QUESTION: If one is short for a minyan, I have heard that one can open the Ark and count a Torah scroll for the 10th person. Is that true?

ANSWER: That is not only untrue, but it is somebody’s grandmother’s fable. I have heard this concept quoted from time to time and it is absolutely not based on Jewish law or tradition. One of my out-of-town colleagues had a humorous comment about the myth. He said, “If I could circumcise a Torah then I would count it for a minyan.”

I have no idea where people get these strange concepts and ideas and they live as folklore for generations. I understand that one of the congregations in St. Joseph, Mo., did utilize that practice for many years in the 1960s and 1970s during a period when they did not have a full-time rabbi. The idea of the Torah being so special to fill a role of a human being might be very mystical and romantic; however, it does not fit the bill as far as Jewish law is concerned.

Now that we are on the topic of traditions that are not based on Jewish law, I would like to address a very important topic that comes up all the time. Many Jewish people are under the impression that one has to have a mezuzah on one’s front door. That is very true. However, it is necessary to have a mezuzah on every door of one’s home other than the bathroom. The Bible is very specific when it mandates “you shall affix them, meaning the mezuzah, to the door posts (plural) of your home.” The Torah commands us to affix a mezuzah to every door post of our homes. Any room, in which you live or eat or study or have any kind of activity, requires a mezuzah. Even though many of the synagogues in the community, including my own, have beautiful mezuzot mounted, technically a synagogue, since it is not a place of dwelling, does not really require a mezuzah as your home does.

The other concern that we need to express is that so many mezuzot that are sold either online or even in some gift shops of synagogues around the community are really not “kosher.” By that I mean they have to be written by a scribe and on parchment. You can tell if your mezuzah parchment is not a “kosher one” by just trying to put a little tear into it. If it is parchment it will not tear. It also has to be handwritten by a scribe, like a Torah scroll, and not photocopied. Many mezuzot available online and around town have photocopied insertions to put into the mezuzah. It would be a shame for an individual to spend the money, time and effort of getting a mezuzah and a beautiful one perhaps at that, only to have it be not acceptable by Jewish law. Even though the primary purpose of a mezuzah is fulfilling a biblical commandment, the tradition is that they do protect our homes.

May 10 will be Yom Haatzmaut, Israel’s 63rd Independence Day Anniversary.

It is hard to believe that Jews are the only people capable of returning to their ancestral land after a 2,000-year hiatus. It is true that there has always been a Jewish presence in the land of Israel, albeit very small at times. Yet, no one nation has been able to achieve such a feat. In fact, not only have Jews been able to return to Israel but we speak almost the same language. If in a similar situation to the comedy “Encino Man,” where a frozen caveman comes back to life after being thawed, if an ancient Israelite returned to Israel today, he or she would be able to understand and be understood almost perfectly by any passerby in the streets of Tel Aviv. Furthermore, if he walked into an Apple store and saw a computer, he would understand what that machine does because the word for computer (machsheiv) implies a machine that thinks for you.

Jews have never abandoned their original language and Hebrew writings have existed throughout history even as Jews spoke other languages. They have also developed their own dialects like Yiddish or Ladino. Minimally Hebrew was kept as a language of prayer and scholarly religious writings. In medieval times, the knowledge of Hebrew allowed Jews to be translators and to be intimately involved in voyages of discovery. Whereas an Italian traveler such as Marco Polo had no hope whatsoever to be able to communicate with someone in China, as well as on the countries he would have to transverse in order to get there, he could count on the almost certainty that having a Jewish translator with him would make communication easier as they would encounter other Jews along the way that would speak Hebrew alongside their countries languages.

Modern Hebrew is not exactly the Hebrew of the Bible. The biblical world view and sense of tense (past, present, future) is quite different from ours. Also there are many words required for modern communication that do not exist in the biblical lexicon. Thus, modern Hebrew had to be “invented.” It’s inventor was Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (born Eliezer Yitzhak Perlman in 1858 in Luzhki — present day Belarus). He was a great linguist and scholar who immigrated to Palestine in 1881. He was determined to revive Hebrew as a language for everyday communication for Jews that spoke the different languages from the countries they had come from and had a hard time communicating.

Ben Yehuda was such a believer in the Hebrew language that he decided to raise his son, Ben Zion (the first name meaning “son of Zion”), entirely in Hebrew. He refused to let his son be exposed to other languages during childhood. Ben Zion was the first child raised solely in the Hebrew language. An anecdote is told that exemplifies the commitment Ben Yehuda had for his cause. Apparently Ben Zion must have had some kind of learning disability or developmental delay because he only began to speak at the relatively late age of four. Ben Yehuda and his wife took the boy to the best doctors, who “diagnosed” the problem as being the parents fault for only talking with the boy in a “dead language.” I can only imagine how much flack he got from Mrs. Ben Yehuda and yet he persisted! Ben Zion, who later changed his name to Itamar, grew up to be the first native speaker of Hebrew in almost 2,000 years!

A thank you to the Jewish Community

On behalf of the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy board of trustees I want to say thank you to the entire Kansas City Jewish Community for your enthusiastic support of the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy! We held the annual HBHA Civic Service Award celebration on April 10 and with your participation it was a huge success. The outpouring of support from the entire community was overwhelming and palpable.

The evening was very emotional as we celebrated our 45th anniversary. With our wonderful hosts, Trish Uhlmann and Dave Porter, we walked down memory lane and honored our long time friends and supporters, Maria and Fred (z”l) Devinki. For those of you who weren’t able to attend, the story was told of how it all began with a brief conversation begun by then Federation VP Sid Deutsch walking out of shul alongside Neil Sosland. Neil then discussed the concept with his wife, Blanche, who took to it without hesitation and thus the school was born. The Soslands gathered an amazing group of dedicated parents who pitched the idea to Hyman Brand, our first board president. He was so impressed with these “young punks” that he not only agreed to be the president, but went on to raise the money needed within two weeks of their meeting. This community has grown from that original school, housed in Congregation Ohev Sholom’s builidng, to what is now a state-of-the-art, top-notch community day school.

We honored Mirra Klausner and Brenda Althouse with the John Weill Uhlmann Young Leadership Award. Those two are such incredible assets to this community and we are all fortunate that Brenda and Mirra are taking such an active role and are accepting of their leadership roles within the Jewish community.

We also heard from Jonathan Edelman, recipient of the Head of School’s Shining Light Award. He spoke eloquently about the similarities and differences between the school from which he is about to graduate and the school that his mother, Debbie Sosland-Edelman (one of the first students at school when it began) graduated from when it was in its infancy. He noted how today’s HBHA is everything that those founding parents dreamed of, and so much more.

One of the great challenges facing that original group was how to serve the entire Jewish community. The school not only serves every denomination of Judaism, but also serves the whole community by providing an outstanding general and Judaic education that will help to attract Jewish professionals to Kansas City. These same attributes also help to bring our kids back home after college to take their places as the leaders in our community.

At this time of year, I feel it is especially appropriate for all of us to take a moment and express our gratitude for the fact that we are free and able to live in a society and a community that embraces and values our Jewish tradition. So, on behalf of the board of trustees, the parents, faculty and staff of the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, I would again like to thank the entire Jewish community for all of your support. Our school is here for, and because of, this Jewish community and we will always strive to carry out our mission to help keep our Jewish community strong and vibrant.

Eric Kaseff
President
HBHA board of trustees

Be inspired: Volunteer

In a recent article in The Chronicle, Village Shalom expressed the need for more volunteers. As a volunteer myself, I have received a tremendous amount of enjoyment and inspiration from the wonderful residents I now consider my friends.

If you choose to volunteer at Village shalom, any amount of your time (even one hour a week) would be greatly appreciated and much needed. The residents are always so excited to see the volunteers and look forward to spending time with them.

There are several ways you can get involved. Village Shalom has a calendar full of activities such as group games, visiting residents and assisting with dinner parties and entertainment. Recently the activities department planned a casino night for the residents. They did a fantastic job which was reflected by all the smiles and laughter heard throughout the room!

Hopefully, this has inspired you to become a volunteer for Village Shalom. If interested, please contact the volunteer coordinator at (913) 266-8310 or at

Betty Stern
Overland Park, Kan.

If someone murdered a loved one of yours would you benevolently erase the atrocity from your mind? If the murderer still lived, would you seek to convict him or merely discover other avenues of interest to preoccupy your time? (Editor’s note: The Jewish community’s annual Yom HaShoah commemoration will take place at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, May 1, at the Jewish Community Campus.)

Six million Jews were brutally murdered, yet some wish to conveniently forget. Why live in the past? The dead cannot be revived! Let us speak for the living; let us turn toward other outlets of concern.

The Nazi mentality still exists; we dare not naively believe that anti-Semitism has vanished. Hatred and bigotry is a cancer that eventually returns to haunt its innocent victims. Unless intense treatment and annual diagnostic tests occur, tragedy is inevitable.

Some naively believe that public denunciations and continued documentaries will awaken latent Nazi tendencies. Allow me to suggest the opposite. Those who truly wish to destroy the Jewish nation certainly do not need additional incentives.

Like parasites, they survive at the expense of others. These cannibals of society eagerly await to devour their prey; they feed upon fear and desperately search for defenseless scapegoats. An apathetic approach combined with the fear of retaliation merely furnishes fuel for those seeking scapegoats. Too often we dismiss the obvious in order to achieve peace of mind.

As we travel backward into the time machine of history, this truism becomes evident. The socialist party declared a boycott to begin on April 1, 1933, of all Jewish businesses in Germany. Naively, the following sentiment was expressed in the April 3, 1933, edition of the London Times: “There is no spontaneous hostility to the hard-working small Jewish shopkeeper or trader.” The New York Times reported, “There is an active anti-Semitism in the German masses if they are left alone.”

Eventually the press awakened to the reality of an impending nightmare. In response to Kristallnacht, the New York Times observed: “It is assumed that the Jews, who have now lost most of their possessions and livelihood, will either be thrown into the streets or put into ghettos and concentration camps or impressed into labor brigades and put to work for the Third Reich. As the children of Israel were once before the Pharaohs.” Following the atrocities of Kristallnacht, the London Times exclaimed, “It is not to be believed that the nations cannot find the means of assisting unwarranted citizens to leave Germany and of providing the territory in which those Jews can find a liberated community and recover the right to live and prosper. There is no difficulty which a common will and common action cannot overcome.”

Now we can openly admit, too little too late! Fear and appeasement provided the Nazi party with the subterfuge they eagerly sought. Isolationism blinded the eyes of our so called leadership.

Various pleas remained unheard and unanswered. A cable sent to Breckinridge Long, on March 26, 1943, stated: “Gravest possible news reaching London past week shows massacres now reaching catastrophic climax, particularly Poland, also deportations Bulgarian, Rumanian Jews already begun. European Jewry disappearing while no single organization rescue measure yet takes … extermination reaching peak. Urge allied relief.”

Ironically between 1933 and 1943 there existed more than 400,000 vacant positions in the United States immigration quotas of countries under Nazi domination. Yet, Cordell Hull insisted, “I cannot recommend that we open the question of relaxing  the provision of our immigration laws and run the risk of a prolonged and bitter controversy in congress on the immigration question-considering the generous quantity of refugees we have already received.”

Perhaps if we as a nation would have spoken as one unit, our leaders would have not turned a deaf ear. The Holocaust can happen again. Ruthlessness and hatred still permeate the atmosphere. Awareness and action is our most potent and valued weapon. Silence and inaction is a way of life we dare not accept.

Rabbi Bernhard Rosenberg is the child of Holocaust survivors, Jacob and Rachel Rosenberg. A Kansas City native, he serves as the spiritual leader of congregation Beth El in Edison New Jersey, and as chair of the New York Board of Rabbis Holocaust Education Committee. He recently wrote The Rosenberg Holocaust siddur which can be downloaded for free at www.jewishfreeware.org/downloads/YOM%20HASHOAH/FinalMASTER%203-7-%20ROSENBERGHOLOCAUST.pdf. He also wrote the Rosenberg Holocaust Haggadah which can be downloaded at Holocausthaggadah.com

Support Temple Israel

I read with interest your article on Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn in the Jewish Chronicle. (April 1, 2011)

My wife Karen and I were on a trip to Poland to discover my family roots. Rabbi Cukierkorn provide an unusual service in helping us track our family’s genealogy and helped working with Archive Researchers, who could read Cyrillic and tracked my roots to 1750 in Czestochowa, Poland (formerly Russia).

Spending days driving with Jacques, we were able to hear some of his “visions” for his dream of creating Temple Israel. Jacques’ knowledge of Judaism is encyclopedic and he has strong desire to spread the faith. We have supported his efforts to work with Latin American communities, who have countrymen and woman who desire to convert to Judaism.

I am a “free market” economist and I believe competition is good for the consumer as it gives one more choices. It also makes the competitors improve their product. Therefore I am supportive of Temple Israel coming to the Kansas City area. We are currently members of The Temple, Congregation Bnai Jehudah in Kansas and Bnai Vail in Colorado. We will consider joining Temple Israel, as well, when it is formed.

We are longtime subscribers to your publication and enjoy reading it when we are in town.

Michael E. Herman
Kansas City, Mo.

Some of the most humorous tales in Jewish literature are the stories attributed to “The wise men of Chelm.” Jewish folklore considers the Jewish residents of Chelm fools. There are a lot of popular stories about their “smart”conduct.

For example: One Jewish Chelm resident bought a fish on Friday in order to cook it for Shabbat. He put the live fish underneath his coat and the fish slapped his face with his tail. He went to the Chelm court to submit a charge and the court sentenced the fish to death by drowning. When community leaders behave in a foolish way they are often equated with “The wise men of Chelm.”

Another anecdote is told about the occasion when the Chelemites decided to build a new synagogue. So, some strong, able-bodied men were sent to a mountaintop to gather heavy stones for the foundation. The men put the stones on their shoulders and trudged down the mountain to the town below. When they arrived, the town constable yelled, “Foolish men! You should have rolled the stones down the mountain!” The men agreed this was an excellent idea. So they turned around, and with the stones still on their shoulders, trudged back up the mountain, and rolled the stones back down again.

Growing up I wasn’t sure if Chelm even existed or why it came to be considered a bastion of “Jewish wisdom.” Chełm actually exists — it’s a city in Eastern Poland, near the Ukrainian border. Historically Chelm has been a stronghold of Chasidism and Orthodox Jewish culture. The myth of the Golem apparently started in Chelm, where a famous kabbalist, Rabbi Elija Ben Yehuda, is said to have created a creature of clay into which he breathed life by reciting magical spells that made him obey his orders. Much later this story was transplanted to Prague and the creation of the Golem was attributed to Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the Maharal of Prague. Chelm was a great city of Jewish learning, with many synagogues, Jewish courts and rabbinical academies. So, why was it considered a place of fools? Why did it have such a weird reputation? Because of Zamosc!

Chelm is located north of Zamosc. There was much rivalry between the two cities. Zamosc was also a great center of Jewish scholarship and in the 19th century was a focus of the Haskalah, the Jewish enlightment. The Yiddish writer I.L. Peretz, one of the fathers of Jewish literature, was born and brought up there. And so was the socialist leader Rosa Luxemburg. Followers of the Haskalah considerd the Orthodox Jews and especially the Chasidim to be hicks, retrogrades and much less intelligent than themselves. Since Maskilim (followers of the Haskalah) wrote books and novels for popular culture, rather than purely religious books, they managed to create the anecdotes and spread them around, thus crystallizing the image of the “wise men of Chelm.” Many stories and books have been written mocking the inhabitants of Chelm, the most famous one probably being by Yiddish writer and Nobel prize winner for literature Isaac Bashevis Singer. It is called “The Fools of Chelm and Their History.”

So, it becomes clear that the “Wise men of Chelm” are nothing but the result of literary license and the rivalry between different groups of Jewish intellectuals in Poland long ago. Yet this rivalry has yielded fun and entertaining literature for us, even today.

Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn is the spiritual leader of Temple Israel, Kansas City’s newest congregation.

Finally, Saudi Arabia and Israel have common ground for establishing a temporary strategic alliance similar in history to the one that existed during World War II between the Soviet Union and the Unites States against the Nazi regime. Both countries mistrust President Obama as a reliable ally as well as fear a future nuclear Iran.

Despite the major differences in values, and a history of enmity, it seems only rational that Saudi Arabia should seek the unthinkable and cooperate with the Jewish state in order to preserve its survival and political independence. Otherwise, the Saudis and the other Persian Gulf states will be the first victims of a nuclear Iran, without a capable, strong and reliable ally to come to their aid.

British Defense Secretary Liam Fox told the House of Commons in January that Iran may be capable of developing nuclear weapons by the end of 2012. By then the majority of U.S. and Western military forces will begin leaving the Middle East, and Israel will be the only remaining military power capable and motivated to militarily solve the Iranian problem. But Israel needs strategic cooperation from Saudi Arabia to succeed, including the right to fly over Saudi territory and emergency logistical support. Most importantly, Israel needs Saudi Arabia to delay any international or Arab plan to pressure Israel for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

While the world will be dangerously distracted and waste months on the Palestinian issue, Iran will be off the world radar and much closer to its goal.

The Saudis should be aware by now of the following truths:

First, Israeli leadership is more loyal to an Arab ally than President Obama. While Israel stood by President Mubarak, it took Obama three days to call for Mubarak, a long term U.S. friend, to leave office and to threaten him with cuts in foreign aid. It seems that Obama only confronts and abandons allies but prefers not to meddle in the internal revolts of enemies like Syria and Iran.

Second, continuing a state of war or a campaign of hatred and anti-Semitism against the Jewish state does not any longer guarantee an Arab regime’s political survival as witnessed by the revolts in Syria ,Libya and Yemen.

Third, Iran is the main danger to Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states, not Israel, as the WikiLeaks cables revealed when King Abdulla of Saudi Arabia repeatedly implored Washington to “cut off the head of the snake (Iran) while there was still time.”

Fourth, Obama will never advocate a military solution against Iran as we saw during the last two years from his futile policy of engagement and economic sanctions. Only Israel has the will, the self-interest and the know how to stop the Iranian menace. Israel demolished the nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981 and a Syrian reactor in 2007. After the United States withdraws most of its armies from the Middle East, Obama’s ideology will negate the resending of U.S. troops to eliminate the Iranian threat.

Fifth, establishing a Palestinian state is not in the best interest of Saudi Arabia or Israel. As previously happened after Israel withdrew its military forces from Gaza in 2005, Hamas will be able to take over the new state by winning subsequent Palestinian elections, as it did in 2006, or by militarily defeating the PA, as it did in 2007. Such a state would become another Iranian base, threatening Israel but also destabilizing Jordan next door and circling the Saudis from the northwest.

Instead of considering initiatives to rally the Western Countries, including the United States against the International recognition of a Palestinian state, the Israeli prime minister should look into creating new alliances, even with traditional enemies. As the Arab proverb says, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Shoula Romano Horing was born and raised in Israel. She is an attorney in Kansas City and a national speaker. Her blog: www.shoularomanohoring.com.

QUESTION: Why does the seder on both of the first two nights of Passover have to start at or after dark? Also why do we use four cups of wine as well as a cup of Elijah?

ANSWER: The Exodus from Egypt took place in the dark of night. The seder is a reliving of that experience that we have been doing for thousands of years. Jewish law mandates that the seder take place at night as the Exodus took place at night.

Furthermore, Jewish law for more than a thousand years has required that the four cups of wine be consumed at night. The very first cup of wine is the Kiddush which is recited as the very first ingredient in the seder ceremony; therefore, the Kiddush has to be also recited after dark for one to fulfill the mitzvah or commandment of the four cups of wine.

Obviously, there are exceptions to these rules — nursing home residents, ill individuals, people who have exceptional circumstances in their lives — all have leniencies extended to them by Jewish law.

I do find it rather ironic that individuals who can stay to the 13th or 14th inning of a ball game out at Kauffman Stadium until midnight or later find it inconvenient to stay up for a seder. This is a once or twice a year experience that should be performed according to the Jewish tradition that we have been observing for more than 3,000 years!

As far as children are concerned,  Jewish law over a thousand years ago was concerned about kids staying awake for the seder. So, instead of moving the seder to an early hour in violation of the tradition, the thought was to feed the kids a little early and then give them games to play so that they can really share the experience. Show me a child who does not want to stay up late at night anyway.

As far as the four cups of wine are concerned,  in Exodus, Chapter 6, G-d promises that He will take the Jews out of Egypt and redeem them and save them. In that narrative G-d uses four words to talk about the Exodus and His redemption of the Jewish people from Egypt. The rabbis then said that the four cups of wine represent those four terms of redemption that we find in our Bible.

There was some controversy about a fifth term which speaks about G-d then bringing the Jewish people into the land of Israel, their promised heritage. The final decision about whether to have five cups of wine or four was resolved as being four. But a fifth cup of wine, the cup of Elijah, would be utilized for that fifth term. Furthermore, since that fifth cup of wine represents being brought into the land of Israel and future redemption, Elijah is the perfect individual who heralds the coming of the Messiah and the final redemption as being the source of that fifth cup of wine.

When I read the article in The Forward (Blood and Boils and Beasts, Oh My! Telling the Story of the 10 Plagues, Without Scaring the Kids, published April 6, http://www.forward.com/articles/136789/#ixzz1JK7SOifV)

I thought I’d plotz: Now we’re supposed to be concerned about the 10 Plagues’ psychological effects on our delicate little tatelehs? I give you a few excerpts from this absurd piece:

“It leads me to wonder,” says Nussbaum. “Is it possible to engage with the Seder’s graphic illustrations of God’s might without leaving the kids emotionally or spiritually scarred?”

Oh, please. This is clearly an attempt to find a “fresh angle” to a festival about which — admit it — everything’s already been said.

“Some of the things [in the Haggadah] sound amazingly scary and awful,” said Miami-based psychotherapist and author M. Gary Neuman.

So now we’re consulting psychotherapists about the Haggadah’s effect on the kinder? Spare me.

Then we have psychologist Clark Goldstein helpfully advising parents to:

“…take their cues from their children, paying attention to the child’s age and disposition … If the child brings up concerns … address them. Try not to ask leading questions, like, ‘Does that section scare you?’ Let them lead with any concerns or questions they might have.”

Dear God. Was this quote lifted from some Parents’ Guide to Divorce or God Forbid, Death? Have we lost our minds? This is nothing less than a meshugah stop along the coddling continuum. Disturbing? We were shown “Night and Fog” at Hebrew School at age 9, and I don’t recall ever even considering approaching my parents about its, shall we say, disturbing aspects. And now we’re supposed to add “Possible Effect of 10 Plagues on Yankeleh’s Sensitive Psyche” to our list of 21st-century Parenting Concerns, underneath Exposure to Germs and Abduction by Sex Predator?

Later on, Neuman adds: “Seder’s focus ‘should be about the children, and connecting to them.’ ”

Says who? Actually, if I hear one more person say this, I’m going to throw myself into a vat of locusts. Let’s take a minute to realign our tires here: The Haggadah was compiled between 160 and 360 CE. Granted, the Mishnaic concept of “engaging children” is obviously light years from ours; and certainly no one wants to return to the days of Uncle Moishe or Zayde droning through the Haggadah so tediously that a vat of locusts would actually have been a relief from your boredom, but does that mean we have to go to the other extreme and turn seder into an episode of Sesame Street?

Cannot seder be lively and thought-provoking without having to dodge whizzing stuffed frogs and Styrofoam hail? In short, where is it written that engaging has to equal fun? Fun is what Purim is for. Fun is what birthdays are for. Not everything that occurs in the presence of children has to be fun.

The Haggadah tells of a solemn, dramatic event, and the telling thereof should be appropriately solemn and dramatic. One of the major themes is to “tell your sons [i.e., children] of the Exodus. I’d venture that the reason Seder is so central to Jews’ collective memory is precisely because of its solemnity and drama. Do we want our kids’ memories of Seder to be no more impactful than an afternoon at Discovery Zone?

Next, I looked up the product pictured with the article, Passover Ten Plagues Finger Puppets. Here’s my Amazon review thereof:

“...products like this are a turn-off for me. First of all, a basic ‘requirement’ for me to buy any Jewish-themed product is the inclusion of Hebrew. Where’s the Hebrew? So right away I’m not buying it. The other turn-off is that I’m loath to add anything to the seder that’s not already there, especially if it’s something cutesy. You can have a good time at seder and include the kids without turning it into a nursery school. This is pushing it too far in that direction for me.”

It’s not the commercial aspect to which I object; I’m certainly in favor of clever, enterprising innovation. But to purport to sell a Jewish product sans Hebrew? Veto from here: Hebrew is what held us together for more than 2 millennia in the Diaspora; I refuse to patronize any Jewish enterprise that omits it. Even if the recipient doesn’t know Hebrew — and I’m aware that most Jews don’t — the visual of the Hebrew words for the plagues does have its effect, however small, and does transform the product into something that if not holy, is special: It’s not just another toy in the kids’ collection.

To that end, I wrote to both companies to ask: Where’s the Hebrew? Perhaps if others followed suit, the manufacturers would be convinced to add it; certainly no one would be opposed to its addition, and who knows? It might even boost sales.

I’m not calling for a boycott, here; Lord knows there are more important products to boycott; I simply seek to call attention to the fact that Hebrew is not just another language: It’s our “brand,” without it, we become “generic.” And I’ll jump into a vat of locusts before I let 5,000 years of history go down the drain like so much chametz.

Yam Erez, formerly Miriam Reiz, is a Kansas City native now residing in Ketura, Israel.

A few weeks ago, Palestinian terrorists entered an Israeli family’s home and slaughtered most of them, including small children and a 3-month-old baby. That event shocked the state of Israel and was supposed to shock the entire world in its brutality, but TV networks around the world reported that attack in a shameful way. CNN talked about an “alleged terrorist attack,” and networks in Germany didn’t even bother to report the event at all. I was not surprised, knowing the media’s approach toward Israel; but it made me think about how terrorists organizations use the media in such a way that eventually causes incitement against Israel.

We are living in an era of free and fast Information. It is not always accurate but you can always find it. That tool is helping countries and organizations, but it also helps terrorist groups. They know that public opinion is very important in democracies. As I see it, there are three ways these groups use the media. One is directed at their own followers. The purpose is to gain legitimacy by sending the message that they are winning and getting good results. For example, the Hamas organization in Gaza teaches small children how to be Shahids (die a martyr death by killing Israelis) and spreads lies about Israel, including anti-Semitic messages. They want the people in Gaza to know that they need Hamas and that it’s the only organization that can save them.

The second way they use the media is against their victims. The goal is to spread fear so that the citizens of Israel will put pressure on the government to give up. Photos from Gaza of people celebrating after suicide attacks on Israel, or what Hamas is doing regarding Gilad Shalit, the kidnapped Israeli soldier are only two examples.

And finally, they use the media to rally world-wide condemnation of Israel. We see how Hamas presents the marine blockade on Gaza, which they claim is leaving the people of Gaza without food. But “forget” to mention that the people in Gaza get tons of food through Israel. They ignore the fact that more weapons and missiles have been shipped into Gaza from Iran, as we saw with the ship Victoria a few weeks ago. Palestinian organizations have succeeded in convincing the world that Israel is a ruthless country. All the Palestinians have to do is send a fabricated picture to a major newspaper of a child who died and say that it was done by the Israelis. By the time someone checks the authenticity of the picture, it has already became a symbol.

The tragedy is that Hamas is doing such a “good” job of manipulating the media that people rarely want to hear what the Israelis have to say or, are interested to learn about the good things that Israel is doing for the world.

We tend to forget the meaning of fighting terror, and how different it is from a “regular” war. In fighting terror, civilians play a crucial role, especially if the country that suffers that terror is a democratic country.

In order to avoid being influenced by the information that is given to the media, often from the terrorists’ perspective, we have to learn more about the issues and events. Information today is like fast food. We need it here and now to satisfy the need to always know what is going on. But like fast food, it is not always “made” from the best ingredients, or in our case, the truth! In order to make up our minds about current events, we need to work harder to make sure that information is based on fact. One suggestion is to read articles from the Israeli media, too, in order to understand both sides. Two good sources are Ynet or Haaretz online.

We see the successes of the Palestinian organizations, especially in a lot of American colleges and universities. There, many anti- Israel groups are using aggressive methods to explain their perspective. They organize rallies that demonstrate against speakers from Israel. Unfortunately many Jewish students find themselves dealing with that challenge in addition to others. We have to ask ourselves if our children are ready to handle these issues. Do they have the tools to cope with the situation?

In order to give teenagers (grades 10-12) the facts and strategies to respond to “Israel bashing,” the Jewish Federation, AIPAC, Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, JCRB/AJC, KU Hillel and JSU will sponsor a workshop on from 7 to 9 p.m. April 7 at the Jewish Community Campus. Our goal is to prepare them for the reality of anti-Israel activities on some of our campuses. Together we can show them a different side than what they see in the media, so that they can make up their minds about the situation based on the facts.

For more information about this event, contact me at (913) 327-8124.