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THE CHICAGO
JEWISH NEWS
www.chicagojewishnews.com
June 5-11, 2015/18 Sivan 5775
Chicago connection
to JFK
assassination
One Dollar
Where kids can
play with Chagall
masterpieces
Summer
Arts
Preview
Preview of
Chicago Jewish
Film Festival
Listings of
events of
Jewish interest
Americans who fought
for Israel in 1948
Where Barack and
Bibi went sour
Rabbi Conover on
humility of Moses
Lebron’s
Jewish
coach
2
Chicago Jewish News - June 5-11, 2015
For Israeli war volunteers, service was most important act of their lives
By Tom Tugend
JTA
In May 1948, I was walking
down Market Street in San Francisco when I passed a small
movie theater with a marquee
that announced “The Jews Fight
for Their State.”
For the first time, it fully hit
me that the Jews – by the gentile
consensus of the time, mainly
cowards and draft dodgers – were
actually taking on five vastly superior armies.
I took the train back to
Berkeley but had a hard time focusing on my studies at the University of California. With the
school year nearing its end, I decided to go join the fight.
I was among some 4,000 volunteers from 57 countries who
volunteered during Israel’s War
of Independence, a group collectively known as Machal, the Hebrew acronym for volunteers
from abroad.
But while these overseas
volunteers certainly played a role
in Israel’s victory, I believe that
the major contribution of these
volunteers was to lift the morale
of the Israelis by showing them
that their Diaspora brethren –
along with a fair number of nonJewish volunteers – were with
them, atoning in a small way for
their elders’ inaction during the
Holocaust.
As with all men who go to
war voluntarily, our motives were
mixed – and not always idealistic. After the emotional intensity
of fighting as a U.S. infantryman
in France and Germany during
World War II, I found it hard to
settle down. My early exposure
to Zionism in Berlin in the mid1930s had also left an imprint.
And since a new Jewish
state is established only every
2,000 years or so, I figured I probably wouldn’t be around for the
next one.
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My first step was to figure
out how to get there. The U.S.
State Department, which did not
share my enthusiasm for Israel,
stamped most passports “Not
good for travel to Palestine” and
warned that serving in a foreign
army might well entail loss of
American citizenship.
My journey took me from
the offices of the butchers’ union
in San Francisco, whose business
agent doubled as a secret recruiter, to Israel’s so-called “Land
and Labor” headquarters in Manhattan, and then by ship across
the Atlantic to the French port
of Le Havre. There we were met
by an Israeli contact who put us
on a train to Paris, and from
there on to Marseilles. At the
city’s train station, another contact conveyed us to Camp Grand
Arenas, which served as a transit
point for North African Jews and
European Holocaust survivors
waiting for boats to take them to
Israel.
At the time, a temporary
armistice had been declared between Jewish and Arab forces,
supervised by a U.N. contingent
which was to ensure that neither
side brought in reinforcements.
Nevertheless, we set out under
tight security on the Pan York, a
creaky former banana carrier.
The ship’s hold had been reconfigured with planks, stacked four
levels high, that served as beds –
an arrangement familiar from
concentration camp photos.
Nobody was allowed up on
deck, and the Israelis in charge,
laboring under the delusion that
the English and American volunteers represented a sane and
stable element, assigned us to
keep order until the ship cleared
the harbor. When the ship arrived in Haifa, the genuine
refugees passed quickly through
immigration inspection, while
we foreign volunteers were taken
by a circuitous route around the
U.N. inspectors enforcing the
armistice rules.
The Israeli manpower distribution system, as least for foreign
volunteers, was a throwback to
feudal times, when the local
baron recruited troops by promising certain bounties. My recruiter was Lester Gorn, a
Hollywood scriptwriter who had
served as a U.S. Army major during World War II.
Gorn had persuaded Israel’s
army command to let him organize something called the 4th
Anti-Tank Troop, which was to
consist solely of English-speaking
volunteers, or “Anglo-Saxim” in
local parlance. The troop would
be a “democratic” outfit, Gorn
said, with no ranks or saluting
and with all major decisions to
be taken by majority vote – except in combat.
For a lowly ex-GI with little
fondness for military punctilio,
the offer was too good to turn
down and off I went in Gorn’s
Tom Tugend, fourth from left, and fellow foreign volunteers during Israel's War of Independence. (JTA)
jeep. We soon arrived at the
unit’s encampment and I quickly
noticed that something was missing: There were no anti-tank
guns in sight, only one wooden
replica of a cannon.
When I pointed out the
omission, Gorn assured me that
as soon as the Israeli infantry
captured a gun from the enemy,
we would be in business.
Indeed, within a short time,
the unit welcomed a 17-pound
artillery piece that had been
seized from the Jordanian Legion.
We made do with this venerable
weapon until the battle of Faluja,
where Israeli troops surrounded a
sizable Egyptian force under the
command of one Col. Abdel
Nasser, later to become president
of Egypt.
The beleaguered Egyptians
fought stubbornly, but one day
our unit, part of the encircling Israeli force, received a perfect
present – a shipment of anti-tank
guns from Czechoslovakia that
was originally destined for Germany’s
Wehrmacht.
The
weapons were so new, they were
still wrapped in the original oilcloth, which we quickly ripped
off to discover a curious emblem
stamped into the side of the gun
barrel – a big, fat swastika.
Irony doesn’t get much better than that – a bunch of Jewish
guys firing a swastika-emblazoned gun at the enemy.
Our unit was a strange mixture of men, all from Englishspeaking countries. The youngest
member was Jason Fenton, a
downy-cheeked 16-year-old Brit
who later became a professor of
English in Southern California.
The oldest guy, probably in his
mid-40s, was a Polish-born immigrant to the United States
who upon spying a young female
urged us to “clean those rusty
pipes.”
To get a little closer to the
enemy, I joined an Israeli infantry squad in a night patrol to
feel out the Egyptian defenses.
We got near enough to hear the
voices of the Egyptian guards –
there was an exchange of gunfire,
but no casualties.
“I am intensely alive and
aware of everything,” I wrote of
the experience a few weeks later.
“Every movement or noise makes
a sharp impression. Everything I
see, hear and smell etches itself
into my memory.”
On the way back, the mood
is quite different. “After a few
hundred meters,” I wrote, “my
stomach muscles loosen, the
tenseness is slowly drained from
my body and in its place creeps a
heavy tiredness. The senses are
dulled and the box of ammunition gets heavier with every
step.”
In what proved to be the last
major action of the war, our unit
drove down the eastern edge of
the Negev, along the Jordanian
border, heading for the Red Sea.
Around 5 a.m. on March 11,
1949, we crested the final hill
and spread out below us was the
village of Um Rash Rash, consisting of two mud huts and a
flagpole – the site of the future
bustling city of Eilat.
On both sides of the bay,
craggy mountains flanking the
waters of the Red Sea were turning reddish in the early sunlight.
After weeks of dirt and dust, we
stripped off our fatigues and
jumped buff naked into the sea.
After the war, the role
played by the foreign volunteers
was largely ignored by historians.
Hollywood had the opposite
problem – their renderings
tended to exaggerate their contribution. Make no mistake – the
Israelis won their own war, and
paid the price in dead and
wounded.
Still, for most of us, our
small part in the creation and
survival of the Jewish state represents, I believe, the most important act of our lives. During
World War II, GIs scrawled on
the shattered walls of European
battlefields the words “Kilroy
Was Here.” In a similar sense,
the surviving volunteers of the
War of Independence can affirm
with some pride that we were
there.
3
Chicago Jewish News - June 5-11, 2015
Where the Obama-Netanyahu relationship went wrong
By Ron Kampeas
JTA
WASHINGTON – When
David Axelrod, then a senior adviser to President Barack Obama,
first learned that Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
reportedly had referred to him
and White House Chief of Staff
Rahm Emanuel as “self-hating
Jews,” he remembers feeling
stung.
“For people to suggest that I
would be anti-Israel or worse,
anti-Semitic – it hurts,” Axelrod
recalled of the 2009 episode.
Robert Wexler, the former
Florida congressman who was
Obama’s Jewish community liaison in the 2008 and 2012 elections, remembers his own oh-no
moment with Netanyahu.
It was in May 2011, when
Netanyahu, irritated by Obama’s
call for an Israeli-Palestinian
peace deal based on the 1967
lines, decided to use an Oval Office photo opportunity to publicly lecture Obama on Middle
East history.
“I was embarrassed, as an
American, that an American
president is forced to sit and listen to a reciting of a point of
view,” Wexler said. “Had Prime
Minister Netanyahu been the
prime minister of probably any
other nation on earth, the president would have gotten out of
his chair and walked away.”
The interviews with Axelrod and Wexler are part of a series of recent conversations with
top figures in the Obama camp,
including the president himself,
that offer new details about the
breakdown in the relationship
between the U.S. president and
the Israeli prime minister – and
lay bare just how troubled that
relationship has become.
The interviews were conducted by Ilana Dayan, who
hosts the newsmagazine show
“Uvda,” Israel’s version of “60
Minutes.”
“The trust is gone on both
sides; there’s too much water
under the bridge between those
two leaders now,” said interviewee Martin Indyk, who served as
the administration’s special
envoy for Israeli-Palestinian
peace in 2013 and 2014.
Indyk, now a vice president
at the Brookings Institution, said
Netanyahu suffers similar dysfunctional relationships with
other world leaders, citing tensions between Netanyahu and
European leaders otherwise seen
as Israel-friendly.
“It’s that mutual lack of trust
which has poisoned the relationships,” Indyk said.
Indyk did not lay all the
blame on Netanyahu, saying
Obama committed the original
sin by leaving Israel out of his
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meeting with President
Barack Obama in the Oval Office of the White House. (JTA)
first multi-day trip to the Middle
East as president, when he visited
Cairo and Saudi Arabia in June
2009.
“He reached out to the Arab
and Muslim world and then he
didn’t go to Israel. That was the
original miscalculation,” Indyk
said. “He lost them there and he
never got them back. It sent a
message that he didn’t like them
that much, that he wanted to put
some distance between the
United States and Israel.”
For their part, Israeli government officials say Netanyahu’s stance toward Obama
is all about policy, not personality, and that his No. 1 concern is
ensuring Israel’s security – even if
it means ruffling feathers with
the president. They say Netanyahu will not hold back about
expressing his concerns with
U.S. policies he believes do not
account for the brutal realities of
the Middle East – especially the
looming deal with Iran, which
Netanyahu says will leave Israel’s
most strident enemy on the
threshold of a nuclear weapon.
“The bottom line is that the
Obama administration believes
that the deal they are currently
negotiating with Iran blocks
Iran’s path to the bomb,” Ron
Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to
the United States, said in an appearance at the conservative
Heritage Foundation. “Israel believes that this deal paves Iran’s
path to the bomb.”
In his interview with
“Uvda,” Obama said, “The best
way to prevent Iran from having
a nuclear weapon is a verifiable
tough agreement. A military solution will not fix it, even if the
United States participates.”
He added, “I can say to the
Israeli people: I understand your
concerns and I understand your
fears.”
Indyk said Obama feels hurt
by the way he is portrayed in Israel.
“He’s deeply offended by the
notion that he’s anti-Israel or
anti-Semitic,” Indyk said. “He’s
hurt by it now. It’s finally got to
him, the ingratitude of Israelis to
this president.”
Other interviewees included
media personalities such as Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic
and David Remnick of The New
Yorker; U.S.-Israeli businessman
Haim Saban, an Obama confidant; Alan Solow, a top Chicago
backer of Obama since the
1990s, when he chaired the Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations;
Rep. Nita Lowey of New York,
the top Democrat on the powerful U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee;
and Netanyahu confidant Dore
Gold, who was recently named
the director general of Israel’s
Foreign Ministry.
Saban described the relationship between Netanyahu
and Obama as like “oil and
water” and said the crisis in relations is not in the future; it is
here already. In a recent private
meeting with the president,
Saban noted, Obama described
the Palestinians as “oppressed
people in occupied territories.”
The “Uvda” program identified several key low points in the
Obama-Netanyahu relationship:
Netanyahu’s Oval Office “lecture” to Obama in May 2011;
Netanyahu’s embrace of Mitt
Romney during the 2012 U.S.
election campaign; and Netanyahu’s speech to Congress in
March, which Netanyahu and
Republican leaders scheduled
without the White House’s
knowledge and went ahead with
over the objections of administration officials.
Interviewees also cited Netanyahu’s warnings on Election
Day in March about Arab voters
going to the polls in “droves” and
late in the campaign about the
impracticality of the two-state
solution as further undercutting
trust between the two leaders.
“There is this chasm of trust,
and this chasm of trust grows
wider when you wink and nod
before an election,” Axelrod
said.
Lowey said she agreed with
much of the skepticism expressed
by Netanyahu over the Iran deal
in his speech to Congress and has
asked the White House to tamp
down the tensions with Israel.
“I told the White House to
dial it down,” the veteran congresswoman said.
But she, too, expressed frustrations with Netanyahu. Lowey
recalled a call with the prime
minister on a Friday in February
during which she offered to set
up a private briefing with Congress to replace the public speech
because tensions over the address
were undercutting the U.S.-Israel relationship.
“I said to Bibi, call within an
hour because I knew we were approaching Shabbat,” Lowey said.
“I’m still waiting for the return
phone call.”
Axelrod described Netanyahu’s speech to Congress,
which came two weeks before Israeli elections, as a “highly political exercise.”
Solow and others suggested
that Netanyahu made a political
calculation early on to play
rough with Obama, figuring it
would serve him well politically
at home.
“He was going to make sure
that for political purposes in Israel that he was characterized as
somebody who was a strong defender of Israel against a president with whom he knew he was
going to have some substantive
disagreements,” Solow said of
Netanyahu.
Indyk said Netanyahu has
taken a highly risky gamble by
ringing the alarm bell on Iran in
a manner that has come at the
expense of the U.S.-Israel relationship.
“If Israel is really threatened
by Iran, then he should be doing
things that ensure Israel’s security, starting with making sure
the U.S.-Israel relationship is on
solid ground,” Indyk said of Netanyahu. “He should read the
map, because if he’s not going to
succeed it will have screwed up
the relationship between the
United States and Israel, opened
up a gap between Israel and its
most important friend and most
important strategic ally – its force
multiplier, its greatest deterrent.”
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Chicago Jewish News - June 5-11, 2015
Contents
Jewish News
■ The Israeli military admitted its error in punishing a soldier
from the United States who brought non-kosher sandwiches on his
base. “Bottom line, we were wrong,” Israel Defense Forces
spokesman Moti Almoz said. “The IDF will continue to remain
kosher, while not snooping in the sandwiches of its soldiers,” Almoz
said. “There are tensions in Israeli society, and there are different
positions and opinions. In the IDF there is a place for everyone.” It
is against IDF rules to bring non-kosher food on its bases, which are
kosher. The soldier, who said he was given the pork sandwiches by
his grandmother, who lives on a kibbutz, reportedly told the army
he was not aware of the rule. The soldier, who is participating in a
commander’s course, originally was sentenced to 11 days in military
jail for the infraction.
■ The Jewish Community of Rome has compiled a blacklist with
the names of people who sold or denounced Jews to German and
Italian persecutors during World War II. The blacklist, which will
be not published, covers the period from Oct. 16, 1943, when more
than 1,000 Roman Jews were caught and deported to Nazi concentration camps, until June 4-5 the following year, when the city
was liberated. Research by historians uncovered the exact number
of Jews deported from Rome during the war. “The gravestones show
the number at 2,091 deportees, but the exact number is 1,769:
1,022 in the October 16th raid, and 747 in the following months
when Roman Jews were arrested in the capital,” Claudio Procaccia,
director of the Cultural Department of the Jewish Community, said.
■ Indian ice cream lovers are putting their favorite treat in a cone
named after Adolf Hitler. The boxes of Hitler ice cream cones bear
the unsmiling image of the Nazi leader dressed in a military uniform.
The cones are available throughout India. The name of the cones is
not shocking to Indians because of the lack of Holocaust education
in the country. In 2012, municipal authorities in the Indian state of
Gujarat removed the sign for a men’s clothing store named Hitler. The
sign – on which the letter “i” was dotted with a swastika – was removed after hundreds of complaints from both within and outside of
the Jewish community. A year earlier, an Indian network premiered
a daily soap opera called “Hitler Didi,” or “Auntie Hitler,” in which
the lead character is a young woman known in her locality as a strict
disciplinarian who takes a no-nonsense attitude with her family.
■ New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
is investigating reports of food sickness following an event at a Manhattan synagogue dedicated to exotic kosher cuisine. The dinner,
held at Congregation Shearith Israel, known as the Spanish-Portuguese synagogue, was meant to highlight animals and other foods
that are kosher but rarely consumed by observant Jews, such as oxtail, locusts, quail eggs and organ meat from calves, chickens, ducks
and other animals. The so-called Halakhic Dinner combined the
exotic dishes with Jewish teachings about them and was led by the
synagogue’s rabbi, Meir Soloveichik. Similar dinners have taken
place in past years. After the dinner, about 20 people reported gastrointestinal distress, according to Vos Is Neias, an Orthodox blog
and news site. The blog cited Dani Klein, who runs the
YeahThatsKosher blog and attended the dinner, as saying that his
wife tested positive after the dinner for campylobacter, a bacteria associated with raw or uncooked poultry, unpasteurized dairy products
or contaminated water, poultry or produce. A spokesman for the
city’s Department of Health, Christopher Miller, said, “We’re investigating and working with the synagogue. “Did you know that
giraffes are kosher? How about locusts? They are!” read a promotion
for the event on Shearith Israel’s website. “Rabbi Soloveichik will
entertain and enlighten with a special lecture over dinner. We’ll
learn about some far out there kosher foods, and we’ll eat a few of
them too. Goat, venison, bison and squab are just a few of the expected featured ingredients. Come hungry and adventurous.”
■ Two Jewish experts have been appointed belatedly to a government panel in Germany on anti-Semitism following protests by
Jewish groups. Germany’s Interior Ministry announced that it had
named psychologist Marina Chernivsky and historian Andreas
Nachama to the panel, whose mandate is to report regularly on antiSemitism and efforts to combat it in Germany. It will also make recommendations based on best practices and consultations with other
experts. The panel was established in 2009, with rotating membership. Chernivsky is the director of Change Your Outlook, an educational initiative against intolerance and anti-Semitism for the
Frankfurt-based Central Welfare Council of Jews in Germany.
Nachama, an ordained rabbi, is the director of Topography of Terror, a museum and archive about the Gestapo in Berlin, and is frequently asked to comment on issues regarding anti-Semitism. JTA
THE CHICAGO
JEWISH NEWS
Vol. 21 No. 35
Joseph Aaron
Editor/Publisher
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Torah Portion
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Cover Story
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Accounting Manager/
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of blessed memory
Office Manager
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Chicago Jewish News - June 5-11, 2015
Why the NBA Finals are a lose-lose situation for David Blatt
away anything from Blatt’s ability.
In theory, the finals offer a
chance for some face-saving redemption. But in reality, the series is shaping up as a lose-lose
By Gabe Friedman
JTA
After the last game of an impressive series sweep of the Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers coach David Blatt talked
with broadcaster Ernie Johnson
in front of an arena of joyous
hometown fans.
“So let’s be honest,” Johnson
said. “This hasn’t always been
easy this year, David. But to be
standing here, going to the finals,
just tell me how that feels to you
tonight.”
“Well, we’re in Cleveland,”
Blatt said with a smile. “Nothing
is easy here.”
As candid as that sounds, it’s
almost an understatement in
terms of describing Blatt’s tumultuous first season as an NBA
coach. Somehow, despite parlaying a stellar European coaching
career into a trip to the NBA Finals in just one season, Blatt
finds himself on the hot seat,
with something to prove.
How does that happen?
The crazy ride started with
Blatt, 56, a four-time Coach of
the Year in Israel, leading Maccabi Tel Aviv to an improbable
Euroleague title in 2014. Blatt,
who played point guard at
Princeton and professionally in
Israel’s Super League, initially thought he’d transfer to the
NBA as an assistant to new
Golden State Warriors coach
Steve Kerr (whom he’ll now oppose in the finals) – but the Cavaliers took a chance and hired
him as head coach in June 2014
to helm a team with modest expectations.
Quickly, however, things advanced to another level.
Just weeks after Blatt was
hired, LeBron James – a northeastern Ohio native, a four-time
MVP and one of the best players
in NBA history – announced that he was leaving the Miami Heat (after two titles and
four straight trips to the finals) to
return to the Cavaliers, where he
started his pro career as a
teenager. Overnight, the Cavaliers were draped with championship-size expectations. The
preseason acquisition of All-Star
Kevin Love to join LeBron and
Kyrie Irving, among the top point
guards in the league, only added
to the hype.
As the stars adjusted to playing together, the season started
slowly – the club was 19-20 in
January and lost its starting center to a year-ending injury. While
the growing pains were predictable, Blatt’s job was rumored
to be in jeopardy. Rumors that
LeBron wanted Blatt fired
swirled in the media, which
seemed eager to pounce on the
NBA newcomer.
After weathering the storm,
Blatt said that he needed to
situation for Blatt: If the
Cavs win, it’s all about LeBron.
If they lose – even though the
Warriors have played at a historically high level all season – Blatt
will be the obvious scapegoat.
At least Blatt has the support of Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, who told
him recently that “all of Israel is
behind the Cavaliers.”
NOT YOUR PARENTS’
HEBREW SCHOOL!
David Blatt
make big adjustments in the
NBA.
“I’ve gone through my own
learning curve that I’ve obviously worked through,” Blatt
said. “I’ve become a lot more
comfortable, and a lot more cognizant of the things that are necessary to make a winning
situation on an NBA team.”
Now he’s in the finals, facing a Warriors squad with the
best record in the league and the
MVP, Stephen Curry.
Looking back, LeBron’s decision to return to Cleveland
may have doomed Blatt’s NBA
transition from the start by casting him as second fiddle to the
game’s best player, with his outsized personality and extraordinary talent. That doesn’t take
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Chicago Jewish News - June 5-11, 2015
4
Torah Portion
CANDLELIGHTING TIMES
June 5 8:02
June 12 8:06
ALL JUNK REMOVED
WE CLEAN OUT BASEMENTS, ATTICS,
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By Rabbi Shoshanah Conover
Guest Torah Columnist
Torah Portion: Beha’alotecha
Numbers 8:1-12:16
As a rabbi in Lakeview, I
have the opportunity to serve the
Jewish people by working with
cherished colleagues and communities across the spectrum of
Judaism. We gather on many occasions celebrating Shabbat together with Shabbat on the Lake
in August and studying all night
together in a Tikkun Leil
Shavuot. Our communities overlap significantly in two day
schools: Bernard Zell Anshe
Emet Day School (BZAEDS)
and Chicago Jewish Day School
(CJDS). I enjoy serving on the
Rabbinic Advisory of CJDS with
Rabbis David Wolkenfeld,
Michael Siegel, and Edwin Goldberg. Each year, we engage in a
dynamic evening of learning
with parents of CJDS students.
Some weeks ago, we explored the question: “How does
my identity inform my actions?”
A provocative and enriching
conversation ensued – especially
as we explored our own identities
amidst the public conversation
on race in America.
Some years ago, with the
evening’s proximity to Shavuot,
we pondered the ultimate significance of Moses and the power of
the Ten Commandments.
The panel began with this
question: “What was the most
important virtue of Moses that
made him such a great leader?”
Rabbi Asher Lopatin (then
the rabbi of Anshe Sholom B’nai
Israel) spoke of Moses’ keen
moral compass.
I talked about Moses’ ability
to focus on his legacy: the perpetuation and evolution of Jewish identity.
While these are extremely
important aspects of Moses’ success in leadership, they are also
obvious. Anyone who is familiar
with the heroic stories of Moses
would immediately think of
these virtues.
Yet Rabbi Segal named a dif-
Rabbi Shoshanah Conover
ferent virtue of Moses, one that
is mentioned in this week’s Torah
portion: humility. In this week’s
Torah portion, in verse 3 of chapter 12 from the Book of Numbers, we read: “The man Moses
was very humble, more than any
other man on earth.”
Yeshayahu Leibowitz of
blessed memory, a prominent Israeli scientist and brother of
Torah scholar Nechama Leibowitz, wrote at length about this
aspect of Moses’ personality. He
explained in “Accepting the
Yoke of Heaven” that humility is
a high level of human character
because most ordinary people
“consider themselves — if not
consciously, then subconsciously
— to be worthy and (sometimes
overly) important. It is not natural for a person to be humble.”
(page 135). So, here are two
questions to ponder:
Why was Moses humble?
And why is humility an important aspect of a great leader’s
personality?
So, first things first: Why
was Moses humble?
It seems amazing that someone who had attained the highest humanly comprehension of
G-d would remain humble. In
plain fact, in this regard Moses
had achieved superiority over all
others. The Talmud states that
he was superior to all other
prophets. “All other prophets
looked at G-d through a murky
glass. Only Moses looked at G-d
through a clear glass.” (BT
Yebamot 49b). So how was he
still humble?
The Torah tells us more
than once that G-d spoke to
Moses face to face. Some may believe that that would cause a person to become arrogant. Yet, can
you imagine how Moses felt during these encounters? Talk about
May we lower ourselves to allow the
words of Torah to be poured into us as
vessels ready to be filled with lessons of
righteous living.
a humbling experience! Commenting on the passage from
Yebamot, Rashi wrote: “All the
other prophets looked through a
murky glass and thought that
they saw. Only Moses looked at
G-d through a clear glass and
knew that he had not seen G-d
face to face.” In other words,
Moses was the only prophet who
realized that G-d is beyond
human comprehension.
Yet, why is humility such an
important aspect of a great
leader’s personality?
Moses understood that by
remaining humble, he allowed
himself greater spiritual understanding. However, this edification in and of itself would not
make him a good leader. Leaders
don’t go on selfish pursuits of
spiritual learning. Their role is to
share with others what they have
learned through constant teaching. Humility allows that teaching never to stagnate because
remaining humble allows a person to continue to learn from
others.
As the great educator Rabbi
Susan Freeman wrote in “Teaching Jewish Virtues,” mastering
humility creates “more room for
other people — better listening
skills, more compassion, more
understanding, more willingness
to help those in need. Pulling
ourselves back, contracting our
ego … give(s) us greater sensitivity.” (page 10)
What a beautiful model of
leadership. I am proud to claim
that as a Jewish model of leadership. I believe that this is the ultimate message of Moses’
leadership and the lasting virtue
of the Ten Commandments that
provided our people its first
moral compass and lasting legacy.
Rebbe Refael of Bershed
said, “Some people pursue acclaim and thrive on being honored. Little do they realize that in
order to receive honor, you must
actually lower yourself. One can
only pour into a vessel when it is
held lower.”
May we lower ourselves to
allow the words of Torah to be
poured into us as vessels ready to
be filled with lessons of righteous
living.
May this kind of living allow
a sense of wonder and awe to
enter our lives as we humble ourselves to notice the natural
beauty in the world around us.
And may we learn to make
room for other people as we build
a world of more compassion,
more understanding — a world
ready for G-d’s blessing of peace.
Rabbi Shoshanah Conover is
the assistant rabbi of Temple
Sholom of Chicago (Reform) in
Chicago.
7
Chicago Jewish News - June 5-11, 2015
Death Notices
Rabbi Byron Sherwin, Jewish scholar and ethicist at Spertus Rochelle Shoretz, Sharsheret founder
Poland and its president Lech
(JTA) – Rabbi Byron Sherand cancer advocate
win, a Jewish scholar and ethicist
who served on the faculty of
Chicago’s Spertus Institute for
Jewish Learning and Leadership
for more than 40 years, has died
at the age of 69 following a long
illness.
He served as Distinguished
Service Professor and Director of
Doctoral Programs at the Spertus
Institute and had been on its faculty since 1970.
Sherwin, who graduated from
Columbia University, earned his
doctorate in the History of Culture
from the University of Chicago.
He was ordained at the Jewish
Theological Seminary of America, where he studied under Rabbi
Abraham Joshua Heschel.
Sherwin studied Jewish philosophy, mysticism and Jewish
Milton M. Ostroff, MD, died
June 1, in Chicago. World
War II veteran, long time
family physician; husband of
Rabbi Byron Sherwin
ethics; was involved in inter-religious dialogue and was the author of dozens of books and
articles.
He was awarded a presidential medal, the Officer’s Order of
Merit, in 1995 by the Republic of
Elaine, father of Sandy (Pam)
and Randy (Audrey) Ostroff;
grandfather of Melissa Ostroff; brother of the late
Why did two Jewish funeral businesses
in Skokie close in the last year?
Perhaps it is in part that we left!
Walesa for his work in improving
Polish-Jewish and Catholic-Jewish relations in Poland and the
United States. In 1996 he received an honorary Doctor of
Hebrew Letters from JTS and an
honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the Spertus Institute.
“It is difficult to imagine
Spertus Institute without Byron
Sherwin. Long before he became
my colleague at Spertus, Byron
was my teacher. He challenged
his students to traverse the
bridge between theory and practice, demanding that they bring
scholarly sensibilities to their
communal work, and realpolitik
to their scholarship,” Spertus
President and CEO Hal Lewis
said in a statement.
NEW YORK (JTA) –
Rochelle Shoretz, whose own
breast cancer diagnosis at age 28
led her to found the national
cancer organization Sharsheret,
has died. She was 42. The cause
of death was complications from
breast cancer.
Shoretz founded Sharsheret
in 2001 while undergoing
chemotherapy. The organization
provides health information and
support services for Jewish
women living with breast cancer
or ovarian cancer, or who are at
increased risk for those diseases.
“When I was diagnosed [in
July 2001], there were a lot of offers to help with meals and transport my kids, but I really wanted
to speak to another young mom
who was going to have to explain
Rochelle Shoretz
to her kids that she was going to
lose her hair to chemo,” Shoretz
said in 2003 of her decision to
start Sharsheret.
The organization’s name is
Hebrew for chain.
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8
Chicago Jewish News - June 5-11, 2015
SUMMER ARTS PREVIEW
Upcoming events of Jewish interest
Stories by
Pauline Dubkin Yearwood
Managing Editor
Exhibits
Spertus Institute for Learning
and Leadership presents exhibition by Liana Finck of her illustrations, sketches and etchings in
“A Bintel Brief: Love and Longing in Old New York” inspired by
the Bintel Brief letters to the editor that ran during the turn of
the last century in the Yiddish
Daily Forward. Through July 19
in the Spertus First Floor
Vestibule Gallery, 610 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago. Spertus.edu
or (312) 322-1756.
Anita Miller Gallery presents
“Art With Sound!” a solo show
of artwork by Anita Ivy Miller.
Show runs June 7-28 with preview party 2-5 p.m. Sunday, June
7 and Open Studios 5-9 p.m. Friday, June 12. Fine Arts Building,
Second Floor Gallery, 410 S.
Michigan Ave., Chicago. anitaivymiller.artspan.com or (847)
767-6875.
Kohl Children’s Museum presents “Chagall for Children,” exhibit exploring the artwork of
Jewish painter, printmaker and
designer Marc Chagall. Through
Sept. 6, 2100 Patriot Blvd.,
Glenview. For museum hours
and costs, (847) 832-6600. (See
separate story.)
Film
“Felix & Meira” runs for a limited engagement at Century 12
Evanston/ CineArts 6 & XD,
1715 Maple, Evanston, (847)
491-9751 and Landmark’s Renaissance Place Cinema, Highland Park, 1850 2nd St.,
Highland Park, (847) 432-7903.
Directed by Maxime Giroux, it is
the story of an unusual romance
that blossoms between two lost
souls who inhabit the same
neighborhood but vastly different worlds. Call theaters or show
times and tickets.
“The Farewell Party,” a film by
Sharon Maymon and Tal Granit
about a group of friends at a
Jerusalem retirement home who
decide to help their terminally ill
friend, opens Friday, June 12 at
the Music Box Theater, 3733 N.
Southport, Chicago, (773) 8716607 and Renaissance Place,
1850 Second St., Highland Park.
(847) 432-7903.
JCC Chicago presents 2nd Annual Chicago Jewish Film Festival running from Saturday, June
20 through Sunday, June 28.
Venues for the festival are: Century 12 Evanston/Cine Arts 6
and XD, 1715 Maple Ave.,
Evanston; Landmark Century
Centre Cinema, 2828 N. Clark
St., Chicago; Illinois Holocaust
Museum and Education Center,
9603 Woods Drive, Skokie and
Victory Gardens Theater, 2433
N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. $64
for festival pass (includes eight
films); single films, $12, adults;
$10 seniors or students. For complete list of films, www.chicagojewishfilm.org. (See separate
story.)
Chicago YIVO 2015 Summer
Festival of Yiddish Culture shows
film, “Lost Embrace” (with English subtitles) telling the story of
Ariel Makaroff, grandson of
Holocaust-era Polish refugees,
who is currently on a complex
search for his personal and cultural identity. 2 p.m. Thursday,
June 25, Skokie Public Library,
5215 Oakton, Skokie. (847)
637-7774.
Lectures
Chicago YIVO 2015 Summer
Festival of Yiddish Culture presents Professor Joseph Shanes
speaking on “Di Galitsiyaners:
The Jews of Galicia, 1772-1914.”
2 p.m. Thursday, July 16,
Evanston Public Library, 1703
Orrington, Evanston. (847) 4488600.
ELI Talks presents new “inspired
Jewish ideas” including the neuroscience of ritual, race relations,
the moral imagination of the Talmud and Ladino proverbs. To be
filmed at 6:30 p.m. TuesdayThursday, June 16, 17 and 18 at
studios of WTTW Channel 11,
5400 N. St. Louis, Chicago.
Guests can be part of the live studio audience at 6 p.m. for a light
kosher reception with chance to
meet and mingle with the speakers. Tickets $18, advance; $20,
door.
eventbright.com/e/elitalks-chicago-jewish-life-andlearning-tickets-16635512265.
Music
Chicago YIVO 2015 Summer
Festival of Yiddish Culture presents Duo Controverso featuring
Annette Bjorling and Kurt Bjorling. Program includes liturgical
music, celebratory dances and instrumental versions of traditional
folk songs. 2 p.m. Wednesday,
June 10, Indian Trails Public Library, 355 S. Schoenbeck Road,
Wheeling. (847) 459-4100.
Chicago YIVO 2015 Summer Festival of Yiddish Culture presents Duo
Controverso featuring Annette and Kurt Bjorling.
Congregation Solel presents
“The Voice of Song,” a concert
to benefit Kol Zimrah Community Singers conducted by its
music director, Richard Boldrey.
3 p.m. Sunday June 14, 1301
Clavey Road, Highland Park.
Spertus Institute presents an exhibition of illustrations in “A Bintel
Brief: Love and Longing in Old New York” inspired by the Bintel Brief
letters to the editor that ran during the turn of the last century in the
Yiddish Daily Forward.
$20 and $36, contact Michael,
[email protected]
or
Monica, [email protected] or
(847) 297-5745.
Chicago Loop Synagogue presents An Intimate Evening with
its High Holiday Cantor and
Broadway Performer Dudu
Fisher. 7 p.m. Sunday, June 21,
16 S. Clark St., Chicago. $65,
main floor; $35, balcony.
www.chiloopsyn.net or (312)
346-7370.
Theater
Theater Wit presents “Bad Jews,”
a play by Joshua Harmon about a
battle between two cousins over
a treasured family heirloom.
Continues through Sunday, June
21, 1229 W. Belmont, Chicago.
$24-36. www.theaterwit.org or
(773) 975-8150. Continues at
North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd,
Skokie from June 26-July 19.
$20-$58. NorthShoreCenter.org
or call (847) 673-6300.
Kimberly Senior’s new, intimate
production of “The Diary of
Anne Frank” continues at Writers Theatre through Aug. 2. 664
Vernon Ave., Glencoe. (847)
242-6000 or writerstheatre.org.
Genesis Theatrical Productions
presents Stephanie Liss’ play
“Jihad,” a story of Hamas terrorist actions against Israelis as seen
through the eyes of Israelis and
Hamas. July 5-Aug. 2 at Theater
Wit, 1229 W. Belmont, Chicago.
$30, discounts for students, seniors and groups. theaterwit.org or
(773) 975-8150.
Kokandy Productions presents
“Loving Repeating,” an intimate
exploration of Gertrude Stein’s
legacy and her lifelong relationship with Alice B. Toklas, with
lyrics by Gertrude Stein. July 18
through Aug. 30 at Theater Wit,
1229 W. Belmont, Chicago. $25
preview performances, $38 regular run. www.kokandyproductions.com or (773) 975-8150.
Hell in a Handbag productions
presents “Bette, Live at the Continental Baths” featuring Caitlin
Jackson in a musical tribute to
Bette Midler. Runs Friday, July
24 through Friday, Aug. 2. Mary’s
Attic, 5400 N. Clark St.,
Chicago. $20 advance, $22 door.
www.handbagproductions.org.
9
Chicago Jewish News - June 5-11, 2015
Unanswered questions
Chicago author
delves into new
JFK information
More than 50 years after the
fact, are you one of a large number of Americans still wondering
who killed John F. Kennedy?
Chicago investigative reporter Hillel Levin counted himself among that number.
In 2010, Levin, a writer specializing in crime, wrote an article for Playboy magazine in
which he uncovered new information about the tragedy that is
often described as “the crime of
the century,” information that he
says ties the assassination to
Chicago and shines a new light
on its most Jewish player, Jack
Ruby.
Levin has turned his findings into a play, “Assassination
Theater.” It will open in August
at Chicago’s Museum of Broadcast Communications.
The genesis of the drama is
the Playboy article, Levin, a former editor of Chicago magazine,
said in a recent telephone interview. In the piece, he uncovered
the role of Chicago mobster
Tony Accardo in the assassination, he says.
After the story was pub-
lished, Zechariah Shelton, one of
the FBI agents featured in the article, contacted Levin.
“Now you need to do a real
story about the mob,” he told
him. “How they killed JFK.” Naturally Levin – who has written
many articles and two books
about organized crime, “When
Corruption Was King” and “In
With the Devil” – was intrigued.
What he found out, he says,
is that the Chicago Outfit, or
mob, was instrumental in the
plot to kill Kennedy to squash investigations into its dealings in
Las Vegas.
“Most people are not aware
of how important Chicago was in
building Las Vegas,” Levin says.
“At that point (1963) almost
every casino on the Strip was
owned by Chicago. The money
they got for building and expanding those big casinos came
from the Teamsters pension fund,
which had its offices here.”
Meanwhile, Attorney General Robert Kennedy was aggressively going after organized
crime, particularly in the union
movement, and the mob, Levin
says, was eager to get rid of the
entire Kennedy administration.
FBI agent Shelton and several other agents told Levin they
had stumbled on someone who
claimed to be the second shooter
from the famous grassy knoll and
was still alive in an Illinois
prison. They couldn’t disclose
the information while they were
still with the bureau, they told
him.
Levin spent the next several
years trying to confirm this information and reading files that had
been released in the 1990s. He
says those documents prove that
more than one person fired at the
president and that organized
crime figures were “the most
likely people behind the assassination.”
The new information, he
says, shined a particularly bright
light on Jack Ruby, Lee Harvey
Oswald’s killer and a Jewish man
originally from Chicago’s West
Side.
“I think we now have a real
different take on Ruby,” Levin
says. “He is a real key to what really happened. The Warren
Commission (that investigated
the assassination) said he had no
significant ties to organized
crime. He had very significant
ties to organized crime leaders in
Chicago, and for the Warren
Commission to contend otherwise is just ridiculous.”
Levin has his own circuitous
connection to Jack Ruby: He
grew up in Hartford, Conn.,
where his family attended
Emanuel Synagogue, whose longtime rabbi, Morris Silverman, ed-
Chicagoan Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald.
ited the “Silverman Machzor,”
the Conservative movement’s official High Holiday prayer book
during the first half of the 20th
century.
Silverman’s son, Hillel Silverman, also became a rabbi with
a pulpit in Dallas, where Jack
Ruby was one of his congregants.
“Ruby was fairly observant.
He would go to minyamin quite a
bit,” Levin says. “A lot of the
Jewish side of Ruby has been
kind of forgotten.”
Ruby shot and killed Oswald
at the Dallas Municipal Building,
where the alleged presidential assassin was being held, on Nov.
24, 1963. He was tried for murder (the conviction was later
overturned and he died of cancer
in prison) with Hillel Silverman
testifying at the trial.
That testimony “was used to
puncture conspiracy theories,”
Levin says. “The idea was that
(Ruby) cared so much about
President Kennedy he felt the
need to do this.” Hillel Silverman went on to lead major congregations in several cities. “His
claim to fame was that he testified in Ruby’s trial and got TV
exposure,” Levin says. “He testiSEE JFK
ON
PAG E 1 2
Hands on great art
Chagall ‘teaches’
kids fun lessons
at museum exhibit
Usually children are instructed to “look, don’t touch”
when visiting a museum.
At Kohl Children’s Museum’s recently opened “Chagall
for Children” exhibit, the instructions are just the opposite:
Please touch.
At 14 stations corresponding to some of the great Russian-Jewish artist’s most famous
works, kids can rearrange pieces,
play on a stage while videotaping
themselves, create their own
paintings and flower arrangements, manipulate figures from
paintings, weave and sew, press
light-up touch screens and otherwise engage with Chagall’s
works in a way that goes far beyond just looking.
Parents and teachers, meanwhile, can learn about the artist
through narrative wall panels designed just for them and set at
adult height.
The exhibit, which continues through Sept. 6 at the museum at 2100 Patriot Blvd. In
Glenview, was developed by the
Kohl Museum in 1996 at its for-
mer location and has been shown
six times, the last in 2012. It also
goes on the road, traveling to
other museums around the country. It’s a popular attraction wherever it goes, says Sheridan
Turner, the museum’s president
and CEO.
“It’s a timeless exhibit that’s
absolutely gorgeous. Kids and
families love it,” Turner said in a
recent telephone interview.
“While the children are playing,
parents can read the history of
the life of Marc Chagall and the
impact he had on art.”
Why Chagall? For one reason, Turner says, museum
founder Dolores Kohl is Jewish
and feels strong ties to a quintessentially Jewish artist like Chagall, whose work she wanted to
celebrate.
His life story also makes a
dramatic tale. Born in Belarus in
1887, Chagall bridged styles and
periods and worked in numerous
artistic media, from paintings to
etchings to stained glass windows
to sets for plays and ballets. His
work often depicted characters
from Jewish folktales in dreamlike settings.
As he developed his unique
style, Chagall and later his wife,
Bella, traveled from St. Petersburg to Berlin, Paris and other
European locations and were living in France when the Nazis
began their campaign against
modernist art. Many of Chagall’s
works were confiscated from museums as “degenerate art” and
“an assault on Western civilization.”
Eventually he was among
many Jewish artists, writers and
intellectuals rescued by the
United States from occupied
France, and he began a new life
in America in 1941.
“His art is understood as a
response to the situation that has
long marked the history of Russian Jews and everything that
happened during World War II,”
Turner says. “The beauty of the
selections is how they depict different times and periods during
Chagall’s life. We have been able
to take these wonderful, significant pieces of art and take the
ideas expressed by them” and
create an exhibit designed for
children ages 2-12. (The artworks are licensed reproductions
of original Chagall pieces.)
Kids, Turner says, “have a
different way of interacting with
art and are especially fascinated
with Chagall’s works.
“They are in awe of the colors, the beauty, the fact that they
are not being told ‘don’t touch.’
Learning about and interacting with Marc Chagall’s ‘Green Violinist.’
At first some can be hesitant to
actually engage (with the exhibit) until that affirmation is
given to them by teachers or parents, allowing the children to express their creativity,” she says.
Each of the 14 stations has a
different activity associated with
it. At the “America Windows”
exhibit, kids can explore the ef-
fects of light on stained glass by
rearranging puzzle-like pieces of
the famous work, a Chicago
treasure that some may have already seen at the Art Institute of
Chicago. “At the Circus” features silk-screened capes young
visitors can don to seemingly beSEE CHAGALL
ON
PAG E 1 2
10
Chicago Jewish News - June 5-11, 2015
Summer Arts Preview
Film fest fun
Be all-Jewish,
all the time
at the movies
Simon Wiesenthal Center
Honoring
Robert A. Mariano
and
Christopher G. Kennedy
A middle-class, white Jewish
woman who discovers a shocking
truth about her background. A
preteen Holocaust survivor starting a new life in America. A
young boy collecting baseball
equipment for boys in Cuba. A
German-Jewish immigrant who
makes a life for himself in America’s “Wild West.” A Jewish superstar whose prodigious talents
and outrageous demeanor predate Madonna and Lady Gaga.
Those are some of the actual
and fictional characters you can
meet during the Chicago Jewish
Film Festival, which offers 17
films over nine days at four venues, plus discussions and special
events with several directors.
The festival, produced by
JCC Chicago, runs from Saturday, June 20 to Sunday, June 28
at Century Cinema, Evanston;
Victory
Gardens
Theater,
Chicago; Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center,
Skokie; and Landmark Century
Centre Theatres, Chicago. (For
a complete list of films and venues, visit chicagojewishfilm.org.)
Before last year, Chicago,
unlike most major American
cities, didn’t really have a Jewish
film festival, David Chack, the
festival’s artistic director, said
during a recent telephone interview.
Well known to arts-loving
Chicagoans, Chack is a professor
of theater at DePaul University
and the artistic director of ShPieL-Performing Identity, a multicultural theater project. In his
new role with the film festival he
has traveled to other such events
and seen films with Jewish con-
tent from all over the world to
pick the best for the Chicago
fest, now in its second year.
What he looks for, first of
all, is the quality of the film. “It’s
really important for us to be
showing top-notch films,” he
says. “There are lots and lots of
documentaries and films with
Jewish content and Holocaustrelated films. We want to be
ranked with the great festivals
here in Chicago and be connected to film festivals worldwide, like Sundance and
Toronto. We’re looking for highquality films – that is paramount.”
“Jewish content,” which
seems like it may be easy to define but isn’t always, means “Jewish interest of one kind or
another – storyline, narrative,
culturally, historically, Jewish
identity or even some kind of
strong Jewish performer like Natalie Portman,” Chack says.
He also looks for topics that
Jewish audiences might be particularly interested in in any
given year. This year that meant
the attacks on the Charlie
Hebdo magazine and on a Jewish
grocery store in France.
“I thought, this is a tremendous opportunity to promote
healing, knowledge and awareness of what goes on to Jews in
France,” Chack says. He reached
out to the French Consulate in
Chicago and together they will
sponsor the June 25 showing of
“24 Days (24 Jours),” a fictional
film based on real events – the
kidnapping of a young Jewish
man in France.
After the film, which Chack
describes as “searing,” a panel
will discuss the upsurge of antiSemitism in Europe with representatives from the French
consulate and the AJC-Chicago.
CONTINUED
O N N E X T PAG E
June 11, 2015
Standard Club, Chicago
www.wiesenthal.com/2015ChicagoDinner
or call
312.981.0105
for more information
A scene from “Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem.”
11
Chicago Jewish News - June 5-11, 2015
Summer Arts Preview
CONTINUED
F RO M P R E V I O U S PAG E
Not to forget the family audience, there’s “Havana Curveball,” a documentary about a
baseball-loving boy whose grandfather was saved from the Holocaust and spent several years in
Cuba. The teen decides that for
his bar mitzvah project he wants
to send baseball equipment to
boys in Cuba, a project that “gets
him in all sorts of troubles” and
makes him think about what it
really takes to change the world,
Chack says.
Chicagoans might be particularly interested in “Compass
Cabaret 55,” a behind-the-scenes
look at the Compass Players and
its Jewish comedians, forerunners
of Second City and Saturday
Night Live. The documentary
was shown once at the Gene
Siskel Film Center but deserves
a wider audience, Chack says.
That’s also the case, he says,
with “Theodore Bikel: In the
Shoes of Sholom Aleichem,”
which was shown once at Spertus. It chronicles the beloved entertainer’s return to Vienna for
the first time since the Holocaust
and his strong connection to the
“Fiddler on the Roof” author.
YIVO is a co-sponsor of the
screening.
Another film Chack thinks
viewers will find intriguing is
“Little White Lie,” the true story
of Lacey Schwartz, brought up as
a white Jewish woman in a closeknit New York family. Lacey’s
unusually dark skin was “the elephant in the room” in that family, but when her biological
father dies just before her 30th
birthday, the family secret can no
longer stay hidden, and Schwartz
and her family must come to
terms with questions of identity
and race.
Schwartz will be present via
A scene from “24 Hours.”
Skype after the showing. Three
other directors – Mark Siska
from “Compass Cabaret 55,”
Adam Zucker from “The Return,” the story of a renaissance
of Jewish culture in Poland, and
Steven Bram of “Kaballah Me” –
will attend in person and speak
after the screenings of their films.
“Kaballah Me” tells the story
of Bram’s unlikely journey to
Jewish spirituality and observance and how it created profound changes in his life. The
showing is co-sponsored by the
JCC’s group of Jews in their 20s
and 30s, many of whom “are really into Jewish spirituality,”
Chack says.
Also notable, he says, is
“Nora’s Will,” a black comedy
from Mexico about how a
woman’s plan to bring her family
together – a plan that must be
carried out by her ex-husband –
emerges after her death just before Passover. Writer/director
Mariana Chenillo is the first
woman director to win Mexico’s
Best Picture award.
Over the next five years,
Chack says, he and the JCC plan
to expand and broaden the reach
of the festival and have received
several grants enabling them to
do so.
Meanwhile this year, “it’s really a feast of films,” he says.
“People can dip in and try the
ones they like. It’s all about celebrating Jewish film worldwide.”
The Chicago Jewish Film Festival, produced by JCC Chicago,
runs from Saturday, June 20 to
Sunday, June 28 at four venues.
For a complete list of films and venues and to buy tickets, including a
festival pass that includes eight films
for $64, visit chicagojewishfilm.org.
Single films are $12 adults, $10
seniors or students.
NEW TICKETS ADDED FOR A LIMITED TIME!
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12
Chicago Jewish News - June 5-11, 2015
JFK
CONTINUED
F RO M PAG E
9
fied that (Ruby) was capable of
doing this on his own.”
Levin felt that the public
should have access to the new information about the Kennedy assassination and thought that
theater would be a good way to
do it. In a play, “you have people’s undivided attention,” he
says, adding that he wants the
public to know “how much of
this information is now available
on the Web and through
archives that people can pull
down themselves.”
The play he eventually wrote,
“Assassination Theater,” has an
actor portraying Levin, another
playing FBI agent Shelton and
two other actors portraying a
number of individuals connected
with the assassination, including
Robert Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson
and Herbert Hoover.
“They say only things we
know they have really said
through transcripts and memoirs,” Levin says. Three large
screens project images, historical
photos and diagrams.
Last year, Levin staged a
showcase for the play in an Oak
Park venue, which more than 300
people attended. Among them
was Bruce DuMont, founder and
Chagall
CONTINUED
F RO M PAG E
9
come part of the painting via a
video camera and monitor.
At “The Blue House,” a
painting depicting Chagall’s original house in Belarus, kids study
form and structure by creating
their own three-dimensional
house with Lincoln Logs against
the backdrop of the painting. A
“Flowers” exhibit, inspired by the
paintings, lets visitors create
their own flower arrangements
and experiment with floral
scents. “The Birthday” encourages viewers to compare art forms
such as oil paintings and bas-reliefs. They can also create a rubbing from a steel engraving of a
bas-relief.
Art forms other than the visual are not overlooked. In “The
Concert” station, visitors select
musical instruments represented
in the painting of the same name
and blend sounds the way Chagall blended colors.
One of the most beloved exhibits, and iconic Chagall, is
“The Flying Sleigh,” Turner says.
“Chagall was telling the
story of a family riding on a
magic sleigh,” she says. In a computerized activity, kids can press
different components on a touch
screen. “It will change into something different,” she says. They
can make up their own story.”
Without realizing it, Turner
president of the Museum of
Broadcast Communications in
Chicago.
“He left feeling there was really more I could tell about the
assassination,” Levin says. “He
said we had to think about doing
(the play) at the museum.”
DuMont committed to upgrading the lighting and set on
the museum’s second floor, the
Radio Hall of Fame, where “Assassination Theater” will have a
12-week run beginning with previews on Aug. 11.
Aside from offering the public new information about the
JFK assassination, Levin says the
play gives fascinating bits of information on the Jewish connections to the tragedy, involving
Ruby and other Jews. The
Chicago mob, which Levin says
figured so prominently in the JFK
killing, included not just Italians
but Germans, Greeks and Jews.
“It wasn’t just Jews, but Jews
were pretty important,” he says.
“It was very multi-ethnic compared to what was in New York.”
Just one more forgotten fact
you night learn from viewing
“Assassination Theater.”
“Assassination Theater” opens
with previews Aug. 11 at the Museum of Broadcast Communications, 360 N. State St., Chicago.
For ticket information call (708)
405-9181 or visit AssassinationTheater.com.
Community Calendar
Sunday
June 7
Congregation Beth Judea
presents Danny Siegel
speaking on “116 Practical
Mitzvah Suggestions and
How to Choose the Charity that is the Very Best
for You.” 10 a.m., Route 83
and Hilltop Road, Long
Grove. RSVP required,
lneiman@ bethjudea.org or
(847) 634-0777.
SPOTLIGHT
The second annual Chicago Kosher BBQ Festival & Competition will be
held on Sunday, June 14 at Anshe Emet Synagogue in Chicago. With
an anticipated 15-20 BBQ teams competing, trophies will be awarded
for Best Brisket, Best Ribs, Best Chicken, Best Beans, Most Original
Team Name, Best Booth Decoration and Grand Champion. Events will
include pickle and hot dog eating contests, sports clinics, and a kid
zone featuring face painters, stilt walkers, balloon artists, a dunk
tank and more. All food is under CRC supervision. For more information, visit www.chikosherbbq.org.
Monday
Chicago Jewish Historical
Society presents Richard
Reeder discussing “The
Saul Bellow Centenary.” 2
p.m., Temple Beth Israel,
3601 W. Dempster, Skokie.
$10. Free for TBI and CJHS
members. (312) 663-5634.
Illinois Holocaust Museum
and Education Center presents Lincolnwood Chamber Orchestra performing
compositions by famous
Russian composers. 2-3:30
p.m., 9603 Woods Drive,
Skokie. $30, $20 members.
Reservations required, ilholocaustmuseum.org/even
ts.
says, kids are learning something
at each station. In “I and the Village” it’s all about the concept of
symmetry and the different ways
people view the world. “The Juggler” imparts a subtle lesson
about the world as viewers use a
touch screen to find corresponding pieces in the picture. A “Job
Tapestry” involves creating a cooperative tapestry by using weaving and sewing.
“Creativity can’t be taught
by flash cards,” Turner says. “This
gets children out of the traditional setting into an environment that is very colorful and
whimsical, and where they experience the transformational
power of play.”
She recounts the story of
one young woman who grew up
in Glenview and is now working
in Johannesburg, South Africa
creating a children’s museum
there – a task that she said was
directly influenced by visiting
the Chagall exhibit at the Kohl
Museum as a child.
Turner thinks there must be
many Chicagoans who have such
memories about the impact the
museum and the exhibit create –
and she would love to hear them.
Agudath Israel of Illinois
hosts Unity Dinner and
Midwest Leadership
Awards. More information,
[email protected].
“Chagall for Children” continues through Sept. 6 at Kohl Children’s Museum, 2100 Patriot
Blvd., Glenview. $11 children and
adults, $10 seniors, free for children
under one. More information,
www.kohlchildrensmuseum.org or
(847) 832-6600.
Shalom Memorial Park
3 plots in
Section 3 Ramah
$2500 each
Will split
Call Davina
(702) 834-7478
Temple Beth–El hosts lecture by U.S. Rep. Ed Royce,
chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on
“The U.S. and Israel:
Standing Together?” 7
p.m., 3610 Dundee, Northbrook. Preregistration recommended. (847) 205-9982.
CJN
Classified
MISCELLANEOUS
SEEKING
SPANISH SPEAKING
KABBALAH TEACHER
For weekly lessons
WRP or Skokie area
Please call
262-374-3469
CEMETERY LOTS
Thursday
June 8
June 11
Ezra-Habonim, the Niles
Township Jewish Congregation holds Clothing and
Textile Recycling Drive. 9
a.m.-5 p.m. Also June 9, 10
and 11, 4500 W. Dempster,
Skokie. (847) 675-4141.
Chicago YIVO Society presents Kurt Bjorling and
Chicago Klezmer Ensemble. 2 p.m., Evanston Public
Library, 1703 Orrington
Ave. (847) 448-8652.
Tuesday
June 9
Buffalo Grove Post #89 &
Auxiliary hosts luncheon
for installation of 2015 officers. Noon, Dover Straits
Restaurant, 890 E. Route
45. $25. (847) 668-0101.
North Suburban Synagogue
Beth El shows documentary
film “Roadmap Genesis.”
7:45 p.m., 1175 Sheridan
Road, Highland Park. (847)
432-8900.
Wednesday
June 10
Chicago YIVO Society presents Duo Controverso featuring harpist Annette
Bjorling and clarinetist Kurt
Bjorling. 2 p.m., Indian
Trails Public Library, 355 S.
Schoenbeck Road, Wheeling. (847) 459-4100.
The Oriental Institute holds
“Epic Wednesday” exploring the ancient Near Eastern
cosmopolitans with gallery
tours, artisan food, live music and craft beer. 5-8 p.m.,
1155 E. 58th St., Chicago.
Free for members, $10 students, $12 UChicago staff,
faculty, alumni, $15 nonmembers. (773) 702-9520.
Northwest Hadassah Chapter Book Club holds discussion on “The Light
Between Oceans” by M. L.
Stedman. 7 p.m., Buffalo
Grove Youth Center, 50 ½
Raupp Blvd., Buffalo Grove.
Elizabeth Gordon, [email protected].
Simon Wiesenthal Center
Midwest Region holds 2015
Spirit of Courage Benefit
honoring Robert A. Mariano. 5:30 p.m., The Standard Club, 320 S. Plymouth
Court, Chicago. $350. (312)
981-0105 or kferrell@
wiesenthal.com.
Jewish Child and Family
Services holds workshop on
Financial and Future Planning for People with Disabilities presented by Ron
Dickstein, Hoopis Financial
Group, Mass Mutual. 6-8
p.m., 5150 Golf Road, Skokie. EmilyTegenkamp@
jcfs.org or (773) 467-3741.
Friday
June 12
Congregation B’nai Tikvah
holds musical Kabbalat
Shabbat Service followed
by Oneg. 6:30 p.m., 1558
Wilmot Road, Deerfield.
(847) 945-0470.
Sunday
June 14
Illinois Holocaust Museum
and Education Center presents Holocaust survivor
Ralph Rehbok telling his
personal story. 12:30 p.m.,
9603 Woods Drive, Skokie.
Free with museum admission. ilholocaustmuseum.
org or (847) 967-4800.
Congregation B’nai Tikvah
hosts light supper and discussion of the movie “Ida”
followed by screening. 5:30
p.m., 1558 Wilmot Road,
Deerfield. $15. RSVP, (847)
945-0470.
13
Chicago Jewish News - June 5-11, 2015
By Joseph Aaron
CONTINUED
F RO M PAG E
Specialized
14
him “a holy vessel.”
There is something very wrong with the Jewish world when society shows that it has a lower and lower tolerance for unseemly behavior, that there is a higher and higher price to pay when one does
not act as we expect leaders to act, while the Jewish community excuses away and looks away from and rationalizes away the most disgusting of behaviors.
What in the hell is the matter with us?
And moving from the personal to the political, I need someone
to please explain to me why we so often make such big deals out of
nothing and so often fail to make big deals out of something.
Jews are normally very big into anniversaries. It doesn’t take much
for us to have a lecture, throw a party, make a tsimmes about the anniversary of almost anything. And yet here we are celebrating the 50th
anniversary of two amazing events, and you hear barely a peep about
them in the Jewish world.
The first 50th anniversary is the issuing by the Catholic church
of Nostra Aetate. The document rejects the charge that Jews are guilty
of killing Jesus and prohibits teachings in which Jews are seen as accursed, condemns anti-Semitism, affirms Christianity’s Jewish roots
and validates G-d’s eternal covenant with the Jewish people.
Considering that for almost 2,000 years the Church said exactly
the opposite, and that the Church’s pinning Jesus’ killing on us resulted
in pogroms against and the persecution of Jews, culminating in the
Holocaust in very Catholic Germany, this was an earth shattering development. Indeed it changed everything for Jews. Look at the last 50
years, at three popes visiting Israel, at three popes going to shul, at a
pope solemnly apologizing for the Church’s role in the Holocaust while
bowing to survivors at Yad Vashem.
That is a 50th anniversary we should be trumpeting, celebrating,
thanking G-d for, making a very big deal about. And yet basically
nothing.
So it is with the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and Germany. The same Germany that
had set up an elaborate extermination machine that resulted in the
murders of six million Jewish men, women and children. It was a nation whose goal was to destroy the Jewish people. And yet 50 years ago,
Germany and Israel, a country that rose out of the ashes of the Holocaust, established diplomatic ties.
That came after Germany paid Israel $6 billion in reparations. Of
course, no amount of money could atone for what Germany did to us,
but that money in a very real way made it possible for Israel to create
its state. That was a lot of money back then, and Israel put it to very
good use, building roads and hospitals and schools and infrastructure
and the very foundations of a modern country.
How wondrous and almost unbelievable it was to see Israeli president Reuven Rivlin go to Berlin to mark the 50th anniversary. The
head of a sovereign Jewish state going to the capital of the Nazi Reich to be welcomed with honors.
Indeed, one could hardly believe one’s eyes, remembering how
Nazi newspapers like Der Steurmer would publish the most vicious
anti-Semitism, to see Germany’s most widely read newspaper featuring Hebrew on its front page during Rivlin’s visit. The Bild newspaper included a bold headline in Hebrew – “Good Day, Israel!” as part
of a special issue marking 50 years of diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. A cuddly photo of Rivlin and his German counterpart,
Joachim Gauck, appeared under the headline.
In the days after the Holocaust, with the blood and tears of six
million of our people soaking Germany, Poland and elsewhere in Eastern Europe, it was impossible to imagine a Jewish state, let alone that
Germany would have diplomatic ties with it, or that the Catholic
Church would have said Jews did not kill Jesus and that the Jewish
people had an eternal covenant with G-d.
And yet 50 years ago, both those things happened before our very
eyes. How blessed is this generation of Jews.
We need to not let those milestones go by without notice, indeed
without much cheering and gratitude. The Jewish people these days
are worried, about Isis and Iran, about Hamas and Hezbollah, about
Jewish apathy and lack of identity. I myself am most worried about no
peace process, pervasive political corruption and economic manipulation in Israel, an often cowardly and never inspiring national Jewish leadership in America. But whatever you choose to worry about
as a Jew, it would be nice if you took some time this year to feel joy
about two wondrous things that happened 50 years ago for the Jews.
It would also be nice if you took some time to feel disgust when
things like Rabbi Rosenblatt occur, recognize it is our Jewish duty to
speak out, to speak up, to express outrage and horror, to condemn his
behavior and so warn others to always behave as a Jew should, no matter how famous or powerful they are.
The Vatican and Berlin gave us something to kvell about 50 years
ago. This year, Rabbi Rosenblatt and how the Jewish world has reacted
to him, have given us something to cry about.
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Chicago Jewish News - June 5-11, 2015
By
Joseph
Aaron
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What in the hell is the matter with us?
To everyone’s utter shock, we recently learned that former House
Speaker Dennis Hastert has been charged with paying millions of dollars to someone, evidently to keep him quiet about some kind of abuse
he suffered while Hastert was a teacher and wrestling coach down in
Yorkville, Illinois.
We know absolutely no details about the abuse and can’t even be
sure there was abuse, though that does seem very likely to have been
the case. We do know it happened a very long time ago.
Despite the lack of details, just knowing what we know, a college
that had dedicated a center in Hastert’s name immediately took his
name off the center, and the lobbying firm in Washington for which
Hastert had worked for years, immediately cut their ties with him.
Now we can debate all we want about the fairness of Hastert’s
prosecution, with some legal experts saying he never would have been
charged for the crimes of withdrawing his own money from his own
bank accounts in amounts designed to avoid it being reported to authorities, then lying to the FBI about why he did it, if he wasn’t so well
known. And we can debate all we want about the rush to judgment
by the college and lobbying firm, before Hastert has been found guilty
of anything and without us even knowing what it.is he was trying to
cover up.
But just the suggestion of him having abused a student was
enough for that college and that lobbying firm to quickly take serious
action.
Not the way the Jewish community seems to work.
The very same week we learned about Hastert, we also learned
about a New York rabbi named Jonathan Rosenblatt. Rosenblatt is one
of the most well-known and respected rabbis in New York, the great
grandson of the cantor considered the greatest of all time, married to
a woman who is a member of two rabbinic dynasties.
In a very lengthy article, the New York Times revealed that
Rosenblatt, for many years, would get naked with male congregants,
who were often teenage boys, as well with university students who he
was supposed to mentor.
Rosenblatt liked to play squash or racquetball with males as
young as 12-years-old and then ogle them as they showered. He
would sit with them naked in the gym’s sauna for prolonged periods
of time and talk about their personal lives and issues. As he spoke, he
sometimes placed his hand on a boy’s thigh or shoulder in a way some
found uncomfortable.
This has been going on for about 30 years and a lot of people
knew about it, officials of his synagogue, officials of a major rabbinical organization, congregants, and, of course, the boys themselves,
some of whom told the Times how traumatized they were and still are
by it, and how some left Judaism because of it.
Now, there has been no allegation from anyone that Rosenblatt
physically abused the boys, though the mental abuse seems clear. And
Rosenblatt has not been charged with any crime.
But at the barest minimum, his behavior has clearly been bizarre,
inappropriate, unbecoming and just plain not right. One boy told the
Times how uncomfortable it was for him to be taking a shower while
Rosenblatt sat naked in the sauna staring at him. Not the way a rabbi
should behave.
And yet absolutely nothing has been done to Rosenblatt. Nothing. The synagogue has not suspended him, let alone fired him. Indeed,
if you go to the synagogue’s website, you will find that even after the
Times article told us what we know now, it refers to their rabbi as a
“kli kodesh,” a holy vessel.
Because of the nature of the still unproven, still unspecified
charges against him, the college and the lobbying firm quickly cut off
Hastert, felt it best to immediately show their disapproval.
And yet, even as no one, including the rabbi, has disputed the
facts in the Times story, even as no one is denying that the rabbi, for
three decades, has taken young boys into the sauna with him as he and
they sat naked, that he would ogle them as they showered, no action
at all has been taken against the rabbi. He continues to serve the synagogue and has not been disciplined in any way by anyone.
I thought Jews lived by a higher standard and that rabbis are expected to live by an even higher standard. And yet knowing what we
now know about how Rosenblatt has behaved, the Jewish community
in New York has simply shrugged it off, his synagogue has done nothing at all, he still presides over services, indeed they continue to call
SEE BY JOSEPH
AARON
ON
PAG E 1 3
15
Chicago Jewish News - June 5-11, 2015
ADVERTISEMENT
A Letter
the World
Jerusalem
ThreetoCard
Montefrom
Happy
Dance
“... but if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the
Land before you, those of them that you leave shall be
barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they will
harass you upon the Land in which you dwell and it
shall be that what I had meant to do to them, I shall do to
you.” Numbers 33:55
The War of Independence for Israel in reality began on November 30,
1947, the day after the United Nations vote for the reestablishment of the
homeland for the Jewish people. Until the U.N. vote the Arabs and their British
allies had been on their best behavior … after the vote the gloves came off.
It should be remembered that the original agreement regarding the
reestablishment of the Jewish State was previously confirmed under the
provisions of the Balfour Declaration (1917) with the agreement being fully
implemented at the conference in San Remo, Italy in 1920, under the powers
vested by the League of Nations called thereafter the Mandate for Palestine. In
1920, the homeland of the Jews
was to be “on the banks of the
Jordan River…” on both the
west and the east banks of the
Jordan. In 1922, Winston
Churchill, the British Colonial
Secretary and Alex Kirkbride,
acting Governor of Moab, in
disregard of Britain’s obligations
under the Mandate, lopped off
78% of the land designated for
the National homeland of the
Jewish people thereafter calling it
Trans-Jordan. … for Britain, one
could only say, “agreements
were made to be broken” and so
the
area
left
for
the
reestablishment of the Jewish
homeland was only 22% of the
original Mandate, the areas west
of the Jordan river.
In 1947, Britain and the
successor organization to the
League of Nations, the newly
created United Nations again
attempted to re-divide the
remaining 22% into a Jewish
State and a second Arab State.
After the U.N. vote of 1947, with
the instigation of the Arab
leadership, Arabs who had been
living in the area designated
for the Jewish State were told
to move to the area designated
as the Arab State clearing the
way for five Arab armies to
enter the Jewish areas to slaughter the Jews. In the interim, the
surrounding Arab states closed all their borders to any Arabs trying to
leave Palestine. The so-called “refugees” never crossed the borders of 1948!
The 1948 war in Palestine was a big story with hundreds of reporters from
Europe, Britain and the United States on the scene. Today there are often
hysterical memories by Arabs of the evil Jews pushing the “mythological”
Palestinians out of their land where they had lived “from time immemorial”. Yet
the obvious question is, if the Jews had violently pushed the “poor defenseless
Arabs” out, might there be news accounts and articles attesting to these actions?
In the book” Battleground” by Shmuel Katz, z’l he writes, “… the
fabrication can most easily be detected by the simple fact that at the time
the alleged expulsion of the Arabs by Zionists was in progress, nobody
noticed it. Foreign newspapermen abounded in the country… but even those
most hostile to the Jews saw nothing to suggest that the flight (of the Arabs) was
not voluntary. In the months that the flight took place, the London Times, a
newspaper most notably hostile to Israel, published 11 leading articles on the
situation in Palestine… in none was there even a remote hint that the Zionists
were driving Arabs from their homes… Even more pertinent, no Arab
spokesman made such a charge. The Palestinian Arabs’ chief U.N.
representative, Jamal Husseini, made a long political statement on April 27,
1948, that was not lacking in hostility toward the Zionists but he did not even
mention” the refugees”… The Secretary-general of the Arab League, Azzam
Pasha, also made a fiercely worded political statement on Palestine at the United
Nations and not a word about “ refugees”. When playing “Three Card Monte”,
the question is always who’s the mark and who’s the con…if you tell a lie often
enough…and so our enemies have.
Yet, interestingly, corroborating the findings from Shmuel Katz’s z’l
exhaustive study of various news sources was our very own, less than Israelloving, Chicago Tribune, then owned and run by Colonel Robert R. McCormick,
a personage not particularly fond of Jews. If, as some believe, the Tribune is
biased today, it was worse under McCormick’s ownership and so an associate of
mine spent over two months at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago
combing thru every back issue of the Chicago Tribune from January 1, 1947
through December 31, 1949, photocopying each and every article (over 420)
about Palestine, Zionists and the establishment of the State of Israel.
Between 1947 and 1949, the Tribune had its very own Middle East
foreign correspondent in Palestine by the name of E.R. Noderer. He was one of
the Tribune’s most valued foreign correspondents and a loyalist when it came to
the Tribune agenda. Quoting the Tribune’s own archives, “Noderer was in
Palestine for the Jewish-Arab war, which saw the birth of the State of Israel.” In
addition to Noderer, the Tribune had numerous dispatches from the Associated
Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI).
From all these sources over a three year period – not one report – not one
sentence –about the Palestinian Jews (as they were referred to) throwing the
Arabs (as they were referred to) out of the country. The only sentence that
referred to Arabs leaving was written by Noderer on May 10, 1948 under the
headline “Palestine Jews Say Their
Star Rose on Jan. 15” (January
15th is when the British Army left
Tel Aviv). Noderer writes: “One
hundred fifty thousand Arabs
were
estimated
(perhaps
inflated) to have left the areas of
Palestine assigned to the Jews in
the partition plan”. That’s it!
Would hundreds of news sources
conspire to keep such an expulsion
secret? Why is it that all the
“accounts” of the brutality inflicted
on
the
poor,
displaced
“Palestinians” were, in fact, written
years afterward by “revisionist
historians” with an agenda? Where
was the need to establish a
Palestinian Arab State from 1948
through 1967, when Jordan
controlled the West Bank?
As the Muslim cleric Abu
Hamid al-Ghazali, considered the
greatest Muslim after Mohammed,
wrote, “If a lie is the only way to
obtain a good result, it is
permitted. We must lie when
truth
leads
to
unpleasant
results.” (Jerusalem Post, March 1,
1997) In Arabic the noble lie is
called “Al-Taqiya”….
And
in a
miraculous
conversion,
famed
revisionst
historian Benny Morris, in a
January 9, 2004 Haaretz interview
stated: “The majority of those
who call themselves Palestinian
refugees never left the boundaries of the western Land of Israel in 1948.
This has frightening significance for leftist intellectuals because it means
the myth of Palestinian ‘exile’ is false, and as a result, the ‘right of return’
means nothing”.
Goebbels would be proud … If you repeat the lie often enough, people
will begin to believe it, and so they have. Displaced refugees have been created
where few existed in history. Al-Taqiya – the art of the lie…
It is not just on the street corners of New York that the game of “Three
Card Monte” is played. In “Three Card Monte” – the con – is a con in which a
shill pretends to conspire with the mark to cheat the dealer, while in fact
conspiring with the dealer to cheat the mark. In the refugee game of lies the
shill is the head of UNRWA, Johnny “Quick-fingers” Ging and his merry band
of Hamas pranksters… the dealer is the mythological Palestinian refugees – the
larger the number the more funding from the mark…and the mark is the
American taxpayers. “Three Card Monte” for Palestinian refugees is a con game
in which the mark (the American tax payer) is tricked into giving aid on the
assumption that there are more “refugees” getting more aid to split between the
dealer and the shills, UNRWA and the Palestinian / Hamas leadership.
It was Prince Hassam bin Tal, the younger brother of the late King
Hussain of Jordan who when interviewed on the BBC by Stephen Sackur on the
program Hard Talk in 2008 made the point,
“We come from a Byzantine civilization, from centuries of
dissimulation. I mean we Middle Easterners are professional liars.”
UNRWA and the mythological Palestinians may not be very good at math,
but are very creative when it comes to multiplication…Remember their happy
dance after two airplanes slammed into the World Trade Center. The poor
Palestinian leadership has been happy dancing on the American tax payer since
the infamous handshake on the White House lawn 19 years ago called Oslo.
Shabbat Shalom
06/05/15
Jack “Yehoshua” Berger
16
Chicago Jewish News - June 5-11, 2015