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The Jewish Home is an independent weekly magazine. Opinions expressed by writers are not neces sarily the opinions of the publisher or editor. The Jewish Home is not responsible for typographical errors, or for the kashrus of any product or business advertised within. The Jewish Home contains words of Torah. Please treat accordingly.

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21 Parshas Toldos

Candle Lighting: 4:14 Shab-bos Ends: 5:17

Rabbeinu Tam: 5:45

Dear Readers

Dear Readers,A lot of my work ends up

being done at night, when dead-lines are looming, the kids are sleeping and the house is quiet. I find it peaceful to work then and I usually get a lot accom-plished. But Monday night, as I was racing the clock, my se-renity turned to horror as I saw the devastating news of the ter-ror attack in Har Nof. I kept on searching the news sites, trying to get more information. It couldnt be true; revered in-dividuals slaughtered in cold blood in middle of davening in a quiet, residential neighbor-hood. Just a few minutes before the attack, they were wrapping their tefillin and talleism around their arms and bodies, ensconc-ing themselves from the outside world as they began to pray.

Terrorists, especially those

who call out in the name of G-d, crave torture. They hunger for the opportunity to afflict pain and they yearn to dismember the innocent. Its hard to view them as human when they sal-ivate at the thought of spilling Jewish blood. They come armed with knives and axes, the better to feel the life ebbing from their pure victims.

Israel is in a tough place now. Its imperative that we stop these killingsand the only way to stop them is with a strict hand and an unbending approach. But we know that the world is not on our side. We know that the world doesnt really care about a few more Jews being slaughtered. Even our allies have shown us disrespect, most recently calling Prime Minister Netanyahu a disparaging term on the world stage. When our

friends announce that thats how they view us, then our enemies are given more power.

May Hashem grant the fam-ilies of Rabbi Moshe Twersky hyd, Rabbi Kalman Levine hyd, Rabbi Aryeh Kupin-sky hyd, and Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Goldberg hyd a true nechama, and may He guide us to be able to navigate this pre-carious chapter in our lives.

Wishing you a wonderful week,Shoshana

P.S. As you may have no-ticed, The Jewish Home has a new look! We have changed our layout but have kept the authors and columns that you have come to know and love. Think of it as a makeover for the new year!

Contents

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Weekly Weather

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SHABBOSNovember 22

FRIDAYNovember 21

SUNDAYNovember 23

MONDAYNovember 24

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THURSDAYNovember 26

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Letters to the Editor 8

Community

Readers Poll 8

Community Happenings 43

News

Global 9

National 21

Odd-but-True Stories 34

Israel

Israel News 19

A Nation Mourns by Tamar Sullivan 74

Tone Deaf by Rafi Sackville 81

People

The Heroes of Operation Kadesh

by Avi Heiligman 104

Parsha

The Shmuz 67

Rabbi Wein on the Parsha 73

Jewish Thought

Time Well Spent by Rabbi Jonathan Gewirtz 71

The Feeding Yishmael Through Chesed 79

Leading Unanticipated Change

by Rabbi Naphtali Hoff 80

Health & Fitness

The Scoop on Croup

by David Elazar Simai, MD 91

Are You Traumatized?

by Deb Hirschhorn, PhD 94

The Lap Band: Miracle or Danger?

by Aliza Beer, MS RD 103

Food & Leisure

The Kosher Trifecta by Alex Idov 82

Kosherology: Thanksgiving Favorites 86

Recipes: The Aussie Gourmet: Coconut Lamb

Stew 98

Lifestyles

The Studio: Wow Your Walls 100

Ask the Attorney 106

Vote Me In by Rivki Rosenwald, Esq., CLC 112

Your Money 115

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Uncle Moishy Fun Page 110

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Notable Quotes 92

Classifieds 116

eretzhachaim.org

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8 Letters to the Editor

Readers Poll

THANKSGIVING

SALE

An Open Letter to the Honorable Charles E. Schumer, United States Senate

We are now at the brink of the fi-nal round of talks involving the United States and other world powers on the sta-tus of Iran and its driving ambition to de-velop a nuclear weapons capability and annihilate the State of Israel.

You, Senator Schumer, have a sacred responsibility as a representative of the Jewish people who holds an extremely powerful position in the United States government to do everything in your means to prevent Iran from realizing this catastrophic objective.

Many years ago, another Persian nation, under the evil despot Haman, undertook a similar plot to destroy the Jewish people. As we read each year on Purim, the anniversary of the miraculous salvation of the Jewish people, Morde-chai begged Queen Esther to intervene on this matter with the king and annul Hamans decree.

At first, Esther demurred, arguing that she would be putting her own life in danger were she to intercede, as Mor-dechai had urged. Mordechais familiar response was that if she were to remain silent at such a critical time, G-d would certainly create another avenue of salva-tion for His people, but that she would have forfeited everything.

So, too, Senator, please understand that it is not a coincidence that you oc-cupy such a position of world leadership. Rather, it should be apparent that this was part of an exquisite plan to enable your intervention to help prevent this from happening in Iran.

If for any reason you remain silent and fail to meet this challenge, there will be others who will come to the fore and rescue Israel from this terrible plot, but you will have lost an historic opportunity to stand up for your people.Rabbi Chaim CohenLawrence, NY

Dear Editor,I am torn. Is Mayor de Blasio one of

the most clueless people out there or is he intentionally destroying the greatest city in the world?

Today, de Blasio announced his in-tention to overhaul the welfare system in New York. During Giulianis tenure, welfare recipients were required to take non-employee jobs across the city like answering phones or providing janitorial services. The Workfare program was wonderful in dispelling the feelings of entitlement that welfare recipients may have.

Within 5 years during Giulianis ad-ministration, more than 36,000 people had been assigned to the program. Thats 36,000 people not just sitting on their couches, watching TV and collecting a check. Now, 56,000 are enrolled in the program. But de Blasio isnt happy with having New Yorkers work to collect their checks. He wants to roll back the pro-gram at a time when governors in oth-er states are looking to tighten welfare requirementscause isnt a city filled with people collecting free money the best way to ensure that New York stays the capital of the world?

Lets hope that the next two years go really fastI cant wait to vote him out of office.Sincerely,Adam Hoffman, Far Rockaway, NY

Dear Editor,I was inspired when I read your fea-

ture on frum officers in the mishtara. How great is our nation that it is our ulti-mate goal to provide security and protec-tion to our brethren within the guidelines of halacha! To bring kedusha and sanc-tity to a division that is not necessarily known for its virtue is an amazing kid-dush Hashem. I can only imagine the wonderful impact the good soldiers will have on the Israeli society.Chana Hertz

Should stores be open for shopping on Thanksgiving Day?

Yes 31%No 69%

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GlobalPutin Gets Icy Reception at G20 Summit

As world leaders gathered in Bris-bane, Australia, last weekend for the G20 summit, Russian President Vlad-imir Putin was rebuked and given the bad boy in the class treatment. The world leaders warned Putin that he risked more economic sanctions if he failed to end Russian backing for sepa-ratist rebels in Ukraine. Theres a real choice here. Theres a different and better way for Russia to behave that could lead to an easing of relations, but at the moment hes not taking that path, said British Prime Minister Da-vid Cameron.

President Obama said the United States was at the forefront of opposing Russias aggression against Ukraine, which is a threat to the world, as we saw in the appalling shoot-down of MH17a reference to the downing of a Malaysian airliner over rebel-held territory on July 17, with the loss of 298 lives.

The G20 host, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, for his part, ac-cused Putin of trying to relive the lost glories of tsarism.

The message to Putin was made clear not only by the statements of var-ious leaders but by protocol as well: He was placed on the outer edge of the formal G20 leaders photograph. While Obama and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping were met by Australias governor gen-eral and attorney general when they ar-rived in Brisbane, Putin was greeted by the assistant defense minister.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harpers spokesman revealed that upon greeting Putin at the Summit, Mr. Harper said, I guess Ill shake your hand but I have only one thing to say to you: you need to get out of Ukraine.

Indications are that Mr. Putin was quite insultedhe was the first leader to fly out of Brisbane on Sunday after-

noon, skipping out on the final lunch meeting. Putin, however, explained that he left early because he wanted to be rested before returning to work. On Monday, I must go to work. I hope to have four or five hours to sleep.

Yes, he must get his sleepinvad-ing sovereign nations is quite tiring.

Is There a Chocolate Shortage?

According to Switzerlands Bar-ry Callebaut Group, were all eating too much chocolate. The group is the worlds largest confectionary producer and it joins Mars, Inc. in warning of a shortfall that could reach a million tons by the year 2020. Soaring demand has helped chocolate prices hit more than double of what it was just eight years ago. Manufacturers have been packing their chocolate with more nuts, fruits and wafers and making bars smaller to help moderate prices for consumers.

Barry Callebaut Group, which pro-vides chocolate for firms from global giants to artisan bakers, has revealed it sold 1.7million tons in 2013/14 a rise of 11.7 percent over the year before.

But there are limited quantities of the fragile crop, which means as pro-duction rises, so does the price.

The global cocoa sector may suf-fer a 1 million metric ton shortfall by 2020 because of increasing economic and environmental pressures on cocoa farms around the world, the firm said this week.

Chocolate deficits, whereby farm-ers produce less cocoa than the world eats, are becoming the norm. Already we are in the midst of what could be the longest streak of consecutive chocolate deficits in more than 50 years. It also looks like deficits arent just carrying over from year-to-yearthe industry expects them to grow. Last year, the world ate roughly 70,000 metric tons more cocoa than it produced.

The chocolate shortage is exacer-bated on two sides. For one, supply is an issue. Dry weather in West Af-rica (specifically in the Ivory Coast and Ghana, where more than 70 per-

cent of the worlds cocoa is produced) has greatly decreased production in the region. A nasty fungal disease known as frosty pod hasnt helped either. The International Cocoa Organization es-timates it has wiped out between 30 percent and 40 percent of global coca production. Because of all this, cocoa farming has proven to be particularly tough business, and many farmers have shifted to more profitable crops, like corn, as a result.

On the other side is the worlds growing and insatiable appetite for smooth, creamy, luscious chocolate. The Chinese, in particular, are buying more and more chocolate each year. Still, they only consume per capita about 5 percent of what the average Western European eats. Theres also the rising popularity of dark choco-late, which contains a good deal more cocoa by volume than traditional choc-olate bars (the average chocolate bar contains about 10 percent, while dark chocolate often contains upwards of 70 percent).

As such, chocolate producers have been slowly raising prices. For now, there are efforts in place to try to make chocolate cheap and abundantal-

though taste may be comprised in the process. The majority of chocolate-eat-ers wont really careas long as they have their chocolate and can eat it too.

Revisionist History: Muslims Discovered America

According to Turkish President Re-cep Tayyip Erdogan, it was not Christo-pher Columbus who discovered Amer-ica, rather it waswant to take a wild guess?Muslims. Contacts between Latin America and Islam date back to the 12th century. Muslims discovered America in 1178, not Christopher Co-

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10 The Week In Newslumbus, Erdogan said in a televised speech during an Istanbul summit of Muslim leaders from Latin America.

Erdogan won his bid for re-election in August under the campaign ban-ner Allah is Enough for Us, Turkey is Enough for Us. On the campaign trail, the Turkish president was known for his blatant anti-Semitic and pro-Is-lamist remarks. In July, he said of the Jews, Those who condemn Hitler day and night have surpassed Hitler in bar-barism.

Japan Slides into a Recession

In the third quarter of this year, Ja-pans economy unexpectedly contract-ed as housing and business investment declined following a tax hike, dragging the country into a recession.

The worlds third-largest economy contracted at a 1.6 percent pace in the July-September quarter, the government said on Monday, contrary to predictions it would grow after a big drop in the pre-vious quarter. The surprise deepens un-

certainty when Chinas growth is slow-ing and the 18-country eurozone grew only 0.2 percent in the same quarter.

The tax hike is very much to blame. Prior to the hike, many individuals and companies had spent money before the sales tax was increased in April from 5 percent to 8 percent, and spending has languished since then. The im-pact of the sales tax was much more severe than expected, Junko Nishioka, an economist at RBS Japan Securities, pointed out.

Given the gloomy news, Prime Min-ister Shinzo Abe is expected to put off another sales tax hike planned for next October, slowing progress on efforts

to rein in Japans government debt, the largest among industrialized nations. He also will likely make the dismal GDP reading the basis for calling a gen-eral election in mid-December to under-pin the public mandate for his Aben-omics policies of lax monetary policy, fiscal spending and structural economic reforms.

Japan emerged from its last reces-sion just as Abe took office in Decem-ber 2012, vowing to restore the nations economic vigor after two decades of stagnation. The country is still strug-gling to regain momentum as its popu-lation declines and ages.

American Planned his Own Detention in North Korea

Speaking with NK News, Matthew Miller, one of the two American detain-ees released from North Korea last week, revealed that he went to North Korea with the intention of being detained.

In an interview with NK News, which is not affiliated with the North Ko-rean government, Miller explained that he went to North Korea with the goal of finding out how life there is beyond the tourist trail. He explained that his inter-est in life in North Korea was not satis-fied with simply reading news articles and watching documentaries. He went to North Korea on April 10, 2014 with the intention of being detained.

My main fear was that they would not arrest me when I arrived, Miller said. So on the flight to Pyongyang, Mill-er intentionally damaged his tourist visa. Despite this, and the eyebrows raised in North Korea by an American demanding asylum, Millers fear was nearly con-firmed: He said North Korean authorities didnt want to arrest him at first they wanted him to leave.

I was trying to stay in the country, said Miller. They wanted me to leave. The very first night they said, We want you to leave on the next flight. But I re-fused. I just did not leave.

Miller said he was initially moved

to the Yanggakdo International Hotel in Pyongyang, where he said North Kore-an officials again urged him to leave the country. But again Miller refused.

Actual detention did not start for Miller until the third week of the Amer-icans arrival. On April 25, Miller was moved to what he described as a guest-house, the same place where he said fellow American Kenneth Bae was being held along with several other uniden-tified prisoners. Miller would ultimately stay there for five more months. This might sound strange, but I was prepared for the torture but instead of that I was killed with kindness, and with that, my mind folded and the plan fell apart, Miller told NK News.

Since Miller had such a good time, maybe he should go back. Next time we wont inconvenience him by sending the Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper to pick him up.

Jihadi John Injured in Attack on ISIS

The British government announced last Saturday that Jihadi John, the Brit-ish citizen terrorist who beheaded two British and two American hostages held by Islamic State terrorists, had been in-jured in a U.S.-led air strike. The masked executioner with a London accent is believed to have narrowly escaped death when he attended a summit of the groups leaders in an Iraqi town close to the Syrian border last Saturday. Accord-ing to reports, the notorious terrorist was injured and rushed to the hospital after a devastating airstrike carried out by U.S and Iraqi planes.

The secret, heavily guarded meeting took place last Saturday in a makeshift underground bunker beneath a house in Al Qaim. At least 30 tribal elders from various parts of Syria and Iraq gathered to pledge allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. At least 10 ISIS com-manders were killed in the attack and 40 were wounded, including Al-Baghadadi and Jihadi John.

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14 The Week In News

Syrian Hero Boy No Hero

The Syrian hero boy warmed millions of hearts around the globe as viewers saw the miraculous rescue of a little girl by a young boy under gun-fire. But now, it has come to light that the video that captured the rescue was

actually staged by a group of Norwegian filmmakers in Malta this summer. The filmmakers shot the footage with the in-tention of passing it off as real.

Lars Klevberg, 34, a film director based in Oslo, wrote the script after watching news coverage of the conflict in Syria. It was his intention, he says, to present his movie as reality in order to generate discussion about children in war zones.

If I could make a film and pretend it was real, people would share it and re-act with hope, he related. We shot it in Malta in May this year on a set that was used for other famous movies like Troy and Gladiator, Klevberg said. The little boy and girl are profession-al actors from Malta. The voices in the background are Syrian refugees living in Malta.

Despite international outrage from

viewers who felt deceived by the au-thenticity of the video, Klevberg is un-apologetic. I was not uncomfortable, the filmmaker insisted. By publishing a clip that could appear to be authentic we hoped to take advantage of a tool thats often used in war; make a video that claims to be real. We wanted to see if the film would get attention and spur debate, first and foremost about children and war. We also wanted to see how the media would respond to such a video.

Amazingly, it wasnt just the film-makers who wanted to pass the footage along as reality to audiences the world over. In fact, the film received fund-ing from the Norwegian Film Institute (NFI) and the Audio and Visual Fund from Arts Council Norway in October 2013. The filmmakers say their applica-tion for funding made clear they wanted to upload the film to the internet without making it obvious it was real or fiction. They also claim that those who financed it were aware of, and supported, these intentions.

The children surviving gunshots was supposed to send small clues that it was not real, said producer John Einar Hagen. We had long discussions with the films financiers about the ethics around making a film like this.

It was not a cynical way to get at-tention. They had honest motivations, Ase Meyer, short film commissioner for the NFI told BBC Trending. I was sur-prised people thought it was real. When I see the film, the little boy is shot but he keeps on running. There is no blood on the child. The NFI awarded 280,000 kroner towards its production.

However, when Ms. Meyer heard that the film was online, she contacted the filmmakers to encourage them to reveal it was fiction. When asked if the NFI had a responsibility to tell people the film wasnt real, Ms. Meyer said, It was the responsibility of the filmmak-ers.

When the video was initially up-loaded onto the web, it didnt receive much attention. The filmmakers then deleted it and uploaded it again, adding the word hero to the headline and sent it out via Twitter. Eventually, it was

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picked up by Shaam Network. After it was posted on YouTube it began to re-ceive international attention. Within just a few days, the video was viewed more than 5 million times. Of course, the viewers thought they were seeing live footagenot something that was script-ed and then acted out on a movie set.

Growing Hair Industry in Pakistan

In Pakistan, hair makes you hap-py. In fact, hair is so synonymous with strength and masculinity that even some Taliban members use ointments to give their hair and beards a lustrous finish. Those who arent blessed with a full

head of hair are called ganjas, a de-rogatory term.

Here, calling someone a ganja is a stigma but over there [in the West], saying bald is not that bad, explains Dr. Humayun Mohmand, one of the first doctors to offer hair transplant treatment in Pakistan.

When Dr. Mohmand opened his practice years ago, the hair transplant business wasnt thriving. But in 2007, when Nawaz Sharif, who was balding when he was deposed as prime minis-ter by General Pervez Musharraf eight years earlier, returned from exile with a full head of hair, Pakistanis admired his lush locks and clamored to get hair transplants for their balding heads.

After the hair transplant...by Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif [his brother, the chief minister of Punjab province], this has become very popular, said Doctor Fawad Aamir at his Peshawar clinic. [Before] they were very afraid of this, that something is going to hap-pen, that cancer will develop, that infec-tion will lead to the brain. Now they dont share that concern.

One patient in Dr. Aamirs waiting room is the son of Farid Khan Khattak, a big man who fills the room with hearty

laughter. My son had some kind of in-feriority complex because he had some gaps in his hair, he joked. One of my friends told me that instead of a hair transplant I should buy a motorbike for my son. But my son insisted: Instead of a motorbike I want a transplant, so its for his happiness.

Today, there are nearly 120 hair transplant clinics in Pakistan, according to official figures, with a dozen in Pe-shawar. The operation generally costs from $400-$1,000, with some top clin-ics charging up to $6,000 a fraction of what it costs in the West, but still well out of reach for most Pakistanis. Many clients come from abroad, in particu-lar the Pakistani-Afghan diaspora who come to see their friends and family and return more hirsute.

Some patients arent just concerned with the hair on their heads. They come to clinics for beard transplants, eager to display their piety with healthy growths on their faces. One such patient came to Dr. Aamir. He was a Taliban command-ers son who became frustrated with a patchy beard as compared to fellow reb-els bushy beards.

A doctor tried to convince the man that you dont grow beard because this

is the beard given to you by G-d, he said. And he said, No, I want to have this like Mohammed, peace be upon him.

So we went ahead and six months later he had a very big beard and he was very happy.

Venezuelas Holiday Season Underway with State Mandated Discounts

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At 7:01am on Tuesday morning, two unmasked Palestinian teens burst into the Kehilat Bnei Torah synagogue on Agassi Street in Har Nof armed with guns, meat cleavers and an axe. With shouts of Allahu akbar, they slaughtered four men in the midst of praying Shacharit and wounded eight others. By 7:08, police managed to kill the terrorists, cousins from East Je-rusalem. What was left in their wake was bright red blood mixed with black straps of tefillin, open prayer books, crimson-stained talleism, and an ex-

treme sadness and horror for the tragic and sudden loss of life.

The four men who tragically lost their lives al Kiddush Hashem were Rabbi Aryeh Kopinsky, HYD, 43, Rab-bi Avraham Shmuel Goldberg, HYD, 68, Rabbi Calman Levine, HYD, 55, and Rabbi Moshe Twersky, HYD, 59. Rabbi Goldberg was a British-Is-raeli national; the other three held dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship. A policeman later died, succumbing to injuries from the attack. Seven others were wounded.

Rabbi Levine left behind five or-phans and nine grandchildren. Rabbi

Kopinskys death was compounded by the tragedy that his daughter died three years ago in sudden circumstances. Rabbi Twersky, originally from Boston, was the dean of Torat Moshe and the son of renowned rabbi and author Rabbi Yitzhak Twersky of Boston. He was the grandson of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveit-chik, one of the principle philosophers and founders of the Modern Orthodox movement. He left behind five children and ten grandchildren.

Yaakov Amos recalls the attack. During the prayers, I heard shots and

saw a worshiper wear-ing tefillin lying on the floor. The [terrorist] passed me from the right while shouting Allahu akbar and firing indiscriminately. Three people fell im-mediately, and I saw him keep on massa-cring people, he re-called.

One of the terrorists did not waste bullets and aimed directly at people. He fired and then looked at me, and chose people closer to him, shooting them at point blank range, Amos added.

When police responded to the scene, the terrorists exchanged fire, and two policemen were wounded. Another officer rushed to the scene and shot and killed both terrorists.

Yossi Barzani was also praying in the synagogue at the time. In the middle of prayers two terrorists entered shouting Allahu akbar. The synagogue was in panic, and I tried to flee. At a cer-

tain stage, one the terrorists approached me with a knife, and there was a chair and table between us. I drew back and ran from him and fled outside. In those moments, I asked G-d to save me. My prayer shawl got caught. I left it there and escaped. On the way out, I saw ter-rible sights and bodies, he shuddered.

The policeman who shot the terror-ists recalled the bloody scene.

I entered the yeshiva and I saw a policeman with gunshot wounds and two terrorists with kitchen knives, cov-ered in blood and holding a gun, run-ning towards us. I fired at them until they were neutralized and then I and other officers searched the yeshiva. This attack reminds me of the attack at Mercaz Harav yeshiva six years ago, he said.

All four victims were laid to rest on Tuesday on Har HaMenuchos. Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach was maspid Rabbi Twersky. He was a big and righteous

man during his life not just after his death, Rabbi Auerbach lamented. He was so close to G-d during his holy life and was murdered in the middle of his prayers, while tefillin was laid on his head, said Rabbi Auerbach.

On Shabbat nights he never slept but rather learned Torah. One time I woke up at 2 am and he was still study-ing, one of his sons recalled.

Rabbi Twerskys son-in-law, Rabbi Mordechai Altulesky, said, We never saw him rest or go on vacation. All of his time was dedicated to studying To-rah. It was a marvel to see how a man could work so much. He labored almost without stop.

Shortly after the funerals of those who perished, dozens entered the Ke-hilat Bnei Torah synagogue to gather in prayer. Shema Yisroel, Hashem elokeinu, Hashem echad, they prayed and then recited Tehillim.

The Week In NewsNicolas Maduro has been dealing with exactly that problem: the poor people in Venezuela still adore the deceased Hugo Chvez and are disappointed in his successor. But now that may change after Maduro launched a plan to lower the cost of toys, clothes and appliances for shoppers over the holiday season. Merchants are prohibited from charging more than a 30 percent markup on any item.

Since assuming power, Maduro has had to deal with a challenging economy. While Venezuela has the worlds largest petroleum reserves, it also has one of its highest inflation rates, at 63 percent.

Last month, Maduro decreed a ban on street sales of coffee, eggs, shampoo and some 50 other regulated items whose prices are capped by the govern-

ment. He ordered the National Guard to police market stalls for such items as mayonnaise and powdered milk and threatened to prosecute recidivist vio-lators.

IsraelFatah: More Jewish Blood Needs to be Spilled

In the past few weeks, Fatah offi-cials have made repeated statements praising deadly terror attacks on Israe-lis and calling for blood to purify

Jerusalem of Jews. The calls for vio-lence came amid a series of terror at-tacks over the last month that left six Israelis dead and dozens injured.

According to Palestinian Media Watch, in a message broadcast on No-vember 7 on the Palestinian Authoritys official television channel PA TV, the

head of the Media Department for Fa-tah in Lebanon Muhammad al-Biqai praised the Palestinians who carried out three recent terror attacks that killed four Israelis and left a rabbi in critical condition.

Al-Biqai sent a blessing of praise and esteem to Abdelrahman al-Shalu-di, Ibrahim al-Akary, and Mutaz Hi-jazi. They are the ones who heard the call of Yasser Arafat, while the Arab and Islamic nation ignored his call: Mil-lions of martyrs (shahids) are marching to Jerusalem, al-Biqai said. They came out with their weapons, with their true belief that Jerusalem needs blood to purify itself of Jews.

Last week, a representative of the PA Ministry of Religious Affairs called on Palestinians to rush to Jerusalem

5 MURDERED IN TERRORIST ATTACK DURING SHACHARIS

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20 The Week In Newsand offer sacrifices and blood.

In a speech reported in al-Hayat al-Jadidah on Friday, official Hassan al-Saifi said that Jerusalem has no need of declarations or religious rul-ings, but rather needs the religious scholars in particular to fulfill their duty, rush to Jerusalem and offer sacri-fices and blood.

Its not just leaders in the Muslim world praising the attacks. Anti-Jewish sentiments were also expressed by the host of a popular game show broad-cast on PA TV on November 9. The host praised the same three terrorists for their attacks, referring to them as heroic martyrs of Jerusalem. Greet-ings and honor to our heroic martyrs, the martyrs of Jerusalem Hijazi, al-Shaludi, al-Akary, and lately also Kheir Hamdan from Kafr Kanna, the host said. Our greetings to the mar-tyrs families. We stand submissive and humbled in view of what you gave and sacrificed. You are confronting the ev-er-aggressive settler herds in the streets of Jerusalem.

On October 22, al-Shaludi drove his car into a Jerusalem Light Rail station, killing three-month-old Israeli-American Chaya Zissel Braun and Karen Yemima Muscara, 22, of Ecuador. A week later, Mutaz Hijazi, a member of Islamic Ji-had and a formerly released prisoner, shot Rabbi Yehudah Glick outside the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. Glick survived the attack. On November 5, al-Akari drove his car into a different light rail stop, killing two people and injuring another 13. All three terrorists were shot and killed by police after their acts of terrorism.

Sweden Congratulates Palestinians on National Day

Despite Swedens policy of neutral-ity in armed conflicts that has been in effect since the early 19th century, the country has made sure to insert itself into the Palestinian-Israeli struggle. Three weeks ago, Sweden became the first Western European country to offi-cially recognize a Palestinian state. Last week, the king of Sweden made sure to cozy up to his new friends by congrat-ulating the people of the State of Pal-estine on their National Day in an official letter adorned with the Greater Coat of Arms of Sweden. It marked the first time a European monarch officially hailed the Palestinians unilateral decla-

ration of independence in 1988.On the occasion of the National Day

of the State of Palestine I wish to con-vey to your Excellency my best wishes for your health and happiness and for the prosperity of the people of the State of Palestine, Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden wrote in a letter to Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority and chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Robert Rydberg, the head of the Swedish Foreign Ministrys Middle East and North Africa Department and a for-mer ambassador to Israel, tweeted that King Carl Gustafs greeting to Abbas was a first. He said the monarch al-ways sends a similar greeting to Israels president on the countrys Independence Day.

The Palestinians consider November 15 their national day because on that day 26 years ago the Palestinian National Council under Yasser Arafat declared in-dependence for the State of Palestine within the 1967 lines.

Stockholms move to recognize a Palestinian state last month was heavily criticized by the Israeli government, and led the Foreign Ministry to recall its am-bassador to Sweden. The diplomat, Isaac Bachman, has still not returned to Stock-holm.

Such measures only serve to bolster the Palestinians unrealistic demands and delay an agreement, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said at the time. The Swedish government must understand that relations in the Middle East are more complex than one of Ikeas flat-pack pieces of furniture, and would do well to act with greater sensitivity and responsi-bility.

IsraAid at the Forefront of the Ebola Crisis

The lone Israeli or Jewish disaster relief organization on the ground in the Ebola zone, IsraAID is providing psy-chosocial counseling and training to ser-

vice providers health workers, social workers, teachers, and police dealing with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone.

Those who interact with Ebola pa-tients are also in need of help as they deal with the constant trauma and trage-dy. IsraAid is there to help counsel those workers and provide them with much need succor.

Dealing with the psychosocial trau-ma is critical to addressing the Ebola outbreak, Shachar Zahavi, IsraAIDs founding director, said in a recent inter-view. A major deterrent to treatment is that people dont trust one another. If you dont feel well, your family immediately hides you and you then infect your entire family. Were trying to teach police, so-cial workers, health workers and teachers how to deal with people who are afraid of them and how to manage their own stress and anxiety.

Last month, IsraAIDs work earned the organization a letter of praise and thanks from Sierra Leones first lady, Sia Nyama Koroma. She also happens to be a psychiatric nurse, and when IsraAID held a two-day psychosocial counseling workshop last week in Freetown, Koro-ma cleared her schedule to attend the en-tire program.

IsraAid has been providing counsel-ing for 13 years and is partly funded by US Jewish institutions and federations and supported by the Israeli government. They have journeyed to other disaster areas, such as the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the 2013 typhoon in the Philippines. But IsraAID staffers say Ebola is their most challenging crisis.

Its more difficult than other disas-ters, mostly because its an ongoing di-saster and its scary, said Yotam Polizer, IsraAIDs regional director for Asia and now the person in charge of the Africa response. Polizer spent most of October in Sierra Leone and will head back there next week from his home base in Japan.

IsraAID has brought four Israelis to Sierra Leone two psychosocial trau-ma specialists and two logistics experts. Next week another six will arrive, and Polizer is working on hiring a team of locals.

Its hard to recruit Israelis to join the effort, organizational officials say, be-cause they must be fit enough to work in grueling conditions required by Ebola protocols and be able to clear their sched-ule for at least six weeks one week for training, three to four weeks in the field, and two to three weeks afterward to make sure theyre not infected.

And then theres the fear factor. At least two to three times a day people start to freak out, worrying they have a fever, and they have to be calmed down, Po-lizer relates. Its very challenging.

Aside for the counseling challenges, workers need to take their temperature every few hours; wash their hands with chlorine 20-30 times a day; refrain from any physical contact, even handshakes, with other people; and eat only at three or four carefully vetted restaurants. Most importantly, workers are cautioned not to touch their own eyes, as they are the most easily affected areas of the body.

Recently, the head nurse of one hos-pital outside Freetown came to one of IsraAIDs stress management sessions burnt out and afraid after having lost more than 35 colleagues to Ebola, Poliz-er recalled. Instructors helped the nurse with a relaxation technique in which participants close their eyes and imagine themselves in a safe place.

The nurse fell asleep, and when she awoke she was smiling. It was the first time since the outbreak began, she told Polizer, that she had enjoyed a proper, restful sleep.

Prize Money for Those who Kill Terrorists

SOS Israel, an organization founded in 2003 by Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpo to support settlement activity and edu-cate the Israeli public about the perils of territorial concessions, announced that it would give monetary awards to citi-zens who kill Palestinian terrorists at the scene of attacks.

Every Israeli citizen must be pre-pared at any moment to fulfill the divine and human command to immediately take out terrorists coming to kill and maim Jews. The terrorists, and primar-ily the Holocaust-denying terrorist Abu Mazen [PA President Mahmoud Abbas], must know that harming Jews doesnt pay, and anyone doing so will return home in a body bag, the group said in a statement.

Should citizens merely stand idly by while terrorists slaughter Jews on our streets? SOS Israel spokesman Shai

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Geffen asked rhetorically.The recent spike in lone-wolf terror

attacks has caused the Israeli security establishment to revamp immediate re-sponse protocols. Public Security Minis-ter Yitzhak Aharonovitch commended a Border Police soldier who shot and killed vehicle terrorist Ibrahim Al-Akary in Je-rusalem last week.

This is how I would like to see these attacks end, Aharonovitch said. A ter-rorist targeting civilians must be killed.

Hamas Second Richest Terrorist Group in the World

According to Forbes Israel, Hamas is the second richest terrorist organization in the world, with $1 billion in yearly revenue. ISIS, with $2 billion in annu-al revenue, is the richest terrorist group around the globe.

Forbes Israel said that since Hamas took over Gaza in 2007 it has numerous revenue streams, including collecting do-nations, taxes from both civilians and big corporations, and siphoning off money sent to Gaza for aide purposes.

The U.S. Treasury estimates that ISIS earns $1 million a day from the sale of crude oil from fields it captured in Syr-ia and Iraq. According to Forbes Israel, however, the figure is closer to $3 mil-lion a day. The money flow enables ISIS to expand its operations in the Middle East and recruit foreign fighters and train them, among other things.

As for the rest of the list: Colombias FARC is ranked third with $600 million; Hezbollah is fourth with $500 million; fifth is the Taliban with $400 million; Al Qaeda and its affiliates has $150 mil-lion; Pakistani-based Lashkar e-Taiba is valued at $100 million; Somalias Al-Shabaab has $100 million; Real IRA is valued at $50 million; and closing the top-ten list is Boko Haram, with $25 mil-lion in annual revenue.

NationalCorruption in the Military

Earning $181,000 in the National Guard for steering 119 potential recruits to join the military landed Fabian Barrera in prison last month. The former captain never referred any of those recruits to join the army, although he did walk away with loads of cash.

Barreras case is just a small example of a recurring pattern of corruption that the Justice Department has been tracking the military. In a period when the na-tion has spent freely to support wars on multiple fronts, prosecutors have found plentiful targets: defendants who bill for services they do not provide, those who steer lucrative contracts to select busi-ness partners, and those who use bribes to game a vast military enterprise.

Despite convictions on many cases, the problems seem to continue.

The schemes we see really run the gamut from relatively small bribes paid to somebody in Afghanistan to hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts being steered in the direction of a favored company whos paying bribes, Assis-tant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell, head of the Justice Departments crimi-nal division, said in an interview.

In the past few months alone, four retired and one active-duty Army Na-tional Guard officials were charged in a complex bribery and kickback scheme involving the awarding of contracts for marketing and promotional material, and a trucking company driver pleaded guilty to bribing military base employees in Georgia to obtain freight shipments often weapons which required satel-lite tracking to transport to the West Coast.

More recently, a former contractor for the Navys Military Sealift Com-mand, which provides transportation for the service, was sentenced to prison along with a businessman in a bribery case in which cash, a wine refrigerator and other gifts traded hands in exchange for favorable treatment on telecommuni-

cations work. Also, three men, including two retired Marine Corps officers, were charged with cheating on a bid proposal for maintenance work involving a heli-copter squadron that serves the White House.

The military is no more vulnerable to corruption than any other large orga-nization but elements that include rela-tively low-paid workers administering lucrative contracts and heavy reliance on contractor-provided services make it ripe for exploitation.

Last year, Defense contractor Leon-ard Francis was arrested in San Diego on charges that he offered luxury travel and other bribes to Navy officers in exchange for confidential information, including ship routes. Prosecutors say he used that information to overbill the Navy for port services in Asia in one of the biggest Navy bribery schemes in years.

Yet many others involve more mun-dane cases of contracting or procurement fraud. Consider the trucking company contractor in Afghanistan who bribed an Army serviceman to falsify records to show fuel shipments that were never delivered, or the former Army contractor who demanded bribes before issuing or-ders for bottled water at a military camp

in Kuwait.The Commission on Wartime Con-

tracting in Iraq and Afghanistan esti-mated that between $31 billion and $60 billion was lost to waste and fraud during U.S. operations in those countries. The Justice Department says it brought 237 criminal cases from November 2005 to September 2014 arising from war-zone misconduct often contracting and pro-curement fraud.

We just were not equipped to do suf-ficient oversight and monitoring on the front end, and we didnt have sufficient accountability mechanisms on the back end, which led to enormous problems, said Laura Dickinson, a national securi-ty law professor at George Washington University.

The Defense Department has ac-knowledged the problems and taken steps in the past decade to tighten con-trols and improve training. Caldwell says the Justice Department must have a zero-tolerance policy as a deterrent. Its really not worth risking your mili-tary career and your reputation not to mention your freedom for this kind of thing, she said.

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Can Obesity Affect Your Work?

That doughnut may not just be ex-panding your waistlineit may be cut-ting into your employers bottom line.

According to a new Yale and Colum-bia University study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environ-mental Medicine, obesity is responsible for $8.65 billion in lost workplace pro-ductivity each year in the United States.

Obesity and healthy-living be-haviors are often seen as just individ-ual choices, study co-author Y. Claire Wang, co-director of the Obesity Preven-tion Initiative at Columbia University, related. But our paper really highlights the fact that the burden is beyond just in-

dividual choices.To calculate exactly how much man-

power the U.S. loses each year due to obesity, the researchers analyzed data on employees in regards to their height, weight, and missed workdays for health reasons along with their BMIs. Being overweight didnt emerge as a risk factor for taking sick daysbut obesity did. In fact, the higher an employees BMI rose over the obesity threshold, the more days a worker tended to stay home. As com-pared to normal-weight workers, those with a BMI of 30 to about 35 missed 27 percent more workdays per year, while the most severely obese those with a BMI of 40 or higher were absent 44 percent more often. High blood pres-sure, heart disease, and diabetes played significant roles in absenteeism. With these conditions, more health care and disability is needed, and there are just more days that theyre not feeling well, said Wang.

On average, a company incurs a loss of $260 per year in productivity for ev-ery obese employee, the study found, and that number may be as high as $465 if the person is extremely obese.

These missed work days add up: The researchers estimate that the Unit-

ed States sustains more than $8 billion in lost productivity each year as a side effect of obesity, with California sustain-ing the largest portion of that sum: $907 million. In places where the local cost of living and average wage is higher, it really adds up, Wang said. This is also true in Washington D.C., Connecticut, and New Jersey.

The researchers hope that their find-ings will compel states to address the dangers of obesityeven if it is out of economic motivation. Some progres-sive states, like California, are working to combat obesity. In Berkeley, a soda tax was recently passed. In Philadelphia, a nonprofit called The Food Trust creat-ed the Healthy Corner Store Initiative, a program that helps supply reasonably priced fruits and vegetables to bodegas that normally only offer packaged foods.

Thats the sort of thing that paves the road for private investment to come in, Wang points out. There are societal consequences [to obesity], and were all in this together. So hopefully something will be done. Even if the prevalence of obesity [in your state] is OK, but the cost of losing a worker is high [due to wage rates], then policymakers really need to pay attention.

MD School District: No to Muslim Holidays

Last Tuesday, Montgomery Coun-ty Public Schools Board of Education voted 7 to 1 to eliminate all references to religious celebrations for the next school year. The vote came about when local Muslim leaders requested to acknowl-edge their holidays on the school cal-endar. Now, no religious holidays will be considered a holiday in the Maryland school district.

We were blindsided. We are disap-pointed, Zainab Chaudry, spokeswom-an for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said. It isnt what we

Continued on page 26

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RABBI AVRAHAM YAAKOV HACOHEN PAM (19132001) served as Rosh Yeshiva of Torah Vodaath in Brooklyn, New York,

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26 The Week In Newsasked for. We dont believe that other faith groups should be punished for our request.

Despite the ruling, as in previous years, all schools in the district will be closed on the major Jewish and Christian holidays because those days show a high number of absenteeism not in obser-

vance of those celebrations, according to Montgomery spokesman Dana Tofig.

This is similar to what many dis-tricts across the country do, Tofig said. They refer to winter break as winter break and spring break as spring break. The district must have a secular, opera-tional reason for closing schools.

A decision was made 40 years ago based on high absenteeism among stu-dents and staff to close on days like Rosh Hashanah, he said. Despite the closure on the Jewish holiday, officials insist it is not due to religious observance. Its important to note that we cannot close school for religious reasons.

To some, it appears the school would rather get rid of religious observances altogether than bring Muslim holidays into the fold. I think this really shows that the Board of Education would take drastic measures to ensure that the Mus-lim students dont receive equal and fair treatment, Chaudry said.

For several years, CAIR and other Muslim activists have asked the district to add Eid ul-Fitr (which marks the end of Ramadan) and Eid ul-Adha (which falls at the end of the Hajj) to the school calendar. This is something that the community has been working for over a decade, she added. We have been working hard to raise awareness.

Next year, Eid ul-Adha and Yom Kippur will fall on the same date: Sep-tember 23rd. But Montgomery schools were only going to reference Yom Kip-pur for the closure. CAIR requested politely but firmly for Eid ul-Adha to be mentioned as part of the reason for the schools closure. The request was denied. According to the district, the school is only closed because of high ab-senteeism on Yom Kippur. On Muslim holidays, there is no significant absentee-ism as compared to any other day.

Monetizing Empathy

A recent study published in the jour-nal Proceedings of the National Acade-my of Sciences has found that people are generally empathetic creatures. People who gladly underwent electric shocks for cash in an experiment were more willing to sacrifice money to reduce oth-ers pain than they were to reduce their own.

Scientists at University College London set up two experiments involv-ing more than 160 participants in anon-ymous pairs and randomly assigned the ominous-sounding roles of decider and receiver. The decider would get to choose between more money and more electric shocks, or less money and few-er electric shocks say, seven shocks for 10 British pounds ($15.64), or 10 shocks for 15 British pounds ($23.46). But even though the decider always got the money, there was a twist: Half the time, the decider would get the shocks;

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the other half, the receiver would get the shocks.

The researchers found that people were hyper-altruistic the deciders were less likely to harm the receivers for a little more cash than they were to harm themselves. While they were willing to take a few more shocks themselves to earn a higher payoff, they were less like-ly to raise the number of shocks for those extra bucks if it was the receiver getting

the shocks instead of them.The situation worked in the inverse,

too: the deciders were more willing to pay money to decrease the shocks to the receiver than they were to pay money to decrease the shocks to themselves.

Those with stronger prosocial pref-erences [behavior thats intentionally meant to help others] may be faster in re-warding contexts but slower in aversive [tending to avoid punishing stimulus]

contexts, the study authors wrote. This account gels with past studies showing that people who help others quickly are judged more positively than those who hesitate, but people who harm others quickly are judged more negatively than those who hesitate.

How much of this is learned behav-ior and how much of it is innate? Thats unclear. And its also unclear whether the same pattern would hold if the stakes

were higher more money, more pain. For obvious ethical reasons, theres a limit to the amount of pain that can be administered in a laboratory setting.

Social interactions are fraught with uncertainty because, try as we might, we can never truly know what it is like to occupy someone elses shoes, the study authors wrote. Instead, we must rely on our best estimates of others beliefs and preferences to guide social decision making and tread carefully when their fate rests in our hands.

For now, the study reveals the good-ness inherent in most people.

De Blasio Dishonors Flight 587 Crash Victims

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has a reputation for tardiness, but this time he has taken it too far. Last Wednes-day, de Blasio arrived late to a memori-al service for the victims of Flight 587, which crashed 13 years ago in Belle Harbor, killing 270 people. The mayors excuse? He had a hard time sleeping the night before and woke up feeling slug-gish.

They asked us to delay the moment of silence to wait until the mayor got there, said Miriam Estrella, who lost five family members in the crash. But Estrella refused to wait. They kept tell-ing us, Wait, hes coming, hes coming, and I said, no, were not waiting. Were not going to wait for him for a moment of silence. It happened at a certain time. Thats the time that we have to toll the bells. As planned, they rung the bell at 9:16 AM, at the moment the crash took place. De Blasio arrived shortly after-wards.

When the mayor arrived he ex-plained, I was just not feeling well this morning. I had a very rough night. I woke up sluggish, and I should have gotten myself moving quicker [I] just woke up in the middle of the night and couldnt get back to sleep and I felt really sluggish and off-kilter this morning.

Continued on page 31

The Week In News

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Shabbat ServiceS Led by cantor yan

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Everyone has had a rough night, but you have to do your job the right way, Estrella admonished.

Perhaps feeling the wrath of New Yorkers, the day after disgracing the memory of the victims, de Blasio showed up 25 minutes early for a bill signing event in Queens. I think the only response to that is: you just dont get it, dude, you just dont get it.

Window Washers Rescued 800 Feet in the Air

Last Wednesday, rescue crews rushed to One World Trade Center to rescue two workers who were dangling from a scaf-folding from the side of the soaring tow-er. The window washers were trapped outside the 68th floor of the skyscraper and were left dangling hundreds of feet in the air for an hour and a half before being pulled to safety.

Police and firefighters were constant-ly in communication with Juan Lopez and Juan Lizama and worked diligently to secure their rescue. Eventually, crews managed to cut through the glass win-dows and led the two to safety.

We have more than a dozen units including several highly trained spe-cialized rescue companies that deal with high-angle rescues, Frank Dwyer, FDNY spokesman, said at the time.

Many commended the two workers for their diligence with safety measures that helped ensure that they remained unharmed. For instance, their equipment was tethered properly, preventing them from falling onto pedestrians below. Both were wearing safety harnesses that helped secure them as the scaffold dan-gled some 800 feet in the air.

Lopez said the two men, after the initial shock, waited patiently for their rescuers.

In the beginning, it was panic and pretty much survival, he said. It was just a matter of time. Its hard to say I was calm, but with all the training [we had], it was a peace of mind.

Both men are entitled to time off to recover from the incident, although Lo-

pez joked that he may not be heading into the skies too soon. Theres a lot of ground jobs, he said.

5 Stingiest Cities in America

Buddy, I wont spare a dime.When the weather gets cold and the

holiday season starts, people are gener-ally in a generous mood. But not every city in America loves to give. In fact, if you live in these five cities in the nation, youre not giving any handoutsyour wallet is just staying in your pocket all season long.

Residents of the Big Apple are em-barrassingly stingy when it comes to gift spending this year. While New Yorkers spent $464 on gifts last year, this year they plan to spend a below-average $426, representing a more than 8% dip in spending on presents.

In Atlanta, residents are planning to drop nearly 5% less on gifts this year than last. Plus, their estimated spending on gifts $386 is nearly 20% less than the average spending across the na-tion. So much for Southern hospitality.

Everything is not bigger in Texasor at least in Dallas, where residents plan to spend 4% less on gifts over last year. In Boston, residents will still be buy-ing giftsup a measly average of .6% this year to about $532. And in Seattle, where the sun dont shine, spending will go up just a drop2%.

Looking for some big Chanukah presents? Maybe you should move somewhere else

Obama Dismisses Grubers Comments about Obamacare

President Obama finally addressed the claim by MIT professor Jonathan Gruber who was one of the architects of Obamacare that the passing of the Affordable Care Act depended largely on a lack of transparency and the stupid-ity of the American voter.

Speaking at a press conference at the G20 Summit, Mr. Obama said, The fact that an adviser who was never on our staff expressed an opinion that I com-pletely disagree with in terms of the vot-ers is not a reflection on the actual pro-cess that was run. The White House had previously dismissed Grubers claims as simply not true, but this marks the first time the president himself has addressed the Obamacare consultants candid re-marks.

Gruber was paid over $400,000 by the Obama administration to help craft the bill.

Asked if he misled the public in order to get the federal healthcare bill passed, Obama insisted, No, I did not.

I would just advise every press out-let here: pull up every clip and every sto-

ry. I think its fair to say there was not a provision in the healthcare law that was not extensively debated and was fully transparent, Obama said.

President Obama has already taken criticism for one of his key Obamacare promises of if you like your plan, you can keep it being untrue.

McConnell and Boehner: Leading the GOP

On Thursday, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell j