| The New York Jewish Week: Connecting the World with Jewish News, Culture, Features, and Opinions for Wednesday, 19 & Friday, 21 November 2014
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A yeshiva-synagogue in Jerusalem came under attack in Jerusalem this week, and the whole country - the entire Jewish people - mourned the loss of four rabbis and a Druze policeman who lost their lives. Joshua Mitnick, the Jewish Week's correspondent in Israel reports on what the terrorism attack may mean for Israel's political future. And staff writer Hannah Dreyfus profiles Rabbi Moshe Twersky, the American-born dean of Torat Moshe, the institution in the Har Nof neighborhood. ISRAEL NEWS Shul Attack Seen As Game Changer Israelis brace for escalation in wake of brazen killings in West Jerusalem. Joshua Mitnick Israel Correspondent 
Site of massacre: The scene Tuesday morning at the Torat Moshe yeshiva complex in the Har Nof neighborhood in West Jerusalem.
While Israel mourned the four rabbis murdered at the Torat Moshe yeshiva in Jerusalem this week, the country’s security forces announced new measures to protect the public and Israelis braced for an escalation of Israeli-Palestinian violence. The venue and timing of the terrorist attack, during morning Shacharit services in the yeshiva, is being seen in Israel as a game changer that will prompt Israel to crack down on the Palestinian community, political observers said. Some wondered if early national elections, which have been rumored for some time, are in the offing as a result of the attacks. “The fact is that it’s an attack on a place of worship means that this [latest wave of months-long Palestinian violence in east Jerusalem and the Temple Mount] is not a fluke,” said Daniel Nisman, president of Levantine Group, a consulting group on Middle East Security. “We’re in a wave, we’re in a campaign.” In the wake of the attacks, Israeli Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino raised the country’s threat level to one notch below the highest designation. He said patrols around mosques, synagogues and other religious sites would be increased. The four rabbis were killed, and several worshippers were injured, when two Arabs from east Jerusalem stormed into the building, armed with an ax, a meat cleaver and a gun. They were killed in a shootout with police. The victims were Rabbi Moshe Twersky, 59; Rabbi Aryeh Kupinsky, 40; Rabbi Kalman Levine, 50; Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Goldberg, 68; and Zudan Saif, 30, a police officer. The murders were condemned by the international community, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who called the attack an act of “pure terror,” and Bahrain’s foreign minister Khalid Bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, who said “the murder of innocents in the synagogue will not be worth the price paid for it, [which will be] more collective punishment of the Palestinian people and more injustice and aggression.” Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, who pledged to ease controls on carrying weapons for self-defense, instructed synagogues to install security guards at their entrances, and Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said Jews should not pray in a synagogue that lacks an armed guard. Political observers debated whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who promised a strong Israeli response to the Torat Moshe killings and called on the Palestinian Authority to stop what he termed “incitement,” would call early Knesset elections, which have been rumored for several months. Mitchell Barak, a public opinion expert, said the possibility of early elections means that Netanyahu is likely to make more strident statements and take more assertive actions in order to compete with challengers on his right. “Netanyahu is really in a jam because he can’t restore security easily because it’s a vigilante intifada. Any of the terrorists so far have acted on their own, with no centralized direction.” “This is the direct result of the incitement by Hamas and Abu Mazen [PA President Mahmoud Abbas],” said Netanyahu, who ordered the demolition of the perpetrators’ homes in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, which led to riots by residents. “We will respond with a strong hand to the cruel murder of Jews who came to pray and were caught by dark murderous hands,” he said. Abbas condemned the attacks, saying that civilians — as well as holy and religious sites — should never be targeted. “While we condemn this incident, we also condemn the aggression toward Al-Aqsa Mosque and other holy places and torching of mosques and churches,” he said at the start of a meeting of the Palestinian security services in Ramallah. A stronger Israeli response to the terrorism is expected in coming weeks. “Abbas declared war on Israel, and we must treat it accordingly,” said Economic Minister Naftali Bennett of the hawkish Jewish Home party. Eli Yishai of the Shas party, who lives in Har Nof, not far from Torat Moshe, called on security forces to treat the situation in Israel like a war. “This is a war inside of Israel for its very existence.” “We must have a tough response towards the terrorists and those who send them,” said Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat. He said Israel needs to shorten the legal process to clear the way for home demolitions. Science Minister Yaakov Perry, a former Shin Bet director, called for a more massive police presence in Arab neighborhoods. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon vowed that Israel will “chase down the perpetrators and those who sent them, everywhere and in every way, within the borders of Israel and outside. Part of it is going to be tightening security, in including limited freedom of movement. I expect to see clamping down on access from Arab neighborhoods to Jewish neighborhoods, but more importantly at checkpoints in the West Bank.” Nisman said the current attacks, which follow this summer’s Operation Protective Edge fighting against Hamas terrorists in Gaza, amount to a de facto intifada, similar to past organized Arab uprisings in Israel. “The reason they don’t call it an intifada is because [experts] are so used to having an organized intifada,” he said. “It’s similar in many respects to the first intifada: It’s a microcosm of the first intifada, its just happening in Jerusalem: a combination of rioting and unsophisticated attacks.” However Gerald Steinberg, a political science professor at Bar-Ilan University, disagreed. “I see these attacks as still largely uncoordinated, without a central guiding hand,” he said. “They’re part of an escalation. The frequency and the intensity has been escalating. An attack on worshippers in a synagogue with a gun is an escalation. But I wouldn’t compare this to the wave of attacks that was coordinated and supported by Arafat and his group. There’s no Arafat, there’s no personage to maintain this kind of activity.” “I would not compare this at all to what was called the second intifada,” Steinberg said. “This is more than a single isolated attack, this is a period of tension.” Staff writer Steve Lipman contributed to this report. ____________________________ New York Heartbreak Here Over Moshe Twersky Local feeder schools to slain rabbi’s yeshiva say attack won’t affect enrollment. Hannah Dreyfus Staff Writer 
Ultra Orthodox Jewish men watch the scene after the shootings. Getty Images
Once a week for three years, Mickey Lebovic, now 25, sat at a small table with Rabbi Moshe Twersky during lunch and learned Ethics of the Fathers, a part of the Talmud that contains aphorisms about daily life. “At yeshiva, we referred to him as ‘The Rebbe,’” said Lebovic, who was the only graduate of his Modern Orthodox high school in Baltimore to attend Rabbi Twersky’s yeshiva, Torat Moshe, in West Jerusalem. “It was a term of endearment and adoration. He was our teacher, our role model.” On Tuesday morning, Lebovic, who studied at the yeshiva from 2007 through 2011, received an email from Torat Moshe. It contained two short lines, informing students and alumni about the murder of Rabbi Twersky, with details about the funeral. “I just broke down,” said Lebovic. “I called into work and said I can’t come in today. My rebbe was murdered in a massacre.” Rabbi Twersky, 59, was one of the four rabbis killed in a terror attack during morning prayer services at a synagogue and rabbinical seminary in the Har Nof neighborhood of West Jerusalem. Two Palestinian assailants entered Bnei Torah Kehillat Yaakov synagogue and attacked worshippers with a gun, axes and knives. Seven others were injured in the attack, some critically. Tuesday night a police officer from a gunshot wound suffered in a shootout after the attack during which both assailants were killed. Rabbi Twersky, a dual citizen of the United States and Israel, was the son of rabbi and author Rabbi Isadore Twersky of Boston, grandson of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, a leader of Modern Orthodoxy known as The Rav. His brother, Rabbi Mayer Twersky, is one of the leading rabbis at Yeshiva University and his sister, Tzipporah R. Rosenblatt, is a New York City-based attorney and the wife of Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt, the spiritual leader of Riverdale Jewish Center. “I have never seen a human being more perfectly refined by Torah,” said Rabbi Rosenblatt, of his brother-in-law. “He was modest, gentle, kind, good-natured; he held himself to very precise standard of observance, greeting everyone with a loving heart. It didn’t matter what they were wearing on their head, what clothes they were wearing, what institutions they might have been attending, there was the same love, the same genial welcome for everyone.” Yeshivat Torah Moshe, where Rabbi Twersky served as the dean, is an English-speaking charedi yeshiva. Founded in 1982, it was one of the first yeshivas established for American post-high school students. It has since graduated more than 1,000 students. “We send several of our high school graduates to Torat Moshe every year,” said Rabbi Doniel Lander, chancellor of Touro College and dean of Yeshivas Ohr Hachaim, a rabbinical seminary in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens. The seminary operates in conjunction with two high schools, Mesivta Yesodei Yisroel in Monsey and Mesivta Yesodei Yeshurun in Queens. “Torah Moshe is an elite yeshiva for our most motivated students,” said Rabbi Lander, who was himself a close friend of Rabbi Twersky’s for 40 years. “He was a guide and an inspiration to our students.” Asked whether or not the attack might negatively affect attendance to Torat Moshe in coming years, Rabbi Lander responded, “We’re not yet thinking in those terms. We’re just mourning this loss.” Rabbi Michael Taubes, head of school at Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy (MTA), Yeshiva University’s high school for boys, said MTA has sent many graduates to Torat Moshe in the past. “In the long run, this probably won’t affect attendance,” said Rabbi Taubes, who knew Rabbi Twersky personally from his days as a student at Yeshiva University. “Despite past intifadas, people have still sent their children to Israel. There’s always the hope that things will get better,” he said. “At the end of the day, I don’t think an event even as horrific as this will have a major impact, though it may give some parents pause.” Jonathan Benaim, 23, an alumnus of Torat Moshe Yeshiva from London and a student of Rabbi Twersky, was unsure of how the attack would affect the future of the yeshiva. “I don’t know what will happen, but the yeshiva will never be the same place again. We’ve lost a role model,” he said. Benaim, who attended the yeshiva from 2009 through 2011, was in Rabbi Twersky’s Talmud class during his second year. He additionally went to his house for Shabbat dinner several times and participated in Purim festivities hosted by Rabbi Twersky. “Rav Twersky was an incredibly knowledgeable man, but even more exceptional was the way he interacted with others,” said Benaim, 23. “He always made time for his students, no matter how busy he was.” Tal Scher, 25, another student of Rabbi Twersky from Chicago, recalled him as a “tremendous talmid chacham” (Torah scholar). “I remember how Rabbi Twersky really made us think,” wrote Scher in an online correspondence. “He wanted us to figure out the answer as opposed to just giving it to us,” said Scher. “That’s the trait of an amazing rebbe.” Responding to the attacks, a group of about 50 gathered outside of the Palestinian Mission to the United Nations on the Upper East Side on Tuesday afternoon to protest the act of terror. The group was headed by Rabbi Avi Weiss, who heads the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, along with Russian-American Jewish Experience (RAJE) and a number of other Jewish organizations. “This act of terror against Jews who went to a synagogue for morning prayer is despicable and the world must stand against the incitement of the president of the Palestinian Authority, Abu Mazen whose words have lead to terror,” said Rabbi Weiss. In the wake of the attacks, New York City has increased its police presence at synagogues. “The NYPD is following developments in Jerusalem closely and working with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force to monitor any further developments,” the city’s police commissioner, Bill Bratton, said in a statement. “As of now, there is no specific credible threat to New York City.” Mayor Bill de Blasio asked New Yorkers to “stay alert and report suspicious activity” in a written statement. He said that the NYPD is “in close contact with its liaison post in Israel.” The FBI said in a statement that it is “aware of the situation” and was “working in close collaboration and cooperation with the appropriate Israeli allies and partners.” In his statement, de Blasio said he was “horrified and heartbroken” by the attack. “New York City stands in solidarity with Israel at this difficult time, and we hope and pray for a peaceful and secure future for all of its people,” he said. Mickey Lebovic, still reeling from shock, recalled one of the many lessons Rabbi Twersky had imparted to him. “When I was in Israel, I had heart palpitations and had to go the hospital,” he said. “When I returned to yeshiva, I asked Rabbi Twersky how I should respond — maybe say extra tefillot [prayers] or something like that,” he said. “But Rabbi Twersky told me the only way to respond was to appreciate every heartbeat, every breath. Now, when I feel my heartbeat, I will always think of him.” editor@jewishweek.org ____________________________ Dreyfus also writes about a new international religious court, an innovative beit din, that was formed to bring a new approach to the problem of agunot, women whose husbands will not grant them a religious divorce. NEW YORK New Court Set To Free Agunot Despite failure of past efforts on behalf of ‘chained’ wives, ambitious beit din now in session; will its rulings be accepted? Hannah Dreyfus Staff Writer 
Rabbi Simcha Krauss: “These women have suffered in pain for too long.”
In a bid to free women trapped for years in broken marriages, a new international religious court — spearheaded by Orthodox rabbis here, with the backing of several haredi colleagues in Israel — has begun officiating cases, The Jewish Week has learned. The court, called the International Beit Din, was formed in June and is headed by Rabbi Simcha Krauss, a highly respected former pulpit rabbi in Queens and Religious Zionist of America leader who made aliyah in 2005. It is interpreting Jewish law in new ways — still consistent with tradition, its leaders say — to procure a get, or religious divorce, for agunot, women stuck in marriages with recalcitrant husbands. “These women have been in pain for too long,” said Rabbi Krauss, who moved from Jerusalem to Riverdale in order to direct the court. “In many of these cases, their husbands have already moved on with their lives and gotten remarried, while they are still trapped.” According to Jewish law a woman is unable to remarry without a get while there are methods in place for a husband to do so. The court, Rabbi Krauss told The Jewish Week in an interview, has “jumped right in” and has already seen 10 cases over the past few weeks, including several “high-profile” ones. Currently, the court is in the process of writing up Jewish legal documentation (psakei din) to free these women from their former marriages. In addition to introducing certain methodological innovations, the court has appointed Dr. Giti Bendheim, a psychologist here, to head a special committee to help women feel more secure during the judicial process. According to Rabbi Krauss, Bendheim, who is active with American Friends of Nishmat, a Jerusalem-based center for advanced Torah study for women, is the first person to serve in a role of this specific nature. “We want to make certain that there is always a woman in the room,” said Rabbi Krauss, reflecting a concern that has become increasingly relevant in light of the recent mikvah scandal in Washington, D.C. “Some of the agunot are very young, and they would benefit from having a strong female presence available,” he said. While the number of agunot is not known, the problem has gone largely unsolved, pitting traditional Jewish law against those who feel deep empathy for women stuck in loveless marriages. At the root of the issue is the husband’s absolute right when it comes to issuing a get, or Jewish divorce. And while rabbinic authorities offer sympathy for these women, they maintain they are constrained from action in many cases by the boundaries of halacha. The result, at times, has the husband using extortion before granting a divorce, insisting on large sums of money and/or refusing joint custody of children. According to Jewish law, if the agunah marries and has a child, the child is considered a mamzer, illegitimate, and cannot marry a Jew. (This is not true in the husband’s case.) Concerns about the moral injustice of the “absolute right” principle have led to a myriad of efforts to resolve the agunah problem, or “crisis,” in recent years. In the 1990s, the late Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, a major figure in Modern Orthodoxy and president of Bar-Ilan University, convened a beit din that issued divorces on the basis of kiddushei ta’ot, a Talmudic concept for annulment. The principle reasons that the woman never would have married her husband if she had known he would act in an abusive fashion during the marriage. While deeply respected on a personal level by his peers, Rabbi Rackman, who died in 2008,was unsuccessful in persuading them to accept his approach, which was considered too lenient. The practical result was that many rabbis refused to officiate at the subsequent weddings of women who had been freed by the rabbi’s bet din. “We’ve dealt with cases of women who got a heter [permission] to remarry from Rabbi Rackman, but when they approached their local Orthodox rabbi, he said the heter was no good,” said Rabbi Jeremy Stern, director of the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot (ORA). ORA, founded in 2002, has assisted in the resolution of 225 agunah cases, often by holding public protests to embarrass and pressure the husband to release his wife from the marriage. “These women were given a solution that wasn’t a solution,” said Rabbi Stern. “Communal and rabbinic consensus when it comes to agunah cases is critical.” Rabbi Krauss is introducing the legal concept of get zikui, annulling a marriage based on what is best for both parties. The principle operates on the premise that the divorce will ultimately benefit the husband as well as the wife. “There is no more relationship — they have gone their separate ways,” explained Rabbi Krauss in an email. “The husband doesn’t want to give the get unless he gets money. It’s not true that he doesn’t want to give a divorce, but he wants money. Deep down, he wants to be free and pursue his life.” The International Beit Din will not use get zikui to the exclusion of other methods, explained Rabbi Yosef Blau, another of the three judges on the panel and the spiritual adviser at Yeshiva University. “A number of tools can be used,” he said. “Each case will be evaluated on its own merit. The goal is to free women in a way that the decision will be accepted in the broader community.” Procuring rabbinic consensus is the most important — and difficult — part of the process, said Rabbi Blau. “A piece of paper is just a piece of paper,” he said. “Acceptance is what sets an agunah free.” Already, Rabbi Krauss has gained the support of two leading Israeli rabbis associated with the charedi community. Most significant is Zalman Nechemia Goldberg, a rosh yeshiva, posek (someone who rules on issues of Jewish law), and chief justice of the Supreme Rabbinical Court of Jerusalem. The other is She’ar Yashuv Cohen, former chief rabbi of Haifa and president of its rabbinic courts. A third prominent Israeli rosh yeshiva has also signaled his support for Rabbi Krauss but prefers to remain anonymous. “Our support stands firm,” said Rabbi Krauss, who first told The Jewish Week about the International Beit Din’s support in December 2013. Still, despite support from abroad, the new religious court has already met with resistance here. According to a source close to the court, several leading rabbis at Yeshiva University, including Rabbi Mordechai Willig and Rabbi Hershel Schachter, have already expressed reservations about the court’s methodology. The source wished to remain anonymous in order to avoid “mahchlocet,” public disagreement. Both Rabbi Willig and Rabbi Schachter declined to comment. Other rabbis committed to resolving the agunah crisis raise issues about the most appropriate methodologies. Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, the chief rabbi of Efrat, Israel, and a progressive voice in Modern Orthodoxy, said that “we don’t need innovative approaches.” He is a strong advocate of hafkaat kidushin, an approach that abrogates the marriage retroactively, similar to the approach used by the late Rabbi Rackman. Though a longtime activist on this issue, Rabbi Riskin does not serve on a divorce court and has not personally handled any agunah cases. According to Rabbi Riskin, his approach has only been successfully used once in an agunah case several decades ago. “The Talmud has five places in which it establishes a possibility of a religious court abrogating a marriage if the husband is unfairly using the law against his wife,” said Rabbi Riskin, who has written a book on the topic. “The solution already exists, and it’s built into the marriage formula.” Rabbi Riskin’s approach is not accepted by mainstream authorities in Israel, most of whom maintain the principle of a husband’s absolute right to end the marriage. “All those who have objected to what I have proposed will object to what he [Rabbi Krauss] is suggesting,” said Rabbi Riskin. Aside from methodology, the International Beit Din will also implement a new policy of transparency. According to traditional Jewish law, members of the court do not have to give any explanation for their rulings. But Rabbi Ronnie Warburg, director of the International Beit Din and the court’s third judge, explained that “transparency is an imperative.” “People today assume that the rulings of a beit din are corrupt or uninformed,” he said. “That is why explaining every decision is necessary. We will present our reasoning clearly and openly.” The International Beit Din also hopes to “cut down the time” it takes for a woman to move through the court system, said Rabbi Warburg. “A woman can wait years to have her case heard and processed,” he said. “We hope to create a more efficient, transparent process.” Blu Greenberg, a longtime activist on this issue and founder of JOFA, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, is supportive of the new religious court. “There needs to be a systemic change,” she said. “For many other victims of extreme recalcitrance, the problem cannot to be solved on the steps of Congress or on the front page of The New York Times,” said Greenberg, referring to the rallies and public-shaming methods currently used to pressure husbands into giving a get. “The solutions already exist in the tradition,” she said. “They need to be picked up and put forward by someone brave.” hannah@jewishweek.org ____________________________ Ever been to Kosherfest, the annual celebration of all things kosher? Web editor Helen Chernikoff went to the event at the Meadowlands Exposition Center, and reports on new trends in the kosher world. NEW YORK More International Exhibitors Than Ever Hit Kosher's Big Tradeshow Helen Chernikoff Web Editor 
Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak Horowitz, the Manischewitz Company rebbe, at Kosherfest. Helen Chernikoff/JW
It’s the sign of Kosherfest, the biggest annual kosher trade show: “No excessive product sampling is allowed. Attendees may exit the exhibit hall with one bag of samples only.” Such a sign is not an uncommon sight at food shows, says Menachem Lubinsky, CEO of Lubicom Marketing and Kosherfest’s master of ceremonies. But it’s definitely a necessity at Kosherfest, a 26-year-old event that on Nov. 11 and 12 drew 330 exhibitors and 6,000 attendees, most of whom equipped themselves with that one bag on entering and commenced to forage and hoard. Kosherfest is more than a kiddush on steroids, though. Held for the past 14 years at the Meadlowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, it’s also a massive melting pot, serving up the traditional, artisanal and industrial trends of contemporary kashrut. The place feels like the mall at Christmastime — lots of shoving, no windows — and sounds like Tel Aviv’s Shuk HaCarmel, with its hawkers touting their goods in a mix of languages. There are attendees in jeans, and in long gabardine coats and several styles of sheitel. Around mincha time, folks could daven their mid-day prayers, or they could catch the end of a cooking demonstration of Katsuji Tanabe, a Top Chef contestant and the chef at Los Angeles’ MexiKosher restaurant. And just like at a shuk, business gets done. “I see my existing clients, I find new ones,” said Berel Sasoon, a red-bearded chasid who sells business solutions like credit card processing systems for Fidelity Payment Services, which has a booth at the show. Of course, kosher is big bucks and getting bigger. It was an $11 billion market in 2006 and this year it’s projected to top $13 million, according to Lubicom. There are 12.4 million kosher consumers in the United States, and only about 6 million Jews, which means there’s room for still more growth. At Kosherfest, the numbers of exhibitors and visitors this year was about the same as last year, but that’s because the show is using up all of the center’s 80,000 square feet. “We’re at capacity,” Lubinsky said. Or maybe slightly over. The manager of a nearby Walmart stormed into Kosherfest's press room around 2:30 p.m. to complain that, just like last year, Kosherfest overflow had taken over his parking lot and seeped into the fire lanes. They were towing. Rabbi Ari Perten and Adina Rothman of Camp Ramah of the Berkshires visit the show in search of new foods for the camp’s dining hall, known as it is in all summer camps by its Hebrew name, cheder ochel. A pareve hot chocolate piqued their interest as a possible treat and a black truffle pasta tops their personal wish list. The truffle paste in that pasta dish was one of this year’s award-winning products, taking honors for the best new dip, spread or salsa. Its maker, La Rustichella Truffles, is a family-owned Italian company that just received their kosher certification and rented a booth at Kosherfest to start making inroads with distributors and buyers. This year, even excluding Israel, there were 30 international exhibitors, up from 23 last year, Lubinsky said. Other award-winning new products had a small-scale or healthy vibe, like an organic extra virgin olive oil; NoMoo Cookie Company’s Ginger Slap and the winner in the best overall new product category, DeeBee’s Organic Tea Pops. But the old, iconic brands placed, too. Empire Kosher Poultry’s spicy chicken apple sausage won for best new pre-cooked packaged meat. Manischewitz, which was bought this year by an affiliate of Bain Capital, won two categories, including, in the best new pasta, rice and grain contest, for their gluten-free matzo ball mix. Gluten free and “natural” are big, Lubinsky said. Companies are following the broader market in their attempts to re-engineer products that have long list of artificial ingredients. “They’re going to great lengths to see that happen,” he said, offering Zelda’s Sweet Shoppe’s “All Natural Caramel Corn Series” as an example. “It shows that they’re recognizing the changing demands of the consumer.” helenatjewishweek@gmail.com ____________________________ Editor Gary Rosenblatt salutes Elie Wiesel on the Nobel laureate's 180th appearance at the 92nd Street Y. GARY ROSENBLATT For Elie Wiesel, Another Milestone He is also a role model for his journalism, which balanced objective reporting with concern for Jewish values. Gary Rosenblatt Editor and Publisher  Elie Wiesel, the Nobel peace laureate and perhaps the most respected figure in Jewish life, is being honored this week by the 92nd Street Y on the occasion of his 180th appearance there, a run that has spanned almost five decades. “Since the first time Elie Wiesel spoke at the 92Y more than 40 years ago, his stories, discourses and teachings have defined his impeccable truth-telling and courage,” noted Rabbi Peter Rubinstein, director of Jewish community at the Y. “He has inspired us to tirelessly work for a more just society and kinder humanity.” The speakers for the Nov. 20 event are former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, award-winning television journalist Jeff Greenfield and neuroscientist and medicine Nobel laureate Eric Kandel, and I am honored to be included among them. Since February 1967, when Wiesel, now 86, first spoke at the Y about his own work, his much-anticipated lecture series and programs have ranged from biblical and chasidic stories to teachings of the Talmudic masters to analyses on the state of world Jewry. But this special evening, which will feature performances by violinist Pinchas Zukerman and the Young People’s Chorus of NYC, marks 10 times Chai — 180 — and will be a celebration of Wiesel’s life; the arc of that life has taken him from the orphaned, painfully shy teenage Holocaust survivor, to the novelist who first exposed readers to the horrors of life in a concentration camp in 1958’s “Night,” to the soft-spoken but commanding moral conscience of the modern world. Consider: Only Elie Wiesel could chide a president of the United States in public, on at least two occasions, and do so with both conviction and grace. On the eve of President Ronald Reagan’s 1985 visit to Germany, which was to include a controversial visit to the Bitburg military cemetery that includes the graves of 49 members of the Waffen-SS, Wiesel entreated the president not to go to Bitburg. “That place is not your place,” he said at a nationally televised White House ceremony. “Your place is with the victims of the SS.” Fourteen years later, on a spring night in Washington, Wiesel called out President Bill Clinton for failure to respond sufficiently to the massacres in Rwanda, where as many as a million people had been slaughtered in less than four months in 1994. I was a guest, courtesy of the featured speaker, at a White House program dedicated to “The Perils of Indifference.” In his address to more than 200 dignitaries, Wiesel asserted that “to be indifferent to suffering is what makes humans inhuman.” While noting that “this time,” referring to the then-current Kosovo crisis, “the world was not silent,” he turned to the president and asked, “Why are we so involved, so nobly, in Kosovo? Why are we not in Rwanda? ... I know one thing,” he continued, “we could have prevented that massacre. Why didn’t we?” Clinton acknowledged that “we could have prevented a significant amount of it,” but he noted that it all happened so fast and there was no mechanism like NATO through which to respond quickly. It will never happen again, he vowed in a soft voice, appearing chastised. While Wiesel will be described at the 92nd Street Y program as an iconic storyteller, educator and humanitarian — and deservedly so — I plan to focus on his early career as a journalist, and how his love of the profession and empathy for those striving to balance objective reporting with concern for Jewish values made him a personal role model. Ever since I met him 40 years ago he has been a mentor and source of advice and support. In his 1995, memoir, “All Rivers Run To The Sea,” Wiesel recalled a major decision of conscience he had to make that would impact on integrity and his future as a journalist. It happened when he was working temporarily as a translator at a World Jewish Congress conference in Geneva. The meeting was charged with emotion, leading up to Israel’s negotiations with Germany over reparations in 1952. Wiesel, a low-paid journalist at the time for Yediot Achronot, the Israeli daily, was enticed by the pay — $200 a day as a translator vs. the $50 a month he was making with Yediot. During a heated discussion at a closed session over whether Israel would be violating its moral values by taking money from Germany, WJC leader Nachum Goldmann asserted that it was more important for Israel to receive financial compensation than to commemorate the Nazi victims through reciting Kaddish. “Now I had a big problem,” Wiesel wrote in his memoir. “As an interpreter I was sworn to secrecy, but as a journalist did I have the right not to report to the Israeli and Jewish public the outrageous words I had just heard?” Though he stood to lose good pay and have his reporting challenged, perhaps putting his professional future at risk, he felt he had no choice but to resign his temporary translator assignment and publish what had transpired. It was, after all, the truth. His “scoop” became an international sensation, though Goldmann denied the statement attributed to him, insisting it was fantasy. Somehow Goldmann and Wiesel remained cordial, and years later, the world Jewish leader laughed about the incident and advised his friend to “write your novels, tell your chasidic tales but don’t ever get involved in politics, it’s not for you.” Wiesel chose to do it all, though. He wrote dozens of novels, explored the world of chasidim and Jewish texts, and was often among the first to address the plight of those in need — Soviet Jewry, Cambodian refugees, the Kurds, victims of genocide in Africa, Ethiopian Jews — and to call attention to humanitarian concerns, like apartheid in South Africa and the danger of nuclear arms. And he has always spoken up for the sacred memory of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis, and for the present and future of Israel and the Jewish people. In his memoir Wiesel wrote that he tried to launch a Jewish weekly magazine, first in France and later in the U.S. “A real magazine,” is what he dreamed of, “with a real editorial team.” He has mentioned that dream to me several times over the years. Alas, it never came to be, and I think in some small way he still pines for the life of the journalist. But we in the field, along with people of good will everywhere, can only applaud the spirit, wisdom and compassion of the man behind the legend — the voice of and conscience of a generation. L’chaim, Elie Wiesel — to life. gary@jewishweek.org ____________________________ "Celebrate," the Jewish Week's simchas supplement, tells about a new trend in naming newborn Jewish girls, and about a recent, historic Jewish wedding in Poland.  Celebrate November 2014A Simcha That’s Cinematic; The Eighth Day, For Girls; Let Them Eat … Lions And Gorillas INSIDE THIS SPECIAL SECTION The Eighth Day, For Girls Let Them Eat … Lions And Gorillas ‘It’s Our Big, Fat, Jewish Wedding’ The Wedding Planner, Times Two A Simcha That’s Cinematic The following is additional informative information from our advertisers. Enjoy and Celebrate!! ____________________________ Have a good Week! The editors P.S. Please check out the newest version of our website faster and easier to navigate and read for breaking stories, videos and exclusive blogs, op-eds and features. http://www.thejewishweek.com/ |
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___________________________________| Dear Reader, In the aftermath of the attacks on the Har Nof synagogue, grief was the predominant emotion, but rage emerged as mourners realized that many major media outlets were misreporting the event by missing or omitting the fact that the dead Palestinians had been the aggressors. Check our homepage for an article about the Internet memes that circulated to condemn these journalistic trespasses, and how one outlet apologized. http://www.thejewishweek.com/ We've also got an important piece about rabbinic activism on the issue of agunot, or chained wives, and how some in the community are trying new strategies to try to free them. NEW YORK New Court Set To Free Agunot Despite failure of past efforts on behalf of ‘chained’ wives, ambitious beit din now in session; will its rulings be accepted? Hannah Dreyfus Staff Writer
Rabbi Simcha Krauss: “These women have suffered in pain for too long.”
In a bid to free women trapped for years in broken marriages, a new international religious court — spearheaded by Orthodox rabbis here, with the backing of several haredi colleagues in Israel — has begun officiating cases, The Jewish Week has learned. The court, called the International Beit Din, was formed in June and is headed by Rabbi Simcha Krauss, a highly respected former pulpit rabbi in Queens and Religious Zionist of America leader who made aliyah in 2005. It is interpreting Jewish law in new ways — still consistent with tradition, its leaders say — to procure a get, or religious divorce, for agunot, women stuck in marriages with recalcitrant husbands. “These women have been in pain for too long,” said Rabbi Krauss, who moved from Jerusalem to Riverdale in order to direct the court. “In many of these cases, their husbands have already moved on with their lives and gotten remarried, while they are still trapped.” According to Jewish law a woman is unable to remarry without a get while there are methods in place for a husband to do so. The court, Rabbi Krauss told The Jewish Week in an interview, has “jumped right in” and has already seen 10 cases over the past few weeks, including several “high-profile” ones. Currently, the court is in the process of writing up Jewish legal documentation (psakei din) to free these women from their former marriages. In addition to introducing certain methodological innovations, the court has appointed Dr. Giti Bendheim, a psychologist here, to head a special committee to help women feel more secure during the judicial process. According to Rabbi Krauss, Bendheim, who is active with American Friends of Nishmat, a Jerusalem-based center for advanced Torah study for women, is the first person to serve in a role of this specific nature. “We want to make certain that there is always a woman in the room,” said Rabbi Krauss, reflecting a concern that has become increasingly relevant in light of the recent mikvah scandal in Washington, D.C. “Some of the agunot are very young, and they would benefit from having a strong female presence available,” he said. While the number of agunot is not known, the problem has gone largely unsolved, pitting traditional Jewish law against those who feel deep empathy for women stuck in loveless marriages. At the root of the issue is the husband’s absolute right when it comes to issuing a get, or Jewish divorce. And while rabbinic authorities offer sympathy for these women, they maintain they are constrained from action in many cases by the boundaries of halacha. The result, at times, has the husband using extortion before granting a divorce, insisting on large sums of money and/or refusing joint custody of children. According to Jewish law, if the agunah marries and has a child, the child is considered a mamzer, illegitimate, and cannot marry a Jew. (This is not true in the husband’s case.) Concerns about the moral injustice of the “absolute right” principle have led to a myriad of efforts to resolve the agunah problem, or “crisis,” in recent years. In the 1990s, the late Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, a major figure in Modern Orthodoxy and president of Bar-Ilan University, convened a beit din that issued divorces on the basis of kiddushei ta’ot, a Talmudic concept for annulment. The principle reasons that the woman never would have married her husband if she had known he would act in an abusive fashion during the marriage. While deeply respected on a personal level by his peers, Rabbi Rackman, who died in 2008,was unsuccessful in persuading them to accept his approach, which was considered too lenient. The practical result was that many rabbis refused to officiate at the subsequent weddings of women who had been freed by the rabbi’s bet din. “We’ve dealt with cases of women who got a heter [permission] to remarry from Rabbi Rackman, but when they approached their local Orthodox rabbi, he said the heter was no good,” said Rabbi Jeremy Stern, director of the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot (ORA). ORA, founded in 2002, has assisted in the resolution of 225 agunah cases, often by holding public protests to embarrass and pressure the husband to release his wife from the marriage. “These women were given a solution that wasn’t a solution,” said Rabbi Stern. “Communal and rabbinic consensus when it comes to agunah cases is critical.” Rabbi Krauss is introducing the legal concept of get zikui, annulling a marriage based on what is best for both parties. The principle operates on the premise that the divorce will ultimately benefit the husband as well as the wife. “There is no more relationship — they have gone their separate ways,” explained Rabbi Krauss in an email. “The husband doesn’t want to give the get unless he gets money. It’s not true that he doesn’t want to give a divorce, but he wants money. Deep down, he wants to be free and pursue his life.” The International Beit Din will not use get zikui to the exclusion of other methods, explained Rabbi Yosef Blau, another of the three judges on the panel and the spiritual adviser at Yeshiva University. “A number of tools can be used,” he said. “Each case will be evaluated on its own merit. The goal is to free women in a way that the decision will be accepted in the broader community.” Procuring rabbinic consensus is the most important — and difficult — part of the process, said Rabbi Blau. “A piece of paper is just a piece of paper,” he said. “Acceptance is what sets an agunah free.” Already, Rabbi Krauss has gained the support of two leading Israeli rabbis associated with the charedi community. Most significant is Zalman Nechemia Goldberg, a rosh yeshiva, posek (someone who rules on issues of Jewish law), and chief justice of the Supreme Rabbinical Court of Jerusalem. The other is She’ar Yashuv Cohen, former chief rabbi of Haifa and president of its rabbinic courts. A third prominent Israeli rosh yeshiva has also signaled his support for Rabbi Krauss but prefers to remain anonymous. “Our support stands firm,” said Rabbi Krauss, who first told The Jewish Week about the International Beit Din’s support in December 2013. Still, despite support from abroad, the new religious court has already met with resistance here. According to a source close to the court, several leading rabbis at Yeshiva University, including Rabbi Mordechai Willig and Rabbi Hershel Schachter, have already expressed reservations about the court’s methodology. The source wished to remain anonymous in order to avoid “mahchlocet,” public disagreement. Both Rabbi Willig and Rabbi Schachter declined to comment. Other rabbis committed to resolving the agunah crisis raise issues about the most appropriate methodologies. Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, the chief rabbi of Efrat, Israel, and a progressive voice in Modern Orthodoxy, said that “we don’t need innovative approaches.” He is a strong advocate of hafkaat kidushin, an approach that abrogates the marriage retroactively, similar to the approach used by the late Rabbi Rackman. Though a longtime activist on this issue, Rabbi Riskin does not serve on a divorce court and has not personally handled any agunah cases. According to Rabbi Riskin, his approach has only been successfully used once in an agunah case several decades ago. “The Talmud has five places in which it establishes a possibility of a religious court abrogating a marriage if the husband is unfairly using the law against his wife,” said Rabbi Riskin, who has written a book on the topic. “The solution already exists, and it’s built into the marriage formula.” Rabbi Riskin’s approach is not accepted by mainstream authorities in Israel, most of whom maintain the principle of a husband’s absolute right to end the marriage. “All those who have objected to what I have proposed will object to what he [Rabbi Krauss] is suggesting,” said Rabbi Riskin. Aside from methodology, the International Beit Din will also implement a new policy of transparency. According to traditional Jewish law, members of the court do not have to give any explanation for their rulings. But Rabbi Ronnie Warburg, director of the International Beit Din and the court’s third judge, explained that “transparency is an imperative.” “People today assume that the rulings of a beit din are corrupt or uninformed,” he said. “That is why explaining every decision is necessary. We will present our reasoning clearly and openly.” The International Beit Din also hopes to “cut down the time” it takes for a woman to move through the court system, said Rabbi Warburg. “A woman can wait years to have her case heard and processed,” he said. “We hope to create a more efficient, transparent process.” Blu Greenberg, a longtime activist on this issue and founder of JOFA, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, is supportive of the new religious court. “There needs to be a systemic change,” she said. “For many other victims of extreme recalcitrance, the problem cannot to be solved on the steps of Congress or on the front page of The New York Times,” said Greenberg, referring to the rallies and public-shaming methods currently used to pressure husbands into giving a get. “The solutions already exist in the tradition,” she said. “They need to be picked up and put forward by someone brave.” hannah@jewishweek.org ____________________________ And on a lighter note, our special "Celebrate" section features a very popular article about a young painter/cake maker, a 22-year-old woman from Teaneck who during her seminary year in Israel couldn't stop thinking about the cakes she could make, including those that resemble members of the animal kingdom. THE JEWISH WEEK | SPECIAL SECTIONS  Celebrate November 2014A Simcha That’s Cinematic; The Eighth Day, For Girls; Let Them Eat … Lions And Gorillas ____________________________ Shabbat Shalom to all, Helen Chernikoff Web Director |
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Chabad for Wednesday, Cheshvan 26, 5775 · November 19, 2014
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A Taste of Text—Toldot
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Curiosities of the Torah: Parsha Toldot
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A chasidic melody played by young Mordechai Zirkind Watch (3:26) | | ||
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Coming Up on Jewish.tv:
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 Does a Soul Never Die? Belief in the Afterlife By Avraham Plotkin
Airs Wednesday, November 19 at 7pm ET
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 Isaac, Joy or Restraint?The different character traits of our patriarch Yitzchak By Moishe New
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 When is Moshiach Coming?Harbinger of Redemption, Lesson 4 By Binyomin Bitton
Airs Thursday, November 20 at 7pm ET
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 Live Broadcast: Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch EmissariesSunday, November 23 / 5:30 PM ET
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 The Meaning of Blessings Discussions on Prayer, Lesson 2 By Shmuel Kaplan
Airs Tuesday, November 25 at 7pm ET
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