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8/17/2019 Jewish Standard Newspaper 4/29/16
1/56
201685NORTH JERSEY
FETING CANTOR ROMALIS page 10
EXAMINING THE DEATH PENALTY page 14
LEARNING THE YIDDISH WE ALREADY KNOW page 16
RECONSIDERING DISRAELI page 43
APRIL 29, 2016VOL. LXXXV NO. 34 $1.00
THEJEWISHSTANDARD.COM
We reprint an essay by
Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg
of Englewood on his
10th yahrzeit
What is
Zionism?page 26
8/17/2019 Jewish Standard Newspaper 4/29/16
2/562 JEWISH STANDARD APRIL 29, 2016
8/17/2019 Jewish Standard Newspaper 4/29/16
3/56
Page 3
JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 12, 2
CONTENTSPUBLISHER’S STATEMENT: (USPS 275-700 ISN 002
published weekly on Fridays with an additional edit
October, by the New Jersey Jewish Media Group, 1086
Road, Teaneck, NJ 07666. Periodicals postage paid at Ha
NJ and additional offices. POSTMASTER: Send addres
to New Jersey Jewish Media Group, 1086 Teaneck Road
NJ 07666. Subscription price is $30.00 per year. Out-of-
scriptions are $45.00, Foreign countries subscriptions ar
The appearance of an advertisement in The Jewish Stan
not constitute a kashrut endorsement. The publishing
political advertisement does not constitute an endorsem
candidate political party or political position by the new
any employees.
The Jewish Standard assumes no responsibility to return
ed editorial or graphic materials. All rights in letters and
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JEWISH STANDARD’s unrestricted right to edit and to
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Candlelighting: Friday, April 29, 7:33 p.m.
Shabbat ends: Saturday, April 30, 8:37 p.m.
NOSHES ...............................................................4
OPINION ...........................................................20
COVER STORY ................................................26
D’VAR TORAH ................................................42
ARTS & CULTURE ..........................................43
CALENDAR ......................................................44
CROSSWORD PUZZLE ................................46
OBITUARIES ....................................................49
CLASSIFIEDS ..................................................50
GALLERY ..........................................................52
REAL ESTATE ..................................................53
What a kippah really tells you about its wearerThe Pew Research Center this week repackaged its recent findings on Israeli
Jews into an explainer, laying out what a kippah tells you about its wearer.
Pew does not exhaust all the possibilities in this field, though. Below is our
research department’s guide to some styles that Pew left out. If you’ve ever
donned a kippah, even if only for your third cousin’s bat mitzvah, we’ve got a
category for you.
Pew reports: Your kippah countsWhat would we do without Pew?The intrepid religious survey organization has now ventured where many a Jew-
ish man has gone before, and calculated the statistical meaning of Israeli Jewish
headgear. They’ve cross-tabulated survey questions with self-reported yarmulke
identification, and have produced a fancy table we’re happy to reprint in toto.
LARRY YUDELSON
Donald Trump, Bernie Sandersleading the candidate kippah race● Donald Trump’s brand is taking
America by storm. Bernie Sanders sup-
porters are rising up in the streets.
Such is the state of the presidential
candidate kippah business, accord-
ing to Marc Daniels. The Jewish-head-
covering tycoon has been selling kip-
pot online and at campaign rallies for
months, but the whims of the elector-
ate remain a mystery to him.
“It’s strange there’s such a dispar-
ity,” he said, unable to offer a definitive
explanation.
On Daniel’s website, marcsjubilee.com, Trump trumps everyone, with 203
kippot sold. Sanders, the Independent
senator from Vermont running as a
Democrat, is a distant second (77), fol-
lowed by his rival, former Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton (31).
Trump’s Republican competitors, Sen.
Ted Cruz, R-Texas (23) and Ohio Gov.
John Kasich (6), come in fourth and
fifth, respectively.
At rallies, on the other hand, Sand-
ers supporters are the biggest buyers.
Daniels sold out of all 20-some kippot
he brought to the Millennials March for
Bernie in lower Manhattan on Saturday.
By contrast, he could barely unloa
three Clinton kippot at a recent ge
out-the vote event for her campai
Daniels first realized how much
ers supporters were feeling the kip
Bern when he sold 30 head cover
at a March 12 rally for the Jewish c
date in Bloomington, Illinois.
“With Bernie, Jewish or not, peo
want to identify with the Jewish g
he said.
Last month, though, Sanders fai
show up at the Super Bowl of can
date kippah sales events — the Amcan Israel Public Affairs policy con
ence — leaving the field wide open
Trump.
At the AIPAC confab in Washing
D.C., Daniels sold 10 Trump kippot
had to turn down requests for abo
more after his supply ran out. Clint
came in next at 15, then Sanders a
and Cruz at 5.
Those of us whose favorite — or
least home-state — candidate is no
longer in the running need not des
Daniels still is selling Chris Christie
kippot. He’s just moved them into
Purim 2017 category.RON KAMPEAS/JTA WIRE
Large pink satin kippah: You are
attending Stacie’s bat mitzvah.Puffy kippah that sits on your head
like a dumpling: You are a politician
visiting a synagogue for the first time.
Matching kippah-tallit set: You wore
it once — at your bar mitzvah.
Crocheted kippah that looks like a
slice of watermelon: You were the
class clown in Hebrew school.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles kippah:
You were bar mitzvahed in 1989.
Marc Daniels selling his kippot at a Bernie Sanders rally in Union Square in l
Manhattan.
Giant red kippah: You are a macher in
the Catholic Church.
ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL/JTA WIRE SERVICE
8/17/2019 Jewish Standard Newspaper 4/29/16
4/56
Noshes
4 JEWISH STANDARD APRIL 29, 2016
Want to read more noshes? Visit facebook.com/jewishstandard
(1880-1920) and thecomplexity of assimila-tion. CAROL KANE, now63, got a best actressOscar nomination for herstarring role as a piouswoman whose immigranthusband settled on theLower East Side andbecame very Americanbefore sending for herand their young son.Roberts co-stars as aneighbor who becomesKane’s great friend andinvaluable guide toAmerica. No premiumservice is now streaming
“Hester Street,” but youcan see the entire film forfree on Youtube. It’s ahigh quality copy. Justenter the film title.
Here’s most of the
publicity release
for the Fox series
“Houdini & Doyle,” which
premieres on Monday,
May 2, at 9 p.m.: “Two
great men of the 20th
century — Harry Houdini,
master magician, escape
artist and paranormal
debunker; and Arthur
Conan Doyle, prolific
writer, creator of Sher-
lock Holmes and para-
normal aficionado — join
forces with Adelaide
Stratton, New Scotland
Yard’s first female
constable ever, to
investigate unsolved and
inexplicable crimes with
a supernatural slant. In
the series’ debut, Houdi-
ni, Doyle and Adelaide
investigate the murder of
a nun…. A witness claims
the killer is a young
woman who was tor-
mented by the nun. The
only problem is, that
young woman has been
dead for six months
HOUDINI (1874-19born Erik Weisz, wacourse, Jewish. Doywasn’t Jewish, and ton is a wholly fictiocharacter. Houdini iplayed by MichaelWeston, 42. He’s a gfriend of ZACH BRA41, and has had rolethree Braff films, inc
ing “Garden State.” may know him for ping Olivia Benson’s brother on several “and Order: SVU” epsodes. Weston, whoborn Michael Rubenstein, is the son of JRUBENSTEIN, 69, aactor whose creditsclude a co-starring in the ’80s series “CLike a Fox.” The famJewish virtuoso classical pianist ARTHURUBINSTEIN (1887-was John’s father aMichael’s grandfathJohn’s mother wasnJewish, and I don’t that Michael’s mothminor actress Judi Wis Jewish either. OneArthur Rubenstein wfamous prodigy whtoured the world whe was young. He wonly 19 in 1906, whemade his debut at Cegie Hall. Thereforeentirely possible thamet Houdini and/orsaw one and other performance.
Anton Yelchin
AT THE MOVIES:
Dark taleplayed out inthe ‘Green Room’
Kate Hudson Jon Lovitz
Doris Roberts Carol Kane Michael Weston
Patrick Stewart
reportedly is truly
frightening in
“Green Room.” He plays
Darcy, a diabolical club
owner. The story: a
raggedy punk band
agrees to play a run-
down backwoods club in
Oregon. When they get
there, they find out that
Darcy and his patrons
are neo-Nazis. They playthe gig and are ready to
depart when one band
member realizes she left
her cellphone backstage
in the green room. When
she goes back, she and
another band member
witness a murder by
Darcy’s racist associates.
Darcy orders the death
of the band members
and the rest of the film is
the cat-and-mouse
combat between the
band and Darcy’s men.
All the action is played
out in and around the
backstage area, which
adds to the film’s
intensity.ANTON
YELCHIN, 27, co-stars as
Pat, the band member
who proves to be
Darcy’s most resourceful
enemy.
By the way, the Stew-art versus Yelchin castingin “Green Room” hasthe air of a “Star Trek”episode in which an evilversion of a normallyheroic series star charac-ter battles a good seriesstar. Stewart is best
known for his star turnas Capt. Picard on “StarTrek: Next Generation.”Yelchin’s most-seen roleis Chekov in the latest re-boot series of “Star Trek”films.
“Mother’s Day” is
another holiday
film directed by
Garry Marshall (who
seems Jewish, but isn’t).
Like his previous flicks,“New Year’s Eve” and
“Valentine’s Day,” it is a
collection of schmaltzy
interrelated stories
relevant to the title and
featuring a huge cast.
KATE HUDSON, 37,
co-stars as the best friend
of a woman (Britt
Robertson) who was
adopted. Hudson encour-
ages her friend to seek
out her birth mother
(Julia Roberts). Jennifer
Aniston stars in the other
major story line. JON
LOVITZ, 58, appears to
have one of the larger
supporting roles.
DORIS ROBERTS,best known as RayRomano’s mother
in “Everybody LovesRaymond,” died on April17. She was 90. Her longcareer included a majorsupporting role that youhave to see — or seeagain. “Hester Street”(1975) arguably is thebest film ever madeabout the heyday ofEastern European Jewishimmigration to America
California-based Nate Bloom can be reached at
“So give your pups a piece of leoverbrisket to say thanks.”
— Alexandra Levine in the New York Times, quoting Rabbi David-Seth Kirshne
Temple Emanu-El of Closter as he told the story of the guard dogs who didn’t
that night in Egypt, when the Israelites escaped from Pharaoh.
benzelbusch.com
The All-New 2016 GLC SUV
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8/17/2019 Jewish Standard Newspaper 4/29/16
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Prices, programs and promotions effective Sun., May 1 thru Sat., May 7, 2016 in ShopRite® Stores in NJ, North of Trenton (excluding Ewing, Hamilton Square, Hamilton Marketplace, Pennington and Montague, NJ, and Rockland County, NY), including E. Windsor,Monmouth & Ocean Counties, NJ. Sunday sales subject to local blue laws. No sales made to other retailers or wholesalers. We reserve the right to limit purchases of any sale item to four (4) purchases, per item, per household, per day, except where otherwise noteMinimum or additional purchase requirements noted for any advertised item exclude the purchase of prescription medications, gift cards, gift certificates, postage stamps, money orders, money transfers, lottery tickets, bus tickets, fuel and Metro passes, as well as cigarettes, tobacco products, alcoholic beverages or any other items prohibited by law. Only one manufacturer coupon may be used per item and we reserve the right to limit manufacturer coupon redemptions to four (4) identical coupons per household per day, unotherwise noted or further restricted by manufacturer. Sales tax is applied to the net retail of any discounted item or any ShopRite® coupon item. We are required by law to charge sales tax on the full price of any item or any portion of an item that is discounted withof a manufacturer coupon or a manufacturer sponsored (or funded) Price Plus Club® card discount. Not responsible for typographical errors. Artwork does not necessarily represent items on sale; it is for display purposes only. Copyright© Wakefern Food Corp., 201All rights reserved.
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Local
6JEWISH STANDARD APRIL 29, 2016
All in the familyThurnauer director to be feted by, among others, her violinist daughter
LOIS GOLDRICH
When violinist Sha-
ron Roffman —
concertmaster
of the Orchestre
National du Capitole de Toulouse
— comes back to New Jersey next
month to play in the JCC Thurnauer
School of Music Annual Gala, she
will have a chance to do two things
at once.
First, by performing at the Gift
of Music concert — which beneits
Thurnauer’s scholarship program
— Ms. Roffman will get to play withnoted musician Joshua Bell. That’s
something she has wanted to do for
a long time.
Second, and perhaps equally important,
she will get to honor her mother, Thurnauer’s
founding director, Dorothy Kaplan Roffman,
on her 75th birthday.
“I grew up listening and watching my mom
teach,” Sharon Roffman said. “I was in lessons
with her when I was a baby.” While she never
formally studied at the Thurnauer school —
she was already settled into a music program
in Manhattan when Thurnauer was created —
“I grew up there,” Ms. Roffman said.
Thurnauer, she added, “is my mom’s pas-
sion and her life.”Begun 32 years ago, the school has been
named a major arts institution by the New Jer-
sey State Council on the Arts. Its director, too,
has been publicly recognized, receiving a Dis-
tinguished Service award from the New Jer-
sey chapter of the American String Teachers
Association. In 2013, it also won a Milestone
Certiicate of Appreciation from the National
Guild for Community Arts Education.
Sharon Roffman, “a card-carrying Franco-
phile,” has been in Toulouse since February.
From 2009 to 2011 she was a member of the
Orchestre National de France. “I love the life
there,” she said. A versatile musician who has
played all over the world, music “is a part of
my DNA,” Ms. Roffman said.
“I remember being conscious of havingan aha moment when I was a junior in high
school and my friends started talking about
college and the future — and all of a sudden I
realized that was not a question I had to ask
myself,” she said. “This was a realization in
and of itself. I learned a lot from that.”
Ms. Roffman, who is now 37, started play-
ing the violin when she was two years old.
“The Suzuki method starts with baby steps,
like how to hold the bow,” she said. “You
don’t start playing immediately,” any more
than children learning to talk “start by saying
mama and dada.” Instead, irst they babble,
gurgle, and coo.
While the violin has been her focus, “I hada brief flirtation with the saxophone,” Ms.
Roffman said. “We were not meant for each
other. I did it to be in the band at school.”
She attended Tenafly High School, which she
described as “amazing. I got a great educa-
tion. I think back on public school educa-
tion fondly,” she said, adding that the school
helped her arrange her schedule so she could
leave early to practice.
“I doubled up on things in my freshman
and sophomore years so in my junior year I
could get out at 1:30. I was always very seri-
ous, even as a child,” she said. Still, “I con-
sider myself a well-rounded person. That’s
important to me.
“I’ve never been one of those prodigies
who practices all day and never leaves theirroom. I’ve always had hobbies, interests, and
friends. That doesn’t mean I’m not serious.”
Ms. Roffman said that she went to the Man-
hattan School of Music, where her mother
has been a faculty member for more than 30
years, “from the time I was two weeks old. I
went with my mom every Saturday.” Taking
advantage of the many performance oppor-
tunities there and elsewhere, when she was
16 she won a concerto competition.
“I left high school early to go to the Uni-
versity of Southern California and study with
violin teacher Robert Lipsitt,” she said, credit-
ing Tenafly High School with allowing her to
count her college credits toward high school graduation. “After one year of college I got to
graduate with my class,” she said. She didn’t
even have to miss the prom.
Moving on to the Cleveland Institute of
Music to study with Donald Weilerstein,
she then spent four years at Juilliard work-
ing with, among others, Yitzhak Perlman.
“He’s a fantastic human being,” she said. “We
bonded over our love of food and wine.”
After leaving Juilliard, Ms. Roffman spent
several years living in New York, “playing and
doing various things, living the life of a free
musician.” Nevertheless, she wanted to see
more of the world. “I moved to Paris; lived
in Sydney and worked with the Australian
Chamber Orchestra; lived in Bremen, Ger-
many, and did a variety of different thingswith different groups in different countries.
It’s fascinating to see how different people
work.”
(Asked if Amazon’s series, “Mozart in the
Jungle,” is a realistic portrayal of backstage
orchestra life, Ms. Roffman said that “while a
lot of things are ridiculously overdramatized,
it brings up some interesting points. It’s a
mélange. I enjoyed its silliness.”)
Ms. Roffman said that she has been a fan of
Joshua Bell since she was three. “Seventeen
Magazine sponsored a violin competition,”
she said. “It was a famous competition and
launched a lot of careers. He won it when he
was 14. I distinctly remember m
lin teacher posting [an article
it]. It was the irst time I he
him. I love his playing.
“He’s one of my favorite viol
Mr. Bell “has an amazing
of architecture when he play
continued. “His pacing makes
A piece can have, say, 50
notes. If someone plays ever
the same, it becomes an end
flat landscape. He creates land
that make sense. There’s som
special about the way he plays
Mr. Bell “has been a friend
Thurnauer Music School for yshe said. “This will be his
concert. He’s a great violinis
brings in an audience that b
generations. He’s so charismatic.”
She is “super-excited” that she wi
the opportunity to play with him, an
the concert falls at a time when she
to leave work, she added. “We have
friends in common,” she added, point
that while she hasn’t yet had the oppor
to play with him, it’s likely they woul
played together at some point. She i
cially pleased that the irst such perfor
will be at the JCC.
“Thurnauer is unique because it is
munity music school open to everyonit’s also got the highest standards of an
sive conservatory,” she said. “That
unique and what makes it stand ou
any other music school I know of.” As
mother, “you’ll never ind a better peda
either speciically for violin or for m
general,” Ms. Roffman said. “She’s an
lievably warm and nurturing teacher.
times, we in our society honor peopl
big important jobs. People on the gr
like mom — teaching, talking to pare
kids every day, talking with teachers
make a difference in the world. They
and change lives.”
“Music is the most effective way to
empathy — the key to a peaceful worl
added. “When you’re playing, you havin touch with your emotions. The poi
express feelings, beauty, and things yo
say in words. It forces the music-mak
the listener to reflect and to connec
emotional parts of their personality.
tion and emotion are the keys to bu
empathy.”
The upcoming gala has two compo
she said. For the average attendee
being present will offer you a great c
with great music, great performers, a
entertaining evening.” But in addition
people who come will have the added
of actively helping the community by m
Who: The JCC Thurnauer School of Music
What: Presents its annual Gift of Music Gala Benefit, featuring violinist Joshua Bell
When: On Monday, May 2, at 7 p.m.
Where: At the Bergen Performing Arts Center, 30 N. Van Brunt St., Englewood
Honoree: Founding director Dorothy Kaplan Roffman, celebrating her 75th birthday
How much: Tickets start at $25 for students, $50 for adults, and $90 for premierseating. VIP seating, at $250, includes premier seating and pre and post-concertmeet-the-artist receptions
For more information: Go to www.jccotp.org/GoM
Sharon Roffman Joshua Bell Dorothy Roffman
8/17/2019 Jewish Standard Newspaper 4/29/16
7/56
Loc
JEWISH STANDARD APRIL 29, 2
June 27 – August 5, 2016
Camp DiscoveryFor children entering 1st thru 7th grade
• Programs and activities include: – Science & Nature
– Arts & Crafts
– Outdoor Sports & Recreation
– Swimming (Madison location)
– Musical Theater Performances
– World Discovery & Games
– Weekly Trips
• Certified teachers and experiencedcollege-level counselors
• Extended care available
Leader in Training CampFor children entering 8th & 9th grades
NOW IN OUR 20TH YEAR
Register today! Space is limited.
201-692-6500
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Florham Campus (Madison, NJ) • Metropolitan Campus (Teaneck, NJ)
i
Here isa small
reminder ...
Photograph of Yocheved Farber, July 10, 1939. Yocheved lived with her mother and father during the Nazi occupation of the Vilna Ghetto.
She was abducted by the Nazis during one of their many roundups of children; she was killed. Collection of Rabbi Kalman Farber.
E D M O N D J . S A F R A P L A Z A
3 6 B A T T E R Y P L A C E
6 4 6 . 4 3 7 . 4 2 0 2 | W W W . M J H N Y C . O R G
# Y O M H A S H O A H
Y O M H A S H O A H ,
H O L O C A U S T R E M E M B R A N C E D A Y,I S T H U R S D A Y , M A Y 5 , 2 0 1 6 .
At the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust,we remember the six million Jews who were murdered
and reflect upon the meaning of their loss.
M AY 1 AT 2 P.M. Annual Gathering of Remembrance
NYC’s oldest and largest Holocaust CommemorationListen to the audio stream via mjhnyc.org/agr
M AY 3 AT 4 P.M.
Film screening and discussion of Voices from the Attic and Echoes from the Attic , free
M AY 4 AT 7:30 P.M.Yom HaShoah Program for Young Professionals
Presented by the Young Friends of the Museum and Manhattan Jewish ExperienceTickets: mjhnyc.org/yfyomhashoah
M AY 5 Visit the Museum without charge and speak with Holocaust survivors
Survivors in galleries from 10 A.M. - 2 P.M.; Museum open until 5:45 P.M.
music education available to those who can’t
necessarily afford it. Thurnauer never turns
anyone away. The beneit is an important
part of helping to ensure that it can always
happen.”
For her part, Dorothy Kaplan Roffman
— who, with her husband, Eric, has three
daughters, one son, and six grandchildren —said she has no plans to slow down her work
at Thurnauer. “It’s my ifth child,” she said.
“Because we live so close to the school, the
distinction between home and work is very
blurred. I roll out of bed and roll over there,”
something she has been doing for 32 years.
And, she added, “It’s so much fun.”
Why did the community need the Thur-
nauer school?
“We felt that there was a need for good
high-quality music education in Bergen
County,” Ms. Roffman said. (The “we”
includes Dr. Sandra Gold, with whom she
worked closely to create Thurnauer.) “Many
private teachers are very good, and there
are programs around that are good. But we
wanted a school all in one place, where stu-dents could begin younger than age 3 with
general music classes, grow into choosing an
instrument, or into being part of a chorus, or
orchestra, or chamber [group]. There was a
need for that. We didn’t think a lot about how
large it would become. We wanted to create
an important and meaningful music educa-
tion for people of all ages.”
The school opened in 1984; in 1987 Maria
and William Thurnauer of Teaneck endowed
it, and it took their name. Both Thurnauers
took an enduring interesting in the school;
many of Maria’s photos of children learning
and making music there still hang on its walls.Both Maria and William Thurnauer have
died; Mr. Thurnauer’s second wife, Lilo,
who now lives in Fort Lee, maintains the
family’s close and loving connection to the
school.
“People are very busy,” Ms. Roffman said.
“I hope that we represent the ability and
opportunity for people to take the time out of
their busy lives to enjoy either making music
or listening to it. That’s something extremely
important, especially now in our history,
where there’s a great deal of stress and rush-
ing around. You have to sit back and listen,
slow down. Learning to play an instrument,
you have to slow down. I hope we are con-
tributing to that in people’s lives.”
And what is her proudest achievement?“I don’t know how to answer that,” she
said. “I wanted always to create a community
of music lovers and music learners. I love my
faculty — I love working with them and learn-
ing from them, being in it together. I wanted
to create a certain tone and atmosphere of
warmth and enjoyment of music and learn-
ing of music with a sense of cooperation and
not competition. I think that’s how we all
feel.”
The school serves between 450 and 500
students a year, “except it didn’t start that
way,” she said. “It started with 30, then dou-
bled, then doubled again. It was a few years before we plateaued at 450. And those are
just the actual students who come to school.”
But in addition to teaching, “We do so
many other things — masters classes state-
wide, concerts for the entire community,
the Gift of Music,” she said. “People come
from all over. We impact many more than
just students who come to the school itself.”
The goal of the gala, she added, is “to cel-
ebrate the remarkable achievements of our
students, while raising critical scholarship
funds for children in our community who
wish to study music, but whose families lack
the inancial resources.”
Since the school opened, it has awarded
more than $2.6 million in need-based schol-
arships. Nearly 25 percent of its student body now receives inancial assistance. The
school also has sustained its 18-year “Music
Discovery Partnership” with the Engle-
wood Public School District, providing a
high-quality afterschool music education to
underserved children.
Ms. Roffman said that Drs. Joa
Alan Handler came up with the id
the annual Gift of Music gala 26 year
and they continue to sponsor it. “W
incredibly lucky to have wonderful
come as a gift to the school,” she sai
so necessary for us to raise funds for
arships. Josh Bell has come in 1992,and now.”
His irst visit “was at the beginning
career. We’ve cherished him as a pers
as a magniicent artist. He’s a ine viol
will be an evening of wonderful music
In addition to Mr. Bell, Ms. Roffma
pianist Allesio Bax, the Thurnauer Sym
Orchestra will perform — it will rehear
play with Mr. Bell. So will violin group
Thurnauer, “showing many levels of ar
The school chorus will perform as wel
“I’m struck by how much inanci
port is available at more advanced leve
Roffman said, citing such schools as Ju
and Yale. “I feel that support has to h
at the very beginning, to give childr
opportunity to be as good as they wanTo realize their potential.
“It’s not about creating professiona
about giving them a good music edu
and making it possible for them to go
direction they want. It enriches thei
and gives them something forever.”
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8JEWISH STANDARD APRIL 29, 2016
Get up, get moving, GET REGISTERED!Have a great time while raising awareness and funds to fight hunger in our community.
All proceeds support the kosher meals-on-wheels program and the JFS Food Pantry.
Father’s Day, Sunday June 19, 2016
Go to ridetofighthunger.com to register today
For more information contact us at 201-837-9090 - www.jfsbergen.org
What does six million look like?Linda Hooper of Paper Clip Project fame to speak locally for Yom Hashoah
ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN
It all started in 1998, when an eighth-grader
in Whitwell, Tennessee, asked teacher San-
dra Roberts, “What does six million look
like?”
Whitwell Middle School principal Linda
Hooper had asked Ms. Roberts and asso-
ciate principal David Smith to develop a
Holocaust education class for an optional
afterschool program. But the mostly white,
Christian students struggled to grasp the
hard-to-understand scale of the number
six million — the number of Jews murdered
during the Holocaust.
Guided by Ms. Roberts, the educators
decided to collect six million paper clips,
each one a tangible symbol of each soul
who died. They chose the clips becausesome Norwegians wore them as a silent
protest against Nazi occupation during
World War II.
On Wednesday, May 4, at 7 p.m., the eve
of Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Has-
hoah), Ms. Hooper will speak about the
Paper Clips Project in a public lecture at
Temple Avodat Shalom, 385 Howland Ave-
nue in River Edge.
The project ultimately extended over
several years and culminated in the collec-
tion of 30 million paper clips, which now
are on display along with 50,000 donated
documents and other artifacts in Whit-
well Middle School’s Children’s Holocaust
Memorial, housed inside a German railcarthat was used to transport Jews to concen-
tration camps.
Ms. Hooper also will speak at River Dell
Middle School and Solomon Schechter Day
School of Bergen County earlier on May
4, and she will make a presentation to the
River Dell Interreligious Clery Association.
“I have spoken to every type of group,
from Muslim and Jewish schoolchildren
to church groups and civic organizations
across the United States and in Australia
and South Africa,” as well as at Yad Vashem
in Israel, Ms. Hooper said.
“It always impresses me that when peo-
ple hear this story they hear it as people,
not as different cultural groups. We have a
strong tendency in our country to divide
populations into Jewish, Anglo-Saxon, Afri-
can-American, Buddhist, or whatever — but
I ind people respond basically the same
everywhere,” she continued.
“The Paper Clip Project began with
a group of children who learned about
something that was foreign to them, in a
community that had no experience of the
Holocaust. The message these children are
trying to give to the world is that we should
look at each other as people who suffer and
try to alleviate that suffering.”
A 2004 documentary, “Paper Clips,”
captured how the Whitwell students
responded to learning about the Holocaust
and inspired people to send paper clips
from all 50 U.S. states and from all corners
of the world.
“I try to challenge people to do what
we challenged our own community to do:
Look around you and see what needs to be
done in your community to make it better,”
said Ms. Hooper, who retired from
well Middle School in 2010. She is t
unteer coordinator of the Children’s
caust Memorial and does other cha
work with her husband, Edward.“When we speak with school gr
especially middle- and high-schoo
they are particularly interested in fol
up with an activity. For instance, in
rado one community started a tutorin
gram for students who did not have
to the best education. And we’ve ha
who challenged their group to do on
vah per person per month.”
Another outgrowth of the Paper
Project is the Chattanooga-based non
organization One Clip at a Time,
offers an interactive service-learnin
gram and accompanying educato
designed to motivate and empowe
dents in ifth grade and above to
Above, Linda Hooper stands with
year’s group of student tour guide
Whitwell Middle School’s Children
Holocaust Memorial in Tennessee
shown at left.
SEE SIX MILLION PA
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Touching people’s soulsAbout to retire, Cantor Charles Romalis looks back at50 years in one place, Temple Beth Tikvah in Wayne
JOANNE PALMER
There might have been a time and place where 50
years could go by and very little would change.
Maybe in the Middle Ages, say, in some
obscure, uncontested corner of some relatively
peaceful kingdom, far from the seat of government. The
people would change — probably the life expectancy would
have been less than 50 — but the primitive technoloy, sea-
sonal rhythms, and basic assumptions would go on.
That, needless to say, was then.
Now, someone who has a 50-year career as the cantor in
one place — and by deinition that is a very unusual person
— sees a head-turning number of changes.
Take, for example, Charles Romalis, the (clearly, given
the weight of the evidence) much-loved cantor at Temple
Beth Tikvah in Wayne. Cantor Romalis began his job asthe then still fairly new synagogue’s irst full-time cantor,
straight out of cantorial school. During his nearly unprec-
edented tenure, he has seen changes in just about every-
thing, from the town to the country to the shul itself.
Cantor Romalis will retire in the next few months, when
he will be given emeritus status. The synagogue has been
without a rabbi this year, and Cantor Romalis will stay on
until the new, still-to-be-voted-on-by-the-congregation
rabbi transitions into the job. Meanwhile, the synagogue
has been feting him all year with a series of celebrations
— see the box for the parties and commemorations still to
come — and the cantor has been taking the opportunity to
look back over the last half-century and marvel.
Charles Romalis was born in East New York, Brooklyn,
in 1944, to American-born parents, Morris and Anita Sch-
langer Romalis. Morris Romalis was a cantor, whose ownfather was not a cantor but had a good voice, loved to sing,
and would have loved to be able to do so professionally.
Morris Romalis, who studied and was ordained privately,
had his own long stint — an ultra-respectable 36 years —
at one synagogue. That was in the Fresh Meadows Jewish
Center in northeastern Queens, where Charles Romalis
moved when he was 9, and where he spent the rest of his
childhood and adolescence.
The Fresh Meadows Jewish Center was “Conservative,
almost Conservadox,” Charles Romalis said. It was a huge
and successful synagogue, “with about 800 families and
a caterer. My father sometimes did two, three, even four
weddings a weekend.” (The shul since has fallen on harder
times as its demographics changed — in other, more direct
words, most of the Jews moved out of the neighborhood.Almost 15 years ago, it merged with the Flushing Jewish
Center, and even so its membership is far lower than it
had been at its peak.)
Charles Romalis always loved to sing. At Jamaica High
School, he sang in the choir; at the Fresh Meadows Jewish
Center’s USY chapter, he was Albert, the lead — the Dick
Van Dyke part — in “Bye Bye Birdie.” He met his wife, Lou-
ise Rosenfeld, in choir in high school. “It was love at irst
sight,” he said. When he was Albert, she was Rosie. (That’s
the Janet Leigh part.) They’ve been married for 51 years;
she’s a recently retired social worker who began working
with women on their way out of jail and ended helping
military veterans getting back on their feet. The two still
love to sing together.
When Charles was in high school, the entire Romalis
family — his parents and his younger sister, Susan — would
sing together in the Romalis Family Choir, performing for groups like Hadassah and ORT. Charles was a boy singer at
weddings. “They don’t have those any more,” he said sadly.
The family was close. Music was a powerful shared bond.
Other than that, Charles did not particularly relish being
the cantor’s son. “I had to be the perfect model student
— which I was not,” he said. “I think I rebelled more than
anyone else.”
That meant that when he graduated from high school,
with the war in Vietnam raging — the draft scooping up
young men and depositing them to be shot at half a world
away — college was a haven, a place to shelter at least for
the amount of time it took to get a bachelor’s degree.
The problem was Charles Romalis’s grades. “They were
not good enough for a public college, and my parents
couldn’t afford a private college,” he said. He had w
to be a dentist, but it was very clear very soon, at le
him, that that career path was closed to him.
What to do?
“I went to Hebrew Union College, because I thoug
it was the only place I could get into, and I though
it would get me out of the army.” HUC, now the H
Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, has fou
puses. Cantor Romalis went to the one in Manh
which had a cantorial school. That means a few t
First, he went as an undergraduate, something t
not possible today. Now the cantorial school is for c
graduates. Second, many cantorial students then p
HUC only because they thought it was their ticket
the army. They did not intend careers as cantors, a
fact did not have them. Third, it is Reform, and C
Romalis grew up Conservative.As it turned out, these last two points posed no pr
for Charles Romalis.
“Within my irst week there, I knew that this was
said. “I knew that this was what I wanted to do wi
rest of my life.”
He lived at home, and “my father and I went ov
music together every night.”
As for the Reform part, “my father told me that h
constrained by the Conservative movement. He co
drive on Shabbat. If he wanted to go to a restaura
could only order coffee. He told me, ‘If you are go
become a cantor, do it Reform.’
“I love the Reform movement,” Cantor Romalis c
ued. “I love the organ.”
Of the 11 students in his year, he added, only two o
became cantors. “And now, if you look at the direyou see that I’m the only one from that time there.”
He’s the only HUC-educated Reform cantor to ho
same job for 50 years, he added.
It was during his time in school that Cantor Romal
came to New Jersey. He was the student rabbi at T
Sholom in River Edge.
In 1965, Charles and Louise got married, in May 19
graduated from HUC, and that July they moved to W
where they have lived ever since.
When he irst came to the community, Cantor R
had the same sensation he’d felt ive years earlier,
Celebrating CantorCharles Romalis
All year, Temple Beth Tikvah has been celebratiCantor Romalis’s 50-year tenure. There are thre
more celebrations to come. They are:
On Friday, May 6, many of the approximately 2,
students who became bar or bat mitzvah or we
confirmed under Cantor Romalis’s guidance wi
gather for dinner and services at the synagogu
On the evening of Saturday, May 7, the synagog
will host a gala in his honor at the Preakness Hi
Country Club.
On Sunday, June 5, the year will culminate in th
Jubilee Concert at the synagogue.
For information, call the synagogue office dur-
ing the day at (973) 595-6565 or go to its webs
www.templebethtikvahnj.org.
Susan, Anita, Morris, and Charles Romalis, here at
Charles’s bar mitzvah, sang together as the Romalis
Family Choir.
SEE ROMALIS PA
8/17/2019 Jewish Standard Newspaper 4/29/16
11/56JEWISH STANDARD APRIL 29, 2
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To learn more about us, visit holyname.org or call 877-HOLY-NAME (465-9626).
Healing begins here. • 718 Teaneck Road • Teaneck, NJ 07666
—Benjamin Rosenbluth, MD, Radiation Oncologist
My job: Treating cancer My passion: Our patients
8/17/2019 Jewish Standard Newspaper 4/29/16
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12JEWISH STANDARD APRIL 29, 2016
he began his studies at HUC. “I knew that
this was where I wanted to be,” he said.
“I knew that I could come here, live here,
and grow with the community, and with
friends. And it all worked out exactly that
way.“My feeling is that the most important
thing is that the community should be cohe-
sive,” he said. “I try to mend, not to split.”
Cantor Romalis had interviewed and
auditioned in larger synagogues, including
Holy Blossom Temple, the huge Toronto
institution, which offered him a job. “I just
thought that they’d eat me up alive,” Can-
tor Romalis said. “I was only 22 years old,
and those places are corporate.” He also
was offered a job at a 1,000-family syna-
gogue in Baltimore, “but I didn’t want to
go to Baltimore.”
Beth Tikvah was a very different kind of
place; smaller, younger, not at all urban. It
was founded in 1956, by families who had
moved from Paterson, Fair Lawn, NorthBergen, and, surprisingly, Queens, among
other places, to the wide green open farm-
lands of Wayne. (Of course, the Romalises
also moved to Wayne from Queens.) The
shul’s irst full-time rabbi, Shai Shaknai,
was young, exciting, and inspirational. It
was Rabbi Shaknai who welcomed even
younger Cantor Romalis to the shul. “He
was the reason why I came here,” Cantor
Romalis said. “He was my teacher at HUC;
he felt the temple needed a full-time can-
tor, and he recommended me.
“He was a prince. Really a prince.”
We have no way of knowing what Rabbi
Shaknai would have done, where he might
have taken the synagogue, had he not got-ten sick and then died at 37, three years
after Cantor Romalis joined his staff.
Beth Tikvah’s next rabbi was Israel
Dresner, a social activist who took on some
of his time’s burning moral issues, and
who is now the synagogue’s rabbi emeri-
tus. “He was a Freedom Rider, he famously
went to jail with Martin Luther King Jr.,”
Cantor Romalis said. “He had an agenda
that was mostly about social action, and he
let me do what I wanted to do.
“So I did a lot of musical programming
while he was off doing his stuff. I covered
for him pastorally when he was away.”
The next rabbi, Stephen Wylen, who
was there for about 10 years, was “a dif-
ferent kind of rabbi,” Cantor Romalis said.It was Rabbi Wylen’s departure last year
that put Cantor Romalis in the position
of having to take on many more pastoral
duties than most cantors handle. It was,
however, a position for which the last 49
years had prepared him.
Over his ive decades at Beth Tikvah,
Cantor Romalis has seen not only the syn-
agogue but also the town change. “When
I irst came here, everything was about
growth,” he said. “And then people got
older. I am friendly with other people who
also have been here for 50 years; about
a third of the members are over 80, and
we’re trying to build from the other end.”
Much of that situation, he added, is
a direct result of economics. “It’s very
expensive to live here,” he said. “When
a young person is starting an adult life —how do you afford to live here, unless you
have family money?”
The town changed too. What once was
farmland is “now almost entirely devel-
oped,” he said. “It used to be vegetable
farms, lettuce farms, dairy farms. There
used to be a lot of vegetable stands by the
side of all the roads.” But no, there never
were any farmers who were members of
Beth Tikvah.
The synagogue has a religious school,
which now has about 100 students. “When
I started, there were about 250, 275 chil-
dren,” Cantor Romalis said. “It grew to
about 630 kids in the late 70s, early 80s,
and then people got older, and we didn’thave that influx. Forty, 50 families used to
come in each year; now we are happy get-
ting 10 or 11.” Still, he added, “100 students
is still a decent size school.”
During his time at the shul, Cantor
Romalis started programs that include the
Renaissance Club, aimed at people 49 and
older. “Together, we do things that range
from breakfasts with speakers to week-
ends away. We’ve taken trips to Israel and
to Europe, we’ve gone on Jewish heritage
cruises, we’ve done a lot that has kept us
together.” The group, of course, is aging,
he said ruefully; “the millennials have
their own way of thinking” that does not
involve trips with synagogue members old
enough to be their parents or even — andperhaps more likely — their grandparents.
He also started a choir, which used
to meet once a month and now comes
together a bit less frequently. Its mem-
bers, though, are iercely loyal to him and
to each other.
Has the music he leads during services
changed? “I try to do a blend, to make peo-
ple feel comfortable,” Cantor Romalis said.
“On the holidays, I will do some big can-
torial pieces, and also some Debbie Fried-
man in between. I have tried to make that
balance, and I think that it works.
“On Friday nights, I do more of the
Reform repertoire, and on Saturday morn-
ing I do more to show the flavor of what
Jewish music is. It’s very important to have
both, and I like both.”
During his tenure, Cantor Romalis“taught every grade level here, from kin-
dergarten to high school.” He also trained
about 2,200 bar and bat mitzvah students.
On the side, he was the president of his
cantorial school alumni association and
has been active in the American Confer-
ence of Cantors, the Reform movement’s
cantorial association, holding many lead-
ership positions there. HUC gave him an
honorary doctorate in 2000.
He also was active in the outside world.
“I was a real estate appraiser,” Cantor
Romalis said. “I had to put my kids through
college!” He and Louise have two children,
Jenny and Joshua. Jenny’s husband is Wes
Winters; Josh’s wife is Elin Westrick, and Josh and Elin have two sons, Taouyan Riis
and Joah.
Cantor Romalis also was involved in
Wayne’s Chamber of Commerce and
helped organize its irst Project Gradua-
tion, which steers kids away from trouble,
in the form of drugs and alcohol, on gradu-
ation day.
Janice Paul of Wayne, who is now Beth
Tikvah’s president, has been at the syna-
gogue even longer than Cantor Romalis, so
she has known him throughout his career
there. “I was raised at Temple Beth Tik-
vah,” she said. “I grew up in Wayne. Can-
tor Romalis came there the year I was in
kindergarten, and we shared the next 50
years. And now I am president as he cel-ebrates 50 years here.
“I have a 14-year-old son,” she added.
“His bar mitzvah was 16 months ago. For
Cantor Romalis to have presided over all
of my Jewish life-cycle events, and then to
preside over my son’s bar mitzvah — it was
just extremely special to me.
“We have been to Israel together twice,
irst when I was 16 and then when I was 38.
“He is an integral part of my family tap-
estry. And my story is not unique. He has
been an integral part of so many family’s
tapestries.”
Arthur Barchenko of Wayne was the
executive vice president, in line to b
ident, when Cantor Romalis was a
at HUC, half a century ago.
“Rabbi Shaknai and I went to the
rial school and interviewed a numcandidates, and we chose Cantor
lis,” Mr. Barchenko said. “He came
temple with his lovely wife, Louise,
a home here in Wayne, and took ov
responsibilities of cantor and teac
the Hebrew school.
“He matured and grew with the c
gation, and through the years he an
ise played an integral role in the g
of the temple. And this last year, wh
have been without a rabbi, he has
both cantor and rabbi, and he hel
the stabilization of the temple durin
dificult time.
“He has been a very important p
Temple Beth Tikvah all these years.”Mickie Strickler of Wayne, Beth Ti
immediate past president, is in cha
the celebrations of Cantor Romalis d
this year. “He is very beloved by eve
at the temple,” she said. “I have see
do everything — -bar and bat mitz
weddings, funerals, baby namings.
been to funerals where his elegies a
beautiful. And he lights up our se
with music every week.”
Ellen Goldin of Wayne is both a m
of Beth Tikvah and the head of its H
school.
“He is unique,” she said. “No
tion about it. He engages everybod
reaches out and touches people’s
with his music, his personality, hisness, his consideration. He is just a
derful human being.
“When he conducts services, he
a lot of reaching out to the congre
to sing, and we are a singing congre
because of him.
“When you work with him, he is re
ful and knows how to be collabor
He is always interested in other pe
points of view.
“I know that I sound like a Goody
Shoes, but it’s true. It’s been the op
nity of a lifetime, the chance to kno
and work with him,” Ms. Goldin said
Romalis FROM PAGE 10
At left, Charles and Louise Romalis on Beth Tikvah’s bimah; right, Cantor Romalis leads choir practice.
8/17/2019 Jewish Standard Newspaper 4/29/16
13/56JEWISH STANDARD APRIL 29, 20
Young Leadership Award
Lillian PravdaFounder and CEO (Chief
Eyesight Optimist)
Vision for and from Children
Lillian Pravda, age 16, is the
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global 501(c)(3) dedicated to
providing eye surgeries and vision services to children
who lack access to such care. To date, she has helped
26,210 children receive the gift of sight in the United
States and developing regions.
Lillian is a 2014 national Jefferson Award recipient and
has been profiled by ABC, CBS, Fox Business, Bloomberg
TV, Fast Company, Crain’s 20 Under 20 and in TheWall Street Journal. Through her speaking engagements
at schools and conferences worldwide as well as at the
United Nations and as an invited TEDx speaker, Lillian
has impacted over 1 million lives with her message of
public service and humanitarianism.
Community Leadership Award
Jay FeinbergCEO, Gift of Life Bone Marrow
Foundation
A 20 year transplant survivor,
Jay Feinberg is Gift of Life’s
founder and chief executive
officer. In 1991, he was diagnosed
with leukemia and told that his
only hope of a cure was a bone marrow transplant. With
the help of his family and friends, Jay embarked on
a groundbreaking international search for a matching
donor. After organizing 250 drives and testing 60,000
potential donors, Jay’s match turned out to be the very
last donor tested at the very last drive.
Under Jay’s leadership, Gift of Life has become one ofthe world’s most effective volunteer donor registries.
To date, the organization has facilitated transplants for
approximately 3,000 cancer patients around the world.
To accomplish this feat, Gift of Life has been an innova-
tor in the field of donor recruitment.
Jay has received numerous awards, including the prestig-
ious Charles Bronfman Prize, the National Marrow Donor
Program’s Allison Atlas Award, and Hadassah Interna-
tional’s Citizen of the World Award.
Please join us at our
Annual Breakfast Honoring
Lillian PravdaYoung Leadership Award
Jay FeinbergCommunity Leadership Award
Sunday, May 15th
Breakfast 9:30 –11:00 am
Presentation 10:30 am
Congregation Bnai Yeshurun
641 West Englewood Avenue
Teaneck, NJ 07666
Areyvut, translated from Hebrew, means “responsibility”—
responsibility to one’s community and responsibility to the
world. But when it comes to Areyvut, responsibility is just
the beginning.
Areyvut’s mission is to infuse the lives of Jewish youth
and teenagers with the core Jewish values of chesed (kindness), tzedakah (charity) and tikkun olam (social
action). Areyvut creates innovative programs that make
these core Jewish values real and meaningful to them
and offers Jewish day schools, congregational schools,
synagogues, community centers, and families a variety
of opportunities to empower and enrich the lives of their
youth and children.
To learn more about Areyvut and our programs,
to contribute, or to register for the breakfast, please
visit our website and follow us on social media.
147 South Washington Ave.
Bergenfield, NJ 07621
P: 201-244-6702
F: 201-338-2427
www.areyvut.org
facebook.com/areyvut/
twitter.com/areyvut
linkedin.com/company/areyvut
instagram.com/areyvut/
pinterest.com/areyvut/
www.youtube.com/Areyvut
This Year’s Honorees
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Is the death penalty moral?In Franklin Lakes, a Jewish look at capital punishment
JOANNE PALMER
There are some hot-button issues
that can destroy friendships —
abortion, gun control, immigra-
tion, to name just a toxic few.
There are other issues that are just as
important, just as emotional, and that seesaw
just as precariously on the knife edge dividing
justice and mercy, but for some reason allow
people to discuss and disagree without think-
ing that people on the other side are inhuman
brutes.
For some hard-to-pinpoint reason, the
death penalty seems to be in that second
category. Reasonable people can disagree civ-
illy — and in fact reasonable people at times break with the consistency of their own politi-
cal positions as they take their own stands.
On May 9, Rabbi Joseph Prouser’s Moral
Literacy series will tackle the question of
the death penalty, asking such questions as
who is bad enough to deserve it, who is good
enough to impose it, and what does Jewish
law and tradition say about it.
Rabbi Prouser, who heads the Conser-
vative Temple Emanuel of North Jersey in
Franklin Lakes, is a registered Republican
and describes himself as “pretty conserva-
tive. But I really break with conservative
thinking on this issue. I am
absolutely opposed to capi-tal punishment.”
It is not a live issue in New
Jersey, he conceded. Capital
punishment has not been
legal here on the state level
since 2007, although it still
is possible in federal cases.
No one has been executed
in New Jersey since 1963. But
it is both legal and not infre-
quent in other parts of the
country.
And, of course, “this debate is an area that
shows that Jewish tradition has an important
voice to contribute to the moral discussion,”
he said. “Jewish tradition has evolved in a
way that should be heard by everyone. Wehave an important perspective to share with
other Americans in this debate, but it’s not
being heard, because Jews instinctively keep
these debates internal, so it becomes just a
Jewish debate.
“We are reluctant to have a public voice on
the big questions, alt
we have well developevolved things to sa
voice generally isn’t he
the American public b
we don’ t raise it. J
morality has been an in
Jewish issue, and we h
felt authorized to impo
perspective on the br
public.”
His own view, wh
have held my entire
life, has been shaped b
ish sacred texts and Jewish traditio
said. “The Torah certainly prescribes
punishment for all sorts of things, fro
bath violations to high crimes, but the
so dramatically limited our ability to icapital punishment that they rend
virtually nonexistent.” Citing the tal
idea that a Sanhedrin — the Jewish c
that period — that oversaw one execu
seven years (or others say, in 70 years
“bloody Sanhedrin,” “the rabbis unde
Rabbi Joseph Prouser
Who: Rabbi Joseph Prouser of Temple Emanuel of North Jersey
What: Presents, as part of the shul’s moral literacy series, a panel on capital punishment
When: Monday, May 9, at 7:30 p.m.
Where: At Temple Emanuel, 558 High Mountain Road in Franklin Lakes
How: Admission is free, but reservations are suggested. Call (201) 560-0200 or
email [email protected]
For more information: Go to Emanuel’s website, tenjfl.org
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that the kind of perfect moral perspective that
is required to take human life is not accessible
to us,” Rabbi Prouser said. “It is ideologically
presumptuous to take human life when there
are other options available. Doing so in the
heat of combat is different, and even targeted
assassinations of people plotting a terroristattack is different, but when you have some-
one who already is imprisoned, you have
options. There is no immediate compelling
moral need to take their lives.”
Then, he added, there always is the chance
that when you sentence someone to death,
you’ll get it wrong. “Israel has sentenced two
criminals to death,” he said. One was Adolf
Eichmann, the absolutely and horriically
guilty Nazi mass murderer whom Israel tried
and executed in 1962. The other was John
Demjanjuk, nicknamed Ivan the Terrible,
who was convicted of being a Nazi guard andmass murderer at Treblinka. But the Israeli
Supreme Court overturned the lower court’s
verdict, saying that there wasn’t enough evi-
dence proving Demjanjuk was Ivan. He was
released. “So even Israel got it wrong 50 per-
cent of the time,” Rabbi Prouser said. “And
I’m not sure that Texas” — which executes
more prisoners than any other state — “uses
the same methods in correcting misguided
decisions.
“I say this while acknowledging that some
crimes are terrible, and I have no problem
with locking people away for life. I’m not
sure that’s more merciful than capital punish-ment. I just think it’s more defensible because
it’s reversible. It’s an expression of theological
humility. We can’t be sure we’re right.”
Rabbi Prouser’s panel is still being formed,
but the three speakers he’s gathered so far
have interesting takes on the subject.
Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky of Congrega-
tion Ansche Chesed on Manhattan’s Upper
West Side is a member of the Conserva-
tive movement’s Committee on Jewish Law
and Standards. In 2013, he wrote a teshuva
— a response to a question about halacha,
or Jewish law — on capital punishment.
The question was about whether it is hala-
chically acceptable for a Jew to participate in
the American legal system in a capital case,
whether as a prosecutor, a judge, a juror, ora witness.
The short answer is yes.
Although “the United States is the only
country in the world with a signiicant Jew-
ish population that has the death penalty”
— leaving aside Israel’s special circumstances
— “the question is not if we’d prefer tha
be there, but if the policies are so bad th
have to resist them and refuse to coop
Because of the directive that unless t
a compelling reason to disagree with it
d’malkhuta dina” — the law of the land
law of the land, and because “every
has to create order, and that always incriminal justice, there is no prima fac
son to refuse to participate in this.
“This is a contested question, a
democracies the people get to decid
tested questions,” Rabbi Kalmanofsk
“It’s a bad policy, and they should c
it, and there are all sorts of reasons
should be changed — not the least of t
the not inconsiderable number of fals
victions — but it would not be correct
that the canons of Jewish law manda
cooperating with the state on it.”
Rabbi Simon Rosenbach, who head
gregation Ahavas Sholom in Newark, a
lawyer and a former assistant prosec
Middlesex County.
New Jersey’s death penalty was down in 1972 and revived in 1982, the
of political machinations (and the sou
many good stories best told elsewhere
In 1982, Rabbi Rosenbach, who wa
is) against the death penalty, found h
Nazi murderer Adolf Eichmann was executed in Israel in 1962.
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Your vocabulary, his missionBennett Muraskin wants to teach you the Yiddish you don’t know you know
LARRY YUDELSON
Ask Bennett Muraskin why you
should want to learn about the
Yiddish words that already are
part of your English vocabu-
lary, and he is quick with the Yiddish
answer:
“Why not?”
But seriously: Mr. Muraskin’s upcoming
presentation at the weekly Yiddish class
at Teaneck’s Temple Emeth is part of his
wide-ranging amateur interest in Yiddish
language and culture.
By profession, Mr. Muraskin, who lives
in Parsippany, is a union representative
for state college workers. By avocation,
he is an enthusiastic advocate for Yiddishculture — albeit one whose own actual
spoken Yiddish is sparse and rusty. He
has published a guide to Yiddish short sto-
ries in translation, written many articles,
and even gone viral, after an article he
had written for Jewish Currents on Jewish
family names was reprinted by Slate and
proved surprisingly popular.
All of which proves that his parents got
their money’s worth when they enrolled
him in a Yiddish school when he was
growing up in Brooklyn’s Borough Park.
His father understood Yiddish and could
speak it “to some degree.” His mother
could not. But they were communists,
and the Jewish communists had a network
of after-school educational programs thattaught Yiddish — or at least tried to teach
Yiddish — along with various aspects of
Yiddish culture.
The International Workers Order
founded the schools in 1930. The
communists were late to the game; theLabor Zionists founded the irst Yiddish
shule, as it was called, in 1910; the social-
ist non-Zionist Workmen’s Circle soon
started one, to be followed by the apo-
litical Sholem Aleichem Institute. At their
heyday, there were several hundre
schools across North America, and20,000 students.
That heyday pretty much coincide
the Second World War. Mr. Mura
shule days came later. Born in 195
went the school in the late 1950s th
the late ‘60s. There were only ive
kids in his class. The politics had
toned down from its Stalinist peak.
didn’t really try to indoctrinate yo
more,” he said. “It was more relaxed
The school did, however, let th
take off if they wanted to attend an
war demonstration.
There were classes in Jewish hi
Yiddish language, Yiddish literatur
even Yiddish song, with occasiona
tures into Yiddish dance.“Of course, there’s no such thin
a Yiddish dance,” Mr. Muraskin la
but dance was part of the perform
the students would put on for pa
complete with Yiddish dialogue th
Who: Bennett Muraskin
What: You know more Yiddish than
you think
Where: Temple Emeth, 1666 Windsor
Rd., Teaneck
When: Monday, May 9, 10:30 a.m.
Bennett Muraskin
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JEWISH STANDARD APRIL 29, 20
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Muraskin, at least, didn’t fully understand.
“I never really mastered the language,”
he said.
Going to the IWO school “was exciting. I
knew I was part of a subculture, an under-
ground movement. We were different Jews
than everybody else. The other kids would
go to their regular Sunday school fromtheir synagogues. I didn’t.”
Nobody made a big deal about the dif-
ference, he said. He remembers his father
having “some minor brushes with the FBI.
Nothing spectacular. They would knock on
the door to visit the house and talk to him.
He believed they were trying to pressure
his employer into harassing him. It was
an unpleasant, hostile atmosphere. But I
didn’t really suffer personally too much
from it when I was a kid.”
As an adult, for years he has run adult
education for the Jewish Cultural Soci -ety of New Jersey. Based in Montclair, the
society offers a secular Jewish community,
including God-free Yom Kippur services.
But back to next week’s talk in Teaneck.
“It’s something I thought would be a lot
of fun and educational,” he said.
“There are so many loan words that
have entered into English from Yiddish.
Some of the more colorful words as well.
It’s not going to teach people Yiddish, but
it will teach a lot of Yiddish expressions
that are part of their English vocabulary.”
Mr. Muraskin inds it amazing “that a
small group of people that never made
up more than three or four percent of the
United States contributed hundreds of
words to the English vocabulary.“In 2013, the winning word in the
national spelling bee was knaidel. Unbe-
lievable. And some kid whose parents
were from India” — Arvind Mahankali —
“got it right.”
Bennett Muraskin’s guidesto Yiddish literature
Bennett Muraskin is devoted to keep-
ing Yiddish culture alive. “People,
especially Jews, really enjoy and proit
from reading Yiddish literature intranslation,” he said.
To that end, in 2011 he published
“The Association of Jewish Libraries
Guide to Yiddish Short Stories,” which
summarizes and categorizes 130 trans-
lated Yiddish short stories.
“This is a way for people to have
access to the Yiddish short stories,
based on topics and holidays, instead
of going to the library and picking up
an antholoy and leaing through it to
ind a story that might be appropriate
for the occasion,” he said.
“I saw an opportunity to ill what
was a pretty big gap in Yiddish litera-
ture in English translation: the lack of
any kind of sourcebook.“If we’re going to keep Yiddish cul-
ture alive, these books need to be
read,” he said.
And he wants you to be aware of a
big milestone coming up in two wee
May 13 marks the 100th anniversary
Sholem Aleichem’s death.
“He was the most famous Yiddi writer who ever lived, and the mo
translated,” Mr. Muraskin noted.
So what Sholem Aleichem wo
would he recommend reading to ma
the occasion?
“The Adventures of Mottel, the Ca
tor’s Son,” he said. “I think it is the b
thing he ever wrote. It’s the last bo
he wrote. It’s about the whole imm
grant experience through the eyes
this little nine-year-old mischief mak
as he and his family leave the shte
make their way from country to cou
try, inally travel on the steamship th
takes them to New York, and then g
ting adjusted to the new life.
“It’s a fantastic book for children aadults alike. I read it to my daught
She loved it. When it ended witho
an ending — because Sholem Aleiche
died while writing it — she cried.”
There are so many loan
words that haveentered into
English fromYiddish. Some
of the more
colorful words
as well.
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Local
18JEWISH STANDARD APRIL 29, 2016
Zerowins areFair Lawn honoreesThe Fair Lawn Jewish Center/Congregation
B’nai Israel will honor Roni and Jeff Zerowin
at a gala luncheon on Sunday, May 22. The
couple will be feted for their years of service
to the congregation and to many charities.Roni and Jeff, who have been married
for 50 years, will be joined by their chil-
dren, Eva, Jill, and Eric, and their spouses,
Lorenzo, Robert, and Rebecca, and their 10
grandchildren, along with congregants and
friends. For information, call (201) 7965040. Roni and Jeff Zerowin
NJ Supreme Court head to speak atYom Hashoah program in Fort LeeN.J. State Supreme Court
Chief Justice Stuart Rab-
ner discusses “Holocaust
Remembrance for theNext Generation” at Young
Israel of Fort Lee, begin-
ning with Mincha, on
Thursday, May 5, at 6:45
p.m.
Chief Justice Rabner,
the son of Holocaust sur-
vivors from Poland, is the
eighth chief justice to lead
the New Jersey Supreme Court. He
was nominated to the Supreme Court
by Governor Jon S. Corzine and was
nominated for tenure and sworn in by
Governor Chris Christie in 2014. Mr.
Rabner, who grew up
Passaic, was the chair
the Holocaust Resour
Center of the Jewish Feeration of Greater Cl
ton-Passaic. He grad
ated summa cum lau
from the Woodrow W
son School of Public a
International Affairs
Princeton University a
cum laude from Harva
Law School. Chief Just
Rabner and his wife, the former Deb
rah Wiener, have three children.
The synagogue is at 1610 Parker Av
For information, call (201) 5921518
go to yiftlee.org.
Chief Justice
Stuart Rabner
Federation marks Yom Hashoah May 5 Jewish Federation of Northern New Jer-
sey will hold its annual Yom Hashoah
commemoration on Thursday, May 5, at
6:30 p.m., at the Fair Lawn Jewish Cen-
ter/Congregation B’nai Israel. The gov-ernor’s ofice and the New Jersey Com-
mission on Holocaust Education have
designated the program, which started
in Paterson in the late 1940s and is
believed to be the oldest in the country,
as the oficial commemoration for north-
ern New Jersey.
Guest speakers include the associate
director of the NJ Commission on Holo-
caust Education, Dr. Joan Rivitz, and the
federation’s president, Jayne Petak. Zal-
men Mlotek, the artistic director of the
National Jewish Theater Folksbiene, and
his daughter Sarah will perform “Songs
of Spiritual Resistance.” Survivors will
light a candle and a young person willnarrate their stories.
A children’s candle procession will
be followed by a procession of Torah
scrolls rescued from the Holocaust and
now housed in local synagogues, includ-
ing the Fair Lawn Jewish Center/CBI,Congregation Shomrei Torah of Wayne,
Congregation Gesher Shalom in Fort
Lee, Temple Avodat Shalom in River
Edge, Barnert Temple in Franklin Lakes,
Temple Emeth in Teaneck, and Temple
Beth Sholom in Fair Lawn. Sima Alper
will give a second-generation response,
and Dr. David Braun will offer a Yiddish
reading. Zalmen and Sarah Mlotek will
join the second and thi rd generations
in leading the Partisan Hymn, survivor
Herman Weinstein will chant El Maleh
Rachamim, and survivor Hy Miklacki will
lead the recitation of Kaddish. The shul
is at 1010 Norma Road. For information,
call (201) 7972164.
Annual NYC gathering of remembrancNew York’s oldest and largest community-
wide Yom Hash oah commemorat ion,sponsored by the Museum of Jewish Heri-
tage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust,
the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance Organiza-
tion, and the American Gathering of Jew-
ish Holocaust Survivors and their Descen-
dants, is set for Sunday, May 1, at 2 p.m.
More than 2,000 people, including