends the tale — and there’s a kugel recipe at the back of the book.

Tamar’s Sukkah, by Ellie B. Gellman; illustrated by Katherine Janus Kahn (Kar-Ben; ages three to eight)

Bursting with the colors of fall, Tamar’s Sukkah is an upbeat story that emphasizes simple living, gratitude, and welcoming friends and strangers.

Tamar, the spunky her-oine of the tale, is on a mission to make her plain family sukka just right — older kids in the neighborhood are invited, one by one, to lend a hand.

The award-win-ning artist Katherine

Janus Kahn, whose books include the hugely popular Sammy Spider series, brings the action to life with bright illustrations that depict a pleasant, suburban multiracial neighborhood filled with squirrels, puppies, and bunnies. In the final double-page spread, the kids gather to admire their handiwork and share a simple snack. “A sukkah full of friends is just right,” Tamar exclaims.

Shanghai Sukkah, by Heidi Smith Hyde; illustra-tions by Jing Jing Tsong (Kar-Ben; ages five to nine)

Heidi Smith Hyde, an award-winning author (Feivel’s Flying Horses, Emanuel and the Hanuk-kah Rescue) and Jewish educator, delivers another intriguing tale of historical fiction that introduces older kids to Jewish life in less familiar settings and cultures.

This Sukkot story imagines the experiences of a family who fled Nazi Ger-many to Shanghai in the early 1930s. Despite their overcrowded neighbor-hood, young Marcus is eager to build a sukka in his new country. Mar-cus and his Jewish pals, helped by their new friend Liang, build a simple rooftop booth using ingenuity and bamboo. But without fresh fruit available to decorate the sukka, Marcus is disappointed that it is too plain. To cheer him up, Liang invites Marcus to the Chinese Moon Festival, China’s traditional autumn harvest fes-tival. A puzzling riddle that Marcus finds inside a glowing paper lantern leads to an unexpected act of kindness by his new friend. Even better than adding beauty to the sparely decorated sukka, Marcus dis-covers a deeper meaning to the holiday.

Illustrations by the noted Hawaiian artist Jing Jing Tsong vividly portray daily Jewish life in Shanghai in shades of browns and grays — in con-trast to the reds, gold, and orange that pop on two double-page spreads depicting the holidays, both Jewish and Chinese. An author’s note explains the heroism of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who helped thousands of Jews escape Nazi Ger-many by obtaining visas to travel through Japan and eventually settle in Shanghai.

Books from page 33

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BABA BILLIE’S POTATO KUGEL

8 medium Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and coarsely shredded

2 medium-large onions, coarsely shredded5 large eggs1/4 cup matza meal1/2 Tbsp. salt2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper2 tsp. garlic powderPaprika for sprinklingThick sea salt 1/3 cup olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Add one-third of a cup olive oil to a nine-by-13 Pyrex dish and put into the oven to heat.

Whisk eggs in a large bowl. Add potato, onion, matza meal, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

When oil has been heating about 10 minutes, remove from oven. Add a small spoonful of the potato mixture and if it starts sizzling, it is hot enough. If not, put it back in the oven for a few minutes.

When oil is ready, add potato mixture and spread in an even layer using an offset spatula or large spoon.

Sprinkle sweet or hot paprika on top and a sprinkle of thick sea salt.

Bake for 40-50 minutes until crispy around the edges and golden brown on top. Allow to cool slightly before cutting into squares. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Yield: 10-12 servings

ROASTED BROCCOLI WITH GARLIC

2 large or 3 medium heads broccoli5-6 garlic cloves, unpeeledSalt and pepperOlive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.Remove stems from broccoli. Cut into medium

florets. Spread on a large baking sheet, or two medium baking sheets so as not to overcrowd.

Add garlic cloves and salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle generously with olive oil.

Roast for 35-40 minutes, until just starting to get crispy and caramelized.

Yield: Six servings

APPLES AND HONEY BUNCH

1 quart apple cider1 quart ginger ale2 cups honey bourbon1 or 2 Granny Smith apples, cut into slicesHoney sticks (optional)

Chill apple cider, ginger ale, and bourbon. Pour into large pitcher or punch bowl and add ice and apple slices.

Garnish individual glasses with an apple slice and honey stick, if desired.

Recipes have not been tested by New Jersey Jewish News; therefore, the staff may be unable to answer read-ers’ questions.


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Baba Billie’s Potato Kugel

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RoshHashanaCan atonement be

accomplished in 140 characters or less?

Alina Dain SharonJNS.org

C oming from a nonobservant family of Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union to

Israel, a country where many people tend to lead secular lifestyles to begin with, I wasn’t raised in a particularly religious environment. In fact, I can count on fewer than five fingers the times that I set foot in a synagogue during my childhood.

But one aspect of the Jewish faith that has always appealed to me, and likely appeals to many other Jews — religious and non-religious alike — is its introspective morality. Every fall season, we look back on the past year in advance of Yom Kippur, deter-mine whom we have wronged, and try to atone for our interper-sonal sins with sincere apologies.

Around the time of Yom Kippur last year, I felt that I had unin-tentionally offended an old friend of mine. I then decided to make an apology. Belief in God or prayer aside, this felt to me like the decent thing to do.

Without too much t h o u g h t a b o u t t h e medium, I made the apology through a Facebook message. Although the apology was accepted, I later questioned whether I had han-dled this the right way.

In the fast-paced world we live in today, in which many social interac-tions are already conducted on-line, can apologizing on social media be considered true atonement? We sur-veyed Jewish religious leaders across denominations on the subject.

Popular Jewish blogger and social media expert Rabbi Jason Miller strongly argues against technology-fa-cilitated atonement.

“I’m a fan of face-to-face com-munication or, when not possible, a phone call. It’s important for people to hear your voice when you apolo-gize. Sending an e-mail, text message, or Facebook message is a good start, but it’s not sufficient for the per-formance of teshuva [atonement],” Miller says.

Yet Miller does acknowledge that “our communication preferences

change as new technology emerges,” which means that “what our society considers acceptable for sincere com-munication, like asking for forgiveness before Yom Kippur, also changes.”

“There was a time when it wouldn’t be considered appropriate to perform teshuva over the phone,” Miller says. “That changed as people moved far-ther away and there were not oppor-tunities for face-to-face communica-tion. Soon, e-mail and then texting became ‘tacky’ ways of performing teshuva — until these were the most common ways that we engage with

each other.”Even so, Miller maintains that

face-to-face communication should remain the preferred mode of teshuva, because it is much more difficult to ask for repentance in person.

In fact, according to Rabbi Joshua Rabin, director of kehilla enrich-ment (organizational development) at United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, people often tend to apolo-gize via social media “because some-times it’s just easier to type a message to somebody than to look them in the eye.”

Rabin says that these days, when “more and more people use technol-ogy — whether it’s text messaging or social media — to communicate with each other about important things, it actually is all the more reason why a face-to-face personal apology is the most meaningful thing you can do. It’s that much different from the typ-

See Atonement page 50

Jewish religious leaders across denominations were asked about the suitability of technology-facilitated Yom Kippur atonement. Photo by Colin/Wikimedia Commons

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RoshHashana

The commandment to sound the shofar is found in Leviticus: “In the seventh month, on the first

day of the month, you shall observe complete rest, a sacred occasion com-memorated with loud blasts” (Lev. 23:24), and in Numbers: “You shall observe it as a day when the horn is sounded” (Num. 29:1). Although it may have been the practice to sound the shofar on every new moon, the specific commandment applies only to the seventh new moon. Aside from cessation of work and the bringing of specific sacrifices, this is the only bib-

lical commandment connected with Rosh Hashana.

Some scholars

have suggested the making of loud noises on the New Year (a common practice even in the modem world) was originally connected with an attempt to frighten demons away so that the forces of good would tri-

umph and the New Year would be a

happy one. There is no

evidence that this approach informed the a c t o f b l o w -ing the shofar

in the rel igion of ancient Israel.

Nonetheless, it is interesting to note

t h a t t h e T a l m u d

The origins of the shofarRabbi Reuven Hammer

See Shofar page 49


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haps a woman would better understand my need to obsess a bit this year, I asked my friend (and fellow Kvell-er) Rebecca Einstein Schorr, a Reform rabbi, to advise me as if I were a congregant.

I gave her the same spiel: “How can I move for-ward in a relationship when I’m owed an apology, but it never comes?”

Rebecca agreed that the responsibility for teshuva (repentance) lies with the one who has wronged another individual.

“However,” she continued, “waiting for another person to recognize his or her role in causing you pain can shackle you to the past. While the onus still resides with the person who has hurt you, there is nothing constructive about holding onto grudges.”

“But how am I supposed to get rid of a grudge?” I asked.

“The best advice I can give someone is to act as though the other person has asked for forgiveness. Aside from extreme examples of physical or emo-tional abuse, it can be more productive to release others and move forward with the relationship in cases where no apology is forthcoming.”

I admitted I had no extreme situations to report, but I was still apprehensive about starting a new year devoting any time to a friend who is unable to recognize her role in a rift. I continued the conver-sation with my friend Rivkie Grossbaum, who also happens to be a teacher at Chabad Minneapolis.

There are three levels of forgiveness in Judaism, she told me. In the first level, “We might still be upset, yet we find it in ourselves not to hope for the person’s downfall.”

I could manage level one, as I don’t tend to imagine revenge schemes.

“At the second stage,” Rivkie said, “we might not be ready to relate to the person as we did before, but we are able to stop carrying feelings of resentment.”

I liked that Rivkie differentiated between mov-ing on from resentment and being close to the per-son again.

“The third stage is restoring the relationship. At this level not only have we forgiven the individual, but we’re now ready to be close again. The Talmud explains that we’re expected to find the strength to forgive on the first level. Absence of any forgiveness

whatsoever is a sign of cruelty.”There’s no doubt that the toxic nature of a

grudge has allowed me to overly focus on the few problematic relationships in my life instead of the many that are going well. I do not want to become the kind of person who is always feeling offended. And I think it’s safe to say if you’re perpetually waiting for an apology from friends and family, the problem is likely you and not everyone else.

The truth is, even if I decide to bring up the issues with the few people I have in mind, the exact apology I’m hoping for is probably not coming. By the time Yom Kippur begins, I’m going to force myself to stop obsessing about it, which is a decent form of forgiveness, albeit the most basic one. I hope that the people I’ve hurt will release me on that level, too. Maybe in another year I can improve my capacity for a higher form of forgiveness, or at the very least spend more time worrying about who I’ve hurt rather than the other way around.

This piece originally appeared on Kveller, a 70 Faces Media company.

RoshHashanaApology from page 34


n


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RoshHashanaAliya from page 35

tants and professional problem-solvers who offer an array of preparatory sessions tailored to particu-lar olim groups, like pensioners or families.

Unlike North American Jews, who immigrate to Israel at a steady rate of approximately 3,500 people each year, French immigrants to Israel can also be seen as olim of necessity because many are fleeing anti-Semitism, Sharansky conceded. He last vis-ited Paris in January, just two days after an armed Islamist gunned down four Jews at the city’s Hyper Cacher kosher shop. He spoke there to French Jews who were too fearful to wear their kipot on the street, who told him they would immigrate to Israel because they feel they’re being chased out of their homeland.

Yet, Sharansky pointed out, nobody is forcing these emigres to Israel.

“Their arrival in such numbers is an achieve-ment for Israel because the olim from France could have gone anywhere in Europe — to Britain, for example,” Sharansky said. “Many could have gone to the United States or Canada or Australia, but they chose Israel, not only for emotional reasons, but also because it competes well against all these other options economically, culturally, and in terms of quality of life.”

Meanwhile, aliya of necessity is also making a comeback, with nearly 10,000 people leaving war-torn Ukraine for Israel over the past 18 months. During that period, more Ukrainians moved to Israel than during the preceding five years.

Since the eruption last year of a civil conflict in the country’s east, aliya figures from Ukraine increased dramatically, reaching 5,840 emigres in 2014 — a 190 percent increase over 2013. In the first half of 2015, Israel saw the arrival of 3,450 Ukrainians compared to 2,592 French Jews. Unlike French citizens, Ukrainians need visas to live in — or even visit — European Union member states. For Ukrainian Jews, Israel is often the only Western country willing to take them in.

In parallel, immigration from Russia is also increasing due to the depreciation of the Russian ruble and the erosion of civil liberties under the government of Vladimir Putin, Sharansky said. In the first six months of 2015, a total of 2,958 Russian Jews — mostly from affluent cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg — made aliya, compared to 1,944 in the corresponding period last year.

“They don’t want to be locked in if the doors



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RoshHashanaAliya from previous page

close again,” Sharansky said.The Jewish Agency is well versed in handling

immigration of that sort. As recently as 2013, aliya from the former Soviet Union, Ethiopia, and devel-oping nations accounted for 50 percent of the total of 19,558 newcomers. But last year, aliya from those countries accounted for 45 percent of the 26,627 total, with Western countries — France, especially — providing the difference that tipped the scale in favor of aliya of choice.

Still, Sharansky has limited hope for attracting great numbers of Jews from Ukraine — home to European Jewry’s second-largest community, with roughly 360,000 Jews — and Russia, where 250,000 Jews live.

“Those who wanted to leave have left,” he said in reference to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian olim who came in the 1990s. “[For] those who stayed, we are making it easier for them to come, but in many cases they are determined to stay.”

Indeed, the vast majority of Ukrainian Jews have thrown in their lot with their young, anguished country. Thousands of Jews from the wartorn east — where secessionist militias backed by Russia are still fighting government troops despite a truce — live in refugee-camp conditions or with relatives, preferring to wait out the storm rather than emi-grate.

In Kiev, middle-class Jews, whose life savings have lost half their value, are waiting for better days. Many feel solidarity with their country, where anti-Semitic incidents are relatively rare.

“Everybody is suffering now: Jews, ethnic Rus-

sians, ethnic Ukrainians, Muslims,” said Zvi Ari-eli, a Jewish resident of Kiev whose military back-ground prepared him for his volunteer role as a coordinator on security matters for the city’s Jewish community. “There’s also a sense of unity in that.”

By contrast, Jews in Western Europe often speak of feeling singled out in the wake of attacks like the one at Hyper Cacher or the slaying of a Danish Jew in February outside his synagogue in Copenhagen. Mr. Fitoussi, a regular shopper at Hyper Cacher who declined to give his first name, said he decided to leave for Israel next year after he was called a “dirty Jew” on his way to synagogue, even though he was wearing a hat at the time over his kipa to avoid exactly that kind of situation.

“I don’t know how he knew I was Jewish,” said Fitoussi, who started concealing his kipa a few years ago. “They are looking for us now, and the more we hide, the closer they will look.”

He chose Israel because “it’s just a continuation — a correction, perhaps — of life in France,” he said. “A house in Paris will be a house in Jerusalem and the house in Netanya will replace the one in Deauville,” he said, in reference to a beach resort popular among Parisian Jews.

Shofar from page 46

ascribes to the shofar the power “to confuse the accuser,” suggesting that the sound of the shofar would destroy the power of Satan to speak against Israel on these holy days.

Latter-day mystics, following this talmudic tra-dition, added a collection of verses from Psalms to be read before the blowing of the shofar. One of them, Min hameitzar (out of the depths), is com-posed of an acrostic that reads kera satan (destroy Satan).

Another ancient use of the horn on the New Year was to proclaim the coronation of the victo-rious gods. We can see how this practice has been reinterpreted in Jewish tradition, which sees Rosh Hashana as the day when God, having completed the work of creation, is crowned king.

In the words of the psalmist, “With trumpets and the blast of the horn, raise a shout before the Lord, the king” (Ps. 98:6).

Rabbi Reuven Hammer is a former president of the International Rabbinical Assembly and one of the founders of the Masorti movement in Israel. This article is excerpted with permission from Entering the High Holy Days, published by the Jewish Publication Society, and appeared at myjewishlearning.com.n

n

ical option.”But there’s one exception, Rabin

argues: “if the wrong you committed was actually through social media.”

“If you were to write a really nasty tweet about somebody…I think that any teshuva process should involve your actually apologizing through that medium to begin the process, because that’s where the wrong was committed,” he says.

Rabbi Roni Handler — religious leader of Temple Micah in Law-renceville, director of community learning for the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and executive edi-tor of Ritualwell.org (a website com-mitted to blending Jewish tradition with innovation) — also believes that if the sin being atoned for is directly connected to social media, “there’s actually something really powerful about stating that [apology] on-line.”

“If we are atoning for something like spending too much time on social media and not paying attention to our family, then putting out a state-ment like that might serve to hold us accountable and show our recogni-tion of having a problem in this area,” Handler says.

“But it shouldn’t be that we just state it and then go back to our regu-

lar behavior,” she adds. “That, in fact, is not doing teshuva according to any Jewish scholar.”

In the Reconstructionist move-ment, explains Handler, “we value community a lot, and obviously the face-to-face community is really special and powerful.… But we are always thinking about other ways in which we can connect as well. I don’t know that [social media] should replace face-to-face connection, but we do recognize that community is important and there are a lot of dif-ferent ways to connect.”

Handler believes there is a differ-ence between posting a public apology on social media and sending a direct social media message to an individual. Posting a public apology has its place and value, though in many cases it should be just the first step on the way to teshuva, says Handler. Regarding direct messages on social media, their suitability for atonement “depends on the relationship itself,” she says.

“There is a lot that can end up being misconstrued in writing, whether it is in an e-mail, in a text, or on-line.… Something that people might be writ-ing quickly because they’re running out of the door might come out as curt or angry. So when one is making teshuva, having the proper intention


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Atonement from previous page

is so important for that. If the relationship that you have is one that you feel an e-mail could be suffi-cient [for an apology] then in that case maybe that would be okay,” Handler says.

Rabbi Esther Lederman, director of communities of practice at the Union for Reform Judaism, also cautions against making a mass apology on social media because forgiveness in the Jewish tradition must be sought “directly from the person you have hurt” and is “also about repairing the relationship, which can’t be done anonymously.”

Additionally, when it comes to apologizing to someone directly via social media, Lederman believes that the medium is less significant than the intention of the apology.

“I’ve had very meaningful exchanges by chat and e-mail, although I am also someone who prefers to communicate with a person by voice,” she says.

Lederman s ays she fears a world in which “tech-nology will replace the real human to human con-tact that is necessary for sacred engagement.” If this occurs, she says, “What is the point in gathering together as a community at an appointed time? I believe there is a sacred purpose to that and I don’t want e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter to ever replace this.”

The social media editor of Chabad.org, Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone, emphasizes that the most important aspect of atoning for interpersonal trans-gressions is understanding that forgiveness centers on how the aggrieved person receives the apology. If that person feels they were apologized to in the right way, then whatever the medium is becomes less sig-nificant.

“When we wish to truly convey the emotional impact of our words, we must make sure we truly understand how they will appear,” Lightstone says.

That appearance, in turn, will differ depending on who is receiving the apology.

“To some, nothing short of a phone call before Yom Kippur would be considered a serious and hon-est form of asking forgiveness,” says Lightstone. “To others, the very thought of a phone call would be considered unnecessary and even socially awkward. It takes a true understanding of who your friends are to really know the best way to reach out.”

Lightstone, therefore, is unlikely to consider my aforementioned decision to apologize to my friend via Facebook as invariably wrong, as long as the apology was truly accepted.

“If I’m able to truly convey my heartfelt remorse with an emoji and a short message, and I know that the person receiving it will be fully comforted or even prefer that text over a phone call or face-to-face apology, then I’m happy to do so,” Lightstone says. ■

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