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The respected name of Baron Jaquab de Herzog These \Vines, chosen has been built by eight specially from the superior generations of wine makers. vineyards of California, From the ancient vineyards ore prized throughout the of Central Europe this world for their quality illustrious fumily has no"" ond style. brought their superb wine making traditions to the United States. The Herzog Family Crest is a symbol of unique and distinctive quality. It is your Lying directly to the north sign of excellence. of San Francisco, Sonoma County produces some of the finest wines in California. This delightfully fresh wine is a charming example of the California "blush" style. Declared to be an Its soft mouth feel and zesty excellent to outstanding fruitiness make it an excel vintage by The California lent choice to serve as an Wine Institute. aperitif as well as a fine complement to light meals.
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Thejewish Observer, 5 Heeknuin St. 1 New York, N.Y. 100.18 Subscribers outside the USA 1nust add $10 perpearfi:Jreach year ordered to cover air-shipping costs. 0 YES? Rush n1e the special Rosh Hashana/Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, zt"l, Men1orial issup absolutelyffee .Also please enter 1nysubscription for: 3 years {~1t a savings of$39 off the new cover price) $36 Address------D 2years (at a Havings of$23 off' the new covC'r prin.') $27 City) St D 1 year (at a savings of $10 off the new cover price') $15 Ofli:>r expires Septe1nber 30, 19B6. Flying High & Coming Home W,n 1967 began. Dani was 1ust a boy of 12. Bright. wide-eyed. and perfect story unsure of where life would lead him. But when summer arrived. things somehow looked different Six days in June offered Dani. as well as all of Israel. a new perspective Suddenly he was 13. a man. A man who saw other men die for their right to live. And the thunderous roar of the jet engines above him. remained forever in his memory By the time he was 20, Dani was brighter. wider-eyed and much less unsure. A lifetime dream became a reality as he passed his final tests and became a pilot for the Israeli Air Force. "Be perfect". he was warned, "there is no room for error" And perfect he was in every mission But the higher he flew, the more he searched. For meaning. for answers, for understanding He began learning TORAH at age 24. and hasn't stopped. After marriage. he enrolled in a Kollel. and some time later he heard about MIFAL HASHAS. An organization that would help develop the Torah leaders of tomorrow by administering monthly exam inations and demanding perfection It's been over 2 years now Still bright and wide-eyed as ever. Dani is now sure And every month when he receives the results of the previous exam. along with a moderate stipend. he and his family are proud T,,e has been no room for error for Dani -1 00% on every test That's what he demands of himself That's what MIFAL HASHAS is striving for. That's what leaders are made of r------... ------:------...... , : Ylsoscher/Zewllll'I Parlnershlp Agreement l 1 1 I WOUid like io betOme a partner in the ~ W()il( ol 'Milal Hasha$ bycontriblJling NAME~~~~~-'-~~~~~~~~~ ADDAl'Ss.~.o.....~~~~~~~~~.c...~~~ TELEPHONEo~~~~~~~-'--~~~-'--~ O $150permonttl'asa 91Utal HaTorah* tr $36permortth-asaMol My and ac contributions to 'Mfal HaShas~ are tax deducfrble Md fflOSI appreciated. , : MIF'AL HASHAS 4606 lf;th Aven~ 0t00klyn, 'N.Y., t204 t71S}436-n90 : !...... - ...... - ...... ___ :_...:~ ...... -.;..,! TISHBSERVER TIIE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN) 0021-6615 is published monthly 7 except July and August. by the Kashrus, U.S.A Agudath Israel ofAmertca, 5 Beek Rabbi Avrohom Teichman man Street, New York. N.Y. 10038. Second class postage paid at New York. N.Y. Subscrtption $15.00 per 14 year: two years. $27.00: three years, Escalating Tensions in Israel $36.00. Outside of the United Rabbi Nissan Wolpin States (US funds only) $20.00. $25.00 in So. Afrtca and Pacific countrtes. Single copy: $2.00: for 27 eign: $2.50. Send addresschanges to The Jewish Observer, 5 Beek Meaningful Protest man St., N.Y .. N.Y. 10038. Prtnted RabbiAvrohom Pam in theU.SA RABBI NISSONWOLPIN Editor 29 Peace Begins at Home Editorial Board Shmuel Shnitzer DR ERNSTBODENHElMER Chairman RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS 31 JOSEPH FRIEDENSON The Shar'abis of Jerusalem RABBI NOSSON SCHERMAN Nehama Consuelo Nahmoud RABBlMOSHESHERER Management Board NAFfOLl HIRSCH 39 ISAAC KIRZNER The Tragedy of European Jewry, a review article RABBI SHLOMO LESlN The Chafetz Chaim I The Last of the Numbered I The Holo NACHUM STEIN I I I Business Manager caust and its Significance Beyond Belief Holocaust The RABBI YOSEF C. GOLDING Murders at Bullenhuser Damm I The Last Nazi I Fateful Months I Soldiers From the Ghetto I The War of a Jewish Partisan I From Kletzk to Siberia I In the Shadow of the TuEJEWISH OBSERVER does not Kremlin I Our Man In Russia I A Path Through the Ashes assume responsibility for the Kashrus of any product or ser Vice advertised tn Its pages. 45 © Copyright 1986 Second Looks at the Jewish Scene One Straw, How Many Camels? SEPTEMBER 86. VOL. XIX. NO. 6 Because Qf space considerations, no Letters to the Editor appear in this issue. They will be published next month. THESE RAMES COMING OUT OF TEL AVIV DIDN'T MAKE THE HEADLINES We in America are horror struck at the tales of Torah in a yeshiva in Jerusalem, when the most religious strife in Israel. But when the Ponivezer Rosh popular TV and movie idol in Israel is sending his Yeshiva,Horav Schach x"o•'lll/ was asked to explain re children to Chinuch Atzmai schools (and spending his cent events, he said, "The more they say no, the more time studying in a yeshiva), we can see the hand of G-d. we will grow." But the answer must come from us too. Israel is still Today we can see it happening. The secular media a land divided. As thousands of new students stream write about synagogues being burned; they don't report each year into our schools, the government budget cut even more startling events happening in and around ters are reducing the allocations for Chinuch Atzmai Tel Aviv. In many areas that for years were known as even more. totally irreligious strongholds, new flames are bursting Yes, we are accepting these children. We are bus forth - the bright flames of Tor ah. ing them to distant schools. We are cramming them into In Nachlat Yitzchok and Neve Sharet, irreligious existing buildings, seating them two to a seat meant for suburbs of Tel Aviv, they are begging Chinuch Atzmai one, holding classes in the hallways, on the front lawn, to open a kindergarten for 40 children. The same is anywhere. happening in at least 30 other places around Israel. Yet thousands more may be refused. And if more The winds of Teshuva are blowing. They are school buildings were available, we could double our penetrating ever deeper into the heartlands of the enrollment in one year. Imagine another 50, 000 secular state. What strife we are seeing is the frightened Jewish children learning Torah in Israel! reaction of those whose careers and life are built around Each dollar you give today goes directly towards opposing Torah. Yeshivas and Bais Yaakovs are no supporting the Torah learned in Israel by a Jewish child. longer a quaint tourist attraction in Jerusalem. Even the In our lifetime we can see the miracle happen. The children and grandchildren of secular leaders are begin miracle of an Israel where Torah is heard from every ning to question the empty values and mores of their Jewish home. Let's make it happen. parents. When the son of a leftist politician is learning Torah for One Dollar Per Day It costs us one dollar to subsidize a child's Torah learning for one day . .------TORAH SCHOOLS FOR ISRAEL CHINUCH ATZMAI "'ICI •KD:nm iunn t:>"ID 167 MadbOn Avenue, New York. NY 10016 (212) 889-0606 Yes, I want to buy Torah for a child In Israel. Please send me: m L:: a year ofTorah for _child/children @ $360 r:=.-\ iJ a half year of Tor ah for _ child/ children @ $180 D 1 month ofTorah for_ child/children@ $30 ~ D _ day I days of Torah for _ child/ children @ $1 Our goal Is to reach every Jewish child In evny community Name_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~- and settlement In Israel. · · · Address Rabbi Avrohom Teichman Kashrus, U.S.A. Where It's Coming From, and Where It's Heading he recent incidence of non-kosher vinegar being I have written this report With you, the individual, In used as an ingredient in dozens of kosher pro mind. Some of what follows is quite technical and nitty T ducts (and processes) is still fresh in the collective gritty, and many questions are asked-few answered. consciousness of the Kosher consumer. Aside from the But. perhaps when you finish reading.you'll have an Idea specific she'eilos concerning product fitness. this inci of how big the field of Kashrusis. where we are right now, dent provoked a number of reactions, ranging from and how we might improve the situation. responsible public (and private) response on the part ofa Kashrus, on a professional level, as currently organized number of major Kashrus organizations, to misleading has a number of distinct areas, each With its own prob and misinforming public statements on the part of oth lems, requiring specific knowledge, experience, expertise ers. (For those who knew the facts early on, the airy words and, obviously, its own she'eilos and halachos. Let us about a "state law causing the question of Kashrus in take them one at a time. vinegar"* are an insult to the Intelligence and a funda mental failure to public service.) SOURCE PRODUCTIONS (Shechita: meal poultry; milk. Those speaking In the name of the "public" (in plain cheese, wines, oils) words, the paying customer) have, through various organs of the press. expressed outrage that these things From the industrial point of view, these operations can and do happen (and by implication, continue to have the least additives and outside products involved in happen). The Immediate consensus, both inside and production. However. in halachic terms, a major portion outside the Kashrusfield. is that the integrity ofKashrus of Shulchan Arnch Yoreh Deah is taken up With these supervision is damaged, measurably. foods. A large portion of these laws deal With the laws of •quoted from a memo circulated by a Kashrus supervision group, shortly after Pesach. shechita and, In practice, are so complex that they can Rabbi Teichman, rabbi of Congregation Agudath Israel of LosAngcles, heads not be treated fairly in the framework of this article. I the local KehiUa Kashrus Supervisory Organization. would, nonetheless, like to touch on some developments The Jewtsh Obseroer I September. 1986 7 ...... ·······~·~·:·:· .. ~ to watch: In the United States, beef and poultl)'slaughter, viewpoint, there's no difference between a Satmerer. and increasingly the entire processing chain, are taking Lubavitcher, or Amerikaner practitioner. Expertise at place closer to the producer farmlands and further from the craft is determined by the same Yoreh Deah. the consumer population centers. This process has evolved to the point where (conservatively) 85% of the OILS AND OTHER RAW MATERIALS shochtim in this countl)' do not come home to their Many basic materials are processed in their land of families at the end of the working day. This puts a limit origin, often in the Far East, where controls are much on the quality of the personnel willing to leave home looser than in Western countries and where supplies are regularly for extended periods of time. And, obviously, the subject to unpredictable depletion and haphazard sub Rav Hamachshir, the Rav assuming the "buck-stops stitution. Moreover, the Kashrus supervisers are not here" responsibility for the Kashrus of the shechita always on the site. operation, is equally far-removed. His relationship to, And then there is a matter of shipping. In oils. for and influence over, the people responsible to him suffer instance, can we insist that shipments of kosher oil accordingly. Many qualified personnel simply leave the cargo from the Far East be in container holds dedicated profession because of the long distance and difficult exclusively to kosher oil, so that the obvious problems of working conditions. non-kosher common-wall containers (wherein kosher There is a serious shortage of expert Shuvim (by oils are separated from treife oils by a single, 5" thick SH!N. we mean Shochet U'Bodek), that is, people expert wall), transfer lines. (hot!), etc. are obviated? Can all in all three areas of Shechita: shechita-slaughter; bed Kashrus supervisions do this? Can the large corpora ikas pnim-intemal organ inspection; bedikas chutz tions make this major adjustment with their suppliers extemal organ inspection. This phenomenon is readily something that can involve great cost and even more explained: the shechita team (sometimes eight to ten trouble? And if they won't or can't. would their hechsher people in a large operation) usually functions as a group remain. or not? of equals and as such each member tends to gravitate to the position he is best at. Over a period of time, he never CATERING has the opportunity to improve himself in his weak area. It is difficult for the Rav to promote the nece8Sal)' An interesting dichotomy exists here. Some busi Improvement and maintain the professional standard nesses are run out of a central commissary and are also from a distance. Incidentally, the experts know of each quite stable with respect to how often they change sup other's work by reputation, and from a professional pliers. After the initial set-up state, the hashgacha can A postscript to the yinegar story: Kashrus would Regarding the pasuk "Kakaton kagadoltishmeun have been better served if public notice and subse· -hear out the small as we> If as the large,'' Chazal tell quent disclosure bad been spearbeaded by the us, "Din pruta k'din mono"-the question of atiny supervising agency responsible for the hechsher for coin should be as important to you as one involving the vinegar, together with .all theKashrus groups who thousands/' Obviously, Chazal meant. for us not to had approved the productin their own productions. neglect the petty case. However, in no way can we A data base and bulletin board would have. provided imagine that the din mono-the case involving thou to the public in days what dozens. of people• took sands, isany less important lot its size. Manyissuesin weeks to compile.The administrator ofa major Kash Kashrus today d() involve large sums. In some cases rus Vaad confided to me, "It.could have happened to the granting of a hechsheror its.removal can make or any of us;" Perhaps. Not everyone, though, is pre· break a business or its personnel, or fonhat matter pared to· deal with mistakes constructively, under can seriously affect thelinancial stability of the super· pressure. All of us in Kashrus can and should learn visory. agency. Our posture dotis llotalways reflect from this incident. this point. -A• Teichman -A. Teichm•n 8 The Jewish Obseroer I September, 1986 No hechsher is totally independent. All supervisors must depend on others, for every product has either a multiplicity of ingredients or some additives. be relatively problem-free. The other side of the coin (as is RETAIL ESTABLISHMENTS (Butcher Shops-and ... ofi.tn the case) is the fellow who conducts his affairs out everything else: bakeries, restaurants, take-outs. etc.) of his own head-his products and suppliers are con stantly being changed. This is a difficult, if not impossi The hashgacha at a Shomer Shabbos butcher shop ble. situation to monitor. The caterer who is quitefrum assures uniform. maintained standards. The nikkur and well-meaning can at the same time be unaware and (deveining) is done according to the psak of the Rav (not necessarily the way the butcher got his training); the Rav ignorant of the Kashrus hazards in the products he uses. "It's good. everyone uses it." can be a sincere statement approves and disapproves the wholesaler suppliers. If you hear the butcher boasting of his own expertise and but at the same time. the public is relying not on "every not referring the customer with a question to his Rav one:· but on the specific machshir. Hamachshir-then the Rav may not be knowledgeable Chilul Shabbos(before and after Shabbos) is a serious possibility in view of the time pressures to produce a in nikkur and other areas. and the butcher is the "real large affair; it is an area that is sometimes more hazard machshir." (The fuss several years ago about nikkur resulted primarily from lack of authoritative knowledge prone than the Kashrus of the menu. If the management is not observant. the adequacy of on the part of the responsible hashgachos.) The butcher may not be Shomer Shabbos. especially in small com the on-site mashgiach is of fundamental concern. munities. and simply spot-checking by a mashgiach is. HOTELS-INSTITUTIONS l'halacha, no assurance that the meat was soaked and salted properly. Here. too. there are a number of distinct areas. Can the The mashgiach, even if he is constantly on-site as the facility be kashered? Does the hotel have a separate set of Rav'seyes and ears. needs to know the tricks of the trade. dishes? Are they sealed away when not in use? How are Otherwise his presence is no assurance of Kashrus at all. the dishes cleaned after use? (Does the caterer take home dirty dishes?) Does preparation of the kosher affair take Other retail establishments. It is important for the place apart from other. treifactivities. or are kosher and store to minimize. wherever possible. changes in suppli treif prepared in proximity to each other in a central ers. th us better controlling the problems and resulting kitchen? The difference between the two methods may pressures of new and unverifiable suppliers. New pro require five or more additional mashgichim in a large ducts don't have to be taboo, but they should be approved multi-storied hotel facility. as part of a deliberate procedure. As important as any of the details above. are the rela tionship and operating procedure of the hotel vis-a-vis INDUSTRIAL MANUFACTURING Kashrus. Has the hotel prepared and familiarized its staff with the kosher procedure? Does the executive The factory that produces a kosher supervised product chef/manager have a tight control over his own person composed of a number of ingredients. may or may not nel or is it the case of a number of things going on at require various levels of hashgacha: none at all (it's pos once-they have to check it out-they don't really know sible!) may be needed outside nominal inspections a off-hand. number of times each year. An on-site constant hashga Institutions. especially nursing homes and the like. are cha from beginning to end may be required-and after very cost conscious-a source of serious problems in the end. too. when labels may need to be locked up. Other product approval. Products that you would not use your times. some level of hashgacha between these two self may in fact. because of cost consideration. be the extremes may be adequate. standard fare in institutions. Can a nursing home claim Proprietary information. Some ingredients may be trade to be kosher and not have separate meat and dairy secrets and the company many be unwilling to divulge kitchens? Is there. in fact, an active hashgacha or does them. even if only for Kashrus purposes. the management merely make the claim? In our own shuls. yeshivas and camps. serious Kash The proprietary "K". The "K" symbol simply may be a rus problems can arise because there is not one single claim to kashrus by the company-but there is no hash individual who is in final control and authority. That gacha approval. Often. there is indeed a reliable hash leaves it up to someone else-that is, no one.Amazing.yet gacha. This is an example of information not readily so commonplace. available to the lay consumer. The Jewish Observer I September. 1986 9 Label control. Here lies a source of disaster. Despite a Scope: Some operate on a national scale (OU, OK), while reliable hashgacha during production, the plant might others may be regional (Community Kashrus Vaadlm produce treif products under kosher labels by mistake. exist in Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Mont Are labels solely controlled by the mashgiach? If not. is real, Toronto, etc.). Some are local (Vaad haRabbonim of the distribution system of the product so arranged that F1atbush, for example). Some may be a single hechsher mislabeling can be immediately detected? What if the not reflecting any organization beyond the specific pro company (it can be that big) has its own print shop for duct (Debreciner Rav, for example). Some are divisions of labels? Should the hashgacha be removed if the mis larger organizations (Beis Din of Kha! Adath Jeshurun, labeling is a result of negligence rather than mere error? Beis Din of Hisachdus Horabbonim, Vaad Rabbonel How would this be determined? How do we even organize Lubavitch, even OU is a Kashrus division of the larger ourselves to tackle this problem? organization.) The ordinary customer, be he a ben Torah or other Symbols: There has been an explosion of trademarked wise, is surely a lay person when it comes to addressing Kashrus symbols marketed since 1970, primarily the the many, many challenges facing us in Kashrus today. result of two things: 1) the increasing sophistication of Surely, the consumer rightly feels, that's the whole point even the smallest Kashrus groups, and 2) the increased of having organized Kashrus supervision. So right! And general public concern with food additives and product that brings us to the Kashrus organizations themselves. ingredients. You practically need a directory to be knowl This, indeed, is where it's at. edgeable about the symbols. They have so proliferated that Kash ms symbols are no longer information symbols THE SUPERVISION SYSTEM: alone-they are increasingly viewed as important mar A DESCRIPTION IN BRIEF keting tools. The financial significance of this situation Community or proprietary? Orthodox Union (OU) Bal has been lost on no one in the industry. Nor should it be timore Vaad Hakashrus (Star K), are examples of com lost on the consumer. munity organizations. Their administrative staffs are responsible to a board of community group of rabbis CURRENT EVENTS and/ or laymen. A dynamic administrator will of course carry great weight Inside the organization, but policy The first meeting (ever!) among Kashrus groups took making and final responsibility rest with the community place last November in Chicago, hosted by the Chicago board. Rabbinical Council. Representatives of Community Organized Kosher Laboratories (OK) and Kosher Kashrus Vaadim from twelve cities were present. The Supervision Service (Chaf K) are proprietary. That is, second conference took place in New York City this past they are wholly owned by one person or a small group. February, hosted by the OU. Representatives from Policy and final responsibility are often vested in one twenty-five different community Vaadim were present. person, often the administrator. The next conference is scheduled for early August in Baltimore, G-d willing. The conferences to date were wonderfully productive, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein '"'I is no longer with us and their greatest accomplishments two fold: we lack the broad shoulders to lean on when it comes 1) Vaadim compared notes and had the opportunity to to profound questions of psak in Kashrus. Among learn from each other's problems and successes. Kashrus Vaadim, policies involving psak halacha will 2) An umbrella group was created, The Association of need to be arrived at through a consensus of our Community Kashrus Organizations. This group (the Morei Hora'a, at this point. Our spiritual poverty may ACKO ), comprised at this point solely of communityVaa well contain the seeds of a blessing, bringing us closer dim, seems to have potential to be the instrument with together in cooperation and in practice. which we (the consumer, the rabbonim, the profession -A. Teichman als and the industry) can effectively deal with the chal lenges facing us today. 10 The Jewish Obseroer I September, 1986 85% of the Shochtim in America do not come home to their families at the end of a working day. This puts a limit on the quality of personnel available ... and it puts a distance between the plant and the Rav in charge. THOSE CHALLENGES ARE, IN BRIEF: In this manner, any hechsherwould or would not, on a professional basis for peer review, meet common stand Kashrus is in danger of being hurt by its very success. ards. As I explain later. this offers a format for forewarn Growing ever larger to meet increasing demands for ing both the industry and the consumer. supervision approval. means that the infrastructure may And then, let us not forget the key man in the Kashrus not be able lo handle the workload (even if the ACKO ever operation, the mashgiach. Halachic expertise, technical does determine. as policy, what a proper hashgacha knowledgeability, unimpeachable credentials as an Or workload is). On the other hand, a large organization thodox rabbi. .. must sometimes seek to grow because of the need for greater income to maintain the existing establishment. Kashrus Is big business and needs a code of ethics, This is not inherently contradictory to good Kashrus written and unwritten. If a hechsheris removed for valid policy, as long as the infra-structure-that is, the corps of Kashrus reasons, it should not be snapped up by the mashgichim and their supervisors-grows accordingly. competition. A food handler I know lost his original But I suspect that growth for growth's sake lies at the hechsher because of unethical practices, and now has root of many subsequent problems. his fourth hechsher! Wouldn't you expect Rav-number four to discuss with the previous Rau-for background A number of hechsheirimare not acceptable within the and recommendation purposes-the wisdom of giving Kashrus field. Only if we can develop common, minimum the hechsher'? And what about the acceptibility of com hashgacha standards subscribed to by all member Vaa petition, undercutting, and all the other concommitant dim (and subsequent members) could a universal credi aspects of a free market in Kashrus supervision? bility be achieved. Some examples of areas where ac Shouldn't there be a modus operandi among Kashrus cepted procedures have been topics for discussion and groups so that general Kashrus will be enhanced and remain to be developed are: bishul akum (cooking by a kiddush shem Shomayim promoted, rather than the non-Jew, forbidden for consumption, per Rabbinic law); opposite? processing involving fish; and taking challah at large What about grievances? The last place to argue about plants. Yet to be discussed: standards for Israeli imports Kashrus would seem to be the media: The Association (complicated by its own set of hashgacha problems, as would be the logical address. Much of the propaganda well as numerous additional Kashrus requirements hype and irresponsible public posturing would be curbed because of the "Land-bound" mitzvos, such as teruma, and the layman, above all, would be less confused and ma 'aser, and Shmittah): foreign imports. cynical. A blunt question was put to us at the first Kashrus remuneration, that he need not look arouhd too conference: "Do you know of anyone who is willfully much in view of the kind of money he is being paid, giving ahechsheron a product he knows to be treif?" A mashgiach failed to appear for supervision of a (referring to the hechsherim that were by consensus kosher-for-Pesach prc>duction at a plant in. our area. not accepted in the Kashrus field). Not a single partic The company called the rabbi, and after a short con . ipant responded in the affirmative. However, most of versation, the rabbi approved the product for sale. us in the field are directly or indirectly aware of those The company manager thought it a bit strange, but machshirim who don't want to know if their hashgo went ahead with disttibution nevertheless. When chos have problems, whose standards are subject to management mentioned the story to the distributor, . change (as in hundred dollar bill) and whose mashgi management concluded: "Why do we pay for extra chim know little or nothing of what they are sup supervision for Pesach ·if it is good without the mash posedly supervising. The machshir does not expect giach anyway?" The distributor was so incehsed at this the mashgiach to do more than display his physical chicanery that he insisted that the supervision be can . presence since everything has been taken care of celled by the company. . before, and the mashgiach knows, by way of his -A. Teichman . The Jewish Observer I September, 1986 11 Kashru.s symbols have so proliferated that they are no longer information symbols alone-they are also marketing tools. The single most urgent need in Kashrus today is timely ROLE OF THE CONSUMER information. This last point is critical to both the Kash- The individual consumer can do something. He can 1118 field and the consumer. speak to his Rav and, in his own way, encourage him to involve himself personally in this endeavor, or he can The insiders. No hechsher is totally independent. To a become involved on his own through his nearest Com greater or lesser extent, we machshirim all depend on munity Vaad. other hechsherim Every product contains some other What people in the Kash111S field have recognized as product. (Milk may contain vitamins A and D; meat is imperative is now known to the reader-that is, the con salted; oil, even without additives. has come into contact sumer. An idea whose time has come won't be denied; the with various catalytic elements during refining; cheese consumer, with his individual voice and concern, can put contains enzymes. coagulants, coloring and more; a fla this idea on the agenda for action sooner rather than voring may contain an ingredient that itself contains 40 later. components!) Each Kash111S group has a critical need to Though this report may strike the reader as too nega have all !ts own information at its own fingertips and to tive and revealing, no part, by itself, is foreign to any of us. simultaneously be able to communicate with its sister It is the totality and complexity of the Kash111S field in organizations in this same way. our technological age that is overwhelming. Hence, the feeling of powerlessness and futility, of 'Will we ever come The consumer. The various newsletters and alerts avail to grips with all this?" able today to the consumer are highly praiseworthy The answer is simple: do we will it? Do the Kash111S efforts at informing the consumer. The Kosher Gram, of professionals within the organization and between the the Merkaz in Detroit, is a shining example. They are, organizations-do they will it? Do the activists, do the however, but a pitiful stab at addressing the need.A great consumers will it? If the response to the question of "will" deal of preparation and effort go into disseminating is yes, then the necessary ingredient to confront and to information that ls weeks old at publication. The inevit conquer the Kash111Schallenges of today(and beyond) is able must be ushered in right now. A national data base there. Conquer we must. We have no other choice.Ill and bulletin board is a priority of the Association of Vaadim. Hopefully, a model demonstration will be given "Can we stand the scrutiny?" a Rav at the second at the next conference in Baltimore. The information in Kashrus conference asked us. He answered his own the central computer will be available to the computer question this way: "Being scrutinized by my peers terminals and printers of memberVaadim. They, at their definitely makes me nervous and uncomfortable, but discretion, may make the information available to their you can be sure I'll be at my conscientious best and membership. that I'll be open to any suggested improvement in my Information can be available within minutes on a pro hechsher that will gain your approval." -That's what fessional need-to-know basis, and within days to the real Kashrus is all about. consumer membership. -A. Teichman Notjustacheese, a tra(Jition ... 2 Hao lam, the most trusted name in Cholov Yisroel Kosher Cheese. A reputation earned through 25 years of scrupulous devotion to quality and kashruth.With 12 delicious varieties. Under the strict Rabbinical supervision ofK'hal AdasJe~hurun, N.Y. H~>lam, atradition you'l~:::k:::I l lao 11-IUl\M BRO:>. WOllLDCHlESE-OJ .. lNC, NEW YORJ::. 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Confrontations have continued, but the battle lines have shifted to the Knesset and the media, ignoring the risk that with slight provocation, open conflict-if not violence-will surface once again. Precisely what took place? Why? And what should the response of Torah Jewry be to these events? in Israel A Report and Commentary I. THE EXPLOSIVE people, including Israeli feminists The conflict reached an ugly cli EVENTS who objected to the posters for their max on June 12th, when Tel Aviv's exploitation and demeaning treat Bnei Binyomin Synagogue was set ment of women. Some members of afire. A note left on the door read, or over a half year, the bus the religious community resorted to 'We will bum a synagogue for every shelters throughout Israel spray-painting the offensive posters bus shelter set ablaze," signed. "Peo F had been displaying posters while unidentified vandals con ple against the ultra-religious." advertising women's swimwear that tinued torching the shelters. The After Shavuos. violence exploded offend basic standards of decency. media (see cartoons attached) and again. Here we quote The New York Incredibly. one such poster was af leftist members of the Knesset did Times: fixed to a bus shelter on Rechov not differentiate between protesters, Meah Shearim where even the cas blackeners and burners. It was "the Late Saturday night. vandals ran~ sacked a Tel AViv Yeshiva, scrawling in ual touristisrequested to dress with Haredis against the rest of us." For black paint on the walls, "Khomeiniism," modesty. After continued protests to example, an editorial in Ma'ariv "Down With religious coercion," and the municipality went unheeded, (June 5) proclaimed, "It is high time "This is the last warning." The vandals someone burned the shelter to the to put an end to the lawlessness of ripped prayer shawls to shreds, shredded ground. Who was guilty, no one the Haredim and to the self-restraint prayer books and tore apart phylacteries knows. The vandalism was con of the police.'' Nor did the police dif and left them in a heap in the middle of demned by virtually all, including ferentiate. making wholesale arrests the Chiddushei Harim Yeshiva in Tel the Eidah Hachareidis. But the of of scores of bystanders when sus Aviv, The militants also smashed the fensive displays continued. pects of any defacing were appre Yeshiva's Holy Ark , .. smeared swasti Protests mounted. Israel's anti hended. Of note: not one religious kas on the wdlls of Tel Aviv's Great Syna religious press-that is. the vast Jew was ever caught or arrested for gogue .... majority of its newspapers-only bus-shelter burning while non-reli In Yavneel, near Tiberias, secular mil took note of religious protesters. gious Jews were.(Come to thinkofit. itants broke into the state-run religious school and ripped apart prayer books whom they characterized as Kho is it conceivable that a Meah Shea and other religious articles. meinis and medieval obscurantists, rim Jew would take the three-hour but in fact. the religious populace trip to Haifa to set fire to a bus shel Yeshivat HaKotel in Jerusalem was was joined by a broad spectrum of ter there?) also vandalized. The Jewish Observer I September, 1986 15 Not one religious Jew was ever caught setting fire to a bus shelter, while non-religious Jews were. Nowhere is this indicated in the press. Most quarters expressed outrage nized as a valid factor in determin hand, Emanuel Shalem, c.e.o. of Pos· at the sacrilege, and passions cooled. ing what is legally acceptable in the ter Media, responsible for the shel Within several days, Israel's Attorney U.S. In a case dealing with the con ters and their advertising, was General ordered all provocative pos· flict between obscenity and free quoted in Advertising Age, July 14, ters removed as violating the crimi· speech, the Supreme Court decided 1986: "Nobody has pulled out of nal code (Paragraph 173) which that a local government can ban their contract because of the con· prohibits posting any signs or dis immodest display on the basis of troversy ... [which! has made people plays that offend the beliefs or reli·· "contemporary community stand· pay attention to the ads. And in my gious sensibilities of others. The ob ards." What is deemed acceptable in business, that's what I want.") Yet vious question: Why was this Jaw not one part of the country can be pro· the "invasion" of the offensive adver· enforced before? Yet, media com· hibited as offensive in another. (Roth tising was ignored by the Knesset mentators, such as Avrohom v. United States, 2d Cir. 1956.) Israeli and media. Only the objection of the Schweitzer of Haaretz, outrageously society seems bent on ignoring this religious community was deemed decried enforcing the law on behalf factor. noteworthy-and condemned. of the Haredim. Moreover. placing the more risque Undoubtedly. some secularists A number of American Jewish or posters in Orthodox neighborhoods harbor a deep reservoir of ill-feeling ganizations condemned violence on cannot be justified by either rules of toward the Haredi community, an both sides. Four Orthodox groups consideration or economics. {How antipathy so severe that it blinds Agudath Israel of America, the Union many swimsuits does Gotex sell in them to what would be obvious in of Orthodox Jewish Congregations Meah Shearim in a year? On the other other circumstances.Thus. in res- of America, the Rabbinical Council ofAmerica, and the National Council of Young Israel-also condemned all PUBLIC PORN 7-20-86 violence, making it clear that the onus for starting it rests on those To the F.ditor of The Jerusalem Post relationships and the eroticism featured who provoked it, by invading the Sir, in their supplements for young people. domain of deepfelt religious belief Like most Israelis ... my world out Nevertheless, only those who buy with offensive posters and other look, Jewish commitments and way of these newspapers are subject to this defiant acts. life ... have much more in common with exposure. The bus stations, however, These are the facts. And now for the secular than with the haredi com· cannot be avoided. some background. munity. If readers of The Jerusalem Post Notwithstanding all this, one may would look carefully at poster a 16 The Jewish Observer I September, 1986 ,,.rllli,J.,,~=.~~1 f!lllllllllllllllllllmmlllillllll_.llllilllllll_.llllllll! ~ .. - THE MEDIA: ' .~ ' SPREADING THE BLAME Israeli newspapers mock Haredim as ( 1) unsavory trash, (2) victims ef their own ndeed, the media does bear a arson, and (3) straight shooters Qf spray-paint aerosol cans. No religious Jew has large share of the blame for the been caught settingfire to bu..5 shelters. I tightening of tension between the religious and secular communi· ponse to the burning and defacing of out publicly against all violence while ties. How else can one explain Goell's the synagogues and yeshivas during calling for police action against observation that "At the personal the week of Shavous-an outrage Haredi violence.... On the other level, relations are also more than without precedent in Jewish his hand. the Harediviolence against the civil between these parts-the vast tory-some leftists newspapers bus shelters, which has been going majority of secular, traditional and knee-jerked with condemnation of on with impunity, is but the latest Zionist Orthodox Jews-of the pop the "ultra-Orthodox'' for starting the example of such violence in recent ulation and large numbers of Haredi violence. For example, an article years ... [such as! throwing stones (ultra-pietisticOrthodox)Jews."Yet, Widely syndicated throughout the at vehicular traffic on the road lead· a recent poll by Hanoch Smith for English··speaking world, by The ing to the new neighborhood of The Jerusalem Post shows that Jerusalem Post columnist Dr. Yosef Ramot." As for "the recent horren while 30% of the respondents are Goell. asks: "Is the violence symmet· dous incidents of attempted arson intolerant of Arabs. 67% expressed rical? Nothing could be further from against one Tel Aviv Synagogue and such feelings toward the "IBtra the truth.... On the secular side, the trashing and desecration of reli· Orthodox Jews" of Israel. If the dif· there has been virtually no resort to gious books and teffilin ... ,"they are ferent factions live at peace with anti-Haredi violence in recent years. "retaliation." each other on the personal level, how . . . Left-wing parties such as the Not "unprecedented shameful does a general negative attitude socialist Mapam and the Citizens' acts," spurred on by a vilifying Knes· arise?-ifnot from the broad-brush Rights Movement .. have all come set and the media.Just "retaliation." smear of the media! The Jewish Obseroer I September, 1986 17 majortty were, of course, also taken into consideration, but some basics of the Jewish religion were incorpo rated into the law of the land. Thus did the famous "Status Quo" agree ment come into existence. Among the points of this agreement were rabbinical control of matters of per sonal identity (relating to conver sion, marrtage, and divorce), and the acceptance of Shabbos as Israel's official day of rest, with cessation of public transportation and closing of /I businesses and places of entertain ment. // As of late, two trends have been taking place. Not only have we been confronted by a number of crtses not provided for by the agreement, but the Status Quo itself is being in creasingly undermined because of the impatience of the secular major To the opinion-makers of Israel, families of the Neturei Karta ... and ity, goaded on by the liberal, left there is aboslutely no difference be that's why leading rabbinical figures leaning media Shabbos especiaJly tween the occasional rock-slinging such as Rabbi Elazar Shach, Rabbi has been under siege in a number of juvenile from a Neturei Karta family Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, and towns and cities, notably Jerusalem and the tens of thousands of res Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashuv i>n>w and Petach Tikva, as was reported in ponsible adults who respect the condemned the posters on the the May issue of The Jewish Ob words of virtuaJJy the entire Torah shelters! seroer ("Shabbos: Uniter or Other leadership, including the Ponevezher Such nonsense, and yet the press wise?"). Yet, whenever a public act of Rosh Hayeshiva, Rabbi Shach, and sells it and much of the public seems defiance of the Status Quo is greet the Gerer Rebbe l'n'l'i. who have time to buy it. ... And this is not the worst ed by an objection by the religious and again condemned every kind of that is being foisted on a reading community, the secular press shouts violence, for any purpose. In the public that has no personal contact "lefiya datit!-religious coercion!" Knesset, aJJ are called "anti-Zionist with religious Jews ... that has no Some secularists have made aver parasites,'' and in the press they are way of realizing that they are being itable slogan of "Medinat chok v'lo all projected as coming from one served up with distortions and medinat dat-A state based on law, Haredi or "Ultra-Orthodox" mold. caricatures. not religion." It is important to real More of Geoll: "what are the sour ize that religious and secular law ces of Haredi violence? They stem THE STATE: breakers are not treated equally by NOT BASED ON RELIGION ... from an internal split in the extreme BASED ON LAW? the so-called "Medinat Chok." In anti-Zionist Neturei Karta commu fact, the government has repeatedly nity which then spread into the s mentioned at the outset, closed its eyes to violation of such larger Eida Hacharedi, which in the recent tensions that laws as those dealing with abortions, tum had a strong impact on the A peaked have been present for unauthortzed autopsies, and porno 'Lithuanian yeshiva' wing of the years, even generations. They grow graphy. In some of these areas, there mainline Haredi Agudath Israel. ... from conflicting visions of what the simply have been no prosecutions Are there any foreign influences at Jewish people are, how they should whatsoever. work? With the Neturei Karta and live, and the ideal nature of Israel! For example, the Petach Tikva the Eidah Hacharedi it is a long society. These tensions were antici movie theater, to which we referred, established pattern to foment 'causes pated before the founding of the was actually breaking the law when celebre' in the long hot summers to State, when David Ben Gurton met it showed films on Friday night. yet serve as propaganda vehicles for the with representatives of Agudath Is the Rav on the town, Rabbi Baruch raising of money in the Haredi rael in 1947. All concerned recog Shimon Salomon, was arrested for communities in New York and else nized the necessity of making it pos leading an "unauthortzed demon where during the High Holidays sible for frum Jews to live a fully stration" against what was a viola season." religious life in Eretz Yisroel, and of tion of "Chok Hamedina. "(See pho In other words. the grievances making the Jewish religion an iden tograph of police treatment of a reli aren't real, only pretext for fund tifying feature of the emerging na gious demonstrator against Sab raising for the needs of the 100-plus tion. The sentiments of the secular bath violation in Petach Tikva) 18 The Jewish Observer I September, 1986 The press sells its anti-religious nonsense to a non-suspecting public, which buys it all ... with no indication th.at it is being fed distortions and caricatures. • Other examples: When Teresa against the family for the illegal bur well-known anti-dati activist, who Angelevic, a Christian woman mar ial in the first place. on a recent Shabbos drove his car ried to a Jew. was buried in the Jew Similar cases are occurring with up and down a closed street in Meah ish cemetery of Rish on Letziyon two striking frequency in Ashdod, Ri Shearim and took pot shots at peo years ago, the Chevra Kadisha (the shon Letziyon, and other communi ple there, was released on his own Jewish Burial Society) objected. Not ties where both the Jewish and non cognizance upon pleading "self de only was the burial a violation of the Jewish members of elderly inter fense." ... The Minister of Police is law. it was a breach of trust to those married couples are registered as "looking into the case." already interred there. who had ex Jews. and then after death, both bur pected to be laid to rest with mem ied in Jewish cemeteries. m. ALSO ON THE bers of the same religious faith.After When, in response to these cases, AGENDA protests continued to go unheeded, Chevra Kadisha groups recently two members of theChevra exhumed combined efforts to pepare confi nce one has accepted that the body and reburied it elsewhere. dential lists of non-Jewish pariners the bus-shelter incident is The press focused its attention on of such marriages to avoid similar O not simply a matter ofan iso the "Black Body Snatchers,'' and deceptions, Knesset members vici lated dispute between freedom of created a lynching fever; the Chevra ously attacked them-even though expression in advertising versus members stood trial and were sent- they are charged by law to control traditional modesty, but a manifes enced to several years in prison. burials. tation of a much deeper rift, one They were upholding justice, but • While a number of Haredim looks nervously for further expres were accused of imposing religion were arrested on susplcion of having sions of conflict. And strangely on the living and the dead. By con defaced bus shelters (only to be re enough-considering that tensions trast, no charges were ever brought leased after lengthy detentions), a were on the verge of exploding into street violence-new confrontations are being forced on the religious populace of Israel. • Without difficulty one can find with regularity a new pronounce ment or executive fiat from the desk of Jerusalem's Mayor Teddy Kollek illustrating his vision of Jerusalem as a city for all peoples, as opposed to a stronghold of "IBtra-Orthodoxy." According to an interview in Near East Review (June 23, '86): He believes that both Orthodox and secular Jews "have an exaggerated fear of the other." The secular Jews "have a psychosis that the religious are winning out and that in the short period this w111 be a city ruled by the ultra-Orthodox group.'' Teddy emphatically rejects that fearful Vision of the city's future. 'We have made tremendous progress with regard to the general character of the city. We have theaters, music, an international arts festival, a cinemateque filled with a thousand people most evenings. We have A police officer subdues an ultra-Orthodox demonstrator during protest against a pedestrial mall where people sit out in Sabbath movies in Petah Tikva. (Photo---Jerusalem Post}. cafes." ... The Jewish Observer I September, 1986 19 The Mayor sees Jerusalem's wealth of artistic and intellectual assets as a "counterweight" to the growing ultra Orthodox segment of the population. These fears prevent the people from mOV·· ing here .... He does believe that the municipality must "satisfy the legitimate needs for schools and services" of the ultra-Orthodox sector. Legitimacy has its own crtteria in Kolleck's view. Haredim in Meah Shearim. Geula and Bayit Vegan are fine. But petition for a shul or a Chi nuch Atzmai school in Gilo, and the Mayor refuses.And when the yeshiva Agency figure (center) passes money to Haredi on left while he pats ''good little headed by Rabbi Shlomo Zalmen _Israeli" on the head. on right.• Auerbach and his son Reh Shmuel attempts to build a beis medrash or funds only to schools and institu ponent July 11, '86). yeshiva dormitory in Shaarei tions that recognize and support the This unusual and highly damag Chesed, the Mayor says: "In Geula, State of Israel as the existing na ing resolution was months in prepa not in Shaarei Chesed." A super sta tional homeland of the Jewish peo ration. The groundwork began with dium that will bring tens of thou ple, and which incorporate Zionist a series of articles by Charles Hoff sands of Shabbos-desecrating autos values in their curricula. The pro man in the Jerusalem Post critical into Jerusalem-yes! More accom posed criteria for judging whether of Jewish Agency funding policies. modations forits burgeoning Ortho an institution is "Zionist" include Published in booklet form with dox population-no! The spread of celebration of Israel's Independence "Sturmer" type cartoons, the Hoff Orthodoxy beyond its appointed en Day. flying the Israeli flag and en man articles were distributed to the claves threatens the cosmopolitan couragement of service in Israel's Assembly delegates. Somehow the spirit of Kollek's Jerusalem, and he armed forces or alternative national booklet hit a responsive chord, espe will not tolerate it. service. This would effectively cut off cially among those Americans who • The Jewish Agency, which is the millions of dollars to institutions yearn to "flex their muscles," and to conduit for channeling funds raised that until now have qualified for legi tell the Israelis how to spend the by the UJA to Israel, is responsible timate support from internationally monies they bring with them from for assigning some of its subsidies raised funds. the States. Seeing "an increasing to the yeshivos and Kollelim in Israel Why was such precipitous action polarity" amongst Jews, they are every year. This constitutes a rela taken at this time? According to an seizing the opportunity to enlarge tively small proportion of its dis interview with Miriam Gafni, a Phi the breach rather than heal the bursements, but these funds are ladelphia attorney who introduced wound in the corpus of Kial Yisroel. enormously important to the insti the motion in the Youth Aliyah If the disbursement of the funds tutions affected. At the most recent Committee of the Assembly: given will follow the formula dictated by Jewish Agency Assembly in Israel, the increasing polarity between the their narrow definition of support during the first week of July, a reso ultra-Orthodox and the non-Ortho for the Land of Israel, it will not lution introduced by several Ameri dox in Israel. the Assembly delegates accomplish what it sets out to do.As can delegates was passed, stipulat felt "the time is now" to take some of the past decade, the overwhelm ing that the Jewish Agency allocate action (Philadelphia's Jewish Ex- ing majority of new olim are reli gious Jews. While there is scarcely a family in the Federation leaderships across America without intermar ried memers, there is scarcely a fam ily in the leadership and the rank . . ,, ~:~~~:..;:~i:: andfileofOrthodoxJewsinAmertca • · , ·1 · · '· (i ~i,,....,,.ia,.;~.,- without a member studying or per- 1 1 191,....,.riiiJ 1 '<··1 -'\-. .'·-·; r q l fi. ;_ 'if; ! manently settled in Israel. Whereas \; · ;,·~ r .,', " '" ' the families of the Zionistleadership .; ,1, .:~,: 1 _), ·~ 1 '" , ·-, · ' p in Israel are well represented in the A, ,, , :fr~1 ~ ,~~\_~··· academicandbusinesscirclesofthe ' " J. Diaspora, Israel's Haredi families ~~1 I' ~I ...... ~"°"~~IW~l1'!'4;.4;;-'"""'~'6-~iQ;.~:;a..,..di..!l;.,,~,1ll.,.ll:!.;!OJ~~:- , have a remarkably low ratio of yor- • Cartoons on this spreadfrom a booklet distrib" Caricature of Haredim excluding non-Orthodox movements.from legitimacy in Israel.* uted at the Jewish Agency Assembl14. 20 The Jewish Observer I September, 1986 Would Jewish Agency delegates countenance a "loyalty clause" for disbursement of funds to American schools of higher learning? Yet they demand it from "non-Zionist" yeshivos and Kollelim in Israel! • dim. We of the Torah community, tunlties seem to be created to stir up naturally, have our own criteria for hostility against the very neshama what is desirable about Eretz of our people-those who devote Chemda and why, but the JeWish their lives to Torah study, and live by Agency Assembly delegates should its precepts. take note: loyalty to the Land based • The Knesset Armed Forces on transcendant principles of Torah Committee has instructed the army and mitzvos is far more inspiring to permit no more speakers for the and possesses far greater staying teshuva movement to address power than a loyalty based on a nar troops, and to discontinue the policy row nationalism. If they want to of alloWing officers to visit yeshivas promote a flourishing Yishuv in Is that cater to baalei teshuva. rael that Will Withstand the pres • A law against racism is being sures of economic slump and inse promoted in the Knesset that (at the cure borders, they are putting the time of this writing), by admission of Agency's money on the wrong horse. its sponsors, Will forbid the dis Another point: Applying demo couraging of intermarriage between deferment of students in non-Zion cratic principles inherent to their Jews and Arabs. Haredi opposition ist yeshivas, whom Cohen had native America, would the Assembly to this bill is being characterized as delegates condemn the American dubbed "enlistment refuseniks" closed-minded fanaticism. (Jerusalem Post July 18, '86). De Government for funding public schools and universities in the U.S. fense Minister Yitzchak Rabin rep lied to Cohen that the deferment of IV. REACTION: AN where students refuse to salute the UNWILLING OUTCRY . .. flag? Can there be an ideological test yeshiva students goes back to the to be passed With flying colors before days ofBen-Gurion. since 1948, and a school can receive government nothing new had occurred to justify o be sure, our immediate re funds? Not in the U.SA ... And in any change in policy. In fact. no Min action to the vandalizing of democratic Israel? ister of Defense has ever recom T houses of prayer and sacred Unfortunately, this new policy can mended ending this deferment. Yet books and the general defamation of be chalked up as one more example Rabin joined Cohen in voting that the Torah communtiy is to express of the power of the press being util the motion go before the Foreign outrage and pain, even though this ized to vilify the Torah Communiy, Affairs and Defense Committee. In alone does not offer a solution to with the potential for serious harm dications are that it Will not be taken tensions. This was expressed by to all concerned. up for debate before November, and Rabbi Mordechai Gifter, Rosh Ha even then the Status Quo probably yeshiva ofTelshe-Wickliffe, Ohio, in ARMY SERVICE Will be retained. Moreover, according a special radio broadcast aired by to a report in The Jerusalem Post Agudath Israel of America in major other new area for conflict Rabbi Avraham Shapira called it a cities in America. The Rosh Haye between the religious and "blood libel" to say that yeshiva stu shiva referred to a Midrash that A secular camps in Israel is the dents don't serve in the army. He explains why Iyov (Job) suffered so challenge to the long-standing pol surprised committee members by terribly: Iyov was one of the three icy of exempting yeshiva students saying that he himself had done so. advisers Pharaoh consulted before from army service. Now, virtually He said he could point to many ex persecuting the Hebrews. While lyov everycountryin the world, including yeshiva students who had attained opposed Pharaoh's plan, he did not the USSR, exempts divinity students high rank in the army. voice his opinion because he saw from serving in thearmed forces. Yet But this point is secondary to the that it would carry no weight in the Knesset member Geula Cohen incendiary atmosphere being fos decision. brought up a motion to end the army tered in the Knesset, where oppor- The late Brisker Rav, Rabbi Yitz- The Jewish Observer I September, 1986 21 chok Zev Soloveitchik J">t, pointed out that Iyov's suffering may seem to be out of proportion when compared to his crime of silence. But he had reasoned: 'Why holler when it will accomplish nothing?" Later, when he was afflicted with pain he did not hesitate to scream out. Did it help? No, but when it hurts. one cries out ... demonstrating that had the pro posal to oppress the Jews truly hurt him, he would have cried out then, as well. Said Rabbi Gifter, 'When, in all of Jewish history, could we have thought that there would be hatred for the mode of living governed by Torah, expressed by our Jewish brothers in Eretz Yisroel? But it is taking place, and it hurts terribly. It cuts to the very heart of Klal Yisroel. And we cannot refrain from express ing that pain." ORTHODOXY ON THE ALERT eyond outcry, however, we must make our weight felt. The media appear to have mounted a campaign to discredit Orthodoxy. whether out of anti-dati sentiment or old-fashioned sensa tionalism. This has spread to Amer ica where not only Jewish publica tions such as Moment,• Present Tense, and Bnai Brith Monthly•• are running articles defamatory of "the Haredi population" of Israel, but even the general press is following the smear-the-Orthodox line. New York's Newsday recently ran a fea ture article about Orthodoxy in Is rael entitled. "Fundamentalism on the March," with references to "Khoumenism," and descriptions of Meah Shearim as "the medieval, limestone-walled neighborhood with metal-barred windows," where vis itors hesitate to enter and the deni- •Jerusalem, Jerusalem, by Lesley Hazleton. Present Tense. Spring 1986. pp. 10-19... An an cient. fanaticalJen1salem seems to be reasserting itself. The city's entire past consists of the unholy alliance of religion and politics." ••cuttme Clash in Jerusalem, by Abe Rabino vich. Jewish Monthly.April 1986, pp. 12-14. 17, 27.A minority of religious zealots have been using violence against non- believers.As a result. the city is experiencing a growing polarization between Newspaper photos show vandalism qf property in religious neighborhoods. the ultra·Orthodox and the secular community. 22 The Jewish Observer I September, 1986 Beyond outcry, we must make our weight felt. The Torah community cannot tolerate defamation and distortion. zens avoid leaving-except to bum TIIE ULTIMATE WEAPONS bus shelters-fearing contact with the outside world! Surprisingly, Near n the long-run. information and East Report, a weekly news bulletin warnings will help make a point. published by AIPAC joined the smear I but they are not the ultimate campaign and described the bus weapons in a battle for Israel's soul. shelter controversy as follows: "The Rabbi Avrohom Pam (Rosh Haye latest attacks on Jerusalem's bus shiva of Mesivta Torah Vodaath) stops-because they display photo addressed this very issue at a recent graphs of male and female models gathering for Chinuch Atzmai (we Ina further details)-demonstrate refer the reader to the next article, just how far the fanaticism has gone. based on his remarks), at which he . . . Israel's problem with religious stressed that the only way that we fanaticism hardly makes it a unique can tum the tide in this battle is case in the Middle East. It is small through education: ChinuchAtzmai comfort that the black-garbed ex and Beth Jacob schools for children, tremists of Jerusalem have their outreach efforts such as Arachim counterparts throughout the re and Moreshet Avot for adults, gion-Saudia Arabia and Iran are Assembly passed its infamous anti schools and support groups for baa both run by Moslem fundamental yeshiva resolution, Rabbi Moshe lei teshuva. ists ... every other Moslem country Sherer, President of Agudath Israeli It is a sad day, indeed, when Jews is home to strong fundamentalist of America, cabled Jewish Agency are not able to walk the streets of movements.... But Israel shouldn't chairman Arye Dulzin warning him Jerusalem because their fellow Jews be compared to its neighbors." Such that a policy of exploiting charity are so estranged from Judaism that defamation from a defense organi funds to impose ideology was looked they insist on exercising their rights zation is completely out of place! upon with gravity by the American to defile the vistas of the sacred city There is no better way to fight dis community. which considers such with obscene posters. Preventing information than with the truth, an approach totally unacceptable. If this from occurring. however, is unto and as a very minimal step, every the agency did not reverse itself on itself far from satisfactory. As Rabbi Jew who sees such vilification in the its matter, he added, then the Or Yaakov Perlow, the Novomlnsker media must take pen in hand-and thodox community throughout the Rebbe, said in the radio program telephone, too-to set the record world would be forced to take steps referred to above: ''We call to all our straight, with letters to the editor. which certainly would not contri brothers in the Land of Israel to put and calls to the responsible news bute to the easing of tensions which an end to the present ugly state of desk. We constitute a large. articu both sides in the religious-secular affairs; to seek ways and means to late, informed body of readers and confrontation are striving to achieve. preserve the moral character of our consumers. We must let them know (The cable did not have to spell out nation and our land. That character, that we are here, and what we think. any further warnings. It is under the ethos and spirit of the Jewish To be sure. correcting misinfor stood that the Jewish Agency would people. has been woven for us by the mation will not in itself turn the tide not welcome an initiative by the Torah and our historyfor more than of antagonism that seems to be worldwide Orthodox communities 3,000 years. . .. Let us all allow the spreading. We must also make it to create a fund-raising apparatus Torah to teach us, to enrich our lives. known that we-the Torah com for Israel of its own.) Let us all together pursue the path of munity, both in Eretz Yisroel and It is reasonable to assume that the peace and sanctify the name of G-d the Diaspora-represent a force that Jewish establishment in America in all aspects of human living.'' the secular establishment must and elsewhere will respond with Our feelings, our sensitivities, our reckon with. We must make our responsibility and justice once it is commitment to Torah as a way of presence felt, not only in the media, fully aware of the unfairness with life, must be shared by our brothers. but in the headquarters of the na which Orthodoxy has been treated, Until such time, we are a people tional Jewish organizations. For and that we will not take such divided, and as a result, a people example, when the Jewish Agency treatment lying down. under siege.• The Jewish Observer I September, 1986 23 A Message to Our Readers: My Dear Friend, Would you consider joining us in what we see as our urgent task: bringing news, analysis and opinion on Jewish issues to our reading public? While we don't pretend to be the last word on whatever we discuss, we do endeavor to present our topics from a Torah perspective-often with the words of leading rabbis and yeshiva deans, writers and thinkers. 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In Brooklyn: Fifth Avenue. 9lh ond 10lh Streets. i'18-965- l500•01urch and McDonald Avenues. 718-435-4300• 18th Avenue and East 2nd Streat. 718-435-4100•5eventh Avenue and President Street, 718-789-4100•Boy Porkwoy and 67th Streat. 718-837-8400•13th Avenue and 53rd Street. 718-436-9505•Neptune Avenue and West 5th Street 718-996-4100•1045 Flatbush Avenue at Duryea Place. 718-282-7500•1550 Flatbush Avenue a! Nostrand Avenue. 718·859·5300. In Manttottan: Lexinglon Avenue and East 51st Streat, 212-752-8282•8roodway and West 79th street. 212-873-3730 In Queens: Hillside Avenue o1179th Street 718·291-3100. In NDS$0U: 222 Station Plaza Nor!h and 3rd Avenue. Mineola. 516-747-6100 In Weatchester: Coldor's Shopp;ng Center. 535 Boston Post Rood. Port Cheste1. N.Y 914-937-6760. ESCALATING TENSIONS IN ISRAEL Meaningful Protest from an address by Rabbi Avrohom Pam N"l)'JIU 'Ihe only way we can affect a change in the Holy Land is by educating a new generation with Torah. Only then will we do away with anguish. BROTHERS IN CONFLICT theaters and cinemas open on the abomination. corruption and Shabbos, so they can enjoy the plea sacrilege taking place in Jerusalem. o many activities in Israel to sures of life. This is how they were Mark these righteous people that day cause us anguish-every brought up. We are pained by the they not be touched. Destroy Jerusa S day a new incident occurs. situation, and from heartache we lem mercilessly, but these righteous provokingouroutcry, triggering our shout and demonstrate. But is this people, who sigh and groan, who demonstrations of protest. We surely the solution to the problems? Will bear this mark, should not be yearn to see an end to confronta our outcry bring us a religious touched." tions between the religious and irre Torah-imbued Eretz Yisroel? A few words later. it is written: ligious populace, an end to these "Mi'mikdoshi-from My sanctuary painful demonstrations! After all, shall you begin." Says Rashi: with whom are we fighting? With PROTEST: ACCORDING TO "Mim'kudoshai-from THE PROPHET .. . My sanctified our own dear brothers, who unfor ones, from the holy ones, from the tunately did not receive a proper righteous ones, from those same chinuch. They were educated in he Prophet (Yechezkel. Chap people whom you were told to mark mamlachti (public) schools and lack ter 9) describes how G-d dis with a sign of life on their fore an appreciation of our values. In T patches malachei chavalah heads-from them should the des their perception of things, we are angels to destroy Jerusalem. He saw truction begin." intent on imposing upon them a life six men, each equipped with a wea Why this change of plan? The style that they neither appreciate pon to destroy Jerusalem. Gavriel. Gemomexplains in Shabbos: "When nor desire. Embittered as they are dressed in linens, with an inkwell at informed that the righteous were to against religious Jews, they are his side, is addressed by the Al be spared, the Midas Had in (the fighting us as one fights for his very mighty: "Go through the City of Jer Divine attribute of untempered jus life. They fight against Sabbath ob usalem and mark the foreheads of tice) argued Why are these different servance, because they do not un the righteous people who are sigh from those? They did not protest, derstand Shabbos. Such was the ing. groaning and screaming. the they did not try to prevent [the cor education they received. They feel righteous whose hearts are pained ruption)."' that they must have a stadium, and screaming from anguish over all This is puzzling. Why does Justice The Jewish Observer I September, 1986 27 say that they did not protest? They 1,000,000 Jewish children, children way we will do away with all the suffered, they were broken over the of Avrohom. Yitzchak, and Yaakov anguish, and we will eliminate the desecration of Jerusalem. They picture their grandfathers and need to demonstrate. We will be screamed with anguish. How could great-grandfathers ... G-d fearing through with confrontations, with Justice claim that they were not Jews-and these children are being hatred of religion, which grows from bothered? taught the very antithesis of fear of day to day. The secular elements are Yes, their sighs and groans were G-d by teachers who are avowed in control of the press, radio and tele genuine expressions of grief, but enemies of religion. It pains us, and vision, and they do not begin to apparently sighing and groaning we must demonstrate that there are understand our way of thinking, and screaming do not constitute those who cannot bear the pain. But because we did not teach them. They adequate protest. A protest against will outcry alone effect changes, will did not have the benefit of a Chi wrong is measured in concrete acts it tum back society from its deterio nuch Atmzmai education. in their aimed at changing the situation, in ration and move it onto a Torah way, childhood, nor of our yeshivas and the making of a revolution, if need so that all Jewish children, without seminaries as young adults. They be. Of course, when one is in pain, any exception, "are ... all Your chil attended public schools, and they do one shouts and calls attention to the dren, students of Hashem"? While not understand otherwise. situation simply to show that there we take pride in the 40,000 children Ifwe establish a generation of reli is a force of Jews who bleed over who study in the Chinuch Atzmai gious Jews in Eretz Yisroel, then their plight, who want to see a holy schools, this is a trifle, far from we will change over the Land, and Eretz Yisorel, with holy children, enough, when we take into account with time. the entire shape of Kial zera beyrach Hashem. all the others! Every Jewish child is a Yisroel will change. We will do away holy child, a limb of our body, a limb with fighting one against the other, of Kial Yisroel. So we cry from pain. and all Jews will live together in love ... ANDTODAY But will the crying alone reach the and brotherhood. The Almighty is rest of the million children? the Father to us all and, thus, we are here are one million Jewish We can effect a change in the Land, all brothers. We can achieve this children in Israel, growing up, make it a Torah-imbued Eretz Yis sense of brotherhood through a T studying in schools without roel through chinuch, educating the Torah chinuch, raising a generation Torah! What a frightening thought! new generation with Torah. In that of Jews as they were meant to be.a SIL VER GARDEN Silver, Crystal, Cobalt, Silverplate & Gifts announces the addition of a Children's Clothing Boutique ·?. Sizes Q, 14 If you're looking for the right buy Step into the right place Where you'll find it for just the right price! Children's Clothing Boutique D HURRY!! HURRY!! HURRY! Special 10% Discount!! 42 Main Street, Monsey, New York 352-2422 28 The Jewish Obseroer I September, 1986 ESCALATING TENSIONS IN ISRAEL Shmuel Schnitzer 'Ihe very factions that plead for peace and compromise with the Arabs-no matter what the price-are ready to fight to the end against the "religious tyranny" of the "Ultra-Orthodox". Peace Begins at Ho1ne Translated from Ma 'ariv, June 20, 1986 ne of the great paradoxes of political life in Israel is the 0 way that precisely those who seek peace with the Arabs will fight to the end against religious Jews, against "religious coercion," against Haredi civil disobedience and ter ror that have increased in recent months. In regard to the Arabs, the rule of thumb is the pressing need to open negotiations with them at all costs-even with the P.L.O .. whose avowed intentions towards the Jews are far from peaceful.As for the reli gious Jews. there is no room for negotiations or talk and certainly not for compromises (such as would be inevitable should we entertain serious negotiations with the Jor danians and Palestinians). PROMOTED:fratemization between Arabs and Jews. BANNED: Rabbis addresslng We have a long and bloody account army oJflcers. with the Arabs and some 15,000 graves remind us of the skirmishes, nounce terrorism and to seek peace~ pronouncements appearing in their wars and acts of terror they are ful solutions-these should not pose newspapers, for their refusal to rec responsible for. These should not. any obstacle whatsoever. First, we ognize the State and its institutions, however, deter us from dealing di must create favorable conditions for for their evading service in the army, rectly with them and even com the opening up of negotiations, with for the public funds "extorted" for promising. Precisely because of the no preconditions. There should be the maintenance of their education losses and heavy sacrifices suffered no fear of concessions, however al system. If there does exist an old for the Land is it imperative that we painful, so as to achieve peace-this arrangement called "status quo," it do all in our power for the sake of is the line regarding the Arabs. should be ripped into shreds, for it peace. The Palestinian Covenant With respect to religious Jews, the violates individual freedom and the containing the intention to annihi approach is different. First of all. we secular way oflife. But most basic of late the State of Israel, the P.L.0. must exact punishment to the full all: any dialogue with them earlies leadership's stubborn refusal to re- extent of the law for all past injulies, with it no small risk, because they for damage to property and the phys will, for certain, exploit every such Shmuel Shnitzer is forn1er Editor of Ma 'ariv, a ical assaults upon seculartsts re encounter to gain souls for theirway popular daily In lsrael. ported by the press, for the hostile of thinking. They are, as is well The Jewish Observer I September, 1986 29 known, missionaries who have many tional position and certainly would act and part of standard procedure insidious means of influencing in not face any punishment. He would in an enlightened society: to free nocent youth and winning over their find himself in good. progressive religious detainees before a holiday, minds and hearts. and enlightened company. however, is classified as a "political Furthermore. they are anti-Zion deal." Khomeinism is no longer re ists and do not serve in the armed • • • lated only to the fanatical and cruel forces. To talk peace is possible only Shiite regime of Iran, but is an ac hoever wants to under with Zionists and people who serve ceptable term to describe Haredi stand the motives of those in the army (like the Arabs?). Jews and theirworld-view. Racism is who set fire to a synagogue W not a matter of Nazism in Germany or destroyed holy books and objects • • • but also one of the frequent defini in the yeshiva in Ramat Hachayal, tions of Jewish halacha. Black ref may seem to be speaking about their total insensitivity to Jewish ers not only to someone of African ness, their readiness to join {in ac one segment of our political field: origin. but also to Haredi Jew from I the left-wing Zlonists-Mapam. tion, if not in intention) the legion of Meah Shearim or Bnei Brak. Citizens Rights, and Shinui-who antisemitic vandals in all the gener When a secular person makes a ations of exile, must pay close atten champion both the cause of peace provocative statement, he is only with the Arabs and a Kulturkampf tion to the very long series of defam expressing his personal opinion. But with the religious camp. In actuality, atory expressions and biased reports when a religious man of public af I am talking about a broader cross appearing in all the media through fairs says something not too bright section, encompassing a significant out the years, and to the special lex or well-founded, he is not speaking segment of the political center. icon employed in the newspapers for himself, but is the authoritative Encounters between Jewish and when discussing religion or reli spokesman of the entire observant gious people. Arab students are being promoted community, and what he says rep as education for democracy. En Whatever the Knesset ratifies as resents the Torah view-that is, the lawbymajorityvote is deemed law to counters between secular and reli entire world of thought completely gious students, however, are unac be respected by all. but in the area of rejected by the secular man. ceptable, and would they take place, religion, a law enacted by majority we could assume that they would be vote is considered the product of • • * condemned by wide circles as dan coercion. Financial grants to the gerous. universities are considered a public his list could be extended ad The l.D.F. is without political alle investment in the future of the na infinitum. It is possible to giance, not to the right nor the left. tion, upgrading its scientific and T mention every single case in Yet it limits appearances of religious technological status; whereas gov which the newspapers have had a lecturers at Army bases. Every report ernment grants to yeshivot is con heyday by blowing out of proportion of soldiers exposed to the religious sidered money extorted by the reli the religious nature of a Rabbi or world-view earns outraged headlines gious parties. public figure suspected of criminal in the news media. Returning to When a small political party pres acts, as if this explained his actions. Jewish practices and belief is not a ents a demand to the government as It is possible to sink into despair natural phenomenon, like leaving a condition for joining the coalition, regarding the cumulative influence religion for secular culture; it is a it is part of the normal parliamen ofall these public statements, which scandal. tary game of political give and take, are countered-or rather. comple Anyone writing in the newspaper but a religious party's demand is mented-byan alienation stemming or hinting that all the Arabs are hos improper and to be condemned. from a total ignorance of Judaism, tile and supportive of the P.L.O. The unrestrained conduct of its way of life and its fundamentals would be denounced as a racist. striking workers is legal and under of faith. No wonder that anyone un When the Knesset finally passes the stood. Even the police know this. familiarwith religious people, except law against racial incitement, he will Such conduct on the part of the for what he reads in the newspaper be liable forpunishment. If someone Haredimisalwayslabeled "hooligan or sees on the television screen, writes, or implies, that all religious ism," which should be punished to reaches the conclusion that he has Jews are draft-dodgers, that they all the limit of the law. The freedom to nothing in common with people of extort public money for yeshivot. demonstrate is an inalienable right such a strange and repelling image, that they all bum bus stations and within the democratic society, but who have such strange and repul stone automobiles, they all consider not a demonstration against show sive mores, customs and values. The Israeli Independence Day a holiday ing films on Shabbos eve. An agree negative stereotype produced by the in which they have no part, that they ment with the religious faction is newspapers and television prepares all are attempting to convert the "surrender" and justifies finding any the ground for hatred, and hatred State into a vehicle for religious loophole to nullify it. creates a force of its own, no differ coercion-anyone making such To grant a furlough to an impri ent from those that have propelled claims would not be in an excep- soned criminal is a humanitarian antisemitism throughout history.Ill 30 The Jewish Observer I September, 1986 Nehama Consuelo Nahmoud THESHAR~IS OF JERUSALEM abbi Mordekhai Sharabi and his wife. Leah. were all started with the Queen of Sheba. who brought some beloved sadiqim of Jerusalem. Instead of writing Jews in her train when she returned from her visit to R about the Rabbi's life only. I am writing about King Solomon. them together because I can't imagine one without the King Solomon himself may have been responsible for other; they are two parts of a whole. Their story is a another group of Jews who settled in Yemen. There are special one for me. because I knew them personally. passages in Tanakh that speak ofa trade treatybetween King Solomon and Hyram of T}'re (Phoenecia. today's JEWISH ORIGINS IN YEMEN Lebanon). King Hyram sent Solomon "ships. and ser he Shar'abiscame from Yemen. "Yemen"isa fairly vants that had knowledge of the sea. and they went with recent name for the little strip of land across the the servants of Solomon to Ophir." The land of Ophir is Melachim bottom of Saudi Arabia. It has undergone several said to have been in Southern Arabia.And in I T 10, ! 5, we see that King Solomon "had gold from the name changes since ancient times, "Sheba "being one of the oldest. it is said. with "Himyar" coming between the merchantmen, the traffic of the spice merchants. and all Second Temple and the Muslim conquest in 628. the kings of Arabia." The richly interesting Jewish history of the country Another wave of Jewish immigration to Yemen took begins thousands ofyears ago. Tradition suggests that it place forty-two years before the destruction of the First Temple. the Yemenites believe. They say that when Jere miah foretold the fall of Jerusalem. 75,000 Jews crossed Mrs. Nahmoud, a frequent contributor to these pages, resides in Jerusalem. In deference to the subject matter of this article. Hebrew words are transliter the Jordan River. Following the path of Moshe Rabbeinu. ated in accordance with Sephardi pronunciation. they went into the desert and. when they reached Edom The Jewish Observer I September. 1986 31 managed to preserve their Judaism intact as well as the memories of their historic past. The Yemenite Jews were always in touch with Jewish centers oflearning such as Bavel and Egypt. Every caravan carried precious letters and even books, which were immediately copied and re copied and passed around the country. Sa'adia Gaon and the Rambam were among the notable correspondents. The Arabs held all manual work in contempt, even the arts and crafts we now view as creative. As a result. the Jewish serfs became the basketmakers, potters, saddle makers, weavers, goldsmiths, painters and blacksmiths of the nation. These weavers and goldsmiths, however, were also the spirttual backbone of the Jewish commun ity, who kept the light of Torah burning brightly in this little-known backwater. There were many yeshivot in Yemen. but they might be thought of as rather unusual when viewed from Bora Park or Bnei Brak in 1986. Craftsmen's studios and workshops were actually yeshivotin disguise. The repeti tive motions of weaving, for example, requiring little con centration of an expert, left the mind free for other things, and Yemenite craftsmen studied the Gemora and the Zahar while they worked. One blacksmith's shop. mentioned in Sapir's travelogue. was a beit-din where three dayanim worked while they studied and heard (roughly today's Kingdom of Jordan), they turned south cases. and continued until they came to Yemen. These Jews represented all walks of life: Kohanim, Leviim. army officers. slaves and aristocrats, including SHAR'ABIS-WEAVERS OF TORAH LAW twenty-five of the noblest families in Jerusalem whose names are still remembered. Until recently two families he name Shar'abi means simply 'resident of stiil claimed they knew even from which of the twenty Shar'ab,' a town where most of the Jews were four Temple watches they were descended. T weavers, but their workshop-yeshivot turned out The Yemenite Jews' moment ofglory came in theThird eminent Kabbalists as well as carpets. The greatest name Century CE, during the reigns of Jewish kings of Himyar. to emerge from Shar'ab was Sar-Shalom Shar'abi, the Records of their activities and adventures have been Rashash, who immigrated to Jerusalem and wrote a found engraved on stone in the area. as well as written in siddur with kavanot that is still used by kabbalists letters to a rabbi in Tiberias. today. But fortunes changed abruptly in 628, when Muham Rabbi Mordekhai Shar'abi was also one of the out mad's son-in-law took the country and the Jews were standing products of this environment. Born in 5672 relegated to second-class citizenship. Helpless victims of ( 1912). he was orphaned two years later and was taken in the fanatical Shi'ite imams•. their survival was a miracle. by his grandfather. Yet not only did they survive for 1,300 more years, they There are musical prodigies who, even as small chil dren, can perform concertos with great symphony or •approximately equivalent to an archbishop chestras: there are mathematical geniuses whose abili- KATZ FAMILY HOTEL Famous LAKE HOUSE We are Open Passover thru Succos The Dairy Restaurant Eni?Y a traditional atmosphere amidst over 200 lovely rolling acres ... with delicious glatt kosher meals and 222 West 72nd Street (212) 595-8487 ~xcellent accommodatio~s. Cholov Yisroel & Glatt meats, indoor pool-Sauna-Wh1rlpool-separate swimming, a Cholov Yisroel • Shomer Shobbos Kosher L'Mehadrin house, a hotel as warm and friendly Under the Supervision of K'hal Adath Jeshurun and as reliable in Kashruth as your own home. Write or call Open for Clreakfost. 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The last stop before gory, as his teachers in Shar'ab's kutab (heder) soon marriage and emigration was Aden, where he was wel discovered. His grandfather supplemented the boy's stu comed into its yeshiVa. There Mordekhai started his dies at home, and in time Mordekhai was sitting in a study of the Kabbalah with the yeshiva's dean and some class of much older boys, where he earned their respect of the older men. The Kabbalists were amazed at the by explaining passages from the Gemora that had young man's questions and his grasp of the esoteric stumped them. material. The child's natural gift for teaching surfaced as he Then, once more the future sadiq. now in his late teens. grew older. He gave lessons at the kutab for younger boys packed his things, and left the yeshiva to seek a wife and from time to time: one of these lessons is still remem make a home. On his journey back to Shar'ab he stopped bered for its originality. The subject was weaving, from in the village of Achwiha, where he was introduced to a tractate Shabbat Young Mordekhai set up a loom in girl named Leah, an orphan like himself and known for front of the class and proceded to explain theAvMelakha her practice of the misvotof hesed. They celebrated their and its derivatives. demonstrating as he went along. wedding shortly afterward. This is Tova Levine: Twelve the hat rack years old and recovering from an 5416 16th Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y. auto accident. (718) 871 -2278 And this is Judy Korda: Her mother drove the car that hit Tova. Become part of the special re lationship that develops between t' them in... ,_,_$8.95,,.b.$6.95 ~~=1iyfo1~ a D1ea11i A New Novel From Our Young Readers Division By MIRIAM L. ELIAS ,Available at Your loCi!I 'Jewish,bookstOre &nd for a FREE ((STETSON)) • ~ • HABIG ot order from: Copy of our Catalogue. 6 FELDHEIM PUBLISHERS WhE!n in Jerusalem visit KANGOL • LONDON FOG • CAPS •TIES 200 Airport Executive Park, our Bookstore at: 11 Spring Vall•Y, NY 109n / 914-356.2282 20 Strauss St. m:J Visa & Master Card accepted Tel. (02)233·554 The Jewish Observer I September, 1986 33 SINGLE & DOUBLE BREASTED GETTING SE'ITLED IN JERUSALEM * MENS' SUITS * ''Ifthe L-rd bringme to Eres Israel, and ldieon the morrow of my coming, that is all I would wish," SILBIGER'S said one Yemenite immigrant to Israel. To the Yemenite Jews (and for many other Oriental communi • Slacks "'Rain\vear ties as well) yearning for the land oflsrael was more than •All Wool Coats * Sports jackets theoretical: bone Yen.LShalayim were words that brought tears to their eyes. Since the Yemenites had no access to Unbelievable Prices newspapers or any other form of communication, save 17G9 51 St., Brooklyn, NY (718) 854-119G for a very occasional visitor, their concept of the Holy Daily 4:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m.; Sunday J\ll Day Land-their land-was more on the order of Yen.LSha Silbiger Suits You Best layim shel ma'alah, the Heavenly City. Like all the Yemenite Jews, Mordekhai Shara'abi and his bride longed to make "next year in Jerusalem" a reality, now, and in 5691 (1931) they set sail in a dilapi dated boat. When they landed at Yaffo, they found a cara van leaving for Rehovot where, they were told, there was work. There was, indeed. The incoming work group's first assignment was to dig irrigation basins in an orchard. After producing only three basins in one day, a far cry Is your reducing diet depleting from the output of the other beginners, the young rabbi your body of nutrients? was convinced that agriculture was not his thing, and the next day saw the Shar'abis on the train, bound for Jerusalem. FREEDA ® VI'TI\MINS They found an apartment near the Sha'are Sedeq hos Without Sugar pital, the bailiwick of its Chief Surgeon, Dr. Wallach, a Help keep you fit & trim sadiq from another side of the world. Although Rabbi Shar'abi's natural modesty never permitted more than Your body cannot properly burn calories the lowest of profiles, Dr. Wallach had a keen eye for spiritual greatness, due parily to his own and parily to without the necessary nutritional support the company he had kept-Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin of vitamins and minerals. of Brisk and Rabbi Shumel Salant, inter alios. Dr. Wal lach found out about the living conditions of the new FREEDA makes a Kosher L-Phenylalanine, family and immediately offered to help them get on their used in many reducing programs. feet with a monthly stipend of one lim, a goodly sum in those days. "Beloved are the sufferings we bear for the sake of Torah, Ares Israel and the Next World," Rabbanit Leah used to say. Actually, the Shar'abi's conditions were on FREEDA par with many Jerusalemites of the period. The couple Pharmacy Vitamins moved into their permanent home at 8 Rehov Shilo, an alleyway behind the Mahne Yehuda bazaar. The apart ment consisted of two small rooms and a tiny kitchen: Feingold A~sociation approved the bathroom, which was outside, served several families. No salt filler • No su:§ir • No starch SCHEDULED FOR GREATNESS No coal tar d)'es • No animal derivatives abbi Shar'abi quickly organized a daily schedule All FREEDA products are under the for himself that was to change little during his supervision ofRabbi Mordecai Kohn R lifetime. It was a prototype Kabbalist's regimen, of New Square. beginning at midnight with Tiqun Hasot the lament for the destmction of the Temple. Study of Es'Haim came next. followed by prayer at sunrise according to the sid Call or Write for Free Brochure durof the Rashash. 36 E. 41st St., New York, NY 10017 Nothing, but nothing, stopped the Rabbi from his (212) 685-4980 morning minyan. During the shelling of the 1948 war, the diminutive, jalabiyya •-clad figure could be seen WE MAIL UPS ALL OVER THE USA •ankle-length robe worn by men in the Middle F..ast 34 The Jewish Observer I September, 1986 Oriental Jews seem to have never lost the virtue qf chesed that we all are endowed with from Avraham Avinu. every morning threading its way through the alleys of the may teach Gemora to working men and Mishna to chil Mahne Yehuda neighborhood. One day a Jordanian dren; they may give lectures to the people in their neigh howitzer shell landed directly behind the Rabbi, on a spot borhood and write books on ethics. In addition, Kabbal his feet had touched only seconds before. He continued ists devote long hours every day to receiving visitors who his walk unfazed-but not so the Rabbanit, who had come for blessings, comfort and counsel. Great Kabbal seen the shell land. ists are, of course, humble and may live very close to the There are many misconceptions concerning the life people, which is why they are so loved, and surely one of style of a Kabbalist. The usual image is that of a man the reasons why they are able to exert an influence wher alone in his figurative tower, communing with the ever they are. Almighty twenty hours a day. The only grain of truth in THE YESHIVA this picture is that the mequbal does have periods when he needs to be alone to meditate and pray. But if his tower abbi Mordekhai started a small yeshiva, Nahar is higherthan that of others, it is also constructed on the Shalom, in the two-story building across the solidest of foundations. Kabbalists do not cut themselves R courtyard from his apartment. It opened at mid off from the rest of humanity. Quite the contrary: they night. Students were given a well balanced curriculum il.Ju.mi.nat.ing adj 1. enlighten ing; instructive; to elucidate, clarify 2. to give off light BENNY'S PHOTO e ELECTRONICS e GIFTS (718) 853-8888 4717 13th Avenue• Soro Park, B'klyn. LOWEST PRICES! BIG SAVINGS! This, and much more, could aptly be said to describe the contemporary classic COME IN AND SAVE SABBATH SHIURIM by Rabbi M. Miller WE CARRY A FULL LINE OF of Gateshead CAMERAS • RADIOS • 1Vs Here is a series of inspiring essays that lend profound and STEREOS e VIDEOS e TELEPHONES penetrating insight into each of the weekly sidroth. GIFTS e WATCHES e WALL CLOCKS Here are essays that have so much to offer, you can AUTHORIZED SEIKO, PULSAR, BULOVA, DEALER certainly read, study, and discuss them time and again. Make your understanding of the weekly Torah portion, as WE HAVE A FULL LINE OF ELECTRICAL well as your entire Shabbos, a more illuminating ex APPLIANCES FOR EXPORT 220 V perience with Sabbath Shiurim. RECORDS • TAPES Each volume contains a complete set of essays on all of the Sidroth, and can be purchased individually at $12 each, or together in a new, attractive, gift box set for $25. -·------·--·------DlftlOPBNG SERVICE Available at Jewish bookstores or order from: Send for a FRFE Copy of our Catalogue 6 FELDHEIM PUBLISHERS When in Jerusalem v1s1t 5030FF Iii 200 A1rport Executive Park, Spring Valley. NY 10977 our Bookstore at f .l 914 356-2282 • Visa & Master Card acrepted 20Strauss St. Tel. (02) 233-.554 The Jewish Observer I September. 1986 35 FEIVEL KIRSHENBAUM, Ph.D. which included Gemora. Halakahand Mishna as well as FINANCIAL ADVISER Kabbalah, but prayers were long because of the kavanot; for example. two hours was the norm for the morning E:xpertise in financial planning, Investment prayers. After evening prayers. Rabbi Shar'abi gave a selection, tax strategies, retirement and estate daily lesson for working men on halakha according to planning. the Ben !sh Hai, the great Iraqi poseq and Kabbalist. followed by ethics from Menorat Hame"or. The yeshiva Registered Investment Adviser. Twenty years was always packed for these lectures. of experience In financial analysis. No sates or The Shar'abis never had children of their own. but commissions. Absolute confidentiality. there was never a lack of children in their lives. The poor neighborhood where they lived was full of children of all (914) 352-1919 ages. mostly on the streets. most not religious. Some of the children and youths always came to the Rabbi's even ing lesson. however. and the Rabbi encouraged them by giving a small sum of money to each one who showed up regularly for Min ha and Arvit-and any child who learned an entire Mishnalc tractate received 100 liras. The Rabbi Or'~~'O!'f ~~ always listened to each child say his Mishnaiot correct ing here and encouraging there; he hugged each boy as :im,~l i.i,'~11 :1':0 'C'!'l'~~I 'll':111~ he gave out the prtzes. Lo lishma turned into lishma,just as he had predicted. when many of these boys later en 'C':'I~ 1111"it'y1 fi~·:i'-, !'IT'ii=i~ tered yeshivot Then a pair of seventeen-year-old Nahar Shalom students decided to start a Tehillim group on Shabbat and the lives of more urchins from the alleys , nt nm :i:"•u )!)l)l'l\;'tl n i»::r.•iN ivwt t1Nn o•Ji!!. t)lN "!I W"'i'N::i ts 1''"' • below took a different tum. The original group branched .'0"'1 \VIW) 'fNl )Wt out to other. similar neighborhoods. •tl''l!ll'C' )!!!.l'tll"\ )lN )!)jl::r,•}V)l)'0'1N li!l l'''!U'1 )IN rmm:i • It did not take long for Rabbi Shar'abi's reputation to ARYEH SCHECHTER WE DO "HOUSE CALLS" spread throughout Jerusalem. and soon he was spend TEL. (718) 851-1637 ing several hours every morning receiving visitors. The courtyard was often crowded with people awaiting their turns. while the rabbi sat at the dining table in the book tnnJ 'AJ. r r 71.:Ye" lined front room and spoke to each person alone. 1~:MU>YI~ ~=' OPEN HOUSE ~ )Nl:lt'tO?:'.l "1"}IJ'1N T"t.l p'.:l ~mm eople came day and night. Of course the Rabbanit i1;ll"V'lt \?ITT, 'f'1111i1 °Dn)'!J :nil usually kept visiting hours limited to the official P morning period. but there were cases. particularly health crises. for which the Rabbi left his bed or his For Bachurim 17 and up look· ~gr;JQ nighttime studies to comfort a distraught person with ing for a Mokom Torah with sympathy. gentleness. and a blessing. special attention to the individual ta/mid in a Rabbi Shar"abi did not resort to amulets and segulot warm atmosphere conducive to hatzlacha be· prayer was his only way. People left their names. and the I/mud integrated with a Chaburah of Kolel Rabbi prayed for them at night; and during these hours Vungeleil of high caliber. no one. not even the Rabbanit was allowed into the • Daily Shiurlm on the Mesechte room. Especially difficult cases called for a tiqun. The Rabbi's tiqunim generally consisted of certain chapters • Daily Shlurim in Shulchan Aruch of Tehillim and passages from the Zohar. learned with • Shiurlm In Hashkofa some of the men close to him in the yeshiva. After the learning. the Rabbi would take pidion money in one •A Night Seder at The Yeshiva. hand and the book Ben Yahuyad'a in the other and say the sixteen tiqunim written therein. For appointment and interview Rabbi Shar'abi was of one mind with his wife when it Please call the Yeshiva at came to hesed of the most active kind-and there were (212) 438-0479 plenty of opportunities foritin the neighborhood.A story is told about an elderly couple who. completely alone in Bostoner Yeshiva Darkei Noam the worid. lived in misery. The old people lived on Rabbi 1535·49th St., Brooklyn, N.V.11219 Shar'abi's route to the synagogue in his pre-Rehov-Shilo days. and he would drop in to visit from time to time. One 36 The Jewish Obseroer I September. 1986 rainy morning he opened the door and saw mice on the ABRAHAM'S TENT ON REHOV SHILO table. In spite of his natural squeamishness. Rabbi Shar'abi caught the mice with his hands and took them esah was the busiest season, of course. when 8 outside. saying, "They are not content to eat themselves. Shilo was the distribution center for matzot. wine. they invite all their friends to participate in the se'uda . .... P lice. sugar and tea. Many children came for new In keeping with the halakah that a man should take shoes and clothes then. too. part actively in welcoming the Shabbat by helping with The old suitcase on the rickety table outside the door its preparations. the Rabbi took it upon himself to go to seems to me to be Rabbanit Leah's symbol or trademark. the bazaarnearbyand buythesupplies;andforPesah. it This suitcase was where people put contributions of was he who checked the food products. such as dates and used clothing when the Rabbanitwas not at home; if she rice.* (The latter must be checked three times.) was at home. however. the contributor was invited in for tea. INDUCTION INTO THE RABBANIT'S ARMY Available On Cassette Tape y involvement with the Shar'abis began in 5734 A DEEP SHIUR FROM (197 4 ). New to Israel and to religion. I came to REB CHAIM BRISK Z"L M the door one afternoon and introduced myself to the Rabbanit I was invited to sit down for a cup of tea. Dealing With The Beis Hamikdosh and I told my story. From that day on I became a part of Explained and Translated In English the scene at 8 Shilo. Rabbanit Leah's "open house" hours were from 3:30 to To Order Call or Wr'1te: 8 p.m.. when the Rabbi was in the yeshiva. The neigh borhood women came then to ask questions on simple RABBI GEDALIA MAX household halakha and child psychology. or just to tell YESHIVAS HAMATMONIM their troubles. RabbanitLeah received her 'qahal'while 1524 E. 22 St .. Brooklyn. N.Y. 11210 peeling vegetables at the dining table. The visitors usu (718) 252-5524 or 377-1902 ally picked up one of the peelers (which I suspect were put there for that purpose; there is something calming about Proceeds to Help Support a Yeshiva for Boys Who Have Difficulty Attending a Regular Yeshiva a neighborly potato-peeling session). Rabbanit Leah lis tened carefully to the questions and then launched into an impromptu lesson on some of the issues brought up. Not all of the women were religious. but Rabbanit Leah GRAND OPENING never seemed to notice slacks or uncovered heads. Teenage girls abounded, quite a few of whom studied at religious seminaries. Some were ba'alot teshuva. These girls considered it an honor to do household .,,._, chores for the Rabbanit from floor scrubbing to serving tea to the women at the table in the front room. The girls were part of Rabbanit Leah's "hesed army;· a one 111111•\... woman enterprise which took care of the whole large neighborhood. 1 volunteered for this army most entlmsi D'i!>,t:P1'l, t:J'i!>t:P1'l iN!l astically. because it was the hesed aspect which had attracted me to Judaism in the first place. Baer Haseforim, Inc. Each volunteer was assigned to a poor family. a bed Fine Judaic Books ridden sick person. or one of the manyelderlywho had no Gifts, Educational Materials one else to care for them. [ was given an elderly couple from Kurdistan; the man was 82 and in very poor health. Religious Articles "Now. come back and tell me how they are and what ninmi l'':>'lll"I l"l"C C'i::>i~i C'j:''71::> they need; do they have enough blankets; enough kero C"l"IC ni~w~ '7l.'1~ C'::l~C1~ C'i!l1C~ ':>::>:i sene for their heater? How is their food situation? [s the 4312 15 Ave. Brooklyn, N.Y. 11219 visiting nurse coming regularly? And here. take these sweaters-I saved these especially for them," said the (718) 435·7714 Rabbanit as I went out the door. Every day after work I Orders Received 24 Hours went to the old people. bearing a kind word from the ~.ll"TlNl:l t1Hn Same. Day i.ll"T'" t7nlll Rabbanitand.from time to time.an article of clothing or UPS Sh1pp1ng a welcome package of something useful. Many Opening Specials *The ban on rice and bf:'ans for Pesah does not apply to the Oriental communities. The Jewish Observer I September. 1986 37 This kind of hospitality is endemic to the Middle East. THE RABBrS INFLUENCE a tradition which dates back to Avraham Avinu and which the Oriental Jews never lost through non-Jew!sh er husband went to the Yeshiva-on-High on 20 influence. since even the Arabs take great care in the Marheshvan, 5744 (1983), but his deeds live on. practice of this virtue. But at the Shar'abis it was some Many are the stories about the effect of the Rab- thing special, the likes of which I had never encountered bi's prayers. These happenings are so numerous that to before. Eight Shilo seemed very close indeed to Avra recount them would take many more pages than I am ham's tent. allowed. But here are two which left the deepest impres One afternoon I came at 3 p.m .. earlier than usual, sion on me. when the Rav was just finishing his lunch. Sitting at the Romema. built in the late Fifties or early Sixties. is one table With the Shar'abis were two young men. kippa-less of the neighborhoods presently euphemized as "under and dressed in work clothes. finishing large plates of privileged.'' It houses part of the massive wave of Oriental Yemenite home cooking. Listening to the Shar'abis con Jew!sh immigrants who arrived in the early Fifties. Some versing with them in Arabic (which is as much a lingua of its population is religious, some not. All such quarters franca in some parts of Jerusalem as Ladino or Yiddish have a neighborhood center, and Romema's is run by an in others). I thought that they were probably local boys irreligious staff. Activities include sports. various kinds who were thinking of becoming religious. Then they put of classes, and mixed dancing. their napkins down and got up and started working on In 1978 the center's little newsletter joyfully an the telephone. and it suddenly struck me that they were nounced that someone had donated an enormous sum Arab workers from the telephone company who had ar for the purpose of building a swimming pool. The reli rived during lunchtime and who had been invited to gious residents of the area set up a hue-and-cry. which enjoy some real Middle Eastern hospitality, Shar'abi was politely ignored by the pro-pool faction. The work style. A discreet question confirmed my conclusion. proceeded. As the structure grew, so did the opposition. Finally the pool's proponents explained that the pool would be covered and that there would be days of separ STAR BILLING ate bathing as well as days of mixed bathing. The reli gious side was not appeased. however, and in despera orah lectures are very popular in Sephardi neigh tion one student of the great Sephardi yeshiva, Porat borhoods. Posters are pasted up all over these little Yosef. went to Rabbi Shar'abi. "The pool will not be built," T quarters advertising the speakers and their sub said the Rabbi simply. jects. and they are as well attended 311d discussed as Suddenly the city put a stop to the work on the project. movies (lehavdil} in other parts of the world. And.just as and the anti-pool element breathed a sigh of relief. Then. with movies, there are stars who draw SRO crowds. Rab just as abruptly. the workers were back pouring cement. banit Leah was one of these, the only woman to ever Another delegation went to the Rabbi. who calmly re receive top billing on a lecture program with such peated what he had said the first time. famous names as Rabbi Elbaz and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. At last the pool itself was completed. and work started She told it like it was. in the language of the people. One on the roof. And then, one bright sunny day. the whole usually describes Torah lectures as edifying. interesting structure collapsed. Word got around of Rabbi Shar'abi's and inspiring, never exciting; but Leah Shar'abi's were comments, and so far no one has tried again. just that. She gave several lectures a week, one in her Although I was fairly well grounded in the principles home and others as far afield as Bne Brak. Kfar Saba and and practice of halakha by the time I met the Shar'abis, Kiryat Gat. Rabbanit Leah. like most Yemenite women. my understanding of the spiritual life was due to come could not read and write when she arrived in Israel. Self later. I had always prided myself on my scientific think taught. she prepared her lectures from sources such as ing. one of the tenets of which was Let's See Some Solid the Ben !sh Hai and the Maguid ofMezeritch. illustrating Proof. them with Oriental mussar tales and some of her own "Sure," I told myself, "so the sw!mming pool fell apart personal experiences which, to me, were fascinating. who says the construction wasn't faulty, and that it I did not realize what was happening when I saw Rab wouldn't have disintegrated by itself?" banit Leah's face becoming increasingly drawn and Around that time the shidukh thing appeared to be a lined. She smiled less and frequently reached for the dead end to me; I had met hundreds. it seemed, and not bottles of medicine that stood on top of the refrigerator. one was suitable. But when I saw business as usual. meaning the lecture "Why don't you go to the Rabbi and get a tiqun?" sug schedule and the hesed activities, I suspected nothing gested a friend. I protested that I didn't really believe in more serious than an ulcer. When I asked, I was told "not that, but in the end I went. That morning the Rabbi gave exactly" in a voice that brooked no further questions. me some comforting words and a blessing. and from Gradually the Rabbanitcut down on some of the activi there I went to visit a family I knew near Meah She'arim. ties, and when I saw her for the last time she was counsel "Say, there is someone we'd like you to meet," began my ing women from her bed. Cancer claimed a holy and friends. That evening I met my future husband. courageous victim in Adar of 5738 ( 1978). Sure. it could have happened anyway. But still.... 1111 38 The Jewish Observer I September. 1986 The Tragedy Of European Jewry A Review Article IN ADVANCE OF author before being presented to us it has increased. While the earliest THE ONSLAUGHT in this English version. It paints a publications were largely concerned full picture of the Chafetz Chaim's with describing the basic outlines of he Twentieth Century has personality and his crucial and mul what happened: while. in due course, been marked by the over tifaceted role in Kial Yisroel; and at survivors put their torturing memo T whelming tragedy of Euro the same time we encounter in its ries on paper: we now get more and pean Jewry. It has had many faces: pages all the other great men of the more books dealing with specific the headlong rush to assimilation time. Biography has its limitations; facets of Ch urban Europe. That does (most noticeable in Western Europe essentially. it means writing about a not mean that the earlier genre of but having a profound impact in personality. rather than having the books can no longer be found: note. Eastern Europe too), the agony of personality speaking to us himself. for instance THE LAST OF THE Russian Jewry as it passed from as his own writings do. Hence, there NUMBERED, by Hany Rosmantier, Tzartst brutality into Communist is an immediacy. a closeness. that (VantagePress.N.Y.. 1984.$12.95).a oppression; and. beyond ail else. the one experiences in learning through memoir by a man who survived unspeakable suffering of the Nazi the work of the Chafetz Chaim that twelve different camps in four and era. When we tum to books dealing no biography can rival. Yet it is one-half years, doubly touching be with the crisis of European Jewry. important to know the life and work cause it is unpretentious in presen the first to merit our attention is the of Gedolim. and we must be most tation. two-volumes by Rabbi Moses M. grateful for this comprehensive Yoshor, THE CHAFETZ CHAIM work-a truly remarkable ingather . THE HOLOCAUST AND ITS SIG (Mesorah Publications. Brooklyn. ing of facts. stories. ideas and il NIFICANCE by Yismel Gutman and 1984, 2 Volumes, $29.95 hardcover, lustrations. Chaim Schatzker (Zalman Shazar $22.95 softcover). for the Chafetz Center. Jerusalem. 1984) has been Chaim's saintly figure stood like a published as a textbook for the study guardian at the unfolding of this A NEW GENRE OF BOOKS of the Shoa: indeed a teacher's guide tragic period. warning. teaching, is available for it. From a pedagogical cajoling, trying to awaken his genera he Nazi Disaster. to whose viewpoint this book has been most tion to the disasters that he saw impending coming the Cha competently prepared. However. un coming. Rabbi Yoshor's book was T fetz Chaim so often ailuded. is fortunately. the usefulness of this originally published in Yiddish, now more than a generation behind book is vitiated by its strictly parti many years ago. and underwent re us. Yet the flood of books dealing san Zionist approach-whether in peated revision at the hands of the with it has not subsided; ifanything, the discussion of the youth organi- The Jewish Obseroer I September. I 986 39 zations and institutions active in time they happened and how much ever, a careful reading of the mate the ghettoes, the analysis of the res ofit was told to the American public. rial gathered by the author throws a cue efforts made by the Jews in the Her conclusion: the facts were known sharper light than she herself does free world, or the developments fol from the beginning in large measure on the role of anti-semitism. This is lowing the war (a sample quote from if not In full, but were played down as pariicularly obvious in the incredi a report printed without comment: fairy tales, Jewish exaggerations, ble attitude of a good part of the Pro 'With the exception of a small group etc.-and were presented only in a testant press (notably the Christian of ultra-religious Jews from Hun very selective manner by the press, Century and the Christian Science gary whose Rabbi was the Rabbi of at a time when a correct presenta Monitor); but the feeling that it's Klausenburg. all the survivors lof tion by the media could have had an only Jews who are involved and who the Holocaust] had become Zion enormous effect on American public really had it coming to them-and ists"). opinion and saved many lives. Why who wants them anyway-was re the skeptical attitude of the press? markably widespread in one form or NEW UNDERSTANDINGS The author offers various explana another. tions: the desire to be "objective," a EYOND BELIEF, by Deborah certain cynicism and incredulity FOCUS ON THE INDIVIDUAL E. Lipstadt (Free Press, NY, about atrocity tales, a desire not to B 1986, $19.95) is "a study of get too involved, a vested interest in remarkable volume is HO the American Press and the Coming pariicipating in the Olympic Games WCAUST, by Martin Gilbert of the Holocaust. 1933-1945." The in Berlin in spite of atrocities, and a A (Holt, Rinehari and Winston, author set out to explore what was desire to maintain restrictive immi N.Y., 1986, $24.95 ). !tis presented as known about Nazi atrocities at the gration policies at any price. How- "a history of the Jews of Europe dur ing the Second World War"; but it really is less a historical account, Formerly Kosher Country COME TO analyzing and explaining what oc curred, than a telling of what hap pened by means of a detailed, intri cately woven tapestry of individual reporis from survivors and extracts Whitehead Hall, Brooklyn College from diaries. The focus, as a result, is on the individual, the human angle, and it is difficult to read this volume On & Off Premises Catering (iJ) Cholov Yisrael without time and time again being shaken by the stories told; many of them are of the type that normally You've always been a homemaker. would never make the pages of a his tory book-but make the happen You relied on someone else ings of those years more real than volumes of statistics and analyses for financial support. could. Now suddenly you must work. Where Can You Turn? c:2J{ATANA (}ALLEl{f 4906 18th Ave. FRESH START Brooklyn, N.Y. (718) 851-4448 ~TRAl~-NliilmiIN-G~P.,.RO~GRAAf Jewish book.s, Jwlaica, 1'aleisim Mezuzos, personalized Talis bags, Tejil.inbags, Yarmulka. 40 The Jewish Observer I September, 1986 A book devoted to one particular ... to the contrary, he was part of the methods and machinery for the tragicepisodeisTHEMURDERSAT mainstream of his nation.'' It follows "final solution,'' and, above all, on BULLENHUSER DAMM, by Guen that his death certainly did not mark the question of when it was decided ther Schwarberg, translated by Irma the passing of the last Nazi. "His life, upon. There have been those (nota Rosenfeld with Alvin H. Rosenfeld his role in the Holocaust, and then bly Davidowicz) who hold that the (Indiana University Press, Bloom as a man on the run" irresistibly total extermination of the Jews had ington, 1984, $ l 7.50). It is the heart point to the continuing reality of the always been Hitler's plan; whereas rending story of twenty children movement he represented-the in others have argued that the "final from all over Europe between five carnation ofevil, directed in particu solution" resulted when other plans and twelve years of age, who were lar against the Jew and all he stands for a "Judenrein" Europe did not "used" for medical experiments and for. work out. and that it emerged by its were then murdered to remove all FATEFUL MONTHS, Essays on own bureaucratic momentum from traces of the crime. Yet, however ter the Emergence of the Final Solution, -the earlier stages of persecution of rible the story itself, in some ways by Christopher R. Browning(Holmes the Jews. The author's conclusion is even more shocking is the picture and Meiter, N.Y,, 1985). This volume that neither theory is likely, and that that emerges of the unwillingness focuses on the development of the it appears probable that there was a after the war of broad sections of German society, and notably gov ernmental and judicial personalities, THE SOUL SERIES to face up honestly to their Nazi past. In a travesty of justice, typical of by Hanoch Teller many war crimes proceedings, the The newest addition to Hanoch Teller's treasure trove of inspiring, S.S. officer responsible for the mur soul-stirring tales for young and old, ders was not only freed but paid lib eral compensation for the time he spent in jail. Perhaps we have been SOULED! naive in being surprised by the Waldheim episode. A similar message is conveyed by THE "LAST" NAZI, by Gerald Astor (Donald Fine, N.Y., 1985, $18.95). This book, written after Mengele's death was established in Brazil, was based on thorough research and is devoted to "the life and times of Dr. Joseph Mengele." It is the author's contention that Mengele was not a psychopathic beast; he "is not a case-study in abnormal psychology Souled! is two books in one: Order Your BOOK 1-~fifleen thought-provoking, entertaining, heart-warn1ing stories 10 Card Assorted based on actual events and life experiences. MITZVAH :KIT BOOK II-nine upliflingJewish legends and lore written especially for young readers. A total of 31l4 pages ofliterary pleasures for the whole or the 10 Card family fron1 the pen of the 111aster storyteller. CHOFETZ CHAIM ,------\ NYC Publishing C...o. LASHONHORASET I 37 VV. 37th St., 4th Floor, Nevv York, N.Y. 10018 in Hebrew. or English I' Enclosed please find $. ___ ( cht'ck or n1ont)' order) fbr: VERY SPECIAL ' ___ 3-volun1e sets of the Soul Series @$2ll.ll5 $3.00 - Either Set OFFER: ' The complete ' ___ copies of'Souled?' (W$115)5 $5.00 Both Sets 3-volume set ' ___ copies of Once UponASoul@$9.~J:J ' ___ copies of Soul Survivors (~$9.95 Please write: ofthe Soul Series ' for only $29.95. I' Nan1<' ------Yeshiva Fund, Box.82 ' Staten Island, NY i0309 ': Address ------:' City, State, Zip------' The Jewish Observer I September, 1986 41 Announcing formal decision by Hitler In 1941 to from youth in the Hashomer Ha a New Series of Four order the extermination of the Jews. tzair, feels compelled to make men 60 min. Cassette Tapes It is interesting to note in this con tion of the anti-semltlsm and even nection Rabbi S.R. Hirsch's com occasional acts of anti-Jewish vio mentru:y on Berei'shis, where he lence not only by Polish partisans @~J points out that the Egyptian exile but Russian guerillas. (which is the archetype of all later When we then tum to Yechiel ~!Inn 1tm~n 'Y.l O')n persecutions of the Jews) proceeded Granatstein'sTHE WAR OF AJEW· Covering the Laws through three slates: first the Jews ISH PARTISAN (Mesorah Publica ofLoshon Hora are declared strangers, then they are tions, Brooklyn, 1986, $12.95 hard enslaved, and finally they are cover. $9-95 softcover). we are pres 10 Chapters from the Sefer killed-this pattern can easily be ented with the same picture but In O''n ~!In traced in the histoiy of Nazi Ger much more shocking colors. His Is many. the stoiy of a young partisan im 4 Tapes • $15.00 Ifsurvival for those in the hands of periled as much by his Russian Write: the Nazis was tragically unlikely and "comrades" as by the Nazi conquer Yeshiva Fund, Box 82 escape from the ghetto and camp ors. It is a heart breaking stoiywhich Staten Island, NY 10309 seemed like salvation, reality unfor leaves us with admiration for the tunately showed that even the es author and his comrades, and with capees found the odds heavily yet a deeper awareness of the lonely GARY HONICf<; (JQ1) 764-8676 weighted against them. SOLDIERS role of the Jew in a world which does EDDIE SINGER. FROM THE GHETTO by Sholom not seem to want him. (J01) 358-40.37 Chowalski (Barres, San Diego. 1980, FROM KLETZK TO SIBERIA, by $9.95) was written by a man who Rabbi Alter Pekier (Mesorah Publi played a leading role in one of the cations, Brooklyn, N.Y .. 1985. $11.95 first ghetto uprisings, in Neshvizh, hardcover, $8.95 softcover). Subti tled. "A Yeshiva Bochur's Wander NlL and subsequently became a major figure in the Jewish partisan move ings During the Holocaust," this vol ment. His book chronicles the bat ume is the stoiy of Rabbi Pekier's tles for survival and remarkable vic odyssey, from Kletzk, which he and BALTIMORE tories scored by these brave fighters. his fellow students fled in the face of MARYLAND But even this author. brought up the enemy, through Lithuania to BROCHO V'HATZLOCHO LOOKING FOR A COMFORTABLE, YET We take this opportunity to express our sincerest good wishes REASONABLE PLACE 1'o the noted Rosh Yeshiva and Marbitz Torah TO STAY IN NEW YORK? HARAVYEKUSIEL Y. BITTERSFELD, Shlita Talniid of Hagaon Harav Aron Kotler, Zt"l MALONE Upon the occasion of the opening of the . YESHIVA HARBOTZAS TORAH ZICHRON SHNEUR MIFAL Beautiful air conditioned room's by-_the 719 East 2nd St., Brooklyn, N.Y. day, week) with kitchen facilities in the May Hashen1 help him to continue with his holy work for Harbotzas 'I'orah as very heart of Soro Park. u Around the he has done for the past 27 years, producing hundreds ofTalmidim corner" from shu'Js, take out foods, who are a pride to Klal Yisroel. restaurants, shopping, etc. We also extend our wannest Brochos to REASONABLE RATES' $15.00 and' up per _night/per, room HARAV NISSEN GOODMAN, Shlita {Single Ocupllllcy) the well known Rosh Yeshiva who heads the Bais Han1edrash $25.00 • $30.00 • per night/per room (Double Occupancy) and noted Magid Shiur An added plus: Proceeds go to HARAVY AAKOV LAZEVN!K, Shlita MIFAL TORAH VODAATH First year Bais Hamedrash, and While enjoyin_g our be_autiful HARAV YERUCHEM LEVOVITZ, Shlita accommodations you will be supporting our -66 torah <:enters -in YerushalaYim the accon1plished Mechanech and Maggid Shiur, who will head the Mesivta. and Teveria which condnue to --being There is also an Outstanding English Departrnent, and Donnitory Facilities are back thousands -of Sefardic y'outh ,tO available. Special arrangements have been made for out of town boys. Yiddishkeit: Registration is now going on. For reservations & informatron please call: For more information, please call (718) 853-1376 or (718) 851-8077. (718) 851-2969. 42 The Jewish Observer I September. 1986 Russian labor camps in Siberia and with the Chabad community. As a thence to Khazakstan and finally, at result they do not cover all facets of the end of the war, back to Poland the past and present of Torah Jewry and to the United States. Rabbi Pek in Russia-but every one of the ier's experiences, typical of those of memoirs in this book is a searing many bnei yeshiva who escaped challenge to the reader to assess how from the Nazis, are a remarkable his own dedication to Ytddishkett demonstration of their bitachon and in a free and prosperous Western RESHET mestras nefesh in clinging to Torah. World, compares to that of these SIDUREI TORAH At the same time they show the extra Russian Jews. ordinary efforts and determination A treatment of the Russian Jewish Proudly Announces of the Roshei Yeshiva, notably Rabbi scene in fiction form-and indeed in The Opening Aaron Kotler '""· to save their stu the garment ofa starkly dramatized, Of Its New dents. Many of the major personali exciting adventure story-is OUR ties of Torah Jewry pass through MAN IN RUSSIA, by Mayer Bendet MIDTOVVN these pages, as well as younger men translated by Jacob Ben-Zweig (Bash BEIS MEDRASH who lived to become in due course Publication,NewYork, 1985,$12.95). 1290 Avenue of the Americas · leaders of the Torah community Bendet is an excellent story teller Between 51 St.&> 52 St. themselves. and his book will keep the reader on Rabbi Pekier's book reflects the the edge of his chair throughout. Room 1003 hostility of the Russian regime But at the same time the author Shiur 1:00 pm toward religion and, particularly, does introduce the reader to some of Mincha 1:35 pm toward Yiddishkeit A fuller insight the key personal! ties in the Russian into what it meant (and means) to Jewish drama: the young baa! te For more information about try to live as a Torah Jew in Russia is shuva, the devoted underground The New !leis Medrash, please call conveyed in IN THE SHADOW OF workers dedicated to keeping Yid the Resh et office at: THE KREMLIN, by Rabbi N.Z. Gott dishkeit alive, and even the occa (212) '191c1600 lieb, translated by Uri Kaploun sional apparatshik who has pre (Mesorah Publications. Brooklyn, *Reshet is a Division bf served a feeling for a heritage he has ZeireLAgudath -Israel ofArllerica 1985 $12.95 hardcover, $9.95 soft renounced. cover). This book contains the per sonal sagas of Jews who persisted in INSIGHT, ANALYSIS, keeping and teaching Torah in AND SOME CONCLUSIONS HOTLINE Communist Russia and suffered TO JERUSALEM imprisonment. torture, and in many review article that highlights of cases death for it. The accounts in the hostility of the Russian In time illness, surgery or this book relate to the Stalinist era world to the Jew and to Juda crisis, special prayers will be A recited at the Western Wall and in particular: they deal exclusively ism. the horrors committed by the at our Yeshiva in Jerusalem. CALL 24 HOURS THE YITIY LEIBEL HELP-LINE (718)871-4111 A Free Service of the A FREE PUBLIC SERVICE OF Yztty Leibel Chesed Fund The American Rabbi Meir • Marital problems? • Fear ofbreak-down? Baal Haness Charity • Overpowering stress? • Parent-child friction? KOLEL AMERICA Do you have problems like these and are afraid or ashamed to talk to anyone':' ... Do you want a trained, wise, warm professional who will talk to you on the phone? Some ofthe Torah community's highly skilled psychologists, social workers, and therapists are ready to help. Your consultation will be treated with the utmost discretion. You may remain anonymous if you prefer. They understand. They're trained. They have Ahavas Yisrael. Starting September 22. Dial (718) HELP-NOW (435-7669) This pn~jcct has been approved by leading Torah authorities. For information onlp call (718) 435-7706. 132 Nassau St.• N.Y .. N.Y.10038 The Jewish Obseroer I September, 1986 43 1·o::i Nazis and their henchmen in the years (including one episode from a CLINICAL conquered countries, and the apathy Siberian labor camp), resistance PSYCHOLOGIST shown by the democratic world to spiritual and physical-and rescue, the fate of the Jews, should fittingly remembering and trying to under conclude by referring to A PATH stand, and, last but not least, some DR. THROUGH THE ASHES, a collec conclusions. There Is a wealth of BENZION tion of essays from The Jewish Ob material here, from a wide range of seroer, edited by Rabbi Nisson Wol authors, and the reader would have SOROTZIGN pin (Mesorah Publication, Brooklyn, been greatly aided by an introduc 1986, $14.95 hardcover, $11.95 tion which would help him digest Psy.D. softcover). This volume, part of the and organize In his mind the mani Judaiscope series sponsored by fold and varied Ideas and approaches N.Y. STATE LICENSED Agudath Israel of America. contains (perhaps this can be added to a essays and accounts dealing with future edition). But even without • Adults • Children various facets of Churban Europe: such assistance the reader will come happenings and heroes of the war to realize that he is not only told OFFICES IN about the past butied to think about BORG PARK DIGEST OF MEFORSHIM the meaning of our bitter galus ex & FLATBUSH ,~,p; in:i '~ip; perience and what lessons he can learn from it. While there Is an un ':>"3:1 iY"':>K ':>K1ClV •i l";ii;ic derstandable reticence to assign a (718) 965-7961 Available at EVE: 372-3111 rational meaning to the horror ofthe LEKUTEI INC. Holocaust-and indeed human be c/o I. Rosenberg ings cannot claim to fathom the 10 West 47th Street, Room 702 workings of Divine Providence-it Is New York, N.Y. 10036 a fundamental principle of the Torah ZAVE (212) 719·1717 that G-d teaches us through our 20 Volumes on Torah, Perek, experiences and. guided by our Ge SHER UN Medrash, Megilos and Talmud. dolim, we must seek to learn from ORCHESTRA Proceeds of sales distributed among them. The basic concepts of faith (718) 434-3540 Yeshivas and used for reprinting enunciated in the selections from of volumes out-of-print Also Available As ONE MAN BAND the Meshech Chochma, the Michtav PRICE $7.50 PER VOLUME M'Eliyahu, and others, and the con crete demands addressed to us by GLATT KOSHER • CHOLOV YISROEL Rabbi Elya Svei and Rabbi Avrohom Pam are sure to help the thoughtful reader come to some understanding of what galus suffering is meant to tell us.• HARBO'RAS COUNTRY H 0 T E L TORAH, INC. Personally Managed by SCHOOL DISTRIBUTORS Leo and Barbara Zucker and Family Leo and Barbara Zucker wish you a K'siva V'chasima 0'1:tnr.i and O':>)nY.l Tova and invite you to spend Rosh Hashana and If you have printed Succos with them at La Vista Educational Material And are interested in FACILITIES ARE AVAILABLE FOR CATERING WEDDINGS, SH EVA BRACHOS, AND BAR MITZVAHS SChool Distribution, Contact For Reservations call: Harbotzas Torah Inc. (914) 434-3090 N.Y. State Toll Free: 29 Eleventh St or write: (800) LA-VISTA Lakewood, New Jersey P.O. Box 1080, South Fallsburg, N.Y. 12779 201-367-0394 44 The Jewish Observer I September, 1986 ...... CORRECTION Rabbi Avi Shajran's Unreal Rabbis I Second Looks at the (May '86, JOJ was submitted with the following short explanatory note, which was inadvertently je'Wish Scene omitted: This article, based on a talk the author gave at a Torah U'mesorah retreat at the New England Academy of Torah last year, is the result of interviews with mechanchim in var One Straw, ious locales and schools. HEllRIW ACADIMY How Many Camels? OF Cl.lllLAND publishes over 50 Educational Items for Hebrew Day Schools. hen (Reform) Rabbi Julie and Conservative rabbinical organi Schwartz was appointed as zations in its membership? O'JlS'JlJl W a military chaplain by the More basically, how did the RCA Jewish Welfare Board's Chaplain ever join the Chaplaincy Commis UJOF1S. Commission, the Orthodox member sion before Rabbi Julie Schwartz of that Commission, the Rabbinical entered the scene? How did they ever Council of America (the RCA), de accept as "fellow rabbis" men who cided that it had had enough. 'We do are neither learned in the basics of not want to splinter the Jewish Torah nor committed to their up community any further than it is, keep? In what way are male Reform but it is quite clear that this was rabbis who do not believe in the div cata!Og ·sent upon reQuest Send $1.oo·tor handliaj to imposed on us and left us with little inity of Torah and preside over in -ACADIMY-.c:Aft-DIP'l. choice. Orthodox Judaism cannot termarriages superior to the female _1860 S_outh Tiiylor Rd_ Cleveland Heights, Otib 44118 accept women rabbis .... By bypass of the species? We do agree with the ing theJWB and endorsing a female, RCA that not they but the Reform the Reform rabbinate ... shattered rabbinate is guilty of "splintering PINCUS MANDEL the commission." (NY Times, June the Jewish community," but not just 18. 1986) with its most recent act of unilater Cemetery Consultant Now that the RCA has stated its ally appointing a lady as chaplain. Over 30 Years of Dedicated case in regard to working within a Every deviant decision and act of Service to the Onhodox Jewish religious fram'ework with organiza everyReform and Conservative rabbi Community tions that accept female rabbis, we for the past century and a half has Karka available on wonder how RCA members continue been shattering the unity of Klal all cemeteries in to belong to the New York Board of Yisroel, which owes its basic iden Eretz Yisrael controlled and Rabbis, which includes Reform and tity to its fidelity to Torah. Conservative rabbis in its member A woman chaplain is the last maintained by the ship, and most likely some ladies straw-plus, many times over. The Chevra Kadisha among them. For that matter, how broken back of the Chaplaincy of each community, do RCA and UOJCA continue to Commission is but one of many Jerusalem, Tiberias, Tzfas, belong to the Synagogue Council of camels that have long been suffering Miron, Holon, etc. America, which also includes Reform from fractured vertebrae.• Recommended by Gedolal Hador- here and In Eretz Yisrael P'7l 1'Nr.l 0111JN for honesty-Integrity N"7:in N"7Jt:i 1r.iom i11:i and responsibility 0'll1:ipn 0'l'1 >n:iJ 'JJ1 1ll1\:l1 NO compromises in koood haniftar For Practical Assistance in as evaluated by a Settling Financial Disputes cemetery expert. According to Din Torah in A service from the heart N.Y. and Vicinity. with a heart 4916 13th Ave., B'klyn, N.Y. 11219 Rabbi Avrohom Meir Gluck 1569 47th Street, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11219 (718) 854-2911 (914) 356-5572 Day and Night Phone-(718) 855-5121 The Jewish Observer I September, 1986 45 NEWS FROM Millman, a member of the California of America and advanced in the legisla chapter of Agudath Israel's Commission ture through a major push by Assem AGUDATH ISRAEL on Legislation and CivlcActlon,Agudath blyman Dov Hikind, that grants regis· Israel told the Fair Employment and tered yeshiva and other nonpublic high Housing Commission that is proposal schools the authority to issue working would unlawfully infringe upon reHgious permit papers to students under the age autonomy. of 18. Such certiflcates are needed by After hearings on its proposed young people seeking summer employ amendments, the Fair Employment and ment as weU as part-time work during Housing Commision abandoned its po the school year. Calif. Panel Bars Gov't Evaluation of sition by a 4 to 2 vote. Religious Organizations: Los Angeles Attorneys for Agudath Israel of Ametica - &&II- an the California chapter of its Commis~ Tax Reform Conferees Advised of Or California Medical Community to Work --thodox Jewish Concerns: In a memo sion on Legislation and Civic Action hailed today what they called "a slgnifi· With Jewish Groups on Time of Death randum to the 22 senators and con cant victory in the battle to preserve the Problem: Recent high level meetings in gressmen hammering out the final de independence of religious organizations California have resulted in a commit tails of the historic tax reform bill now in America:· as a California panel ment by the medical community to work before Congress,Agudath Israel ofAmer charged with implementing state anti with Agudath Israel of California and ica's Commission on Legislation and discriminatory laws rejected a proposed other concerned Jewtsh groups to pro Civic Action has alerted the legislators to regulation that would authorize it to tect the tights of Orthodox Jews who several issues that are, in its view, of evaluate the nature and practices of reli oppose on religious grounds California's importance to the Orthodox Jewish gious organizations. statutory definition of death. community. Such authority would have included Among the issues the memorandum the tight to evaluate whether a tax· raises is continued favorable treatment exempt religious institution was in fact Agudath Israel Testifies for Tuition Tax of scholarships and fel1owships received an organization whose primary purpose Credits: Rabbi Chaim Schnur, director by students, including those attending and function is religious, and, further. of Agudath Israel of California, testified kollelim across the United States; and whether the theological tenets of such an before the Revenue and Taxation Com charitable deductions for "non-itemiz organization in fact require it to discrim mittee of the State Assembly at the re· ers." Existing law, set to expire by the end inate in employment in a manner that quest of Assemblyman Tom McClintock, of 1986, permits a taxpayer to deduct would otherwise be forbidden by law. author of a bill that would allow a tax charitable contributions even if he does The principal aim of the Commission's credit of not more than $1000 to parents not itemize deductions. The memo peti proposal had been to delimit the reli· of ptivate school children, for qualified tioned continuation of this policy. gious exemption by specifying that jobs educational expenses such as tuition that the state deemed "secular" would and secular text books. Prominent school in Bero Park not be covered under its provisions. seeking experienced assistant In a wtitten statement authored by principal for secular studies David Zwiebel, Esq., Director ofAgudath Gov. Cuomo Signs BlllAllowingYesbi department. Sunday A.M./Mon vos to Issue Work Papers: New York Israel of America's Office of Government doy-Thursday P.M. Pleasant at· Affairs, in collaboration With a promi State Governor Maiio Cuomo has signed nent Los Angeles labor attorney, Robert into law a bill, Initiated by Agudath Israel mosphere-Excellent opportunity. Call 718-438-3244 NOW AVAIIABLE We are pleased to announce that the new n"lY:l n 1111)1 - 1eipt1:i C'"'" - :ij1)1') nt11e io~ with the '~ nnS>til ,nlvii ,nltltl'Ufl A Guide to )"j1llllt 'J7lll)tlj1 :lj1)1' :ii:i llM)fl l"tl nMtl Comforting is now available in all Hebrew Book Stores and at the Living KISVEI HEB YAAKOV PUBLICATIONS O'J:JN 01n') 111'.)Jn c/o Rabbi Daniel Neustadt *Sefaradi Edition - $3.00 3718 Shannon Road Cleveland Hts., Ohio 44118 *Ashkenaz Edition - $3.00 (216) 321-4635 For those who have the first edition, it is possible Box82 Staten Island, NY 10309 to obtain the addendum by contacting the above. 46 The Jewish Obseroer I September, 1986 Pirchel Agudath Israel Klnus on Gedo A NOTE TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS: lim's Lives: Rabbi Henoch Leibowitz. GEDOLEI TORAH RADIO Each yearly subscription is entered for Rosh Yeshivas Rabbi Yisoel Meir HaCo BROADCASTTAPESAVAILABLE hen (Chofetz Chaim) addressed a crowd 10 issues. Should we occasionally miss of over 1,000 upper-elementary yeshiva an issue due to technical difficulties (as students at special Assembly held last Copies of the special radio we did last June) you still will receive June in memory of the recently departed broadcast. "Religious-Secular your 10 issues as ordered-we simply Gedolei HaDor. Rabbi Yaakov Kame Tensions in Israel: A Response by extend your subscription accordingly. Torah Jews," recently aired in cit netzky and Rabbi Moshe Feinstein Thanks for your understanding. n::i1J'.7 ol11::it, holding them up as models ies across the continent. is being of inspiration for personal greatness in made available to the general pub Torah study, character refinement and lic by Agudath Israel of America Klal leadership. Also on the gathering producer of the program. program were Rabbi Joshua Silbermlntz. The half-hour segment. moder ated by Rabbi Nisson Wolpin, edi FROM FACTORY National Director of Pirchei Agudath Is REPRESENTATIVE tor of The Jewish Observer, fea rael, Rabbi Yehudah Oelbaum. Menahel SAVE!!! of Yeshiva Rabbi Samson Raphael tures comments and observations Hirsch. and Rabbi Dovid Trenk. Menahel by two leaders of Torah Jewry in of the Yeshiva of Adelphia. America on the recent series of events in Israel that led to the desecration of synagogues at the hands of anti-religious extremists. Rabbi Mordechai Gifter. Rosh HaYeshiva of the Telshe Yeshiva Cleveland, and member of the BIG Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah (Council New Educators In Vienna for Agudath of Torah sages) and Rabbi Yaakov APPLE COPY & PRINTING Israel Refugee Project: Rabbi Chaim Perlow, Novominsker Rebbe and CENTER Waldman and Avrohorn Cohen. both ex member of the Nesius/Presidium perienced Torah teachers who have of Agudath Israel of America, ar~ 87 NASSAU ST. worked extensively with Jewish youth, the featured speakers on the pro NEW YORK, NY 10038 will conduct a specially planned summer gram, which was broadcast origi (212) 962-4282 program for the Vienna Project for refu nally in New York. Los Angeles, (212) 267·9478 gee youth established by the Vaad L'Ha Chicago. Cleveland. and Liberty. tzolas Nidchei Yisroel-the rescue and New York, and is being re-aired rehabilitigauon arm of the Agudath Is through radio and other hook-ups rael World Organization. The program in Montreal, Toronto. Baltimore, will feature a series of classes based on San Francisco and other cities. the widely acclaimed Arachim approach For information on purchasing HOME to teaching Judaism. Mr. Cohen, a vete tapes ($3 each plus $1 handling). ran of outreach program for Sephardic or rebroadcasting in other cities, ATTENDANTS youth. has been a seasoned leaderofAra call 212-791-1800. chim retreats in the United States. needed for HOUSEKEEPING AND PERSONAL CARE for the DISABLED AND HOMEBOUND INSURANCE BROKERS & CONSULTANTS good pay and benefits Commercial, Industrial, Residential, Life & Health Boro Park. Bensonhurst and Flatbush Area full-time live in positions only • PROFESSIONAL SERVICE • • QUALITY INSURANCE CARRIERS • Project OHR Inc. • CO/v1PETITIVE PREMIUMS • (Office for Homecare Referral) 1308-40th Street Brooklyn, NY 11218 BARBARA GOLDGRABEN/HESHY SCHWEBEL/EZRA HES 853-2700 The Jewish Observer I September. 1986 47 L~ year you wattecl lpr the ~rou Rosh H~ih~riih"' Mathz<>r ._ and It \VM worth waldns 'et' This year your expecta.dons are rewanted il&~lt• The ArtScroU Yom Klppur Mac:hzor Is n<>W ayatl~blel SJ/>OM-JW ~-111•~~/Sl H••h ..oh M«lo•o" p I.I Tht ""' >'l\1m. Moy Ith< fo'll;v..· 1h" ;,,.. ;...i '"'mod"td• ,r,., Kol N;,/,., ~ "'""d.d" • pl .. lo• lms;..,,... Im .K>J.-. th"""'"'"'"k•npl>«b.f.,,.U..nulOl~•hon ll< For the corning fal1Ji11J 1;".ol'llirn 1:>115.11.:iri, yotl~anpn~erst~nci anci experien~eyour tefil{gs as never l:Jefore. · • pn Rpsh Hashanah and YornKippur. ,· ,, ' •, TheArtScroll Mach~()r te>ntaim: •.A ne'vV.tra11slation, i}1cl~dingrna~Y prayers ·a.nd>piyutim.11ey!!r... tra~· slated before> ·•·••. ··• ·•.• •· < .· ·. . . • t• 'l'O"'""'on•llify"°"'•M •h• ...... ,,..,. Whll< tk• • a ~omrn~ntary distin~ui~hE! • ..expandedIi". e·a·r... V.J·d ..tommentary u.... Y. ·.se· Cti··.·.··o·." .• · ..··.·.·.f •.o. r.· ·. /·.Y·o. m··..•.. ·.··K.·i.·p·P···• · · .•..u ..•· .• ·.•.r ...' ...•.·.·.·.·.w .•.·.. i~h.·.·· • SIJth.trnnslatedfeatw~asTefill.ah~~~ah,yiduy()f Rabbeino.Nissim,Shir fiayid1ud i.}l Available at yqurlocal Hebrew bookstore or direct from publish~r: ~.