Chicago philanthropist Rabbi Morris Esformes traveled to Salonika

Transcription

JEWISH NEWS
THE CHICAGO
November 7 - 13, 2014/14 Cheshvan 5775
www.chicagojewishnews.com
One Dollar
A SON’S PILGRIMMAGE
Chicago
philanthropist
Rabbi Morris
Esformes
traveled to
Salonika,
Greece
to honor
his father
and his
heritage
Supreme Court on whether
Jerusalem is in Israel
Rabbi Hariri looks at
leaders and responsibility
Special section on
summer overnight camps
Chicago filmmaker’s look
at Holocaust hero
2
Chicago Jewish News - November 7 - 13, 2014
At 97, Holocaust survivor and mandolin player
Emily Kessler gets her Lincoln Center debut
By Raffi Wineburg
JTA
For Emily Kessler, a Holocaust survivor, the prospect of
performing at Lincoln Center’s
Avery Fisher Hall is less worrying
than figuring out what to wear
for the occasion.
“I came to the conclusion,”
she said, in an interview at her
apartment on Manhattan’s
Upper West Side, “that what is
the difference between playing in
front of three people instead of
300?”
At 97, Kessler is short and
slightly hunched. Along with old
photographs and birthday cards,
prescription pill bottles are scattered throughout her apartment.
“Age is not easy,” she says.
N evertheless, the soon-tobe 98-year-old is still sharp. And
although she moves at a crawling
pace to retrieve old black-andwhite pictures, when she sits
down to play the mandolin, her
fingers work just fine.
Kessler performed and sang
songs in Yiddish and Russian at
the 80th Anniversary Benefit
Gala for the nonprofit organization Blue Card — t he only organization in the United States
solely dedicated to providing assistance to Holocaust survivors
like herself.
Kessler has been a Blue Card
client for almost two decades.
They’ve arranged free dental
work, orthopedic shoes and even
all-expense-paid retreats in the
Berkshires. Masha Pearl, Blue
Card’s executive director , approached Kessler about playing
at the gala several months earlier.
Kessler, who likes to be prepared,
started practicing right away.
“To be prepared,” she says,
“is to respect other people, and to
respect yourself, your dignity.”
She had no chance to prepare in 1941, when Nazi officers
came to her home in Khmilnyk,
Ukraine and shot her parents
and brother in front of her. And
nothing could have prepared the
young widow (her husband, a Soviet soldier, was killed during the
Nazi invasion) to care for her 2year-old son in a Ukrainian labor
camp, to treat the open sores on
her wrists and arms with nonexistent medical supplies, or to
gather the strength for work –
construction and toilet cleaning
– without food or water.
Somehow she did, however.
And her survival, which she calls
a “miracle” still confounds her
today.
“How did we manage there
without food or water? I don’ t
know, for that, I try not to explain, because it’s difficult.”
Kessler eventually escaped
the camp, bringing her son
along, using false papers. She
lived on the run for two years before relocating to Kyrgyztan.
There, in her late 20s, she tried
to reassemble the broken pieces
of her life. She graduated from
university and worked as an editor in a publishing house.
But the damage was done.
After the war, the “catastrophe”
as she calls it, Kessler was
plagued by guilt, sadness. She
lived in a constant state of
mourning.
“I was very sad, not smiling.
I thought, ‘I don’t have the right
to smile’. It felt like a crime, like
I was guilty of smiling.”
The mandolin, which she
began playing at age 10 in her
school band, symbolized a time
of happiness, so Kessler avoided
it entirely.
In Kyrgyztan, where Kessler
lived after the war, anti-Semitism
was still rampant. So at 60 years
old, knowing no one in the U.S.
and speaking scant English,
Kessler immigrated to the United
States (her son, who now lives in
Michigan, immigrated several
Emily Kessler strums the mandolin in her Upper West Side apartment.
years after her).
“I was happy to leave,” she
said. “I had an opportunity to go,
and I took it.”
For five years though, she
was still “not ready” to play
music. But walking in Manhattan one day in 1985, she saw a
mandolin in the window of a
music store.
“After time, you think to
yourself, how long should I be in
mourning?” she said. She bought
the instrument, and has been
playing for the last 30 years.
“It helped just to go away
from the sadness,” she said. “It is
not always good to feel this sad. I
used to be on the street, and
without any thinking, I would
feel my heart to be full of tears.
No more, now it’s okay.”
She still goes on walks
around the neighborhood, and is
often asked what her secret is for
living a long time. She shrugs, “I
don’t know. My secret is that
there is no secret.”
3
Is Jerusalem part of Israel? Supreme Court to decide
ity plate law,” noting that Americans born in Northern Ireland
could not identify as being born
in Ireland. “And for that matter,
Kagan said, “if you are an American born in Jerusalem today, you
can’t get the right to say Palestine.”
Anthony Kennedy, often a
swing justice on the nine-mem-
By Ron Kampeas
JTA
SEE JERUSALEM
ON
PAG E 1 9
Menachem Zivotofsky, left, and his father Ari posing in front of the
Supreme Court with their attorney, Alyza Lewin, and Lewin's father
Nathan. (JTA)
rogative.
“What is the effect of this
statute other than something
that goes to recognition?” Justice
Elena Kagan asked.
“This statute is a statute that
was created to give individuals
the right to self-identify as they
choose that they were born in Israel,” Lewin replied.
Kagan said that if that were
true, “this is a very selective van-
LET’S TALK ABOUT
STUDENT LIFE
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WASHIN GTON
– A
lawyer for a boy born in
Jerusalem whose parents want Israel listed as the birthplace on his
U.S. passport tried mightily to
make a Supreme Court hearing
mainly about their wish, but the
justices kept upping the ante.
That might mean bad news
not just for 12-year-old Menachem Zivotofsky and his folks.
It could also present a problem
for the prospects of U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital should the court defer to the
Obama administration’s argument that a 2002 law allowing
the Israel listing infringes on the
president’s prerogative to set foreign policy.
Alyza Lewin, the lawyer
who represented Zivotofsky in
oral arguments at the court, acknowledged that the tenor of
questioning indicated support
among the justices for the idea
that the case hinges on the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches.
But in gamely parrying some
tough questions in her first appearance before the nation’ s
highest court, Lewin sought to
downplay the significance of recognizing Zivotofsky’s birthplace
as Israel, saying it was an issue of
personal choice and not an attempt to interfere with the president’s right to recognize foreign
governments.
“We gave the court alternative arguments, that what you
put on a passport does not
amount to recognition,” Lewin
said.
This marks the second time
that the Supreme Court has
heard arguments on the constitutionality of the 2002 law,
which allows U.S. citizens born
in Jerusalem to have Israel listed
as their birthplace on their passports.
The measure was enacted by
President George W. Bush, but
both he and Obama have declined to enforce it. The Zivotofskys filed suit after the State
Department refused their request
to list Menachem’s birthplace as
Israel.
In 2009, an appeals court
ruled that the passport question
was a political issue beyond the
scope of the the judiciary to decide. Three years later, the
Supreme Court overr uled that
finding and ordered the lower
court to rehear the case. Last
year, the appeals court ruled that
the executive branch prevailed
on matters of foreign policy ,
prompting Zivotofsky to appeal
again.
The justices seemed skeptical of Lewin’s claim that the Zivotofskys’ bid did not challenge
the presidential recognition pre-
ber court who more often than
not sides with the conservative
wing, also seemed skeptical of
Lewin’s claim.
“Do you want us to say in
our opinion that this is not a political declaration?” he asked.
Lewin answered in the affirma tive.
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Contents
Vol. 21 No. 5
THE CHICAGO
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Speaking out
Film tells story
of unsung hero
of the Holocaust
By Pauline Dubkin Yearwood
Managing Editor
A Catholic diplomat from
the Midwest, James G. McDonald, was one of the first people in
the world to know that Adolph
Hitler intended to annihilate the
entire Jewish people.
After all, he heard it from
Hitler himself.
But when he tried to warn
world leaders, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he
mostly met indifference.
McDonald, who went on to
become America’s first ambassador to Israel, is hardly a
household name even among
American Jews. That’s why
Chicago filmmaker Shuli Eshel
felt she had to tell his story.
The result is a documentary,
“A Voice Among the Silent: The
Legacy of James G. McDonald”
that will be shown on Sunday,
Nov. 9 at the Illinois Holocaust
Museum and Education Center’s
Kristallnacht commemoration
and also on Nov. 23 at Temple
Sholom of Chicago. McDonald’s
daughter will be present at the
Holocaust Museum screening.
Eshel, an Israeli-born Chicago filmmaker whose popular
documentaries have included
“Maxwell Street: A Living Memory” and “To Be a Woman Soldier,” had never heard of
McDonald before she read a column about him in a 2012 edition
of Chicago Jewish News, she said
in a recent phone interview. She
later went to a lecture about him
at Temple Sholom of Chicago
and found out that little had
November 9
Remembrance
been known about McDonald
until after his death, when his
daughters found and published
more than 500 pages of his diaries.
“I had never heard of his efforts to save Jews during the
Holocaust or that he was the first
U.S. ambassador to Israel. I come
from Israel and I had never heard
of his name. He had been left as
a footnote,” Eshel says.
In 1933, she says, McDonald
– born in Ohio, raised in Indiana
– was serving as the head of the
Foreign Policy Association in
New York.
“He had heard conflicting
reports about Hitler and thought
he would go to Germany and
find out directly. His mother was
German and he spoke the lanSEE HERO
ON
PAG E 9
Ambassador James McDonald and his daughter Barbara with Golda
Meir in 1948.
For Jewish Book Month,
David Laskin’s The Family
Programs
across Chicago
and the suburbs.
Kick-off event this
Sunday, November 9,
at Spertus Institute
features live music,
food, and readings
from The Family!
November 9, 1938
Kristallnacht
was the beginning of the
HOLOCAUST
The evil crime against humanity.
Find info, tickets, contests, and
Readers’ Guide at spertus.edu/TheFamily
Throughout Germany and Austria, the
Nazis unleashed an organized program
against the people of the Jewish faith.
View powerful
Kristallnacht testimonials
and performances by
renowned cantors in a
stirring remembrance event at
www.JUF.org/11-9-1938
JUF News in the media sponsor
of One Book | One Community.
Spertus Institute is pleased
to be working with synagogue
partners Congregation Etz
Chaim and North Suburban
Synagogue Beth El as well
as our colleagues at the
Illinois Holocaust Museum
& Education Center.
The Family is the 2014 One Book | One Community selection.
One Book | One Community is presented
by Spertus Institute and supported, in part,
by the Robert & Toni Bader Charitable Foundation.
Spertus Institute is a partner in serving our community, supported by
the Jewish united Fund/Jewish Federation.
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Community Calendar
Sunday
November 9
Beth Emet the Free Synagogue presents program by
the Chicago Center for Jewish Genetics on hereditary
cancers. 9:30 a.m., 1224
Dempster, Evanston. Registration, bethemet.org
(under adult education).
Congregation B’nai Tikvah
presents scholar-in-residence Rabbi Peretz Rodman speaking on “Prayers
That Annoy, Prayers That
Amuse, Reading the Siddur
With Open Eyes and
Tongue in Cheek.” 10:30
a.m., 1558 Wilmot, Deerfield. (847) 945-0470.
and Education Center commemorates 76th anniversary
of Kristallnacht with viewing
of “A Voice Among the
Silent: The Legacy of James
G. McDonald” followed by
discussion with Dr. Barbara
McDonald Stewart and filmmaker Shuli Eshel, 1 p.m.,
and commemorative candle
lighting ceremony followed
by debut of Al Gruen’s film,
“Kristallnacht Remembered”
narrated by Regine Schlesinger. 3 p.m., 9603 Woods
Drive, Skokie. Free with museum admission. Reservations required, ilholo
caustmuseum.org/events.
Spertus Institute for Jewish
Learning and Leadership
presents One Book One
Community kickoff featuring “Old Land, New Land,
Holy Land” with music by
Stuart Rosenberg. 2 p.m.,
610 S. Michigan, Chicago.
$25, $18 Spertus members.
spertus.edu or (312) 3221773.
StandWithUs Chicago hosts
Campus Champions Gala
honoring Janice and Steve
Hefter, with keynote
speaker Brooke Goldstein
and music by Shakshuka. 5
p.m., Highland Park Country Club, 1201 Park Avenue
West, Highland Park. $100
advance, $125 door. Registration, standwithus.com.
Ketura Hadassah hosts
brunch and trip to Paramount Theatre in Aurora to
hear new group, “Under
the Streetlight.” Coach departs 10:45 a.m., returns 6
p.m. Proesel Park, 6856 Kildare, Lincolnwood. $100.
(847) 673-0773. RSVP, bethsair@comcast.net or (773)
761-6862.
Wednesday
November 12
Monday
November 10
Milt’s BBQ for the Perplexed hosts author Yochi
Dreazen speaking about his
new book, “The Invisible
Front: Love and Loss in an
Era of Endless War.” 6 p.m.,
3411 N. Broadway, Chicago.
Reservations, (773) 6616384.
Tuesday
Simon Wiesenthal Center
Midwest Region presents
Academy Award- winning
documentary “Genocide”
narrated by Orson Welles
and Elizabeth Taylor followed by panel discussion.
5 p.m., Chicago School of
Professional Psychology,
325 N. Wells, Chicago. Registration required, www.
wiesenthal.com/chicagosch
ool2014.
Thursday
November 11
November 13
Lakeshore Mercaz Center
for Jewish Older Adults
presents “Chanukah and
More: A Celebration of
Jewish Music-Yiddish, Hebrew and Musical Theater.”
1-2:15 p.m., Anshe Sholom
B’nai Israel, 540 W. Melrose,
Chicago. (773) 508-1073.
CJE SeniorLife presents
“Government Benefits and
Estate Planning for Adults
with Disabilities.” 10-noon,
Bernard Horwich Building,
3003 W. Touhy, Chicago.
Registration, rosann.corcoran@cje.net or (773) 5081694.
Congregation Beth Shalom
presents Barry Bradford
speaking on “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo: The True
Story of the Doolittle Raid.”
6:15-8 p.m., 3433 Walters
Ave., Northbrook. $15
members, $20 non-members. (847) 498-4100 Ext. 46
or dfriedman@bethshalom
nb.org.
Decalogue Society of
Lawyers holds Reception in
Honor of the Judiciary. 5-7
p.m., Metro Klub, Crowne
Plaza Hotel, 733 W. Madison, Chicago. $75 members,
$90 non-members, $18 students in advance, $20 students at door (includes
one-year membership).
decaloguesociety.org.
CJE SeniorLife presents
“Life Transitions: Put the
Life in Lifestyle” with Rabbi
Karyn Kedar and Andrea
Kaplan, RN. 7:30 p.m., Congregation B’nai Jehoshua
Beth Elohim, 1201 Lake
Cook Road, Deerfield. (847)
940-7575.
Mussar Institute presents
12th annual Mussar Kallah.
5 p.m.– noon Sunday, Nov.
16, Illinois Beach Resort and
Conference Center, Zion.
For more information, (305)
610-7260 or jeff@mussarinstitute.org.
Lincolnwood Jewish Congregation A.G. Beth Israel
continues 2014 Diane and
Simon Zunamon Memorial
Fine Arts Music Series with
the Chicago Harp Quartet,
featuring Marguerite Lynn
Williams, principal harpist
of Lyric Opera of Chicago.
7:30 p.m., 7117 N. Crawford, Lincolnwood. $25. finearts@ljcong.org or (847)
676-0491.
Congregation B’nai Tikvah
hosts informational meeting about trip to Budapest,
Prague and Vienna. 8 p.m.,
1558 Wilmot Road, Deerfield. (847) 945-0470.
and Education Center presents author Barbara Winton speaking on “If It’s Not
Possible…The Life of Sir
Nicholas Winton” followed
by book signing. 6:30 p.m.,
9603 Woods Drive, Skokie.
$15, $10 members. Reservations required, iholocaustmuseum.org/events.
Congregation Beth Shalom
presents Bloomberg News
columnist Ezra Klein speaking on “How Washington
Really Works.” 8 p.m. 3433
Walters Ave., Northbrook.
(847) 498-4100.
7
Torah Portion
Upholding G-d’s bargain
Even our leaders
are responsible
for their actions
By Rabbi Carmit Harari
Guest Torah Columnist
Torah Portion: Vayera
Genesis 18:1-22:24
Nestled between the narratives of Sarah’s improbable pregnancy at the age of 90 and Isaac’s
near sacrifice on Mount Moriah
lies another well-known story:
that of So dom and Gomorrah.
Following the visit of the three
messengers, G-d informs Abraham of his decision to destroy
Sodom. Abraham, appalled, begins to bargain with G-d for the
lives of those potentially innocent
residents of So dom, and G-d
agrees that if 10 righteous individuals be found there, he will not
destroy the city on their account.
Ultimately it is Lot and his family
that are saved, while G-d rains
sulfurous fire upon the cities. The
Torah tells us that in so doing, Gd was mindful of Abraham, sending Lot out of the chaos, and
consequently saving his life.
It is a powerful story by all
accounts, one that is rooted in
the theme of justice. Abraham,
newly entered into the covenant
Rabbi Carmit Harari
with G-d, questions G-d’s sense
of morality if he is willing to wipe
out the innocent residents of the
city along with the guilty ones.
And, in what almost reads like
the classic tale of the underdog,
Abraham stands up to G-d, who
might even be described as the
bully in this scenario.
Most of us likely identify
with Abraham, or at the very
least we admire his actions. After
all, it seems only right that those
truly righteous individuals be
spared. But it is in Abraham’ s
very words to G-d, I believe, that
another lesson from this story
emerges. “… Shall not the judge
of all the earth deal justly?”
(Gen. 18:25)
In September, a shocking
video of the Baltimore Ravens’
Ray Rice surfaced. In security
footage, he was seen beating his
then fiancé – now his wife – unconscious in an elevator and
dragging her body of out into the
hallway. Though not a football
fan myself, like most Americans I
became well acquainted with the
story. And, like most Americans,
I was horrified as I watched the
video, played time and time
again, on the news and on the
internet.
But perhaps most troubling
in this case wasn’t the video itself. In a statement to the media,
Rice’s wife spoke of her dis approval of the consequences her
husband suffered as the result of
the video’s release. Rice had initially been suspended for two
games because of the fight, a
penalty some considered too lenient. But after security footage
from the elevator was released,
Rice was fired from his team and
suspended by the NFL. This isn’t
the first such scandal to surround
the NFL, among other organizations. And yet, no matter how
often such situations occur
among professional athletes, actors, or musicians, it never ceases
to amaze me that someone will
respond just as Rice’s wife did.
Though she didn’t say it in so
many words, Janay Rice’s statement might suggest that her husband’s status should exempt him
from the punishment that he re-
ceived, or at the very least make
it a bit more lenient.
A little closer to home, the
arrest of Rabbi Barry Freundel in
Washington D.C. just last month
for the crime of voyeurism
caught my attention. I felt the
same horrified feeling I’d felt
with the video of Rice as
I
learned that Freundel stood accused of secretly videotaping
women preparing to immerse in
the mikvah. And shortly there-
after, my stomach turned again
when news of Rabbi Menachem
Tewel’s arrest in Beverly Hills
broke; he stands accused of the
sexual molestation of minors.
Two prominent rabbis, leaders in
Israel, had abused their power ,
and left their communities crying
out in outrage.
It may seem clumsy to compare religious leaders to football
players. And yet all three men are
S E E TO R A H
ON
PAG E 1 2
CANDLELIGHTING TIMES
4
Nov. 7
4:19
Nov. 14
4:11
The 6th Annual
INTERNATIONAL
HOLIDAY BAZAAR
Saturday, November 15 and
Sunday, November 16
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Start your holiday shopping at
this world market extravaganza
featuring local artisans and
international fair trade goods.
6 Unique Jewelry and Purses 6 Fair Trade Merchandise 6
Home and Table Top Accessories 6 Books for Adults and Children
6 One-of-a-kind Judaica from Around the World 6
FREE Admission to Holiday Bazaar in Museum Hall.
15% Discount for Museum Members on all Purchases.
9603 Woods Drive, Skokie | 847.967.4800 | ilholocaustmuseum.org
8
Chicago Jewish Parent
Judaism and parenting
By Erica Brown
JNS.org
Admission Events
Upper School Open House, Grades 9–12
Saturday, November 22 | 10 am
Register at: fwparker.org/openhouse
For the 2015–16 School Year
Application Deadline: Monday, December 1
Apply online at fwparker.org/apply
Financial aid available for qualified applicants
Francis W. Parker School | 330 W. Webster Ave., Chicago, IL 60614 | 773.797.5107 | fwparker.org
junior kindergarten through grade eight
A multi-denominational community school
Join us for an informational meeting!
Thursday, November 13, 7:30 p.m.
To RSVP or for more information, please contact
Cortney Stark Cope, Director of Admissions.
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We all know the saying “Insanity is contagious; you get it
from your kids.” It seemed for a
while that research bore this out,
at least in part. Psychological
studies demonstrated that marital satisfaction decreases dramatically after the birth of the first
child and increases only when
the last child leaves home.
In “Stumbling on Happiness,” Harvard psy chologist
Daniel Gilbert marshaled evidence to suggest that societal
myths that having children
makes people happy are actually
incorrect. He calls this a “belieftransmission game” where we
falsely believe that certain things
contribute or detract from our
happiness. One of them is
money, which has been shown to
bring happiness only when it relieves an individual of poverty
but above that is inconsequential
to life satisfaction. The other is
parenting.
“Every human culture tells
its members that having children
will make them happy,” Gilbert
contends. People look forward to
it with happy expectation. When
people are asked about sources of
happiness they invariably point
to their kids. But, Gilbert claims,
when you chart their actual satisfaction a “very different story
emerges.” Women surveyed rated
taking care of their kids as a
chore less satisfying than eating,
exercising, shopping, napping or
watching television. But don’t
worry kids. Mom enjoyed you
just slightly more than doing
housework.
I remember first reading this
research and feeling a punch in
my stomach. Jewish life is predicated on continuity and regards
the family as the sacred unit by
which faith and culture is transmitted. Granted, obligation and
responsibility top personal happiness within the framework of
faith communities generally and
Judaism specifically. It is not that
happiness is not important. It’ s
that happiness is not the most
significant or sole motivator for
our beliefs and practices.
How does this research jive
with the statement from
Proverbs above? We believe that
children are a cr owning glory.
Actually in this verse, children
are a transition between their
grandparents and their parents.
Grandparents regard children
with delight, and children regard
their parents with pride.
This smooth and happy family transition and succession does
not always happen. The chapter
in which this verse from Proverbs
appears, shares something of
what happens when families cannot operate with this sense of
continuity and pride: “Better a
dry crust with peace than a house
full of feasting and strife.” In
other words, it’ s better to be
raised in a home where there is
little money but much peace
than where there is wealth and
strife.
Proverbs 17 als o includes
the verse, “A joyful heart makes
for good health.” That joyful
heart includes children, who are
the crown of our existence
whether you are a parent, an
aunt, a friend or a member of society who believes in the next
generation. And if that bundle of
joy is also a challenge at times,
then perhaps children help us affirm our humanity and self-sacrifice. In the words of Hillel, if I
am only for myself, who am I?
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9
Hero
CONTINUED
F RO M PAG E
5
guage,” she says.
A meeting was arranged,
and at one point McDonald
brought up the subject of Jews.
“Hitler at first said we don’t
have anything against Jews but
the more McDonald brought up
the subject he started los ing it,”
Eshel says. “Finally he lost his
temper and told McDonald he
planned to annihilate the Jews.
He said there had already been a
boycott and Jewish stores were
closed and storm troopers were
attacking people and not letting
them into (the remaining)
stores.”
This information wasn’t yet
widely known outside of Ger many and “McDonald was to tally shocked that this was
happening right in front of his
eyes,” Eshel says.
He took Hitler’s words seriously and three weeks later met
with President Roosevelt.
“We know from (McDonald’s) diaries that Roosevelt
heard from McDonald first hand
what Hitler’s plan were, and he
was very shocked,” Eshel says.
But when McDonald sought
funds to help resettle Jewish
refugees, “(Roosevelt) said he
would, but he dragged his feet,
and in the end it was forgotten,”
she says.
McDonald’s name was submitted to become ambassador to
Germany, but he was not chosen.
“We don’t know if a frank account of his talk with Hitler
changed Roosevelt’s mind. Did
they think he was too pro-Jew?”
Eshel asks.
Later McDonald was named
League of N ations High Commissioner for Refugees. “He got
together with prominent Jews in
N ew York City and decided to
reach out to European countries
and get safe haven for refugees,”
Eshel says. He even talked to the
future Pope Pius XII about the
impending doom he foresaw for
Europe’s Jews.
He asked Roosevelt to donate $10,000 in hopes that other
countries would follow, but it
never happened. In a letter to
The New York Times Albert Einstein backed the plan and appealed to humanity for help in
resettling Jewish refugees.
Despite such pleas, Eshel
says, McDonald soon found out
that “a lot of countries didn’ t
want to open their doors to Jewish refugees. He went to South
America and other places and
found nobody wanted to help resettle Jews. Even the (U.S.) State
Department was indifferent to
the plight of Jews.” In 1935 McDonald resigned the League of
Nations post.
He later worked on The
N ew York Times and taught at
Indiana University, eventually
becoming the first U.S. ambassador to Israel. “He laid down the
foundation of the relationship
between Israel and the United
States,” Eshel says.
To tell the human story she
worked with McDonald’ s two
daughters, using the diaries as
source material.
“He never thought he would
publish them,” she says. “He just
kept them as a record of what he
did, who he spoke to. The diary
was a very thick volume and was
mainly for scholars who were researching this period. But no one
had made a documentary about
him and I thought a documentary would reach a much bigger
audience all over the world.”
The film ended up being
somewhat controversial, Eshel
says, because “it shows that Roosevelt did very little to help peo-
ple who were denied entry to the
country.”
But more important, she
says, is that “Chicago should hear
the little-known story of an
American diplomat who did
everything he could to warn the
world about Hitler.”
“A Voice Among the Silent:
The Legacy of James G. McDonald” will be shown at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 9 at the Illinois
Holocaust Museum and Education
Center, 9603 Woods Drive,
Skokie, followed by a program with
McDonald’s daughter, Dr. Barbara
McDonald Stewart, and filmmaker
Shuli Eshel. Reservations required,
reservations@ihmec.org. It will also
be shown at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov.
23 at Temple Sholom of Chicago,
3480 N. Lake Shore Drive,
Chicago. More information, (773)
435-1541.
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Shuli Eshel
Research engine for the world. Engine of growth for a nation.
10
A
SON’S
PILGRIMMAGE
Chicago philanthropist Rabbi Morris Esformes traveleled
to Salonika, Greece to honor his father and his heritage
By Joseph Aaron
Editor
It was a pilgrimage to honor
his heritage, his family, his father.
Rabbi Morris Esformes’
grandparents, on both his father’s
and mother’s side, came from Salonika, Greece. All during his
childhood, Esformes heard constantly about Salonika, heard
stories about the way it was,
heard about the amazing
Sephardic community that lived
there, including so much of his
family, so many of his ancestors.
Salonika was indeed an
amazing place. Jews began arriving there in the 1300s and over
the following centuries, the community flourished, was home to a
vibrant Sephardic culture,
learned Sephardic rabbis, great
Sephardic yeshivas and synagogues. By the early 20th century, it was home to more than
60,000 Jews, more than 50 shuls,
dozens of Torah scholars and students and institutions. Salonika
is a port city, and so prominent
was its Jewish community , so
pious were its Sephardic Jews,
that the port was closed every
Shabbat. The city was known as
“the Jerusalem of the Balkans.”
That is the Salonika Esformes, the noted Chicago philanthropist, heard about year
after year growing up, story after
story. And so when Esformes’ father, Philip, died this past February, he felt the perfect way to
honor his father’s life, honor his
family’s roots was to travel to Salonika to see for himself the city
that was so alive in his mind, did
so much to shape his father’s life,
and his own.
And so, accompanied by
several Chicago rabbis, Esformes
made the journey to Salonika,
called Thessaloniki in today’s
Greece, along with his 92-yearold mother Rebecca, his wife
Delecia, and some Chicago
friends.
It was a journey to pay tribute to his father , a man whose
parents were shaped by their
lives in Salonika and who, in
turn, shaped the lives of Morris
and his sister Flora Weiss.
The minute his mother left
the airport terminal and stepped
onto the ground of Salonika, she
began to weep. “I can hear voices
from the past,” she said.
It was a visit both joyous and
sad. There was joy in her eyes
when Rebecca sat and conversed
fluently in Ladino with a local
Jewish community leader . But
there was sadness to see what the
flourishing Jewish community
had become. Fifty seven thousand Greek Jews from Salonika
were murdered in the Nazi death
camps, more than 90 percent of
the community. There are now
but a thousand Jews living in the
city, and but one synagogue. A
visit to the former Jewish or phanage found a badly decayed
old building. And then there are
the remains of the last yeshiva in
Salonika, now a broken shell of
a structure. During the war , it
served as headquarters of the
Gestapo. Hebrew lettering is still
visible engraved into its outer
walls.
There is, however, a Chabad
rabbi working to keep Judaism
alive in Salonika. He runs a
kosher restaurant that serves
dozens daily. The Friday night
before Esformes’ arrival, there
were a couple hundred Jews who
gathered for Shabbat dinner. As
a result of the trip, Rabbi Esformes plans to support the
Chabad rabbi’s efforts, provide
funding for educational and
other programs aimed especially
at young Jews, in the hope of
keeping the spark of Judaism
alive in Salonika.
But the main purpose of the
trip was to honor his father by
going back to, by seeing and
standing in the place from which
both sides of his family came, to
walk the ground and reach back
and embrace the chain of his ancestors.
It was a t rip to a faraway
place in memory of Philip Esformes, a very special man, a very
wonderful father, a very proud
and dedicated Sephardic Jew, a
kind and gentle human being.
Philip Esformes’ parents left
Salonika in 1911 and came to
New York where Philip was born
10 years later. From the very beginning, his life was not an easy
one. His mother was not healthy
and because his father could not
take care of him, Philip was
placed in an orphanage when he
was but two years old. It was a
place, says his daughter Flora
Weiss, where “they would line
the boys up and pick one and
beat him to show the others what
would happen if they were bad.”
He was then put in a succession of foster homes starting at
age 3. In some of them he was
physically abused. His mother
died when he was 13. His father
needed him to go to work to help
the family survive the Depression
years. He enlisted in the army
and served for five years during
World War II and was called
back into service during the Korean War. He had Bell’ s palsy
twice, his business went bankrupt. “There was nothing easy
about my father’s life,” says his
daughter.
And yet, says Rabbi Morris
Esformes, “he never complained
about anything, always had
strong faith in G-d. When he
went bankrupt, his only concern
was for his wife, for his kids and
their education and making sure
he did all he needed to do to protect his family. He would quote
the line from the movie ‘Rocky,’
that in life, it’s not the punch you
take, but what counts is that you
get up and keep going.”
And so he did. And always
with a smile on his face.
Ask Philip Esformes’ son
and daughter about him and the
first thing they both tell you is
what a “kind and gentle man” he
was.
He was someone, says Mor ris, who “treated every human
being with respect and dignity.”
There are many examples of
that, but perhaps the most amazing and courageous, one in
which he acted far ahead of his
time, was during W orld War II
when Philip was stationed on an
army base in Missouri. It was a
place, notes Morris, “where they
did not like blacks, did not like
Jews, did not like anyone not like
them.”
Knowing that, feeling that,
Philip, a captain, volunteered to
train the black troops. “There
were 250 men in his squad and
he treated each one of them with
respect and dignity,” said Morris.
For that, he earned the nickname ‘Esformes the n—-lover.’
When Philip heard a sergeant
use that term, Esformes, who had
been a semi-amateur boxer when
he was growing up, promptly
knocked the sergeant out with
one punch. And then saw to it
that he was court-martialed for
his disgusting language. ”The
black men in his unit were
amazed he would go so far to protect their dignity,” said Morris.
And they never forgot it. Indeed, after the war, one day more
than a dozen of his men showed
up at the Esformes home in
Highland Park, New Jersey. They
had a Kiddush cup with them,
which they bought in honor of
Capt. Esformes’ son Morris. It
had his name engraved on it.
“My dad and the soldiers
embraced each other. They said
no one had ever treated them
like he had.”
Philip was ahead of his time
also in how he treated women.
“Back in the days when I was
growing up,” said Flora, “women
were not given leadership posi-
Philip Esformes with his wife Rebecca, son Rabbi Morris Esformes and
daughter Flora Weiss.
tions. But with my dad, he was
completely liberated. If you had
the ability, he gave you the responsibility. It was not in fashion
to let girls work then, but he encouraged me to work.”
His dad, said Morris, “loved
people. If you were a goo d person, no matter who you were, he
treated you as human beings
should be treated. He jus t had a
love for the human race. Never
had any issues of race, color ,
creed. He was a goo d guy who
just loved people, who could talk
to anybody about anything. He
treated everyone he met kindly,
was a kind, warm soul who loved
the world. That is something
that has stayed with me all my
life.”
“I remember when they
were living in Florida, he would
pick me up after work,” said
Flora. “A trip that should have
taken 15 minutes, took a half
hour because we would go
through a toll booth and my father had to talk to all the workers. He talked to everyone,
everyone loved him.”
He especially felt that way
about his fellow Jews, said Morris. “As my mother once put it,
my dad saw all Jews as part of the
family.” And they not only felt
that way and said that, but lived
that in their life.
“He was always involved in
doing chesed, in tzedekah,” said
Morris. “Those were manifest in
both my parents. They always
shared whatever they had. My father would give you the shirt off
his back. It was never about him,
it was about doing for the rest of
the world. There was no ego. He
was good, kind, compassionate,
an incredible human being who
cared about everybody.”
And, said Flora, “he was so
caring. He had a friend who was
suffering from pancreatic cancer.
He would literally carry him to
his car so he could take him for
rides. The man told him he really
wanted to go to Las V egas one
last time before he died, and so
my dad picked him up and carried him to the back seat of the
car and they drove to V egas
where they spent two days, my
dad taking care of him the entire
time.”
And she remembers her
“uncle, an alcoholic, who needed
a place to stay and we took him
in and he lived with us. Everyone
was an aunt and uncle to us. My
parents had an open door policy,
anyone who needed a meal, a
place to stay, was welcome. They
didn’t just talk tzedakah, they
lived it.”
But the main of focus of his
life, Morris said, was “that his
wife and kids were taken care of,
know they were loved. He was
quiet, not emotional but we
could feel the passion he felt for
his family. He reveled in our accomplishments. His whole life
was about us. He could wear the
same pair of pants forever but
would make sure his wife dressed
like out of a magazine.”
Flora agrees. “He could wear
the same shirt day after day. He
saw no purpose in buying things
for himself, always enjoyed buying for us. We once bought him a
fancy watch, and he never wore
it. He had simple tastes, was a
simple man. All he wanted was
that his family be happy.”
When Morris and Flora
were teenagers, they became observant. Their parents were not.
“My dad had no religious background,” said Morris. “But the
minute his kids became frum, he
made sure the house was kosher
and that our observance was respected. He said nothing would
separate the family and if this is
now part of what the kids are,
11
this is what the family is.
“Everything was about his
family, that the family stays together like glue. He had religious
children and so everything had
to be done to support that.”
“We chose a direction and
he completely changed his life
just so we were comfortable,” said
Flora. “He always protected us,
showed us how much he loved
us. All he wanted was that we be
happy.
“When my brother was 10,
he had a bloo d disorder and the
doctors suggested a warmer climate would help him. And so my
parents immediately left N ew
Jersey for California. My father
didn’t have a job lined up, but he
went without hesitation because
it would be better for Morris.”
Flora remembers that “he
would give us an allowance of $5
a week, which was a lot of money
50 years ago. It was unheard of.
But he said he never wanted his
children to be without anything
they needed.
“All our lives, he would call
us at 6:30 in the morning on our
birthday, send us these really sentimental cards. He was not a
hugger, not a cuddler , but we
could feel how much he loved
us.”
But as much as he loved his
children, his first love was his
wife, Rebecca, to whom he was
married for 70 years. “He
thought she was the greatest
thing G-d created,” said Morris.
“He put her on a pedestal, always
treated her with admiration, dignity and respect. He would often
come home and proceed to serenade her in song.”
“He was the perfect husband,” said Flora. “My mother
didn’t have to ask him to do the
dishes, he just did them. There
was nothing too little or too big
for him. If it had to be done, he
did it.”
Besides his father’s devotion
to his family, it was his integrity
that made the biggest impression
on Morris. “He never lied once
in his life. He was brutally honest
all the time. There was no shtick
with him, only doing things the
honorable way, that was the only
way he knew.
“In California, he was a
leather broker, had a small company. A much bigger company
called Sands, which provided all
the leather goods to Marshall
Field’s, bought all their leather
from my father. I once asked the
owner Bill Sands why he didn’t
deal with bigger companies, why
he bought from a small leather
broker like my father.
“He told me, ‘Philip Esformes is the only honest person
out here. I never have to think
twice about the quality of his
merchandise or the fairness of his
price. He is the most honorable
man I have ever known.”
“He always walked the path
he talked,” said Flora. “He would
not go to sleep if he owed anyone
money; he first had to pay them.”
Though an outwardly simple
man, both his children agree
there were so many facets to him.
“He was brilliant,” said Flora.
“He graduated high school at 15.
During World War II, he served
in the Aleutian Islands in intelligence. He had a photographic
memory and was involved in a
very secret operation. We still
don’t know what he did. And he
had a facility for picking up languages.”
As for the voice he used to
serenade his wife, it was so beautiful, says Flora, “that he once attended a taping of the ‘Lawrence
Welk Show’ and he was in the
audience singing along and was
invited up on stage to sing. He
loved to dance. And he was incredibly strong. He could tear a
phone book in half. He was a
guy’s guy. He loved baseball,
loved to talk about sports, knew
every statistic. He was very proIsrael, loved dogs, had his fa-
Philip Esformes, right, at age 13, with his brother Morris, left, and his father Isaac.
vorite chair, loved his coffee in
the morning, loved chocolate
and every kind of goo and junk,
smoked until he was 92. He used
to sit and smoke and exhale the
smoke from his mouth in rings.
He loved playing with kids, had
this great big laugh, loved telling
jokes.
“He was intense, outgoing,
very smart, not a simple guy. He
was a soldier , very disciplined,
tough, but mush inside. And he
loved being a Jew. He was not religious, did not know Hebrew .
But he loved to sit in shul and
got so much joy from just listening to the davening. When his
father died, he strictly observed
every law of mourning for the
year.
“And he was a total
Sephardi to the core, was very
proud of being a Sephardic Jew,
of the beauty of his Sephardic
heritage. He and my mom spoke
to each other in Ladino, when
we lived in New Jersey it was in a
totally Sephardic community.”
Adds Morris, “he was very
perceptive. He saw the world the
way it was. He had a life of ups
and downs, but he would always
pick himself up off the floor and
keep on moving. I remember he
took me to my first baseball game
in N ew York when I was eight
years old. Though he was a Yankees fan, I was a big Giants fan
and so we went to the Polo
Grounds and saw Willie Mays.
He loved sports and that’s where
I got my love of sports. I remember the Giants lost and I was
moping the whole way home. He
told me that you don’ t always
win but if you do most of the
time, you are ahead of the game.
I never forgot that.
“He was not an emotional
man,” said Morris. “I remember
him crying only three times.
When his father died in his arms,
when I married my wife Delecia,
his favorite niece, and one of the
last times we were together before he died, when he told me
how much he loved me.”
But Morris remembers one
time he saw his father get really
angry. “He never got mad, never.
But we were at a lecture by a
prominent rabbi and in the context of talking about the Talmud,
he veered into politics and criticized the American decision to
bomb Hiroshima during the war.
That my father, who served in
the war, could not take. He had
friends who had been killed in
the war. After the class, he heatedly told the rabbi you didn’t see
what I saw and so should not
criticize what was done. He was
a mild mannered man, but that
day he was angry, it really set him
off.”
It was a very rare occurrence
for a man, Flora said, who “was
always jovial, upbeat. He was always smiling. He was just a
happy man.”
He was indeed such a joyous, joyful man, that both his
children say they are having a
very hard time dealing with the
Philip and Rebecca Esformes shortly after their wedding.
fact he is gone.
“If I was depressed, he always found a way to pick me up,”
said Morris. “He was always
someone I could call and get wise
counsel, who I knew was always
looking out for what was best for
me. I don’t have that anymore. I
sometimes find myself instinctively reaching for the phone to
call him and then I realize.
When you lose someone who
loved you so much, you have a
big big void in your life.
“Every day is a challenge. I
have his picture in my office and
I look at it every single day. Not
long ago, it was his birthday, the
first one since he died. That was
a very hard day. I held his picture
in my hands and said ‘pop, I miss
you’ and I cried. He lived like a
Jew is supposed to live his life.
“He was a gem of a guy . He
was born on a Friday and in the
Talmud it says someone born on
a Friday runs after mitzvahs. That
was my father, someone who always sought to do good deeds. He
was a good, kind, compassionate,
caring person who was always
non-judgmental, who always
looked at the positive, who never
said anything bad about anyone.
He was an incredible human
being who cared about everybody.
“I miss him terribly. If I turn
out to be half the man my father
was, I will have accomplished a
lot. The world is not the same
place without my father.”
“The last three years of his
life were the bravest,” said Flora.
“He had macular degeneration so
had trouble seeing, had a stroke
so he couldn’t talk, had his knees
replaced so he couldn’t walk. But
he still always smiled, he was a
happy man.
“I can’t accept that he died.
I used to see him every single day.
He was a very comforting person
to have around, he was always
interested in me, would ask me
‘what’s new Flo?’ ten times a day.
He was just a wonderful father.
“He was in such pain at the
end. On what turned out to be
his last day, he asked his caretaker to bring him his breakfast.
He wanted a glass of milk. He
drank it, took a deep breath, and
he was gone. It was like Hashem
came in and gave him a kiss and
that was it.
“The man who did the
tahara (ritual cleansing of the
body) after my dad died, said that
as he was doing it, he saw something he had never seen before.
He looked at my father’s face and
saw that he was smiling.
“He was such a sweet man.”
And the reason Morris Esformes went to Salonika. “This is
where the roots of our family are.
From the time I was 2, 3 years
old, the word Salonika was as
common to me as my own name.
To be where my great grandpar ents, my grandparents, aunts, uncles, were born and raised, grew
up, was a dream come true for
me.”
His wife Delecia, whose
name hearkens from Salonika,
agreed. “I heard about Salonika
my whole life. To breathe the air
of Salonika, to walk where my
ancestors walked was something
very special.”
“I waited all my life for this,”
said Morris. “My parents spoke
Ladino in our house, spoke
Greek. I have so many memories
of the stories I heard about Salonika from my parents, and now
I’ve seen it. Just standing in the
city was huge for me.”
And throughout his time in
the city, he thought about his father. “At night, I stoo d on the
balcony of my hotel room crying,
and said, “Pa, I’m here.”
12
Torah
CONTINUED
F RO M PAG E
7
men of prominence, and each
stands accused of a crime. And, as
Abraham’s bargaining with G-d
in our parsha teaches, no one, not
even G-d, is above the law.
In his book, “Arguing with
G-d: A Jewish Tradition,” Anson
Laytner explains: “Since Abraham’s argument with G-d is the
first major one of its kind – and
certainly the first ‘Jewish’ one –
a number of observations are in
order. First, what gives Abraham
the right to question G-d’s judgment? It is the covenant (brit)
that bestows this privilege. The
covenant, the contract into
which Abraham entered at G-d’s
behest, unites Abraham and his
seed in a unique relationship
with G-d. Abraham’ s line is
bound to keep the commandments of the Lord (the first of
which is circumcision), but it is
also understood that G-d has his
obligations to uphold (Gen.
17:1-14). Furthermore, both parties are bound to pursue justice
and righteousness, these things
being both the G-d-given charge
of Abraham and his descendants
and ‘the way of the Lord’ by
which G-d himself is obligated.”
We live in an age that seems
to glorify status. Celebrities are
treated differently and in some
cases are even revered. Rabbis,
though they may not have
celebrity status, are most certainly prominent within their
communities, and in some cases
beyond. And while prominence
may lead to fame and even to fortune, no amount of money and
no title can change the fact that
each of these people is just like
us: human.
We hope for the best from
our leaders. We anticipate that
those in the spotlight will lead by
example, modeling the best behavior that they have to offer.
Health & Fitness
While prominence
may lead to fame
and even to fortune, no amount of
money and no title
can change the
fact that each of
these people is just
like us: human.
But no one is perfect, and no person, Ray Rice, Rabbi Freundel,
nor Rabbi Tewel, despite their titles or status, can be expected to
be as such. The decisions by each
of the aforementioned to behave
as they did is reprehensible, but,
I believe, the consequences they
suffered were in no way over-exaggerated. Abraham’s bargain
with G-d serves as a reminder
that justice is served only when
each individual, no matter his or
her status, is subject to the consequences of his or her actions.
We must remember, no matter how difficult or disappointing
it is to watch leaders and heroes
fall, that no one, not even G-d,
is above the law. Our tradition
teaches that one can always return. I pray that the individuals
mentioned here engage in true
teshuvah, and, like Abraham, are
able to once again hold G-d up
to his end of the bargain, making
our world truly one of justice and
fairness.
Rabbi Carmit Harari is the
rabbi of B’nai Yehuda Beth Sholom
(Reform) and of Congregation Am
Echad (Conservative) in Homewood.
From Ebola to Iraqi refugees, Israeli aid group
tackles world’s most difficult crises
By Sean Savage
JNS.org
Known primarily for their
military prowess and high-tech
ingenuity, Israelis are often
overlooked when it comes to
their global engagement. But IsraAID, an Israeli non-profit and
non-governmental organization
founded in 2001, has been on
the frontline of every major humanitarian crisis of the 21st
century – including today’s
most difficult hotspots in Iraq
and West Africa.
“Our mission is to efficiently support and meet the
changing needs of populations
as they strive to move from crisis to reconstruction and rehabilitation, and eventually, to
sustainable living,” N avonel
Glick, IsraAID’s program director, said.
Drawing on Israel’s military
expertise and robust healthcare
system, IsraAID has tackled humanitarian disasters in 22 countries, including the earthquakes
in Japan and Haiti, refugee situations in South Sudan and
Kenya, and Hurricane Katrina
and Superstorm Sandy in the
United States.
In early October, IsraAID
supplied mattresses, blankets,
food, and hygiene kits to more
than 1,000 people in the Dohuk
and Erbil refugee camps in Iraq’s
Kurdish region.
Providing aid to refugees in
the Arab world is no easy task
for an Israeli organization, especially in countries as hostile to
the Jewish state as Iraq, which
has been overrun by jihadists
from the Islamic State terror
group.
“This is an issue that is very
sensitive, but not for the reasons that one would expect,”
Glick said. “More than our security, our concern is how to
make sure to protect the people
that we are helping. Having
people we want to assist become
the target of Islamic State
sleeper cells within camps
would be horrendous.”
The plight of Iraq’s Christians and Yazidis is eerily similar to the story of the country’s
former Jewish community. The
modern persecution and expulsion of Iraqi religious minorities
draws many parallels to the
waves of attacks on, and eventual expulsion of, Iraqi Jewry
during the mid-20th century.
N early 135,000 Jews were
forced to leave Iraq from 1948
onwards.
“We decided to launch this
IsraAID workers (pictured at right) provide training in Sierra Leone
amid the Ebola crisis.
project because of the incredible needs of the displaced populations fleeing death and abuse
at the hands of the Islamic
State,” said Glick. “They are
coming with absolutely nothing
but the clothes on their backs.”
According to estimates, more
than 1.8 million Iraqis have
been displaced by Islamic State.
Christians in particular have
been singled out by the jihadists, with many being forced
to convert, leave, or die.
Most of the refugees living
in Iraq’s Kurdish region are
Christians and Yazidis who fled
from Islamic State during the
summer. A video recently
posted by IsraAID shows the organization’s truck arriving at a
refugee camp in Kurdistan, with
relief workers being warmly
greeted by the refugees as they
distribute the humanitarian
items.
Currently, IsraAID is the
only Israeli entity present on
the ground in West Africa amid
the Ebola crisis. Glick, who currently is in Sierra Leone to help
lead the organizations efforts
there, described the situation
was “very worrying.”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry and MASHAV – Israel’s
Agency for International Development Cooperation have
jointly begun sending aid to the
region, including the deployment of mobile field hospitals
that feature isolation units and
protective gear for medical professionals.
Despite increasing international assistance, more than
4,000 people have died so far in
the Ebola outbreak.
“The Ebola outbreak continues to spread, and while an
increasing amount of interna tional support is coming, the
healthcare workers that have
been on the frontline of the
fight for over five months now
are absolutely exhausted, burnt
out, and traumatized,” Glick
said.
In Sierra Leone, IsraAID is
beginning to provide training to
address the psycho-social impact of Ebola.
“Most people realize the
very direct medical efforts necessary to tackle the disease, but
only now are people starting to
realize the psychological toll
that the outbreak has had on
huge sections of the population
– from fear of infection, to grief
for whole families and communities that have been decimated, all compounded by
increasing stigma towards sur vivors and the families of victims,” Glick said.
According to Glick, the reaction to IsraAID training has
been very positive among the
people of Sierra Leone and the
country’s government – including support from the First Lady
of Sierra Leone, Sia Koroma,
who is a t rained psychiatric
nurse.
Though the crisis in West
Africa is serious, Glick said people around t he world need to
stop the panic and hysteria surrounding Ebola. He said the
sensationalistic global reaction
to the outbreak is leading to a
growing stigma associated with
people from West Africa and
hampering efforts to combat the
disease.
“This disease is indeed dangerous and scary, but it is not
easily transmitted, and even in
the affected countries, there are
still millions of people that are
living their lives every day,” he
said.
Glick said IsraAID is committed to continuing to provide
aid to Iraqi refugees as winter
approaches, and he believes
that the Ebola outbreak in West
Africa is also a long-term project that may take sev eral years
to contain and heal.
“The road to containing
and eventually beating this disease is still a ways away , and
mitigating its psychological impact will probably take years,”
he said.
13
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14
SUMMER OVERNIGHT CAMPS Chicago Jewish News - November 7 - 13, 2014
B’nai B’rith Beber Camp
(847) 677-7130
www.bebercamp.com
B’nai B’rith Beber Camp is a
co-ed, residential Jewish camp lo-
cated in Mukwonago, Wisconsin,
only 90 minutes northwest of
Chicago. We have beautiful facilities, including a new state of the
art health center, air-conditioned
dining hall and full kosher kitchen.
Campers can choose from more
than 80 activities, including waterskiing, sailing, sports, rock
band, arts and crafts and rock
climbing. We pride ourselves on
our intimate size and professional
Take your summer camp to new heights
with Jewish Council for Youth Services’
CAMP HENRY
HORNER
A northwood experience
in the northwest suburbs!
>> outdoor adventures
kayaking, rock climbing,
tent camping, tubing, and
high ropes course & zipline
staff — with only about 300
campers per session and a low
camper-to-counselor ratio. Come
and experience all that Beber
Camp has to offer and join our
family.
Camp Moshava of Wild Rose
(847) 674-9733
www.moshavawildrose.org
Camp Moshava of Wild
Rose’s mission is to model the
ideals of Modern Orthodox Judaism and religious Zionism
through a safe, engaging and nurturing co-educational summer
sleep-away camp experience.
Camp Moshava inspires children
and young adults to become future leaders and to pursue extraordinary lives through a deep
commitment to Torah, Avodah
(Service) and Israel.
Camp Moshava of Wild Rose,
now in its 75th year, is where Judaism and the history of Israel
come to life. In addition to daily
prayers and study groups, the
SEE CAMP
ON
PAG E 1 6
Register at
JCYS.ORG
or 847.740.5010
>> indoor comforts
air-conditioned cabins and
themed evening activities
>> Wisconsin Dells,
canoeing, and more!
Contact Isaac at
ibrubaker@jcys.org
for a tour!
Summer 2015
First Session:
Second Session:
June 21 - July 17
July 19 - August 14
(Rookies leave July 5) (Rookies leave August 2)
(847) 677-7130
www.bebercamp.com
Three Rivers, MI
www.camptavor.org
312-239-8425
registrar@camptavor.org
New Families: Menon this ad to receive $100 off.
In addion to having fun and making new friends,
campers at Tavor learn about leadership, social jusce,
stewarding the environment and connecng to Israel.
One Happy Camper Grants and addional scholarships
available.
15
16
SUMMER OVERNIGHT CAMPS Camp
CONTINUED
F RO M PAG E
14
theme of the summer is interwoven throughout daily activities
that include sports, swimming,
boating, drama, arts and crafts,
overnights, color war and special
trips. Shabbat, one of the most
special times at camp, is filled
with singing, dancing, great ruach
and concludes with a special and
meaningful Havdala.
Camp Moshava offers a six
week camping experience for
campers completing third through
11th grades with a four week option for campers completing third
and fourth grade. A special two
week matchilim beginners program is available for first-time
campers completing third grade.
Session dates for 2015 are as
follows: Sunday, June 21 – Monday, Aug. 3 (6 week program) and
Sunday, June 21 – Sunday, July 19
(4 week program).
Camp Nageela Midwest
(773) 604-4400
www.campnageelahmidwest.org
Situated on 500 acres in rural
Indiana, Camp Nageela Midwest
offers campers completing grades
3-10 a three-week experience of
fun and unforgettable memories.
Camp Nageela is an ACA accredited, overnight camp with separate boys and girls sessions, giving
your child the opportunity to
enjoy an all-around camp program while making many new
Jewish friends. Campers in Camp
Nageela identify with all Jewish
affiliations. All meals and snacks
are kosher.
Our extensive daily schedule
is a camper’s dream, including
sports, trips, theme parks, hiking,
horseback riding, boating, biking
and enjoying the benefits of our
expansive grounds including the
Olympic size pool, lake, indoor and
outdoor gym, scenic trails and
waterfall, paintball courts, rockwall and ropes course.
Our 3:1 camper-to-staff ratio
ensures safe, caring, individualized attention and relationships
that embrace and encourage.
Counselors at Nageela are full of
life and haven’t forgotten what
it’s like to be a camper.
Camp Ramah in Wisconsin
(312) 606-9316, ext. 221
www.ramahwisconsin.com
Camp Ramah in Wisconsin is
the place where fun and friendship build Jewish lives. A full
range of fun activities integrates
Jewish values and observances
into the daily camp experience.
Activities include sports, swim-
ming, high and low ropes courses,
climbing wall, sailing, kayaking,
archery, music, dance, nature,
photography, radio, arts and
drama. Sports courts upgrades enable campers to play softball, basketball, tennis and volleyball both
during the day and under the
lights at night.
The camp is located 15 miles
north of Eagle River, Wisconsin, on
beautiful Lake Buckatabon.
Ramah Wisconsin offers a fourday session for campers entering
3rd grade (July 13-16), two twoweek sessions for campers entering 4th grade (June 16-29 or July
1-13), a four-week session for
campers entering 5th grade (June
16-July 13), a four-week session
for campers entering 6th grade
(July 16-Aug. 10), and an eightweek session for campers entering
7th-11th grades (June 16-Aug.
10). All meals are kosher and
Shabbat is observed.
Camp Young Judaea Midwest
(224) 235-4665
www.cyjmid.org
Located in Waupaca, Wisconsin, Camp Young Judaea Midwest
has provided a Jewish camp experience for children in grades 2-9
for over 40 years. Our beautiful 80
acre lakefront property provides
the opportunity to explore, take
on new challenges and make
friendships that last a lifetime. We
offer a camp experience that
grows with our campers; they get
to experience our wide range of
land and water activities including waterskiing, tubing and sailing, arts and crafts, rock climbing,
biking, digital photography,
overnight camping and more.
Camp Young Judaea Midwest
is one of five Young Judaea camps
in the United States. CYJ Midwest
has a community of campers from
across the spectrum of Jewish
background and belief.
Campers come from over 15
states around the country to join
our small community, only 130
campers per session. CYJ is a
kosher, Shomer Shabbat facility.
Habonim Dror Camp Tavor
(312) 239-8425
www.camptavor.org
Habonim Dror Camp Tavor,
located in southwest Michigan on
69 acres of rolling hills, has created life-changing summers for
Jewish children and teens from
around the country for 58 years.
We are an overnight, co-ed camp
that fosters enduring friendships,
life skills, and a connection to Israel in an exciting, dynamic, funfilled environment. Camp Tavor
takes pride in providing a non-denominational Jewish overnight
camp experience focused on leadership, social action, stewarding
the environment, and connecting
to Israel. We offer programs for
boys and girls entering grades 3–
12. Session lengths range from 5days to 7-weeks.
With a 4:1 camper-tocounselor ratio, a maximum of
200 campers per session, and activities that bridge the age gap,
Camp Tavor’s community is nurturing and inclusive. Activities are
individualized and aim to build
self-confidence. Habonim Dror
Camp Tavor’s emphasis on youth
leadership is apparent in every aspect of camp. Programs are designed to encourage campers to
take responsibility for the camp
community and environment.
Camp Tavor prides itself on being
a youth-led community and giving children the tools to become
leaders in the camp setting and
beyond.
Camp Tavor serves kosher
meals, and much of the food
grown is from the camp organic
farm. In addition, we are peanut
free and nut sensitive. We can
also accommodate gluten free,
vegetarian, and other special
diets.
New campers maybe eligible
for up to $1,000 off of camp tuition. In addition, Camp Tavor offers needs based scholarships.
JCC Camp Chi
(847)763-3551
www.campchi.com
JCC Camp Chi in Lake Delton,
Wisconsin provides an extraordinary overnight camp experience
and meaningful tradition for
thousands of Jewish families. Chi
staff helps campers build skills
that boost self-esteem while enjoying innovative programming.
Each day offers a new and exciting mix of age-appropriate activities, such as Jewish culture, art,
music, sports, swimming, cookouts and games. Chi’s facilities are
among the best in the country,
with two heated pools, an indoor
air-conditioned gym and recreation center, fine arts studio,
equestrian center, private dock for
water skiing and motorized water
activities, low and high ropes
course, 4-sided climbing wall
tower, radio and video studio,
lakefront activities, and water inflatables. Jewish tradition guides
and enriches the JCC Camp Chi
experience, and Shabbat is one
the most favorite events at camp.
Camp Chi serves campers 3rd
grade-12th grade with a large variety of session options. It is
ranked the #1 overnight camp in
the Midwest for the third consecutive year by Sheknows.com, and
#1 by makeitbetter.com 2014.
JCYS Camp Henry Horner
(847) 740-5010
www.jcys.org/CHH
Located on 180 acres in In-
gleside, Illinois, an hour north of
Chicago, Camp Henry Horner offers an overnight camping experience for the most adventurous
camper, but close enough to home
for the comfort of mom and dad.
With programs for campers in 3rd
– 10th Grade, families can choose
anywhere from one to six weeks
of overnight experiences. With
access to Lake Wooster and a
heated outdoor pool, high ropes
course and zip line, sports fields
and archery, arts and crafts, dance
and music, cooking and outdoor
education, Camp Henry Horner
packs in the fun. Our warm,
friendly atmosphere encourages
all campers to try new things and
to expand their comfort zone in a
safe environment. An overnight
Camp Henry Horner experience
will include weekly camping trips,
clean and comfortable living
spaces, evening programs with
camp fires and community building activities, a counselor camper
ratio of 1:7 and a close-knit community that will have #CHHamps
wishing that all year was JCYS
summer camp. Register by Dec.
31, at jcys.org/CHH and receive
Early Bird & Multi-Sibling discounts.
URJ Olin-Sang-Ruby Union
Institute
(847) 509-0990
www.osrui.org
The Reform movement’s
overnight camp in Wisconsin offers a unique environment for
campers in grades 2 -12. OSRUI
combines creative and innovative
Jewish experiences with all the
fun of summer camp. Sessions run
from 5 days to 7 weeks and focus
on specific areas of interest, including kibbutz living, the arts,
Hebrew language, biking, adventure camping and more.
Midreshet Torat Chessed –
a unique seminary in Israel
An exceptional partnership has created a unique option for girls heading to Israel
after high school.
Midreshed Torat Chessed,
a project of Bet Elazraki Children’s Home, a world renowned
Emunah children’s home for at
risk children, offers its students
the opportunity to combine serious Torah study with life altering chessed on a daily basis.
After a morning of stimulating
classes with expert educators,
each student is assigned to a
group of children with whom
she will each afternoon
throughout the year. Under the
guidance and tutelage of
trained social workers – with
whom the students meet each
week – t he girls greet these
children every day after school,
help them with homework ,
and share life’s ups and downs.
As they serve as role models for
the children, the seminary students learn lessons that will indelibly shape their own lives.
MTC’s program is rounded
out through exciting tiyulim
and numerous shabbatonim in
different communities across
the country. As an added
bonus, the students learn firsthand a bout life in Israel, as
they work side by side with
young Israeli girls their own
age, who are fulfilling their own
year of Sheirut Leumi, N ational Service, providing the
students with an opportunity to
learn firsthand from their Israeli peers about life in the
State of Israel. As Rachel Russman of West Rogers Park, a
Rachel Russman
graduate of Ida Crown Jewish
Academy, describes it, “the
combination of learning and
work with the children of Bet
Elazraki was a truly life changing experience and I am able to
look back on it as one of the
greatest years of my life. There
is no doubt that I would not be
the person I am today without
the lessons and experiences
that MTC gave me.
For more information about
MTC, go to toratchessed.com, or
contact us at midreshettorat
chessed@gmail.com, or (856)
393-4749.
Rabbi Yossi Goldin, Menahel
of MTC, will be in Chicago on
Nov. 11, and is available to meet
with by appointment. Contact
him at yossigoldin@gmail.com.
17
By Joseph Aaron
CONTINUED
F RO M PAG E
CJN Classified
18
know that at one point, North V ietnamese prime minister Ho Chi
Minh and David Ben-Gurion lived in the same Paris hotel. And that
when Ben-Gurion explained to Ho that he was working to create a
Jewish state, Ho generously offered that he could set up a Jewish government in exile in North Vietnam. David said no thanks, but he appreciated the gesture. Tell me we don’t have friends in the world and
that everyone is out to get us. Even Ho wanted to help us out.
But it’s not just Vietnam that’s got me upbeat these days about
Jewish life. A few other developments have also brought a smile to my
Jewish face.
The first, as reported by the Jewish news service JTA, is that a former church will become Germany’s newest synagogue and the first in
the state of Brandenburg since 1938.
In ceremonies, Ulrike Menzel, who has led the Evangelical parish
in Cottbus since 2009, handed a key for the Schlolsskirche, or “castle church,” to the Jewish Association of the State of Brandenburg.
The actual dedication of the synagogue is planned for Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jan. 27.
The ceremony took place almost 76 years after Kristallnacht, or
the “Night of Broken Glass,” a Germany-wide pogrom in which Jewish property and synagogues – including the one in Cottbus – were destroyed.
Cottbus traces the first mention of Jewish residents to 1448. Its
first Jewish house of prayer was established in 1811 in the inner
courtyard of a cloth maker. At the time, there were 17 Jews in Cottbus. In 1902, a larger synagogue was dedicated. Nazi hooligans set it
afire on the night of Nov. 9-10, 1938.
And now it will have a synagogue once again. Goo d Jewish
news. The Jewish world today.
And then, as reported by JTA, there is the fact that two ancient
synagogues that Soviet authorities confiscated in rural Russia were
rededicated as Jewish houses of worship.
One rededication occurred in Voronezh, in southern Russia, at a
110-year-old synagogue that was nationalized and turned into a textile factory. The other rededication took place in the Black Sea c ity
of Krasnodar. Two small Russian towns that now have places for Jews
to pray.
More good Jewish news from JTA. Jewels were returned to the descendant of a Jewish couple who had given them to neighbors for safekeeping before being deported by the Nazis.
A Dutch historical society returned the jewels to Els Kok, a descendant of Benjamin Slager and Lena Slager-de Vries, at a ceremony
in Winschoten, in the north of the Netherlands. The ceremony was
held 72 years to the day that the Slagers were among 500 of the town’s
Jews sent to the Westerbork concentration camp. Only 46 of the
town’s Jews survived the Holocaust.
Before they were marched to the local train station, the Slagers
gave a box with the jewels to their next-door neighbors, the Schoenmakers. Women in the Schoenmaker family passed on the box from
daughter to daughter with instructions to keep them for the Slagers.
In 2013, the last keeper, Astrid Klappe, gave the box to the Old Winschoten Society, which tracked down Kok with the assistance of a local resident, Willem Hagenbeek.
Kok received the box containing a few items including rings, a
wrist watch and a locket. She was quoted as saying that she was
deeply moved and “happy to have something tangible” by which to
remember her relatives.
And finally there is this. Syria’s official news agency, SANA, has
launched a Hebrew-language website to reach Israeli readers. The website joins existing pages in Arabic, French, Russian, Turkish, Chinese
and Spanish.
Now, yes, I am aware Syria hates Israel and that this website is intended to spread anti-Israeli messages into Israel. I’m not saying Syria
is a friend of ours or doing this for any nice reason.
But I don’t care. It was not so long ago that the Arab world would
not even say the word “Israel,” would talk only about the “Zionist entity” would not acknowledge anything about Israel at all.
Now they’re running a website in Hebrew. That, my friends, is a
very big and important change and one we should be happy about. No,
it’s not where we want to be, but it’s a lot better than where we were.
All of the above is. A German town that hasn’t had a shul since
1938 will now have one, thanks to a church. The hinterlands of Russia now have two restored synagogues. A Jewish family whose ancestors were sent to the death camps, has jewels back hidden for them by
neighbors who safeguarded them for all these years.
The Jewish world may be messing up with rabbis who like to be
peeping Toms and prime ministers who so enrage the president of the
United States his top aides refer to him as chickenbleep, but all over
the world, the non-Jewish world is being very nice to us, recognizing
us, accepting us, helping us, caring about us.
A nice way to start the next 20 years of reporting on all things
Jewish.
CEMETERY LOTS
FOR SALE
4 family plots in
WESTLAWN CEMETERY
Block 2, Section D
Asking $12,000 total
which includes transfer fees.
Will sell in pairs of 2.
Price negotiable.
Call Jewel Daskal
(561) 789-0343
4 Lots Available
Shalom Memorial Park
Hebron Section
2 lots for $7,000
All 4 lots for $13,000
Call Edward
(708) 524-1513
Recycle this paper
Shalom Memorial Park
SEEKING
EMPLOYMENT
2 plots
Section 8 Nebo Estate 2021
Seller agrees to pay endowment fees
Asking $7000 for both or best offer
Currently selling for about $5000 each
Contact Mindy (647)292-4152
or mindyh@rogers.com
Double Crypt in
Shalom Memorial Park,
Paletine Eye-level,
Unit N, Level 2, Crypt #NP.
Front & rear unit
in new section.
Asking $15,000
(currenlty valued at $25,000).
(847) 826-7030
Call 847-966-0606
to advertise in CJN Classified.
Educated gentleman seeks
PART-TIME or
PROJECT WORK.
Word, Excel, QuickBooks, Act &
computer maintenance. Household
bookkeeping – make tax r eturns
easy. References.
773-363-1937 or
dgg5234@gmail.com
COMMERCIAL
SPACE
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Peterson& Lincoln
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Brick/single story.
Ziggy Realty
Call Andy (773) 251-0746
The Chicago Jewish News
gratefully acknowledges the generous support of
RABBI MORRIS
AND
DELECIA ESFORMES
18
Death Notices
Volunteers clean Vienna Jewish cemetery on Christian holiday
VIEN N A (JTA) – Several
dozen volunteers participated in
the annual cleanup of a neglected
Jewish cemetery in Austria.
Some 60 volunteers came to
the Waehringer Cemetery in Vienna, one of the city’s largest ancient Jewish burial sites, on
Sunday morning as part of a
grassroots initiative that began
10 years ago, bringing predominantly non-Jewish crowds to the
cemetery every N ov. 2, or All
Souls Day – a day on which
many Christians tend to their
relatives’ graves.
“My parents are buried very
far away, so I couldn’ t go there
this year,” said one volunteer
who last year visited the
Waehringer Cemetery for the
first time on a guided tour. “So I
figured that instead of watching
television, I’d tend to a grave
that usually does not get attention.”
Located north of the city’s
center, the cemetery is closed to
the public because of the thick
vegetation that covers its corroded headstones, some of which
have collapsed to form deep pits
that make the area unsafe. Thousands of Jews were buried there
between 1784 and 1880, when
the cemetery became inactive.
After the rise of Nazism in
Germany and Austria, hundreds
of graves were opened and their
contents emptied by researchers
studying race theories. The excavations caused major damage, according to the historian T ina
Walzer, who has cataloged many
of the gravestones.
The Jewish community of
Vienna, which owns the cemetery, “cannot be expected to use
its limited resources for the dead
at the expense of the living,” said
Marco Schreuder, who began recruiting volunteers for the
cleanup operations a decade ago
when he was a city counselor for
the Green Party. The community
has only 7,500 members; it once
was 200,000 strong.
Despite its condition, “this
cemetery is the final resting place
of some of the founders of Vienna as we know it, people this
city owes a lot to,” he added.
Among the people buried
there are members of the Epstein
family of entrepreneurs, who
helped build Vienna’s famed
Ringerstrasse, and Heinrich
Sichrowsky, who developed Austria’s railway system.
Rozaline “Rose” Tanzar, nee
Rozin, age 89. Beloved wife
for 70 years to Richard. Cherished mother of Paul (Vicki)
Tanzar and Phil (Noreen) Tan-
zar. Devoted grandmother of
James Tanzar and Alissa (Levi)
Zeffren and great-grandchildren Ozzie and Kira. Dear sister of Mildred (the late Mac)
Shaw. Contributions in Rose’s
name to Congregation Bene
Shalom would be appreciated. Arrangements by Mitzvah Memorial Funerals.
WHY USE A CHICAGO JEWISH
FUNERAL HOME WITH CHAPELS
IF THE FUNERAL ISN’T GOING
TO BE AT THE CHAPEL?
Mitzvah
Memorial Funerals
Funeral Directors
Lloyd Mandel
• We provide the utmost in compassionate professional service.
Our funeral directors have over 200 years of combined Illinois
licensure. We strive to treat every family as if they were our own.
• We will save your family $2000 to $5000 on a complete
funeral service and casket versus using a Chicago Jewish
funeral home with chapels.* We do this by not having the
overhead funeral homes with chapels have. We offer a full
selection of caskets and vaults all of which can be seen with
prices on our website. None of our competitors do this!
• If your synagogue has a discounted funeral plan with one of
our competitors, you can still select us instead. We guarantee a
minimum savings of 25% versus the funeral plan price.**
• We can assist your family in pre-arranging funeral services.
If you have already pre-arranged through one of our competitors,
you can easily switch to us. In most cases we will refund your
family thousands of dollars.
Mitzvah Memorial Funerals
630-MITZVAH (630-648-9824)
500 Lake Cook Rd. Suite 350, Deerfield
8850 Skokie Blvd, Skokie
www.mitzvahfunerals.com
* Based on prices shown on our competitors general price lists
** Based on funeral plan base price for services and casket
Founder,
also licensed in Florida
(no longer with
Lloyd Mandel Levayah Funerals)
Seymour Mandel
Lawrence “Larry”Mandel
847-778-6736
Homesteaders Insurance Agent
(Formerly with Piser)
William “Bill” Goodman
Homesteaders Insurance Agent
(no longer with Goodman Family Funerals)
I. Ian “Izzy” Dick
Gregory J. Lindeman
773. 505.3874
Director of Shmira
Jerry Sadoff
By
Joseph
Aaron
Peeping rabbis and chickenbleep
Oh boy. I hope the next 20 years aren’t going to be like this. Full
of peeping rabbis and chickenbleep prime ministers.
Last week I devoted my column to the fact that Chicago Jewish
News, much to my amazement and thanks to the grace and goodness
of G-d, just celebrated its 20th anniversary. And so I had to let go of
two hot Jewish stories I very much had something to say about.
The first was about the peeping rabbi, one Rabbi Barry Freundel
of Washington, D.C., whose c ongregants include a lot of big t ime
movers and shakers, including Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew and
former vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman.
Seems that Freundel had placed a clock radio with a hidden camera in the shower room of the mikvah used by the women of his shul.
He would sit in his office or at home and watch video of them getting
undressed, taking a shower, going into the mikvah. Beyond dis gusting, yes, but even more so because he was known in the nation’s capital as a champion of moral rectitude.
And he was a peeper and a creeper. “He made a lot of comments
that didn’t sit right for me about my appearance, about how attractive
he thought I was, about whether guys were pursuing me, about my
clothing,” one woman recalled. “I found it quite uncomfortable to be
around him for long periods of time alone.”
We have learned much more about the rabbi, such as the fact that
he once took a train trip to Chicago and had one of his female congregants share a sleeping car with him, and how he would make candidates for conversion do clerical work for him, organize his files, open
his mail, pay his bills, take dictation and respond to emails on his behalf. Forcing them to do menial work for him by holding his power
to convert them over their heads. Also known as extortion.
But to have a prominent rabbi secretly video hundreds of naked
women over several years while they were in the sanctity of the mikvah is a new low even for rabbis. And we’ve seen quite a few lows in
the world of rabbis recently. The former chief rabbi of Israel, for instance, is awaiting trial for taking bribes. Another rabbi, known as the
‘rabbi to the stars’ because he counsels many wealthy Israeli celebrities and businessmen, was found to have stolen millions from the charities he runs. A prominent Chasidic rabbi has been on the run going
from country to country for years now to avoid being charged in Israel for forcing underage girls to have sex with him. I could go on with
quite a list of other rabbis, but let’s just say every time we think we’ve
seen the most disgusting thing any rabbi can do, along comes an even
worse one. Such as one Barry Freundel, peeping rabbi.
Meanwhile, we had the chickenbleep affair in which senior Obama
administration officials told journalist Jeffrey Goldberg that they think
Israeli Prime Minister N etanyahu is ‘chickens—-.’ That unleashed
storms in both Washington and Jerusalem. Whatever you think about
what was said, what it shows is just how bad the blood has become between the two countries, thanks to Bibi. And yes, I blame him, not
Barack. I know Jews think Obama has been hard on Israel, but the facts
simply do not support that. It was Obama who gave Israel Iron Dome,
Obama who led the effort against Palestinian statehood at the UN,
Obama who backed Israel during the Gaza War and on and on. Bibi,
on the other hand, has gone out of his way to provoke, always issuing
orders to build settlements in the mostly hotly contested areas just as he
was about to meet Obama. It is Bibi who keeps saying he’s for peace but
who has does nothing to bring it. And, oh by the way, Sweden just became the latest country to recognize Palestine. You can say it’s anti-Semitism all you want, but the reality is that the world is on to Bibi’s games,
which, to coin a phrase, have been chickenbleep.
In America, most Jews were on Bibi’s side in the Chickenbleepgate affair. But in Israel one cartoonist expressed his view with a cartoon showing Bibi piloting a plane heading for the W orld Trade
Center. His point: Bibi has been attacking America for no reason.
So peeping rabbis and chickenbleep prime ministers is how I’ve
started my second 20 years as a journalist covering the Jewish world.
But am I depressed? No. In fact, I’m in a very good mood. That’s
because of Vietnam.
Did you know Israel has diplomatic relations with Vietnam? Did
you know it’s celebrating the 20th anniversary of those relations? Did
you know it’s celebrating by the Israeli Embassy putting on an Israeli
Film Festival in Hanoi?
Yes, an Israeli Film Festival in Hanoi. T ell me this isn’t a great
time to be Jewish.
By the way, speaking of Vietnam, a little history note. Did you
SEE BY JOSEPH
AARON
ON
PAG E 1 7
Jerusalem
CONTINUED
F RO M PAG E
3
“Well then,” Kennedy said.
“I’m not sure why that Congress
passed it then.”
Like Bush before him,
Obama maintains that changing
the wording on passports would
damage the American role as a
peace broker in the Middle East
by favoring an Israeli claim to
Jerusalem. Since Israel declared
independence in 1948, the
United States has maintained
that no country has sovereignty
over Jerusalem and that the city’s
status must be determined by negotiations.
A win for the Obama administration would inhibit Congress’
ability to affect foreign policy, said
Marc Stern, the general counsel
for the American Jewish Committee, which filed an amicus
brief on behalf of Zivotofsky. Such
an outcome could have an immediate impact by, for example, limiting congressional ability to
restrict the dimensions of a nuclear deal with Iran, Stern said.
“It won’t be just a decision
on presidential power around the
world, it will also be understood
as undercutting Israeli claims to
Jerusalem,” Stern said. “In the
real world it will have impact
and we’ll have to figure out what
to say at that point. What does
that mean for what the administration says about a final settlement, and is west Jerusalem up
for grabs?”
Lewin said she was not concerned that a decision, even one
that goes against her client,
would have such broad ramifications. The current court has been
known for narrowly casting its
decisions and avoiding far-reaching constitutional conclusions.
“I don’t see this court writing an opinion giving the executive branch such broad power in
foreign policy that it cuts out
Congress from that role,” said
Lewin, the daughter of seasoned
Supreme Court lawyer N at
Lewin.
Lewin did acknowledge,
however, that the ruling could
have far-reaching import for Jews
and their attachment to
Jerusalem.
“Getting this practice
changed is very important psychologically, regardless of separation of powers,” she said. “And
this case has raised awareness.
Before this, many people were
unaware that the formal position
of the United States is not recognizing Israel’s capital as
Jerusalem.”
“There are many American
Jews and other Americans who
think it’s absurd that the United
States and other world governments do not extend to Israel the
courtesy they extend to other
countries by recognizing where
its government sits as it capital
and not located its embassy
there,” she said.
19
20
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Chicago philanthropist Rabbi Morris Esformes traveled to Salonika

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