I KNOW A GUY, INC. HOME RENOVATIONS See Page 18 $1.00 WWW.5TJT.COM VOL. 9 NO. 44 24 AV 5769 vtr ,arp AUGUST 14, 2009 INSIDE FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK SIMCHA IN CEDARHURST PARK The 5 Towns Riviera BY LARRY GORDON Danny O’Doul 16 Easy Fixes Elke Probkevitz 22 Reading The News Last Friday was a day of cele- someone has to tell those MindBiz bration in America. The good 250,000 people out of work that Esther Mann, LMSW 24 news was that in July only a things are just great. Sidney Zion And FDR quarter million people lost their We can’t fault the president Dr. Rafael Medoff 60 jobs. President Obama declared or his advisers for sharing the a victory of sorts. It’s true that desire to encourage Americans Life Coaching for most of the year until this and provide us with an upbeat Hindy Lieberman 62 month, about a half million peo- assessment and feeling about ple were losing their jobs each the days ahead. While so much (L–R): Village Trustee Ben Weinstock, County Executive Tom Suozzi, month. Now the hope is that of what the U.S. has been going Mayor Andrew Parise, County Legislator Jeff Toback, Izzy Wasser, and the losses have slowed, and who through economically is based Trustee Ron Lanzilotta discuss the renovations to Cedarhurst Park at the Tuesday-night concert in the park on August 11. The annual Jewish Night knows, maybe it’ll be turned on hard financial facts, a great Concert featured the Neshoma Orchestra and soloist Shimon Kramer. around and the economy will Several thousand people participated, sang, danced, and had an all- be back on the upswing. But Continued on Page 5 around great time. More Photos, Page 52 PROVING THE ORAL LAW HEARD IN THE BAGEL STORE B Y RABBI YAIR scribed” (Devarim 12:21). And Comings And Goings HOFFMAN yet nowhere in the written law Rabinovich-Kopel wedding. is there any previous (or fur- Summer Memoir VI While these life-cycle events See Page 70 Sometimes people need a ther) instruction as to how to BY LARRY GORDON continue to occur day after day boost in their emunah. This slaughter. throughout the year, they some- week’s parashah, Re’eih, provides A bit earlier we find another People fly away and arrive how seem more profound dur- us with an interesting boost, as interesting verse. The pasuk back home. We attend wed- ing the summer, and particular- well as food for thought. There is (11:18) tells us that one must dings and bar mitzvahs. Babies ly in the month of August. a fascinating verse that describes place frontlets (“totafos,” tefillin) are born and we welcome them Perhaps it is the slower pace of the notion of shechitah, Jewish between the eyes. But nowhere to the world; at other times, we summer or the overheated slaughter. does the Torah tell us what sit and commiserate and weather conditions. (Do things The verse states, “You may these frontlets are. empathize over the loss of a always happen at a slower pace slaughter your cattle and small There are parts of the Bible loved one. As the songwriter in Florida and California just animals that G-d has given you, said, we go round and round in the manner that I have pre- Continued on Page 14 and round in the circle game. Continued on Page 11 In memory of Conferring With Congress Anti-Semite A NOT SO Arnold Berman, a’h. See Page 20 Training Camp TYPICAL TUESDAY BY ERIC Another Mother’s Musings EHRENHAUS B Y PHYLLIS J. L UBIN It’s no secret that the Jewish people have suffered more than It’s Tuesday at Avnet Country any other nation in the world. Day. Luckily for me, the boys are From slavery, to pogroms, to the off at Adventureland, so I have a Holocaust, to the most recent needed moment to muse while torment delivered by our Arab staring at the blue ocean. cousins, there’s no question that A typical Tuesday in a sum- we’re the punching bag of mer week…and yet not so typ- human history. Granted, our ical! Besides being an ordi- “chronology of affliction” is very nary day in August, it is the Kids Of Courage Rav Simcha HaKohen Kook, Chief Rabbi of Rehovot, Israel, at a recent private much rooted in G-d’s ultimate extraordinary day on the doing it again. meeting with Congressman Eric Cantor (R-VA). Congressman Cantor is one of See Page 42 the leading supporters of Israel in the U.S. Congress. Continued on Page 10 Continued on Page 12 CANDLE LIGHTING August 14 – 7:35 PM August 21 – 7:25 PM See Page 35 2 August 14, 2009 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES August 14, 2009 3 4 August 14, 2009 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES FROM THE EDITOR hope for a good and bright future, but which way the diplomatic winds were complete or absolutely total freeze. As Continued from Front Cover once those optimistic utterances are blowing. Perhaps to you and me, as well long as there is the most minimal stripped down to their core we are as to most of the Arab world, a freeze amount of wiggle room, there exists the deal of the current situation in our coun- quickly struck with the realization that means to halt everything in its tracks on possibility of coming to terms and the try is about a lack of optimism that can peace is not only not close but actually a dime. Leave the nails half knocked into avoidance of a full disagreement adjust itself with a little forward-thinking further away from being concluded the walls and leave the sheetrock on the between allies. optimism. than any time in the past. truck in the parking lot. In the instance of the U.S. and Israel So even though the employment Critics of the ongoing and seemingly But in the world of diplomacy, as in one can always expect some new twist numbers were distorted and manipulat- endless process believe that the two the world of Talmudic thought, it is or curve at some point. Just this week, ed, it still gave the news media a day or sides are just not capable of making required that every word, punctuation Maryland Congressman Steny Hoyer so to rave about how we’ve turned progress or coming to an agreement. The mark, verbal inflection, and nuance be announced on a visit to Israel that things around over a rather short but truth is though, that great progress has defined. If you’re going to say or write while there had to be a settlement painful period and that America—under freeze in order for talks to go forward, Obama’s wise leadership—is on the way there was a differentiation that had to back to the top. be made between the West Bank and As for last week’s economic news East Jerusalem. reports, not only did fewer Americans That pronouncement can certainly lose jobs last month but the overall and In the instance of the U.S. and throw a wrench into the process. The all important unemployment statistic Palestinians are expecting or rather dropped a tenth of a percentage point to Israel one can always expect some demanding that Jerusalem be the capital 9.4% from 9.5%. Of course what the city of the new Palestine. Did administration or most of the news Congressman Hoyer speak independent- media did not tell us was that the num- new twist or curve at some point. ly or was he prompted by the Obama han- ber reflected the people—some dlers to float the softened equation out 700,000—who have dropped out of the there to see how it plays? job market altogether, meaning they’ve Ethan Bronner, in Wednesday’s New stopped looking for work; with them out been made, but made in the direction of something you better spell it out careful- York Times, writes that Israel is having a of the way for now, the unemployment driving the parties further away than ly and in detail. On that level, a freeze is great summer so far this year. Record figure dropped. ever from being able to accept each not exactly a freeze. The news media numbers of tourists are streaming into In reality this is precisely how the other’s positions. And the reason for that wants you to think that Israel is being the country, the shekel is strong and there game is played. In order to live up to a is the words that are finally being used defiant because the media needs little is quiet on her borders. The gist of his goal, the ideal needs to be articulated, in the process and the fashion in which David (played here by Israel) to fire up pieces is that Israel is suspicious of the not just pondered. But sometimes these the media is finally reporting what is his slingshot in response to the big bad quiet that it is experiencing at present same expressions are dangerous, for taking place. Goliath (played for these purposes by considering that Hezbollah in Lebanon once exposed to the light of day they are President Obama’s and Hillary the U.S.). and Hamas in Gaza continue to stockpile revealed to be rather empty and mean- Clinton’s demand of a few weeks ago that But then the pragmatism sets in and deadly missiles in the tens of thousands.