Beis din decision upheld on appeal Page 5 The life and poetry of Yehuda Halevi Page 22 Will you marry me? (at a yeshiva dinner) Page 12 Jamie Geller, Purim-challenged Page 17 THE JEWISH STAR VOL 9, NO 8 ■ FEBRUARY 26, 2010 / 12 ADAR 5770 WWW.THEJEWISHSTAR.COM Bagel, no lox? Rabbi fi shes A son remembered for ban Levi Wolowik, one year later on salmon By Michael Orbach Until the very end of the completion of the By Michael Orbach Sefer Torah last Sunday, the smile on Rabbi Zalman Wolowik’s face did not fade. Anisakis, a roundworm, typically does Only occasionally, as the rav of the Chabad not grow to more than two centimeters long of the Five Towns hugged and kissed the men and about the width of a human hair, but the who helped complete the Torah in his son’s parasite may cause big problems for kosher memory, and paused to wipe his own sweaty fi sh lovers. brow, did his smile fl ag ever so slightly. Some charedi rabbonim in Israel as well A year ago, last Feb. 28, Rabbi and Reb- as a number of their American counterparts betzin Wolowik’s son, Levi, 9, a bright, popu- have ruled that the fi sh that the parasites in- lar student at Yeshiva Darchei Torah, died habit, including wild salmon, fl ounder and suddenly. After the tragedy, Chabad children halibut, can no longer be considered kosher. around the world held a learn-a-thon in his But the Orthodox Union, the largest kashrut memory, studying Tanya and raising sponsor- certifying organization in the world, does not ship money in order to dedicate a Torah. The believe such a ban is required or even neces- Torah’s completion was celebrated in Wood- sary. mere this past Sunday at the Wolowik home, At a meeting in a Brooklyn shul on Feb. 18, two days after Levi’s fi rst yahrtzeit. Rabbi Moshe Karp (no kidding) of Modi’in Il- Writing a Torah scroll is one of the 613 lit in Israel forcefully expressed his position mitzvot; some sages hold that the mitzvah in Yiddish: on account of the roundworm, can be accomplished by helping to complete Karp believes that a ban on salmon and the a single letter. As Rabbi Wolowik pushed other fi sh is an absolute necessity, according neighbors, members of the community and to rabbis who attended the meeting. fellow rabbonim to take a turn inking the sa- He is raising a variety of objections that cred parchment on Sunday, his father in law, would seem to contradict the Gemorah, Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, a senior Chabad of- which explicitly states that worms found in fi cial, urged all the signers to take a l’chaim fi sh do not make a fi sh treif (non-kosher) and from a nearby table after they completed a even allows such worms to be eaten. Karp letter. said he believes the roundworm is a differ- The event in Levi’s memory, during ent parasite than the one mentioned in the which several hundred people wandered in Talmud; that pollution has caused the round- and out of the Wolowik’s dining and living worm to mutate and grow larger; and that rooms, could be considered a testament to the anisakis has changed its instinctual be- Chabad itself, and the worldwide network havior and now matures before it enters the that allowed children from 25 states and 13 body of the fi sh. countries, from Utah to China, to raise close The meeting, which was accessible to the to $65,000. More important, the event was public via teleconferencing, has left many a testament to the work and dedication of kashrut experts fi shing, so to speak, for an the Wolowik family, who managed to turn appropriate response. Photo by Penny Frondelli Rabbi Zalman Wolowik after the completion of a Torah in memory of his their unthinkable tragedy into a communal The Gemorah states that the “tolayim” celebration. Moments before the unfi nished (bug) are generated inside the fi sh “minei son, Levi a”h, who died suddenly one year ago. Continued on page 3 gavli,” which literally means generated in the Continued on page 3 Shabbat Candlelighting: 5:24 p.m. Shabbat ends 6:25 p.m. 72 minute zman 6:56 p.m. Torah Reading Parshat Tetzaveh Zman Kriat Shma 8:40 (Magen Avrohom) and 9:20 (GRA and Ba’al Tanya) | Purim is Motza’ei Shabbat PERMIT NO 301 NO PERMIT 11530 GARDEN CITY, NY CITY, GARDEN US POSTAGE PAID POSTAGE US PRST STD PRST 342395 2 Inside It’s a whole megillah The Jewish Star Over the last ten years, Dr. Paul Brody, a Great Neck physician (back row, right) Classified Ads 24 has taught more than 130 young men Editorial 21 at the North Shore Hebrew Academy I’m Thinking 20 how to lain Megillat Esther. 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They are subject to editing for length and clarity. 352568 3 Torah completed in memory of Levi Wolowik STAR THE JEWISH Continued from page 1 make sense, turning tragedy into growth and Torah scroll arrived, Rabbi Wolowik busied bringing beauty into the world.” himself helping a boy put on tefi llin. As soon as the Torah was completed a pa- ‘Bittersweet’ was the word on everyone’s rade of people began making their way from F lips. the Wolowik’s home to the Chabad of the ebruary “It’s tremendously joyous but it came out Five Towns on Maple Avenue. of a tragedy,” said Keith Moskowitz, whose Auxiliary police offi cers wearing kippot daughter, now 14, was a student in the fi rst worked alongside regular police offi cers, 12 ADA 2010 26, class of the Chabad of the Five Towns nurs- blocking Central Avenue and guiding traf- ery. fi c to side streets. At Bagel Delight, a store “They turn tragedy into light, that’s how on the corner of Central Avenue, two Israeli they do it.