Great Neck Synagogue Magazine S|C|O|P|E Passover 2017 Nisan 5777 on to Lessons From Hamilton and the Election of 1800 By Carol Buckmann | Generation to Generation to | Generation What is Your Minhag? By Stanley H. Fischer How Can I Curse That Which God Does Not Curse By William Liss-Levinson, Ph.D. | Generation to Generation | Generation to | Generation GNS2017 SCOPE Passover 2017 1 Great Neck Synagogue Magazine SCOPE Great Neck Synagogue GNS2017 | | | | 26 Old Mill Road Great Neck, NY 11023 Pesach Issue | 2017 Table of Contents T: 516 487 6100 www.gns.org What is Your Minhag? By Stanley H. Fischer p 12 Dale E. Polakoff, Rabbi Ian Lichter, Assistant Rabbi Whatever Happened to That Temple Menorah? By Dr. Arnold Breitbart p 16 Jesse Shore, Rabbinic Intern Ze’ev Kron, Cantor I am a Jew Mark Twersky, Executive Director By Annie Karpenstein p 18 James Frisch, Assistant Executive Director How Can I Curse That Which God Does Not Curse Sholom Jensen, Rabbi, Youth Director By William Liss-Levinson, Ph.D. p 18 Dr. Michael & Zehava Atlas, Youth Directors Lisa Septimus, Yoetzet Halacha The Man of God Who Walks Among Us By Esor Ben-Sorek, Ph.D. p 22 Dr. Ephraim Wolf, z”l, Rabbi Emeritus Eleazer Schulman, z”l, Cantor Emeritus Gemara with Rabbi Yossi Singer By Robert Spitalnick p 23 Executive Board The Jewish James Bond Chairman of the Board Harold Domnitch By Rabbi Marvin Tokayer and Ellen Rodman, Ph.D. p 24 President Dov Sassoon Lessons from Hamilton and the Election of 1800 Executive Vice President Erran Kagan By Carol Buckmann p 26 First Vice President Cindy Liebmann Second Vice President Bart Baum Youth News Third Vice President Jon Reiss By Dr. Mike & Zehava Atlas, Rabbi Shalom Jensen and Scott Mayer p 28 Treasurer Elie Cohen Recording Secretary Diane Rein The Shiva Mirror Corresponding Secretary Josh Shatzkes By Nechama Liss-Levinson p 31 Financial Secretary Ruby Askowitz Coney Island Today – Service Officer Steven Blumner Reinventing Itself But Still Nostalgia Heaven Service Officer Gary Chubak By William B. Helmreich p 32 Gabbai Tom Furst Playing with Alien Fire Beit Midrash Gabbai Jordan Wolf By Esor Ben-Sorek, Ph.D. p 35 Beit Midrash Service Officer Meir Stein What is a Jew? SCOPE Editorial Board By Ben Yehoshua p 39 Editor Diane Rein Chaverim By Fred Shaw p 42 Art Director Andrew Allen Contributing Editor Dr. Esor Ben-Sorek Character Development Contributing Editor Stanley Fischer By Robyn Spector-Blumner p 43 Contributing Editor Carol Buckmann The Story of my Birth Contributing Editor Dr. William Liss-Levinson By Annie Karpenstein p 44 Contributing Editor Ron Malen Contributing Photographer Celia Lemonik Pulling It Together By Ron Malen p 47 Shadows of the Holocaust SCOPE magazine is published three times a year, By Zita (Berkowitz) Nurok p 49 Rosh Hashanah, Chanukah and Pesach, by Great Neck Synagogue, Sisterhood Message 26 Old Mill Road, Great Neck, NY 11023 By Farla Frumkin p 51 T: 516.487.6100 | F: 516.487.6149 | www.gns.org Rebbetzins’ Recipe Corner p 52 It is distributed by mail to members and friends of the synagogue. Ma Nishtana? Paid subscriptions are available for non-members at $18 per year. By Esor Ben-Sorek, Ph.D. p 54 Copyright ©2017 Great Neck Synagogue All articles, logos & material used for another publication or lecture And Pharoah Dreamt must be expressly requested in writing from GNS. The views ex- By Rabbi Moshe Kwalbrun p 55 pressed in this magazine are those of the author and may or may not People | Books | Legacies reflect the diversity of our membership. By Andy Allen p 56 View previous issues of SCOPE online; scan the QR code below. The Laws of Pesach p 58 Great Neck Synagogue Men’s Club By Hillel Milun p 66 Israeli Arabic Scholar Emphasizes Importance of U.S. Embassy Moving to Jerusalem By Elizabeth Berney p 68 https://www.gns.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/GNS_SCOPE_C16.pdf SCOPE Passover 2017 2 03 We are grateful to Executive Director, Mark Twer- sky and Assistant Executive Director, Jimmy Frisch, as well as our wonderful office staff Maxine Nass- er and Paula Minsky for all their assistance. It is A Message from the Editor always a pleasure to work with Rabbi Lichter and Rabbi Polakoff is also readily available for thought- Diane Rein ful advice. Thank you so much to our amazing Art Director, An- drew Allen. Andy’s incredible artistic talent, creative genius and vision to keep raising SCOPE to a higher Great Neck Synagogue Magazine level is what makes this magazine a huge success. Please take time to thank him personally by email at S|C|O|P|E [email protected]. Finally, on a sad note, I would like to take this op- portunity to dedicate my Editor’s Message to my beloved father-in-law, Dr. Howard Rein z”l. He was a regular reader of SCOPE magazine and he greatly enjoyed meeting and becoming friends with many of our SCOPE contributors when he visited from Bournemouth, England. He was a medical doctor Welcome to the Pesach edition of SCOPE and after he retired he pursued his Masters and Wmagazine! then Ph.D. in Jewish History which he was awarded two weeks before he passed away after a lengthy and difficult illness. May his determination, perse- I am excited to publish another issue with great arti- verance and dedication to learning and education cles! Fred Shaw writes about “The Chaverim Center” inspire all of us always to pursue our dreams no at Great Neck Synagogue, a wonderful opportunity matter our age or what obstacles stand in the way. for multigenerational gatherings twice a month to socialize, listen to fascinating speakers and enjoy On behalf of my husband, David, and our children, a delicious complimentary lunch. William Helmreich Alexander, Oliver and Sophia, I wish you all a Chag shares a thought-provoking excerpt about “Coney Sameach! Island Today” from his recently published book, “The Brooklyn Nobody Knows.” Our readers will also en- joy Dr. Arnold Breitbart’s piece, “Whatever Happened to that Temple Menorah?” I am grateful to our Reb- betzins (Ellen, Katie and Lauren) who share delicious Diane Rein and easy holiday recipes for our members to enjoy. I also want to thank our Rabbis Polakoff, Lichter and Shore for writing meaningful Dvar Torahs in each SCOPE issue to inspire our readers. Thank you to our latest new SCOPE sponsors this issue. We greatly appreciate all the support - es- pecially financially - of this publication. We con- tinue to encourage and welcome others to become a sponsor. It costs $36 an issue or $100 for three issues. Thank you so much! Thank you very much to our SCOPE advertisers who support our magazine. We urge our readers to pa- tronize their businesses so that they will continue to advertise and recognize that we appreciate their financial support. SCOPE Passover 2017 3 04 an “Ask the Rabbi” column from Ohr Samayach. The author there suggests that the very first “Seder” which was held in the desert on the first anniversary A Message from our Rabbi of yetzias mitzrayim, was a very peculiar one. After Rabbi Dale Polakoff all, to whom did the story need to be told? Every- one there had witnessed the Exodus with their own eyes. He answers that only Moshe’s family, Tzipora and the two children, had not been present. They remained in Midian, and only joined Bnei Yisrael after yetzias mitzrayim. So the first “Seder” saw Moshe re- telling the story to his family. Of course in his humil- ity, he omitted his own name and role, and focused instead on the role played by God. That then set the precedent for the retelling of this story in subse- quent years. Although the author gives no source for his answer, it certainly is an intriguing one. Moshe’s humility is well known within our tradition. Its application through his missing name in the Hag- gadah, reminds us of that which the psalmist wrote: “al tivtichu b’nedivim, beven adam sh’ain lo teshuah It’s nearly impossible to think about yetzias mitz- (Psalm 146) - do not rely on nobles, nor on a human rayim and the Pesach story without focusing on the I being for he holds no salvation.” role played by Moshe Rabbeinu. Yet, if one searches through the entire Haggadah, Moshe’s name can This is always a powerful lesson to remember, all only be found once, and that time only because the the more so in these interesting times in which we author of the Haggadah is quoting a pasuk from are living. The message of the Pesach Seder is the the Torah. message of God’s role in our history and destiny. Why this conspicuous absence of Moshe from the Ellen joins me in wishing you and your families a joy- Haggadah? ous, meaningful and kosher Pesach. An interesting answer is given by Rabbi Yekusiel Ye- hudah Halberstam, the founding Rebbe of the Sanz- Klausenburg Hasidic dynasty. He writes that our sages foresaw that there would arise future genera- Rabbi Dale Polakoff tions that would be lacking a leader to intercede on their behalf. In order to prevent this from causing despair, it is fitting to remember at such times that also in Egypt the redemption did not come about via an angel or Divine messenger, and even Moshe was not with them at the time which they called out and Hashem heard their cries. It was Hashem Himself Who redeemed them then, and He will likewise re- deem us in the near future.