The Jewish Star 04-19-2024

Af ter 200 days, may we merit to sing a ‘New Song’

As many of us are concluding our second seders late on Tuesday night, we will be remembering yetziyat Mitzrayim; we are, of course, commanded to do so. But we will also have in mind the 200th day of the war launched by Hamas on Oct. 7, and the 200th day of captivity for our brothers and sisters; we may not forget — and we must remind the world — of the evil made apparent that day.

Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau authored a “Prayer for Return of the Captives” (translated below) to be recited before “V’hi She’amda” (when we recount how Hashem rescues us in every generation from those who seek to annihilate us).

May it be the will of our Father in Heaven

Who brought His people Israel out from the suffering of Egypt

That He bless and save our abducted brothers and sisters, the hostages who are bound with chains. May He strengthen their souls and faith, Protect them from all harm and sickness, Have mercy on His sons and daughters awaiting His salvation, and nullify all cruel decrees

In His great kindness, may He hasten their redemption and speedily take them from darkness to light, from the pit of captivity to eternal freedom, and return them in peace to their families and homes.

Please plant brotherhood, peace and friendship in the hearts of all, Remove envy and baseless hatred and spread over us the Sukkah of Your peace, And may we merit to sing before You a “New Song.”

YU students meet Fetterman on Capitol Hill

More than 100 Yeshiva University students met last week in Washington with Sen. John Fetterman, one of Israel’s most vocal supporters in Congress. The Pennsylvania Democrat posted photos on social media holding a blue YU sweatshirt that states, “Yeshiva University. Am Yisrael chai. Together with Israel.”

“I don’t know why anybody would think I like hoodies,” the senator, known for his hooded sweatshirts, joked on Friday.

“Their

Nab man in link to antisemitic graffiti on LI

Antisemitic vandalism struck Long Island over the weekend, with Jew-hatred expressed in spraypainted graffiti along a heavily trafficked road that connects Bellmore and Merrick to East Meadow.

The graffiti, bearing such statements as “Zionism is Nazism,” “Stop the Genocide” and “Free Palestine,”was discovered on a large stretch of fencing along Merrick Avenue, just a few blocks south of Front Street, in the early hours on Monday.

A suspect was arrested early on Tuesday.

“The location of this hateful act was not chosen by accident,” said Nassau County Legislator Tom McKevitt, an East Meadow resident. “This is a portion of East Meadow which has a very large Jewish community. It was designed to incite violence and hate, which we will not tolerate here.”

Nearby neighborhoods are also home to a large number of Jewish residents.

Debbie Habshoosh, who’s yard backs up to Merrick Avenue, began displaying fliers on her fence last fall, showing photos of hostages taken by Hamas during its murderous invasion on Oct. 7. Habshoosh’s husband is Israeli, she said, and before Monday, in the six months since she put up the fliers, they hadn’t been touched.

But on April 15, she discovered the fliers had been defaced, and a majority of her neighbors’ fences had also been vandalized.

“I have never seen such a brazen

attack on our friends of the Jewish faith,” Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin said at a news conference on Monday, in response to the incident. “We should all be outraged, and we should all make a commitment that we are not going to stand for antisemitism in our communities.”

Clavin was joined by Hempstead Town Councilmen Chris Carini and Dennis Dunne, Receiver of Taxes Jeanine Driscoll, Legislator McKevitt, and District Attorney Anne Donnelly, along with dozens of East Meadow residents.

Clavin called East Meadow “the heartbeat” of the Town of Hempstead.

“This is a thriving community with many individuals of many faiths, but a hard practicing congregation is just blocks away that I’ve

been to many times,” he added, referring to the East Meadow Beth-El Jewish Center. “I’ve never been so disgusted in my entire life as a public official.”

Donnelly said the incident could be categorized as a “hate crime,” which means a crime is committed with a bias motivation. She added that her office has seen an increase in hate crimes in the last six months, and are aggressively prosecuting individuals responsible.

“Hate crimes are not acceptable in our town,” she said. “To our Jewish brothers and sisters — my heart hurts for you today. This is not something you should have to see. This is not something that you should have to put up with. I stand by you and stand with you, and will prosecute the individual and work with the police department to find

out who did this.”

The Town of Hempstead’s Quality of Life taskforce, which was created by Carini, promptly began to remove the graffiti from the fences.

“We must stand firm with our ally,” Carini said. “We must stand firm against antisemitism. We must stand firm against international terrorism. And we must demand that Albany fixes our broken criminal justice system and holds these criminals accountable.”

“We read about these things in the news — you see them on the news all the time, but to see it happening two minutes from our synagogue here, it’s something else,” said Aaron Marsh, spiritual leader of East Meadow Beth-El.

Marsh added everyone has the right to their own beliefs, but to deface property is outrageous. “It’s an

act of intimidation,” he said. The sidewalk in front of East Meadow-Beth El was also defaced, by a spray painted message that said “Free Palestine.”

The Nassau County Police Department and Nassau County District Attorney’s Office began investigating the graffiti around 6:20 am on Monday morning, and asked locals to check their home’s cameras, and report any findings to the police or the DA’s office.

Around 1:40 am on April 16, police announced that Sebastian Patino Caceres, 23, of East Meadow, was arrested in connection to the incident. Casceres was charged with seven counts of criminal mischief, possession of graffiti instruments and seven counts of making graffiti. He was arraigned on Tuesday, at the First District Court in Hempstead.

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Viewing our buildings from eyes of attacker

A 25-year veteran of the FBI, Rusty Rosenthal had a front-row seat to understanding the difference between US and Israeli approaches to security during his 11 years working in the bureau’s Tel Aviv field office.

“I worked with all the Israeli services — the Shin Bet, Mossad and the police — for all those years and really had an appreciation for their entire society’s culture of security, as opposed to ours sometimes, which is really a culture of freedom and privacy,” Rosenthal told JNS.

“Sometimes those are at odds with each other,” said Rosenthal, the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington’s executive director of community security since November.

In his new job, Rosenthal tries to inhabit those who would harm Jews.

“When you approach a building, for better or worse, you look at it from the eyes of an attacker,” he said. “You start from the outside. What are they seeing? Somebody wants to do harm. What are they observing?”

Whether doors are closed and locked is elementary. “Are they walking around and seeing doors propped open?” he said. “Or is there one entrance, and there are ushers or greeters, so that everyone is being looked at and knows you’re there?”

Some measures that he recommends seem obvious or basic, considering how quickly the threat environment has shifted, Rosenthal admits. “A few years ago, we weren’t even thinking about these things,” he said.

The Washington Federation created Rosenthal’s role just before Oct. 7, in response to already spiking Jew-hatred.

The Federation is responsible for some 300,000 Jews and 250 institutions, including synagogues, Jewish community centers and office buildings for Jewish organizations.

“We have the entire spectrum of not only politics but religiousness, so it’s an interesting and nuanced region in that respect,” he said. “You’re trying to meet the needs of a lot of different individuals.”

“That’s one of the reasons why the Federation decided to go this direction, so that we can tailor our services to the community as it needs, and that means a lot of pivoting sometimes,” he added.

Though the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish groups have recorded record spikes in Jew-hatred since Oct. 7, Rosenthal sees the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally of alt-right and neo-Nazi extremists in Charlottesville, Va., as the marker of a shift in normalization of antisemitism.

“I always look back to Charlottesville, when white supremacists were marching brazenly and openly with Nazi paraphernalia and chanting

Nazi chants and slogans,” he said. “Historically, when you see an increase in online hate, in the graffiti, in the harassment, there’s always an act of violence that comes along with it.”

“When I was overseas, we used to say, ‘If you’ve worked in one embassy, you’ve worked in one embassy,’ because every place operates differently,” Rosenthal told JNS. “Now I say the same thing when I go into synagogues.”

“Should we have security? Should it be armed security? How many? Where should they be staged?” he said. “These are the conversations that we’re having and need to have with every single institution.”

The 2014 federal budget included just $14 million for the program, which has grown to $274.5 million in the 2024 spending package, though that was a 10% cut from 2023. Jewish groups have said that at least twice as much funding is needed to meet the community’s security needs

Rosenthal said that every Jewish institution has to consider what level of security is appropriate for the threats it might face, and with which it is comfortable.

Many Jewish leaders refer sardonically to the enormous cost of these security measures as the “antisemitism tax,” which Jewish institutions must pay to protect themselves. Rosenthal sees those costs as an unfortunate necessity.

“When you think about the amount of resources being put towards security amongst the Jewish community these days, and you think about what those resources could be going to otherwise, I think that’s disappointing,” he said. “But I think it’s just part of the reality,” he said.

Programs like the Nonprofit Security Grant Program are largely intended to fund one-time grants for physical security improvements, such as concrete barriers, reinforced doors and alarm systems. Many institutions have also hired or are considering hiring costly armed security guards. Rosenthal said he doesn’t recommend armed security guards for every institution. He also doubts that those who buy guns will end up improving security for themselves or their communities.

“I’m very skeptical of untrained people carrying weapons,” he said. “I know for a fact that no matter how much people think they’re training with their weapons, they’re not going to be trained to the extent it’s probably necessary to handle a weapon in the type of situation that we’re foreseeing.”

“There are so many other things than just going to a range and hitting a target when it’s going to matter,” he said. “A lot of things go out the window in the moment of true stress, heightened blood pressure, tunnel vision. It’s a very risky scenario.”

As we celebrate the seder, we remember those who should still be with us. Some of those seats belong to Magen David Adom medics, who gave their lives trying to save others. Your donation provides the equipment MDA needs so that next year only Elijah’s seat may be empty. Join the effort at afmda.org or call 866.632.2763.

50 behind Batman call for Bibas family release

Yarden

Oct. 7. Photo

taken on Purim 2023.

Fifty animators and producers responsible for the character of Batman in various productions over the years signed a petition calling on Qatar and Egypt, two mediators in hostage talks, to push for the release of the Bibas family.

The father, Yarden, 34, his wife Shiri, 32, and their two children, Kfir (who spent his first birthday in captivity) and Ariel, 4, were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz.

Ariel loved the Batman character and liked to dress up as him.

“As members of the community of Batman writers, artists and editors, we are contacting you concerning the young Batman fan who was taken hostage by terrorists and has been held in Gaza since last October 7,” the petition reads.

“Moved by the many anecdotes of Ariel’s affection for the iconic character who has become a symbol of hope and justice for so many, we implore your governments to exercise all possible leverage on Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to immediately release the Bibas family, and all the Israeli hostages, from captivity,” it says.

“Every hostage is equally important, but naturally Batman writers and artists feel a special connection to this young Bat-fan and his family,” said historian Rafael Medoff, who organized the petition that was addressed to the ambassadors to the US of Egypt and Qatar. Medoff’s column appears periodically in The Jewish Star.

A pol in Georgia treats trolls to JNF trees

Georgia legislator Esther Panitch was inspired when Renee Evans, of the World Jewish Congress, bought trees in Israel for Peach State legislators who voted in favor of a bill codifying the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism into state law.

Evans put Jewish National Fund tree certificates on the lawmakers’ desks. “I saw the certificate, and I was like, ‘Huh. This would be great if I could just name it in honor of a troll’,” Panitch, a Democrat who is the only Jewish state legislator in Georgia, told JNS.

Thus her “trees for trolls” approach was born.

On April 11, Panitch posted on social media that she donated a tree in Israel in honor of the University of Georgia chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. “We should build a forest for all the trolls,” she wrote.

The trees cost $18 apiece — $10 each when purchased 10 at a time.

“Israel benefits, and the trolls get a little of their own medicine,” said Panitch, who grew up with a JNF pushke near the Shabbat candles and kiddush cup, and is also active in Hadassah.

Panitch said she was raised “kind of Conservadox. … I’m not shomer Shabbos but I’m trying to get better, and not be on social media, definitely, on Shabbat.”

She and her husband, who met at a Greater Miami Jewish Federation singles event — “we’re like poster kids,” she said — keep a kosher home. She went to Camp Ramah and all of her kids went to Camp Judaea. Both Panitch and her husband grew up in Zionist homes.

“We wanted to make sure that our kids had that education,” she said.

“I feel good that we have a government that is supporting not just Israel but the Jewish community within the United States,” she added. “I’m especially grateful to live in Georgia, where I have a state legislature and an executive branch, who

stands by the Jewish community, as evidenced by the passage of the IHRA definition this past year.”

Panitch had a run-in with Jewish Voice for Peace in March 2023, which led her to buy an Israeli tree in honor of that anti-Israel group earlier this month.

After seeing JVP members at a hearing, she invited them to meet with her in her office. Though they scheduled a meeting, the JVP people didn’t show up, Panitch said.

“I’m sitting in my office emailing them, ‘Hey are you in the building? Are you close?’ They said, ‘Oh sorry. We couldn’t get to the Capitol today’,” Panitch said. “Then I saw my minority leader, who said, ‘Can you meet with me this afternoon, there are some Jewish people coming.’ I’m like, ‘Who’?” He told Panitch the names, and it turned out to be JVP.

Jewish Voice for Peace was going around telling Georgia lawmakers that it represents the Jewish community.

“By the time that we realized that they were lying, it was a little late in the session to educate my colleagues about who actually represents the Jewish community, or who didn’t represent the Jewish community,” she said.

In late November, State Affairs Georgia asked Panitch in an interview what the people of Georgia should know about the war against Hamas in Gaza.

“Anybody who tokenizes Jews by holding up JVP, or IfNotNow, they’re tokenizing the Jewish community by using some who are willing to be used as a cover,” Panitch told the news outlet. “Don’t forget, there were Jews who supported the Nazi party before they were killed.”

“Well they didn’t like that,” Panitch said. She receives antisemitic attacks from both the far left and far right, she said, and many also have “a misogynistic slant.”

“I don’t pay attention to people I don’t know. They can spend all of their time trolling me. It’s fine,” she told JNS. “It’s the people I do know, who have either been silent or have refused to stand up, notwithstanding that we, the Jewish community, have stood up for other minorities in their times.”

“I’m a lawyer. I have a thicker skin. I do divorce and criminal defense. I’ve been the subject of hate campaigns before,” she added. “It’s just something you deal with. It’s not fun, but you deal with it. You don’t let it distract you, and frankly, the more it comes, you know you’re closer to your target.”

WINE AND DINE Ancient matzah’s tasty beyond-seder twist

Matzah is as old as the Exodus. The flour and water cracker bread has a starring role in the saga, with the Jews leaving Egypt so quickly that they couldn’t let their bread rise.

The crispy flat bread is the quintessential symbol of both the affliction and the freedom of the Jewish people and, for over 3,400 years, it has remained the same, baked by the same rules and with the same ingredients, millennium after millennium — flour and water, 18 minutes, and nothing else. Not very interesting as foods go.

Long ago, bakeries in cities, towns and shtetles across Europe, burned fire in their ovens to kasher them for the week-long holiday. They then watched their clocks and hurried through the 18-minute process of mixing, rolling, and baking the cracker-like breads in uneven shaped pieces. One second longer than 18 minutes, and the product was deemed not suitable — not kosher — for the holiday. The acceptable pieces were wrapped in cloth and sold to the community.

The process remained static for thousands of years across continents, though wars and migrating populations in a process adhered to in the strictest sense, until the industrialization of the world in the early 19th century. The invention of machines that could do the work of people changed everything (except the sameness of the taste of the product itself).

In France, in 1838, a man named Isaac Singer invented a rolling machine (like the old wringer washing machines) that rolled out the dough faster than his workers could. People were aghast! How could an observant Jew trust this new-fangled machine to create strictly kosher matzah? Many observant Jews shied away, preferring the hand-made matzah from their old, trusted bakeries.

In 1888, in America, a young man named Dov Behr opened the first mechanized matzah factory in Cincinnati, Ohio. He used the name, “The B. Manischewitz Company,” and revolutionized the matzah making business. He was very proud of his modern approach, yet he strictly adhered to the laws pertaining to this food. Though many distrusted this modern incarnation of this ancient tradition, Behr persevered.

The debate between machine-made and man-made matzah raged, and in 1908, a bakery located in a tenement in the Lower East Side boasted that it could make two million pounds of matzah a year, by hand, and most of it during Passover. In 1918 a new factory opened, Streits, and they, too, made all their matzah by hand.

In 1920, Dov Behr proclaimed that he was the biggest manufacturer of matzah in America, turning out 1.25 million pieces of the “bread of affliction” every year. But many people still would not buy the uniformly shaped, machinemade, carefully boxed matzah. They did not trust the sanctity of the flour, the mixing process, or the baking. So Dov Behr headed to Jerusalem to study. He returned 13 years later with acceptable credibility (for most Jews) as a matzah authority. Sales of his machine matzah soared and he opened a second factory, in Newark, NJ, in 1932. Still, matzah was matzah and nothing could be done to make it taste like anything other than the bread of affliction.

Incredibly, this debate continued into the 1950s, when a famous Ukrainian rabbi, Solomon Kluger, wrote a strong argument stating

that the matzah machines would deprive poor Jews of the jobs of mixing, kneading, rolling and baking the matzah. His own brother-inlaw, Rabbi Joseph Saul Nathanson, argued that the machine made matzah was cheap enough for poor people to afford. Rabbis from around the world weighed in and fueled the fight.

For some, the argument has never ended. Luckily, today, people can buy what they like, machine or man-made. But, either way, the taste is unchanged.

Somewhere along the line, someone decided to make matzah more palatable by drenching it in chocolate. Good call. It spawned ideas for even more ways to make matzah more appealing. Today, matzah — though not what you’ll be eating to fulfill the mitzvah — is available covered in orange chocolate, mint chocolate, raspberry chocolate, or white, milk, or dark chocolate. You can even

get it from Amazon and it is eligible for Prime shipping!

As they say, “We’ve come a long way!” But there’s more…

In addition to processed, chocolate-covered matzah, recipes abound for the home cook who wants to add matzah snacks to the week. Most are designed to mask the non-flavor of the matzah and none is as popular as the decadent recipe created by famed baker, Marcy Goldman, in the 1990’s.

Her recipe, “My Trademark, Most Requested, Absolutely Magnificent Caramel Matzah Crunch,” revolutionized the matzah world and the sales of butter, brown sugar and matzah probably increases dramatically every Passover as cooks make the treat again and again. In fact, it is the most common matzah recipe online and every blogger, Internet food writer and home cook has claimed the creation as is or her

own! Goldman’s recipe made matzah not only palatable, but addictively delicious.

Leading manufacturers could not match this or other incredible matzah concoctions — storage and shipping were probably issues — so home cooks took the recipe and ran with it adding all kinds of deliciousness to Goldman’s invention. Some added nuts and others added pieces of candy, coconut, and even sea salt. That now world-famous recipe opened a universe of possibilities for the traditional, ritualistic, ancient food.

So what can one do with matzah after the sedorim to make it taste delicious and delectable? And, to use up those extra boxes we always seem to have? The answer is, with some imagination, lots of things!

1. Mix matzah farfel, nuts, raisins, shaved coconut and any other fruits or nuts you like for matzah trail mix. Add chocolate chips, too.

2. Toss matzah farfel with a bit of olive oil, lots of spices, and herbs. Make it as spicy as you like. Toast for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool, toss with nuts and some grated parmesan, if you like.

3. Break matzah into squares. Top with a marshmallow, some chopped chocolate and bake at 375 for 3-5 minutes. Add a second matzah square and drizzle with melted chocolate. Passover S’mores! For a treat, use Matza Crunch instead of plain matzah.

4. Mix finely crushed matzah, light brown sugar, coconut, ground almonds and melted butter. Mix until it’s like wet sand. Layer with ice cream or yogurt, and fresh berries, or use to top fresh fruit.

5. Take your favorite peanut brittle recipe, substitute matzah farfel and sliced almonds for the peanuts. Yum.

6. Take broken pieces of matzah, top with shredded cheddar and home-made salsa. Microwave till the cheese is melted. Add hot peppers, sliced olives, sour cream, etc. Matzah Nachos

7. Matzah Bark: Take 3 pieces of matzah. Melt some dark, white and milk chocolate in separate bowls. Spread one kind of chocolate on each matzah. Top with any candy, fruit or nuts, snipped marshmallows, etc you like. Add some sea salt, if you like and dust with some cocoa powder. Chill, break up and mix pieces of all colors. Be creative!

8. Melt 12 ounces of white chocolate and divide into four bowls. Put about half in one bowl and divide the rest among the other 3. Color the small bowls with 3 different colors of food coloring. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Cover the pieces of matzah completely with white choc-

After eggplant at seder, here’s a post-dinner treat

The main course is a tasty, room-temperature side dish that you should make in advance so that when you are ready to grill, most of your meal is already prepared. I broil the eggplant slices in the oven, but you also can cook them on the grill before you cook the steak.

Roasted Eggplant with BellPepper Vinaigrette (Pareve)

Serves 6 to 8

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 17 minutes

Advance prep: May be made 2 days in advance; finished dish needs to marinate for 2 hours

Equipment: •Cutting board •Knives •Measuring spoons •Pastry brush •Grill or baking pan •Medium frying pan •Tongs •Silicone spatula

Cutting peppers: To cut bell peppers into small dice (cubes), first cut the peppers in half, from the stem end to the bottom, and remove the seeds and white pith. Cut in half again lengthwise. Slice each part the long way into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Gather the slices together and cut them across into small cubes. Repeat with the other pepper quarters.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 medium eggplants, not peeled, cut into 3/4-inch-thick slices

• 5 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

• ground cumin and turmeric for dusting eggplant

• 1/2 red pepper, seeded and cut into 1/4inch cubes

• 1/2 yellow pepper, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch cubes

• 1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped

• 2 Tbsp. sugar

• 3 Tbsp. white or apple cider vinegar

• salt and black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

To prepare the eggplant: Preheat the broiler.

Pour 1 tablespoon of the oil on a grill pan or other baking pan and rub to coat. Add the eggplant slices in one layer and brush with another Tbsp. of oil. Sprinkle a little cumin and turmeric on top.

Broil for 5 to 7 minutes, or until browned. Turn over the eggplant slices; sprinkle with some more cumin and turmeric; and add some black pepper. Broil for another 4 to 5 minutes.

Let cool for 3 minutes and then transfer to a serving platter.

To prepare the peppers and onions:

Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a medium frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the diced red and yellow peppers, and the onions, and cook for 3 minutes. Add the sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, and cook for 1 minute.

To assemble the dish:

Scatter the pepper and onion mixture over the eggplant slices, making sure to place some on top of all the slices, as well as under them. Let the dish marinate for 2 hours or overnight. Serve at room temperature.

Chocolate Quinoa Cake (Pareve, Gluten-Free)

Serves 12

I had heard the myth of chocolate cakes made with cooked quinoa and didn’t quite believe that they would actually be tasty. This cake is surprisingly moist and delicious — great for Passover and all year round.

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes to cook quinoa, 50 minutes to bake cake

Advance prep: May be made 3 days in advance or frozen

Equipment: Measuring cups and spoons, small saucepan with lid, 12-cup Bundt pan, food processor, medium microwave-safe bowl or double boiler, silicone spatula, wooden kebab

skewer, wire cooling rack, large microwave-safe bowl, whisk

INGREDIENTS:

• 3/4 cup quinoa

• 1-1/2 cups water

• cooking spray

• 2 Tbsp. potato starch

• 1/3 cup orange juice (from 1 orange)

• 4 large eggs

• 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract (or other vanilla, if for Passover)

• 3/4 cup coconut oil

• 1-1/2 cups sugar

• 1 cup dark unsweetened cocoa

• 2 tsp. baking powder

• 1/2 tsp. salt

• 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate

• fresh raspberries, for garnish (optional) Glaze (Optional)

• 5 ounces (140g) bittersweet chocolate

• 1 Tbsp. sunflower or safflower oil

• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract (or other vanilla, if for Passover)

Directions:

Place the quinoa and water into a small saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover the saucepan, and cook the quinoa for 15 minutes, or until all the liquid has been absorbed. Set the pan aside. The quinoa may be made 1 day in advance.

Preheat the oven to 350° degrees. Use cooking spray to grease a 12-cup Bundt pan. Sprinkle the potato starch over the greased pan and then shake the pan to remove any excess starch.

Place the quinoa in the bowl of a food processor. Add the orange juice, eggs, vanilla, oil, sugar, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Process until the mixture is very smooth.

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler, or place in a medium microwave-safe bowl, and put in a microwave for 45 seconds, stirring and then heating the chocolate for another 30 seconds, until it is melted. Add the chocolate to the quinoa batter and process until well mixed. Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan and bake it for 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool for 10 minutes and then remove it gently from the pan. Let it cool on a wire cooling rack.

To make the glaze:

Melt the chocolate in a large microwave-safe bowl in the microwave (see above) or over a double boiler. Add the oil and vanilla and whisk well. Let the glaze sit for 5 minutes and then whisk it again. Use a silicone spatula to spread the glaze all over the cake.

Paula Shoyer is the author of “The Healthy Jewish Kitchen,” “The Holiday Kosher Baker,” “The Kosher Baker,” “The New Passover Menu” and “The Instant Pot Kosher Cookbook.”

Matzah that’s old as Exodus, with new twist…

Continued from page 12

olate and then drizzle with the colors. Let set or ue a toothpick to drag the colors into designs. Top with any toppings you like. Great kids’ project.

9. Melt some chocolate. Add matzah farfel, raisins and chopped nuts. Spoon into a clean ice cube tray and chill. Makes old fashioned Chunky candy bars!

10. Crush some matzah farfel into smaller pieces. Heat some heavy cream to bubbling. Remove from heat and add an equal amount of chopped dark chocolate. Stir to melt and let cool. Add the matzah and maybe some chopped almonds and cherries. Refrigerate for an hour, scoop and form into balls and roll in cocoa powder or powdered sugar. Matzah Truffles!

11. Mix farfel with olive oil or melted butter. Spread on cookie sheet. Toast at 350. Sprinkle with kosher salt and some sugar. Mix well. Kettle Matzah!

12. Take 2 cups sugar and 2 tablespoons water. Bring to a boil and cook until golden. Pour

over 5 sheets of broken matzah pieces that are on a parchment lined, rimmed baking sheet. Ot, pour over 3 to 5 cups of matzah farfel, spread evenly over parchment on a foil-lined, rimmed baking sheet Let cool, or top while hot, to melt chocolate pieces, white, dark, or milk. Add all kinds of toppings on the chocolate and let cool. Matzah brittle!

13. Make Marcie Goldman’s Matzah Crunch recipe and, instead of chocolate, top with:

•White chocolate and chopped pistachios

•White chocolate, chopped macadamia nuts and dried cranberries

•No chocolate, just chopped toasted walnuts or other nuts

•Pieces of Passover candy, ice cream topping like sprinkles or other candies

•Pieces of chopped apricots, dried cherries, or other dried fruit

Add nothing at all; the toffee is sublime!

Matzah Crunch Ice Cream Cake (Dairy)

This is a simple dessert that makes a delicious, chocolate Toffee treat!

• 2/3 cup heavy cream

• 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

• 4 pieces Matzah Crunch, cooled, I like plain, but you can top with chocolate

• 2 pints ice cream, vanilla, coffee, chocolate, chocolate chip -almost any flavor will work, softened

Heat the cream until steaming and slight bubbles form on the side. Remove from heat and add the chopped chocolate. Stir, cover, and set aside for 5 minutes. Mix until the chocolate is melted. Set aside.

Line an 8-inch square baking pan with 2 pieces of parchment so they cross and overhang on all sides.

Set a piece of matzah crunch, toffee side down, spread some chocolate over the top and chill for 5 minutes. Spread half of the softened ice cream over the matzah. Top with another piece of matzah, toffee side down. Spread with chocolate and chill for 5 minutes. Add a piece of matzah, toffee side down and repeat. Top with a piece of matzah, toffee side up and gently press down. drizzle remaining chocolate over the matzah and freeze for several hours or overnight.

Let soften at room temperature for 20 minutes before serving. Use the paper and remove from the pan, slide onto a serving plate and cut into 2x4-inch pieces. Serves 6 to 10.

jewish star torah columnists:

•Rabbi Avi Billet of Anshei Chesed, Boynton Beach, FL, mohel and Five Towns native •Rabbi David Etengoff of Magen David Yeshivah, Brooklyn

•Rabbi Binny Freedman, rosh yeshiva of Orayta, Jerusalem

contributing writers:

•Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks zt”l,

former chief rabbi of United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth •Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh

Weinreb, OU executive VP emeritus •Rabbi Raymond Apple, emeritus rabbi, Great Synagogue of Sydney •Rabbi Yossy Goldman, life rabbi emeritus, Sydenham Shul, Johannesburg and president of the South African Rabbinical Association.

contact our columnists at: Publisher@TheJewishStar.com

Five towns candlelighting: From the White Shul, Far Rockaway, NY

תבש לש בכוכ

Fri April 19 / Nisan 11

Shabbos HaGadol • Metzora Candles: 7:21 • Havdalah: 8:31

Mon April 22 / Nisan 14

Erev Pesach • First Seder Candles: 7:24

Tue April 23 / Nisan 15

Second Seder Candles: 8:25 • Wed Havdalah: 8:35

Fri April 26 / Nisan 18

Shabbos Chol Hamoed

Candles: 7:28 • Havdalah: 8:38

Sun April 28 / Nisan 20

Erev Yom Tov

Candles: 7:30

Mon April 29 / Nisan 21

Candles: 8:32 • Tues Havdalah: 8:41

There’s lashon hara. What about lashon tov? rabbi sir jonathan sacks

zt”l

The Sages understood tsara’at, the theme of this week’s parsha, Metzora, not as an illness but as a miraculous public exposure of the sin of lashon hara, speaking badly about people.

Judaism is a sustained meditation on the power of words to heal or harm, mend or destroy. Just as G-d created the world with words, He empowered us to create, and destroy, relationships with words.

The rabbis said much about lashon hara, but virtually nothing about the corollary, lashon tov, “good speech.” The phrase does not appear in either the Babylonian Talmud or the Talmud Yerushalmi. It figures only in two midrashic passages (where it refers to praising G-d). But lashon hara does not mean speaking badly about G-d, it means speaking badly about human beings. If it is a sin to speak badly about people, is it a mitzvah to speak well about them? My argument will be that it is, and to show this, let us take a journey through the sources.

In Mishnah Avot we read the following: Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai had five [preeminent] disciples [and he] used to recount their praise: Eliezer ben Hyrcanus — a plastered well that never loses a drop. Joshua ben Chananya — happy the one who gave him birth. Yose the Priest — a pious man. Shimon ben Netanel — a man who fears sin. Elazar ben Arach: an ever-flowing spring. (Ethics of the Fathers 2:10-11)

However, the practice of Rabban Yochanan in praising his disciples seems to stand in contradiction to a Talmudic principle: Rav Dimi, brother of Rav Safra said: Let no one ever talk in praise of his neighbor, for praise will lead to criticism. (Arachin 16a)

Rashi gives two explanations of this statement. Having delivered excessive praise (yoter midai), the speaker himself will come to qualify his remarks, admitting for the sake of balance that the person of whom he speaks also has faults. Alternatively, others will point out his faults in response to the praise. For Rashi, the crucial consideration is, is the praise judicious, accurate, true, or it is overstated? If the former, it is permitted; if the latter, it

Judaism is a sustained meditation on the power of words to heal or harm, mend or destroy.

is forbidden. Evidently Rabban Yochanan was careful not to exaggerate.

Rambam, however, sees matters differently. He writes: “Whoever speaks well about his neighbor in the presence of his enemies is guilty of a secondary form of evil speech (avak lashon hara), since he will provoke them to speak badly about him” (Hilchot Deot 7:4).

According to the Rambam the issue is not whether the praise is moderate or excessive, but the context in which it is delivered. If it is done in the presence of friends of the person about whom you are speaking, it is permitted. It is forbidden only when you are among his enemies and detractors. Praise then becomes a provocation, with bad consequences.

Are these merely two opinions, or is there something deeper at stake? There is a famous passage in the Talmud which discusses how one should sing the praises of a bride at her wedding:

Our Rabbis taught: How should you dance before the bride [ie, what should one sing]? The disciples of Hillel hold that at a wedding you should sing that the bride is beautiful, whether she is or not. Shammai’s disciples disagree. Whatever the occasion, don’t tell a lie. “Do you call that a lie?”

the Hillel’s disciples respond. “In the eyes of the groom at least, the bride is beautiful.”

What’s really at stake here is not just temperament — puritanical Shammaites versus good-natured Hillelites — but two views about the nature of language. The

Shammaites think of language as a way of making statements, which are either true or false. The Hillelites understand that language is about more than making statements. We can use language to encourage, empathize, motivate, and inspire. Or we can use it to discourage, disparage, criticize, and depress.

Language does more than convey information. It conveys emotion. It creates or disrupts a mood. The sensitive use of speech involves social and emotional intelligence. Language, in JL Austin’s famous account, can be performative as well as informative.

The discourse between the disciples of Hillel and Shammai is similar to the argument between Rambam and Rashi. For Rashi, as for Shammai, the key question about praise is: is it true, or is it excessive? For Rambam as for Hillel, the question is: what is the context? Is it being said among enemies or friends? Will it create warmth and esteem or envy and resentment?

We can go one further, for the disagreement between Rashi and Rambam about praise may be related to a more fundamental disagreement about the nature of the command, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18).

Rashi interprets the command to mean: do not do to your neighbor what you would not wish him to do to you (Rashi to Sanhedrin 84b). Rambam, however, says that the command includes the duty “to speak in his praise” (Hilchot Deot 6:3). Rashi evidently sees praise of one’s neigh-

bor as optional, while Rambam sees it as falling within the command of love.

We can now answer a question we should have asked at the outset about the Mishnah in Avot that speaks of Yochanan ben Zakkai’s disciples. Avot is about ethics, not about history or biography. Why then does it tell us that Rabban Yochanan had disciples? That, surely, is a fact not a value, a piece of information not a guide to how to live.

However, we can now see that the Mishnah is telling us something profound indeed. The very first statement in Avot includes the principle: “Raise up many disciples.”

But how do you create disciples? How do you inspire people to become what they could become, to reach the full measure of their potential?

Answer: By acting as did Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai when he praised his students, showing them their specific strengths.

He did not flatter them. He guided them to see their distinctive talents. Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, the “well that never loses a drop”, was not creative but he had a remarkable memory — not unimportant in the days before the Oral Torah was written in books. Elazar ben Arach, the “ever-flowing spring,” was creative, but needed to be fed by mountain waters (years later he separated from his colleagues and it is said that he forgot all he had learned).

Rabban Yochanan ben Zakai took a HillelRambam view of praise. He used it not so much to describe as to motivate. And that is lashon tov.

Evil speech diminishes us, good speech helps us grow. Evil speech puts people down, good speech lifts them up. Focused, targeted praise, informed by considered judgment of individual strengths, and sustained by faith in people and their potentiality, is what makes teachers great and their disciples greater than they would otherwise have been. That is what we learn from Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai.

So there is such a thing as lashon tov. According to Rambam it falls within the command of “Love your neighbor as yourself.” According to Avot it is one way of “raising up many disciples.” It is as creative as lashon hara is destructive.

Seeing the good in people and telling them so is a way of helping it become real, becoming a midwife to their personal growth. If so, then not only must we praise G-d. We must praise people too.

When will Mashiach come? That is up to us

from heart of Jerusalem

Rabbi binny fReeDMan

Jewish Star columnist

One wonders whether the Mashiach and the redemption he is meant to bring still have not come because we are still waiting for him, or because he is still waiting for us.

There is a story (not to be taken literally) concerning the coming of the Mashiach that has always puzzled me, relating to this week’s portion, Metzorah.

The Talmud (Sanhedrin 98a) relates that one day, Rabbi Yehoshuah Ben Levi was walking and “ran into” Eliahu HaNavi. After exchanging greetings, Rabbi Yehoshuah begs to ask a question: “Eimatai Ka’Ati Mar? When will the Master [the Mashiach] come?”

Elijah responds, “Ask him yourself!” Rabbi Yehoshuah asks, “But where can I find him?”

Elijah explains:

“If you will go to the entrance to the marketplace, you will see that all the lepers sit at the entrance to the market, with their bandages removed so that the warmth of the sun can heal their wounds. However, pay attention and you will notice that there is one beggar who only allows himself to remove one bandage at a time, so as to be ready to move at a moment’s notice, in the event that he is called. This is the Mashiach.”

So Rabbi Yehoshuah goes to the marketplace, and indeed finds such a person sitting amongst the lepers. And of course, he asks him the question, “Eimatai Ka’Ati Mar? When will the Master [the Mashiach] come?”

To which the leper responds with one simple, yet powerful word: “Hayom, today.”

The Talmud doesn’t describe what Rabbi Yehoshua’s reaction was to this incredible

news, but if you were one of the greatest rabbis in Jewish history, and you actually ran into Elijah, and he actually described to you where you could find the Mashiach, and you actually found him, and then this person who you now know to be the Mashiach actually tells you he is coming today, well, what would you do?

The next day, Rabbi Yehoshuah Ben Levi again “ran into” Elijah the Prophet. This time, Eliahu asks Rabbi Yehoshuah: “Nu, did you find him?” And Rabbi Yehoshuah responds: “Ken, Ve’Kah Shiker Li. Yes, I found him, but he lied to me. He told me he was coming ‘today’, but ‘today’ came and went, and the Mashiach never came.”

Eliahu Hanavi explains: “No, he didn’t say ‘HaYom.’ Rather, he was referring to the verse which says, ‘HaYom, Im Bekolo Tishma’u, Today, if you will but listen to His voice’.”

When will the Mashiach come? The decision is not his, it is ours. Hashem is just waiting for us to listen.

Such a powerful story, with such powerful imagery: redemption and world peace will come through the vestige of a leper, sitting as a beggar in the marketplace. What a beautiful message about how we have to learn to see our fellow human beings.

But I have always been bothered by one detail: Why did the Talmud need to portray the Mashiach as a leper? Why not just have him be a beggar? What secret message, relating to redemption is hidden in the concept of leprosy?

This week’s portion, Metzora, focuses on the issue of tzara’at, (a metzora often translated as leper — but not to be confused with leprosy, a disease that still exists in the world, with very different symptoms).

In ancient times, when we lived in the land of Israel with a Beit HaMikdash and an active priesthood of Kohanim this affliction did not send you to the doctor. Rather, the Torah tells us, when a person saw signs of tzara’at, he went

See Freedman on page 22

Entering the Great, but not yet Holy, Shabbat

Rabbi DR. tzvi

heRsh weinReb

Orthodox Union

There are many steps that we ascend on our journey towards the holiday of Passover, including the special Sabbaths that precede it. holiday.

I fondly remember the wise old rabbi whose little shul I frequented before I became a shul rabbi myself, back in Baltimore. His name was Rav Yitzchok Sternhell, may he rest in peace. He had many astute observations, only a few of which I recall.

In one of these insights, he pointed out that when one has a question about some aspect of Torah study and finds a single answer, then, es-

sentially, there is no longer a question. It is answered, plainly and simply, once and for all. But when one has a question and there are many answers, then the question remains as strong as when it was posed.

One question that has received many answers over the centuries is, “Why is this Sabbath called the Great Sabbath, Shabbat HaGadol?” One answer points to the closing phrase of this week’s selection from the prophets which reads (Malachi 3:24):

Behold, I will send you

Elijah the Prophet

Before the coming

Of the great and awesome day of the L-rd. Since we read of the “the day,” we call it “the Great Sabbath.”

Another approach emphasizes that on the Sabbath preceding the Exodus, the Jews were finally able to prepare lambs and

goats for the paschal offering. They did so in the face of their Egyptian slave masters, for whom those animals were considered divine. To be able to fearlessly defy their former slave masters was a “great miracle.” Hence the term “the Great Sabbath.”

I would like to share with you, dear reader, a creative approach to the term “the Great Sabbath” — creative because, contrary to all the other interpretations with which I am familiar, it sees this week’s Sabbath not as greater than all the others of the year, but as lesser.

The commentator to whom I refer is the Chassidic Rebbe, Rabbi Shaul of Modzitz, known for his prodigious repertoire of musical compositions. The musical creativity of Rabbi Shaul was expressed in his ability to surprise the ear of the listener; his homiletic creativity also contains the element of surprise, of divergent thinking.

Most of the reasons that are given for calling this week’s Sabbath the Great Sabbath insist upon the superiority of this particular Sabbath over all the others of the year. Rabbi Shaul provocatively suggests it is inferior to all the others. Therein he asks the question, “Why do we praise this Sabbath as ‘great?’ Is every Sabbath not ‘great?’ In the special blessing that we incorporate in the Grace After Meals, the Birkat HaMazon, every Sabbath, we refer to ‘this great and holy Sabbath … this day which is great and holy before Thee’.”

His surprising answer is that every Sabbath of the year is both “great and holy,” but this final Sabbath before Passover is, in a certain sense, merely “great” and not “holy.”

For every Sabbath, argues Rabbi Shaul, has two components. We might refer to them as the physical component and the spiri-

See Weinreb on page 22

‘Remember that you were a slave in Mitzraim’

torah

Rabbi DaviD

etenGoff

Jewish Star columnist

Our natural inclination at this time of the year is to focus upon the phrase, zacher l’yetziat Mitzraim (a remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt. This is the case, since one of the major mitzvot of Pesach evening is none other than l’saper b’yetziat Mitzraim (to tell the story of the departure from Egypt).

While this is a key element of our thoughts during the course of the Seder, the Torah also re-

minds us, no less than five times, “And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt.”

Two of the five instances explicitly discuss our responsibility to treat the stranger, orphan, and widow in an equitable and righteous manner, guarding the rights and privileges of the most powerless members of our society by reminding us that our entire nation was once completely vulnerable and subject to the diabolical control of Pharaoh and his henchmen. Therefore, as a people and as individuals, we should ever remember our Egyptian servitude and become acutely sensitive to the needs of those who need our help to live dignified and meaningful lives. In other words, the Torah is

commanding us to practice the highest standards of social justice.

The Rambam codifies our moral and halachic imperative to actively provide for the needs of those most at risk in a well-known halacha regarding the mitzvah of simchat yom tov: “When a person eats and drinks [in celebration of a holiday], he is obligated to feed converts, orphans, widows, and others who are destitute and poor. In contrast, a person who locks the gates of his courtyard and eats and drinks with his children and his wife, without feeding the poor and the embittered, is [not indulging in] rejoicing associated with a mitzvah, but rather the rejoicing of his belly.”

Little wonder, then, that in the opening words of the Haggadah we declare as one:

“This is the bread of affliction that our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. All those who are hungry, let them enter and eat. All who are in need, let them come celebrate the Passover. Now we are here. Next year in the land of Israel. This year we are enslaved. Next year may we be free.”

B’shanah haba b’yerushalayim habanuyah! — may we join as one united people in the rebuilt Beit HaMikdash soon, and in our days. V’chane yihi ratzon.

The Rambam is teaching us that kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh (every Jew is personally responsible for the welfare of every other Jew), and no one should be left behind.

Readings selected for a meaningful Pesach

Kosher bookworm

alan Jay

GeRbeR

Jewish Star columnist

The Pesach Seder may be the most observed family ritual on the Jewish calendar. Accordingly, many books deal with Pesach observances, and I’ve referenced several in recent columns.

This week’s choice is “As If We Were There” (Kodesh Press, 2016) by Rabbi Dr. Gidon Rothstein,

whose writing can be found at one of the most distinguished websites, Gil Student’s torahmusings.com.

This book is a reflection of the rabbi’s learned background.

“I grew up in environments that stressed the importance of being fully committed to the Torah, its practice, and values as well as being involved with taking from, and contributing to, all that was good and positive in the not-specifically Jewish world,” he told me. “My father was educated at Yeshiva Chaim

Berlin and Brooklyn College. He eventually became a lawyer. My teachers were all men who embodied a similarly balanced life, such as Rabbi Dr. Aharon Lichtenstein, Prof. Isadore Twersky, and Rabbi Dr. Haym Soloveitchik.”

Regarding the Pesach experience, he shares the following:

“Another piece of personal background is reflected in just how impactful my father’s Seder was to me and, I think, all his

children. It was a night when he shone, particularly in terms of conveying to children of all ages the need to engage and to make the story of the exodus experience as reflected in the Haggadah text relevant as one’s own.

“As I approach Pesach each year, I think of ways to do that for myself, my family, and — when I have an audience — those who come to my shi’urim. That was what led me, one year, to offer a series of lectures on the first chapters of Shemot, a sense that we tell the Exodus story on Seder night without, for many of us, knowing that story all that well.

Originally published in 2016.

Jewish

The time has come: End the Iranian regime

THANE ROSENBAUM

Distinguished University Professor Touro College

The good news: Israel’s air defense systems — Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow 3, and its vaunted fighter pilots — assisted by the United States, Jordan, England, France and Saudi Arabia, performed brilliantly in intercepting the 300 projectiles (over 100 of which were ballistic missiles) that Iran launched at Israel on Saturday night. Except for an IsraeliArab child seriously wounded by shrapnel, the nation didn’t suffer a scratch.

The bad news: What language does the Biden administration speak when it reassures Israel that it stands in solidarity with the Jewish state and warns Iran, repeatedly, “Don’t”? Because, here again, those expressions of support soon come to mean something less boldly protective and cautionary.

Does anyone know of a diplomacy thesaurus that Israel, and the rest of us, can use to decrypt the mixed messaging that emanates from Biden’s West Wing and State Department?

During those first days after Oct. 7, Biden unequivocally stated that Israel had a legal and moral right to self-defense in response to Hamas’s invasion and massacre in southern Israel. Hamas was deemed an Islamic-State clone which needed to be completely vanquished. Any country in the same position would do the same thing.

Anticipating civilian casualties once Israel’s bombing campaign and ground incursion into Gaza commenced, Biden made clear that the responsibility for those Palestinian deaths would lie with Hamas. On Oct. 7, the terror group broke a ceasefire and started a war with a barbaric massacre. Worse still, it insisted on shielding itself with Gaza’s civilian population. A fair reading of Biden’s assessment of the

Obviously, ‘ironclad’ means something different to Biden than it does to everybody else. And ‘don’t’ apparently means ‘don’t take us seriously.’

situation was that Israel couldn’t be faulted for striking at the locations where Hamas and its weapons are located. Gazans elected a terrorist organization that grotesquely deployed its own people as the first line of defense. Tunnels were built to transport terrorists and hide weapons, and not as bomb shelters for Gaza’s civilians.

Israel is not to blame for that sad state of affairs.

Afew months later, however, a very different Biden showed up. He mumbled that Israel’s military operations were “over the top,” warning against any precipitous invasion of Rafah, the last stronghold of Hamas’s remaining battalions. He questioned whether the large Palestinian civilian death toll comported with international humanitarian law. And he hinted that future military aid would have to be reevaluated.

And the topper: The United States abstained when the UN Security Council called for a temporary ceasefire without the release of any Israeli and American hostages.

Then, just the other day, Doctor Jekyll returned to the Oval Office. President Biden, having been apprised through intelligence communiques that Iran was about to launch a significant attack against America’s only democratic ally in the region, stated, repeatedly, that the United States’ commitment to Israel was “ironclad.” His message to Iran, repeated by both his Secretary of State and Defense Secretary: “Don’t!”

But Iran did.

Biden had given the same “Don’t!” warning to Iran’s proxies in the early days of the war. Yet, Hezbollah and the Houthis did, as well — the Lebanese terrorists have been launching missiles at Israel nearly every day; and the Yemenite terrorists have wreaked havoc on Israel and commercial shipping lines in the Red Sea.

And then Biden once again revealed his inner Hyde. On Saturday night, not long after Iran’s arsenal of missiles and drones detonated in the sky, the president spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and advised him to “take the win” — no need to escalate tensions further.

Really? If Mexico had launched 300 missiles at New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles, the United States would have been satisfied with simply defending against them? I have news for the president: Texans wouldn’t take it, and the Rangers would be suiting up (the special ops guys, not the baseball team).

The necessity for nationwide air raid sirens blaring across Israel, warning of ballistic missiles incoming at major population centers, was not a proportional response to the killing of a few se-

See Rosenbaum on page 22

Iran’s

Torres: Israel guarded Islamic sites

Progressive Democratic Rep. Rep. Ritchie Torres responded to video footage showing intercepted Iranian munitions over the Temple Mount.

“Israel protected Al-Aqsa Mosque from destruction at the hands of Iran. Are the Anti-Israel haters going to thank Israel for protecting one of the holiest sites in Islam? No,” the congressman, whose district includes Riverdale and mostly-minority areas of the Bronx, wrote on social media.

“Are the Anti-Israel haters going to condemn Iran for endangering one of the holi-

est sites in Islam? No,” he added. “Selective outrage is their modus operandi.”

In another post, Torres wrote:

“Even though Iran literally fired hundreds of missiles — drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles — against civilian areas in Israel, attempting mass murder, many in the media have dismissed Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel as ‘limited’.”

“Critics cannot help but downplay the actual wrongs against Israel and overplay the fictional wrongs by Israel,” he said.

Nicaraguan tyrant’s unconscionable ICJ charade

Viewpoint

BEN COHEN

The solemnly named International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague has become an arena for the world’s despots and authoritarians to strut and grandstand, projecting their own abuses — torture, censorship, genocide — onto the world’s democracies.

The anti-democratic crusade waged in the name of human rights has impacted Israel more than any other state. The Jewish state is subjected to insulting and, frankly, frivolous lawsuits every time it tries to discharge its basic duty of protecting its citizens — whether that was the security fence constructed along the West Bank border more than a decade ago or the war against Hamas in Gaza right now.

Since the onset of the latest war in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the monstrous Hamas pogrom of Oct. 7, Israel has been the focus of a baseless charge of genocide brought about by South Africa, which largely failed in its bid to make the accusation stick.

Many observers pointed out that South Afri-

It is the country’s farleft leadership, aligned with the dictatorships in Venezuela and Cuba, that should be in the dock.

ca’s worsening domestic record — marked by corruption, horrific xenophobia towards migrants from other countries in southern Africa and an inability to deliver basic services like electricity and clean water to those who need them most — hardly qualifies its African National Congress (ANC)-led government to sit in judgment over Israel. Yet Pretoria has continued undeterred, at the same time that it welcomes Hamas leaders for state visits and treats its Jewish community — and anyone else who dares utter understanding for Israel — with unvarnished antisemitism.

Now the baton has passed to Nicaragua, which last week sent its lawyers to the ICJ to charge Germany with aiding and abetting Israel’s supposed “genocide.” The bitter irony is that it is Nicaragua’s far-left leadership, aligned with the dictatorships in Venezuela and Cuba, that should be in the dock.

Daniel Ortega has been in power in Nicaragua since 2007, and he’s not going anywhere — at least, not voluntarily. Some readers will remember Ortega’s name from the Sandinista revolution that overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in 1979 and the Iran-Contra scandal that followed during the subsequent decade. But you don’t have to dig deep into that history to get a sense of the kind of regime that he runs.

As Freedom House — an NGO that monitors the state of liberty around the world — explains it, the latest period of Ortega’s rule has been “a period of democratic deterioration marked by the consolidation of all branches of government under his party’s control, the limitation of fundamental freedoms and unchecked corruption in government.”

In the last year alone, the Nicaraguan regime has expelled more than 200 opposition leaders into exile in the United States. It has passed new legislation to strip those deemed “traitors to the homeland” of their citizenship. It has turned the police into an arm of the executive, trampling over the separation of powers that democracies hold so dear. In many ways, this new wave of repression

is an outgrowth of the regime’s brutal clampdown on anti-government protests in 2018.

Abroad, meanwhile, its authoritarian domestic policy is matched by unflinching support for Russia in its invasion of Ukraine and a close bond with the Iranian regime, North Korea and other rogue states.

This, in short, is the character of the regime that has brought charges of “genocide” against Israel by targeting Germany’s supply of arms to the Jewish state — as if a serial sex offender was to opportunistically cry out, “rape!”

Why is Nicaragua embarking on this path at the ICJ? Some insight was provided by a German journalist who specializes in Latin American affairs, Toni Keppeler, during an interview last week with Swiss radio.

Noting that Nicaragua is quite isolated among the world’s states, Keppeler suggested that the ICJ lawsuit was seen by Ortega as a means of boosting his international image. And Germany, he added, was a much safer bet than the United States, which supplies far more weapons to Israel, because America can punish Nicaragua in

ways that Germany couldn’t or wouldn’t.

He also noted that Ortega wants to be embraced by left-wing groups around the world. And so the Nicaraguan caudillo figures, not unreasonably, that bandwagoning on the Palestinian cause they are obsessed with is the way he will achieve that.

But there is another, more sinister reason behind Nicaragua’s action. Ultimately, these cases against Israel at the ICJ are aimed at shifting public perceptions of Israel and its history, and in particular, the influence of the Holocaust upon support for Israel in the democratic world.

One of the reasons why Germany supports Israel is simply because it was the country that initiated the mass slaughter of Jews during World War II. Since 1945, democratic Germany has been guided by entirely different principles, elevating its backing for Israel into a staatsrason — “reason of state.”

Indeed, as I noted recently, one of the several questions about Jews and Israel on the newly reformulated naturalization test for prospective immigrants to Germany asks, “What is the

See Cohen on page 22

Without doubt, Tucker Carlson’s an antisemite

Israel 365

What do Tucker Carlson, the isolationist conservative pundit, and Elizabeth Warren, the woke progressive senator from Massachusetts, have in common? Not much other than slandering Israel.

Last week, at an event at the Islamic Center of Boston, Warren told her audience, “What Israel is doing is wrong. … It is wrong to starve children within a civilian population in order to try to bend it to your will. … I believe that they’ll find that it is genocide.” She claimed the International Court of Justice has “ample evidence to do so.”

Then, in an interview posted on X that already has over 18.4 million views, Carlson gave a platform to Pastor Munther Isaac. Isaac is the conference director of Christ at the Checkpoint, a well-known anti-Israel propagandist forum in Bethlehem that seeks to undermine Evangelical Christian support for Israel. Christ at the Checkpoint supports the BDS movement, denies the Jewish people’s historical connection to Israel by manipulating Christian theology and history, and vilifies Israel as solely responsible for all conflict in the region.

Christ at the Checkpoint promotes a particularly twisted form of antisemitic supersession-

The conservative pundit hosted a cleric who has spent his life slandering Israel.

ist theology. At one of its conferences, Anglican priest Naim Ateek explained the name of the group by falsely claiming, “Jesus was a Palestinian who lived in Palestine … born under occupation. Jesus lived under occupation. Everything he taught, everything he said was done under occupation, exactly the way we live today.”

Isaac celebrated the Oct. 7 massacre, declaring in his sermon the next day that he was “shocked by the strength of the Palestinian man who defied his siege.”

Carlson’s team carefully vets his guests. Munther Isaac’s antisemitic views and support for Hamas are well known, but Carlson hosted him all the same. When Isaac said that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza and “starving” the Gazan civilian population, Carlson made clear that he agreed with these lies. “Father, thank you for your thoroughly decent and sensible analysis,” he said. “I hope it’s heard

by Christians throughout the West.”

As for Warren, her hatred of Israel isn’t news. In this, she is like millions of other woke progressives. But Carlson is a hero of the right. Can he really be an antisemite? The answer, sadly, is yes.

For a long time, many have tried to give Carlson the benefit of the doubt. Carlson isn’t antisemitic, he’s just an isolationist, they claim. But his antisemitism is now undeniable.

Back in December, Tucker said that Jewish conservative Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire “doesn’t care about the country at all.” Carlson accused him and other pro-Israel pundits of being “focused on a conflict in a foreign country as their own country becomes dangerously unstable.” Instead of arguing with Shapiro on the merits, he questioned his motivations and loyalty to the United States, a classic antisemitic “dual loyalty” trope that implies Jews are a traitorous fifth column.

In June 2023, Carlson attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, with clear antisemitic tropes. He referred to Zelenskyy as “sweaty and rat-like. A comedian turned oligarch. A persecutor of Christians. A friend of Black Rock. … Shifty and dead-eyed.”

Over the course of the interview with Carlson, Isaac told some truly incredible lies. For example, “When the State of Israel was created, it was not created on an empty land. It was created on a land that had millions of indigenous Palestinians there, including Palestinian Christians.”

In fact, before five Arab armies invaded Israel in 1948, less than a million Arabs were living there. The majority of them fled Israel at the behest of Arab leaders. The remaining 150,000 Arabs were granted full Israeli citizenship after the war. Over the last 75 years, the Arab Israeli population has grown to over two million. Arab Christians make up about 7% of that number and are among Israel’s most successful minority groups.

But this wasn’t Isaac’s most egregious lie. He asserted, “My message to Christian leaders is that there is a very, very brutal war taking place in Gaza, a war I describe using the word genocide because it’s a war that has used starvation as a means. … When will we learn that war does not help? When will we take Jesus’s word seriously about being peacemakers?”

U.S. federal law defines genocide as “violent attacks with the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.” Hamas, not Israel, is guilty of this crime.

Israel’s innocence is obvious. Hamas claims that over 30,000 Gazan civilians have been killed in the current war. Col. John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute, has stated that this is absurd. “30,000 civilians have not died in Gaza, as a fact, because that number does not account for a single Hamas

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to visit a Kohen.

Tradition teaches that tzara’at was the direct consequence of lashon hara (slander) and rechilut (tale-bearing), and as such it was an opportunity for a person to do some introspection and consider the error of his ways. To this end, once “diagnosed” with tza’ra’at, a person was meant to isolate himself from the community for seven days, before the Kohen could return and ascertain whether his condition of tza’ra’at was gone.

The Sefer HaChinuch points out (mitzvah

168) that this particular process enabled us to recognize the power of Divine Providence, and relates to the larger issues of destiny, and Divine consequences.

As an example, one of the many signs of tzara’at for which an expert Kohen had to be consulted, was when a hair on a person’s body turned a particular shade of white (“like snow”) or yellow (like winter grass; see VaYikra 13:30). And the challenge of the Kohen was not only to find the correct shade, but to be sure that indeed there were two hairs which had turned white, and not one, because when only one hair had turned white, the person was not confined but remained in a state of ritual purity.

The Midrash in Vayikra Rabbah (15:3) shares a magnificent insight related to this detail of halachah:

“You will not find a single strand of hair for which Hashem (G-d) did not create an appropriate follicle in the skin, in order that one (hair) should not benefit from what ‘belongs’ to another.”

On the one hand, consider the import of this Midrash: I can learn to become a more ethical human being simply by studying the hairs on my forearm! After all, if every hair on my arm has its place, then how much more must I consider that every human being, however challenging, annoying, and even evil they may be, has a place in G-d’s plan.

While one cannot argue the merits of gleaning such ethical messages, how does one find the balance? If I took the time to analyze every leaf, twig, insect and sound that came my way, I would never get to the synagogue in the morning. And yet, to ignore the many powerful messages that often cross our path is to risk living a life of callousness and to lose many opportunities to grow as a person and as a society.

Life really is all about balance — how to balance one’s professional life with one’s personal life; how to make time for friends as well as family, study as well as exercise; and, of course, spiritual growth alongside tangible action, all while making a difference in the world.

Even the soul needs to be in balance, and Jewish tradition suggests it is not healthy for a person to do too much giving, without receiving. Significantly, it is not just that the person doing all the giving is putting him or herself off balance, they are equally responsible for causing others in the relationship to be off balance.

Perhaps this is the nature of these seven

days during which the metzorah struggles to rectify the mistakes he has made, which have led him to this sorry state of affairs.

Clearly, we need to be willing to trust in Hashem that life will send us what we need to receive, and we need as well to be partners with Hashem in making that happen.

As the Vilna Gaon suggests in his Even Sheleimah, faith without hishtadlut (our attempts to do our bit, in partnership with G-d) is not really faith, it bespeaks a certain arrogance (who says I have earned the right to have faith that Hashem will help me)? On the other hand, the assumption that I can do it all and that it all depends on me, stems from this very same arrogance. Once I have done my bit, then I have the right to believe that Hashem will do His.

Life often sends us signals, but we don’t always listen, often because they are so obvious. Sometimes we get so run-down that our friends and loved ones notice we are working too hard long before we do. If your body is run down, it is because a part of your life is off balance, and you are being given a message. Maybe you are too focused on work, and need to recognize the need for finding time for your family?

Maybe during these seven days a person who is off balance has the chance to lean towards the other extreme and get back in balance, and perhaps this very suggestion of processing in an imbalanced form (removing oneself from society for seven days is not balanced; it represents an extreme), is ultimately meant to remind us to make this “process of processing” more a part of our life on a regular basis.

Perhaps, like the metzora, we need to take some time for introspection, to consider how best to find that balance.

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tual component. The former is built in to the cosmos and can be traced back to the verses in Genesis 2:3. There, G-d blesses and hallows the Sabbath as part of the process of creation. That is the Sabbath of the physical rest and gives recognition to G-d’s creative powers and omnipotence. It is “holy,” but only potentially so.

The second aspect of the Sabbath is a spiritual one — “Zecher l’yetziat Mizrayim,” a memorial day celebrating the Exodus from Egypt. This has to do with the experience of freedom, of becoming a nation, of undertaking an historical mission.

On this last Sabbath before Passover, the Exodus had not yet taken place. And so, the Sabbath was merely “gadol,” “great.” On that Sabbath, the Jew could only celebrate his freedom from utter bondage and his ability to defy his former slave master. That was “great,” but not yet “holy.” He did not yet have a sense of spiritual freedom and religious destiny.

Only after the first day of Passover, with the actual departure from Egypt, and the march into the desert and towards Mount Sinai, could the Jews begin to sense that something “holy” was in store for them. Only then could they be-

gin to anticipate not just “great” freedom, but “holy” freedom, in order to sense that something spiritual and “holy” was in store.

After that first Passover day, and with every ensuing Sabbath since, the Jewish people experienced not just “a great Sabbath,” but a “great and holy Sabbath.”

Sabbath prior to Passover is “great,” but not yet fully “holy.” After Passover, every Sabbath is transformed and is not only “great,” but “great and holy.” Passover and all that it symbolizes adds a new dimension to every Sabbath that follows it.

This week, then, we remember a Sabbath long ago that was the last of the merely “great” Sabbaths: A Sabbath only of respite from slavish toil, of relief from physical slavery.

Next week, after we told the full narrative of the Exodus and experience all of the Seder night’s rich symbolism and profound lessons, we will be able to celebrate a complete Sabbath, a Sabbath of spiritual freedom and full religious significance. Not just “Shabbat HaGadol,” but “Shabbat HaGadol VeHaKadosh.”

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nior commanders in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in Damascus. This was a major act of aggression, tantamount to a declaration of war.

Biden’s advice to Israel? Just walk away. And one more thing: America will not take part in any Israeli reprisal.

Obviously, “ironclad” means something different to Biden than it does to everybody else. And “don’t” apparently means “don’t take us seriously.”

If “don’t” actually means, “don’t,” why are any Houthis still alive?

Back in October, the most powerful nation in the world warned them that taking an ancillary interest in Hamas’s escapades would come with consequences. The Houthis aren’t even Iran’s most dangerous proxy. Most people never even heard of them. Shouldn’t all of them have been killed by now?

On Saturday, Iran finally decided to get its own hands dirty, rather than direct its proxies to do the dirty work. For two decades, trashtalking mullahs threatened to “wipe Israel off the map!”

Finally, rather than delegate skirmishes to its proxies, Iran’s maniacal Islamists mixed brinksmanship with the Rubicon and lit up the Middle East sky with missiles and drones. Israel can now, justifiably, retaliate. F-35 pilots can lock on Iran’s ostensibly civilian nuclear facilities — something the rest of the region has secretly been longing for.

Will Biden stand for that? Last week he orchestrated Israel’s withdrawal from southern Gaza, leaving Hamas intact. Now he’s seeking further capitulation.

American foreign policy, these days, seems to be directed from Michigan and Minnesota. Are Muslims in battleground states actually dictating which battles America’s Jewish ally is permitted to fight? Foggy Bottom will soon be renting space from the Ford Motor Company, based in Dearborn. That would make sense. Its founder, Henry Ford, after all, was the leading antisemite of his day.

I realize there’s an election on the horizon and Biden is beholden to shrieking progressives and petulant, ignorant students. But perhaps now, more than ever, is the time for this president to exercise moral leadership, remain actually faithful to “ironclad” commitments and eschew political calculations.

Iran is a world menace. Why else would Jordan and the Saudis have assisted in downing drones whizzing over their airspace? No one other than Bernie Sanders and the Squad is rooting for Iran.

Here’s a tip, Mr. President: Stop the political schizophrenia. Demonstrate that America knows how to stand beside a friend, and won’t stand in the way of allowing the Jewish state to finish the job in Gaza, and, finally, take steps to bring a long-awaited end to the Iranian Islamic regime.

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basis of Germany’s special responsibility to Israel?” with the correct answer being “The crimes of national socialism.”

That is how it should be, but for the international left, such a stance is intolerable. In their jaundiced eyes, Germany has atoned for the Holocaust by backing the nakba — the Arabic word for “catastrophe” used by many Palestinians to describe the creation of modern-day Israel in 1948. Germany’s position irritatingly reminds the world that Jews were once victims of nightmarish genocide themselves — hardly the sort of fact you’d want to highlight if your purpose is to turn them into victims once again.

And so, Nicaragua’s lawyers (including, disgracefully, a German citizen named Daniel Muller) have trooped into the ICJ to argue that supporting the Jewish state is the wrong way to express solidarity with Jews.

The goal here, make no mistake, is to separate the Holocaust from Israel and to argue that the one entity in the world capable of preventing another Holocaust is actually sowing its seeds! It’s topsy-turvy logic, but if it works effectively as propaganda, generating meme after meme on social media, why worry about that?

Hence we arrive at a situation where the 15 ICJ judges debate a phantom genocide while turning a blind eye to genuine examples of this phenomenon, along with other related crimes. “The government of Nicaragua is perpetrating widespread violations and abuses that may amount to crimes against humanity,” the Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect Project noted in a briefing back in February, but you won’t hear a peep about that in the ICJ’s corridors. Ditto for Turkey’s racist treatment of its Kurdish minority, and indeed, for the myriad other examples of government-sponsored cruelty on every continent.

This is yet another demonstration of antisemitism, insofar as antisemitism applies to standards for Jews that no other nation has to contend with. That is the ugly reality behind these fanciful appeals to “international law” that plague Israel. Germany is now receiving a glimpse of what that feels like but only because of its relationship with Israel — otherwise, this case would never have been brought to court.

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Continued from page 21 member,” he said.

He added, “Civilian casualties are abnormally low” and “the IDF are actually doing this with the least amount of civilian casualties in the history of war.”

Isaac’s claim that Israel is “starving” Gazans is also false. From the beginning of the war through mid-February, 254,210 tons of supplies were transferred to Gaza, including 167,080 tons of food. There are now 42% more food trucks entering Gaza daily than before Oct. 7. The day before this article was written, 468 aid trucks entered Gaza, the highest number since the war broke out. There is more than enough aid entering Gaza today to feed the population; if civilians are hungry, it’s because Hamas steals most of the supplies for themselves.

Carlson is no fool. He knows that Isaac is lying. He knows that Israel is not committing genocide. Why, then, did he give his seal of approval to Isaac’s lies? Why promote a known charlatan who has dedicated his life to undermining Israel? The answer is unavoidable: because Tucker Carlson is an antisemite, and his goal is to turn Christians against the Jewish state. We’ve seen Carlson’s like before. In Psalm 52, David says of them, “Your tongue plots destruction, as a sharpened razor, working deceit. … You loved evil more than good, falsehood more than speaking righteousness forever.”

People like Carlson may be popular for a while. But as all believing Jews and Christians know, at the end of the day, G-d never abandons His people. Welcome to the antisemites club, Tucker. Have fun with Elizabeth Warren.

Antisemitism in the United States spiked by a record 140%, according to figures released by the Anti-Defamation League on Tuesday.

Nearly 9,000 incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism — including more than 5,000 in the post-Oct. 7 period — were reported across America last year. The figure not only blew away the totals from 2022 — itself a record year — but outpaced the marks from the previous three years combined. The ADL began tracking relevant data in 1979.

The numbers in the ADL Audit of Antisemitic Incidents reflect a staggering 24 incidents of Jew-hatred per day in the United States — and that only includes events that are reported. According to the American Jewish Committee, nearly four in five Jews who experience antisemitic harassment don’t report it to law enforcement or media, mainly for fear of ongoing harassment.

“Antisemitism is nothing short of a national emergency, a five-alarm fire that is still raging across the country and in our local communities and campuses,” said ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. “Jewish Americans are being targeted for who they are at school, at work, on the street, in Jewish institutions and even at home.”

The rise was particularly felt on college campuses, where reported antisemitic activity increased by 321% from 2022. Hamas supporters have turned out for demonstrations across the country on campuses after Oct. 7, often calling for violence against Jews and reveling in the massacre.

That particular phenomenon has led to congressional hearings and the subsequent ouster of the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennslyvania for failure to condemn calls for the genocide of Jews, despite many opportunities to do so.

Thirty-six percent of the 8,873 reported in-

cidents of antisemitism last year contained elements referencing Israel or Zionism, compared with 6.5% in 2022, the ADL says.

Even excluding all Israel-related incidents, though, antisemitic incidents still rose by 65% to 5,711 incidents recorded in 2023.

And the pre-Oct. 7 period was not quiet, either, with monthly year-over-year increases in February, March, April, May and September. Each of these months broke the previous monthly record for most incidents, set at 394

in November 2022.

Grade schools also became a breeding ground for antisemitism, with the 1,162 incidents there marking an increase of 135%.

The ADL cited K-12 school incidents including “swastikas scrawled on desks, playgrounds and school buildings; antisemitic images AirDropped to large groups of unwitting students; harassment directed at visibly Jewish students; and teachers saying Jews are rich, powerful and control banks.”

Peggy Shukur, vice president of the ADL’s east division, said that “unvetted curriculum is being developed, sometimes created through teacher unions or other groups with some kind of ideological agenda, resulting in the existence of curricula that is biased and sometimes antisemitic.”

Incidents of vandalism, bomb threats and swatting against synagogues and Jewish institutions also skyrocketed in 2023, according to the ADL data.

Oren Segal, vice president of the ADL Center on Extremism, said these incidents were “all aimed at terrorizing the community by disrupting services and activities” at sites where Jews congregate.

“Our tracking of a swatting network enabled ADL to offer crucial intelligence to law enforcement, ensuring accountability for perpetrators, while also preemptively alerting targeted communities and mitigating potential harm,” said Segal.

The ADL on Tuesday issued a call to state governors across America to enact individual, statelevel versions of the Biden administration’s National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.

“This crisis demands immediate action from every sector of society and every state in the union,” said Greenblatt. “We need every governor to develop and put in place a comprehensive strategy to fight antisemitism, just as the administration has done at the national level.”

The Biden administration has been criticized, though, for a failure to include enforcement mandates in its national plan and to, in large measure, fulfill existing mandates to take action for violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

“Despite these unprecedented challenges, American Jews must not give in to fear,” Greenblatt said. “Even while we fight the scourge of antisemitism, we should be proud of our Jewish identities and confident of our place in American society.”