Torah Umesorah - The National Society for Hebrew Day Schools
Dear Mr. Trump,
We hope this letter finds you in good health and high spirits. Torah Umesorah – The National Society for Hebrew Day Schools, is dedicated to the advancement and support of Jewish education across the United States. For many years, our organization has worked tirelessly to ensure that Jewish children receive a high-quality education rooted in Jewish values and traditions.
It is with great pleasure and respect that we extend an invitation to you to be the Guest of Honor at our Annual Torah Umesorah Dinner, to be held on Rikers Island. This event is one of our most significant gatherings of the year, bringing together leaders, educators, and supporters of Jewish education from across the country.
Your presence as Guest of Honor would be an exceptional highlight of the evening. We recognize your longstanding support for educational initiatives and your contributions to the Jewish community. It would be an honor to have you join us and share your insights and experiences with our attendees.
The evening will commence with a reception at Block 45 (there are no coincidences), followed by dinner and a formal program. We would be deeply honored if you could deliver a keynote address, reflecting on the importance of education, respectful dating advice for our teenagers, and community support. We will have red hats to be distributed at the dinner for the mega donors, with the logo - "GRAB 'EM BY THE TORAH"!
Please find enclosed additional details about the event and our organization. We would be delighted to discuss any specific arrangements or accommodations you might require. Kindly let us know your availability at your earliest convenience.
We are eagerly looking forward to the possibility of welcoming you and would be grateful for your consideration of our invitation. Your participation would significantly contribute to the success of our event and further our mission to enhance Jewish education.
Thank you for your time and consideration. We hope to hear from you soon.
Warm regards,
Vaad Roshei Yeshiva - Torah Umesorah - The National Society for Hebrew Day Schools
VAAD ROSHEI YESHIVA
HaRav Hillel David
HaRav Shmuel Kamenetsky
HaRav Aryeh Malkiel Kotler
Every
period on the Jewish calendar holds some special significance, and
Sefirah is no different. No weddings, no haircuts, and — sorry, no
music. It seems that people find it particularly difficult to come to
terms with the ban on music during this time.
When I was a child,
my father owned an orchestra, and I grew up around singers and concerts,
so I totally get it. This was always a difficult challenge for me. And
clearly, I was not alone. Today we have an entire industry of a cappella
music CDs, designed specifically for the Sefirah period.
The
kinds of questions rabbanim receive during these weeks clearly indicates
an intense thirst to circumvent this restriction against music. Can I
just practice my instrument? Can I listen to music while I work out at
the gym? While traveling in the car to keep from falling asleep? What
about slow, emotional music? What if I make a siyum? And the list goes on and on. To keep away from music for just a few weeks proves to be quite the feat.
But
I want to reflect, if I may, on a message that we can all learn from
this ban against music during Sefirah. What is the practical takeaway
here?
Music’s Connection to Torah
To arrive at our point, we must first appreciate, on a more general level, music’s special place in Yiddishkeit.
The author of Pe’as Hashulchan
(in his introduction) quotes the following incredibly bold statement
made by his rebbi, the Vilna Gaon: Most secrets of the Torah can best be
understood and appreciated only through the art of music. Only music
has the unique power that enables a person to fully delve into the
profound and esoteric ideas of the Torah and properly understand them.
But how does this work? What is this profound connection between music and Torah?
Rav
Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz explained this connection. Music is more
abstract than any other art. It affects us not on an intellectual,
rational level but on a deep spiritual level. It washes over us and
affects us in ways that are impossible to explain. Think about the times
a beat has got you tapping your feet before you even realized it. Or
the way background music is used in plays, shows, or videos to heighten
every kind of emotion you can name. Why does music possess that unique
power?
Music is the most direct route to the soul. That’s its
power. That’s how it affects us. It touches us in ways we can’t find
words to express — because it enables us to connect to our neshamah. The transcendent job of a song’s melody is to open up one’s neshamah to the deeper message that is at the heart of that song.
Yaakov
Shwekey, the world-renowned singer, recalls a moving story about the
power of music he heard from the chief rabbi of Tiberias. The rabbi’s
wife was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor, and the doctors decided to
perform a very complex and dangerous surgery to try to save her. They
told her husband that if she didn’t regain consciousness by seven days
post-surgery, her chances of recovery would become extremely minuscule.
The
surgery was done and the days started to pass, and the rebbetzin was
not waking up. The rabbi and his family understandably were feeling
anxious and fearful, but there was little they could do besides pour out
their hearts in prayer. On the seventh day post-surgery, with feelings
of desperation creeping in, the rabbi passed by a marketplace on the
street where he overheard the beautiful song “Rachem” piercing the air —
the heartful, penetrating melody of a Yid pleading with Hashem to send
forth salvation.
In a spontaneous reaction, he ran into the store,
bought the CD, and made a quick dash to the hospital. With time running
out, he sprinted into his wife’s hospital room, put the headphones over
her ears, and started to play the song. His wife suddenly and
miraculously woke up at the very moment the song ended. She later told
her husband that somehow the song “Rachem” had aroused her soul,
prompting her to immediately wake up. Genuine Jewish music is truly the
song of the soul.
That, according to the Vilna Gaon, is why music is intrinsically connected to Torah understanding. Music can open a person’s neshamah, and certain profound concepts of Torah can only be appreciated and absorbed when the neshamah
has been activated in its full glory. Music can thus be used as a
medium of enabling the Torah to penetrate the soul. In other words,
music is the window to the soul, and the soul is the window to the
Torah.
Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz explained that each of the instruments used to praise Hashem mentioned inTehillim 150 —
shofar, harp, and flute, among others — elicits a different emotional
response; one arouses happiness, another evokes tears, and another
encourages deep reflection. The general message here is that one must
serve Hashem with every emotion in his system.
The Radak (Tehillim 4)
explains that each chapter of Tehillim was intended to be sung with
musical accompaniment, each with its own designated instruments and
melody. The reason for this is that Dovid Hamelech composed each chapter
with the intent to arouse very specific thoughts, understandings, and
emotions.
Refreshing Our Relationship with Music
To sum up, music is the window to the soul, and through tapping into the soul, one is able to better acquire the Torah.
Now
we can return to the message of Sefirah. As an expression of mourning
over the deaths of 24,000 holy students of Rabi Akiva, we don’t listen
to music during this period of the year. But perhaps we can also take
with us a deeper message about our general relationship with music.
We
are now approaching the day of Matan Torah, that special day on which
we recommit to accepting, fulfilling, and learning the Torah. Perhaps
during the weeks leading up to Kabbalas HaTorah, we are meant to
re-invent our relationship with music as well, which will enhance our
ability to succeed in acquiring the Torah.
To renew our
relationship with music, we need a few weeks to totally disengage from
it. We need a complete reboot of our system, total abstention from all
music, to think about what real music is and isn’t. Which music is
actually soul-penetrating, which music is just noise?
Is the song
being played in my home something that helps me get more in touch with
my soul, or is it something that pulls me away? Is the deeper message of
this melody something that I want to integrate into my soul? During
this period we stop listening to all music cold-turkey in order to
reflect and perhaps refresh our relationship with it — before applying
ourselves to the ultimate soul-service, Hashem’s Torah.
Let’s all
take stock at this moment to ensure that we are utilizing the tremendous
gift of genuine soul-stirring melody, rather than being infiltrated by
the “music” loaded with impurities stemming from the outside world. Now
is the perfect time, while we prepare for Kabbalas HaTorah, to ensure
that our neshamos are properly fine-tuned, in top form, at full
strength, and ready to delight in the most sublime and exalted
existence, the holy Torah.
The movie “1506 – The Lisbon Genocide” shows a massacre against the Jews that has been forgotten. 19th April is the anniversary of the start of the massacre which for three days assassinated about three thousand Jews in Lisbon. The bonfires went as high as the houses, in a city filled with quartered bodies where heads were paraded on the points of spears.
The documentary film was made as short as possible, about 20 minutes long, so that it may be seen by everyone of all ages, even those who prefer not to watch long movies.
Research was carried out by the Community’s historical research centre and reviewed by the holder of the Alberto Benveniste Chair of Sephardic Studies of the University of Lisbon.
Identifying and combating antisemitism
Regarding the story of
the 2,000 children, the director of the Porto Jewish Museum, Michael
Rothwell, said, “This dark episode demonstrates the depths that many
went to in order to try and defeat and destroy our people."
“We
are once again living in a dark time when the Jewish people are under
attack around the world. That is why education is so important,
especially targeting young schoolchildren. They must be taught tolerance
and acceptance and how to identify and combat antisemitism,” he added.
President
of the Porto Jewish community, Gabriel Senderowicz, stated, “Today,
children react more to visual media, so it is vital to create tools that
depict with historical accuracy the pain and suffering Jews went
through in the past so they can recognize it in the present."
Addressing
the October 7 massacre, Senderowicz noted, "It is important to show the
context of current antisemitism as a continuation of what has gone
before. Sadly, there is nothing new under the sun, and even today,
Jewish children were hunted and kidnapped as we saw in the south of
Israel on October 7.”
Western
analysts think otherwise, because they are seeing Israel’s war through
the lens of America’s own failed counterinsurgency doctrines
As the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducts another assault in the north of Gaza, they face significant criticism from Western officials
and analysts who are asking why the IDF is repeatedly going into areas
they have already cleared and conducting further operations. Critics
claim this behavior reflects a flaw in operational design, or is even
proof that Israel’s campaign against Hamas has failed. The flaw,
however, lies in their own assumptions.
These
critics are looking at IDF tactics through the lens of Western
counterinsurgency (COIN), the doctrine that U.S. and European militaries
applied in the failed campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. In the “global
war on terror,” Western tactics were to seize a chunk of territory and
clear it of enemies through military force. The plan was then to hold
the territory through forward operating bases (or FOBs) and try to
conduct alternative governance in those areas while providing security.
The system of FOBs meant that our enemies, embedded in the local
civilian population, always knew where we were and what routes we were
likely to use. They could mortar, rocket, and IED us at will. It was a
recipe for endless violence and huge numbers of casualties.
In
the case of the 2023-24 Gaza war, Western critics have almost comically
misunderstood what the Israeli military is trying to do. The flaw in
Western analysis is always the same: “We wouldn’t do it that way.” Yet
the IDF has absolutely no intention of using the clear-hold-build COIN
tactics the West tried in Afghanistan and Iraq. Why would it? Those
tactics were an unmitigated disaster in both campaigns, which ended in
humiliating defeats at the hands of technologically inferior armies.
COIN
tactics are time consuming and costly. They also require huge troop
levels to “hold” ground, for years if not indefinitely. Assuming Western
doctrinal ratios of 1 soldier to every 40 civilians, Gaza would require
an enduring deployment of 50,000 combat troops, before we even consider
enabling logistics, engineers, artillery and the like. The economic
costs of mobilizing the IDF’s reservist army on an enduring basis would
be astronomical. Such tactics would also be insanely wasteful, since
Israel has a safe base on the Israeli side of the Gaza border, and can
therefore enjoy the luxury of only committing to intelligence-led
operations at times and on ground of their choosing—advantages that the
West did not have in either Iraq or Afghanistan.
So
why is the IDF repeating operations in areas that it has already
cleared—for example, in the Shifa hospital, or in ongoing operations in
Jabalia, which they struck from the air at the start of the conflict.
Critics call this approach “mowing the grass,” a phrase adopted in the
West to describe the failure to deploy sufficient troops in Iraq or
Afghanistan, leading to repeated clearances of the same areas after they
were thought to have been “cleared.” I contend that the IDF is trying
something completely different, and it makes sense.
The
IDF has absolutely no intention of using the clear-hold-build COIN
tactics the West tried in Afghanistan and Iraq. Those tactics were an
unmitigated disaster in both campaigns, which ended in humiliating
defeats at the hands of technologically inferior armies.
Israel’s
strategic aims are defeating Hamas and securing the Gaza border with
Israel to prevent a repeat of Oct. 7. “Never again is now” isn’t just an
empty slogan. IDF operational design is built around making sure Oct. 7
can never happen again. Absent the possibility of any enduring
political solution, that is simply what success looks like.
In
military terms, Hamas will not be destroyed, which means rendered
totally combat ineffective. Hamas is too numerous and too entrenched
within Gaza—where every male of fighting age is a potential future Hamas
fighter. Their cellular structure makes them hard to target, and when a
commander is killed, they have shown the flexibility to promote the
next man up. They are also mainly backing away from a fight in Gaza,
relying on booby traps, IEDs, and small arms engagements before melting
away from decisive engagements. This makes them hard to kill.
What
is possible, however, is defeating Hamas. In Western doctrinal terms,
“defeating” an enemy means reducing it to 50%-69% of its fighting
strength. As Gaza is neither a conventional war nor a counterterrorism
operation in the classic senses of each, we can frame that percentage as
the removal of Hamas’ ability to repeat Oct. 7.
So
how does the IDF plan to achieve the aim of defeating Hamas? Through a
political solution? Definitely not. No one on the international stage
has expressed any interest in helping with governance in Gaza. Nor is
there any evidence that these nonexistent partners would do anything
other than act as human shields for Hamas, making it impossible for
Israel to attack its foes when necessary. The idea that there exists
some magic device to convert any sizable number of Gazans to embrace a
political alternative to Hamas that would be in any way favorable for
Israel can be generously termed a fantasy. According to polling, 2% of
Gazans support an Israeli-backed administration. The majority want Hamas back.
Israel’s
war cabinet has received significant domestic and international
criticism for their lack of a “day after” plan for governance in Gaza,
which has been echoed in recent days by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant
and war cabinet member Benny Gantz. IDF planners are therefore faced
with designing operations to achieve a loosely defined goal, with no
clearly articulated strategic end state for the operation from their
political leadership—in part perhaps because the “end state” may be
unsatisfying to Western ears. So how have they met this challenge?
If
you look at what is possible, what the best version of “success” looks
like, and what Israel is doing, I contend that in Gaza we are seeing a
masterpiece of operational design within severe politically imposed
limitations. The IDF is not trying to clear Gaza. With no ability to
impose a political arrangement in Gaza, and a Gazan desire for continued
Hamas rule, the IDF answer is: Let them have Hamas. But the version of
Hamas that Gazans will get is one heavily degraded militarily, and, most
importantly, with vast swaths of their tunnels and civilian-embedded
infrastructure destroyed. In other words, the IDF aims to replace Hamas
3.0—the version that fought three wars against Israel and then launched
the brutal Oct. 7 surprise attacks—with Hamas 1.0, which took over the
Gaza Strip from Fatah in June 2007.
To
accomplish that end, the IDF has methodically razed what Hamas
infrastructure they could find in Gaza City, Khan Yunis, and now Rafah.
They have secured the Netzarim corridor to control freedom of movement
from south to north. It looks like they are trying to do the same thing
along the Philadelphi Corridor and Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, to
cut off the inflow of weapons and supplies to Hamas.
Facial
recognition software in controlled areas allows the IDF to stop known
Hamas commanders moving around. This posture also allows the IDF to
strike when concentrations of Hamas are identified, to degrade their
manpower, and then withdraw again: And that is what we saw at Shifa
hospital and are seeing now in Jabalia.
At
the same time, the IDF has methodically destroyed buildings to create a
1-kilometer buffer zone around the Gaza border—a measure that if
enforced would indeed prevent a repeat of Oct. 7. If Israel has its way,
nobody in Gaza is getting anywhere near the border again. However,
whether Washington will come down against this policy remains to be
seen, which is why for Israel, the key strategic goal in Gaza is
arguably to limit as much as possible the internationalization of the
Strip through fantastical plans for “the day after.”
As
things stand, the operational end state looks like significant Hamas
infrastructure is destroyed, its fighting capability severely degraded,
and the border secured, with the IDF retaining the capability to strike
into Gaza at will. All of this has occurred while shifting hundreds of
thousands of civilians out of harm’s way and minimizing innocent
casualties (Hamas’ human shield tactics aside). As John Spencer, chair
of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, has
repeatedly pointed out, the efforts the IDF has made to protect civilians is unprecedented in modern urban warfare.
Both
the tactical and strategic accomplishments of the IDF campaign in Gaza
are entirely real. The operational design that allowed for these
accomplishments does, of course, come with disadvantages. First, the
destruction of civil infrastructure will require a massive
reconstruction effort. While innocent civilian deaths are real and
tragic, the almost 1-to-1 combatant-to-civilian death ratio remains very
low compared to other conflicts. Second, the Egyptians have been very
twitchy about Israeli control of the southern border.
However,
we now know why. Since the start of the Rafah operation, the IDF has
uncovered some 50 tunnels that run from Gaza into Egypt, suggesting a
high and ongoing degree of complicity between the Hamas leadership and
the military and political leadership in Cairo.
Militarily,
the IDF is hamstrung by international pressure to slow operations, and
uncertainty about what comes next in Gaza—a choice that may at least
partially lie outside of Israel’s control. For our part, Western critics
need to eat humble pie and accept that, on the evidence of the last 20
years, our tactics are not to be recommended. What we are seeing in Gaza
is not a failure. It’s a quite brilliant IDF operational design, within
the bounds of what is realistically possible.
"In cloaks of piety, they parade,
Yet shadows lurk, their vows betrayed.
Corrupt rabbis, hearts turned dark,
Their teachings twisted, truth disembarked.
From sacred scrolls, they pick and choose,
To serve their greed, they freely abuse.
With silver tongues, they weave deceit,
Their hands defile what's pure and sweet.
In temples grand, where prayers ascend,
Their avarice knows neither limit nor end.
Exploiting faith for selfish gain,
They trample justice, causing pain.
Their flocks misled, their trust betrayed,
By wolves in robes, whose souls decayed.
For virtue's sake, we must unveil,
Expose the lies, and justice prevail.
Let righteous fury light the way,
To cleanse the temple, and to purify the fray."
(א) צדק צדק תרדף. הַלֹּךְ אַחַר בֵּית דִּין יָפֶה --- (ספרי; סנהדרין ל"ב):רש"י על דברים ט״ז:כ׳:א׳
Citing nepotism concerns, High Court of Justice halts rabbinical courts appointments
Petition filed by attorney notes that Chief Rabbi
David Lau is a member of the committee considering the promotion of two
of his relatives
The High Court of Justice issued an injunction on Sunday halting the
appointment of rabbinical court judges following allegations of
nepotism.
The ruling by Justice Alex Stein applies to the work of the
appointments committee to the Great Court in Jerusalem and 12 regional
rabbinical courts, or batei din. It followed a petition filed by Batya Kahana-Dror, a lawyer and fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute.
The petition noted that the appointments committee, which is part of
the Chief Rabbinate that is co-headed by Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi David
Lau, is reviewing the nomination of two candidates related to Lau: Rabbi
Mordechai Ralbag to the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court and Yehuda Mann to
head another such court.
Lau is a member of the appointments committee, presenting a potential
conflict of interest, the court ruled. The Chief Rabbinate, represented
by the state, has one month to reply to the allegations.
Another candidate under consideration is Avraham Deri, a nephew of
Shas leader Aryeh Deri and the son of the chief rabbi of Beersheba,
Yehuda Deri. Neither Aryeh nor Yehuda are members of the appointments
committee, but they are said to have considerable influence on its
members, Haaretz reported.
The Lau, Deri, Ralbag, and Yosef families “behave as though the
rabbinical courts are their own fiefdom, to the detriment of citizens of
Israel who require the services of the rabbinical courts by law,”
Kahana-Dror wrote in her petition. Yitzhak Yosef is the chief Sephardic
rabbi of the State of Israel.
Head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party MK
Aryeh Deri, thrice convicted felon, speaks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Tzohar, an Orthodox rabbinical group that has challenged the Chief
Rabbinate in multiple issues, welcomed the injunction on Sunday.
“A rabbinical system’s ability to have a positive impact hinges on
its ability to be a model of moral conduct,” wrote Tzohar in a
statement. “Only when appointments are made properly can the rabbinical
courts maintain that those who need their service will receive justice,
not politics and nepotism.”
The Chief Rabbinate did not immediately reply to a request for comment by The Times of Israel on the ruling.
Israeli superhero educator Menachem Bombach is from Mea Shearim — and the IDF
Rabbi Bombach saw Yom HaZikaron as an opportunity to normalize the
IDF uniform, and the people who wear it, in charedi society.
We are all so exhausted from this year. Even those of us who don’t
live in Israel. Yom Ha’Atzmaut has come and gone, and there were
celebrations, but they were muted. Tear-stained. While we sang
‘Hatikvah,’ many of us wondered where the end to all this sadness may
lie. When will the hostages be found? When will the thousands of
reservists, some of whom have been called up a second time, be allowed
to rejoin their families? What will life in Israel be like “the day
after”?
While most of us have been consumed with worry about how Israel
will emerge from this prolonged crisis, there are some people — I think
of them as behind-the-scenes superheroes — who have stayed steadfast in
their mission, knowing that there will indeed be a day after, even if we
can’t see it right now. And Israel has to be ready for that day.
I’ve had the privilege of meeting one of those people, a man who has
been laser-focused on Israel’s future for more than a dozen years.
Somehow, the current war, which seems to use up all our bandwidth, has
not distracted him from his mission. His name is Menachem Bombach, and
he definitely doesn’t present like a superhero.
In fact, if you met Menachem, your first thought might be, “Which of
these things is not like the others?” His beard, along with the bekishe —
the long black frock coat — that he often wears, definitely signals
chasidish. He speaks almost-perfect American English — it’s self-taught —
and has the poise of a polished PR pro. Add to the mix the IDF uniform
that he dons when called to serve on the home front, and you get a
walking microcosm of the contradictions that define Israeli society.
Rabbi Bombach is unique — and here that overused word is to be taken
literally, because literally there is no one like him in the Jewish
world today — in his determination to use those contradictions to
strengthen the State of Israel.
That seems like a tall order, even before the trauma of October 7.
But if you think back to last summer, before that black Shabbat, you
will recall an Israel that was riven by deep divisions, a fissure that
brought to the surface the mini-tremors and submerged cracks that long
have threatened the unity of Israeli society.
The most destabilizing of these potential metaphoric earthquakes is
the fault line that separates Israel’s charedi and secular populations.
While we all have been moved by the images of charedim bringing food to
Israeli soldiers over the past months, we also know that the rifts
between these two sectors of Israeli society are likely to reappear when
life in Israel gets back to normal (whatever “normal” will be).
I first met Menachem Bombach when he became principal of Lezion
Berina, a religious school for Russian-speaking boys in Israel. My
husband and I got involved because we both speak Russian, have strong
ties to the Russian-Jewish community both in the United States and in
Israel, and believed (and still believe) in the school’s mission: to
provide children from the former Soviet Union with a strong Jewish
identity in a warm and accepting setting that allows them to become
proud, knowledgeable Jews in the modern State of Israel.
Rabbi Bombach’s journey to Lezion Berina was remarkable enough. Born
to a family from the Vizhnitz chasidic sect in the ultra-Orthodox
enclave of Mea Shearim, he ultimately earned a bachelor’s degree in
education and a master’s in public policy from Hebrew University. And he
did so having learned Hebrew (also self-taught) when he was 20, after
hearing only Yiddish for the first two decades of his life.
Rabbi Bombach is surrounded by Netzach graduates.
With those credentials, it is no wonder the school’s team brought him
on board. But emigration from Russia was slowing down (this was a
decade before the current war between Russian and Ukraine), and the
school’s administration wondered how they would continue to fill the
seats.
As one of the few chasidim who had already bridged the two worlds of
charedi and secular Israel, Rabbi Bombach began to act on a situation
that long had troubled him. He knew that given the high birth rate and
low earning power of the charedim, Israel would face a severe
demographic and economic crisis in the coming years if something weren’t
done to start integrating ultra-Orthodox Israelis into mainstream
society.
So Rabbi Bombach did something.
He decided to take the framework of Lezion Berina and launch a school
for chasidim that would teach secular subjects and prepare its students
for the bagrut, Israel’s university entrance exam. That doesn’t sound
revolutionary? Ask the local charedi community leaders who pushed back —
hard — against such a concept. Its very definition threatened their way
of life, or so they thought.
Despite the protests, word of mouth soon led to increased enrollment
as chasidish and charedi parents saw that their sons could remain
faithful to their traditions while gaining essential educational skills.
These parents understood that this was the only path to achieving
meaningful employment and financial stability. And Rabbi Bombach
understood that this change was essential to the long-term viability of
the State of Israel.
The flagship Midrasha HaChassidit is now part of a network of schools
called Netzach, which boasts 10 schools, for both boys and girls.
Perhaps most remarkable is the success of the Netzach Eshkolot program,
which offers online instruction in core subjects for charedi students
who do not have the benefit of English, math, and science classes in
their schools. There are now 35,000 chareidim participating in Eshkolot.
That number may seem like the proverbial drop in the bucket, but
enrollment is increasing by more than 40% each year.
A watershed moment for Rabbi Bombach occurred in 2018, when a video
of a classroom exercise at the school went viral. It was Yom HaZikaron,
Israel’s Memorial Day, when the entire country pays tribute to the
soldiers who have lost their lives in Israel’s wars. Well, almost the
entire country: In certain charedi enclaves, Yom HaZikaron is
traditionally ignored, just as army service is frowned upon, or worse.
Rabbi Bombach saw Yom HaZikaron as an opportunity to normalize the
IDF uniform, and the people who wear it, in charedi society. In the
video, you can see Rabbi Bombach asking his students to respond to a
photo of a young Israeli boy lying prostrate on his father’s grave. It
is obvious that the boy is secular, and equally obvious that his father
has died in battle. The students, still children themselves, can
empathize with a boy whose father is never coming home. Next, each
student is given the name of a fallen soldier and instructed to stand
and recite tehillim (psalms) in his memory. Finally, each boy steps
forward to light a memorial candle.
Nothing that occurred that day may seem so groundbreaking, but to
some charedi leaders, it was downright subversive. First you ask charedi
children to pray for the soul of a fallen soldier, and the next thing
you know they’ll be enlisting themselves. And that is exactly what has
been happening, especially since October 7. A historic number of
charedim volunteered to serve in the IDF after the Simchat Torah
massacre.
Not all could be accepted, of course, but even 800 draftees out of
4,000 charedi applicants is an unprecedented number. In fact, 12
graduates of Netzach schools have been serving in Gaza since the war
started. (And the practice of observing Yom HaZikaron continues in all
Netzach schools, a mind-blowing fact.)
For a small country, Israel has an extraordinary number of heroic
citizens. Some, deservedly, are celebrities, like Eden Golan, who faced
down thousands of jeering protesters at the Eurovision Song Contest.
Others are more ordinary, like your cousin who has three sons serving in
Gaza, yet keeps going to work and doing the laundry and watering the
plants.
As the saying goes, not all superheroes wear capes. Could it be that
the superhero Israel needs to ensure its future “the day after” wears
two uniforms, a chasidish bekishe and IDF fatigues? I’m betting on it.
For more information on the Netzach network of schools, follow Netzach on Facebook or go to netzach.org.il.
Nepotism at work: The committee to appoint rabbinical judges
How can Israelis trust the courts they need for divorce and other legal
matters, when they have become a job factory for the committee's
relatives?
Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef meets with newly appointed Supreme
Rabbinical Court judges in Jerusalem
Over the next two weeks, at least 15 new rabbinical court judges will be chosen by the Council for Appointing Judges (Vaadah le-Minui Dayanim).
These appointments have broad implications for the approximately 10,000
couples who get divorced each year in Israel’s rabbinical courts and
tens of thousands of others who find themselves in the halls of Israel’s
religious justice system for issues of inheritance, proving Jewishness,
or proving personal status.
It would be unfortunate enough if these appointments were being
made by the outgoing chief rabbis on the final days of their serving in
office. But what is significantly more problematic and an ethical
travesty is that many of the appointments will be family members and
close friends of members of the committee — something that may end up
being challenged in Israel’s Supreme Court. The judges with the most
likelihood of being appointed are sons-in-law, brothers, cousins, and
close friends of the families of the chief rabbis and their inner
circle. Rather than being a force of justice and Jewish law, the
rabbinical courts have become a job factory for relatives.
Both democratic tradition and Jewish tradition look unfavorably
at nepotism. Moving forward now with these appointments will clearly be
an ugly stain on the Israeli Rabbinate and the future of these judges.
The Talmud inBava Metzia 85b (tomorrow’s daf yomi)
describes how two young scholars who were both sons of great Jewish
leaders were given opportunities to rise quickly to positions of
leadership in the beit midrash (study hall). Both Rabbi Judah
Hanasi (son of Rabbi Shimon Ben Gamliel) and Rabbi Elazar (son of Rabbi
Shimon Bar Yochai) impressed the sages with their acumen and ability,
and the sages sought to promote them.
According to the Talmud, they literally were “taken off the
floor” and given seats of power. But the Talmud recounts that Rabbi
Shimon ben Gamliel, who was well aware of his son’s abilities, demanded
that his son be demoted for fear of the evil eye — which, in other
contexts, means that he was afraid that it would look inappropriate for
his son to rise to power because of his father’s power. And in fact,
Rabbi Judah the Prince was demoted.
How far Jewish history has come! It would be appropriate now for
all the fathers and fathers-in-law, all the cousins and brothers-in-law,
in fact, all the family members of any of these prospective rabbinical
court judges to ask their relatives and friends to excuse themselves
from this round of promotion.
This should not be an issue for the Supreme Court; it’s a basic Jewish halachic value.
Measles Is Preventable. How Did the World End Up Back Here?
—
Health professionals must encourage vaccination and fight misinformation
I remember being very sick when I had measles as a
child. I was confined to a darkened room for more than a week, and
there was concern that it would affect my vision. Decades later, I work
with patients who have had encephalitis as a result of measles, and
families who are left bereaved by the disease.
Because of the successopens in a new tab or window
of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, most people have
never seen a case of measles and think it is just a rash that clears up
in a few days. But measles is not the innocuous childhood illness that
the unfamiliar or vaccine deniers believe.
Let's look back to a time before the vaccine existed.
Take the case of Barbara Leonhard, who contracted measles along with
her siblings when she was 6 going on 7 years old. Her siblings
recovered, but she developed encephalitis, was totally paralyzed, and
spent 30 days hospitalized in a coma. She was lucky: doctors said she'd
never walk again, but she learned how to walk. Though the disease left
her with memory and learning issues, she excelled and became a sign
language instructor at the University of Missouri, as well as a poet,
author, and editor.
That was in 1958 -- 66 years ago -- when Leonhard became one of 763,094 peopleopens in a new tab or window
in the U.S. to contract measles, the highest number of cases in a
single year. In 1963, when the measles vaccine became available, her
parents jumped at the chance to have their children vaccinated. Viewed
as a miracle, the vaccine reduced measles cases by 95% over the next 5
years; by 2000, the disease was declared eliminated in the U.S.
Fast forward. Since October 2023, there have been 1,109 confirmed measles casesopens in a new tab or window
in England. Meanwhile, in 2022-2023, MMR vaccinations for children
under 2 had fallen to 89.2% (herd immunity requires 95% of the
population be fully vaccinated). In the U.S., the CDC reports that MMR vaccination ratesopens in a new tab or window
fell from 95% in 2019-2020 to 93.1% for the 2022-2023 school year; this
two-point drop means 250,000 kindergartners are at higher risk for
developing measles. Herd immunity is critically important because it
allows us to accommodate people who can't be vaccinated for medical,
personal, or religious reasons.
How Did We Get Here?
One of the primary contributors to the current anti-vaccine movement was the 1998 publication of a now-retracted paperopens in a new tab or window in The Lancet by disgraced former physician Andrew Wakefield, who inaccurately linked the MMR vaccine to autism.
In addition to misinformation about vaccine safety, the current
crisis has been fueled by complacency, vaccination delays during the
pandemic, lack of access to vaccines in some cases, international
travel, mistrust in the government and the pharmaceutical industry, and the expansionopens in a new tab or window of medical and religious exemptions.
The biggest hurdle we face is convincing skeptics that most vaccines
are safe. This is despite the fact that the science is clear: only one
or two people in a million develop some kind of adverse eventopens in a new tab or window because of vaccination.
But sometimes parents who have lost children or whose children have
life-changing disabilities may believe vaccination was the cause. I have
seen and heard from these parents -- their loss and distress are
palpable and heartbreaking. In addition to the patients and families
affected by the complications of measles, these parents are victims of
erroneous and misguided information.
The MMR vaccine prevents hundreds of thousands of deaths and
disabilities, but the vaccine-hesitant voices are very loud. To combat
them, healthcare and public health professionals can show patients data
demonstrating that vaccines are safe and effective.
Efforts to Encourage Vaccination
In the U.K., the government is conducting a highly successful national catch-up campaignopens in a new tab or window
to encourage parents to vaccinate children between 6 and 11 years old
who missed their MMR vaccines. It is also targeting unvaccinated
adolescents and adults. There are many forms of encephalitis that cannot
be prevented, but there is no reason anyone should get encephalitis from measlesopens in a new tab or window.
There is still time for the U.S. to prevent the more extreme
situation we are experiencing in Europe and around the world. Most
measles cases in the U.S. appear to be the result of an infected person travelingopens in a new tab or window from a country where measles is endemic or where there is an outbreak. In fact, just this week, CDC published a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report article on 57 measles casesopens in a new tab or window tied to a migrant shelter in Chicago.
Healthcare professionals should speak to parents to make sure
children are up to date on vaccinations. This is particularly important
for families who plan to travel internationally, especially to areas
where there are measles outbreaks.
I've heard some stories about physicians refusing to treat patients
who are not vaccinated against MMR. While it can be difficult to
maintain patience and compassion when faced with parental resistance, we
must remember that many of these parents come from a legitimate place
of fear for their child's health. Listening to and addressing their
concerns may go a long way in convincing them that vaccines are safe.
It is heartbreaking to know that children are being needlessly
affected by this terrible disease. We must make vaccinations more
accessible and fight vaccine misinformation by overpowering it with the
truth: that vaccines save millions of lives around the world each year.
Easton does not
receive any personal grants or honoraria from corporate or
pharmaceutical companies. Encephalitis International does receive
grants, expenses, and honoraria from a range of corporate partners,
including those in pharmaceutical and diagnostic technology.
Why Does Gaza Appear in This Antique Hebrew Scroll?
Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, the tombs of the righteous in the Galilee,
and... Gaza? Jewish scrolls from the 16th and 17th centuries offer an
interesting selection of holy places in the Land of Israel. How did the
city of Gaza end up on this list?
In earlier and more ancient versions of the Yichus Ha’Avot scrolls,
Gaza does not appear at all. Why suddenly in the 16th and 17th centuries
was Gaza included on the map of holy places? Why is it described as a
“beautiful country”, and why is the city where Samson the biblical hero
met his death suddenly named after him – “Samson’s city”?
Illustration of the city of Gaza in the 17th century Yichus Ha’avot Scroll, which is kept at the National Library of Israel
A complete road atlas for the holy sites in the Land of Israel, an
advertisement brochure, or a travel book? From the Middle Ages to the
16th and 17th centuries, written and illustrated compositions were
circulated in the Land of Israel and in the Jewish Diaspora, claiming to
present those abroad with descriptions of the Jewish holy places found
throughout the land. Three of these, which were copied as illustrated
scrolls, are preserved at the National Library of Israel.
These items were copies of what’s known as the Yichus Ha’Avot scroll,
or in its full name as it appears in the first part of the manuscript:
“Lineage of the Forefathers and the Prophets and the Righteous and the
Tana’aim and the Amora’im, May They Rest in Peace, in the Land of Israel
and Outside the Land, May God Establish Their Merit for Us, Amen.” As
its name indicates, this scroll is mainly focused on the burial places
of our ancient ancestors – from those buried in the Cave of the
Patriarchs(Ma’arat Ha’Machpela) to the later tombs of
the Amorites which were spread throughout the Land of Israel, and
sometimes even outside of it (such as the tombs of Mordechai and Esther,
Daniel, and others).
But then, in one of the copies, above the illustration depicting a
city surrounded by a wall, the following Hebrew inscription appears:
“Kfar Gaza, the city of Samson, a beautiful country”
This particular copy of Yichus Ha’Avot was copied and illustrated in
Casale Monferrato in northern Italy, in 1598. As mentioned above, the
illustration depicts a walled city with many towers covered with domes,
some alluding to their status as mosques, some reminiscent of churches.
The whole city is surrounded by a wall, and a (very) large domed gate
with no doors symbolizes the entrance to the city.
Another illustration very similar in its characteristics – in which
Gaza is referred to as “the land of Samson, a beautiful country” –
appears in another Yichus Ha’Avot scroll from the National Library
collection, this one dating to the 17th century. Here, the illustrator
imagined Gaza as an even greener and more colorful city, with the
mosques appearing more prominently. The city gate is still broad and
impressive, lacking doors and wide open.
Shlomo Zucker, a former member of the National Library’s manuscripts
department, researched the composition and described it as follows:
“The drawings are spectacular; green and red for the trees and
flowers, gold for the domes and some of the columns of the buildings […]
However, the buildings – with vaults, gables, columns, and crowns in
the classical style – are completely imaginary, and have nothing to do
with the actual shape of the sites described in the text.” (S. Zucker, Yichus Ha’Avot or Elleh Massai, Ariel, 123-122, 5757, p. 206 [Hebrew])
Is this really how Gaza looked in those days?
Written testimony, archaeological findings, and descriptions in various travel books present a different picture of the city.
But the very fact that the descriptions and illustrations in the
Yichus Ha’Avot scroll are imagined is not surprising or unusual.
Scientific or geographical accuracy was not necessarily at the forefront
of the minds of the writers and artists of the time. Maps and
illustrations based on imagination or various graphic ideas disconnected
from reality were quite common.
One of the interesting examples is the “Clover Leaf Map” by Heinrich
Bünting, one original copy of which is preserved in the Eran Laor
Cartographic Collection at the National Library.
The map depicts the old world in the form of a clover leaf on which
three continents are represented: Asia, Europe, and Africa. Jerusalem,
by the way, is located in the center of the world according to this map.
On the map itself, Bunting explains the reason for his artistic choice:
“The whole world is in the shape of a clover leaf, which is a symbol of
the city of Hanover, my beloved birthplace.”
Like the famous Clover Leaf Map, the Yichus Ha’Avot scrolls also
weren’t trying to be realistic or to reflect actual geography and
topography. The scrolls and the illustrations inside them tried to
express a visual-imagined space, emotional at its core, which made it
possible to browse through them and feel like someone who was walking in
the footsteps of our ancestors, as someone who is faithful and
connected to the “lineage of the fathers”.
The much more surprising fact is that Gaza was added to the map of holy places at an unknown time.
In earlier and more ancient versions of the Yichus Ha’Avot scrolls,
Gaza does not appear at all. Why suddenly in the 16th and 17th centuries
was Gaza included on the map of holy places? Why is it described as a
“beautiful country”, and why is the city where Samson the biblical hero
met his death suddenly named after him – “Samson’s city”?
It should be noted that Gaza was not one of the four traditional
Jewish holy cities in the Land of Israel. Moreover, various halachic
discussions raised the question of whether Gaza is part of the Land of
Israel, and whether the commandments that are dependent on the land must
be observed there. According to most opinions, the answer is no.
So what suddenly changed at the end of the 16th century?
The fluctuations in Gaza’s status as an important or backwater city
over the years stemmed from its location on the coastal road leading
between the Land of Israel and Egypt. When the Crusaders conquered the
Holy Land, there were no trade relations between the Crusader Kingdom of
Jerusalem and Muslim Egypt, and Gaza was a ruined and largely abandoned
city. But then the Mamluks conquered the region, and with the increased
stability, the status of Gaza, which had been rejuvenated into an
important roadside trading city, rose as well.
Towards the end of the Mamluk period, in 1481, Rabbi Meshullam of
Volterra, a Jewish banker from Florence, visited Gaza, and his
descriptions corroborate the literal description in the Yichus Ha’Avot
scroll which states that Gaza is a “beautiful country”.
According to Rabbi Meshullam, Gaza was “a good and fat land”, with a
small Jewish community that produced wine. But unlike the illustrations
in the Yichus Ha’Avot scroll, Rabbi Meshullam described Gaza as so
self-confident that it had no wall at all: “Aza is called Gaza by the
Ishmaelites, and it is a good and fat land, and its fruits are very
fine. And there is good bread and wine, although the wines are only made
by the Jews. Its perimeter is 4 miles long and it has no walls […] it
is surrounded by blue on the shore of the sea. And has about 60 Jewish
homeowners […]”
Samson
carries off the gates of Gaza, a mosaic from the synagogue in Hukok,
Byzantine period / Photo: Jim Haberman, courtesy of Jodi Magness
Rabbi Meshullam also notes the fragment of Jewish history that is
connected to the city of Gaza: It is the city where the biblical hero
and judge Samson lived for part of his life, together with his wife
Delilah, who ultimately brought on his demise out of greed. It is also
the city where Samson was imprisoned and killed, and which he destroyed:
“And at the top of the Judaica [mound] was the house of
Delilah, and Samson the hero lived in it. And near there […] I saw the
great court which he overthrew with his strength and power” (Abraham
Yaari, Masa Meshullam MeVolterra, Mossad Bialik, 599, p. 64 [Hebrew]).
About thirty years after Rabbi Meshullam’s visit, in 1517, an event
occurred that further affected Gaza’s status in the following centuries:
The war between the Mamluks and the Ottomans ended in an Ottoman
victory. The Ottoman Sultan Selim I conquered the entire region,
including the Land of Israel, the shores of the Red Sea, Mecca, and
Medina, as well as the southern connection to the African continent –
Egypt. The victory of the Ottomans strengthened the position of Gaza.
From a peripheral border city, it became a city perfectly situated in
the center of a vast empire.
The Ottoman victory also had additional significance. All the holy
places of Islam and Judaism and most of the holy places of Christianity
now fell under the control of a single regime. The Ottoman Empire
developed, improved the access routes, and ensured the safety of the
Muslim pilgrims who set out for the Hajj to Mecca, while also offering
safety to the Jewish and Christian pilgrims. The security resulted in
economic growth and the improvement of roads, which contributed to a
significant increase in the volume of pilgrimage.
As it turns out. even though Gaza was not one of the four Jewish holy
cities in the Land of Israel, it became a popular place to visit when
making the long journey to the Holy Land.
Why?
Those who embarked on a pilgrimage for religious reasons were
specifically interested in the holy places, especially in the tombs of
biblical figures and righteous sages, which Gaza could not claim to
have. But Samson “came to her aid”.
This is perhaps the reason why Gaza is depicted in illustrations as a
walled city with its mighty gates open. The illustrators of the scrolls
didn’t illustrate Gaza, the prosperous trading city without a wall, but
rather as a city whose doors Samson had uprooted, leaving it with wide
open gates. That’s also why they call it the “Land of Samson.”
The illustrators of the Yichus Ha’Avot scrolls knew that many of the
immigrants, especially those from Italy, would pass through Gaza anyway
on their way to or from Egypt. As such, they indicated to the pilgrims
that although there were no tombs of note in Gaza, there was indeed a
history of Jewish heroism there.
This article is based on an article
by Dr. Chaim Meir Neria, curator of the Haim and Hanna Solomon Judaica
Collection at the National Library of Israel, published in Etmol, issue 286 February 2024
COVID Still Deadlier Than the Flu -- But the Gap Is Narrowing
—
VA study finds 35% higher mortality rate in hospitalized patients
Patients hospitalized with COVID-19 were
more likely to die than those hospitalized with influenza during the
fall and winter of 2023-2024, according to an analysis of Veterans
Affairs data.
Among over 11,000 patients hospitalized for either illness during
this past fall and winter, 5.7% of patients with COVID-19 died within 30
days of admission versus 4.24% of patients with influenza, reported
Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, of the VA St. Louis Health Care System, and
colleagues.
After adjusting for variables, the risk of death in people
hospitalized for COVID-19 was 35% higher (adjusted HR 1.35, 95% CI
1.10-1.66), the authors detailed in a research letter in JAMAopens in a new tab or window.
Al-Aly told MedPage Today that his group was actually
surprised by the results. "We pretty much bought into the public
narrative and drank the Kool-Aid like everybody, thinking that COVID is
no longer [more deadly than the flu], although ... there was no data,"
he said. "But the verdict is out now, because we've analyzed the data
from the 2023-2024 COVID season and clearly COVID mortality is still
higher than the flu."
However, the results did reveal that the risk of mortality in
patients hospitalized with COVID-19 had fallen when compared to the
previous 2022-2023 season. In their 2023 study, using the same database
and methods, Al-Aly's group found that in the fall and winter of
2022-2023, COVID was about 60% more deadly than the fluopens in a new tab or window in patients hospitalized for the illnesses.
"We should continue to take COVID seriously," Al-Aly emphasized. "I
know we're all sick and tired of this pandemic and all of us have
pandemic fatigue, but COVID is still more of a threat to health than the
flu."
Reassuringly, there appeared to be no significant difference in the
risk of death among patients hospitalized for COVID-19 before and during
the emergence of the JN.1 variant of SARS-CoV-2 (adjusted HR 1.07, 95%
CI 0.89-1.28), suggesting that JN.1 may not be more severe than other
recent variants, they posited. The JN.1 variant became predominant
beginning in late December 2023.
The study looked at data from VA electronic health records across all
50 states. Researchers identified people admitted to the hospital with a
diagnosis of COVID-19 or influenza between Oct. 1, 2023 and March 27,
2024, along with a positive test 2 days before or up to 10 days after
admission. Patients with either illness who were hospitalized for
another reason were excluded. The study's cohort included 8,625
participants hospitalized for COVID-19 and 2,647 participants
hospitalized for seasonal influenza.
After propensity score weighting, the mean age of the two cohorts was
about 74 and 95% were male. About 19% were Black and 65% were white.
Approximately 47% were infected before the JN.1 variant emerged. Also,
of patients hospitalized for COVID-19, about 65% had received three or
more shots of a COVID-19 vaccine, but approximately 15% had not received
any COVID-19 vaccine. Approximately 44% of the study population had
been vaccinated for influenza.
Only about 5.3% of people with COVID-19 had been treated with an
outpatient antiviral, such as nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid),
molnupiravir (Lagevrio), or remdesivir (Veklury). In contrast, 8% of
patients hospitalized with the flu had received outpatient oseltamivir
(Tamiflu).
The authors acknowledged that the VA study population was older and
predominantly male, so the results may not be generalizable to other
populations. Also, the causes of death were not examined.
