February 3, 2012

Gingrich’s kosher meal tactic leaves a bad tasteBy Juda Engelmayer

Did it matter to Floridian voters that Republican candidate Mitt Romney, for-mer Massachusetts governor, may have cut funding for kosher meals in nursing homes? Whether or not it made a difference is less important than the fact that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich felt the Jewish vote was so important that he needed to fi nd some polarizing issue to throw at his opponent.

This begs the question, is the Jewish com-munity so petty that wider domestic issues and looming foreign matters are less impor-tant than whether ko-sher meals for seniors are funded by the pub-lic?

Putting the facts into perspective, the bulk of the Jewish se-niors whom Mr. Gin-

grich was targeting with his robo-call this week are registered Democrats and had little say in the Republican primary. He knew that though, as does any candidate who does the right research and homework before allocat-ing precious time and limited resources in a presidential race. So why do it at all?

Clearly the impression the media — and many Jewish pundits and advocates — have made on the public and the candidates, in-cluding the President himself, is that the Jewish vote and Jewish opinion will matter enough to impact election results. What’s ignored is the historic fact that the “Jewish community” largely votes Democrat and that when Jews lean to the right, it is generally over issues such as tougher policies in the Middle East and not kosher meals in senior centers.

The point that Mr. Gingrich was evident-

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Juda Engelmayer

By Karen C. Green

Most would call it a daunting burden — a spate of anti-Semitic bias crimes, potential police pre-cinct closings, problems with the handling of crime lab evidence, the quest to bring down overall crime and rampant abuse of prescription

drugs, all juxta-posed against bud-get woes.

Many would shy away, but Thomas Dale, Nassau Coun-

ty’s new police commissioner — a seasoned veteran of more than for-ty years with the NYPD — insisted, in an exclusive interview with The Jewish Star, that these are issues that he’s ready and determined to address.

He spoke with fondness about alliances and friendships formed

New Police Commissioner

Ready to fi ght hate crimes

and more

Photo by Penny Frondelli

NCPD Commissioner Thomas Dale stressed the importance of community relations in his interview with the Jewish Star.

Continued on page 3

Exclusive to the Jewish Star

Inside

The Jewish StarAsk Aviva 13Classified Ads 13From the Heart of Jerusalem 15Hebrew Only Please! 6Kosher Bookworm 5On the Calendar 11Parsha 6Politico to Go 4Who’s in the kitchen 10

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ly trying to make was that those who want to focus on Mitt Romney should know that Romney’s agenda is more in tune to what Jewish Democrats pay attention to and not what right-leaning Conservatives want to talk about. Betting that the media would give that cheap shot the attention it should not have deserved, Mr. Gingrich was paint-ing his primary opponent as less of a Repub-lican than he was. That’s the argument that Mr. Gingrich is hoping to win on — that he is the true Conservative. The former Speaker knew well when that robo-call went out that Florida would fall to Mr. Romney, but he used it to garner national attention.

He used Jews as a tool. He used the hype that the Jewish vote is so critical that the mere mention of kosher food would stir his coverage. He was right, but it does Jewish citizens no good to be targeted this way.

The national Jewish community stands for so many great things, from major philan-thropic works to caring human services to, yes, fi nancial success. Jews are on the right and left — George Soros supports President Obama and Sheldon Adelson supports Mr. Gingrich. Both are philanthropic and both express support for Israel – yet with different views on Israel policy.

When the Jewish label is used for a cam-paign pitch, as it was in Florida this week, it not only cheapens the value of the true Jew-ish contribution to the country, but borders on leveling an old anti-Semitic charge: Jews are cheap.

Notwithstanding that Jews have been, and remain, some of the biggest charitable donors around the world and that politi-cal candidates often seek campaign funds through Jewish channels and supporters, the ancient cheapskate joke is still told over and over again. There are still places in this country where the stereotype resonates, and when Mr. Gingrich makes what became a national issue out of whether Jewish senior citizens want their kosher meals subsidized, it only furthers the belief in this myth.

Mr. Gingrich’s campaign robo-call also in-voked the unthinkable, the Holocaust. The recording intoned, “…Holocaust survivors, who for the fi rst time were forced to eat non-kosher, because Romney thought fi ve dollars was too much to pay for our grandparents to eat kosher.”

Not only did the candidate invoke the im-age of miserly Jews, he made a blatant at-tempt to tug at Jewish heart strings on the eve of United Nation’s International Holo-caust Remembrance Day on January 27. The memory of the worst human catastrophe to befall Jews was used as a cheap campaign plug, aimed at a group who were not likely voters in this primary, and for a race he knew he was not going to win.

Is that the way the Jewish community wants to be called on for public service? Are the social, human, legal, governmental and fi nancial contributions made by Jews to the country as a whole and to individual politi-cal parties so marginal that the community can easily be trivialized and its population be taken in vain, as it was?

Jewish Americans have helped make the issues that matter to them very important to all Americans. On matters that come before legislators and judges — foreign policies, fi s-cal issues, social issues — Jewish opinions and activism have impacted what the United States stands for to the world and to our fel-low Americans. Shameful stunts that make Jews seem almost clownish should bring the community together in disapproval, across both sides of the political aisle.

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with members of the Satmar com-munity during his Williamsburg posting with the NYPD. A wide smile emerged as he reminisced about becoming acclimated to the many nuances of the Cha-sidic enclave.

But his demeanor changed when he was asked about alarm-ing and disturbing reports of fi re bombings at a New Jersey syna-gogue and a wave of various hate crimes reported in Brooklyn. And he has mobilized his department to thwart any recurrence of recent bias crime events — like swastika graffi ti and menorah desecration that have occurred on the North Shore in such areas as Great Neck, Sea Cliff and Plainview.

“I have asked for a briefi ng of all hate and bias crimes that have occurred last year, not only to get the information on each case but to check the entire system. I met with the Chief of Patrol and the Chief of Detectives and the Command-ing Offi cer of Bias to go over what steps are taken... there are a lot of investigative steps… we indeed have a system in place to deal with bias crimes.”

Internally, the effort involves educating Nassau’s police force in cultural matters. At the helm is Detective Lt. Gary Shapiro, Com-manding Offi cer of Community Af-fairs and the NCPD’s hate crimes coordinator, who has facilitated participation in the Holocaust Tol-erance Center of Glen Cove’s “Law Enforcement and Society” pro-gram.

This program, provided to the

Nassau County Police Department, is required of all cadets. It was de-veloped by the US Holocaust Me-morial Museum and the Anti-Def-amation League.

It fi rst examines the role of the police under Nazism, and then con-trasts it to current law enforcement in America. The experience is tout-ed as eye-opening and instrumen-tal in enhancing sensitivity train-ing, leading to a more fulfi lling experience as a law enforcement professional. Additional efforts in-clude presentations by representa-tives from various communities.

A foot in both worlds

A resident of Nassau County for four decades, Dale spent his forma-tive years in Park Slope, Brooklyn. He speaks fondly of those years and of riding the subway to downtown Brooklyn and to Manhattan to shop and visit relatives.

Having had a foot in both worlds, Dale isn’t at all concerned about transitioning from City to Nassau Cop. “I’ve worked every-where in the City, except Staten Island. It’s all the same. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in a radio car answering an accident in the Brooklyn, or Queens or in Nassau, same type of family disputes, miss-ing kids, the same.”

Dale honed his skills in Brooklyn where he commanded precincts in Coney Island, Bushwick and Wil-liamsburg. It was there that he developed the sense of “cultural awareness” he hopes to bring to the table in upcoming community group meetings in the Five Towns and across the county.

With public safety as the number one priority of govern-ment, Commissioner Dale stood alongside County Executive Ed Mangano at a press conference on Monday January 30, as the County Executive outlined his police reorganization plan.

At a further meeting with The Jewish Star, the County Ex-ecutive and Police Commissioner outlined their proposed plan to streamline the department’s pre-cincts.

They highlighted the plan’s dual purpose, “to increase ef-fi ciencies while addressing fi s-cal issues, such as soaring over-time.” If the plan is approved, eight existing precincts will be consolidated into four. The Sec-ond, Third, Fourth and Seventh Precincts will subsume the Eight, Sixth, Fifth and First, respective-ly, each two on the same radio frequency. The Seventh will be renamed the First. Precincts that will be phased out will remain open as Community Policing Centers, each staffed with two police offi cers around the clock.

Dale and top police brass as-sert that the redistribution lends itself to a more evenly distributed workload, with the same 177 po-lice cars remaining in their cur-rent neighborhoods. Of the 156 total precinct administrative desk jobs (39 police offi cers in each of

the four precincts), 48 will be re-assigned POP (Problem Oriented Police) Cops.

Brian Nevin, aide to the Coun-ty Executive, is quick to make the point that reassigning these offi -cers will “have no effect on pub-lic safety as they are restricted by contractual agreement from

leaving their desk jobs to assist the public.”

While this plan can only move forward with the approval of the Nassau County Legislature at an end of month meeting, Com-missioner Dale is steadfast in his claim that “there will be no change in service.”

Commissioner ready to fi ght hate crimes and more

By Benjy Schreier

Savor these moments, for they are pre-cious.

As a long suffering Mets fan, I always wondered what it would be like to be a Yan-kees fan. Does winning championships ever get old? Is it possible to actually take it for granted? When you lose, do you say, “it’s okay, we’ll get them next year.”

My teams have never experienced that type of sports dominance. I went through my entire childhood as a Giants fan without ever smelling the playoffs.

Then from the jubilation of Scott Nor-wood’s “wide right,” until the “18-1” Patriots championship, were sixteen years of frustra-tion. Can you imagine how Jets’ fans feel? Therefore, every opportunity I get to take ad-vantage of a playoff run, I treat it like it will be my last one.

This fi ve week stretch has been nothing short of incredible. However, on Sunday eve-ning, reality will set in. If we don’t beat the Patriots, this season, in spite of all the high-lights, will quickly be forgotten.

The 2001 loss to the Ravens in Super Bowl XXXV is a stark reminder of how a great play-off run can disappear over the course of a six-ty minute debacle. Therefore, it has fallen on me to make sure that doesn’t happen. It’s up to me to lay out for the Giants how to make sure they take full advantage of this precious opportunity.

The Giants must accept the fact that even if they bring their best defensive effort, the Patriots will score points. The Patriots of-fense has arguably the best quarterback in the league, who will use all weapons at his disposal to beat us.

Tom Brady certainly earned my eternal re-spect with that gutsy 4th down, 1 yard dive to score that huge touchdown against the Ra-vens. I still can’t believe he walked away af-ter Ray Lewis’ fl ying helmet to his back. It is the task of the Giants defense to stop Brady a few times. Shutting him down is impossible.

Entering their last two victorious Super Bowls, the Giants were a prohibitive under-dog, working with an offense that relied on a strong running attack, but facing teams that were offensive juggernauts. Naturally, the game plan for those two games was to domi-nate time of possession, thus keeping the powerful offenses off the fi eld. Bill Belichek would be thrilled if the Giants came in with that game plan.

I implore the Giants not to fall into that trap. At this year’s Super Bowl, we are the better team! Play like it. In order to win this game, the Giants must come out aggressive-ly, as often as possible, and throw the ball down the fi eld. The Patriots are weak in the secondary, have a weak pass rush, and are about fi ve steps slower than the dominant 49er defense we just faced. If we have the ball fi ve times in the fi rst half, we need to score four touchdowns.

The matchup that favors the Giants most is when the Giants go with their three wide re-ceivers, Nicks, Cruz, and Manningham, theirtight end, Ballard or Beckham, and halfback, Bradshaw or Ware. The Patriots cannot stopthat offense. If we don’t beat ourselves withfumbles, interceptions, or conservative play calling, we will win this game.

The Patriots will try to run the ball toslow the Giant pass rush. Brady will contin-ue in the no huddle, but certainly will be inno hurry to give the ball back to the powerfulGiant offense.

Finally, the moment you’ve all been wait-ing for. New York Giants 35 New England Patriots 28. See you at the parade!!

GO BIG BLUE!!! In honor of the Giants Super Bowl Run,

Seasons of Lawrence is offering some amaz-ing game day specials. Check out our websiteat SeasonsNY.com, and call Shiv, 516 295 3300 to place your orders!

Send any Big Blue questions or comments to [email protected].

Benjy Schreier, manager of Seasons of Law-rence, lives in Woodmere, with his wife, Penina,who is a co-founder of Gan Ami, a popularnursery program in Cedarhurst. Their children,Menashe, 21, Batya, 16, Dalia 15, and Hillel, 14have kept up the Big Blue tradition. His video,“The Giants 2007 Playoff Run— The Plays thatNo One Talks About” is in many Giant fans’ vid-eo libraries. He was a semi-fi nalist in the WFAN“Fantasy Phenom” contest this past year.

A long suffering fan has a chance to bask in Big Blue glory

Continued from page 1

County is hoping to do more with less

Photo by Penny Frondelli

From left, Det. Lt. Gary Shapiro, Dep. Insp. Kenneth Lack and Commissioner Dale meet with Karen C. Green.

Eli Manning could join the ranks of all-time elite quarterbacks with a second Superbowl win on Sunday.

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Opinion

THE JEWISH STARIndependent and original reporting from the Orthodox communities of Long Island and New York City

All opinions expressed are solely those of The Jewish Star’s editorial staff or contributing writers

Publisher and Editor Karen C. Green Account Executive Helene Parsons Contributors Miriam Bradman Abrahams Rabbi Avi Billet Jeff Dunetz Juda Engelmayer Rabbi Binny Freedman Alan Jay Gerber Rabbi Noam Himelstein Judy Joszef Aviva Rizel Editorial Designer Alyson Goodman Photo Editor Christina Daly

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Copyright © 2012 The Jewish Star LLC. All rights reserved.

S ometime around 10:30 on a Friday eve-ning on March 11, 2011, terrorists en-tered the house in the Israeli commu-

nity of Itamar. It was the house of the Fogel family. They entered through the living room picture window but did not notice 6-year-old child Roi sleeping on the couch. They went right into the bedroom, where they slashed the throats of Udi Fogel and baby Hadas, who were asleep.

Wife and mother Ruth came out of the bathroom and was stabbed on its threshold.

The evidence shows that she tried to fi ght the terrorists. The ter-rorists then slashed the throat of the 11-year-old Yoav who was reading in bed, missed 2-year old Yishai who was asleep but totally covered by his comfort-er, and brutally mur-dered 3-year old Elad with two stabs to his heart. With that, they locked the door and es-caped.

The Fogel’s 12-year-old daughter Tamar returned home from spending Shabbos din-

ner with friends at about 12:30AM and found the door locked. She asked a neighbor, Rabbi Yaakov Cohen, of the Itamar Yeshiva, to help her. He brought a weapon with him once he noticed tracks and mud near the house. The two woke up the 6-year old sleeping in the living room by calling through the window, and when he opened the door, the Rabbi re-turned to his home. When she entered the

bedrooms, the young daughter saw the hor-rifi c blood-soaked scene and ran out of the house screaming.

This wasn’t just a terrorist attack; it was the butchering of a young family, including little children. By any measure of humanity, this attack was simply disgusting.

Immediately after the massacre of the young family, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas telephoned Prime Minister Netanyahu to condemn the attack. In an in-terview with Israel Radio, he called it a de-spicable, immoral, and inhuman act, saying, “A human being is not capable of something like that.” “Scenes like these – the murder of infants and children and a woman slaugh-tered – cause any person endowed with hu-manity to hurt and to cry.

But as we have learned much too often, the “moderate” terrorists who run the Pales-tinian Authority, say one thing to the west and something quite different to the Palestin-ian people. As reported by Palestinian Media Watch, twice in the past week, the PA gov-ernment-run TV station broadcast greetings to the murderers of the Fogel family (who are in an Israeli jail) from the relatives of the killers and from the PA TV host.

PA TV host: “We have a call from the fam-ily of prisoner Hakim Awad.”

Mother of Hakim Awad: “I thank you for connecting me with my son, because I and all of the family are prevented for security reasons [from visiting him].

Host: “Go ahead, sister, we can convey your voice.”

Mother of Hakim Awad: “My greetings to dear Hakim, the apple of my eye, from the village of Awarta, 17 years old, who carried out the operation in Itamar (i.e., killing of 5 Fogel family members), sentenced to 5 life

sentences and another 5 years, in prison.”Aunt of Hakim Awad: “I’m the sister of

prisoner Hassan Awad and of Salah Awad; [I am] Um Habib, from the village of Awarta. My warm greetings to all the great heroic prisoners, to my brother Hassan Awad, head of the village council; to my brother Salah Awad, the heroic prisoner journalist; to the heroic, resolute prisoner, the lion, Yazid Awad, my nephew; and to my nephew Hakim Awad, the hero, the legend.”

Host: “We [PA TV], for our part, also con-vey our greetings to them.”

Aunt of Hakim Awad: “I dedicate this song to Hassan Awad, Yazid Awad, Hakim Awad, and Salah Awad, in prison:

‘My brother, in solitary confi nement, your voice calls to me.

You dare not throw down the rifl e.That is what the homeland asked of meIn your eyes, we are all self-sacrifi cing

fi ghters.I convey greetings to the sound of the bul-

lets of Ahmad Sa’adat and Hakim Awad.’”Host: “Thank you for being with us, the

family of prisoners Hassan and Salah Awad of Awarta.”

[PA TV (Fatah), Jan. 19 and 21, 2012]Note she calls the brutal murderer” The

hero, the legend.” The PA is teaching its pop-ulation that brutal murderers are heroes and legends. And their friend in America, Presi-dent Obama, does not speak out.

Where is Mr. Friend of Israel, President Barack Obama? Why isn’t he condemning this glorifi cation of a brutal act by the Gov-ernment run by his buddy President Abbas? Palestinian State TV runs segments prais-ing terrorists on a regular basis—but the US President and his Administration insists on criticizing Israel’s building of new housing

units, saying, “this kind of activity is never helpful when it comes to peace negotiations.” Tell me, how many children had their throatsslashed because of a new Israeli apartment in Jerusalem?

In striking contrast, the President hasnever issued a statement about the murderof the Fogel family. The only statement wasfrom Press Secretary Jay Carney.

“We condemn in the strongest possibleterms the murder of fi ve Israelis in a terror-ist attack in the northern West Bank, and weoffer our condolences to their loved ones andto the Israeli people,” White House press sec-retary Jay Carney said in a statement. “Thereis no possible justifi cation for the killing of parents and children in their home. We call on the Palestinian Authority to unequivocallycondemn this terrorist attack and for the per-petrators of this heinous crime to be held ac-countable

Obama’s condemnations of settlement building often come from his own mouth,but the brutal murder of fi ve innocent Israe-lis and their continued glorifi cation by thesupposed peace partners in the Palestinian Authority bring nothing but silence from theleader of the free world. Jewish voters whostill believe that this President is a friend ofthe Jewish State should remember where hispriorities lie when condemning actions thatare not “helpful when it comes to peace ne-gotiations.

Jeff Dunetz is the Editor/Publisher of thepolitical blog “The Lid” (www.jeffdunetz.com).Jeff contributes to some of the largest politi-cal sites on the internet including American Thinker, Big Government, Big Journalism, NewsReal and Pajama’s Media, and has beena guest on national. Jeff lives in Long Island.

POLITICO TO GO

Jeff Dunetz

Obama trashes Israel for settlements, silent when Palestinian Authority praises Fogel family murderers

This coming Saturday night, February 4, Emunah is hosting “Live From Emunah it’s Saturday night!” at the Backstage Night Club/Wood-mere Lanes. Featuring the comedic talents of Modi, the evening prom-ises to be a hysterical evening of laughter, delicious food, and decadent desserts to benefi t and support the life changing work of Emunah.

Emunah embraces every segment of Israeli society, operating a network of 135 daycare centers and multi-purpose centers servicing over 12,000 children. With the establishment of 5 children’s residen-tial homes serving children at risk, Emunah has become their surro-gate mother; with the creation of 5 high schools for girls, including an award winning Torah and Arts High School, as well as the Emunah Appleman Collge of Art, which houses the Charlotte Dachs Mechina Program, Emunah has ensured promising futures. In addition Emu-nah maintains crisis centers and an infant 24 hour emergency shelter. Emunah supports 13 family counseling centers and provides services for the elderly and homebound, enrichment for new immigrants and emergency services throughout Israel.

From infants to senior citizens—EMUNAH is building a stronger Is-rael- one child, one family at a time.

Your participation in Saturday night’s comedy show will not only bring a smile to your face, but also a smile to the face of someone’s life that YOU are changing in Israel.

Dairy Buffet and Desserts at 8 pm, Showtime 9 pm HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!! Please contact Shari Shapiro at 516 413-6927 .

LIVE from EMUNAH,It’s Saturday Night!!!

VOICE YOUR OPINION! E-mail letters to [email protected]

or fax to (516) 569-4942.

According to Dr. Rachel Kolander of the Department of Music of Bar Ilan University,”The Hebrew word shirah has three meanings:

poetic writing,often incorporating rhyme and having a specifi c, known meter;

musical vocal production, combining acoustic parameters and textual meaning;

instrumental musical production.“When the Red Sea was parted it appears

that all three meanings of the word – words, voice, and instruments – came together as one, to express the inner joy, spiritual elation,

and divine revelation experienced by each and every person who came out of Egypt.”

Thus from the very beginning of our peo-ple’s existence, music played a decisive and defi ning role. To this day, that very song, Az Yashir is recited in the daily morning service of our people.

This coming Shab-bat we recite the Torah reading for the conclu-

sion of the Exodus experience, the parting of the Red [or Reed] Sea. According to tra-dition, this Shabbat also is the harbinger of spring, a season that is most welcome by all for its spirit of optimism, liberation and….. song.

Recently, one of our community’s most gifted and respected educators, Rabbi Elysha Sandler of Mesivta Ateret Yaakov penned a

most unusual and informative work entitled, “Through Music and Song: Music from a To-rah Perspective” [Israel Bookshop Publica-tions, 2011] wherein are described in clear language the power of music in the Jewish religious tradition that includes the songs of Shabbat and the tunes of tefi llah, prayer. It is to this later part of this work which will serve as the focus for this week’s review.

Setting the tone for this book we read from Rabbi Naftali Jaeger’s gracious mich-tav brachah the following teaching from Rav Yitzchak Hutner of blessed memory.

“….although people are lazy by nature, we nevertheless see that through music they begin to move and even dance. This is because music is vested with the power to ‘liven’ a person.”

Such is the regard that our religious tradi-tion invests music, that being the all power-ful motivator for the enhancement of our lit-urgy and of our understanding of its meaning and purpose.

According to Rabbi Sandler, “Song occu-pies a prominent place in traditional teffi lah. In some communities, there are select sec-tions of the prayers that are sung or chanted in unison by the entire congregation, while others prefer to listen to them intoned by the leader, chazzan, or choir. This is in addition to the customary sing-song to which virtually all the teffi los are recited by the individual members of the congregation themselves…. Where does this stem from ? What is its role?”

It is to these last two questions that Rab-bi Sandler so eloquently answers by teaching us a precious chapter of our religious tradi-

tion; the art of proper prayer, and the real meaning and practice of responsible singing during the sacred service in shul.

The tunes utilized at the various points during the services are detailed in terms of their signifi cance in their roles at enhancing our understanding and thus concentration of the meaning of the text and the basic defi ni-tion of the purpose of the worship service. No theatrics are tolerated here, music is de-signed for the prayer text, not for lyrics in some theatre production or musical show. This is the bottom line theme and core teach-ing of this valuable sefer.

Rabbi Sandler focuses his attention in this moving part of his work on what truly con-stitutes legitimate music and song within the essence of teffi lah, and the joyous recep-tion that should envelop the worship experi-ence.

Lastly, the role of the leader or shliach tzi-bbur is detailed in terms of both voice quality as well as spiritual competence of the leader of the service.

All of the above are detailed with rel-evant citations, quotes and numerous anec-dotals that serve to further buttress the rab-bi’s teachings. Further,all Hebrew citations are translated into a clear English through-out this work.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the British Chief Rabbi, and a gifted translator and inter-preter of our liturgy in his own right once said, “Prayer is not magic. It does not bend the world to our will; if anything it does the opposite. It helps us notice the things we otherwise take for granted. It redeems our solitude. It gives us a language of aspi-

ration, a vocabulary of ideals. And seeingthings differently, we begin to act differently.The world we build tomorrow is born in theprayers we say today…..Starve a body offood, and it dies. Starve a soul of prayer andit atrophies and withers . And sometimes prayer is all the more powerful for being saidin words not our own, words that come to us from our people’s past, hallowed by time,resonant with the tears and hopes of earliergeneration, words that gave them strengthand which they handed on to us to use and cherish.”

Hopefully, these wise and perceptive wordsby Rabbi Sacks will serve to help effectivelyframe the teachings of Rabbi Elysha Sandleras contained in his new book and thus encour-age you to consider his work for a presence inboth you homes and shul libraries.

Alan Jay Gerber

The Kosher BookwormPart Two: Shabbat Shirah and the Jewish Spring

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After the splitting of the sea, the people begin to settle into their wilderness existence, and become the recipients of a daily dose of manna from heaven.

The instructions as to what this food is, how it is to be rationed, and how it is to be cooked and eaten are given piecemeal. In 16:19, Moshe tells the people not to leave any leftovers until the next day. Perhaps this was the precursor to every successful Passover program: no need to take leftovers to your room because there will always be a new helping of food the following morning.

For the second and last time, we fi nd the people not listening to Moshe (the fi rst was in 6:9, during the heart of slavery, before the plagues began). People

leave food for the next day – and it spoils. Moshe’s reaction is to get angry at them.

It is quite understandable why they did not listen to him in Egypt. His efforts to that point had only yielded more work and more suffering. The people, exhausted from their exertions, had not the where-withal to listen to Moshe’s promises of redemption.

In our story, however, why wouldn’t they listen? After all, if the manna from heaven is so clearly a miraculous gift, and if

since the last “not listening experience” you have wit-nessed this man bring about ten plagues, split the sea and drown your oppressors, why wouldn’t you think there’s something to what he’s doing and saying? How could you come to ignore him completely?

Perhaps they ignored him because they were still living in a slave mentality reality. Perhaps a slave counts every morsel of food that comes his way, not believing he’ll see something good again for a long time. So even though they were told not to leave anything over, either they couldn’t help it because they were used to hoard-ing or they couldn’t believe that such fresh food would literally spoil in the morning.

So why did Moshe get angry? Shouldn’t he under-stand the mind games the people play with themselves?

A closer look at other times when Moshe gets an-gry with the word “Vayiktzof” may help us understand Moshe’s impetus for bringing out his anger card. The

commentary of the Baalei Hatosafot summarizes the three times this word is used to describe Moshe’s get-ting angry. The other two incidents are: when Moshe’s nephews do not partake of the goat sacrifi ce at the ded-ication of the Mishkan, shortly after their older broth-ers die; and when the soldiers return from the all-out Midianite war having spared the women of the nation they had been ordered to wipe out completely. [He also got angry at the Golden Calf incident, and when deal-ing with the Korach group – except that there the Torah uses the word “Vayee-char”]

In each case, the Baalei Hatosafot explain, Moshe forgot a law as a result of his anger: in the manna story - he forgot to tell the people not to collect manna on the seventh day; with his nephews - he forgot that after los-ing a close relative a mourner does not eat meat ; after the Midianite war - he forgot the laws concerning how to kosherize vessels they had seized in battle.

There are a number of common denominators in the three stories. I will focus on two of them. Firstly, the people deliberately ignored a direct command from God that had been channeled through Moshe. Second-ly, Moshe was very aware that a precedent was being set as each circumstance was a fi rst time episode.

It’s a diffi cult balance. Sometimes anger is warrant-ed, and sometimes anger only serves to bring a person down. In Moshe’s case, the setback he suffered was that he forgot a law – God, Aharon and Elazar taught him the three laws, respectively. But what was at stake? God’s honor.

The difference between Moshe getting angry “for God’s sake” and those who think “they know what God wants” is that he was the direct line, and knew exactly and explicitly what needed to be done. And, in every case, he was trying to set a precedent that people could one day turn to for guidance..

But not everything works out “the way you want” and his personal outcome was forgetfulness. God did not get upset or punish people for violating the shab-bos, for example. He just asked Moshe to give them a little rebuke. And when Moshe delivered the message as he was told, the people changed.

Sometimes even better than anger is saying in a clear and fi rm tone, “I stand for this exact thing that God said.” If communicated properly and respectfully, there is a much better chance that people will listen.

Getting angry, speaking calmly

Rabbi Avi Billet

Hebrew only please!A Jewish newspaper should have a Hebrew column. So here it is. We will try to maintain a level of vocabulary so that it will be easy

enough for students to read and interesting enough for those more fl uent to enjoy.

“The 35”

Rabbi Noam Himelstein studied in Yeshivat Har Etzion and served in the Tanks Corps of theIDF. He has taught in yeshiva high schools, post-high school women’s seminaries, and headed the Torah MiTzion Kollel in Melbourne, Australia. He currently teaches at Yeshivat Orayta in Jerusa-lem, and lives with his wife and six children in Neve Daniel, Gush Etzion.

By Rabbi Noam Himelstein

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This coming Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday. Although I’m a Dolphin’s fan, I’ll be cheer-ing on the Giants, alongside my husband,

Jerry and close friends, who are diehard fans.At least I’ll have the satisfaction of knowing

The 72’ Dolphins remain the only NFL team to complete an entire season undefeated and untied from the opening game through the Super Bowl.

Americans will hold more parties in their homes than on any other day of the year, sur-passing even New Year’s Eve. We’ll eat more food than on any single day of the year except Thanks-giving. It’s also the biggest day of the year for

snack food consumption.Consumers spend over

$50 million each year to stock up on snacks for Super Bowl weekend. They’ll typically eat over 8.5 million pounds of tor-tilla chips, 4000 tons of popcorn, 14,500 tons of potato chips and 8 million pounds of guacamole to go with them. For millions of

us, who couldn’t score tickets to the big game, a big screen TV with a great view of the game is the next best thing. For dedicated football fans, Super Bowl Sunday means watching the ultimate sporting event of the year, surrounded by fellow football fanatics at a great party with non-stop food and drinks.

Although most parties will have many die-hard football fans, there are also those, that know nothing about the game of football and really don’t care who wins the game, but they’ll never turn down an invitation to a Super Bowl Party. It’s a great excuse to get together with friends for fun and feasting. Many will tune in just to catch the

commercials and the half time show.Of the top 10 most watched television pro-

grams of all time, 9 of them are Super Bowls. For those of you who have not yet decided what to prepare, I chose a two easy to make, creative snacks to share with you.

So whether having a Super Bowl party at your house, attending someone else’s party, or just watching the game at home with your family, have fun, enjoy and happy snacking!!!

Better go easy on the hot sauce though. On Super Bowl Monday, sales of antacids increase by 20 percent and 6 percent of Americans will call in sick

Super Bowl Cupcakes■ 2 cups fl our■ 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa■ 2 cups sugar■ 1 cup milk or on dairy creamer■ 1 cup boiling water■ 11/2 tsp baking powder■ 11/2 tsp baking soda■ 1/8 sp salt■ 1 tsp vanilla extract■ 1/2 cup oil■ 2 extra large eggs■ non stick sprayMix all dry ingredients then add the wet ones,

except for the boiling water. Mix till blended and then add the boiling water.

Place paper cupcake holders in a 12-14 sec-tion cupcake pan and spray with non stick coat-ing

Batter will be very thin. Pour 3/4 way up, to allow room to rise

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Remove and let cool

Decorating Ingredients and materials;■ 12 ounces rich whip■ Green food coloring■ Green sprinkles■ Pastry bag with #3 tip for piping the white

whipped cream (you can substitute a plastic bag and just snip off the end)

■ Parchment paper■ Plastic squeeze bottle for yellow melted

chocolate coating■ 10 ounces yellow Wilton’s chocolate melting

wafers (Michael’s)■ Green food coloringWhip the cream and remove one quarter and

place in the pastry bag with the # 3 tipMix the green food coloring into the remain-

ing whipped cream.Dip the tops of each cupcake into the whipped

cream and smooththen dip into the green sprinklesWith the white whipped cream, pipe out the

lines on the cupcake, refer to the photo.To make the goal posts, melt the yellow choc-

olate wafers in the microwave in 35 second in-tervals until melted. Pour into a plastic squeeze bottle and pipe out the goal posts onto a piece of parchment paper (refer to the cupcake again in the photo).

When goal posts are hard gently remove and insert them gently into the tops the cupcakes

For those of you who would rather make this

recipe a bit less time consuming, you can substi-tute a cake mix, for the home made cupcakes,and store bought white frosting for the whippedcream. Color the frosting green as you would thewhipped cream. Remember to reserve a quar-ter of the frosting, before you color it green, sothat you can pipe out the white lines on top ofthe cupcake.

Strawberry Footballs

■ 2 lbs of fi rm strawberries, with stem on■ 1 lb of chocolate dark coating (or Wilton’s

dark chocolate wafers, if your party will be dairy).■ Pareve chocolate coating can be bought in

the local kosher supermarkets (Shufra)■ 8 ounces non-dairy white chocolate coating■ Squeeze bottle for the white chocolate■ Parchment or wax paperMelt the dark chocolate in the microwave at

30 second intervals, making sure no to burn thechocolate. One by one, dip each strawberry inthe chocolate and lay them down to harden

Melt the white chocolate and pour into thesqueeze bottle. sing the photo as a guide, pipethe white stitches on the “football” (strawberry)

When chocolate is hardened, gently removefrom paper and place on a platter

Judy Joszef is a pastry and personal chef as well

as a party planner. She spent 18 years as a pas-try chef at Abigael’s, The Cedar Club, Centro andT42 in the Five Towns, before launching her cur-rent business. She may be contacted via email [email protected].

Who’s in the kitchenSuper snack Sunday

Judy Joszef

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Shabbat, Feb. 3-4Congregation Beth Sholom SCHOLAR IN RESIDENCE: RABBI NATAN SLIFKIN Friday 8p.m. - “One People, Two Worlds: Rational-ists and Mystics”Shabbat Morning 11:00 a.m. - “Battle for Beit Shemesh:The Evolution of Chareidim”Shabbat Afternoon - 5:00 p.m. - “The Animal Kingdom in Jewish Thought” Rabbi Natan Slifkin has caused a stir in the Or-thodox world with his brilliantly researched and articulated views on signifi cant areas of Jewish thought i.e. creation of the universe, evolution & the development of life. Known as the “Zoo Rabbi”, Rabbi Slifkin now lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel, the site of much recent con-troversy, and teaches at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo. He is the author of several books including “The Challenge of Creation” and “Mysterious Creatures”.

Feb 4Live from EMUNAH, IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT!EMUNAH OF AMERICA- 5 Towns ChapterProudly presents the comedy event of year fea-turing the Comedy Sensation MODI at Backstage Night Club, 948 Broadway, Woodmere8:00pm: Dairy Buffet & Desserts, 9:00p.m. Showtime$60 per personSPONSORSHIPS (includes one reservation): $100 LENO$180 LETTERMAN$180 SEINFELD$250 CRYSTAL For Information & Reservations contact:Elana Oved: 516-984-4799 [email protected] Shapiro:516-413-6927 [email protected] Dachs: 917-543-6335 [email protected] Koegel: 516-286-3509 [email protected] Fuchs- COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSON

Lev Yitzchak LibraryMEET THE AUTHORS - Combating Abuse in the Jewish Community with Judy Brown author of HUSH and Michael Salamon author of Abuse in the Jewish Community: Religious and Communal Factors that Undermine the Apprehension of Offenders and the Treatment of Victims. The program will begin at 8:30PM and will be followed by a Q & A session. Light refreshments will be served.

Feb 5Blood driveCONGREGATION ANSHEI CHESED annual blood drive in the Yeshiva of South Shore Preschool building. 8am-12:30 p.m. For more information, please contact Pam Bluth at 295-0947 or [email protected]. No appointment needed.

Feb 6Lev Yitzchak Library

FIRESIDE CHATS: HASHKAFIC WORKSHOPS FOR WOMENThe things you wish your kallah teacher would have shared with you. Practical insights into enhancing your relationship with your husband(For Married Women Only) Presentation given by prominent Kallah teachers Mrs. Yaffa Goldsmith and Mrs. Devorah Resnick 8:00pm - Light refresh-ments and question submission 8:30pm – Work-shop Question and answer period to follow

Feb. 7Wellness WorkshopGREAT NECK SYNAGOGUEAre you suffering from Sugar Blues? Are you ready to end your sugar cravings? Do you have low energy in the middle of the day? Come join Nutritional Health Coach, Pam Bilfeld, for her signature Sugar Workshop. Pam Bilfeld received training from the Insti-tute for Integrative Nutrition in more than one hundred dietary theories and studied a variety of practical lifestyle coaching methods. Drawing on this knowledge, she helps her clients create a completely personalized “roadmap to health” that suits each unique body, lifestyle, prefer-ences, and goals.Space is limited. Please RSVP to [email protected].

Feb. 8Hadassah Devora Group’s Warm Win-ter Meeting TU B’SHVAT 7:45 PM Home of Mindy Steinblatt584 June Place, North Woodmere Learn about packing for vacation from a travel-

packing professional! Maggie, from Village Luggage in Rockville Cen-tre will share her expertise with us. Tu B’Shvat snacks will be served! RSVP Miriam [email protected] or 569 9343.

Feb 9, 16Chabad of the Five Towns at Brandeis SchoolFRIENDSHIP CIRCLE, SPORTS NIGHTA three week sports session with our experi-enced instructor, Coach Michael and the students of the Brandies school. Together all will have a ball and practice basketball skill, kickball, and much more. Sibs welcomeFee: $25 per child for all 3 sessions. For more information please call 516-295-2478, ext. 13 or email Batsheva@chabadfi vetowns.com.

Feb. 17 – 18MUSIC, MEANING, & SPIRITUALITYOCEANSIDE JEWISH CENTERScholar in Residence, Rabbi Dr. Elie Holzer, Professor at Bar Ilan University and Founder of Shira Hadasha Friday, Feb 17 at 5:30 p.m. Singing, Kabbalat Shab-bat, Dinner with an Asian fl air, dessert, discus-sion. $18 per adult, children 12 years and under $13. Advance reservations. Saturday Feb.18, 9 a.m. Shacharit, Torah, Musaf Services. Oceanside Jewish Center is located at 2860 Brower Avenue. For more information and to RSVP, please call the synagogue offi ce at 516-536-6112.

Participants of The Chabad of the Five Towns winter mission to Israel enjoying a day at the Kineret.

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One of the greatest gifts we have in this world is the ability to make choices in our lives. Though sometimes, we might

wish we didn’t have to make those choices.Choices; sometimes obvious, often diffi -

cult, we don’t always relish the weight and challenge that come with them, but they are, in the end, part of what make us who

we are. The choices we make carry with them the ability to grow, to express ourselves, and most of all, to be part-ners with G-d in cre-ating, every day, the new world we live in. It would perhaps, be sim-pler, if we didn’t have to make such choices, and G-d did it all for us. But then we would be animals, and life would lose its meaning.

All of which makes the opening of this week’s portion, Beshal-ach, so challenging.

G-d tells Moshe, that the people should make camp opposite the sea, because:

“I will strengthen Pharaoh’s heart that he will pursue them (Israel), and I will harden Pharaoh and all his armies, that Egypt will know that I am G-d…” (Shemot 14:4)

Essentially, Hashem will harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he will pursue the Jewish peo-ple, resulting in the miracle of the splitting of the sea. And this has been one of the major themes of the entire story of the exodus from Egypt. All the way back at the burning bush,

when Moshe is fi rst sent to Egypt to confront Pharaoh, G-d tells him (3: 19-20) that Pha-raoh will not let the people go, and G-d will strike at Egypt with all manner of miracles, and only then will Pharaoh let the Jewish people go.

Indeed, throughout the entire Exodus story, even at the last plague of the fi rst born, (11:20) G-d consistently hardens Pha-raoh’s heart, so that he will not let the people go. But if Pharaoh did not actually choose to keep the Jews in bondage, why was he (along with all of Egypt) responsible for the consequences? If G-d hardened his heart, how could Hashem then ‘punish’ him for his refusal by visiting the next plague upon him?

The key to this question may lie in a fas-cinating insight the Ramban (Moshe Ben Nachman, a 13th century commentator in Spain, and later in Jerusalem,) makes.

It is interesting to note, that in the fi rst fi ve plagues, despite Hashem’s promise to harden Pharaoh’s heart, it never says that he does so. In fact, consistently in the fi rst fi ve plagues, the Torah actually describes how Pharaoh hardens his own heart. (See 7:23, 8:11, 8:15, 8:28, and 9:7) It is only with the advent of the sixth plague, that we begin to see (9:12) that G-d actually hardens Pharaoh’s heart.

The Ramban suggests that although Pha-raoh can only be responsible for the choices he himself makes, a person can make choic-es, which ultimately remove his ability to choose.

A person can actually sink to such a level of evil, as a result of the choices he has made, that he actually no longer has the ability to choose. This is how far down into the abyss of human behavior Pharaoh had sunken. He was so invested in evil, so absorbed in the

path he had chosen, he no was no longer on that path out of choice, he was simply on a roller coaster ride he could no longer control.

This may explain why the decisions Pha-raoh was making, from our perspective, made absolutely no sense. How could he have been so blind? Clearly, every time Pharaoh refuses to let the Jews go, things only get worse. And clearly, Hashem has the ability to deliver on His promises, and Egypt is no match for the hand of G-d. Eventually, the Jews will be go-ing home, so why not just let go?

Indeed, one might suggest that Adolph Hitler found himself in exactly the same place 3000 years later. In fact, the parallels to ancient Egypt are quite fascinating. The choices Hitler was making by the end of the war make absolutely no sense. In 1944, when most of the problems the German armies were facing were the holes in their supply lines, Hitler was dedicating most of his rail lines to transport the 400,000 Jews of Hun-gary to Auschwitz.

Imagine a drug addict. It is hard for many of us to understand what motivates a per-son to pick up heroin for the fi rst time. The implications of such a decision are so clear, and can only end in disaster. Nonetheless, this decision is a choice that someone makes. And this choice may lead to another choice, to use heroin again, and again, and again. But eventually, when a person reaches a cer-tain stage in their addiction, they are no lon-ger able to choose. The only way for an ad-dict to really break his addiction is for others, perhaps in a rehab center, to step in and re-turn to him, gradually, his ability to choose. This does not, however mean, that he is not responsible for his actions. His own actions were what led him to the state of addiction

he now struggles with.Maybe this is why this issue is so much a

part of our Exodus from Egypt. We all haveour own little Egypt we are always trying toget out of. And part of making that exodus,is the awareness of the choices we make, and the understanding of the implications theyhave.

This is a concept the western world, and Israel in particular would do well to consider when debating the appropriate responses toIran’s bid for nuclear power. A close look atthe rhetoric coming from Iran, from Ahma-dinejad in particular and from Iran’s Hezbol-lah and Hamas proxies suggests they havelong since lost the ability to see the world in a different light. They have become so com-mitted to evil, genocide, destruction and war as the best response that one wonders if theylost the ability to choose to do the right thing.

Can a society, and certainly a society’s leadership reach a point where they have gone so far down the path of evil they can nolonger even choose to do good? The Exodusstory would seem to suggest they can indeed.And the ramifi cations for what Israel and thewest’s response might then ultimately needto be are a sobering thought indeed….

Shabbat Shalom,Binny Freedman

Rav Binny Freedman, Rosh Yeshivat Oraytain Jerusalem’s Old City is a Company Com-mander in the IDF reserves, and lives in Efratwith his wife Doreet and their four children. His weekly Internet ‘Parsha Bytes’ can befound at www.orayta.org

Will Iran change its mind?

FROM THE HEART OF JERUSALEM

Rabbi Binny Freedman

Dear Aviva,We are making our fi rst wedding for our

son in a few months. While we love our future daughter-in-law, we are really uneasy with her parents. It seems like they are better off fi nan-cially than we are, yet they are penny-pinching this whole affair. They say something against what we prefer, and then when we bend over backwards for them, all of a sudden they change their song. And they do it rudely!

It’s really hard to keep up the smiles around our son, but we are wondering if we should re-examine things. Should we stop shield-ing him so that he won’t go into things blind-ly? Shouldn’t he know what he is getting into, with such catty in-laws?

-Scared for SonDear Scared for Son,

Don’t weddings seem so exciting when it’s your neighbor or second-cousin making the simcha? In reality, they are like paintings—from afar, they are so beautiful you could cry, but when you are the one applying the paint, each stroke looks pretty, well, blobby, as you progress.

I like that you started off on the right foot in terms of keeping your son out of this. Many parents should learn from you—the nitpicking that goes on before the wedding can really sour things for a chassan and kallah. Here are two young adults, who have (mostly) aligned them-selves with the family that they have grown up with. Then, one day, BOOM! They meet the per-son that will be part of their new family. Sudden-ly, they are supposed to just separate from the family that they are rooted in and start making choices that refl ect a new unit. How hard is that? And can you imagine how much harder that is when they have a chorus of reporters buzzing about, telling them how bad their new parents-in-law are? Forget sour—that can make a new union perfectly rancid.

We want a fresh spouse to commit to starting a new family. Old loyalties, tangentially pulling away, are contraindicated here. You have done a very nice job trying to keep the boundaries strong—keep the kid out of the confl ict.

But, you are wondering if maybe it is more important to let your son know what he is get-

ting involved in, rather than keep him calm and ignorant. This is a very good point. Family can serve as a very good, almost-objective opinion to warn you when you are stepping into something sketchy.

The question is: Is your son embarking on an emotionally damaging journey? Or is this just par for the course?

I don’t know enough details to tell you either way, however, I will tell you that this is probably your machatanim at their worst. Transitioning a child off into marriage, along with having to co-ordinate with strangers to plan an extensive af-fair can bring out all sides of a person. There are covert power games, there is fi nancial pressure, there are deadlines, there is the fear of losing a child to a spouse. There’s a ton of heavy stuff going on here. Making a wedding is not a fair sample of how a person operates on a daily basis. So, the side of these people that you are seeing is most likely not the side that your son will usually be dealing with.

Granted, life will probably bring out these quirks every few years. Are they such insane quirks that your son won’t be able to handle them peeking out every now and then?

Of course, there is the darker chance that they may be showing you that they are extreme-ly emotionally unhealthy, and this is not the sort of family that would be good for your son. That doesn’t mean that your son should do anything drastic. It just may mean that he should try not to be too dependent on them, emotionally or otherwise.

Obviously, if your future daughter-in-law did grow up in an emotionally unhealthy home, there will likely be some residue left on the girl. Keep your eyes, ears and spidey-sense open.

In the meantime, do your best to be as con-siderate and compromising as possible. Most likely, things will settle down by sheva brachos.

By then, these cats should be pretty domes-ticated…

-AvivaAviva Rizel is a licensed Marriage and Family

Therapist in private practice in Lawrence. She can be reached at 347-292-8482 or [email protected].

Ask Aviva: Wedding Plans?

LEGAL NOTICEPUBLIC NOTICE

OF COUNTY TREASURER’S

SALE OF TAX LIENSON REAL ESTATE

Notice is hereby given that I shall on the 21st day of Febru-ary, 2012 through the 24th day of February, 2012, beginning at 10:00 o’clock in the morning each day, in the Legislative Chambers, First Floor, Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legis-lative Building, 1550 Franklin Avenue, Mineola, New York, sell at public auction the tax liens on certain real estate, unless the owner, mortgagee, occu-pant of or any other party in interest in such real estate shall have paid to the County Trea-surer by February 17th, 2012 the total amount of such unpaid taxes or assessments with the interest, penalties and other expenses and charges against the property. Such tax liens will be sold at the lowest rate of interest, not exceeding 10 percent per six month peri-od, for which any person or persons shall offer to take the total amount of such unpaid taxes as defined in Section 5-37.0 of the Nassau County Administrative Code.As required by Section 5-44.0 of the Nassau County Adminis-trative Code, the County Trea-surer shall charge a registration fee of $100.00 per day to each person who shall seek to bid at the public auction as defined above.A list of all real estate in Nas-sau County on which tax liens are to be sold is available at the website of the Nassau County Treasurer at http://www.nas-saucountyny.gov/agencies/Trea-

surer/Annual _Tax_Lien_Sale/tax_sale_listing.html. A list of local properties upon which tax liens are to be sold will be advertised in this publi-cation on or about February 6th, 2012.Nassau County does not dis-criminate on the basis of dis-ability in admission to or access to, or treatment or employment in, its services, programs, or activities. Upon request, accommodations such as those required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) will be provided to enable individuals with disabilities to participate in all services, programs, activities and public hearings and events conducted by the Treasurer’s Office.Upon request, information can be made available in Braille, large print, audio-tape or other alternative formats. For addi-tional information, please call (516) 571-3723 (voice) or (516) 571-3108 (TTY).Dated: January 13, 2012 THE NASSAU COUNTY TREASURERMineola, New YorkTERMS OF SALESuch tax liens shall be sold sub-ject to any and all superior tax liens of sovereignties and other municipalities and to all claims of record which the County may have thereon and subject to the provisions of the Federal and State Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Acts. However, such tax liens shall have priority over the County’s Differential Interest Lien, repre-senting the excess, if any, of the interest and penalty borne at the maximum rate over the interest and penalty borne at the rate at which the lien is pur-

chased. The Purchaser acknowledges that the tax lien(s) sold pursu-ant to these Terms of Sale may be subject to pending bank-ruptcy proceedings and/or may become subject to such pro-ceedings which may be com-menced during the period in which a tax lien is held by a successful bidder or the assign-ee of same, which may modify a Purchaser’s rights with respect to the lien(s) and the property securing same. Such bankruptcy proceedings shall not affect the validity of the tax lien. In addition to being sub-ject to pending bankruptcy pro-ceedings and/or the Federal and State Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Acts, said purchas-er’s right of foreclosure may be affected by the Financial Institu-tions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act(FIRREA),12 U.S.C. ss 1811 et.seq., with regard to real property under Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation(FDIC) receivership. The County Treasurer reserves the right, without further notice and at any time, to withdraw from sale any of the parcels of land or premises herein listed. The Nassau County Treasurer reserves the right to intervene in any bankruptcy case/litiga-tion where the property affect-ed by the tax liens sold by the Treasurer is part of the bank-ruptcy estate. However, it is the sole responsibility of all tax lien purchasers to protect their legal interests in any bankruptcy case affecting their purchased tax lien, including but not limited to the filing of a proof of claim on their behalf, covering their investment in said tax lien. The Nassau County Treasurer and

Nassau County and its agen-cies, assumes no responsibility for any legal representation of any tax lien purchaser in any legal proceeding including but not limited to a bankruptcy case where the purchased tax lien is at risk. The rate of interest and penalty at which any person purchases the tax lien shall be established by his bid. Each purchaser, immediately after the sale thereof, shall pay to the County Treasurer ten per cent of the amount for which the tax liens have been sold and the remain-ing ninety per cent within thirty days after such sale. If the pur-chaser at the tax sale shall fail to pay the remaining ninety per cent within ten days after he has been notified by the County Treasurer that the certificates of sale are ready for delivery, then all amounts deposited with the County Treasurer including but not limited to the ten per cent theretofore paid by him shall, without further notice or demand, be irrevocably forfeit-ed by the purchaser and shall be retained by the County Trea-surer as liquidated damages and the agreement to purchase shall be of no further effect. Time is of the essence in this sale. This sale is held pursuant to the Nassau County Adminis-trative Code and interested par-ties are referred to such Code for additional information as to terms of the sale, rights of pur-chasers, maximum rates of interest and other legal inci-dents of the sale.Dated: January 13, 2012 THE NASSAU COUNTY TREASURERMineola, New York#23260E

THE

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It was a serious and somber Sunday evening at Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, where 30 people sat and listened to a panel discussion called Eating Disorders Among Our Young People. Rabbi Dovid Goldvasser, a leading author and expert on eating disorders in the Jewish com-munity, led the discussion as part of a joint lec-ture with the Orthodox Union and the men’s and women’s divisions of Lander College. He said the evening was all about “insight and per-spective about eating disorders.”

Rabbi Yale Butler, the director of program-ming at Lander College, said the event was put together “to inform and assist the community in issues of import” and “to sound the alarm and make people aware” about the prevalence and seriousness of eating disorders in the Jew-ish world.

Goldvasser, who is also the director of the center for Torah initiatives at Lander’s college for women, is the author of 10 books on eating disorders, including “Starving Souls: A Spiritu-al Guide To Understanding Eating Disorders.” He said that the “alarming, alarming rate” of eating disorders in the Jewish community is the same rate as it is throughout the rest of the world, and eating disorders have become a plague of “epidemic proportions.” The rates of anorexia, bulimia and other disorders are equally common “in every sect of Judaism”, Goldvasser said.

Goldvasser discussed a large number of very surprising statistics that shed some insight into how serious these illnesses are. He said more than half of 13-year-old girls are unhappy with their body images, which spikes to 75 percent at age 18. At least 40 percent of girls between the fourth and sixth grades have tried dieting and that “young girls are more afraid with be-coming fat than nuclear war or cancer.”

Other members of the evening’s panel in-cluded Dr. Alan Perry, the chairman of the psy-chology department at Lander College for men, Rabbi Jonathan Morgenstern, the rabbi of the Young Israel of Scarsdale, and Dr. Ditza Berger, a psych professor at Lander’s women’s college who also runs a private practice in Lawrence. The trio spoke about the disorders from both a clinical and a spiritual standpoint and helped answer audience questions after the panel discussion was completed. Several audience members declined to comment for this story citing the very personal and private nature of the reasons they attended this evening panel discussion.

Parents, friends and loved ones are all greatly affected and impacted by someone who has an eating disorder, which is a psychological disease just as much as it is a physical one. “It’s an all consuming nature of illness,” Perry said. “As a clinician, the topic is a very sobering one.”

Goldvasser went so far as to compare an-orexia so cutting, or self mutilation, because of the self harm infl icted on the human body and “both are suffering from a great challenge we don’t understand.” He told numerous sto-ries of patients with eating disorders, including

an 18-year-old who said “she would rather diethan do away with anorexia” and a 12-year-oldgirl who asked Goldvasser to recite viduy (aprayer of confession before one’s death) withher.

The panel agreed that it’s extremely diffi cultfor parents or a signifi cant other to deal withsomeone with an eating disorder. “It’s easy fora family to say to an anorexic ‘you look bad’and that’s music to their ears,” Perry said. “Ifyou look good, then [the anorexic individualsays] lose more weight. If you look bad, thenthat’s great.” The catch-22 in that way is one ofthe reasons why Perry thinks eating disordersare so very tough on families. “They disruptand victimize the family,” he said. “It’s torturefor them.”

Early identifi cation is extremely importantfor parents, teachers and counselors, accordingto Berger, because “the longer the disorder, theharder it is to undo.” Berger has trained nu-merous staff members at such organizations asNCSY and Camp Sternberg in helping someonewith an eating disorder. It’s those “slightly re-moved peers with more objectivity [that] pointit out fi rst.”

Berger’s training deals with what teachersand counselors should do in certain situationsand “the psychological issues adolescents face.”Teachers, counselors and parents shouldn’t trytreating anyone with a disorder, but “recog-nize early signs and then draw back and refer,”Berger said.

It doesn’t take just one doctor or specialistto combat and overcome an eating disorder,but “a nutritionist, psychologist and a therapistworking together as a team to help the family,”Perry said. Patients with eating disorders whoare admitted to hospitals and facilities aroundthe area are given anti-depressant and anti-psychotic drugs because the mindset of some-one with anorexia or bulimia “is so distorted,”Perry said. “The obsessive component to theillness is also devastating.”

A quarter of anorexic cases and 40 percentof binge eaters who are at risk for bulimia aremales, Goldvasser said. These male cases aremore underreported “because of the shame”involved. Perry said that males put more of anemphasis on exercise rather than purging orusing laxatives to stay thin in “more of a machoapproach.” Perry called males with eating dis-orders a relatively new phenomenon and therisks and dangers are just as serious in boys asthey are girls.

Rabbi Morgenstern of Scarsdale said thatthe emphasis society puts on external appear-ance is a major cause for eating disorders andthat people should try to build from within.He called eating disorders “a self destructiveaddiction” that should be dealt with and con-trolled before the age of 18, when they couldgo off to college or Israel. “If we don’t addressit, it’ll haunt them for the rest of their lives. Aslong as you have that ability to address it, do sobecause it could save a life.”

Eating Disorders amongst our young people

Photo by Monica Rzewski

Dr. Ditza Berger, Dr. Alan Perry, Rabbi Yale Butler, Rabbi Jonathan Morgenstern,and Rabbi Dovid Goldwasser

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YESHIVA OF CENTRAL QUEENSinvites you to participate in its

SEVENTY-FIRST ANNIVERSARYSCHOLARSHIP DINNER

Sunday, March 4, 2012 10 Adar 5772Sands at Atlantic Beach

For Dinner and Scroll of Honor information718-793-8500 x10 [email protected]

GUESTS OF HONOR

PEARL AND JOEL COHENPARENTS OF THE YEAR EDUCATOR AWARD

ROBYN AND JEFFREY SOCOL MRS. ELLEN ORLANSKI

Reize Sipzner, Dinner ChairLouis Tuchman, President

5324

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SATURDAY EVENING, MARCH 3RD, 2012 • 8:45PM

HALB WOODMERE CAMPUS700 IBSEN STREET

WOODMERE, NEW YORK

Honoring

H A K A R A T H A T O V A W A R D E E S

MIRIAM & ROBERT FAGIN

GUESTS OF HONOR

SARITTE & HILLEL SILVERARABBI DR. ARMIN H. FRIEDMAN

YOUNG LEADERSHIP AWARDEES

ELIN & AVI

FREILICH

ROBIN & ROBERT

KANTOWITZ

DEBBIE & SHLOMIE

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TESSIE & MICHAEL

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For further information: 516.791.8200 x107 • [email protected] • www.halb.org/dinner

HEBREW ACADEMY OF LONG BEACHSTELLA K. ABRAHAM HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS

DAVIS RENOV STAHLER YESHIVA HIGH SCHOOL FOR BOYS

LEV CHANA EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER

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Cordially invite you to attend our

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I ’m not much for adventure — call me a chicken, wimp, or scaredy cat, I don’t care! I subscribe to the “better safe than sorry”

rule and as a diehard city girl, I fi nd that rid-ing the subway in the city late at night provides enough thrills! But I do mind missing out on family fun, so I sometimes allow myself to be cajoled into venturing out of my comfort zone. I’m not talking about rappelling, bungee jump-

ing, parasailing or scuba diving. For that class of activity I immediately respond with an em-phatic NO!

Don’t get me wrong... I am not a couch potato and have amazed myself at times. I’ve seen elephants right up close to our car win-dow in Kruger Park and suffered the obligatory snake path climb up Masada. I once fl ew in a small plane that landed atop a glacier in New Zealand and even snor-keled on our Caribbean

honeymoon. While accomplishing those feats I envisioned getting mauled, falling off a cliff, dropping into an icy crevice and of course, the dreaded shark attacks.

While in Puerto Rico last week my cousins wanted to show us the unique points of their island and proposed a kayak adventure in a nature preserve. We have paddled locally in Is-land Park and further east in Sag Harbor; both were refreshing and fun on a hot day but not exotic. This time, my cousin drove about ninety minutes out of San Juan’s late afternoon traf-

fi c to the furthest northeastern point in Puerto Rico to a fi shing town called Fajardo.

I nervously laughed as I lowered myself down into the front spot of a two person kayak. After hearing some basic instructions we set out at dusk and began paddling against the tide towards a single lane opening in a man-grove forest.

It didn’t help that my cousin kidded me about crocodiles and made those menacing sounds from Jaws. As we began rowing, I em-ployed my Spanish and asked the guide lots of questions to allay my fears. How deep is the water? From a couple of feet to about ten. Which wild animals live in the mangroves? None, since there’s not much to eat in these non fruit bearing trees and extremely salty water. Will there be mosquitos? Probably not, due to the cool breeze that evening. I began to relax slightly and got into the exercise and our group’s excited voices fell quiet. As we en-tered the dark narrow tunnel formed by the mangrove trees we concentrated on following the tiny blue tail light of the boat in front and not grounding the kayaks onto the mangrove roots.

After a long while we came into Laguna Grande. The twenty kayaks in our group gath-ered around the guide’s and we held on to it and to each other’s kayaks in order to hear him explain the ecosystem surrounding us. Four types of mangroves form a protective barrier from the sea which is so close we could hear, though not see its waves. The red mangroves are the innermost layer, closest to our kay-aks as we glided through the tunnel of trees. Their roots are tall stalks standing in this water which is saltier than the sea.

There are only about a handful of spots in the world with the unique conditions needed

for Pyrodinium bahamense, a specifi c dino-fl agellate, to live year round, and Puerto Rico has three of them. The bioluminescent dinofl a-gellate is a one celled plankton which emits a burst of light one hundred times bigger than itself. It lights up from pressure against its cell wall.

There are various possible reasons for this unearthly shade of green. It may enable spe-cies recognition for mating, attracts prey and diverts predators, or lights the way for the next predator up in the food chain to come fi nd and eat them.

As my hand swished back and forth through the water leaving a path of light in its wake, I was fascinated by G-d’s creation below. Swim-ming is forbidden here because sunscreens and other unnatural additives would destroy this pure environment.

I tuned my gaze upward and was startled by the countless pinpoints of light so easily vis-ible in this place. I commented about how rare it is to see much of that in our New York night sky so the guide pointed to a circle of light in the distance, explaining that was the light pol-

lution from San Juan about forty miles away,so imagine the glare above our own giant me-tropolis.

We glided back through the now pitch-black tunnel, this time effortlessly since wewere moving with the tide.

I quickly got to work and we were soon backwhere we began this adventure. As I waited formy family I watched everyone’s glowing facesas they alighted from their boats, relishing thisinteresting bit of nature.

I’m no scientist, but I gleaned so much thatevening about a miniature creature’s role inthis world. I also learned something about hu-man nature that I’m amazed to be absorbing atthis stage... that it may be worthwhile to suc-cumb to a little healthy peer pressure and chal-lenge myself to try something different. I leftthe famliar comfort of sitting at the beach forthe more active and possibly scary night timekayaking experience. Despite my trepidation Iactually enjoyed it and am grateful and readyfor the next gentle adventure.

Miriam Bradman Abrahams is Cuban born,Brooklyn bred and lives in Woodmere.

MIRIAM’S MUSINGS

Miriam Bradman Abrahams

Adrenaline Junkie... Not!

Photo by Miriam Abrahams

David and Nina Abrahams kayaking.

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February 3, 2012

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