IN THIS ISSUE ••• NEW VISTAS ON THE ISRAELI SCENE 6 THE Mosr UNIQUE DEMOGRAPHIC KIRUV OPPORTUNITY THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN) 0021-6615 IS PUBLISHED IN DECADES, Chanan (Anthony) Gordon MONTHLY EXCEPT JULY & AUGUST BY THE AGlJDATH ISRAEI. OF AMEIHCA 4Z BROADWAY. NEW YORK, NY !0004. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID IN NEW 9 A NEW TYPE Of ADVOCACY FOR ISRAEl, YORK. NY. SUBSCRIPTION 525.00/YEAR; 2 YEARS, S48.00: 3 \TARS, $69.00. Yonoson Rosenblurn OUTSIDE OFTllE UNITED STATES (US HJNOS DRAWN ON A !JS BANK ONLY) $15.oo SURCHARGE PER YEAR. 14 BUYING JEWISH SOULS, fAayaan Pasejoffe SINGLE COPY 53.50: 0UTSIOE NY AREA SJ.95: f'OREIGN $4.50. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO: THE JEWISH 0RSF.RVF.R 20 THE DOUBLE HELIX'S DOUBLE, A Poem by 42 BROAD\\'AY. NY. NY 10004 TEL 212-797-9000, FAX 646-254-1600 Pl~INTED JN THE USA Bracha Goetz RABBI NISSON Wot.PIN. Editor 21 fAREWELl TO RABBI EU EZER GELDZAHLER :,··~1, frlitorial &mrd RABBI JOSEl'tl ELIAS, Chairman Rabbi /v1iche! Twerski RABBI AHRA Bn!JDNY JOSEPH Fi~IEDf:NSON RAHR! YISROF.L MEIR Kll~ZNER RARHI NoSSON SCHERMAN 27 READERS' fORUM: LIGHT AT THE END OF THE PRO!'. AARON TWF.RSKI f"iJUnden TUNNEL - MENTAL HEALTH DR. ERNST L BODENHEIMER Z""I. RASBI MOSHE SHERER Z"L ,wanagement Board AVI l'i!HIOF, NAfTOU HIRSCH SHALOM BAYIS-PLUS ISAAC KIRZN~:R, RAIJIJI Sill.OMO Lr·:SIN, NACHUM STEIN !Vooaging t'ditor 32 How TO IMPROVE YOUR MARRIAGE, RARHI YoSEF C. GOl.OING A Review Article by Rabbi Mordechai Biser PUBl.ISHEO RY AGUDATH !Si~AEI. Of" AMEIUCA U.S. TRADE 01STIHBUTOR 40 IT BEGJNS WITH SAYING uHELLO," Sara Medwed FEtDMEIM PUBl.ISllERS 208 Airport LrccutNc lbr/; Nam1et. NY w954 BRITISH REPRESENTATIVE M;f; Bl REI.MAN 43 ADAR THROUGH A f!SH TANK, Gavrie/la Bachrach Grosvenor \Vork~ Mount Pleosaot Hill l.oodon E5 9NE. f.NGIAND FRENCfl REPRESENTAJ"IVE 45 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR RAHBI BAMRERGER 21 Bouk11ard fbixham 57000 Metz. f'RANCE ISRAEU REPRESENTATIVE fNTNL MEDIA PLACEMENT POll 7t.95 I 97 Ja_ffG !Wad STATEMENT OF POLICY Jeruwlem 94340, !SRAU. Tltf: Jf.'WH/f OBSERVER tlAS Ol·.voTF'O A GR FAT DEA!. 01' SPACE TO THE f'P.!~ll.S OF THE INTERNET ANO TO THE NF'F.O FOR EVERYONE TO BE REI.GIAN REPRESENTATIVE MR. E. APTER EXTREMELY VIGii.ANT IN ITS USP.. WE HAVE ECHOED THE PLEAS OF OUR l.ange KiC";·itstr. 2,9 GEDOl.IMTHAT IT SHOllf.0 NOT BF. JN USE. UNLESS IT lS AN UNA VOID- 2018 Antwerp. llEJ.G!UM AlJLJ·: NECESSITY, AND THEN ONLY WITH ALL SUITAHLE SAFEGUARDS. SOUTtl AFRICAN REPl~ESENTATIVE THE JEWISH OBSt:RVER DOES NOT ASSllME WHll.l·: rrs DANGERS MUST BE RECO(;NIZED AND CONTROLLED TO F.VHff I MR. V. TAIJACK RESPONSIBll.!TY FOR THE K1\Slll~tJS OF ANY PRODUCT. PO &Jx 51552. 1'0,<;S!Bl.E DEGREE. OUR Gf."HOUM RECOGNIZE TllAT MANY PEOPLE A;-.;D l'UBUCATION. OR SERVICE ADVERTISED IN ITS !'AGES Raedeoe. Johannesburg RliSl."\IESSES REQUIRE ITS \!SE, AND THEREFORE IT HAS NOT BEEN 2124 SOUfH AFRICA BANNED. THIS tS WHY WE ACCEPT ADVERTISEMENTS LISTING WEH- © (OPYR!GHT 2005 AUSTRAl.lAN REPRESENTATIVE SITE AlHHIFSSE<;, lUJT IN NO WAY DOES THIS IMPLY TtlAT TUE i DR. A. O!NNf:N 77 Rirriga Road &llevuc Hill. NSW 202:;. AU.5TRA/.l4 MARCH 2005 / VOLUME XXXVIII /NO. 3 <>oo"O 00 "'"' '"" ""'"''HO·-" U.>o< "" OJIHf . '"""'"'· . f llll ftNANCING Your ur 'IO 11 MONTHS complete NO DOWN fitness and PAYMtNT recreation source, from design to completion CURRENT PROJECTS The Cheder Kensington Chasan Sofer Baro Park Sheepshead Bay Canarsie Bais Rochel Williamsburg Boys & Girls H.S. Bedford Stuyvesant Tl-IE JEWISH 0HSERVER I I ' Rabbi Nesanel Quinn ?"~t I I bridge takes you over treach­ Rabbi Quinn was a bridge from the neering, visionary efforts of the valiant erous or impossible terrain. It purity, sincerity and nobility of the streets champions of shemiras Shabbos, the A can expedite your trip from and batei midrash of Dvinsk, where his builders of Torah and the founders of I where you are to where you want to be. parents married and lived for many years yeshivos on these hostile shores. : Or it can facilitate your return from until they were advised by the Rebbe Rabbi Quinn was also a bridge trans- I where you find yourself to your place of Rashab to travel to America, where their porting individual bachurim to their Ii origin. Rabbi Nesanel Quinn was a bridge first son, Nesanel, was born in 1910. future blossoming as bnei Torah, strug­ in both ways. Whoever interacted with Rabbi Quinn gling students to becoming accom­ In the most vivid sense of the word, on any level looked into his sparkling plished talmidei chacharnim. He was a Rabbi Quinn was the bridge that carried eyes, warmed to his embracing smile, and catalyst and inspiration for budding lead- I' Reb Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz's image felt engaged by the breezes of emunah ers to transform the spiritual landscape and vision of preserving "the hair of truth peshuta and avodas Hashem wafting in Brooklyn as well as in far-flung parts and bit of Chassidus" that Torah Vodaath across the ocean and leaping over of the American continent and in : stands for. He perpetuated it - through decades from Dvinsk. countless communities around the I' learning and teaching Taras emes in One was in avve when watching globe. Mesivta Torah Vodaath, and overseeing Rabbi Quinn push himself and inspire Rabbi Nesanel Quinn was niftar · the Mesivta department as menahel for others in the ground work of the found­ after a short illness on 28 Shevat I' half a century. He was unbendable and ing and subsequent day-to-day function­ /February 7, leaving two children, Rabbi uncompromising in truth. And - in line ing of Ohr Shraga, Torah Vodaath's Zalman Pinchus Quinn and Mrs. Moshe ' with his Rebbe's curriculum for life-he summer learning camp, where the syl­ Herskowitz. I' lived Tehillim as he taught it in the class­ van slopes of the Woodbourne grounds On the one hand, Rabbi Quinn will es, he throbbed with heartfelt avoda as were an outdoor beis midrash. be sorely missed. On the other hand, his 1 he led the davening on Yamim Noraim, Witnessing his optimistic energy, one imprint on the neshamos of individuals ,I and he glowed with Ahavas Yisroel and could begin to fathom how his parents, and nun1erous communities and insti- Ahavas Torah, when he greeted every Yid, and he in turn, could surmount the self­ tutions will be with us for many years i encouraged each ta/mid during the peri­ centered drive for materialistic self­ to come. I odic fahrhering of the classes, and when improvement that prevailed in early zoth We plan to publish a more detailed , he joined circles of celebration on Century America, where the very stones appreciation of Rabbi Quinn in a fu~ure' Yamim Tovim and at personal simchos. were indeed treif They shared in the pio- issue. IT!J 5 -~-~----------- NEW VISTAS ON THE ISRAELI CHANAN(ANTONY)GORDON The Most Unique Demographic Kirov Opportunitv in Decades TAKING ADVANTAGE OF A chiloni (non-religious) population. This especially after hearing the words of some DEMOGRAPHIC ABERRATION opportunity to expose hundreds of of our Gedolim first hand" - that we are thousands of secular Israelis to the beau­ obligated to capitalize on this situation. ome fascinating demographic ty of our Torah and rich heritage is par­ trends in Eretz Yisroel have recent­ tially due to a "demographic time Sly been published, which give our bomb" resulting from a single almost ISRAELI SOCIETY: A brothers and sisters in the chareidi com­ unbelievable statistical fact: more than STRONG TRADITIONAL BENT munity there both a unique opportuni­ 50% of the chareidi population - a pop­ ty and a responsibility pertaining to kiruv ulation with a birth rate that averages 7.6 In many ways, The Guttman Survey, rechokim. children per woman - is below the age to date the most comprehensive research Today, the chareidi community of 8 years old.' ever conducted on the religious behav­ counts for approximately 12%' of Thankfully, as ambiguous and con­ ior of Israeli Jews, dispelled the myth that Israel's Jewish population. While, as one fusing as the Council of Jewish the liberal media has been at pains to cre­ would expect, my research of recent Federation's NJPS 2000 was in America,' ate, i.e., that the majority of Israelis would socio-economic developments within the the Louis Guttmann Israel Institute of want nothing more than to ensure that chareidi ranks did yield some areas of Applied Research's Survey' ("The Israel evolved into just another secular concern/ on the positive side, it also Guttman Survey") of the same year was country. According to The Guttman became patently clear that the chareidi clear and succinct. Read together with Survey: community in Bretz Yisroel, over the next the exploding chareidi "baby boom" The rhetoric of the secular and several years, has a most unique oppor­ alluded to above, it seems clear to me - religious polarization generally used tunity to have a significant impact on the 1 Unless explicitly noted to the contrary, the basic course of my research, brought to my attention some source of the data cited in this article is the Israeli of the demographic trends and statistics cited in CHANAN (ANTONY) GORDON IS A FULBRIGH1 Central Bureau ofStatistics, Machon Yerushalayi1n. this article. SCHOLAR ANO GRADUATE OF HARVARD LAW 2 4 SCHOOL MR. GORDON HAS CO-AUTHORED AND 470/o of the chareidi population lives below the The Guttman Survey was commissioned by the AUTHORED NUMEROUS ARTICLES THAT HAV1': PR1'> poverty line (i.e., approximately 600,000 people Avi Chai Foundation, involving a national sam­ VIOUSLY APPEARED IN JO, MOST RECENTLY "THE out of the l.16 million Israeli citizens that cur­ ple of 2,466 respondents fron1 all over Israel with a maximum sampling error of 3o/o.