Happy Hanukkah! Ages 20S, 30S and 40S, Who Share a Com- USA, the Country He Is Such a Champion Reader: Jewish Voters Mitment and Passion for Tikkun Olam (Re- For
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St. Petersburg, FL 33707 St. Petersburg, FL 6416 Central Avenue Tampa Jewish Press of Inc. Bay, Tampa The Jewish Press Group of www.jewishpresstampa.com VOL. 31, NO. 9 TAMPA, FLORIDA A NOVEMBER 16- DECEMBER 1, 2018 20 PAGES Here’s what it costs shuls to feel secure The Jewish Press Group Happy PAID U.S. POSTAGE By BEN SALES Inc. Bay, Tampa of PRESORTED JTA news service STANDARD NEW YORK – After a mass shoot- ing in a heavily Jewish area shocked the nation, Rabbi Yakov Saacks felt Hanukkah! like his Long Island congregation was at risk. So the rabbi installed 17 cameras on the synagogue’s exterior that can zoom in to read numbers on license plates, as well as indoor cameras at JustJustComplied aa fromnosh...nosh... JTA news service each entrance. He began covering the windows with Kevlar, at around $800 FBI: Hate crimes against Jews each, making them shatterproof in spiked 37 percent in 2017 case vandals hit them with rocks. And Hate crimes against Jews in America rose by more he hired armed security guards to pro- than a third last year and accounted for 58 percent of all religion-based hate crimes, according to data released tect the Hebrew school and Shabbat Tuesday by the FBI. services. Overall, hate crimes increased by 17 percent in 2017, When the sanctuary is especially from 6,121 in 2016 to 7,175 hate crimes reported last crowded – on the High Holidays, for year. The data showed that more than 4,000 crimes in example – as many as three guards 2017 were against people, including threats, intimida- will patrol the building carrying guns tion, assault and murder, while some 3,000 were crimes and communicating by radio. against property, such as vandalism, robbery, and arson. That was after the school shooting Some of the increase may be because more police in Parkland, nearly nine months ago. departments are reporting their hate crimes data to the Following the attack last month on a FBI than ever before, 6 percent above the previous year. The number of hate crimes based on religion is the synagogue in Pittsburgh, Saacks said second highest ever, behind only 2001 in the wake of he feels vindicated in beefing up se- the 9/11 attacks. The report noted a 23 percent increase curity. And he’s not done. In addition in religion-based hate crimes in 2017 to 1,564, repre- to protecting the rest of his windows, senting about 20 percent of all hate crimes. he is planning to install a metal de- There were a total of 938 hate crimes committed tector at the building entrance as well against Jews in 2017, up from 684 in 2016. as a double-door vestibule called a “mantrap.” Palestinian shunned for selling land to “What can we do? What can we Jews to be buried in Jewish cemetery do?” said Saacks, whose Chabad syn- Aryeh Stern, the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Jerusalem, agogue, the Chai Center, occupies an ruled as a rabbinical judge that a Palestinian man, acre and a half in the upscale suburb Alah Kirsh, may be buried at a Jewish cemetery as an of Dix Hills. “This doesn’t make me exception because he was a “righteous gentile,” Ynet re- happy. It doesn’t warm your heart. We ported. still try and maintain its openness, but Kirsh and five others were killed in a traffic accident on Nov. 4. His family sought to bury his body at their what happened in Pittsburgh can hap- Muslim cemetery in eastern Jerusalem, but the imams pen anywhere.” turned them away because he had been accused of sell- The added measures have changed ing real estate in that part of the capital to Jews several Saacks’ budget, of course. He esti- years ago. mates that all of the physical pro- Ekrima Said Sabri, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, cit- tections will cost $150,000 in total. ed a 1935 fatwa, or religious Muslim edict, issued by his That does not include some of the predecessor, Amin al-Husseini. An anti-Semitic leader window and camera costs, which he of Arab Israelis and ally of Nazi Germany, al-Husseini paid for partly out of a $50,000 grant wrote that “anyone who sells a home or land to Jews will from New York state. And the armed not receive a Muslim burial.” Stern ruled that he may be buried at a section of guards, contracted from a private se- the Jewish cemetery at Har Hamenuchot reserved for curity company at $40 an hour each, people without religion. “Since the Muslims will not bury cost about $360 per week. him, we must correct the distortion of justice that results It’s a cost more synagogues are Hanukkah Happenings, Page 5 in unjust humiliation of a man whose only sin was being SECURE continued on PAGE 8 prepared to sell land to Jews,” Stern wrote. Is Gaza situation ‘the problem from hell?’ By ISRARL KASNETT Like everything in Israel, a million differences of JNS.org opinion churn over what Israel should be doing in Avigdor Lieberman announced that he was step- Gaza. Wipe out the entire Hamas leadership? Bomb ping down as Israeli defense minister Nov. 14 in pro- the Strip indiscriminately? Open all the crossings and test of what he called the government’s “capitulation lift restrictions on all materials and goods? Everyone to terror.” His decision came after the security cabinet has an idea, especially when Hamas attacks Israel and decided to pursue a ceasefire with Hamas in the wake Israel’s response appears muted. of the terror group’s rocket barrage on southern Israel, Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president of re- firing more than 400 mortars and rockets at its civilian search at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, population. said to JNS “everything that typically works doesn’t Lieberman has long been a loud and vocal advocate necessarily work in the Gaza Strip. It’s kind of a tin- of hitting Hamas hard militarily, and he accused Is- derbox. One match can set everything ablaze. raeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of buying “There are always two competing forces when we Photo by Nati Shohat/Flash90 short-term quiet at the expense of severe “long-term look at these flare-ups,” he continued. A home in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon was destroyed by a rocket fired damage to national security.” GAZA continued on PAGE 12 from Gaza on Nov. 13. Southern California fire races through the heart of a Jewish community JTA news service in the Los Angeles area. Jewish Community & Synagogue, Hess Kramer and its smaller sister “Even though we didn’t know LOS ANGELES – The Wool- Three historic Jewish sleepaway lost homes and nearly all their be- camp, Gindling Hilltop. By late the extent of the damage, we knew sey Fire, which engulfed a mas- camps and a Jewish retreat center, longings. Saturday, Nov. 10, with the Malibu we had been affected – and we sive swath of Southern California, all nestled in the Malibu hills, were Here are some stories about hills near the campgrounds aflame, knew the community was in need and as of press time had killed at consumed. A Jewish community what was lost and what remains: more than 200 current and former of some healing,” said Ari Kaplan, least three people, burned nearly day school lost three of its build- ‘Where I forged my path’ campers, together with their fami- assistant director of the camps, 100,000 acres and ravaged hun- ings, and several synagogues have Tens of thousands of Jewish lies, gathered for an impromptu both affiliated with the Reform dreds of structures – including damage. Many families, including youth, spanning three generations, Havdalah service to mark the end Wilshire Boulevard Temple. several touchstones of Jewish life that of the new rabbi at Malibu have spent summers at Camp of the Sabbath. FIRE continued on PAGE 16 PAGE 2 A JEWISH PRESS of TAMPA NOVEMBER 16 - DECEMBER 1, 2018 Reform movement’s rabbinical group appoints its first female leader By JOSEFIN DOLSTEN at the Union for Reform Judaism Rabbi JTA news service Press as its editor in chief. Hara NEW YORK – The Reform She said being the first woman in Person movement’s rabbinical wing has the position “feels really exciting.” appointed Rabbi Hara Person as its “On the one hand, it’s hugely and career trajectories. first female chief executive. historic, and also it’s time,” Person For the past year, Person has been The Central Conference of told JTA in a phone interview. “It’s leading the organization’s task American Rabbis, which repre- sort of shocking that it hasn’t hap- force on the experience of women sents 21,000 Reform rabbis around pened before, and I hope that it will in the rabbinate, which looks at is- the world, made the announcement be a positive modeling, not only for sues such as sexual harassment, pay on Thursday, Nov. 15. Person suc- our female colleagues, but also for equity and career advancement. ceeds Rabbi Steven Fox, who is re- our male colleagues to see a differ- She says she will continue to focus tiring in June after 13 years as CEO. ent kind of leader.” on challenges faced by female With more than 1 million mem- Rabbi Julie Schonfeld became clergy in her new role. bers, the Reform movement is the the first woman to serve as chief Person also wants to provide sup- largest Jewish denomination in executive of a major rabbinical port for the approximately 25-35 North America.