SHABBAT SHALOM, GESHER SHALOM!


 
February 1st 2019
 
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Shabbat Times: 
Candle Lighting
Evening Service
Morning Service
Minha
4:55 pm
7:00pm
9:30am
4:30pm
 
  Forecast: 37/partly cloudy

IN THIS ISSUE...
Shabbat Kiddush
Join us for Kiddush on Shabbat. This is the perfect opportunity for us to experience community and get to know each other better.

Birthdays and Anniversaries 
Michelle Reisner
Bernard Wasserman
Leo Rettig
Rabbi Irving Spielman
Sydney Josif
Judith Platt
Florence Silverberg 
   
   UPCOMING EVENTS
                 
Saturday 2/2
Morning Service 9:30 am
Minha, S'uda Shlishit (3rd Shabbat Meal), timely topic, Maariv and Havdalah 4:30 pm
Tuesday 2/5
Sisterhood Board Meeting 1:00 pm
Thursday 2/7
Rabbi's Class "Talmud and Tangents" 10:30 am
Visiting Scholar Visiting Scholar Tzvee Zahavy - Lecture series "Talmudic Values in our World Today" 1:00 pm



Torah Rea ding   474               Haftarah 482
MISHPATIM
Following the Decalogue (Ten Commandments), a series of laws in concise form is given to the Israelites. These include regulations governing the master-servant relationship, capital offenses, bodily injury, and damage to property, negligence, theft, marital law, and treatment of the stranger, orphan, widow, debtor and animals. The application and effectiveness of these laws is dependent upon the integrity of witnesses and judges; their truthfulness and objectivity must be assured.
 
Mitzvot regulating food and agriculture are also dealt with - first fruits and firstborn must be dedicated to God. Meat of an animal torn by beasts may not be eaten. The land must lie fallow every seventh year. Everyone - including servants - must rest on the Sabbath. Pilgrimage to the Sanctuary must be made on Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot. A kid may not be boiled in its mother's milk.
 
The people enthusiastically accept God's laws. Moses, the priests and the elders witness a mystical vision of God's glory. God commands Moses to ascend Mount Sinai to receive the tablets on which the Ten Commandments are inscribed. While Moses remains on the mount for forty days, Aaron and Hur will govern the people.
 
Tonight: Evening service at 7:00 p.m.
Tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m.
Tomorrow afternoon at 4:30 p.m.
During Seudah Shlishit we will begin to read... this shameful NYT's op-ed by Michelle Alexander Time to Break the Silence on Palestine: Martin Luther King Jr. courageously spoke out about the Vietnam War. We must do the same when it comes to this grave injustice of our time.
Its publication was timed to coincide with MLK Day.
In subsequent weeks (it may take 6 weeks to get through it all) we will read rebuttals by Peter Buchsbaum, Alan Dershowitz and Thane Rosenbaum.    
Why not join us? In by 4:30; out by 6:00!          





This Week's Yahrzeit Observances
We hope that our weekly listing of yahrzeit observances will serve 2 purposes:
1)     To remind those who ha ve the yahrzeit for a second time, much closer to the date of the actual observance
2)     To alert friends and acquaintances that someone they know is observing a yahrzeit. We hope that you will show them your support by joining them at our minyanim, and helping to assure that Kaddish can be recited with a minyan 
Charles Shatz will be observing yahrzeit for his brother, Sheldon Shatz on Friday evening, February 1st
Michael Glantz will be observing yahrzeit for his father, Harold Glantz on Saturday evening, February 2nd
Hennie Ostrower will be observing yahrzeit for her mother, Gussie Kalb on Saturday evening, February 2nd
Harry Richman will be observing yahrzeit for his mother, Bessie Richman on Saturday evening, February 2nd
Tobey Lyden will be observing yahrzeit for her mother, Natalie Friedman on Sunday evening, February 3rd
Marlene Perkal will be observing yahrzeit for her mother, Rebecca Laufer on Sunday evening, February 3rd
Stephen Obstbaum will be observing yahrzeit for his mother, Evelyn Obstbaum on Sunday evening, February 3rd
Richard Schiff will be observing yahrzeit for his father, Eugene Schiff on Sunday evening, February 3rd
Laurie Smilovitz will be observing yahrzeit for her father, Bernard Schwarz on Sunday evening, February 3rd
Franco Aguilar will be observing yahrzeit for his father, Franco Aguilar on Tuesday evening, February 5th
Gertrud Buchler will be observing yahrzeit for her husband, Joseph Buchler on Tuesday evening, February 5th
Sylvia Gosberg will be observing yahrzeit for her mother, Ellen Schoenfeld on Tuesday evening, February 5th
Stephen Whitman will be observing yahrzeit for his father, Sydney Whitman on Tuesday evening, February 5th
Robert Mohl will be observing yahrzeit for his father, Samuel Mohl on Wednesday evening, February 6th 
Lois Bruno will be observing yahrzeit for her sister, Roberta Morganstein on Thursday evening, February 7th 





Important Reads
Israel Is Powerful. That Doesn't Make it Wrong.
 (Letters to the Editor in the WSJ)
Why do my peers oppose Israel? Not because college students are anti-Semitic, but because most hold one truth to be self-evident: Powerlessness implies moral legitimacy. The Israelis are powerful; the Palestinians are not. As such, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is merely a struggle between victim and oppressor, and nobody wants to support the oppressor.
Accordingly, campus pro-Israel groups often try to portray Israel as a victim, too-a victim of international bias and unprovoked aggression from its Arab neighbors. This strategy, however, has failed. It will continue to fail because even though Israel may be under threat, it isn't powerless. Israel's army is strong and its technology is advanced. But power doesn't automatically imply moral turpitude; and conversely, powerlessness does not guarantee goodness. In other words, might does not make Israel right, but it certainly does not make Israel wrong, either. Indeed, Israel strives for justice and peace. But students can't see that when they allow the popular morality of power to obscure the truth.
  (Benjamin Simon, a Stanford University student, intends to major in philosophy and religious studies and computer science.)

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chm. Engel Opposes Pro-Palestinian Trip
Turkey's Expansionist Policy Exposed        
Amid a Measles Outbreak, an Ultra-Orthodox Nurse Fights Vaccination Fears in Her Community     ]
Hasidic Jews Reject Measles Vaccines, Spurning Rebbes                                                            
Prominent Democrats Form Pro-Israel Group
Senate Advances Pro-Israel Bill as G.O.P. Searches for Democratic Divisions 
Venezuela's Jews Describe Chaos, Uncertain Future                                                                            

UK Foreign Secretary: Britain's 1939 White Paper Capping Jewish Immigration to Palestine Was a "Black Moment" in History 
Jews Of Uganda Torn Apart Over A Bitter Sibling Rivalry                                                                


International Holocaust Remembrance Day
40 Years Ago, an American Miniseries Changed the Way Germans Thought About Their History. Now 'Holocaust' is Being Shown There Again. The four-part drama, starring a young Meryl Streep, burned itself into the consciences of its millions of German viewers.                                                                                  
   Holocaust Victims Remembered in Rome 74 Years After Auschwitz Liberation                                            

Jeremy Corbyn's Commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day is Offensive and Hurtful   
Ignorance About the Holocaust is Growing                                                                            



Israel

IDF Search and Rescue Unit Heads to Brazil after Dam Collapse         
and here                                                    
IDF Team in Brazil Retrieves 35 Bodies at Disaster Site                                              
Israelis Aiding Search at Brazilian Mine Disaster Are Met with Praise and Criticism-Including a Disgusting Cartoon     
STATE ATTORNEY THREATENS TO OPEN NON-ORTHODOX KOTEL SECTION                              

  Video: Leviathan Gas Platform Foundations Lowered into Mediterranean                                                
 
Schoolboy on Class Trip Unearths Second Temple-Era Coin in West Bank Stream                                             

Video: King Hezekiah's Personal Seal Found in Unprecedented DiscoveryIsraeli Exports to China Jump by 63 Percent in First 8 Months of 2018 
 
2 Political Power Players Join Forces to Take on Netanyahu in Israel's Upcoming Elections                               
Former generals Benny Gantz and Moshe Yaalon are combining their political parties.        
Birthright Had Its Biggest Year Ever!           




Iran / Syria / Hezbollah

Russia: We Are Not Allies of Iran in Syria  
Russia is committed to Israel's security and Iran is aware of that                                                          

Tehran-Moscow Cooperation Goes Beyond Syria  
Facebook Removes 783 Iranian Accounts for "Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior"                                      
Moscow Sends Senior Officials to Meet Netanyahu 
Rethinking Israel's Syria Campaign 
Jerusalem can breathe a momentary sigh of relief as certain events in Syria and Gaza seem to be working in their favor; but they know better than to take such a situation for granted.  
Russian deputy FM reiterates commitment to Israel's security  and Military Pressure on Iran in Syria Is Working     
Don't know which assessment to believe: the one above or the one below:
Iran's Strategy for Control of Syria Thwarts Both Russia and Israel                                                                                                    
  
Angela Merkel: Israel Has "Right" to Defend Itself Against Iran in Syria                                                      
Expert: Nearly All of Iran's Advanced Nuke Centrifuges Are Failing                                                      

Hizbullah Chief Tries to Hide Recent Failures 
Report: Hizbullah Facing Financial Difficulties                                                                        

Israel Alerts UN to More Hizbullah Tunnels in Lebanon Heading toward Israel                                              



BDS / Anti-Semitism / Anti-Zionism
Rep. Ilhan Omar Apologizes for Tweet About Israel  "It's now apparent to me that I spent lots of energy putting my 2012 tweet in context and little energy is disavowing the anti-semitic trope I unknowingly used."                                                                   
Here's What Ilhan Omar and Her Colleagues Say                                                            
Saudi Columnist Mocks Israel Boycotters                                                                      

Anti-Israel Protest Again Sparks Controversy at LGBTQ Conference  
A group of pro-Palestinian activists took the stage unannounced and led a 13-minute demonstration against Zionism.                                                                                                                
 
A Wave of anti-Semitism is Bringing Secular UK Jews Closer to their Roots                                                  
UK Study: Hostility to Israel and Anti-Jewish Hatred Clearly Linked                                                    
Despite Star Power, Boycotting Israel Has Little Appeal in the UK                                                              
12 statements about Israel that were tested in the original survey, with proportions who said they 'Tend to agree' or 'Strongly agree' shown in brackets
* Israel is committing mass murder in Palestine (24%)
* Israel is deliberately trying to wipe out the Palestinian population (23%)
* Israel is an apartheid state (21%)
* The interests of Israel are at odds with the interests of the rest of the world (18%)
* Israel has too much control over global affairs (17%)
* Israel exploits Holocaust victimhood for its own purposes (13%)
* Israel is the cause of all the troubles in the Middle East (10%)
* People should boycott Israeli goods and products (10%)
* Israel is the only real democracy in the Middle East (25% disagree)
* The State of Israel makes a positive contribution to global society (15% disagree) 
* The State of Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish People (12% disagree) 
* The State of Israel has every right to exist (5% disagree)
Amnesty International Urges Airbnb, Expedia and Others to Stop
Listing Sites in Jewish Settlements  
Amnesty International's Anti-Semitic Campaign Against Jewish Tourism                                                                                  
German Jewish Leader Decries Anti-Semitism in Europe, Singling Out Jeremy Corbyn                                                                      
Hitler-Owned Book Hints at Plans for North American Holocaust                                                        
 
Ireland's Boycott of Israel May Adversely Affect Tremendous US Investments in Ireland                                                                     
Olympic Swimmer from Poland Won't Coach Malaysian Team Citing Israel Athletes Ban                                    
This is not the way to do it:
New York Jewish Antifa Group Defaces Nazi Ally Plaque                                                         

Jewish Actor Hospitalized After Anti-Gay, Racist Attack: "This Is MAGA Country"



The Palestinians

Palestinian Support for Two-State Solution Seen Declining     The New Pro-Israel Law That Could Backfire on Israel           
A bid to temper Palestinian security funding cuts before they go into effect this week fell short                         
Israel to Expel Foreign Observers from Hebron after 22 Years                                                       




Hi-Tech
Netanyahu: Israel Thwarts Iranian Cyber Attacks "Daily" 
Israeli Moon Lander Passes Final Tests as It Prepares to Blast Off on Feb. 18                                         
Countering UAVs with Drone Guard                                                                            
How Silicon Makes Israel's Desert Bloom                                                                               
Israel Aerospace to Help European Space Agency Reach the Moon                                                          
I don't really know what to make of this:
 The Case of the Bumbling Spy: A Watchdog Group Gets Him on Camera                                                  




Pop Culture
 

BBC Rejects Calls for Israel Eurovision Boycott             
 

"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" Garners 3 Screen Actor Guild Awards   
 
WHAT THE NETFLIX REMAKE OF THE ISRAELI "KINDERGARTEN TEACHER" GETS WRONG
7 Times Movies Got Jewish Funerals and Shivas Right
(And the funniest thing about this article is that the online ads for it are sponsored by Riverside Memorial Chapels!)

ABC Orders Pilots Based on Two Israeli Television Series
 

Hank Greenberg's Bat is Up for Auction
 
When Jews Ruled Fencing
 
British Rock Star Who Disappeared in 90's Reportedly Living on Kibbutz                                                   

 

Bernard-Henri Levy in Conversation with with Simon Schama  America's Abdication and the Fate of the World, February 13    
 
                                            








 
At Ramah's three specialty camps, campers pursue their passions within the transformative Jewish communities that have distinguished the Ramah experience for over 70 years.




Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Carnegie Hall
February 3, 2019 | 2:00 pm
Carnegie Hall
Zubin Mehta, Music Director & Conductor
Itzhak Perlman, Violin
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra returns to Carnegie Hall for a program led by Maestro Zubin Mehta in his grand finale performance with this orchestra in New York City. Mehta has led the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra since 1969 and will step down as Music Director in 2019. Itzhak Perlman performs Beethoven, Kreisler, Pártos, and John Williams with the orchestra on the first half of the program. Tchaikovsky's majestic Symphony No. 6 concludes the performance.


Film
Eighth Annual Diaspora Israeli -Russian Film Festival
Russian American Cultural Center
Sun, February 3 | 2:00 - 8:00 pm
Ida K. Lang Recital Hall at Hunter College
Documentary Filmmaker, Boris Maftsir
Director, Roman Shumunov
These documentaries, many of which we had the honor of showing at our previous festivals, are among the most significant explorations on the Holocaust, along with the films by Claude Lanzmann and the monumental collection of testimonies of the Spielberg's Shoah Foundation. The mission of Boris Maftsir is even more complicated because he took up the topic of the Holocaust in the former Soviet Union, which was silenced and banned for decades. Recovering forgotten places of massacres, communicating with local witnesses and researchers, he created deeply emotional, historically accurate and talented series of films.
Discussion with Boris Maftsir will be moderated by Oleg Sulkin.


Dance
To Create a World
Gallim
Choreographer Andrea Miller
Tuesday, February 12 | 7:30 pm
Wed., February 13 | 7:30 pm
February 14, 15, 16 | 8:00 pm
Sunday, February 17 | 2:00 pm
The Joyce Theater
The boldly inventive choreographer and artistic director of Gallim, Andrea Miller, returns to The Joyce after a year at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as its first choreographic Artist-in-Residence to present the world premiere of To Create a World. The piece is a culmination of research that began at the ancient Temple of Dendur and resulted in a unique movement language that takes audiences from a pre-human past to a post-human future.


Performance Art
Experimental Fashion Show
Artist, Amanda Mehl
February 4th | 6:00 pm
Garber Hardware 710 Greenwich St., NY
An experimental fashion show by performance artists, Amanda Mehl, to be held at Garber's Hardware, the iconic village hardware shop on Greenwich Street in the West Village.


Theater
Wall of Glass
Staged Reading
IAP Israeli Artists Project
February 4, 2019 | 7:00 - 9:30 pm
*Doors open at 6:30pm
Stephen Wise Free Synagogue
Playwright, Oren Yaakobi,
Director, Charlotte Cohn,
Translators, Hadar Galron & Charlotte Cohn
Wall of Glass is a family drama with the Holocaust as the backdrop. It follows Rachel, a successful Israeli dancer who lives in Berlin away from her estranged family. Her mother and brother arrive to fulfill the will of her grandfather who was an eminent judge and Holocaust survivor. His last request was for his ashes to be added to those of his mother and sister at a concentration camp in Germany. This mission helps the broken family to heal their wall of glass.


Exhibition
Open the Land to the People
Exhibition Opening, SOLOWAY
Artist Keren Benbenisty
Thru February 24th, 2019
SOLOWAY Brooklyn, NY
This solo exhibition presents selected works (2016 - 2018) from Benbenisty's study into the Lessepsian Migration of fish from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, through the Suez Canal, which slices through the Egyptian Desert. Benbenisty's critical intervention into the scientific discourse over the migration of fish provides for an insightful metaphor for the complex and painful issue of human migration that is stirring up unrest across Europe and the U.S.


Exhibition
Close One Eye
Artist, Tirtzah Bassel
Opening Feb. 8 | 7:00 - 9:00 pm
February 8 thru March 10, 2019
Slag Gallery Brooklyn, NY
Israeli artist, Tirtzah Bassel's second solo exhibition at Slag Gallery will feature a new body of work that includes both large and small scale oil paintings rooted in the observations of every day life.


Exhibition
The Weight of Things
Artist, Dana Levy
January 16 - February 16, 2019
Fridman Gallery New York, NY
Dana Levy's two-channel video installation The Weight of Things depicts the interiors of two rooms of the Palace of Versailles - the bedroom of Louis XIV and Salle de Constantine - in the midst of an earthquake. Taking 19th century etchings of the rooms as source material, Levy separates and animates the intricate details: sculptures, tiny wall moldings, picture frames, furniture, balustrades. One-by-one, the elements tremble and crumble to the floor, as if brought down by the thunderous raucous of the accompanying soundtrack. The lavish interiors, symbolic of absolute monarchy and military expansion, are thus reduced to heaps of rubble surrounded by starkly bared walls.


Architecture
Inside Out/Outside In: Second Nature in Japanese Architecture
Architect Rachely Rotem
Thursday, January 31st | 6:30 pm
Japan Society New York, NY
In our climate-shifting world, the traditional Japanese notion of mediating between interior and exterior has re-emerged as an essential concern for contemporary architects. Rome Prize-winning architects Rachely Rotem and Phu Hoang, of architectural firm MODU, explore this dynamic in their own weather-centric projects. Funded by the NEA and US-Japan Creative Artists Program, Rotem and Hoang visited Japan to research the role of weather in the conception of architectural space. Moderated by Beatrice Galilee, Associate Curator of Architecture and Design at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
* Followed by a reception


Music
NewOrch: Opus 2
February 2nd, 2019 | 8:00 pm
February 3rd, 2019 | 8:00 pm
Doors open at 7:30 pm
The Muse Brooklyn, NY
NewOrch is a burgeoning Brooklyn-based symphony orchestra that strives to reflect the way young artists understand and relate to classical music. Founded by a passionate team of international musicians, we draw our inspiration from rock shows, art exhibitions, hip-hop, and all the unconscious influences from our lives here in New York City. Put another way, an evening with NewOrch is not an evening with your parent's symphony orchestra.
Our concerts are different. Shorter programs, boozy after party, swanky locations, user-friendly experience.
Not just a concert. It's a community gathering around a common, abstract passion.


Exhibition
Unfolding
Shony Rivnay - The Yard New York
SARAHCROWN
Exhibition thru April 20th, 2019
The Yard Columbus Circle
SARAHCROWN is pleased to present Unfolding, a solo exhibition of Israeli-American artist Shony Rivany. The project is conceived for the public spaces at The Yard - Columbus Circle as part of the Art In Lobbies program. The installation, spanning three floors, will feature a selection of recent paintings shown for the first time in New York.


Trip
Israeli Art + Culture Immersion Trip
Mishkan Museum of Art in Ein Harod
March 24 - 29, 2019
Friends of the Mishkan Museum of Art in Ein Harod ISRAEL
Join the team of Americans and Israelis interested in playing an integral role in establishing The Friends of The Mishkan Museum of Art in Ein Harod. The trip is focused on Israel's world-class, vibrant multicultural but largely under the radar art scene in the North of the Country. Enjoy privileged access to the emerging cultural panorama in the historic Jezreel Valley and the Western Galilee. Spaces are limited!
Contact: Wendykantor@gmail.com


Exhibition
YOU NEVER KNOW
ZAZ10TS + ARTIS
Artist Uri Katzenstein
January 31st | 6:00 - 8:00 pm
10 Times Square
The late Uri Katzenstein focused his artistic expression on video projects and installations in the latter stages of his career. Mirroring the complexities and layers of life, his videos mixed linear storytelling with bursts of images and vignettes created to raise more questions than answers, shunning obvious clarity. Katzenstein is also credited with founding a new language called "Backyard font," developed to depict the English language graphically.


Music
Lieber Leipzig
Miriam Fried, violin
Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players
February 4 | 2:00 pm, 7:30 pm
Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church
Miriam Fried has been heralded for her "fiery intensity and emotional depth" (Musical America) and technical mastery. She came to the US from Israel as a protégée of Isaac Stern and continued her studies with Ivan Galamian at Juilliard and with Joseph Gingold at Indiana University. Fried plays a particularly noteworthy violin, a 1718 Stradivarius said to have been the favorite of composer-conductor Louis Spohr. It was also owned by Regina Strinasacchi who, it is thought, used the instrument to play with Mozart the Sonata in B-flat, K. 454, which had been written for her.


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